1 The spread of Christianity hows/religion/watch/

2 The spread of Christianity

3 During the 1st century CE, Christianity took hold in Rome. Christians refused to worship the Roman gods. In ancient Rome, that was against the law and Christians were hunted as criminals. Christians came from every class in ancient Rome, but Christianity had great appeal to two groups: the poor and women

4 Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

5 Why was Christianity so popular? Life After Death: Christianity promised life after death in heaven. In the Roman religion, only gods went to heaven. Emperors were considered gods, everyone else went to the underworld. Equality: Christianity promised equal opportunity. At a time when you had to be born into the nobility, you could join Christianity and be equal with everyone else in the movement.

6 Religion offered women a bridge across the second class position that the “paterfamilias” structure forced on them. Their participation was so prominent that critics often insulted Christianity as a religion of women and slaves.

7 Christian Persecution Christians were first targeted for persecution as a group by the emperor Nero in 64 AD. A colossal fire broke out at Rome, and destroyed much of the city. Perhaps to divert attention from the rumours about his involvement, Nero ordered that Christians should be rounded up and killed. Some were torn apart by dogs, others burnt alive as human torches.

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9 Over the next hundred years or so, Christians were occasionally persecuted. It was not until the 200s that emperors began severe persecutions once again. Total numbers of Christian martyrs (people killed for their beliefs) range from ,000.

10 The rise of Christianity In 306 AD, Constantine became Emperor. However, he and his brother-in-law, and co- emperor, Maxentius were bitter rivals. Before the two met in the final battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD, Constantine supposedly had a vision of the sign of Christ in a dream.

11 He declared that his victory was owed to the god of the Christians and set about adopting policies throughout the empire to help spread Christianity. This lead to the rapid spread of Christianity throughout the entire Roman empire.

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13 Constantine also shifted to a somewhat hostile stance towards Pagans/ believers in the traditional religion, as opposed to a simple supporter of Christianity. Pagan sacrifice was forbidden, and treasures of many temples were confiscated and given to Christian churches.