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After his conversion, Christianity was legalised under [[Constantine I (emperor)|Emperor Constantine]]'s [[Edict of Milan]] in [[313]] and [[First Council of Nicaea]] in [[325]], bringing an end to Christian persecution. In [[392]], it became Rome's sole official religion when [[Theodosius I|Emperor Theodosius]] passed legislation prohibiting all [[paganism|pagan]] worship in the Empire and declaring Christianity the state religion. Some Christian anarchists point out that this merger of Church and state marks the beginning of the "[[Constantinian shift]]", in which Christianity gradually came to be identified with the will of the ruling elite and, in some cases, a religious justification for the exercise of power. Various scholars of Late Antiquity, among them [[Peter Brown (historian)|Peter Brown]], have shown that from its earliest forays into the Latin World, Christianity had its greatest appeal to wives of the upper class citizenry.
Others, such as [[Keith Akers]], have claimed that the "shift" away from Jesus´ practices and teachings of compassion, nonviolence and [[simple living]] began even earlier than Constantine. They suggest that the reversion back to previous [[Judaism|Judaist]] [[Legalism (theology)|legalism]] with its [[Hierarchical organization|hierarchical]] and [[authoritarianism|authoritarian]] religious structure began with [[Paul of Tarsus]] shortly after Jesus's death, and that Christians should look at returning to "pre-Pauline" [[early Christianity]]. Some
===The Doukhobors===
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