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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Persecution</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11703a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="The unlawful coercion of another's liberty or his unlawful punishment"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="11703a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/p.htm">P</a> > Persecution</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Persecution</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <h2>General</h2> <p>Persecution may be defined in general as the unlawful coercion of another's liberty or his unlawful punishment, for not every kind of punishment can be regarded as persecution. For our purpose it must be still further limited to the sphere of religion, and in that sense persecution means unlawful coercion or punishment for religion's sake.</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> has suffered many kinds of persecution. The growth and the continued existence of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> have been hindered by cultured <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">paganism</a> and by savage <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">heathenism</a>. And in more recent times <a href="../cathen/01215c.htm">agnosticism</a> has harassed the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> in the various states of America and <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>. But most deplorable of all persecutions have been those that <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholicism</a> has suffered from other <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>. With regard to these it has to be considered that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> herself has appealed to force, and that, not only in her own defence, but also, so it is objected, in unprovoked attack. Thus by means of the <a href="../cathen/08026a.htm">Inquisition</a> or religious <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> she was herself the aggressor in many instances during the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> and in the time of the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a>. And even if the answer be urged that she was only defending her own existence, the retort seems fairly plausible that <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> and <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">heathen</a> powers were only acting in their own defence when they prohibited the spread of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>. The <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> would therefore seem to be strangely inconsistent, for while she claims toleration and liberty for herself she has been and still remains intolerant of all other <a href="../cathen/12738a.htm">religions</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>In answer to this objection, we may admit the fact and yet deny the conclusion. The <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> claims to carry a message or rather a command from <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> and to be <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> only messenger. In point of fact it is only within recent years, when toleration is supposed to have become a <a href="../cathen/05089a.htm">dogma</a>, that the other "champions of Revelation" have abandoned their similar claims. That they should abandon their right to command allegiance is a natural consequence of <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestantism</a>; whereas it is the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church's</a> claim to be the accredited and <a href="../cathen/07790a.htm">infallible</a> ambassador of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> which justifies her apparent inconsistency. Such intolerance, however, is not the same as persecution, by which we understand the unlawful exercise of coercion. Every corporation lawfully constituted has the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to coerce its subjects within due limits. And though the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> exercises that right for the most part by spiritual sanctions, she has never relinquished the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to use other means. Before examining this latter right to physical coercion, there must be introduced the important distinction between <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagans</a> and <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>. Regularly, force has not been employed against <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> or <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jew</a>: "For what have I to do to judge them that are without?" (<a href="../bible/1co005.htm#vrs12">1 Corinthians 5:12</a>); see <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">JEWS AND JUDAISM</a>: <em>Judaism and Church Legislation</em>.</p> <p>Instances of compulsory conversions such as have occurred at different periods of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church's</a> history must be ascribed to the misplaced <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zeal</a> of autocratic <a href="../cathen/07762a.htm">individuals</a>. But the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> does claim the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to coerce her own subjects. Here again, however, a distinction must be made. The non-Catholic <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> of our day are, strictly speaking, her subjects; but in her legislation she treats them as if they were not her subjects. The "Ne temere", e.g., of <a href="../cathen/12137a.htm">Pius X</a> (1907), recognizes the marriages of <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestants</a> as valid, though not contracted according to <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> conditions: and the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> of abstinence are not considered to be binding on <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestants</a>. So, with regard to her right to use coercion, the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> only exercises her authority over those whom she considers personally and formally <a href="../cathen/01624b.htm">apostates</a>. A modern <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestant</a> is not in the same category with the <a href="../cathen/01267e.htm">Albigenses</a> or <a href="../cathen/15722a.htm">Wyclifites</a>. These were held to be personally responsible for their apostasy; and the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> enforced her authority over them: It is <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> that in many cases the <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a> were rebels against the State also; but the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church's</a> claim to exercise coercion is not confined to such cases of social disorder. And what is more, her purpose was not only to protect the <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> of the <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a>, but also to punish the <a href="../cathen/01624b.htm">apostates</a>. Formal apostasy was then looked upon as treason against <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> — a much more heinous crime than treason against a civil ruler, which, until recent times, was punished with great severity. (See <a href="../cathen/01624b.htm">APOSTASY</a>; <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">HERESY</a>.) It was a poisoning of the life of the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> in others (<a href="../cathen/14663b.htm">St. Thomas Aquinas</a>, II-II, Q. xi, articles 3, 4.)</p> <p>There can be no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a>, therefore, that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> claimed the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to use physical coercion against formal <a href="../cathen/01624b.htm">apostates</a>. Not, of course, that she would exercise her authority in the same way today, even if there were a <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> State in which other <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> were personally and formally <a href="../cathen/01624b.htm">apostates</a>. She adapts her discipline to the times and circumstances in order that it may fulfil its salutary purpose. Her own children are not punished by fines, <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisonment</a>, or other temporal punishments, but by spiritual pains and penalties, and <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a> are treated as she treated <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagans</a>: "Fides suadenda est, non imponenda" (Faith is a matter of persuasion, not of compulsion) — a sentiment that goes back to <a href="../cathen/02330b.htm">St. Basil</a> ("Revue de l'Orient Chrétien", 2nd series, XIV, 1909, 38) and to <a href="../cathen/01383c.htm">St. Ambrose</a>, in the fourth century, the latter applying it even to the treatment of formal <a href="../cathen/01624b.htm">apostates</a>. It must also be remembered that when she did use her right to exercise physical coercion over formal <a href="../cathen/01624b.htm">apostates</a>, that right was then universally admitted. Churchmen had naturally the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a> of their time as to why and how penalties should be inflicted. Withal, the Roman <a href="../cathen/08026a.htm">Inquisition</a> was very different from that of <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> did not approve the harsh proceedings of the latter. Moreover, such <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a> of physical coercion in matters spiritual were not peculiar to <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> (see TOLERATION). The <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformers</a> were not less, but, If anything, more, intolerant (see <a href="../cathen/08026a.htm">INQUISITION</a>). If the intolerance of Churchmen is blamable, then that of the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformers</a> is doubly so. From their own standpoint, it was unjustifiable. First, they were in revolt against the established authority of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, and secondly they could hardly use force to compel the unwilling to conform to their own principle of private judgment. With this clear demarcation of the Reformer's private judgment from the Catholic's authority, it hardly serves our purpose to estimate the relative <a href="../cathen/15446a.htm">violence</a> of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> and <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestant</a> Governments during the times of the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a>. And yet it is well to remember that the methods of the maligned <a href="../cathen/08026a.htm">Inquisition</a> in <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> and <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> were far less destructive of life than the religious <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>. What is, however, more to our purpose is to notice the outspoken intolerance of the <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestant</a> leaders; for it gave an additional right to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> to appeal to force. She was punishing her defaulting subjects and at the same time defending herself against their attacks.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Such compulsion, therefore, as is used by legitimate authority cannot be called persecution, nor can its victims be called <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>. It is not enough that those who are condemned to <a href="../cathen/12565a.htm">death</a> should be suffering for their religious opinions. A <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr</a> is a witness to the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>; whereas those who suffered the extreme penalty of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> were at the most the witnesses to their own sincerity, and therefore unhappily no more than pseudo-martyrs. We need not dwell upon the second objection which pretends that a <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> government might be justified in harassing <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> missionaries in so far as it considered <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> to be subversive of established authority. The <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> revelation is the <a href="../cathen/14336b.htm">supernatural</a> message of the Creator to His creatures, to which there can be no lawful resistance. Its missionaries have the right and the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> to preach it everywhere. They who die in the propagation or maintenance of the Gospel are <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> witnesses to the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>, suffering persecution for His sake.</p> <h2>Outline of principal persecutions</h2> <p>The brief outline here given of persecutions directed against the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> follows the chronological order, and is scarcely more than a catalogue of the principal formal and public onslaughts against <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholicism</a>. Nor does it take into account other forms of attack, e.g., literary and social persecution, some form of suffering for <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ's</a> sake being a sure note of the True Church (<a href="../bible/joh015.htm#vrs20">John 15:20</a>; <a href="../bible/2ti003.htm#vrs12">2 Timothy 3:12</a>; <a href="../bible/mat010.htm#vrs23">Matthew 10:23</a>). For a popular general account of persecutions of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> previous to the nineteenth century See Leclercq, "Les Martyrs" (5 vols., Paris, 1902-09).</p> <h3>Roman Persecutions (52-312)</h3> <p>The persecutions of this period are treated extensively under <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">MARTYR</a>. See also <a href="../cathen/09742b.htm">ACTS OF THE MARTYRS</a>, and the articles on individual <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> or groups of <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> (<a href="../cathen/09746a.htm">THE TEN THOUSAND MARTYRS</a>; <a href="../cathen/06153a.htm">FORTY MARTYRS</a>; <a href="../cathen/01205a.htm">AGAUNUM</a>, for the Theban Legion).</p> <h3>Under Julian the Apostate (361-63)</h3> <p>Constantine's edict of toleration had accelerated the final triumph of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>. But the extreme measures passed against the ancient religion of the empire, and especially by Constans, even though they were not strictly carried out, roused considerable opposition. And when <a href="../cathen/08558b.htm">Julian the Apostate</a> (361-63) came to the throne, he supported the defenders of <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">paganism</a>, though he strove to strengthen the old religion by recommending <a href="../cathen/03592a.htm">works of charity</a> and a <a href="../cathen/12409a.htm">priesthood</a> of Strictly moral lives which, a thing unheard of, should preach and instruct. State protection was withdrawn from <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>, and no section of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> favoured more than another, so that the <a href="../cathen/05121a.htm">Donatists</a> and <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arians</a> were enabled to return.</p> <p>All the privileges formerly granted to <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerics</a> were repealed; <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">civil jurisdiction</a> taken from the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, and the subsidies to <a href="../cathen/15617c.htm">widows</a> and virgins stopped. Higher <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>, also, was taken out of the hands of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> by the prohibition of anyone who was not a <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> from teaching classical literature. And finally, the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tombs</a> of <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> were destroyed. The emperor was afraid to proceed to direct persecution, but he fomented the dissensions among the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>, and he tolerated and even encouraged the persecutions raised by <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> communities and governors, especially in Alexandria, Heliopolis, Maiouma, the port of <a href="../cathen/06399c.htm">Gaza</a>, <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, <a href="../cathen/01701d.htm">Arethusa</a>, and Cæsarea in Cappadocia (cf. Grergory of <a href="../cathen/10728c.htm">Nazianzus</a>, Orat. IV, 86-95; P.G., XXXV, 613-28). Many, in different places, suffered and even died for the Faith, though another pretext was found for their death, at least by the emperor. Of the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> of this period mention may be made of John and Paul (q.v.), who suffered in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>; the soldiers Juventinus and Maximian (cf. <a href="../cathen/08452b.htm">St. John Chrysostom's</a> sermon on them in P.G., L, 571-77); Macedonius, <a href="../cathen/14464b.htm">Tatian</a>, and Theodulus of Meros in Phrygia (<a href="../cathen/14118b.htm">Socrates</a>, III, 15; <a href="../cathen/14165c.htm">Sozomen</a>, V, 11); Basil, a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> of <a href="../cathen/01464b.htm">Ancyra</a> (<a href="../cathen/14165c.htm">Sozomen</a>, V, 11). <a href="../cathen/08558b.htm">Julian</a> himself seems to have ordered the executions of John and Paul, the steward and secretary respectively of <a href="../cathen/04294a.htm">Constantia</a>, daughter of Constantine. However, he reigned only for two years, and his persecution was, in the words of <a href="../cathen/02035a.htm">St. Athanasius</a>, "but a passing cloud".</p> <h3>In Persia</h3> <p>When the persecution of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> was abandoned by the Roman Government, it was taken up by Rome's traditional enemy, the <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persians</a>, though formerly they had been more or less tolerant of the new religion. On the outbreak of <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> between the two empires, Sapor II (310-80), under the instigation of the Persian <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, initiated a severe persecution of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> in 339 or 340. It comprised the destruction or confiscation of churches and a general massacre, especially of <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>. The number of victims, according to <a href="../cathen/14165c.htm">Sozomen</a> (<a href="../fathers/26022.htm"><em>Church History</em> II.9-14</a>), was no less than 16,000, among them being Symeon, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/13689b.htm">Seleucia</a>; there was a respite from the general persecution, but it was resumed and with still greater <a href="../cathen/15446a.htm">violence</a> by Bahram V (420-38), who persecuted savagely for one year, and was not prevented from causing numerous individual <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrdoms</a> by the treaty he made (422) with Theodosius II, guaranteeing liberty of <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">conscience</a> to the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>. Yezdegerd II (438-57), his successor, began a fierce persecution in 445 or 446, traces of which are found shortly before 450. The persecution of Chosroes I from 541 to 545 was directed chiefly against the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>. He also destroyed churches and <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> and <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisoned</a> Persian noblemen who had become <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>. The last persecution by Persian kings was that of Chosroes II (590-628), who made <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> on all <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> alike during 627 and 628. Speaking generally, the dangerous time for the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> in <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a> was when the kings were at <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> with the Roman Empire.</p> <h3>Among the Goths</h3> <p><a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> was introduced among the <a href="../cathen/11347d.htm">Goths</a> about the middle of the third century, and "Theophilus Episcopus Gothiæ" was present at the <a href="../cathen/11044a.htm">Council of Nicæa</a> (325). But, owing to the exertions of <a href="../cathen/15120c.htm">Bishop Ulfilas</a> (340, died 383), an <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arian</a>, <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arianism</a> was professed by the great majority of the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoths</a> of Dacia (<a href="../cathen/15022a.htm">Transylvania</a> and West <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a>), converts from <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">paganism</a>; and it passed with them into Lower M&oelig;sia across the Danube, when a Gothic chieftain, after a cruel persecution drove <a href="../cathen/15120c.htm">Ulfilas</a> and his converts from his lands, probably in 349. And subsequently, when in 370 the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoths</a>, pressed by the Huns, crossed the Danube and entered the Roman Empire, <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arianism</a> was the religion practised by the <a href="../cathen/15253b.htm">Emperor Valens</a>. This fact, along with the national character given to <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arianism</a> by <a href="../cathen/15120c.htm">Ulfilas</a>, made it the form of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> adopted also by the <a href="../cathen/11347d.htm">Ostrogoths</a>, from whom it spread to the <a href="../cathen/03068a.htm">Burgundians</a>, Suevi, <a href="../cathen/15268b.htm">Vandals</a>, and Lombards.</p> <p>The first persecution we hear of was that directed by the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoth</a> King Athanaric. begun about 370 and lasting for two, or perhaps six, years after his <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> with <a href="../cathen/15253b.htm">Valens</a>. St. Sabas was drowned in 372, others were burnt, sometimes in a body in the tents which were used as churches. When, in the fifth and sixth centuries, the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoths</a> invaded <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, <a href="../cathen/06395b.htm">Gaul</a>, and <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, the churches were plundered, and the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> were often <a href="../cathen/07441a.htm">murdered</a>; but their normal attitude was one of toleration, Euric (483), the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoth</a> King of <a href="../cathen/14795b.htm">Toulouse</a>, is especially mentioned by Sidonius Apollinaris (Ep. vii, 6) as a hater of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholicism</a> and a persecutor of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, though it is not clear that he persecuted to death. In <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> there was persecution at least from time to time during the period 476-586, beginning with the aforesaid Euric, who occupied Catalonia in 476. We hear of persecution by Agila (549-554) also, and finally by Leovigild (573-86). Bishops were exiled and church goods seized. His son Hermenigild, a convert to the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">Faith</a>, is described in the seventh century (e.g. by <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory the Great</a>) as a <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr</a>. A contemporary chronicler, <a href="../cathen/08470a.htm">John of Biclaro</a>, who had himself suffered for the Faith, says that the prince was <a href="../cathen/07441a.htm">murdered</a> in <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a> by an <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arian</a>, Sisibert; but he does not say that Leovigild approved of the <a href="../cathen/07441a.htm">murder</a> (see HERMINGILD; and Hodgkin, "Italy and her Invaders", V, 255). With the accession of Reccared, who had become a <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a>, <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arianism</a> ceased to be the creed of the Spanish <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoths</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>As for the <a href="../cathen/11347d.htm">Ostrogoths</a>, they seem to have been fairly tolerant, after the first violences of the invasion. A notable exception was the persecution of <a href="../cathen/14576a.htm">Theodoric</a> (524-26). It was prompted by the repressive measures which Justin I had issued against the <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arians</a> of the Eastern Empire, among whom <a href="../cathen/11347d.htm">Goths</a> would of coarse be included. One of the victims of the persecution was <a href="../cathen/08421a.htm">Pope John I</a> who died in <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a>.</p> <h3>Among the Lombards</h3> <p><a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory the Great</a>, in parts of his "Dialogues", describes the sufferings which <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> had to endure at the time of the Lombard invasion under Alboin (568) and afterwards. But on the whole, after Autharis's death (590) the Lombards were not troublesome, except perhaps in the Duchies of <a href="../cathen/02477b.htm">Benevento</a> and <a href="../cathen/14232b.htm">Spoleto</a>. Autharis's queen, Theudelinda, a <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> princess of <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a>, was able to use her influence with her second husband, Agilulf, Autharis's successor, so that he, although probably remaining an <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arian</a>, was friendly to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> and allowed his son to be <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptized</a> a <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> (see <a href="../cathen/09336b.htm">LOMBARDY</a>).</p> <h3>Among the Vandals</h3> <p>The <a href="../cathen/15268b.htm">Vandals</a>, <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arians</a> like the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoths</a> and the others, were the most hostile of all towards the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. During the period of their domination in <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> (422-29) the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> suffered persecution, the details of which are unknown. In 429, under the lead of Genseric, the <a href="../cathen/11347d.htm">Goths</a> crossed over to <a href="../cathen/01181a.htm">Africa</a>, and by 455 had made themselves masters of Roman Africa. In the North, the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> were driven from their sees into exile. When Carthage was taken in 439 the churches were given over to the <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arian</a> <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> Quodvultdeus (a friend of <a href="../cathen/02084a.htm">St. Augustine</a>) and the greater part of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> were stripped of what they had, put on board unseaworthy ships, and carried to <a href="../cathen/10683a.htm">Naples</a>. Confiscation of <a href="../cathen/12466a.htm">church property</a> and exile of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> was the rule throughout the provinces of the North, where all public worship was forbidden to <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>. In the provinces of the South, however, the persecution was not severe. Some <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> court officials, who had accompanied Genseric from <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, were tortured, exiled, and finally <a href="../cathen/12565a.htm">put to death</a> because they refused to <a href="../cathen/01624b.htm">apostatize</a>. No <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a>, in fact, was allowed to hold any office.</p> <p>Genseric's son, Huneric, who succeeded in 477, though at first somewhat tolerant, arrested and banished under circumstances of great cruelty nearly five thousand <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, including <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, and finally by an edict of 25 Feb., 484, abolished the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> worship, transferred all churches and <a href="../cathen/12466a.htm">church property</a> to the <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arians</a>, exiled the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, and deprived of civil <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> all those who would not receive <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arian</a> <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptism</a>. Great numbers suffered savage treatment, many died, others were mutilated or crippled for life. His successor, Guntamund (484-96), did not relax the persecution until 487. But in 494 the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> were recalled, though they had afterwards to endure some persecution from Trasamund (496-523). And complete peace came to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> at the accession of Genseric's son Hilderic, with whom the <a href="../cathen/15268b.htm">Vandal</a> domination ended (see <a href="../cathen/01181a.htm">AFRICA</a>).</p> <h3>In Arabia</h3> <p><a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> penetrated into South Arabia (Yemen) in the fourth century. In the sixth century the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> were brutally persecuted by the Jewish King Dunaan, no less than five thousand, including the prince, Arethas, being said to have suffered execution in 523 after the capture of Nagra. The Faith was only saved from utter extinction at this period by the armed intervention of the King of <a href="../cathen/01075e.htm">Abyssinia</a>. And it did in fact disappear before the invading forces of <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Islam</a>.</p> <h3>Under the Mohammedans</h3> <p>With the spread of <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedanism</a> in <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a>, and North Africa, there went a gradual subjugation of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>. At the first onset of invasion, in the eighth Century, many <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> were butchered for refusing to <a href="../cathen/01624b.htm">apostatize</a>; afterwards they were treated as helots, subject to a special tax, and liable to suffer loss of goods or life itself at the caprice of the caliph or the populace. In <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> the first <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedan</a> ruler to institute a violent persecution of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> was the viceroy Abderrahman II (821-52). The persecution was begun in 850, was continued by Mohammed (852-87) and lasted with interruptions till 960, when the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> were strong enough to intimidate their persecutors. The number of <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> was small, Eulogius, <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of Toledo (11 March, 859), who has left us an account of the persecution, being himself the most famous (see <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">MOHAMMED AND MOHAMMEDANISM</a>).</p> <h3>Under the Iconoclasts</h3> <p>The troubles brought on the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> of the East by the <a href="../cathen/07620a.htm">Iconoclastic</a> emperors cover a period of one hundred and twenty years. Leo III (the Isaurian) published two edicts against images about 726 and 730. The execution of the edicts was strenuously resisted. Popes <a href="../cathen/06787a.htm">Gregory II</a> and <a href="../cathen/06789a.htm">Gregory III</a> protested in vigorous language against the autocratic reformer, and the people resorted to open <a href="../cathen/15446a.htm">violence</a>. But Constantine V (Copronymus, 741-75) continued his <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">father's</a> policy, summoning a council at Constantinople in 754 and then persecuting the <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a> party. The <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> formed the especial object of his attack. Monasteries were demolished, and the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> themselves shamefully maltreated and <a href="../cathen/12565a.htm">put to death</a>. Under Constantine VI (780-97), through the influence of his mother, the regent Irene, the Seventh &OElig;cumenical Council was summoned in 787, and rescinded the decrees of Copronymus's Council. But there was a revival of the persecution under Leo V (813-20), the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> who stood firm, as well as the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, being the special objects of his attack, while many others were directly done to death or died as a result of cruel treatment in <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a>. This persecution, which was continued under Michael II (820-29), reached its most fierce phase under Theophilus (829-42). Great numbers of <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> were <a href="../cathen/12565a.htm">put to death</a> by this monarch; but at his decease the persecutions ended (842) (see <a href="../cathen/07620a.htm">ICONOCLASM</a>).</p> <h2>Modern period</h2> <p>We have reviewed the persecutions undergone by the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> during the first millennium of her existence. During her second millennium she has continued to suffer persecution in her mission of spreading the Gospel, and especially in <a href="../cathen/08297a.htm">Japan</a> and <a href="../cathen/03663b.htm">China</a> (see <a href="../cathen/09744a.htm">JAPANESE MARTYRS</a>; <a href="../cathen/09746b.htm">MARTYRS IN CHINA</a>). She has also had to face the attacks of her own children, culminating in the excesses and religious <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> of the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a>.</p> <p>For an account of the persecutions of <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Irish</a>, English, and Scotch <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, see <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">ENGLAND</a>; <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">IRELAND</a>; <a href="../cathen/13613a.htm">SCOTLAND</a>; <a href="../cathen/11611c.htm">PENAL LAWS</a>; and the numerous articles on individual <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>, e.g. <a href="../cathen/05293c.htm">EDMUND CAMPION</a>; OLIVER PLUNKETT.</p> <h3>Poland</h3> <p>Within the last century, <a href="../cathen/12181a.htm">Poland</a> has suffered what is perhaps the most notable of recent persecutions. <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholicism</a> had continued to be the established religion of the country until the intervention of Catherine II of <a href="../cathen/13231c.htm">Russia</a> (1762-96). By means of political intrigues and open hostility, she first of all secured a position of political suzerainty over the country, and then effected the separation of the <a href="../cathen/13278a.htm">Ruthenians</a> from the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>, and incorporated them with the <a href="../cathen/11329a.htm">Orthodox Church</a> of <a href="../cathen/13231c.htm">Russia</a>. Nicholas I (1825-55), and Alexander II (1855-81), resumed her policy of intimidation and forcible suppression. The latter monarch especially showed himself a violent persecutor of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>, the barbarities that were committed in 1863 being so savage as to call forth a joint protest from the Governments of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a>, and Great Britain. After his death the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> were granted a certain measure of toleration, and in 1905 Nicholas II granted them full liberty of worship (see <a href="../cathen/12181a.htm">POLAND</a>; <a href="../cathen/13231c.htm">RUSSIA</a>).</p> <p>For the persecution of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> in the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Ottoman Empire</a> see TURKEY.</p> <p>In modern times, however, a new element has been added to the forces opposing the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. There have indeed been occasional recrudescences of the "Reformers", <a href="../cathen/15446a.htm">violence</a> dictated by a frenzied fear of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> progress. Such were for instance the Charleston and Philadelphia disturbances in 1834 and 1844, and the "No Popery" cries against the establishment of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/07322c.htm">hierarchy</a> in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> and <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a> in 1850 and 1853. But this was no more than the spirit of the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a>. For the attitude of the South American republics during the nineteenth century, see the articles on those countries.</p> <h3>Liberalism</h3> <p>A new spirit of opposition appears in the so-called "Liberalism" and in Free Thought, whose influence has been felt in <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> as well as <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestant</a> countries. Its origin is to be traced back to the infidel philosophy of the eighteenth century. At the end of that century it had grown so strong that it could menace the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> with armed <a href="../cathen/15446a.htm">violence</a>. In <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> six hundred <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> were <a href="../cathen/07441a.htm">murdered</a> by Jourdan, "the Beheader", in 1791, and in the next year three hundred <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">ecclesiastics</a>, including an <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishop</a> and two <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, were cruelly massacred in the <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prisons</a> of <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>. The Reign of Terror ended in 1795. But the spirit of infidelity which triumphed then has ever since sought and found opportunities for persecution. And it has been assisted by the endeavours of even so-called <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> governments to subordinate the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> to the State, or to separate the two powers altogether. In <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a> the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> were so incensed by the attacks of the Liberal party on their religious freedom that they resolved on an appeal to arms. Their <em>Sonderbund</em> (q.v.) or "Separate League" was at first successful in the <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> of 1843, and in spite of its final defeat by the forces of the Diet in 1847 the result has been to secure religious liberty throughout <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a>. Since that time the excitement caused by the <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> on <a href="../cathen/07790a.htm#IIIB">Papal Infallibility</a> found vent in another period of hostile legislation; but the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> have been strong enough to maintain and reinforce their position in the country.</p> <p>In other countries <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberalism</a> has not issued in such direct <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">warfare</a> against the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>; though the defenders of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> have often been ranged against revolutionaries who were attacking the altar along with the throne. But the history of the nineteenth century reveals a constant opposition to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. Her influence has been straitened by adverse legislation, the monastic orders have been expelled and their <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> confiscated, and, what is perhaps most characteristic of modern persecution, religion has been excluded from the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> and <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a>. The underlying principle is always the same, though the form it assumes and the occasion of its development are peculiar to the different times and places. Gallicanism in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, Josephinism in <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a>, and the May Laws of the <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">German Empire</a> have all the same principle of subordinating the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> to the Government, or separating the two powers by a secularist and unnatural <a href="../cathen/05054c.htm">divorce</a>. But the solidarity of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> and the energetic protests of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> succeeded often in establishing Concordats to safeguard the independent <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. The terms of these concessions have not always been observed by Liberal or Absolutist Governments. Still they saved the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> in her time of peril. And the enforced separation of Church from State which followed the renunciation of the Concordats has taught the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> in Latin countries the dangers of Secularism and how they must defend their <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> as members of a Church which transcends the limits of states and nations, and acknowledges an authority beyond the reach of political legislation. In the Teutonic countries, on the other hand, the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> does not loom so large a target for the missiles of her enemies. Long years of persecution have done their work, and left the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> with a greater need and a greater sense of solidarity. There is less danger of confusing friend and foe, and the progress of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> is made more apparent.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">GENERAL: SYDNEY SMITH, <em>The Pope and the Spanish Inquisition</em> in <em>The Month,</em> LXXIV (1802), 375-99; cf. <em>Dublin Review,</em> LXI (1867), 177-78; KOHLER, <em>Reform und Ketzerprocess</em> (Tübingen, 1901); CAMUT, <em>La Tolérance protestante</em> (Paris, 1903); RUSSELL, <em>Maryland; The Land of Sanctuary</em> (Baltimore, 1907); PAULUS, <em>Zu Luthers These über die Ketzerverbrennung</em> in <em>Hist. Polit. Blätter,</em> CXL (1908), 357-67; MOULARD, <em>Le Catholique et le pouvoir coercitif de l'Église</em> in <em>Revue pratique de l'Apologétique,</em> VI (1908), 721-36; KEATING, <em>Intolerance, Persecution, and Proselytism</em> in <em>The Month,</em> CXIII (1909), 512-22; DE CAUZOUS, <em>Histoire de l'Inquisition en France,</em> I (Paris, 1909).</p><p class="cenotes">ROMAN MARTYRS: An exhaustive and reliable work is Allard, "Les Persécutions" (5 vols., Paris, 1885); also his "Ten Lectures on the Martyrs" (New York, 1907); and for an exhaustive literature see Healy, "The Valerian Persecution" (Boston).</p><p class="cenotes">JULIAN THE APOSTATE: SOZOMEN, <a href="../fathers/26025.htm"><em>Church History</em> V.11</a>; SOCRATES, <a href="../fathers/26013.htm"><em>Church History</em> III.15</a>; AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, XXI-XXV; TILLEMONT, <em>Mémoires,</em> VII, 322-43; 717-45; LECLERCQ, <em>Les Martyrs,</em> III (Paris, 1904); ALLARD, <em>Le Christianisme et l'empire romain de Néron à Théodore</em> (Paris, 1897), 224-31; IDEM, <em>Julien l'Apostat,</em> III, 52-102; 152-158 (Paris, 1903); DUCHESNE, <em>Histoire ancienne de l'Église,</em> II (Paris, 1907), 328-35.</p><p class="cenotes">PERSIA: SOZOMEN, <em>op. cit.,</em> 9-14; <em>Acta Sanctorum Martyrum,</em> ed. ASSEMANI, I (Rome, 1748), Syriac text with Lat. tr.; <em>Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum,</em> II, III, IV, ed. BEDJAN (Leipzig, 1890-95), Syriac text (for discussion of these two authorities See DUVAL, <em>Littérature syriaque</em> (Paris, 1899), 130-43). A list of martyrs who suffered under Sapor II was first published by WRIGHT and reproduced in the <em>Martyrologium Hieronymianum</em> by DE ROSSI AND DUCHESNE in <em>Acta SS.,</em> Nov., II, part I, lxiii (Brussels, 1894); HOFFMANN, <em>Auszüge aus syrischen Akten persischer Martyrer,</em> text, tr., and notes (Leipzig. 1886); LECLERCQ, <em>op. cit.,</em> III; DUVAL, <em>Littérature syriaque</em> (Paris, 1897), 129-47; LABOURT, <em>Le Christianisme dans l'empire perse</em> (Paris, 1904); DUCHESNE, <em>op. cit.</em> (Paris, 1910), 553-64.</p><p class="cenotes">GOTHS: KAUFFMAN, <em>Aus der Schule des Wulfila: Auxentii Dorostorensis Epistola de fide, vita et obitu Wulfila</em> (Strasburg, 1899). AUXENTIUS'S account is also found in WALTZ, <em>Ueber das leben und die lehre des Ulfila</em> (Hanover, 1840); HODGKIN, <em>Italy and her Invaders,</em> I (Oxford, 1892). 80-93; DUCHESNE, <em>op. cit.,</em> II (Paris, 1908); SCOTT, <em>Ulfilas, Apostle of the Goths</em> (Cambridge, 1885). For general account of Goths and Catholicism, See UHLHORN, <em>Kampfe und Siege des Christentums in der germanischen Welt</em> (Stuttgart, 1898).</p><p class="cenotes">FOR VISIGOTHS: SOCRATES, <em>op. cit.,</em> IV, 33; Contemporary letter on <em>St. Sabas, Acta SS.,</em> 12 April; see also later document on <em>St. Nicetas, ibid.,</em> 15 Sept., and HODGKIN, <em>op. cit.,</em> I, 1, 175; DAHN, <em>Urgeschichte der germanischen und romanischen Volker,</em> I (Berlin, 1881), 426 sq., for Athanaric's persecution; SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS, ep. vii, 6 in <em>Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auct. Antiq.,</em> VIII, HODGKIN, <em>op. cit.,</em> II, 484, for Euric; JOHN OF BICLARO in <em>Mon. Germ, Hist,: Auct. Antiq.,</em> XI, 211; GORRES, <em>Kirche und Staat im Westgotenreich von Eurich bis Leovigild</em> in <em>Theol, Stud. u. Krit.</em> (Gotha, 1893), 708-34; GAMS, <em>Kirchengeschichte Spaniens,</em> I, II (Augsburg, 1862), 4; LECLERCQ, <em>L'Espagne chrétienne</em> (Paris, 1906); ASCHBACH, <em>Gesch. der Westgoten</em> (Frankfort, 1827).</p><p class="cenotes">FOR OSTROGOTHS: <em>Vita S. Severini</em> in <em>Mon. Germ, Hist.: Auct. Antiq.,</em> 1; PAPENCORDT, <em>Gesch, der stadt Rom.</em> (Paderborn, 1857), 62 sq.; PFEILSCHRIFTER, <em>Der Ostrogotenkönig Theodoric der Grosse und die Katholische Kirche</em> in <em>Kirchengeschichtliche Studien,</em> III (Münster, 1896), 1, 2; GRISAR, <em>Geschichte Roms und der Papste im Mittelalter,</em> I (Freiburg im Br., 1901), 86, 481.</p><p class="cenotes">AMONG THE LOMBARDS: ST. GREGORY THE GREAT, <em>Dialogues,</em> III, 27, 28, 37, 39; iv, 21-23, see HODGKIN, <em>op. cit.,</em> VI, 97, 104; PAUL THE DEACON, <em>Historia Langobardorum,</em> I-IV in <em>Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script. Langob. et Ital.</em> (Hanover, 1878), 45 Sq., see HODGKIN, <em>op. cit.,</em> V. 68-80; DAHN, <em>op. cit.;</em> GRISAR, <em>op. cit.</em></p><p class="cenotes">AMONG THE VANDALS: IDATIUS in <em>Mon. Germ, Hist.: Auct. Antiq.,</em> XI, 13-36; MIGNE, <em>P.L.,</em> LI; VICTOR VITENSIS, <em>Historia persecutionis Africanæ provinciæ,</em> ed, HALM in <em>Mon. Germ. Hist., loc. cit.,</em> III; PETSCHENIG, <em>Corpus Script. eccles. lat.,</em> VII (Vienna, 1881); MIGNE, <em>P.L.,</em> LVII; PROSPER, <em>Chronicon</em> in <em>Mon. Germ. Hist.,</em> loc. cit. IX; MIGNE, <em>P.L.,</em> LI; RUINART, <em>Hist. persec. Vand.</em> in <em>P.L.,</em> LVIII; PAPENCORDT, <em>Gesch. der Vandalischen Herrschaft</em> in <em>Afrika</em> (Berlin, 1837); DAHN, <em>op. cit.;</em> HODGKIN, <em>op. cit.,</em> II, 229-30, 269-82; LECLERCQ, <em>L'Afrique chrétienne,</em> II (Paris, 1904); IDEM, <em>Les Martyrs,</em> III (Paris, 1904); DUCHESNE, <em>op. cit.,</em> III, 626-45.</p><p class="cenotes">IN ARABIA: FELL, <em>Die Christenverfolgung in Südarabien</em> in <em>Zeitsch. der deutschen morgent. Gesellechaft</em> (1881), XXV. (See ARABIA.)</p><p class="cenotes">UNDER THE MOHAMMEDANS: PARGOIRE, <em>L'Église byzantine,</em> (Paris, 1905), 153-6, 275-9; LECLERCQ, <em>L'Afrique chrétienne,</em> II (Paris, 1904); IDEM, <em>Les Martyrs,</em> IV (Paris, 1905). For Spain: See EULOGIUS and Bibliography; <em>Vita S. Eulogii,</em> by ALVARUS in <em>P.L.,</em> CXV, 705 sq.; EULOGIUS, <em>Memoriale Sanctorum seu libri III de martyribus cordubensibus;</em> MIGNE, <em>P.L.,</em> CXV, 731; Dozy, <em>Histoire des Mussulmans d'Espagne,</em> II (Leyden, 1861); GAMS, <em>Kirchengesch. Spaniens,</em> II (Ratisbon, 1864); HAINES, <em>Christianity and Islam in Spain,</em> 756-1031 (London, 1889); LECLERCQ, <em>L'Espagne chrétienne</em> (Paris, 1906).</p><p class="cenotes">ICONOCLASTS: <em>Theodori Studitæ Epistola, P.G.,</em> XCIX; TOUGARD, <em>La Persécution iconoclaste d'après la correspondance de S. Théodore Studite</em> in <em>Revue des Questions historiques,</em> L (1891), 80, 118; HERGENROTHER, <em>Photius,</em> I, 226 sqq. (Ratisbon, 1867); LOMBARD, <em>Constantin V, Empereur des Romains</em> (Paris, 1902); PARGOIRE, <em>L'Église byzantine de 527-847</em> (Paris, 1905), contains abundant references to lives and acts of martyrs.</p><p class="cenotes">MODERN PERIOD: BRÜCK-KISSLING, <em>Gesch. der kath. Kirche im neunzehnten Jahrh.</em> (5 vols., Mainz and Münster, 1908); MACCAFFREY, <em>History of the Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century</em> (2 vols., Dublin, 1909); GOYAU, <em>L'Allemagne religieuse</em> (3 vols., Paris, 1906).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Bridge, J.</span> <span id="apayear">(1911).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Persecution.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11703a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Bridge, James.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Persecution."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 11.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1911.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11703a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter.</span> <span id="dedication">Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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