Martyrs and Heretics: 200–300

Martyrs and Heretics: 200–300

I. Authority of Martyrs

A. Emperor Septimus Severus

1. Lucius Septimius Severus Pertinax (c.145–211)

2. Converted the government into a military monarchy (seceded Commodus, the emperor in the movie Gladiator)

3. Outlawed conversion to Judaism and Christianity[1]

B. The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas (highlight notes, Montanists)

C. Montanism[2]

1. Montanus, Christian convert living in Phrygia 170, began prophesying

2. Joined by Priscilla and Maximilla

3. Believed God spoke through the Spirit through them

4. “the New Prophecy”

5. Emphasized the “nearness of the second coming”

6. Followed a “severe moral code”

a. No remarriage

b. Frequent Fastings

c. Xerophagies (only eating dry food)

d. Veiling of virgins

e. Impossibility of forgiveness for serious sins committed after baptism

f. Sin to avoid persecution and martyrdom

7. Montanism is known for speaking in tongues, visions, revelatory dreams, prophetic utterances of predictions

8. Geographically spread into Asia Minor, Italy, France, and North Africa

9. “The Council of Constantinople in 381 declared that the Montanists should be looked upon as pagans.”[3]

II. Early Church Order

A. Hippolytus (?–c. 236)

1. Apostolic Tradition (c. 220) offers insights into the liturgy (order of service) of the church

a. Order of ordinands and other ministers *strict*

b. Standard rites of Baptism

c. Standard rites of Eucharist

d. Liturgical Practices in the third century Roman Church

III. Origen (c. 185–251)[4]

A. Origen’s father, Leonidas was martyred, leading Origen to seek martyrdom, saved by his mother

B. Was a pupil of Clement of Alexandria (“the first theologian”)

1. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–c. 215)[5]

a. Joyful disposition and writings

b. “the first theologian”[6]wrote about lifestyles and practices

c. Catechetical School (catechumens)[7]

C. Appointed head of the catechetical school by Demetrius of Alexandria at the age of 17

D. Traveled all over the Empire to learn about religion and philosophy, becoming a consultant to many for theological issues

E. Conflict over authority with Demetrius, ultimately excommunicated from Alexandrian Church

F. Major writings (most are lost):

1. Hexapla—OT Hebrew text, Hebrew text in Greek letters, and four Greek translations

2. First Principles (De Principiis), “This was the first known attempt in Church history to produce a ‘systematic theology’ –a writing that deals in an orderly manner with all aspects of Christian doctrine.”[8]

G. Died in 254 after imprisonment and torture “as one of the final victims of the persecution by Decius.”[9]Needham, “Arrested during a fresh outbreak of persecution under the emperor Decius in 250, Origen was subjected to prolonged sadistic torture by the authorities, and died as a result of his injuries in 254.”[10] His torture included the iron collar, burning, and stretching his legs.

IV. Decian Persecution

A. Numerical Growth for Christians—separate buildings dedicated for Church use (rich families)

B. Synaxarium—list of martyrs during persecutions

C. “Trajan Decius” in honor of Trajan and his fight against “atheists”

D. “The Decian campaign was the first empire-wide persecution, and the bloodiest yet for Christians.”[11]

E. “The persecution campaign may have been short-lived, but the consequences were far-reaching, for while the Decian persecution had produced many martyrs, it had created many more apostates.”[12]

F. “Decius believed that the Church was a deadly threat to the Empire’s unity and stability. Christians had made themselves very unpopular in 247 by refusing to join in the Pagan festivities celebrating the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of Rome.”[13]

G. Northern Germanic Tribes attacked the western boarders of the Empire causing the Romans to question the gods’ judgment for allowing Christianity.

V. Lapsed Christians—what do you do with those who given in to persecution?

A. Bishop Cornelius welcomed “apostates” back into the Church

B. Confessors—individuals who were imprisoned by not executed for their faith[1]

C. Novatian opposed this

D. Matthew 26:69–75; 2 Timothy 2:11–13

VI. Novatian

A. Opposed Cornelius’ lenient attitude toward lapsed Christians

B. Established his own separate church

C. Concerning the Trinity De Trinitate—“the first great doctrinal treatise to emerge from the Christian community in Rome”

1. Argued for two natures of Christ

2. Against Sabellianism[1]

D. Ultimately martyred during Valerian’s persecutions (258)

[1]“Sabellianism- an alternative name for the Modalist form of Monarchianism (q.v.), so called after Sabellius, who was perhaps a 3rd-cent. Theologian of Roman origin.” Livingston, Concise Dictionary, 518.

VII. Cyprian

A. Cyprian was well-educated “in rhetoric and the law”[14]

B. “He was a great organizer and administrator….He was calm…”[15]

C. Became bishop of Carthage 248

D. “Cyprian tended to think of the clergy as sacrificing priests in offering up Christ’s body and blood in the Communion service.”[16]

E. Martyred in 258

F. On Catholic Unity De Catholicae Ecclesiae Unitate—focused on the unity of the church in the bishop

VIII. Rebaptism

IX. The First Toleration

A. Emperor Valerian (ruled 253–260)

B. West and East

C. Dionysius (?–268)

X. Desert Hermits

[1] Hoeber, K. (1912). Septimius Severus. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13721a.htm, accessed 5 September 2023. [2]This section largely comes from Nick Needham, 2,000 Years of Christ’s PowerVol. 1 (Scotland, Focus Publishing, 1998, repr. 2022), 112–113. [3]Earle E. Cairns, Christianity Through the Centuries: A History of the Christian Church rev. and enlarged (Grand Rapids, Zondervan: 1954, repr. 1981), 102. [4]Much of this information comes from Needham, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power, 130. [5]“IF Rome was the Empire’s legal and administrative capital, Alexandria acted as its intellectual and cultural capital, as well as being one of its most important trading ports.” Needham, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power, Vol. 1, 127. [6]Backhouse, Zondervan Essential Companion to Christian History, 23. [7]“In the early Church those undergoing training and instruction preparatory to Baptism. They were assigned a place in the church, but solemnly dismissed before the Eucharist proper began. There was an elaborate ritual of preparation in the preceding Lent, with the candidate finally being baptized during the Paschal Vigil.” Livingstone, Oxford Concise Dictionary, 104, s.v. “catechumens.” [8]Needham, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power, 132; Backhouse, Zondervan Essential Companion, 26. [9]Backhouse, Zondervan Essential Companion, 26. [10]Needham, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power, 131. [11]Backhouse, Zondervan Essential Companion, 26 [12]Backhouse, Zondervan Essential Companion, 26. [13]Needham, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power, 156. [14]Cairns, Christianity Through the Centuries, 113. [15]Cairns, 113. [16]Cairns, 113; Cyprian, Epistle 63, “14. There is then no reason, dearest brother, for any one to think that the custom of certain persons is to be followed, who have thought in time past that water alone should be offered in the cup of the Lord. For we must inquire whom they themselves have followed. For if in the sacrifice which Christ offered none is to be followed but Christ, assuredly it behooves us to obey and do that which Christ did, and what He commanded to be done, since He Himself says in the Gospel, “If ye do whatsoever I command you, henceforth I call you not servants, but friends.” And that Christ alone ought to be heard, the Father also testifies from heaven, saying, “This is my well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” Wherefore, if Christ alone must be heard, we ought not to give heed to what another before us may have thought was to be done, but what Christ, who is before all, first did. Neither is it becoming to follow the practice of man, but the truth of God; since God speaks by Isaiah the prophet, and says, “In vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men.” And again the Lord in the Gospel repeats this same saying, and says, “Ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” Moreover, in another place He establishes it, saying, “Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” But if we may not break even the least of the Lord’s commandments, how much rather is it forbidden to infringe such important ones, so great, so pertaining to the very sacrament of our Lord’s passion and our own redemption, or to change it by human tradition into anything else than what was divinely appointed! For if Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, is Himself the chief priest of God the Father, and has first offered Himself a sacrifice to the Father, and has commanded this to be done in commemoration of Himself, certainly that priest truly discharges the office of Christ, who imitates that which Christ did; and he then offers a true and full sacrifice in the Church to God the Father, when he proceeds to offer it according to what he sees Christ Himself to have offered.”