The Great Persecution

The Great Persecution

In 284 AD the Roman Emperor Diocletian rose to power. Diocletian was an army general who felt strongly about the empire’s problems, believing that many of them could be fixed by not allowing so much freedom. By 301 AD Diocletian realized that people in the Roman Empire were beginning to practice different religions and he hated this idea. He hated the new following of Christianity because he understood that the beliefs of its followers were different then his own beliefs, which seemed disrespectful. Secondly, they might be making the gods mad. He was trying to turn them back to paganism, the old Roman religion with the emperor as a God. Therefore, anyone he caught and tried could be released by offering a sacrifice to the gods or to the emperor. In 303 AD he began a big persecution of the Christians. This didn't go as well. Diocletian's co-emperors in the West weren't very interested in killing Christians, so a lot of Eastern Christians just moved to the West. Also, even Diocletian didn't really want to kill a whole lot of people. He just wanted them to worship his gods. Empire-wide persecutions were rare, and the Great Persecution under Diocletian was the only one of any great length, lasting eight years. Diocletian's goal was to wipe out the Church. He hunted down Christians and their Scriptures. He especially loved to get hold of church leaders. Note: Diocletian retired in 305 (the only Roman emperor ever to voluntarily retire), and aftweward the persecution was carried out in the east by Galerius, Constantius (then Constantine), and Maximian (then Maxentius). The west had little interest in the persecution. It was a horrible, difficult time for Christians. Many Christians decided to stop following the religion, while others were tortured, thrown in a dungeon, or put to death.