Eric Shrewsbury

3/18/2019

Dr. Cassel

English 1201 121

The Spread of Early Christianity in Rome

Peter was crucified upside-down. Andrew was crucified on a Crux Decussata. James was

executed by sword. Philip, Matthew and Thaddeus were all made martyrs like the apostles before

them (Fairchild). They were some of the most important men that started Christianity, and their

martyrdom only furthered the spread of Christianity. Having only started in the first century, the

newborn religion grew to 15 million followers by the time the sixth century came (Hirst). These

extraordinary men may have laid the foundation of the largest religion in the world, but how did

it grow from there? One would be wise to look first to Europe; its many colonial powers ensured

that the religion was spread to most corners of the world. But how, then, did early Christianity

spread throughout Europe? There is one singular, definitive answer: Rome.

Taking a step back, one should know why it’s important to understand how Christianity

spread. “Why not look at Islam, the current fastest-spreading religion, or Judaism, the religion

that predates both of the aforementioned?” are both valid questions, but the answer is a simple

one: neither have as much influence/power in the western world as Christianity does. The

Vatican is one of the most recognized entities of power in Europe, with the Pope’s level of

influence being on par if not greater than most of European countries’ leaders. Christianity

played a key part in the foundations of the USA, with the words “...one nation, under god…” still

in the Pledge of Allegiance even after the separation of church and state. Abraham Lincoln found
his decision on the morality of slavery in the bible with the words “all men are born equal”.

There are thousands of examples that could show how influential Christianity has been in

history, but with just those few a point can be made.

After the death of Jesus at the hand of Roman executioners, his followers then sought to

spread his message to as many as they could, Jew or Gentile (non-Jew). Most of the known

world at that point was under Roman control, so it was natural that the followers of Christianity

would attempt to spread it throughout the empire. According to PBS this at first this went poorly,

as the newborn religion was quite misunderstood and publicly announcing ones-self as Christian

could bring enormous risks to self and estate. Those who followed the Roman Pantheon found

Christians refusal to make sacrifices to the Pantheon a threat to the empire (Lunn-Rockliffe). In

64 AD, roman emperor Nero needed a scapegoat. His own actions had lead to many tragedies,

shortcomings and failings, most notably the Great Fire of Rome. Despite the work of Jesus’

followers, there were still few Christians in Rome and the religions was regarded with suspicion:

important early Christian rituals were mistaken as cannibalism and incest. This public profile

made them an easy target for Nero, who delighted in executing Christians in a variety of ways.

Still, Christianity and its followers endured and in 313 AD emperor Constantine issued an edict

to accept Christianity as a religion, then ten years later it became the official religion of Rome.

Why Emperor Constantine did this is historically uncertain, with leading theories being that his

mother converted him early in his time as Emperor or that he saw the edict as politically

beneficial. Christianity has its own version of what happened, though not supported by any

evidence found outside of the church. Supposedly Constantine had a dream during his civil war

against Emperor Maxentius, one that told him to “fight under Christian standards” (Lunn-
Rockliffe). This was not the end of Christian prosecution, however it did mark a turning point in

the religions spread from one of hidden membership to public prominence.

Focusing not on the big picture but instead on the historical figures that built up the

religion themselves gives an even better understanding of how Christianity came to be accepted

by the Roman Empire. Peter, following the execution of Jesus, was lead to Rome by the

persecution lead by Emperor Nero. There, he started a small church and preached to a smaller

crowd. This crowd grew big enough that Peter caught the ear of the Roman authorities and was

then arrested and executed. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes Peter as founder of the first

church in Rome, and by extent their first Pope. James was reportedly overzealous in his

spreading of Christianity, which led to him being the first of the apostles to be martyred at the

hands of Roman executioners. His overzealousness, and others like him, may have contributed to

the misconceptions about Christianity in Rome that lead to their persecution by Nero, but that’s

only speculation. John served in Jerusalem’s church following Jesus’ execution before moving to

work in the church at Ephesus. Later exiled to the island of Patmos, John supposedly outlived all

of the other disciples. Unsupported by documents or letters, Catholic tradition says that Philip

preaching Phrygia, a Roman province in Asia, before being martyred. Nathanael follows the

same pattern as Philip, no documents rather Catholic tradition saying that he took Christianity to

northern India, being martyred there. Still based in Catholic tradition, Matthew supposedly

preached in Jerusalem for years before carrying the religion to a number of other unspecified

countries. All that is known about Thomas following the execution of Jesus is that he took

Christianity’s message east, eventually being martyred. Simon, only every even being mentioned

in the bible three times, calls back to Philip, Nathanael and Matthew by not being supported by

anything other than Catholic tradition. These traditions state that he took Christianity to Egypt
and was martyred in Persia, which has a small amount of supporting evidence as Egypt, under

Roman control, had a tiny Christian presence even before the religion was accepted by the

Empire. Again with no historical evidence but tradition to back it up, Thaddeus founded a church

in Edessa and was martyred. All of the information on these apostles was gathered by Mary

Fairchild and Zack Zavada, writers for learnreligions.com. Note that when only church tradition

backs the existence/accomplishments of an apostles it is noted, otherwise there is historic

evidence backing them.

From the time of Jesus’ execution until the third Century there isn’t much reliable

information about Christianity. There are a few theories as to how the religion spread outlined in

the report titled “Spatial constraints on the diffusion of religious innovations: The case of early

Christianity in the Roman Empire”. The authors of this report identified a few theories, none

more credible than the other, as to how Christianity spread during this time by using their own

research and looking to a book by Rodney Stark. One such theory proposed by Stark suggests

that “The closer a city was to Jerusalem, the sooner a city had a Christian congregation”. The

researchers decided to instead look at more cities than Stark, and rather than the geographical

distance, look at how far the cities were in relativity to the travel time of a person. Interestingly,

they found that the larger a cities population, the sooner a Christian presence would build. At the

same time the further a city was from Jerusalem, again using not a geographical distance but a

travel one, the longer it took for Christianity to build. Also outlined is how cities with Christian

congregations, not just Jerusalem, helped to spread the religion faster to other cities. The model

does not hold when applied to Egypt and Carthage, predicting that there should have been

congregations there in the second or third century. There is not any evidence of such

congregations however, and the researchers found it likely that their model’s inability to account
for cultural resistance to Christianity is what lead to the faulty prediction. Reverse to this is

North Africa, where evidence found suggests that there was a “well-established” presence of

Christianity by 180CE. The report states that “Christian congregations which emerged before the

year 304 cover more or less the whole area of the Roman Empire…” so we can see that even

before Christianity was accepted as a religion by the empire, it had spread significantly under the

thumb of persecution.

A household name and a lifestyle for many, Christianity is a daily part of some people’s

lives. Many of those who don’t follow the religion are still affected, directly or indirectly. The

world’s largest religion started with the determination of the members of a persecuted following.

Being a moral code for its followers, even non-believers have something to gain from learning its

origin. Its spread through Rome, acceptance and then growth into something more are all history.

And it’s a history that all should know.

 Citations
Chalupa, Ales and Fousek, Jan and Kase, Vojtech and Mertel, Adam and Vytvarova, Eva.

"Spatial constraints on the diffusion of religious innovations: The case of early

Christianity in the Roman Empire." PLoS ONE, vol. 13, no. 12, 2018, p. e0208744.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A567393261/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=

497cce7d. Accessed 10 Apr. 2019.

“Early Christians.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service,

www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/christians.html.

Fairchild, Mary and Zack Zavada. “Get to Know Jesus' 12 Disciples, Including Peter, John and

More.” Learn Religions, Learn Religions, 11 Feb. 2019, www.learnreligions.com/the-

apostles-701217.

Hirst, Michael. "Pushed to the periphery." America, 19 June 2006, p. 10. Opposing Viewpoints

in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A147570375/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=

72b53e3c. Accessed 10 Apr. 2019.

Lunn-Rockliffe, Dr Sophie. “History - Ancient History in Depth: Christianity and the Roman

Empire.” BBC, BBC, 17 Feb. 2011,

www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/christianityromanempire_article_01.shtml.