Little Peace of the Church

In the history of the Roman Empire, the "Little Peace of the Church" was a roughly 40-year period in the latter 3rd century when Christianity flourished without official suppression from the central government. It is particularly associated with the reign of Gallienus (253–268), who issued the first official declaration of tolerance regarding Christians. Among the series of imperial edicts that halted acts of persecution against Christians, one addressed to the bishops of Egypt has survived, recognizing places of worship and cemeteries as ecclesiastical property and restoring them to Christian ownership. The Church for the first time even asked a Roman emperor to arbitrate an internal dispute. In 272, after Paul of Samosata was accused of heresy but refused to be deposed as bishop of Antioch, Aurelian ruled in favor of his successor, who was in good standing with the church hierarchy.

The "little" peace of the Church, described primarily by Eusebius, is preliminary to the final "peace of the Church" ushered in by the conversion of Constantine I.

During this time, Christian communities became more integrated into Roman society in the provinces. The possibility of integration had been recognized by some Christian intellectuals as early as the 2nd century: Tatian, a Syrian convert to Christianity, maintained that all humanity should share one code of law and one political organization—an attitude that was conducive to coexistence with the Empire. The goal of unity was reflected in the Constitutio Antoniniana, which in 212 AD had extended universal citizenship to all free inhabitants of the Empire. The intellectual practices associated with the Second Sophistic were adopted by Christian apologists, who drew on the rhetorical techniques of the educated classes to argue that they posed no threat to the social order. The "little peace" helped consolidate the development of Christian discourse in the Hellenistic manner. Conditions were also more favorable for attracting Christian converts.

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