The persecution of the early Christians
Christians have been persecuted ever since, identified as such, they no longer benefited from the privileged status of the Jews. The persecution, at first circumscribed, local and sporadic, it became systematic in the middle of the third century.
For what reason to persecute i Christians in a Roman empire considered "tolerant" towards many different cults?
The commandment of Jesus "therefore render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God" sanctioned the political loyalty of Christians and their submission to the State, but also the separation of the political and religious spheres, while in the ancient world their intertwining was the norm. Since they professed an exclusive monotheism and rejected the worship of the gods, Christians were considered bad citizens, dangerous to the health of the empire. Their "atheism" jeopardized the necessary harmonious agreement between gods and men, that peace of the gods it guaranteed, by strictly observing the rites of public cults, the smooth functioning of the Roman world. The Christians were therefore subject to the rulers, for all power came from God - even when they were persecuted, prayed to God for the emperor and his representatives -, but they rejected the imperial cult.
In the absence of anti-Christian legislation, the zeal of the rulers was decisive towards those adepts who persisted in a "dangerous and unreasonable superstition"; for this purpose, it was enough to apply the laws of the republican era on new and illicit religions. One was punished with death for being a Christian, not for alleged crimes. This is the provision established in 112 by the emperor Trajan in response to Pliny the Younger, who, appointed governor of Bithynia (in Asia Minor), he had registered the presence of numerous Christians in that region; the emperor however recommended not to look for them and not to take into account anonymous denunciations. Christians, punished for what they were and not for what they did, they were more victims of the hatred of public opinion - sometimes to the point of massacre - and of the zeal of the governors than of a political will to repress.
Smell, in 64, following the fire that devastated the city, some Christians were put to death, "Prosecuted not so much for the crime of fire as for that of hatred against humanity", as the historian Tacitus wrote around 115-116. These men were exhibited at fairs, crucified or transformed into human torches during the play circus who were held in the gardens of Nero. It was probably in the context of this "spectacular torture" that the apostle Peter was crucified. Paolo, Roman citizen, brought to Rome from the East, he was beheaded, after trial, in 66 O 67.
Local and local persecutions took place, during the 2nd century: e to the Antioch, the chief in the Bitinia, under Traiano (98-117); in the province of Asia, in the wake of popular demonstrations, under Adriano (117-138); under Antonino (138-161), the Christian Ptolemy in Rome and the bishop Polycarp in Smyrna were condemned only for admitting that they were Christians; a resurgence of persecutions resulted in the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-185), who, despite the courage of the martyrs in the face of death, for Christians he had only contempt. Christians began to be held responsible for the misfortunes of the time, thus becoming the first potential victims of expiatory rites. So, the philosopher and apologist Justin was put to death in Rome; in Lyon, in 177, the old bishop Fotino and several Christians died in prison, while the deacon of the Church of Vienne, Spirit, Attains, (despite being a Roman citizen), the slave Blandina, the adolescent Pontico and others were exhibited at the fairs in the Tre Gallie amphitheater; their bodies were thrown to the dogs and then burned, and the ashes thrown into the Rhone; a Pergamo, some Christians were tortured and then burned alive in the amphitheater. In 180, for the first time in North Africa, some Christian members were beheaded for their faith; smell, others were sentenced to forced labor in the mines of Sardinia. However, there was no lack of governors who set the Christians free, and the emperor Commodus amnested some confessors under pressure from his circle, Christianity having now penetrated all environments, including the court.
Christians became more and more numerous; in every city, the Church had begun to organize itself with a bishop at the top, assisted by priests and deacons; this organization, known to the authorities as to the public, it could be assimilated to that of the colleges, and as such it allowed them to have their own places of worship and cemeteries. But the persecutions took place anyway, some against converts, catechumens and new baptized, as well as against their catechists, as in Alexandria in 202-203; or in Carthage, where some catechumens were arrested, including two young women, Perpetua and Happiness; judged and condemned at fairs, these were put to death on 7 March 203 together with their catechist, after being baptized in prison; they refused to be dressed, men in the robes of the priests of Saturn, women with that of the initiates of Ceres, so that their martyrdom was not transformed into a sacrifice wings of the gods of Roman Africa. Complaints and popular pressure sparked constant flares of violence, such as the massacre of Christians in Alexandria in 249. Christians in danger of death extolled the ideal of martyr as an absolute testimony of faith, fulfillment of Christian perfection by imitation of the crucified Christ, apparent defeat that transcended into triumph.
During the third century, the empire faced severe trials (invasions of the Goths, natural disasters), interpreted as signs that the peace of the gods had been disturbed; to restore it, the emperor Decius he ordered, for the 3 January 250, a general plea: all citizens (practically all the free inhabitants of the post Empire 212) and their families would have had to perform a religious act in honor of the gods through the offering of incense, libagione, sacrifice or consumption of consecrated meat; certificates of sacrifice were issued which some bought. Strictly speaking, it was not an edict of persecution, and yet he unleashed it, because it aimed to force those who refused to submit to abjuration or, if not, to condemn them. Numerous Christians spontaneously submitted, some abjured under duress, others, i confessori, subjected to torture, resistant; the martyrs were sentenced to death. The persecution ceased when Decius died, in 251, but it began again when his successor ordered new public sacrifices to ward off a plague, once again shouting "I Christians ai leoni!Of the hostile crowd. The apostates had been more numerous than the martyrs and confessors, especially in Africa. Avoiding the double stumbling block of rigorism and laxity, Cipriano, bishop of Carthage, he advocated a penance proportionate to the guilt which was adopted by an African council, in communion with the bishop of Rome, Cornelio. It was so defined, for the universal Church, a discipline of penance and mercy.
In 257-258, due to the particularly serious situation, the emperor Valerian ordered a general persecution of Christians, in order to divert popular discontent on them. For the first time, two edicts were promulgated which explicitly and exclusively targeted them:
- in 257 meetings and access to cemeteries were prohibited; bishops, priests and deacons were forced to sacrifice, under penalty of exile and confiscation of assets;
- in 258, the death sentence was decreed for clerics and people of high rank.
The persecution became bloody: in Rome the bishop and four deacons were beheaded; Cyprian and other African bishops, some Spanish bishops and Dionysius of Lutetia suffered the same fate.
After the capture of Valerian by the Persians, his son gallieno, yearning for civil peace, gave proof of realism by suspending the persecution in 260 and authorizing Christians to recover places of worship and cemeteries. Although the Christian religion was not recognized as legal, for forty years Christians benefited from a period of peace that allowed the Church to develop, albeit in an uneven way, depending on the regions. An expansion that should not be overestimated and which involved between the 3 and the 15% of the population, more in the East and in Africa than in the sparsely urbanized regions of the West.
From 284, the emperor Diocleziano undertook the reorganization of the Empire through the institution, in 293, of a college of four emperors (the Tetrarchia). The company in question, which presupposed rigid cohesion in the context of traditional religion, it resulted in the persecution of all who rejected it: it was the turn of the Manicheans in 297 e, from 303, to Christians. Through four edicts, more severe prohibitions and penalties were promulgated: demolition of churches, burning of the Scriptures, dismissal of Christian officers and officials, followed by the arrest of the heads of the Churches and, finally, from the obligation for everyone to sacrifice, on pain of death. The application of these measures varied from area to area: the persecution was very severe in the East until 311 (and even beyond), brutal in Spain, in Africa and Italy up to 306 and limited in Gaul, then under the dominion of the Emperor Constantius, tolerant if not sympathetic to Christianity.
In 311 the emperor Gallery, relentless persecutor, recognized the failure of a persecution that, however bloody, it had failed to eradicate Christianity. Realistic, but without too many regrets, decided to show "indulgence". He granted the right to be Christian and to rebuild i meeting places, adding that Christians will have to pray to their God for our health, for that of the state and for theirs. Christians had been asking for nothing else for three centuries: Christianity was legally recognized.
The decision, taken in Milan in 313 by the emperor Costantino, personally converted, and by Licinius, it granted «to Christians and to all others the freedom to follow the religion that each believes so that the divinity who is in heaven, whatever it is, to us and to all our subjects give peace and prosperity ». Freedom of religion and worship was thus recognized: an innovation, this, of great scope. Martyrdom ceased to be, at least for now, the royal road to holiness; the cult of martyrs and the veneration of their relics had a new development. New ways of witnessing to the faith were developed, along with other avenues to access perfection, in particular asceticism.
Bibliographic sources
History of Christianity curated by A. Corbin
