Christianity And The Fall Of The Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire was the greatest empire of its time. However, all good things must come to an end, so slowly, but surely, it did. It was unable to withstand many of the consequences that came with major responsibilities and power. As a result, slavery, economic dilemmas, government downfalls, weak leaders, a change of religion, and an unsteady military led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Peter Heather, currently teaches at Kings College. He points to immigration and external wars with barbarians as main factors as to why Rome fell. Joseph Vogt, theme focuses on Christianity and political instability leading to the downfall of the Roman Empire. Lastly Edward Gibbon, displays the decline in the Roman empire attributed to christianity and political and economic policies that hindered stability throughout the region.

Despite being an immediate bestseller, shortly after publishing, Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire became unpopular with large groups of the British reading public. The abridged edition consecutively presents the stories behind the Empire’s leadership and course of action. Gibbon revivifies the complex and compelling period of the Romans by detailing the prosperous conditions of the empire, the decline, and the aftermath of the fall. At the same time, Gibbon efficiently scrutinizes the declining virtue of the Roman people. Gibbon made an argument that the intellectual inflexibility of the Roman Empire had declined into “barbarism” and “Christianity,” which ultimately attributed to the fall of the Empire.

Primarily social and economic factors influenced the downfall of the Roman Empire. External economic forces gradually brought their effects into the empire whilst internally Rome’s social fabric began to degrade. This socio-economic degradation seen in Ancient Rome is likely due to both Rome’s social and economic instability as well as the birth of the Christian faith in the Roman Empire. Part of the downfall of Rome can be attributed to external economic factors such as a lack of conquest and a large influx of slavery from without. Much of Rome’s economy “was fed by plundered wealth and by new markets in the semi-barbaric provinces” (Document 2.)

A social cause of the Roman Empire was Roman's value to Christianity. It states in document 6, “Also the ideas and beliefs of Christianity weakened the Roman Army.” This shows that since the Romans were becoming more civilized, they valued their religion than going to the army. This weakened the empire because since the Romans had a morale and in a war, you kill people, the Romans didn’t want to kill anyone because they thought that if they kill, they would go to hell and if they didn’t kill, they would go to heaven so they wanted to be in heaven rather than fighting and killing the enemy. Another social cause of the Roman Empire was the

Christianity and the Roman Empire shared an important bond. Christianity offered the Roman Empire joy, hope, a shift in their world view, and a monotheistic God. Rome offered Christianity a more efficient way of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Did you know that Christianity became the official religion of Rome in 380 BC? But, christianity didn’t really work out in Rome, and is one of the main problems that caused the fall of Rome. Also, Rome grew so much that it was almost impossible to control anymore. To conclude Christianity and the growth of the Roman Empire were the main causes of the fall of Rome. Christianity was one of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire.

Fall of the Western Roman Empire The fall of the Rome is a great event in history that is not lacking contributors. However, it is clear that Rome was not overthrown by outside enemies but crushed by internal decay(Doc 5), not Barbarian invasions as suggested in Doc 6. The Roman Empire was plagued with so many problems that is no wonder that it fell.

According to Edward Gibbon, in “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” it states “The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness [large size] … The introduction … of Christianity, had some influences on the decline of and fall of the Roman Empire. The clergy successfully preached the doctrine of patience; the active virtues of society were

Rome was a great nation of conquerors, vast wealth and riches which stretched most of Europe, parts of North Africa, and areas of Asia. Its army is arguably the longest surviving and most effective fighting force in military history. Every empire has to terminate and Rome disassembled rather swiftly. The fall of the empire is mentioned in virtually every type of informative media including books and television networks. The fall of the Western Roman Empire was caused by the lack of monetary funds, the formation and following of a new religion, and an increasingly forlorn and debilitated army.

The theories surrounding the decline of the Roman Empire is a widely- known historical debate. Endless questions have been proposed and

The fall of the Western Roman Empire in the late fifth century plunged Europe into a long period of darkness and barbarism. This era until the dawn of the ‘age of discovery’ in the sixteenth century was later termed to be the ‘Middle Ages’. While this epoch of European history is labeled as ‘middle’ or even ‘dark’, it was during this time that many social, political and cultural developments took place. The obliteration of the great Roman Empire left Europe prey for disunity and continuous foreign invasion and migration. From Scotland to the alps of Sicily a prayer emerged in the ninth century, “Save us, O God, from the violence of the Northmen”. Now known as Vikings, these northmen were pagan Germanic people from Norway, Sweden and Denmark that often went on raids and harassed isolated monasteries and villages throughout the continent. Similarly peoples known as Magyars from central Europe looted settlements took captives and forced leaders to pay tribute to prevent further attacks. Muslims from North Africa already ruled most of Spain and continued northward towards central Italy and southern France. The expansion of Islam continued on into the tenth and eleven centuries during the times of the Fatimid Caliphate and the Seljuk Turks. The centuries before the first crusade were one of terror and chaos from a European or Christian perspective. People were frightened that their world was slowly coming to an end, overrun by pagans and Muslims. This fear combined with

The relationship between Christians and the Roman Empire is complicated to say the least. Before the summation of the primary sources begin there must be a little background information provided. Rome was in power over a big portion of the Mediterranean region. A good portion of Christians lived under Rome’s rule. Rome was a very tolerant state when it came to religious flexibility. As long as you recognized the Roman God’s then they were tolerant with any other practices you decided to have. The Christians would not recognize the Roman God’s and that caused great friction. There are many primary sources historians have found on the relationship between the Christians and the Romans. The majority of the sources being used in this summation are from the Documents of the Christian Church the fourth edition. Also three primary sources from the times of Constantine, the emperor of Rome in the fourth century. The Romans start as thinking of the Christians as criminals, to being tolerant with them, to eventually they embrace the Christian faith.

The relationship between Christianity and the Roman Empire is interconnected with each other in different ways. Heaps of commotion and perspectives were constructed, and it caused several disputes to form all over Europe. In addition to this, there was also a large amount of seclusion, death and persecution during the time. Events such as the Fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD, the rise of Christianity, and its expansion throughout the Europe were a result of the political conflict. Due to the actions of many individuals and groups that influenced the course of major events, the relationship between the Roman Empire and Christianity was quite tense, problematic and confrontational.

The infrastructure and widespread trade opened new attack vectors for an enemy the Romans did not know and could do little about. Harper describes the situation: “The arrival of the plague bacterium on Roman shore heralded a new age” (Harper 202); this new age saw the downfall of Rome from both external barbarian attacks in addition to Y. pestis. Despite the many achievements of Justinian and the apparent upsurge in hope for the future under his rule, the plague instead signaled the beginning of the end. The western empire would decisively fall and the eastern empire would begin its contraction. The plague made its way to the Roman world through a series of events that coincided, “by the slimmest of margins” (Harper 220). The effects of the plague moved the Roman world into the “Dark Ages”; dark only because the learning was kept alive in the East and in the West, only in the monasteries as the social order collapsed. This conclusion of Harper’s is, I think, a good challenge to Gibbon; Gibbon sees Christianity responsible for downfall of the West, but Harper shows far more conclusively that the plague was responsible and if anything, the Church did her best to keep the learning and knowledge of the West alive until civilization could recover and use it. Harper also shows that the causes of Rome’s downfall were complex and cannot be solely attributed to one factor. He brings in a better argument with