The History of Christianity in Pictures #2: Christians: The Persecutors

Christianity has always been persecuted and victimized

St. Polycarp was martyred in the mid second century. He was burned at the stake, though some say (like this picture) that the burning failed and was later stoned to death.

for their faith and belief in Christ. This persecution was plentiful and sought after especially during the first two centuries after the foundation of Christianity (c. 35 – 325 A.D.).

Let’s turn the table: indeed Christians have been persecuted throughout the last two millennia, but Christians have also been violent, brutal, and treacherous at times. Instead of seeing the many times Christians have been persecuted, let’s see the many times Christians have been the persecutors.

OK, this isn't a persecution. I couldn't find a picture Jews being persecuted by Christians. However this picture is a depiction of Jews being burned alive by a Christian - only because they all happen to have the Black Death.

1) The Jews. The Jews and their religion seem to always be picked upon – even by Christians. During the Holocaust, the Germans forced the Jews to wear striped clothing and the Jewish star to identify them as Jewish. But the Germans weren’t the first ones to use that system: the Christians were, 1,500 years earlier. In 439 A.D. “the Jew[s were] to wear a distinguishing costume or a distinguishing patch upon [their] garments” (1). The Christians during this time offered Jews two choices: be baptized or be put to death. Thousands upon thousands of Jews chose the latter.

Christians persecuting Muslims during the First Crusade

2) The Muslims. There seems to be no end concerning prisoner-of-war abuse. Even in modern times soldiers take advantage of prisoners, such as the incident at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 by American soldiers. This was the same with Christians with Muslim prisoners-of-war during the crusades – only worse.

This is a woodcut. Christians are going to drown this witch to see whether or not she will save herself and identify that she truly is a witch.

3) Witches. Obviously this group would be under persecution, especially during the Inquisition. Believed to be devil’s advocates, they were usually dealt with by burning them on the stake in the fourteenth century. The Salem Witch Trials at the end of the seventeenth century executed witches by hanging.

The Anabaptists believed only in adult baptism. If you were baptized as an infant, you needed to be baptized again. Ironically, the other Protestants thought that they needed a "third baptism" - one in which they wouldn't survive.

4) Anabaptists. The Anabaptists eventually developed into the Baptist denomination. In the sixteenth century Reformation the Anabaptists were a distinctive group of Protestants that revolved around re-baptism (hence their name: anabaptism = rebaptism). Their theology of baptism (i.e. believer’s baptism vs. infant baptism (2)) was not accepted by any other Protestant group – in fact they drowned the Anabaptists because of this theology.

Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

5) Race. The Ku Klux Klan in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are known for their political ideology of white supremacy. This so-called Protestant movement preaches racism and anti-Catholicism. They often murdered the black community by hanging or lynching.

A Franciscan in support of same-sex marriage.

6) Gay/Lesbian. Within the Christian community there is somewhat ‘persecution,’ but usually not by violence. Even at that there are now tens of thousands of Christians who accept homosexuality. Of course persecution was prominent in history, but now it now seems like the gay and lesbian community are becoming more widely accepted among Christians. Still, many Christians are against this movement and aren’t scared to share their opinion, but is this community being persecuted? It doesn’t seem like it is – at least in the United States and Canada. Comments? I don’t know much about this subject.

These are Dominican Friars at a Pro-Life rally.

7) Pro-Choice/Pro-Life. Abortion – it is in the same kind of genre as the gay/lesbian movement. By Christians, it seems like it is becoming more accepted, though in the newspaper it also seems like there is a ‘persecution’  of some kind against pro-choice. I don’t know much about this subject either – comments?

First female Anglican ordained in Australia.

8 ) Feminism. The church does not have a very good standing on this subject and though females are not physically persecuted, in many churches they are persecuted in a way that limits their ability to work within the church (i.e. not allowed to be pastors, elders, deacons, etc.). Though this may be, many churches have changed their standing and their governing laws about this in recent history.

(1) David S. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 5, The Middle Ages From Gregory VII to Boniface VIII 1049-1294 (New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907, reprinted, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006),  446.

(2) This theological doctrine is a little more complex than just “believer’s baptism vs. infant baptism.” For more information concerning this, click here.

The History of Christianity in Pictures #1: Irish Monks

For my first note I wish to include an event within Christianity that most people use on a day to day basis. This significant event changed to course of the written language and later influenced the grammatical world.

St. Columba (521-597 A.D.), the man who revitalized monasticism in Ireland and Scotland. Of course this icon is not directly from the sixth century seeing that the print is in English, but I choose to provide it here because of its historical portrayal of the tonsure (i.e. monk haircut) and no other picture did.

St. Columba (or sometimes called St. Columcille) was a missionary monk during the sixth century. As he journeyed through Ireland and Scotland he revitalized monasticism. Within this refreshed monastic culture, this community of monks are well known for their influence of literacy and language. Soon after the death of St. Columba, these monks copied thousands of manuscripts and other material (which at this time nobody else did) and by doing so they restored and saved these materials (1).

Not only did these monks restore them, but they invented a new way to write which made reading, writing, and copying much easier. They invented spacing (2) between words. At this time languages such as Latin or Greek did not have spaces between words which made writing (especially copying) rather difficult.
The next one hundred years was influenced by this new idea. In fact, new ideas arose on how to organize sentences and so forth: punctuation. Though by 800 A.D. punctuation was not prominent, though the idea of having dots at the end of thoughts (i.e. periods) were invented by this time.

Alcuin (c. 735-804 A.D.) and his students. Alcuin (the Latin grammarian) is on the right - the one in the blue and white.

This new idea took flight quickly – by 802 A.D. the revising of the Latin Vulgate (Latin Bible) was underway. Not only was grammar included, but older language was replaced with newer or more ‘modern’ language of that time. Emperor Charlemagne give permission to Alcuin (a theologian/Latin grammarian) to be the adviser of this project. This revision is somewhat like revising the King James Version to the New King James Version though at a much, much larger scale. (3).

(1) By doing this the historian Thomas Cahill suggests that these monks “saved civilization.” See further: Cahill, Thomas. How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe. New York, NY: Anchor Books, 1995.
(2) The technical word for spaces is “word dividers.”
(3) Note that I do not include references – if you would like references, just comment and I’ll provide it.