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

§ 16. Condition of the Church before the Reign of Trajan.

The imperial persecutions before Trajan belong to the Apostolic age, and have been already

described in the first volume. We allude to them here only for the sake of the connection. Christ

was born under the first, and crucified under the second Roman emperor. Tiberius (a.d. 14–37) is

reported to have been frightened by Pilate’s account of the crucifixion and resurrection, and to have

proposed to the senate, without success, the enrollment of Christ among the Roman deities; but

this rests only on the questionable authority of Tertullian. The edict of Claudius (42–54) in the year

53, which banished the Jews from Rome, fell also upon the Christians, but as Jews with whom they

were confounded. The fiendish persecution of Nero (54–68) was intended as a punishment, not for

Christianity, but for alleged incendiarism (64). It showed, however, the popular temper, and was

a declaration of war against the new religion. It became a common saying among Christians that

Nero would reappear as Antichrist.

During the rapidly succeeding reigns of Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespacian, and Titus, the

church, so far as we know, suffered no very serious persecution.

But Domitian (81–96), a suspicious and blasphemous tyrant, accustomed to call himself

and to be called "Lord and God," treated the embracing of Christianity a crime against the state,

and condemned to death many Christians, even his own cousin, the consul Flavius Clemens, on

the charge of atheism; or confiscated their property, and sent them, as in the case of Domitilia, the

wife of the Clemens just mentioned, into exile. His jealousy also led him to destroy the surviving

descendants of David; and he brought from Palestine to Rome two kinsmen of Jesus, grandsons of

Judas, the "brother of the Lord," but seeing their poverty and rustic simplicity, and hearing their

explanation of the kingdom of Christ as not earthly, but heavenly, to be established by the Lord at

the end of the world, when He should come to judge the quick and the dead, he let them go. Tradition

(in Irenaeus, Eusebius, Jerome) assigns to the reign of Domitian the banishment of John to Patmos

(which, however, must be assigned to the reign of Nero), together with his miraculous preservation

from death in Rome (attested by Tertullian), and the martyrdom of Andrew, Mark, Onesimus, and

Dionysius the Areopagite. The Martyrium of Ignatius speaks of "many persecutions under Domitian."

His humane and justice-loving successor, Nerva (96–98), recalled the banished, and refused

to treat the confession of Christianity as a political crime, though he did not recognise the new

religion as a religio licita.

§ 17. Trajan. a.d. 98–117—Christianity Forbidden—Martyrdom of Symeon of Jerusalem, and

Ignatius of Antioch.

I. Sources.

Plinius, jun.: Epist. x. 96 and 97 (al. 97 sq.). Tertullian: Apol. c. 2; Eusebius: H. E. III. 11, 32, 33,

36. Chron. pasch. p. 470 (ed. Bonn.).

Acta Martyrii Ignatii, in Ruinart, p. 8 sqq.; recent edd. by Theod. Zahn, in Patrum Apost. Opera

(Lips. 1876), vol. II. pp. 301 sqq.; FUNK, Opera Patr. Apost., vol. I. 254–265; II. 218–275;

and Lightfoot: S. Ignatius and S. Polyc., II. 1, 473–570.

II. Works.

On Trajan’s reign in general see Tillemont, 

Histoire des Empereurs;

 Merivale, History of the Romans

under the Empire.

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Philip Schaff

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

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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On Ignatius: Theod. Zahn: Ignatius von Antiochien. Gotha 1873 (631 pages). Lightfoot: S. Ignatius

and S. Polyc., London 1885, 2 vols.

On the chronology: Adolph Harnack: Die Zeit des Ignatius. Leipzig, 1878 (90 pages); Comp. Keim,

l.c. 510–562; but especially Lighfoot, l.c. II. 1, 390 sqq.

The Epistles of Ignatius will be discussed in chapter XIII. on ecclesiastical literature, §164 and

165.

Trajan, one of the best and most praiseworthy emperors, honored as the "father of his country,"

but, like his friends, Tacitus and Pliny, wholly ignorant of the nature of Christianity, was the first

to pronounce it in form a proscribed religion, as it had been all along in fact. He revived the rigid

laws against all secret societies,

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9

 and the provincial officers applied them to the Christians, on

account of their frequent meetings for worship. His decision regulated the governmental treatment

of the Christians for more than a century . It is embodied in his correspondence with the younger

Pliny, who was governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor from 109 to 111.

Pliny came in official contact with the Christians. He himself saw in that religion only a

"depraved and immoderate superstition," and could hardly account for its popularity. He reported

to the emperor that this superstition was constantly spreading, not only in the cities, but also in the

villages of Asia Minor, and captivated people of every age, rank, and sex, so that the temples were

almost forsaken, and the sacrificial victims found no sale. To stop this progress, he condemned

many Christians to death, and sent others, who were Roman citizens, to the imperial tribunal. But

he requested of the emperor further instructions, whether, in these efforts, he should have respect

to age; whether he should treat the mere bearing of the Christian name as a crime, if there were no

other offence.

To these inquiries Trajan replied: "You have adopted the right course, my friend, with regard

to the Christians; for no universal rule, to be applied to all cases, can be laid down in this matter.

They should not be searched for; but when accused and convicted, they should be punished; yet if

any one denies that be has been a Christian, and proves it by action, namely, by worshipping our

gods, he is to be pardoned upon his repentance, even though suspicion may still cleave to him from

his antecedents. But anonymous accusations must not be admitted in any criminal process; it sets

a bad example, and is contrary to our age" (i.e. to the spirit of Trajan’s government).

This decision was much milder than might have been expected from a heathen emperor of

the old Roman stamp. Tertullian charges it with self-contradiction, as both cruel and lenient,

forbidding the search for Christians and yet commanding their punishment, thus declaring them

innocent and guilty at the same time. But the emperor evidently proceeded on political principles,

and thought that a transient and contagious enthusiasm, as Christianity in his judgment was, could

be suppressed sooner by leaving it unnoticed, than by openly assailing it. He wished to ignore it as

much as possible. But every day it forced itself more and more upon public attention, as it spread

with the irresistible power of truth.

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Or prohibited clubs. This is the meaning of hetaeria (

ἑταιρεία or ἑταιρία), collegium, sodalitas, sodalitium, company,

brotherhood, especially a private political club or union for party purposes. The Roman sodalities were festive clubs or lodges,

and easily available for political and revolutionary ends. Trajan refused to sanction a company of firemen in Nicomedia (Pliny,

Ep. X. 34, al. 43). Comp. Büttner, Geschichte der politischen Hetärien in Athen (1840). and Mommsen, De collegiis et sodali

us Romanorum (Kiel, 1843).

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Philip Schaff

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

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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