What were Diocletian's views on Christianity?

Answer 1

Ancient Roman Christian writers saw Diocletian as being inclined towards religious toleration and therefore as not being anti-Christian.

Diocletian was religiously conservative and wanted to promote a revival of Roman religion and veneration of the Roman gods. He financed the repair of many Roman temples. He associated himself with Jupiter and Maximian, the man he appointed as his co-emperor, with the god Hercules. This helped to legitimate the power of the two men and tied the imperial state to traditional religion. Diocletian favoured the main Roman divinities, but he also built temples in honour of Isis (an Egyptian goddess) and Sarapis (a Greco-Egyptian god). He presented his reign as reviving the traditional Roman values after the preceding period of military anarchy.

The first persecution of Christians during the reign of Diocletian was triggered by an event which occurred at the palace in Antioch in 299. Diocletian and his junior emperor, Galerius, were preparing a ceremony of divination of the omens. This involved sacrificing an animal and reading its entrails. The priests were unable to read the entrails and claimed that this was due to disruptions cause by profane men, Christians at the palace who had been seen making the sign of the cross during such ceremonies. The co-emperors ordered that all soldiers perform sacrifices to the Roman gods or face loss of rank or discharge.

Christian writers attributed the purge to Galerius and they saw Diocletian as more religiously tolerant. He was a more fervent follower of Roman religion that Diocletian and his mother was strongly anti-Christian. They also suggested that Galerius held resentment for having been previously humiliated by Diocletian which fed discontent with Diocletian's tolerance policy. Finally, they thought that Galerius wanted to exploit the persecution for his political advantage. He was the most junior of the four co-emperors which Diocletian had created with his establishment of the tetrarchy (rule by four). He wanted to exploit the anti-Christian sentiments of many of Diocletian's counsellor to gain higher status within the imperial hierarchy.

The Great persecution of Christians was also triggered by an event at the imperial palace. A Christian deacon interrupted a divination ceremony loudly denouncing sacrifice. He was arrested and sentenced to be burned alive. However, Diocletian overruled this and had his tongue cut off instead. He had been founded by the act of the deacon. Diocletian and Galerius had an argument over the policy to be pursued with regard to the Christians in order to appease the gods. The former thought that banning the Christians from the administration and the army was enough. The latter wanted extermination. Diocletian then gave in to demands by his court for a universal persecution.

It has to be noted that Diocletian ordered a persecution of he Manicheans in Egypt and present day Libya and Tunisia. Manichaeism was a religion which spread from Persia. He did so after discussions with the governors of Egypt and Africa (western Libya and Tunisia).