PIERRE BOAISTUAU - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

his purpose was to record the events of the first generation of Reformers to preserve
them for posterity and for the edification of the faithful. 743
4.2.2. The persecution of Christians and the afflicted Church
The narration of the history of the Church was closely associated with the retelling,
often in a chronological order, of the various dangers which jeopardised its very
existence. These mainly included the measures taken by Roman Emperors against the
first Christians, punishing thousands of them by death and declaring the Christian
religion illegal, and the spread of various heresies and schisms which endangered the
Church’s unity. The main purpose behind such accounts was to convey a polemical
character to the text, juxtaposing the afflictions of the first Church to the
contemporary climate of religious crisis. Thus, works of ecclesiastical history did not
only serve as narrations of historical events but as expositions of the Christian
doctrine. Intertwined with the narration of Roman history, were the teachings of the
Church Fathers, Biblical passages, and analyses of the Scriptures, which
communicated the message of endurance and even sacrifice to the true believers who
followed Christ. Such ideas were incorporated in the works of Protestant writers, such
as Heinrich Bullinger’s Histoire des persecutions de l'Eglise (1577). 744 Similarly,
Antoine de Chandieu’s Histoire des persecutions et martyrs de l’eglise de Paris
743 See Carbonnier-Burkard, M., ‘L’Histoire ecclésiastique des églises réformées…: La construction
Bézienne d’un ‘corps d’histoire’’, in Backus, I. et al (eds), Théodore de Bèze (1519-1605) (Geneva,
2007), pp. 145-161. Theodore Beza (1519-1605) was a French theologian and scholar who lived most
of his life in Switzerland, and became head of the Reformed Church in Geneva after Calvin’s death. He
wrote many works of theological and humanist nature. See also Manetsch, S. M., Theodore Beza and
the Quest for Peace in France, 1572-1598 (Leiden, 2000).
744 Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575) was a Swiss reformer and successor of Zwingli’s work in Zurich
after 1531. He contributed to Calvin’s Consensus Tigurinus and to the drafting of the Second Helvetic
Confession in 1566, and also maintained an extended correspondence with notable men of his day. For
an insight to his life and work see Gordon, B., Campi, E. (eds), Architect of the Reformation: An
Introduction to Heinrich Bullinger, 1504-1575 (Grand Rapids, 2004).
- 238 -