A History of the World: Chapter 13: The Rise of Christianity

Jesus preached that God created all people and loved them the way a father loves his children.

He often preached using parables. These were stories about things his listeners could understand, using events from everyday life.

They helped people interpret, or explain, the ideas Jesus taught.

The message of Jesus' resurrection, or rising from the dead, led to the birth of Christianity.

The early Christian leaders who spread the message of Jesus were called apostles.

By becoming Christians and by accepting Jesus and his teachings, people could gain salvation. They would be saved from their sins, or wrongdoings, and allowed to enter heaven.

Well-constructed roads meant Christians could easily travel from one region to another.

Christians lived in communities where each member was responsible for taking care of the needs of others.

Some Christians became martyrs, or people who were willing to die rather than give up their beliefs.

In A.D. 312, the Roman emperor Constantine prepared to lead his military forces into battle.

Like the empire, the church came to be ruled by a hierarchy. A hierarchy is an organization with different levels of authority.

The clergy, or church officials, were the leaders of the church.

The role of the clergy was different from that of the laity, or regular church members.

The decisions they reached at these councils were accepted as doctrine, or official church teaching.

Each account was called a gospel, which means "good news." Christians later included the four gospels with the writings of Paul and other early Christian leaders. Together, these works became known as the New Testament.

By A.D. 600, the bishop of Rome was called by a special title—pope. The title is from a Latin word, papa, related to the word pater, meaning "father."

In the A.D. 700s, a heated dispute about icons divided the Eastern Orthodox Church. Icons are paintings of Jesus, Mary (the mother of Jesus), and the saints, or Christian holy people.

Many Byzantines displayed icons in their homes.

In A.D. 726, Emperor Leo III ordered that all icons be removed from the churches. Government officials who carried out his orders were called iconoclasts, or image breakers. Today, this word refers to someone who criticizes traditional beliefs or practices.

The Byzantines rejected the claim of the pope. They believed the patriarch of Constantinople and other bishops were equal to the pope.

Finally, in A.D. 1054, after centuries of bitterness, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope excommunicated each other. To excommunicate means to declare that a person or group no longer belongs to the church.

This created a schism, or separation, between the two major churches of Christianity. The split between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church still exists today.

During the A.D. 300s, devout Christians in the Eastern Roman Empire formed religious communities called monasteries. In the monasteries, men called monks lived apart from the world.