ABSTRACT
THE AGE OF CHRISTENDOM Christianity as it is known today originated in the region around the Mediterranean Sea. In the 390s, it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. In the ensuing centuries, Christianity gradually spread through the rest of Europe, becoming a European religion. The result was what came to be called “Christendom,” a region that shared a common Christian social heritage and in which the Catholic Church claimed both religious and secular authority. In an age when Europe was split into hundreds of petty kingdoms and principalities, most Europeans identified themselves primarily as Christians rather than as German, English, or French.
