We want to mention, also, some of the missionary activities. And this was a period of time when there was a great deal of mission activity. The reason that is important, of course, is because the church and Christianity, as it had developed to that particular point, was indeed widespread throughout the Roman Empire. While it had never become the universal, the single religion of the Empire, it was recognized, as we mentioned a moment ago, at the end of the 4^th Century as the “official religion” of the Empire. And so, it was well entrenched in those areas that were controlled by Rome.

However, we see evidence of those who would go outside of the Empire, and who would spread the tenets of Christianity in other places, places where paganism was practiced. For example, Christianity would reach to the north into the Gothic region. It would also reach all the way up into a Germanic tribe, a people who were called the Franks—what we know now as Germany. It would also, during this period of time, have developed a fairly strong foothold in Britain and in Ireland, the Emerald Isle—and the one who was the missionary who was credited with taking the tenets of Christianity to Ireland is one named Patrick. He would later become known as Saint Patrick.

Other missionaries carried the tenets of Christianity to places like Armenia, to Mesopotamia, even into Central Asia. There’s evidence of Christianity being taken into places like Arabia, perhaps even into India, and even into Ethiopia. And this was during the 4^th and the 5^th Centuries.

And so, the point that is made here regarding this period of time and these activities is that, in less than 600 years (and we’re coming up here in this period of time that we’re looking at to near the end of the 6^th Century), Christianity, or a FORM of Christianity, had swept across the Roman Empire, had spilled even well beyond the borders of the Empire. And this had been accomplished in the face of persecution, with all kinds of barriers—barriers such as distances, of languages, of customs, the barriers of pagan religions, and so on. And so it is indeed a quite remarkable feat and a quite remarkable story.

A few of the more prominent individuals, who are recognized in church history, referred to as “church fathers,” are Augustine (354 – 430 AD), for example; Jerome (340 – 420 AD). There are others during this period of time, as well, whose historical writing about the church and those activities, as well as secular history, are relied upon, even to this day, for information—ones like Eusebius (260 – 340 AD), Ambrose (340 – 397), and Benedict of Nursia (480 – 554).

As has been pointed out, this period (313 – 590 AD) is a crucial one in the study of church history. During this period, the ecclesiastical structure of the church took definite shape and what came to be the orthodox theology was hammered out in the fires of controversy. By the time this period ended, the lengthening shadows of the future were already casting their ominous pall across the Roman Empire. The barbarians from the north had breeched the defenses of the Roman Empire in the West, and soon they would sweep the culture of Rome before them. The eastern portion of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, successfully warded off the barbarians and maintained a high level of culture throughout the Middle Ages. But the subordination of the church to the Emperor led to a sterility that was almost as disastrous to simple New Testament Christianity as was barbarianism in the West.