The Roman Catholic Church traces its history to Jesus Christ

and the Apostles. Over the course of centuries it developed a

highly sophisticated theology and an elaborate organizational

structure headed by the papacy , the oldest continuing absolute

monarchy in the world

The number of Roman Catholics in the world (nearly 1.1

billion) is greater than that of nearly all other religious

traditions. There are more Roman Catholics than all other

Christians combined and more Roman Catholics than all

Buddhists or Hindus. Although there are more Muslims than

Roman Catholics, the number of Roman Catholics is greater

than that of the individual traditions of Shiʿi and Sunni Islam .

These incontestable statistical and historical facts suggest

that some understanding of Roman Catholicism—its history,

its institutional structure, its beliefs and practices, and its

place in the world—is an indispensable component of cultural

literacy, regardless of how one may individually answer the

ultimate questions of life and death and faith.

At one level, of course, the interpretation of Roman

Catholicism is closely related to the interpretation of

Christianity as such. By its own reading of history, Roman

Catholicism originated with the very beginnings of Christianity.

An essential component of the definition of any one of the

other branches of Christendom, moreover, is its relation to

Roman Catholicism: How did Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman

Catholicism come into schism ? Was the break between the

Church of England and Rome inevitable? Conversely, such

questions are essential to the definition of Roman Catholicism

itself, even to a definition that adheres strictly to the official

Roman Catholic view, according to which the Roman Catholic

Church has maintained an unbroken continuity since the days

of the Apostles , while all other denominations, from the

ancient Copts to the latest storefront church, are deviations

from it.

Like any intricate and ancient phenomenon, Roman

Catholicism can be described and interpreted from a variety of

perspectives and by several methodologies. Thus the Roman

Catholic Church itself is a complex institution, for which the

usual diagram of a pyramid, extending from the pope at the

apex to the believers in the pew, is vastly oversimplified.

Within that institution, moreover, sacred congregations,

archdioceses and dioceses , provinces, religious orders and

societies, seminaries and colleges, parishes and

confraternities, and countless other organizations all invite the

social scientist to the consideration of power relations,

leadership roles, social dynamics, and other sociological

phenomena that they uniquely represent. As a world religion

among world religions, Roman Catholicism encompasses,

within the range of its multicoloured life, features of many

other world faiths; thus only the methodology of comparative

religion can address them all. Furthermore, because of the

influence of Plato and Aristotle on those who developed it,

Roman Catholic doctrine must be studied philosophically even

to understand its theological vocabulary. Nevertheless, a

historical approach is especially appropriate to this task, not

only because two millennia of history are represented in the

Roman Catholic Church but also because the hypothesis of its

continuity with the past, and the divine truth embodied in that

continuity, are central to the church’s understanding of itself

and essential to the justification of its authority.

History Of Roman Catholicism

The emergence of Catholic Christianity

At least in an inchoate form, all the elements of catholicity—

doctrine, authority, universality—are evident in the New

Testament . The Acts of the Apostles begins with a depiction

of the demoralized band of the disciples of Jesus in

Jerusalem , but by the end of its account of the first decades,

the Christian community has developed some nascent criteria

for determining the difference between authentic (“apostolic”)

and inauthentic teaching and behaviour. It has also moved

beyond the geographic borders of Judaism, as the dramatic

sentence of the closing chapter announces: “And thus we

came to Rome” (Acts 28:14). The later epistles of the New

Testament admonish their readers to “guard what has been

entrusted to you” (1 Timothy 6:20) and to “contend for the

faith that was once for all handed down to the holy

ones” (Jude 3), and they speak about the Christian community

itself in exalted and even cosmic terms as the church, “which

is [Christ’s] body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in

every way” (Ephesians 1:23). It is clear even from the New

Testament that these catholic features were proclaimed in

response to internal challenges as well as external ones;

indeed, scholars have concluded that the early church was far
more pluralistic from the very beginning than the somewhat

idealized portrayal in the New Testament might suggest.

As such challenges continued in the 2nd and 3rd centuries,

further development of catholic teaching became necessary.

The schema of apostolic authority formulated by the bishop of

Lyon, St. Irenaeus (c. 130– c. 200), sets forth systematically the

three main sources of authority for catholic Christianity: the

Scriptures of the New Testament (alongside the Hebrew

Scriptures , or “Old Testament,” which Christians interpret as

prophesying the coming of Jesus); the episcopal centres

established by the Apostles as the seats of their identifiable

successors in the governance of the church (traditionally at

Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Rome); and the apostolic

tradition of normative doctrine as the “rule of faith” and the

standard of Christian conduct. Each of the three sources

depended on the other two for validation; thus, one could

determine which purportedly scriptural writings were genuinely

apostolic by appealing to their conformity with acknowledged

apostolic tradition and to the usage of the apostolic churches,

and so on. This was not a circular argument but an appeal to a

single catholic authority of apostolicity, in which the three

elements were inseparable. Inevitably, however, there arose

conflicts—of doctrine and jurisdiction, of worship and pastoral

practice, and of social and political strategy—among the three

sources, as well as between equally “apostolic” bishops. When

bilateral means of resolving such conflicts proved insufficient,

there could be recourse to either the precedent of convoking

an apostolic council (Acts 15) or to what Irenaeus had already

called “the preeminent authority of this church [of Rome], with

which, as a matter of necessity, every church should agree.”

Catholicism was on the way to becoming Roman Catholic.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the

Catholic Church became a powerful social and political

institution and its influence spread throughout Europe.

Early History and the Fall of Rome

The history of the Catholic Church begins with the

teachings of Jesus Christ, who lived in the 1st century

CE in the province of Judea of the Roman Empire. The

contemporary Catholic Church says that it is the

continuation of the early Christian community

established by Jesus.

Christianity spread throughout the early Roman Empire

despite persecutions due to conflicts with the pagan

state religion. In 313, the struggles of the early church

were lessened by the legalization of Christianity by the

Emperor Constantine I. In 380, under Emperor

Theodosius I, Christianity became the state religion of

the Roman Empire by the decree of the emperor, which

would persist until the fall of the Western Empire, and

later with the Eastern Roman Empire until the fall of

Constantinople.

After the destruction of the Western Roman Empire,

the church in the West was a major factor in preserving

classical civilization, establishing monasteries, and

sending missionaries to convert the peoples of northern

Europe as far north as Ireland. In the East, the

Byzantine Empire preserved Orthodoxy well after the

massive invasions of Islam in the mid-7th century.

The Catholic Church in the Middle Ages

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the

Catholic faith competed with Arianism for the

conversion of the barbarian tribes. The 496 conversion

of Clovis I, pagan king of the Franks, saw the beginning

of a steady rise of the Catholic faith in the West.

Saint Remigius baptizes Clovis

In 530, Saint Benedict wrote his Rule of Saint Benedict

as a practical guide for monastic community life, and

its message spread to monasteries throughout Europe.

Monasteries became major conduits of civilization,

preserving craft and artistic skills while maintaining

intellectual culture within their schools, scriptoria, and

libraries. They functioned as centers for spiritual life as

well as for agriculture, economy, and production.

During this period the Visigoths and Lombards moved

away from Arianism toward Catholicism. Pope Gregory

the Great played a notable role in these conversions

and dramatically reformed the ecclesiastical structures

and administration, which then launched renewed

missionary efforts. Missionaries such as Augustine of

Canterbury, who was sent from Rome to begin the

conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, and, coming the other

way in the Hiberno-Scottish mission, Saints

Colombanus, Boniface, Willibrord, and Ansgar, among

many others, took Christianity into northern Europe and

spread Catholicism among the Germanic and Slavic

peoples. Such missions reached the Vikings and other

Scandinavians in later centuries. The Synod of Whitby

of 664, though not as decisive as sometimes claimed,

was an important moment in the reintegration of the

Celtic Church of the British Isles into the Roman

hierarchy, after having been effectively cut off from

contact with Rome by the pagan invaders.

In the early 8th century, Byzantine iconoclasm became

a major source of conflict between the eastern and

western parts of the church. Byzantine emperors

forbade the creation and veneration of religious images

as violations of the Ten Commandments. Sometime

between 726 and 730 the Byzantine Emperor Leo III the

Isaurian ordered that an image of Jesus prominently

placed over the Chalke gate, the ceremonial entrance

to the Great Palace of Constantinople, be removed,

and replaced with a cross. This was followed by orders

banning the pictorial representation of the family of

Christ, subsequent Christian saints, and biblical

scenes. Other major religions in the East, such as

Judaism and Islam, had similar prohibitions, but Pope

Gregory III vehemently disagreed. Empress Irene, siding

with the pope, called for an Ecumenical Council. In

787, the fathers of the Second Council of Nicaea

“warmly received the papal delegates and his

message.” At the conclusion, 300 bishops, who were

led by the representatives of Pope Hadrian I “adopted

the Pope’s teaching,” in favor of icons.

Spread of Catholicism Beyond Rome

As the political boundaries of the Roman Empire

diminished and then collapsed in the West, Christianity

spread beyond the old borders of the Empire and into

lands that had never been under Rome.

Beginning in the 5th century, a unique culture

developed around the Irish Sea, consisting of what

today would be called Wales and Ireland. In this

environment, Christianity spread from Roman Britain to

Ireland, especially aided by the missionary activity of

Saint Patrick. Patrick had been captured into slavery in

Ireland and, following his escape and later

consecration as bishop, he returned to the isle that had

enslaved him so that he could bring them the Gospel.

Soon, Irish missionaries such as Saints Columba and

Columbanus spread this Christianity, with its

distinctively Irish features, to Scotland and the

Continent. One such feature was the system of private

penitence, which replaced the former practice of

penance as a public rite.

Although southern Britain had been a Roman province,

in 407 the imperial legions left the isle, and the Roman

elite followed. Some time later that century, various

barbarian tribes went from raiding and pillaging the

island to settling and invading. These tribes are

referred to as the “Anglo-Saxons,” predecessors of the

English. They were entirely pagan, having never been

part of the Empire, and although they experienced

Christian influence from the surrounding peoples, they

were converted by the mission of Saint Augustine sent

by Pope Gregory the Great. Later, under Archbishop

Theodore, the Anglo-Saxons enjoyed a golden age of

culture and scholarship. Soon, important English

missionaries such as Saints Wilfrid, Willibrord, Lullus,

and Boniface would begin evangelizing their Saxon

relatives in Germany.