"Who could be so callous, so stony-hearted, who so unmindful of brotherly love, as to remain dry-eyed in the presence of so many of his own kin, who are broken now, shadows of their former selves, disheveled, in the trappings of grief?" -St. Cyprian

The Darkness:Roman persecution resulted not only in the death of Christians but also in an internal division concerning the proper response to those who apostatized and sought a return to the Church after the persecution. The divergent views created disunity that threatened to tear apart the new Church.

The Light:Through the pastoral ministry of various popes and bishops, the Church preached a unified message of mercy to those who abandoned the Faith during Roman persecution. Their witness, teaching, and preaching developed Catholic understanding of penance and the role of the sacrament of confession in the life of the Church.

The Reign of Nero

In the middle of the first century, a psychopath who would later poison his brother, murder his mother, and kick his pregnant wife to death, ascended the imperial throne in Rome. At the young age of seventeen, Nero became “lord of the world” and his fourteen-year reign was a notorious orgy of debauchery, destruction, and death.

A decade into Nero’s rule, in the summer of A.D. 64, a conflagration engulfed the city of Rome, destroying large sections of the imperial capital. People were angry because the fire’s cause was not natural. Rumors circulated that the mad emperor had ordered the blaze to make room for his grand vision of a new city named after himself, “Neropolis.”

Afraid to lose his grip on power, Nero quickly found a scapegoat to turn the gaze of the incensed Romans. As the Roman historian Tacitus records, Nero blamed the fire on the small group of Christians in the city and initiated the first of several persecutions.

Nero’s localized persecution of the Church in Rome had far-reaching impacts. The imperial violence took the lives of the two great apostles and Church leaders, Peter and Paul. Additionally, Nero outlawed the Christian faith, placing the Church squarely in the crosshairs of imperial authorities; a situation not rectified for nearly 300 years.

Penitential Practices in the Early Church

The early Church recognized the power given by Christ to the clergy to forgive sins and reconcile the sinner to God through the sacrament of penance, but questions surrounded penitential practices and whether sins committed after baptism could be forgiven.

The early Christian apologist and theologian Tertullian (163–230), the son of a Roman army centurion, identified one early penitential practice known as the exomologesis in his work De Penitentia, written in the early third century.

The exomologesis consisted of a public penitential act preceded by a declaration of sin to the bishop, who determined the penance required of the penitent. Upon its completion, the repentant sinner was welcomed back into communion by the bishop in a public setting. During the period of penance, the Christian wore simple clothes, was not allowed to receive the Eucharist, and begged fellow Christians attending Mass for their prayers.

One significant caveat to the exomologesis was that it was not available for every sin, notably excluding apostasy, idolatry, murder, and fornication. However, Pope St. Callistus I (r. 217-222) allowed those who committed sexual sins to participate in the exomologesis, a decision rooted in mercy that angered many Christians, including Tertullian and the Roman priest Hippolytus.

But what to do about those who renounced the Faith in the face of Roman persecution?