Early Church to the Reformation

1. Early Church to the Reformation BI 3321

2. Texts on the Persecution of the Early Christians. Compiled by Michael Marlowe • Original Sources: • Pliny's Letter to the Emperor Trajan • Persecution after the Fire of Rome • Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs • False Reports and Accusations • Scapegoats for Every Misfortune • The Diocletian Persecution • Libelli - Certificates of Paganism • http://www.bible-researcher.com/persecution

3. Detail from The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer by Jean-Leon Gerome (1883) “Christianus Sum”

4. A. Persecuted Servants • The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. • Tertullian—“We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.” • Jerome–“The church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others; by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it. Persecutions have made it grow; martyrdoms have crowned it.”

5. A. Persecuted Servants • 1. Causes For Persecution • Rome generally tolerated foreign religions that were no danger to morality and discipline. • Xtianity at first received shelter under Jewish privileges. • But after the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, it became clear that Xtianity was a distinct religion from Judaism and was judged by Rome on its own merits or demerits.

6. A. Persecuted Servants • 1. Causes For Persecution • a. Christians refused emperor worship. • b. Renounced and opposed all heathen worship. • c. They were atheists (they had no images & did not believe in the Roman gods). • d. They preached foolish and unreasonable doctrines (incarnation, resurrection, worship of a crucified Jew). • e. They injured trades that depended on idolatry.

7. A. Persecuted Servants • 1. Causes For Persecution • f. They earned dislike & mistrust by their aloofness from society. • g. They were accused of promiscuous immorality (a non-Xtian misunderstanding about “Agape”) • h. They were accused of cannibalism (from a similar misunderstanding about the Lord’s Supper).

8. A. Persecuted Servants • 1. Causes For Persecution • i. They were often blamed for natural disasters—earthquakes, floods, famines, and pestilence. • j. They were criticized for professing to know more of life & reality than the learned philosophers. • k. The Christian claim of uniqueness was a grave problem.

9. A. Persecuted Servants • 1. Causes For Persecution • l. Xtianity was never licensed, causing suspicion and mistrust (every new religion was required to be licensed). • m. Xtianity frequently caused unrest and uproars as it grew. • n. Xtianity held secret meetings thought to be politically dangerous. • o. Most Xtians avoided civil and military service.

10. A. Persecuted Servants • 1. Causes For Persecution • Added to all of this must have been the inescapable animosity and antipathy of sinful hearts to a cleansing gospel. • Non-Xtian society expressed its opposition through— • a. social ostracism • b. oral discussions • c. injury to position and business • d. literary attacks • e. personal persecutions

11. A. Persecuted Servants • 1. Causes For Persecution • The persecutions involved— • a. confiscation of property • b. banishment • c. imprisonment • d. labor in the mines • e. torture • f. execution by fire and wild beasts • g. Roman citizens were executed by the sword.

12. A. Persecuted Servants • 1. Causes For Persecution • Christian reactions— • a. Those who suffered death were called martyrs. • b. Those who survived great punishments and remained true to the faith were called confessors. • c. Those who renounced Christ (permanently or temporarily) to escape torture, were called the lapsed.

13. A. Persecuted Servants • 1. Causes For Persecution • Christian reactions— • d. Those who bribed officers or purchased certificates that they had sacrificed to the gods were called libellatici. • e. Those who delivered up copies of Scriptures were called traditores.

14. Libelli • The libelli were documents notarized by Roman authorities to certify that someone had offered sacrifice to their idols. In times of persecution these documents were accepted as proof that someone was not a Christian. Many of these libellihave been discovered in excavations in Egypt.

15. A Libellus of the Decian Persecution (A. D. 250) To those in charge of the sacrifices of the village Theadelphia, from Aurelia Bellias, daughter of Peteres, and her daughter, Kapinis. We have always been constant in sacrificing to the gods, and now too, in your presence, in accordance with the regulations, I have poured libations and sacrificed and tasted the offerings, and I ask you to certify this for us below. May you continue to prosper. (2nd hand) We, Aurelius Serenus and Aurelius Hermas, saw you sacrificing. (3rd hand) I, Hermas, certify. (1st hand) The 1st year of the Emperor Caesar Gaius Messius Qunitus Traianus Decius Pius Felix Augustus, Pauni 27.

16. To the Commissioners of Sacrifice of the Village of Alexander’s Island: From Aurelius Diogenes, the son of Satabus, of the Village of Alexander’s Island, aged 72 years: ---scar on his right eyebrow. I have always sacrificed regularly to the gods, and now, in your presence, in accordance with the edict, I have done sacrifice, and poured the drink offering, and tasted of the sacrifices, and I request you to certify the same. Farewell. -----Handed in by me, Aurelius Diogenes. -----I certify that I saw him sacrificing [signature obliterated]. Done in the first year of the Emperor, Caesar Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius Pius Felix Augustus, second of the month Epith. [June 26, 250 A.D.]

17. A. Persecuted Servants • 1. Causes For Persecution • Persecutions began almost accidentally, at least spontaneously, but soon became a planned and legal policy of the state. • From local situations, the persecutions spread out to include the vast territory of the empire, affecting Xtians wherever they were found.

19. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • Orosius (5th c. ch. hist.) listed 10 periods of persecution; this was too many for the general persecutions and too few for the provincial and local. • Some persecuting emperors (e.g., Nero, Domitian, Galerius) were monstrous tyrants. • Others (e.g., Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Decius, Diocletian) were motivated not by hatred but by a determination to maintain law and the power of the government.

20. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • Some were relatively favorable to Xtians. • One thing that all the emperors had in common was a basic ignorance of the true nature and character of the new religion. • The 10 traditional periods of persecution are the following:

21. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • a. Nero • 54-58; began a reign of great prosperity & enterprise; became decadent and ruthless. • Unchecked extravagances brought grave financial difficulties to the empire. • Executed nobles who opposed him; suspected of causing the fire which destroyed a large part of Rome in 64. • Sought to blame the Xtians at Rome for the fire.

22. Nero

23. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • a. Nero • Severely punished them for the fire & for their “hatred of the human race.” • The Caesar to whom Paul appealed (Acts 25:10)—unknown whether he took part in Paul’s trial. • Tradition says both Peter and Paul were martyred at Rome during his reign.

24. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • a. Nero • Increasing unpopularity, revolts throughout the empire and desertion by the Praetorians caused N. to commit suicide in June 68. • After his death was a widespread belief that the tyrant would return (“Nero redivivus”); this myth sometimes considered the basis for the “Beast” of Rev. 13:11-18.

25. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • a. Nero • “Number of the beast,” 666, corresponds to “Neron Caesar” in Gk notation. • Nero’s persecution set a precedent for treating them as criminals and condemning them “for the Name” (of Christ) by summary magisterial jurisdiction.

26. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • b. Domitian • 81-96; gradually assumed despotic powers and demanded that public worship be given to him as Dominus et Deus. • Toward end of his reign, he declared a widespread persecution of Christians and Jews. • Executed Flavius Clemens & Glabrio and banished Domitilla for Atheism—all personally related to him but suspected of being Xtians.

27. Domitian

28. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • b. Domitian • Tradition holds it was during the Domitian persecutions that the apostle John was banished to Patmos, where he received the revelations recorded in the Apocalypse (the NT book of Revelation).

29. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • c. Trajan • 98-177; one of the best emperors. • But when he revived the rigid laws against secret societies, his provincial officers applied them to Xtians because of their frequent meetings for worship. • In 112 issued regulations which made Xtianity formally an illegal religion, and which formed the basis of all subsequent state persecutions.

30. Trajan

31. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • c. Trajan • Regulations: • 1) Xtians as such were not to be sought out by officials. • 2) But when accused and convicted, they were to be executed. • 3) Those who denied being Xtians and those who renounced Xtianity were to be freed.

32. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • c. Trajan • 4) anonymous accusations against Xtians were not to be considered. • Overall, Trajan left the matter of carrying out these regulations in the hands of provincial governors, resulting in a wide variety of intensity in persecutions. • Following Trajan, emperor Hadrian tended toward toleration rather than repression.

33. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • c. Trajan • Churches were allowed to hold property, but by grace, not by law. • He is said to have decreed that Xtians should be executed only if they had committed specific crimes. • Was during Hadrian’s reign that the Apologists did most of their writing, several directing their pleas directly to the emperor, perhaps influenced by his leniency.

34. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • d. Marcus Aurelius • 161-180; deeply concerned for the moral strength & material prosperity of the empire • Felt that the Xtians were in conflict with his avowed purposes because their ethic was irreconcilable with his extreme Stoicism. • They also resisted the official state religion and recognized Romans and barbarians as equals since neither were Xtians.

35. Marcus Aurelius

36. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • d. Marcus Aurelius • He sanctioned severe persecutions at Lyons. • The leading apologist, Justin Martyr, was beheaded at Rome during these widespread persecutions.

37. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • e. Septimius Severus • Not an active persecutor, but was responsible for some notable martyrdoms. • 202, he forbade conversion to Xtianity & Perpetua was imprisoned & condemned to execution in the arena at Carthage. • Tertullian (who recorded Perpetua’s martyrdom) made a strong appeal to Severus for toleration.

38. Septimius Severus

39. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • e. Septimius Severus • T. seems to have had some effect on the emperor. • Following S’s death in 211, a long period of peace ensued under his successor Alexander Severus, who appeared well disposed toward the Xtians.

40. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • f. Maximus Thrax • 235-238; resorted again to persecution, some think out of mere opposition to his predecessor. • He gave free course to the popular fury against Xtians, called the “enemies of the gods,” & accused them of causing a devastating earthquake. • Is credited with especially ordering bishops to be executed.

41. Maximus Thrax

42. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • f. Maximus Thrax • Some records indicate his order included the entire clergy. • Legend in 10th c. accused him of the martyrdom of Ursula, a British princess, & her company of 11,000 virgins (probably highly exaggerated). • But facts of history fix him as a rude barbarian who slaughtered Xtians and plundered heathen temples.

43. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • g. Decius • 249-251; short, but lasting, effect upon the status, & even the theology, of Xtianity. • First systematic persecution of Xtians, beg. with the execution of Fabian, Bishop of Rome, in Jan. 250. • Decreed that all citizens were required to furnish proof of having offered sacrifice to the emperor and state gods under pain of death.

44. Decius

45. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • g. Decius • The obvious move against Xtianity reveals how seriously the new religion was considered a threat to the state. • Many were put to death, but many other denied the faith (the “lapsed”) or escaped through bribery (the “libellatici”), which led to controversy over penance, rebaptism and reconciliation.

46. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • g. Decius • The conflict & resulting theological disputes between Cyprian, Novatian, and Cornelius set precedents for the developing episcopate. • The persecutions by Decius were ended when he was killed in battle with the Goths in 253.

47. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • h. Valerian • 253-260; at first mild toward Xtianity, but changed in 257, making an effort to stop the progress of Xtianity without bloodshed. • Banished ministers and prominent laymen, confiscated their property, & prohibited religious assembly. • When these measures failed, he brought the death penalty back.

48. Valerian

49. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • h. Valerian • Ordered the execution of all clergy & laymen of high rank who would not recant. • Most distinguished martyrs of this persecution were the bishops Sixtus II of Rome and Cyprian of Carthage.

50. A. Persecuted Servants • 2. Periods of Persecution • i. Aurelian • 270-275; is listed by Orosius as one of the persecutors, but in fact he did not seriously trouble the church. • His predecessor, Gallienus (260-268) had given peace to the church, even recognizing Xtianity as a legitimate religion. • Aurelian, warlike & energetic, sought to overthrow Gallienus’ policies & issued an edict of persecution.