If we could travel back in time to the middle of the third century we would quickly discover the Catholic Church, although fraught with differences from today, had many similarities to our modern day, 21st-century church. There was plenty of hierarchical infighting going on and the politics of leading the Church was in flux.
In the year 250 AD, the Roman Emperor, Decius, unhappy as to how Christianity was spreading, embarked on a persecution of the Christians that, up until that time, was the most brutal they had ever faced. Among the first to die was Pope Fabian, the 16th Pope, who had held the Papacy for fourteen years.
When Fabian died, he was followed by Pope Cornelius who died within a year. He was followed by Pope Lucius I who also died within a year. Both of these men died of natural causes. The Church was then without a pope and was run collegiately under the direction of a priest named Novatian.
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