23 February 303 A.D. The worst persecution to date came with Diocletian’s Edict Terminalia.
23 February 303 A.D. The worst persecution to date came with
Diocletian’s Edict Terminalia.
Dr. Rusten tells
the story.
Rusten, E.
Michael and Rusten, Sharon. The One Year
Christian History. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2003. Available at: http://www.amazon.com/The-Year-Christian-History-Books/dp/0842355073/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393302630&sr=8-1&keywords=rusten+church+history
Diocletian
became the Roman Emperor in 284. Christians were encouraged because there were
rumors that his wife and daughter were Christians, Prisca and Valerius,
respectively. But, that would prove
disappointing.
Diocletian
had good organizational and administrative skills. He established a tetrarchy
with 2 augusti (himself and Maximian)
and 2 junior emperors called caesares (Galerius,
his son-in-law, and Constantius, the father of Constantine).
Diocletian
thought that religion could unify the Empire.
He issued 3 Edicts for the establishment and advance of the supremacy of
the Roman state religion.
On 23 February 303 A.D., he published Terminalia, an edict that was posted
Empire-wide.
Here were
the results and developments:
1. All copies of Scriptures were to
be burned, all church destroyed, the property of Christians confiscated, and no
more Christian worship.
2. The following day, 24 Feb 303, he
decreed that any Christian who resisted had no further legal recourse. Christians were deprived of any honors,
public offices, and any Christians in the royal household who refused to recant
and subscribe to the new outlook would be enslaved.
3. A third edict ordered all
Christian clergy to be imprisoned. The
jails were full.
4. A fourth edict dealt with the
last one, #3—if such clergy would sacrifice to the Roman deities they could be
released. Prison guards could use any
means desired to force recantation and subscription.
5. In early 304, another edict
widened the persecution beyond the Ministers.
Now, the edict applied to every single Christian in the Empire. The directive: sacrifice to the Roman
deities.
6. In 305, Diocletian and Maximian
abdicated in favor of Constantius and Galerius, ending persecution in the West.
However, it continued until 311 in the East.
The
hostile powers of the principalities, powers and might, that is, Anti-Christ’s
hostilities, ended with the Edict of Constantine in 313, extending religious
freedom to Christians and pagans alike.
Eusebius,
the church historian and supporter of Constantine, records the following:
“Perceiving long ago that religious liberty ought
not be denied, but that it ought be granted to the judgment and desire of each
individual to perform his religious duties according to his own choice, we had
given orders that every man, Christian as well as others, should preserve the
faith of his own sect and religion…We resolved…to grant both to the Christians
and to all men freedom to follow the religion which they choose,…And we decree
still further in regard to the Christians, that their places, in which they
were formerly accustomed to assemble…shall be restored to the said Christians,
without demanding money or any other equivalent, with no delay or
hesitation…For by this means…the divine favor towards us which we have already
experienced will continue sure through all time.”
Too bad
the Romanist Imperial Church would one day oppose all this, slaughtering 1000s
upon 1000s of Protestant Churchmen. Or,
even Tudor and Stuart Royals, especially the latter with the Scots
Covenanters.
Questions
1. If faced with these persecutions,
what would you do?
2. What is the current condition of
religious freedom in the US?
3. What of Islamist countries? Iran? Iraq? Syria? Egypt? Saudi Arabia?
4. What of secularism in our time?
Gay rights?
5. What would Joel Osteen say? Or,
his ilk?
Sources
Frend,
W.H.C. The Early Church. 3rd
ed. London: SCM, 1991. 115-125.
---------The Rise of Christianity. Philadelphia:
Fortress, 1984. 456-64.
Newman, Albert Henry. A Manual of Church History. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: Amerian Baptist.
166-171.
Potter, D.S. “Persecution in the Early Church.”
ABD. 5: 231-5.
Tom, Pieter. “Diocletian (245-313).” NIDCC. 299.
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