Emperor Nero is the great-grandson of Augustus Caesar of Rome. In July 64 AD, a fire destroyed two-thirds of the Roman Empire. Rumors swirled that Emperor Nero had started the fire to make way for his extravagant palace. In order to deny these rumors, Nero accused the Christians of being at the origin of the fire. He brutally persecuted Christians. He had people torn apart by dogs and others set on fire. At that time, pagan Romans had to tolerate Jews because Judaism was a well-established religion. However, pagans were not required to tolerate Christianity because it was a young and illegal religion. Christianity was unpopular for various reasons. For example, people believed that Christians practiced cannibalism and incest. Additionally, people believed that the Roman gods would punish the people of Rome because the Christians did not worship these gods. This incident is important because it illustrates the kind of mistreatment Christians faced in the early days. In times of chaos, people assuage their fears by finding someone or something to blame. Until the rise of Christianity years later, Christians were generally the target of accusations such as that leveled by Emperor Nero.(200)Saint Anthony of Egypt is considered the founder of Christian monasticism. At the age of 20, he gave up his inheritance and left for the desert to reside as a hermit. At age 35, he completely isolated himself from everything on a mountain called Pispir and reportedly faced "every temptation the devil could imagine." As news of his actions spread, people gathered around his isolation area. He appeared after 20 years and took all these people as his disciples. One of these disciples, Saint Pachomius, invented the first game ...... middle of paper ...... enjoyed by monks and clerics. Because books were rare and expensive, people did not feel the need to learn to read. The books were usually owned by wealthy aristocrats or monasteries. The Gutenberg press put more books into circulation at a lower price. For the first time, people could buy many books at low cost. In 1455, Gutenberg printed the first Bible using his invention at the Frankfurt Fair. These first printed Bibles later became known as the Gutenberg Bibles. Gutenberg's invention is important because it allowed ordinary people to have access to the Bible. This meant that people were able to interpret the Bible for themselves, without having to depend on priests. He also played an important role in spreading the Christian faith to other places. Because of this, the literacy rate also increased because people had a reason to learn to read..(176)