Catholic Church's Relationship With Secular Authority

CHURCH HISTORY I
History of the Catholic Church’s relationship with secular authority. During the time of the Apostles, the Roman Empire was at its peak. It had experienced the Pax Romana of Augustus Ceasar and continued to benefit from a strong economy under Tiberius Ceasar. Rome controlled the entire Mediterranean basin. The network of roads and use of only two languages, allowed for an ease of communication that allowed for a spreading of the Good News. Rome was tolerant of established religions, and treated the early Christians as part of the Jewish faith. This allowed the early missionaries to travel freely to the many Jewish communities within the empire. However, people were highly superstitious and needed a scapegoat on which to blame disasters. Christian leadership received a lot of this blame and were persecuted for that reason. Peter, Paul, Ignatius along with other leaders were executed during this time. In 250, Emperor Decius increased this activity by outlawing Christianity. All citizens were made to
The disagreements didn’t come from the state, but from within the Church, however, it was the lack of persecutions and the freedom to practice Christianity that allowed for these debates. Instead of battling to survive, the Church was battling incorrect interpretations of the faith, using Church councils for this task. The councils of Nicea, Constantinople, Ephasus and Chalcedon, helped the Church to put into writing, its beliefs regarding Christ. Another happy consequence of the end of persecutions was the monastic life. Martyrdom was a means of imitating Christ, and since these had ended, people searched for another method of living a life of perfection. This started with hermits living in the desert and grew into organized monasteries, with written rules of order. Monasteries spread throughout Europe and are credited with many advances in western