Catholic Church against Idolatry and Paganism before Second Vatican Council
The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer , by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883) Christians were persecuted throughout the Roman Empire , beginning in the 1st century AD and ending in the 4th century. Originally a polytheistic empire in the traditions of Roman paganism and the Hellenistic religion , as Christianity spread through the empire , it came into ideological conflict with the imperial cult of ancient Rome . Pagan practices such as making sacrifices to the deified emperors or other gods were abhorrent to Christians as their beliefs prohibited idolatry . The state and other members of civic society punished Christians for treason, various rumored crimes, illegal assembly, and for introducing an alien cult that led to Roman apostasy . The first, localized Neronian persecution occurred under Emperor Nero ( r. 54–68 ) in Rome. A number of mostly localized persecutions o...