It was at around 180 CE that Irenaeus first declared that four was ‘the right number’ of gospels. The Emperor who ruled the world in this period was Commodus (177 – 189 CE). His infamous wickedness was immortalized by Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal in the movie Gladiator.
It was in this age that we hear Christians who used the single, long gospel getting persecuted in large numbers (Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs July 7, 180 CE). When we scrutinize this report it is apparent that these martyrs were of the ‘Marcionite’ sect. Members of this Christian group died in disproportionate numbers throughout this period (Eusebius Church History IV, xv, xlvi; V, xvi, xxi; VII, xii ).
Most scholars don’t know what to do with this sect. Irenaeus identifies them as ‘Marcionites’ and so the name has stuck. Yet there is repeated intimation in other sources that this group claimed to have some connection with St. Mark (Philosophumena VII, 18). One of the leading Semitic language experts in the world, Dr. Rory Boid of the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia has examined all the earliest manuscript evidence and will argue that the name comes from Hebrew or Aramaic and actually means ‘those of Mark.’ Ulrich Schmid has already demonstrated that this community used a single, long gospel related to the Diatessaron.
It is easy to identify the persecution against the Markan tradition in other ways. We hear repeated identification that Egypt and Alexandria in particular – the home of the Church of St. Mark – was the epicenter of the Imperial persecution effort. At the dawn of the third century Clement of Alexandria has to answer questions about his community ‘preferring’ a single, long gospel in the name of St. Mark (cf. Letter to Theodore). Clement eventually fled from Alexandria to escape the onslaught. Many of his co-religionists died in the persecutions that followed in the reign of Septimus Severus (202 CE).
Origen can be demonstrated to have secretly continued to use the single, long gospel form even when writing commentaries on the canonical texts (Comm. Matt 1f). He was eventually left physically disabled from the tortures he had to endure from the authorities. The persecutions in Alexandria continued on and off into the beginning of the fourth century, climaxing with the reign of Diocletian.
Yet we have to see that the reign of Commodus was particularly bloody. Robert Fulford wrote that “his dozen years in power were so chaotic, bloody, mindless and self-indulgent that the civic character of Rome was broken beyond repair.” As such Christian persecutions wouldn’t have seen particularly noteworthy in the period. All classes of people were dying in the large numbers.
Of course when we scrutinize the terrible rule of Commodus, one group in particular seems to have enjoyed the favor of this madman. As numerous Church Fathers note, the age of Commodus was nothing short of a golden age for the Catholic Church (Eusebius Church History V.21.1). Eusebius makes clear that floods of converts came over to the new doctrines of Irenaeus.
One of the reasons for the Church’s favored position had to with Commodus’ choice in ladies Marcia Cedonia Demetrias, Commodus’ favorite concubine and beloved confident (Cass. Dio, 73.4). She was a Christian (Philosophumena, IX, 12) who can be connected with the circle of Irenaeus. ‘St. Demetrius’ the man who oversaw the persecution throughout Egypt may well have been related to her.
Marcia was raised by a certain Hyacinthus, a eunuch presbyter who became the main liaison between the Emperor and the emerging Church. Her influence can be seen in the story that emerges of her ‘rescuing’ one of the future Popes from persecution. One day Marcia summoned Pope Victor to the imperial palace and asked for a list of the Roman Christians who had been condemned to forced labour in the mines of Sardinia, so that she might obtain their freedom. The pope handed her the list and Marcia, having received from the emperor the required pardon, sent the presbyter Hyacinthus to Sardinia with an order of release for the Christian confessors. Callistus, who had been among those deported, eventually sat in the Episcopal throne of St. Peter.
Irenaeus (AH, IV, 30, 1) points out that Christians were employed at this period as officials of the imperial Court. Among these officials was the imperial freedman Prosenes, whose gravestone and epitaph have been preserved (De Rossi, Inscriptiones Christ. Urbis Romae, I, 9, no. 5). Septimius Severus, also, during the early years of his reign, regarded the Christians kindly, so that the influence of Christian officials continued. The emperor retained in his palace a Christian named Proculus who had once cured him. He protected Christian men and women of rank against the excesses of the heathen rabble, and his son Caracalla had a Christian wet nurse (Tertullian, Ad Scapulam, IV). Christianity made great advances in the capital and also found adherents among the families who were distinguished for wealth and noble descent (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., V, xxi).
So it has to be recognized that the story of Christian persecutions in the period is very much a tale of two traditions. If you held fast to the tradition encouraged by the Roman cabal of Irenaeus, Marcia and Commodus you might view the period as a ‘golden age.’ At the center of this faith was a fourfold gospel. One can argue that continuing to maintain the original single, long gospel associated with the followers of Mark was taken to be a sign of being an ‘unrepentant heretic.’ If you were classified as belonging to this group you would likely see the age of the later Antonine Emperors as nothing short of hell on earth.
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