Church History: Notable Events (inc. Ecumenical Councils, Periods of Persecution, Religious Warfare, etc.)

64 - 313 - Christian Persecutions in Rome (All Facts) 

• Brought on by their refusal to participate in the state loyalty exercises, which involved sacrificing to state gods which they, like the Jews, rejected

• The Roman government eventually recognized that they were not Jews, and viewed them as treasonous because, unlike Jews, they did not have the same legal exemptions from sacrificing to the state gods that the Jews had

• The Roman government eventually accused them of “superstition” (not believing in the gods)

• Roman society saw them as a secret society engaged in subversive activities because they were meeting in private, which was fundamentally contrary to Roman law and custom of the time

• Many had died in the arena because many were of low social status, although those who held Roman citizenship went to Rome for trial despite suffering there as well

• Over time, the Roman government because more tolerant of them and increasingly rarely acted against them

64 - Persecution under Nero (All Facts) 

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of the namesake Roman Emperor

• Caused by the Great Fire of Rome, in which the namesake emperor supposedly started himself, which caused all of his building projects to burn, and led him to blame and persecute Christians from that point onward during his reign

• In order to divert the citizens’ anger, he made scapegoats of members of the new Christian faith, rounding them up and putting them to death in various cruel and spectacular ways

  • Despite his blaming Christians, many Romans believed the namesake himself was responsible for the namesake event

• Nero even had Christians burned alive for their faith

• Many famous Christians were persecuted including

  • Peter, a martyr

  • Paul, a martyr

177 - Persecution in Lyon (All Facts)

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius

• Event in which

  • More than 20 Christians were arrested

  • Of the 20 that were arrested, those who claimed Roman citizenship were tortured and beheaded in jail

  • Of the 20 that were arrested, those who did not claim Roman citizenship were led into the namesake town’s amphitheater and thrown to wild beasts in front of a howling crowd

  • A young woman named Blandina was hung on a stake but the wild beasts did not touch her and since then nothing was heard of her

  • Some of the prisoners were strangled in their cells and others thrown to wild dogs

  • Many Christians were stoned and raped

• Event which was caused by

  • Feeling against the Christians reaching a fever pitch in the namesake town

  • Popular passions having been whipped up by rumors that Christians indulge in cannibalistic orgies and incest

250 - Decian Persecution (All Facts)

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of the namesake Roman Emperor

• Outbreak that was prompted by the namesake emperor’s attempt to reunify the empire by proposing to use religion as a common denominator, by requiring all citizens to attest to their loyalty to the empire by sacrificing to the state gods and in return receive a certificate for doing so

  • This was the first empire-wide ruling that potentially affected all Christians, in which

    • Many were apostatized for sacrificing

    • Many were martyred for refusing to sacrifice

    • Many were publicly whipped or burnt to death

  • These harms done to Christians were carried out by

    • Court orders

    • Vigilante groups

• Many famous Christians were persecuted including

  • Origen of Alexandria

258 - Valerian Persecution (All Facts)

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of the namesake Roman Emperor, especially after his passage of two edicts

  • 257 - Issued an edict that ordered Christian clergy to sacrifice to the gods and exiled them for failing to do so 

  • 258 - Issued an edict that forbade all Christians from worship

    • The punishment was dished out depending on the rank of the person: the higher the rank of the person, the harsher the punishment 

• Many famous Christians were persecuted including

  • Pope Sixtus II, a martyr

  • Cyprian of Carthage, a martyr

303 - Diocletianic Persecution (All Facts) 

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of the namesake Roman Emperor

  • He attempted to “save” the empire from monotheistic Christianity in favor of its traditional polytheistic state religion which had served as a unifying element

    • He had done this in a last-ditch effort to reverse the rise of Christianity and restore the polytheistic imperial cult

• Was comprised of a series of four edicts which

  • Commanded the surrender of Christian books

  • Seized and dismantled Christian churches

  • Ordered the arrest of Christian clergy

  • Threated Christians to “sacrifice to the pagan gods or die”

• By the time of the namesake emperor’s reign, however, he was behind the times of the empire as Christianity had become much more popular and even garnered sympathy from polytheists

  • Thus, there was little public support to be drawn for the namesake development

  • Thus, it failed to unify the empire, which, ironically, was his goal in the first place

• Many famous Christians were persecuted including

  • St. Agnes of Rome 

311 - Edict of Sardica (All Facts)

• Issued by Emperor Galerius of the Roman Empire, it granted toleration to Christians in the wake of the Diocletianic Persecution 

313 - Edict of Milan (All Facts) 

• Issued by Constantine the Great of the Roman Empire, it 

  • Granted religious autonomy to all groups including Christians

  • Effectively made Christianity legal throughout the Empire

  • Ordered the compensation of Christian property that had been

    • confiscated by the imperial treasury

    • acquitted by private persons prior

  • Marked the first time that the imperial government recognized the Christian church as a lawful institution

  • Transformed Christianity from a potentially persecuted to a legally recognized religion

314 - Council of Arles (All Facts) 

• Council in which Donatism was condemned as a heresy and its founder Donatus of Carthage was excommunicated

• Council notable for three bishops from Britain being present at it, signifying Christianity’s expanding role in Britain 

• First Council called by Constantine the Great

325 - First Council of Nicaea (All Facts)

• Council in which the namesake creed was established and codified, which all Christians were expected to accept by that point 

• Council in which Arianism was condemned as a heresy and its founder Arius was excommunicated 

• Council which also dealt with administrative issues, formalizing the administrative model for the church based on the Roman provincial model that came to characterize the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Church 

• Council which established the official date of Easter (the official date now considered in the Roman Catholic Church)

• Second Council called by Constantine the Great

335 - First Council of Tyre (All Facts)

• Council in which the charges brought against St. Athanasius were evaluated

• Council which ended up deposing St. Athanasius of Alexandria 

• Third council called by Constantine the Great

341 - Sassanian Persecution (All Facts)

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of Shapur II of the Sassanid Empire, in which thousands of Christians died

343 - Council of Sardica (All Facts)

• Council called by Emperors Constans I (of Western Rome) and Constantius II (of Eastern Rome)

• Council which attempted to resolve "the tension between East and West in the Church” but miserably failed and was a disaster with both sides hurling insults at each other and the only result being deadlock

359 - Council of Rimini (All Facts)

• Council in West Rome which was persuaded to accept a pro-Arian creed put forward by the emperor’s advisers

  • Council which declared that the Son is only similar to the Father, thus overturning the decision at the Council of Nicaea

• Council called by the pro-Arian Constantius II

359 - Council of Seleucia (All Facts)

• Council in East Rome which was persuaded to accept a pro-Arian creed put forward by the emperor’s advisers

  • Council which declared that the Son is only similar to the Father, thus overturning the decision at the Council of Nicaea

• Council called by the pro-Arian Constantius II

360 - (Zeroth) Council of Constantinople (All Facts)

• Council which ratified pro-Arian alternations to the Nicene Creed

• Council called by the pro-Arian Constantius II

380 - Edict of Thessalonica (All Facts) 

• Issued by Theodosius the Great of the Roman Empire, it

  • Made Nicene Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire 

381 - First Council of Constantinople (All Facts)

• Council in which Arianism is officially and forever condemned as a heresy by the Church

• Council called by the pro-Nicene Theodosius the Great

392 - Theodosian Decrees (All Facts)

• Series of laws passed by the namesake emperor which banned all forms of pagan ritual and practice, they

  • Made Nicene Christianity the only legitimate religion within the empire

    • This made Nicene Christianity not only legal but favored by the Roman government

  • Harshly treated the followers of Christian heresies such as Manichaeism, Arianism, and Donatism, in which they often received the death penalty

  • Made Jews suffer legal disabilities

  • Ordered the 

    • Seizure of pagan temples

    • Breaking up the states of pagan gods

    • Prohibition of the practice of pagan rites, even in private at home

    • Taking away of the Altar of Victory in the Senate

428 - 477 - Persecution under Gaiseric in the Vandal Kingdom (All Facts)

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of the namesake king of the namesake (second) barbarian successor kingdom in which Nicene (non-Arian) Christians (Catholics) were persecuted

• Many non-Arian Christians (Catholics) faced death or exile if they refused to recant their faith 

431 - First Council of Ephesus (All Facts) 

• Council in which Nestorianism was condemned as a heresy and its founder Nestorius of Constantinople was excommunicated 

• Presided over by Nestorius of Constantinople

• Council called by Theodosius II 

449 - Second Council of Ephesus (All Facts) 

• Council in which Monophysitism was accepted as theologically sound 

• Council called by Theodosius II 

• Council presided over by Dioscurus of Alexandria 

• Council which 

  • Supported monasticism in Egypt

  • Insulted the representatives of Pope Leo there

  • Accepted Monophysitism in the absence of Pope Leo, who was a fierce opponent of the doctrine 

451 - Council of Chalcedon (All Facts)

• Council in which Monophysitism was condemned as heresy

• Council called by Emperor Marcian of the Roman Emp