Christianity becomes the official religion of Rome

In 312 AD, when Constantine was emperor, he saw a sign in his dream that made him believe that Christianity was good, and he made it the official religion of Rome.

Early Christians followed Jesus, who was seen as a Prophet. He gained popularity because he performed miracles, and preached charity to the poor. The poor people loved his ideas because it meant they would be better off, but the Romans despised his ideas because they were “seditious”. The Romans crucified him, but his ideas lived on. One of Jesus’ followers was Paul, who preached mostly to Jews, and later was tortured and crucified by Nero. The Romans disliked Christians for many reasons, and therefore perse

cuted them. Some of the reasons why they didn’t like them were because they did not act like Romans, worship Roman gods, participate in the army, and they practiced the idea of sharing. When Nero was emperor in 64 AD, there was a huge fire in Rome and he was suspected to have started it. He needed to blame someone, so he blamed the Christians. This was a good idea because Christians were hated throughout Rome and had been treated badly, so they might rebel against Rome. After this the Christians were being treated increasingly badly, and in 250 AD were executed because they refused to be sacrificed. By 300 AD Romans were allowed to attack christians, burn their churches, and they were all fired from their jobs.

In 312 AD things started to turn around for the Christians because Constantine became emperor. One night, he had a dream and saw a sign that Christianity would help him. He was fighting for power when this happened, and had his soldiers paint chi-rhos on their shields. He won the battle for power over Rome, and began to support Christianity. He brought Christianity into the government, and even persecuted non Christians to please God. At this time, there was a huge power shift in Rome, and Christians were at the top of the ladder for the first time. Excommunication was banning someone from the church, and had a big effect on the people. The church could even threaten to excommunicate the emperor, which showed Christians even had control over the emperor. It was a long way to the top for the Christians, but they finally made it thanks to emperor Constantine and his beliefs.