The Jews and Later Roman Rule Many Gentiles living in the Roman Empire adopted “Christianity” when the Emperor Constantine (306–337) declared it to be the state religion. Few in the Church objected to the new anti-Semitic traditions Constantine instituted. By the 400s Jews could no longer seek converts. Jews could not have non-Jewish slaves. The “Church” forbade intermarriage and in fact discouraged any contact between Christians and Jews. Some of the Church leaders, ostensibly followers of the Jew,
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