A. D. 301.—“At this time,” writes P. J. Twisck, “the persecution was very severe; for when the Emperor, namely, Diocletian would divert himself in the theatre, the whole multitude of the people called to him ten times, that the Christians should not be tolerated, and twelve times, that they should be exterminated.” Chron., 4th book, p. 85, col. 1, from Merul., fol. 237. Leonh. lib. 1.
In the preceding century, in the year 284, we mentioned, in connection with the beginning of the reign of Diocletian, the first bloody edict, issued by this Emperor against the pious and steadfast Christians, upon which followed the death of some of them, as may be seen in the cases of Claudius, Asterius, Neon, Zenobius, and the pious Christian women, Nuina, Theonilla, Zenobia, sister of the aforementioned Zenobius, etc., most of whom died at Tarsus, in Cilicia, the birth-place of the apostle Paul, for the testimony of Jesus, their Savior. This continued from the aforesaid year until the close of that century, as we have related in the proper place.
But in the same place we have also made mention of a second edict by the same Emperor, which, about nineteen years afterwards, was followed by the most violent persecution of the Christians. Of this we promised to speak more fully, and now purpose to do so, having come to the very time in which commenced this, the severest and most grievous persecution, which is called the tenth.
OF THE TENTH GENERAL PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS, UNDER DIOCLETIAN, COMMENCED A. D. 302.
Various eminent writers have made mention of this awful and lamentable deed of the Emperor Diocletian, and they cannot sufficiently wonder at two things: In the first place, that any one who is at all a human being could commit such great cruelties on his fellow-men, as Diocletian inflicted upon the Christians. In the second place, that the Christians, frail men, as they were, could endure all this, and not only this, but that many of them, from love to Jesus Christ, and because of the certain hope of their reward, manifested great joy in their sufferings. We shall first speak of the former, and then of the latter as follows.
THE CAUSE AND SEVERITY OF THIS PERSECUTION, ACCORDING TO THE ACCOUNT OF P. J. TWISCK, FROM VARIOUS ANCIENT AND CELEBRATED AUTHORS.
These two Emperors (namely, Diocletian and Maximian) jointly governed the empire, in harmony and constancy, and remained undivided. However, when they had reigned about ten years, they took counsel together, and resolved to exterminate the Christians, because the discord of religion caused great dissensions, both in the households and in the Roman Empire.
“The apostate Christians played the part of instigators and firebrands in the raising of this persecution, holding out to the Emperors the hope, that the Christians could be exterminated. The persecution which ensued thereupon, is considered the most grievous.”
Then he writes: “But the enemies of the truth took the occasion to incite the Emperor Diocletian against the Christians, from a certain conflagration in the city of Nicomedia—at that time the place where the Emperors were wont to reside—by which the palace of the Emperor was totally destroyed. With this calamity they charged the Christians. The Emperor, enraged beyond measure on this account, easily believed the slanderers, thinking he had sufficient reason for it. He accordingly, in the nineteenth year of his reign, which coincides with A. D. 302, issued a public decree (as was done in the days of Antiochus), that every one, in every place, should sacrifice to the gods of the Emperors; and that he who should refuse to do so, should be punished with death; also, that the churches or meeting-places, and the books, of the Christians should be utterly destroyed. Yea, there was scarcely a large city in the empire, in which not daily a hundred Christians, or thereabouts, were slain. It is also recorded that in one month seventeen thousand Christians were put to death in different parts of the empire, so that the blood which was shed colored red many rivers. Some were hanged, others beheaded, some burned, and some sunk by whole shiploads in the depths of the sea.”