Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/772

 PERSECUTIONS

708

PERSECUTIONS

marshy district south-west of Alexandria, "a coun- try", Dionysius says, "destitute of brethren arid exposed to the annoyances of the travelers and in- cursions of robbers", and assigned them to different villages tlirougliout that desolate region. Dionysius and his companions were stationed at Colkithion, near the highway, so they could be seized first. This new arrangement, which had caused no small apprehension to Dionysius, turned out much better than the former one. If intercour.se with Egypt was more difficult, it was easier with .\lexaiKlria; Dionysius had the conso- lation of seeing his friends more frequently, those who were nearer to his heart, and he could hiild jiartial meetings with them as was customary in the most re- mote suburbs of the capital (Euseb., " Hist, cccl.", VII, xi, 1-7). This is unfortunately all we know of Valerian persecution in Egypt. The portion of Dionysius' let- ter to Domitius and Didymus in which Eusebius refers to tiie persecution of Valerian (loc. cit., VII, xx) be- longs rather to the Decian times. It is to be regretted that Eusebius did not preserve for us in its entirety Dionysius' let ter " t o Hermammon and t he brethren in Egypt, describing at length the wickedness of Decius and his successors and mentioning the peace under Gallienus".

Immediately after Valerian's capture by the Per- sians (260?) his son Gallienus (who had been asso- ciated with him in the empire for several years) pub- lished edicts of toleration if not of recognition in favour of the Christians (see McGiffert's note 2 to Eusebius, "Hist, eccl.", VII, xiii). But Egj'pt having fallen to the lot of Macrianus it is probable that he withheld the edicts orthat the terrible civil war which then broke out in Alexandria between the partisans of Gallienus and those of Macrianus delayed their promulgation. After the usurper's fall (late in 261 or early in 262), Gallienus issued a rescript "to Dionj'sius, Pinnas, Demetrius, and the other bishops" to apprise them of his edicts and to assure them that Aurelius Cj-renius, "chief administrator of affairs", would observe them (Euseb., "Hist, eccl.", VII, .xiii;andMcGiffert,note3).

Per.secutions of Diocleti.\n (303-5) and Maxi- MiNrs {a. d. 30.5-13). — For reasons on which sources either disagree or are silent (see Duchesne, " Hist. anc. de I'eglise", II, 10 sq.; McGiffert in "Select Lib. of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, N. S. ", I, 400), Dio- cletianus, whose household was full of Christians, sud- denly changed his attitude towards Christianity and initiated the longest and bloodiest persecutions against the Church. Lactantius informs us (De mort. persec, IX) that Diocletian acted on the advice of a council of dignitaries in which Galerius played the principal part. It was in a. d. 303, the nineteenth year of his reign, and the third of Peter Alexandrinus as Bishop of Alex- andria. Egypt and Sj'ria (as part of the Diocese of Orient) were directly undertheruleof Diocletian. This general outbreak had been preceded for three years at least by a more or less disguised persecution in the army. Eusebius says that a certain magister militum Veturius, in the sixteenth year of Diocletian, forced a number of high rank officers to prove their loyalty by the usual test of sacrificing to the gods of the empire, on penalty of losing their honours and privileges. Many "soldiers of Christ's kingdom" cheerfully gave up the seeming glory of this world and a few received death "in exchange for their pious constancy" (Euseb., "Hist, eccl.", VIII, iv;"Chron.", ed. Schdne, II, 1S6 sq.). On 23 February, 303, the Church of Nicomedia was torn down by order of the emperors. The next day (thus Lact., op. cit., xiii. Euseb. says "in March, on the approach of the Passion"), a first edict was published everywhere ordering the churches to be destroyed, the Holy Scriptures to be burned, and inflicting degradation on those in high rank and slavery on their households. Two other edicts .soon followed, one ordering the imprisonment of all church officials, the other commanding them to sacrifice to

the gods (Euseb., op. cit., VIII, ii, 4, 5; vi, 8, 10). In 304, while Diocletian was seriously ill, a fourth edict was issued commanding all the people to sacrifice at once in the different cities and offer libations to the idols (Euseb., "Mart. Pal.", Ill, i). On 1 May, 305. both Diocletian and Maximian Ilcrculius retired officially from the pubhc life and a tetrarchy was organized with Galerius and Constantius as August! and Severus and Maximinus Daia as Ca-sars; and a new apportionment of the empire was made, Egypt and Syria with the rest of the Diocese of Orient going to Maximinus. Superstitious in the extreme, sur- rounded by magicians without whom he did not ven- ture to move even a finger, ferocious and dissolute, Ma.ximinus was far more bitter against the Christians than Galerius himself.

To give a fresh impetus to the persecution, he pub- lished again (305) in his provinces, in his own name, the fourth edict which had been issued the year before by all the members of the tetrarchy, thus making it clear that no mercy was to be expected from him (Euseb., "Mart. Pal", IV, viii). In 307, after the death of Constantius, his son Constantine was made second Ca;sar and Severus promoted to the rank of Augustus. The following year Severus, defeated by Maxentius, was obliged to take his own life and his place and rank was given by Galerius to Licinius. Maximinus then assumed the title of Augustus against the wish of Galerius who nevertheless had to recognize him and bestowed the same title on Constantine. It was probably on the occasion of this quarrel with Galerius that Maximinus for a short while in the sum- mer of 308 relaxed somewhat his measures against the Christians. "Relief and liberty were granted to those who for Christ's sake were labouring in the mines of the Thebaid" (Mart. Pal., IX, i). But suddenly in the autumn of the same year he issued another edict (so-called fifth edict) ordering the shrines of the idols to be speedily rebuilt and all the people, even infants at the breast, to be compelled to sacrifice and taste of the offerings. At the same time he commanded the things for sale in the markets to be sprinkled with the libations from the sacrifices, the entrance to the jiublic baths to be contaminated similarly (Mart. Pal., IX, ii). And when three years later (April, 311) Galerius, de- voured by a terrible disease and already on the point of death, finally softened toward the Christians and asked them to pray to their God for his recovery, Maximinus significantly kept aloof (Hi.st. eccl., VIII, xvii). His name does not appear with those of Gale- rius, Constantinus, and Licinius, in the heading of the edict of toleration, which, moreover, was never pro- mulgated in his provinces. However, probably to placate his two colleagues on the occasion of a new apportionment of the power as a result of Galerius' death, he told his chief official, Sabinus, to instruct the governors and other magistrates to relax the jiersecu- tion. His orders received wider interpretat ion than he expected, and while his attention was directed by the division of the Eastern empire between himself and Licinius, the confessors who were awaiting trial in the prisons were released and those who had been condemned to the mines returned home in joy and exultation.

This lull had lasted about six months when Maxi- minus resumed the persecution, supposeilly at the request of the various cities and towns who prtitioned him not to allow the Christians to ilwcll within their walls. But Eusebius declares that in the case of Antioch the petition was Maximinus' own work, and that the other cities had sent their memorials at the solicitation of his officials who had been instructed by himself to that effect. On that occasion he created in ea(^h city a high-priest who.se office it was to make daily sacrifices to all the (local) gods, and with the aid of the priests of the former orrler of things, to restrain the Christians from building churches and