The Rise Of The Church

Christianity has become one of the world’s largest religions to date. We see the widespread of Christianity began in the Byzantine Empire during the rule of Constantine The Great after his decision to convert to Christianity and make the religion legal in his empire. The actions Constantine took paved the way for the religion to spread through the West and through Europe during the Middle Ages. The church would become a symbol of power, wealth, and social status among the clergy and society, it provided the idea of a divine right to rulers and the pope, and would ultimately influence almost every aspect of people’s lives. This document analysis will dig deep into the theme of Christianity during late antiquity and the middle ages with a focus on the relationship between church and state, the English conversion to Christianity, and Charlemagne’s efforts to spread Christianity in Europe.

Organized religion is not a conspiracy. It is the act of an organizational belief in a religion like Judaism or Christianity with the effects of the history and how fast everyone got caught up in organized religion it couldn’t be a conspiracy.

In history, understanding the past is key to foreseeing the future and understanding the roots of the present world. As such, understanding the beginnings of the early church gives us insight into the success of the Catholic Church today and its 1.2 billion followers. The major transformation of Catholicism today can be traced to its early days, in particular, the early first century AD. After the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, the apostles brought themselves to embrace the mission Jesus gave them, and in doing so, they began preaching the word of God to all nations. As Christianity was still developing, a man named Saul, once a persecutor of the early Christians, would experience a powerful vision of Jesus in heaven on the road to Damascus,

The process by which Scripture has been preserved and compiled is one whose history is worth noting. The early church had many opportunities to share the Good News of Christ via word of mouth, but from the time of Christ’s resurrection until the mid-second century, there had not been a single culmination of writings considered to be essential for the purposes of

When many think of the early Church, they think of a perfectly uniformed group of individuals praising and worshiping together. This, in fact, is not true; the early church was not perfectly unified and had many internal and external conflicts. The apostles preached about Jesus and tried to get followers through talking about his life, death, and resurrection. When the church was starting, many internal questions arose like: Who can hear the gospel? Who was in charge? And what does it mean to be free? Many also were not sure whom to turn to ensure that something was valid within the church. With so much confusion, people turned towards the principle apostolicity, which connected the work and intentions of the apostles and ensured reliability. They used the partnership with the spirit to make decisions.

After reading the text book about the Roman Empire. I found that the Roman Empire was divided into two parts. The Western half, ruled by Rome, fell to the tribal Germanic peoples in the 5th century. The Eastern half, known as the Byzantine Empire, until it began to decline in power, the Byzantine Empire was one of the leading civilizations in the world. The first Christian emperor became sole ruler of the Roman Empire. He set up his colony of Byzantium. The city, renamed Constantinople after its founder, It became the capital of the Byzantines after the Roman Empire was formally divided.

The papacy – the office held by the pope as head of the Catholic Church - gained great power from the sixth through eighth centuries, and there are several reasons for this surge in influence. Starting around 590, Pope Gregory I sought to convert Teutonic invaders to Christianity. Islam was also in play, as it had taken over most of Asia and Africa. According to Earl Cairns, by trying to win Teutonic tribes to Christianity, the medieval church “…further centralized its organization under papal supremacy and developed the sacramental-hierarchical system characteristic of the Roman Catholic Church.”

When the Roman Empire collapsed, the Catholic Church was the only powerful authority not complete disrupted by the attack by barbarians. In fact, the work of great Popes is what helped their power increase even more. The newly christened barbarians, done by the Pope Gregory the Great, inaugurated a new age in Jesus Christ called Christendom. All culture in Christendom conformed to that of the Church’s, and, with its headquarters in Rome, the powerful “papal monarchs”, as they were called, controlled the machine that was the Catholic Church.

The rise of papacy in the Western Catholic Church is debatably the most corrupt and darkest time in Christianity. The collapse of the greatest and longest running empire in human history created an immense void in society which the church attempted to fill. The bishops of the roman churches who had previously been politicians were now in a position to usurp even more power. The power of the pope continued to rise even to the point of deposing and appointing the kings of Europe. The ramifications of the papacy on history are many.

Challenges to the Church’s authority in earlier centuries failed to bring down the papacy, and in the 16th century it stood strong in face of the Protestant Reformation. It did however, loose much of its influence in Europe. Consequently, the Pope was able to establish its own house and enlarged the Papal States under which it functioned. By the beginning of the 16th century, the Pope’s domain extended into the lower Po River valley.

In Medieval Europe, the church played a critical role in shaping government and society. Most of the contemporary leaders were drawn from the church and contributed in championing the ideals of the church, leading to the papacy. During the papacy, the Pope of the Catholic Church assumed the position of the world leader, administering over the church flock and the non-Christian subjects. However, before the church rose to this eminent posit, its relationship with the government was tumultuous. Often, the people who professed the Christian faith were publicly persecuted.

In the void left by the collapse of the Roman Empire, the bishop of Rome grew even more in both power and prestige beginning in the sixth century and continuing to the reformation in the ninth century. It is the aim of this paper to explain how and why the papacy in Rome became the center of power of the medieval world, the factors contributing to this dominance over Western Europe, and the positive and negative ramifications of the position becoming so powerful. Through this paper you will discover how papacy was able to fill the vacuum of power left by the fall of an empire.

Waring factions between and within countries resulted in empire-loss-of-power leaving the Church unprotected, the Church hired strong men paid in land resulting in the domination of the bishops and control of church lands and influential appointment of local church

The Protestant Reformation would not have been made possible without the printing press. This innovation allowed ideas to spread further and quicker at rate that was never seen before. Prior to Gutenberg’s invention, the Clergymen held a powerful monopoly over the purchase of books. In spite of that, the press made books cheaper, allowing anyone and everyone to have access to them. As a result, people began to interpret books on their own and have their own independant thoughts which often opposed those of the Church. This was a huge threat to the Church, and as the popularity of the innovation grew, more people distanced themselves from the Church. In addition, the expansion of the University system helped increase the literacy rates because everyone was curious to read these books and gain knowledge from what they were saying. The printing press gave Martin Luther, the most influential figure at the time, a huge advantage.

People faced the rise and the fall of the Catholic Church during the medieval time. The Popes used to hold the final authority for the church and over the state. Pope Gregory VII asserted the Pope had granted the divine power from God because Saint Peter was the first of getting this