Were Christians Persecuted In The Early Centuries

Roman society didn’t care for the Christians very much. They would blame them for communal catastrophes, such as earthquakes and outbreaks of diseases. They would claim that these misfortunes were caused by the Christians angering the gods. Being Christian by itself was illegal. “The crime of being Christians; that is, to belonging to an illegal sect or association. The penalty for such unlicensed association was death.” (pg. 174) There was freedom given to anyone who renounced their faith and was willing to worship a Roman god. The martyrs went through vicious punishments for staying in their faith. This tells us that living in Roman society could be fatal if you don’t follow what the Roman Empire expected you to be.

In the early Church, martyrdom was considered a "baptism in blood," similar in itself to the baptism in water. The baptism of martyrdom was at the origin of the conversion of many. To be a true disciple is to die as a martyr. The rationale of costly discipleship is witnessing to non-Christians. This shows that martyrdom can communicate much more deeply than any other discourse. It is difficult to evaluate the intensity and scale of persecution against Christians of the first three centuries; nevertheless what we have are some documents that shed light on the frequency of these afflictions. During the first century, there were occasional persecutions under Nero’s reign, especially the fire of Rome in 64 CE, which Christians were accused of having

Christianity was frowned upon by the Romans. The Roman Emperor wanted the people to worship him and the Roman Gods. Christians were blamed for many of the misfortunes that happened in Rome. Due to the belief that Christians were to blame they were ostracized, tortured and even killed.

‘Christians to the lions’ as Trajan would say, an emperor in the early centuries Christianity to them have alienated the favour of their gods which has and would continue to cause disasters in the Roman Empire. The misfortune of Christians did not stop during this period, but it did come to a composed halt as Galerius, gave Christians the right to worship in some sense. Christianity during the early stages was clearly a course of persecution and forced pagan accusations. Constantine dramatically changed the recourse of religions with the battle of Milvian Bridge as Christianity became the predominant religion of the Roman Empire.

According to Gaddis (2005) some of the Christians were tortured as well as being burnt alive, while others were publicly executed. Furthermore, it would seem that the more the Romans persecuted them, the more their hatred grew for them, as they believed them to be disobedient and a danger to the Empire. As such they did everything in their power to rid themselves of the Christians. The only consequence for the Christians at this time was, they either obeyed the law by sacrificing to the Pagan Gods or face persecution. However, Gaddis (2005) suggests that some of the Christians looked at the Roman persecution as not so much a Roman persecution, but one from their own God, who was testing their faith so that they could repent for their

During the Medieval Era in Europe, Christianity was seen as a threat to the Roman Empire due to Christians refusing to worship other gods or the emperor. As a result, many Christians were persecuted due to their refusals. However, after the fall of the Roman Empire, the church became dominant in Europe. Christianity (Catholicism) was the only religion that was recognized during this specific era. Christianity began its spread from the north and to the west into Europe. It was carried mostly by merchants, missionaries, and soldiers, which they believed helped to guarantee their freedom. Moreover, Christianity played a major role within the Medieval Era in Europe, which saved many lives and freed many people.

First of all, there was a Great Fire of Rome that started in 64 AD, and Emperor Nero blamed the Christians for this horrible disaster. Although, many people thought that Nero started the fire, he took this opportunity to put all the blame on the people he hated the most, the Christians. After he blamed them, he sent them to jail for the crime of hating mankind. In jail they got tourcherd by dogs ripping them apart, and they

For many years, Christianity was illegal. Often, it was essentially ignored, but there were time periods where the Christians in all the conquered areas were persecuted for not making sacrifices to the ancient gods. Finally, when Theodosius made Christianity the favored religion of the state and decided the orthodoxy of the New Testament, the era of European Christianity began. The idea of a fully human and yet fully divine messiah began at this time and also the idea of a Bishop in Rome presiding over the entirety of Christianity. All of this set the stage for the Christian beliefs still held today.

As we talked about previously Christians were heavily persecuted throughout the Roman Empire. Although Christianity was growing rapid there was an enormous amount of people that did not like Christians. The citizens of Rome did all that they could to stop the spread of Christianity. The Christians were thrown in jail, spit on, beat, stoned, and killed all because they believed in God. Christianity showed us that when you are living in unbearable situations trust God even if it seems

The Roman Empire permitted all types of faiths and worshiped numerous Gods, this was allowed as long as it was what the empire worshiped. Christians where not sentenced to death for being a Christian but harassed. They where executed for not placing Caesar first. “Christians refused to sacrifice to the gods, proclaiming instead that there was only one God.” Christians that refused to worship the Roman Gods where killed by animals or even burned alive.

During the first decades preceding Christ's death, Christians were tolerated but not really liked by the general population of the Roman empire due to their refusal to acknowledge the emperor as a living god. This act of defiance was considered heresy by the state .The real mass persecution of the Christian people came during the reign of the emperor Nero who needed a scapegoat on whom to blame the great fire during his reign.

Martyrs tells us that the earliest persecution came under the rule of Nero in the year 67

For Christians, the persecution of the early church is generally accepted as fact. So much so that we rarely seem to consider the possibility that this is not the case. The martyrdom of saints for their faith is taken for granted as historically accurate. Furthermore, we admire them, looking up to the strength of their faith during the most challenging of times. But are we believing in a false history? Are we taking the truth of Christian persecution for granted when it is, in fact, not true at all? And, finally, are we placing too much significance on early Christian martyrs, thinking that they demonstrate far more than they are able? According to Candida Moss, the answer to all three of these questions is, yes. In her book, The Myth of Persecution, she argues that the church has significantly overemphasized the extent to which early Christians were martyred. She also claims that Christians expect a good deal more from what Christian martyrdom establishes than we can actually gain.

Then Christianity came: The first acts of christian martyrs, reported by Eusebius, occured in the years 155/156. (Lewis & Reinhold, 1990, P. 564). According to Lewis and Reinholds, violent or unjust treatment of christians took place in a local and not in a througout the empire organized dimension until the mid thrid century. The first christian persecution was lead by Decius’ imperi-al order in 249-251. To prevent the appearance of a christian state within the Roman Empire, Decius established a law, which demanded from every citizen the prof of religious loyalty, „which was certified in writing by the commisioners.“ (Lewis & Reinhold, 1990, P. 566).

In the year 64, a fire started somewhere in the streets of Rome. Wind spread the fire across the city, burning down the palace. Following this, Emperor Nero put the blame on the Christians, marking the first record of Christian persecution by the roman government. For the next 200+ years, there have been on and off bouts of persecution, ranging from Trajan forcing suspected Christians to prove their innocence by worshipping roman gods in the early 100’s to Valerian ordering the execution of church bishops and other church leaders in 258. While there were years of tolerance for Christians, the ever-changing stance of the Roman government toward Christianity made life difficult for those who believed. The persecution reached new levels during Diocletian’s reign in the 300’s with the removal of Christians from the army and the rise of many people with anti-Christian beliefs to positions of power. In 303, a more general persecution of Christians began with a series of edicts ordering the destruction and seizure of church property and arrest of church leaders and the requirement of all people to make sacrifices to the roman gods on the pain of death if refused. These policies were implemented to varying degrees across the roman empire; however, the general persecution of Christians still took place.