Persecutions #2
David Lee ronie@InfoAVE.net
Tue, 02 Mar 1999 22:48:40 -0500 (00920454520, 009f01be6528$bf9eb8a0$955c74cc@ronies)
More on the persecutions from history:
In _A Survey of European Civilization_ a reference book written in 1962 by
Wallace K. Ferguson and Geoffrey Brown is the following (page 90 under the
subtitle "Persecution and Triumph":
"Christianity as a religion and the church as an association were banned
by the imperial government as soon as they became strong enough to attract
the attention of the emperors. About the year 111, the emperor Trajan issued
a rescript to provincial governors instructing them to prosecute those
openly charged with adherence to the new religion, but not to seek them out
nor continue the prosecution if they were willing to take part in the
ceromonies of the official cult. For the following century and a half, this
rescript may be taken as a fair enough definition of the imperial policy.
Christianity was not a legal religion and its members might be punished even
by death, but there was no general or systematic attempt to suppress them.
The iniative was left to the provincial governors, who enforced the law with
more or less severity as they chose. By the middle of the third century,
however, condiitons had changed and reforming emperors were forced to take
stronger action...In the year 250, the emperor Decius undertook a vigorous
program of reform to check the alarming decline, and as part of that reform
instituted the first throrough attempt to crush Christianity in all parts of
the empire...The persecution raged for about a year, until it was cut short
by the death of the emperor.
"During the remainder of the third century, the Christians were
alternately persecuted and tolerated, according to the policy of the various
emperors...The last and most thorough attempt to stamp it out was begun in
303 by Diocletian, the great reformer and reorganizer of the empire, and was
continued by his successors in 311."