1. In this century, the message of Jesus was growing, spreading itself and maturing. It still was a very interesting nascent Christianity, because it was not institutionalized as official religion of the Roman Empire.

2. The persecutions, however, continued happening, producing innumerable martyrs. And, in reason of these persecutions, the personal disinterest increased. In the following century, this personal interest will begin to dictate the functioning of Christianity, that will face many battles starting from the year 325.

3. In this period of the History, situated between the discarnation of Jesus, giving beginning to the birth of Christianity, until the 4th century, when occurs a “turn of key”, there arises the so-called Patristics (name that goes back to priest or father), because it corresponds to the doctrine of the Fathers of the Church.

4. The Fathers of the Church are the followers of the apostles. We had, in the 2nd century, Ignatius of Antioch, disciple of John the Evangelist. Already in this century appears Hippolytus of Rome, disciple of Irenaeus of Lyon, who was disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna, who, by his turn, was disciple of John the Evangelist. The Fathers of the Church are nothing more than the continuation of the apostles; for this, Patristics.

5. Starting from the apostles, it was necessary to unify the message of Jesus; this was the thought of the Fathers of the Church: to make the message universal. Since the past century, one spoke in Apostolic Catholic Church, for it was necessary to know from where departed its foundations. Catholic (that means universal, but not as it is understood currently) and Apostolic (of the apostles).

6. In this century, there opened a very wide horizon, because the Christian Church already presented some demonstrations of hierarchization; it was beginning to structure itself. Some titles were created for important people inside the nascent Christianity, such as: bishop, deacon and presbyter.

7. Innumerable important characters arose in this century. We will highlight only some, those that we consider more relevant: Cyprian, Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea and Anthony (Anthony, the Great).

8. Before speaking of these illustrious characters, it is important to remember that this study represents only a small portion of an ocean of information. As if we took a nut and placed it in the ocean. The History of Christianity is the ocean; what we are working, the information that we bring, is the nut: only a “kick start”, a small sample, so that we awaken the taste for our history.

9. Origen approached very much the Neoplatonic philosophies. He was a Platonist par excellence, besides Christian and apologete (defender of the faith). He defended the thesis called apocatastasis, that means doctrine of restoration. He said that, while we are in the material form, it will be necessary to restore it. He wanted to say with this that we are in the flesh to purify ourselves and, when we return to the original world — the world of the essences — we may be better.

10. In concomitance with this apocatastasis, he defended another thesis: the palingenesis (doctrine of the Greeks), that means process of transmigration of the spirit. Because we will not return to the world of the essences only one time; we go and return, from the essence to the form and vice-versa. Origen was from Alexandria, in Egypt, considered the cradle of the knowledge of the spiritual truths. After that the knowledge left India, the secret doctrine docked in Egypt. In the measure that Egypt was bathed by the spiritual knowledge, the reincarnationist thought gained much breath there.

11. When Origen appropriated himself of the Christian concepts, he perceived, then, the proposal of elevation of the soul, so that the creature promote his process of spiritual liberation. He raised, already in this century, the thesis that the reincarnation was inside the natural laws. Origen will be the great representative of the 3rd century. However, further ahead, his ideas will pass to be filtered.

12. Origen preached that there existed three levels of interpretation of the evangelical texts: literal, moral and spiritual. For him, the Final Judgment would not occur in the form as it was proposed by the Church, because God was good and, according to the apocatastasis and the palingenesis, at the end all would become good angels; even the most cruel person would end up transforming himself in someone good. He was a spiritist of the 3rd century.

13. Origen was pruned by the emperor Decius, one more of the persecutors of the Christians, and by the own Church, in two councils (meetings of bishops and deacons): the Council of Nicaea and, after, the Council of Constantinople II. There already existed, in this century, the ecumenical councils (meeting of all the churches), although not in the same form as we understand today.

14. Then, for the Church, nothing of palingenesis or apocatastasis. It was decided that God would realize the Final Judgment. For the good would exist the heaven; for those who were bad, the hell. The Church, then, closed itself in this orthodoxy (structuring form of thought of the time).

15. Origen is the great representative of the thought of the Secret Doctrine conjugated with Christianity. He was not at the margin of Christianity, but in the core of the thought of the 3rd century. He was very well accepted and, with this, promoted a development of the Christian message. He made many disciples and his message propagated itself, but, later, ended up being repressed.

16. Anthony (Anthony, the Great) — The Christians, still in this century, were simple people: workers, artisans. The cult happened in the catacombs. With the approximation of the Roman Empire, there were arising dogmas. Part of the members of the Church considered necessary to create a movement to return to practice Christianity in its essence. There arise, then, the anchorites and the cenobites.

17. Anchorite is the person that decides to live a contemplative life, solitary, in the desert, dedicated to the prayers — a monk. Cenobite is that one who chooses to live in retreat, but not in isolation. There arise, thus, in this century, the monasteries: places where the people pass to live in isolated community, with a spiritual proposal turned to itself.

18. Saint Anthony was an anchorite that abandoned the Christian social coexistence, for he judged Christianity distorted, a society already corrupted, and went to live alone. He made many followers. The historians affirm that the monasticism (life in the monasteries) received a great impulse with Saint Anthony.

19. It was said that Saint Anthony had become so pure that he managed to see the spiritual entities, and that disturbing entities came to test him. He was tested in the sex, in the money and in the power, but remained firm. After this, he affirmed to have conquered all the maladies of the world. Then, the disturbing spiritual entities returned, for he still had not conquered his own vanity. This is a midrash (elaborated constructions inside Judaism by the rabbis and, later, by religious leaders).

20. Saint Anthony was very respected for his elevated spirituality. He was a great reference, an important signalizer and true stimulus for those who desired to live isolated. Thus occurred the beginning of the convents, monasteries and hermits.

21. Eusebius of Caesarea — He was important both in the 3rd century and in the 4th century, being one of the most intelligent personalities of Christianity of that period. He wrote a notable work called Ecclesiastical History, in which he narrates all the period of the nascent Christianity, bringing many important information, from the apostles until the 4th century, when he died.

22. Eusebius of Caesarea had an important contribution for the History, because he was one of the first to think in the formation of the Biblical Canon, that is, which books would compose the Bible as reference for the Christians. From more than one hundred books, were chosen 27 of the New Testament to form the Canon. The Catholic Bible is constituted of 46 books of the Old Testament and 27 of the New Testament. Already the Protestant Bible possesses 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 of the New Testament. The Church determined which books could be followed, although there exist other texts considered very good. However, for the Church, whoever followed apocryphal books (without authenticity recognized by the Church) would incur in heresy.

23. There existed the Hebrew Canon and the Canon of Alexandria. From the Jewish Scriptures, was produced a version called Septuagint, realized by 72 sages, forming that which would be the Alexandrian Canon, elaborated in the city of Alexandria, in Egypt. The Catholic Canon, then, did not depart directly from the Jewish texts, but from the Greek translation of these texts. For this reason, the translations are not one hundred percent precise; one must have care and seek the moral aspect of everything, for the writings differ from one language to another. And it was Eusebius of Caesarea who initiated this work.

24. Cyprian of Carthage — In 251, occurred a council in the city of Carthage (city of indescribable beauty), capital of Phoenicia, founded by the Phoenicians (today, Lebanon), that became lords of the seas in the region of the Mediterranean. Later, this city was taken by the Romans. In this council, realized in Carthage, where the bishop Cyprian became very influential, it was decided that it was necessary to end with the dissensions, so that the Church become one. This was the principal objective of the council.

25. The Church structured its Canon with the idea that Jesus would have said to Peter: “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church”, that is, everything that was outside of Peter, “the rock”, would be heresy. The Protestants came, in the 16th century, and found a problem in the interpretation of this same text, for, for them, Peter would not be the rock; Jesus would be the rock. The Catholics remained linked to the Church and to its first pope. Already the Protestants remained linked directly to Jesus.

26. But there exists a third interpretation of this same text: the rock would not be neither Peter nor Jesus, but that which Peter declared to Jesus: “You are the Son of the living God, that one who came to teach us and save us”. In this way, everything becomes more coherent: Jesus is the Son of God that came to the world to be our model, our guide, the way, the truth and the life. Thus, what most existed in these councils were theological discussions, some deep, others empty.

27. There were three the emperors that marked the 3rd century: Lucius Septimius Severus, Decius and Diocletian. The three were executioners and persecuted the Christians. Curious is what said Tertullian (important Christian writer and theologian of Carthage): the blood of the martyrs was the seed of Christianity. The more they killed the Christians, more the idea propagated itself, because it was not centered in a man, but in the own Christ, in the own Gospel.

28. The emperor Lucius Septimius Severus, besides persecuting and killing Christians, ordered that they render cult to the god Sun and participate of the festivities of the winter solstice (change of season that precedes the winter and the summer), in adoration to the birth of the god Sun, Roman festivity in which also was worshiped the god Bacchus, god of the wine, of the festivities, of the theater and of the madness. As the Christians refused to participate of this celebration, considered pagan, there occurred a great extermination of Christians by order of this emperor.

29. Later, the Church, to end with this festivity, proclaimed that Jesus would defeat the god Sun. They placed, then, the Christmas of Jesus in the date of the birth of the god Sun. Instead of being born the god Sun, is born the God-Child, because, for the Church, God is Jesus that made himself flesh. Jesus comes to have his birth celebrated on the day 25 of December to substitute this pagan festivity. However, Jesus was not born in this date, and this can be proven by the own historical and geographical local aspects.

30. December is winter in Israel; there would not be conditions for the shepherds to remain with their sheep outside of the caves, for they would freeze. When the angels announced to the shepherds the birth of Jesus, they were in the field with their flocks outside of the caves, therefore it was not winter. There exist many divergences as to the date in which Jesus was born, but the important is that He was born.

31. The emperor Lucius Septimius Severus, then, was who initiated all this history. However, as the people could not remain without their pagan festivity, this celebration was being postponed a little more ahead. There began to arise the carnivals, in the south of France, in Venice and in Portugal, until arriving to the carnival that we know today, that goes back to those pagan festivities of the time of Lucius Septimius Severus.

32. The emperor Decius resumed a characteristic of the 1st century, present in the governments of Domitian and Trajan. He restored the pagan cult, and whoever did not bow to this cult was killed. This emperor instituted a true mortality of Christians. It is estimated that, until the 4th century, approximately one million Christians were killed, being Decius one of the great responsible for this.

33. The emperor Diocletian, at the end of this century, had an idea genial on one side, but that later placed the Empire in serious dangers. He decided to divide the Roman Empire in two: Eastern Empire and Western Empire. In each one of them he named an Augustus (divine) and a Caesar (executing emperor), being that the Caesar would be submissive to the Augustus.

34. The own Diocletian remained as Augustus of the Eastern Empire and had as Caesar Galerius (that instituted the Edict of Tolerance, even before Constantine, but later ended up forgotten). In the Western Empire, the Augustus was Maximian and the Caesar, Constantius Chlorus. The son of Maximian was Maxentius, and the son of Constantius was Constantine.

35. The emperor Diocletian forced the Christians to enlist themselves and serve in the Roman army, but they refused to kill, for this contradicted the teachings of the Gospel. By disobeying this order, many were killed, and their houses and places of religious meeting were burned.

36. The end of the 3rd century can be called “the great storm”, that would open space for Galerius and Constantine in the following century.