Great Persecution
About this date: A multi-year period, not only 303.
Imperial edicts renew wide persecution before Christianity receives legal toleration.
Perspective note
Shared subject; this bundled record was originally written with an Orthodox-informed editorial lens.
People
- Diocletian
- Galerius
Primary sources
Eusebius describes the edicts as:
Eusebius reports imperial edicts ordering the destruction of churches and scriptural books at the beginning of the persecution.
commanding that the churches be leveled to the ground and the Scriptures be destroyed by fire
Passage context and translation
Eusebius places the publication of royal edicts in March of Diocletian's nineteenth regnal year and reports orders to destroy churches and scriptural books. The next section describes further orders against church leaders. This excerpt establishes reported measures at the beginning of the persecution, not identical enforcement throughout the empire or the date of its end.
Before the excerpt
royal edicts were published everywhere
After the excerpt
and ordering that those who held places of honor be degraded