The Calm Before the Storm, 260–303
After Gallienus ended Valerian's persecution in 260, the churches enjoyed about forty years of peace. They grew in the cities and the countryside, in the army and the civil service, even in the emperor's household. Eusebius of Caesarea, who lived through what followed, describes crowded assemblies and larger meeting places rising in every city. At Nicomedia, the emperor's eastern capital, a church building stood on high ground in full view of the palace.
The empire, meanwhile, had been rescued from half a century of civil war by Diocletian, a soldier from Dalmatia who became emperor in 284. To govern so vast a realm he shared power among four rulers: two senior emperors, himself in the East and Maximian in the West, each with a junior colleague, Galerius in the East and Constantius in the West. Diocletian set out to restore Rome's old order in everything: the army, taxes, prices, and religion.
Rule by four. Diocletian's system of two senior emperors (Augusti) and two junior emperors (Caesars), each responsible for part of the empire. It explains why the Great Persecution was fierce in some provinces and mild in others: each ruler enforced the edicts as he chose.
Trouble began at court and in the army. According to Lactantius, a Christian teacher of rhetoric at Nicomedia, the emperor's soothsayers once complained that they could not read the omens at a sacrifice because Christians present had made the sign of the cross. Diocletian ordered everyone in the palace to sacrifice, and soldiers who refused were discharged. Galerius, a bitter enemy of the Christians, pressed for more. Diocletian hesitated, consulted his advisers and the oracle of Apollo at Didyma, and at last agreed.
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For Deeper Study
- On the Deaths of the PersecutorsAmazon LactantiusAn eyewitness account of the edicts at Nicomedia, written around 315 to show God's judgment on the persecuting emperors.
- The Church HistoryAmazon Eusebius of CaesareaBooks 8 to 10 cover the Great Persecution and Constantine's rise; Eusebius's shorter work The Martyrs of Palestine records what he saw in his own province.
- Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early ChurchAmazon W. H. C. FrendThe standard scholarly study, with full treatment of Diocletian's persecution.
- The Donatist ChurchAmazon W. H. C. FrendA classic study of the North African separation that grew out of the persecution.
- Constantine and EusebiusAmazon Timothy D. BarnesA detailed scholarly account of the persecution, Constantine, and the historian who chronicled them.
- The Reformers and Their StepchildrenAmazon Leonard VerduinOn the church-state union that began with Constantine and the free churches it persecuted, from the Donatists to the Anabaptists.
- The Pilgrim ChurchAmazon E. H. BroadbentTraces churches that sought to follow the New Testament pattern through the centuries.
- Martyrs MirrorAmazon Thieleman J. van BraghtThe Anabaptist martyrology of 1660, which begins with the early martyrs. Its claims about the baptismal practice of ancient groups need checking against the sources.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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