The Third Century (220-305)

 

 

 

  • 230 Earliest known public churches built

 

  • 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

 
  • 250 Decius orders empire-wide persecution

 
  • 254 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

 

 
  • 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.