Early Christianity in Rome

Christianity began in Rome when the followers of Jesus began a church there, from which Christianity rapidly spread throughout the empire. However the early church in Rome was heavily persecuted under emperors such as Nero, Diocletian, and others. Though they were pushed to extreme measures they endured and fought on and finally under the reign of Constantine The Great, they were granted tolerance under The Edict of Milan. No matter how hard they were pushed though, the Christians endured with hope and did not give up their faith, even if it cost them their lives.

            The one who is credited with starting the church in Rome is Saint Peter, and there is where the Roman Catholic Church began. The Christians were not under abuse at that point, but what began the abuse was gossip about them. People began to say that they would murder infants, intermarry, and even cannibalize, it is hard to say where these ideas came from, but it was most likely a misconception of the words of Jesus where he told his disciples to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Instances like these were twisted and spread by pagans, before long, Christians were generally alienated. It was not just the stories that set people off, but the Christians had some seemingly strange traditions, they would not bow before the Emperor and they only had one God, these things were very odd to onlookers, however Rome did not really care, at first, as long as the Christians paid their taxes and kept quiet they were left alone. This ended though when less scrupulous emperors came to power and were angered by the ideas of the Christians, thus began The Great Persecution.

            When most people think about this period in history today, they think of Christians hiding in Catacombs and fleeing for their lives, the truth is they seldom went down to the catacombs and only did so to meet and pray or to hide. The persecution of Christians involved burning them alive, imprisoning them, beating/flogging them, feeding them to wild animals, having them killed in the Arena, forcing them to play dangerous roles in plays in which they would actually be killed, and many other horrible forms of death. The persecution reached its height under the Reign of Nero, even in the Bible it was prophesied that he would be the worst oppressor of the faith. He was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Christians all over Rome, and it did not help that he was pretty much insane. Sometimes he would burn Christians alive to light his garden at night, he would also have them hunted like wild animals and actually killed. It is likely that we do not even know some of the things he did, but there is no doubt that he was the cruelest oppressor of the Christians, and the entire empire for that matter. His reign was finally ended by his own hand after a great uprising. Things got better after he departed but the Christians were only finally safe after Constantine The Great conquered Rome and ended all persecution.

            The Reason that Constantine did this was because he was a believer himself and wanted to reform the horrible condition of religion in Rome. He started by outlawing all persecution, restoring to the Christians their land and privileges that they had been deprived of, he made Sunday a holiday and enacted similar reforms. Constantine was a Christian, however, he was only baptized on his deathbed because he believed that you could only be baptized once so he might as well cleanse all of his sins, this was not uncommon during this time, and explains once again why the Christians were looked down on for their strange traditions. Full tolerance for Christianity was finally extended under The Edict of Milan, following which Christianity once again thrived in Rome and before long it was declared that the official religion in Rome was Christianity. Now the Christians would never again be oppressed as they had been for those painful years, but even through them the dedicated believers in Rome did not give up, they kept hope that they would be delivered, and so they were.

            The early church in Rome and many other churches of that time faced great challenges, not unlike today, in places like China those who believe in Jesus are under heavy persecution, they are in constant danger from the government and if they are caught they, similar to Ancient Rome, might be beaten, imprisoned, or even lose everything they own including their lives, but still they press forward knowing that in the end they will be rewarded, and whether it be ancient Rome or third world countries they will never give up their faith no matter how great they are oppressed.