A ustrian Christianity

Abstract Christianity probably came to Austria — by then made up of the Roman provinces Rhaetia, Noricum, and Pannonia — through Roman soldiers and officers in the 1st century, and the first local churches were founded in the 2nd century ad . After the tolerance edict by Constantine in ad 313, Christianity spread and there is evidence of the installation of the first bishoprics. The Germanic tribes moving to Austria in the emigrations of nations during the end of Roman rule were mainly Arian Christians, and Christianity became the majority religion till the 5th century. But in the 6th century, all kinds of heathen tribes wandered or expanded to Austria, especially the Slavs, the Bavarians and the Alamans. Christians were again in the minority, even though, differently from the German regions, some of the structure of the Christian churches continued through the fall of the Roman Empire.