The Scattered Households

In 64 a great fire burned through Rome. The Roman historian TacitusTacitusA Roman historian who despised Christians. Around 116, he wrote about the Great Fire of 64.Person, writing some fifty years later, says a rumor spread that the fire had been set on orders. To get rid of that rumor, NeroNeroRoman emperor at the Great Fire of Rome in 64. Tacitus says rumor blamed him, and he turned the blame on Christians.Person shifted the blame onto a group the crowd called Christians.

Tacitus wrote from outside our communities, and he had his own reasons for portraying Nero as monstrous. What he describes is one episode under one emperor. We cannot be sure that Christians, as a group known by that name, were punished after the fire. A more general memory from later years may have been attached to it.

Tacitus describes the Christians as hated for their vile acts. Those who confessed were arrested first, he reports, and on their information a great number were convicted. In his reading, they were condemned less for arson than for hatred of humankind.

No source names a single Christian who died in these events. Tacitus says they were put to death with cruelty meant as a show. Some were wrapped in the skins of beasts and torn apart by dogs. Others were fastened to crosses, or set alight as torches after dark.

A community that followed the DidacheDidacheA short teaching manual, likely from one community. One copy of 1056 keeps almost all of it. Scholars date it between about 50 and 150.Term gave thanks over the cup first. "We thank you, our Father, for the holy vine of David your servant," the prayer begins. This picture is pieced together from the Didache's own instructions.

Then came thanks over the broken bread, for the life and knowledge made known through Jesus. The prayer says this broken bread was once scattered over the hills, and was gathered together to become one. In the same way, the prayer asks God to gather the Church from the ends of the earth into his kingdom. Nowhere in these prayers does anyone tell the story of a supper or a betrayal.

Only the baptized ate or drank of this thanksgiving. After all had eaten their fill, a longer thanksgiving followed, for God's holy name and for knowledge and faith and immortality. It closed with the community's own cry, Maran atha, and then Amen.

Every Lord's day the community gathered to break bread and give thanks, after first confessing their sins. Anyone at odds with another had to be reconciled before joining in.

This story comes from HegesippusHegesippusA writer of the second century. We know his work because a later bishop, Eusebius, quoted it.Person, a Christian of Palestine who wrote it down perhaps eighty years after it happened. It survives only because the bishopbishopFrom the Greek episkopos, an overseer. Some churches had one bishop. Whether every church should have one was still argued.Term Eusebius quoted him long afterward.

Some of Jesus' own family were still alive. They were grandsons of JudasJudasThe man called the brother of Jesus in this account. Domitian questions his two grandsons.Person, who was called his brother. They were reported to the emperor DomitianDomitianThe Roman emperor in this account. Hegesippus says he dreaded the coming of Christ, and that this is why he had the two men questioned.Person as being of the line of David. That mattered to Domitian, because he dreaded the coming of Christ as Herod had, so they were brought before him and questioned.

Were they of David's family? They said they were. Asked what they owned, they said they had only nine thousand denarii between them, and not in coin. That was the value of a piece of land of only thirty-nine acres. They still paid the dues on it, and they lived by working it themselves.

Then they held out their hands to show him the rough skin and the corns raised by constant labor. He asked them about Christ's kingdom and when it would come. They told him it was not of this world or of the earth, but belonged to heaven and the angels. It would appear at the end of time.

Domitian passed no sentence. He treated them with contempt, as beneath his notice, and he let them go and called off the persecution. Once they were released, they became leaders of the churches.

The church at CorinthCorinthAn ancient Greek city in the Peloponnese, whose church removed some elders and drew Rome's letter. Its site is Archaia Korinthos, in Greece.Place · pleiades.stoa.org had removed some of its presbyters, its elderseldersLeaders who shared in ruling a community. In some churches they acted as a council. In others they served beside one overseer.Term, from office. The church at Rome answered with a long letter. It names no author, though later tradition says Clement wrote it. We usually date it around 96, though it may be as late as 140.

Rome's letter says the presbyters had served blamelessly and with honor. Only Rome's letter survives, and Corinth's own side of the dispute is lost.

The letter takes up the removal directly. It gives example after example of jealousy and strife destroying what unity had built. Rome wrote as one church to another, out of concern. It could only appeal, and it gave no orders the way a later church authority would.

Corinth's action, the letter argues, broke proper order, and it calls on those who started the revolt to submit to the presbyters.

In the letters that carry his name, IgnatiusIgnatiusBishop of Antioch. Seven letters in his name say he was marched under guard toward death in Rome. Their author and date are disputed.Person, bishopbishopFrom the Greek episkopos, an overseer. Some churches had one bishop. Whether every church should have one was still argued.Term of AntiochAntiochA great trading city of Syria, and the city of the bishop Ignatius. Its site is now Antakya, in today's Turkey.Place · pleiades.stoa.org, says that he was condemned. He was sent under armed guard on the long road to Rome. There he expected to be thrown to the beasts in the arena. We cannot be sure he wrote them himself. They may have been written later, in Rome, under his name.

He says he was bound to ten leopards, by which he means his band of soldiers. They only grew worse, he says, when they were treated kindly. Churches came out to meet him along the way, and at SmyrnaSmyrnaAn ancient city of Asia Minor, now Izmir in today's Turkey. Polycarp led its church.Place · pleiades.stoa.org he was met by delegations from Ephesus, Magnesia and Tralles.

On the road he wrote at least seven letters that survive. He urged each community to gather around one bishop and one eucharist. He pressed the point hard because that unity was still being argued over. He believed his coming death gave his words unusual weight.

He asked PolycarpPolycarpA church leader at Smyrna. His own letter to the Philippians survives, and his church told how he was put to death.Person, bishop of Smyrna, to write for him to the nearby churches. He thanked the church at Smyrna for welcoming his companions and for not being ashamed of his chains. He sent a letter ahead to the church at Rome, asking them not to step in to save his life. He called himself the wheat of God. He asked to be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, so that he might be found the pure bread of Christ.

The Philippians asked for the letters of IgnatiusIgnatiusBishop of Antioch. Seven letters in his name say he was marched under guard toward death in Rome. Their author and date are disputed.Person, which the community at SmyrnaSmyrnaAn ancient city of Asia Minor, now Izmir in today's Turkey. Polycarp led its church.Place · pleiades.stoa.org had collected. PolycarpPolycarpA church leader at Smyrna. His own letter to the Philippians survives, and his church told how he was put to death.Person of Smyrna answered their request in a letter of his own to the church at PhilippiPhilippiAn ancient city founded by Philip II of Macedon. Its church asked Polycarp for the letters of Ignatius. Its ruins lie in today's Greece.Place · pleiades.stoa.org.

We cannot be sure of the letter's date. It may be two letters joined into one. Polycarp opens it in his own name and that of the presbyters who are with him. He never calls himself bishopbishopFrom the Greek episkopos, an overseer. Some churches had one bishop. Whether every church should have one was still argued.Term, though Ignatius writes to him as one, and Smyrna's letter on his death calls him its bishop.

He writes that he has sent the letters Ignatius wrote to Smyrna, along with all the others they had, just as the Philippians asked. The letters went with his own, and he told the Philippians they could gain a great deal from them.

PlinyPlinyA Roman governor, not a Christian. He wrote to the emperor about Christians around 111 to 113.Person the Younger was the Roman governor of Bithynia and PontusBithynia and PontusA Roman province on the Black Sea coast. Pliny governed it. Its lands lie in today's Turkey.Place · pleiades.stoa.org. Writing to the emperor TrajanTrajanThe Roman emperor who received Pliny's letter and answered it.Person, he says he was unsure how to handle accusations against Christians, so he asked the emperor. He had already questioned those accused, and executed those who held to the name after repeated warnings.

Some of the accused told him they had once been Christians but had given it up. They said they used to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing a song in turns to Christ as God. They had bound themselves by an oath to commit no theft, robbery or adultery, and never to break faith or refuse to return a deposit. Then they parted, and later met again to share a meal of ordinary food, which they said was harmless. What that meal was, we cannot say for certain.

To learn the truth, he tortured two enslaved women who were called ministrae. It may be a title, deaconesses, though that reading is disputed. The women left no words of their own, and we have only what Pliny chose to record. What he found, in his own words, was "nothing but a depraved superstition that went too far."

Trajan's reply survives, and it says Pliny had acted rightly. Christians were not to be hunted out. Those accused and convicted were to be punished, and anyone who denied the name and proved it by act was to be pardoned. Anonymous accusations were to be refused as a very bad precedent.

JustinJustinA philosopher who kept wearing his gown as a Christian. He described a Sunday gathering in a letter to the emperor. He died about 165.Person wrote to the emperor and the Roman Senate to defend Christian practice. He tells them plainly what his community at Rome does on the day named for the sun. He does not say whether the churches of AntiochAntiochA great trading city of Syria, and the city of the bishop Ignatius. Its site is now Antakya, in today's Turkey.Place · pleiades.stoa.org or Asia Minor followed the same order.

On that day, those who live in the cities and in the countryside gather in one place. The memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read for as long as time permits. Then the one presiding gives a talk, urging the people to imitate these good things, and all rise together and pray.

Bread and wine and water are brought. The one presiding offers prayers and thanksgivings according to his ability, and the people give their assent by saying Amen. Those who have means and are willing give what they choose, and the gifts are left with him.

The one presiding cares for orphans and widows, the sick, those in prison and strangers passing through. In a word, Justin writes, he looks after everyone who is in need.

Before PolycarpPolycarpA church leader at Smyrna. His own letter to the Philippians survives, and his church told how he was put to death.Person's own flight and arrest, the letter from SmyrnaSmyrnaAn ancient city of Asia Minor, now Izmir in today's Turkey. Polycarp led its church.Place · pleiades.stoa.org that honors his death tells of another man.

QuintusQuintusA man from Phrygia, named in the letter from Smyrna. He came forward for trial and then lost his nerve.Person was a Phrygian who had lately come from Phrygia. He forced himself and some others to come forward for trial of their own accord. When he actually saw the wild beasts, he lost his nerve. After much urging, the proconsul persuaded him to swear the oath and offer sacrifice.

The letter says plainly that the church does not praise those who give themselves up, because the Gospel does not teach people to do so. Polycarp did the opposite. When he first heard that he was being sought, he was not troubled at all. He meant to stay in the city, but at the wish of many he agreed to leave.

He went to a country house not far from the city. There he stayed with a few companions, praying night and day. When his pursuers came near, he moved to another house. He did not go looking for arrest. He was found only after two young men of his household were seized, and one of them, under torture, told his pursuers where he was.

This is how the church at SmyrnaSmyrnaAn ancient city of Asia Minor, now Izmir in today's Turkey. Polycarp led its church.Place · pleiades.stoa.org remembered PolycarpPolycarpA church leader at Smyrna. His own letter to the Philippians survives, and his church told how he was put to death.Person, its aged bishopbishopFrom the Greek episkopos, an overseer. Some churches had one bishop. Whether every church should have one was still argued.Term, in a letter to the church at Philomelium. It is told in the style our tradition used to honor its martyrs, and no outside account survives to check it.

His community urged Polycarp to hide, and he withdrew for a time, until someone in his own household gave him away under torture. Before the proconsul he was pressed to swear by Caesar's fortune, curse Christ and be spared. Polycarp answered that he had served Christ for eighty-six years, and Christ had never done him any wrong. How then, he asked, could he blaspheme his King and his Savior?

The crowd first cried out for a lion, but the official in charge said it was not lawful, because the wild-beast shows were already over. So they cried out that he should be burned alive. When the fire was lit, the account says it formed an arch around him, like the sail of a ship filled by the wind. An executioner was sent to finish him with a dagger, and the account says so much blood came out that it put out the fire.

Afterward the community gathered his bones, which they held more precious than the finest jewels, and laid them in a fitting place. There they hoped to gather each year, as they were able, to keep the day of his martyrdom. They would remember those who had finished the course and prepare those still to walk it.