@chaski Said
But the question was "When and why..?"
So, short answer:
The
when was: The early days of the formation of the Church; 325 BC and the years following.
The
why was: Power (not "cash" ).
Longer answer:
> When christianity was formed, "it" wasn't about cash. "Cash" didn't exist in quite the same way back then as it does today. Back then it was about power and control of people.
The Emperor Constantine essentially created Christianity as we know it today. Prior to him there were numerous competing sects. He gathered the leaders, the so called
biships of the day and told them to all get on one page... compile one codex/cannon of beliefs. This became the bible and the early cannon of the church...
Constantine wanted "it" organized so "it" could be controlled.
Constantine already had the power and wealth, but wanted to control this new religion so that it did not become a source of rebellion and uprising in his empire.
Much later the church... back then the Holy Roman Catholic Church... then determined to consolidate its own power. This happened because the Roman Empire, over time, was replaced by other conquerors and later kingdoms and later countries.
Back in those days, land and gold (and silver) were the primary things of wealth. (Yes there were other things as well). The church then began to convince people to buy there salvation.
There are many more details to this
but that is the core of it.
So, {now} "it" is often about "cash", which can buy power. Back in the day... in the "begining" days of the Christian Church, it was about
power and
control of the people.
It is and was very simple back in the day: Power and control.
I read somewhere that a 'tool' for controlling the masses was that only a very few 'men of the church' could read and they could pretty much say whatever they wanted to control their flock .
It was very recent ( early in the 20th century )that the Catholic church stopped having all their sermons given in latin. I know this because my grandpa was a catholic and when they stopped using latin he stopped going to church . He said it wasn't right that the priests were brought down to the same level as the
congregation .