Christianity In The Fourth Century

Between the introduction of the Christianity movement during the Apostolic Age in the first century until the first quarter of the fourth century, Christians were loosely governed by the local church or local bishop. During this time, in the first three centuries, Christians had looked towards Jerusalem as a reference point. However, its legalization in the fourth century was the beginning of many changes that had taken place within the Christianity governing structure over the next few centuries. After the legalization, Christians began to look towards the Roman empire as a reference point for structure. In addition to this, the bishops from the surrounding major cities, especially those in the West, began to influence the ecclesiastical
However, at the same time, the original three sees, the three original major eccessestacial juridictions, were being questioned about the authority of the bishop over the neighboring cities especially since metropolitian was a relatively new term. As a result, in an effort to solidify each metropolitan bishop’s authority, in its sixth canon, the Council of Nicea settled the jurisdiction of each of the sees. “The bishops that ruled the see of Alexandria had jurisdiction if Egypt, Libya and the Pentapolis (modern Benghazi), Rome over the churches in Italy, and Antioch over Syria” (Wilkin 178). Wilkin notes that Jerusalem was not included in the original
First they saw it as their duty to instruct other churches because of the apostolic mantle that was placed by the apostle Peter and Paul and secondly, the Roman bishops wrote these letters because of their role as a patriarch. According to the canons, there were two ways to receive the title of a patriarch. The providence must either have a claim in the role in ancient christianity or have a claim through its political role. Since it could not claim roots in early christianity due to the fact that it is a relativity new city built by emperor Constantine, by the mid-fifth century, the bishop of the city of Constantinople, demanded to be seen as a metropolitan because of its standing as the new