[6] French sociologist Émile Durkheim wrote that the higher rate of Protestant suicide is likely due to the greater degree of "the spirit of free inquiry" in the various Protestant groups, whereas the Catholic church supplies its worshippers with a relatively unchanging system of faith, delivered by a hierarchy of authority.
The Donatists, an early Christian sect, contained a fanatical group named the Circumcellions who would attack strangers on the street and attain supposed martyrdom.
[9] In the fifth century, Augustine wrote The City of God, in it making Christianity's first overall condemnation of suicide.
His biblical justification for this was the interpretation of the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill", as he sees the omission of "thy neighbor", which is included in "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor", to mean that the killing of oneself is not allowed either.
In the sixth century AD, suicide became a secular crime and began to be viewed as sinful.
In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas denounced suicide as an act against God and as a sin for which one could not repent.
[17] In 1992, Pope John Paul II promulgated the new Catechism of the Catholic Church, which acknowledged the role that mental illnesses may play in suicide.