II Persecution in the Early Church- showing of video  

                    (by William H. C. Frend, Church History, Issue 27, edited for space and content.)

     Early Christians expected suffering. Christ had died on the cross, so there was no higher honor than to imitate that death through accepting martyrdom (witness by one's blood). The Jewish legacy portrayed, in writings such as the Fourth Book of the Maccabees, the glorious nature of death rather than renunciation of Israel; even without this, Christianity would inevitably have held the martyr's death in high esteem. As 1 Peter expresses it, "If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name." (4:16).

Why were Christians persecuted?  How was it that the church underwent such sacrifices? The Roman religion was not intolerant; Rome had accepted into its pantheon deities from the Italian tribes and from Asia Minor. Countless local gods and goddesses, worshiped by the ordinary inhabitants  of the Greco-Roman world, were often provided with a classical equivalent name and worshiped as “Roman” deities.

    Despite this toleration, by the early second century the Roman governor of Bythynia (on the Black Sea) had no hesitation in sending to immediate execution those who had been denounced as being Christians. The name alone was a sufficient death warrant. Reasons for the persecution emerge from the record of Christianity’s first three centuries.

Jewish and the Beginnings of Roman Persecution  Persecution did not begin with the Romans. The New Testament tells of strife between Jews and Christians. In the early chapters of Acts, Stephen (7:57) and James the brother of John the disciple (12:20, became victims of the Jerusalem mob and of King Herod Agrippa respectively.

    The persecutors and their motives changed in A.D. 64. On July 19 that year a great fire engulfed much of Rome. Suspicion immediately fell on Emperor Nero, who wanted Rome cleared for new building projects. But he deflected the blame onto the Christians. Many Christians were tortured and killed in the arena. The historian Tacitus writing about 115 described the Christians as a “class hated for their abominations” and worthy of repression.

Imperial Policies  Thirty years later, in 95-96 the Emperor Domitian acted drastically against some members of the Roman nobility accused of  “atheism” (not believing in the Roman gods), implying Christian belief. About fifteen years later, in 112, Pliny asked the Emperor for directions about the Christians. The Emperor advised that “Christians were not to be sought out” and if they recanted and “worshiped our gods,” they were to be freed. Those who refused, were to be punished, but anonymous denunciations were to be rejected. In 124-125, Christians gained another concession. After anti-Christian riots occurred in Asia, Emperor Hadrian’s ruling allowed Christians to be tried, but had to be convicted of illegal acts before they could be punished. He provided further legal conditions that modified potential condemnation of Christians.

    A famous case was that of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna who at age 100 some time around 168 was brought to trial for being a Christian. He was encouraged to renounce the Christian Faith.

And the proconsul persisted, "Swear, and I will release you. Curse Christ." And Polycarp replied, "Eighty-six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme my King who saved me?" He was condemned to death and burned alive. In 175, we hear of "new decrees” making it easier for enemies to denounce Christians and seize their property.

Rising tension A new dynasty, the Severan Dynasty, seized power in 193, at a crucial moment in the church's relations with the Empire. Though it remained illegal, the church was now much stronger than in the previous century. Christians were consolidated around urban communities governed by bishops, who were in frequent contact by letter with one another. The church had its own liturgy, its own sacred writings separate from those of the Jews, and established rules of faith on which orthodox doctrines could be built. It also had begun to acquire property. The church had retained its missionary urge. The result was great tension between Christians and pagans in provinces where the church was strong.

     But a wave of anti-Christian feeling in Carthage, Alexandria, Rome, and Corinth from about 202 to 210 arose. The recorded victims of persecution were mainly converts—such as Perpetua and Felicitas in Carthage (martryed March 7, 203), or the disciples of Origen in Alexandria. The bishops and clergy seem not to have been affected. But later (235-238), a persecution arose “against the church leaders.”

     This was followed, however, by twelve years of calm and through its great Alexandrian teacher Origen (186-254), established for the first time an intellectual superiority over its pagan contemporaries. But Origen perceived the danger of the situation: the next persecution would be on a worldwide scale.

Empire-wide persecution Under the emperor Decius (249-251) the church experienced what, in retrospect, was its most severe. test. Decius had come to power at a moment of grave military threat from the Goths, and economic and social decline in the cities. He blamed the Christians for the breakdown of morale in the Empire. His remedy was an explicit return to former Roman virtues and the association of all inhabitants of the Empire with the emperor's yearly sacrifice to the gods of Rome on the Capitol.

    Decius combined this move, evidently, with an order (probably in December 249) to seize leading Christians. By January 20, 250, the Bishop of Rome Fabian had been tried before the emperor himself and sentenced to be executed.

    The authorities went to great lengths to ensure compliance. In major cities, such as Carthage, commissions saw that individuals did perform sacrifice and punished those who refused. In Egypt, at least, there were commissioners in the country areas, and forty-four of the certificates (libelli) have survived. Decius's measures were initially very successful. Many fled; few wished to defy the emperor openly. Alexandria and Carthage saw massive apostasies. Those who defied the authorities, like the presbyter Pionius of Smyrna, were often regarded as simpletons or fanatics eager to throw away their lives. The edict caused deep divisions among Christians.

    The church recovered its adherents rapidly but faced problems: what to do about the multitudes who had lapsed, while some rigorously condemned them. The Novatianists, according to Eusebius, called themselves "the pure." They would not allow those who had given in during the persecution to return to the church. Their movement foreshadowed more permanent division in the Christian church between those who put its integrity above all other values, and those who regarded compassion and forgiveness as all-important.

"Sacrilegious instigators"  The new emperor, Valerian (253-60), at first tolerated the Christians but in the summer of 257 suddenly altered his attitude. The emperor's policy was not to destroy the Christian church but to bring it into conformity with public rites (aimed at safeguarding the empire in time of peril). In July-August he sent orders to deport Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, and Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria. Other bishops were sent to the mines. In addition, Christian places of worship and cemeteries were closed, and anyone entering did so at risk of execution.

     For nearly a year there was an uneasy calm. The Christians, however, were not cowed as they were a few years before. The emperor's patience broke. Around July 258, Valerian ordered that bishops, priests, and deacons be executed, that church property be confiscated, that socially superior (honorati) laity lose their privileges and imperial civil servants (Caesarians) be reduced to slavery.  In some parts of the Empire this persecution of 258-259 was the bloodiest the church endured. Cyprian was charged and executed for "Conspiracy, illegal association, enmity toward the gods of Rome -these charges formed the basis for the persecutions during the first three centuries.

Lull before the storm Valerian's death brought more than forty years of peace (260-303). Christians could still be arrested, however. Yet bishoprics multiplied, and church building seems to have gone on unhindered. In the imperial capital at Nicomedia (on the opposite side of the Bosporus to Constantinople), the Christian church stood in full view of the imperial palace. More important, the church now became a movement of the countryside as well as of the towns.

Final, "Great Persecution" In 303, however, came ten years of persecution, the "Great Persecution" as it became known. How and why, after forty-three years of peace, did this happen? First, while the church appeared to be accepted, opposition to it was never far below the surface. Since 270 the pagans, inspired by the Neo-Platonist philosopher, Porphyry, had begun to mount a serious intellectual assault on Christianity. "The evangelists," Porphyry wrote in fifteen books Against the Christians (c. 280-290) "were the inventors, not the historians, of those things they record about Jesus." This propaganda war between Christian and pagan champions intensified in the 290s.

     Second, in 284 Diocletian seized power and survived to become one of the greatest conservative reformers of all time. In March 286 he appointed a comrade-in-arms, Maximian, as co-emperor (Augustus) in the West; and on March 1, 293, the two Augusti appointed two other military men, Constantius and Galerius, as their assistants, or Caesars. The emperors' ideal was to return to the traditional values of Rome.

     Uniformity and discipline were the watchwords of the age, yet Christians remained a standing challenge to the unifying and conservative ideals of the emperors. In 296 Caesar Galerius, who was strongly anti-Christian, won a decisive victory over the Persians. With his victory his influence over Diocletian increased. Diocletian's family contained some who were pro-Christian, and he was unwilling to act against the Christians. But his hand was forced, partly by Galerius's steady pressure and partly by anti-Christian propaganda from some provincial governors.

     Between 298 and 302 the civil service and army were gradually purged of Christians. On February 23, 303, the Feast of Terminalia, repression would start.  Churches were destroyed, Christian services banned, and the Scriptures seized and burned. Christians in high places lost civil rights. A second edict imposed an obligation on all clergy to sacrifice, but the prisons became too full, and in the autumn of 303 this was modified and most of those imprisoned for refusing were released.

A grudging concession This phase ended on May 1, 305, when Diocletian and his western colleague, Maximian, formally abdicated, to be succeeded by Galerius and Constantius respectively. In the West, Constantius took no further action for his wife Helena was a Christian, and on his death, his son Constantine was proclaimed emperor by his troops. In the next five years Constantine gradually increased his authority and followed his father's policy of toleration toward Christians.

     In the East, however, Galerius renewed persecution, accompanied by anti-Christian propaganda and a great effort to reorganize paganism along Christian hierarchical structures. It was too late. Steam gradually ran out of the enforcement of the edicts, and no martyrs are recorded in this phase after 310. In April 311, Galerius, realizing that he was dying, decided that enough was enough and revoked the edicts of persecution. Galerius' concession of failure was grudging but decisive. The Empire could not be preserved by the "immortal gods" with the Christian God possessing a veto over their powers.

     In the spring of 312, Constantine entered on a final bid for supremacy in the West. Campaigning against his rival, Maxentius, through north and central Italy, he reached within five miles of Rome on October 27. That night he had a vision or dream that convinced him that his own destiny lay with Christianity. Next day he defeated Maxentius's superior forces and entered Rome in triumph. In February 313 Constantine met Licinius (who had succeeded to Galerius' European dominions), and in a document that has become known as the Edict of Milan formally ended the persecution. All individuals were to be free to follow their own consciences. In fact, the Edict proved to be the death-knell of the  pagan gods. Eleven years later (in 324), Constantine defeated Licinius and proclaimed his adherence to Christianity and his aim that Christianity should become the religion of the Empire now united under his sole rule. The church had triumphed.

Why the Christians triumphed   Why had the Christians won? First, they had become too strong to be defeated. In some provinces, such as Bithynia they may already have formed a majority, and they were well organized.

     Further, Christians attracted people, as a Neo-Platonist philosopher explained c. 300, by their religion's "simplicity," its direct moral teaching and promise uncomplicated by its rivals' mythology.

More than that, Christianity had never lost its martyr spirit. As one contemporary (Lactantius) explained, "There is another cause why God permits persecutions to be carried out against us, that the people of God may be increased." People rejected the old gods because of the cruelties perpetrated in their names. People inquired what was so good that it seemed preferable to life itself, "so that neither loss of goods, nor of the light, nor bodily pain or tortures deter them."

V. SHOW VIDEO

VI. SOME DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

 - Why would some Christians seek out Martyrdom?         - How did Christians deal with persecution?

 - In what way did a martyr “witness” for Christ?               -What did the Edict of Milan accomplish?       

 - What would you do if it were illegal to be a Christian?   - Why did the Church “win” over the Empire?

 - In what ways was the Church restricted?                         - What value do martyrs have for us today?

VII. CLOSING PRAYER – DISMISSAL HYMN FOR MARTYRS

   Your martyrs, O Lord, / in their struggles for you / received crowns from above. / Armed with Your strength, / they have vanquished their persecutors / and crushed the fearsome might of Satan. / Through their supplications, O Christ God, save our souls. Amen.