What did the Romans do for Christianity?

Answer 1

By the beginning of the fourth century CE, two new religions were vying for supremacy in the Roman Empire - Christianity and Mithraism. By choosing to support Christianity, the Roman Emperor ensured the survival and ultimate success of Christianity.

Answer 2

The Romans did not help spread Christianity. It was the other way round. Christianity was spread around the Roman Empire by the apostles, other missionaries and the clergy (when Christianity developed its churches). Christianity started in Judea, which was part of the Roman province of Syria; that is, it was part of the Roman Empire. It became widespread by the third century. It was persecuted several times. There were alternations of periods of toleration and periods of persecution. Then in the early fourth century, the emperor Constantine the Great promoted Christians in the imperial bureaucracy, tried to arbitrate between opposing Christian doctrines and built a number of important Christian Churches. In 380 mainstream Christianity was made state religion the sole legitimate religion and dissident Christian doctrines were branded as heretic and banned.

It can be said that Christianity is one of the main legacies of the Romans. It developed from a religion among a small group of Jews into a mass religion in the Roman days. It spread around the Roman Empire. It became the religion of the masses and then state religion. Catholic Christianity and Orthodox Christianity developed during the Late Roman Empire. They were originally called Latin or Western Christianity and Greek or Eastern Christianity respectively. The former was the main religion in the western part of the Roman Empire and the latter was the main religion in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.

The further spread of Catholicism in Western Europe was promoted later by Charlemagne the king of the Franks when he developed the Carolingian Empire. The further spread of Orthodox Christianity was spread in eastern Europe by Greek missionaries and particularly by Photios, Patriarch of Constantinople, and the adoption of this religion in Russia by Vladimir the Great, the grand prince of Kiev.

Answer 3

Constantine I, who was the first Christian emperor, issued the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, which proclaimed religious tolerance towards Christians throughout the empire. He then continued to support the Church and helped build up the early Church. Christians were granted exemption from certain taxes etc. This eventually led to the spreading of Christianity throughout the empire and Christianity became the dominant religion throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.

Without Constantine there would be no Christianity as we know it today.

Answer 4

Unlike other religions of that time, the Christians were proselytisers. They wanted to convert peoples from other religions to provide them with salvation. Christian missionaries travelled around the Roman Empire and converted many people and were successful.

Another important factor was the support of Roman Emperors. Constantine the Great favoured Christianity. He built important Christian churches, promoted Christians in the imperial bureaucracy, tried to arbitrate disputes between different Christian doctrines and introduced some laws which favoured the Christians. Constantine's sons, who succeeded him, pursued similar policies. After this there was a brief rule by a pagan emperor, Julian. This was followed by the Valentinian dynasty, which was Christian.

Valentinian I was tolerant towards paganism, and only persecuted some types of sacrifices and banned the practice of magic. His son Gratian and his co-emperor Theodosius I, instead, pursued aggressive religious policies. They issued the Edict of Thessalonica in 380. This made mainstream Christianity (Latin or Western Christianity and Greek or Eastern Christianity) the sole legitimate religion of the Roman Empire. The purpose of the edict was to ban dissident Christian doctrines, which were branded as heretic. Their persecution started soon afterwards. The main target was Arian Christianity, which was popular around the empire.

The Latin/Western Church and the Greek/Eastern Church were the main church of the western and eastern part of the empire respectively. They were two branches of one church which was called Catholic Church. They both subscribed to the Nicene Creed, a particular interpretation of the trinity, and opposed alternative interpretations of the trinity. Later these two churches spit and came to be called Catholic and Orthodox respectively. Theodosius I immediately expelled He expelled Demophilus of Constantinople, the most important Arian Bishop and persecuted the arians.

At that time the Latin/Western church and the Greek/Eastern Church, which were the main church of the western and eastern part of the empire respectively, were two branches of one church which was called Catholic Church and they both subscribed to the Nicene Creed, a particular interpretation of the trinity Later these two churches spit and came to be called Catholic and Orthodox respectively.

Theodosius I also persecuted paganism. He reiterated an existing ban on the customs of (pagan) Roman religion, made divination (which was a centrepiece of Roman religion) , pioneered the criminalization of officials who did not enforce laws against the Roman religion and destroyed Roman temples. He issued further decrees (the Theodosian decrees) which removed non-mainstream Christians from church office, and eliminated the remnants of Roman religion by tuning its holidays into working days, banning sacrifices (another centrepiece of Roman religion) , making divination (another centrepiece of Roman religion) punishable by death, and disbanding the very important priesthood of the Vestal Virgins. His final law forbad all public customs of Roman religion. Theodosius also persecuted the Manicheans.

Thus, besides the success of Christian missionaries in converting people to Christianity, support by emperors, and the sanctioning of mainstream Christianity as the state religion of the empire and the persecution of paganism by emperors was equally important in making the Roman Empire embrace Christianity.

Answer 5

The premise is wrong as it wasn't something done by Christianity but rather what an military leader did via Christianity to help solidify his government. Constantine used the Christian symbols on the shields of his soldiers and defeated his rival at the Battle of the Milvian bridge where Emperor Constantine I defeated Emperor Maxentius on 28 October 312. This victory solidified his rule of the Empire and from here forward, he began to modify the Christian ways of Jesus and the Apostles to his own amalgamation of his Dies Solis or Sol Victus - the day of the sun or Sunday pagan religious beliefs with Christianity. He had enormous distain for Jewish Christians and wished to have his new 'Christianity' purged of these followers and evolve a newer form of it.

Answer 6

by shuting the hell up