Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire began with the stoning of the deacon Stephen and continued intermittently over a period of about three centuries until the 313 Edict of Milan, when Christianity was legalized. Christians were persecuted by local authorities on a sporadic and ad-hoc basis, often more according to the whims of the local community than to the opinion of imperial authority.
This persecution heavily influenced the development of Christianity, shaping the selection of the Canonical gospels, Christian theology and the structure of the Church. Among other things, persecution sparked the cult of the saints, facilitated the rapid growth and spread of Christianity prompted defenses and explanations of Christianity, and raised fundamental questions about the nature of the Christian Church.
Although Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire in 380, persecution of Christians did not come to a complete halt; instead, it switched to those deemed to be heretics by the state. Again more material was lost or destroyed particularly in regard to Jewish Christianity.
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