Cleckler 1

Nicholas Cleckler

Professor Brackett

World Civilizations I

22 February 2018

The Rise of Christianity

Although Christianity officially began with the birth of Jesus, its roots lie in

Judaism and in the sociopolitical climate of Judea. Initially beset by skepticism and

oppression, missionaries and followers slowly spread Christianity throughout the

ancient world over the course of three centuries, until it was bestowed official status by

the Roman government early in the Common Era (CE). From this point, as the state of

Rome grew to lust after the wealth and power of the church, Christianity spread

throughout large areas of Europe in conjunction with Roman conquest. In the Middle

Ages, the English monarchy also came to appreciate the prosperity and influence of the

Christian church and further legitimized and spread, often forcibly, this religion

throughout Europe and the Middle East. Here, we will examine the rise and spread of

Christianity from its birth to the emergence of the Puritan movement, and discuss the

social, political, and economic influences that contributed to its growth in order to

understand Christianity’s influence in modern America.

Judea

The sociopolitical and philosophical underpinnings of Christianity lie in the

Roman occupation of Judea in the years surrounding Jesus’ birth. Judea had been

controlled by Rome since 63 BCE, and was a Roman province under King Herod when

Jesus is said to have been born (“Judaea”). Jewish people, being monotheistic, refused
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to recognize Roman emperors as God and were heavily oppressed under Roman rule.

They suffered economically due to heavy taxation, and starvation and illness also took

a toll. Jewish uprisings were common, and a widespread revolt starting in 66 CE

culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem and its beloved temple in 70. Despite the

tribulations they faced, Jewish people persisted in their faith, believing that a messiah

would arise and save them from Roman persecution. When Jesus, who as we know was

(ironically) Jewish, began preaching in his early 20s, his beliefs were looked on with

skepticism by many Jews, and the idea that he was the Messiah was rejected.

However, Christianity, as it came to be known, appealed to the lower classes as an

accepting group of believers who generously provided charity to the poor and the

hungry and who cared for the sick. Another important element of Christianity’s appeal

was its believers’ willingness to die for its cause. Although the historical accuracy of

Jesus’ death and rebirth is questionable, we know that condemned Christians in

Roman-occupied lands were often crucified or thrown to wild animals to be devoured,

but Christians went to their deaths with peace and happiness. The concepts of charity

and martyrdom would play heavily in the appeal and spread of Christianity long after

Jesus’ death.

Ancient Rome

After Jesus’ crucifixion, his disciples continued to spread his teachings throughout

the Middle East and parts of north Africa, Asia, and Europe. Christianity’s following

grew slowly and in secret until it received legal recognition by Constantine, emperor of

Rome. In ancient times, as in the Middle Ages, it was common for military success and

political power to be conflated with favor from God (or the gods), and in 312,

Constantine converted to Christianity in a bid to cement his military and political power

in Italy (Lunn-Rockliffe). His success convinced him of the power of the Christian God,
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and in the following year he issued the Edict of Milan, which legalized Christianity and

restored seized wealth to formerly persecuted Christians. Christians were granted

positions of leadership in the Roman government and enjoyed newfound power, status,

and wealth. These three elements would sustain Christianity’s powerful appeal and

facilitate its growth in ancient Rome and its eventual spread to medieval England.

In a new climate of tolerance, Christianity continued to spread through the Roman

Empire, albeit slowly, but debates about the nature of Christian faith moved to the

forefront in importance. In 325, Constantine hosted the Council of Nicaea, which

produced the Nicene Creed. This document confirmed Jesus’ divine nature, and the

Council also established laws regulating the organization of the church and the conduct

of its officials (“First Council of Nicaea”). Christianity was ultimately made the official

religion of the Roman Empire in 380 by Emperor Theodosius’ Edict of Thessalonia.

The following year, he issued another edict that made Christianity compulsory

throughout the empire (Graves). Thus, over the course of less than 400 years, we see

that Christianity has grown from an illegal practice by a small group of followers of a

poor Jewish preacher to an institution of sufficient wealth and influence that it became a

state-mandated religion. Ironically, by mandating faith in a monotheistic religion,

Rome undermined the power of its own emperor, ultimately leading to the famed fall of

Rome in 476. As the power of the Roman empire diminished, the Roman Catholic

church helped fill the void in leadership throughout former lands of the empire, and the

church again grew in terms of wealth and authority. However, with the fall of Rome,

much of their former empire was left without military protection and was vulnerable to

invasion. That was the case with southern Britain, which was overtaken by

Anglo-Saxon tribes and remained primarily pagan for centuries to come (“Christianity

in Britain”).
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Medieval England

Augustine, a Benedictine monk of Rome, led a mission to Canterbury, Kent in 597

to convert the pagan king, Aethelberht (“Saint Augustine of Canterbury”). This was the

first major effort to re-establish Christianity in Britain after the retreat of the Romans,

and while Augustine’s mission was successful, England was to remain in a state of flux

for the next two centuries with regard to establishment of a unified political and

religious entity. In fact, England as we know it now did not exist at the outset of the

Middle Ages; she was broken up into several kingdoms of mostly Germanic tribes who

were frequently at war with one another. Invasions, bids for power, and shifts between

paganism and Christianity would dominate until the reign of King Alfred. Alfred was

devoutly Christian and he defended his country with extreme fervor, for as mentioned

previously, to maintain military and political power was to protect the religious

establishment. Alfred struggled with numerous Viking invasions during his reign but

by his death in 899, he had successfully fortified his country against further invasion,

established means of Christian education for commoners, and unified the southern and

western regions of the land as a Christian kingdom (“Alfred the Great”). This set the

stage for rapid growth of religious orders and the church thrived in the coming decades,

particularly after the Norman Conquest of 1066. William the Conqueror brought

significant changes to the church of England, replacing key Anglo-Saxon leaders with

Norman officials and reviving Roman Catholicism, yet centralizing the church

leadership who would be accountable primarily to the monarchy and only secondarily

to the papacy, if at all (“William Conquered England and Its Church”).

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In effect, the shift from a loosely organized institution to a more rigid structure

made the church more successful in terms of wealth and power, but the conflict

between royal oversight and papal oversight, as well as the role of the church in matters

of religion and state would be prove to be an ongoing issue that would lead to

significant reforms. In 1164, King Henry II established the Constitutions of Clarendon

in an attempt to bring the church under royal control, but his efforts were defied by the

papacy and by Henry’s own archbishop in Canterbury, Thomas Becket (“Constitutions

of Clarendon”). Becket was ultimately assassinated over the conflict and Henry was

forced to nullify parts of the document that addressed church oversight. In 1209, the

sitting monarch of England, King John, was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic

church, thus stripping the Church of England of its religious authority. John was also in

conflict with English nobility over abuses of his authority and in response, the

Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, created the Magna Carta. Signed in 1215,

the Magna Carta established the foundation for individual civil rights, limited

governmental excesses, and created the basis for the separation of church and state by

freeing the Church of England from royal influence (Andrew).

Another issue that we have touched on which would again influence the actions of

the church in the near future is that of the intertwining of political and military authority

with religious power. Success in the former areas was equated with favor from God and

this sense of self-righteousness, the belief that the state in conjunction with the church

was carrying out the will of God in its colonialistic efforts, would be a driving force in

the growth of the Christian church in the form of the Crusades. Between 1096 and 1291,

the church led numerous assaults on areas of the Middle East and parts of Europe to

combat the spread of Islam and to ensure the dominance of Christianity over all,

including Jews (“The Crusades”). Devout Christians believed themselves justified in

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inflicting all manner of brutality on their religious enemies, including torture, murder,

theft, and slavery. While ultimately unsuccessful, the Crusades increased the wealth

and power of the Christian church througout Europe. The Crusades were an expensive

endeavor, and among other means of financing these efforts, the church implemented a

system of indulgences in which believers essentially paid the church to forgive their

sins for a time.

Thus, by the end of the 13th century we see that the Church of England can operate

with relative independence from the monarchy, subject to papal control from Rome, to

elect and govern its own leadership, and consists of a clerical body inured to violence

and pampered by wealth garnered from tithes and indulgences. At this point in history,

we are at the brink of the Reformation, and a small number of intellectuals are

beginning to question Catholic doctrine and practice. In particular, theologian John

Wycliffe criticized the material excesses of the church, the practice of communion, and

the authority of the clergy to act as intercessors between Christians and God. As such,

he is credited with the first complete English translation of the bible, distributed in 1382

to give believers direct access to the word of God (Wallace). The next significant, and

perhaps infamous, event in the years leading up to the Reformation occurred in 1527

when King Henry VIII demanded that the sitting Pope annul his marriage (“Catherine

of Aragon”). Henry’s demands were denied, but he appointed his own Archbishop of

Canterbury, who effectively annulled the marriage, and in 1533 Henry married his

mistress, Anne Boleyn, who gave birth to their child shortly thereafter. Henry was

consequently excommunicated by Pope Clement VII soon afterward, and in 1534

Henry effectively named himself the head of the Church of England via the Act of

Supremacy, which maintained Catholicism as the state religion but denied profit and

authority to the papacy in Rome (“The Act of Supremacy”).

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Henry was a fierce enforcer of Catholicism, but after his death there a came a slow

shift toward Protestantism that had been repressed during his reign. Henry’s son,

Edward, acceded the throne in 1574 (“Edward VI”). As Edward was a young child at

the time of his coronation, his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, and the Archbishop of

Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, took the opportunity to advance the Protestant agenda.

Thus, Protestant clergy replaced Roman Catholics, Catholic doctrine and practice were

largely abandoned, and the beliefs proposed by Martin Luther, primarily that grace is

achieved by faith rather than works, began to take hold. Despite an abrupt yet brief

reversion to Catholicism under Queen Mary, the end of the sixteenth century saw the

Church of England, under Queen Elizabeth, firmly established as Protestant. However,

Elizabeth wisely made concessions for the remaining Catholics in England in order to

maintain her alliance with Spain and to avoid angering France. In implementing the

Religious Settlement of 1559, Elizabeth was successful in satisfying most parties

except for the Puritans, who had arisen from a group of Protestants exiled under Mary’s

reign and who were dissatisfied with what they saw as Elizabeth’s insufficient reforms

to the church (Trueman). The Puritans advocated strongly for a thorough reformation of

the church according to strict, pro-scriptural doctrine and practice but were

unsuccessful in convincing the church to implement these changes. After decades of

failure and persecution, the Puritans had but one choice - to leave England and establish

themselves in a new place where they could practice their beliefs freely and without

interference. As we know, these efforts led them to America, where they would

ultimately lay the foundation for American society as we know it.

In summary, we have traced the development of Christianity from its roots in

Roman-occupied Judea, where it began as a small movement that emphasized

acceptance and charity, through its explosion into a large and powerful state-mandated
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faith marked by abuse and excess under ancient Rome, to its development in medieval

England into a branch of doctrine that would eventually be carried across the Atlantic to

form the foundation of American society. In modern American culture, we can

recognize elements from Christianity’s development over sixteen hundred years both in

our government and our religion. Foremost, while the separation of church of state is

still an ideal to which we aspire, we fall short of that ideal in many ways, much as Rome

and England did, in the intertwining of Christian morals and governmental laws. We

vow freedom of religion, but subtly and sometimes not so subtly enforce Christianity as

the national religion and attempt to impose our beliefs internationally, if only in an

unofficial capacity. We can be as smugly self-righteous, yet hypocritical, in our faith as

the most uptight medieval clerics, and sometimes become so enamored with the

influence and wealth of the church that we lose sight of what it means to be Christian.

However, although the behavior of many Christians provides ample evidence to

justifiably denigrate the religion as a whole, there are still examples in humankind of

basic principles of kindness to others preached by Jesus in Christianity’s humble

beginnings.
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