Diocletian persecution as described by the original sources

1. Persecution &
Triumph:
Christianity in
the 4th Century
Y. A. Monsoun

2. Part I
Persecution in the early 300s

3. In the beginning of the 4th century, from 303 to
313, Christians living in the Roman Empire
suffered from the Diocletian Persecution.

4. Saint Agnes was one of the martyrs who suffered during the Diocletian
Persecution. Doctor of the Church Saint Ambrose (c. 340-397) wrote of her in his
Concerning Virginity Chapter 2:
7. She is said to have suffered martyrdom when twelve years old. The more hateful
was the cruelty, which spared not so tender an age, the greater in truth was the
power of faith which found evidence even in that age. Was there room for a wound
in that small body? And she who had no room for the blow of the steel had that
wherewith to conquer the steel. But maidens of that age are unable to bear even the
angry looks of parents, and are wont to cry at the pricks of a needle as though they
were wounds. She was fearless under the cruel hands of the executioners, she was
unmoved by the heavy weight of the creaking chains, offering her whole body
to the sword of the raging soldier, as yet ignorant of death, but ready for it.
Or if she were unwillingly hurried to the altars, she was ready to stretch
forth her hands to Christ at the sacrificial fires, and at the sacrilegious altars
themselves, to make the sign of the Lord the Conqueror, or again to place
her neck and both her hands in the iron bands, but no band could enclose
such slender limbs.

5. (continued)
8. A new kind of martyrdom! Not yet of fit age for punishment but already
ripe for victory, difficult to contend with but easy to be crowned, she filled
the office of teaching valour while having the disadvantage of youth. She
would not as a bride so hasten to the couch, as being a virgin she joyfully
went to the place of punishment with hurrying step, her head not adorned
with plaited hair, but with Christ. All wept, she alone was without a tear.
All wondered that she was so readily prodigal of her life, which she had not
yet enjoyed, and now gave up as though she had gone through it. Every one
was astounded that there was now one to bear witness to the Godhead, who
as yet could not, because of her age, dispose of herself. And she brought it to
pass that she should be believed concerning God, whose evidence
concerning man would not be accepted. For that which is beyond nature is
from the Author of nature.

6. (continued)
9. What threats the executioner used to make her fear him,
what allurements to persuade her, how many desired that she
would come to them in marriage! But she answered: “It
would be an injury to my spouse to look on any one as likely
to please me. He who chose me first for Himself shall receive
me. Why are you delaying, executioner? Let this body perish
which can be loved by eyes which I would not.” She stood,
she prayed, she bent down her neck. You could see the
executioner tremble, as though he himself had been
condemned, and his right hand shake, his face grow pale, as
he feared the peril of another, while the maiden feared not for
her own. You have then in one victim a twofold martyrdom,
of modesty and of religion. She both remained a virgin and
she obtained martyrdom.
Sant'Apollinare Nuovo Ravenna , Italy

7. Other martyrs of this era
include Saint Lucy and Saint
George.
Saint George

8. Lactantius (c. 250 – c. 325) in his Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died
wrote of the cruelties of the Emperors Diocletian and Galerius:
Chapter 13 Next day an edict was published, depriving the Christians of all
honours and dignities; ordaining also that, without any distinction of rank
or degree, they should be subjected to tortures, and that every suit at law
should be received against them; while, on the other hand, they were
debarred from being plaintiffs in questions of wrong, adultery, or theft; and,
finally, that they should neither be capable of freedom, nor have right of
suffrage. A certain person tore down this edict, and cut it in pieces,
improperly indeed, but with high spirit, saying in scorn, “These are the
triumphs of Goths and Sarmatians.” Having been instantly seized and
brought to judgment, he was not only tortured, but burnt alive, in the forms
of law; and having displayed admirable patience under sufferings, he was
consumed to ashes.

9. Chapter 15 And now Diocletian raged, not only against his own domestics, but
indiscriminately against all; and he began by forcing his daughter Valeria and his
wife Prisca to be polluted by sacrificing. Eunuchs, once the most powerful, and
who had chief authority at court and with the emperor, were slain. Presbyters
and other officers of the Church were seized, without evidence by witnesses or
confession, condemned, and together with their families led to execution. In
burning alive, no distinction of sex or age was regarded; and because of their
great multitude, they were not burnt one after another, but a herd of them were
encircled with the same fire; and servants, having millstones tied about their
necks, were cast into the sea. Nor was the persecution less grievous on the rest of
the people of God; for the judges, dispersed through all the temples, sought to
compel every one to sacrifice. The prisons were crowded; tortures, hitherto
unheard of, were invented; and lest justice should be inadvertently administered
to a Christian, altars were placed in the courts of justice, hard by the tribunal,
that every litigant might offer incense before his cause could be heard. Thus
judges were no otherwise approached than divinities

10. Church historian Eusebius of Caesarea also wrote
of the persecutions in Book VIII of his Church
History.

11. Chapter 4
2. For though he who had received power was seemingly aroused now as
from a deep sleep, yet from the time after Decius and Valerian, he had been
plotting secretly and without notice against the churches. He did not wage
war against all of us at once, but made trial at first only of those in the army.
For he supposed that the others could be taken easily if he should first
attack and subdue these. Thereupon many of the soldiers were seen most
cheerfully embracing private life, so that they might not deny their piety
toward the Creator of the universe.
3. For when the commander, whoever he was, began to persecute the
soldiers, separating into tribes and purging those who were enrolled in the
army, giving them the choice either by obeying to receive the honor which
belonged to them, or on the other hand to be deprived of it if they disobeyed
the command, a great many soldiers of Christ's kingdom, without
hesitation, instantly preferred the confession of him to the seeming glory
and prosperity which they were enjoying.

12. (continued)
4. And one and another of them occasionally received in exchange,
for their pious constancy, not only the loss of position, but death.
But as yet the instigator of this plot proceeded with moderation,
and ventured so far as blood only in some instances; for the
multitude of believers, as it is likely, made him afraid, and deterred
him from waging war at once against all.
5. But when he made the attack more boldly, it is impossible to
relate how many and what sort of martyrs of God could be seen,
among the inhabitants of all the cities and countries.

13. Chapter 6
9. What was to be seen after this exceeds all description. A vast multitude
were imprisoned in every place; and the prisons everywhere, which had
long before been prepared for murderers and robbers of graves, were filled
with bishops, presbyters and deacons, readers and exorcists, so that room
was no longer left in them for those condemned for crimes.
10. And as other decrees followed the first, directing that those in prison if
they would sacrifice should be permitted to depart in freedom, but that
those who refused should be harassed with many tortures, how could any
one, again, number the multitude of martyrs in every province, and
especially of those in Africa, and Mauritania, and Thebais, and Egypt? From
this last country many went into other cities and provinces, and became
illustrious through martyrdom.

14. Eusebius detailed how Christians were torn apart
by wild beasts and lacerated over their entire
bodies.

16. Sadly persecution continues in the present:
The Top 50 Countries Where It’s Most
Dangerous to Follow Jesus

17. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
Tertullian