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Christian Persecutions Research Paper

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For about two centuries after Nero, persecutions came and went and were frequently quite unorganized. However, as Rome started to decline in aspects of military affairs and politics, more and more cases of persecutions took place. Emperor Domitian, who reigned from 81 CE until 96 CE, decided to hold persecutions of his own. During this persecution, Apostle John was exiled to Patmos. During Marcus Aurelius's rule, many Christians suffered as a result of Aurelius giving permission to the governor of Lyon to either behead those Christians who were Roman, or throw them to the beasts. Emperor Commodus, reigning from 180 until 192 CE, who at first persecuted Christians by assigning them to hard labor in mines, then allegedly stopped for the sake …show more content…
Then next ruler, Emperor Valerian, reigning from 253 until 260 CE, tormented Christians in many ways; he ordered the death penalty to any Christian who went to meetings, services, or even Christian cemeteries. He also killed many Christian leaders and forced others into slavery. Then suddenly, after being captured in a war with Persia in 260 CE, his son, Gallenius took over the empire and stopped the persecutions for a temporary 40 years. Then the last of the persecutions, and the perhaps the worst of them all, occurred under Diocletian and his acquaintance Galerius. Rome at this time operated under a tetrarchy consisting of the two Augusti, Diocletian and Maximian, and the two Caesars, Galerius and Constantius. The aggressiveness of Diocletian towards Christians was initiated in 303 CE and it consisted of such malicious acts as demolishing their churches, burning their literature, along with imprisoning, torturing, and killing them. According to L.P. Wilkinson, after Diocletian's death in 305 CE, Galerius continued persecuting Christians for six more years, until finally, at his deathbed in 311 CE, he issued an "edict of partial

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