My history teacher said that from around 60 a.d.- 340 a.d. the early christians were commonly charged for the?

Question

crime of cannibalism due to pagans misinterpreting what the christians meant by Jesus Body and Blood thinking that it was Real Life Flesh... this means the early christians believed in consecration why don't other christians who aren't catholic?

belive in it aswell?

Answer 1

"The age of martyrs also produced a great number of writers who wrote about Christianity and what they believe in order to dispel some of the myths about Christians (some said they were cannibals because they ate the “body and blood”) These writers became known as “The Apologists” and they were able to help clarify Christian theology to the pagans, leaving us with some of the greatest explanations of the Christian faith."


What you teacher tells you is true. Christians were deemed to be cannibals because of the whole blood host thing with communion and they were martyred by mass murders.

This is an important lesson in not taking the time to really learn about something and just assuming that rumors are true - like what you hear on TV -

Big spin off in the Catholic religion when King Henry VIII of England wanted to divorce his wife and the Pope said NO. So, Henry got out of the Catholic religion, made himself the King of Religion in his country and tried to make all the Catholics in England convert to the Church of England - a lot of people were murdered for not changing over as it was deemed treacherous not to obey Henry.

The irony of the whole protestant England thing was that in Germany a monk name Martin Luther was trying to lead reforms in the Catholic Church too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther

It is a strange thing that ofter two or more people will arrive at the same idea in different ways by different methods but almost simultaneously

Now we have Protestants because a man wanted a divorce - which would have been better because Henry usually cut off their heads after that and his first wife was, in a way lucky to have got away with her head.

You have a very good teacher

Answer 2

Your teacher is correct, however there is a link missing between pagan Rome's charge of cannabilism and the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Rome had conquered many lands, and were very tolerant of all religions, except one. Roman soldiers and government officials believed what the Jews had told them: that the Christians were killing children and eating their flesh. This, of course, was intolerable (though false.) Some Protestants today continue with the same line of reasoning.

The early Christians were all given an opportunity to escape execution. All they had to do was go through the motions of making offerings to the Roman pagan gods. Some refused and got thrown to the lions. They were buried in the Roman catacombs. The paintings on the walls of the catabombs show that the early Christians believed in the Real Presence along with many other Catholic teachings that have never changed.

So it is true the Romans were repulsed at their own MISUNDERSTANDING of Catholic teaching, it was not the real reason for the execution of Catholics in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd century.

Answer 3

Your Teacher is telling the Truth, It was propaganda Spread about by the Romans.
Close Renata, but not really true, Henry had seen the amount of money leaving England and going into the Coffers of the Pope, he was looking for an excuse to break away from the Catholic Church, and the Pope not allowing him a divorce was just the excuse he was looking for. After the Reformation the money went to him and not Rome. Very clever Man.

Answer 4

340 AD is around the time of Constantine who took Christianity and blended it with paganism to create a compromise between the Empire and the people. Transubstantiation (the term where the bread and wine actually become the Body and Blood) is a pagan concept and part of the Reformation was refuting pagan concepts. By making it merely "representational" of the body and blood of Christ, non-catholic Christians can partake in the original ritual.

Answer 5

I guess your teacher is quite misinformed or didn't get the facts straight. That's nothing but a smear campaign against the early Christians perpetrated by the RCC.

The CANNIBALISM aspect of the "god-eating" ceremonies and rituals were commonly being conducted by the PAGANS and other animistic religions... and NOT by the early Christians.

That "god-eating" ritual got incorporated into the fledgling religion that followed the Nicaean Council of 325 AD in Rome, if you get my drift...

Peace be with you.

Answer 6

Isn't consecration specially setting something apart for God?

I think you mean transubstantiation...why we think the bread of the sacrament is still just bread...because we see it as symbolic, but I could see how in the right cultural circumstances even the way we talk about it symbolically could be confused for cannibalism.

Answer 7

firstly it was the Jews who spread these cannibalistic stories to incite the Romans to take action against the early church.
secondly all Christians fully believed in the real prescense of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, but since the Protestant reformation sadly these no longer hold this truth.

Answer 8

because when someone has a new idea in the christian religion. the church authority will either accept it or reject it.

if pte person believes that his idea is inspired by god then he has no choice but to split fnd form a new church. this is why there are countless branches of the christian faith. each one with it's own beliefs.

what would you have if you went in a chronological sequence and implimented every idea that has caused a split in the church
to the original church?

Answer 9

Uh huh... those same civilized Romans that threw the early Christians into the Colosseum to be eaten alive by wild animals for their own entertainment were shocked, offended and outraged by the Christian's symbolic consumption of bread and wine.

Answer 10

allot of Christians were charged with various crime back in the hay-day of the new religion. and many branches of the Christian faith do still practice the consecration we just don't all do it every Sunday most do it around Easter, or the passover.