The Anglican bishops have met and reached their grave conclusions on a number of doubtless vital issues — except one. What about the Olympic Games? Are they not pagan rituals? And was it not for that excellent reason that the Church banned them?
It was Constantine the Great, founder in ad 324 of Constantinople as the ‘new Rome’, who encouraged the spread of Christianity without condemning other beliefs. But bishops like Ambrose of Milan were not enthusiastic about tolerating polytheistic cults or pagan intellectual movements, and their influence began to be felt. In 380 the emperor Theodosius I decreed that Christianity should be the official religion of the Byzantine empire, and in 391-92 took the final step of outlawing all pagan ritual — sacrifice, divination and so on. It took some time for the interdict to have effect, but the final result was the closure of Olympia as a religious sanctuary where for the previous 1,200 years Zeus Olumpios had been worshipped every four years with athletic competitions (increasingly international) in his honour, and with barely an intermission either.
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