1st–3rd centuries
Why Rome persecuted Christians: the causes of the persecutions (1st–3rd centuries)
Shelley: before 200 the Romans tried to silence Christians, at best, without much interest, and only a few emperors were bloodthirsty villains. Imperial policy was tolerant of the religions of conquered lands, and the Jews were exempted from the emperor cult. As long as Christians were taken for a Jewish sect they remained under the same protection; when the Jews made clear that they had nothing in common with the movement, and Christians kept preaching ceaselessly, they became “a bone in the throat” and felt the wrath of the empire. The causes of the persecutions: a different way of life and rejection of the pagan gods, slander of debauched orgies and cannibalism, the charge of godlessness and conflict with the emperor cult; a Christian was officially an outlaw “by name.”
Key points
- Shelley: Christians, called “saints” (hagios, “different”), reproved paganism by their way of life alone, without criticising it. Rejecting pagan gods, they skipped libations, temple feasts and gladiatorial games – they were thought rude, later “enemies of the human race”. Fear of idolatry made earning a living hard (pagan temple walls, priests’ robes), and Tertullian forbade them to teach school: a Christian wishing to stay faithful was almost bound to break with the social and economic life of his time. Christians treated slaves kindly and gave them equal rights in the Church (ex-slave Callistus became bishop of Rome), and did not leave infants to die; Paul’s teaching of the body as the Spirit’s temple brought the ancient world a condemnation of vice and a call to family life. Christians were most often accused of sexual sins and cannibalism: the occasion was the love feast (agape), the holy kiss and the words “This bread is My body”; the crowd believed the gods would punish those who tolerated them. The third cause was the charge of godlessness: Christians insulted the state’s gods by worshiping a deity without a form, and, as Tertullian says, when the Tiber rose, in drought, famine or plague the cry went up at once: “Christians to the lion!” Emperor worship grew from gratitude for the Pax Romana and the goddess Roma; the first temple to an emperor was built in Asia Minor in 29 BC. Under Decius (249–251) the cult became obligatory and universal (except for Jews), and Christians refusing to say “Caesar is Lord” seemed revolutionaries.
People
- Tertullian
- Callistus
- Nero
- Claudius
- Decius
- Pliny the Younger
- Trajan
Place
The Roman Empire