CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 1
The Church in the Roman Empire
WHAT Do WE MEAN BY CHURCH?
First of all, we have to ask, What do we mean by church? There were no cathedrals, in fact no church buildings of any kind.' One could not walk down the street and see "a church." Christians met in homes, in groups small enough to fit into one room of a house or apartment. As the group of Christians in any given city grew to the point where they all could no longer fit into one house, the group divided between two or more houses.' Therefore, the Church was not yet a tangible entity, but more of a concept.' It was the body of Christ, understood to be the extension of the kingdom of God on earth, and it existed wherever people gathered in the name of Christ (Matt 18:20).
Initiation into the Church was, of course, by baptism, and thus baptism formed the boundary of the Church. In other words, the Church was the worldwide community of the baptized, and the local expression of the Church was a group of the baptized in a particular city. Baptism required catechesis, so the local communities of Christians quickly devised methods for training initiates and preparing them for baptism. This would eventually evolve into the catechetical "school," which could be very informal or, in the larger cities, a more formal program, something like the philosophical schools of the time. Early Christian catechesis focused more on ethical concerns than theology, and from the very beginning it was extremely important to draw the lines of distinction between Christian morals and the morals of the rest of Greco-Roman culture and society.' In the second and third centuries (and beyond), the Church was literally struggling to define Christianity itself. It did so first ethically, then theologically.
Reading the Early Church Fathers Since the Church was understood to be the extension of God's reign on earth, and since the conflict between Church and culture would soon force the Church into an "us versus them" position, the boundary lines of the Church became tied not only to the initiation of baptism, but also to the culmination of that initiation, the table of the Eucharist. In other words, what baptism initiated one into was the mystery of the incarnation of Christ, celebrated—but also participated in—at the eucharistic table. The table of the Lord was the kingdom of God on earth, the down payment of the Christian's heavenly inheritance. Therefore, salvation itself, as participation in Christ, was embodied in the Eucharist, and so the Church came to be defined by the table. And since salvation was found at the table of the Eucharist, and the Eucharist was found in the assembly of the Church, the early Christians believed that there was no salvation outside the Church.°
RELATIONS WITH JUDAISM
When one reads the New Testament, it is relatively easy to see that the movement Christ started was in conflict with Judaism from the beginning. At first, that conflict was an internal struggle between two competing ways of understanding God's revelation.
Both sides were forced to face their irreconcilable differences when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 CE. After that point, the sacrifices ended and the priesthood eventually died out, and Judaism itself had to figure out how to continue as a religion without the sacrificial system that was once central to its faith.
The vast majority of Jewish faithful followed the Pharisees, the experts in the Jewish law who became the Rabbis. They made the written word of God, the Torah, the new center of their faith. A minority of Jewish believers went a different way, however. They followed the disciples of a man called Jesus of Nazareth, and these disciples taught that Jesus was himself the diving Word of God.
Those who took this path, of course, would eventually be called Christians, but we have to keep in mind that the concept of "Christianity," as a separate religion, did not exist in the beginning.
In the first century, the movement Jesus started was known simply
The Church in the Roman Empire as "the way" (Acts 9:2, cf. John 14:6), and it was only after the destruction of the Temple that Christianity would finally become a separate religion.
All this is to say that Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism are twins from the same parent (Temple Judaism). As such, there was a lot of sibling rivalry, especially at the beginning when Christianity was still seen as a sect within Judaism. During that time, Christians continued to worship in the synagogues with their Jewish family and neighbors, but they also met at dawn on Sunday mornings to do something that would horrify their fellow Jews: they worshiped
Jesus. This became the greatest bone of contention between the more traditional Jews and the earliest followers of Jesus. A traditional Jew would wonder how one could worship Jesus and still say one is a good Jew—for Judaism must be monotheistic (Deut 6:4).
For the followers of Christ, their liturgical practice would put them on the defensive theologically, forcing them to try to figure out a way to justify the apparent oxymoron of Christian monotheism.
The result was the development of doctrine in the early Church, and the answer to the question of Christian monotheism was the doctrine of the Trinity.
Therefore, much of the dialogue between Christians and Jews in the early decades centered around the Christian conviction that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures. Some Jews were convinced by these arguments and converted to Christianity.
Many were not convinced and continued to believe that what the Christians were doing was a form of polytheism, and blasphemy against God. Some even felt justified in following in the footsteps of the preconversion Paul as they participated in persecution against their Christian neighbors (Acts 17:5ff). But the persecution of the Church by Jews would give way to persecution by the Roman
Empire when the Romans began to take notice of the Church as something separate from Judaism. Ironically, as long as Christianity was seen as a sect within Judaism, the Romans left it alone, either reasoning that it was part of an ancient religion and was probably not a threat, or failing to notice that it even existed. Once
Christianity was out from under the umbrella of Judaism, it became perceived as something new and therefore potentially dangerous.
Reading the Early Church Fathers
RELATIONS WITH THE ROMANS AND
THE BEGINNING OF PERSECUTION
Somewhere around the year 52 CE, the Roman emperor Claudius heard that there was some sort of conflict in the Jewish quarter of Rome. What was probably a conflict between Christian
Jews and non-Christian Jews was perceived by the Romans as an internal dispute among the Jews—and in a way, it was. Io prevent any possible unrest, Claudius expelled all Jews from the city of Rome, including, of course, Jewish Christians.' This is why the apostle Paul encountered Priscilla and Aquila outside of Rome— they had been forced to leave with all the rest (Acts 18:2). But this left the Christian community in the city of Rome in the hands of newly converted Gentiles. Those who had been Christian the longest, who knew the stories of Jesus, and who understood the tradition and roots in Judaism were now gone. This may have been the occasion for the writing of the Gospel of Mark, since the Gentile Christians who remained would need to know the stories.
In any case, the fact that the Jews had left Rome, but some Christians remained, demonstrated that Christianity was not simply a Jewish sect. Therefore, even before the final split between Judaism and Christianity that took place after 70 CE, the Romans began to notice the existence of the Church.
The first impressions of the Church on its Roman neighbors were not good, mainly because of misunderstandings. Hearing that Christians ate the body of Christ and drank his blood, some believed they were cannibals. Hearing married Christians call each other "brother" and "sister" led to rumors about incest. The fact that the Christians met at dawn left some thinking they were another mystery cult, like the ones that already existed in Roman society, yet with the distasteful additions of cannibalism and incestuous orgies.' Roman writers thought that Christianity was bad for society, and called it a "destructive superstition."* The Roman historian Suetonius would call the Church "a new and mischievous superstition."
In general, therefore, the Roman attitude toward the Church, once the Romans realized it existed, was unfavorable. Those in the
The Church in the Roman Empire Roman government feared that it might be subversive, like the movement of the Zealots in Judea. The Zealots, born out of the annexation of Judea to Syria as a Roman province in 6 CE, would eventually provoke the Romans into the war that led to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE." So one can see how the Romans would view any new "movement" as suspicious. In addition, the average Roman would have worried that people who refused to worship the gods of Rome would anger those gods, causing them to remove their protection from the empire. Ironically, the Christians, who worshiped only one God as opposed to many, were called "atheists."
At the same time, the Roman emperors were enjoying their ability to be treated as gods themselves. Julius Caesar, who was assassinated to prevent him from becoming emperor, was still proclaimed a god by the senate after his death. When his nephew and heir, Octavian, became the first emperor, it was natural that he be considered the "son" of a "god." So when Jesus came into the world during the reign of Oetavian (who had come to be called Augustus), and the Christians said that Jesus was the Son of God, this was in direct competition to the emperor, who was called a son of a god.
The next emperor, Tiberius, apparently reasoned, Why wait until youre dead to be deified? A son of a god is a god, right? Therefore, he demanded to be called dominus, or "lord." So when Jesus was conducting his ministry during the reign of Tiberius, and his followers called him Lord, this was in direct competition to the lordship of the emperor. By the time the emperor Domitian reigned at the end of the first century, he demanded to be called dominus et deus, or "lord and god." So when the Fourth Gospel recorded that Thomas called Jesus "My Lord and my God" John 20:28), the Church held this up as their way to say, Jesus is Lord and God, not that one in Rome who claims to be lord and god! In the minds of many, this pitted the kingdom (or empire) of God against the empire of the Romans. As we will see, the emperors will eventually try to force their Christian subjects to choose between Christ and Caesar (ci; Luke 23:2; John 19:12:15), On July 18 in the year 64 CE, a fire eae out in the city of Rome. It leveled a major part of the center of the city.
Coincidentally (or not), the emperor Nero had plans on his desk
Reading the Early Church Fathers for a new palace to be built on that spot. Naturally, rumors began to circulate that he had started the fire to make room for his new
"Golden House." Nero needed a scapegoat to divert attention away from himself. He blamed the fire on the Christians, and most people were happy to vent their frustration on the Church, though many did not believe its members were guilty.'' Thus the first persecution of Christians at the hands of the Romans began. Anyone admitting to being a Christian was charged with the crime of arson and could be executed. Many people died in the circus of Nero, which is now in the Vatican, at the site of St. Peter's Basilica.'? The apostles Paul and Peter were martyred at about this time; Peter himself was crucified in Nero's circus." The important thing to note is that the persecution set a precedent for the future attitude of the Romans toward the Church. Though this persecution was limited to Rome and was temporary, the official position of the Roman government was that Christians were to be seen as enemies of the state.
In the year 81 CE, the emperor Domitian came to the throne, and in 95 CE he began persecuting the Church.'* According to tradition, Domitian had his own cousin, Flavius Clemens, executed for "atheism." It is likely (but not certain) that this refers to Christianity, though the actual motivation for the execution might have been anything. As the story goes, Clemens's wife, Flavia
Domitilla, was subsequently exiled, leaving land to the Roman Christians that would eventually be used for the catacombs named after her.' It was also at this time that the apostle John was exiled to the island of Patmos, where he would write the Book of Revelation.'° But even at this time, persecution was sporadic and regional. Christians continued to worship, though at some times and places they had to meet in secret. The early Christians, however, never hid in the Roman catacombs, as some legends (not to mention movies) suggest. The catacombs were legally registered burial grounds, so the Romans knew exactly where they were. They may have had funeral services at a burial site, and there are some chapels in the catacombs that attest to this, but the cramped quarters, the lack of light and fresh air, not to mention the possible smell of decaying bodies, would make regular worship (let alone hiding out for any length of time) impossible.
The Church in the Roman Empire In the early second century, a Roman governor named Pliny wrote from his province in the east to ask the emperor 'Trajan for advice on what to do about the Christians. Trajan, who was emperor from 98 to 117 CE, wrote back and confirmed that although Christians deserved to be executed, Pliny should not try to seek them out. If any were accused, he should interview them and ask them whether they were Christians. He should not take the accuser's word for it, since anyone might accuse someone to avoid paying a debt or to settle a conflict. Therefore, the accused were given a chance to speak for themselves, and if anyone denied being a Christian, proving it was as simple as swearing an oath to the emperor and making some act of worship of the traditional gods, perhaps as little as throwing a pinch of incense on a pagan altar." If there was still some question about a person's sincerity, they could be required to curse Christ, since even Pliny believed that a true
Christian would never do that.'* If anyone was willing to do this, they were to go free. If they were not willing, they could be tortured, or sent into exile, having all their property confiscated, or possibly sent to the mines, which was essentially a slow death sentence. If they were Roman citizens, they were sent to Rome for trial and execution, as Ignatius of Antioch was in the year 110 CE.
Otherwise, they were sentenced to death, which could come by beheading (if the governor wanted to be merciful), crucifixion, burning at the stake, or being thrown to the wild beasts in the arena. According to Eusebius, no distinction was made for age or sex." The important thing to note here is that, by the second century, we have two important milestones in the history of persecution. First, we have gone from requiring a crime, like arson, to accuse someone, to simply the name of Christian being a capital offense." Second, we see the use of pagan sacrifice as a test of loyalty to the state.
The irony, which Tertullian would later point out, is that the Romans were torturing prisoners to try to make them deny the accusation they were charged with, not admit it."! A denial of the charge would result in acquittal, and a Christian would only be punished if he or she refused to deny the faith.
In the middle of the second century, Antoninus Pius (ruled 138-61 CE) made conversion to Judaism illegal, which would set a
Reading the Early Church Fathers precedent for similar laws against Christian evangelism." It was during his reign that Polycarp would be burned at the stake, shortly after a dream in which he saw his pillow on fire. Justin Martyr wrote his first Apology as an open letter to Antoninus. It is impossible to know whether Antoninus was personally invested in the persecution, but it is clear that it continued during his reign."
Marcus Aurelius (who reigned from 161 to 180) issued an edict in 167 CE ordering pagan sacrifice in the emperor's honor as a test of loyalty.** Refusing to make such a sacrifice was an act of treason.» Though he did not specifically target Christians (he didn't understand that Christians could not just add Jesus to the league of gods in the pantheon), pagan sacrifice became tied to patriotism.
Justin Martyr wrote his second Apology to Marcus Aurelius and was subsequently beheaded. Also during Marcus Aurelius's reign, the martyrs of Lyons and Viennes met their end at the hands of an angry mob in Gaul in 177 CE, and the Scillitan martyrs were the victims of a massacre in North Africa in 180.
After Septimius Severus became emperor in 193, he travelled to the East to survey his empire. There he saw the famous
Christian school in Alexandria, which was attracting so many people to Christianity that Severus saw it as a threat to traditional religion and to the stability of the empire. Persecution began in earnest in Alexandria in about 201." It would be Septimius Severus, in 202 CE, who would issue the first imperial edict that specifically mentioned Christians, that they should be sought out, arrested, and executed.'"" He made conversion to Christianity illegal (based on the precedent of Antoninus's edict) and tried to close down the catechetical schools. Many people took this as fulfillment of predictions of a "tribulation" in the Book of Revelation."* Another significant milestone in the history of persecution had been reached, since now Christians could be sought out and rounded up." This is exactly what happened to Perpetua and her catechism classmates." Even though there would not be a systematic, empirewide persecution of the Church until the middle of the third century, it was nevertheless the case that the Christian leaders and writers of the early Church were conducting their ministry in a world that wanted them dead (Matt 10:22).
The Church in the Roman Empire
THE MARTYR DOCUMENTS
The word martyr is simply the Greek word for "witness." In the Church, it became the technical term for one who dies as a witness to the faith. One of the types of literature we encounter in the subapostolic age is the martyr document or martyr acts. They chronicle the experience of the martyrs as they faced their accusers and executioners.
When a Christian was brought before a Roman official and asked whether he or she was a Christian, they knew this was a moment of truth and a matter of life or death. Christians could save their lives by denying the faith, but they knew the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:33, "[B]ut whoever denies me before others, I will also deny before my Father in heaven." So to save one's life was to lose eternal life (Matt 16:25). But to lose one's life for Jesus' sake was seen as a guarantee of eternal life. Therefore, martyrdom was believed to make up for any sin, including previous apostasy.'! Even before there was a sacrament of reconciliation, martyrdom was the ultimate penance."
The Church also remembered the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:19-20, "When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." Christians took Jesus at his word, believing that anyone who admitted to being a Christian at the risk of physical life was therefore filled with the Holy Spirit.
Christians who confessed their faith to the Romans were called confessors. These confessors sometimes lived to tell of their experience, but even if they were eventually martyred, during the time they were in prison awaiting execution, they were treated as though they were prophets. They were invested with a certain kind of authority, which we will call charismatic authority. People would come to visit them in prison to get advice, and they became, in effect, the first spiritual directors. Eventually, people started asking them for reassurance that their sins were forgiven, so the concept of confessor became expanded to mean someone to whom one might go to confess one's sins. The point is that confessors and martyrs were treated almost as though they were a new set of apostles, and the
Reading the Early Church Fathers stories of their heroic confessions and deaths became beloved devotional material in the early Church."
The martyr documents have two main parts. Some of them contain both parts, but some contain only one part or the other.
The first part is a record of the interrogation and confession. 'These tend to be very matter-of-fact, straightforward dialogue between the accused and the Roman magistrate. These may very well be based on actual court proceedings, and are probably quite historical. The second part is the account of the martyr's death. These include details of the imprisonment, torture, and execution, and often a public death in the arena. Some of these are embellished with legendary material, and the later ones become somewhat apocalyptic. Included are such elements as miracles of protection
(the first attempt to kill the martyr rarely works), out-of-body experiences complete with the smell of incense, and even painless death.* The martyr is depicted as a hero, like an athlete winning a contest, or a soldier victorious in battle.* In the end, however, they do die, so the victory is not in cheating death. The victory is in the refusal to deny the faith, and it is seen as a victory over the devil.
Martyrdom was understood as a birth to new life; therefore, the date of a person's martyrdom was celebrated as his or her
"birthday."** The martyr documents were used in these celebrations, along with the reading of scripture. Often a martyr was celebrated with a feast, or what amounted to a picnic that was held as close to the burial site as possible. Being close to the martyr's remains was like being close to the martyr, and (since one could be certain that the martyr was in heaven with God) being close to the martyr was like being closer to God." Later, when it was more difficult to be physically close to one's favorite martyr, parts of their remains could be taken to other places so that the people there could feel closer to God. These relics, from the Latin word relicta, meaning "remainder" or "something left behind," could be body parts such as bones, or personal effects such as a piece of clothing or even a lock of hair.
Since martyrdom was believed to guarantee salvation, one could be absolutely certain that anyone who died for the faith was in fact in heaven with Christ, and even though the word saint ("holy one") originally meant any Christian, many people came to believe
The Church in the Roman Empire that the only way one could be sure that someone made it to heaven was if they had died a martyr's death.** Therefore, it became a tradition to call someone a saint only when you could be sure. These people, the "saints for sure," were in heaven with God and had the Lord's ear, and therefore they could be called on to intercede for those on earth as their confessors in heaven.
We will look at several of the martyr documents as they come up in our exploration of the subapostolic age. Many of the important writers of this time period were in fact martyred, sometimes because their writings made them more visible to the Romans. But they recognized that the danger of martyrdom was part and parcel of a Christianity that stood against the culture. As Ignatius of Antioch said on his way to Rome to be executed, "Christianity is greatest when it is hated by the world.""