Why did a Roman Emperor make Christianity the official religion of Rome?

Answer 1

Answer
Imperial support for Christianity and opposition to paganism were already underway from the time of Constantine, and there was arguably no definitive year in which Christianity became the official religion of empire. Paganism had to survive nearly a century of persecution before Emperor Theodosius (379-395) finally outlawed worship at pagan temples in 391 CE and forbade gatherings of another recent religion, Manichaeanism. He also gave tacit approval for the triumphant Christian church to pillage and destroy those pagan temples that had survived nearly a century of persecution. This marked the end of public worship of the pagan gods, thus making Christianity the only authorised religion of empire.

Answer 2

Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of Rome so that the pagan religion would no longer have any legal standing and the population could be required to convert to Christianity. Pagans who held out were persecuted over the centuries that followed, until the entire population was Christian, apart from a barely tolerated Jewish minority.

Answer 3

Theodosius I was the emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the entire empire.

Theodosius I was the emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the entire empire.

Theodosius I was the emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the entire empire.

Theodosius I was the emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the entire empire.

Theodosius I was the emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the entire empire.

Theodosius I was the emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the entire empire.

Theodosius I was the emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the entire empire.

Theodosius I was the emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the entire empire.

Theodosius I was the emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the entire empire.

Answer 4

Co-emperors Theodosius I, Gratian, and Valentinian II signed 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.

At that time the Latin/Western church and the Greek/Eastern Church, which were the church of the western and eastern part of the empire respectively, were two branches of one church which was celled 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 immediately started to persecute the Arian Christians in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Valentinian II was only five when he was made to sign the edict. However, his mother was an Arian. His elder brother Gratian died three years after the edict. Valentinian became emperor of the western part of the Roman Empire and when he was old enough he supported Arianism. This created a conflict between Catholicism and Arianism in the west.

Answer 5

Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire by imperial edict. Theodosius I made it mandatory for everyone to be Christian in 380, and the made it the official Roman religion in 381.

Answer 6

-----------------------

Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 CE and banned the public worship of the old gods in 391 CE.

Answer 7

Theodosius I was the emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the entire empire.