Persecution of the Christians in the empire has been sporadic and local up to the reign of Emperor Decius, but in about the beginning of January 250, he issues an edict ordering all citizens to perform a religious sacrifice in the presence of commissioners.

A large number of Christians defy the government.

Pope Fabian is said to have baptized Philip the Arab and his son, to have done some building in the catacombs, to have improved the organization of the church in Rome, and to have appointed officials to register the deeds of the martyrs.

According to "later accounts, more or less trustworthy", Fabian has sent out the "apostles to the Gauls" to Christianize Gaul after the persecutions under Emperor Decius had all but dissolved the small Christian communities.

Fabian sends seven bishops from Rome to Gaul to preach the Gospel: Gatianus of Tours to Tours, Trophimus of Arles to Arles, Paul of Narbonne to Narbonne, Saturnin to Toulouse, Denis to Paris, Austromoine to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Clermont, and Saint Martial to Limoges.

He also has the bodies of Hippolytus of Rome and Pope Pontian brought from Sardinia to Rome.

He is martyred during the persecution of Christians under Decius and is one of the first to die on January 20, 250.

("Pope St. Fabian".

Catholic Encyclopedia.

New York: Robert Appleton Company.

1913.)

Although there is very little authentic information about Fabian, there is evidence that his episcopate was one of great importance in the history of the early church.

He was highly esteemed by Cyprian; Novatian refers to his nobilissima memoriae, and he corresponded with Origen.

One authority refers to him as Flavian.

Rome's suppression of Christianity has strengthened rather than weakened the movement, for public opinion condemns the government's violence and applauds the passive resistance of the martyrs.

Early in 251, the persecution of Christians ceases.

(Decius has provided the model for a more thorough persecution of Christians that will begin in 303 under Diocletian's reign.)

Novatian, the first Roman theologian who uses the Latin language, writes De Trinitate, an orthodox interpretation of early church doctrine on the Trinity.

The election of one Lucius as Bishop of Rome on, probably June 25, 253, had taken place during the persecution that had caused the banishment of his predecessor Cornelius, and he also had been banished soon after his consecration, but succeeded in gaining permission to return.

He died March 4, 254.

Tradition claims that he was martyred in the persecution of Valerian, but as that is known to have started later than March 254, this seems unlikely.

He is succeeded in May by his archdeacon, who takes the reign name Stephen.

At this time internal disputes racking the Church are as much a threat as the external persecutions.

Following the "Decian persecution" of 250 - 251, churches had split over how to deal with the lapsed, with the strictest approach that of Novatian, later declared a heretic, which has led to further controversy over whether to accept baptism from splinter groups as legitimate sacrament.

In the early part of his pontificate, Stephen is urged by Faustinus, Bishop of Lyon, to take action against Marcian, Bishop of Arles, who has denied communion to the penitent among those whose faith had lapsed during the persecutions, the position called "Novatianism".

Stephen also holds that converts from splinter churches that might be heretical do not need rebaptism, while Bishop Cyprian of Carthage and certain other bishops of the Roman province of Africa hold it necessary for admission to communion.

The amount of silver in Roman currency falls below ten percent.

Valerian has vigorously renewed Decius' persecution of the Christians.

According to reports by Christian writers, his edict of 257 had ordered bishops and priests to sacrifice according to the pagan rituals, and prohibited Christians, under penalty of death, from meeting at the tombs of their deceased.

A second Imperial edict issued in 258 prohibits Christianity in the Roman Empire.

This edict divides Christians into four categories: priests, who are to be put to death; senators and equestrians, who are to be stripped of their positions and their property confiscated; nuns, who are to be exiled; and imperial civil servants, who are condemned to forced labor.

Valerian executes, among others, Bishop Xystus (Sixtus II) of Rome, together with six of his deacons, and Bishop Cyprian of Carthage in 258.

Novatian, the schismatic antipope, flees Rome and is probably martyred at this time, but the schismatic church that he has established will persist for several centuries.

After his death, the Novatianist sect will spread rapidly.

Those who ally themselves with the doctrines of Novatian will be called Novatianists; their own name for themselves is the katharoi, the pure, reflecting their claim not to be participants in the lax practices of the orthodox Christians by which they believe the church to have been corrupted.

They will go so far as to rebaptize their converts.