Maximinus Persecutes Church Leaders

Alexander, emperor of the Romans, finished his reign after thirteen years and was succeeded by Maximinus Caesar. Out of a grudge against the household of Alexander, which was made up of a good number of believers, Maximinus started a persecution. He ordered that only the leaders of the churches be put to death, as the ones responsible for teaching the gospel. It was then that Origen wrote his work On Martyrdom. He dedicated it to Ambrose and to Protoctetus, a presbyter of the church community at Caesarea, because no ordinary trouble had come upon them both in the persecution. Report has it that in that trouble both men distinguished themselves by their confession. Maximinus’s time in power lasted no more than three years. Origen has marked the time of this persecution in the twenty-second book of his Expositions of the Gospel according to John and in various letters. [a]