Footnote

c McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia (Volume X, page 519) reports: “Christianity was forced upon the notice of the emperors by the tumults excited among the populace by heathen priests, who observed the remarkable progress of that faith with alarm, and Trajan [98-117 C.E.] was accordingly led to issue edicts for the gradual suppression of the new teaching which transformed men into haters of the gods. The administration of the younger Pliny as governor of Bithynia [bordering the Roman province of Asia on the north] was complicated with matters growing out of the rapid extension of Christianity and the consequent rage of the heathen population within his province.”