Early Christian Church Research Paper

In the early Christian church there were many famous people who helped the church, and there were also a few infamous people who did not. Throuought the 1st century A.D some of the most influential Christian leaders lived, such as the apostles. For the first fewhundred years the church was very primitive and unstable and many people were killed during these rimes, these people were martyrs. There were many people and events that shaped the relgion that we now know today as Catholosism. I am going to tell about some of the most important people and events. The early Christian Communitys after Jesus death were very primitive and they didn't have an established religion. People in small towns all gathered together to worship and learn about God at each others houses because they didn't have established
churches yet. Before Jesus died lots ofpeople were Jewish, including Jesus. He wasn't even the one to really establish Christianity, it was his followers like the apostles who did. In the first hundredds of years many Chrsitians were persucuted and killed by the Roman government, because they wanted the Jews to worship their Gods. The people who got killed for their religion were some of the first Chrstian martyrs. Jesus' followers were the ones who carried on his teachings and messages. Two of his first followeres were St. Paul and St. Peter, two of the apostles. St. Peter was even our first pope and the rock of our church. St. Peter and Paul often had disagreements about who should learn about Jesus and be able to become Christian. Then they came to an agreement and decided they should teach all people, Christians, Jew's, and Gentiles. The people who helped form and still carry on Jesus' message to others are the Magesterium, or the bishops and the popes. Finally after many years of people not liking and persucuting Chrsitians Emperor Constanine declared Christianity legal in 325 A.D and Chrstians were then treated better. The apostles were some of the greatest people in the early Christian church, and still are today. They helped carry out and spread Jesus' message to all people, and helped form the church. Jesus chose each of the apotstles. There were twelve apostles to symbolize the twelve tribes of Isreal. All of the apostles lived and died in the 1st century A.D. Most of the apostles were killed because they were seen as a threat to the Roman government, since they preached about Jesus and challenenged their religion. Jesus chose people of all different social standings to be the apostles, this was to have diversity and to symbolize all kinds of people. The twelve apostles were St. Peter, Andrew, James(the greater), John, Bartholomew, Jude, Phllip, James(the less), Simon, Matthew, Matthias, and Thomas. There were four sets of brothers in the apostles and the most famous apostle was St. Peter because he was the rock and founder of our church. St. Peter was the first and the most famouse apostle, he was also the leader of the apostles. Before Peter was an apostle he was a fisherman with his brother St. Andrew, another apostle. Peter's name used to be Simon, but Jesus changed it to Peter because Peter means rock in Latin and Peter was the rock of our church. Peter was the first pope of our church because he was appointed by Jesus to be the leader. Peter had one gret flaw, and that was that he was impetuous, meaning he did things suddenly without thinking about the effect. Sometimes St. Peter doubted Jesus and that made him at times follish, but he was always faithful to God and to Jesus. Peter was martyred be being crucified upside down on an "X", because he did not feel worthy ebought to be crucified the same way Jesus was. Another influential leader was St. Paul, who is considered by many to be the 13th Apostles, even though he wasn't really an apostle. He was born is 3 A.D and died in 67 A.D. He always used to be a Jew and hated Christians, until he met Jesus who told him to turn his life around and to teach all people, Jews, Christians, and Gentiles Jesus' message. Paul started convertin lots of people after his own conversion. He was the first person to emphasize and spread the word of God and Jesus. Paul was the greatest missionary of all the apostles and he converted the most people. Paul wrote many letters of advice to the communitys he converted, these are know as the Epistles, which we still read in mass today. One person in the 1st century A.D who was trying to persicute the Christians a lot was Emperor Nero of Rome. He was the first person to start persicuting Chrsitians. Nero was a very mean and a bad ruler who killed and hurt many people in the early Christian church. He ruled from 54 – 68 A.D and during that time he killed may people including his 1st wife and his mom, so he could essented the throne. Whenever bad things hapeend in Rome Nero would blame them on the Christians, then kill many people. Nero got away with all these mean things because he was a ruler and people were afraid to stop him.Nero set fire to Rome, so peoples homes would be destoyed and then lots of people would be out of work and they would need jobs.He then heird all these people to rebild the city, make money for himself, and he had them build him a new palace because he was so gready. Nero was going to be flagued to death by his army, but commit suicide and ended his own life. Nero did not help the church, he only hurt it. Martyrs were people who were killed for their beliefs. Martyrs were persicuted during 64 –313 A.D. Christians were mainly killed by Romans, because they did not like Christianity. They didn't like it because Chrsitians didn't worship the Roman Gods and share their ceremonys, but they worshiped only one God. In Christianity they were very private and secretive about their religion, so the Romans thought they were evil. St. Stephen was the first martyr, who was stoned to death by St. Paul before his conversion. The methods of persicution were putting people in coliseums with lions, hanging, burning alive, stoning, execution, andcricification.Emperor Constantine was the one who made Christianity legal in 325 A.D on his death bed. Martyrs gave up their lives for God because they were misunderstood and secrative. Emperor Constantine was very important beccasue he was the one who legalized Chistianity. He was born in 285 A.D in Nisch in Moesia and died in 337 A.D. He was in the army and was very successful there. Constanine's mom was Christian and that was one of the reasons why he legalized it. Constantine declared Christianity legal in 325 A.D. Constantine was baptized a Christian on his death bed so he would be free of sins and die a Christian. He wouldn't have any sins because all sins were removed at baptisim.He was the person who chose that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John should be the gospels in the New Testament. Constantine made it so less people were kille dnad so people could be open about their religion. During the medival times many Cathedrals were built in the years 1000-1600 A.D around Europe.
They were seen as a sign of wealth and power of a king or a country. Cathedrals could take over 100 years to build because everything was made by hand. In the middle ages many people were illiterate, so the church had an advantage over them and could rule them. Sincce many people couldn't read or write (use the bible) they needed to see visuals, such as stained glass windows, marble statues, paintings, and icons. People of the nobility and clergy wanted tocompete against their enemys so they used lots of money to build great cathedrals, to show their power. Then lots of people were poor because the rich didn't gve any money to the poor. Bigger cathedral equaled more money, which ment more power, which ment a powerful king and countyr. Cathedrals didn't used to have pews, only thrones for the kings, queens, and nobilty. The poor people were then seperated by a big gate from them and the alter and had to stand the enitire mass. Cathedrals were is cental locations for easy accsess and they were set up in class order. Cathedrals were a waste of money, but should peoples
power. Another main person was St. Benedict. He formed the Benedictin order of monks, and his sister formed the Benedictian nuns. He lived a potion of his life in a cave until people started to come to him and wanted him to teach them. He was the first person to start monistarys, which spread all over Europe. He preformed many miricles and converted many people in Europe. MonteCasino was his first order of monks and lots of his monistarys are still standing today. As you can see many events and people are what formed the early Christian Church, not just one person. All these events have helped us get to where we are today with our religion. And without all of those people like the apostles, popes, and emperors we might still be in times when Christians were persicuted and you could say what you wanted to say.