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The Mission. On the Copts and their natural tendency towards heresy (part 6 of 6)

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  The entry of Islam , in the form of a violent wind of change that blew from the Middle East towards all the borders of the known world, devastated the Roman Empire, reducing it to a small colony in the Peloponnese. Only the tiny kingdom of Odo I of Aquitaine, later annexed by the Saxons, managed to slow down their advance in mid-Europe, while the kingdoms of Nubia are the only ones who found a diplomatic agreement with the jihadists, formalizing the Baqt, a slave trade that blocked the spread of the revolution along what, for me, is the Coptic branch of Christianity. As for the pagan peoples, the Turks were relegated to the point of disappearing from the map, while the Vandals were replaced by the Berbers, themselves Muslims. It's going badly, in short, but we are now at the end of a thousand-year journey. Christianity has survived so far, but still has to wait a few centuries before the coming of the Crusades, the final climax in which the state of the Mission in the world will

The Mission. On the Copts and their natural tendency towards heresy (part 5 of 6)

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  The Roman Empire faltered, under the pressure of a horde of barbarian populations who have sacked Rome, ruined the title of Emperor, and significantly reduced the imperial borders. Strong support, both economic and factual, from Christians to the Roman cause, however, managed to stem the damage both in Mauretania Tingitana, where the Vandals still can't surpass the border, and in Ethiopia, where the Himyar clans, despite an initial advance, were driven back into the desert by the Nubian kingdoms. We must not forget, in fact, that in this game, starting from the advent of Constantius II and up to the coming of Gregory the Great , Christianity was a warring religion, which did not disdain the use of weapons in order to protect its own doctrine. It is not certain that such weapons will prove capable of defeating the next incoming enemy, however, as this time Christianity will face a threat coming from within: a new Abrahamic religion is in fact spreading, once again, from the Middl

The Mission. On the Copts and their natural tendency towards heresy (part 4 of 6)

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Century after century the Christian religion keeps on fighting for its affirmation. Not even the bipolarism of an ever so chaotic Roman Empire , alternating stagnant heresies with bloody counter-heresies, which among other things translate into very violent intra-family feuds, manages to stem the slow spread of the opium of the people. In some way, in fact, Christians learned to live in the shadow of giants, making the repressive force of the Roman Empire their own. A triumph of adaptation, except that this glaring decadence takes us straight towards the... Fourth era. The fall of Rome (451 AD - 630 AD) A sudden mass migration from Northern Europe, which occurs in conjunction with an extensive socio-economic crisis affecting the entire Roman Empire, results in an ethnic war of massive proportions. It is the soldiers themselves, now largely coming from barbarian populations, who overthrow the imperial power. Rome is unable to withstand the impact of the arrival first of the Visigoths, w

The Mission. On the Copts and their natural tendency towards heresy (part 3 of 6)

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Three hundred years have passed since the crucifixion of the Nazarene. The Mission of Christianity is doing badly but not TOO badly , dealing with Ethenian popes and Anatolian pilgrims who upset the doctrine of Coptic Christianity, with bishops in love with pagan women and great theologians who try to straighten out a Christian tradition in which everyone feels they can have their say. But now everything changes! And everything will go swimmingly, right? Because thus begins the... Third era. Age of Constantine (301 AD - 450 AD) With the coming of the first Christian Emperor it seems that the game is destined to become easier. This is very important news: Christianity is no longer the religion of slaves but a trendy doctrine, embraced by the highest political office in the Eurasian area. Bishops and archbishops rub their hands at the thought of the great things that can be done with access to the means of the Roman Empire. Just as the Parthian Empire ultimately mostly abandoned Zoroastr

The Mission. On the Copts and their natural tendency towards heresy (part 2 of 6)

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  First century AD, literally. Almost a century has indeed passed since the crucifixion and the Mission has yet to get off the ground. Even if the apostles are dead and their relics are jealously guarded by a very small number of faithful, and even if the first bishops are traveling to the edges of the known world, such as the Urals, in fact there is no stable community of Christians in the world, except perhaps that of Jerusalem which, however, does not count for the purposes of the game. The only one that existed was in Rome, but the locals, in fact, have returned to Jewish customs, referring to the Torah and its outdated teachings. Now we call those there Ebionites, and they are the first heretics of the Christian world. But we don't give up: the time of renunciation will come. So let's see how things will turn out now with the... Second era. Pax Romana (91 AD - 300 AD) As mentioned, Christian communities around the map are still few and far between. Nonetheless, it is deci