RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Perpetua Persecution.
PERRY, GEORGE GRESLEY: English church historian; b. at Churchill (13 m. s.w. of Bristol), Somersetshire, Dec. 21, 1820; d. at Waddington (4 m. s. of Lincoln) Feb. 10, 1897. He received a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1837 (B.A., 1840; M.A., Lincoln College, 1843); was fellow of Lincoln College, 1842-52, in which he was tutor, 1847-52; master of the schools, 1847-48; ordained deacon, 1844, priest, 1845; was rector of Waddington, Lincolnshire, after 1852; rural dean of Longoboby and canon and prebendary of Milton Manor in Lincoln Cathedral from 1861 ; proctor for the diocese of Lincoln, 1867-81; proctor in the convocation of Canterbury, and archdeacon of Stow, 1894-97. He was the author of History of the Church of England from the Death of Elizabeth to the Present Century (3 vols., London, 1861-64); Victor: a Tale of the Great Persecution (1864) ; Life of Bishop Grosseteste (1865); History of the Crusades (1865; 3d ed., 1872); Croyland Abbey (1867); Christian Fathers (1870); Vox ecclesice Anglican^ (1870); The Students English Church History (First Period, 1871; Second Period, 1878; and Third Period, 1887; New York, 1879); Life of St. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln (1879); and The Reformation in England (1886).
PERRY, WILLIAM STEVENS: Protestant Episcopal bishop; b. at Providence, R. I., Jan. 22, 1832; d. at Dubuque, la., May 13, 1898. He was educated at Harvard College, 1850-54, and at the Alexandria Theological Seminary; was ordained deacon in 1857; was assistant at St. Paul's, Boston, 1857-58; rector at Nashua, N. H., Portland, Me., Litchfield, Conn., and Geneva, N. Y., 1858- 1876. For a short time president of Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y., he was consecrated bishop of Iowa in 1876. He was one of the editors of The Church Monthly (Boston, 1864). A full list of his numerous writings is contained in The Sketch-book of the American Episcopate, H. G. Batterson (Philadelphia, 1884). He was author of The Connection of the Church of England with Early American Colonization (Portland, 1863) ; Historical Collections of the American Colonial Church (vol. i., Virginia, 1871; ii., Pennsylvania, 1872; iii., Massachusetts, 1873; iv., Maryland, 1875; and v., Delaware, 1878); Historical Notes and Documents Illustrating the Organization of the Protestant Episcopal Church (1874); Historical Sketch of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 1784-1884 (New York, 1884); The History of the American Episcopal Church, 1587-1883 (vol. i., The Planting and the Growth of the American Colonial Church, 1687-1873; ii., The Organization and Progress of the American Church, 1783-1883, Boston, 1885); and The Episcopate in America (New York, 1895). With F. L. Hawks he edited the Documentary History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina (No. 1, 1862); and the Documentary History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States (containing documents relating chiefly to the Church in Connecticut; 2 vols., New York, 1863-64).
Bibliography : Consult his own Episcopate in America, ut sup., pp. 245-247,
PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE DOWN TO DECIUS.
I. The Historical Record.
New Sect Distinguished from the Jews (§ 1). Legal Status before Decius; Trajan (§ 2). Persecutions under Decius (§ 3). Political Character of Persecutions (§ 4). Results (§ 5).
Subsequent Persecutions (§ 6). II. The Ten Persecutions.
I. The Historical Record: The persecution of
Christians in the Roman Empire will be treated
here in its relation with legal enactments. Just
when the Roman State first began to regard the
Christians as a sect distinct from the Jews can not
be stated with certainty. Tertullian's statement
(Apol. v.; Eng. transl., ANF, iii. 21-22) to the
effect that Tiberius was aware of the distinction
between Christianity and Judaism and submitted
to the senate the question of the recognition of the
former by the State is incredible. But
i. New Sect the differentiation seems presupposed
Distin- in view of the Neronian persecution
guished from (64 a.d.) when, according to Tacitus
the Jews. (Annals, xx. 44), the Christians were visited with punishment not as incendiaries, but as those who had brought down upon themselves the " hatred of mankind." Yet in spite of the clear prominence in which the adherents of the new sect appeared at this time, it is very probable that, for a generation at least, the Christians continued to be regarded and dealt with by the magistrates as a Jewish sect. A change must have ensued when (especially under Domitian, 81-96), in order to enforce the payment by the Jews of tithes to the temple of the Capitoline Jupiter at Jerusalem, odious investigations were instituted, and the non-Jewish Christians undoubtedly refused to pay the tax. In addition, the Roman magistrates must have been aware that the attitude of the Christians toward the great calamity which overtook the Jewish nation was different from that of the rest of the people, and that the Jews unceasingly persecuted the Christians as their enemies, and that the customs and religious practises of the Christians were radically different. It may therefore be accepted that, from the time of Domitian, Christianity appears everywhere as a new religion, and in that character was subject to the application of the laws directed against new and secret associations, which, owing to the peculiar character of the Christian faith, were applied with more than the usual rigor. This policy probably attained complete development under Trajan (98-117 a.d.), in the second half of whose reign the relations of the State toward Christianity must have assumed definite shape. Pliny could not otherwise have written his celebrated letter (Epistolce, x. 92 sqq.) opening with the statement: " In the examination of Christians I have never taken part; therefore I know not how and to what extent it is the custom to punish them and to investigate." Long, therefore, before the year 112 the trials of Christians in the provinces must have been carried on in the same manner as they were carried on subsequently.
As to the period from Trajan to Decius (249-
Persecution Perseverance