The Spread of Christianity Throughout Europe

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The single most important aspect of European empires, beginning just prior to the fall of Rome, is the spread of Christianity to all areas of the continent in as little as a few hundred years. Many theologians state that Christianities spread is the indirect influence of God and the adoration of people to one true faith. Though it is true that Christianity has brought about people that even atheists could call saints, it is unquestionable that Christianity was so monumental because it united larger groups of people and its spread is contributed to adherence to local customs and its lack of new ideas in comparison to other religions of the day.

As the greatest empire in the western world began to crumble one city at a time, the leader of the Roman Empire, Constantine, under pressure from external and internal sources moved the capital of Rome to Constantinople around 330 AD. The movement of the capital was after his conversion to Christianity in 312 AD, a growing religion throughout the empire despite being officially illegal. Constantine was not the devote saint that the church may speak of today, “from 312-320 Constantine was tolerant of paganism, keeping pagan gods on coins and retaining his pagan high priest title "Pontifex Maximus" in order to maintain popularity with his subjects, possibly indicating that he never understood the theology of Christianity” (Ferguson & Grupp, 1998). The first Christian Emperor claimed to have converted after a victorious battle with his brother and there are many that corroborate this story it appears highly suspicious to only promote Christian ideals and worship. Constantine was not even the Emperor that made Christianity the religion of the Roman people, but simply permitted religiou...

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...l and perceptive way for rulers to unite empires and spread their society to other regions. The religion of Christianity, in itself, holds a number of assimilations with local pagan rituals that allowed for a much smoother transition. People tended to take the religion of the successful or more advanced civilizations because of logical areas as promoting trade and unifying their own neighbors, turning enemies into allies or possibly vassals. A further dissection of Christianity reveals that the ideas and precepts of this organization have striking similarities to that of other religions of the time. Although it should be noted that there is obviously no definitive answer on religion and it is the choice of the individual to follow their beliefs to their hearts content, but a bit of abstract observation and scrutiny is hardly a crime, at least in modern society.

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