Footnotes (continued 3)

720.

“Edatur hic aliquis sub tribunalibus vestris, quem dæmone agi constet. Jussus a quolibet Christiano loqui spiritus ille, tam se dæmonem confitebitur de vero, quam alibi deum de falso. Æque producatur aliquis ex iis qui de deo pati existimantur, qui aris inhalantes numen de nidore concipiunt ... nisi se dæmones confessi fuerint, Christiano mentiri non audentes, ibidem illius Christiani procacissimi sanguinem fundite. Quid isto opere manifestius? quid hæc probatione fidelius?”—Tert. Apol. xxiii.

721.

Apol. i.; Trypho.

722.

Cont. Cels. vii.

723.

Inst. Div. iv. 27.

724.

Life of Antony.

725.

Octavius.

726.

De Superstitione.

727.

i. 6.

728.

De Mort. Peregrin.

729.

Origen, Adv. Cels. vi. Compare the curious letter which Vopiscus (Saturninus) attributes to Hadrian, “Nemo illic [i.e. in Egypt] archisynagogus Judæorum, nemo Samarites, nemo Christianorum presbyter, non mathematicus, non aruspex, non aliptes.”

730.

“Si incantavit, si imprecatus est, si (ut vulgari verbo impostorum utor) exorcizavit.”—Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church (Oxf., 1855), vol. i. p. 318. This law is believed to have been directed specially against the Christians, because these were very prominent as exorcists, and because Lactantius (Inst. Div. v. 11) says that Ulpian had collected the laws against them.

731.

Philostorgius, Hist. Eccl. viii. 10.

732.

See Juvenal, Sat. vi. 314-335.

733.

See Juvenal, Sat. vi. 520-530.

734.

Metamorphoses, book x.

735.

See their Lives, by Lampridius and Spartianus.

736.

The conflict between St. Cyprian and the confessors, concerning the power of remitting penances claimed by the latter, though it ended in the defeat of the confessors, shows clearly the influence they had obtained.

737.

“Thura plane non emimus; si Arabiæ queruntur scient Sabæi pluris et carioris suas merces Christianis sepeliendis profligari quam diis fumigandis.”—Apol. 42. Sometimes the Pagans burnt the bodies of the martyrs, in order to prevent the Christians venerating their relics.

738.

Many interesting particulars about these commemrative festivals are collected in Cave's Primitive Christianity, part i. c. vii. The anniversaries were called “Natalia,” or birth-days.

739.

See her acts in Ruinart.

740.

St. Clem. Alex. Strom. iv. 10. There are other passages of the same kind in other Fathers.

741.

Ad Scapul. v. Eusebius (Martyrs of Palestine, ch. iii.) has given a detailed account of six young men, who in the very height of the Galerian persecution, at a time when the most hideous tortures were applied to the Christians, voluntarily gave themselves up as believers. Sulp. Severus (Hist. ii. 32), speaking of the voluntary martyrs under Diocletian, says that Christians then “longed for death as they now long for bishoprics.” “Cogi qui potest, nescit mori,” was the noble maxim of the Christians.

742.

Arrian, iv. 7. It is not certain, however, that this passage alludes to the Christians. The followers of Judas of Galilee were called Galilæans, and they were famous for their indifference to death. See Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 1.

743.

xi. 3.

744.

Peregrinus.

745.

Zosimus.

746.

“Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?—yea, I hate them with a perfect hatred.”

747.

See Renan's Apôtres, p. 314.

748.

M. Pressensé very truly says of the Romans, “Leur religion était essentiellement un art—l'art de découvrir les desseins des dieux et d'agir sur eux par des rites variés.”—Hist. des Trois premiers Siècles, tome i. p. 192. Montesquieu has written an interesting essay on the political nature of the Roman religion.

749.

Sueton. Claud. xxv.

750.

Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 31.

751.

Tacit. De Orat. xxxv.; Aul. Gell. Noct. xv. 11. It would appear, from this last authority, that the rhetoricians were twice expelled.

752.

Dion Cassius, lii. 36. Most historians believe that this speech represents the opinions, not of the Augustan age, but of the age of the writer who relates it.

753.

On the hostility of Vespasian to philosophers, see Xiphilin, lxvi. 13; on that of Domitian, the Letters of Pliny and the Agricola of Tacitus.

754.

See a remarkable passage in Dion Chrysostom, Or. lxxx. De Libertate.

755.

Cic. De Legib. ii. 11; Tertull. Apol. v.

756.

Livy, iv. 30

757.

Val. Maximus, i. 3, § 1.

758.

Livy, xxv. 1.

759.

Val. Max. i. 3, § 2.

760.

See the account of these proceedings, and of the very remarkable speech of Postumius, in Livy, xxxix. 8-19. Postumius notices the old prohibition of foreign rites, and thus explains it:—“Judicabant enim prudentissimi viri omnis divini humanique juris, nihil æque dissolvendæ religionis esse, quam ubi non patrio sed externo ritu sacrificaretur.” The Senate, though suppressing these rites on account of the outrageous immoralities connected with them, decreed, that if any one thought it a matter of religious duty to perform religious ceremonies to Bacchus, he should be allowed to do so on applying for permission to the Senate, provided there were not more than five assistants, no common purse, and no presiding priest.

761.

Val. Max. i. 3.

762.

See Dion Cassius, xl. 47; xlii. 26; xlvii. 15; liv. 6.

763.

Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 3.

764.

Tacit. Annal. ii. 85.

765.

Tacitus relates (Ann. xi. 15) that under Claudius a senatus consultus ordered the pontiffs to take care that the old Roman (or, more properly, Etruscan) system of divination was observed, since the influx of foreign superstitions had led to its disuse; but it does not appear that this measure was intended to interfere with any other form of worship.

766.

“Sacrosanctam istam civitatem accedo.”—Apuleius, Metam. lib. x. It is said that there were at one time no less than 420 ædes sacræ in Rome. Nieupoort, De Ritibus Romanorum (1716), p. 276.

767.

Euseb. Præp. Evang. iv. 1. Fontenelle says very truly, “Il y a lieu de croire que chez les payens la religion n'estoit qu'une pratique, dont la spéculation estoit indifférente. Faites comme les autres et croyez ce qu'il vous plaira.”—Hist. des Oracles, p. 95. It was a saying of Tiberius, that it is for the gods to care for the injuries done to them: “Deorum injurias diis curæ.”—Tacit. Annal. i. 73.

768.

The most melancholy modern instance I remember is a letter of Hume to a young man who was thinking of taking orders, but who, in the course of his studies, became a complete sceptic. Hume strongly advised him not to allow this consideration to interfere with his career (Burton, Life of Hume, vol. ii. pp. 187, 188.) The utilitarian principles of the philosopher were doubtless at the root of his judgment.

769.

De Divinat. ii. 33; De Nat. Deor. ii. 3.

770.

“Quæ omnia sapiens servabit tanquam legibus jussa non tanquam diis grata.... Meminerimus cultum ejus magis ad morem quam ad rem pertinere.”—St. Aug. De Civ. Dei, vi. 10. St. Augustine denounces this view with great power. See, too, Lactantius. Inst. Div. ii. 3.

771.

Enchirid. xxxi.

772.

This is noticed by Philo.

773.

The ship in which the atheist Diagoras sailed was once nearly wrecked by a tempest, and the sailors declared that it was a just retribution from the gods because they had received the philosopher into their vessel. Diagoras, pointing to the other ships that were tossed by the same storm, asked whether they imagined there was a Diagoras in each. (Cic. De Nat. Deor. iii. 37.)

774.

The vestal Oppia was put to death because the diviners attributed to her unchastity certain “prodigies in the heavens,” that had alarmed the people at the beginning of the war with Veii. (Livy, ii. 42.) The vestal Urbinia was buried alive on account of a plague that had fallen upon the Roman women, which was attributed to her incontinence, and which is said to have ceased suddenly upon her execution. (Dion. Halicar. ix.)

775.

Pliny, in his famous letter to Trajan about the Christians, notices that this had been the case in Bithynia.

776.

Tert. Apol. xl. See, too, Cyprian, contra Demetrian., and Arnobius, Apol. lib. i.

777.

St. Aug. De Civ. Dei, ii. 3.

778.

Instances of this kind are given by Tertullian Ad Scapulam, and the whole treatise On the Deaths of the Persecutors, attributed to Lactantius, is a development of the same theory. St. Cyprian's treatise against Demetrianus throws much light on the mode of thought of the Christians of his time. In the later historians, anecdotes of adversaries of the Church dying horrible deaths became very numerous. They were said especially to have been eaten by worms. Many examples of this kind are collected by Jortin. (Remarks on Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p. 432.)

779.

“It is remarkable, in all the proclamations and documents which Eusebius assigns to Constantine, some even written by his own hand, how, almost exclusively, he dwells on this worldly superiority of the God adored by the Christians over those of the heathens, and the visible temporal advantages which attend on the worship of Christianity. His own victory, and the disasters of his enemies, are his conclusive evidences of Christianity.”—Milman, Hist. of Early Christianity (ed. 1867), vol. ii. p. 327. “It was a standing argument of Athanasius, that the death of Arius was a sufficient refutation of his heresy.”—Ibid. p. 382.

780.

Socrates, Eccl. Hist., vii. 30.

781.

Greg. Tur. ii. 30, 31. Clovis wrote to St. Avitus, “Your faith is our victory.”

782.

Milman's Latin Christianity (ed. 1867), vol. ii. pp. 236-245.

783.

Ibid. vol. iii. p. 248.

784.

Ep. xl.

785.

“An diutius perferimus mutari temporum vices, irata cœli temperie? Quæ Paganorum exacerbata perfidia nescit naturæ libramenta servare. Unde enim ver solitam gratiam abjuravit? unde æstas, messe jejuna, laboriosum agricolam in spe destituit aristarum? unde hyemis intemperata ferocitas uberitatem terrarum penetrabili frigore sterilitatis læsione damnavit? nisi quod ad impietatis vindictam transit lege sua naturæ decretum.”—Novell. lii. Theodos. De Judæis, Samaritanis, et Hæreticis.

786.

Milman's Latin Christianity vol. ii. p. 354.

787.

Démonomanie des Sorciers, p. 152.

788.

See a curious instance in Bayle's Dictionary, art. “Vergerius.”

789.

Pliny, Ep. x. 43. Trajan noticed that Nicomedia was peculiarly turbulent. On the edict against the hetæriæ, or associations, see Ep. x. 97.

790.

All the apologists are full of these charges. The chief passages have been collected in that very useful and learned work, Kortholt, De Calumniis contra Christianos. (Cologne, 1683.)

791.

Justin Martyr tells us it was the brave deaths of the Christians that converted him. (Apol. ii. 12.)

792.

Peregrinus.

793.

Ep. x. 97.

794.

Ep. ii.

795.

Juvenal describes the popular estimate of the Jews:— “Tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine Moses; Non monstrare vias, eadem nisi sacra colenti, Quæsitum ad fontem solos deducere verpos.” Sat. xix. 102-105. It is not true that the Mosaic law contains these precepts.

796.

See Merivale's Hist. of Rome, vol. viii. p. 176.

797.

See Justin Martyr, Trypho, xvii.

798.

Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 26.

799.

Eusebius expressly notices that the licentiousness of the sect of Carpocrates occasioned calumnies against the whole of the Christian body. (iv. 7.) A number of passages from the Fathers describing the immorality of these heretics are referred to by Cave, Primitive Christianity, part ii. ch. v.

800.

Epiphanius, Adv. Hær. lib. i. Hær. 26. The charge of murdering children, and especially infants, occupies a very prominent place among the recriminations of religionists. The Pagans, as we have seen, brought it against the Christians, and the orthodox against some of the early heretics. The Christians accused Julian of murdering infants for magical purposes, and the bed of the Orontes was said to have been choked with their bodies. The accusation was then commonly directed against the Jews, against the witches, and against the mid-wives, who were supposed to be in confederation with the witches.

801.

See an example in Eusebius, iii. 32. After the triumph of Christianity the Arian heretics appear to have been accustomed to bring accusations of immorality against the Catholics. They procured the deposition of St. Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch, by suborning a prostitute to accuse him of being the father of her child. The woman afterwards, on her death-bed, confessed the imposture. (Theodor. Hist. i. 21-22.) They also accused St. Athanasius of murder and unchastity, both of which charges he most triumphantly repelled. (Ibid. i. 30.)

802.

The great exertions and success of the Christians in making female converts is indignantly noticed by Celsus (Origen) and by the Pagan interlocutor in Minucius Felix (Octavius), and a more minute examination of ecclesiastical history amply confirms their statements. I shall have in a future chapter to revert to this matter. Tertullian graphically describes the anger of a man he knew, at the conversion of his wife, and declares he would rather have had her “a prostitute than a Christian.” (Ad Nationes, i. 4.) He also mentions a governor of Cappadocia, named Herminianus, whose motive for persecuting the Christians was his anger at the conversion of his wife, and who, in consequence of his having persecuted, was devoured by worms. (Ad Scapul. 3.)

803.

“Matronarum Auriscalpius.” The title was given to Pope St. Damasus. See Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 27. Ammianus Marcellinus notices (xxvii. 3) the great wealth the Roman bishops of his time had acquired through the gifts of women. Theodoret (Hist. Eccl. ii. 17) gives a curious account of the energetic proceedings of the Roman ladies upon the exile of Pope Liberius.

804.

Conj. Præcept. This passage has been thought to refer to the Christians; if so, it is the single example of its kind in the writings of Plutarch.

805.

Pliny, in his letter on the Christians, notices that their assemblies were before daybreak. Tertullian and Minucius Felix speak frequently of the “nocturnes convocationes,” or “nocturnes congregationes” of the Christians. The following passage, which the last of these writers puts into the mouth of a Pagan, describes forcibly the popular feeling about the Christians: “Qui de ultima fæce collectis imperitioribus et mulieribus credulis sexus sui facilitate labentibus, plebem profanæ conjurationis instituunt: quæ nocturnis congregationibus et jejuniis solennibus et inhumanis cibis non sacro quodam sed piaculo fœderantur, latebrosa et lucifugax natio, in publico muta, in angulis garrula; templa ut busta despiciunt, deos despuunt, rident sacra.”—Octavius. Tertullian, in exhorting the Christian women not to intermarry with Pagans, gives as one reason that they would not permit them to attend this “nightly convocation.” (Ad Uxorem, ii. 4.) This whole chapter is a graphic but deeply painful picture of the utter impossibility of a Christian woman having any real community of feeling with a “servant of the devil.”

806.

De Civ. Dei, xix. 23.

807.

The policy of the Romans with reference to magic has been minutely traced by Maury, Hist. de la Magie. Dr. Jeremie conjectures that the exorcisms of the Christians may have excited the antipathy of Marcus Aurelius, he, as I have already noticed, being a disbeliever on this subject. (Jeremie, Hist. of Church in the Second and Third Cent. p. 26.) But this is mere conjecture.

808.

See the picture of the sentiments of the Pagans on this matter, in Plutarch's noble Treatise on Superstition.

809.

Thus Justin Martyr: “Since sensation remains in all men who have been in existence, and everlasting punishment is in store, do not hesitate to believe, and be convinced that what I say is true.... This Gehenna is a place where all will be punished who live unrighteously, and who believe not that what God has taught through Christ will come to pass.”—Apol. 1. 18-19. Arnobius has stated very forcibly the favourite argument of many later theologians: “Cum ergo hæc sit conditio futurorum ut teneri et comprehendi nullius possint anticipationis attactu: nonne purior ratio est, ex duobus incertis et in ambigua expectatione pendentibus, id potius credere quod aliquas spes ferat, quam omnino quod nullas? In illo enim periculi nihil est, si quod dicitur imminere cassum fiat et vacuum. In hoc damnum est maximum.”—Adv. Gentes, lib. i

810.

The continual enforcement of the duty of belief, and the credulity of the Christians, were perpetually dwelt on by Celsus and Julian. According to the first, it was usual for them to say, “Do not examine, but believe only.” According to the latter, “the sum of their wisdom was comprised in this single precept, believe.” The apologists frequently notice this charge of credulity as brought against the Christians, and some famous sentences of Tertullian go far to justify it. See Middleton's Free Enquiry, Introd. pp. xcii, xciii.

811.

See the graphic picture of the agony of terror manifested by the apostates as they tottered to the altar at Alexandria, in the Decian persecution, in Dionysius apud Eusebius, vi. 41. Miraculous judgments (often, perhaps, the natural consequence of this extreme fear) were said to have frequently fallen upon the apostates. St. Cyprian has preserved a number of these in his treatise De Lapsis. Persons, when excommunicated, were also said to have been sometimes visibly possessed by devils. See Church, On Miraculous Powers in the First Three Centuries, pp. 52-54.

812.

“Si quis aliquid fecerit, quo leves hominum animi superstitione numinis terrerentur, Divus Marcus hujusmodi homines in insulam relegari rescripsit,” Dig. xlviii. tit. 19, l. 30.

813.

A number of instances have been recorded, in which the punishment of the Christians was due to their having broken idols, overturned altars, or in other ways insulted the Pagans at their worship. The reader may find many examples of this collected in Cave's Primitive Christianity, part i. c. v.; Kortholt, De Calumniis contra Christianos; Barbeyrac, Morale des Pères, c. xvii.; Tillemont, Mém. ecclésiast. tome vii. pp. 354-355; Ceillier, Hist. des Auteurs sacrés, tome iii. pp. 531-533. The Council of Illiberis found it necessary to make a canon refusing the title of “martyr” to those who were executed for these offences.

814.

The first of these anecdotes is told by St. Jerome, the second by St. Clement of Alexandria, the third by St. Irenæus.

815.

The severe discipline of the early Church on this point has been amply treated in Marshall's Penitential Discipline of the Primitive Church (first published in 1714, but reprinted in the library of Anglo-Catholic theology), and in Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, vol. vi. (Oxford, 1855). The later saints continually dwelt upon this duty of separation. Thus, “St. Théodore de Phermé disoit, que quand une personne dont nous étions amis estoit tombée dans la fornication, nous devions luy donner la main et faire notre possible pour le relever; mais que s'il estoit tombé dans quelque erreur contre la foi, et qu'il ne voulust pas s'en corriger après les premières remonstrances, il falloit l'abandonner promptement et rompre toute amitié avec luy, de peur qu'en nous amusant à le vouloir retirer de ce gouffre, il ne nous y entraînast nous-mêmes.”—Tillemont, Mém. Ecclés. tome xii. p. 367.

816.

“Habere jam non potest Deum patrem qui ecclesiam non habet matrem. Si potuit evadere quisquam qui extra arcam Noe fuit, et qui extra ecclesiam foris fuerit evadit ... hanc unitatem qui non tenet ... vitam non tenet et salutem ... esse martyr non potest qui in ecclesia non est.... Cum Deo manere non possunt qui esse in ecclesia Dei unanimes noluerunt. Ardeant licet flammis et ignibus traditi, vel objecti bestiis animas suas ponunt, non erit illa fidei corona, sed pœna perfidiæ, nec religiosæ virtutis exitus gloriosus sed desperationis interitus. Occidi talis potest, coronari non potest. Sic se Christianum esse profitetur quo modo et Christum diabolus sæpe mentitur.”—Cyprian, De Unit. Eccles.

817.

Eusebius, v. 16.

818.

Confess. iii. 11. She was afterwards permitted by a special revelation to sit at the same table with her son!

819.

Ep. xl.

820.

Ep. xviii.

821.

Tertull. De Corona.

822.

Milman's Hist. of Christianity, vol. ii. pp. 116-125. It is remarkable that the Serapeum of Alexandria was, in the Sibylline books, specially menaced with destruction.

823.

Eunapius, Lives of the Sophists. Eunapius gives an extremely pathetic account of the downfall of this temple. There is a Christian account in Theodoret (v. 22). Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, was the leader of the monks. The Pagans, under the guidance of a philosopher named Olympus, made a desperate effort to defend their temple. The whole story is very finely told by Dean Milman. (Hist. of Christianity, vol. iii. pp. 68-72.)

824.

Apology, v. The overwhelming difficulties attending this assertion are well stated by Gibbon, ch. xvi. Traces of this fable may be found in Justin Martyr. The freedom of the Christian worship at Rome appears not only from the unanimity with which Christian writers date their troubles from Nero, but also from the express statement in Acts xxviii. 31.

825.

“Judæos, impulsore Chresto, assidue tumultuantes, Roma expulit.”—Sueton. Claud. xxv. This banishment of the Jews is mentioned in Acts xviii. 2, but is not there connected in any way with Christianity. A passage in Dion Cassius (lx. 6) is supposed to refer to the same transaction. Lactantius notices that the Pagans were accustomed to call Christus, Chrestus: “Eum immutata litera Chrestum solent dicere.”—Div. Inst. iv. 7.

826.

This persecution is fully described by Tacitus (Annal. xv. 44), and briefly noticed by Suetonius (Nero, xvi.).

827.

This has been a matter of very great controversy. Looking at the question apart from direct testimony, it appears improbable that a persecution directed against the Christians on the charge of having burnt Rome, should have extended to Christians who did not live near Rome. On the other hand, it has been argued that Tacitus speaks of them as “haud perinde in crimine incendii, quam odio humani generis convicti;” and it has been maintained that “hatred of the human race” was treated as a crime, and punished in the provinces. But this is, I think, extremely far-fetched; and it is evident from the sequel that the Christians at Rome were burnt as incendiaries, and that it was the conviction that they were not guilty of that crime that extorted the pity which Tacitus notices. There is also no reference in Tacitus to any persecution beyond the walls. If we pass to the Christian evidence, a Spanish inscription referring to the Neronian persecution, which was once appealed to as decisive, is now unanimously admitted to be a forgery. In the fourth century, however, Sulp. Severus (lib. ii.) and Orosius (Hist. vii. 7) declared that general laws condemnatory of Christianity were promulgated by Nero; but the testimony of credulous historians who wrote so long after the event is not of much value. Rossi, however, imagines that a fragment of an inscription found at Pompeii indicates a general law against Christians. See his Bulletino d'Archeologia Cristiana (Roma, Dec. 1865), which, however, should be compared with the very remarkable Compte rendu of M. Aubé, Acad. des Inscrip. et Belles-lettres, Juin 1866. These two papers contain an almost complete discussion of the persecutions of Nero and Domitian. Gibbon thinks it quite certain the persecution was confined to the city; Mosheim (Eccl. Hist. i. p. 71) adopts the opposite view, and appeals to the passage in Tertullian (Ap. v.), in which he speaks of “leges istæ ... quas Trajanus ex parte frustratus est, vitando inquiri Christianos,” as implying the existence of special laws against the Christians. This passage, however, may merely refer to the general law against unauthorised religions, which Tertullian notices in this very chapter; and Pliny, in his famous letter, does not show any knowledge of the existence of special legislation about the Christians.

828.

Ecclesiastical historians maintain, but not on very strong evidence, that the Church of Rome was founded by St. Peter, a.d. 42 or 44. St. Paul came to Rome a.d. 61.

829.

On this horrible punishment see Juvenal, Sat. i. 155-157.

830.

Lactantius, in the fourth century, speaks of this opinion as still held by some “madmen” (De Mort. Persec. cap. ii.); but Sulp. Severus (Hist. lib. ii.) speaks of it as a common notion, and he says that St. Martin, when asked about the end of the world, answered, “Neronem et Antichristum prius esse venturos: Neronem in occidentali plaga regibus subactis decem, imperaturum, persecutionem autem ab eo hactenus exercendam ut idola gentium coli cogat.”—Dial. ii. Among the Pagans, the notion that Nero was yet alive lingered long, and twenty years after his death an adventurer pretending to be Nero was enthusiastically received by the Parthians (Sueton. Nero, lvii.).

831.

See the full description of it in Rossi's Bulletino d'Archeol. Crist. Dec. 1865. Eusebius (iii. 17) and Tertullian (Apol. v.) have expressly noticed the very remarkable fact that Vespasian, who was a bitter enemy to the Jews, and who exiled all the leading Stoical philosophers except Musonius, never troubled the Christians.

832.

See a pathetic letter of Pliny, lib. iii. Ep. xi. and also lib. i. Ep. v. and the Agricola of Tacitus.

833.

Euseb. iii. 20.

834.

“Præter cæteros Judaicus fiscus acerbissime actus est. Ad quem deferebantur, qui vel improfessi Judaicam intra urbem viverent vitam, vel dissimulata origine imposita genti tributa non pependissent.”—Sueton. Domit. xi. Suetonius adds that, when a young man, he saw an old man of ninety examined before a large assembly to ascertain whether he was circumcised.

835.

Euseb. iii. 18.

836.

See the accounts of these transactions in Xiphilin, the abbreviator of Dion Cassius (lxvii. 14); Euseb. iii. 17-18. Suetonius notices (Domit. xv.) that Flavius Clemens (whom he calls a man “contemptissimæ inertiæ”) was killed “ex tenuissima suspicione.” The language of Xiphilin, who says he was killed for “impiety and Jewish rites;” the express assertion of Eusebius, that it was for Christianity; and the declaration of Tertullian, that Christians were persecuted at the close of this reign, leave, I think, little doubt that this execution was connected with Christianity, though some writers have questioned it. At the same time, it is very probable, as Mr. Merivale thinks (Hist. of Rome, vol. vii. pp. 381-384), that though the pretext of the execution might have been religious, the real motive was political jealousy. Domitian had already put to death the brother of Flavius Clemens on the charge of treason. His sons had been recognised as successors to the throne, and at the time of his execution another leading noble named Glabrio was accused of having fought in the arena. Some ecclesiastical historians have imagined that there may have been two Domitillas—the wife and niece of Flavius Clemens. The islands of Pontia and Pandataria were close to one another.

837.

“Tentaverat et Domitianus, portio Neronis de crudelitate; sed qua et homo facile cœptum repressit, restitutis etiam quos relegaverat.” (Apol. 5.) It will be observed that Tertullian makes no mention of any punishment more severe than exile.

838.

Euseb. iii. 20.

839.

De Mort. Persec. iii.

840.

Xiphilin, lxviii. 1. An annotator to Mosheim conjectures that the edict may have been issued just before the death of the emperor, but not acted on till after it.

841.

Euseb. iv. 26. The whole of this apology has been recently recovered, and translated into Latin by M. Renan in the Spicilegium Solesmense.

842.

Apol. 5.

843.

Lactant. De Mort. Persec. 3-4.

844.

Pliny, Ep. x. 97-98.

845.

Euseb. lib. iii.

846.

There is a description of this earthquake in Merivale's Hist. of the Romans, vol. viii. pp. 155-156. Orosius (Hist. vii. 12) thought it was a judgment on account of the persecution of the Christians.

847.

Eusebius, iv. 8-9. See, too, Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 68-69.

848.

This is mentioned incidentally by Lampridius in his Life of A. Severus.

849.

See this very curious letter in Vopiscus, Saturninus.

850.

Justin Mart. Ap. i. 31. Eusebius quotes a passage from Hegesippus to the same effect. (iv. 8.)

851.

“Præcepitque ne cui Judæo introeundi Hierosolymam esset licentia, Christianis tantum civitate permissa.”—Oros. vii. 13.

852.

A letter which Eusebius gives at full (iv. 13), and ascribes to Antoninus Pius, has created a good deal of controversy. Justin Mart. (Apol. i. 71) and Tertullian (Apol. 5) ascribe it to Marcus Aurelius. It is now generally believed to be a forgery by a Christian hand, being more like a Christian apology than the letter of a Pagan emperor. St. Melito, however, writing to Marcus Aurelius, expressly states that Antoninus had written a letter forbidding the persecution of Christians. (Euseb. iv. 26.)

853.

It is alluded to by Minucius Felix.

854.

Eusebius, iv. 16.

855.

St. Melito expressly states that the edicts of Marcus Aurelius produced the Asiatic persecution.

856.

Eusebius, iv. 15.

857.

See the most touching and horrible description of this persecution in a letter written by the Christians of Lyons, in Eusebius, v. 1.

858.

Sulpicius Severus (who was himself a Gaul) says of their martyrdom (H. E., lib. ii.), “Tum primum intra Gallias Martyria visa, serius trans Alpes Dei religione suscepta.” Tradition ascribes Gallic Christianity to the apostles, but the evidence of inscriptions appears to confirm the account of Severus. It is at least certain that Christianity did not acquire a great extension till later. The earliest Christian inscriptions found are (one in each year) of a.d. 334, 347, 377, 405, and 409. They do not become common till the middle of the fifth century. See a full discussion of this in the preface of M. Le Blant's admirable and indeed exhaustive work, Inscriptions Chrétiennes de la Gaule.

859.

It was alleged among the Christians, that towards the close of his reign Marcus Aurelius issued an edict protecting the Christians, on account of a Christian legion having, in Germany, in a moment of great distress, procured a shower of rain by their prayers. (Tert. Apol. 5.) The shower is mentioned by Pagan as well as Christian writers, and is portrayed on the column of Antoninus. It was “ascribed to the incantations of an Egyptian magician, to the prayers of a legion of Christians, or to the favour of Jove towards the best of mortals, according to the various prejudices of different observers.”—Merivale's Hist. of Rome, vol. viii. p. 338.

860.

Xiphilin, lxxii. 4. The most atrocious of the Pagan persecutions was attributed, as we shall see, to the mother of Galerius, and in Christian times the Spanish Inquisition was founded by Isabella the Catholic; the massacre of St. Bartholomew was chiefly due to Catherine of Medicis, and the most horrible English persecution to Mary Tudor.

861.

Euseb. v. 21. The accuser, we learn from St. Jerome, was a slave. On the law condemning slaves who accused their masters, compare Pressensé, Hist. des Trois premiers Siècles (2me série), tome i. pp. 182-183, and Jeremie's Church History of Second and Third Centuries, p. 29. Apollonius was of senatorial rank. It is said that some other martyrs died at the same time.

862.

“Judæos fieri sub gravi pœna vetuit. Idem etiam de Christianis sanxit.”—Spartian. S. Severus. The persecution is described by Eusebius, lib. vi. Tertullian says Severus was favourable to the Christians, a Christian named Proculus (whom he, in consequence, retained in the palace till his death) having cured him of an illness by the application of oil. (Ad Scapul. 4.)

863.

“Of the persecution under Severus there are few, if any, traces in the West. It is confined to Syria, perhaps to Cappadocia, to Egypt, and to Africa, and in the latter provinces appears as the act of hostile governors proceeding upon the existing laws, rather than the consequence of any recent edict of the emperor.”—Milman's Hist. of Christianity, vol. ii. pp. 156-157.

864.

Adv. Cels. iii. See Gibbon, ch. xvi.

865.

Eusebius, vi. 28.

866.

Lampridius, A. Severus. The historian adds, “Judæis privilegia reservavit. Christianos esse passus est.”

867.

Compare Milman's History of Early Christianity (1867), vol. ii. p. 188, and his History of Latin Christianity (1867), vol. i. pp. 26-59. There are only two cases of alleged martyrdom before this time that can excite any reasonable doubt. Irenæus distinctly asserts that Telesphorus was martyred; but his martyrdom is put in the beginning of the reign of Antoninus Pius (he had assumed the mitre near the end of the reign of Hadrian), and Antoninus is represented, by the general voice of the Church, as perfectly free from the stain of persecution. A tradition, which is in itself sufficiently probable, states that Pontianus, having been exiled by Maximinus, was killed in banishment.

868.

Tacitus has a very ingenious remark on this subject, which illustrates happily the half-scepticism of the Empire. After recounting a number of prodigies that were said to have taken place in the reign of Otho, he remarks that these were things habitually noticed in the ages of ignorance, but now only noticed in periods of terror. “Rudibus sæculis etiam in pace observata, quæ nunc tantum in metu audiuntur.”—Hist. i. 86.

869.

M. de Champagny has devoted an extremely beautiful chapter (Les Antonins, tome ii. pp. 179-200) to the liberty of the Roman Empire. See, too, the fifty-fourth chapter of Mr. Merivale's History. It is the custom of some of the apologists for modern Cæsarism to defend it by pointing to the Roman Empire as the happiest period in human history. No apology can be more unfortunate. The first task of a modern despot is to centralise to the highest point, to bring every department of thought and action under a system of police regulation, and, above all, to impose his shackling tyranny upon the human mind. The very perfection of the Roman Empire was, that the municipal and personal liberty it admitted had never been surpassed, and the intellectual liberty had never been equalled.

870.

Sueton. Aug. xxxi. It appears from a passage in Livy (xxxix. 16) that books of oracles had been sometimes burnt in the Republic.

871.

Tacitus has given us a very remarkable account of the trial of Cremutius Cordus, under Tiberius, for having published a history in which he had praised Brutus and called Cassius the last of Romans. (Annal. iv. 34-35.) He expressly terms this “novo ac tunc primum audito crimine,” and he puts a speech in the mouth of the accused, describing the liberty previously accorded to writers. Cordus avoided execution by suicide. His daughter, Marcia, preserved some copies of his work, and published it in the reign and with the approbation of Caligula. (Senec. Ad. Marc. 1; Suet. Calig. 16.) There are, however, some traces of an earlier persecution of letters. Under the sanction of a law of the decemvirs against libellers, Augustus exiled the satiric writer Cassius Severus, and he also destroyed the works of an historian named Labienus, on account of their seditious sentiments. These writings were re-published with those of Cordus. Generally, however, Augustus was very magnanimous in his dealings with his assailants. He refused the request of Tiberius to punish them (Suet. Aug. 51), and only excluded from his palace Timagenes, who bitterly satirised both him and the empress, and proclaimed himself everywhere the enemy of the emperor. (Senec. De Ira, iii. 23.) A similar magnanimity was shown by most of the other emperors; among others, by Nero. (Suet. Nero, 39.) Under Vespasian, however, a poet, named Maternus, was obliged to retouch a tragedy on Cato (Tacit. De Or. 2-3), and Domitian allowed no writings opposed to his policy. (Tacit. Agric.) But no attempt appears to have been made in the Empire to control religious writings till the persecution of Diocletian, who ordered the Scriptures to be burnt. The example was speedily followed by the Christian emperors. The writings of Arius were burnt in a.d. 321, those of Porphyry in a.d. 388. Pope Gelasius, in a.d. 496, drew up a list of books which should not be read, and all liberty of publication speedily became extinct. See on this subject Peignot, Essai historique sur la Liberté d'Écrire; Villemain, Études de Littèr. ancienne; Sir C. Lewis on the Credibility of Roman Hist. vol. i. p. 52; Nadal, Mémoire sur la liberté qu'avoient les soldats romains de dire des vers satyriques contre ceux qui triomphoient (Paris 1725).

872.

See a collection of passages on this point in Pressensé, Hist. des Trois premiers Siècles (2me série), tome i. pp. 3-4.

873.

Trypho.

874.

Apol. xxxvii.

875.

Euseb. vi. 43.

876.

Eusebius, it is true, ascribes this persecution (vi. 39) to the hatred Decius bore to his predecessor Philip, who was very friendly to the Christians. But although such a motive might account for a persecution like that of Maximin, which was directed chiefly against the bishops who had been about the Court of Severus, it is insufficient to account for a persecution so general and so severe as that of Decius. It is remarkable that this emperor is uniformly represented by the Pagan historians as an eminently wise and humane sovereign. See Dodwell, De Paucitate Martyrum, lii.

877.

St. Cyprian (Ep. vii.) and, at a later period, St. Jerome (Vit. Pauli), both notice that during this persecution the desire of the persecutors was to subdue the constancy of the Christians by torture, without gratifying their desire for martyrdom. The consignment of Christian virgins to houses of ill fame was one of the most common incidents in the later acts of martyrs which were invented in the middle ages. Unhappily, however, it must be acknowledged that there are some undoubted traces of it at an earlier date. Tertullian, in a famous passage, speaks of the cry “Ad Lenonem” as substituted for that of “Ad Leonem;” and St. Ambrose recounts some strange stories on this subject in his treatise De Virginibus.

878.

St. Cyprian has drawn a very highly coloured picture of this general corruption, and of the apostasy it produced, in his treatise De Lapsis, a most interesting picture of the society of his time. See, too, the Life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, by Greg. of Nyssa.

879.

“La persécution de Dèce ne dura qu'environ un an dans sa grande violence. Car S. Cyprien, dans les lettres écrites en 251, dès devant Pasque, et mesme dans quelques-unes écrites apparemment dès la fin de 250, témoigne que son église jouissoit déjà de quelque paix, mais d'une paix encore peu affermie, en sorte que le moindre accident eust pu renouveler le trouble et la persécution. Il semble mesme que l'on n'eust pas encore la liberté d'y tenir les assemblées, et néanmoins il paroist que tous les confesseurs prisonniers à Carthage y avoient esté mis en liberté dès ce temps-là.”—Tillemont, Mém. d'Hist. ecclésiastique, tome iii. p. 324.

880.

Dionysius the bishop wrote a full account of it, which Eusebius has preserved (vi. 41-42). In Alexandria, Dionysius says, the persecution produced by popular fanaticism preceded the edict of Decius by an entire year. He has preserved a particular catalogue of all who were put to death in Alexandria during the entire Decian persecution. They were seventeen persons. Several of these were killed by the mob, and their deaths were in nearly all cases accompanied by circumstances of extreme atrocity. Besides these, others (we know not how many) had been put to torture. Many, Dionysius says, perished in other cities or villages of Egypt.

881.

See St. Cyprian, Ep. viii.

882.

There was much controversy at this time as to the propriety of bishops evading persecution by flight. The Montanists maintained that such a conduct was equivalent to apostasy. Tertullian had written a book, De Fuga in Persecutione, maintaining this view; and among the orthodox the conduct of St. Cyprian (who afterwards nobly attested his courage by his death) did not escape animadversion. The more moderate opinion prevailed, but the leading bishops found it necessary to support their conduct by declaring that they had received special revelations exhorting them to fly. St. Cyprian, who constantly appealed to his dreams to justify him in his controversies (see some curious instances collected in Middleton's Free Enquiry, pp. 101-105), declared (Ep. ix.), and his biographer and friend Pontius re-asserted (Vit. Cyprianis), that his flight was “by the command of God.” Dionysius, the Bishop of Alexandria, asserts the same thing of his own flight, and attests it by an oath (see his own words in Euseb. vi. 40); and the same thing was afterwards related of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. (See his Life by Gregory of Nyssa.)

883.

“E veramente che almeno fino dal secolo terzo i fedeli abbiano posseduto cimiteri a nome commune, e che il loro possesso sia stato riconosciuto dagl' imperatori, è cosa impossibile a negare.”—Rossi, Roma Sotterranea, tomo i. p. 103.

884.

This is all fully discussed by Rossi, Roma Sotterranea, tomo i. pp. 101-108. Rossi thinks the Church, in its capacity of burial society, was known by the name of “ecclesia fratrum.”

885.

See, on the history of early Christian Churches, Cave's Primitive Christianity, part i. c. vi.

886.

Dodwell (De Paucit. Martyr. lvii.) has collected evidence of the subsidence of the persecution in the last year of the reign of Decius.

887.

This persecution is not noticed by St. Jerome, Orosius, Sulpicius Severus, or Lactantius. The very little we know about it is derived from the letters of St. Cyprian, and from a short notice by Dionysius of Alexandria, in Eusebius, vii. 1. Dionysius says, Gallus began the persecution when his reign was advancing prosperously, and his affairs succeeding, which probably means, after he had procured the departure of the Goths from the Illyrian province, early in a.d. 252 (see Gibbon, chap. x.). The disastrous position into which affairs had been thrown by the defeat of Decius appears, at first, to have engrossed his attention.

888.

Lucius was at first exiled and then permitted to return, on which occasion St. Cyprian wrote him a letter of congratulation (Ep. lvii.). He was, however, afterwards re-arrested and slain, but it is not, I think, clear whether it was under Gallus or Valerian. St. Cyprian speaks (Ep. lxvi.) of both Cornelius and Lucius as martyred. The emperors were probably at this time beginning to realise the power the Bishops of Rome possessed. We know hardly anything of the Decian persecution at Rome except the execution of the bishop; and St. Cyprian says (Ep. li.) that Decius would have preferred a pretender to the throne to a Bishop of Rome.

889.

Dionysius, Archbishop of Alexandria; see Euseb. vii. 10.

890.

Eusebius, vii. 10-12; Cyprian, Ep. lxxxi. Lactantius says of Valerian, “Multum quamvis brevi tempore justi sanguinis fudit.”—De Mort. Persec. c. v.

891.

Cyprian. Ep. lxxxi.

892.

See his Life by the deacon Pontius, which is reproduced by Gibbon.

893.

Eusebius, vii. 13.

894.

Tertullian had before, in a curious passage, spoken of the impossibility of Christian Cæsars. “Sed et Cæsares credidissent super Christo si aut Cæsares non essent seculo necessarii, aut si et Christiani potuissent esse Cæsares.”—Apol. xxi.

895.

Contra Demetrianum.

896.

Eusebius, vii. 30. Aurelian decided that the cathedral at Antioch should be given up to whoever was appointed by the bishops of Italy.

897.

Compare the accounts in Eusebius, vii. 30, and Lactantius, De Mort. c. vi.

898.

See the forcible and very candid description of Eusebius, viii. 1.

899.

This is noticed by Optatus.

900.

See the vivid pictures in Lact. De Mort. Persec.

901.

Lactant. De Mort. Persec. 15.

902.

Eusebius, viii.

903.

These incidents are noticed by Eusebius in his History, and in his Life of Constantine, and by Lactantius, De Mort. Persec.

904.

“Italy, Sicily, Gaul, and whatever parts extend towards the West,—Spain, Mauritania, and Africa.”—Euseb. Mart. Palest. ch. xiii. But in Gaul, as I have said, the persecution had not extended beyond the destruction of churches; in these provinces the persecution, Eusebius says, lasted not quite two years.

905.

The history of this persecution is given by Eusebius, Hist. lib. viii., in his work on the Martyrs of Palestine, and in Lactantius, De Mort. Persec. The persecution in Palestine was not quite continuous: in a.d. 308 it had almost ceased; it then revived fiercely, but at the close of a.d. 309, and in the beginning of a.d. 310, there was again a short lull, apparently due to political causes. See Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. (edited by Soames), vol. i. pp. 286-287.

906.

Eusebius.

907.

See two passages, which Gibbon justly calls remarkable. (H. E. viii. 2; Martyrs of Palest. ch. xii.)

908.

There is one instance of a wholesale massacre which appears to rest on good authority. Eusebius asserts that, during the Diocletian persecution, a village in Phrygia, the name of which he does not mention, being inhabited entirely by Christians who refused to sacrifice, was attacked and burnt with all that were in it by the Pagan soldiery. Lactantius (Inst. Div. v. 11) confines the conflagration to a church in which the entire population was burnt; and an early Latin translation of Eusebius states that the people were first summoned to withdraw, but refused to do so. Gibbon (ch. xvi.) thinks that this tragedy took place when the decree of Diocletian ordered the destruction of the churches.

909.

Mariana (De Rebus Hispaniæ, xxiv. 17). Llorente thought this number perished in the single year 1482; but the expressions of Mariana, though he speaks of “this beginning,” do not necessarily imply this restriction. Besides these martyrs, 17,000 persons in Spain recanted, and endured punishments less than death, while great numbers fled. There does not appear to have been, in this case, either the provocation or the political danger which stimulated the Diocletian persecution.

910.

This is according to the calculation of Sarpi. Grotius estimates the victims at 100,000.—Gibbon, ch. xvi.

911.

See some curious information on this in Ticknor's Hist. of Spanish Literature (3rd American edition), vol. iii. pp. 236-237.

912.

This was the case in the persecutions at Lyons and Smyrna, under Marcus Aurelius. In the Diocletian persecution at Alexandria the populace were allowed to torture the Christians as they pleased. (Eusebius, viii. 10.)