Note 343 — Chapter XIX · THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROMAN JEWISH COMMUNITY

All the Church Fathers mention these outrageous charges. Pliny (Ep. x. 96) refers vaguely to wickednesses charged against them, but the flagitia cohaerentia nomini are more likely to be the treasonable machinations which the Christian associations were assumed to be engaged in than these foul and stupid accusations. It will be remembered that Tertullian (loc. cit.) is more eager to free the Christians from the charge of treason than of any other. Treason in this case, however, meant not sedition or rebellion, but anarchy, i.e. attempts at the destruction of the state. The attitude of medieval law toward heresy gives a good analogy.