The Story From Pliny to Milan
The trials in order, from the church's own records and the emperors' edicts.
About AD 111 to 112 Pliny, governor of Bithynia, wrote to Trajan about the Christians brought before him. He asked each whether he was a Christian, asked twice more under threat, and had those who held to it executed. Trajan replied that Christians were not to be hunted and that unsigned accusations were not to be heard.
But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear that name.
Peter names the charge these courts tried, which was the name itself.
1 Peter 4:16BSB
Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, was taken under guard to Rome to die. He wrote ahead to the church there, "I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts."
At Rome Justin, who had written defences of the faith, stood with his companions before the prefect Rusticus, who took office in 163. Rusticus sentenced those who refused to sacrifice to be scourged and beheaded.
I know where you live, where the throne of Satan sits. Yet you have held fast to My name and have not denied your faith in Me, even in the day when My faithful witness Antipas was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
It shows a martyr in a church of Asia a generation before Polycarp.
In Gaul about 177 the churches of Lyons and Vienne suffered, and their letter survives in Eusebius. Their bishop Pothinus was more than ninety. Blandina was tortured from morning till evening until her torturers owned themselves beaten.
At Carthage on 17 July 180 the proconsul asked Speratus of Scilli what was in his chest. He answered, "Books and epistles of Paul, a just man."
They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death.
John's vision joins the testimony and the death, as these letters did.
In 203 Perpetua was held at Carthage with her infant son. Her prison diary survives inside the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity. When her father begged her to give way, she pointed to a pitcher and said she could no more call herself anything else than call it by another name.
Felicity was eight months pregnant at her arrest and gave birth in prison before the games.
Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven.
Jesus' promise to those who confess Him is what Perpetua chose over her father's plea.
In 250 Decius ordered sacrifice. Fabian, bishop of Rome, died, and Origen was put in the iron collar and the stocks. Officials signed certificates for those who sacrificed, and over forty survive from Egypt. One reads, "We have always sacrificed to the gods."
Many gave way at once. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, wrote that some ran "to the market-place of their own accord."
But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven.
This warning was the text the strict quoted against receiving the lapsed back.
When the danger passed, the lapsed asked to come back. Cyprian received them after penance, case by case, and held that taking a certificate was a lesser fall than offering the sacrifice. In 251 Novatian was set up at Rome against the new bishop Cornelius, holding that the church could not receive them.
Cornelius counted in his church forty-six presbyters and over fifteen hundred widows and persons in distress.
Jesus asked a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was deeply hurt that Jesus had asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?” “Lord, You know all things,” he replied. “You know I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.
Peter's restoring after his denial was the text for receiving those who had fallen.
John 21:17BSB
Valerian struck at the leaders. Cyprian reported his order that bishops, presbyters and deacons be punished, and that Xistus of Rome died in a cemetery with four deacons. Cyprian's own martyrdom followed.
Gallienus then wrote to Dionysius and the other bishops, giving back their places of worship. The next general order came under Diocletian.
And when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had upheld.
John's vision answers the question these deaths raised, where the slain now are.
On 23 February 303 officials forced the doors of the church at Nicomedia and razed it. The next day Diocletian's edict stripped Christians of all honours and dignities, and a later order commanded all the people to sacrifice.
In Palestine, Eusebius records, the martyrdoms ran eight complete years.
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
It names the choice Diocletian's edicts put to every believer.
On 30 April 311 Galerius issued an edict. It allowed Christians "again to be Christians" and asked them to pray for the emperors.
Two years later, on 13 June, Licinius posted the letter he and Constantine had agreed at Milan. It ordered the churches' places returned "without money demanded or price claimed."
Treat everyone with high regard: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
Peter told believers to honour the king, and they prayed for the emperors who had tried them.
1 Peter 2:17BSB
Revelation 12:11, Matthew 10:32, Matthew 10:33, John 21:17, Revelation 6:9, Matthew 10:28, 1 Peter 2:17