Chapter XVI * Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To Constantine.

Part I.

The Conduct Of The Roman Government Towards The Christians, From The Reign Of Nero ToThat Of Constantine.

If we seriously consider the purity of the Christian religion, the sanctity of its moral precepts,and the innocent as well as austere lives of the greater number of those who during the first ages embraced the faith of the gospel, we should naturally suppose, that so benevolent a doctrine would have been received with due reverence, even by the unbelieving world; that the learned and the polite, however they may deride the miracles, would have esteemed the virtues, of the new sect; and that the magistrates, instead of persecuting, would have protected an order of men who yielded the most passive obedience to the laws, though they declined the active cares of war and government. If, on the other hand, we recollect the universal toleration of Polytheism, as it was invariably maintained by the faith of the people, the incredulity of philosophers, and the policy of the Roman senate and emperors, we are at a loss to discover what new offence the Christians had committed, what new provocation could exasperate the mild indifference of antiquity, and what new motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld without concern a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their gentle sway, to inflict a severe punishment on any part of their subjects, who had chosen for themselves a singular but an inoffensive mode of faith and worship.

The religious policy of the ancient world seems to have assumed a more stern and intolerant character, to oppose the progress of Christianity. About fourscore years after the death of Christ, his innocent disciples were punished with death by the sentence of a proconsul of the most amiable and philosophic character, and according to the laws of an emperor distinguished by the wisdom and justice of his general administration. The apologies which were repeatedly addressed to the successors of Trajan are filled with the most pathetic complaints, that the Christians, who obeyed the dictates, and solicited the liberty, of conscience, were alone, among all the subjects of the Roman empire, excluded from the common benefits of their auspicious government. The deaths of a few eminent martyrs have been recorded with care; and from the time that Christianity was invested with the supreme power, the governors of the church have been no less diligently employed in displaying the cruelty, than in imitating the conduct, of their Pagan adversaries. To separate (if it be possible) a few authentic as well as interesting facts from an undigested mass of fiction and error, and to relate, in a clear and rational manner, the causes, the extent, the duration, and the most important circumstances of the persecutions to which the first Christians were exposed, is the design of the present chapter. *

The sectaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by enthusiasm, are seldom in a proper temper of mind calmly to investigate, or candidly to appreciate, the motives of their enemies, which often escape the impartial and discerning view even of those who are placed at a secure distance from the flames of persecution. A reason has been assigned for the conduct of the emperors towards the primitive Christians, which may appear the more specious and probable as it is drawn from the acknowledged genius of Polytheism. It has already been observed, that the religious concord of the world was principally supported by the implicit assent and reverence which the nations of antiquity expressed for their respective traditions and ceremonies. It might therefore be expected, that they would unite with indignation against any sect or people which should separate itself from the communion of mankind, and claiming the exclusive possession of divine knowledge, should disdain every form of worship, except its own, as impious and idolatrous. The rights of toleration were held bymutual indulgence: they were justly forfeited by a refusal of the accustomed tribute. As the payment of this tribute was inflexibly refused by the Jews, and by them alone, the consideration of the treatment which they experienced from the Roman magistrates, will serve to explain how far these speculations are justified by facts, and will lead us to discover the true causes of the persecution of Christianity.

Without repeating what has already been mentioned of the reverence of the Roman princes and governors for the temple of Jerusalem, we shall only observe, that the destruction of the temple and city was accompanied and followed by every circumstance that could exasperate the minds of the conquerors, and authorize religious persecution by the most specious arguments of political justice and the public safety. From the reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives; and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of the legions against a race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but of human kind. The enthusiasm of the Jews was supported by the opinion, thatit was unlawful for them to pay taxes to an idolatrous master; and by the flattering promise which they derived from their ancient oracles, that a conquering Messiah would soon arise, destined to break their fetters, and to invest the favorites of heaven with the empire of the earth. It was by announcing himself as their long-expected deliverer, and by calling on all thedescendants of Abraham to assert the hope of Isræl, that the famous Barchochebas collected a formidable army, with which he resisted during two years the power of the emperor Hadrian.

Notwithstanding these repeated provocations, the resentment of the Roman princes expired after the victory; nor were their apprehensions continued beyond the period of war and danger. By the general indulgence of polytheism, and by the mild temper of Antoninus Pius, the Jews were restored to their ancient privileges, and once more obtained the permission of circumcising their children, with the easy restraint, that they should never confer on any foreign proselyte that distinguishing mark of the Hebrew race. The numerous remains of that people, though theywere still excluded from the precincts of Jerusalem, were permitted to form and to maintain considerable establishments both in Italy and in the provinces, to acquire the freedom of Rome,to enjoy municipal honors, and to obtain at the same time an exemption from the burdensomeand expensive offices of society. The moderation or the contempt of the Romans gave a legal sanction to the form of ecclesiastical police which was instituted by the vanquished sect. The patriarch, who had fixed his residence at Tiberias, was empowered to appoint his subordinate ministers and apostles, to exercise a domestic jurisdiction, and to receive from his dispersed brethren an annual contribution. New synagogues were frequently erected in the principal cities of the empire; and the sabbaths, the fasts, and the festivals, which were either commanded by the Mosaic law, or enjoined by the traditions of the Rabbis, were celebrated in the most solemn and public manner. Such gentle treatment insensibly assuaged the stern temper of the Jews. Awakened from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behavior of peaceable and industrious subjects. Their irreconcilable hatred of mankind, instead of flaming out in actsof blood and violence, evaporated in less dangerous gratifications. They embraced every opportunity of overreaching the idolaters in trade; and they pronounced secret and ambiguous imprecations against the haughty kingdom of Edom.

Since the Jews, who rejected with abhorrence the deities adored by their sovereign and by their fellow-subjects, enjoyed, however, the free exercise of their unsocial religion, there must have existed some other cause, which exposed the disciples of Christ to those severities from which the posterity of Abraham was exempt. The difference between them is simple and obvious; but, according to the sentiments of antiquity, it was of the highest importance. The Jews were anation; the Christians were a sect: and if it was natural for every community to respect the sacred institutions of their neighbors, it was incumbent on them to persevere in those of their ancestors. The voice of oracles, the precepts of philosophers, and the authority of the laws, unanimously enforced this national obligation. By their lofty claim of superior sanctity the Jews might provoke the Polytheists to consider them as an odious and impure race. By disdaining the intercourse of other nations, they might deserve their contempt. The laws of Moses might be for the most part frivolous or absurd; yet, since they had been received during many ages by a large society, his followers were justified by the example of mankind; and it was universally acknowledged, that they had a right to practise what it would have been criminal in them to neglect. But this principle, which protected the Jewish synagogue, afforded not any favor or security to the primitive church. By embracing the faith of the gospel, the Christians incurred the supposed guilt of an unnatural and unpardonable offence. They dissolved the sacred ties of custom and education, violated the religious institutions of their country, and presumptuously despised whatever their fathers had believed as true, or had reverenced as sacred. Nor was this apostasy (if we may use the expression) merely of a partial or local kind; since the pious deserter who withdrew himself from the temples of Egypt or Syria, would equally disdain to seek an asylum in those of Athens or Carthage. Every Christian rejected with contempt the superstitions of his family, his city, and his province. The whole body of Christians unanimously refused to hold any communion with the gods of Rome, of the empire, and of mankind. It was in vain that the oppressed believer asserted the inalienable rights of conscience and private judgment. Though his situation might excite the pity, his arguments could never reach the understanding, either of the philosophic or of the believing part of the Pagan world. To their apprehensions, it was no less a matter of surprise, that any individuals should entertain scruples against complying with the established mode of worship, than if they had conceived a sudden abhorrence to the manners, the dress, or the language of their native country. *

The surprise of the Pagans was soon succeeded by resentment; and the most pious of men were exposed to the unjust but dangerous imputation of impiety. Malice and prejudice concurred inrepresenting the Christians as a society of atheists, who, by the most daring attack on the religious constitution of the empire, had merited the severest animadversion of the civil magistrate. They had separated themselves (they gloried in the confession) from every mode of superstition which was received in any part of the globe by the various temper of polytheism: but it was not altogether so evident what deity, or what form of worship, they had substituted to the gods and temples of antiquity. The pure and sublime idea which they entertained of the Supreme Being escaped the gross conception of the Pagan multitude, who were at a loss to discover a spiritual and solitary God, that was neither represented under any corporeal figure or visible symbol, nor was adored with the accustomed pomp of libations and festivals, of altars and sacrifices. The sages of Greece and Rome, who had elevated their minds to the contemplationof the existence and attributes of the First Cause, were induced by reason or by vanity to reserve for themselves and their chosen disciples the privilege of this philosophical devotion. They were far from admitting the prejudices of mankind as the standard of truth, but they considered them as flowing from the original disposition of human nature; and they supposed that any popular mode of faith and worship which presumed to disclaim the assistance of the senses, would, in proportion as it receded from superstition, find itself incapable of restraining the wanderings of the fancy, and the visions of fanaticism. The careless glance which men of wit and learning condescended to cast on the Christian revelation, served only to confirm their hasty opinion, and to persuade them that the principle, which they might have revered, of the Divine Unity, was defaced by the wild enthusiasm, and annihilated by the airy speculations, of the new sectaries. The author of a celebrated dialogue, which has been attributed to Lucian, whilst he affects to treat the mysterious subject of the Trinity in a style of ridicule and contempt, betrays his own ignorance of the weakness of human reason, and of the inscrutable nature of the divine perfections.

It might appear less surprising, that the founder of Christianity should not only be revered by his disciples as a sage and a prophet, but that he should be adored as a God. The Polytheists were disposed to adopt every article of faith, which seemed to offer any resemblance, however distant or imperfect, with the popular mythology; and the legends of Bacchus, of Hercules, and of Æsculapius, had, in some measure, prepared their imagination for the appearance of the Son of God under a human form. But they were astonished that the Christians should abandon the temples of those ancient heroes, who, in the infancy of the world, had invented arts, instituted laws, and vanquished the tyrants or monsters who infested the earth, in order to choose for the exclusive object of their religious worship an obscure teacher, who, in a recent age, and among a barbarous people, had fallen a sacrifice either to the malice of his own countrymen, or to the jealousy of the Roman government. The Pagan multitude, reserving their gratitude for temporal benefits alone, rejected the inestimable present of life and immortality, which was offered to mankind by Jesus of Nazareth. His mild constancy in the midst of cruel and voluntary sufferings, his universal benevolence, and the sublime simplicity of his actions and character, were insufficient, in the opinion of those carnal men, to compensate for the want of fame, of empire, and of success; and whilst they refused to acknowledge his stupendous triumph over the powers of darkness and of the grave, they misrepresented, or they insulted, the equivocal birth,wandering life, and ignominious death, of the divine Author of Christianity.

The personal guilt which every Christian had contracted, in thus preferring his private sentiment to the national religion, was aggravated in a very high degree by the number and union of the criminals. It is well known, and has been already observed, that Roman policy viewed with the utmost jealousy and distrust any association among its subjects; and that the privileges of private corporations, though formed for the most harmless or beneficial purposes, were bestowed with a very sparing hand. The religious assemblies of the Christians who had separated themselves from the public worship, appeared of a much less innocent nature; they were illegal in their principle, and in their consequences might become dangerous; nor were the emperors conscious that they violated the laws of justice, when, for the peace of society, they prohibited those secret and sometimes nocturnal meetings. The pious disobedience of the Christians made their conduct, or perhaps their designs, appear in a much more serious and criminal light; and the Roman princes, who might perhaps have suffered themselves to be disarmed by a ready submission, deeming their honor concerned in the execution of their commands, sometimes attempted, by rigorous punishments, to subdue this independent spirit, which boldly acknowledged an authority superior to that of the magistrate. The extent and duration of this spiritual conspiracy seemed to render it everyday more deserving of his animadversion. We have already seen that the active and successful zeal of the Christians had insensibly diffused them through every province and almost every city of the empire. The new converts seemed to renounce their family and country, that they might connect themselves in an indissoluble band of union with a peculiar society, which every where assumed a different character from the rest of mankind. Their gloomy and austere aspect, their abhorrence of the common business and pleasures of life, and their frequent predictions of impending calamities, inspired the Pagans with the apprehension of some danger, which would arise from the new sect, the more alarming as it was the more obscure. "Whatever," says Pliny, "may be the principle of their conduct, their inflexible obstinacy appeared deserving of punishment."

The precautions with which the disciples of Christ performed the offices of religion were at first dictated by fear and necessity; but they were continued from choice. By imitating the awful secrecy which reigned in the Eleusinian mysteries, the Christians had flattered themselves that they should render their sacred institutions more respectable in the eyes of the Pagan world. But the event, as it often happens to the operations of subtile policy, deceived their wishes and their expectations. It was concluded, that they only concealed what they would have blushed to disclose. Their mistaken prudence afforded an opportunity for malice to invent, and for suspicious credulity to believe, the horrid tales which described the Christians as the most wicked of human kind, who practised in their dark recesses every abomination that a depraved fancy could suggest, and who solicited the favor of their unknown God by the sacrifice of every moral virtue. There were many who pretended to confess or to relate the ceremonies of this abhorred society. It was asserted, "that a new-born infant, entirely covered over with flour, was presented, like some mystic symbol of initiation, to the knife of the proselyte, who unknowingly inflicted many a secret and mortal wound on the innocent victim of his error; that as soon as the cruel deed was perpetrated, the sectaries drank up the blood, greedily tore asunder the quivering members, and pledged themselves to eternal secrecy, by a mutual consciousness of guilt. It wasas confidently affirmed, that this inhuman sacrifice was succeeded by a suitable entertainment,in which intemperance served as a provocative to brutal lust; till, at the appointed moment, thelights were suddenly extinguished, shame was banished, nature was forgotten; and, as accidentmight direct, the darkness of the night was polluted by the incestuous commerce of sisters andbrothers, of sons and of mothers."

But the perusal of the ancient apologies was sufficient to remove even the slightest suspicion from the mind of a candid adversary. The Christians, with the intrepid security of innocence, appeal from the voice of rumor to the equity of the magistrates. They acknowledge, that if any proof can be produced of the crimes which calumny has imputed to them, they are worthy of the most severe punishment. They provoke the punishment, and they challenge the proof. At thesame time they urge, with equal truth and propriety, that the charge is not less devoid of probability, than it is destitute of evidence; they ask, whether any one can seriously believe that the pure and holy precepts of the gospel, which so frequently restrain the use of the most lawful enjoyments, should inculcate the practice of the most abominable crimes; that a large society should resolve to dishonor itself in the eyes of its own members; and that a great number of persons of either sex, and every age and character, insensible to the fear of death or infamy, should consent to violate those principles which nature and education had imprinted most deeply in their minds. Nothing, it should seem, could weaken the force or destroy the effect of so unanswerable a justification, unless it were the injudicious conduct of the apologists themselves, who betrayed the common cause of religion, to gratify their devout hatred to the domestic enemies of the church. It was sometimes faintly insinuated, and sometimes boldly asserted, that the same bloody sacrifices, and the same incestuous festivals, which were so falsely ascribed to the orthodox believers, were in reality celebrated by the Marcionites, by the Carpocratians, and by several other sects of the Gnostics, who, notwithstanding they might deviate into the paths of heresy, were still actuated by the sentiments of men, and still governed by the precepts of Christianity. Accusations of a similar kind were retorted upon the church by the schismatics who had departed from its communion, and it was confessed on all sides, that the most scandalous licentiousness of manners prevailed among great numbers of those who affected the name of Christians. A Pagan magistrate, who possessed neither leisure nor abilities to discern the almost imperceptible line which divides the orthodox faith from heretical pravity, might easily have imagined that their mutual animosity had extorted the discovery of their common guilt. It was fortunate for the repose, or at least for the reputation, of the first Christians, that the magistrates sometimes proceeded with more temper and moderation than is usually consistent with religious zeal, and that they reported, as the impartial result of their judicial inquiry, that the sectaries, who had deserted the established worship, appeared to them sincere in their professions, and blameless in their manners; however they might incur, by their absurd and excessive superstition, the censure of the laws.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To Constantine. -- Part II.

History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past, for the instruction of future ages, would ill deserve that honorable office, if she condescended to plead the cause of tyrants, or to justify the maxims of persecution. It must, however, be acknowledged, that the conduct of the emperors who appeared the least favorable to the primitive church, is by no means so criminal as that of modern sovereigns, who have employed the arm of violence and terror against the religious opinions of any part of their subjects. From their reflections, or even from their own feelings, a Charles V. or a Lewis XIV. might have acquired a just knowledge of the rights of conscience, of the obligation of faith, and of the innocence of error. But the princes andmagistrates of ancient Rome were strangers to those principles which inspired and authorizedthe inflexible obstinacy of the Christians in the cause of truth, nor could they themselvesdiscover in their own breasts any motive which would have prompted them to refuse a legal, andas it were a natural, submission to the sacred institutions of their country. The same reasonwhich contributes to alleviate the guilt, must have tended to abate the vigor, of theirpersecutions. As they were actuated, not by the furious zeal of bigots, but by the temperatepolicy of legislators, contempt must often have relaxed, and humanity must frequently havesuspended, the execution of those laws which they enacted against the humble and obscurefollowers of Christ. From the general view of their character and motives we might naturallyconclude: I. That a considerable time elapsed before they considered the new sectaries as anobject deserving of the attention of government. II. That in the conviction of any of their subjectswho were accused of so very singular a crime, they proceeded with caution and reluctance. III.That they were moderate in the use of punishments; and, IV. That the afflicted church enjoyedmany intervals of peace and tranquility. Notwithstanding the careless indifference which themost copious and the most minute of the Pagan writers have shown to the affairs of theChristians, it may still be in our power to confirm each of these probable suppositions, by theevidence of authentic facts.

1. By the wise dispensation of Providence, a mysterious veil was cast over the infancy of thechurch, which, till the faith of the Christians was matured, and their numbers were multiplied,served to protect them not only from the malice but even from the knowledge of the Paganworld. The slow and gradual abolition of the Mosaic ceremonies afforded a safe and innocentdisguise to the more early proselytes of the gospel. As they were, for the greater part, of the raceof Abraham, they were distinguished by the peculiar mark of circumcision, offered up theirdevotions in the Temple of Jerusalem till its final destruction, and received both the Law and theProphets as the genuine inspirations of the Deity. The Gentile converts, who by a spiritualadoption had been associated to the hope of Isræl, were likewise confounded under the garb andappearance of Jews, and as the Polytheists paid less regard to articles of faith than to theexternal worship, the new sect, which carefully concealed, or faintly announced, its futuregreatness and ambition, was permitted to shelter itself under the general toleration which wasgranted to an ancient and celebrated people in the Roman empire. It was not long, perhaps,before the Jews themselves, animated with a fiercer zeal and a more jealous faith, perceived thegradual separation of their Nazarene brethren from the doctrine of the synagogue; and theywould gladly have extinguished the dangerous heresy in the blood of its adherents. But thedecrees of Heaven had already disarmed their malice; and though they might sometimes exertthe licentious privilege of sedition, they no longer possessed the administration of criminaljustice; nor did they find it easy to infuse into the calm breast of a Roman magistrate the rancorof their own zeal and prejudice. The provincial governors declared themselves ready to listen toany accusation that might affect the public safety; but as soon as they were informed that it wasa question not of facts but of words, a dispute relating only to the interpretation of the Jewishlaws and prophecies, they deemed it unworthy of the majesty of Rome seriously to discuss theobscure differences which might arise among a barbarous and superstitious people. Theinnocence of the first Christians was protected by ignorance and contempt; and the tribunal ofthe Pagan magistrate often proved their most assured refuge against the fury of the synagogue. Ifindeed we were disposed to adopt the traditions of a too credulous antiquity, we might relate thedistant peregrinations, the wonderful achievements, and the various deaths of the twelveapostles: but a more accurate inquiry will induce us to doubt, whether any of those persons whohad been witnesses to the miracles of Christ were permitted, beyond the limits of Palestine, toseal with their blood the truth of their testimony. From the ordinary term of human life, it mayvery naturally be presumed that most of them were deceased before the discontent of the Jewsbroke out into that furious war, which was terminated only by the ruin of Jerusalem. During along period, from the death of Christ to that memorable rebellion, we cannot discover any tracesof Roman intolerance, unless they are to be found in the sudden, the transient, but the cruelpersecution, which was exercised by Nero against the Christians of the capital, thirty-five yearsafter the former, and only two years before the latter, of those great events. The character of thephilosophic historian, to whom we are principally indebted for the knowledge of this singulartransaction, would alone be sufficient to recommend it to our most attentive consideration.

In the tenth year of the reign of Nero, the capital of the empire was afflicted by a fire whichraged beyond the memory or example of former ages. The monuments of Grecian art and ofRoman virtue, the trophies of the Punic and Gallic wars, the most holy temples, and the mostsplendid palaces, were involved in one common destruction. Of the fourteen regions or quartersinto which Rome was divided, four only subsisted entire, three were levelled with the ground,and the remaining seven, which had experienced the fury of the flames, displayed a melancholyprospect of ruin and desolation. The vigilance of government appears not to have neglected anyof the precautions which might alleviate the sense of so dreadful a calamity. The Imperialgardens were thrown open to the distressed multitude, temporary buildings were erected for theiraccommodation, and a plentiful supply of corn and provisions was distributed at a very moderateprice. The most generous policy seemed to have dictated the edicts which regulated thedisposition of the streets and the construction of private houses; and as it usually happens, in anage of prosperity, the conflagration of Rome, in the course of a few years, produced a new city,more regular and more beautiful than the former. But all the prudence and humanity affected byNero on this occasion were insufficient to preserve him from the popular suspicion. Every crimemight be imputed to the assassin of his wife and mother; nor could the prince who prostituted hisperson and dignity on the theatre be deemed incapable of the most extravagant folly. The voiceof rumor accused the emperor as the incendiary of his own capital; and as the most incrediblestories are the best adapted to the genius of an enraged people, it was gravely reported, andfirmly believed, that Nero, enjoying the calamity which he had occasioned, amused himself withsinging to his lyre the destruction of ancient Troy. To divert a suspicion, which the power ofdespotism was unable to suppress, the emperor resolved to substitute in his own place somefictitious criminals. "With this view," continues Tacitus, "he inflicted the most exquisite tortureson those men, who, under the vulgar appellation of Christians, were already branded withdeserved infamy. They derived their name and origin from Christ, who in the reign of Tiberiushad suffered death by the sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate. For a while this diresuperstition was checked; but it again burst forth; * and not only spread itself over Judæa, thefirst seat of this mischievous sect, but was even introduced into Rome, the common asylumwhich receives and protects whatever is impure, whatever is atrocious. The confessions of thosewho were seized discovered a great multitude of their accomplices, and they were all convicted,not so much for the crime of setting fire to the city, as for their hatred of human kind. They diedin torments, and their torments were imbittered by insult and derision. Some were nailed oncrosses; others sewn up in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the fury of dogs; others again,smeared over with combustible materials, were used as torches to illuminate the darkness of thenight. The gardens of Nero were destined for the melancholy spectacle, which was accompaniedwith a horse-race and honored with the presence of the emperor, who mingled with the populacein the dress and attitude of a charioteer. The guilt of the Christians deserved indeed the mostexemplary punishment, but the public abhorrence was changed into commiseration, from theopinion that those unhappy wretches were sacrificed, not so much to the public welfare, as to thecruelty of a jealous tyrant." Those who survey with a curious eye the revolutions of mankind,may observe, that the gardens and circus of Nero on the Vatican, which were polluted with theblood of the first Christians, have been rendered still more famous by the triumph and by theabuse of the persecuted religion. On the same spot, a temple, which far surpasses the ancientglories of the Capitol, has been since erected by the Christian Pontiffs, who, deriving their claimof universal dominion from an humble fisherman of Galilee, have succeeded to the throne of theCæsars, given laws to the barbarian conquerors of Rome, and extended their spiritualjurisdiction from the coast of the Baltic to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

But it would be improper to dismiss this account of Nero's persecution, till we have made someobservations that may serve to remove the difficulties with which it is perplexed, and to throwsome light on the subsequent history of the church.

1. The most sceptical criticism is obliged to respect the truth of this extraordinary fact, and theintegrity of this celebrated passage of Tacitus. The former is confirmed by the diligent andaccurate Suetonius, who mentions the punishment which Nero inflicted on the Christians, a sectof men who had embraced a new and criminal superstition. The latter may be proved by theconsent of the most ancient manuscripts; by the inimitable character of the style of Tacitus byhis reputation, which guarded his text from the interpolations of pious fraud; and by the purportof his narration, which accused the first Christians of the most atrocious crimes, withoutinsinuating that they possessed any miraculous or even magical powers above the rest ofmankind. 2. Notwithstanding it is probable that Tacitus was born some years before the fire ofRome, he could derive only from reading and conversation the knowledge of an event whichhappened during his infancy. Before he gave himself to the public, he calmly waited till hisgenius had attained its full maturity, and he was more than forty years of age, when a gratefulregard for the memory of the virtuous Agricola extorted from him the most early of thosehistorical compositions which will delight and instruct the most distant posterity. After making atrial of his strength in the life of Agricola and the description of Germany, he conceived, and atlength executed, a more arduous work; the history of Rome, in thirty books, from the fall ofNero to the accession of Nerva. The administration of Nerva introduced an age of justice andpropriety, which Tacitus had destined for the occupation of his old age; but when he took anearer view of his subject, judging, perhaps, that it was a more honorable or a less invidiousoffice to record the vices of past tyrants, than to celebrate the virtues of a reigning monarch, hechose rather to relate, under the form of annals, the actions of the four immediate successors ofAugustus. To collect, to dispose, and to adorn a series of fourscore years, in an immortal work,every sentence of which is pregnant with the deepest observations and the most lively images,was an undertaking sufficient to exercise the genius of Tacitus himself during the greatest part ofhis life. In the last years of the reign of Trajan, whilst the victorious monarch extended the powerof Rome beyond its ancient limits, the historian was describing, in the second and fourth booksof his annals, the tyranny of Tiberius; and the emperor Hadrian must have succeeded to thethrone, before Tacitus, in the regular prosecution of his work, could relate the fire of the capital,and the cruelty of Nero towards the unfortunate Christians. At the distance of sixty years, it wasthe duty of the annalist to adopt the narratives of contemporaries; but it was natural for thephilosopher to indulge himself in the description of the origin, the progress, and the character ofthe new sect, not so much according to the knowledge or prejudices of the age of Nero, asaccording to those of the time of Hadrian. 3 Tacitus very frequently trusts to the curiosity orreflection of his readers to supply those intermediate circumstances and ideas, which, in hisextreme conciseness, he has thought proper to suppress. We may therefore presume to imaginesome probable cause which could direct the cruelty of Nero against the Christians of Rome,whose obscurity, as well as innocence, should have shielded them from his indignation, and evenfrom his notice. The Jews, who were numerous in the capital, and oppressed in their owncountry, were a much fitter object for the suspicions of the emperor and of the people: nor did itseem unlikely that a vanquished nation, who already discovered their abhorrence of the Romanyoke, might have recourse to the most atrocious means of gratifying their implacable revenge.But the Jews possessed very powerful advocates in the palace, and even in the heart of thetyrant; his wife and mistress, the beautiful Poppæa, and a favorite player of the race of Abraham,who had already employed their intercession in behalf of the obnoxious people. In their room itwas necessary to offer some other victims, and it might easily be suggested that, although thegenuine followers of Moses were innocent of the fire of Rome, there had arisen among them anew and pernicious sect of Galilæans, which was capable of the most horrid crimes. Under theappellation of Galilæans, two distinctions of men were confounded, the most opposite to eachother in their manners and principles; the disciples who had embraced the faith of Jesus ofNazareth, and the zealots who had followed the standard of Judas the Gaulonite. The formerwere the friends, the latter were the enemies, of human kind; and the only resemblance betweenthem consisted in the same inflexible constancy, which, in the defence of their cause, renderedthem insensible of death and tortures. The followers of Judas, who impelled their countrymeninto rebellion, were soon buried under the ruins of Jerusalem; whilst those of Jesus, known bythe more celebrated name of Christians, diffused themselves over the Roman empire. Hownatural was it for Tacitus, in the time of Hadrian, to appropriate to the Christians the guilt andthe sufferings, * which he might, with far greater truth and justice, have attributed to a sectwhose odious memory was almost extinguished! 4. Whatever opinion may be entertained of thisconjecture, (for it is no more than a conjecture,) it is evident that the effect, as well as the cause,of Nero's persecution, was confined to the walls of Rome, that the religious tenets of theGalilæans or Christians, were never made a subject of punishment, or even of inquiry; and that,as the idea of their sufferings was for a long time connected with the idea of cruelty andinjustice, the moderation of succeeding princes inclined them to spare a sect, oppressed by atyrant, whose rage had been usually directed against virtue and innocence.

It is somewhat remarkable that the flames of war consumed, almost at the same time, the templeof Jerusalem and the Capitol of Rome; and it appears no less singular, that the tribute whichdevotion had destined to the former, should have been converted by the power of an assaultingvictor to restore and adorn the splendor of the latter. The emperors levied a general capitationtax on the Jewish people; and although the sum assessed on the head of each individual wasinconsiderable, the use for which it was designed, and the severity with which it was exacted,were considered as an intolerable grievance. Since the officers of the revenue extended theirunjust claim to many persons who were strangers to the blood or religion of the Jews, it wasimpossible that the Christians, who had so often sheltered themselves under the shade of thesynagogue, should now escape this rapacious persecution. Anxious as they were to avoid theslightest infection of idolatry, their conscience forbade them to contribute to the honor of thatdæmon who had assumed the character of the Capitoline Jupiter. As a very numerous thoughdeclining party among the Christians still adhered to the law of Moses, their efforts to dissembletheir Jewish origin were detected by the decisive test of circumcision; nor were the Romanmagistrates at leisure to inquire into the difference of their religious tenets. Among theChristians who were brought before the tribunal of the emperor, or, as it seems more probable,before that of the procurator of Judæa, two persons are said to have appeared, distinguished bytheir extraction, which was more truly noble than that of the greatest monarchs. These were thegrandsons of St. Jude the apostle, who himself was the brother of Jesus Christ. Their naturalpretensions to the throne of David might perhaps attract the respect of the people, and excite thejealousy of the governor; but the meanness of their garb, and the simplicity of their answers,soon convinced him that they were neither desirous nor capable of disturbing the peace of theRoman empire. They frankly confessed their royal origin, and their near relation to the Messiah;but they disclaimed any temporal views, and professed that his kingdom, which they devoutlyexpected, was purely of a spiritual and angelic nature. When they were examined concerningtheir fortune and occupation, they showed their hands, hardened with daily labor, and declaredthat they derived their whole subsistence from the cultivation of a farm near the village ofCocaba, of the extent of about twenty-four English acres, and of the value of nine thousanddrachms, or three hundred pounds sterling. The grandsons of St. Jude were dismissed withcompassion and contempt.

But although the obscurity of the house of David might protect them from the suspicions of atyrant, the present greatness of his own family alarmed the pusillanimous temper of Domitian,which could only be appeased by the blood of those Romans whom he either feared, or hated, oresteemed. Of the two sons of his uncle Flavius Sabinus, the elder was soon convicted oftreasonable intentions, and the younger, who bore the name of Flavius Clemens, was indebtedfor his safety to his want of courage and ability. The emperor for a long time, distinguished soharmless a kinsman by his favor and protection, bestowed on him his own niece Domitilla,adopted the children of that marriage to the hope of the succession, and invested their fatherwith the honors of the consulship.

But he had scarcely finished the term of his annual magistracy, when, on a slight pretence, hewas condemned and executed; Domitilla was banished to a desolate island on the coast ofCampania; and sentences either of death or of confiscation were pronounced against a greatnumber of who were involved in the same accusation. The guilt imputed to their charge was thatof Atheism and Jewish manners; a singular association of ideas, which cannot with anypropriety be applied except to the Christians, as they were obscurely and imperfectly viewed bythe magistrates and by the writers of that period. On the strength of so probable an interpretation,and too eagerly admitting the suspicions of a tyrant as an evidence of their honorable crime, thechurch has placed both Clemens and Domitilla among its first martyrs, and has branded thecruelty of Domitian with the name of the second persecution. But this persecution (if it deservesthat epithet) was of no long duration. A few months after the death of Clemens, and thebanishment of Domitilla, Stephen, a freedman belonging to the latter, who had enjoyed thefavor, but who had not surely embraced the faith, of his mistress, * assassinated the emperor inhis palace. The memory of Domitian was condemned by the senate; his acts were rescinded; hisexiles recalled; and under the gentle administration of Nerva, while the innocent were restoredto their rank and fortunes, even the most guilty either obtained pardon or escaped punishment.

II. About ten years afterwards, under the reign of Trajan, the younger Pliny was intrusted by hisfriend and master with the government of Bithynia and Pontus. He soon found himself at a lossto determine by what rule of justice or of law he should direct his conduct in the execution of anoffice the most repugnant to his humanity. Pliny had never assisted at any judicial proceedingsagainst the Christians, with whose lame alone he seems to be acquainted; and he was totallyuninformed with regard to the nature of their guilt, the method of their conviction, and thedegree of their punishment. In this perplexity he had recourse to his usual expedient, ofsubmitting to the wisdom of Trajan an impartial, and, in some respects, a favorable account ofthe new superstition, requesting the emperor, that he would condescend to resolve his doubts,and to instruct his ignorance. The life of Pliny had been employed in the acquisition of learning,and in the business of the world. Since the age of nineteen he had pleaded with distinction in thetribunals of Rome, filled a place in the senate, had been invested with the honors of theconsulship, and had formed very numerous connections with every order of men, both in Italyand in the provinces. From his ignorance therefore we may derive some useful information. Wemay assure ourselves, that when he accepted the government of Bithynia, there were no generallaws or decrees of the senate in force against the Christians; that neither Trajan nor any of hisvirtuous predecessors, whose edicts were received into the civil and criminal jurisprudence, hadpublicly declared their intentions concerning the new sect; and that whatever proceedings hadbeen carried on against the Christians, there were none of sufficient weight and authority toestablish a precedent for the conduct of a Roman magistrate.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To Constantine. -- Part III.

The answer of Trajan, to which the Christians of the succeeding age have frequently appealed,discovers as much regard for justice and humanity as could be reconciled with his mistakennotions of religious policy. Instead of displaying the implacable zeal of an inquisitor, anxious todiscover the most minute particles of heresy, and exulting in the number of his victims, theemperor expresses much more solicitude to protect the security of the innocent, than to preventthe escape of the guilty. He acknowledged the difficulty of fixing any general plan; but he laysdown two salutary rules, which often afforded relief and support to the distressed Christians.Though he directs the magistrates to punish such persons as are legally convicted, he prohibitsthem, with a very humane inconsistency, from making any inquiries concerning the supposedcriminals. Nor was the magistrate allowed to proceed on every kind of information. Anonymouscharges the emperor rejects, as too repugnant to the equity of his government; and he strictlyrequires, for the conviction of those to whom the guilt of Christianity is imputed, the positiveevidence of a fair and open accuser. It is likewise probable, that the persons who assumed soinvidiuous an office, were obliged to declare the grounds of their suspicions, to specify (both inrespect to time and place) the secret assemblies, which their Christian adversary had frequented,and to disclose a great number of circumstances, which were concealed with the most vigilantjealousy from the eye of the profane. If they succeeded in their prosecution, they were exposedto the resentment of a considerable and active party, to the censure of the more liberal portion ofmankind, and to the ignominy which, in every age and country, has attended the character of aninformer. If, on the contrary, they failed in their proofs, they incurred the severe and perhapscapital penalty, which, according to a law published by the emperor Hadrian, was inflicted onthose who falsely attributed to their fellow-citizens the crime of Christianity. The violence ofpersonal or superstitious animosity might sometimes prevail over the most natural apprehensionsof disgrace and danger but it cannot surely be imagined, that accusations of so unpromising anappearance were either lightly or frequently undertaken by the Pagan subjects of the Romanempire. *

The expedient which was employed to elude the prudence of the laws, affords a sufficient proofhow effectually they disappointed the mischievous designs of private malice or superstitiouszeal. In a large and tumultuous assembly, the restraints of fear and shame, so forcible on theminds of individuals, are deprived of the greatest part of their influence. The pious Christian, ashe was desirous to obtain, or to escape, the glory of martyrdom, expected, either with impatienceor with terror, the stated returns of the public games and festivals. On those occasions theinhabitants of the great cities of the empire were collected in the circus or the theatre, whereevery circumstance of the place, as well as of the ceremony, contributed to kindle their devotion,and to extinguish their humanity. Whilst the numerous spectators, crowned with garlands,perfumed with incense, purified with the blood of victims, and surrounded with the altars andstatues of their tutelar deities, resigned themselves to the enjoyment of pleasures, which theyconsidered as an essential part of their religious worship, they recollected, that the Christiansalone abhorred the gods of mankind, and by their absence and melancholy on these solemnfestivals, seemed to insult or to lament the public felicity. If the empire had been afflicted by anyrecent calamity, by a plague, a famine, or an unsuccessful war; if the Tyber had, or if the Nilehad not, risen beyond its banks; if the earth had shaken, or if the temperate order of the seasonshad been interrupted, the superstitious Pagans were convinced that the crimes and the impiety ofthe Christians, who were spared by the excessive lenity of the government, had at lengthprovoked the divine justice. It was not among a licentious and exasperated populace, that theforms of legal proceedings could be observed; it was not in an amphitheatre, stained with theblood of wild beasts and gladiators, that the voice of compassion could be heard. The impatientclamors of the multitude denounced the Christians as the enemies of gods and men, doomedthem to the severest tortures, and venturing to accuse by name some of the most distinguished ofthe new sectaries, required with irresistible vehemence that they should be instantly apprehendedand cast to the lions. The provincial governors and magistrates who presided in the publicspectacles were usually inclined to gratify the inclinations, and to appease the rage, of thepeople, by the sacrifice of a few obnoxious victims. But the wisdom of the emperors protectedthe church from the danger of these tumultuous clamors and irregular accusations, which theyjustly censured as repugnant both to the firmness and to the equity of their administration. Theedicts of Hadrian and of Antoninus Pius expressly declared, that the voice of the multitudeshould never be admitted as legal evidence to convict or to punish those unfortunate personswho had embraced the enthusiasm of the Christians.

III. Punishment was not the inevitable consequence of conviction, and the Christians, whoseguilt was the most clearly proved by the testimony of witnesses, or even by their voluntaryconfession, still retained in their own power the alternative of life or death. It was not so muchthe past offence, as the actual resistance, which excited the indignation of the magistrate. He waspersuaded that he offered them an easy pardon, since, if they consented to cast a few grains ofincense upon the altar, they were dismissed from the tribunal in safety and with applause. It wasesteemed the duty of a humane judge to endeavor to reclaim, rather than to punish, thosedeluded enthusiasts. Varying his tone according to the age, the sex, or the situation of theprisoners, he frequently condescended to set before their eyes every circumstance which couldrender life more pleasing, or death more terrible; and to solicit, nay, to entreat, them, that theywould show some compassion to themselves, to their families, and to their friends. If threatsand persuasions proved ineffectual, he had often recourse to violence; the scourge and the rackwere called in to supply the deficiency of argument, and every art of cruelty was employed tosubdue such inflexible, and, as it appeared to the Pagans, such criminal, obstinacy. The ancientapologists of Christianity have censured, with equal truth and severity, the irregular conduct oftheir persecutors who, contrary to every principle of judicial proceeding, admitted the use oftorture, in order to obtain, not a confession, but a denial, of the crime which was the object oftheir inquiry. The monks of succeeding ages, who, in their peaceful solitudes, entertainedthemselves with diversifying the deaths and sufferings of the primitive martyrs, have frequentlyinvented torments of a much more refined and ingenious nature. In particular, it has pleasedthem to suppose, that the zeal of the Roman magistrates, disdaining every consideration of moralvirtue or public decency, endeavored to seduce those whom they were unable to vanquish, andthat by their orders the most brutal violence was offered to those whom they found it impossibleto seduce. It is related, that females, who were prepared to despise death, were sometimescondemned to a more severe trial, and called upon to determine whether they set a higher valueon their religion or on their chastity. The youths to whose licentious embraces they wereabandoned, received a solemn exhortation from the judge, to exert their most strenuous efforts tomaintain the honor of Venus against the impious virgin who refused to burn incense on heraltars. Their violence, however, was commonly disappointed, and the seasonable interposition ofsome miraculous power preserved the chaste spouses of Christ from the dishonor even of aninvoluntary defeat. We should not indeed neglect to remark, that the more ancient as well asauthentic memorials of the church are seldom polluted with these extravagant and indecentfictions.

The total disregard of truth and probability in the representation of these primitive martyrdomswas occasioned by a very natural mistake. The ecclesiastical writers of the fourth or fifthcenturies ascribed to the magistrates of Rome the same degree of implacable and unrelentingzeal which filled their own breasts against the heretics or the idolaters of their own times. It isnot improbable that some of those persons who were raised to the dignities of the empire, mighthave imbibed the prejudices of the populace, and that the cruel disposition of others mightoccasionally be stimulated by motives of avarice or of personal resentment. But it is certain, andwe may appeal to the grateful confessions of the first Christians, that the greatest part of thosemagistrates who exercised in the provinces the authority of the emperor, or of the senate, and towhose hands alone the jurisdiction of life and death was intrusted, behaved like men of polishedmanners and liberal education, who respected the rules of justice, and who were conversant withthe precepts of philosophy. They frequently declined the odious task of persecution, dismissedthe charge with contempt, or suggested to the accused Christian some legal evasion, by which hemight elude the severity of the laws. Whenever they were invested with a discretionary power, they used it much less for the oppression, than for the relief and benefit of the afflicted church.They were far from condemning all the Christians who were accused before their tribunal, andvery far from punishing with death all those who were convicted of an obstinate adherence to thenew superstition. Contenting themselves, for the most part, with the milder chastisements ofimprisonment, exile, or slavery in the mines, they left the unhappy victims of their justice somereason to hope, that a prosperous event, the accession, the marriage, or the triumph of anemperor, might speedily restore them, by a general pardon, to their former state. The martyrs,devoted to immediate execution by the Roman magistrates, appear to have been selected fromthe most opposite extremes. They were either bishops and presbyters, the persons the mostdistinguished among the Christians by their rank and influence, and whose example might striketerror into the whole sect; or else they were the meanest and most abject among them,particularly those of the servile condition, whose lives were esteemed of little value, and whosesufferings were viewed by the ancients with too careless an indifference. The learned Origen,who, from his experience as well as reading, was intimately acquainted with the history of theChristians, declares, in the most express terms, that the number of martyrs was veryinconsiderable. His authority would alone be sufficient to annihilate that formidable army ofmartyrs, whose relics, drawn for the most part from the catacombs of Rome, have replenished somany churches, and whose marvellous achievements have been the subject of so many volumesof Holy Romance. But the general assertion of Origen may be explained and confirmed by theparticular testimony of his friend Dionysius, who, in the immense city of Alexandria, and underthe rigorous persecution of Decius, reckons only ten men and seven women who suffered for theprofession of the Christian name.

During the same period of persecution, the zealous, the eloquent, the ambitious Cypriangoverned the church, not only of Carthage, but even of Africa. He possessed every quality whichcould engage the reverence of the faithful, or provoke the suspicions and resentment of thePagan magistrates. His character as well as his station seemed to mark out that holy prelate asthe most distinguished object of envy and danger. The experience, however, of the life ofCyprian, is sufficient to prove that our fancy has exaggerated the perilous situation of a Christianbishop; and the dangers to which he was exposed were less imminent than those which temporalambition is always prepared to encounter in the pursuit of honors. Four Roman emperors, withtheir families, their favorites, and their adherents, perished by the sword in the space of tenyears, during which the bishop of Carthage guided by his authority and eloquence the councils ofthe African church. It was only in the third year of his administration, that he had reason, duringa few months, to apprehend the severe edicts of Decius, the vigilance of the magistrate and theclamors of the multitude, who loudly demanded, that Cyprian, the leader of the Christians,should be thrown to the lions. Prudence suggested the necessity of a temporary retreat, and thevoice of prudence was obeyed. He withdrew himself into an obscure solitude, from whence hecould maintain a constant correspondence with the clergy and people of Carthage; and,concealing himself till the tempest was past, he preserved his life, without relinquishing eitherhis power or his reputation. His extreme caution did not, however, escape the censure of themore rigid Christians, who lamented, or the reproaches of his personal enemies, who insulted, aconduct which they considered as a pusillanimous and criminal desertion of the most sacredduty. The propriety of reserving himself for the future exigencies of the church, the example ofseveral holy bishops, and the divine admonitions, which, as he declares himself, he frequentlyreceived in visions and ecstacies, were the reasons alleged in his justification. But his bestapology may be found in the cheerful resolution, with which, about eight years afterwards, hesuffered death in the cause of religion. The authentic history of his martyrdom has been recordedwith unusual candor and impartiality. A short abstract, therefore, of its most importantcircumstances, will convey the clearest information of the spirit, and of the forms, of the Romanpersecutions.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To Constantine. -- Part IV.

When Valerian was consul for the third, and Gallienus for the fourth time, Paternus, proconsulof Africa, summoned Cyprian to appear in his private council-chamber. He there acquainted himwith the Imperial mandate which he had just received, that those who had abandoned theRoman religion should immediately return to the practice of the ceremonies of their ancestors.Cyprian replied without hesitation, that he was a Christian and a bishop, devoted to the worshipof the true and only Deity, to whom he offered up his daily supplications for the safety andprosperity of the two emperors, his lawful sovereigns. With modest confidence he pleaded theprivilege of a citizen, in refusing to give any answer to some invidious and indeed illegalquestions which the proconsul had proposed. A sentence of banishment was pronounced as thepenalty of Cyprian's disobedience; and he was conducted without delay to Curubis, a free andmaritime city of Zeugitania, in a pleasant situation, a fertile territory, and at the distance of aboutforty miles from Carthage. The exiled bishop enjoyed the conveniences of life and theconsciousness of virtue. His reputation was diffused over Africa and Italy; an account of hisbehavior was published for the edification of the Christian world; and his solitude wasfrequently interrupted by the letters, the visits, and the congratulations of the faithful. On thearrival of a new proconsul in the province the fortune of Cyprian appeared for some time to weara still more favorable aspect. He was recalled from banishment; and though not yet permitted toreturn to Carthage, his own gardens in the neighborhood of the capital were assigned for theplace of his residence.

At length, exactly one year after Cyprian was first apprehended, Galerius Maximus, proconsulof Africa, received the Imperial warrant for the execution of the Christian teachers. The bishopof Carthage was sensible that he should be singled out for one of the first victims; and the frailtyof nature tempted him to withdraw himself, by a secret flight, from the danger and the honor ofmartyrdom; * but soon recovering that fortitude which his character required, he returned to hisgardens, and patiently expected the ministers of death. Two officers of rank, who were intrustedwith that commission, placed Cyprian between them in a chariot, and as the proconsul was notthen at leisure, they conducted him, not to a prison, but to a private house in Carthage, whichbelonged to one of them. An elegant supper was provided for the entertainment of the bishop,and his Christian friends were permitted for the last time to enjoy his society, whilst the streetswere filled with a multitude of the faithful, anxious and alarmed at the approaching fate of theirspiritual father. In the morning he appeared before the tribunal of the proconsul, who, afterinforming himself of the name and situation of Cyprian, commanded him to offer sacrifice, andpressed him to reflect on the consequences of his disobedience. The refusal of Cyprian was firmand decisive; and the magistrate, when he had taken the opinion of his council, pronounced withsome reluctance the sentence of death. It was conceived in the following terms: "That ThasciusCyprianus should be immediately beheaded, as the enemy of the gods of Rome, and as the chiefand ringleader of a criminal association, which he had seduced into an impious resistanceagainst the laws of the most holy emperors, Valerian and Gallienus." The manner of hisexecution was the mildest and least painful that could be inflicted on a person convicted of anycapital offence; nor was the use of torture admitted to obtain from the bishop of Carthage eitherthe recantation of his principles or the discovery of his accomplices.

As soon as the sentence was proclaimed, a general cry of "We will die with him," arose at onceamong the listening multitude of Christians who waited before the palace gates. The generouseffusions of their zeal and their affection were neither serviceable to Cyprian nor dangerous tothemselves. He was led away under a guard of tribunes and centurions, without resistance andwithout insult, to the place of his execution, a spacious and level plain near the city, which wasalready filled with great numbers of spectators. His faithful presbyters and deacons werepermitted to accompany their holy bishop. * They assisted him in laying aside his uppergarment, spread linen on the ground to catch the precious relics of his blood, and received hisorders to bestow five-and-twenty pieces of gold on the executioner. The martyr then covered hisface with his hands, and at one blow his head was separated from his body. His corpse remainedduring some hours exposed to the curiosity of the Gentiles: but in the night it was removed, andtransported in a triumphal procession, and with a splendid illumination, to the burial-place of theChristians. The funeral of Cyprian was publicly celebrated without receiving any interruptionfrom the Roman magistrates; and those among the faithful, who had performed the last offices tohis person and his memory, were secure from the danger of inquiry or of punishment. It isremarkable, that of so great a multitude of bishops in the province of Africa, Cyprian was thefirst who was esteemed worthy to obtain the crown of martyrdom.

It was in the choice of Cyprian, either to die a martyr, or to live an apostate; but on the choicedepended the alternative of honor or infamy. Could we suppose that the bishop of Carthage hademployed the profession of the Christian faith only as the instrument of his avarice or ambition,it was still incumbent on him to support the character he had assumed; and if he possessed thesmallest degree of manly fortitude, rather to expose himself to the most cruel tortures, than by asingle act to exchange the reputation of a whole life, for the abhorrence of his Christian brethren,and the contempt of the Gentile world. But if the zeal of Cyprian was supported by the sincereconviction of the truth of those doctrines which he preached, the crown of martyrdom must haveappeared to him as an object of desire rather than of terror. It is not easy to extract any distinctideas from the vague though eloquent declamations of the Fathers, or to ascertain the degree ofimmortal glory and happiness which they confidently promised to those who were so fortunateas to shed their blood in the cause of religion. They inculcated with becoming diligence, that thefire of martyrdom supplied every defect and expiated every sin; that while the souls of ordinaryChristians were obliged to pass through a slow and painful purification, the triumphant sufferersentered into the immediate fruition of eternal bliss, where, in the society of the patriarchs, theapostles, and the prophets, they reigned with Christ, and acted as his assessors in the universaljudgment of mankind. The assurance of a lasting reputation upon earth, a motive so congenial tothe vanity of human nature, often served to animate the courage of the martyrs. The honorswhich Rome or Athens bestowed on those citizens who had fallen in the cause of their country,were cold and unmeaning demonstrations of respect, when compared with the ardent gratitudeand devotion which the primitive church expressed towards the victorious champions of thefaith. The annual commemoration of their virtues and sufferings was observed as a sacredceremony, and at length terminated in religious worship. Among the Christians who had publiclyconfessed their religious principles, those who (as it very frequently happened) had beendismissed from the tribunal or the prisons of the Pagan magistrates, obtained such honors aswere justly due to their imperfect martyrdom and their generous resolution. The most piousfemales courted the permission of imprinting kisses on the fetters which they had worn, and onthe wounds which they had received. Their persons were esteemed holy, their decisions wereadmitted with deference, and they too often abused, by their spiritual pride and licentiousmanners, the preeminence which their zeal and intrepidity had acquired. Distinctions like these,whilst they display the exalted merit, betray the inconsiderable number of those who suffered,and of those who died, for the profession of Christianity.

The sober discretion of the present age will more readily censure than admire, but can moreeasily admire than imitate, the fervor of the first Christians, who, according to the livelyexpressions of Sulpicius Severus, desired martyrdom with more eagerness than his owncontemporaries solicited a bishopric. The epistles which Ignatius composed as he was carried inchains through the cities of Asia, breathe sentiments the most repugnant to the ordinary feelingsof human nature. He earnestly beseeches the Romans, that when he should be exposed in theamphitheatre, they would not, by their kind but unseasonable intercession, deprive him of thecrown of glory; and he declares his resolution to provoke and irritate the wild beasts whichmight be employed as the instruments of his death. Some stories are related of the courage ofmartyrs, who actually performed what Ignatius had intended; who exasperated the fury of thelions, pressed the executioner to hasten his office, cheerfully leaped into the fires which werekindled to consume them, and discovered a sensation of joy and pleasure in the midst of themost exquisite tortures. Several examples have been preserved of a zeal impatient of thoserestraints which the emperors had provided for the security of the church. The Christianssometimes supplied by their voluntary declaration the want of an accuser, rudely disturbed thepublic service of paganism, and rushing in crowds round the tribunal of the magistrates, calledupon them to pronounce and to inflict the sentence of the law. The behavior of the Christianswas too remarkable to escape the notice of the ancient philosophers; but they seem to haveconsidered it with much less admiration than astonishment. Incapable of conceiving the motiveswhich sometimes transported the fortitude of believers beyond the bounds of prudence or reason,they treated such an eagerness to die as the strange result of obstinate despair, of stupidinsensibility, or of superstitious frenzy. "Unhappy men!" exclaimed the proconsul Antoninus tothe Christians of Asia; "unhappy men! if you are thus weary of your lives, is it so difficult foryou to find ropes and precipices?" He was extremely cautious (as it is observed by a learned andpious historian) of punishing men who had found no accusers but themselves, the Imperial lawsnot having made any provision for so unexpected a case: condemning therefore a few as awarning to their brethren, he dismissed the multitude with indignation and contempt. Notwithstanding this real or affected disdain, the intrepid constancy of the faithful wasproductive of more salutary effects on those minds which nature or grace had disposed for theeasy reception of religious truth. On these melancholy occasions, there were many among theGentiles who pitied, who admired, and who were converted. The generous enthusiasm wascommunicated from the sufferer to the spectators; and the blood of martyrs, according to awell-known observation, became the seed of the church.

But although devotion had raised, and eloquence continued to inflame, this fever of the mind, itinsensibly gave way to the more natural hopes and fears of the human heart, to the love of life,the apprehension of pain, and the horror of dissolution. The more prudent rulers of the churchfound themselves obliged to restrain the indiscreet ardor of their followers, and to distrust aconstancy which too often abandoned them in the hour of trial. As the lives of the faithfulbecame less mortified and austere, they were every day less ambitious of the honors ofmartyrdom; and the soldiers of Christ, instead of distinguishing themselves by voluntary deedsof heroism, frequently deserted their post, and fled in confusion before the enemy whom it wastheir duty to resist. There were three methods, however, of escaping the flames of persecution,which were not attended with an equal degree of guilt: first, indeed, was generally allowed to beinnocent; the second was of a doubtful, or at least of a venial, nature; but the third implied adirect and criminal apostasy from the Christian faith.

I. A modern inquisitor would hear with surprise, that whenever an information was given to aRoman magistrate of any person within his jurisdiction who had embraced the sect of theChristians, the charge was communicated to the party accused, and that a convenient time wasallowed him to settle his domestic concerns, and to prepare an answer to the crime which wasimputed to him. If he entertained any doubt of his own constancy, such a delay afforded him theopportunity of preserving his life and honor by flight, of withdrawing himself into some obscureretirement or some distant province, and of patiently expecting the return of peace and security.A measure so consonant to reason was soon authorized by the advice and example of the mostholy prelates; and seems to have been censured by few except by the Montanists, who deviatedinto heresy by their strict and obstinate adherence to the rigor of ancient discipline. II. Theprovincial governors, whose zeal was less prevalent than their avarice, had countenanced thepractice of selling certificates, (or libels, as they were called,) which attested, that the personstherein mentioned had complied with the laws, and sacrificed to the Roman deities. Byproducing these false declarations, the opulent and timid Christians were enabled to silence themalice of an informer, and to reconcile in some measure their safety with their religion. A slightpenance atoned for this profane dissimulation. * III. In every persecution there were greatnumbers of unworthy Christians who publicly disowned or renounced the faith which they hadprofessed; and who confirmed the sincerity of their abjuration, by the legal acts of burningincense or of offering sacrifices. Some of these apostates had yielded on the first menace orexhortation of the magistrate; whilst the patience of others had been subdued by the length andrepetition of tortures. The affrighted countenances of some betrayed their inward remorse, whileothers advanced with confidence and alacrity to the altars of the gods. But the disguise whichfear had imposed, subsisted no longer than the present danger. As soon as the severity of thepersecution was abated, the doors of the churches were assailed by the returning multitude ofpenitents who detested their idolatrous submission, and who solicited with equal ardor, but withvarious success, their readmission into the society of Christians.

IV. Notwithstanding the general rules established for the conviction and punishment of theChristians, the fate of those sectaries, in an extensive and arbitrary government, must still in agreat measure, have depended on their own behavior, the circumstances of the times, and thetemper of their supreme as well as subordinate rulers. Zeal might sometimes provoke, andprudence might sometimes avert or assuage, the superstitious fury of the Pagans. A variety ofmotives might dispose the provincial governors either to enforce or to relax the execution of thelaws; and of these motives the most forcible was their regard not only for the public edicts, butfor the secret intentions of the emperor, a glance from whose eye was sufficient to kindle or toextinguish the flames of persecution. As often as any occasional severities were exercised in thedifferent parts of the empire, the primitive Christians lamented and perhaps magnified their ownsufferings; but the celebrated number of ten persecutions has been determined by theecclesiastical writers of the fifth century, who possessed a more distinct view of the prosperousor adverse fortunes of the church, from the age of Nero to that of Diocletian. The ingeniousparallels of the ten plagues of Egypt, and of the ten horns of the Apocalypse, first suggested thiscalculation to their minds; and in their application of the faith of prophecy to the truth of history,they were careful to select those reigns which were indeed the most hostile to the Christiancause. But these transient persecutions served only to revive the zeal and to restore thediscipline of the faithful; and the moments of extraordinary rigor were compensated by muchlonger intervals of peace and security. The indifference of some princes, and the indulgence ofothers, permitted the Christians to enjoy, though not perhaps a legal, yet an actual and public,toleration of their religion.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To Constantine. -- Part V.

The apology of Tertullian contains two very ancient, very singular, but at the same time verysuspicious, instances of Imperial clemency; the edicts published by Tiberius, and by MarcusAntoninus, and designed not only to protect the innocence of the Christians, but even toproclaim those stupendous miracles which had attested the truth of their doctrine. The first ofthese examples is attended with some difficulties which might perplex a sceptical mind. We arerequired to believe, that Pontius Pilate informed the emperor of the unjust sentence of deathwhich he had pronounced against an innocent, and, as it appeared, a divine, person; and that,without acquiring the merit, he exposed himself to the danger of martyrdom; that Tiberius, whoavowed his contempt for all religion, immediately conceived the design of placing the JewishMessiah among the gods of Rome; that his servile senate ventured to disobey the commands oftheir master; that Tiberius, instead of resenting their refusal, contented himself with protectingthe Christians from the severity of the laws, many years before such laws were enacted, orbefore the church had assumed any distinct name or existence; and lastly, that the memory ofthis extraordinary transaction was preserved in the most public and authentic records, whichescaped the knowledge of the historians of Greece and Rome, and were only visible to the eyesof an African Christian, who composed his apology one hundred and sixty years after the deathof Tiberius. The edict of Marcus Antoninus is supposed to have been the effect of his devotionand gratitude for the miraculous deliverance which he had obtained in the Marcomannic war.The distress of the legions, the seasonable tempest of rain and hail, of thunder and of lightning,and the dismay and defeat of the barbarians, have been celebrated by the eloquence of severalPagan writers. If there were any Christians in that army, it was natural that they should ascribesome merit to the fervent prayers, which, in the moment of danger, they had offered up for theirown and the public safety. But we are still assured by monuments of brass and marble, by theImperial medals, and by the Antonine column, that neither the prince nor the people entertainedany sense of this signal obligation, since they unanimously attribute their deliverance to theprovidence of Jupiter, and to the interposition of Mercury. During the whole course of his reign,Marcus despised the Christians as a philosopher, and punished them as a sovereign. *

By a singular fatality, the hardships which they had endured under the government of a virtuousprince, immediately ceased on the accession of a tyrant; and as none except themselves hadexperienced the injustice of Marcus, so they alone were protected by the lenity of Commodus.The celebrated Marcia, the most favored of his concubines, and who at length contrived themurder of her Imperial lover, entertained a singular affection for the oppressed church; andthough it was impossible that she could reconcile the practice of vice with the precepts of thegospel, she might hope to atone for the frailties of her sex and profession by declaring herself thepatroness of the Christians. Under the gracious protection of Marcia, they passed in safety thethirteen years of a cruel tyranny; and when the empire was established in the house of Severus,they formed a domestic but more honorable connection with the new court. The emperor waspersuaded, that in a dangerous sickness, he had derived some benefit, either spiritual or physical,from the holy oil, with which one of his slaves had anointed him. He always treated withpeculiar distinction several persons of both sexes who had embraced the new religion. The nurseas well as the preceptor of Caracalla were Christians; * and if that young prince ever betrayed asentiment of humanity, it was occasioned by an incident, which, however trifling, bore somerelation to the cause of Christianity. Under the reign of Severus, the fury of the populace waschecked; the rigor of ancient laws was for some time suspended; and the provincial governorswere satisfied with receiving an annual present from the churches within their jurisdiction, as theprice, or as the reward, of their moderation. The controversy concerning the precise time of thecelebration of Easter, armed the bishops of Asia and Italy against each other, and was consideredas the most important business of this period of leisure and tranquillity. Nor was the peace ofthe church interrupted, till the increasing numbers of proselytes seem at length to have attractedthe attention, and to have alienated the mind of Severus. With the design of restraining theprogress of Christianity, he published an edict, which, though it was designed to affect only thenew converts, could not be carried into strict execution, without exposing to danger andpunishment the most zealous of their teachers and missionaries. In this mitigated persecution wemay still discover the indulgent spirit of Rome and of Polytheism, which so readily admittedevery excuse in favor of those who practised the religious ceremonies of their fathers.

But the laws which Severus had enacted soon expired with the authority of that emperor; and theChristians, after this accidental tempest, enjoyed a calm of thirty-eight years. Till this periodthey had usually held their assemblies in private houses and sequestered places. They were nowpermitted to erect and consecrate convenient edifices for the purpose of religious worship; topurchase lands, even at Rome itself, for the use of the community; and to conduct the electionsof their ecclesiastical ministers in so public, but at the same time in so exemplary a manner, asto deserve the respectful attention of the Gentiles. This long repose of the church wasaccompanied with dignity. The reigns of those princes who derived their extraction from theAsiatic provinces, proved the most favorable to the Christians; the eminent persons of the sect,instead of being reduced to implore the protection of a slave or concubine, were admitted intothe palace in the honorable characters of priests and philosophers; and their mysteriousdoctrines, which were already diffused among the people, insensibly attracted the curiosity oftheir sovereign. When the empress Mammæa passed through Antioch, she expressed a desire ofconversing with the celebrated Origen, the fame of whose piety and learning was spread over theEast. Origen obeyed so flattering an invitation, and though he could not expect to succeed in theconversion of an artful and ambitious woman, she listened with pleasure to his eloquentexhortations, and honorably dismissed him to his retirement in Palestine. The sentiments ofMammæa were adopted by her son Alexander, and the philosophic devotion of that emperor wasmarked by a singular but injudicious regard for the Christian religion. In his domestic chapel heplaced the statues of Abraham, of Orpheus, of Apollonius, and of Christ, as an honor justly dueto those respectable sages who had instructed mankind in the various modes of addressing theirhomage to the supreme and universal Deity. A purer faith, as well as worship, was openlyprofessed and practised among his household. Bishops, perhaps for the first time, were seen atcourt; and, after the death of Alexander, when the inhuman Maximin discharged his fury on thefavorites and servants of his unfortunate benefactor, a great number of Christians of every rankand of both sexes, were involved the promiscuous massacre, which, on their account, hasimproperly received the name of Persecution. *

Notwithstanding the cruel disposition of Maximin, the effects of his resentment against theChristians were of a very local and temporary nature, and the pious Origen, who had beenproscribed as a devoted victim, was still reserved to convey the truths of the gospel to the ear ofmonarchs. He addressed several edifying letters to the emperor Philip, to his wife, and to hismother; and as soon as that prince, who was born in the neighborhood of Palestine, had usurpedthe Imperial sceptre, the Christians acquired a friend and a protector. The public and even partialfavor of Philip towards the sectaries of the new religion, and his constant reverence for theministers of the church, gave some color to the suspicion, which prevailed in his own times, thatthe emperor himself was become a convert to the faith; and afforded some grounds for a fablewhich was afterwards invented, that he had been purified by confession and penance from theguilt contracted by the murder of his innocent predecessor. the fall of Philip introduced, withthe change of masters, a new system of government, so oppressive to the Christians, that theirformer condition, ever since the time of Domitian, was represented as a state of perfect freedomand security, if compared with the rigorous treatment which they experienced under the shortreign of Decius. The virtues of that prince will scarcely allow us to suspect that he was actuatedby a mean resentment against the favorites of his predecessor; and it is more reasonable tobelieve, that in the prosecution of his general design to restore the purity of Roman manners, hewas desirous of delivering the empire from what he condemned as a recent and criminalsuperstition. The bishops of the most considerable cities were removed by exile or death: thevigilance of the magistrates prevented the clergy of Rome during sixteen months fromproceeding to a new election; and it was the opinion of the Christians, that the emperor wouldmore patiently endure a competitor for the purple, than a bishop in the capital. Were it possibleto suppose that the penetration of Decius had discovered pride under the disguise of humility, orthat he could foresee the temporal dominion which might insensibly arise from the claims ofspiritual authority, we might be less surprised, that he should consider the successors of St.Peter, as the most formidable rivals to those of Augustus.

The administration of Valerian was distinguished by a levity and inconstancy ill suited to thegravity of the Roman Censor. In the first part of his reign, he surpassed in clemency thoseprinces who had been suspected of an attachment to the Christian faith. In the last three yearsand a half, listening to the insinuations of a minister addicted to the superstitions of Egypt, headopted the maxims, and imitated the severity, of his predecessor Decius. The accession ofGallienus, which increased the calamities of the empire, restored peace to the church; and theChristians obtained the free exercise of their religion by an edict addressed to the bishops, andconceived in such terms as seemed to acknowledge their office and public character. Theancient laws, without being formally repealed, were suffered to sink into oblivion; and(excepting only some hostile intentions which are attributed to the emperor Aurelian ) thedisciples of Christ passed above forty years in a state of prosperity, far more dangerous to theirvirtue than the severest trials of persecution.

The story of Paul of Samosata, who filled the metropolitan see of Antioch, while the East was inthe hands of Odenathus and Zenobia, may serve to illustrate the condition and character of thetimes. The wealth of that prelate was a sufficient evidence of his guilt, since it was neitherderived from the inheritance of his fathers, nor acquired by the arts of honest industry. But Paulconsidered the service of the church as a very lucrative profession. His ecclesiasticaljurisdiction was venal and rapacious; he extorted frequent contributions from the most opulentof the faithful, and converted to his own use a considerable part of the public revenue. By hispride and luxury, the Christian religion was rendered odious in the eyes of the Gentiles. Hiscouncil chamber and his throne, the splendor with which he appeared in public, the suppliantcrowd who solicited his attention, the multitude of letters and petitions to which he dictated hisanswers, and the perpetual hurry of business in which he was involved, were circumstancesmuch better suited to the state of a civil magistrate, than to the humility of a primitive bishop.When he harangued his people from the pulpit, Paul affected the figurative style and thetheatrical gestures of an Asiatic sophist, while the cathedral resounded with the loudest and mostextravagant acclamations in the praise of his divine eloquence. Against those who resisted hispower, or refused to flatter his vanity, the prelate of Antioch was arrogant, rigid, and inexorable;but he relaxed the discipline, and lavished the treasures of the church on his dependent clergy,who were permitted to imitate their master in the gratification of every sensual appetite. For Paul indulged himself very freely in the pleasures of the table, and he had received into the episcopal palace two young and beautiful women as the constant companions of his leisure moments.

Notwithstanding these scandalous vices, if Paul of Samosata had preserved the purity of the orthodox faith, his reign over the capital of Syria would have ended only with his life; and had a seasonable persecution intervened, an effort of courage might perhaps have placed him in the rank of saints and martyrs. * Some nice and subtle errors, which he imprudently adopted and obstinately maintained, concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, excited the zeal and indignation of the Eastern churches. From Egypt to the Euxine Sea, the bishops were in arms and in motion. Several councils were held, confutations were published, excommunications were pronounced, ambiguous explanations were by turns accepted and refused, treaties were concluded and violated, and at length Paul of Samosata was degraded from his episcopal character, by the sentence of seventy or eighty bishops, who assembled for that purpose at Antioch, and who, without consulting the rights of the clergy or people, appointed a successor by their own authority. The manifest irregularity of this proceeding increased the numbers of the discontented faction; and as Paul, who was no stranger to the arts of courts, had insinuated himself into the favor of Zenobia, he maintained above four years the possession of the episcopal house and office. * The victory of Aurelian changed the face of the East, and the two contending parties, who applied to each other the epithets of schism and heresy, were either commanded or permitted to plead their cause before the tribunal of the conqueror. This public and very singular trial affords a convincing proof that the existence, the property, the privileges, and the internal policy of the Christians, were acknowledged, if not by the laws, at least by the magistrates, of the empire. As a Pagan and as a soldier, it could scarcely be expected that Aurelian should enter into the discussion, whether the sentiments of Paul or those of his adversaries were most agreeable to the true standard of the orthodox faith. His determination, however, was founded on the general principles of equity and reason. He considered the bishops of Italy as the most impartial and respectable judges among the Christians, and as soon as he was informed that they had unanimously approved the sentence of the council, he acquiesced in their opinion, and immediately gave orders that Paul should be compelled to relinquish the temporal possessions belonging to an office, of which, in the judgment of his brethren, he had been regularly deprived. But while we applaud the justice, we should not overlook the policy, of Aurelian, who was desirous of restoring and cementing the dependence of the provinces on the capital, by every means which could bind the interest or prejudices of any part of his subjects.

Amidst the frequent revolutions of the empire, the Christians still flourished in peace and prosperity; and notwithstanding a celebrated æra of martyrs has been deduced from the accession of Diocletian, the new system of policy, introduced and maintained by the wisdom of that prince, continued, during more than eighteen years, to breathe the mildest and most liberal spirit of religious toleration. The mind of Diocletian himself was less adapted indeed to speculative inquiries, than to the active labors of war and government. His prudence rendered him averse to any great innovation, and though his temper was not very susceptible of zeal or enthusiasm, he always maintained an habitual regard for the ancient deities of the empire. But the leisure of the two empresses, of his wife Prisca, and of Valeria, his daughter, permitted them to listen with more attention and respect to the truths of Christianity, which in every age has acknowledged its important obligations to female devotion. The principal eunuchs, Lucian and Dorotheus, Gorgonius and Andrew, who attended the person, possessed the favor, and governed the household of Diocletian, protected by their powerful influence the faith which they had embraced. Their example was imitated by many of the most considerable officers of the palace, who, in their respective stations, had the care of the Imperial ornaments, of the robes, of the furniture, of the jewels, and even of the private treasury; and, though it might sometimes be incumbent on them to accompany the emperor when he sacrificed in the temple, they enjoyed, with their wives, their children, and their slaves, the free exercise of the Christian religion. Diocletian and his colleagues frequently conferred the most important offices on those persons who avowed their abhorrence for the worship of the gods, but who had displayed abilities proper for the service of the state. The bishops held an honorable rank in their respective provinces, and were treated with distinction and respect, not only by the people, but by the magistrates themselves. Almost in every city, the ancient churches were found insufficient to contain the increasing multitude of proselytes; and in their place more stately and capacious edifices were erected for the public worship of the faithful. The corruption of manners and principles, so forcibly lamented by Eusebius, may be considered, not only as a consequence, but as a proof, of the liberty which the Christians enjoyed and abused under the reign of Diocletian. Prosperity had relaxed the nerves of discipline. Fraud, envy, and malice prevailed in every congregation. The presbyters aspired to the episcopal office, which every day became an object more worthy of their ambition. The bishops, who contended with each other for ecclesiastical preeminence, appeared by their conduct to claim a secular and tyrannical power in the church; and the lively faith which still distinguished the Christians from the Gentiles, was shown much less in their lives, than in their controversial writings.

Notwithstanding this seeming security, an attentive observer might discern some symptoms that threatened the church with a more violent persecution than any which she had yet endured. The zeal and rapid progress of the Christians awakened the Polytheists from their supine indifference in the cause of those deities, whom custom and education had taught them to revere. The mutual provocations of a religious war, which had already continued above two hundred years, exasperated the animosity of the contending parties. The Pagans were incensed at the rashness of a recent and obscure sect, which presumed to accuse their countrymen of error, and to devote their ancestors to eternal misery. The habits of justifying the popular mythology against the invectives of an implacable enemy, produced in their minds some sentiments of faith and reverence for a system which they had been accustomed to consider with the most careless levity. The supernatural powers assumed by the church inspired at the same time terror and emulation. The followers of the established religion intrenched themselves behind a similar fortification of prodigies; invented new modes of sacrifice, of expiation, and of initiation; attempted to revive the credit of their expiring oracles; and listened with eager credulity to every impostor, who flattered their prejudices by a tale of wonders. Both parties seemed to acknowledge the truth of those miracles which were claimed by their adversaries; and while theywere contented with ascribing them to the arts of magic, and to the power of dæmons, theymutually concurred in restoring and establishing the reign of superstition. Philosophy, her mostdangerous enemy, was now converted into her most useful ally. The groves of the academy, thegardens of Epicurus, and even the portico of the Stoics, were almost deserted, as so manydifferent schools of scepticism or impiety; and many among the Romans were desirous that the writings of Cicero should be condemned and suppressed by the authority of the senate. The prevailing sect of the new Platonicians judged it prudent to connect themselves with the priests, whom perhaps they despised, against the Christians, whom they had reason to fear. These fashionable Philosophers prosecuted the design of extracting allegorical wisdom from the fictions of the Greek poets; instituted mysterious rites of devotion for the use of their chosen disciples; recommended the worship of the ancient gods as the emblems or ministers of the Supreme Deity, and composed against the faith of the gospel many elaborate treatises, which have since been committed to the flames by the prudence of orthodox emperors.

Although the policy of Diocletian and the humanity of Constantius inclined them to preserve inviolate the maxims of toleration, it was soon discovered that their two associates, Maximian and Galerius, entertained the most implacable aversion for the name and religion of the Christians. The minds of those princes had never been enlightened by science; education had never softened their temper. They owed their greatness to their swords, and in their most elevated fortune they still retained their superstitious prejudices of soldiers and peasants. In the general administration of the provinces they obeyed the laws which their benefactor had established; but they frequently found occasions of exercising within their camp and palaces a secret persecution, for which the imprudent zeal of the Christians sometimes offered the most specious pretences. A sentence of death was executed upon Maximilianus, an African youth, who had been produced by his own father *before the magistrate as a sufficient and legal recruit, but who obstinately persisted in declaring, that his conscience would not permit him to embrace the profession of a soldier. It could scarcely be expected that any government should suffer the action of Marcellus the Centurion to pass with impunity. On the day of a public festival, that officer threw away his belt, his arms, and the ensigns of his office, and exclaimed with a loud voice, that he would obey none but Jesus Christ the eternal King, and that he renounced forever the use of carnal weapons, and the service of an idolatrous master. The soldiers, as soon as they recovered from their astonishment, secured the person of Marcellus. He was examined in the city of Tingi by the president of that part of Mauritania; and as he was convicted by his own confession, he was condemned and beheaded for the crime of desertion. Examples of such a nature savor much less of religious persecution than of martial or even civil law; but they served to alienate the mind of the emperors, to justify the severity of Galerius, who dismissed a great number of Christian officers from their employments; and to authorize the opinion, that a sect of enthusiastics, which avowed principles so repugnant to the public safety, must either remain useless, or would soon become dangerous, subjects of the empire.

After the success of the Persian war had raised the hopes and the reputation of Galerius, he passed a winter with Diocletian in the palace of Nicomedia; and the fate of Christianity became the object of their secret consultations. The experienced emperor was still inclined to pursue measures of lenity; and though he readily consented to exclude the Christians from holding any employments in the household or the army, he urged in the strongest terms the danger as well as cruelty of shedding the blood of those deluded fanatics. Galerius at length extorted from him the permission of summoning a council, composed of a few persons the most distinguished in the civil and military departments of the state. The important question was agitated in their presence, and those ambitious courtiers easily discerned, that it was incumbent on them to second, by their eloquence, the importunate violence of the Cæsar. It may be presumed, that they insisted on every topic which might interest the pride, the piety, or the fears, of their sovereign in the destruction of Christianity. Perhaps they represented, that the glorious work of the deliverance of the empire was left imperfect, as long as an independent people was permitted to subsist and multiply in the heart of the provinces. The Christians, (it might specially be alleged,) renouncing the gods and the institutions of Rome, had constituted a distinct republic, which might yet be suppressed before it had acquired any military force; but which was already governed by its own laws and magistrates, was possessed of a public treasure, and was intimately connected in all its parts by the frequent assemblies of the bishops, to whose decrees their numerous and opulent congregations yielded an implicit obedience. Arguments like these may seem to have determined the reluctant mind of Diocletian to embrace a new system of persecution; but though we may suspect, it is not in our power to relate, the secret intrigues of the palace, the private views and resentments, the jealousy of women or eunuchs, and all those trifling but decisive causes which so often influence the fate of empires, and the councils of the wisest monarchs.

The pleasure of the emperors was at length signified to the Christians, who, during the course of this melancholy winter, had expected, with anxiety, the result of so many secret consultations. The twenty-third of February, which coincided with the Roman festival of the Terminalia, was appointed (whether from accident or design) to set bounds to the progress of Christianity. At the earliest dawn of day, the Prætorian præfect, accompanied by several generals, tribunes, and officers of the revenue, repaired to the principal church of Nicomedia, which was situated on an eminence in the most populous and beautiful part of the city. The doors were instantly broke open; they rushed into the sanctuary; and as they searched in vain for some visible object of worship, they were obliged to content themselves with committing to the flames the volumes of the holy Scripture. The ministers of Diocletian were followed by a numerous body of guards and pioneers, who marched in order of battle, and were provided with all the instruments used in the destruction of fortified cities. By their incessant labor, a sacred edifice, which towered above the Imperial palace, and had long excited the indignation and envy of the Gentiles, was in a few hours levelled with the ground.

The next day the general edict of persecution was published; and though Diocletian, still averse to the effusion of blood, had moderated the fury of Galerius, who proposed, that every one refusing to offer sacrifice should immediately be burnt alive, the penalties inflicted on the obstinacy of the Christians might be deemed sufficiently rigorous and effectual. It was enacted, that their churches, in all the provinces of the empire, should be demolished to their foundations; and the punishment of death was denounced against all who should presume to hold any secret assemblies for the purpose of religious worship. The philosophers, who now assumed the unworthy office of directing the blind zeal of persecution, had diligently studied the nature and genius of the Christian religion; and as they were not ignorant that the speculative doctrines of the faith were supposed to be contained in the writings of the prophets, of the evangelists, and of the apostles, they most probably suggested the order, that the bishops and presbyters should deliver all their sacred books into the hands of the magistrates; who were commanded, under the severest penalties, to burn them in a public and solemn manner. By the same edict, the property of the church was at once confiscated; and the several parts of which it might consist were either sold to the highest bidder, united to the Imperial domain, bestowed on the cities and corporations, or granted to the solicitations of rapacious courtiers. After taking such effectual measures to abolish the worship, and to dissolve the government of the Christians, it was thought necessary to subject to the most intolerable hardships the condition of those perverse individuals who should still reject the religion of nature, of Rome, and of their ancestors. Persons of a liberal birth were declared incapable of holding any honors or employments; slaves were forever deprived of the hopes of freedom, and the whole body of the people were put out of the protection of the law. The judges were authorized to hear and to determine every action that was brought against a Christian. But the Christians were not permitted to complain of any injury which they themselves had suffered; and thus those unfortunate sectaries were exposed to the severity, while they were excluded from the benefits, of public justice. This new species of martyrdom, so painful and lingering, so obscure and ignominious, was, perhaps, the most proper to weary the constancy of the faithful: nor can it be doubted that the passions and interest of mankind were disposed on this occasion to second the designs of the emperors. But the policy of a well-ordered government must sometimes have interposed in behalf of the oppressed Christians; * nor was it possible for the Roman princes entirely to remove the apprehension of punishment, or to connive at every act of fraud and violence, without exposing their own authority and the rest of their subjects to the most alarming dangers.

This edict was scarcely exhibited to the public view, in the most conspicuous place of Nicomedia, before it was torn down by the hands of a Christian, who expressed at the same time, by the bitterest invectives, his contempt as well as abhorrence for such impious and tyrannical governors. His offence, according to the mildest laws, amounted to treason, and deserved death. And if it be true that he was a person of rank and education, those circumstances could serve only to aggravate his guilt. He was burnt, or rather roasted, by a slow fire; and his executioners, zealous to revenge the personal insult which had been offered to the emperors, exhausted every refinement of cruelty, without being able to subdue his patience, or to alter the steady and insulting smile which in his dying agonies he still preserved in his countenance. The Christians, though they confessed that his conduct had not been strictly conformable to the laws of prudence, admired the divine fervor of his zeal; and the excessive commendations which they lavished on the memory of their hero and martyr, contributed to fix a deep impression of terror and hatred in the mind of Diocletian.

His fears were soon alarmed by the view of a danger from which he very narrowly escaped. Within fifteen days the palace of Nicomedia, and even the bed-chamber of Diocletian, were twice in flames; and though both times they were extinguished without any material damage, the singular repetition of the fire was justly considered as an evident proof that it had not been the effect of chance or negligence. The suspicion naturally fell on the Christians; and it was suggested, with some degree of probability, that those desperate fanatics, provoked by their present sufferings, and apprehensive of impending calamities, had entered into a conspiracy with their faithful brethren, the eunuchs of the palace, against the lives of two emperors, whom they detested as the irreconcilable enemies of the church of God. Jealousy and resentment prevailed in every breast, but especially in that of Diocletian. A great number of persons, distinguished either by the offices which they had filled, or by the favor which they had enjoyed, were thrown into prison. Every mode of torture was put in practice, and the court, as well as city, was polluted with many bloody executions. But as it was found impossible to extort any discovery of this mysterious transaction, it seems incumbent on us either to presume the innocence, or to admire the resolution, of the sufferers. A few days afterwards Galerius hastily withdrew himself from Nicomedia, declaring, that if he delayed his departure from that devoted palace, he should fall a sacrifice to the rage of the Christians. The ecclesiastical historians, from whom alone we derive a partial and imperfect knowledge of this persecution, are at a loss how to account for the fears and dangers of the emperors. Two of these writers, a prince and a rhetorician, were eye-witnesses of the fire of Nicomedia. The one ascribes it to lightning, and the divine wrath; the other affirms, that it was kindled by the malice of Galerius himself.

As the edict against the Christians was designed for a general law of the whole empire, and as Diocletian and Galerius, though they might not wait for the consent, were assured of the concurrence, of the Western princes, it would appear more consonant to our ideas of policy, that the governors of all the provinces should have received secret instructions to publish, on one and the same day, this declaration of war within their respective departments. It was at least to be expected, that the convenience of the public highways and established posts would have enabled the emperors to transmit their orders with the utmost despatch from the palace of Nicomedia to the extremities of the Roman world; and that they would not have suffered fifty days to elapse, before the edict was published in Syria, and near four months before it was signified to the cities of Africa. This delay may perhaps be imputed to the cautious temper of Diocletian, who had yielded a reluctant consent to the measures of persecution, and who was desirous of trying the experiment under his more immediate eye, before he gave way to the disorders and discontent which it must inevitably occasion in the distant provinces. At first, indeed, the magistrates were restrained from the effusion of blood; but the use of every other severity was permitted, and even recommended to their zeal; nor could the Christians, though they cheerfully resigned the ornaments of their churches, resolve to interrupt their religious assemblies, or to deliver their sacred books to the flames. The pious obstinacy of Felix, an African bishop, appears to have embarrassed the subordinate ministers of the government. The curator of his city sent him in chains to the proconsul. The proconsul transmitted him to the Prætorian præfect of Italy; and Felix, who disdained even to give an evasive answer, was at length beheaded at Venusia, in Lucania, a place on which the birth of Horace has conferred fame. This precedent, and perhaps some Imperial rescript, which was issued in consequence of it, appeared to authorize the governors of provinces, in punishing with death the refusal of the Christians to deliver up their sacred books. There were undoubtedly many persons who embraced this opportunity of obtaining the crown of martyrdom; but there were likewise too many who purchased an ignominious life, by discovering and betraying the holy Scripture into the hands of infidels. A great number even of bishops and presbyters acquired, by this criminal compliance, the opprobrious epithet of Traditors; and their offence was productive of much present scandal and of much future discord in the African church.

The copies as well as the versions of Scripture, were already so multiplied in the empire, that the most severe inquisition could no longer be attended with any fatal consequences; and even the sacrifice of those volumes, which, in every congregation, were preserved for public use, required the consent of some treacherous and unworthy Christians. But the ruin of the churches was easily effected by the authority of the government, and by the labor of the Pagans. In some provinces, however, the magistrates contented themselves with shutting up the places of religious worship. In others, they more literally complied with the terms of the edict; and after taking away the doors, the benches, and the pulpit, which they burnt as it were in a funeral pile, they completely demolished the remainder of the edifice. It is perhaps to this melancholy occasion that we should apply a very remarkable story, which is related with so many circumstances of variety and improbability, that it serves rather to excite than to satisfy our curiosity. In a small town in Phrygia, of whose names as well as situation we are left ignorant, it should seem that the magistrates and the body of the people had embraced the Christian faith; and as some resistance might be apprehended to the execution of the edict, the governor of the province was supported by a numerous detachment of legionaries. On their approach the citizens threw themselves into the church, with the resolution either of defending by arms that sacred edifice, or of perishing in its ruins. They indignantly rejected the notice and permission which was given them to retire, till the soldiers, provoked by their obstinate refusal, set fire to the building on all sides, and consumed, by this extraordinary kind of martyrdom, a great number of Phrygians, with their wives and children.

Some slight disturbances, though they were suppressed almost as soon as excited, in Syria and the frontiers of Armenia, afforded the enemies of the church a very plausible occasion to insinuate, that those troubles had been secretly fomented by the intrigues of the bishops, who had already forgotten their ostentatious professions of passive and unlimited obedience. The resentment, or the fears, of Diocletian, at length transported him beyond the bounds of moderation, which he had hitherto preserved, and he declared, in a series of cruel edicts, his intention of abolishing the Christian name. By the first of these edicts, the governors of the provinces were directed to apprehend all persons of the ecclesiastical order; and the prisons, destined for the vilest criminals, were soon filled with a multitude of bishops, presbyters, deacons, readers, and exorcists. By a second edict, the magistrates were commanded to employ every method of severity, which might reclaim them from their odious superstition, and oblige them to return to the established worship of the gods. This rigorous order was extended, by a subsequent edict, to the whole body of Christians, who were exposed to a violent and general persecution. Instead of those salutary restraints, which had required the direct and solemn testimony of an accuser, it became the duty as well as the interest of the Imperial officers to discover, to pursue, and to torment the most obnoxious among the faithful. Heavy penalties were denounced against all who should presume to save a prescribed sectary from the just indignation of the gods, and of the emperors. Yet, notwithstanding the severity of this law, the virtuous courage of many of the Pagans, in concealing their friends or relations, affords an honorable proof, that the rage of superstition had not extinguished in their minds the sentiments of nature and humanity.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To Constantine. -- Part VII.

Diocletian had no sooner published his edicts against the Christians, than, as if he had been desirous of committing to other hands the work of persecution, he divested himself of the Imperial purple. The character and situation of his colleagues and successors sometimes urged them to enforce and sometimes inclined them to suspend, the execution of these rigorous laws; nor can we acquire a just and distinct idea of this important period of ecclesiastical history, unless we separately consider the state of Christianity, in the different parts of the empire, during the space of ten years, which elapsed between the first edicts of Diocletian and the final peace of the church.

The mild and humane temper of Constantius was averse to the oppression of any part of his subjects. The principal offices of his palace were exercised by Christians. He loved their persons, esteemed their fidelity, and entertained not any dislike to their religious principles. But as long as Constantius remained in the subordinate station of Cæsar, it was not in his power openly to reject the edicts of Diocletian, or to disobey the commands of Maximian. His authority contributed, however, to alleviate the sufferings which he pitied and abhorred. He consented with reluctance to the ruin of the churches; but he ventured to protect the Christians themselves from the fury of the populace, and from the rigor of the laws. The provinces of Gaul (under which we may probably include those of Britain) were indebted for the singular tranquillity which they enjoyed, to the gentle interposition of their sovereign. But Datianus, the president or governor of Spain, actuated either by zeal or policy, chose rather to execute the public edicts of the emperors, than to understand the secret intentions of Constantius; and it can scarcely be doubted, that his provincial administration was stained with the blood of a few martyrs. The elevation of Constantius to the supreme and independent dignity of Augustus, gave a free scope to the exercise of his virtues, and the shortness of his reign did not prevent him from establishing a system of toleration, of which he left the precept and the example to his son Constantine. His fortunate son, from the first moment of his accession, declaring himself the protector of the church, at length deserved the appellation of the first emperor who publicly professed and established the Christian religion. The motives of his conversion, as they may variously be deduced from benevolence, from policy, from conviction, or from remorse, and the progress of the revolution, which, under his powerful influence and that of his sons, rendered Christianity the reigning religion of the Roman empire, will form a very interesting and important chapter in the second volume of this history. At present it may be sufficient to observe, that every victory of Constantine was productive of some relief or benefit to the church.

The provinces of Italy and Africa experienced a short but violent persecution. The rigorous edicts of Diocletian were strictly and cheerfully executed by his associate Maximian, who had long hated the Christians, and who delighted in acts of blood and violence. In the autumn of the first year of the persecution, the two emperors met at Rome to celebrate their triumph; several oppressive laws appear to have issued from their secret consultations, and the diligence of the magistrates was animated by the presence of their sovereigns., After Diocletian had divested himself of the purple, Italy and Africa were administered under the name of Severus, and were exposed, without defence, to the implacable resentment of his master Galerius. Among the martyrs of Rome, Adauctus deserves the notice of posterity. He was of a noble family in Italy, and had raised himself, through the successive honors of the palace, to the important office of treasurer of the private Jemesnes. Adauctus is the more remarkable for being the only person of rank and distinction who appears to have suffered death, during the whole course of this general persecution.

The revolt of Maxentius immediately restored peace to the churches of Italy and Africa; and the same tyrant who oppressed every other class of his subjects, showed himself just, humane, and even partial, towards the afflicted Christians. He depended on their gratitude and affection, and very naturally presumed, that the injuries which they had suffered, and the dangers which they still apprehended from his most inveterate enemy, would secure the fidelity of a party already considerable by their numbers and opulence. Even the conduct of Maxentius towards the bishops of Rome and Carthage may be considered as the proof of his toleration, since it is probable that the most orthodox princes would adopt the same measures with regard to their established clergy. Marcellus, the former of these prelates, had thrown the capital into confusion, by the severe penance which he imposed on a great number of Christians, who, during the late persecution, had renounced or dissembled their religion. The rage of faction broke out in frequent and violent seditions; the blood of the faithful was shed by each other's hands, and the exile of Marcellus, whose prudence seems to have been less eminent than his zeal, was found to be the only measure capable of restoring peace to the distracted church of Rome. The behavior of Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, appears to have been still more reprehensible. A deacon of that city had published a libel against the emperor. The offender took refuge in the episcopal palace; and though it was somewhat early to advance any claims of ecclesiastical immunities, the bishop refused to deliver him up to the officers of justice. For this treasonable resistance, Mensurius was summoned to court, and instead of receiving a legal sentence of death or banishment, he was permitted, after a short examination, to return to his diocese. Such was the happy condition of the Christian subjects of Maxentius, that whenever they were desirous of procuring for their own use any bodies of martyrs, they were obliged to purchase them from the most distant provinces of the East. A story is related of Aglæ, a Roman lady, descended from a consular family, and possessed of so ample an estate, that it required the management of seventy-three stewards. Among these Boniface was the favorite of his mistress; and as Aglæ mixed love with devotion, it is reported that he was admitted to share her bed. Her fortune enabled her to gratify the pious desire of obtaining some sacred relics from the East. She intrusted Boniface with a considerable sum of gold, and a large quantity of aromatics; and her lover, attended by twelve horsemen and three covered chariots, undertook a remote pilgrimage, as far as Tarsus in Cilicia.

The sanguinary temper of Galerius, the first and principal author of the persecution, was formidable to those Christians whom their misfortunes had placed within the limits of his dominions; and it may fairly be presumed that many persons of a middle rank, who were not confined by the chains either of wealth or of poverty, very frequently deserted their native country, and sought a refuge in the milder climate of the West. As long as he commanded only the armies and provinces of Illyricum, he could with difficulty either find or make a considerable number of martyrs, in a warlike country, which had entertained the missionaries of the gospel with more coldness and reluctance than any other part of the empire. But when Galerius had obtained the supreme power, and the government of the East, he indulged in their fullest extent his zeal and cruelty, not only in the provinces of Thrace and Asia, which acknowledged his immediate jurisdiction, but in those of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, where Maximin gratified his own inclination, by yielding a rigorous obedience to the stern commands of his benefactor. The frequent disappointments of his ambitious views, the experience of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflections which a lingering and painful distemper suggested to the mind of Galerius, at length convinced him that the most violent efforts of despotism are insufficient to extirpate a whole people, or to subdue their religious prejudices. Desirous of repairing the mischief that he had occasioned, he published in his own name, and in those of Licinius and Constantine, a general edict, which, after a pompous recital of the Imperial titles, proceeded in the following manner: --

"Among the important cares which have occupied our mind for the utility and preservation of the empire, it was our intention to correct and reestablish all things according to the ancient laws and public discipline of the Romans. We were particularly desirous of reclaiming into the way of reason and nature, the deluded Christians who had renounced the religion and ceremonies instituted by their fathers; and presumptuously despising the practice of antiquity, had invented extravagant laws and opinions, according to the dictates of their fancy, and had collected a various society from the different provinces of our empire. The edicts, which we have published to enforce the worship of the gods, having exposed many of the Christians to danger and distress, many having suffered death, and many more, who still persist in their impious folly, being left destitute of any public exercise of religion, we are disposed to extend to those unhappy men the effects of our wonted clemency. We permit them therefore freely to profess their private opinions, and to assemble in their conventicles without fear or molestation, provided always that they preserve a due respect to the established laws and government. By another rescript we shall signify our intentions to the judges and magistrates; and we hope that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer up their prayers to the Deity whom they adore, for our safety and prosperity for their own, and for that of the republic." It is not usually in the language of edicts and manifestos that we should search for the real character or the secret motives of princes; but as these were the words of a dying emperor, his situation, perhaps, may be admitted as a pledge of his sincerity.

When Galerius subscribed this edict of toleration, he was well assured that Licinius would readily comply with the inclinations of his friend and benefactor, and that any measures in favor of the Christians would obtain the approbation of Constantine. But the emperor would not venture to insert in the preamble the name of Maximin, whose consent was of the greatest importance, and who succeeded a few days afterwards to the provinces of Asia. In the first six months, however, of his new reign, Maximin affected to adopt the prudent counsels of his predecessor; and though he never condescended to secure the tranquillity of the church by a public edict, Sabinus, his Prætorian præfect, addressed a circular letter to all the governors and magistrates of the provinces, expatiating on the Imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincible obstinacy of the Christians, and directing the officers of justice to cease their ineffectual prosecutions, and to connive at the secret assemblies of those enthusiasts. In consequence of these orders, great numbers of Christians were released from prison, or delivered from the mines. The confessors, singing hymns of triumph, returned into their own countries; and those who had yielded to the violence of the tempest, solicited with tears of repentance their readmission into the bosom of the church.

But this treacherous calm was of short duration; nor could the Christians of the East place any confidence in the character of their sovereign. Cruelty and superstition were the ruling passions of the soul of Maximin. The former suggested the means, the latter pointed out the objects of persecution. The emperor was devoted to the worship of the gods, to the study of magic, and to the belief of oracles. The prophets or philosophers, whom he revered as the favorites of Heaven, were frequently raised to the government of provinces, and admitted into his most secret councils. They easily convinced him that the Christians had been indebted for their victories to their regular discipline, and that the weakness of polytheism had principally flowed from a want of union and subordination among the ministers of religion. A system of government was therefore instituted, which was evidently copied from the policy of the church. In all the great cities of the empire, the temples were repaired and beautified by the order of Maximin, and the officiating priests of the various deities were subjected to the authority of a superior pontiff destined to oppose the bishop, and to promote the cause of paganism. These pontiffs acknowledged, in their turn, the supreme jurisdiction of the metropolitans or high priests of the province, who acted as the immediate vicegerents of the emperor himself. A white robe was the ensign of their dignity; and these new prelates were carefully selected from the most noble and opulent families. By the influence of the magistrates, and of the sacerdotal order, a great number of dutiful addresses were obtained, particularly from the cities of Nicomedia, Antioch, and Tyre, which artfully represented the well-known intentions of the court as the general sense of the people; solicited the emperor to consult the laws of justice rather than the dictates of his clemency; expressed their abhorrence of the Christians, and humbly prayed that those impious sectaries might at least be excluded from the limits of their respective territories. The answer of Maximin to the address which he obtained from the citizens of Tyre is still extant. He praises their zeal and devotion in terms of the highest satisfaction, descants on the obstinate impiety of the Christians, and betrays, by the readiness with which he consents to their banishment, that he considered himself as receiving, rather than as conferring, an obligation. The priests as well as the magistrates were empowered to enforce the execution of his edicts, which were engraved on tables of brass; and though it was recommended to them to avoid the effusion of blood, the most cruel and ignominious punishments were inflicted on the refractory Christians.

The Asiatic Christians had every thing to dread from the severity of a bigoted monarch who prepared his measures of violence with such deliberate policy. But a few months had scarcely elapsed before the edicts published by the two Western emperors obliged Maximin to suspend the prosecution of his designs: the civil war which he so rashly undertook against Licinius employed all his attention; and the defeat and death of Maximin soon delivered the church from the last and most implacable of her enemies.

In this general view of the persecution, which was first authorized by the edicts of Diocletian, I have purposely refrained from describing the particular sufferings and deaths of the Christian martyrs. It would have been an easy task, from the history of Eusebius, from the declamations of Lactantius, and from the most ancient acts, to collect a long series of horrid and disgustful pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and scourges, with iron hooks and red-hot beds, and with all the variety of tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts, and more savage executioners, could inflict upon the human body. These melancholy scenes might be enlivened by a crowd of visions and miracles destined either to delay the death, to celebrate the triumph, or to discover the relics of those canonized saints who suffered for the name of Christ. But I cannot determine what I ought to transcribe, till I am satisfied how much I ought to believe. The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses, that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace, of religion. Such an acknowledgment will naturally excite a suspicion that a writer who has so openly violated one of the fundamental laws of history, has not paid a very strict regard to the observance of the other; and the suspicion will derive additional credit from the character of Eusebius, * which was less tinctured with credulity, and more practised in the arts of courts, than that of almost any of his contemporaries. On some particular occasions, when the magistrates were exasperated by some personal motives of interest or resentment, the rules of prudence, and perhaps of decency, to overturn the altars, to pour out imprecations against the emperors, or to strike the judge as he sat on his tribunal, it may be presumed, that every mode of torture which cruelty could invent, or constancy could endure, was exhausted on those devoted victims. Two circumstances, however, have been unwarily mentioned, which insinuate that the general treatment of the Christians, who had been apprehended by the officers of justice, was less intolerable than it is usually imagined to have been. 1. The confessors who were condemned to work in the mines were permitted by the humanity or the negligence of their keepers to build chapels, and freely to profess their religion in the midst of those dreary habitations. 2. The bishops were obliged to check and to censure the forward zeal of the Christians, who voluntarily threw themselves into the hands of the magistrates. Some of these were persons oppressed by poverty and debts, who blindly sought to terminate a miserable existence by a glorious death. Others were allured by the hope that a short confinement would expiate the sins of a whole life; and others again were actuated by the less honorable motive of deriving a plentiful subsistence, and perhaps a considerable profit, from the alms which the charity of the faithful bestowed on the prisoners. After the church had triumphed over all her enemies, the interest as well as vanity of the captives prompted them to magnify the merit of their respective sufferings. A convenient distance of time or place gave an ample scope to the progress of fiction; and the frequent instances which might be alleged of holy martyrs, whose wounds had been instantly healed, whose strength had been renewed, and whose lost members had miraculously been restored, were extremely convenient for the purpose of removing every difficulty, and of silencing every objection. The most extravagant legends, as they conduced to the honor of the church, were applauded by the credulous multitude, countenanced by the power of the clergy, and attested by the suspicious evidence of ecclesiastical history.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To Constantine. -- Part VIII.

The vague descriptions of exile and imprisonment, of pain and torture, are so easily exaggerated or softened by the pencil of an artful orator, * that we are naturally induced to inquire into a fact of a more distinct and stubborn kind; the number of persons who suffered death in consequence of the edicts published by Diocletian, his associates, and his successors. The recent legendaries record whole armies and cities, which were at once swept away by the undistinguishing rage of persecution. The more ancient writers content themselves with pouring out a liberal effusion of loose and tragical invectives, without condescending to ascertain the precise number of those persons who were permitted to seal with their blood their belief of the gospel. From the history of Eusebius, it may, however, be collected, that only nine bishops were punished with death; and we are assured, by his particular enumeration of the martyrs of Palestine, that no more than ninety-two Christians were entitled to that honorable appellation. As we are unacquainted with the degree of episcopal zeal and courage which prevailed at that time, it is not in our power to draw any useful inferences from the former of these facts: but the latter may serve to justify a very important and probable conclusion. According to the distribution of Roman provinces, Palestine may be considered as the sixteenth part of the Eastern empire: and since there were some governors, who from a real or affected clemency had preserved their hands unstained with the blood of the faithful, it is reasonable to believe, that the country which had given birth to Christianity, produced at least the sixteenth part of the martyrs who suffered death within the dominions of Galerius and Maximin; the whole might consequently amount to about fifteen hundred, a number which, if it is equally divided between the ten years of the persecution, will allow an annual consumption of one hundred and fifty martyrs. Allotting the same proportion to the provinces of Italy, Africa, and perhaps Spain, where, at the end of two or three years, the rigor of the penal laws was either suspended or abolished, the multitude of Christians in the Roman empire, on whom a capital punishment was inflicted by a judicial, sentence, will be reduced to somewhat less than two thousand persons. Since it cannot be doubted that the Christians were more numerous, and their enemies more exasperated, in the time of Diocletian, than they had ever been in any former persecution, this probable and moderate computation may teach us to estimate the number of primitive saints and martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the important purpose of introducing Christianity into the world.

We shall conclude this chapter by a melancholy truth, which obtrudes itself on the reluctant mind; that even admitting, without hesitation or inquiry, all that history has recorded, or devotion has feigned, on the subject of martyrdoms, it must still be acknowledged, that the Christians, in the course of their intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater severities on each other, than they had experienced from the zeal of infidels. During the ages of ignorance which followed the subversion of the Roman empire in the West, the bishops of the Imperial city extended their dominion over the laity as well as clergy of the Latin church. The fabric of superstition which they had erected, and which might long have defied the feeble efforts of reason, was at length assaulted by a crowd of daring fanatics, who from the twelfth to the sixteenth century assumed the popular character of reformers. The church of Rome defended by violence the empire which she had acquired by fraud; a system of peace and benevolence was soon disgraced by proscriptions, war, massacres, and the institution of the holy office. And as the reformers were animated by the love of civil as well as of religious freedom, the Catholic princes connected their own interest with that of the clergy, and enforced by fire and the sword the terrors of spiritual censures. In the Netherlands alone, more than one hundred thousand of the subjects of Charles V. are said to have suffered by the hand of the executioner; and this extraordinary number is attested by Grotius, a man of genius and learning, who preserved his moderation amidst the fury of contending sects, and who composed the annals of his own age and country, at a time when the invention of printing had facilitated the means of intelligence, and increased the danger of detection. If we are obliged to submit our belief to the authority of Grotius, it must be allowed, that the number of Protestants, who were executed in a single province and a single reign, far exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three centuries, and of the Roman empire. But if the improbability of the fact itself should prevail over the weight of evidence; if Grotius should be convicted of exaggerating the merit and sufferings of the Reformers; we shall be naturally led to inquire what confidence can be placed in the doubtful and imperfect monuments of ancient credulity; what degree of credit can be assigned to a courtly bishop, and a passionate declaimer, * who, under the protection of Constantine, enjoyed the exclusive privilege of recording the persecutions inflicted on the Christians by the vanquished rivals or disregarded predecessors of their gracious sovereign.