Catholic Church Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Antiquity and Roman Empire=== {{Main|Early centers of Christianity|Pentarchy|List of heresies in the Catholic Church}} [[File:Basilica di San Pietro 1450.jpg|thumb|A 19th-century drawing by [[Henry William Brewer]] of [[Old St. Peter's Basilica]], built in 318 by [[Constantine the Great]]]] Conditions in the [[Roman Empire]] facilitated the spread of new ideas. The empire's network of roads and waterways facilitated travel, and the ''[[Pax Romana]]'' made travelling safe. The empire encouraged the spread of a common culture with Greek roots, which allowed ideas to be more easily expressed and understood.{{sfn|Bokenkotter|2004|p=24}} Unlike most religions in the Roman Empire, however, Christianity required its adherents to renounce all other gods, a practice adopted from Judaism (see [[Idolatry]]). The Christians' refusal to join [[Paganism|pagan]] celebrations meant they were unable to participate in much of public life, which caused non-Christians—including government authorities—to fear that the Christians were angering the gods and thereby threatening the peace and prosperity of the Empire. The [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|resulting persecutions]] were a defining feature of Christian self-understanding until Christianity was legalized in the 4th century.<ref name="macculloch155and164">MacCulloch, ''Christianity'', pp. 155–159, 164.</ref> In 313, [[Constantine I and Christianity|Emperor Constantine I]]'s [[Edict of Milan]] legalized Christianity, and in 330 Constantine moved the imperial capital to [[Constantinople]], modern [[Istanbul, Turkey]]. In 380 the [[Edict of Thessalonica]] made [[Nicene Christianity]] the [[state church of the Roman Empire]], a position that within the diminishing territory of the [[Byzantine Empire]] would persist until the empire itself ended in the [[fall of Constantinople]] in 1453, while elsewhere the church was independent of the empire, as became particularly clear with the [[East–West Schism]]. During the period of the [[Seven Ecumenical Councils]], five primary sees emerged, an arrangement formalized in the mid-6th century by Emperor [[Justinian I]] as the [[pentarchy]] of Rome, [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Constantinople]], [[Patriarch of Antioch|Antioch]], [[Jerusalem in Christianity|Jerusalem]] and [[Patriarch of Alexandria|Alexandria]].<ref name="Valliere2012">{{cite book|last=Valliere|first=Paul|year= 2012|title=Conciliarism|url={{googlebooks|Qrt3Z7fyzlUC|page=92|plainurl=y}}|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-01574-6|page=92}}</ref><ref name="Bartholomew2008">{{cite book|last=Patriarch|first=Bartholomew|year=2008|title=Encountering the Mystery|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4_UB3_UpIcQC&pg=PA3|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-385-52561-9|page=3|access-date=31 March 2021|archive-date=10 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310112403/https://books.google.com/books?id=4_UB3_UpIcQC&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> In 451 the [[Council of Chalcedon]], in a canon of disputed validity,<ref name="Michalopulos">{{cite web|last=Michalopulos|first=George C.|url=http://www.aoiusa.org/canon-28-and-eastern-papalism-cause-or-effect|title=Canon 28 and Eastern Papalism: Cause or Effect?|date=11 September 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130110112941/http://www.aoiusa.org/canon-28-and-eastern-papalism-cause-or-effect|archive-date=10 January 2013}}</ref> elevated the [[see of Constantinople]] to a position "second in eminence and power to the bishop of Rome".<ref name="Noble214">Noble, p. 214.</ref> From {{Circa|350|500}}, the bishops, or popes, of Rome, steadily increased in authority through their consistent intervening in support of [[Episcopal see#Catholic Church|orthodox leaders]] in theological disputes, which encouraged appeals to them.<ref name="ReferenceA">"Rome (early Christian)". Cross, F. L., ed., ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church''. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005</ref> Emperor [[Justinian]], who in the areas under his control definitively established a form of [[caesaropapism]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/asourcebookforan24979gut|title=A Source Book for Ancient Church History: From the Apostolic Age to the Close of the Conciliar Period| first=Joseph Cullen Jr. |last=Ayer|location=New York|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|year=1913|page=[https://archive.org/details/asourcebookforan24979gut/page/n543/mode/2up 538]}}</ref> in which "he had the right and duty of regulating by his laws the minutest details of worship and discipline, and also of dictating the theological opinions to be held in the Church",<ref>Ayer, p. 553</ref> re-established imperial power over Rome and other parts of the West, initiating the period termed the [[Byzantine Papacy]] (537–752), during which the bishops of Rome, or popes, required approval from the emperor in Constantinople or from his representative in Ravenna for consecration, and most were selected by the emperor from his Greek-speaking subjects,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/behindl_bau_2003_00_6167|url-access=registration|title=Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections|first=Frederic J.|last=Baumgartner|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2003|isbn=978-0-312-29463-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/behindl_bau_2003_00_6167/page/n29 10]–12}}</ref> resulting in a "melting pot" of Western and Eastern Christian traditions in art as well as liturgy.<ref>[[Eamon Duffy|Duffy, Eamon]]. 1997. ''Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes''. Yale University Press. pp. 66–67</ref> Most of the Germanic tribes who in the following centuries invaded the Roman Empire had adopted Christianity in its [[Arianism|Arian]] form, which the [[First Council of Nicaea|Council of Nicea]] declared [[Christian heresy|heretical]].<ref>Le Goff, p. 14: "The face of the barbarian invaders had been transformed by another crucial fact. Although some of them had remained pagan, another part of them, not the least, had become Christian. But, by a curious chance, which was to leave serious consequences, these converted barbarians—the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians, Vandals, and later the Lombards—had been converted to Arianism, which had become a heresy after the council of Nicaea. They had in fact been converted by followers of the 'apostle of the Goths', Wulfilas."</ref> The resulting religious discord between Germanic rulers and Catholic subjects<ref>Le Goff, p. 14: "Thus what should have been a religious bond was, on the contrary, a subject of discord and sparked off bitter conflicts between Arian barbarians and Catholic Romans."</ref> was avoided when, in 497, [[Clovis I]], the [[Franks|Frankish]] ruler, converted to orthodox Catholicism, allying himself with the papacy and the monasteries.<ref>Le Goff, p. 21: "Clovis' master-stroke was to convert himself and his people not to Arianism, like the other barbarian kings, but to Catholicism."</ref> The Visigoths in Spain followed his lead in 589,<ref>Le Goff, p. 21</ref> and the Lombards in Italy in the course of the 7th century.<ref>{{cite book|last=Drew|first=Katherine Fischer|year=2014|title=The Lombard Laws|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|url={{googlebooks|7ItMSn421GAC|pg=PR18|plainurl=y}}|isbn=978-0-8122-1055-2|page=xviii}}</ref> [[Western Christianity]], particularly through its [[Western monasticism|monasteries]], was a major factor in preserving [[Classical antiquity|classical civilization]], with its art (see [[Illuminated manuscript]]) and literacy.<ref name=Cahill_Thomas>{{cite book|title=[[How the Irish Saved Civilization|How The Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe]] |first=Thomas |last=Cahill |date=1995 |publisher=[[Penguin Random House]] |location=New York City}}</ref> Through his [[Rule of Saint Benedict|Rule]], [[Benedict of Nursia]] ({{circa|480|lk=no}}–543), one of the founders of [[Western monasticism]], exerted an enormous influence on European culture through the appropriation of the monastic spiritual heritage of the early Catholic Church and, with the spread of the Benedictine tradition, through the preservation and transmission of ancient culture. During this period, monastic Ireland became a centre of learning and early Irish missionaries such as [[Columbanus]] and [[Columba]] spread Christianity and established monasteries across continental Europe.<ref name=Cahill_Thomas/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page