In an era known as the Imperial Age of the church, the civilization of the Roman Empire came to an end or shifted into late antiquity, and the Catholic Church began to grow from a mystery cult to a standardized religion, the Catholic Church absorbed four components of the Roman Empire: administrative structure, Roman law converted to Canon law, assigning Latin is the official ecclesiastical language, and designating individuals as leaders or administrators to the church. The people of the Roman Empire already were living in a diocese, they knew which diocese they belonged to, so this component was not difficult to administrate. A Bishop, called an Episkipoli was placed over the diocese, over each parish was a presbyter or priest, and an archdiocese was created when combining parishes into one large entity. And the last aspect of the administrative structure is the line of succession from Pope to Pope. Because Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, received authority from Jesus himself, he became the first Bishop of Rome. When the Bishop of Rome becomes Pope, the next Bishop would take his place once the Pope dies, creating a line of successors from Peter, this is known as the Petrine theory of apostolic succession. As the Catholic Church continued to grow and gain power, and Christianity became a standard faith, Canon law became more important and more powerful than Roman law. The ecclesiastical teachings and commandments became pivotal in the assimilation of the Catholic Church as law. The third component that had an effect on the shifting the Roman Empire, bringing more cohesiveness to the Catholic Church, was the establishment of Latin as the official religious language. Latin was used in speech and writings, prayers and blessings, and in holy books. Using Latin as the universal and official language of the church created cohesiveness and brought that people and the church together more than ever before. Because individuals of the upper class of the Roman Empire were outstanding leaders and educated individuals, with the ability to read and write, the Catholic Church asked those from the patrician class to become the overseers and leaders, or bishops and priests of the Catholic Church. This integration of the Roman class into the