Transcript Persecution

Persecution
2nd and 3rd Century Christianity
 The Roman empire allowed
its people to believe
whatever they wanted to
believe as long as they
observed the State Religion
 The Romans took very
seriously the public
sacrifices
 Believed that if you do not
offer sacrifices to the gods,
they get angry and abandon
you
 Keeping the gods
pacified was the top
priority
Exceptions
 Jews were the only ones exempt
from performing the State Religion
 The earliest Christians were
exempted from performing sacrifices
 As Christianity separated from
Judaism, Romans no longer felt
obligated to grant them the
exclusion
 Religions needed official approval to
operate legally
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Judaism had this status
Christians didn’t
 It did not help that Christians were
followers of someone the Romans
had executed as a political threat
What started the persecutions?
 Christians refused to offer sacrifices
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violating Roman law
if a group of people refused to offer
sacrifices, this was seen as a flat
rejection of Roman rule
 Especially if they did this
because they were worshiping
what the Romans viewed as a
competing god
 It meant you were politically
opposed to the empire and
would revolt if only you got the
change
The Emperor
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The people were also expected to pay homage to
the “genius” of the Roman emperor.
 Genius refers to the divine spirit of the
emperor
 Most emperors claimed to be divine
 Making a sacrifice to the emperor’s genius
was really a patriotic duty - today: Pledge of
Allegiance to the flag today
Christians saw it as sacrificing to a pagan idol
If only a few people had resisted, it would not
have been a problem; but as the number of
Christians grew, authorities faced the prospect of
widespread resistance to the roman rule - an
intolerable situation
Christians’ fault= persecution
 Many believed that the
empire almost collapsed
due to the direct result of
the gods’ disapproval of
Christians
 The empire’s survival
depended on suppressing
Christianity and getting
people to turn back to
traditional customs and
religion
 Christians were
persecuted
Catacombs
 Christians were executed by facing
fire, wild animals, or gladiators in
huge arenas.
 This was a form of public
entertainment as well as political
propaganda that communicated a
clear message about the danger of
disloyalty to the empire.
 Those Christians who refused to
sacrifice to Roman gods and
goddesses were often murdered.
• These Christians are called
martyrs
 The word martyr means witness
 It refers to those who choose to die
rather than renounce their beliefs
Facing the test
 Not all Christians were able to face
up the prospect of torture and
death
 Some failed to stand up for their
faith and were called lapsi
 Lapsi means lapsed or failed
 Included: laypeople, priests,
bishops, and even a pope
 Pope Marcellinus handed over
copies of the sacred books and
offered incense to the gods
 He was called a traditor=
traitor
 Means one who hands
over
Reforming the lapsi
 Some Christians said the
lapsi should be readmitted
 Others believed they should
be excommunicated for life
 The Church as a whole came
to a decision that those who
lapsed needed to do
penance but afterwards
could once more join the
Christian community
 Not everyone agreed with
the church’s decision
Martyrdom in the ancient world
 Martyrdom was uncommon
in the ancient world
 Earliest account of
martyrdom appears in 2nd
Maccabees
 The mother and her
seven sons
 This kind of faithfulness was
unheard of in the ancient
world
 No one’s lord required
absolute fidelity
martyrologies
 A body of literature that related the heroic and horrifying
tales of honor, torture, death, and glory.
 The format included:
 A first person narrative by the martyr - explaining his or
her desire to share in Christ’s suffering or leave this life
for the greater one awaiting
 An account of the execution written by an observer of
the events