Ancient Roman Christians

Christian beliefs and practices in the 2nd and 3rd centuries

Icon of Mary, Rome (6th century or earlier)
Image source: Asia

Given that I have a good understanding of the religious landscape in ancient Rome it seems fitting to look at Christianity during this era. Many contemporary analyses of this kind focuses heavily on the New Testament, with a particular focus on 1st century Christians. As there is nothing I can add to the discussion on 1st century Christians I am instead starting in the 2nd century, with a focus on this nascent religion as it was before it became a major political force in the 4th century CE.

“Within a short time after Christ’s death [certainly by the 2nd century], Christianity became identified as a cult quite separate and distinct from Judaism. Non-Jewish converts often brought to the new cult ideas and rhetoric from their former religions or philosophies [especially Stoicism and Neo-Platonism] … Christianity … was a cult that attracted large numbers of lower-class people and encouraged them to participate in … emotionalism ... [and] private assembly ... [Shelton at 407-409]”

In the early 2nd century a Roman governor wrote to Trajan (ruled 98-117 CE) about the measures he was taking in relation to adherents of the new religion:

“… among those who were brought before me as Christians, I have used the following method, I asked them if they were Christians. If they admitted it, I asked them a second and even a third time, threatening them with punishment. I ordered those who persisted to be led away for execution … I thought that those who denied that they were or had been Christians should be dismissed, if they prayed to our gods, repeating the words after me, and if they dedicated incense and wine to your image … [together] with the statues of the gods, and if, moreover, they cursed Christ. It is said that those who are truly Christians cannot do any of those things. Others who … said that they had indeed been Christians, but had now ceased to be … asserted, however, that this had been the sum total of their offence or error: they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and to sing in responsion a hymn to Christ as if to a god, and to bind themselves by an oath … not to commit theft, robbery, or adultery, not to break their word, and not to refuse to return a deposit when called upon [since there were no banks at this time people sometimes left their money in the home of someone with a secure residence – an unscrupulous person might later refuse to return such money]. When these things had been done, it had been their custom … to depart, and then meet again later to dine together, on food that was ordinary and innocent. They had ceased to do even this … after my edict by which I had forbidden the existence of secret societies … I believed it was necessary to search out the truth … by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. However, I found nothing other than depraved, excessive superstition … The contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the cities, but also to the villages and even to the farms … [from a letter by Pliny the Younger, a Roman governor of Bithynia-Pontus in 111 CE, to the emperor, extracted in Shelton at 409-411]”