At the commencement of this period, A.D. 303, the Roman people were under the dominion of two emperors of the first rank styled Augusti; and two of an inferior grade, styled Caesars. Of these four, the two former were Diocletian, who surnamed himself Jupiter; and Maximian, surnamed Hercules; and the two others, Galerius, the Caesar and son-in-law to Jupiter; and Constantius Chlorus, Caesar and son-in-law to Hercules. Diocletian the parent of the fortunes of the other three, was a man of profound dissimulation, vigorous mind, steady in the pursuit of his ends, ambitious, superstitious, but not naturally cruel. For about eighteen of the earliest years of his reign, he protected the Catholics; and but for the savage fierceness of Maximian, and his son-in-law Galerius, who influenced him against them, he would probably not have figured among the persecutors of the faith. Constantius, the father of "Constantine the Great," was a person of probity and humanity. Of the other three, the ferocity of Galerius was the most remarkable; so that it may be truly said, that the inauguration of the slaughter of the fifth seal was referable to him.

The third century concluded with some symptoms of a storm ready to burst upon "the fellowservants and brethren," who had long been in a state of ease and worldly prosperity and as we have seen, deeply declined from the purity and simplicity of the gospel. In Eusebius is found the following observation in reference to the times: "The heavy hand of the Deity’s judgments," says he, "began softly, by little and little, to visit us after his wonted manner. The persecution that was raised against us, took place first amongst the christians (the Fellowservants) who were in military service; but we were not at all moved with his hand, nor took any pains to return to God. We heaped sin upon sin, judging, like careless Epicureans, that the Deity cared not for our sins, nor would ever visit us on account of them. And our pretended shepherds ("the clergy") laying aside the rule of godliness, practised among themselves contention and division." Then speaking of the persecution of the fifth seal, he says: "The dreadful persecution of Diocletian was then inflicted on the Ecclesia, as a just punishment and as the most proper chastisement for their iniquities."

Toward the end of the third century, while Diocletian was practising the superstitious rites of divination, he became persuaded that the ill success of his attempts to pry into futurity, were owing to the presence of a catholic servant, who had made on his forehead the sign of the cross: and he immediately in great anger, ordered not only those who were present, but all in his palace, to sacrifice to the gods, or, in case of refusal, to be scourged with whips. He commanded also the officers of his armies to constrain all the soldiers to do the same, or to discharge the disobedient from the service. Many of the catholics (for it was only these bearing the name of christian that enlisted in the armies of Jupiter) chose rather to resign their commissions. A very few were put to death on this account. Marcellus a centurion was one of these. His story is, briefly, that A.D. 298, at Tangier in Mauritania, while every one was employed in feasting and sacrifices, he took off his belt, threw down his vine branch and his arms, and added, "I will not fight any longer under the banner of your emperor, or serve your gods of wood and stone. If the condition of a soldier be such that he is obliged to sacrifice to gods and emperors, I abandon the vine branch and the belt, and quit the service." He was ordered to be beheaded; and Cassianus, the register, whose business it was to record the sentence, cried out that he was shocked at its injustice. He was put to death a month afterwards.

But the general persecution which destroyed such numbers, was withheld for some time. In the prelude already mentioned, and of which we have only a dark and imperfect account, something of Diocletian’s policy seems conspicuous. He probably feared the catholic element of his armies, thinking it might subvert the order of things he had established, and set up Catholicism in its place. By purging the army he might prevent this, and perpetuate the reign of Jupiter without a rival, as the Despot of the Roman world. Be this as it might, it is evident that after he had long favored the Catholics, from some cause or other, he had now contracted a prejudice against them, though at first he made use of artifice rather than violence.

But, as we have said, Jupiter’s son-in-law Galerius was a most ferocious monster of superstition. Hating the catholics intensely, he determined to gratify his malignity by stirring up Diocletian, if possible, to agree to their extermination by fire, axe, and torture of every kind. He accordingly visited the Court at Nicomedia in the nineteenth of his reign, A.D. 302, and there, during the whole winter, devoted himself to the obtaining of the imperial sanction to this iniquity. He proposed a general persecution; but Diocletian Jupiter remonstrated against the impolicy of such measures, and was for limiting the persecution to the officers of the court and the soldiers. Finding himself unable to stem the fury of Galerius, he called a council of a few judges and officers. Some gave it as their opinion, that the christians should in general be put to death; and others, induced by fear or flattery, assented. Still D. Jupiter was averse, and through policy, or superstition, determined to consult the oracle of Apollo at Miletus. Apollo’s priests in charge of the oracle, answered, as might have been expected, in a manner friendly to the views of Galerius. Staggered by repeated importunities, the old emperor still hesitated, and could not be persuaded to attempt the annihilation of christianity by bloodshed; whereas Galerius, strengthened in his murderous intent by the equal hatred of his extremely bigoted mother, desired to burn alive all who refused to sacrifice to the gods of Greece and Rome.

The pleasure of the imperial hierarchy of paganism was at length signified to the fellowservants and the brethren of the souls already underneath the altar, who, during the course of this gloomy winter had expected, with anxiety, the result of so many secret consultations. The 23rd Feb., A.D. 303, which coincided with the Latin festival of the Terminalia, was appointed to set bounds to the further progress of christianity. At the earliest dawn, the praetorian praefect, accompanied by several generals, tribunes, and officers of the revenue, repaired to the principal catholic edifice of Nicomedia, which was situated on an eminence in the most populous and beautiful part of the city. The doors were instantly broken, and they rushed in, searching in vain for some visible object of worship (evincing so far a diversity between ancient catholicism and modern popery), they were obliged to content themselves with committing to the flames -- not a mass book, or episcopal liturgy, for this trumpery even in those degenerate times had not then been invented -- but the volumes of holy scripture. These imperial ministers of destruction were followed by a numerous body of guards and pioneers, who marched in order of battle, and were provided with all the instruments used in the destruction of fortified cities. By their incessant labor, an ecclesiastical edifice, which towered above the imperial palace, and had long excited the indignation and envy of the idolators, was in a few hours levelled with the ground.

The next day the general edict of persecution was published. It was enacted that the ecclesiastical edifices, styled by the Apostasy "churches," in all the provinces of the empire, should be demolished to their foundations; and the punishment of death was pronounced against all who should presume to hold any secret assemblies for the purpose of religious worship. And as it was understood, that the doctrines of the faith of Christ were all contained in the writings of the prophets and apostles, it was ordered that the bishops and presbyters should deliver all the sacred books into the hands of the magistrates; who were commanded, under the severest penalties, to burn them in a public and solemn manner. By the same edict, all ecclesiastical property was at once confiscated; and the several parts of which it might consist, were either sold to the highest bidder, united to Jupiter’s imperial domain, bestowed on the cities and corporations, or granted to the solicitations of rapacious courtiers. After taking such effectual measures to abolish the worship, and to dissolve the government of the Catholic Church, it was thought necessary to subject to the most intolerable hardships the condition of those perverse individuals, "the Brethren," who should still reject the religion of nature, of Rome, and of their ancestors. Persons of liberal birth were declared incapable of holding any honors or employments; slaves were for ever deprived of the hopes of freedom, and the whole body of the people were put out of the protection of the law. The judges were authorized to hear and to determine every action that was brought, against a christian. But the fellowservants, and the brethren of the slain, were not permitted to complain of any injury they themselves had suffered; and thus these unfortunates were exposed to the severity, while they were excluded from the benefits, of public justice.

This edict was scarcely exhibited to public view, in the most conspicuous place of Nicomedia, before it was torn down by a "fellowservant," who expressed at the same time, by the bitterest invectives, his contempt as well as abhorrence for such impious and tyrannical despots. His offence amounted to treason, and was punishable with death. He was roasted over a slow fire; and every refinement of cruelty was exhausted, but without effect, to subdue his patience, or to alter the steady and insulting smile which in his dying agonies he still preserved in his countenance. The catholics, though they confessed that he had been imprudent, admired the divine fervor of his zeal; and the excessive commendations which they lavished on the memory of the victim, contributed to fix a deep impression of terror and hatred in the mind of the reigning Jupiter.

His fears were soon alarmed by a danger, from which he narrowly escaped. Within fifteen days, the palace of Nicomedia, and even the bedchamber of Diocletianus Jupiter, were twice in flames. Suspicion of this incendiarism naturally fell upon the catholics; and it was suggested that, provoked by their present sufferings, and apprehensive of impending calamities, they had entered into a conspiracy with the eunuchs of the palace, against the lives of two emperors, whom they detested as the irreconcilable enemies of their church. Jealousy and resentment prevailed in the breasts of their enemies, especially in that of Diocletian. A great number of distinguished catholics were thrown into prison. Every mode of torture was put in practice, and the court, as well as the city, was polluted with many bloody executions. No discovery, however, was extorted. A few days afterwards, Galerius hastily withdrew himself from Nicomedia, declaring that if he delayed his departure from that devoted palace, he should fall a sacrifice to the rage of the christians. Eusebius confesses his ignorance of the cause of the fire; while others attribute it to the malice of Galerius himself.

This "declaration of war," as Gibbon styles the edict, was published fifty days afterwards in Syria, and four months from date in the Roman Africa. At first, the magistrates were restrained from the effusion of blood; but the use of every other severity was commended to their zeal. The fellowservants and the brethren, who cheerfully submitted to the stripping of their edifices, resolved not to interrupt their religious assemblies, nor to deliver their sacred books to the flames. It was not long before this resolution brought upon them the punishment of death. Many were added to the souls underneath the altar; but there were likewise multitudes who saved their worthless lives by discovering and betraying the Holy Scriptures into the enemy’s hand. A great number of catholic bishops and presbyters acquired, by this criminal compliance, the opprobrious epithet of Traditors; and their offence was productive of much present scandal, and of much future discord among the professors in the Roman Africa.

The copies as well as the versions, of scripture, were already so multiplied in the empire that the most severe inquisition could no longer be attended with any fatal consequence; and even the sacrifice of those volumes, which, in every congregation, were preserved for public use, required the consent of some treacherous and unworthy professors. It was pre-eminently a war upon "the word of the Deity," which "he has magnified above all his name." Treachery to this was therefore the high crime against him. If all had been Traditors, Jupiter and Hercules would have triumphed; and in these times we should have been groping in the darkness of heathenism and in the shadow of death. But thanks be to the Deity and the faithful "Brethren," who by their "little strength" were enabled to circumvent "the Devil and Satan." These preserved the Holy Scriptures of the apostles, transmitting them to us through "the Remnant" which succeeded them. This remnant performed against the papists, who in after ages tried to exclude men from the word, the same service as the Brethren against the pagans; so that we have received "the Revelation of the Mystery," not by the favor of catholics, but in spite of traditors and heathen who were reckless of its fate.

The ruin of the ecclesiastical edifices was easily effected by the authority of the government, and by the labor of the pagans. In some provinces, however, the magistrates contented themselves with shutting up the places of religious worship. In others, they more literally complied with the terms of the edict; and after taking away the doors, the benches, and the pulpit, which they burnt as it were in a funeral pile, they completely demolished the remainder of the edifice. In carrying out these measures, some terrible scenes were enacted. In a small town in Phrygia, the magistrates and the body of the people had become catholic; and as some resistance was apprehended to the execution of the edict, the governor of the province was supported by a numerous detachment of legionaries. On their approach, the citizens assembled in their meeting house, with the resolution either of defending it by arms, or of perishing in its ruins. They indignantly rejected the notice and permission given them to retire, till the soldiers, provoked by their obstinate refusal, set fire to the building on all sides, and consumed a great number of Phrygian fellowservants, with their wives and children.

About this time a series of cruel edicts were issued by Diocletian which were "written," says Guizot, "if I may use the expression, with the point of a dagger." He declared his intention of destroying the christian name. By the first of these, the provincial governors were directed to apprehend all persons of the ecclesiastical order; and the prisons destined for the vilest criminals, were soon filled with a multitude of bishops, presbyters, deacons, readers, and exorcists. By a second edict, the magistrates were commanded to employ every method of severity which might reclaim them to the national superstition. This rigorous order was extended by a subsequent edict, to the whole body of fellowservants and brethren, who were exposed to a violent and general persecution. It became the duty as well as the interest of the imperial officers, to discover, to pursue, and to torment, the most obnoxious among the faithful. Heavy penalties were denounced against all who should presume to save the proscribed from the just indignation of the gods, and of the emperors.

Diocletian had no sooner published his edict against the christians, than, as if desirous of committing to other hands the bloody work, he divested himself of the imperial office. Maximian soon followed his example. These abdications elevated to the first rank Galerius and Constantius. The latter reigned over Britain, Gaul, and Spain. His mild and humane temper was averse to oppression. The principal offices of his palace were exercised by catholics. He loved their persons, esteemed their fidelity, and though a pagan, entertained no dislike to their religious principles, which, however, speaks little in their behalf. But so long as he filled the subordinate station of Caesar, it was not in his power openly to reject the edicts of Diocletian, or to disobey the commands of Maximian. His authority, however, contributed to alleviate the sufferings which he pitied and abhorred. He consented, with reluctance, to the ruin of the ecclesiastical edifices; but he ventured to protect the catholics themselves from the fury of the populace, and from the rigor of the laws. The elevation of Constantius to the supreme and independent dignity of Augustus, gave free scope to the exercise of his good qualities, and the shortness of his reign did not prevent him from establishing a system of toleration, of which he left the precept and the example to his son Constantine. His fortunate son, from the first moment of his accession, declaring himself PROTECTOR OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, at length deserved the appellation of the first emperor who publicly professed and established the Catholic Religion. The progress of this revolution, which, under his powerful influence, rendered catholicism the reigning religion of the Roman empire, forms the very interesting and important subject of the Sixth Seal. At present, it may suffice to observe that every victory of Constantine was productive of some relief, or benefit to the Catholic Church.

The provinces of Italy and Africa, "the fourth of the earth," experienced a "short" but violent persecution. The rigorous edicts of Diocletian were strictly and cheerfully executed by his associate Maximian, who had long hated the catholics, and delighted in acts of blood and violence. After his abdication they were exposed to the implacable resentment of Galerius. But the revolt of Maxentius, son of Maximian, brought them relief; and the same tyrant who oppressed every other class of his subjects, showed himself just, humane, and even partial towards the afflicted catholics. But according to Eusebius, this was mere hypocrisy. "Maxentius," says he, "who possessed himself of the entire power in Italy, at first feigned himself a christian in order to gain the favor of the people of Rome. He commanded his ministers to stop the persecution of christians, affecting a hypocritical piety for the sake of appearing more mild than his predecessors, but his actions proved at last that he was altogether different from what at first he was expected to be." Whatever the motives of Maxentius might be, the catholics of Rome seem to have been little deserving the favor of heaven. Marcellus, the bishop of the catholics in Rome, had thrown the capital into confusion by the severe penance he imposed on a great number of "fellowservants," who during the persecution under Maximian had renounced, or dissembled their religion. The rage of faction broke out in frequent and violent seditions; the blood of the fellowservants was shed by each others’ hands; and the exile of Marcellus was found to be the only measure capable of restoring peace to the distracted church in Rome. Truly might the Spirit say to such "christians," "Ye know not that ye are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." This is what they had come to two hundred and eight years after the apocalypse was given to John -- mere Antipagans, called "christian" by the heathen, and "catholics" by themselves. They are the ecclesiastical ancestry of modern professors of religion, who shed each others’ blood in international and civil wars, with as much zest as their antipagan brethren under Marcellus. Such is clerical religion, whether of the third, of the nineteenth, or of all intervening, centuries -- the Mystery of Iniquity in Laodicean manifestation; the Apostasy, that Paul predicted would be, and shall utterly be destroyed by Christ in the days of his power.

The frequent disappointment of his ambitious views, and the experience of six years of persecution, suggested to Galerius, who was now suffering a lingering and painful distemper, that the most violent efforts of despotism are insufficient to extirpate a whole people, or to subdue their religious convictions. Desirous of repairing somewhat the mischief he had originated, he published in his own name, and in those of Licinius and Constantine, a general edict, as follows:

"Among the important cares which have occupied our minds for the utility and preservation of the empire, it was our intention to correct and re-establish all things according to the ancient laws and public discipline of the Romans. We were particularly desirous of reclaiming into the way of reason and nature, the deluded christians who had renounced the religion and ceremonies instituted by their fathers; and presumptuously despising the practice of antiquity, had invented extravagant laws and opinions according to the dictates of their fancy, and had collected a various society from the different provinces of our empire. The edicts which we have published to enforce the worship of the gods having exposed many of the christians to danger and distress, many having suffered death, and many more, who still persist in their impious folly, being left destitute of any public exercise of religion, we are disposed to extend to those unhappy men, the effects of our wonted clemency. We permit them, therefore freely to profess their private opinions, and to assemble in their conventicles without fear or molestation, provided always that they preserve a due respect to the established laws and government. By another rescript we shall signify our intentions to the judges and magistrates; and we hope that our indulgence will engage the christians to offer up their prayers to the deity whom they adore, for our safety and prosperity, for their own, and for that of the republic."

When Galerius subscribed this edict of toleration, A.D. 311, he was well assured that Licinius and Constantine would approve it. But, he could not venture to insert the name of his nephew, Maximin, in the preamble, whose consent was of the greatest importance. In the first six months, however, of his reign over Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, Maximin affected to adopt the prudent counsels of his associates. His praetorian praefect, Sabinus, by his order, addressed a circular letter to all the prominent governors and magistrates, expatiating on the imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincible obstinacy of the christians, and directing the officers of justice to cease their ineffectual prosecutions, and to connive at their secret assemblies. In consequence of these orders great numbers were released from prison and the mines. The confessors singing hymns of triumph, returned into their own countries; and those who had yielded to the violence of the tempest, "the lapsed" who had returned to paganism, solicited readmission, as so many repentant Esaus, into the bosom of the Catholic Church; I say catholic church for the Novatian Ecclesias in which "the Brethren were found," readmitted no apostates under any circumstances.

But this was only a treacherous calm of short duration. Maximin was cruel and superstitious, and altogether unworthy of confidence. He was devoted to the study of magic, the worship of the gods, and to the belief of oracles. His prophets were the philosophers, whom he revered as the favorites of heaven. He frequently raised them to the government of provinces, and admitted them to his most secret councils. They easily convinced him that the christians had been indebted for their victories to their regular discipline, and that the weakness of polytheism had principally flowed from a want of union and subordination among the ministers of religion. A system of government was therefore instituted, which was evidently copied from the policy of the Catholic Church. In all the great cities of the empire, the temples were repaired and beautified by the order of Maximin; and the officiating priests of the various deities were subjected to the authority of a superior pontiff, destined to oppose the bishop and to promote the cause of paganism. These pontiffs acknowleged in their turn the supreme jurisdiction of the metropolitans or high priests of the province, who acted as the immediate vicegerents of the emperor himself. We have here "the Dragon and his Angels," in their ecclesiastical organization, preparing for the approaching final conflict with "Michael and his Angels," or the Lamb’s party, which was to result in the ejection of the Dragon and his Angels from the heaven. A white robe was the ensign of their dignity. In the language of the fifth seal, but with a different signification, "white robes were given to every one of them; and it was said to those who received them that they should be priests of the gods, and reign with the emperor." But how much nobler the dignity of the souls slain, whose robes are the emblems of incorruption, in a royal priesthood, and reign with Christ a thousand years. These new prelates of the Dragon were carefully selected from the most noble and opulent families. By the influence of the prelatic and secular authorities, dutiful addresses were got up, artfully representing the well-known intentions of the court as the general sense of the people, and soliciting Maximin to consult the laws of justice rather than the dictates of his clemency. They expressed their abhorrence of the christians, and humbly prayed that these impious sectaries might at least be excluded from the limits of their respective territories. The answer of Maximin to the address he obtained from Tyre is still extant. He praises their zeal and devotion in terms of the highest satisfaction, descants on the obstinate impiety of the christians, and betrays, by the readiness with which he consents to their banishment, that he considered himself as receiving rather than as conferring an obligation. The priests, as well as the magistrates, were empowered to enforce the execution of his edicts, which were engraved on tables of brass; and though it was recommended to them to avoid the effusion of blood, the most cruel and ignominious punishments were inflicted upon the refractory "fellowservants and brethren."

The Asiatics had everything to dread from the severity of a bigoted monarch, who prepared his measures of violence with such deliberate policy. But, a few months had scarcely elapsed, before the edicts published by Constantine and Licinius, the emperors of the West, obliged Maximin to suspend the prosecution of his designs; the civil war which he so rashly undertook against Licinius employed all his attention; and the defeat and death of Maximin soon delivered the fellowservants and brethren from the last and most implacable of their pagan enemies. Struck with rage at his disappointments, in the sad reverse of his affairs, he slew many priests and prophets of his gods, by whose enchantments he had been seduced by false hopes of universal empire in the East. So amazingly were affairs now changed, that contending emperors courted the favor of the persecuted. After his edict in their favor, he was struck with a sudden plague over his whole body, pined away with hunger, fell down from his bed, his flesh being so wasted away by a secret fire, that it consumed and dropped off from his bones; his eyes started out of their sockets; and in his distress he began to see that the true Deity was executing judgment upon him. Frantic in his agonies he cried out, "It was not I, but others who did it!" At length, by the increasing force of torment, he owned his guilt, and every now and then implored Christ, that he would compassionate his misery. He confessed himself vanquished and expired.

Thus closed the most memorable and most violent of all the sanguinary endeavors of "that Old Serpent, the Devil and Satan," to extinguish christianity from the Roman Habitable. Authors are not agreed as to the numbers who fell in the conflict; but from the testimony of the enemies themselves, the numbers were great, and the cruelties intense. The fierceness of paganism exhausted itself in this last effort, and the triumph of the Lamb was near.