The fourth century introduced no new features into the Christian opinion of Jews and Judaism. Yet it is extremely important because it standardised an existing attitude at the earliest moment when the Church had the power to express its view in law and practice, and not merely in the pulpit or in theological argument. It thus set the tone which determined future relations for more than a millenium; and, as Christendom became more and more the total environment of life in the western world, so the attitude towards the Jews adopted by the Church in the early centuries came to determine the whole condition of Jewish life over the whole realm of Christendom. The Church became the arbiter of life and death, of the permission to carry on even the most meagre and restricted existence under a Christian prince.