In ancient Rome, Christianity was a big threat to the Roman Empire, but within a few centuries, the loathed religion became the most dominant religion of Europe and the Western world. The reason for this was, it became the religion of the Roman Empire, and became the largest and most significant religion in the world the size of the Roman Empire.
The reason Christianity was a big threat to the Roman Empire was their belief. The Romans believed the society was protected by the Pax deorum: peace, or agreement with the gods. The gods protected the Romans in exchange for worship and sacrifice. But Christians refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods. The reason was that Christians didn’t believe in sacrificing, so the Romans thought that the Christians will compromise themselves and every other person near them, and the Romans also thought that the Christians will anger the gods. In addition to that,
…show more content…
Christians assembled together for church services and they excluded non-Christians from such services. The Romans thought that these services were secret meetings and were “hosted” by possible traitors. Another reason is that early Christians celebrated the agape, a “love feast.” These feasts celebrated brotherly and sisterly love between all Christians, but rumors spread that Christians had open sex and incest. The reason this was a threat to the Roman Empire was because this rumor would cause some Romans to change religion because of the rumor that they had open sex and incest on the “love feast.” In addition to that, they were rumored to be cannibals because of garbled understandings of the Eucharist. The Eucharist says, “Take and eat, this is my body broken for you," This could have been mistaken as cannibalism because of the way it is said and/or written. A reason why this is a threat to the Roman Empire is that people would fear the Christians and the people would go paranoid when they see a Christian near them or their family
The Early Christians had numerous different practices. Some of them sacrificed animals, others held mass, and some even died in order to go with God. This helped with the spread of Christianity because it allowed people to attend mass and be forgiven of their sins. It also showed how cruel the Romans were and that religious freedom was being taken away from them.
From 300-600 CE The Roman Empire allowed new religions to be formed and universalized. The Religion that was associated with The Roman empire was Christianity. Christianity became the religion of Rome because of a man named Constantine who allowed Christianity to spread and flow throughout the empire create a harmony throughout the people. Constantine allowed for the Roman officials to adopt Christianity and this led to the building of the Constantinople. Christianity had basilicas which were opulent churches that were open to all which meant any person could go there allowing Christianity to be very universal. Christianity was also very appealing because the worshiped deity walked on land with the people. Christianity split and became the Roman Catholic church which consisted
The rise of Christianity in Rome did not come easily. It came with much destruction and death. The spark of Christianity in Rome came from an appearance of Martyrs in Rome. Martyrs were people that were executed for going against the common beliefs of pagan (polytheistic) ways. (Tignor, 2011, p. 286) Because of these awful executions, Christianity is said to be based off of “the blood of martyrs.” One of their main ways of spreading Christianity was through the sharing of their writings and by 300 CE there was an exceptional amount of book production throughout Rome. (Tignor, 2011, p. 289) “Christianity operated as one among many minority religions in the Roman Empire, and on several occasions experienced widespread persecution, especially under the emperors Nero (r. 54–68), Decius (r. 249–251), and Diocletian (r. 284–305). However, the situation changed radically under the emperor Constantine (r. 306–337), who in 313 issued the Edict of Milan that made Christianity a legitimate religion in the empire.” (Melton, 2010, p. 634)
Between Pliny’s letter and Livy’s account it’s pretty easy to get the impression that Romans were fairly tolerant of many different religions up until they got in the way. The Christians were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and doing the wrong things. The Bacchanalians were converting elites with a religion that the Romans considered unsavory to say the least. Both the Christians and the Bacchanalians suffered horrendously at the hands of the Roman authorities, and it goes to show that they were only going to tolerate so much from either group before going out on a witch hunt for them.
By the fourth century C.E., the Roman Empire was declining. After so many years of perseverance the Roman Empire began to give into the changes that were happening all around them. One change in particular was the spread of Christianity. This new religion went against the traditions of the Romans, it was monotheistic and focused on the will of God. A religion that began small and under persecution became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
The Roman Empire is known as one of the most powerful and influential empires the world has ever seen. At it’s height, this Empire had peace, economic prosperity and was expanding. Roman cities contributed to a fair amount of this success because they contributed to many advances during Pax Romana and united the empire. After the fall of the Empire, Christianity survived because although the empire separated into many kingdoms they were still being influenced by the religion.
Then, the popular portrayal of early Christianity as a mass political movement that the Romans dedicated much resources to thwart seems implausible. Although popular knowledge of early Christians emphasizes their persecution and severe ostracism within the Roman Empire, a closer study of Roman law reveals that Christianity and being Christian were not crimes in and of themselves. As a matter of fact, citizens of the Roman Empire were free to worship any god. Even their proclamations about Jesus were not considered heretical. On the contrary, it was not out of the ordinary to declare a human being divine.
There are certain traits the Roman Empire possessed which contributed greatly to the growth of Christianity. The Roman Empire, most importantly, united a great variety and cultures and people into what became one nation; the resulting unity and communication between so many peoples eased the spread of Christianity all over the world. Of the Roman emperors, even the extremely rude ones assisted in spreading the Christian faith; not despite, but relieved by their pursuit Christianity grew rapidly. Finally, the oppressed and broken nature of the plebeians made them very liable to and eager of the Christian message.
Christianity took hold on the ancient world because it was spread exceptionally fast. Missionary journeys were made every set of to three years and teach people Christianity (Document F). Roman judges held trials for reported Christians, and executed them because they admitted that they were Christian. The trials were held to execute Christians so the Roman religion would continue to flourish and so Christian citizens won’t be more powerful than the government (Documents F and G). This shows that Christianity was gaining a lot of members, really fast, in comparison to the government.
There were many reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire. Each one interweaved with the other. Many even blame the initiation of Christianity in 337 AD by Constantine the Great as the definitive cause while others blame it on increases in unemployment, inflation, military expenditure and slave labour while others blame it on the ethical issues such the decline in morals, the lack of discipline of the armies and the political corruption within the Empire. Three major contributions that led to the collapse of the once great empire were: the heavy military spending in order to expand the Empire, the over-reliance on slave labour which led to an increase in unemployment, and the political corruption and abuse of power by the Praetorian Guard leading to the unfair selection of many disreputable emperors and the assassination of those not favoured by the Guard.
Factors Which Led to the Spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire Christianity was not born in a vacumn. There were many social, geographical, historical and religious issues prevailing at the time of Christ and all of which were favorable to the spread of Christianity. Geograpicly, Christianity came into being in the Meditation world, the largest of the various centers of civilization at that time. Israel stands almost central to the five continents, dividing the east and west.
The rise of Christianity in western civilization is arguably among the most important memories in history. There is no denying what the spread of Christianity has done for the world, for better or worse. Its impact on western civilizations is unrivaled and unprecedented. Christianity slowly became something for many individuals to turn to; in times of hurt its provided comfort, in times of pleasure it has given thanks. The will and belief for salvation has driven individuals to be better, and to have a reference while in need. The rise of Christianity more than 2000 years ago provided necessary building blocks for the future. Without Christianity there would be no cathedrals, no monasteries, no music from one Johann Sebastian Bach, no paintings from Michelangelo, nor no philosophy from Saint Augustine (Backman 205). There are countless times in history, whether good or bad, that can be credited to
During the first half century after the crucifixion of Jesus, the Roman government including governors in the eastern provinces took no active measures against Christians. The attitude of the higher Roman authorities had always been that Christianity was merely a sect of Judaism, and as such, were entitled to share in its privileges as a recognized religion. In 64 A.D. this attitude suffered a severe alteration. On July 19, 64 A.D. occurred the great fire of Rome. Half a million people were left homeless. Popular rumor persistently asserted that the fire was started by incendiaries acting under the orders of the Emperor Nero. It was said that Nero wanted the city burnt down so he could build a new city which was to be re-named after himself. Nero felt that something must be done to deflect the public indignation against him. To do this he contrived that accusations should be brought against the Christians. So Nero began an aggressive persecution of the Christians in Rome. Those who confessed their guilt were brought to trail. During these trials a great number of other Christians were uncovered and were also brought to trial. Oddly enough, these people were not charged with starting the great fire of Rome, but rather for “hatred of the humankind.”
Christianity became more prevalent in Roman society as time went on because it appealed to Rome and what Roman ideals were. In the beginning Romans were skeptical of changing religion, but as the years went by, the Romans adopted and changed. Christianity appealed to the Roman ideals, as it gave certain perks that their current polytheistic religion did not offer to them. The emperors of Rome had many different views on Christianity; some emperors encouraged change, and others were more traditional and wanted to stick to their current, polytheistic religion. Roman views on Christianity have changed drastically from the early years of the Roman Empire to the 4th century, as well as its appeal to the ordinary Roman citizen.
Christians were brutally martyred, put into prison, and tortured during this time. Similar to previous emperors, Diocletian gave Christians the option of apostasy or death, which once again lead to the formation of many heresies and challengers of the faith. Diocletian’s rule affected the growth of the doctrine of the Church by causing much of the population of Christians to go into hiding and practice their faith by having mass in the catacombs and showing their faith through hidden symbols. Diocletian's edicts also resulted in a great decline in the population of the Church and in a great number of heresies involving apostasy to arise. The church will have to deal with these heresies, such as Novatianism and Donatism, through various councils after the persecutions.