Editing Pope Marcellus I (section)

==Election==
For some time after the death of Marcellinus in 304, the [[Diocletian]] persecution continued with unabated severity. After the [[abdication]] of Diocletian in 305, and the accession in Rome of [[Maxentius]] to the throne of the Caesars in October of the following year, the Christians of the capital again enjoyed comparative peace. Nevertheless, nearly two years passed before a new [[bishop of Rome]] was elected. Then in 308, according to the ''[[Catalogus Liberianus]]'', Marcellus first entered on his office:<ref name="Catholic">{{Catholic|wstitle=Pope St. Marcellus I|inline=1}}</ref> "He was bishop in the time of [[Maxentius]], from the 4th consulship of Maxentius when [[Maximian|Maximus]] was his colleague, until after the consulship."<ref>
{{cite book
 |editor1-last=Loomis
 |editor1-first=Louise Ropes
 |title=The Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis)
 |date=2006
 |publisher=Arx Publishing, LLC
 |location=Merchantville, New Jersey, USA
 |page=37
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N1KMTRsvPGUC
 |access-date=10 March 2015
 |quote=He was bishop in the time of Maxentius, from the 4th consulship of Maxentius when Maximus was his colleague, until after the consulship.
|isbn=9781889758862
 }}</ref> At Rome, Marcellus found the church in the greatest confusion.  The meeting-places and some of the burial-places of the faithful had been confiscated, and the ordinary life and activity of the church was interrupted. Added to this were the dissensions within the church itself, caused by the large number of weaker members who had fallen away during the long period of active persecution and later, under the leadership of an apostate, violently demanded that they should be readmitted to communion without doing penance.<ref name="Catholic"/>