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

Nicomedia in Bithynia, where Diocletian resided 

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7

. It was strengthened by the tearing down of

the first edict by an imprudent Christian (celebrated in the Greek church under the name of John),

who vented in that way his abhorrence of such "godless and tyrannical rulers," and was gradually

roasted to death with every species of cruelty. But the conjecture that the edicts were occasioned

by a conspiracy of the Christians who, feeling their rising power, were for putting the government

at once into Christian hands, by a stroke of state, is without any foundation in history. It is

inconsistent with the political passivity of the church during the first three centuries, which furnish

no example of rebellion and revolution. At best such a conspiracy could only have been the work

of a few fanatics; and they, like the one who tore down the first edict, would have gloried in the

deed and sought the crown of martyrdom.

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8

The persecution began on the twenty-third day of February, 303, the feast of the Terminalia

(as if to make an end of the Christian sect), with the destruction of the magnificent church in

Nicomedia, and soon spread over the whole Roman empire, except Gaul, Britain, and Spain, where

the co-regent Constantius Chlorus, and especially his son, Constantine the Great (from 306), were

disposed, as far as possible, to spare the Christians. But even here the churches were destroyed,

and many martyrs of Spain (St. Vincentius, Eulalia, and others celebrated by Prudentins), and of

Britain (St. Alban) are assigned by later tradition to this age.

The persecution raged longest and most fiercely in the East under the rule of Galerius and

his barbarous nephew Maximin Daza, who was intrusted by Diocletian before his retirement with

the dignity of Caesar and the extreme command of Egypt and Syria

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9

. He issued in autumn, 308,

a fifth edict of persecution, which commanded that all males with their wives and servants, and

even their children, should sacrifice and actually taste the accursed offerings, and that all provisions

in the markets should be sprinkled with sacrificial wine. This monstrous law introduced a reign of

terror for two years, and left

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0

 the Christians no alternative but apostasy or starvation. All the

pains, which iron and steel, fire and sword, rack and cross, wild beasts and beastly men could inflict,

were employed to gain the useless end.

Eusebius was a witness of this persecution in Caesura, Tyre, and Egypt, and saw, with his

own eyes, as he tells us, the houses of prayer razed to the ground, the Holy Scriptures committed

to the flames on the market places, the pastors hunted, tortured, and torn to pieces in the amphitheatre.

48

Lactantius charges the incendiarism on Galerius who, as a second Nero, endangered the residence for the purpose of

punishing the innocent Christians. Constantine, who then resided at the Court, on a solemn occasion at a later period, attributes

the fire to lightning (Orat. ad Sanct. c. 25), but the repetition of the occurrence strengthens the suspicion of Lactantius.

49

Gibbon, ch. XVI., intimates the probability of a political plot. In speaking of the fire in the imperial palace of Nicomedia,

he says: "The suspicion naturally fell on the Christians; and it was suggested, with some degree of probability, that those desperate

fanatics, provoked by their present sufferings, and apprehensive of impending calamities, had entered into a conspiracy with

their faithful brethren, the eunuchs of the palace, against the lives of two emperors, whom they detested as the irreconcilable

enemies of the Church of God." The conjecture of Gibbon was renewed by Burkhardt in his work on Constantine, pp. 332 ff,

but without any evidence. Baur rejects it as artificial and very improbable. (Kirchengesch. I. 452, note). Mason (p. 97 sq.) refutes

it.

50

See Lactant., De Morte Persec. ch. 18 and 19, 32, and Gibbon, ch. XIV. V. (vol. II. 16 in Smith’s edition). The original

name of Maximin was Daza. He must not be confounded with Maximian (who was older and died three years before him). He

was a rude, ignorant and superstitious tyrant, equal to Galerius in cruelty and surpassing him in incredible debauchery (See Lact.

l.c. ch. 37 sqq.). He died of poison after being defeated by Licinius in 313.

51

See on this edict of Maximin, Euseb. Mart. Pal. IX. 2; the Acts of Martyrs in Boll., May 8, p. 291, and Oct. 19, p. 428;

Mason, l.c. 284 sqq.

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Philip Schaff

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

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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Even the wild beasts, he says, not without rhetorical exaggeration, at last refused to attack the

Christians, as if they had assumed the part of men in place of the heathen Romans; the bloody

swords became dull and shattered; the executioners grew weary, and had to relieve each other; but

the Christians sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving in honor of Almighty God, even to their latest

breath. He describes the heroic sufferings and death of several martyrs, including his friend, "the

holy and blessed Pamphilus," who after two years of imprisonment won the crown of life (309),

with eleven others—a typical company that seemed to him to be "a perfect representation of the

church."

Eusebius himself was imprisoned, but released. The charge of having escaped martyrdom

by offering sacrifice is without foundation.

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1

In this, as in former persecutions, the number of apostates who preferred the earthly life to

the heavenly, was very great. To these was now added also the new class of the traditores, who

delivered the holy Scriptures to the heathen authorities, to be burned. But as the persecution raged,

the zeal and fidelity of the Christians increased, and martyrdom spread as by contagion. Even boys

and girls showed amazing firmness. In many the heroism of faith degenerated to a fanatical courting

of death; confessors were almost worshipped, while yet alive; and the hatred towards apostates

distracted many congregations, and produced the Meletian and Donatist schisms.

The number of martyrs cannot be estimated with any degree of certainty. The seven episcopal

and the ninety-two Palestinian martyrs of Eusebius are only a select list bearing a similar relation

to the whole number of victims as the military lists its of distinguished fallen officers to the large

mass of common soldiers, and form therefore no fair basis for the calculation of Gibbon, who would

reduce the whole number to less than two thousand. During the eight years

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2 of this persecution

the number of victims, without including the many confessors who were barbarously mutilated and

condemned to a lingering death in the prisons and mines, must have been much larger. But there

is no truth in the tradition (which figures in older church histories) that the tyrants erected trophies

in Spain and elsewhere with such inscriptions as announce the suppression of the Christian sect.

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3

The martyrologies date from this period several legends, the germs of which, however,

cannot now be clearly sifted from the additions of later poesy. The story of the destruction of the

legio Thebaica is probably an exaggeration of the martyrdom of St. Mauritius, who was executed

in Syria, as tribunus militum, with seventy soldiers, at the order of Maximin. The martyrdom of

Barlaam, a plain, rustic Christian of remarkable constancy, and of Gordius, a centurion (who,

however, was tortured and executed a few years later under Licinius, 314) has been eulogized by

St. Basil. A maiden of thirteen years, St. Agnes, whose memory the Latin church has celebrated

ever since the fourth century, was, according to tradition, brought in chains before the judgment-seat

in Rome; was publicly exposed, and upon her steadfast confession put to the sword; but afterwards

appeared to her grieving parents at her grave with a white lamb and a host of shining virgins from

heaven, and said: "Mourn me no longer as dead, for ye see that I live. Rejoice with me, that I am

52

Lightfoot vindicates him in his learned art. Euseb. in Smith and Wace, Dict. of Christ. Biogr. II. 311.

53

Or ten years, if we include the local persecutions of Maximin and Licinius after the first edict of toleration (311-313).

54

As "Nomine Christianorum deleto; superstitione Christiana ubique deleta, et cultu Deorum propagato." See the inscriptions

in full in Baronius (ad. ann. 304, no. 8, 9; but they are inconsistent with the confession of the failure in the edict of toleration,

and acknowledged to be worthless even by Gams (K. Gesch. v. Spanien, I. 387).

47

Philip Schaff

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

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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