Why Were the Early Christians Persecuted? A Rejoinder *

There are two different questions in dispute between Mr SherwinWhite and myself: (1) whether ‘sheer disobedience’, as such, was ever a ground for the judicial condemnation of Christians; and (2) whether at first the government behaved to Christianity ‘exactly as it did towards other “superstitions” ‘ (pp. 251–2 above), and ‘the only ground indicated for the proscription of the [Christian] cult ¹ is its association with crimes and immoralities fagitia, scelera, maleficia’ (p. 251, with the next two paragraphs: my italics).