Below is a quote from Ronald J Sider’s new book (2012), The Early Church on Killing. It’s a comprehensive compilation of relevant primary documents [and teachings] from the early church addressing any form of killing. The quote below is Siders last paragraph, a summary of the entire book.
“What we can say with confidence is that every extent Christian statement on killing and war up until the time of Constantine says Christians must not kill, even in war. That a growing number of Christians, especially in the late third in early fourth century, acted contrary to that teaching is also clear. Whether in doing so they were following other Christian teachers and leaders who justified their conduct, we cannot say with certainty. But we had absolutely no evidence to support the suggestion that such teachers ever existed until the time of Constantine. Any claim that they did is sheer speculation.” Ronald J. Sider “The Early Church on Killing”
His last 2 chapters alone, the summary of his work, are worth the price of the book.
Ronald, if you ever read this message thank you so much for your work. Our generation should start questioning our assumptions about violence again because of the time and effort you have put in!