This is Communio Sanctorum, the History of the Christian Church, season two.

Welcome back to Communio Sanctorum, history of the Christian Church.

We ended our summary and overview narrative of church history after 150 episodes.

We took a few months' break and are back at it again with more episodes,

which aim to fill in the massive gaps that we left before.

This time, we'll do series that go into detail on specific moments, movements, people, places, and other topics.

The title of this episode is The First Centuries, Part 1.

Ask almost anyone with at least a vague awareness of the early years of Christianity,

and they will likely tell you that it was a time of intense

persecution. Ask how many believers were put to death, and the number will range from tens of

thousands to a few million. From stories, movies, and paintings of the era, many have the

mental image of a mass of defenseless Christians dressed in white, huddled

on an arena floor, surrounded by hungry lions. The stands are packed with spectators

shouting for their blood. But that image, common as it may be, is rather misleading. Did it

happen? Well, undoubtedly. But it wasn't the ubiquitous scene that many assume.

Before the dawn of the third century, official imperial attempts to eradicate Christianity were

largely unorganized and lukewarm. Roman emperors were rarely the terror to the faith that popular literature has made them.

I say rarely because there were some notable exceptions prior to the third century, and then after

that, things changed dramatically. Some emperors seem to delight in tormenting Jesus' followers.

Ending Christianity in the most brutal manner seems to have been a major focus for some of them.

Why did Rome persecute Christians?

And why is it the popular concept of this time that it was an era of martyrs?

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