History of Christianity in India:
Christians were being Persecuted and killed in Rome like cats and dogs. At that time St. Thomas (1 of the disciples of Christ) came to India and in few years he built the first Church in India on AD 52 St. Mary’s Orthodox Syrian Church, Niranam formerly known as Niranam Church in Kerala, India.
History of Christianity in Britain:
Circa 200 AD – Tertullian wrote the Adversus Judaeos, in which he included Britain in a list of places reached by Christianity. Around the same time, the Greek theologian Origen also wrote that Christianity had reached Britain.
Circa 249 AD to 259 AD – Under the Emperors Decius and Valerian, the persecution of Christians intensified. Aaron and Julius were two Romano-British martyrs who may have been martyred at this time.
258 AD – Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, is martyred.
260 AD – The Emperor Gallienus decriminalized Christianity, allowing the Church to own property as a corporate body.
303 AD – The Great Persecution began with Emperor Diocletian’s decree that all churches were to be destroyed, all sacred texts and precious liturgical vessels confiscated, and meetings for worship forbidden. All Christian clergy were arrested.
304 AD – All Roman citizens were required to make a sacrifice to the Roman gods on pain of death. St Alban refused and became the first known Christian martyr in England.
Meanwhile the prosecution and killings of Christians continued in Rome. Then was a child born named Constantine the Great on 25th February AD 272 who was the son of a Roman army officer. He Ruled Rome as Roman Emperor between AD 306 and 337.
312 AD – Constantine won the Battle of Milvian Bridge, after his decision to adorn his army’s shields with the Christian symbol, the Chi-Rho. Believing that he won the battle in alliance with the Christian God, he decided to restore confiscated church property and offered public funds to churches in need
Saint Augustine came in England in 597 AD on a Pope-sanctioned mission to convert the pagans.
This is the date we most commonly associate with the arrival of Christianity in Britain and the eventual conversion of Anglo-Saxons
The Roman History:
The Battle of the Milvian Bridge took place between the Constantine 1 and Maxentius on 28th October 312. Now Maxentius was also a Roman Emperor and his army was many times stronger than of Constantine’s army. Remember this is the time when being a Christian was a state crime because Christians were not ready to consider the Roman Emperor as the God. As a result Constantine’s army also had family members who were Christians and the army was slowly falling apart. It was not possible for Constantine to win this war at all.
That time Arius was a priest and he got a vision that a promise of victory in the battle of the milvian bridge was made if the sign of the Chi-Rho (a christian symbol), the first two letters of Christ’s name in Greek, was painted on the soldiers’ shields. Arius told the same to then one of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Constantine discussed this with his political advisers and realized that this would also boost the confidence of the Army. Hence, Constantine agreed and the promise was delivered in a miraculous way. Maxentius and his army drowned in the Tiber river just before the battle started. Not a single soldier of Constantine’s army was killed.
After this miraculous victory Constantine became the only emperor of Rome. Then after few months an agreement was signed The Edict of Milan on February AD 313 which stated that Christians should be treated kindly throughout Rome.
Then Immediately, as per the Instructions or suggestions of Arius to have Rome’s own Christian Denomination. Roman Christians were declared as Roman Catholics.
Also at that time Constantine named his city as Constantinople and was considered as the capital of Rome
Then in AD 325 Constantine called the first council of Nicaea where Arius lost the plot when he was trying to establish his views against everyone else.
Fun fact is that Because of 2 reasons St. Nicolas punched Arius on his nose in the first council of Nicaea. First reason was because Arius was the reason for the first division of Christianity when Romans started calling themselves as Roman Catholic. The second reason was that Arius was against the thought of many in the council that Christ was equal to God his father.
Then, in 1529 Martin Luther Protested the wrong practices of Roman Catholics. Martin Luther preached that salvation is a gift of God’s grace, attainable only through faith in Jesus. Since then there are more than 80,000 Evangelical and Protestant groups across the world.