• When Christianity first began they adopted all sorts of pagan religious aspects in to their ways

Christianity prevailed over paganism because the former successfully offered a new culture that could make sense of an increasingly chaotic world and because it was not weakened by the pluralism inherent in ancient paganism. With its insistence on exclusive monotheistic worship of the Christian God it won where paganism could only fail, in demanding solitary allegiance to its movement (Hamilton 38).

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

‘Christians to the lions’ as Trajan would say, an emperor in the early centuries Christianity to them have alienated the favour of their gods which has and would continue to cause disasters in the Roman Empire. The misfortune of Christians did not stop during this period, but it did come to a composed halt as Galerius, gave Christians the right to worship in some sense. Christianity during the early stages was clearly a course of persecution and forced pagan accusations. Constantine dramatically changed the recourse of religions with the battle of Milvian Bridge as Christianity became the predominant religion of the Roman Empire.

Jesus preached about His beliefs with God, and all his Glory. He went around telling people that he was the son of God. These accusations raised chaos with the Jews. He was brought to the house of Caiaphas, the high priest. They were looking for any kind of evidence, or excuse to kill Jesus. “The high priest

Because Christianity could not be completely purged by the Empire, it created an opportunity for Christians to display how strongly they were devoted to the religion. The way in which they responded made all the difference. Under pressure, they would not submit, and this was proof of the force and influence of Christianity.

• Refers to rapid spread of Christianity among all classes of people, as well as Roman citizens that are sent to Rome for trial. “They have high ethical standards and if they repeatedly admit they honor Christ as God they are executed”.

In Jerusalem, Jesus was treated fairly by everyone, but Romans and Jews didn’t except him, so he had to be executed. This shows that Romans and Jews would kill anyone who was dangerous, or threatening. Till this day, Jesus is a major part of believe and religion.

Christianity weakened the Roman army and complicated the Roman government. According to Doc 7,” Christianity also taught pacifism (not to fight) which discouraged Romans from enlisting in the army and further encouraged Rome to rely on foreign fighters.” This shows that Christianity weakened the government and was a big reason why Rome relied on foreign fighters.

Early in second and third century Christian history, violence against Christians by the Roman Empire, struggles against pagan ideology, practices that were corrupting the Church, and certain lax spiritual discipline had crept into many areas of the Christian faith. As some leaders attempted to control the faith by growing their personal power and influence on the political front, others sought escape from the spiritual darkness they perceived among the world to retain their own spiritual purity.

As Christianity was spread throughout Rome, people began to question the teachings of Jesus. Out of fear, officials arrested and killed a multitude of Christians as a result. The everyday plebeian became impressed with these people dying for a belief. Although persecutions became more common, the number of Christians stayed the same and maybe even grew because of the influx of polytheistic Romans converting to the monotheistic religion of Christianity. People were converting quicker than they were being killed off because of the likeable teachings of love, the bravery of these people dying because of what they believed in, and their appealing message to those not in the affluent classes.

Before the birth of Jesus Christ and Christianity, there was Judaism, the religion where Christianity originated from. In the years of 65 B.C. through 63 B.C., The Roman and the Jews had several complications with each other, especially with Pompey the Great interfering with Jerusalem and its people. Pompey the Great invaded Jerusalem due to their opposition of worshipping the Roman gods and the Jews’ belief in only one God. In addition, he did it to elevate his status as a more powerful figure in Roman society, since Julius Caesar, another Roman political figure was also competing for power and attention from the people. His conquering over the Jews and the ongoing brawls set the stage on how Christianity and the Roman Empire intertwined with each other and the tense relations that were formed,

With its insistence on exclusive monotheistic worship of the Christian God it won where paganism could only fail, in demanding solitary allegiance to its movement (pp. 201-204). In demanding such commitment, those won to Christianity were far more allied to its goals and purposes than adherents to pagan movements that were non-exclusive. Further, the possibility of publicly suffering for their faith offered Christians the hope of enormous communal esteem. For those already firmly committed, the benefits of esteem and other-worldly reward far out-weighed whatever cost in suffering martyrdom might bring. Paganism had nothing analogous to win such enthusiastic commitment. Whereas, Christianity promised life after death in heaven while in the Roman religion, only gods went to heaven; emperors were considered gods, everyone else went to the underworld.

The Inquisition executed Jews and Muslims. However, even the ones who converted to Christianity or born Christian were tortured if they once were of another faith or if it could be traced back in their roots. The ones who had the Jewish blood, or of any other faith and were born Christian, were tortured more severely. The accused was not allowed to have a lawyer or counsel for their defense.

These reasons are the undoubted reasons for moving the capital to such a strong and protected city, despite Rome’s significant morale association to the people. As the empire began to fall in Western Europe, the barbarian chieftains also used Constantine’s idea of conversion to unite their neighboring tribes. Some used the justification after a battle and others claimed it to be divine intervention that bought about their baptisms, but the end result was the beginning of nations that exist to this day.

were martyred proved that the religion they taught was genuine by their willingness to die such horrific