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194-522: The Roman governor of North Africa, lenient to the large Christian minority under his rule throughout the Diocletianic Persecutions , was satisfied when Christians handed over their scriptures as a token repudiation of faith. When the persecution ended, Christians who did so were called traditores —"those who handed (the holy things) over"—by their critics (who were mainly from the poorer classes). Like third-century Novatianism ,

388-438: A religio licita , "on a par with Judaism", and secured Christians' property, among other things. Not all have been so enthusiastic. The 17th-century ecclesiastical historian Tillemont called the edict "insignificant"; likewise, the late 20th-century historian Timothy Barnes cautions that the "novelty or importance of [Galerius'] measure should not be overestimated". Barnes notes that Galerius's legislation only brought to

582-471: A global moratorium on executions , with support for eventual abolition. Execution of criminals and dissidents has been used by nearly all societies since the beginning of civilisations on Earth. Until the nineteenth century, without developed prison systems, there was frequently no workable alternative to ensure deterrence and incapacitation of criminals. In pre-modern times the executions themselves often involved torture with painful methods, such as

776-455: A traditor to full communion was questioned, and the church's position was that the sacrament could. The church still imposed years- (sometimes decades-) long public penance for serious sins. A penitent would first beg for the prayers of those entering a church from outside its doors. They would next be permitted to kneel inside the church during the Liturgy . After being allowed to stand with

970-560: A basic right in its Poljica Statute of 1440. Sir Thomas More 's Utopia , published in 1516, debated the benefits of the death penalty in dialogue form, coming to no firm conclusion. More was himself executed for treason in 1535. More recent opposition to the death penalty stemmed from the book of the Italian Cesare Beccaria Dei Delitti e Delle Pene (" On Crimes and Punishments "), published in 1764. In this book, Beccaria aimed to demonstrate not only

1164-530: A cherry tree in an orchard. In 1820, there were 160, including crimes such as shoplifting, petty theft or stealing cattle. The severity of the so-called Bloody Code was often tempered by juries who refused to convict, or judges, in the case of petty theft, who arbitrarily set the value stolen at below the statutory level for a capital crime. In Nazi Germany , there were three types of capital punishment; hanging, decapitation, and death by shooting. Also, modern military organisations employed capital punishment as

1358-497: A coffin while desecrating a tomb. Decapitation was the method of execution prescribed for more serious crimes such as treason and sedition. Despite the great discomfort involved, most of the Tang Chinese preferred strangulation to decapitation, as a result of the traditional Tang Chinese belief that the body is a gift from the parents and that it is, therefore, disrespectful to one's ancestors to die without returning one's body to

1552-590: A few actively retain it; less than half of countries in Africa retain it; and the majority of countries in Asia retain it, for example, China , Japan and India . Abolition was often adopted due to political change, as when countries shifted from authoritarianism to democracy, or when it became an entry condition for the EU. The United States is a notable exception: some states have had bans on capital punishment for decades,

1746-477: A few days afterward. What followed Marcellinus's act of traditio , if it ever actually happened, is unclear. There appears to have been a break in the episcopal succession since his successor, Marcellus I , was not consecrated until either November or December 308; it was likely not possible to elect a new bishop during the persecution. In the meantime, two factions diverged in the Roman Church, separating

1940-439: A form of deterrence as opposed to retribution, can be traced back to Cesare Beccaria , whose influential treatise On Crimes and Punishments (1764) was the first detailed analysis of capital punishment to demand the abolition of the death penalty. In England, Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), the founder of modern utilitarianism, called for the abolition of the death penalty. Beccaria, and later Charles Dickens and Karl Marx noted

2134-528: A general amnesty in a third edict. Any imprisoned clergyman could be freed so long as he agreed to make a sacrifice to the gods. Diocletian may have been searching for some good publicity with this legislation. He may also have sought to fracture the Christian community by publicizing the fact that its clergy had apostatized. The demand to sacrifice was unacceptable to many of the imprisoned, but wardens often managed to obtain at least nominal compliance. Some of

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2328-470: A gradual shift in official attitudes toward religious minorities. In the first fifteen years of his rule, Diocletian purged the army of Christians, condemned Manicheans to death, and surrounded himself with public opponents of Christianity. Diocletian's preference for activist government, combined with his self-image as a restorer of past Roman glory, foreboded the most pervasive persecution in Roman history. In

2522-753: A manner is known as a death sentence , and the act of carrying out the sentence is known as an execution . A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and is commonly referred to as being "on death row ". Etymologically, the term capital ( lit.   ' of the head ' , derived via the Latin capitalis from caput , "head") refers to execution by beheading , but executions are carried out by many methods , including hanging , shooting , lethal injection , stoning , electrocution , and gassing . Crimes that are punishable by death are known as capital crimes , capital offences , or capital felonies , and vary depending on

2716-407: A means of maintaining military discipline. In the past, cowardice , absence without leave, desertion , insubordination , shirking under enemy fire and disobeying orders were often crimes punishable by death (see decimation and running the gauntlet ). One method of execution, since firearms came into common use, has also been firing squad, although some countries use execution with a single shot to

2910-418: A means of protection of the latter vis-à-vis criminals. In the last several centuries, with the emergence of modern nation states , justice came to be increasingly associated with the concept of natural and legal rights . The period saw an increase in standing police forces and permanent penitential institutions. Rational choice theory , a utilitarian approach to criminology which justifies punishment as

3104-417: A more unified system of justice which formalized the relation between the different "social classes" rather than "tribes". The earliest and most famous example is Code of Hammurabi which set the different punishment and compensation, according to the different class or group of victims and perpetrators. The Torah/Old Testament lays down the death penalty for murder, kidnapping, practicing magic, violation of

3298-800: A particularly intransigent, fanatical, and legalistic variety of Christianity. It was Africa that gave the West most of its martyrdoms. Africa had produced martyrs even in the years immediately prior to the Great Persecution. In 298, Maximilian , a soldier in Tebessa , had been tried for refusing to follow military discipline; in Mauretania in 298, the soldier Marcellus refused his army bonus and took off his uniform in public. Once persecutions began, public authorities were eager to assert their authority. Anullinus, proconsul of Africa, expanded on

3492-484: A religious context and compensation system. Compensation was based on the principle of substitution which might include material (for example, cattle, slaves, land) compensation, exchange of brides or grooms, or payment of the blood debt. Settlement rules could allow for animal blood to replace human blood, or transfers of property or blood money or in some case an offer of a person for execution. The person offered for execution did not have to be an original perpetrator of

3686-427: A result, tens of thousands of women were prosecuted for witchcraft and executed through the witch trials of the early modern period (between the 15th and 18th centuries). The death penalty also targeted sexual offences such as sodomy . In the early history of Islam (7th–11th centuries), there is a number of "purported (but mutually inconsistent) reports" ( athar ) regarding the punishments of sodomy ordered by some of

3880-531: A saintly individual, a "humble" man. Christ's followers, however, he damned as "arrogant". Around 290, Porphyry wrote a fifteen-volume work entitled Against the Christians . In the work, Porphyry expressed his shock at the rapid expansion of Christianity. He also revised his earlier opinions of Jesus, questioning Jesus' exclusion of the rich from the Kingdom of Heaven, and his permissiveness in regards to

4074-411: A show of support for the faith, proclaimed that all inhabitants of the empire must sacrifice to the gods, eat sacrificial meat, and testify to these acts. Christians were obstinate in their non-compliance. Church leaders, like Fabian , bishop of Rome , and Babylas , bishop of Antioch , were arrested, tried and executed, as were certain members of the Christian laity, like Pionius of Smyrna. Origen

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4268-557: A significant proportion of income to the Islamic states while conversely reducing many Christians to poverty, and these financial and social hardships forced many Christians to convert to Islam. Christians unable to pay these taxes were forced to surrender their children to the Muslim rulers as payment who would sell them as slaves to Muslim households where they were forced to convert to Islam . Many Christian martyrs were executed under

4462-587: A six-year moratorium on executions after the Peshawar school massacre during which 132 students and 9 members of staff of the Army Public School and Degree College Peshawar were killed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan terrorists, a group distinct from the Afghan Taliban , who condemned the attack. Since then, Pakistan has executed over 400 convicts. In 2017, two major countries, Turkey and

4656-457: A sovereign collectivity, identifies itself with positive or the law in force of the city. In fact, it finds its guarantee in the death penalty which threatens all those who do not respect it." Plato saw the death penalty as a means of purification, because crimes are a "defilement". Thus, in the Laws , he considered necessary the execution of the animal or the destruction of the object which caused

4850-584: A state of mortal sin could continue to administer valid sacraments. The Donatists believed that a repentant apostate priest could no longer consecrate the Eucharist. Some towns had both Donatist and Orthodox congregations. The sect developed and grew in North Africa, with unrest and threatened riots in Carthage connected to the bishop controversy. Constantine, hoping to defuse the unrest, gave money to

5044-862: A status beyond one's control, or without employing any significant due process procedures. Judicial murder is the intentional and premeditated killing of an innocent person by means of capital punishment. For example, the executions following the show trials in the Soviet Union during the Great Purge of 1936–1938 were an instrument of political repression. The top 3 countries by the number of executions are China , Iran and Saudi Arabia . As of 2021, 56 countries retain capital punishment , 111 countries have completely abolished it de jure for all crimes, seven have abolished it for ordinary crimes (while maintaining it for special circumstances such as war crimes), and 24 are abolitionist in practice. Although

5238-477: A thousand cuts, was used from the close of the Tang dynasty (around 900) to its abolition in 1905. When a minister of the fifth grade or above received a death sentence the emperor might grant him a special dispensation allowing him to commit suicide in lieu of execution. Even when this privilege was not granted, the law required that the condemned minister be provided with food and ale by his keepers and transported to

5432-487: A trend toward abolishing capital punishment. Capital punishment has been completely abolished by 108 countries, a further seven have done so for all offences except under special circumstances and 26 more have abolished it in practice because they have not used it for at least 10 years and are believed to have a policy or established practice against carrying out executions. In the United States between 1972 and 1976

5626-626: A vain attempt to seek compromise. The Donatists fomented protests and street violence, refusing to compromise in favor of the Catholic bishop. After the Constantinian shift , when other Christians accepted the emperor's decision, the Donatists continued to demonize him. After several attempts at reconciliation, in 317 Constantine issued an edict threatening death to anyone who disturbed the imperial peace; another edict followed, calling for

5820-474: A whole. The very capriciousness of official action, however, made the threat of state coercion loom large in the Christian imagination. In the 3rd century, the pattern changed. Emperors became more active, and government officials began to actively pursue Christians rather than merely to respond to the will of the crowd. Christianity also changed. No longer were its practitioners merely "the lower orders fomenting discontent"; some Christians were now rich or from

6014-495: Is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent man to death." He argued that executing an accused criminal on anything less than absolute certainty would lead to a slippery slope of decreasing burdens of proof , until we would be convicting merely "according to the judge's caprice". Maimonides's concern was maintaining popular respect for law, and he saw errors of commission as much more threatening than errors of omission. While during

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6208-505: Is controversial, with many people, organisations, and religious groups holding differing views on whether it is ethically permissible. Amnesty International declares that the death penalty breaches human rights, specifically "the right to life and the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." These rights are protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , adopted by

6402-437: Is increased by the example you set, of veneration for the gods. Surely, men will now understand what power resides in the gods, when you worship them so fervently." Diocletian associated himself with the head of the Roman pantheon, Jupiter ; his co-emperor, Maximian, associated himself with Hercules . This connection between god and emperor helped to legitimize the emperors' claims to power and tied imperial government closer to

6596-466: Is non-existent. This form of justice was common before the emergence of an arbitration system based on state or organized religion. It may result from crime, land disputes or a code of honour. "Acts of retaliation underscore the ability of the social collective to defend itself and demonstrate to enemies (as well as potential allies) that injury to property, rights, or the person will not go unpunished." In most countries that practice capital punishment, it

6790-483: Is now reserved for murder, terrorism, war crimes, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries, sexual crimes , such as rape, fornication , adultery , incest , sodomy , and bestiality carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes such as Hudud , Zina , and Qisas crimes, such as apostasy (formal renunciation of the state religion ), blasphemy , moharebeh , hirabah , Fasad , Mofsed-e-filarz and witchcraft. In many countries that use

6984-635: The Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad (most notably al-Mu'tadid ), were often cruel in their punishments. In early modern England, the Buggery Act 1533 stipulated hanging as punishment for " buggery ". James Pratt and John Smith were the last two Englishmen to be executed for sodomy in 1835. In 1636 the laws of Puritan governed Plymouth Colony included a sentence of death for sodomy and buggery. The Massachusetts Bay Colony followed in 1641. Throughout

7178-582: The Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum and addressed to the proconsul of Africa, Diocletian wrote: We have heard that the Manichaens […] have set up new and hitherto unheard-of sects in opposition to the older creeds so that they might cast out the doctrines vouchsafed to us in the past by the divine favour for the benefit of their own depraved doctrine. They have sprung forth very recently like new and unexpected monstrosities among

7372-527: The Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Partly as a response to such excesses, civil rights organisations started to place increasing emphasis on the concept of human rights and an abolition of the death penalty. By continent, all European countries but one have abolished capital punishment; many Oceanian countries have abolished it; most countries in the Americas have abolished its use, while

7566-624: The Donatists in North Africa and the Melitians in Egypt, persisted long after the persecutions. The Donatists would not be reconciled to the Church until after 411. Some historians consider that, in the centuries that followed the persecutory era, Christians created a "cult of the martyrs" and exaggerated the barbarity of the persecutions. Other historians using texts and archeological evidence from

7760-476: The Eucharist do not celebrate a valid Lord's Supper . [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Donatists". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company. Diocletianic Persecution The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in

7954-455: The Martyrs of Abitinae , another group martyred on February 12, 304 in Carthage, and the martyrs of Milevis ( Mila , Algeria). The persecution in Africa encouraged the development of Donatism , a schismatic movement that forbade any compromise with Roman government or traditor bishops (those who had handed scriptures over to secular authorities). One of the key moments in the break with

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8148-960: The Philippines , saw their executives making moves to reinstate the death penalty. In the same year, passage of the law in the Philippines failed to obtain the Senate's approval. On 29 December 2021, after a 20-year moratorium, the Kazakhstan government enacted the 'On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the Abolition of the Death Penalty' signed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as part of series of Omnibus reformations of

8342-564: The Roman Empire . In 303, the emperors Diocletian , Maximian , Galerius , and Constantius issued a series of edicts rescinding Christians' legal rights and demanding that they comply with traditional religious practices. Later edicts targeted the clergy and demanded universal sacrifice, ordering all inhabitants to sacrifice to the gods. The persecution varied in intensity across the empire—weakest in Gaul and Britain , where only

8536-749: The Sabbath , blasphemy, and a wide range of sexual crimes, although evidence suggests that actual executions were exceedingly rare, if they occurred at all. A further example comes from Ancient Greece , where the Athenian legal system replacing customary oral law was first written down by Draco in about 621 BC: the death penalty was applied for a particularly wide range of crimes, though Solon later repealed Draco's code and published new laws, retaining capital punishment only for intentional homicide, and only with victim's family permission. The word draconian derives from Draco's laws. The Romans also used

8730-486: The Tang dynasty (618–907) when the death penalty was abolished. This was in the year 747, enacted by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (r. 712–756). When abolishing the death penalty, Xuanzong ordered his officials to refer to the nearest regulation by analogy when sentencing those found guilty of crimes for which the prescribed punishment was execution. Thus, depending on the severity of the crime a punishment of severe scourging with

8924-714: The United Nations in 1948. In the European Union (EU), Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of capital punishment. The Council of Europe , which has 46 member states, has worked to end the death penalty and no execution has taken place in its current member states since 1997. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted, throughout the years from 2007 to 2020, eight non-binding resolutions calling for

9118-585: The Vandals conquered North Africa. Donatism may have also gradually declined because Donatists and orthodox Catholics were equally marginalised by the Arian Vandals, but it survived the Vandal occupation and Justinian I 's Byzantine reconquest. Although it is unknown how long Donatism persisted, some Christian historians believe that the schism and its ensuing unrest in the Christian community facilitated

9312-488: The breaking wheel , keelhauling , sawing , hanging, drawing and quartering , burning at the stake , crucifixion , flaying , slow slicing , boiling alive , impalement , mazzatello , blowing from a gun , schwedentrunk , and scaphism . Other methods which appear only in legend include the blood eagle and brazen bull . The use of formal execution extends to the beginning of recorded history. Most historical records and various primitive tribal practices indicate that

9506-521: The early caliphs . Abu Bakr , the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate , apparently recommended toppling a wall on the culprit, or else burning him alive , while Ali ibn Abi Talib is said to have ordered death by stoning for one sodomite and had another thrown head-first from the top of the highest building in the town; according to Ibn Abbas , the latter punishment must be followed by stoning. Other medieval Muslim leaders, such as

9700-476: The imperial cult , avoided public office, and publicly criticized ancient traditions. Conversions tore families apart: Justin Martyr tells of a pagan husband who denounced his Christian wife, and Tertullian tells of children disinherited for becoming Christians. Traditional Roman religion was inextricably interwoven into the fabric of Roman society and state, but Christians refused to observe its practices. In

9894-509: The sign of the cross during the ceremonies and were alleged to have disrupted the haruspices ' divination. Diocletian, enraged by this turn of events, declared that all members of the court must make a sacrifice. Diocletian and Galerius also sent letters to the military command, demanding that the entire army perform the sacrifices or else face discharge. Since there are no reports of bloodshed in Lactantius's narrative, Christians in

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10088-620: The upper classes . Origen , writing at about 248, tells of "the multitude of people coming in to the faith, even rich men and persons in positions of honour and ladies of high refinement and birth." Official reaction grew firmer. In 202, according to the Historia Augusta , a 4th-century history of dubious reliability, Septimius Severus ( r . 193–211) issued a general rescript forbidding conversion to either Judaism or Christianity. Maximin ( r . 235–238) targeted Christian leaders. Decius ( r . 249–251), demanding

10282-554: The 19th century, U.S. states repealed death sentences from their sodomy laws, with South Carolina being the last to do so in 1873. Historians recognise that during the Early Middle Ages , the Christian populations living in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslim armies between the 7th and 10th centuries suffered religious discrimination , religious persecution , religious violence , and martyrdom multiple times at

10476-434: The Church. There were many individuals willing to be martyrs and many provincials willing to ignore any persecutory edicts from the emperors as well. Even Constantius was known to have disapproved of persecutory policies. The lower classes demonstrated little of the enthusiasm they had shown for earlier persecutions. They no longer believed the slanderous accusations that were popular in the 1st and 2nd centuries. Perhaps, as

10670-521: The Donatists as the imperial church. The Donatists were persecuted by the Roman authorities to such a degree that Augustine protested their treatment. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) taught that in the divine sacrifice of the Holy Mass " is contained and immolated, in an unbloody manner, the same Christ that offered Himself in a bloody manner upon the altar of the Cross. Hence, it is the same victim,

10864-546: The Donatists failed, and by 321 he asked the bishops to show moderation and patience to the sect in an open letter. During the brief reign of Julian , the Donatists were revitalized and, due to imperial protection, occupied churches and carried out atrocities. Laws against the Donatists were decreed by Valentinian I after the defeat of the Donatist usurper Firmus in North Africa. Augustine of Hippo campaigned against Donatism as bishop; through his efforts, orthodoxy gained

11058-417: The Donatists were rigorists ; the church must be a church of "saints" (not "sinners"), and sacraments administered by traditores were invalid. In 311 Caecilian (a new bishop of Carthage ) was consecrated by Felix of Aptungi , an alleged traditor . His opponents consecrated Majorinus , a short-lived rival who was succeeded by Donatus. Two years later, a commission appointed by Pope Miltiades condemned

11252-542: The Donatists. They persisted, seeing themselves as the true church with valid sacraments. Because of their association with the Circumcellions , the Donatists were repressed by Roman authorities. Although they had local support, their opponents were supported by Rome and by the rest of the Catholic Church. The Donatists were still a force during the lifetime of Augustine of Hippo , and disappeared only after

11446-525: The East rights Christians already possessed in Italy and Africa. In Gaul, Spain, and Britain, moreover, Christians already had far more than Galerius was offering to Eastern Christians. Other late 20th-century historians, like Graeme Clark and David S. Potter, assert that for all its hedging, Galerius's issuance of the edict was a landmark event in the histories of Christianity and the Roman empire. Galerius's law

11640-505: The Establishment". Hierocles thought Christian beliefs absurd. If Christians applied their principles consistently, he argued, they would pray to Apollonius of Tyana instead of Jesus. Hierocles considered that Apollonius's miracles had been far more impressive and Apollonius never had the temerity to call himself "God". He thought the scriptures were full of "lies and contradictions" and Peter and Paul had peddled falsehoods. In

11834-410: The Islamic death penalty for defending their Christian faith through dramatic acts of resistance such as refusing to convert to Islam, repudiation of the Islamic religion and subsequent reconversion to Christianity , and blasphemy towards Muslim beliefs . Despite the wide use of the death penalty, calls for reform were not unknown. The 12th-century Jewish legal scholar Moses Maimonides wrote: "It

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12028-527: The Kazak legal system 'Listening State' initiative. In 724 AD in Japan, the death penalty was banned during the reign of Emperor Shōmu but the abolition only lasted a few years. In 818, Emperor Saga abolished the death penalty under the influence of Shinto and it lasted until 1156. In China, the death penalty was banned by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang in 747 , replacing it with exile or scourging . However,

12222-552: The Middle Ages the expiatory aspect of the death penalty was taken into account, this is no longer the case under the Lumières . These define the place of man within society no longer according to a divine rule, but as a contract established at birth between the citizen and the society, it is the social contract . From that moment on, capital punishment should be seen as useful to society through its dissuasive effect, but also as

12416-570: The Persian war, Galerius might have wished to compensate for a previous humiliation at Antioch, when Diocletian had forced him to walk at the front of the imperial caravan, rather than inside it. His resentment fed his discontent with official policies of tolerance; from 302 on, he probably urged Diocletian to enact a general law against the Christians. Since Diocletian was already surrounded by an anti-Christian clique of counsellors, these suggestions must have carried great force. Affairs quieted after

12610-528: The Persians as with the poison of a malignant (serpent) … We order that the authors and leaders of these sects be subjected to severe punishment, and, together with their abominable writings, burnt in the flames. We direct their followers, if they continue recalcitrant, shall suffer capital punishment, and their goods be forfeited to the imperial treasury. And if those who have gone over to that hitherto unheard-of, scandalous and wholly infamous creed, or to that of

12804-416: The Persians, are persons who hold public office, or are of any rank or of superior social status, you will see to it that their estates are confiscated and the offenders sent to the (quarry) at Phaeno or the mines at Proconnesus. And in order that this plague of iniquity shall be completely extirpated from this our most happy age, let your devotion hasten to carry out our orders and commands. The Christians of

12998-497: The Russian bishops acquiesced to Patriarch Nikon 's reforms they (and the other patriarchs) forfeited any claim to apostolic succession . Accusations of Donatism remain common in contemporary intra-Christian polemics. Conservative Lutherans are sometimes called Donatists by their liberal brethren, referring to their doctrine of church fellowship and their position that churches which deny that Jesus’ body and blood are eaten during

13192-565: The Tetrarchy as a system of government. Constantine, son of Constantius, and Maxentius , son of Maximian, had been overlooked in the Diocletianic succession, offending the parents and angering the sons. Constantine, against Galerius's will, succeeded his father on July 25, 306. He immediately ended any ongoing persecutions and offered Christians full restitution of what they had lost under the persecution. This declaration gave Constantine

13386-545: The authority of local government officials. At Bithynia–Pontus in 111, it was Pliny; at Smyrna in 156 and Scilli near Carthage in 180, it was the proconsul ; at Lyon in 177, it was the provincial governor . When Emperor Nero executed Christians for their alleged involvement in the fire of 64 , it was a purely local affair; it did not spread beyond the city limits of Rome. These early persecutions were certainly violent, but they were sporadic, brief and limited in extent. They were of limited threat to Christianity as

13580-653: The ban only lasted 12 years. Following his conversion to Christianity in 988, Vladimir the Great abolished the death penalty in Kievan Rus' , along with torture and mutilation; corporal punishment was also seldom used. In England, a public statement of opposition was included in The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards , written in 1395. In the post-classical Republic of Poljica , life was ensured as

13774-571: The beginnings of the army purge in Palestine, while Lactantius describes events at court. Woods asserts that the relevant passage in Eusebius's Chronicon was corrupted in the translation to Latin and that Eusebius's text originally located the beginnings of the army persecution at a fort in Betthorus (El-Lejjun, Jordan). Eusebius, Lactantius, and Constantine each allege that Galerius was

13968-420: The bureaucracy and military would be sufficient to appease the gods, while Galerius pushed for their extermination. The two men sought to resolve their dispute by sending a messenger to consult the oracle of Apollo at Didyma . Porphyry may also have been present at this meeting. Upon returning, the messenger told the court that "the just on earth" hindered Apollo's ability to speak. These "just", Diocletian

14162-484: The city, and Caecilian , his deacon, for reasons that remain obscure. In 311, Caecilian was elected bishop of Carthage. His opponents charged that his traditio made him unworthy of the office and declared itself for another candidate, Majorinus . Many others in Africa, including the Abitinians, also supported Majorinus against Caecilian. Majorinus's successor Donatus would give the dissident movement its name. By

14356-478: The clergy sacrificed willingly; others did so on pain of torture. Wardens were eager to be rid of the clergy in their midst. Eusebius, in his Martyrs of Palestine , records the case of one man who after being brought to an altar, had his hands seized and made to complete a sacrificial offering. The clergyman was told that his act of sacrifice had been recognized and was summarily dismissed. Others were told they had sacrificed even when they had done nothing. In 304,

14550-461: The conditions they ought to observe. Consequently, in accord with our indulgence, they ought to pray to their god for our health and the safety of the state, so that the state may be kept safe on all sides, and they may be able to live safely and securely in their own homes. Galerius's words reinforce the Tetrarchy's theological basis for the persecution; the acts did nothing more than attempt to enforce traditional civic and religious practices, even if

14744-458: The confiscation of all Donatist church property. Donatus refused to surrender his buildings in Carthage , and the local Roman governor sent troops to deal with him and his followers. Although the historical record is unclear, some Donatists were apparently killed and their clergy exiled. Outside Carthage, Donatist churches and clergy were undisturbed. Constantine's efforts to unite the church and

14938-436: The congregation, the penitent would finally be allowed to receive the Eucharist again. According to Donatists, apostasy would permanently disqualify a man from church leadership. The validity of sacraments administered by priests and bishops who had been traditores was denied by the Donatists. According to Augustine, a sacrament was from God and ex opere operato (Latin for "from the work carried out"). A priest or bishop in

15132-485: The cost of their own lives, and there were some cases where the scriptures were not in the end destroyed. Christians were also deprived of the right to petition the courts, making them potential subjects for judicial torture; Christians could not respond to actions brought against them in court; Christian senators , equestrians , decurions , veterans, and soldiers were deprived of their ranks; and Christian imperial freedmen were re-enslaved. Diocletian requested that

15326-475: The crime because the social system was based on tribes and clans, not individuals. Blood feuds could be regulated at meetings, such as the Norsemen things . Systems deriving from blood feuds may survive alongside more advanced legal systems or be given recognition by courts (for example, trial by combat or blood money). One of the more modern refinements of the blood feud is the duel . In certain parts of

15520-471: The crime committed. It inspired Western criminal law until the 17th century, a time when the first reflections on the abolition of the death penalty appeared. The Twelve Tables , the body of laws handed down from archaic Rome, prescribe the death penalty for a variety of crimes including libel, arson and theft. During the Late Republic , there was consensus among the public and legislators to reduce

15714-429: The death of a man by accident. For the murderers, he considered that the act of homicide is not natural and is not fully consented by the criminal. Homicide is thus a disease of the soul , which must be reeducated as much as possible, and, as a last resort, sentence to death if no rehabilitation is possible. According to Aristotle , for whom free will is proper to man, a person is responsible for their actions. If there

15908-453: The death penalty , drug trafficking and often drug possession is also a capital offence. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption and financial crimes are punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the world, courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offences such as cowardice, desertion , insubordination , and mutiny . Elaborations of tribal arbitration of feuds included peace settlements often done in

16102-448: The death penalty for a wide range of offences. Protagoras (whose thought is reported by Plato ) criticised the principle of revenge, because once the damage is done it cannot be cancelled by any action. So, if the death penalty is to be imposed by society, it is only to protect the latter against the criminal or for a dissuasive purpose. "The only right that Protagoras knows is therefore human right, which, established and sanctioned by

16296-577: The death penalty was a part of their justice system. Communal punishments for wrongdoing generally included blood money compensation by the wrongdoer, corporal punishment, shunning , banishment and execution. In tribal societies, compensation and shunning were often considered enough as a form of justice. The response to crimes committed by neighbouring tribes, clans or communities included a formal apology, compensation, blood feuds, and tribal warfare . A blood feud or vendetta occurs when arbitration between families or tribes fails, or an arbitration system

16490-753: The death penalty was abolished in 1867. The last execution in Brazil was 1876; from then on all the condemnations were commuted by the Emperor Pedro II until its abolition for civil offences and military offences in peacetime in 1891. The penalty for crimes committed in peacetime was then reinstated and abolished again twice (1938–1953 and 1969–1978), but on those occasions it was restricted to acts of terrorism or subversion considered "internal warfare" and all sentences were commuted and not carried out. Many countries have abolished capital punishment either in law or in practice. Since World War II , there has been

16684-536: The death penalty was declared unconstitutional based on the Furman v. Georgia case, but the 1976 Gregg v. Georgia case once again permitted the death penalty under certain circumstances. Further limitations were placed on the death penalty in Atkins v. Virginia (2002; death penalty unconstitutional for people with an intellectual disability ) and Roper v. Simmons (2005; death penalty unconstitutional if defendant

16878-459: The death penalty. In abolitionist countries, the debate is sometimes revived by particularly brutal murders, though few countries have brought it back after abolishing it. However, a spike in serious, violent crimes, such as murders or terrorist attacks, has prompted some countries to effectively end the moratorium on the death penalty. One notable example is Pakistan which in December 2014 lifted

17072-470: The decision of the Roman council, demanding that a local council adjudicate the dispute and appealing directly to Constantine. In a surviving letter, a frustrated Constantine called for what became the first Council of Arles in 314. The council ruled against the Donatists, who again appealed to Constantine. The emperor ordered all parties to Rome for a hearing, ruled in favour of Caecilian and warned against unrest. A delegation from Rome travelled to Carthage in

17266-600: The demons residing in pigs' bodies . Like Hierocles, he unfavorably compared Jesus to Apollonius of Tyana. Porphyry held that Christians blasphemed by worshiping a human being rather than the Supreme God and behaved treasonably in forsaking the traditional Roman cult. "To what sort of penalties might we not justly subject people," Porphyry asked, "who are fugitives from their fathers' customs?" Pagan priests, too, were interested in suppressing any threat to traditional religion. They believed their ceremonies were hindered by

17460-529: The development of modern prison systems, the death penalty was also used as a generalised form of punishment for even minor offences. In early modern Europe, a mass panic regarding witchcraft swept across Europe and later the European colonies in North America . During this period, there were widespread claims that malevolent Satanic witches were operating as an organised threat to Christendom . As

17654-552: The devotees, now few and infrequent, cry aloud, 'The gods are neglected, and in the temples there is now a very thin attendance. Former ceremonies are exposed to derision, and the time-honoured rites of institutions once sacred have sunk before the superstitions of new religions.' At the conclusion of the Persian wars in 299, co-emperors Diocletian and Galerius traveled from Persia to Syrian Antioch ( Antakya ). The Christian rhetor Lactantius records that at Antioch some time in 299,

17848-401: The document the " Edict of Milan ". We thought it fit to commend these things most fully to your care that you may know that we have given to those Christians free and unrestricted opportunity of religious worship. When you see that this has been granted to them by us, your Worship will know that we have also conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship for

18042-409: The earliest being Michigan , where it was abolished in 1846, while other states still actively use it today. The death penalty in the United States remains a contentious issue which is hotly debated . In retentionist countries, the debate is sometimes revived when a miscarriage of justice has occurred though this tends to cause legislative efforts to improve the judicial process rather than to abolish

18236-666: The early 4th century, an unidentified philosopher published a pamphlet attacking the Christians. This philosopher, who might have been a pupil of the Neoplatonist Iamblichus , dined repeatedly at the imperial court. Diocletian was surrounded by an anti-Christian clique. Porphyry was somewhat restrained in his criticism of Christianity, at least in his early works, On the Return of the Soul and Philosophy from Oracles . He had few complaints about Jesus, whom he praised as

18430-401: The edict be pursued "without bloodshed", against Galerius's demands that all those refusing to sacrifice be burned alive. In spite of Diocletian's request, local judges often enforced executions during the persecution, as capital punishment was among their discretionary powers. Galerius's recommendation—burning alive—became a common method of executing Christians in the East. After

18624-631: The edict in Africa. Africa's political elite were insistent that the persecution be fulfilled, and Africa's Christians, especially in Numidia, were equally insistent on resisting them. For the Numidians, to hand over scriptures was an act of terrible apostasy. Africa had long been home to the Church of the Martyrs —in Africa, martyrs held more religious authority than the clergy —and harbored

18818-510: The edict was posted in Nicomedia, a man named Eutius tore it down and ripped it up, shouting "Here are your Gothic and Sarmatian triumphs!" He was arrested for treason, tortured, and burned alive soon after, becoming the edict's first martyr. The provisions of the edict were known and enforced in Palestine by March or April (just before Easter), and it was in use by local officials in North Africa by May or June. The earliest martyr at Caesarea

19012-450: The edict, deciding that in addition to the destruction of the Christians' scriptures and churches the government should compel Christians to sacrifice to the gods. Governor Valerius Florus enforced the same policy in Numidia during the summer or autumn of 303, when he called for "days of incense burning"; Christians would sacrifice or they would lose their lives. In addition to those already listed, African martyrs also include Saturninus and

19206-418: The edicts were thoroughly nontraditional. Galerius does nothing to violate the spirit of the persecution—Christians are still admonished for their nonconformity and foolish practices—Galerius never admits that he did anything wrong. Certain early 20th-century historians have declared that Galerius's edict definitively nullified the old "legal formula" non licet esse Christianos , made Christianity

19400-441: The emperors were engaged in sacrifice and divination in an attempt to predict the future. The haruspices , diviners of omens from sacrificed animals, were unable to read the sacrificed animals and failed to do so after repeated trials. The master haruspex eventually declared that this failure was the result of interruptions in the process caused by profane men. Certain Christians in the imperial household had been observed making

19594-482: The empire (and especially in the East) after 260, when Gallienus brought peace to the Church. The data to calculate the figures are nearly non-existent, but historian and sociologist Keith Hopkins has given crude and tentative estimates for the Christian population in the 3rd century. Hopkins estimates that the Christian community grew from a population of 1.1 million in 250 to a population of 6 million by 300, about 10% of

19788-523: The empire were vulnerable to the same line of thinking. Diocletian was in Antioch in the autumn of 302, when the next instance of persecution occurred. The deacon Romanus visited a court while preliminary sacrifices were taking place and interrupted the ceremonies, denouncing the act in a loud voice. He was arrested and sentenced to be set aflame, but Diocletian overruled the decision and decided that Romanus should have his tongue removed instead. Romanus

19982-453: The empire's "moral fabric"—and the elimination of religious minorities—was simply one step in that process. The unique position of the Christians and Jews of the empire became increasingly apparent. The Jews had earned imperial toleration on account of the great antiquity of their faith. They had been exempted from Decius's persecution and continued to enjoy freedom from persecution under Tetrarchic government. Because their faith

20176-543: The empire's total population. Christians even expanded into the countryside, where they had never been numerous before. Churches in the later 3rd century were no longer as inconspicuous as they had been in the first and second. Large churches were prominent in certain major cities throughout the empire. The church in Nicomedia even sat on a hill overlooking the imperial palace. These new churches probably represented not only absolute growth in Christian population, but also

20370-510: The empire. But Christians tried to retain the scriptures as far as possible, though, according to de Ste Croix, "it appears that giving them up...was not regarded as a sin" in the East; sufficient numbers of them must have been successfully saved, as is evident from the representative findings of "early biblical papyri" in the stream of the transmission of the text during this period. Christians might have given up apocryphal or pseudepigraphal works, or even refused to surrender their scriptures at

20564-435: The execution ground in a cart rather than having to walk there. Nearly all executions under the Tang dynasty took place in public as a warning to the population. The heads of the executed were displayed on poles or spears. When local authorities decapitated a convicted criminal, the head was boxed and sent to the capital as proof of identity and that the execution had taken place. In medieval and early modern Europe, before

20758-526: The extent of the persecution in Constantius's domain, though all portray it as quite limited. Lactantius states that the destruction of church buildings was the worst thing that came to pass. Eusebius explicitly denies that any churches were destroyed in both his Ecclesiastical History and his Life of Constantine , but lists Gaul as an area suffering from the effects of the persecution in his Martyrs of Palestine . A group of bishops declared that "Gaul

20952-399: The faith were "countless" (μυρίοι) in number. At first, the new Tetrarchy seemed even more vigorous than the first. Maximinus in particular was eager to persecute. In 306 and 309, he published his own edicts demanding universal sacrifice. Eusebius accuses Galerius of pressing on with the persecution as well. In the West, however, what remained after the Diocletianic settlement had weakened

21146-403: The figures, although reliant on collections of acta that are incomplete and only partially reliable, point to a heavier persecution under Diocletian than under Galerius. The historian Simon Corcoran , in a passage on the origins of the early persecution edicts, criticizes Davies' over-reliance on these "dubious martyr acts" and dismisses his conclusions. The sources are inconsistent regarding

21340-565: The first edict was applied, and strongest in the Eastern provinces. Persecutory laws were nullified by different emperors (Galerius with the Edict of Serdica in 311) at different times, but Constantine and Licinius ' Edict of Milan in 313 has traditionally marked the end of the persecution. Christians had been subject to intermittent local discrimination in the empire, but emperors prior to Diocletian were reluctant to issue general laws against

21534-543: The first time in the history of the empire) to declare himself emperor. On October 28, 306, Maxentius convinced the Praetorian Guard to support him, mutiny, and invest him with the purple robes of the emperor. Maxentius did not permit religious freedom for Christians in the realm or the restitution of confiscated property. The Great Persecution continued until 311 when Constantine arrived at Rome's gates and defeated Maxentius with an army only half as big. Maxentius

21728-639: The fourth edict ordered all persons, men, women, and children, to gather in a public space and offer a collective sacrifice. If they refused, they were to be executed. The precise date of the edict is unknown, but it was probably issued in either January or February 304 and was being applied in the Balkans in March. The edict was in use in Thessalonica in April 304 and in Palestine soon after. This last edict

21922-433: The gods, or to the god of the Christians. Considering the observation of our own mild clemency and eternal custom, by which we are accustomed to grant clemency to all people, we have decided to extend our most speedy indulgence to these people as well, so that Christians may once more establish their own meeting places, so long as they do not act in a disorderly way. We are about to send another letter to our officials detailing

22116-577: The governor of Bithynia–Pontus , was sent long lists of denunciations of Christians by anonymous citizens, which Emperor Trajan advised him to ignore. In Lyon in 177, it was only the intervention of civil authorities that stopped a pagan mob from dragging Christians from their houses and beating them to death. To the followers of the traditional cults, Christians were odd creatures: not quite Roman but not quite barbarian either. Their practices were deeply threatening to traditional mores . Christians rejected public festivals, refused to take part in

22310-522: The grave intact. Some further forms of capital punishment were practiced in the Tang dynasty, of which the first two that follow at least were extralegal. The first of these was scourging to death with the thick rod which was common throughout the Tang dynasty especially in cases of gross corruption. The second was truncation, in which the convicted person was cut in two at the waist with a fodder knife and then left to bleed to death. A further form of execution called Ling Chi ( slow slicing ), or death by/of

22504-487: The hands of Arab Muslim officials and rulers. As People of the Book , Christians under Muslim rule were subjected to dhimmi status (along with Jews , Samaritans , Gnostics , Mandeans , and Zoroastrians), which was inferior to the status of Muslims. Christians and other religious minorities thus faced religious discrimination and religious persecution in that they were banned from proselytising (for Christians, it

22698-454: The head or neck. Various authoritarian states employed the death penalty as a potent means of political oppression . Anti-Soviet author Robert Conquest claimed that more than one million Soviet citizens were executed during the Great Purge of 1936 to 1938, almost all by a bullet to the back of the head. Mao Zedong publicly stated that "800,000" people had been executed in China during

22892-457: The historian Timothy Barnes has suggested, the long-established Church had become another accepted part of their lives. Within the highest ranks of the imperial administration, however, there were men who were ideologically opposed to the toleration of Christians, like the philosopher Porphyry of Tyre and Sossianus Hierocles , governor of Bithynia . To E.R. Dodds , the works of these men demonstrated "the alliance of pagan intellectuals with

23086-462: The householder said to his servants, 'Whomsoever ye shall find, compel them to come in. ' " In 409, Emperor Honorius 's secretary of state, Marcellinus of Carthage , issued a decree which condemned the Donatists as heretical and demanded that they surrender their churches. This was made possible by a collatio in which St. Augustine legally proved that Constantine had chosen the Nicene church over

23280-402: The imperial household must have survived the event. Eusebius of Caesarea , a contemporary ecclesiastical historian, tells a similar story: commanders were told to give their troops the choice of sacrifice or loss of rank. These terms were strong—a soldier would lose his career in the military, his state pension and his personal savings—but not fatal. According to Eusebius, the purge

23474-475: The imperial mantle in 253. Though he was at first thought of as "exceptionally friendly" towards the Christians, his actions soon showed otherwise. In July 257, he issued a persecutory edict. As punishment for following the Christian faith, Christians were to face exile or condemnation to the mines. In August 258, he issued a second edict, making the punishment death. This persecution stalled in June 260, when Valerian

23668-477: The incidence of capital punishment. This opinion led to voluntary exile being prescribed in place of the death penalty, whereby a convict could either choose to leave in exile or face execution. A historic debate, followed by a vote, took place in the Roman Senate to decide the fate of Catiline 's allies when he attempted to seize power in December, 63 BC. Cicero, then Roman consul , argued in support of

23862-410: The incidence of increased violent criminality at the times and places of executions. Official recognition of this phenomenon led to executions being carried out inside prisons, away from public view. In England in the 18th century, when there was no police force, Parliament drastically increased the number of capital offences to more than 200. These were mainly property offences, for example cutting down

24056-462: The increasing affluence of the Christian community. In some areas where Christians were influential, such as North Africa and Egypt, traditional deities were losing credibility. It is unknown how much support there was for persecution within the aristocracy. After Gallienus's peace, Christians reached high ranks in Roman government. Diocletian even appointed several Christians to those positions, and his wife and daughter may have been sympathetic to

24250-523: The initial persecution. Diocletian remained in Antioch for the following three years. He visited Egypt once, over the winter of 301–302, where he began the grain dole in Alexandria. In Egypt, some Manicheans , followers of the prophet Mani , were denounced in the presence of the proconsul of Africa. On March 31, 302, in an official edict called the De Maleficiis et Manichaeis compiled in

24444-478: The injustice, but even the futility from the point of view of social welfare , of torture and the death penalty. Influenced by the book, Grand Duke Leopold II of Habsburg, the future emperor of the Holy Roman Empire , abolished the death penalty in the then-independent Grand Duchy of Tuscany , the first abolition in modern times. On 30 November 1786, after having de facto blocked executions (the last

24638-620: The island was independent) was the first legislative assembly in the world to abolish the death penalty in 1824. Tahiti commuted the death penalty to banishment. In the United States, Michigan was the first state to ban the death penalty, on 18 May 1846. The short-lived revolutionary Roman Republic banned capital punishment in 1849. Venezuela followed suit and abolished the death penalty in 1863 and San Marino did so in 1865. The last execution in San Marino had taken place in 1468. In Portugal, after legislative proposals in 1852 and 1863,

24832-711: The jurisdiction, but commonly include serious crimes against a person, such as murder , assassination , mass murder , child murder , aggravated rape , terrorism , aircraft hijacking , war crimes , crimes against humanity , and genocide , along with crimes against the state such as attempting to overthrow government , treason , espionage , sedition , and piracy . Also, in some cases, acts of recidivism , aggravated robbery, and kidnapping , in addition to drug trafficking, drug dealing, and drug possession, are capital crimes or enhancements. However, states have also imposed punitive executions, for an expansive range of conduct, for political or religious beliefs and practices, for

25026-401: The killing of conspirators without judgment by decision of the Senate ( Senatus consultum ultimum ) and was supported by the majority of senators; among the minority voices opposed to the execution, the most notable was Julius Caesar . The custom was different for foreigners who did not hold rights as Roman citizens , and especially for slaves, who were transferrable property. Crucifixion

25220-403: The lapsed (Christians who had complied with the edicts to ensure their own safety) and the rigorists (those who would not compromise with secular authority). These two groups clashed in street fights and riots, eventually leading to murders. It is said that Marcellus, a rigorist, purged all mention of Marcellinus from church records and removed his name from the official list of bishops. Marcellus

25414-586: The latter had partially distanced themselves from Wycliffe's theology to avoid such a charge). Magisterial Reformers like Ulrich Zwingli labeled radical Reformers , such as the Anabaptists , as Donatists; Catholics were portrayed in Reformation rhetoric as Pelagian , another early Christian heresy. In Eastern Orthodoxy , the Bezpopovtsy (priestless) strain of Old Believers believed that because

25608-518: The lowest-ranking emperor, Galerius was always listed last in imperial documents. Until the end of the Persian war in 299, he had not even had a major palace. Lactantius states that Galerius hungered for a higher position in the imperial hierarchy. Galerius's mother, Romula, was bitterly anti-Christian, for she had been a pagan priestess in Dacia , and loathed the Christians for avoiding her festivals. Newly prestigious and influential after his victories in

25802-401: The mainline Church occurred in Carthage in 304. The Christians from Abitinae had been brought to the city and imprisoned. Friends and relatives of the prisoners came to visit but encountered resistance from a local mob. The group was harassed, beaten, and whipped; the food they had brought for their imprisoned friends was scattered on the ground. The mob had been sent by Mensurius , the bishop of

25996-463: The majority of countries have abolished capital punishment, over half of the world's population live in countries where the death penalty is retained, including India, the U.S., Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, Vietnam, Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia and DR Congo. As of 2023, only 2 out of 38 OECD member countries (the United States and Japan ) allow capital punishment. Capital punishment

26190-477: The matter and secured the appointment of loyal friends to the imperial office. In this "Second Tetrarchy", it seems that only the Eastern emperors, Galerius and Maximinus, continued with the persecution. As they left office, Diocletian and Maximian probably imagined Christianity to be in its last throes. Churches had been destroyed, the Church leadership and hierarchy had been snapped, and the army and civil service had been purged. Eusebius declares that apostates from

26384-498: The moral corruption of priests invalidated their offices and sacraments, a belief characterizing Donatism. Hus similarly argued that a prelate's moral character determined his ecclesiastical authority, a position his contemporaries compared to Donatism and condemned as heresy at the Council of Constance . During the Reformation, Catholic Counter-Reformers such as Johann Eck accused the magisterial Reformers of Donatism (although

26578-422: The non-Donatist bishop Caecilian as payment for churches damaged or confiscated during the persecution. Nothing was given to the Donatists; Constantine was apparently not fully aware of the seriousness of the dispute, which his gift exacerbated. The Donatists appealed to Rome for equal treatment; Constantine tasked Miltiades with resolving the issue, which led to the 313 commission. The Donatists refused to abide by

26772-486: The opinion of historian John Curran. Within forty years, Donatists began spreading rumors that Marcellinus had been a traditor and that he had even sacrificed to the pagan gods. The tale was embroidered in the 5th-century forgery the " Council of Sinuessa ", and the vita Marcelli of the Liber Pontificalis . The latter work states that the bishop had indeed apostatized but redeemed himself through martyrdom

26966-457: The opportunity to portray himself as a possible liberator of oppressed Christians everywhere. Maxentius, meanwhile, had seized power in Rome on October 28, 306, and soon brought toleration to all Christians within his realm. Galerius made two attempts to unseat Maxentius but failed both times. During the first campaign against Maxentius, Severus was captured, imprisoned, and executed. In the East,

27160-499: The other arrangements that we are always making for the benefit and utility of the state, we have heretofore wished to repair all things in accordance with the laws and public discipline of the Romans, and to ensure that even the Christians, who abandoned the practice of their ancestors, should return to good sense. Indeed, for some reason or other, such self-indulgence assailed and idiocy possessed those Christians, that they did not follow

27354-583: The period assert that this position is in error. Christian accounts were criticized during the Enlightenment and afterwards, most notably by Edward Gibbon . This can be attributed to the political anticlerical and secular tenor of that period. Modern historians, such as G. E. M. de Ste. Croix , have attempted to determine whether Christian sources exaggerated the scope of the Diocletianic persecution, but disagreements continue. From its first appearance to its legalization under Constantine , Christianity

27548-471: The persecution in the East in 311, but it was resumed in Egypt , Palestine , and Asia Minor by his successor, Maximinus . Constantine and Licinius, Severus's successor, signed the Edict of Milan in 313, which offered a more comprehensive acceptance of Christianity than Galerius's edict had provided. Licinius ousted Maximinus in 313, bringing an end to persecution in the East. The persecution failed to check

27742-522: The persecution was officially discontinued on April 30, 311, although martyrdoms in Gaza continued until May 4. The Edict of Serdica , also called Edict of Toleration by Galerius, was issued in 311 in Serdica ( Sofia , Bulgaria) Galerius, officially ending the Diocletianic persecution of Christianity in the East. Galerius issued this proclamation to end hostilities while on his deathbed, which gave Christians

27936-618: The persecution was only lightly enforced; in Maximian's realm (Italy, Spain, and Africa), it was firmly enforced; and in the East, under Diocletian (Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Egypt) and Galerius (Greece and the Balkans), its provisions were pursued with more fervor than anywhere else. For the Eastern provinces, Peter Davies tabulated the total number of martyrdoms for an article in the Journal of Theological Studies . Davies argues that

28130-598: The persecution, after all, had been the project of the Eastern emperors, not the Western ones. After Constantine succeeded his father in 306, he urged the recovery of Church property lost in the persecution and legislated full freedom for all Christians in his domain. While the persecution under Constantius was relatively light, there is no doubt about the force of the persecution in Maximian's domain. Its effects are recorded at Rome, Sicily, Spain, and in Africa —indeed, Maximian encouraged particularly strict enforcement of

28324-521: The persecution, but how he died is disputed among historians: Eusebius wrote in his Historia Ecclesiastica that Marcellinus was "brought away by the persecution", an obscure phrase that may refer to his martyrdom or to the fact that he fled the city. Others assert that Marcellinus was a traditor . Marcellinus appears in the 4th-century Church's depositio episcoporum but not its feriale , or calendar of feasts, where all Marcellinus's predecessors from Fabian had been listed—a "glaring" absence, in

28518-527: The power of central government to effect major change in morals and society made him unusual. Most earlier emperors tended to be quite cautious in their administrative policies, preferring to work within existing structures rather than overhauling them. Diocletian, by contrast, was willing to reform every aspect of public life to satisfy his goals. Under his rule, coinage, taxation, architecture, law and history were all radically reconstructed to reflect his authoritarian and traditionalist ideology. The reformation of

28712-507: The practices of the ancients, which their own ancestors had, perhaps, instituted, but according to their own will and as it pleased them, they made laws for themselves that they observed, and gathered various peoples in diverse areas. Then when our order was issued stating that they should return themselves to the practices of the ancients, many were subjected to peril, and many were even killed. Many more persevered in their way of life, and we saw that they neither offered proper worship and cult to

28906-461: The presence of Christians, who were thought to cloud the sight of oracles and stall the gods' recognition of their sacrifices. The Christian Arnobius , writing during Diocletian's reign, attributes financial concerns to provisioners of pagan services: The augurs, the dream interpreters, the soothsayers, the prophets, and the priestlings, ever vain...fearing that their own arts be brought to nought, and that they may extort but scanty contributions from

29100-399: The prime impetus for the military purge, and its prime beneficiary. Diocletian, for all his religious conservatism, still had tendencies towards religious tolerance. Galerius, by contrast, was a devoted and passionate pagan. According to Christian sources, he was consistently the main advocate of such persecution. He was also eager to exploit this position to his own political advantage. As

29294-452: The privileged discussion at the emperor's private religion ceremony that Lactantius had access to. Since it was Galerius's army that would have been purged—Diocletian had left his in Egypt to quell continuing unrest—Antiochenes would understandably have believed Galerius to be its instigator. The historian David Woods argues instead that Eusebius and Lactantius are referring to different events. Eusebius, according to Woods, describes

29488-484: The race of the Persians—a nation still hostile to us—and have made their way into our empire, where they are committing many outrages, disturbing the tranquility of our people and even inflicting grave damage to the civic communities. We have cause to fear that with the passage of time they will endeavour, as usually happens, to infect the modest and tranquil of an innocent nature with the damnable customs and perverse laws of

29682-492: The religious group. In the 250s, under the reigns of Decius and Valerian , Roman subjects including Christians were compelled to sacrifice to Roman gods or face imprisonment and execution, but there is no evidence that these edicts were specifically intended to attack Christianity. After Gallienus 's accession in 260, these laws went into abeyance. Diocletian's assumption of power in 284 did not mark an immediate reversal of imperial inattention to Christianity, but it did herald

29876-582: The rights to exist freely under the law and to peaceable assembly. Persecution was everywhere at an end. Lactantius preserves the Latin text of this pronouncement, describing it as an edict. Eusebius provides a Greek translation of the pronouncement. His version includes imperial titles and an address to provincials, suggesting that the proclamation is, in fact, an imperial letter. The document seems to have been promulgated only in Galerius's provinces. Among all

30070-480: The rise of the Church. By 324, Constantine was sole ruler of the empire, and Christianity had become his favored religion. Although the persecution resulted in death, torture, imprisonment, or dislocation for many Christians, most of the empire's Christians avoided punishment. The persecution did, however, cause many churches to split between those who had complied with imperial authority (the traditores ), and those who had remained "pure". Certain schisms, like those of

30264-484: The sake of the peace of our times, that each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases; this regulation is made that we may not seem to detract from any dignity or any religion. The enforcement of the persecutory edicts was inconsistent. Since the Tetrarchs were more or less sovereign in their own realms, they had a good deal of control over persecutory policy. In Constantius's realm (Britain and Gaul)

30458-432: The same sacrificing-priest who offers Himself now through the ministry of priests and who once offers Himself upon the Cross." The worth of the sacrifice does not depend on the celebrating priest (or bishop), but on the "worth of the victim and on the dignity of the chief priest - none other than Jesus Christ Himself". The effects of Augustine's theological success and the emperor's legal action were somewhat reversed when

30652-410: The seventh- and eighth-century Muslim conquest . The Donatists refused to accept the sacraments and spiritual authority of priests and bishops who were traditores during the persecution. The traditores had returned to positions of authority under Constantine I ; according to the Donatists, sacraments administered by the traditores were invalid. Whether the sacrament of Penance could reconcile

30846-855: The seventh-century Muslim conquest of the region. Donatism is associated with a number of other groups, including: In Mauretania and Numidia , the Catholic Encyclopedia claims that the splinter groups were so numerous that the Donatists could not name them all. The Donatists followed a succession of bishops: For several centuries during the High Middle Ages and the Reformation , accusations of Donatism were levelled against church-reform movements which criticized clerical immorality on theological grounds. The early reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were accused of Donatism by their theological opponents. Wycliffe taught that

31040-464: The summer of 303, following a series of rebellions in Melitene ( Malatya , Turkey) and Syria, a second edict was published, ordering the arrest and imprisonment of all bishops and priests. In the judgment of historian Roger Rees, there was no logical necessity for this second edict; that Diocletian issued one indicates that he was either unaware the first edict was being carried out, or that he felt it

31234-535: The supremacy of Roman law over local law. Its preamble insists that it is every emperor's duty to enforce the sacred precepts of Roman law, for "the immortal gods themselves will favour and be at peace with the Roman name...if we have seen to it that all subject to our rule entirely lead a pious, religious, peaceable and chaste life in every respect". These principles, if given their full extension, would logically require Roman emperors to enforce conformity in religion. Christian communities grew quickly in many parts of

31428-548: The then emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, abolished in his immediate lands in 1787 capital punishment, which though only lasted until 1795, after both had died and Leopolds son Francis abolished it in his immediate lands. In Tuscany it was reintroduced in 1790 after Leopolds departure becoming emperor. Only after 1831 capital punishment was again at times stopped, though it took until 2007 to abolish capital punishment in Italy completely. The Kingdom of Tahiti (when

31622-470: The thick rod or of exile to the remote Lingnan region might take the place of capital punishment. However, the death penalty was restored only 12 years later in 759 in response to the An Lushan Rebellion . At this time in the Tang dynasty only the emperor had the authority to sentence criminals to execution. Under Xuanzong capital punishment was relatively infrequent, with only 24 executions in

31816-574: The time Constantine took over the province, the African Church was deeply divided. The Donatists would not be reconciled to the Catholic Church until after 411. Maximian probably seized the Christian property in Rome quite easily—Roman cemeteries were noticeable, and Christian meeting places could have been easily found out. Senior churchmen would have been similarly prominent. The bishop of Rome Marcellinus died in 304, during

32010-423: The traditional Roman cult. Unlike Aurelian ( r . 270–275), Diocletian did not foster any new cult of his own. He preferred the older Olympian gods . Nonetheless, Diocletian did wish to inspire a general religious revival. As the panegyrist to Maximian declared: "You have heaped the gods with altars and statues, temples and offerings, which you dedicated with your own name and your own image, whose sanctity

32204-410: The traditional cult. Diocletian did not insist on exclusive worship of Jupiter and Hercules, which would have been a drastic change in the pagan tradition. For example, Elagabalus had tried fostering his own god and no others and had failed dramatically. Diocletian built temples for Isis and Sarapis at Rome and a temple to Sol in Italy. He did, however, favor gods who provided for the safety of

32398-733: The upper hand. According to Augustine and the church, the validity of sacraments was a property of the priesthood independent of individual character. Influenced by the Old Testament , he believed in discipline as a means of education. In his letter to Vincentius, Augustine used the New Testament Parable of the Great Banquet to justify using force against the Donatists: "You are of opinion that no one should be compelled to follow righteousness; and yet you read that

32592-522: The whole empire instead of the local deities of the provinces. In Africa, Diocletian's revival focused on Jupiter, Hercules, Mercury, Apollo and the imperial cult. The cult of Saturn, the Romanized Baal-hamon , was neglected. In imperial iconography Jupiter and Hercules were pervasive. The same pattern of favoritism affected Egypt as well. Native Egyptian deities saw no revival, nor was the sacred hieroglyphic script used. Unity in worship

32786-420: The winter of 302, Galerius urged Diocletian to begin a general persecution of the Christians. Diocletian was wary and asked the oracle at Didyma for guidance. The oracle's reply was read as an endorsement of Galerius's position, and a general persecution was called on February 23, 303. Persecutory policies varied in intensity across the empire. Whereas Galerius and Diocletian were avid persecutors, Constantius

32980-414: The words of Tacitus , Christians showed "hatred of the human race" ( odium generis humani ). Among the more credulous, Christians were thought to use black magic in pursuit of revolutionary aims and to practise incest and cannibalism . Nonetheless, for the first two centuries of the Christian era, no emperor issued general laws against the faith or its Church. These persecutions were carried out under

33174-430: The world, nations in the form of ancient republics, monarchies or tribal oligarchies emerged. These nations were often united by common linguistic, religious or family ties. Moreover, expansion of these nations often occurred by conquest of neighbouring tribes or nations. Consequently, various classes of royalty, nobility, various commoners and slaves emerged. Accordingly, the systems of tribal arbitration were submerged into

33368-423: The year 730 and 58 executions in the year 736. The two most common forms of execution in the Tang dynasty were strangulation and decapitation, which were the prescribed methods of execution for 144 and 89 offences respectively. Strangulation was the prescribed sentence for lodging an accusation against one's parents or grandparents with a magistrate, scheming to kidnap a person and sell them into slavery and opening

33562-413: Was a crime, a judge must define the penalty allowing the crime to be annulled by compensating it. This is how pecuniary compensation appeared for criminals the least recalcitrant and whose rehabilitation is deemed possible. However, for others, he argued, the death penalty is necessary. This philosophy aims on the one hand to protect society and on the other hand to compensate to cancel the consequences of

33756-466: Was a form of punishment first employed by the Romans against slaves who rebelled , and throughout the Republican era was reserved for slaves , bandits , and traitors . Intended to be a punishment, a humiliation, and a deterrent, the condemned could take up to a few days to die. Corpses of the crucified were typically left on the crosses to decompose and to be eaten by animals. There was a time in

33950-466: Was an illegal religion in the eyes of the Roman state. For the first two centuries of its existence, Christianity and its practitioners were unpopular with the people at large. Christians were always suspect, members of a "secret society" who communicated with a private code and who shied away from the public sphere. It was popular hostility—the anger of the crowd—which drove the earliest persecutions, not official action. Around 112, Pliny ,

34144-410: Was banished from the city and died in exile on January 16, 309. The persecution was firmly enforced until Maximian's abdication in 305 but started to wane when Constantius (who seemed not to have been enthusiast about it) succeeded as august. After Constantius's death, Maxentius took advantage of Galerius's unpopularity in Italy (Galerius had introduced taxation for the city and countryside of Rome for

34338-427: Was broadly successful, but Eusebius is confused about the technicalities of the event, and his characterization of the overall size of the apostasy is ambiguous. Eusebius also attributes the initiative for the purge to Galerius, rather than Diocletian. Modern scholar Peter Davies surmises that Eusebius is referring to the same event as Lactantius, but that he heard of the event through public rumors and knew nothing of

34532-416: Was captured in battle. His son Gallienus ( r . 260–268), ended the persecution and inaugurated nearly 40 years of freedom from official sanctions, praised by Eusebius as the " little peace of the Church ". The peace was undisturbed, save for occasional, isolated persecutions, until Diocletian became emperor. Diocletian, acclaimed emperor on November 20, 284, was a religious conservative, faithful to

34726-620: Was central to Diocletian's religious policies. Diocletian, like Augustus and Trajan before him, styled himself a "restorer". He urged the public to see his reign and his governing system, the Tetrarchy (rule by four emperors), as a renewal of traditional Roman values and, after the anarchic third century , a return to the "Golden Age of Rome". As such, he reinforced the long-standing Roman preference for ancient customs and Imperial opposition to independent societies. The Diocletianic regime's activist stance, however, and Diocletian's belief in

34920-419: Was executed on June 7, and the edict was in force at Cirta from May 19. In Gaul and Britain Constantius did not enforce this edict, but in the East progressively harsher legislation was devised; the edict was firmly enforced in Maximian's domain until his abdication in 305, but persecutions later began to wane when Constantius succeeded Maximian and were officially halted when Maxentius took power in 306. In

35114-546: Was executed on November 18, 303. The boldness of this Christian displeased Diocletian, and he left the city and made for Nicomedia to spend the winter, accompanied by Galerius. Throughout these years the moral and religious didacticism of the emperors was reaching a fevered pitch; at the behest of an oracle, it was to hit its peak. According to Lactantius, Diocletian and Galerius entered into an argument over what imperial policy towards Christians should be while at Nicomedia in 302. Diocletian argued that forbidding Christians from

35308-567: Was forbidden to evangelise or spread Christianity ) in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslims on pain of death, they were banned from bearing arms, undertaking certain professions, and were obligated to dress differently in order to distinguish themselves from Arabs. Under sharia , Non-Muslims were obligated to pay jizya and kharaj taxes, together with periodic heavy ransom levied upon Christian communities by Muslim rulers in order to fund military campaigns, all of which contributed

35502-422: Was immune" ( immunis est Gallia ) from the persecutions under Constantius. The death of Saint Alban , the first British Christian martyr, was once dated to this era, but most now assign it to the reign of Septimius Severus . The second, third and fourth edicts seem not to have been enforced in the West at all. It is possible that Constantius's relatively tolerant policies were the result of Tetrarchic jealousies;

35696-424: Was in 1769), Leopold promulgated the reform of the penal code that abolished the death penalty and ordered the destruction of all the instruments for capital execution in his land. In 2000, Tuscany's regional authorities instituted an annual holiday on 30 November to commemorate the event. The event is commemorated on this day by 300 cities around the world celebrating Cities for Life Day . Leopolds brother Joseph ,

35890-477: Was informed by members of the court, could only refer to the Christians of the empire. At the behest of his court, Diocletian acceded to demands for a universal persecution. On February 23, 303, Diocletian ordered that the newly built Christian church at Nicomedia be razed, its scriptures burned , and its treasures seized. February 23 was the feast of the Terminalia , for Terminus , the god of boundaries. It

36084-440: Was new and unfamiliar and not typically identified with Judaism by this time, Christians had no such excuse. Moreover, Christians had been distancing themselves from their Jewish heritage for their entire history. Persecution was not the only outlet of the Tetrarchy's moral fervor. In 295, either Diocletian or his caesar (subordinate emperor) Galerius issued an edict from Damascus forbidding incestuous marriages and affirming

36278-606: Was not effective for long in Maximinus's district. Within seven months of Galerius's proclamation, Maximinus resumed persecution, which continued until 313, shortly before his death. At a meeting between Licinius and Constantine in Milan in February 313, the two emperors drafted the terms of a universal peace. The terms of this peace were posted by the victorious Licinius at Nicomedia on June 13, 313. Later ages have taken to calling

36472-507: Was not enforced at all in the domains of Constantius and was applied in the domains of Maximian until his abdication in 305. In the East, it remained applicable until the issue of the Edict of Milan by Constantine and Licinius in 313. Diocletian and Maximian resigned on May 1, 305. Constantius and Galerius became augusti (senior emperors), while two new emperors, Severus and Maximinus , became caesars (junior emperors). According to Lactantius, Galerius had forced Diocletian's hand in

36666-486: Was not working as quickly as he wanted it to. Following the publication of the second edict, prisons began to fill—the underdeveloped prison system of the time could not handle the deacons, lectors, priests, bishops, and exorcists forced upon it. Eusebius writes that the edict netted so many priests that ordinary criminals were crowded out and had to be released. In anticipation of the upcoming twentieth anniversary of his reign on November 20, 303, Diocletian declared

36860-502: Was such a tyrant that the Romans would not open the gates for his defeated, retreating army, but opened them only for the conqueror Constantine. Capital punishment Note: Varies by jurisdiction Note: Varies by jurisdiction Capital punishment , also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide , is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such

37054-440: Was the day they would terminate Christianity. The next day, Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" was published. The key targets of this piece of legislation were senior Christian clerics and Christians' property, just as they had been during Valerian's persecution. The edict prohibited Christians from assembling for worship and ordered the destruction of their scriptures, liturgical books, and places of worship across

37248-653: Was tortured during the persecution and died about a year after from the resulting injuries. The Decian persecution was a grave blow to the Church. At Carthage, there was mass apostasy (renunciation of the faith). At Smyrna, the bishop Euctemon sacrificed and encouraged others to do the same. Because the Church was largely urban, it should have been easy to identify, isolate and destroy the Church hierarchy. This did not happen. In June 251, Decius died in battle, leaving his persecution incomplete. His persecutions were not followed up for another six years, allowing some Church functions to resume. Valerian , Decius's friend, took up

37442-505: Was under age 18 at the time the crime was committed). In the United States, 23 of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. ban capital punishment. In the United Kingdom, it was abolished for murder (leaving only treason, piracy with violence , arson in royal dockyards and a number of wartime military offences as capital crimes) for a five-year experiment in 1965 and permanently in 1969, the last execution having taken place in 1964. It

37636-429: Was unenthusiastic. Later persecutory edicts, including the calls for universal sacrifice, were not applied in his domain. His son, Constantine, on taking the imperial office in 306, restored Christians to full legal equality and returned property that had been confiscated during the persecution. In Italy in 306, the usurper Maxentius ousted Maximian's successor Severus , promising full religious toleration. Galerius ended

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