How did Christianity take over Rome?

Answer 1

The Roman Empire became Christian by law. Theodosius I, in 380, ordered Christianity for all.

Answer 2

Christianity did not take over Rome. Christian missionaries worked to convert pagans to Christianity.As a result this religion became widespread throughout the Roman Empire. However, it remained a minority religion. Moreover, the Christians were not united. Mainstream Christianity was composed of two churches: the Latin or Western Church and the Greek or Eastern Church. They were the main churches of the western and eastern part of the Roman Empire respectively. Later they came to be called Catholic and Orthodox respectively. They were engaged in bitter controversies with dissident Christian doctrines, the most important of which was Arian Christianity, which was popular around the empire.

What helped Christianity is that the Roman emperors from Constantine I (or the Great) on, apart for the brief reign of Julian, were Christians and supported Christianity. They introduced laws which favoured the Christians and promoted Christians in the imperial administration. Persecutions of paganism were undertaken, particularly with Theodosius I (or the Great).

Theodosius I reiterated an existing ban on the customs of Roman (pagan) religion, established capital punishment for divination punishable (which was a centrepiece of Roman religion) pioneered the criminalization of officials who did not enforce anti-Roman religion laws and destroyed Roman temples. He issued further decrees (the Theodosian decrees) which eliminated the remnants of Roman religion by tuning its holidays into working days, banning sacrifices (another centrepiece of Roman religion) and disbanding the very important priesthood of the Vestal Virgins.

The co-emperors Theodosius I and Gratian issued Edict of Thessalonica in 380. This made mainstream Christianity (Latin or Western Christianity and Greek or Eastern Christianity) the sole legitimate religion of the Roman Empire. The purpose of the edict was to ban dissident Christian doctrines, which were branded as heretic. Theodosius started to persecute them soon afterwards. His main target was Arian Christianity, which was popular around the empire. He also expelled Demophilus of Constantinople, the most important Arian Bishop.

Answer 3

I think it had a lot to do with the Roman citizen Peter who came to Rome and started proselytising. Also Christianity thrives on martyrs and so persecutions made them stronger until Constantine made christianty legal and encouraged its spread, and Theodosius I made it officially the religion of Rome

Answer 4

Paul went to Rome to spread the Good News.