Church History · AD 250 to 311

Rome's Great Persecutions: Decius and Diocletian

In 250 Emperor Decius ordered everyone to sacrifice to the gods, and in 303 Diocletian began the Great Persecution, burning Scriptures and tearing down churches. Thousands died, yet the church came out stronger, just as Tertullian said: the blood of Christians is seed.

Read it in the Bible: John 15:20 Matthew 24:35 Revelation 12:11 1 Peter 4:12-13

For about 60 years, from AD 250 to 311, the Roman Empire made its most serious efforts to wipe out Christianity. Emperor Decius ordered every citizen to sacrifice to the gods in 250. Then in 303, Emperor Diocletian began what is called the Great Persecution, ordering Bibles burned, churches torn down and Christian leaders arrested. Thousands died. Yet when the dust settled in 311 to 313, the church was bigger than ever, and Rome gave up.

Why Did Rome Persecute Christians?

Rome was usually tolerant of other religions. You could worship any god you liked, as long as you also honored the gods of Rome and the emperor. Christians would not do that. They said Jesus is Lord, and that meant Caesar wasn't.

Romans believed the gods kept the empire safe. When plagues, wars and money troubles hit in the 200s, some leaders blamed the Christians for making the gods angry. Christians were also called atheists, because they refused to worship any of the visible gods. Before 250, persecution was mostly local and on and off, like Nero's attack in Rome in AD 64. Decius made it empire wide.

If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well. John 15:20

What Did Emperor Decius Do in AD 250?

Decius came to power in 249. Early in 250 he ordered everyone in the empire, except Jews, to offer a sacrifice to the gods in front of officials. Those who did were given a certificate called a libellus. Archaeologists have found 46 of these certificates on papyrus in Egypt, all from the year 250. They read like government paperwork, which is exactly what they were.

Many Christians refused and were killed. Fabian, the bishop of Rome, died in January 250. The great teacher Origen was tortured and died a few years later from his injuries. But many other Christians gave in, or bought fake certificates. After the persecution ended, the church had a painful argument about whether these lapsed believers could come back. Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, led the way to letting them return after repentance.

Decius died in battle in 251. A few years later, Emperor Valerian started a new persecution in 257 and 258, and Cyprian himself was beheaded in 258.

What Was the Great Persecution Under Diocletian?

Diocletian ruled from 284 and reorganized the empire under four rulers. For most of his reign he left Christians alone. Then, pushed by his junior emperor Galerius, he struck. On February 23, 303, soldiers tore down the new church at Nicomedia, his capital, and burned its Scriptures. The next day he issued his first edict.

Over the next year he issued four edicts:

February 303: churches destroyed, Scriptures burned, Christian meetings banned, and Christians stripped of legal rights and rank.
Summer 303: bishops and clergy arrested.
Late 303: imprisoned clergy freed if they sacrificed, and forced to if they wouldn't.
Early 304: everyone ordered to sacrifice, with death for those who refused.

Enforcement was uneven. In the West, the ruler Constantius mostly tore down buildings. In the East, under Galerius and later Maximinus Daia, it was brutal. The historian Eusebius saw some of it with his own eyes and wrote about it. Historians don't have an exact death toll, but most estimate that a few thousand Christians were killed and many more were jailed, tortured or sent to the mines.

Why Did Rome Burn the Scriptures?

Diocletian understood something important. Christians were people of a book. If he could take away their Scriptures, he thought, he could starve the faith. Officials went to churches and demanded the sacred books.

Some believers handed them over. They were called traditores, which means those who handed over, and it is where we get the word traitor. Others hid the books or died rather than give them up. After the persecution, a bitter split called the Donatist controversy broke out in North Africa over whether leaders who had handed over Scriptures could still serve. It lasted for about a century.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. Matthew 24:35

Less than 30 years after Diocletian's book burning, Emperor Constantine was paying to have 50 new Bibles copied. That is quite a turnaround.

What Did Tertullian Mean by The Blood of the Martyrs Is Seed?

Tertullian was a Christian writer in Carthage around AD 200. At the end of his book Apology, written about 197, he told the Roman authorities that their cruelty was backfiring. His Latin says semen est sanguis Christianorum, which means the blood of Christians is seed. It is usually quoted as the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

He meant that every time Rome killed a Christian, people watching wondered what kind of faith made someone die like that. Many of them came to believe. History proved him right. Christians may have been around 10 percent of the empire by 300, and the numbers kept growing.

How Did the Persecutions End?

Diocletian retired in 305. Galerius kept up the attacks, but in 311, sick and dying, he issued the Edict of Toleration on April 30. It admitted the persecution had failed and allowed Christians to meet again, as long as they prayed for the empire. Maximinus Daia kept persecuting in parts of the East until 313. Then Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan, which granted full freedom of worship. The Constantine page on this site tells that part of the story.

Why the Martyrs Still Matter Today

Persecution is not just ancient history. Christians in many countries still face prison or death for their faith. The believers of 250 and 303 show us that the church does not survive because of power or comfort. It survives because Jesus keeps His promise.

They also remind us to treasure the Bible. People died to keep these books. Most of us have several copies within arm's reach, plus one on our phone.

They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death. Revelation 12:11

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Questions People Ask

When were Christians persecuted by Rome?

Persecution happened on and off from Nero in AD 64 until 311 to 313. The first empire wide persecution was under Decius in 250, followed by Valerian in 257 to 258. The worst was the Great Persecution under Diocletian and Galerius, starting in 303 and ending with Galerius' edict in 311 and the Edict of Milan in 313.

What did Diocletian do to Christians?

In 303 he ordered churches destroyed, Scriptures burned and Christian meetings banned. Later edicts had clergy arrested and finally ordered everyone to sacrifice to the gods on pain of death. Enforcement was worst in the eastern half of the empire.

Who said the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church?

The idea comes from Tertullian, a Christian writer in Carthage, in his Apology about AD 197. His actual Latin words mean the blood of Christians is seed. The longer version is a popular paraphrase.

What was a libellus?

A libellus was a certificate proving that a person had sacrificed to the Roman gods, issued during the persecution of Decius in AD 250. Forty six of them have survived on papyrus in Egypt. Christians who refused to get one risked prison or death.

How many Christians died in the Roman persecutions?

Nobody knows the exact number. For the Great Persecution, most historians estimate a few thousand deaths, with many more people jailed, tortured or sent to forced labor. Early Christian writers stressed the courage of the martyrs more than the numbers.

Sources

← The Muratorian Fragment: The Oldest List of New Testament Books Constantine and the Edict of Milan →

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