Constantine’s influence in the Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire
...ent of the church, all its members were Jewish, proselytes to Judaism or Samaritans. So, for all imperial Rome knew or cared, in the beginning, Christianity was merely the 25th sect of Judaism. Therefore, when Jews and Christians caused a disturbance in Rome, Emperor Claudius banished all Jews from Rome by which he meant Christians to leave also. However, as long as Rome mistook Christianity for a sect of Judaism, Christianity was considered a legal religion, because Judaism was a legal religion in the Roman Empire. Once, Rome, though, realized that Christianity was not a sect of Judaism, it persecuted Christians as outlaws. The Roman started calling them atheists because they refused to worship the Roman and Greek gods. To worsen matters, after the Roman emperors considered themselves deified, the Christian refusal to worship the emperor was styled as treason . Christianity spread because of its appeal to those who led hard lives. Christianity gave a sense of community and fellowship to the people. During the persecutions people were crucified on the cross, beheaded, and thrown against hungry beasts but some Christians thought of it as a quicker way to join their God. Christians faced their persecutions with courage and heroism. Though they did not submit to it without opposition. They defended themselves by disproving the accusations of those crimes as being false and groundless. Christians protested vigorously against their being condemned unjustly, without being known and without being convicted. Some even received it joyously and that made the people witnessing these persecutions curious about Christianity. The first three centuries constitute the age of Martyrs, which ended in 313 with the edict of Milan. Constantine’s army, during one battle with Maxentius, was heavily outnumbered. A vision had assured him that he should conquer in the sign of the Christ,...