It is common knowledge that Christianity was persecuted by the Roman Empire. But which emperors persecuted Christianity? This paper will show what the views of several Roman emperors who persecuted Christians and compare their views with that of later emperors.

Trajan and Pliny the Younger

Trajan was the second of the “Five Good Emperors” and the first to persecute Christians. We know of his views of Christianity and the way he felt it should be dealt with from his reply to a letter from Pliny the Younger, Governor of Pontus. Pliny, never having dealt with Christians before, describes his method to Trajan:

“I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. … Those who denied they were or had been Christians…offered prayer with incense and wine to your [Trajan's] image…and moreover cursed Christ. … These I thought should be discharged.”

Trajan replied to this letter by stating that Pliny was correctly dealing with Christians but he should not seek Christians out and should not to take heed to anonymous accusations.

Diocletian

The worst persecution of the Christians was under Diocletian. We get accounts of his persecution from Eusebius and Lactantius, eye-witnesses from Egypt and Nicomedia respectively. Eusebius writes:

“It was the Nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian…when the feast of the Savior’s passion was near at hand, when edicts were published everywhere, commanding that the churches should be razed [leveled] to the ground, Scriptures destroyed by fire, those [Christians] who held positions of honor degraded, and the household servants, if they persisted in the Christian profession, be deprived of their liberty. And such was the first decree against us.”

Also according to Eusebius, Diocletian would let the Christian prisoners go if they would sacrifice to the Roman gods and if not they would be tortured. Lactantius has a similar story of forced worship:

“…it was commanded that all the people throughout the city should sacrifice and pour out liberations to the idols. Heralds went through the whole city of Caesaream by the orders of the governor summoning, men, women, and children to the temples of the idols, and in addition the chiliarchs were calling upon each one name by name from a roll. …all the men, together with the women and children, even infants at the breast, should offer sacrifice and pour out liberations.”

Galerius and the Edict of Toleration

In contrast to the persecution of Trajan and Diocletian are Galerius and Constantine. Once again we receive an account of what happened from Lactantius. It all started when, in 311, when Emperor Galerius wanted peace in Rome. He felt even the Christians “who had left the religion of their fathers…and fallen into such a folly that they would not obey the institutes of antiquity” should have toleration. All he asked in return for helping the Christians was that they pray for Rome whenever they pray (Remember the Romans praised gods of all religions of antiquity). This was called the “Edict of Toleration”

Constantine and the Edict of Milan

Two years later, once Galerius was off the throne, Constantine became emperor. Constantine not only felt that Christianity was a true religion, he felt it was the only true religion. He met with Licinius one day in Milan. There, while discussing matters of Rome, Christianity came up. After much debate, they decided to make Christianity a legal religion with all the freedoms and rights that others had. This was called the “Edict of Milan.”

Theodosius

Under the reign of Theodosius in 379-395, Christianity was made the official religion of Rome, while all others became illegal. In fact, not being a Christian was punishable by eternal damnation and by the Roman Empire using the will of God in to decide an earthly punishment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as you can see, the beginning and later emperor of the Roman Empire had very different views of Christianity. With Trajan and Diocletian punishing Christians with death all the way to Constantine, who was a Christian himself.