In spite of the opposition from without and the attacks within, there was before the end of the first century a large and rapidly increasing body of believers in the world. During the period covered by the Acts of the Apostles, persecution came mainly from the Jews. Christians came soon afterwards under the notice of the Roman authorities. Tacitus — contemporary with Nero—describes Christianity as a “detestable superstition which at first was suppressed and afterwards broke out afresh and spread, not only through Judea the origin of the evil, but through the metropolis also, the common sewer in which everything filthy and flagitious meets and spreads.” That a writer regarded as cautious and grave should so speak of Christians shows the animosity and contempt in which they were held. It reminds us of Peter’s words: “Having your conversation [manner of life] honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:1212Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:12)). The early Christians had to live down this evil and false report and prove by their lives the pure and heavenly character of their faith.
The first persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire was in 64 A.D. by Nero, one of the most depraved, vain and foolish men that ever sat upon a throne. Having ordered Rome to be set on fire in order to satisfy his foolish vanity, he afterwards laid the blame on the Christians. They were now ordered to be arrested. Tacitus records that “a great multitude were discovered and seized, and they were condemned not so much for the burning of Rome as for being the enemies of mankind.” It is striking that neither Jews nor members of heretical sects, of which there were already many, seem to have incurred this reproach at that time. The cruelties meted out to the followers of Christ were utterly revolting. Some were covered with skins of wild beasts to be torn by dogs; others were crucified; others were covered with pitch and set fire to that they might serve as torches. Such scenes took place in the Emperor’s own gardens. This persecution continued for three or four years. Nero’s death, as awful as his life, gave believers a period of peace, lasting about thirty years.
Domitian was the next persecutor. He treated Christians with great violence towards the end of his reign. Among the sufferers was his own cousin, Flavius Clemens, and his wife. This was in 95 A.D. Domitian was killed in the following year, and his successor, Nerva, granted a general pardon, so that at the close of the first century the Church enjoyed a time of peace. Peter and Paul suffered during Nero’s persecution, while John was banished to Patmos during that of Domitian. Of the fate of the other apostles we have only legendary accounts.
The early believers belonged for the most part to the ranks of the poor and ignorant, but there were some of birth and distinction, and we have already noticed one martyr from the family of Caesar. The light of Christianity was shining, the Christian gospel was spreading, not by human means, not by power or argument, but by means of humble, lowly persons who were prepared to suffer the most dreadful ignominies, tortures and death for their beloved Lord. In this they were supported by divine power, and the blood of the martyrs proved to be the seed of the Church.
Trajan began the third persecution about 100 A.D. Pliny (the younger), the Roman governor of Bithynia, wrote to the Emperor for guidance as to how to deal with Christians. He was quite unable to attach any moral evil to them, but they refused to worship the images of the gods or the emperor. He says in his letter that the number of culprits was so great as to call for serious consultation. Many were informed against of every age and of both sexes. “The contagion of the superstition” had spread, he says, not only through cities, but even villages and the country. He claims, however, that as a result of his measures “the temples, once almost desolate, begin to be frequented and the sacred solemnities which had long been intermitted were attended afresh, and the sacrificial victims sold everywhere which once could scarcely find a purchaser.”
Here is a remarkable and authentic testimony from the Roman governor himself that Christianity had already begun to empty the temples. Yet it is clear from the same evidence that when persecution broke out, there were those who were ready to give up their profession to save themselves from suffering. Thus was the true gold purified and the dross separated.
The Scripture says, “Marvel not ... if the world hate you” (1 John 3:1313Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. (1 John 3:13)). The natural enmity of the human heart against those whose lives and words touch the conscience, the vested interest of the heathen priesthood, the inveterate hatred of the Jew, an important and numerous body of persons in the empire who propagated lying falsehoods against a faith and a people they held in abhorrence and who were the professed followers of One they had crucified and condemned as an impostor, the pride of a war-like nation to whom the gentle, unresisting meekness of Christianity was by nature repulsive, the proud emperors who expected divine honors to be paid to them and to whom this conscientious refusal by the Christians to yield them idolatrous homage was but a species of rebellion — these were bitter elements in the animosity of the world against the early confessors of the faith.
But behind all was the evil spirit whom the Lord called the “prince of this world” (John 12:3131Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. (John 12:31)), the “spirit who now works,” as Paul said, “in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:22Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2) JND), who would fain, if it were possible, stamp out the name of Jesus from the earth. The world was against the Church, but the conflict was not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places (Eph. 6:1212For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)). The Lord was with His people, the Spirit of God was in them, and they must prevail, but it was through a fiery furnace of persecution, such as had never been known, that the Church must go, and for two centuries, with occasional periods of peace, the fearful conflict continued, God’s people overcoming in the power of divine grace.
Fifty years of rest followed the third persecution. The fourth was instigated by Marcus Aurelius in 177. Ten years earlier in a local persecution in Asia Minor, Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who had known the Apostle John personally, was burned at the stake when ninety years of age.
In the year 202 a severer ordeal was faced. The Emperor Septimus Severus issued an edict which forbade his subjects to embrace either the Christian faith or the Jewish religion. Both Jews and Christians were persecuted. Terrible tortures were inflicted on many Christians regardless of age or sex.
To this period one of the most pathetic stories of martyrdom belongs. It concerns Vivia Perpetua, a young Christian woman of Carthage. She was a recent convert, twenty-two years old, married, with a young infant. Her father, a pagan, sought by every kind of persuasion and entreaty to change her mind. He implored her to take pity on her loved ones, and, above all, on the helpless babe she was nursing.
The procurator, before whom she was brought, spoke persuasively, saying, “Spare the grey hairs of your parent; spare your infant; offer sacrifice for the welfare of the Emperor.”
“I will not sacrifice,” she replied.
“Art thou a Christian?”
“I am a Christian,” she said.
Sentence of death was passed. But death was not punishment enough for a Christian. With brutal disregard for all human feelings, she, with others, was taken to the arena on the day of the games. She was tied in a net, another woman companion suffering the same treatment, and both were exposed to an enraged cow. As her injuries were not fatal, she was finally killed by a gladiator’s sword. What enabled Perpetua in her youth and weakness to sacrifice all that was dear to her and her own life for Christ’s sake? Only His grace, by which she was indeed powerfully supported throughout her days of suffering. Amid the hosts of the redeemed who will swell the Saviour’s train at His appearing we shall see her, with countless more, wearing the crown of life. It was by such persons that the Christian testimony was carried through the long years of suffering.
This awful storm raged for nearly ten years. Then Severus died, and the Church rested once again for a period of twenty-four years, after which Maximus, who had at first shown toleration, introduced adverse measures directed primarily against the leaders of the Church. Public hatred, however, took advantage of the situation and for a number of years many evils were inflicted on the people of God. This was the sixth persecution.
When Decius reached the throne in 249 he immediately issued a decree against Christianity. He wished to destroy it root and branch, and every species of violence and cruelty was employed to achieve this end. Many were subjected to cruel tortures, crucified, made to sit on red-hot chairs of iron, besides other refinements of torment. Divine providence cut short this trial, for Decius only survived two years, and this, the seventh persecution, was again succeeded in the mercy of God by a time of quiet.
The eighth persecution began under the Emperor Valerian who, at the start of his reign, had shown toleration. Once again Christians suffered awful cruelties and many acquired the martyr’s crown.
A terrible retribution overtook this emperor. He was taken prisoner by the King of Persia, a power then recently revived. This monarch heaped the most insulting indignities upon him, and finally, when the Emperor was in his old age, put out his eyes and flayed him alive. Valerian’s son, who succeeded him, observed that his father prospered while he showed kindness to the Christians, and in consequence he treated them with mildness. Another calm thus followed the storm.
The ninth persecution took place in the reign of Aurelian. It commenced in the year 274 but did not last long as the Emperor was murdered within a short time by some of his servants.
In 284 Diocletian became emperor, three others being associated with him in the government. During the early part of his reign there was no organized persecution, but accounts have come down of various martyrs, among them some of the nobility of Rome. It was at this period that the first martyr in Britain was put to death, for these islands seem to have escaped the earlier fury that raged in so many parts of the Roman Empire. This was Alban, a converted pagan, who has given his name to the town of St. Albans. About the same time the soldiers of an entire Roman legion, numbering over six thousand men, who were all Christians, were put to death because they refused to march against their fellow-Christians in Gaul where the co-emperor Maximian had determined to wipe out Christianity.
In 303 A.D. Diocletian, influenced by his adopted son, Galerius, a bigoted pagan, began the tenth and last general persecution. Its avowed object was nothing less than the complete extirpation of Christianity. It began in Nicomedia. Churches were burned to the ground. The sacred books were sought out and wherever found committed to the flames. Largely as a consequence of this, no manuscript of the New Testament earlier than the fourth century has survived intact to our day. Providentially, ample means are at the disposal of scholars to ascertain the true text of the New Testament writings. It must, however, have been a terrible blow to the early Church to lose these priceless treasures. The persecution was general throughout the empire but particularly severe in the East.
Foxe says, “Many were devoured by wild beasts in Phoenicia, great numbers were broiled on gridirons in Syria, others had their bones broken and in that manner left to expire in Cappadocia, and in Mesopotamia several were hung over slow fires and suffocated. In Pontus a variety of tortures were used: Pins were thrust under the nails of prisoners, melted lead was poured upon them and other exquisite tortures were inflicted, without, however, shaking their faith. In Egypt some Christians were buried alive in the earth; others were drowned in the Nile. Many were hung in the air till they perished and great numbers were thrown into large fires and suffocating kilns. Scourges, racks, daggers, swords, poison, crosses and famine were made use of in various parts to destroy Christians, and invention was exhausted to devise new tortures against them. A town of Phrygia consisting entirely of Christians was surrounded by a number of pagan soldiers, who set it on fire and all the inhabitants perished in the flames.”
Diocletian and Maximian resigned, leaving Constantius to rule in the West and Galerius in the East. The latter continued the persecution with the most awful cruelty, while those in the West benefited from the milder disposition of Constantius. This awful trial lasted ten years. In 313 Constantine, having assumed the imperial purple, published the Edict of Milan, giving all his subjects complete liberty of conscience. He restored to Christians equality of rights and gave them back their churches and their goods.