The Christians, who were blamed for the troubles of the past century, were furiously persecuted … (The First Four Seals: 96-300 AD, pg. 28).
Diocletian’s intent in pursuing the persecution of the Christians was to eliminate them entirely, as most non-Christian Romans blamed them for the troubles of the last century. (The Fifth Seal: 303-313 AD, pg. 32.)
“Notwithstanding the efforts of the heathens to exterminate the Christians, and abolish their mode of faith, yet they increased so greatly as to become formidable by their numbers … and particularly excited the hatred of Galerius, the adopted son of Diocletian, who, stimulated by his mother, a bigoted pagan, persuaded the emperor to commence a persecution. It accordingly began on the 23rd of February, A.D. 303, that being the day on which the Terminalia were celebrated, and on which, as the pagans boasted, they hoped to put a termination to Christianity.”
John Foxe, Book of Martyrs, p. 53.
“In A.D. 250 the most violent persecution the church had yet faced was instigated by the emperor Decius (249-251). A general from the Danubian frontier, Decius was determined to have no nonsense from the Christians. In his eyes, they were the enemies of the empire. Their atheism was responsible for the many troubles in the realm.”
Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, pp. 74-75, emphasis added.
“The common people also, with their polytheistic ideas, abhorred the believers in the one God as atheists and enemies of the gods. They readily gave credit to the slanderous rumors of all sorts of abominations … practiced by the Christians at their religious assemblies and love-feasts, and regarded the frequent public calamities of that age as punishments justly inflicted by the angry gods for the disregard of their worship.”
Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 2, p. 43.
See also Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, pp. 37-45, for the full discussion of Rome’s policy toward religions in general and Christianity in particular, and the causes of Christian persecution.
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