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A. N. Sherwin-White records that serious discussion of the reasons for Roman persecution of Christians began in 1890 when it produced "20 years of controversy" and three main opinions: first, there was the theory held by most French and Belgian scholars that "there was a general enactment, precisely formulated and valid for the whole empire, which forbade the practice of the Christian religion.
While it is understood by scholars that persecution did cause some apostasy and temporary setbacks in the numbers of Christians, the long term impact on Christian conversion was not negative. Peter Brown writes that "The failure of the Great Persecution of Diocletian was regarded as a confirmation of a long process of religious self-assertion ...
Christian missionaries and converts to Christianity have both been targeted for persecution, sometimes to the point of being martyred for their faith, ever since the emergence of Christianity. Early Christians were persecuted at the hands of both Jews , from whose religion Christianity arose , and the Romans who controlled many of the early ...
According to Tacitus, Nero used Christians as human torches The Victory of Faith, by Saint George Hare, depicts two Christians in the eve of their damnatio ad bestias. According to Jacob Neusner, the only religion in antiquity that was persistently outlawed and subject of systematic persecution was not Judaism, but Christianity. [15]
The Edict of Serdica was issued in 311 by the Roman emperor Galerius, officially ending the Diocletianic persecution of Christianity in the East. With the passage in AD 313 of the Edict of Milan, in which the Roman Emperors Constantine the Great and Licinius legalised the Christian religion, persecution of Christians by the Roman state ceased ...
The persecution ended in 311 with the death of Diocletian. The persecution ultimately had not turned the tide on the growth of the religion, [6] and because of the rapid growth, Christians accounted for 56.5% of the Roman population by 350. [7] Christians had already organized to the point of establishing hierarchies of bishops.
The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. [1] In 303, the emperors Diocletian , Maximian , Galerius , and Constantius issued a series of edicts rescinding Christians' legal rights and demanding that they comply with traditional religious practices.
This account of persecution is part of a general theme of anti-Christian persecution by both Romans and Jews, one that starts with the Pharisee rejection of Jesus's ministry, the cleansing of the Temple, and continues on with his trial before the High Priest, his crucifixion, and the Pharisees' refusal to accept him as the Jewish messiah.