ABSTRACT
Christianity: Early history of the Orthodox and Catholic traditions Starting in the first century CE, Christianity grew to constitute perhaps by the fourth century 10 percent of the population of the Roman Empire. In 313 CE, the emperors Constantine, who was the senior emperor who resided in Constantinople, the capital of the eastern half of the Roman Empire and also called the “second Rome,” and Licentius, the junior co-emperor who managed the western side of the Empire, issued the Edict of Nantes, which gave toleration to Christianity. In 380, Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. Christianity was a missionary faith that sought to spread and unite the world in universal fellowship. It was the first world religion. Of course, there were much older religions than Christianity, including Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and many others, but none of them except Buddhism, was a world religion and none, including Buddhism, sought to unite the entire world in a belief system of universal fellowship.
