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 On April 30, 304, the Emperor Diocletian published an edict aimed at the complete destruction of Christianity.
Diocletian was a talented and effective imperial administrator, reconstructing the Empire’s military system and instituting an equitable tax system. Soon, Diocletian would turn his considerable administrative gifts against the Church.
In an effort to consolidate his crumbling empire, Diocletian tried to restore the old pagan state religion. He issued an edict designed that would systematically uproot Christianity by burning all Bibles and destroying all churches. Everyone was to sacrifice to the gods upon pain of death.
The great church historian, Eusebius, describe the ensuing result:
“… The houses of prayer razed to the ground, the Holy Scriptures committed to the flames on the market places, the pastors hunted, tortured, and torn to pieces in the amphitheater. Even the wild beasts at last refused to attack the Christians, as if they had assumed the part of men in place of the heathen Romans; the bloody swords became dull and shattered; the executioners grew weary, and had to relieve each other; but the Christians sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving in honor of Almighty God, even to their latest breath.”
After a serious illness in 304, Diocletian took the unprecedented step of abdicating the throne. Although called back for a brief period, he retired to farming in Dalmatia (modern-day Yugoslavia). The persecutions continued under Galerius. But falling seriously ill in 311, Galerius and his fellow emperors issued an edict canceling the persecution of Christians. Essentially, no Roman emperor harassed Christians again.
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