Preview

Roman Persecutions of Christians

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1424 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Roman Persecutions of Christians
Christians have faced persecutions since the very beginning of the Catholic Church. Until the Edict of Milan, in 313 AD, Christians were persecuted by their local authorities and the local Jews. The “secret meetings” held by Christians raised suspicions of the Jews and posed a threat to the Roman Empire. Emperor Nero is known for his extremely violent persecutions and setting fire to the center of Rome, deflecting the blame onto the innocent Christians. The line of emperors after Nero also took part in the persecutions. Christians faced difficult decisions involving their faith and their lives. Many of them were martyred during the early Roman persecutions, as they would not deny their beliefs. The first documented imperially supervised persecution is under the Emperor Nero. In the year 67 A.D., Nero was crowned the sixth emperor of Rome, and would be for five years. Over time, he became a more and more powerful ruler. As Christians continued to meet in private, he began to feel threatened by and suspicious of these secret matters. As a form of punishment to any Christian, or “follower of the way,” Nero had the tendency of inhumanely torturing the people. In his garden, he would tie a number of people to poles and line them along his pathway. At the break of night, he would light each of them on fire, as a light source for his evening walks. In addition to burning Christians alive, Nero is known for feeding them to his wild dogs and also crucifying them. Although many denied their faith in fear of these harsh treatments, most would rather die that denounce their one true God. Nero is mostly known for “the great fire of Rome” that began one night in 64 A.D. and lasted for five entire days before it could be tamed and finally put to an end. Rumors began to rapidly spread among the empire and the conclusion was drawn that Nero himself set the fire. Evidence supported the Romans’ suspicion because Nero had such a dire need for a new palace to be built there,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Pro-orthodox Christians responded to persecution/accusations in one of two ways. One response to persecution was martyrdom. Before persecution the Romans gave Christians a choice, deny Jesus or die. An example of this would be The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity. In this reading we see Perpetua’s father come to her, while she’s in prison awaiting a hearing, and beg her to deny Jesus (and perform the Roman rituals instead) so she wouldn’t be killed. She couldn’t do it. Even on the day of her hearing when the Roman in charge of sentencing asked her to think about her family and deny Christ she refused. She was sentenced to death. Many early Christians chose the same path as Perpetua. They would rather die than deny their Savior.…

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Christianity in Rome

    • 2879 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Religion played a key role in the daily life and social system of Ancient Rome. Religion included the worship of many gods and more gods were often adopted from conquered areas. Because most religions were polytheist at the time, the Romans rarely disallowed a cult from a conquered region to continue. A few cults ran into controversy and opposition from citizens or government, such as the cult of Deus Sol Invictus, and that of Isis. Romans were also not keen on monotheistic religion which explains their separation from the Jews. But above all other religions, the Romans disagreed with, persecuted and were threatened most by Christianity. The introduction of Christianity to the Roman Empire challenged a key cohesive element of Roman custom and culture -- religion -- and ultimately contributed to the Empire 's disintegration.…

    • 2879 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Persecutions have been going on almost since the beginning, when Nero started a fire in 64 AD that severely damaged Rome. It is believed that Nero started the fires by himself to rebuild rome into a greek culture, but that is not true. Nero was not at Rome when the fire’s happened in Rome, so he started blaming the Christians for starting the fires in rome to create a distraction to draw attention from himself.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anyone who was ambitious enough to start their own church, or create their own view on Christianity, was labeled a pagan or heretic. Their property was seized, and they and their followers were murdered. Practices of the Roman Catholic Church encouraged indulgences. Indulgences were when a priest would say that your loved one would be sent to heaven, if you provided a payment.The pope established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead, thereby establishing a new stream of revenue with agents across Europe. When Martin Luther came to Rome, he was disgusted. (The 95 Theses of Martin Luther)…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Scullard, H. H. (2003). From the Gracchi to Nero: A history of Rome, 133 B.C. to A.D. 68. [S.l.]: Routledge.…

    • 1426 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    * “Nero’s death did not immediately solve all problems: the lack of an heir undermined the hereditary principle of succession. This was decided by the army groups in mutual rivalry” (Scullard)…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Christians were under persecutions for their faith since the first century. After the second century, the persecution of Christians became more widely. There were four main general persecutions during the third century; each of them lasted no more than three years. However, after almost half century’s peace, it burst the Great Persecution which lasted for ten years at the beginning of the fourth century. The church were commanded to “be leveled to the ground and the Scriptures be destroyed by fire, and those who held places of honor be degraded, and servants who persisted in Christianity be deprived of freedom”. It was the longest persecution Christians experienced before Constantine became the emperor. The great persecution was not an accident,…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Christians were an easy blame for disastrous events. In Asia Minor, the provisional governor, Pliny asked a group of Christians to reconsider their religion, and freed those who denied Christianity, while executing those who refused to. This did not stop the spread of Christianity, in fact many times in which Rome oppressed those who believed in one god, ended fueling a mindset to continue their practice, especially in the early stages of Christianity, when the Jews were being oppressed and enslaved for their particular beliefs. It was easy for Rome to blame the Christians because it was very different from their own beliefs, it affected their traditional values, roles, and sacrifices for the gods as people branched away from the old ideas, it was a quick blame. Those branching to new religions were traitors not only of the religion, but also of society as a…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Religious Persecution of Christian Beliefs What is religious persecution? At the beginning of this project, I thought religious persecution was a black and white topic with a clear definition. I thought that religious persecution was simply the persecution of a group because of their religious faith. However, I discovered that there are no simple explanations of religious persecution, and it is a much more complex and controversial issue than I had imagined. In fact, some events categorized as religious persecution reveal only shades of grey and ambiguities and do not neatly fit this simple definition. I wanted others to come to this same understanding. Therefore, I have formulated my own definition of religious persecution. It is the persecution of individuals within a group in the struggle to maintain their religious identity, or the abuse of power by an individual or organization that causes members of a religious group to suffer.…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    What were some of the areas of conflict between early Christians and the Roman Empire? What were the issues and/or misunderstandings behind these conflicts? How did these help to shape Christian identity and practice?…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The myths were passed down for generations and even to this day many people believe that he started the Great Fire of Rome. Based on historical facts, during this time period, there was not any fiddles. Also myths were spread about on how he tried to deny he started the fire and blame it on Christians, which he actually blamed it on the Egyptian cult, Isis. People started these rumors on Nero because of all the murders he ordered on people. Although Nero did order someone to murder his mother, wife, and step-brother, the fire in Rome could not be started by him. It is reasonable to believe Nero started the fire because he went through with numerous murders, but he could not have started a fire if he was not present during it. Also it is believed Nero paid people to start the fire, but if he did then why would he make efforts to shelter those who survived the…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Persecution of the Early Church explain some of the how, when and why’s of the early church prosecutions. “Reasons of the persecution”, “History of the persecutions” and “Two Christian Responses: The Glory of Martyrdom and Apologetics” are segments within this scholarly journal. Therefore, each segment relates to persecution with in the early church, gives a list on the persecutions and touches on ten of Christianity persecutors. This article also gives an account on martyrs who died for the sake of the faith and the birthing of apologetics primary goal, defending the faith of Christianity.…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    In the 4th century, the status of Christianity changed due to the efforts of a single person, Constantine the Great, who officially promoted and allowed Christianity in the empire of Rome. Christianity may lead people to think about the great saints, leaders of the church, bishops or martyrs. But it is believed that in the starting of the 4th century, Constantine the Great made a revolutionary transformation which cemented the unbelievable connection between the Christian Church and the civil state. Facing many obstacles, Constnantine had to create a full political, religious and social transition, in order for Christianity to secure a main stream foothold and thus spread. This becomes evident during the reign of Constantine, as the Christian religion that had been persecuted as a perilous sect became licit, and was incorporated into the life of the empire.…

    • 4839 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Pliny’s “Letters” to the Emperor Trajan, the Roman Empire’s encounters with early Christianity caused Pliny, the local political authority, to adopt a measured response to the increasingly popular religion, instead of instant termination of the immediate threat. This was done in part as an effort to counteract the religion’s spread without antagonizing what was a growing proportion of the population. As Christianity gained traction, it became necessary for political administrators to reaffirm their citizens’ loyalty to the emperor, not to Jesus Christ. Because of this, a measured response was necessary in order to avoid a populist backlash. Executions were used as a last resort for those who refused to renounce Christianity and only after an extended period of interrogation, while Roman citizens were sent to be dealt with by a higher authority in the capitol.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the article "Days of the Martyrs" By Jeffery L. Sheler it tells up why Christian communities where prosecuted just because of there beliefs. By the second century Christian numbers started to drop drastically mostly because of the persecution by the government authorities. These government authorities where concerned of the out lawed movement of "Atheist." Atheists were Christians that rejected Rome's pagan pantheon and decided to worship one invisible god. At the time when the persecutions of Christians started to begin the emperor of Rome was Nero, and Nero was somewhat behind it all. For example, In A.D 64, Emperor Nero started a fire that devastated Rome then put all the blame on the Christians so that he could kill many of them. During about A.D. 111, the emperor of Rome was now emperor Trajan. During emperor Trajan’s rule the persecution of Christians became much more infrequent. Emperor Trajan did no longer go out of his way to kill some innocent people. Just because he didn’t try to kill every Christian he sees doesn’t mean he didn’t kill them at all, if any Christian was charged and convicted the were to be executed unless…

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics