G. Persecution and Triumph of Christianity:

  i)  At first - Christianity was legal:

    In the Roman Empire, they started out practicing religious toleration - a person could belong to any religion as long as in  its practice he did not break any state laws.  Therefore, Christians  were tolerated at first.  To the Romans, Christianity was only a new branch of the Jewish religion and they did not care about it.

  ii) Growth of dislike for Christians:

     1. Popular hostility to Christians:

     a. they were regarded as anti-social : they would not attend the violent games, take part in festivals
        honouring the Roman gods, participate in immoral acts

     b. their meetings were held in secret - which caused the Romans  to be suspicious

     c. some of their ceremonies were misunderstood (ex. communion) - they were suspected of horrible acts
         like cannibalism.

     d. some Christians appeared to be "holier-than-thou", looking down their noses at non-Christian Romans
         and their lifestyles

     e. since they didn't like the things the ordinary Romans  enjoyed, they were called "Haters of Mankind"

  For the above reasons, the Roman people disliked Christians and were more than willing to believe anything bad about them and to pick on them.     

     2. Government hostility to Christians:

     a.  Many good Christians would not join the army (why?)

     b. They wouldn't worship the emperor

     c. They wouldn't swear oaths by the Roman gods in court

     d. They wouldn't worship the Roman state gods

     e. Some refused to pay taxes to support the army

 Christians were suspected of being unpatriotic, possibly even dangerous to Rome.     

  iii) Persecution:

    Nero was the first emperor to persecute the Christians.  He blamed them (probably unjustly) for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 A.D. He made it a criminal offence to be a Christian and Christians came to be sought out, tried, convicted and punished by execution or by participating in the "games" (Christians to the lions!)

     Other emperors continued attacks against the Christians from time to time.  Because they were outlaws, they could not have obvious churches or hold public services.  Their meetings were secret and open to members only, often held in members' houses or even in the "catacombs" - underground burial places in Rome.

     During the persecutions, in spite of the fact that many Christians were captured and died as martyrs, the persecutions seemed to make Christianity stronger and the new religion continued to grow and spread.

  iv) Toleration:

     In 313 AD the emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Toleration which made it legal to be Christian as well as any other religion. Christianity had returned to its original status.

  v) Triumph:

    After it became legal again, the Christian religion grew very quickly.  In 380 AD, the Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official state religion - the only legal religion in the Empire. Thus Christianity had triumphed and become supreme.

  H. Development of the Christian Church:

  i) The Church becomes an institution:

  -  the local congregations that grew up soon found it necessary to appoint leaders to carry out and direct
     Church business. These leaders were at first elders, later priests.

  -  the priests of important centers came to be called BISHOPS and they took on the job of supervising the
      priests of smaller churches in order to keep the teaching the same in all churches.

  -  a few bishops were then elevated to the position of ARCHBISHOP  with each supervising a number of
      bishops. Later CARDINALS  were created to supervise archbishops.

  -  the bishop of Rome, the most important city, came to be called POPE ( from "papal' - "father" ) supposedly
     carrying on the tradition of Church leadership originally passed from Christ  to Peter.

  -  this organization, based on Roman military organization, made  the Church very authoritarian from early
     times and thus it  was very united and strong.

 ii)  The Bible:

     The word comes from the Greek words "byblos" - "a collection of  books".  The Bible is not one book but many. (66 in most Protestant editions, 73 in the Roman Catholic)

-          it has two main divisions, the Old Testament and the New Testament

-         long after Jesus died, his followers felt a need for the religion to have an accepted set of sacred writings.    They collected all supposedly "holy" or inspired documents both from the Christian period and from the Hebrews before Jesus  was born.  At Church councils, they discussed and decided which were holy enough to be included.  The result was the Bible, which has  become the number one "best-seller"  book of all time.

  -  The Old Testament:

      - Roman Catholic and Protestant versions differ in length

     -  the first five books are old Hebrew or Jewish scriptures

     -  Christians have accepted these Hebrew writings as part of their scriptures or sacred literature

     -  some sections of the Old Testament are historic, some poetic, others prophetic (predicting the future)

  -  The New Testament:

     -  All 27 books were written after Jesus' death.

     -  Sections:

       1. The Gospels (four accounts of Jesus' life; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)
       2. The Acts of the Apostles (one book containing stories and History of the doings of the early Christian
           missionaries)
       3. The Epistles (long letters written by early leaders, Paul in particular)
       4. Revelation (a mystical prophetic work)

  iii) The Catholic Church:

  -  the word Catholic means “universal” or “for everybody” and the Christian Church has always behaved that
     way; to make everyone welcome to become a member

  -  for the first (approx.) 1500 years of Christian history in western Europe, the Roman Catholic Church was
     the only Christian Church (even today’s protestants are descended from Roman Catholics)