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The Growth of Christianity in the Roman Empire
A map illustrating the rise and spread of Christianity from a small, unorganized sect in the Roman province of Judea, across the urban centers and rural areas of the Roman Empire, through Constantine the Great's 325 Council of Nicaea (which codified the Nicene Creed as set formal beliefs) and the 380 Edict of Thessalonica under Theodosius I (when Christianity officially became a state religion) until the 451 Council of Chalcedon when debates about the human and divine nature of Jesus Christ consumed the early Church. The map also depicts the spread of some of the significant heresies of that era – Arian Ascendancy, Nestorianism, and Monophysitism.