Mary's Catholics

The Catholic Church was at first viewed as a sect of the Jewish religion since most of her members were Jews. They were called "Nazareans." Then Helenist (Greeks) begun to enter the church. With the preaching of Stephen, the ire of the Jewish people turned on the nascent religion forcing the first Christians to flee from Jerusalem to Samaria and Antioch. It was at this time that Saul, later on to be St. Paul, became the fiercest persecutor of Christ's disciples. But struck down on the road to Damascus. Saul became the foremost proponent of the Gospel. A vision confirmed to Peter that the gospel was not only for the Jews but for all. Then he sees Cornelius, who was not a Jew, receive the Holy Spirit. It was in Antioch, where many of the Helenists had taken refuge that the disciples were called "Christians." From Antioch, the evangelization of the Roman Empire began. Understandably, the Jewish Christians were slow in abandoning their Jewish practi...

It is said that the devil, first, attacked the early church from without through persecution.  But failing in this he changed his strategy.  This time he attacked from within through heresies.  The saints fought the heresies; while Holy Mother church protected her flock through Ecumenical Councils. By the 3rd century, the church existed in relative calm and in some parts, even in luxury.  There was much time for everything specially for speculative theology.  Instead of being concerned with how to live holy lives, people were speculating on the nature of God.  The Hierarchy begun to enter into politics and Emperors begun to manipulate the hierarchy. The church became splintered into several groups. St. Jerome observed: that one day the whole world woke up to find itself Arian, a heresy propagated by the priest, Arius, and backed up by a bishop, Eusebius. Before the church could win her battle against the heresy of the priest Arius, a bishop, Ne...