PRESIDENT'S ESSAY
Disestablishment
POSTED
September 10, 2008

During 324-5, Constantine, in Timothy Barnes’s summary, “outlawed the performance of animal sacrifice, ordered that no new cult statues of the traditional gods be dedicated, and forbade magistrates and governors to begin official business with the traditional act of casting incense or some other similar offering on an altar standing in their court for this ceremony.” Earlier, offering sacrifice was required of all citizens “on every official occasion,” and thus the prohibition shows that “traditional religions had now lost their established status.”

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