Persecution Ensues
At daybreak on February 23, 303, Diocletian’s army busted in the doors of a large newly constructed church in Nicomedia in Asia Minor, and confiscated the sacred writings. Once found, the Scriptures were consumed by fire and the church was pillaged. The church was located on a hill and in full view from one of Diocletian’s palaces where he and Galerius stood watching the assault. Galerius insisted that the church be burned to the ground, but Diocletian argued that doing so might cause a greater fire consuming part of the city and possibly his palace. Diocletian won out and the church was destroyed without fire. The next day Diocletian published an edict which he had posted throughout the city for public viewing, denying Christians of their rights and subjecting them to various tortures. One Christian man, when he saw the edict, tore it into pieces1 and was subsequently tortured and eventually burned alive.
“It was in the nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian, in the month Dystrus, called March by the Romans, when the feast of the Savior’s passion was near at hand, that royal edicts were published everywhere, commanding that the churches be leveled to the ground and the Scriptures be destroyed by fire, and ordering that those who held places of honor be degraded, and that the household servants, if they persisted in the profession of Christianity, be deprived of freedom. Such was the first edict gainst us. But not long after, other decrees were issued, commanding that all the rulers of the churches in every place be first thrown into prison, and afterwards by every artifice be compelled to sacrifices.”
2
Soon after the edict was published a fire broke out in Diocletian’s palace. Eusebius states that he does not know how it happened, but Lactantius claims that Galerius, in an effort to urge Diocletian to enact crueler persecutions on the Christians, employed private emissaries to set the palace on fire and placed blame on the Christians. Two dignitaries were among the victims claimed by the fire. This infuriated Diocletian who upon hearing about it commanded that all his domestics be tortured to force a confession of the plot, but none was forthcoming. Word of the incident and the blame accompanying it spread far and wide, inciting more widespread hatred of Christians in the east.
Fear spread through the Christian communities enticing some to attempt a usurpation of the government in Syria and Melitina. In response, an imperial edict was issued commanding that all the heads of the Christian churches everywhere be bound and imprisoned. Once carried out, the prisons were bursting with bishops, presbyters and deacons, such that there was no room for real criminals. Soon after, a second edict was issued permitting the prisoners to gain back their liberty by sacrificing to the Roman gods. But if they refused to sacrifice they would be subject to unspeakable tortures. The decision facing these Christian leaders was a true test of their faith. If they were to choose to save their lives by sacrificing, they knew they were choosing eternal damnation. For in their minds, prepared to pierce their conscience, resides the words of Christ who said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.“
Countless martyrs were thus created by torturous means. Christian leaders along with their families were burned alive. Others were committed to death by wild beasts in the arena as entertainment for the masses. Other martyrs throughout the Roman Empire met with death in various other ways such as scourging, drowning, torn apart on racks, starvation, and crucifixion.
- Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, Book 8 Chapter, 5;
- Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum 13
- Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, Book 8 Chapter, 2
- Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum 14
- Holy Bible (KJV) Mathew 16:25
