Kościół późnoantyczny wobec problemu apostazji w świetle kanonów zachodniorzymskich zgromadzeń biskupich

Abstrakt

In this article I tried to prove that bishops from the western part of the Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries were concerned about such social problem as apostasy. Also, I noticed that apostasy was the third of the biggest social problems in late antiquity in the light of canon laws. I analysed the decisions made by bishops at western-Roman synods in the late antiquity. They discussed returning to the old cults (especially the problem of half-converted Christians), magic, sacrificing to gods, marriages with pagans, celebration by Christians of pagan feasts or holidays, idolatry. We must remember that Christianizing the Western Roman Empire was hard and there were many relicts of pagan cults, and many pagans who didn’t want to become Christians. Bishops at their synods wondered about ways to remedy the situation with increasing number of apostasies. Apostasy was hard to eradicate. The synods in the 4th and 5th centuries published a lot of canon laws against that problem, which proves to us that apostasy was a real problem for Church hierarchy.