1. Christianity in the Byzantine Empire

2. Do Now: Quote Analysis
“If the Tiber River reaches the walls, if the Nile fails to rise to the fields, if the sky doesn’t move or the Earth does, if there is a famine or plague, the cry is at once: ‘The Christians to the Lions’.”
What does this quote mean?

5. Christianity in Rome
Christians had been persecuted for refusing to honor Rome’s gods.
Constantine became a supporter of Christianity after having a premonition.
Constantine followed through with his premonition and won the throne.

7. Christianity Under Constantine
Constantine was emperor for 25 years:
He worked to strengthen the Christian church.
Constantine paid for the construction of important Christian monuments.

8. Examples: St. Peters Cathedral in Rome…

9. and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

10. Christianity Under Constantine
Under his rule, Christians were no longer tortured and punished for their beliefs.
Edict of Milan- Makes Christianity acceptable, and Christians could no longer be legally persecuted.

11. Christianity Under Constantine
Christians were now free to practice their religion, build churches, and own land.
Christianity grew so popular it became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

12. The Church Disagrees
325- Church leaders disagreed on certain issues of faith and split the church with their differing beliefs.
This created a religious crisis in Rome.

13. The Church Disagrees
Some Christians believed that Jesus was the divine son of God.
Others believed that Jesus was a teacher and prophet who spoke for God but was not divine.

14. The Church Disagrees
Council of Nicaea- Constantine led a meeting at Nicaea to reunite the church.
The Council studied church testaments and voted that Jesus was the divine son of God.
This decision kept Christianity from splitting…for a little while. h

15. Christianity Schisms
As the western empire declined a second great religious conflict occurred.
Byzantine Christians were different from Roman Christians.

16. Christianity Schisms
In Byzantine churches the emperor served as the religious leader, Greek was the Church language.
While Roman churches followed the Pope and used Latin.

17. Christianity Schisms
The two branches of Christianity began to grow apart.

18. Christianity Schisms There was also an issue over the use of icons.
Icons are images of religious people which were worshiped by many Christians.

19. Christianity Schisms Icons were outlawed in Byzantium in the 700s.
The Byzantine’s believed icons violate the first commandment, worship none but God alone.
The Roman Pope disagreed and banished the Byzantine emperor from the church.

20. Christianity Schisms
This banishment led to a schism in the Christian Church and the emergence of two separate forms of Christianity.
Roman Catholic in Rome.
Eastern Greek Orthodox in the Byzantine Empire.