The History of Buddhist Thought c31.250

c31.250

The Church, however, was not merely a collection of individuals, but a society, and it was as a society that it had to define its relation to the world. The problem of the relation of the Church to the State, which was to occupy the attention of the Middle Ages, was already present in the early centuries. The Church was a *societas* which claimed to be independent of the State, and which had its own laws and its own government. It was this claim which brought it into conflict with the Roman Empire. The Empire was a totalitarian state, which demanded the absolute allegiance of its subjects. The Church, on the other hand, claimed that its allegiance was due to God, and that the State had no authority over the conscience of the Christian. This conflict was inevitable, and it was this conflict which led to the persecutions.