What was the status of Christinanity in the Roman Empire during the first three centuries AD?

Answer 1

There was no such religion as Christianity at that time because Jesus was not even born but if you mean AD then it was an outlawed religion until it became the official relgion of the Roman Empire.

Answer 2

The Christians did not have any particular status. With the extension of Roman citizenship by the emperor Caracalla in 212 to all the freeborn in the empire, they were Roman citizens like all other people in the empire.

Generally, the Romans tolerated other religions worshiped in the empire and Christianity was tolerated, even though it was regarded as an odd and secretive cult and the Christians suffered prejudice. The Christians were not regarded as atheists because the Romans regognised non-Roman gods and non-Roman religions among the many different peoples who lived in their empire.

The letter of Pliny the Younger to Trajan was not about Christians being accused of being atheists. It was about individuals being accused of being Christians in the Roman province he governed, Bithynia. He reported that he had executed those who persisted in confessing that they were Christians if they were not Romans and sent them to Rome if they were Roman citizens. He got those who denied it to perform sacrifice to the Roman gods in the presence of an image of the emperor. His query was whether ceasing to be a Christian would be enough to be granted pardon. Trajan replied that he was not to seek out Christians, that anonymous accusations were to be ignored and that those who were guilty were to be punished unless they performed sacrifices to the Roman gods, in which case they were to be pardoned.

There were claims of persecutions of Christians by Nero (reigned 54-68) and Domitian (reigned 89-96) which have been questioned by various historians. The early acts against Christians were mainly by provincial governors who probably responded to local anti-Christian sentiments. Hadrian (reigned 117-38) ruled that merely being a Christian was not enough for action against them to be taken. They must also have committed some illegal act. "Slanderous attacks" against Christians were to be punished. There were sporadic bouts of anti-Christian actions taken by provincial governor between the reigns of Marcus Aurelius (161-80) and Maximinus Thax (235-238).

Thus, there were alternations of periods of toleration and period s of persecutions. The early persecutions were small scale and directed against the Christian clergy. The first legally sanctioned persecution was by the emperor Decius (for one year, 251), which was not targeted only against the Christians. Everyone in the empire was required to perform sacrifice to the Roman gods to prove their loyalty to the Roman state and the emperor. The Christians, who saw this as a betrayal of their god and abhorred sacrifices, refused. This was followed by localized and uncoordinated persecutions under Trebonianus Gallus (reigned 252-53) and one aimed at the clergy and Roman senators and knights by Valerian (257-60). The emperor Gallienus (reigned 260-68) issued an edict toleration of the Christians in 259. The large scale persecution of the Christians of 303-311 (the Great Persecution) was started by the emperor Diocletian and was terminated by Galerius and Constantine in 311 and 313 respectively.

Answer 3

Christians were officially regarded as atheists, a crime under Roman law, because they did not worship the Roman gods. however, until the time of Decius in the mid-third century, the authorities preferred to ignore them. Pliny wrote to his emperor, Trajan, in about 112, to ask how to treat Christians accused of Atheism, apparently unaware of any previous trials of Christians in the empire. The response was to discourage any action against the Christians.

The great tradition of Christianity that very large numbers of Christians suffered terrible fates under the pagan emperors throughout the first three centuries must have come from somewhere. We know that the Christian emperors and bishops from the fourth century onwards did engage in terrible persecutions of the pagans in an attempt to eliminate that religion, and Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) links the Christian tradition of pagan persecution to this. In his words, the ecclesiastical writers of the fourth or fifth centuries ascribed to the magistrates of Rome the same degree of implacable and unrelenting zeal which filled their own breasts against the heretics or the idolaters of their own times.

Answer 4

Christians suffered sporadic persecution in the first three centuries A.D., until the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in 312 A.D. It became the official religion of the Empire in 380 A.D.

Answer 5

Christianity was a persecuted religion in the early part of the Roman Empire. Under the Emperor Nero, Christians were seen as a threat to Imperial power in Rome. It was not until the Emperor Constantine in 313 AD, made Christianity the official state religion.

Answer 6

In 380 mainstream Christianity was made state religion. Dissident Christian doctrines were banned, and branded heretic and persecuted.

Answer 7

it spread and became more influential