How many Christians apostatized during the Roman persecution under Emperor Licinius

Spirituality

During the persecution of the Emperor Licinius (320 A.D.), “Many officials and soldiers were out of work for their persistence in Christianity… To avoid such troubles many Christians fled to a wandering life in the hills and the woods, just as they had done during the persecution of Diocletian.  Churches were closed or destroyed… On this occasion a new kind of torture was employed: the bodies of the martyrs were cut into small pieces by strokes of a sword and then thrown into the sea as food for the fishes.  Many Christians, however, had not the courage to resist and were not even willing to disturb their normal life by flight.  They fell into more or less complete apostasy.  We have no means of reckoning the number of these new lapsi, but it was not small, as is shown by the fact that the Council of Nicaea itself dealt with them and made provisions in their regard.” (The Age of Martyrs, p. 210)