The Christian Church Of The Roman Empire

In the Roman Civilization where the prevalent worship of Roman gods were impersonal and did not provide a moral base or a message of hope, in the fourth century Christianity was formed, born as a movement within Judaism. Christianity emphasized the personal relationship between God and people, slowly spread through the Roman Empire until ultimately dominating the western culture. Three of the several factors that aided to the growth of Christianity in the Roman Empire were: the central beliefs and value of Christianity, prominent figures, and Christianity appeal to women. Christianity offered hope to many, for it was the time of grace and freedom, the time to rebuild the future and

The rise of Christianity changed the outlook of life for the people. Instead of being hostile, you were nice to your neighbors to get to the pearly gates. People became more thoughtful of others and less of the emperor, who they were supposed to worship. “Remains of the military spirit were buried in the cloister,” (Document 2). Men lost their intentions to fight. As this new religion taught men that hurting others was a sin. Because of this, the military started to be deprived of power. Also, there was still the division of classes. The rich hung out with the rich, and the poor hung out with the poor. The rich still felt superior because they had luxuries. People also sort of lost faith in Rome, they weren’t as patriotic as they once were. “Very few inhabitants of the empire believed that the old civilization was worth saving,” (Document 1). There was no pride life in the land of Rome, people would leave in hopes of finding a better place to live. Thus, the empire weakened even

Christianity and the Roman Empire shared an important bond. Christianity offered the Roman Empire joy, hope, a shift in their world view, and a monotheistic God. Rome offered Christianity a more efficient way of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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.

Once Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, the two were linked. Events in the Roman Empire impacted Christianity because Christianity had become a major force in the Empire. The Roman Empire remained a Christian state until it fell in 1453. For 70% of the history of Christianity so far, the Roman Empire has been around to affect it. A combination of timing, government structure and human nature is what allowed the Roman Empire to affect Christianity to the amount that it

Because the people stopped worshipping the emperor, the political importance started to fail. No one really cared if they were the emperor; they were not being praised or worshipped any more so what was the point? Since no one cared to be the Emperor the government started to fail. Popes, Pastors, and other church leaders actually got more into the political affairs, making the government a little bit more complicated than it was before. Before Christianity was even a question, the Roman Empire was becoming bankrupt all because of the Roman politicians. They used all of their money creating huge, amazing, unnecessary empires consisting of roads and extraordinary safe traveling conditions so the people using the roads would have safe and easy travels. Christianity was not blamed for all of this doing and the bankruptcy because the Christians and the Christian religion had nothing to do with the bankruptcy. How could the people put all their faith in someone who was failing to keep their empire going? He was the reason they had no more money. It was hard for them to their trust in a pagan god when their “god” (the leader) was failing them. All the people tried to find a new “religion”, they wanted someone or something to put their

Christians went from being persecuted to dominating Rome rather quickly. In a world where separation between church and state does not exist, a Christian becoming the sole emperor of Rome symbolized a huge turning point in history. The power switched and the Pagans in turn became persecuted. Christians rose up and took control of all aspects of Roman society. The Pagan past was destroyed, banned, or forgotten about. Those Christians that did not agree with how things were being run either left the empire and became monks or formed their own sect. All of Rome changed.

In order to lessen the amount of crime along the Roman roads Rome employed an immense amount of highway patrols whose primary task was to ensure the safety of travelers along the roads. The patrols were made up of special detachments of military troops that were stationed an array of different positions throughout high traffic areas. Rome utilized police posts and watchtowers to keep an eye out for vulnerable travelers and dispatch patrols quickly if needed in order to protect its citizens. The patrols also received assignments such as watching out for escaped slaves, relaying messages, and even collecting tolls. These tolls were often collected at bridges or passes with the funds being used primarily to fund further developments for the road. This dynamic system of safety patrols used throughout the Roman roads kept many citizens safe and because of this safety, many early travelers were able to traverse peacefully amongst the Roman countryside (Andrews, 2014).

Most italians belong to a catholic church. The roman catholic church was formed when Roman Emperor Constantine declared a transition to Christianity. Now the early roman christians were just like their brothers following in the footsteps as jesus christ. He issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which granted freedom of worship throughout the Roman empire. The term Roman Catholic was defined by Emperor Theodosius on February 27, 380. With the fall of the Roman Empire began the rise of the Catholic Church. Which basically meant that the power was transferred from one entity to the other. From this time on, the church and state were fully intertwined as the Holy Roman Empire, with the pope exercising authority over kings and emperors.

In the Roman Civilization where the prevalent worship of roman gods were impersonal and did not provide a moral base or a message of hope, in the fourth century Christianity was formed, born as a movement within Judaism Christianity emphasized the personal relationship between God and people slowly spread through the Roman Empire until ultimately dominating the western culture. Three of the several factors that aided to the growth of Christianity in the Roman Empire were; the central beliefs and value of Christianity, prominent figures, and Christianity appeal to women.

Arguably the most crucial civilization in history is Rome. Rome was very advanced for it’s time and a very well functioning, thriving empire. Rome had a military full of strong, capable soldiers, and a well governed group of citizens. So how could so something so mighty and powerful eventually fall? I believe that Christianity was more of a result than the complete cause of the downfall of The Roman Empire

Pagan culture and religious practice remained important through the fourth century AD, but in AD 392 the emperor Theodosius I forbade pagan worship, and Christianity effectively became the official religion of the Roman state.

These documents which were written in 1480 and 1503, reveal the resentful sentiments of the Germans and their criticism of the Roman church for profligacy and constant exploitation of the German people. Since long, the Roman church had extracted money from the Germans in the name of salvation and filled their treasury for their own benefits. For years, the church had deluded the people by declaring that Christians can only gain forgiveness for their sins through their “pious” acts and by willingly making monetary contributions to the church. The church leaders urged people to purchase grace from God and proclaimed that by contributing wealth to the church in the name of the deceased could only allow the soul to enter into heaven and free them from the sufferings of the purgatory. To accelerate the declining reputation of the church, in 1517, pope Leo X issued the custom of “indulgences” for people to gain remission for their sins without any penance or repentance. These remissions were usually sold to people by the pope in return of their “good deeds.”

The early church was hated by the society and government of the Roman Empire for various reasons, such as the refusal of Christians to sacrifice to the gods. The Empire went through many phases of demanding that the Christians sacrifice which meant denying their faith or be killed. The earliest attacks claimed the lives of many of the apostles.This text is the story, from around 160 AD, of the martyrdom of Polycarp, the Bishop of the church in Smyrna, a city in Asia Minor (modern Izmir in Turkey) devoted to Roman worship. The account is in the form of a letter from eye-witnesses to other churches in the area. It is the earliest chronicle of a martyrdom outside the New Testament.Polycarp was an old man, at least 86, and probably the last surviving person to have known an apostle, having been a disciple of St. John. This was one reason he was greatly revered as a teacher and church leader. One interesting feature of the letter is that the writer is very conscious of how Polycarp’s death followed the pattern of Christ’s. As you read it, look for parallels between this story and the Easter story in the gospels. We are writing to you, brothers, with an account of the martyrs, especially the blessed Polycarp, whose death brought to the persecution to a close. Almost all the events that led up to it reveal it to be another martyrdom in the divine pattern that we see in the Gospel. For he waited for his betrayal, just like the Lord did, so that we might follow him, in looking out

Christianity is largely maneuvered by the challenges of joining the east and the west of Rome in the sixth century. Justinian, based in Constantinople, extends his authority to parts of western Rome in an attempt to spread Christianity once more. Popes, bishops, and missionaries soon head west to follow Justinian’s orders. The result of their hard work is a clear distinction between eastern and western Christianity, but Christianity never the less. By 500 churches have reached Ethiopia which became linked to the Coptic Church in Egypt and in 543 the Nubian kingdom adopted Christianity became linked to the same church in Egypt. Towards the end of the sixth century in 596, Augustine trenches towards England to evangelize the Saxons, the rest of England has already been turned Christian.