the Great Persecution

(noun)

The last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.

Related Terms

Examples of the Great Persecution in the following topics:

  • The Rise of Christianity

    • The first recorded official persecution of Christians on behalf of the Roman Empire was in 64 CE, when, as reported by the Roman historian Tacitus, Emperor Nero blamed Christians for the Great Fire of Rome.
    • The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, which lasted from AD 302-311.
    • During the Great Persecution, Diocletian ordered Christian buildings and the homes of Christians torn down and their sacred books collected and burned during the Great Persecution.
    • The Great Persecution officially ended in April of 311, when Galerius, senior emperor of the Tetrarchy, issued an edict of toleration which granted Christians the right to practice their religion, though it did not restore any property to them.
    • Liebeschuetz has written: "The final result of the Great Persecution provided a testimonial to the truth of Christianity which it could have won in no other way."

  • Early Christian Art

    • This opened the way to the persecutions of Christians for disobedience to the emperor, as they refused to worship the state pantheon.
    • However, large-scale persecutions began in the year 64 when Nero blamed them for the Great Fire of Rome earlier that year.
    • Early Christians continued to suffer sporadic persecutions.
    • The last and most severe persecution organized by the imperial authorities was the Diocletianic Persecution from 303 to 311.
    • The almost total absence from Christian paintings during the persecution period of the cross, except in the disguised form of the anchor, is notable.

  • Decline of the Maurya Empire

    • A 50-year succession of weak kings followed the reign of Ashoka the Great, the Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who died in 232 BCE.
    • Buddhist sources, such as the Ashokavadana, an Indian Sanskrit text describing the birth and reign of Ashoka the Great, mention that Pusyamitra was hostile towards Buddhists and allegedly persecuted members of the Buddhist faith.
    • Some historians argue, however, that Buddhist accounts of Sunga persecution are largely exaggerated.
    • The Greek expansion into Indian territory may have been intended to protect Greek populations in India, as well as to protect the Buddhist faith from the alleged religious persecutions of the Sungas.
    • Throughout the first century BCE, the Indo-Greeks progressively lost ground to the Indians in the East, and the Scythians, the Yuezhi, and the Parthians in the West.

  • Persecution in the International Criminal Court

  • The Eastern Roman Empire, Constantine the Great, and Byzantium

    • The Christian, Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire had its capital at Constantinople, established by first Emperor Constantine the Great.
    • Constantine I ("the Great") is usually held to be the founder of the Byzantine Empire.
    • Constantine also began the building of the great fortified walls, which were expanded and rebuilt in subsequent ages.
    • Constantine was the first emperor to stop Christian persecutions and to legalise Christianity along with all other religions and cults in the Roman Empire.
    • The edict protected from religious persecution not only Christians but all religions, allowing anyone to worship whichever deity they chose.

  • Louis XIV and the Huguenots

    • The persecution of the Huguenots became one of the critical factors in Louis XIV's consolidation of royal power and resulted in Catholicism being the only legally tolerated religion in France, despite Louis' conflict with the Pope.
    • The Edict gained a new significance when Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, broke the post-Nantes tradition of relative religious tolerance in France and in his efforts to fully centralize the royal power, began to persecute the Protestants.
    • In 1681, Louis dramatically increased the persecution of Protestants.
    • Louis XIV (1638 – 1715), known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. 
    • Analyze Louis XIV's persecution of the Huguenots and the consequences that had for France.

  • Religion Under the Tang Dynasty

    • Religion in the Tang dynasty was diverse, and emperors sought support and legitimation from some local religious leaders, but persecuted others.
    • This episode would later be dubbed one of the Four Buddhist Persecutions in China.
    • Although his contemporaries found him crude and obnoxious, he foreshadowed the later persecution of Buddhism in the Tang, as well as the revival of Confucian theory with the rise of Neo-Confucianism of the Song dynasty.
    • Before the persecution of Buddhism in the 9th century, Buddhism and Taoism were accepted side by side, and Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–56) invited monks and clerics of both religions to his court.
    • A Tang dynasty sculpture of a Bodhisattva, a being who, motivated by great compassion, has generated bodhicitta, a spontaneous wish to attain buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings.

  • Evolution of Protestantism

    • The First Great Awakening illustrated the evolution of Protestantism in the British colonies.
    • During the 18th century, the British Atlantic experienced an outburst of Protestant revivalism known as the First Great Awakening.
    • (A Second Great Awakening would take place in the 1800s.)
    • The Mennonites left Germany because they were persecuted for refusing to perform military service on the basis of religious objections.
    • The group left Moravia and Bohemia in response to harsh persecution for their religious beliefs and practices.

  • The Anabaptists

    • The Anabaptists were a group of radical religious reformists formed in Switzerland who suffered violent persecution by both Roman Catholics and Protestants.
    • Roman Catholics and Protestants alike persecuted the Anabaptists, resorting to torture and execution in attempts to curb the growth of the movement.
    • The Protestants under Zwingli were the first to persecute the Anabaptists, with Felix Manz becoming the first martyr in 1527.
    • The persecution of Anabaptists was condoned by ancient laws of Theodosius I and Justinian I that were passed against the Donatists, which decreed the death penalty for any who practiced rebaptism.
    • Continuing persecution in Europe was largely responsible for the mass emigrations to North America by Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites.

  • Islam Ascendant

    • This response to persecution and effort to provide sustenance for Muslim families initiated armed conflict between the Muslims and the pagan Quraysh of Mecca.
    • Muhammad delivered Quranic verses permitting the Muslims, "those who have been expelled from their homes," to fight the Meccans in opposition to persecution.
    • The Muslims withdrew up the slopes of Uḥud.
    • The Banu Hawazin were old enemies of the Meccans.
    • At the end of the 10th year after the migration to Medina, Muhammad performed his first truly Islamic pilgrimage, thereby teaching his followers the rules governing the various ceremonies of the annual Great Pilgrimage.