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This chapter begins with an examination of how Christianity emerged from the religious ferment of early imperial Rome to become the empire’s dominant faith. As Christianity grew, the empire fell into a prolonged decline, apparent by the end of the second century and generated by an expansion beyond its economic resources. The emperors of the third and fourth centuries tried to reverse the process of economic and social decay, but gradually, the western and eastern halves of the empire grew further apart. The west, pressured by Germanic invaders and weakened by a stagnant economy, disintegrated. The Greek-speaking east, richer and untroubled by Germans, survived until 1453.
The chapter concludes with the fall of the Roman Empire in the west and with the evolution of the western church as a unifying institution during the fourth and fifth centuries CE. |
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