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ePaper created 2015-01-22, 10:35:09 | version 1.33.01
16 JULI-SEPTEMVRI / JulY-SepTemBeR 2014 RelIgIouS eDuCATIoN Third Century The Christian Church lived in relative peace from the death of Marcus Aurelius (185) to the time of the Emperor Decius (249). When Decius came to power, he inaugurated a universal persecution of Christians throughout the whole empire. The persecu- tions by Decius were continued in force by Valerian (253-260). During this time, not only were the Christians forced to sacri- fice to the imperial gods, but the clergy were sought out to be killed and all Christian proper- ties were to be confiscated and destroyed. There was an all-out attempt to purge the Church of its leadership and to destroy it completely. After Valerian, howev- er, Gaflienus, his son, stopped the policy of general persecu- tion and the Christians once more lived in relative peace until the end of the century. During this period, there was an astounding growth in Church membership which per- haps reached up to ten percent of the imperial population. The Lapsed The persecutions by Decius and Valerian, as well as the peaceful times which pre- ceded and followed, brought a great interior crisis to the Christian Church in the third century. The question arose about what to do with those Christians who denied Christ under the threat of torture and execution, and who lapsed from Christian life into sin in times of peace. The maximal- ists in the Church urged that there could be no repentance for grave sins committed after baptism. In this, they followed the strict words of Hebrews (10:26) and the Roman writ- ings of the Shepherd of Hermas (see second century) which aid that "he who received forgive- ness of sins (in baptism) ought not to sin anymore, but remain in innocence." The maximalists denied repentance to those who "lapsed" from the Christian life and opposed the bishops who agreed to allow the repentance and readmittance of sinners to Holy Communion after periods of penance. Thus, there were a number of schisms. In the Church which caused some people to leave the Church for what they con- sidered to be a more pure and rigorous form of Christianity. Among those who left was Tertullian (d. c220), the great father of Latin theology in North Africa, and a prolific writer of Christian treatises of every kind. Tertuilian joined the heretical movement of Montanus which began in the end of the second century and claimed to be the church of the "new prophecy" of the Holy Spirit which was more perfect than that of the "second testa- ment" of Christ.St. apostle Hermas (continued from last issue) Church History