World and Geographical Studies

1. Christianity Rises
A.D. 50-800
How can religion impact a culture?
What factors lead to the rise and fall of empires?

2. VOCABULARY
• prefect - in the Roman Empire, an official in charge of a province
• transformation - conversion; change in character or condition
• structure - an arrangement in a definite pattern of organization
• clergy - church leaders
• laity - regular church members
• plague - an epidemic disease
• inflation - a rapid increase in prices
• bishopric - a group of Christian communities, or parishes, under the authority of a bishop
• monk - a man who separates himself from ordinary human society in order to dedicate himself
to God; monks live in monasteries headed by abbots
• monasticism - practice of living the life of a monk

3. MORE VOCABULARY
• missionary - a person sent out to carry a religious message
• conversion - the change from one belief or form to another
• nun - a woman who separates herself from ordinary human society in order to dedicate herself
to God; nuns live in convents headed by abbesses
• abbess - the head of a convent
• wergild - “money for a man”; the value of a person in money, depending on social status; in
Germanic society, a fine paid to a wrongdoer to the family of the person he or she had injured or
killed
• ordeal - a means of determining guilt in Germanic law, based on the idea of divine intervention; if
the accused person was unharmed after a physical trial, he or she was presumed innocent
• patriarch - the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, originally appointed by the Byzantine
emperor
• idolatry - the worship of religious images

4. In the Beginning (of
Christianity)
• A Jewish teacher, Jesus, traveled and preached
throughout Judea and Galilee.
• Jesus’ mission was to complete the salvation that
God had promised to Israel throughout it’s history.
• Jesus tells us to love God and love others.
• Some people saw Jesus as a threat and suspected
that He may lead a revolt against Rome. Christians
refused to worship the state gods and emperors.
Christians were persecuted. The prefect Pontius
Pilate ordered Jesus’ crucifixion.
• After Jesus, God’s son, overcame death, Christianity
was developed. Jesus was the Messiah.
• Jesus had apostles who preached the teachings of
Christianity and wrote letters that outlined and
developed Christian beliefs.
• The Christian message has much to offer the Roman
world, it seemed familiar, and it fulfilled the human
need to belong.
• The Romans adopted Christianity as the official
religion of the Roman Empire.

5. Roman State Religion Christianity
polytheistic monotheistic
tolerant of other religions refused to worship state gods
treated their emperors like gods
Jesus is the Messiah and the Son
of God

6. Decline of
Rome
• Marcus Aurelius dies
• civil wars begin
• invasions
• plague
• near economic collapse
• Diocletian attempts to reform
the economy
• Germanic tribes move in
• sack of Rome
• Visigoths defeat Rome
Fall of Rome

7. Monks and Nuns
MONKS NUNS
lived in
monasteries
all male
monasteries
headed by abbots
dedicated
their
lives to God
lived in
seclusion
lived in convents
abbesses were
in charge of convents
all women

8. Germans into Rome
• The Germanic people began
to move into the lands of the
Roman Empire by the third
century. Over time, Germans
and Romans intermarried and
began to create a new
society. The social customs
of the Germanic people
played an important role in
society. A women would obey
her father until she was
married… then she fell under
the legal domination of her
husband.

9. The Byzantine Empire
• Justinian, emperor of the Eastern Roman
Empire, was determined to reestablish the
Roman Empire in the entire Mediterranean
world. He achieved these goals but shortly
after his death, the western section of the
Mediterranean has been lost.
• Justinian’s most important contribution
was his codification of Roman law.
• The rise of Islam resulted in a much
smaller Eastern Roman Empire. This
empire became known as the Byzantine
Empire. The Byzantine Empire was a
Christian state and many believe that the
Christian spiritual values are what held the
Byzantine empire together.
• A line of Byzantine emperors, known as the
Macedonians, managed to beat off its
external enemies and expand the
Byzantine Empire.

10. Picture Sources
• http://christianity.net.au
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire