THE PERSECUTIONS

After the persecutions of Nero and Domitian, a popular uprising occurred.  And, as usual, the Christians were blamed.  Some heretical Christians exposed Symeon, son of Clopas, the second bishop of Jerusalem.  Symeon, who was 120  years old when martyred, saw Christ in person.  "Mary, wife of Clopas," was his mother.  Symeon suffered martyrdom with Judas, a descendant and so called brother of the Lord.  

As head of the church, Symeon brought profound peace to it.  He was tortured for many days and, aftet edifying the governor by his strength, was crucified.  The heretics were themselves discovered as Christians and were executed as traitors. . .not as martyrs.  

At this age, the Church remained a pure virgin because any heretical movement remained hidden still.  So the Church's teachings on the norm of salvation remained uncorrupted.  But when the apostles had all died and the other disciples had passed away, then the league of godless error began to raise its ugly head.  

Amidst this persecution, a certain Plinius Secundus complained to the Emperor "why are the Christians put to death when they are doing nothing wrong but merely pray early in the morning, renounce adultery, murder and other criminal offenses and obey all the laws?"  Because of this, Trajan checked the persecution; but many evil men were still left with plenty of pretexts to harm the Christians.  Although no great national persecution took place during Trajan's rule, small persecutions here and there persisted.  

At this time, Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was arrested and led from Syria to Rome to be executed.  On the way, under heavy guard, he preached though Asia, warning Christians about already existing heresies and exhorted the faithful to hold on to the Apostolic Tradition.  to fulfill this great need, he wrote down TRADITION for the sake of security.     

Eusebius:  Church History

(05-11-05)