Such outbursts of mob hatred were only occasional. There
would have been no organized, persistent attack, if the imperial government had
not taken a hand. Rome, which had treated so many other foreign faiths with
careless indifference or even with favor, which had tolerated the Jews and
granted to them special privileges of worship, made a deliberate effort to
crush Christianity.
ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIANS TOWARD PAGANISM
Rome entered on the persecutions because it saw in
Christianity that which threatened its own existence. The Christians declined
to support the state religion; they even condemned it unsparingly as sinful and
idolatrous. The Christians, moreover, would not worship the genius, or
guardian spirit of the emperor, and would not burn incense before his statue,
which stood in every town. Such a refusal to take what was really an oath of
allegiance was regarded as an act of rebellion. These feelings of hostility to
the Christians were strengthened by their unwillingness to serve in the army
and to swear by the pagan gods in courts of law. In short, the members of this
new sect must have appeared very unruly subjects who, if allowed to become
numerous enough, would endanger the security of the government.
