need a little help with this

This issue is very complicated. I don't know how possible it is to pinpoint a starting date. When would it be considered to have begun? When there was first a bishop over Rome? When the Roman bishop was first given authority over the other bishops? Etc.

 

After Emperor Constantine became the first Christian Emperior (some ? if its a genuine conversion) in about 325 or so, Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire. Constantine immediately divided the empire into the east and the west.

The capital in the west was Rome. The capital in the east was Constantinople (modern day Istanbul Turkey).

With relative peace, the "church" began to hold "councils" to answer questions of doctrine. The bishops of the major cities, (Rome, Antioch, Ephesus, Alexandria, and others) and respected leaders from all areas, were making the decisions.

Over several hundred years, the bishops of the capitals consolidated their power, through politics and use of force.

The east became the Eastern Orthodox Church, and kept services in Greek. The west became the Roman Catholic Church, and translated scripture into Latin (Jerome's "Vulgate" at about 400).

At some point, I don't know when and I don't remember his name, the Bishop of Rome declared himself to be the Pontifus Maximus or Pope (Supreme Priest of all religions). He also declared he found a deed from Emperor Constantine that left control of the Western Empire to the Bishop of Rome (it was a forgery, of course).

From that point on, the Bishop of Rome used the force of the government to enforce his decisions on the people.

I hope that helps get you started on looking at the history of the church.

peace to youraying:

 

I looked at the link furnished by annsni and it looks like an anti-Catholic site, which is fine if you are looking for information to slam Catholics. Then I did my own Google search and came up with this http://history-world.org/a_history_of_the_catholic_church.htm which seems to be quite scholarly, objective and detached in its approach to the subject. In fact, so much so that I have bookmarked it for future reading.

 

Addressing Your Aside ...

I like the word "Mesopotamia" . It was said that George Whitefield could move the multitudes just by saying this word in his particular style .