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Index
Preface
Acknowledgments
I SANGUINARY EDICTS
2 JUPITER ON THE THRONE
3 INSTINCTU DI VINITAT US
4 BY THIS SIGN
5 LIBERATOR ECCLESIAE
6 END OF SACRIFICE
7 COMMON BISHOP
8 NICAEA AND AFTER
9 SEEDS OF EVANGELICAL LAW
10 JUSTICE FOR ALL
II ONE GOD, ONE EMPEROR
12 PACIFIST CHURCH?
13 CHRISTIAN EMPIRE, CHRISTIAN MISSION
14 ROME BAPTIZED
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index
Defending Constantine is a rather old-fashioned book. I am asking the traditional "Constantinian que
name given by Yoder,2
Hauerwas, and their increasing tribe to what they consider a heretical mindset and set of habits t
Hardened by a lifetime of military and civil service, the emperor Diocletian (285-305) was no coward
Eutropius casts him as a man of "crafty disposition, with much sagacity, and keen penetration" who
man "devoted to holy usages." Surrounded by priests and soothsayers, he examined entrails for clues
Diocletian was no coward, but the incident in 299 was alarming. Visiting Antioch, he had participate
He found none of the usual indicators. They slaughtered another animal, and another. Nothing. Plut
What had gone wrong? The presiding diviner investigated and concluded that "profane persons" had int
The problem, however, had not been solved. An imperial letter probably issued in March 3027
to the proconsul of Africa confronted another threat to the empire, the dualistic religion of Mani
Diocletian insisted that "it is wrong to ... desert the ancient religion for some new one, for it
This "superstitious doctrine of a most worthless and depraved kind" must be stopped?
ciples decapitated or sent to the mines."
The parallels with Christianity were not lost on Diocletian. Like Manichaeanism, Christianity had co
Still the problem was not solved. Several years after the failed sacrifice, Diocletian was back in A
but the emperor knew something more needed to be done. Wintering in Nicomedia the following year,
Galerius urged Diocletian to issue a general order against the Christians. Diocletian hesitated. H
Years later Constantine recalled the incident, which he witnessed while serving in Diocletian's co
For the Latin Christian rhetorician Lactantius and Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, the Caesar Galerius
behind the edict. Many modern historians discount the tale,18
but there is evidence that the more tolerantly pagan Diocletian was persuaded by his junior collea
In 303, Galerius was at the height of his power. It had been a long recovery. Seven years earlier, i
persuade Diocletian to attack the church, Galerius would be on the majority side of imperial religio
So at that private conference in 302, the vigorous Galerius had firmly nudged the vacillating Dioc
Diocletian himself believed he had plenty of reason to mount his offensive. Not only did Christians
He began on February 23, 303. Dates meant everything to Diocletian. February 23 was the festival of
Terminalia was also part of the public cult, an annual reconsecration of the boundaries that separ
permission to check out of the imperial cult. But at least they had the sense to keep to themselves.
On Terminalia in A.D. 303, Diocletian issued the first of what would become four decrees of persecut
The first edict prohibited Christian assemblies and required that churches be razed, Scriptures se
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