Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/771

 PERSECUTIONS

707

PERSECUTIONS

acknowledges an authority beyond the reach of pohti- cal legislation. In the Teutonic countries, on the other hand, the Church does not loom so large a target for the missiles of her enemies. Long years of per- secution have done their work, and left the Catholics with a greater need and a greater sense of solidarity. There is less danger of confusing friend and foe, and the progress of the Church is made more apparent.

Bruck-Kissung, Gesch. der kaih. Kirche im neunzehnten Jakrh. (5 vola., Mainz and Munster, 1908); MacCaffrey. Histonj of the Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century (2 vola., Dublin. 1909); GoTAU, L'Allemagne rcligieuse (3 vols., Paris. 1906).

James Bhidge.

Persecutions, Coptic (According to Greek and Latin Sources). — During the first two centuries the Church of Alexandria seems to have been freer from official persecution at the hands of the Roman Government than its sister churches of Rome and Antioch. Two causes may have contributed to this: (1) the privileged political and religious status in Egypt of Jews from whom the Government found it difficult to distinguish the Christians; (2) Roman citizenship having never been extended to the Egyp- tians, except in a few individual cases, the inhabitants of Egypt were free from the obligations of the Roman state religion and consequently there was no reason for persecution. For it is well known that the only cause of the persecutions in the first and second cen- turies was the incompatibihty of the Christian faith with the state religion, which eveiy Roman citizen, the Jews excepted, was obliged to practice, though free otherwise to follow any other form of religion he chose.

Persecution of Severus (200-11). — But when Septimius Severus by a special edict (about a. d. 200) forbade under severe punisliment "to make Jews and Christians", the law applied to all subjects of the Roman Empire whether citizens or not; the Egyptian Church with its famous catechetical school of Alex- andria, and the fresh impulse given by Demetrius to the diffusion of Christianity throughout the country, seem to have attracted the attention of the emperor, who had just visited Egypt. The school broke up just at that time; and its director, Clement of Alex- andria, being obliged to leave Egypt, the youthful Origen attempted to reorganize it. He was soon arrested by the newly-appointed prefect Aquila. Shortly before, under Laetus, his father Leonidas had been the first victim of the persecution. Origen had earnestly encouraged liim to stand firm in his confession, and was himself now longing for a martyr's death. His desire was frustrated through the efforts of his mother and friends. But he had the consola- tion of assisting and encouraging a number of his pupils who died for the faith. Plutarch, who had been his first disciple, Serenus (burnt), Heraclides, a cate- chumen, and Hero, a neophyte (both beheaded), a woman, Herais, a catechumen (burnt), another, Se- renus (beheaded), and Basilides, a soldier attached to the office of Aquila. Potamiaena, a young Christian woman, had been condemned to be sunk by degrees in a cauldron of boiling pitch and was being led to death by Basilides, who on the way protected her against the insults of the mob. In return for his kindness the martyr promised him not to forget him with her Lord when she reached her destination. Soon after Pota- misena's death Basilides was asked by his fellow- soldiers to take a certain oath ; on answering that he could not do it, as he was a Christian, at first they thought he was jesting, but seeing he was in earnest they denounced him and he was condemned to be beheaded. While waiting in jail for his sentence to be carried out some Christians (Origen being possibly one of them) visited him and asked him how he happened to be converted; he answered that three days after her death, Potamiaena had appeared to him by night anfl placed a crown on his head as a pledge that the Lord would soon receive him into his glory.

Potamisena appeared to many other persons at that time, calling them to faith and martyrdom (Euseb., "Hist.Eccl.", VI, iii-v). To these conversions, Origen, an eyewitness, testifies in his "Contra Celsum" (I, 46; P. G., XI, 746). Marcella, mother of Potamiaena, who likewise perished by fire, is the only other martyr whose name is recorded in authentic sources, but we are told of legions of Christians that were sent to Alexandria from all points of Egypt and Thebaid as picked athletes directed to the greatest and most famous arena of the world (Euseb., "Hist. Eccl.", VI, i).

Persecutions op Decius (249-51). — Severus died in 211. Authentic sources mention no further official persecution of the Christians of Egypt until the edict of Decius, A. D. 249. This enactment, the exact tenor of which is not known, was intended to test the loyalty of all Roman subjects to the national religion, but it contained also a special clause against the Christians, denouncing the profession of Christianity as incom- patible with the demands of the State, proscribing the bishops and other church officials, and probably also forbidding religious meetings. Disobedience to the imperial orders was threatened with severe punish- ments, the nature of which in each individual case was left to the discretion or zeal of the magistrates (see Gregg, "Decian Persecution", 75 sqq.). During the long period of peace the Egyptian Church had enjoyed since Severus' death it had rapidly increased in num- bers and wealth, much, it seems, to the detriment of its power of endurance. And the fierce onslaught of Decius found it quite unprepared for the struggle. Defections were numerous, especially among the rich, in whom, says St. Dionysius, was verified the saying of Our Lord (Matt., xix, 23) that it is difficult for them to be saved (Euseb., "Hist. Eccl.", VI, xli, 8). Diony- sius was then the occupant of the chair of St. Mark. The particulars of the persecution, and of the popular outbreak against the Christians in Alexandria (a. d. 249) are known to us almost exclusively from his let- ters as preserved by Eusebius (see Dionysius of Alex- andria). Decius' death in a. d. 251 put an end to the persecution.

Persecution of Valerian (257-61). — The perse- cution of Valerian was even more severe than that of Decius. Dionysius who is again our chief authority lays the responsibility for it to the emperor's chief counselor, Macrianus "teacher and ruler of the Magi from Egypt" (Eu.seb., "Hist, eccl.", VII, x, 4). A first edict published in 257 ordered all bishops, priests, and deacons to conform with the state religion under penalty of exile and prohibited the Christians from holding religious assemblies under penalty of death (Healy, "Valerian Persecution", 136). In 258 a sec- ond edict was issued sentencing to death bishops, priests, and deacons, and condemning laymen of high rank to degradation, exile, and slavery, or even death in case of obstinacy, according to an established scale of punishments (Healy, ibid., 169 sq.), confiscation of property resulting ipso facto in every case. Diony- sius was still in the chair of St. Mark. On receipt of the first edict jEmilianus, then Prefect of Egypt, im- mediately seized the venerable bishop with several priests and deacons and on his refusal to worship the gods of the empire exiled him to Kephro in Libya. There he was followed by some brethren from Alexan- dria and others soon joined him from the provinces of Egypt, and Diony.sius managed not only to hold the prohibiterl assemblies but also to convert not a few of the heathens of that region where the word of God had never been preached. yEmilianus was probably igno- rant of these facts which even under the provisions of the first edict made the bishop and his companions liable to capital punishment. Desiring however to have all the exiles in one district nearer at hand where he could seize them all without difficulty whenever he wished, he ordered their transfer to Mareotis, a