How Did Christianity Contribute To The Fall Of Rome

Kiela DeVlaeminck
Professor Schlude
History 130: The Ancient World
16 December 2014
Christianity and the Fall of Rome There are many things that were combined together that influenced the fall of Rome. However the real cause of the fall of Rome has been debated over many years. Christianity many not be on the top of the list for the fall of Rome but it did have some impact.
Christianity was a religion that was prevalent at Septimus’s reign. This was also the time that persecution of Christians began. He proposed a law that persecute individuals who wanted to convert to Christianity. This new law would not persecute individuals who were Christians already. He thought that Christianity would die off since no one could join the group from the
persecutions. This could be seen with the story of Perpetua and Felicity. They were both persecuted because they called themselves Christians. Each of them were put up against a mad cow and then they were put to the sword by a gladiator. However, Perpetua was not killed when they gladiator tried to behead her. Instead she led the sword to her own death. There was no one that could change their mind and they died not with sorrow but with joy. This law of persecuting converting Christians did not stop people from converting. Christianity grew in popularity and this was one factor that led to the fall of Rome.
Christianity was a new and growing religion in Rome.
This type of religion was one that was nontraditional Roman religion. Christianity is a mono theistic religion which is a belief where there is only one god, whereas Roman religion is a polytheistic religion which is the belief in many gods. Persecutions occurred as a result of this difference. There were many time throughout this time until Constantine the Great ended it all. In 313 C.E. Constantine ended the persecutions, and this would lead to toleration of Christianity. Now Christianity would spread throughout the empire more rapidly than ever. In 395, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Romans changed their frame of mind too and they started to consider their emperor as a god. Christians again did not believe that their emperor was a god, which again put the emperor in a vulnerable and weakened position. This was just the first domino to fall knocking others down with it. The army soon became disloyal and it lead to the entire empire collapsing. There would be more factors that would add to the fall of Rome. Brbarians came to settle in Rome and they were mostly of the Christian religion along with the Alans, Vandals, and the Visigoths. However this clashed with the rest of the Roman citizens who were still
pagans. There was one event that surprised many people but was a turning point with the Christians. Many emperors were against the idea of Christians, however, Constantine was a different story. He converted over to Christianity in about 312 AD. This was surprising to most because they had just come from the ‘Great Persecution’. However this change in his life would cause problems for him. With this he allowed Christians and pagans to worship as freely as they wanted but it did not make the shift very smooth. Constantine founded a city named after himself during this time. People thought it would be proper to make this city a new Christian empire but with pagan temples and statues it seemed to not be completely changed over to a Christian religion.