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 circulated accusing Emperor Nero of starting the fire to make room for his extravagant palace. To dismiss these rumors, Nero blamed the Christians for starting the fire. He brutally persecuted Christians. He had people torn to pieces by dogs and others set on fire. At that time, Roman pagans had to tolerate Jews because Judaism was a well-established religion. However, pagans did not have 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. Furthermore, people believed that the Roman gods would punish the people of Rome because the Christians did not worship these gods. This episode is important because it illustrates the kind of mistreatment Christians had to endure early on. In times of chaos, people calm their fears by finding someone or something to blame. Until the rise of Christianity years later, Christians were usually the target of accusations such as that made by Emperor Nero.(200) St. Anthony of Egypt is considered the founder of Christian monasticism. At the age of 20 he gave away his inheritance and went into the desert to reside as a hermit. At 35, he completely isolated himself from everything on a mountain called Pispir and reportedly faced "every temptation the devil could devise." As word of his actions spread, people gathered around his isolation area. He emerged after 20 years and took all these people as disciples. One of these disciples, St. Pachomius, invented the first set... half of the paper... copied by monks and clerks. Because books were rare and expensive, people felt no need to learn to read. The books were usually owned by wealthy aristocrats or monasteries. Gutenberg Press put more books into circulation at a lower price. For the first time people could purchase large quantities of 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 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 themselves, without having to depend on priests. It 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)