CORRESPONDENCE OF EMPEROR TRAJAN & PLINY THE YOUNGER:

What Should We Do About These Christians?”

By the reign of Trajan, the earliest persecution of the Christians had
already happened under Nero. As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire,
many Romans increasingly saw it as a threat to public order and morality,
viewing it as an anti-social and dangerous cult. The Roman government was usually tolerant of the many
different religions practiced across the empire, but also began to see
Christianity as a threat. This was mainly due to the monotheism of Christianity,
which like Judaism, denies the existence of other gods. By Trajan’s time, the
cult of the deified Roman Emperor was also well established, and Roman citizens
were periodically required to pay homage to him at local temples. This act was
seen as a political duty more than a religious one, like a pledge of allegiance. Jews, with a long
established tradition of monotheism and a closed religious community which was
not evangelical, were given a "pass" by the Roman government. Jews who refused to
worship the Emperor were not seen as disloyal. But when the dynamic and
controversial new faith Christianity rejected the Emperor cult, Christians were
perceived as political enemies of Rome itself.

About 112 AD Trajan appointed Pliny the Younger, a distinguished Senator, to
be governor of the troubled province of Bithyia. In a series of letters, Pliny
consulted the on a number of policy issues, including the question of how to
deal with the Christians.

Pliny and Trajan: Correspondence, c. 112 CE

Pliny to Trajan:
"It is my custom, Sire, to refer to you in all cases where I am in doubt, for
who can better clear up difficulties and inform me? I have never been present at
any legal examination of the Christians, and I do not know, therefore, what are
the usual penalties passed upon them, or the limits of those penalties, or how
searching an inquiry should be made. I have hesitated a great deal in
considering whether any distinctions should be drawn according to the ages of
the accused; whether the weak should be punished as severely as the more robust,
or whether the man who has once been a Christian gained anything by recanting?
Again, whether the name of being a Christian, even though otherwise innocent of
crime, should be punished, or only the crimes that gather around it?

In the meantime, this is the plan that I have adopted in the case of those
Christians who have been brought before me. I ask them whether they are
Christians, if they say ‘Yes,’ then I repeat the question the second time, and
also a third – warning them of the penalties involved; and if they persist, I
order them away to prison. For I do not doubt that – be their admitted crime
what it may – their pertinacity and inflexible obstinacy surely ought to be
punished.

There were others who showed similar mad folly, whom I reserved to be sent
to Rome, as they were Roman citizens. Later, as is commonly the case, the mere
fact of my entertaining the question led to a multiplying of accusations and a
variety of cases were brought before me. An anonymous pamphlet was issued,
containing a number of names of alleged Christians. Those who denied that they
were or had been Christians and called upon the gods with the usual formula,
reciting the words after me, and those who offered incense and wine before your
image – which I had ordered to be brought forward for this purpose, along with
the regular statues of the gods – all such I considered acquitted – especially
as they cursed the name of Christ, which it is said true Christians cannot be
induced to do.

Still others there were, whose names were supplied by an informer. These
first said they were Christians, then denied it, insisting they had been, ‘but
were so no longer;’ some of them having ‘recanted many years ago,’ and more than
one ‘full twenty years back.’ These all worshiped your image and the god’s
statues and cursed the name of Christ.

But they declared their guilt or error was simply this – on a fixed day they
used to meet before dawn and recite a hymn among themselves to Christ, as though
he were a god. So far from binding themselves by oath to commit any crime, they
swore to keep from theft, robbery, adultery, breach of faith, and not to deny
any trust money deposited with them when called upon to deliver it. This
ceremony over, they used to depart and meet again to take food – but it was of
no special character, and entirely harmless. They also had ceased from this
practice after the edict I issued – by which, in accord with your orders, I
forbade all secret societies.

I then thought it the more needful to get at the facts behind their
statements. Therefore I placed two women, called ‘deaconesses,’ under torture,
but I found only a debased superstition carried to great lengths, so I postponed
my examination, and immediately consulted you. This seems a matter worthy of
your prompt consideration, especially as so many people are endangered. Many of
all ages and both sexes are put in peril of their lives by their accusers; and
the process will go on, for the contagion of this superstition has spread not
merely through the free towns, but into the villages and farms. Still I think it
can be halted and things set right. Beyond any doubt, the temples – which were
nigh deserted – are beginning again to be thronged with worshipers; the sacred
rites, which long have lapsed, are now being renewed, and the food for the
sacrificial victims is again finding a sale – though up to recently it had
almost no market. So one can safely infer how vast numbers could be reclaimed,
if only there were a chance given for repentance."

Trajan to Pliny:

"You have adopted the right course, my dear Pliny, in examining the cases of
those cited before you as Christians; for no hard and fast rule can be laid down
covering such a wide question. The Christians are not to be hunted out. If
brought before you, and the offense is proved, they are to be punished, but with
this reservation – if any one denies he is a Christian, and makes it clear he is
not, by offering prayer to our gods, then he is to be pardoned on his
recantation, no matter how suspicious his past. As for anonymous pamphlets, they
are to be discarded absolutely, whatever crime they may charge, for they are not
only a precedent of a very bad type, but they do not accord with the spirit of
our age."