This is part of the
Medieval European History Metanode.
This is not intended to be a complete
history of Christianity. Rather, I intend to trace the
religion from its
inception to its widespread acceptance in Europe.
Christianity began to spread rapidly at
Pentecost in 30 CE.
Christians were persecuted horribly at first, with the worst persecution occurring under the Emperor
Nero in the 60s. By the 2nd century, a solid
organization of church offices was evident. The role of the
Bishop was defined; the
civitas - the basic unit of the
Roman Empire - became the
diocese, the area in which a Bishop had authority. In 160,
synods began to emerge, in which Bishops would gather to discuss and debate
heresy. A clear distinction was drawn in the
Holy Orders: the major orders included bishops,
priests, and
deacons, and the minor orders included sub-deacons,
lectors, and others. The
archbishop was apparently a development of the 3rd century.
Civitas were organized into
provinces, the
capital of which were the
metropoli. The bishop of the
metropolis became the Archbishop, with authority over the Bishops in his province. By 400 CE, a
patriarchy had risen. Each
patriarch ruled over a
patriarchate, and there were five:
Rome,
Alexandria,
Jerusalem,
Antioch, and
Constantinople.
It took some time for the Church to recognize the primacy of the Roman patriarch. By the 2nd century, however, there were references to Rome's superiority in the writings of the Church Fathers. Rome had the largest
congregation of Christians by the year 100. Other Bishops would write to the Roman Bishop when they had questions. Finally,
Christ had given the Keys of the Kingdom to
St. Peter, who was the first Bishop of Rome. If Peter had been the prime
apostle, then his successor would naturally be the prime Bishop - the
Pope, or "Father". This is known as
Petrine succession.
Persecutions of Christians occurred until 311, when the Emperor Galerius issued the
Edict of Toleration, outlawing the practice. In 313, the Emperor
Constantine went further with
the Edict of Milan, which formally
legalized Christianity. Finally, in 381, the Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the only legal religion in the Roman Empire.
There are several reasons for Christianity's "triumph". "Mystery" religions were very popular at this point in the Roman Empire;
cults of Cybele,
Isis, and
Mithras were "it", and such cults included elements in common with Christianity:
resurrection of the dead, secretive ceremonies, and an
initiation ritual in which the believer is united with a
deity. Christianity overpowered these relgions, however, for six reasons:
1. Superior
organization, which was attractive to the Emperors
2. Believable
literature, with real and familiar locations grounded in time and space
3.
Equality among Christians, whether man or woman, rich or poor,
slave or free
4. Extreme
charity - Christians provided the only places to care for the sick and the aged
5. The
doctrine of the
incarnation provided for a unique and caring
God
6. The Emperors took the side of Christianity.
Although Constantine's conversion made Christianity legal and
vogue, many
converts were not sincere. Some truly
spiritual people, frustrated at the decline in commitment, separated themselves from
society in order to focus more intently on God. The first to draw major interest was St. Anthony, an
Egyptian
hermit. People admired him, and wanted to copy him, so that he formed a "community of hermits" in the early 4th century.
Monasticism grew out of this desire to escape the influence of society. In 315, Pachomias instituted the first community of
cloistered monks, called
cenobites. The "Pillar Saints", or
Stylites, were hermits who lived on the tops of
pillars to test their
patience; one managed to live on top of a pillar for 30 years. The first true
Rule of Monasticism was drawn up by St. Basil in 360, and it is still standard in Eastern Christianity. John Cassian and St. Jerome carried this Rule to the West.
St. Benedict founded the standard Rule in the West in 543. He proposed three primary
vows:
stability (live in the
monastery),
obedience (to the
abbot), and
conversion of life (
poverty and
chastity). Monasticism in the West underwent many changes after St. Benedict, some of which resulted in the spread of Christianity throughout Europe.
In Benedict's time, most monks were not priests. By 750, most monks were priests as well, and they performed daily
Mass, left the field labor they had been accustomed to, and instead focused on
manuscript copying. The monks of Europe are primarily responsible for preserving the
Greek and
Roman classics. Beginning in the early 7th century, the
Popes commissioned monks to be
missionaries, the most famous of which was St. Augustine of Canterbury, who first converted the population of the British Isles. The monks, especially the
Irish monks, Christianized Europe. They were admired because they had a
purpose beyond their own
salvation: the salvation of others, for which they
prayed daily.