Identifier: earlydaysofchrist00gran (find matches)
Title: The early days of Christianity
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Grant, Frederick C. (Frederick Clifton), 1891-1974
Subjects: Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
Publisher: New York, Cincinnati, The Abingdon press
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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omising with a faith whichdenied the gods and refused a simple and complacentrite of loyalty to the imperial authority. It was only astep from this to the persecution of Christianity as areligion, IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH About this time, or perhaps a little later, an attackwas made upon the church in Antioch in Syria. Chris-tianity had been established there for sixty years ormore—two generations—so that many of the faithfulhad been followers of Christ all their lives long. Andthe church was, of course, large in numbers to provokethe opposition that arose. Condemned to the lions.—It is not said what occa-sioned the persecution. It may have been the disastrousearthquake which destroyed part of the city in 115 (ifthe date of the persecution is that late); such calamitieswere often attributed to the wrath of the gods againstbelievers in alien religions, who were robbing the localdeity of his lawful worship and offerings. Antioch wasa city of polyglot population, divided by factions and
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THl SSW ^ORKPOBUC LIBRART THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS 261 parties, and alarmed at that time by the threatenedapproach of the Parthians. However the persecutionbegan, it led to the arrest and condemnation of thebishop, Ignatius, before the Roman legate. He wassentenced to be conducted to Rome and there thrownto the beasts in the arena. On the way to Rome.—Soon began his long, slowjourney overland to Troas, guarded by military escortsand accompanied, like Saint Paul on his way to Rome,by friends and companions. At Philadelphia, Smyrna,Troas, delegations from the nearby churches visited him,fondly kissing his chains in token of their homage; andhe wrote to the congregations they represented the briefletters of greeting and exhortation and counsel whichstill survive. One of these is his epistle to the Ephesians,whose bishop, Onesimus, had come to Smyrna to visithim.^ It begins as follows: Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to thechurch which is at Ephesus in Asia, most deservedlyhapp

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