History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325

develop the patience, the gentleness, the endurance of the Christians, and prove the world-conquering

power of faith.

Number of Persecutions.

From the fifth century it has been customary to reckon ten great persecutions: under Nero,

Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Maximinus, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian,

and Diocletian.

13

2

 This number was suggested by the ten plagues of Egypt taken as types (which,

however, befell the enemies of Israel, and present a contrast rather than a parallel), and by the ten

horns of the Roman beast making war with the Lamb, taken for so many emperors

14

 But the number

is too great for the general persecutions, and too small for the provincial and local. Only two imperial

persecutions—those, of Decius and Diocletian—extended over the empire; but Christianity was

always an illegal religion from Trajan to Constantine, and subject to annoyance and violence

everywhere

15

 Some persecuting emperors—Nero, Domitian, Galerius, were monstrous tyrants, but

others—Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Decius, Diocletian—were among the best and most energetic

emperors, and were prompted not so much by hatred of Christianity as by zeal for the maintenance

of the laws and the power of the government. On the other hand, some of the most worthless

emperors—Commodus, Caracalla, and Heliogabalus—were rather favorable to the Christians from

sheer caprice. All were equally ignorant of the true character of the new religion.

The Result.

The long and bloody war of heathen Rome against the church, which is built upon a rock,

utterly failed. It began in Rome under Nero, it ended near Rome at the Milvian bridge, under

Constantine. Aiming to exterminate, it purified. It called forth the virtues of Christian heroism, and

resulted in the consolidation and triumph of the new religion. The philosophy of persecution is best

expressed by the terse word of Tertullian, who lived in the midst of them, but did not see the end:

"The blood of the Christians is the seed of the Church."

Religious Freedom.

The blood of persecution is also the seed of civil and religious liberty. All sects, schools,

and parties, whether religious or political, when persecuted, complain of injustice and plead for

toleration; but few practise it when in power. The reason of this inconsistency lies in the selfishness

of human nature, and in mistaken zeal for what it believes to be true and right. Liberty is of very

slow, but sure growth.

The ancient world of Greece and Rome generally was based upon the absolutism of the

state, which mercilessly trampled under foot the individual rights of men. It is Christianity which

taught and acknowledged them.

The Christian apologists first proclaimed, however imperfectly, the principle of freedom

of religion, and the sacred rights of conscience. Tertullian, in prophetic anticipation as it were of

13

So Augustin, De Civit. Dei, xviii. 52, but he mentions Antoninus for Marcus Aurelius. Lactantius counts six, Sulpitius

Severus nine persecutions.

14

Ex. chs. 5-10; Rev. 17:12 sqq. Augustin felt the impropriety of referring to the Egyptian plagues, and calls this a mere

conjecture of the human mind which "sometimes hits the truth and sometimes is deceived." He also rectifies the number by

referring to the persecutions before Nero, mentioned in the N. T., and to the persecutions after Diocletian, as that of Julian, and

the Arian emperors. "When I think of these and the like things," he says, "it does not seem to me that the number of persecutions

with which the church is to be tried can be definitely stated."

15

On the relation of Christianity to the laws of the Roman empire, see Aubé, De la legatité du Christianisme dans l’empire

Romain au Ier siècle. Paris 1866.

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Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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the modern Protestant theory, boldly tells the heathen that everybody has a natural and inalienable

right to worship God according to his conviction, that all compulsion in matters of conscience is

contrary to the very nature of religion, and that no form of worship has any value whatever except

as far as it is a free voluntary homage of the heart.

16

5

Similar views in favor of religious liberty were expressed by Justin Martyr,

17

6

 and at the

close of our period by Lactantius, who says: "Religion cannot be imposed by force; the matter must

be carried on by words rather than by blows, that the will may be affected. Torture and piety are

widely different; nor is it possible for truth to be united with violence, or justice with cruelty.

Nothing is so much a matter of free will as religion."

18

7

The Church, after its triumph over paganism, forgot this lesson, and for many centuries

treated all Christian heretics, as well as Jews and Gentiles, just as the old Romans had treated the

Christians, without distinction of creed or sect. Every state-church from the times of the Christian

emperors of Constantinople to the times of the Russian Czars and the South American Republics,

has more or less persecuted the dissenters, in direct violation of the principles and practice of Christ

and the apostles, and in carnal misunderstanding of the spiritual nature of the kingdom of heaven.

§ 14. Jewish Persecution.

Sources.

I. Dio Cassius: Hist. Rom. LXVIII. 32; LXIX. 12–14; Justin M.: Apol. I. 31, 47; Eusebius: H. Eccl.

IV. 2. and 6. Rabbinical traditions in Derenbourg: 

Histoire de la Palestine depuis Cyrus jusqu’à Adrien

 (Paris

1867), pp. 402–438.

II. Fr. Münter.: 

Der Judische Krieg unter Trajan u. Hadrian

. Altona and Leipz. 1821.

Deyling: Aeliae Capitol. origines et historiae. Lips. 1743.

Ewald: 

Gesch. des Volkes Israel,

 VII. 373–432.

Milman: History of the Jews, Books 18 and 20.

Grätz: 

Gesch. der Juden.

 Vol. IV. (Leipz. 1866).

Schürer: 

Neutestam. Zeitgeschichte

 (1874), pp. 350–367.

The Jews had displayed their obstinate unbelief and bitter hatred of the gospel in the crucifixion

of Christ, the stoning of Stephen, the execution of James the Elder, the repeated incarceration as

of Peter and John, the wild rage against Paul, and the murder of James the Just. No wonder that the

fearful judgment of God at last visited this ingratitude upon them in the destruction of the holy city

and the temple, from which the Christians found refuge in Pella.

16

See the remarkable passageAd Scapulam, c. 2: "Tamen humani juris et naturalis potestatis est unicuique quod putaverit

colere, nec alii obest, aut prodest alterius religio. Sed religionis est cogere religionem, quae sponte suscipi debeat non vi, cum

et hostiae ab animo libenti expostulentur. Ita etsi nos compuleritis ad sacrificandum, nihil praestabitis diis vestris. Ab invitis

enim sacrificia non desiderabunt, nisi si contentiosi sunt; contentiosus autem deus non est." Comp. the similar passage in

Tertullian, Apolog. c. 24, where after enumerating the various forms of idolatry which enjoyed free toleration in the empire he

continues: "Videte enim ne et hoc ad irreliqiositatis elogium concurrat, adimere libertatem reliqionis et interdicere optionem

divinitatis, ut non liceat mihi colere quem velim sed cogar colere quem nolim. Nemo se ab invito coli volet, ne homo quidem."

17

Apol. I. c. 2, 4, 12

18

Instit. div. V. 20.

27

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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