1 Right at the beginning of this century, Christianity will rapidly reach the condition of controller of the society, becoming an oppressive religion. This happened for being the official religion of the Roman Empire. Also by the influence of those who were the emperors, who frequented the courts and who, from then on, became Christians.

2 The Christian culture strengthened itself in the weakening of the Roman culture, for, in this century, the Roman Empire of the West began to crumble. Thus, from a “group” of persecuted, from then on, the Christians passed to persecutors. The massacre to the non-Christians had begun.

3 The 5th century was marked by a set of experiences that signaled the disintegration of the Roman Empire. First, by the cultural fragility; then, there occurred a second movement in the political field. At this point of the History, the Roman Empire, that was immense, already found itself very weakened. It no longer had forces to defend the periphery of its territory against the enemies.

4 Then, in the measure that the Roman Empire weakened itself culturally and that, consequently, there occurred the strengthening of Christianity in all the Empire, the Slavic peoples, Britons, Franks, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Huns and Vandals, that waited on the frontiers of the Roman Empire for an opportunity, gathered forces and invaded at once its territory in various fronts.

5 The Roman Empire did not have conditions to defend itself in all the points in which it was being attacked, due to the articulated action of these peoples. Then, it was completely invaded.

6 Important to observe that, in this century, we already were in the Middle Ages. It began in 476, when occurred the fall of Rome. Odoacer (military chief of Germanic origin), invaded it, took the city and destroyed it. It was the end of the Roman Empire of the West, the end of the Classical Age.

7 Some stories of fanaticism happened right at the beginning of this century. Pagan churches were set on fire; the intolerance of the converts to the non-adherents of Christianity grew rapidly. An impressive fact occurred in the year 415, in Alexandria.

8 There happened in this city a very great confrontation of ideologies, for Alexandria was the cradle of the Hellenic knowledge. There was in the city a very large library, the Library of Alexandria, that gave access to diverse knowledge, diverse knowledges and many texts of great philosophers.

9 There lived a young Greco-Egyptian mathematician and astronomer very famous, called Hypatia. She was very persecuted by the fanatic Christians of that period. On a certain day, they surrounded her, captured her, stripped her and dragged her through the streets until the seashore. Using seashells, they cut all her body until death. Hypatia left great contributions to mathematics. She was considered the first documented woman in the exact sciences.

10 The invasions of the barbarian peoples gave beginning to a second and third miscegenations in Christianity, being that the first happened with the Roman Empire. Then, the Roman Empire was christianized; after, the barbarian peoples were christianized. The Christians, in this century, were a mixture of the primitive Christianity, of the customs and beliefs of the Roman Empire and of the barbarian peoples, that also ended up becoming Christians. There occurred, then, a miscegenation in the Christian Doctrine.

11 There was a personality that became quite marked in the previous century and in this century: Augustine of Hippo. It was he who dialogued with Alaric I (king of the Visigoths) when he invaded Rome. After becoming priest of Hippo and, later, bishop (the papacy only was instituted in 607), Augustine adopted the dialogue and the community life, in which the Christians needed to be united.

12 The Vandals, a barbarian tribe coming from Spain, went to the north of Africa, having as their king Genseric (one of the most astute military and political leaders of Antiquity), who desired to destroy everything. Wherever they passed, they invaded and plundered cities, destroying lives and stealing what they could. Then, they arrived at Hippo. Augustine already found himself in the city and did not have fear. He entered his quarters and began to recite the psalms, praying and asking so that his library was not destroyed, that it was preserved. And so it happened. Despite the Vandals not sparing anything, his library was preserved. Then, this expression used currently — “vandals” — to designate anarchist people, that make confusion and fights, comes from this century, from this tribe that existed and whose origin, in a certain way, we ignore.

13 Another important characteristic of Augustine, that needs to be rescued, is that he was someone that valued the self-knowledge. Already in that time there was a phrase attributed to him: “Know yourself, accept yourself and overcome yourself”. Augustine died in the year 430.

14 There arises another personality, the bishop Leo I, who entered into the history as Leo the Great, because he also was someone who valued the dialogue. In 452, he dialogued with Attila (feared warrior leader that terrorized Europe), king of the Huns (extremely violent barbarian tribe), who wanted to invade and overthrow the city of Rome. The city fell definitively in 476, when of the invasion of the Heruli (Germanic people originating from the south of Scandinavia), when Odoacer destroyed what remained of Rome. At that time, the emperor was Romulus Augustulus, a young of 16 years.

15 Then, Leo the Great, before the Empire fall definitively, talked with the bloodthirsty Attila (called “the Scourge of God”) and asked clemency for the women and children, only with his moral ascendancy as weapon. There was a legend regarding Attila. It was said that where his horse stepped not even grass grew, to highlight how bestial was this creature, how violent was the passage of his army. But “the true Christian does not have fear, has the courage of the faith”.

16 Opening a parenthesis, there was a tradition at the time of recognizing in the bishop of Rome certain authority. As Rome was the capital of the Empire, its bishop was considered the most important, for the papacy still had not been established.

17 Then, Leo I dialogued with Attila and convinced him to not invade Rome, even because the city was almost all destroyed. Leo I, by his moral ascendancy, made Attila see that everything was passing, transitory, and that he not proceed with that intent, so that he not come to suffer future consequences. As much as he was the Scourge of God, he understood that God was greater than the own Huns.

18 This is one of the most beautiful facts of this century. Until today, Leo I is recognized for this audacity of facing the Scourge of God, Attila, the king of the Huns.

19 In 455, another barbarian tribe invaded Rome: the Vandals. This tribe had as its chief Genseric, an extremely cruel and perverse man. Then, Leo I dialogued a second time, asking clemency to Genseric, that he have pity, spare the women and the children, that he not destroy what still remained of the city. Finally, Genseric listened in silence until Leo I finished speaking. When he finished making his appeal, Genseric gave order to his soldiers so that, for fourteen days, they totally destroy the city, kill, rob, violate and plunder everything that they could. There happened, then, something bestial: the army of the Vandals invaded the city and took everything that there was of value from the rich, from the churches, from the temples, stealing the stones, the marbles, the gold and all the riches that they found. There were two weeks of total despair. This time, the appeal of the bishop was not attended.

20 After two weeks, their interests satisfied, the Vandals went away. The city remained devastated, in a process of deep depression by the level of aggressiveness with which the Vandal army treated it. And, in this process of total destruction, the bishop Leo I approached the survivors and said: “We were destroyed, they broke everything and took our riches, but they did not burn the city. The city will rise again. We will start again, we will rebuild it, for the plunderers did not set it on fire”.

21 After, in 476, Odoacer was the new invader, but there was no longer anyone to dialogue with him, for the great apologetes already had discarnated. Odoacer, then, ended, literally, with everything that remained of the Roman Empire. Italy was taken definitively by the barbarians. The emperor Romulus Augustus, who at that time counted 16 years of age, did not have any chance, but was spared. Rome, then, succumbed in the hands of a boy.

22 In this century, the barbarian invasions predominated and destroyed an Empire that lasted many centuries. But they did not destroy Christianity, even because they ended up becoming Christians.

23 In 431, there was the first Council of Ephesus, and the discussion happened around the thesis of the Holy Trinity, of the Nicene creed (occurred in 325, during the Council of Nicaea), especially about if Mary would be the mother of God. Being the three persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — one only, then Mary, being the mother of Jesus and being He God, she would be His mother.

24 Nestorius, a patriarch of Constantinople, evoked an apostasy called “Nestorianism”. His thesis was that the Holy Trinity was correct, but Mary would be only the mother of Christ. She is Christotokos; then, she cannot be the mother of God. After much discussing, it was established that, if Jesus is God, then Mary is the mother of God. Since that time there was coined in the Church the following dogma: Mary is the Theotokos — Theo = God; tokos = that which generated. Mary is the mother of God.

25 There was, also, the Council of Chalcedon, with the creed of Chalcedon. Eutyches, a religious of Constantinople, raised a thesis called monophysitism: mono = one only; physis = nature (Christological doctrine). His thesis confirmed the Holy Trinity as being one only person, but, when Jesus was incarnated, it was the manifestation of the divinity in a human body. Jesus Christ possessed only one divine nature, and not two natures (human and divine), He was perfect.

26 The Church, however, opposed this thesis saying that He had two natures: divine and human. If it were not so, how to justify that He died for us? How would He be subject to pain? How to ignore the weight of the crucifixion? Then, if Jesus suffered and died for us, this could only prevail if Jesus had a human nature that consubstantiated with the divine. It was necessary that He had the two natures.

27 The thesis of Chalcedon opposed itself to monophysitism to say that Jesus has two natures, but remains being God and the Holy Spirit at the same time. There happens, then, the first schism (division or break) of Christianity with this Council.

28 From then on, Christianity passed to have those who followed the creed of Chalcedon and those who did not follow. There arose the Coptic Church of Egypt, the Syrian Church of Antioch and the Armenian Church. They admitted the thesis of Eutyches, the monophysitism: Jesus is God incarnated, opposing the Roman Church.

29 There was no longer how the Churches to remain united. Each one went modifying its dogmas. In the Coptic Church, Christmas is celebrated on the day 6 of January and the masses are celebrated in Coptic, ancient language spoken in Egypt and in Alexandria. According to the traditions, the Coptic Church was founded by the Evangelist Mark, who, after receiving the Gospel of Simon Peter, wrote it and went to Alexandria. There he would have founded the Coptic Church since the first century. Others, however, say that Mark would have been martyred in the city of Venice, where today exists the Cathedral of Saint Mark.

30 The Syriac Church, or Jacobite, also follows the monophysitism, but the masses are celebrated in Syriac, or ancient Aramaic. According to this Church, it was necessary to speak the same language that Jesus spoke.

31 There also arose the Maronite Church, of Syria, that exists until the days of today, of Catholic tradition. This Church followed the anchorite called Maron, a Christian that left the city to live an isolated life, a life of discipline and asceticism, for, for him, the spirit was more important than the matter. He was enthusing the people with his belief and many ended up following him, for, for them, he was the bridge to reach Jesus. They tell some legends that he made miracles, for his personality was very rich.

32 There were born, then, two important Churches: the Christian Jacobite and the Christian Maronite. The Lebanese poet and writer Gibran Khalil Gibran was Maronite Christian. This Church is very predominant in Lebanon. One of the curiosities of this Church is that the priest can marry, but the bishop cannot, and the mass is in Aramaic. Even so, they are subject to the Pope. The Maronite Church recognizes him as its greatest religious authority.

33 In 432, a great missionary began the christianization of Ireland and of England, known as Saint Patrick, who was very faithful to Jesus and to the Gospel. The three-leaf clover was his symbol, that he used to speak of the Holy Trinity.

34 Also in this 5th century, in 480, there arose a great anchorite called Benedict of Nursia. He wrote the rules for a Benedictine life. There arose, then, the Order of the Benedictines, existing until the days of today. His way of living was not only in the isolation and in the prayer, but also in the work. One of the rules of the Benedictines is the chastity. He was responsible for the Benedictine chants in Latin and for the Gregorian chants. There also arose the Benedictines (female). Benedict of Nursia was considered the father of the western monasticism and patron of Europe. He was canonized by Pope Honorius III, in the year of 1220, as Saint Benedict.