The Age of the Martyrs

For nearly three centuries, from Nero until the year 313, Christianity was a forbidden religion, and to remain a Christian could lead to death. The persecution did not weigh everywhere or always, but it could arise at any moment, and it returned in ever wider waves. From this ordeal the Church emerged not broken but grown, henceforth bearing at the heart of her memory those who had preferred to die rather than deny: the martyrs.

A religion outside the law

Rome was not hostile to religions: she welcomed them by the dozen, provided they were added to the worship of the gods of the city and of the emperor, guarantor of the order of the world. This public religion was everyone's concern, and to neglect its rites was thought to draw the anger of the gods upon the whole Empire. Judaism, ancient and recognised, was exempted from it by a particular tolerance. Christianity had no such privilege: a new religion, sprung from Judaism but distinct from it, it offered adoration to the one true God alone and refused incense to idols and to the emperor. This refusal, a simple act of fidelity for Christians, was for Rome atheism and treason. Christ had warned his own that the world would treat them as it treated him. “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” John 15:20

The slanders

To official contempt was added popular hatred, fed by rumours. Christians were accused of atheism, because they had neither temples nor statues. They were called cannibals, because they spoke of eating the body and drinking the blood of their Lord, knowing nothing of the Eucharist. They were suspected of incestuous unions, because they called one another brothers and sisters and held love-feasts. They were held to be enemies of the human race, they who shunned the festivals, the games and the public honours. And when plague, famine or defeat came, the crowd cried that the gods were avenging this impiety: “Christians to the lions!” To bear the name was enough to be condemned.

Before the judge

Christians were not, as a rule, hunted down; but a denunciation was enough to have them arrested. Before the magistrate, the test was simple: to offer a few grains of incense before the image of the emperor and to curse Christ. Whoever accepted was released; whoever refused was tortured, then given to the beasts, to the fire or to the sword. The emperor Trajan had set the rule a century after Christ: not to seek out Christians, but to punish those who, once denounced, persisted, and to take no account of anonymous accusations. Later, under the great persecutions, each was required to produce a certificate proving that he had sacrificed. Everything was decided in an instant, in the choice to confess or to deny.

The great waves

The first persecution broke out under Nero, in 64: after the fire of Rome, of which rumour accused him, the emperor cast the blame on the Christians and made them perish in atrocious torments, crucified or burned like living torches. It was at Rome, under Nero, that Peter and Paul gave their lives. The persecutions that followed remained at first local: under Trajan, the bishop Ignatius of Antioch was led to Rome and given to the beasts; under Marcus Aurelius, around 177, the Christians of Lyon were put to death, among them the slave Blandina, while the philosopher Justin was beheaded at Rome and the aged bishop Polycarp burned at Smyrna; under Septimius Severus the young women Perpetua and Felicity perished at Carthage. Then came the general persecutions, ordered for the whole Empire: under Decius, in 250, who was the first to seek to compel all his subjects to sacrifice; under Valerian, who struck first at the bishops and the priests, putting to death Cyprian of Carthage and the deacon Lawrence at Rome. The last, the longest and the harshest, was that of Diocletian, from 303: churches were razed, the Scriptures burned, the clergy imprisoned, and thousands of the faithful, in the East above all, were put to death, among whom the Church keeps the names of Agnes and Sebastian. To whoever would hold out to the end, Christ had promised salvation. “You will be hated by all for my name's sake; but whoever endures to the end will be saved.” Matthew 10:22

The meaning of martyrdom

The word “martyr” comes from the Greek martys (μάρτυς), the witness. The martyr renders to Christ the fullest witness: he would rather lose his life than deny him, and so gives of the love of God a proof that nothing surpasses. His death configures him to that of Christ, whose cross he shares in order to share his victory. The Church has always held it to be a baptism in blood: he who dies for Christ without having received the baptism of water is washed of all sin and enters heaven at once. The acts of the martyrs, those accounts of their trial and their death, show them often at peace, sometimes joyful before the torment, for this strength comes not from themselves but from grace. “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Revelation 2:10

The veneration of the martyrs

From the beginning, the Church surrounded her martyrs with a particular honour. Their remains were gathered like a treasure, the day of their death was noted, which was called their birth into heaven, and each year the faithful gathered on their tomb to celebrate the Eucharist there. From this come the catacombs, those underground galleries where the dead reposed, and the usage, remaining to our day, of sealing relics of saints in the stone of the altar. The martyr being united to the sacrifice of Christ, the sacrifice was offered upon his body. “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.” Revelation 6:9

The question of the lapsi

Not all the persecutions made only martyrs. Many, out of fear, sacrificed to the gods or bought a false certificate: they were called the lapsi, the fallen. When peace returned, many asked to re-enter the Church, and there was division over their fate. Rigorists wished to exclude them for ever. The Church chose mercy: after a time of penance, the repentant sinner was reconciled, for no fault exceeds the pardon of God for the one who converts. This crisis strengthened the practice of penance and the idea that the Church, holy, nonetheless bears within her sinners called to rise again.

The peace of the Church

At the beginning of the fourth century, the Empire gave up the fight. In 311, the emperor Galerius, dying, granted the Christians the freedom of their worship; in 313, after his victory, Constantine confirmed and extended it by the Edict of Milan, which restored to Christianity a full freedom. The age of the martyrs was ending. But the blood shed had not extinguished the faith: it had spread it. The crowd come to watch condemned men die expected cries and recantations; it saw men and women face the torment with peace, sometimes forgiving their executioners, and hold out to the end for a crucified man. Such constancy surpassed the strength of man. Many went away shaken by what they had seen; they questioned, sought to know this faith, drew near to the Christians to learn from them, and many of them ended by asking for baptism. In the words of Tertullian, the blood of the martyrs is a seed of Christians. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24 The Church emerged from these three centuries strengthened, and she never forgot those who had sealed her with their blood.