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A. N. Sherwin-White records that serious discussion of the reasons for Roman persecution of Christians began in 1890 when it produced "20 years of controversy" and three main opinions: first, there was the theory held by most French and Belgian scholars that "there was a general enactment, precisely formulated and valid for the whole empire, which forbade the practice of the Christian religion.
[20] The same gods whom the Romans believed had protected and blessed their city and its wider empire during the many centuries they had been worshipped were now demonized [21] by the early Christian Church. [22] [23] The Romans protected the integrity of religions practiced by communities under their rule, seeing it as inherently correct to ...
The Massacre (or Slaughter) of the Innocents is a story recounted in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (2:16–18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem. [2]
Early Christians were persecuted at the hands of both Jews, from whose religion Christianity arose, and the Romans who controlled many of the early centers of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Since the emergence of Christian states in Late Antiquity , Christians have also been persecuted by other Christians due to differences in doctrine which ...
Christians were also deprived of the right to petition the courts, [138] making them potential subjects for judicial torture; [139] Christians could not respond to actions brought against them in court; [140] Christian senators, equestrians, decurions, veterans, and soldiers were deprived of their ranks; and Christian imperial freedmen were re ...
None of this was so during the first few centuries of the Christian movement, and remembering why—and how those early Christians designated themselves and each other—can offer lessons for today.
In Bethlehem, a decree from the West Bank’s governing Palestinian Authority mandates that the city’s mayor, deputy mayor and a majority of the municipal council must be Christians.
Many Romans were taken captive, including the Emperor's sister, Galla Placidia. Some citizens would be ransomed, others would be sold into slavery, and still others would be raped and killed. [95] Pelagius, a Roman monk from Britain, survived the siege and wrote an account of the experience in a letter to a young woman named Demetrias.