Roman Catholicism Roman Catholicism, the longest institution and the largest branch of christianity which have ever taken place in the western history and it was leaded by a single leader called the pope , which had a decisive and a divine power on the actions of people which brought many positive impacts to the Roman empire. However, at the first place, the Roman catholicism wasn’t the strongest and the largest institution in the western world. Then how did the Roman catholicism gain so much power in the Roman empire? It is important to investigate about the Roman Catholicism as we are able to learn how the Roman catholicism started and gain so much power it is important to investigate and learn about how it came to so much power and how it impacted the lives of thousands of citizens who lived in the Roman empire. Roman catholicism’s quick adaptation to Roman empire played a positive role in the Roman empire’s history and changed the tide of their history.
Roman Catholicism’s quick and unexpected appearance to the western history have also made a big impact on the flow of the history of the Roman empire. Roman Catholicism made a quick and an unexpected appearance to the Roman empire’s history. To know how all the changes started, it is important to know about Constantine who highly impacted the applying of Roman Catholicism in the Roman empire. Constantine was the son of Flavius Constantiu who was the second of command as a Caesar under an emperor or an augustus called Diocletian and Helena, the mother of Constantine who was a faithful Christian. With the help of Flavius, Constantine was able to get a perfect condition of education about writing and learning Latin and greek and he was also able to learn about Greek mythology, Greek theatre and Greek philosophy.
As Diocletian became ill, he chose a man named Galerius as a heir and Galerius sees Flavius as his rival. Constantine feared his life and Galerius tried many attempts to kill Constantine, but he survives every attempt that Galerius takes according to the history. Constantine worked for the Roman army for years. He was the witness of the persecutions and the murders of christians which was ordered by emperor Diocletian which was an impossible act as around that age 30% of the population were faithful christians who worshiped God. This experience of being a witness gave a huge impact on him which lasted until he became an emperor which also implemented sympathy for the victims who were Christians persecuted as only Monotheism, the worshiping of ancient gods were allowed. sWhen Flavius, the father of Constantine became ill, he declared his son Constantine as an augustus or in another word , Constantine was declared as an emperor.
Constantine starts to strengthen and enlarge the Roman empire by ruling over Britain, Spain and Gaul. When Galerius, the old rival of Constantine’s father dies in 311 AD, a civil war occurs by a man called Maxentius who declares himself as an emperor of the Roman empire. Constantine hears the news that civil war broke out and marches against the army of Maxentius which was twice bigger than the army of Constantine. The night before the battle against the army of Maxentius, Constantine receives a dream where his army tastes victory against the army under the sign of the christian cross, resulting Constantine to paint the christian cross on the shields of his army. In a chance of one in a million, his army won against the mighty army of Maxentius, allowing Constantine to achieve control of the Roman empire.
After this happened Constantine forged a communion with Licinius in the east and decided that he would take control of the west Rome and Licinius would take control of the east Rome. With his experience of the victory he achieved from his dreams, signed the Edict of Milan, which stated that Christians wouldn’t be persecuted by the Roman empire and he declared himself as a faithful Christian resulting a change in the state religion of the Roman empire into a Catholicism. This act from Emperor Constantine later brings a big impact to the Roman empire which completely changes the lives of the citizens. (Ducksters, 2018) The Roman Catholicism have played a big religious role as a state religion in the lives of the citizens to gather them together spiritually and also played an ethical role within the community of the Roman empire’s citizens. The Roman Catholicism was lead by a single bishop called the pope who was able to make infallible teachings to the citizens which everyone had to listen. The Catholicism was against Protestantism, so they had the authority to censor all the books that contained informations about Protestantism.
They later created a society of the Jesuits which allowed them to create schools for open educations unlike the old Roman empire where educations were only available for the rich. This move allowed them to promote Catholicism to the Europeans increasing the number of their institution in the western.
