Was Catholicism chosen by the Roman Empire because of synergies to Roman hierarchy? I was watching a documentary on the History Channel recently and they mentioned that when the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, they chose Catholicism because of its similarities to the hierarchy of the Roman government of the time. I had never heard that before and am wondering if there is any documented evidence of this being the main reason in their decision.
In my catechetical training, and in a biography of Constantine, I learned that the conversion of the Roman Empire was "top down". Constantine converted to Christianity, made Christians equal to those of practitioners of other religions, and lower class Romans found it expedient to adopt the religion of the emperor. The development of the hierarchy of Catholic Church resulted in similarities to the Roman political structures because the Catholic Church deliberately copied those structures because they worked. Romans at first did not convert but later decided to adopt Catholicism as their religion.