100–312

The spread of Christianity across and beyond the empire (100–312)

Shelley: in three centuries Christianity grew from a tiny branch of Judaism into a force Rome could neither ignore nor suppress. After the fall of Jerusalem the centre of the movement shifted north and west: Antioch, Ephesus, Rome, Carthage, Alexandria; Edessa beyond the frontier and perhaps India. Its growth was helped by fervent faith, active love, martyrdom and an answer to the spiritual thirst of the age.

Key points

• Edessa, capital of Osroene beyond the empire; Eusebius records King Abgar’s correspondence with Jesus, and Thaddaeus was held to have founded the Church
• Shelley: Osroene was the first Christian state; about 200 Serapion ordained Palut; Thomas in India won’t become fact, but India’s church is very old. Antioch and Ephesus were bases of growth; by the end of the 4th c. half of Antioch’s half-million were Christian. Per Harnack Rome had at least 30,000 Christians by 250, mostly poor Greek-speakers; its Church quickly gained primacy. In the West the faith spread slowly: Lyons (Irenaeus) by mid-2nd c., Spain by late 3rd, three British bishops at Arles (314). North Africa had a bishop in almost every town, and the first Latin-worship churches appeared there; Alexandria, tracing its Church to the apostle Mark, became the seat of a theological school. By the end of the third century every corner of the empire had heard the gospel; most affected: Syria, Asia Minor, North Africa, Egypt, Rome, Lyons. The Church became an “empire within the empire”: councils of bishops, letters and Christians’ mutual loyalty impressed the emperors. Celsus said Christians persuaded “the worthless and despised”; many converts were indeed poor, yet the faith drew keen minds too. The apologists (Aristides, Justin, Athenagoras, Melito and others) wrote to emperors but aimed their works at educated circles. The first cause of Christianity's growth was the fervent faith of the first Christians. Christianity answered a thirst paganism left unslaked; many of its ideas were close to Stoic ones (courage in suffering, belief in providence). Christians' active love – per Tertullian pagans said “Look how they love one another!” – showed in care for the poor, widows, orphans, prisoners; another cause was martyrdom (martyr means “witness”), which impressed the Romans. Christians buried the poor: Lactantius wrote God's image must not be cast to beasts; from the 2nd century churches owned cemeteries – hence catacombs. Julian the Apostate later admitted that the “impious Galileans” care not only for their own poor but for pagans as well

People

• Abgar the Black
• Serapion of Antioch
• Palut
• Irenaeus of Lyons
• Celsus
• Tertullian
• Lactantius
• Julian the Apostate

Place

The Roman Empire, Edessa, Antioch, Rome, Carthage, Alexandria