Why Were Christians Persecuted?

In 1095, Pope Urban II called for an army to go to the Holy Land, Jerusalem. This was what was later known as the ‘First Crusade’. A crusade is a religious war or a war mainly motivated by religion. The first crusade consisted of 10’s of thousands of European Christians on a medieval military expedition to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. This doesn’t mean that the first crusade was just motivated by religion. Throughout this essay, I will be suggesting the main reasons of why people went on crusades and which different people went for specific reasons and why.

From the third to the fourth century, the Roman Empire witnessed a widespread attempt to stop the spread of Christianity. Initially, leaders of the church were predominately targeted, but later anyone admitting to Christianity became a target. The persecutions hit a climax during Diocletian’s reign. These persecutions actually helped the spread of Christianity by glorifying Christians and beginning a tradition of martyrdom that shaped the Church, and the strength that Christians displayed shows that the persecutions could not have possible stopped the spread of Christianity.

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

European Christians fought against the Muslims in the crusades because they wanted control of the Holy Land to increase their connection with god, wealth and power. The crusades were a series of 9 battles called the caused by Christians wanting control and power over the Holy Land to provide them with greater power.

In contrast to the persecution experienced by early Christian followers, Christianity today does not experience the level of outward persecution. Christianity is practiced in an atmosphere nearly void of violence. It was not until the reign of Constantine when Christians were authorized to practice their chosen faith. The “Ediet of Milan”(313 A.D.), gave official recognition to the Christian faith, thus ending persecution within the Roman Empire. Before Constantine’s rule, there were many rulers eager to drive out the Christians. The Emperor Trajan (98-117 A.D.) established the first official policy relating to Christians and how they should be dealt with. Diocletion and the Apologists were the last of the persecutors in this era before Constantine. This marked the end of open persecution

The Jews were the most powerful culture back in the ancient times. This was a threat to others. The Hebrews had their own homeland before they became Jews. The homeland was the center of trade, commerce, and cultural exchanged, through the three major areas, Asia, Europe, and Africa. These areas were also a common place for conflict groups war with one another(rabbi,yaaca,2008).The Jews are to themselves and they do not push their beliefs on other people. They have been persecuted throughout history. The cities have been destroyed to the ground by hated armies, the temples have been tarnished to the ground several times, and have been put out by Jerusalem many times. The

Throughout the first three centuries, Christianity faced persecution from the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful and influential empires in history. Nations under the control of the Rome, associated themselves with Roman traditions. Even during the split of the Roman Empire under, persecution remained and old traditions still dominated the areas of the Roman Empire. Constantine, one of the Caesar’s sons from the Tetrarchy, would go on to become emperor of Rome and challenge old beliefs.

During the time of Trajan’s ruling the Christians in Rome were persecuted. It is difficult to say if Trajan was positive or negative for the empire. He did good things and also terrible things. He fixed

I believe that all Christians did not see the Jews as equals however many did not believe that they should be murdered. For example, the bishop in the town of Mainz protected the Jewish people in his house, granted he was paid handsomely to do so. Albert’s account, while it was most likely written many years after the First Crusade shows that there were some sympathizers for the Jewish people. In terms of the crusaders, I believe that there was a md mentality and that they had promised themselves on the quest to help their fellow Christians from the churches enemies which may have been the Muslims in Jerusalem but were also the Jews in many of the towns that were along the way. The Christians were not successful during the first wave of the

Christians were persecuted in the early centuries after Christ. When we hear about the persecution of Christians, you hear about genocide or Christians being dragged out of their homes to be eaten by wild animals. Christians were seen as traitors and were also blamed for the cause of every public disaster. Around 115 C.E, there was an emperor named Trajan. Trajan stated that if Christians refused to make sacrifices to the Roman gods then they would be punished by death. On page 88 it also stated, “...Christians would not go along with the sacrifices necessary for the good of the empire, and so were traitors of the empire.” Another known emperor was Nero. Emperor Nero was also involved in the persecution of Christians. Nero had caused a great

Many say they were killed because they refused to worship the empire , but by them not even worshiping the roman gods or taking part in sacrifice ( it was expected from you ) lots of people hated christians and by them preaching often resulted with stonings and other horrible things

In 1094 or 1095, Pope Urban responded to the emperor Alexios I Komnenos’ plea for help. At this time the Seljuq Turks had taken almost all of Asia Minor, and Alexios I Komnenos requested for aid from Pope Urban II. During the council of Clermont, Pope Urban II delivered a sermon addressing a large crowd urging them all to join in the fight against the Muslims for the recovery of the Holy Land. There are no exact records of this sermon, but five different accounts written by men who were present. These accounts all mentioned different reasons for Christians to join the Crusade, including Divine evidence, Christian torture and Muslim corruption.

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.

The Religious Freedom Institute has joined forces with the University of Notre Dame and Georgetown University’s Religious Freedom Project to determine how Christians from all over the world respond to persecution and to raise awareness of their situation.

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