Church History Chapter 2

Trajan

The kingdom of Nerva, Trajan, and Marcus Aurelius

The second century of the Christian era

The Second Century of the Christian Era

It had only been eighteen months since Domitian had died, when the church, exempted from persecution during the short reign of Cocceius Nerva, his successor, began to suffer again. Nerva was a man of a mild and generous character, and he treated Christians well; with benignity worthy of the praise, he restored all who had been exiled by the persecution of Domitian. However, after a reign of sixteen months, he was attacked by a fever, from which he never recovered. His successor, Trajan, left the Christians undisturbed for some time, but being led to suspect them, he determined that the persecution be renewed, and if possible, that the new religion is exterminated, by severe means. It seemed to his proud mind that Christianity was an offense, an insult to human nature and that its teaching was opposed to the philosophy of its time: a philosophy that elevated men to gods and took the humility and mildness of Christians effeminate and contemptible. But Trajan did not have Nero’s cruelty, or Domitian’s; and perplexity and indecision in his conduct could be noticed on this occasion, which contrasted, in a striking manner, with the inflexibility of purpose that he ordinarily showed in his acts. From his letter to Plinius, governor of Bithynia and Pontus, it can be seen that he took no pleasure in the torture or execution of his subjects. In that letter, he clearly says: “One must not go looking for these people” and adds: “if anyone renounces Christianity, and shows his sincerity by begging to our gods, they will obtain pardon for their repentance.” In short, it was religion, not its followers, that Trajan hated.

Go to top

Plinius’s Letter

Plinius’ letter to the Emperor and his reply are full of interest. The letter read like this:

“Every crime or error of Christians is summed up in this: it is the custom to gather together on a certain day, before the break of dawn, and sing together a hymn to Christ, as if he were a god, and bind themselves by an oath not to commit any iniquity, not to be guilty of theft or adultery, never to deny his word, nor to deny any pledge that was entrusted to them, when they were called upon to restore it. After this is done, they usually separate and then meet again, for a simple meal of which they share in common, without the slightest disorder, but they leave this last practice after the publication of the edict in which I forbade meetings, according to the orders I received. After this information, I thought it very necessary to examine, even through torture, two women who claimed to be deaconesses, but I discovered nothing but a bad and excessive superstition”. This was all Pliny could say. No wonder that a man strange to the grace of God saw in the religion of Jesus Christ, despised and humbled, only evil and excessive superstition. It is no wonder that the urbane and learned governor, whose fame was known throughout the world, should write with such contempt for a people whose opinions differed from his own. “The natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).

Go to top

Martyrdom of Ignatius

Ignatius, who is said to have known the Apostles Peter and John, and to have been ordained Bishop of Antioch by the Apostle John, was martyred during this time. The zeal with which he aspired to suffer martyrdom resulted in him being censured by various historians, and for some reason. It is said that on the occasion when Trajan visited Antioch, he asked to be admitted to the presence of the emperor, and after explaining for a long time the main doctrines of the Christian religion and showing the harmless character of those who professed it, asked that if justice was done. Yet the Emperor received his request with contempt, and after censuring what Trajan liked to call his incurable superstition, he ordered that he be taken to Rome and released to the wild beasts.

While crossing Syria, Ignatius wrote several letters to the churches, exhorting all of them to fidelity and patience, and seriously warning of the errors that were being taught. In one of the epistles, he writes: “From Syria to Rome, I am fighting with wild beasts by land and by sea, night and day being taken captive by ten soldiers whose ferocity equals that of leopards, and who, even when treated with mildness, show cruelty. But in these cruelties, I am learning. Nothing, visible or invisible, awakens my ambition but the hope of having Christ as my Savior. If I am saved, I will not mind all the tortures of the devil, per by fire or by the cross, or by the onslaught of wild beasts, or that my bones be separated one from another and my limbs torn apart, or my whole body crushed.”

When Ignatius arrived in Rome, he was led into the arena, and in the presence of the crowd that filled the theater, he quietly awaited death. When the lion guard came to release him from the cage, the people almost went mad, and he clapped his hands and shouted with brutal joy, but the old martyr stood his ground.

“I am, he said, like the threshed wheat of Christ, which needs to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts before it becomes bread.” We don’t need to go into the details of the few moments that followed.

The dreadful spectacle was quickly over, and before those people had reached their homes, Ignatius had received the crown he had coveted and was already with the Lord in Glory.

Go to top

Thirty Years of Peace

In the year 117 Trajan died, and his successor Hadrian continued the persecutions. And it was not until the year 138, when Antoninus Pius ascended the throne, that the Christians were somehow relieved of this oppression. With his mild and peaceful reign began a period of peace that lasted nearly thirty years; during that time the Word of God had free access and Christ was glorified. There were indeed some isolated cases of oppression, but the general persecution had disappeared, and the Gospel soon spread throughout all the provinces of the Roman dominions.

The glorious message was carried westward to the ends of Gaul, and eastward to Armenia and Assyria; and thousands of those who had sought in vain for peace of heart in the mythologies of Rome and Egypt, eagerly listened to the words of life, and spontaneously became disciples of Christ.

Go to top

A New Pursuit

However, with the accession of Marcus Aurelius to the throne, new oppression began, and in the second year of his reign, the clouds of persecution began to gather again. The various concerns almost followed one after the other with astonishing rapidity, and which seemed, at times, to disturb the very institutions of the Empire, provided an easy pretext for the renewal of persecutions; and soon afterward the ancient hatred of Christians, which had long been stored up in the hearts of the ungodly, began once more to manifest itself in the ancient cry, “Cast the Christians to the lions!” so familiar to the ears of many, and which passed like a pestilent breath through the Eastern Empire. Thus began the fourth general persecution.

Go to top

Polycarp Martyrdom

The greatest force of the approaching storm was felt in Asia Minor, where the new edicts came out, and the name of Polycarp, a bishop in Smyrna, appeared brilliantly in the list of martyrs of that time. Unlike Ignatius, who unnecessarily exposed himself to the blind will of the population, Polycarp did not refuse to listen to the advice and requests of his friends, and when he saw that he was being spied on in Smyrna, he retired to a nearby village, and there he continued his work.

Being persecuted, he went to another village, exhorting the people who were in his way; and so he went on living in this wandering manner until his enemies discovered the place where he took refuge. Then the old bishop (warned, they say, in a dream that he should glorify God by suffering a martyr’s death) patiently resigned himself to the will of God and handed over his body into the hands of the officers charged with arresting him. Before leaving the house, he gave orders to be given food; and then, seeming to know in advance what he expected, he committed himself to God. His fervor of prayer so moved the officers that they regretted being the instruments of his capture. They mounted him on a donkey and brought him to Smyrna, where a large crowd had gathered to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Out of consideration for his advanced age and his wisdom, Nicites, a man of great influence, and his son Herod, an official of the city, went to meet him and, having him get into their chariot, urged him to secure their freedom, giving honors to Caesar, and consenting to offer sacrifices to the gods. He declined the offer and, for that reason, was pushed out of the car with such violence that in the fall he twisted his thigh. But the old servant of God went on his way peacefully, unperturbed by Herod’s rudeness, indifferent to the cries of the crowd, which, in his hatred, pushed him to and from; and thus, they reached the arena.

Go to top

Polycarp and the Governor

This was where the games and sacred exhibitions had arrived; and it is said that on the occasion of entering the arena, a voice, as if from heaven, exclaimed: “Be strong, Polycarp, and behave like a man.” Be that as it may, a power that was not human sustained the servant of God, and when the consul, moved by his venerable appearance, asked him to swear by Caesar’s soul, and say, “Away with the wicked!” The old martyr, pointing to the crowded benches, sadly repeated: “Away with the wicked!” “Swear,” said the governor, pityingly, “and I will send you away. Deny Christ.” But Polycarp mildly replied, “I have served the Lord Jesus eighty-seven years, and He never did me wrong. How can I now blaspheme my King and Savior?”

“Swear by the soul of Caesar”, repeated the governor, still inclined to compassion, but Polycarp replied: “If you think that I will swear by the soul of Caesar, as you say, and pretend not to know who I am, hear my free confession: I am Christian; and if you wish to know the doctrine of Christianity, give me a day to speak to you and listen to me.” The governor, noticing with disquiet the clamor of the crowd, asked the elder to abjure his faith, but Polycarp refused to do so. They had taught him to honor the higher powers, and to be subject to them because they were ordained of God, but as for the people, especially in the present state of turmoil in which they found themselves, nothing would present him in their defense. Wild beasts,” said the governor, “I will throw you at them if you do not change your mind” – “Send them to come,” said Polycarp calmly.

The old pilgrim rejoiced at the prospect of being promptly freed from an impious and persecuted world, and his quiet intrepidity exasperated the governor, who therefore threatened to burn him, but the intrepid Polycarp replied: “Threats– me with fire that burns for a moment, and is quickly extinguished, but you know nothing of the future punishment, and the eternal fire reserved for the wicked.”

The governor completely lost patience, he sent a herald to proclaim in the middle of the arena: “Polycarp is a Christian”. This proclamation was repeated three times, as was customary, and the anger of the population reached its peak. They saw in the old prisoner a man who had despised his gods, and whose teaching had driven the people from their temples, and the cry became general: “Cast Polycarp to the lions!”

But the hour for the spectacle had already passed, and the person in charge of public spectacles refused to do the will of the people. If they were still ready to put him to death, they had to choose some other day: so, the cry was immediately heard for Polycarp to be burned. The firewood and straw were there at hand, and the victim, after being stripped of his cloak, was rushed to the pole. They wanted to nail him to the pole, but Polycarp asked them to simply be bound, and they granted him that.

After commending his soul to God, he gave the sign to the executioner, and he immediately threw the fire into the straw. But, tradition says, the wonderful events of the day had not yet come to an end. For some unknown reason, the flames did not touch Polycarp’s body, and the spectators, seeing themselves deceived, looked at one another in the greatest admiration.

However, hatred overcame superstition, and they asked the executioner to kill the victim with a sword. This was done, the fatal blow was immediately dealt, and in that moment of cruel martyrdom, the faithful servant of the Lord surrendered his soul to God and was forever out of the reach of his persecutors.

Go to top

Other Martyries

Many others, by no means inferior in faith and valor to Polycarp, though less distinguished in their aptitudes, suffered during this persecution, and it would be of much interest to speak of some if space permitted. It would, for example, be interesting to speak of Germano, a young Christian whose constancy and courage gave such a brilliant witness to the reality of his faith, even at the solemn hour of his death, that many were converted; or of Justin of Naples, who, having studied all the systems of philosophy, and occupying a prominent place among the teachers of his time, joyfully became a disciple of the gentle and sublime Jesus. It is wonderful to say that he afterward sealed with his blood the witness he had given and attained in his martyrdom a noble name – that of Justin the philosopher, for whom he is still known, and by which he will be called to receive his martyr’s crown.

Go to top

Persecution in Lyon and Vienna

In Lyons and Vienna, too, the faith of the believers was severely tested, because the enemy of souls was very active. Every kind of torture that the human mind could imagine was inflicted on the Christians in those cities, but the number always increased, and any effort made to exterminate the new religion only spread more and more, and with greater rapidity. It was there that Biandina, a slave with a weak and frail appearance, after suffering from exemplary patience the most extraordinary tortures, during which the persecutors themselves tired, won the martyr’s crown, and died giving glory to God.

There, too, Santos, a deacon of the church, and Mauro, who had just converted to Christianity, suffered nobly for the truth, as did Attalo of Pergamum; Potimo, Bishop of Lyon, and many others. And so, as the precious metal passes through the refiner’s fire which makes it pure, the Church of God passed through fire and affliction, and a great part of the dross that was attached to it was separated and consumed, while the sparks that leave the fire, blown hither and thither by the wind of persecution, kindled in the breasts of many the desire to understand this extraordinary subject and, so to speak, to understand the nature of this new metal which could so bear fireproof.

Go to top

A Letter to Justin

It seems that up to this time the church had preserved that simplicity of conduct and worship of which we have some beautiful examples in the Acts of the Apostles, and other books. The martyr Justin recounts the practices that were carried out in his time, and which are nonetheless interesting: “We meet on the Lord’s Day”, he says, “for worship, in cities and towns; we read in the books of the prophets and memories of the apostles as far as time permits. When the reading is over, the president or bishop, in a speech or sermon, exhorts the faithful to follow those excellent examples; then all rise and pray together. After this, they bring bread, wine, and water, and the leader prays and gives thanks according to his ability, and everyone says “Amen.” Then the blessed elements are distributed to all present, and those absent are sent by the deacons.

“Those who are rich, and willing to contribute, donate whatever money they want, each according to his will; and what is gathered is given to the leader, who distributes it carefully to orphans and widows, and to those who through illness. Or any other reason is in need, and also to those who are in prison, and to the foreigners who reside with us. In short, to all those who need help”.

What a beautiful simplicity of life and worship! This is partly an example of the continuation “in the apostles’ teaching and the breaking of bread and in prayer” which is recommended in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, and which constitutes a hallmark of early Christianity.

Church History Chapter 2

Church History Chapter 1

Church History All Chapters