The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation

(Rick Simeone) #1
o The numbers of Christians killed over these centuries is
particularly difficult to assess, although to be sure, the effect
of persecution should not be measured only by numbers
of fatalities.

o It seems clear, moreover, that Christians enjoyed periods of
peace that sometimes lasted for decades.

• Overall, however, a consistent pattern appears to emerge:
When Christians were persecuted by state authority, it was as a
corollary of some larger political concern for the security of the
imperial order.


• The best known (or suspected)
persecutions can be summarized
according to century.
o In the 1st century, Nero killed
Christians in 64 as a way
of deflecting blame for the
fire in Rome from himself.
According to Tacitus, Nero
“inflicted the most exquisite
tortures on a class hated
for their abominations...
[and] hatred of mankind.” A
persecution under Domitian
(89–96) is postulated as the
backdrop to the oppression
and murder depicted in the
book of Revelation.


o In the 2nd century, a regional repression under Trajan (109–111)
in Asia Minor is known from the letter of Pliny, as well as
from the letters of Ignatius of Antioch. Under Marcus Aurelius
(162–177), a persecution in Lyons can be documented and may
have been more widespread.

In the 1st-century persecution
under the emperor Nero, it
was said that Christians were
mocked, attacked by dogs,
crucified, and burned.

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