Why were the Early Christians Persecuted? * 1
Why were the Early Christians Persecuted? * 1
This chapter reprints Ste. Croix's 1963 Past and Present investigation of why Christians were persecuted in the first three centuries, together with a brief response in 1964 to criticisms by A.N. Sherwin-White. Ste. Croix's main objective was to counter Sherwin-White's theory that Christians fell foul of Roman provincial administration because of the obstinacy they displayed in adherence to their beliefs. Ste. Croix insisted that the main charge against Christians under Roman law was simply the name of Christian, which was sufficient to generate persecution unless the accused could clear themselves by a variety of relatively simple procedures. Careful scrutiny of the evidence for persecution, especially during the 2nd century, clarifies the mechanics of Roman administration and the application of imperial law.
Keywords: Roman Law, Roman administration, obstinacy, Roman religion
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
