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History or Myth?

The Persecution of "Early Christians":
A Critical Examination of the Evidence

featuring the

Tetrarchy of Church Forgeries
Pliny | Trajan | Tacitus | Suetonius

Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia
SunOnSea/AnEvolvingProject


After the church had triumphed over all her enemies,
the interest as well as vanity of the captives
prompted them to magnify the merit of their respective suffering.
A convenient distance of time and place
gave an ample scope to the progress of fiction;
and the frequent instances which might be alleged of holy martyrs,
whose wounds had been instantly healed,
whose strength had been renewed,
and whose lost members had miraculously been restored,
were extremely convenient for the purpose
of removing every difficulty, and of silencing every objection.

The most extravagant legends,
as they conduced to the honour of the church,
were applauded by the incredulous multitude,
countenanced by the power of the clergy,
and attested by the suspicious evidence
of ecclesiastical history

Edward Gibbon, (1776)
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

...

"... the very remarkable attitude of those Christians
who, though persecuted by the Roman Empire,
defended the notion that the Roman Empire had been
providentially created to foster and support the Christian message."

On Pagans, Jews and Christians: Arnaldo Momigliano, 1987, p.136

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"Early Christian Persecutions"

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Thesis | Pliny-Trajan | Tacitus | Suetonius | Momigliano | TAOPATTA | Mountain Man