Geoffrey D. Nos ipsi ut lepores destinata uenatio Eusebius, H. Eusebius does not specify whether this was before, during or after the Severan persecution, Paul L. Maier, trans. Ronald E. Clement, Strom 4. The Gnostics have generally been identified as being anti-martyrdom and thus the heretics of whom Clement wrote.
This has been challenged by Philip L. Middleton, Radical Martyrdom , p. For example, G. Whitby, Michael and Streeter, Joseph. Oxford, , pp. Origen, Comm. Origen, Mart. Origen, Princ. In fact, he suggested a sort of meritorious hierarchy among martyrs, depending how much they suffered and what they had given up; Mart.
Had young Origen followed his father, the church would have been greatly deprived. Worrall, Origen , San Francisco date pp. Origen, Cels. Here Origen does not need to appeal to allegory to counter Celsus. Worral, SanFransico, Tertullian, Scap. Paul R. Barnes, Tertullian , pp. Shockingly, at the close of De Spectaculis Tertullian delighted in the terrible retribution of the persecutors.
This is the not-so-subtle implication of Ep 8, and Cyprian seemed to periodically return to the shepherd-flock analogy, as if the accusation continued to sting. Clarke, The Letters of St. Cyprian of Carthage , 4 vols. David E. Wilhite here expands on and departs from, the work of Michael A. But we ought at least to recall that this is written in a society where such inspiration was considered as a normal part of affairs. I believe this is too individual a claim to be an allusion to Mt Dionysius of Alexandria was being hunted and Fabian of Rome was dying in prison, suggesting that bishops were targeted.
Clarke, Letters, Vol. Apparently, no one was clamouring for the unknown presbyters to be brought to the arena; because of their lower status they were able to visit the confessors in prison, unhindered.
Clarke, Letters , Vol. They were concerned the church in Carthage was now also leaderless and reminded their Carthaginian brothers to be not hirelings, but good shepherds. Nam, sicut Domini mandata instruunt, orio statim turbationis impetur primo, cum me clamore uiolento frequenter populus flagitasset, non tam meam salutem quam quietem fratrum publicam cogitans, interim secessi, ne per inverecundam praesentiam nostram, seditio quae coeperat, plus prouocaretur.
The link is much stronger in Laps. It is unclear how he would have expected the Roman clergy to interpret it. The church in Carthage was in danger of disintegration. The subsequent reference to shepherds in 2. Cyprian further pairs rebellion against the Gospel with rebellion against the bishop in Ep.
An excuse which Tertullian, Fug. Et ideo Dominus in persecutione secedere et fugere mandauit, adque, ut id fierit, et docuit et fecet. Clarke, Letter,s Vol. The church additionally experienced discord, heretics and schismatics. May For a detailed analysis of Ep.
S olus non est qui templum dei seruans ubicumque fuerit sine deo non est. Cyprian, Mort. Primo in loco on est in tua potestate, sed in Dei dignatione martyrium, nec potes te dicere perdidisse quod nescis an merearis accipere.
Confiscation of property had been common in the Decian persecution, and Christian refugees would have had to leave their possessions and tools of trade. The date of Ad Fortunatum, also known as Exhortation to Martyrdom, is unclear.
Clarke, Letters, , Vol. Fahey, Cyprian and The Bible , p. I suggest either or would fit with the anticipation of persecution, but I cautiously favour because Cyprian seemed to be exhorting himself as much as his fellow bishop Fortunatus to their duty of preparing Christians for martyrdom 4 , and stressed the inevitability and continuity of Christian persecution See Clarke, Letters , Vol.
Cyprian, Fort. From Curubis he exchanged letters of encouragement and consolation to the Numidian bishop confessors in the mines; Epp. Quodcumque enim sub illo confessionis momento confessor episcopus loquitur, aspirante Deo, ore omnium loquitur. Others have built on the seminal work of Charles A. Reference Works. Primary source collections. Open Access Content. Contact us. Sales contacts. Publishing contacts. Social Media Overview. Terms and Conditions. Privacy Statement. Login to my Brill account Create Brill Account.
Email this content Share link with colleague or librarian You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. To Flee or Not to Flee? Author: Ruth Sutcliffe 1. Online Publication Date: 20 Sep Abstract When faced with persecution, Christians behaved in a range of ways, from confessing and accepting or even provoking martyrdom to apostasising. Persecution in the Third Century Although third century persecution was intermittent and primarily local, Christian writers certainly perceived their communities as disliked and imperilled, with popular antagonism and official intervention an impending threat, whether it materialised in a given community or not.
The new emperor, Valerian —60 , at first tolerated the Christians but in the summer of suddenly altered his attitude. Other bishops were sent to the mines. In addition, Christian places of worship and cemeteries were closed, and anyone entering did so at risk of execution.
For nearly a year there was an uneasy calm. The Christians, however, were not cowed as they were a few years before. We learn of numbers of visitors to Curubis, where Cyprian was living; of forbidden Christian assemblies in a suburb of Alexandria; and of proselytizing by Dionysius where he had been exiled. Around July , Valerian ordered that bishops, priests, and deacons be executed, that church property be confiscated, that socially superior honorati laity lose their privileges and imperial civil servants Caesariani be reduced to slavery a status from which many had emerged.
In some parts of the Empire this persecution of was the bloodiest the church endured. On August 6 Pope Sixtus II was discovered conducting a service in the Catacomb of Praetextatus and was martyred, as were all seven of his deacons.
Next month, Cyprian was brought from his place of exile to face the ailing governor, Galerius Maximus. Once again Cyprian refused to perform sacrifice. You have set yourself up as an enemy of the Roman gods and of their sacred rites. And the pious and most religious emperors Valerian and Gallienus Augusti, and Valerian, the most noble Caesar, have been unable to bring you back to the observance of their own sacred rituals.
Therefore, having been apprehended as the instigator and ringleader of a criminal conspiracy … you will be executed. Christian could still be arrested, however. For example, a Christian soldier, Marinus, lost his life when a jealous fellow soldier found that Marinus was to be promoted to the rank of centurion and denounced him as a Christian.
Yet bishoprics multiplied, and church building seems to have gone on unhindered. In the imperial capital at Nicomedia on the opposite side of the Bosporus to Constantinople , the Christian church stood in full view of the imperial palace. More important, the church now became a movement of the countryside as well as of the towns. How and why, after 43 years of peace, did this happen? First, while the church appeared to be accepted, opposition to it was never far below the surface.
Since the pagans, inspired by the Neo-Platonist philosopher, Porphyry, had begun to mount a serious intellectual assault on Christianity. In March he appointed a comrade-in-arms, Maximian, as co-emperor Augustus in the West; and on March 1, , the two Augusti appointed two other military men, Constantius and Galerius, as their assistants, or Caesars. They imposed a uniform system of administration, currency and, in , prices throughout the Empire.
Uniformity and discipline were the watchwords of the age, yet Christian remained a standing challenge to the unifying and conservative ideals of the emperors.
Persecutions might not have occurred, however, but for the fortunes of war. In Caesar Galerius, who was strongly anti-Christian, won a decisive victory over the Persians. With his victory his influence over Diocletian increased. The die was now cast.
On February 23, , the Feast of Terminalia, repression would start. Churches were destroyed, Christian services banned, and the Scriptures seized and burned. One concession Diocletian secured: no bloodshed. A second edict imposed an obligation on all clergy to sacrifice, but the prisons became too full, and in the autumn of this was modified and most of those imprisoned for refusing were released.
So far the persecution had not been as severe as under Valerian. Scriptures were seized, but among Christians there was often consternation and grudging compliance. Only a minority of determined souls held out. Hadrian was following the advice set by Trajan, but that advice did not require persecution for the nomen christiani itself. Trajan, and Hadrian as well, simply backed up the exercise by the Governor of his coercitio; a Governor solicited direction concerning Christians in particular and therefore received guidance upon their examination and punishment.
It seems most sensible to consider these crimes to have been contumacy, incitement of disorder, and more specific crimes, rather than the single invariable act of profession of Christianity. In the second century there began to appear tracts on the merits of Christianity.
Aristides called attention to the religious, philosophical, and moral superiority of Christians. Having stated that the world continued to exist only because of Christian purity and election by God, he evoked the harsh judgment awaiting pagans. Such a tract could hardly have eased official feelings about an unpopular group. The more intelligent among the pagans were just as convinced of the worthlessness and evil doings of the Christians as was the rabble.
Lucian of Samosata attributed about the love of admiration, notoriety, and attention to the Christians and described them as quite gullible.
Such crimes as incest, murder, and cannibalism had to be refuted continually by apologists like Justin, Athenagoras, and Theophilus of Antioch. Lucius Apuleius second century made a Christian of the woman who played a role in one of the most ignoble episodes of his book.
She was an enemy of faith, an enemy of all virtue; she despised and trampled underfoot our holy divinities; in return she was initiated into a certain sacrilegious religion which believed in a single god; by her vain and hypocritical devotions she deceived all men Celsus considered Christianity an association contrary to the law upon secret gatherings and societies; this religion, he said, stemmed from a barbarian source, taking its disdain for idols from the Persians.
Further persecutions, under Marcus Aurelius , offer more evidence of the great part played by popular agitation against unknown or disfavoured groups. Various military catastrophes as well as plague, famine, and flood were seen by the pagan populace as retribution for the toleration of Christians, natural scapegoats for all such catastrophes.
Nor were the people discouraged from such a belief by Christian avoidance of religious ceremonies instituted by Marcus Aurelius in order to end the plague. Among the most famous martyrdoms in the reign of Marcus Aurelius was that of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. Popular movements against Christians were especially virulent in the Greek East and resulted about in the summoning of the Bishop before the provincial Governor of Asia; the people desired blood and demanded the condemnation and execution of the notorious Christian leader.
The following exchange between the Governor and the Bishop was reported. Polycarp : If you vainly suppose that I shall swear by the Genius of Caesar, as you say, and pretend that you know not who I am, listen plainly; I am a Christian. And if you wish to learn the doctrine of Christianity, fix a day and listen.
The Bishop was then led away and was burned. The power of mob action in the provinces, as illustrated in the passage on Polycarp, was often irresistible. In order to maintain peace it was necessary for an official in such a situation to accede to the demands against the Christians.
In the first year of the reign of Commodus occurred the initial chapter in the African persecutions. Twelve Christians were executed by the Proconsul, Vigellius Saturninus, for refusing to swear by the Genius of the Emperor. Yet the Proconsuls generally sought only to bend Christian persistence from a path which would be harmful to them. Christians would be accused by groups demanding their execution.
The Governors would seek what seemed a simple solution, the denial of their religion by those accused in order to save their lives. In the face of aloofness and obstinacy on the part of the accused, the Governor, frustrated and often suspicious, gave way to the demands of the people. That various heinous crimes were attributed to Christians throughout the second century can be seen in an apology by a Christian.
The apologist, Minucius Felix, gave the following description of contemporary Christians as probably seen by an educated Roman citizen of the day:.
How can we witness without pain the attacks against the gods made by this miserable, unlawful, and fanatical faction? They collect from the scum of the populace ignorant and credulous folk and make them fellow conspirators; in their nocturnal meetings, after solemn fasts and unnatural repasts, they bind themselves together, not by an oath but by a sacrilege; they are a race which hides itself and flies from the light, silent in public, loquacious in their retreats They recognize each other by secret signs and love each other almost before being acquainted; they are united by a religion of debauchery; they call one another sister and brother It is said by some unheard of folly they adore the head of a filthy animal [the ass]: A fine religion and one well worthy of them.
Their rites of initiation are as detestable as they are known. A child, covered with flour to deceive the uninstructed, is presented to the one to be initiated; the latter, seeing only a floury mass and thinking his blows harmless, strikes the unseen child and kills him.
And then these wicked people greedily drink his blood; they unite themselves together by this sacrifice and bind each other mutually to silence by complicity in the crime. The fires of popular suspicion and hatred were further fuelled by the writings of Tertullian in Africa at the turn of the third century.
Each African province possessed its own deities and worshipped them along with the imperial cult. In this religious pantheon Tertullian could not accept a place for Christianity, and he refused to worship any sort of image.
In , several individuals lost their entire families in a twin suicide attack on a church in Pakistan — 78 believers were martyred and were injured. Some church members studied Christian counseling so they could offer comfort to those going through this trauma for the rest of their lives. In places where there is a high risk of believers being the victims of such brutal attacks, or where persecution is on the rise, effective Christian counseling for and by local Christians needs to be in place.
One does not need to wait for a horrific attack to put plans together. The global body of Christ, in partnership with local leadership and ministries, should invest in Christian counseling training with the aim of having at least one group of trained counselors in every large town and city. Likewise, local seminaries and Bible colleges should consider offering courses in Christian counseling within their own social and cultural setting.
In many places where believers are persecuted due to their faith, Christians live as a minority. In such places, seeking ways to maintain a healthy relationship with those of the majority faith and having productive interfaith dialogue are very important.
However, while it is not easy for Christians to engage in dialogue with their persecutors, there seems to be no better way to gain more understanding of each other and to keep things from getting worse in the future. The global body of Christ in their respective countries can help persecuted Christians by engaging in dialogue with other faith communities, especially with religious leaders who are originally from countries where Christians suffer.
Many are unaware that these communities and religious leaders have influence over people in their countries of origin. For example, an open and clear statement by Egyptian Muslim leaders living in the West against the cruelties done to the Christian minority in Egypt is likely to be taken seriously by Muslims in Egypt and thus assist the suffering church there or in other places such as Nigeria, Iraq, and Pakistan to engage in productive interfaith dialogue with the majority faith.
At the same time, it is encouraging to see that barbarous and cowardly acts cannot stop them from following Christ. They know from experience that, as Paul writes in Romans , there is nothing that can separate them from the love of God, not even suicide attacks. The history of the church demonstrates that no cruelty or tyranny can ever stop the church of Jesus Christ from flourishing and growing in the Christian faith.
The above-mentioned practical steps may assist evangelicals in their work of strengthening the church and global mission. As followers of Christ, we need to be caring for persecuted Christians.
By doing this, we too can experience spiritual blessings as one body of Christ. We can learn so much for our own discipleship from the persecuted church. Evangelicals should step forward in love, pray, and be a channel of blessing to brothers and sisters who witness for Christ in extreme conditions. The Lausanne Movement connects influencers and ideas for global mission, with a vision of the gospel for every person, an evangelical church for every people, Christ-like leaders for every church, and kingdom impact in every sphere of society.
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