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In the year before the First Council of Constantinople in 381, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire when Theodosius I, emperor of the East, Gratian, emperor of the West, and Gratian's junior co-ruler Valentinian II issued the Edict of Thessalonica in 380, [1] which recognized the catholic orthodoxy [a] of Nicene Christians as the Roman Empire's state religion.
Map of the Roman Empire with the distribution of Christian congregations of the first three centuries AD. The growth of Early Christianity from its obscure origin c. AD 40, with fewer than 1,000 followers, to being the majority religion of the entire Roman Empire by AD 400, has been examined through a wide variety of historiographical approaches.
1631 – Kingdom of Matamba (Roman Catholic Church) 1633 – Ethiopia returns from Catholic to Coptic; 1640 – Piscataway (Roman Catholic Church) 1642 – Huron-Wendat Nation (Roman Catholic Church) 1650 – Kingdom of Larantuka (Roman Catholic Church) 1654 – Onondaga (Roman Catholic Church) 1663–1665 – Kingdom of Loango (briefly Roman ...
Early Christianity spread in the Greek/Roman world and beyond as a 1st-century Jewish sect, [19] which historians refer to as Jewish Christianity. It may be divided into two distinct phases: the apostolic period , when the first apostles were alive and organizing the Church, and the post-apostolic period , when an early episcopal structure ...
Roman investigations into early Christianity found it an irreligious, novel, disobedient, even atheistic sub-sect of Judaism: it appeared to deny all forms of religion and was therefore superstitio. By the end of the Imperial era, Nicene Christianity was the one permitted Roman religio; all other cults were heretical or pagan superstitiones. [187]
Constantine's decision to cease the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was a turning point for early Christianity, sometimes referred to as the Triumph of the Church, the Peace of the Church or the Constantinian shift. In 313, Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan decriminalizing Christian worship.
Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant , across the Roman Empire , and beyond.
This formative period was followed by the early bishops, whom Christians consider the successors of Christ's apostles. From the year 150, Christian teachers began to produce theological and apologetic works aimed at defending the faith. These authors are known as the Church Fathers, and the study of them is called patristics.