Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecelius Secundus, circa 61-113) was a Roman administrator during the reign of Emperor Trajan. Tragan had sent him to Bithynia to reform their finances and court system. Around AD 112 he wrote to Trajan reporting how he had dealt with Christians but asked for the Emperor’s advice regarding them. The pagan temples were hardly attended and the Christians worshiped in secret gatherings. This privacy aroused public suspicion and was accused of all sorts of things like cannibalism. They were said to kill infants, and have incestuous relationships. Because they refused to honor the pagan gods, they were considered atheists.
Pliny seems to be unsure about whether they should be condemned just for professing to be Christians, or for specific crimes for which they were accused. He apparently tried both and when if they persisted in their Christian confession he had them executed because of their obstinacy. He does change his policy after large numbers of people began to be accused. When a person was charged with being Christian, Pliny offered them the chance to worship pagan divinities and make offerings to their images, including that of the Emperor, and to curse Christ. Using this procedure, Pliny found many people who admitted to having once been Christians but claimed to have renounced the faith. By interrogating them, he learned what he knew about their worship.
According to these people, “on an appointed day they had been accustomed to meet before daybreak and to recite a hymn to Christ, as to a god.” Then they would take an oath “to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, and breach of faith.” After this ceremony, they left but reassembled later on to eat together.
Although Pliny’s knowledge of their worship was gained second-hand from people who had abandoned the faith, the general outline is consistent with other sources that supplement them. We find the community gathering early on the first day of the week, and then gathering later to share a meal. One may assume the meal included the Lord’s Supper, but Pliny reported he was unable to get much more information about the ceremony even after torturing two deaconesses. The word “Sacramentum” referred to an oath taken by Roman soldiers, and it was used to describe an act of worship that consisted of giving a pledge of loyalty to the God of the covenant. Finally, Pliny’s account is the only one of our sources that specifically mentions hymns as part of their worship. However, since worship in both Old and New Testaments emphasizes “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” we must assume that some kind of singing or chanting — in this case, an antiphonal or responsive hymn — was a standard component of worship during the early centuries.