Acts 28:22

22. Spoken against Elsewhere and here at Rome. Frankly, then, though they will listen, their prepossessions are against the argument.

The hatred and calumny now poured upon Christians, by which Nero was emboldened to perpetrate his cruel persecutions, arose from various causes. As a sort of Jewish sect, they inherited in the first place all the odium of Jews. As abhorring the gods of paganism, they were stigmatized as “atheists.” As standing aloof from unholy amusements, they were held as unsocial and haters of the human race. As refusing to swear by the name of the emperor and sacrifice to his image, they were held as disloyal. As looking to a future, and perhaps near, conflagration of the world, they might plausibly be accused as incendiaries. And as being alleged to assemble by night to partake the mystical body and blood of Christ, they were even slandered as nightly cannibals! It is said by Justin Martyr that, previous to this period, the Jewish hierarchy had sent delegations into all parts of the civilized world denouncing the whole Christian body. In such a storm was rocked the cradle of the Christian Church.