CHAPTER VII. 



THE DAYS OF PERSECUTION. 



NATURE OF THE PERSECUTIONS — NERO DOMITIAN— 



MARTYRDOM RESULTS. 



Great Events. 



A. D. 64. 1ST GENERAL PERSECUTION, UNDER NERO. 

 l68. MARTYRDOM Of POLYCARP. 



It is hard for us who are living in a lime when 

 the Church is steadily making peaceful progress, 

 to realize that for nearly two hundred and fifty 

 years, with the exception of brief intervals of re- 

 pose, her progress was met by the most bitter 

 opposition, and that thousands and thousands of 

 men, women and children were put to death for no 

 other offence than that of being followers of Jesus 

 Christ And yet so it was. Until the beginning 

 of the fourth century Christianity met but little favor 

 from the rulers of the world, and its adherents 

 were not safe from savage assaults, involving the loss 

 of property, and the loss of life itself. Some of 

 the persecutions were legalized, carried out under 

 direct edicts of the Roman emperors, but others 

 were irregular, mob-like attacks of individuals and 



