The Early Church in the Third Century: 220-305

225 d. Tertullian

245 Conversion of Cyprian

247 Cyprian becomes Bishop of Carthage

249-251 The reign of Decius. He ordered everyone in the empire to burn incense to him. Those who complied were issued a certificate. Those who did not have a certificate were persecuted. Many Christians bought forged certificates, causing a great controversy in the church
Cyprian went into hiding during the persecution and ruled the church by letters

251 b. Anthony. One of the earliest monks. He sold all his posessions and moved to the desert. Athanasius later wrote his biography

254 d. Origen
The Novatian schism develops concerning the treatment of the lapsed. (The Novatians, or Cathari, last until about 600. Read the Catholic view of the schism.) Cyprian refuses to accept the validity of baptism by schismatic priests. The church in Rome is critical of Cyprian's view, and sends him scathing letters. Carthaginian Councils

258 Cyprian is martyred before the issue is settled

263 b. Eusebius of Caesarea. He was the first church historian. Many works of the early church survive only as fragments in Eusebius's writing

284 The beginning of the Diocletian persecution


Diocletian's Palace

286 b. Pachomius, Egyptian pioneer of cenobitic (communal rather than solitary) monasticism

297/300 b. Athanasius, the defender of Orthodoxy during the Arian controversy of the fourth century.