What was the Church Fathers’ attitude towards the emperors who persecuted the faith and towards the Roman army?

First: The emergence of Apologists . The Church faced opposition from the Jews who clung to the literal interpretation of the Law and the Prophets. They awaited the coming of the Messiah, the King, who would restore the ruined tabernacle of David and liberate them from Roman rule. This is why the cross was a stumbling block for them.

888 The Annals of Tacitus , trans., Alfred John Church and William Jackson (MacMillian and Co., 1876): p. 304–305; Eusebius Pamphili, Ecclesiastical History 3.17, 32 (NPNF II/1:147, 163–164); Lactantius, On the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died 2–3, 48 (ANF 7:301–302, 321).

889 Everett Ferguson (ed.), Christian Life: Ethics, Morality, and Discipline in the Early Church (Studies in Early Christianity: Vol. 16) (Garland Publishing Inc., 1993): p. 227.

890 Everett Ferguson (ed.), Christian Life: Ethics, Morality, and Discipline in the Early Church (Studies in Early Christianity: Vol. 16) (Garland Publishing Inc., 1993): p. 200.

891 Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 1.3 (ANF 4:398).

892 St. Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies 4.11 (ANF 2:423).

893

“Epistle to Diognetus,” in Staniforth, Maxwell, and Andrew Louth, eds. Early Christian Writings (Penguin Classics, 1987) 7: p. 146 .

894 Tertullian, Apology 50 (ANF 3:55). The text refers to “Christians,” which of course means the Christian martyrs .

The Church also faced opposition from some [pagan] philosophers who considered Christians to be uneducated commoners. Thus, there was a need for prodigious philosophers who could defend the Christian faith.

Finally, the Roman empire was a military state of the first order that relied on weapons and expanded through war. Its emperor was the head and commander of the military. At first the Roman empire regarded Christianity as a Jewish sect that was inconsequential, for it was inconceivable that any leader, from the West nor the East, would dare attempt to usurp the rule of the Emperor and establish a new kingdom or empire.

Christians were strangers to violence and the use of weapons. However, as the number of Christians increased in all the lands of the world throughout this period, their ideology of refusing to participate in the state religion and denunciation of war came to be viewed as dangerous.

From the earliest years of Christianity, a group of Christian thinkers called the Apologists emerged. They responded to opposition — whether from Jews, philosophers, or authorities — with courage and culture, and by addressing each group using its own language and thought.

Second: The Christian stance towards pagan religious ceremonies . Because Christians refused to participate in pagan religious ceremonies, some considered them not to be true Romans — even if they enjoyed Roman citizenship — but rather that they were enemies of the Roman empire. Therefore, the Christian apologists wrote to the Emperor about the faithfulness and loyalty of the Christians to the Emperor, the governing authorities, and the state; and of the Christians’ support for the state.