The first documented official persecution of Christians on behalf of the Roman Empire took place in 64 AD, when, as reported by Roman historian Tacitus, Emperor Nero attempted to blame Christians for the great fire of Rome. According to church tradition, Peter and Paul were martyred during Nero`s reign in Rome. Modern historians, however, debate whether the Roman government distinguished between Christians and Jews before Nerva changed the Fiscus Judaicus in 96, whose observant Jews paid the tax and Christians did not. [8] A. N. Sherwin-White reports that a serious discussion of the reasons for Roman persecution of Christians began in 1890, when it produced “20 years of controversy” and three main opinions: First, there was the theory of most French and Belgian scholars that “there was a general decree, formulated with precision, valid for the whole empire forbidding the practice of the Christian religion. The origin is most often attributed to Nero, but sometimes also to Domitian.” [13]:199 This evolved into a theory of the “common law” that attaches great importance to Tertullian`s description of the prosecution resulting from the “accusation of the name” as Nero`s plan. Nero had an older resolution forbidding the introduction of new religions, but the application to Christians is believed to stem from the much older republican principle that the introduction of a new superstition without the permission of the Roman state was a capital crime. Sherwin-White adds that this theory could explain the persecution in Rome, but it cannot explain it in the provinces. [13]: 202 This requires a second theory. The Conversion of Constantine Chapter XXIX: He also said that he doubted in himself the significance of this apparition.
And while he continued to think and contemplate its meaning, night suddenly fell; then, in his sleep, the Christ of God appeared to him with the same sign he had seen in heaven, commanding him to make an image of the sign he had seen in heaven and to use it as protection in all battles with his enemies. A few years later, in 457, Victor of Aquitaine, on behalf of the Roman archdeacon Hilary, tried to reconcile Roman and Alexandrian calculations. It has been suggested that later Hilary, as pope, used Victor`s calculation in 456 – that is, just as the eighty-four-year cycle was coming to an end. In this last cycle, the new moons were marked more accurately and the main differences between Latin and Greek calculations disappeared; so that the Easter of the Latins generally coincided with that of Alexandria or was very close to it. In cases where the card fell on a Saturday, Victor did not want to decide whether Easter should be celebrated the next day, as the Alexandrians did, or postponed for a week. He gives the two dates in his table and leaves it to the pope to decide what to do in each individual case. Even according to Victor`s calculations, there were still great differences in how the celebration of Easter was determined; and it was Dionysius the Minor who first overcame them completely by giving the Latins an Easter table, the basis of which was the nineteen year cycle. This cycle corresponded perfectly to that of Alexandria and thus created the harmony sought in vain for so long. He showed so strongly the advantages of his calculus that he was admitted by Rome and all Italy; while almost all Gaul remained faithful to Victor`s canon, and Britain still maintained the eighty-four year cycle, slightly improved by Sulpicius Severus. When the Heptarchy was evangelized by Roman missionaries, the new converts accepted Dionysius` calculation, while the ancient churches of Wales remained faithful to their ancient tradition.
Hence the well-known British disagreements over Easter, which were transplanted from Columban to Gaul. In 729, the majority of ancient British churches accepted the nineteen-year cycle. It had already been introduced in Spain, immediately after the conversion of Reccared. Finally, under Charlemagne, the nineteen-year cycle triumphed over all odds; and thus all Christendom was united, for the Quartodecimans had gradually disappeared. (1) Another translation of the Theodosian Codex XVI.i.2 reads as follows: “We desire that all the different nations, subject to our meekness and moderation, continue to profess the religion transmitted to the Romans by the divine apostle Peter, as preserved by the faithful tradition and now revealed by Pope Damasus and Peter. Bishop of Alexandria, man of apostolic holiness. According to apostolic doctrine and the teaching of the Gospel, let us believe in the one diet of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the same majesty and in a Holy Trinity. We allow the followers of this law to assume the title of Catholic Christian; But as for the others, since they are foolish fools in our opinion, we decree that they must be marked with the shameful name of heretics and must not pretend to give their convents the names of churches. They will suffer on the one hand the punishment of divine damnation and, on the other hand, the punishment of our authority, in accordance with the will of Heaven, which will decide to impose it.
[Source: Henry Bettenson, ed., Documents of the Christian Church, (London: Oxford University Press, 1943), p. 31] A high gold-plated post had a crossbar that formed the shape of a cross.