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PERSECUTION IN THE
EARLY CHURCH

THE CHURCH OF THE WEST IN
THE MIDDLE AGES
From Gregory the Great to Clement the Fifth (1314)
By HERBERT B. WORKMAN, M.A.
Two Volumes. SmaU crown 8uo, 2s. 6d. each.

SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS
*' Seems to me singular! j successful in grasping principles and
arranging details around them." — The Late Bp. Creighton.
"Fascinatingly written- There is not a dull page in Mr. Work
man's volume." — Spectator.
" In his general treatment Mr. Workman is most successful. He
is throughout well informed and fair minded." — AtJieTixum.
"This informing and stimulating volume. We promise that "no
intelligent reader will go to sleep over Mr. Workman's pages." —
Critical Review.
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studies of years to come." — Methodist Recorder.
" Accurate, patient, and loving study, embodied in a form which
all can understand and enjoy." — Methodist Times.
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" Marked by the same qualities of conscientious reading and care
ful workmanship as we have already noticed in the first volume." —
Gitardian. "Well proportioned, interesting, and living."— Literary World.
"A book of remarkable interest, which should be useful as an
introduction to one of the most interesting periods of history." —
Scotsman.

The 36th Fennley Leoture
PERSECUTION
IN THE EARLY CHURCH
A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF
RENUNCIATION

BY
HERBERT B. WORKMAN, M.A.
PRINCIPAL OF WESTMINSTER TRAINING COLLEGE
AUTHOR OF
' THE CHURCH OF THE WEST IN THE MIDDLE AGES," " THE DAWN OP THE
REFORMATION," AND " THE LETTERS OP JOHN HUS "

Honlion
CHARLES H. KELLY
2 CASTLE ST., Ciry EOAD, AND 26 PATBRNOSTEE EOW, E.O.

FEINTED BY
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON AND BECCLBS

Uo
MY WIFE
WHOSE LOVE
MAKES LABOUR LIGHT
AND
DOUBLES ALL LIFe's JOYS

PREFACE
Of the follo'wing pages the lecture actually delivered
consisted of Chapter I., § 1, and of the whole of
Chapter V. These sections I have printed unaltered.
This will explain a few slight repetitions, as also cer
tain hortatory paragraphs not strictly in keeping with
an historical work.
The subject of persecution in the early Church,
treated as a whole, has been somewhat neglected by
English writers. The legal aspects of the matter, the
relations of the Church to the Empire, and the nature
of the courts and procedure by which the Christians
were condemned have been fully dealt with in the re
searches of Ramsay, Hardy, and others, who approve
on the whole of the judgement of Mommsen. The
opposite view, though still maintained by certain
writers of repute (see infra, Appendix E), has not found
any English historian, so far as I know, to defend it
at length. Persecution also, treated merely from the
standpoint of the Church, the experiences of the
martyrs, has, of course, never lacked presentation in
this country from the days of Foxe onward. Such
works, as a rule written for edification, are generally

Till PREFACE
too uncritical to serve the student.^ Moreover, it is
impossible adequately to present a subject by treating
it merely from within, especially when, as is the case
with persecution, it can only be understood by taking
into account all the factors both in the inner life and
outer environment to which it was due.
Such a treatment of the subject as a whole, in
its legal, historical, ecclesiastical, and experiential
aspects, is what I have attempted in the following
pages. In extenuation of deficiency I may plead
the narrow limits within which I have been forced
to compress a subject that might well have been
expanded into several volumes. But the severe
compression may have the advantage of obtaining
readers who could not be induced to study a larger
work. While I trust that no aspect of the subject
has been neglected, special attention has been drawn
to ihose aspects of the inner life of the Church which
led to persecution. In writing this section I gladly
acknowledge indebtedness to Harnack's Expansion of
Christianity for many suggestions. On the legal ques
tion I have followed in the main the lead of Mommsen,
Ramsay, and Hardy, with the qualification to which
I refer further in Appendix E. As regards historical
matters, I have drawn attention in the notes to the
works of Mommsen, Schiller, Marquardt, Bury, and
others who have shed so much light on the Roman
provinces and their government under the Empire.
• One of the most recent, A. J. Mason, Tlie Historic Martyrs (1905)
is constructed on a plan so different to the one I have adopted that the
work inight be used as complementary to this lecture.

PREFACE IX
Unfortunately, Roman history, as taught in schools
and colleges, owing to the narrow range of works
read as classics, too often stops short with the
establishment of the Frincipate.
My greatest difficulty, as must be the ease with
all writers on the subject, has been the critical. The
examination of the historical value of the many Acts
of the martyrs is indispensable, and on the Continent
has been dealt with from many different standpoints
by such writers as v. Gebhardt, Ruinart, de Rossi,
Neumann, Preuschen, Aube, Allard, Franchi de'
Cavalieri, Le Blant, to say nothing of the labours of
the Bollandists, and of the writers in the Analecta
BoUandiana. In England isolated Acts have been
treated by Lightfoot, Conybeare, Healy, Mason, and
Gregg as part of their investigation of certain limited
periods. In this matter, the very crux of the whole
subject, I have weighed each case for myself, and
settled to what extent I could accept its historicity
whether in whole or part. Unfortunately, my limits
of space have made it impossible for me, as a rule, to
give the reasons for decision, though I have usually
given references to works in which the matter is
discussed. In many cases, all that can be claimed
for the view adopted is a certain measure of probability,
or even of possibility. This last, for instance, is all
that can be urged for the history of St. John that
I have given in the text. Some of my readers may
perhaps consider that, on the whole, I incline too
much to accept what many Protestants have been
accustomed to dismiss as valueless tradition. Others,
a 2

X PREFACE
again, may blame me that I have followed in some
cases the critical lead of Aube and Harnack. The
middle position I have adopted corresponds largely to
the middle position I hold in other critical matters.
In fact, speaking merely as a historian, I think the
same principles must be applied in the treatment
of every problem of criticism, whether in the New
Testament, in literature, or history in general, or in
the Acts of the martyrs. Tradition seems to me to
have a value which is too often neglected, unless,
indeed, the origin of that tradition can be duly ex
plained. But the estimate of the value of tradition
aud its limitations is too large a theme upon which to
enter in a preface. I have pointed out in my notes
many instances where tradition has preserved, some
times in a distorted fashion, some historical re
membrance ; many instances, also, where it is but
the result of " tendency " expressing itself in concrete
and picturesque form.
Some critics may complain that in my notes, in
spite of the limitations of space, I have occasionally
introduced some matters only indirectly, at first sight,
connected with persecution. In every case I have
done so designedly. The emphasis of the unity and
continuity of all knowledge seems to me of the utmost
importance, especially in the case of young students.
Especially is this necessary in the study of Church
history, the danger of which is too often a certain
abstraction leading to a false detachment of the life
and theology of the Church from the social and
political environment amidst which it grew up, and

PREFACE XI
by which it was more profoundly influenced than
some theologians are wont to acknowledge. To this
interdependence I have more than once designedly
drawn attention.
As regards the notes in general, the preparation
of which has involved months of toil, I am sorry
that my limitations have prevented me quoting the
salient passages in the Fathers and classical writers.
But no reference has been given the value and
pertinence of which has not been duly weighed.
May I plead with young students, especially in my
own Church, that they take some of the notes and
work through them systematically ? They will leam
more from this means than from any mere reading
of the text. Such a plan means work, but after all
the verification of a note is a light task compared
with the task involved in writing in the first instance.
His slight acquaintance with Greek or Latin should
not deter the reader. With the many excellent trans
lations of classical writers and of the Fathers now
accessible (e.g. Clark's ANCL),^ a rough but service
able acquaintance at first hand may be easily acquired.
This will be made the more valuable if in certain
more difficult or ambiguous passages direct reference
is made to good editions of the original. As regards
the Acts of martyrs, the student cannot do better than
keep at his side the cheap but excellent selection in
V. Gebhardt's AMS. Ruinart AM and the vast A.SS
are for the expert only. I may add that quotations
1 Bohn's MuBebiua is a shocking translation, but better than
none.

Xll PREFACE
from original sources are always enclosed in ' ' ;
other quotations are marked " ".
I have ended my survey with the (alleged) Edict
of Milan. All divisions of time are more or less
arbitrary, and the Edict of Milan was certainly not
the end of persecution. On the other hand, to have
continued to the triumph of Constantine over Licinian
would have introduced new factors that belong more
strictly to a new chapter in the world's history.
If this little volume should in any waiy assist in
reviving the interest of the Church in its early heroes,
above all, if it should point once more to the need of
a greater measure of renunciation as the essential
condition of all successful aggression — a renuncia
tion as necessary to-day, though under different
forms, as in the first struggle between the Church
and the World— I shall feel that I have obtained a
full reward.
Westminster, July, 1906.

CONTENTS

PAGES
Abbeeviations and Editions  xv-xx
Chaptee L — The Master and His Disciples . 1-48
„ II. — Cabsak or Cheist .... 49-104
„ in. — The Causes of Hatred . . . 105-196
„ IV.— The Great Peesecotions . . . 197-282
„ V. — The Experiences of the Persecuted 283-352
Appendix A. — The Dates and Authorship of certain
Disputed Works .... 354-358
„ B. — The alleged Martyrdom of St. John
in A.D. 44  358-361
„ C. — The Martyrdom of St. Peter and
St. Paul  362-364
„ D. — The Persecution of Nero . . 364-365
„ E. — The Laws under which Christians
WERE condemned .... 365-366
„ F.^ttThe Population of the Empire ; the
Proportion of Christians; and the
Number of Martyrs . . . 367-369

it

G. The Apologies of Aeistides
QUADEATUS 

and . 369-371

JI

H. — The Punishment of Women

371

tt

J. — The Fathees and the Empiee .

372

ClIKONOl

.OGiCAL Table 

. 373-377

Index

378

ABBREVIATIONS AND EDITIONS

N.B.— Works whose titles are fully quoted in the notes are not given in this
list. The abbreviations and editions of classical and patristic writers are not
given. They are familiar to all students, or easily accessible. For patristic
writers the student may consult Swete's Patristic Study. My references are,
as a rule, to the edition of Migne. In a few cases, however, I have quoted the
superior CSEL, notably in the epistles of Cyprian. As the numbering in this
edition is very diSerent from that of Migne (adopted in Clark's ANCL), care
should be taken in verification. The Historiae Avgustae (Leyden, 1671, 2 vols.)
I have always quoted by the separate writers, Lampridius, Vopiscus, Pollio, &c.

AM
AAA
C. J. Arnold JVC
Anal. Boll.
Paul Allard I. HP
„ „ IL HP
„ „ IIL HP
B. Aube EE
„ PE
A.SS

See Ruinart.
Acta Aj)oitolorum Apocrypha. See
Lipsius and Bonnet ; Tisohendorf.
Die Neronische Christenverfolgung
(Leipzig, 1888).
Analecta BoUandiana (Brussels ; in
progress).
Mist, des Persecutions pendant les deux
premiers Siecles (Paris, 1892, 2nd ed.).
Hist, des Pertgcutions pendant la
premiere moiti^du iii' Bieole (Paris,
1894, 2nd ed.).
Les dernieres Persecutions du Trot-
sieme Siecle (2nd ed. 1898).
L'Sglise et L'tltat dans la seconde moitie
du Hi' Siecle (Paris, 1886, 2nd ed.).
Hist, des Persecutions de L'Sglisejusqu'a
la Jin des Antonins (Paris, 1875,
2nd ed.).
Acta Sanctorum, i.e. the great incom
plete Bollandist collection. Quoted
by the month and its volume (e.g.
June V = 6th vol. of June).

xvi

ABBREVIATIONS AND EDITIONS

C. Bigg CTRE
G. Boissier FP
V. Bartlet AA
Clark ANCL
CSEL CIL
F. Conybeare MEC
F. Cumont TM
V. Duruy HE
A. W. Dale SE
L. Duchesne LP PEG
S. Dill RSNA
„ ESWE
Dig.
DB
DCBDCA
J. Drummond FG

Church's Task in the Boman Empire
(Oxford, 1905).
Fin du Paganisme (Paris, 1891 ; 2 vols.)
Apostolic Age (Edinburgh, 1900).
Ante-Nicene Christian Library (Edin
burgh).
Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum
Latinorum (Vienna ; in progress).
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinorum.
Monuments of Early Christianity (Lon
don, 1894).
See infra p. 81, n.
Histoire des Bomains (Paris, 1871 ;
Eng. trans, by J. P. Mahaffy,
London, 1885 ; 6 vols.).
Synod of Elvira (London, 1882).
Le Liber Pontificalis (Paris, 1886 ; 2
vols.).
Pastes Episcopaux de Oaule (Paris,
1894; 2 vols.).
Boman Society from Nero to Marcus
Aurelius (London, 1904).
Bo-man Society in the last Century of
the 'Western Empire (London, 2nd
ed., 1899).
For the Digest Juris CiviUs,ei. Krueger
and Mommsen (Berlin, 1889 ; vol. i).
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
(Edinburgh, 1898 ff. ; 5 vols.).
Smith and Waoe, Dictionary of Chris
tian Biography (London, 1877; 4
vols.).
Smith and Cheetham, Dictionary of
Christian Antiquities (Loudon, 1875 ;
2 vols.).
Character and Authorship of the Fourth
Gospel (London, 1903).

ABBREVIATIONS AND EDITIONS

XVII

EB F. W. Farrar EDC
Geb. AMS
E. G. Hardy CRG
J. A. F. Gregg DP
F. J. A. Hort JC
A. Harnack CAL
„ EC
„ MC
B. W. Henderson PN
P. J. Healy VP
R. Lanciani PCR
Lipsius & Bonnet AAA
Lactantius MP
Lucian PP
J. B. Lightf. Clem.

',ia Biblica (Edinburgh,
1898 ff. ; 4 vols.).
Early Days of Christianity (London ;
ed. in 1 vol., 1888).
O. V. Gebhardt, Acta Martyrum Belecta
(Berlin, 1902).
Christianity and the Boman Government
(London, 1894).
The Decian Persecution (London, 1897).
Judaistic Christianity (London, 1898).
Die Chronologic der Altchrittlichen
Litteratur bis Eusebius (Leipzig, 2
vols., 1897, 1904).
The Expansion of Christianity in the
First Three Centuries (E. T., London,
1904; 2 vols.).
Militia Christi (Tubingen, 1905).
Life and Prindpate of the Emperor
Nero (London, 1903).
The Valerian Persecution (London,
1905).
Pagan and Christian Bome (London,
1892).
Acta Apostohrum Apocrypha (Leipzig,
1891 ; 3 vols.).
de Mortibus Persecutorum (see infra
App. A. IL Ai.).
Proteus Peregrinus.
In Bp. Lightfoot's Apostolic Fathers,
Part I. (2 vols., 2nd ed., 1890. N.B.
— The first edition is not now of
much value).
In Bp. Lightfoot's Apostolic Fathers,
Part II. 8. Ignatius and 8. Polycarp
(3 vols., 2nd ed., 1889).

XVIU

ABBREVIATIONS AND EDITIONS

E. Le Blant SAM

ICG
C. Merivale RE
T. Mommsen PRE

Migne PL & PG
A. J. Mason BP
J. Moffatt HNT
C. J. Neumann RSK
N. & B. RS
Palladius HL
Paul. Sent.

Supplement aux Ada Mart-yrum Sin-
cera; in Mewioires de Litterature
(1881, vol. 30).
N.B. — The chief contents of the above
are more accessible in Le Blant's
Les Perseeuteurs et les Martyrs (Paris,
1893), a work I had not met with
until this lecture was in print.
Inscriptio-nes Christianae Galliae.
Bomans under the Empire (new ed.,
1890 ; 8 vols.).
Provinces of the Soman Empire
(London, 1886 ; 2 vols.).
N.B. — In German works quoted as
vol. 5 of his history of Bome.
Patrologia Latina and Patrologia
Graeca. I have quoted the number
of the volume and the column (not
the section).
The Persecution of Diocletian (London,
1876).
Historical New Testament (Edinburgh,
lat ed., 1901).
Der Bomische Staat and die allgemeine
Kirche (Leipzig, 1890; vol. i. only
published).
J. S. Northcote and W. R. Brownlow,
Boma Sotterranea (London, 1879 ;
2 vols.).
Historia Lausiaca (Migne PL, Ixxiii.).
Julius Paulus Sententiae. The best
editionisthat by Mommsen, Krueger,
and Studemund, Collectio lib. Juris
antejustiniani (Berlin, 1891). A con
venient edition is tbat by Huschke
in the Teubner Texts, Jurispru-
dentiae Antejustinianae (Leipzig,
1879, 4th ed.).

ABBREVIATIONS AND EDITIONS

XIX

E. Renan L'Ant.
,, Evang.
„ EC
„ MA

W. M. Ramsay CBP
„ ChE
„ PT
„ >, iSC
G. B. de Rossi RS
ICUR
Ruinart AM

E. Schiirer JPC
H. Schiller RK
E. C. Selwyn CP
C. Tischendorf EA AAA

L' Antechrist.
Les Evangiles et la seconde generation
Chrelienne.
L'Eglise Chretienne.
Marc Aurele et la fin du monde antique.
All the above volumes of his Origines
du Christianisms I have quoted from
the edition of Caiman L^vy (Paris,
1882).
Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia
(London, 1895-7 ; 2 vols.).
The Church in the Boman Empire
(London). I have used the third
(1894) edition.
St. Paul the Traveller and Boman
Citizen (London, 7th ed., 1903).
The Letters to the Seven Churches
(London, 1904).
Boma Sotterranea (Rome, 1864-80, 4
vols.).
Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Bomae
(Rome, 1857).
Acta Martyrum Sincera. I have used
the second edition (Amsterdam,
1713). A more convenient edition
is that of Ratisbon now reprinting.
Unfortunately, the pagination in the
different editions is not the same.
The Jewish People in the Time of Christ
(E. T. Edin., 1890, 5 vols.).
Geschichte de BSmisahen Kaisemeit
(Gotha, 1883, 5 vols.).
Christian Prophets (Loudon, 1900).
Evangelia Apocrypha (Leipzig, 1853).
Acta Aposfolorum Apocrypha (Leipzig,
1851).

XX

ABBREVIATIONS AND EDITIONS

TS

TU

C. J. Tissot PRA
J.G.W.UhlhornCC^CTh. Zahn Ein.
FGK

B. P. Westcott Ch.W

Cambridge Texts and Studies, ed. Dean
Robinson (in progress). Quoted by
volume and year.
Texte und Unters-uchungen zur Ges
chichte der AUchristlichen Litteratur.
Ed. V. Gebhardt and A. Harnack
(in progress). Quoted by the
volume and the year.
La Province Bomaine D'Afrique (Paris,
2 vols.).
See infra, 177 n.
Einleitung in das Neue Testaments
(Leipzig, 1900 ; 2 vols.).
Forschungen Z. Gesch. des N. T. Kanons
and der altkirchlichen Literatur
(Leipzig, 1881-1902 ; 6 vols.). Edited
by J. Haussleiter and Theodor Zahn.
Tlie Church and the 'World; an essay
in his Ep. John (London, 1883).

CHAPTEE I
THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES

Thou I if Thou wast He, who at midwatch came.
By the star-light, naming a dubious name I
And if, too heavy with sleep, too rash
With fear — 0 Thou, if that martyr-gash
Eell on Thee coming to take Thine own.
And we gave the Cross, when we owed the Throne,
Thou art the Judge I
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not
worthy of Me.— Matt. x. 38.
A glorious band, the chosen few
On whom the Spirit came.
Twelve valiant saints, their hope they knew,
And mocked the cross and flame ;
They met the tyrant's brandished steel.
The lion's gory mane.
They bowed their necks, the death to feel :
¦Who follows in their train ?

CONTENTS
i I, p. 3. Martyrdom the highest form of renunciation — The time-
factor in the calculation of pain — The example of the Saviour —
' The crucified Sophist ' — The Cross the differentia ol Christianity
— The Gnostics and the Cross — Story of St. Martin.
I II, p. 10. The trial and death of Jesus — The union of two systems
of law — The arrest — Legal nature of the arrest — The illegal
private examinations — The trial before Pilate — The charge of
majestas — ^Definition of majestas — The three counts against
Jesus — Jesus acquitted — 'The illegal change of venue — The
illegal retrial before Pilate — The mockery — The formal sentence
— Similarity of trial between that of Jesus and of the martyrs
— The Acts of Pilate.
J III, p. 21. Martyrs the imitators of Jesus— The legends of the
Apostles' martyrdom — Origin of these legends — Their value —
The sons of Zebedee — A shadowy martyr — St. James — Story of
Hegesippus— Judaistic Christianity — The mob and St. Paul —
The action of Felix — Festus — The appeal to Caesar — Result of
the appeal.
j IV, p. 36. The martyrdom of St. Paul— His alleged journey to
Spain— The fire of Rome— His second trial— The two counts in
the indictment— His execution — The place of his burial —
Martyrdom of St. Peter— Domine, quo vadis 1 — His execution and
burial— The banishment of St. John— PeporteWo or relegatio ? —
Date and causes of banishment — His release — His death at
Ephesus. Pp. 1-48.

In the history of the Christian Church the student
is brought face to face at the very outset with the
extremest forms that renunciation can take. No scale'
has yet been devised that can weigh the relative
value of different methods of self-surrender. That
which is ease and simplicity to one man may be the
needle's eye to another ; the source of exquisite pain
for one may be for his fellow a matter of little conse
quence. The outsider who would construct a table
of renunciatory values is face to face with the same
difficulty which besets any utilitarian theory of morals,
that pain and pleasure are absolutely relative terms.
However this may be, in one thing most men are,
agreed: that the voluntary surrender of life itself
represents the highest renunciation. ' Skin for skin,
yea all that a man hath will he give for his life,' is
still true, in spite of all the efforts of Schopenhauer
and others to demonstrate its illogical character.
The consciousness of the Christian Church has
decided the question. In all ages men have looked
upon the martyr as the highest expression of the
spirit of self-surrender ; in every country and century
he has won for himself that homage and esteem which
renunciation, whether in greater or less degree, never
B 2

4 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
fails to procure. ' Blessed Martyrs,' wrote one, long
ago, ' ye who have been tried by fire like fine gold, ye
are now crowned with the diadem that cannot fade
away; for ye have bruised beneath your feet the
serpent's head.' *
The consciousness of the Christian Church cannot
be seriously questioned. There are cases, it is true,
in whicli it is easier to die than to live ; where the
daily discharge of duty against overwhelming odds,
the daily carrying of a burden that only death can
remove, the daily suppression of a pain that is gnaw
ing the heart, the daily struggle of broken wings
against the prison bars, is a task far more difficult
than one heroic rush into the midst of the foe, one
short hour of pain, and then kindly peace for ever.
The time-factor, in a word, cannot be ignored ; and
probably if the amount of pain could be calculated,
there are saints all around us the sum of whose
sufferings drawn out through years outweighs the
brief tortures that have immortalized the noble army
of martyrs. But this time-factor is one that in
practical life it is generally impossible to estimate.
The Victoria Crosses are for the heroes of the moment ;
there are no rewards for the lifelong sufferers that
war brings in her train. So also in the Christian
Church. The valuation of the time-factor must be
left with God ; we have no instruments wherewith
we can measure it. But one thing the dullest can
understand — the worth and reality of the renunciation
' Ruinart AM 222. Cf. Clem. Alex. Strom, iv 4, " The praises of
martyrdom."

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 5
and self-sacrifice which count life itself of no value,
and which have obtained, in the fine figure of Ter-
tuUian, ' the crown of eternity itself.' ^
In part, no doubt, the value that the Christian^.
Church has always attached to martyrdom must be
attributed to the example of Jesus, if for the moment
we may contemplate the Crucifixion not in its eternal
significance as atonement, but under its aspect as an
episode in human history. The story that moved the /
world was the Cross. In hoc signo vinces may be a
legend of later growth ; none the less it was an
historical fact. A crossless Saviour would be a crown-
less king ; for Christ the ' hour ' of His crucifixion
was the ' hour ' of His glory, the one ' hour ' of His
timeless being.^ For Him also was fulfilled the
saying, * The crown blossoms on thorns.' In spite of
the sneers of Lucian at the ' crucified Sophist,' ^ the
Martyr of Calvary laid His speU on the world from
the first; a fact the more remarkable when we
remember that mere suffering could never have
appealed to an age that was steeped in cruelty, and
for whom crucifixion, the punishment of slaves, was/
one of the commonest sights of life. Through His
cross the Man of Sorrows became the crowned King,
"whose pierced hand lifted empires off their hinges,
and turned the stream of centuries out of its channel,
and still governs the ages." * The spear that pierced
• Tert. ad Mart. 3. ^ John xvii 1, xiii 31.
" Lucian PP (Ed. Dindorf iii 337) Tbi/ S' i.veaKo\om(iit.4vov ixeii/ov
tro^iar^v. Cf. »6. iii 330, T'bv Mpairov r6v h UaAanTTlvn i.yairKO\om(r-
B^vra. * J. P. Richter, quoted in Geikie, Life of Christ, i 2.

6 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
His side was in reality the death-wound of the old
paganism. " Pan, great Pan is dead," is one of the
undertones in the cry of triumph, " It is finished."
Very beautifully is this expressed in a recent poem :
Girt in the panther fells,
Violets in my hair,
Down I ran through the woody dells.
Through the morning wild and fair, —
To sit by the road till the sun was high.
That I might see some god pass by.
Fluting amidst the thyme
I dreamed through the golden day,
Calling through melody and rhyme,
"lacchusl come tliis way, —
From harrowing Hades like a king.
Vine leaves and glories scattering."
Twilight was all rose-red
When, crowned with vine and thorn.
Came a stranger-god from out the dead ;
And his hands and feet were torn.
I knew him not, for he came alone :
I knew him not, when I fain had known.
He said : " Por love, for love
I wear the vine and thom."
He said : " For love, for love
My hands and feet were torn : "
For love the wine-press Death " I trod."
And I cried in pain : " O Lord my God." '
The Cross is the peculiar property of the Gospel.
' None of the so-called sons of Jupiter did imitate the
being crucified,' argued Justin; the idea was as
new in the thought of the world as its power was
' R. A. Taylor. Poems (1904) p. 52.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 7
tremendous.^ " The old logicians," writes Dr. Bigg,
"used to say that everything should be defined per
genus et differentiam. Christianity is a religion ; this
is its genus, this it has in common with all other
religions. It is the religion of vicarious sacrifice, or
of the Cross, this is its differentia ; in this addition
lies the peculiar nature which makes it what it is, and
distinguishes it from every other member of the
same class." ^ The popular verdict is one with that
of theological science. Theories of the Atonement
have been devised more or less satisfactory in their
efforts to explain in finite symbols the infinite love
and sorrow that lie at the heart of God. But even
those for whom such theories are meaningless have
rarely failed to render homage to the Divine Sufferer.
The speculative consequences of this position that
Christianity is essentially the religion of the Cross
are very great. Doctrines shared by Christianity
with other religions, the beliefs in immortality and
Providence, the value of law and virtue, necessarily
become of secondary importance as explanatory causes
of its success. This can be adequately accounted
for only by that one feature in which Christianity
differs from all religions that have gone before
or which have risen since. The foundations of the
Church are laid deep in Calvary.
' I Apol. 55. On the underlying cause of this disdain for the
Crucified in Greek philosophy (cf. I. Cor. i 23), see Martineau Types
of Ethical Theory (1885) i 10. Celsus (Origen Cels. vii 53) gives a
catalogue of heroes, including Epictetus, whose deaths establish a
superior claim to divinity.
' Bigg's Church's Tash uuder Boman Empire (1905) xi.

8 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Of equal importance are the practical consequences.
If the Cross is the essence of Christianity, cross-
bearing is the mark of every disciple of Jesus. The
theology of an early disciple could scarcely fail to
be otherwise than loose. Only slowly, under the
pressure of circumstances, did the great doctrines
become clear-cut in the consciousness of the Church.
But immature as might be the current ideas on the
Trinity, the Person of Christ, the nature of the
Atonement, and the Personality of the Holy Ghost,
on one matter there could be no hesitation or un
certainty. Jesus Himself had said it ; no man could
be His disciple who should not bear His Cross. Self-
denial, renunciation, martyrdom, the ' emptying one's
self ' ^ for others, in a word, the Cross in one form or
another, not for the sake of "my soul" merely, but
for the sake of " my brother's soul " as well as mine,
— this was the mark by which the Shepherd would
know His sheep. Alas ! for that soul in whom the
Master, when He came, could not find the print of
the nails, and the wounds of His passion. Self-
surrender, self-sacrifice, is not the bene esse, but the
very esse of Christianity. " The old Gnostics called
the Cross Horos, the Boundary or Dividing Line. The
Gnostics were a curious people, but they were right
here." ^ The Cross is indeed the dividing line, both
• Phil, li 7, iKhacev.
' Bigg o.c. XV : Dr. Bigg gives no references, but see the Leucian
Acta Johannis (TS v. 5 c 13), Siopicrnhs irdfruv iarlv, k.t.\. ; Irenaeus
Haer. i 3, 5 : ' In so far as he supports aud sustains he is Stauros (the
Cross), while in so far as he divides and separates he is Horos,' &c.,
with the subsequent metaphor of the fan which the Gnostics ' explain

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 9
in the life of the world, of every individual, and of
the Christ Himself.
There is a beautiful story in that charming work
of Sulpicius Severus, the Life of St. Martin of Tours,
which will serve as an illustration of our meaning.
One day as Martin was praying there stood before
him in his cell a radiant being, ' clothed upon with a
kingly vest, with a diadem of gems and gold upon his
brow, shoes inlaid with gold upon his feet, and whose
face was lit with joy.' As the saint stood in silence,
' Martin,' said the vision, ' dost thou not know whom
thou beholdest ? I am the Christ.' But Martin still
stood erect and speechless. ' Martin,' the voice
repeated, ' why dost thou doubt that thou beholdest
Me ? I am the Christ.' * Not so,' replied the saint,
'Jesus our Lord never said that He would come
again resplendent in purple and gold. I will not
believe that I have seen any vision of Christ, except
He come clothed upon with the form in which He
suffered, and bearing the marks of His Cross.' At
once the vision vanished, and by the fumes with
which his cell was filled Martin recognized that it
had been the devil.^ Martin's insight was correct ;
the Cross^is the true mark of the Lord. Even the)
to be the Cross.' Por the different subdivisions of this Horos, see
a. i 2, 4.
' Sulpicius Severus Vita Martini c. 24 (ed. Halm in the Vienna
CSEL 1866). The devil was rather given to taking the form of
Christ. In the Vita Pachomii 48 (Migne PL Ixxiii) we flnd him
playing the same trick on Fachomius, who reasons that 'the vision of
Christ frees from all fear, whereas I am troubled.' The defeated devil
usually leaves his smell behind him.

10 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
triumphant Christ must still wear " the dear tokens
of His passion." II
At this point it will be convenient to examine the
nature of the charge and the legality of the trial by
which our Lord was condemned.^ The matter is of
importance, not merely in itself, but by reason of its
relation to our theme. For, as we shall see, in His
trial and execution our Lord was the first-born of
many brethren, condemned on essentially the same
charge and at the same court as the majority of the
early Christians. But in one detail th6 case of our
Saviour was unique. The two most influential law
systems of the old world, the venerable law of Moses
and the august jurisprudence of Rome, had both to
face the problem, " What shall we do with Jesus that
is called the Christ ? " To accomplish His destruction
they were both violently wrested into injustice, to
meet the greed and allay the fears of those charged
with their administration.
So long as our Lord was in Galilee the Sanhedrim
had no legal authority over Him.^ But once in
' For the trial of Jesus in its legal aspects the student should
consult A. Taylor Innes The Trial of Jesus Christ (1899). Its
conclusions are summarized iu Buss Boman Law, &c., in N.T. (1901).
G. Rosadi The Trial of Jesus (trans. E. Reich, 1905) is diffuse and
not very valuable. How close in form and many of its phrases (legal)
the trial of Jesus is to the trial of the martyrs may be seen by every
student who will compare Le Blant SAM § 59 (even makuig all
discount for mere coincidence) with the Gospels.
¦ Schurer JPC i (2) 185.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 11
Jerusalem, He came under their control. For the
Romans, wise in their generation, governed their
empire by a system of devolution or modified home
rule. In Judaea every effort was made to conciliate
local feeling. The members of the Sanhedrim were
allowed the full exercise of their judicial functions, so
far as their own people were concerned,' with the
limitation, of importance in the case of St. Paul, that
they had no control over Roman citizens, nor had
they any right of inflicting the death sentence.^
But this last was really less effective a check than it
might appear. A politic procurator, ever anxious
io prevent disturbance in his province, usually ratified
the death sentence of the Sanhedrim.
The arrest of Jesus on the warrant of the Sanhe
drim, perhaps on the charge of riot in the Temple,^
was therefore legal.* So assured were the high-
priests of their rights that they obtained from Pilate
a cohort of soldiers under a tribune ^ to protect them
in their enterprise, and to assist the Temple police.
The large military force may seem excessive ; evi
dently the hierarchy expected an outbreak of the
> Schiirer JPO ii (2) 262-3. Por the powers of the Sanhedrim
see ib. ii (1) 163-95, or briefly Mommsen PBE ii 187-8.
' John xviii 31; and for the evidence Buss o.e. 184-8; Schurer
JPO i (2) 188 ; Westcott in loc. cit. ; Blass on Acts vii 57-8.
^ This cleansing was the real offence. It hit hard the pocket
of Annas and his ring. See Edersheim Jesus the Messiah i 371-2.
As to when this event took place, see Drummond FQ 61-2.
* Innes o.c. 21, doubts this for reasons that I do not understand.
* John xviii 3, 12, criteipa, properly 600 men, must not be taken
too literally. See also Westcott in loc.

12 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Galileans, who neither recognized nor were accus
tomed to their jurisdiction. Of more importance ia
it to note in this persecution of the Son of Man
that feature, so marked in later days, of the union of
Jew and Roman.' In Judaea, as afterwards through
out the world, the civil and ecclesiastical authorities
were one in their effort to destroy the religion of
Jesus. The actual arrest in the garden of Geth-
semane seems to have been the work of the Roman
soldiers, the Temple police at the critical moment
yielding to a panic.^ They had often heard the
Saviour speak; they had seen His deeds; they
dreaded His power. From all these fears the more
ignorant Roman soldiers were free. But with the
handing over of their captive to the officers of the
Sanhedrim the work of the regulars for the present was
finished. The private examination of Jesus before Annas
was altogether illegal. In Judaea, unlike France or
Scotland, no preliminary interrogatories were allowed.^
The trial before the Sanhedrim would have been
legal if the court had been a formal meeting, and not
a packed quorum of twenty-three, to say nothing of
the doubt whether the day was not one on which aU
courts were illegal. As it was, its conduct made it
a judicial murder.* Contrary to all the rules of
' See infra p. 119. ' John xviii 6, 12.
' See Innes o.c. 24-26, who quotes the learned Spanish Jew jurist
Salvador; Institutions de Moise i 366. In the edition I have used
(Brussels, 1829) the reference is ii 60.
¦¦ Edersheim ii 552-6. Innes o.c. 30 ff. The Jews think this.
See the Talmudic evasions, ib. ii 558 n.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 13
Jewish law, the court was held, in part at least, by
night, or at any rate before daybreak. According to
St. Luke, the formal decision — for no witnesses were
recalled — was not given until dawn.' But even then
it would have been illegal. Jewish law laid great
stress on the necessary adjournment, over twelve
hours at least, before the sentence of condemnation.^
The judicial use of the confession of the accused,
even after solemn adjuration, was expressly forbidden.
In this too Jesus was one with His brethren, who
were condemned on their confession alone.^ Again,
as Salvador tells us, " the least discordance between
the evidence of the witnesses was held to destroy its
value." * The sentence itself, strictly speaking, was
ultra vires, though too much must not be made of
what in practice was often rather a technicality than
otherwise. But the carrying out of the death-sentence
without the consent of Pilate was difficult and danger
ous, as Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, knew to
his cost, and as his son Annas was afterwards to
learn.^ Annas, the father, had lost his office some
fifteen years before for this very reason ; ^ and Pilate
* Lulce xxii 66.
' Salvador, the champion of the justice of the trial (Jugement de
Jesus 1862 i 391, or Instit. Jfoise, 1829, 1. iv c 3 ii 89) ignores this. He
states, against tdl the evidence: "It is certain that the Council
would assemble again the next day." ' See infra p. 104.
* Instit. i 373, or (1829) ii 69. Innes reminds us (p. 40) that the
fact that Jesus was tried on a " general warrant," though illegal in
England, was not so in Judaea.
' See infra p. 27, death of James. Por this irregularity he was
deposed by Agrippa (Joseph. Antiq. xx 9, 1).
° A.D. 16, deposed by Valerius Gratus (Joseph. Antiq. xviii 2, 2).

14 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
was not a procurator given to humouring the Jewish
pretensions. The priests had no option, therefore,
but to obtain the Roman endorsement. As a rule
this would have been granted, with little, if any,
inquiry. But, whether by blunder or design, in
bringing the case before Pilate they changed the
charge from blasphemy' to treason. If they had
alleged the first only, the count upon which Jesus
had been condemned by the Sanhedrim, Pilate might
have ratified their sentence offhand, as a matter
merely of Jewish religion or. politics. But in that
case the death would have been by stoning, aa
ordained by the Jewish law, not the death on the Cross
of malefactors and slaves, the only death which would
overwhelm with ridicule His Messianic pretensiona
The charge of treason threw upon Pilate the
necessity of a formal trial, of hearing the case de novo
without reference to the examination ofthe Sanhedrim.
Crimen laesae majestatis (lese-majeste), or high treason
against the Emperor, was the most grievous offence
known to Roman law, theoretically second to sacrilege,
but in reality one with it. In earlier days majestas,
as the offence was usually called, embraced any
' crime against the Roman people, or their security,'
— we quote the comprehensive definition of the great
Roman jurist Ulpian,^ as, for instance, conspiracy,
• Blasphemy in Jewish law probably included the attempt to
supersede that law (Innes 44-6). It was really theocratic high treason,
or crimen laesae majestatis divinae. See infra p. 101 n. Under this
category St. Paul, even more than our Saviour, could have been
condemned, or for that matter any reformer.
' Dig. xlviii 4, 1, See also Paulus Sent, v 29.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 15
the giving aid to enemies, or the aiming at the
abolished office of king. With the fall of the Republic,
and the accumulation iu the person of a sacred
Emperor of all the offices of the State, the law of
majestas became the most potent instrument of
tyranny, as vague as it was comprehensive. Any
disrespect to the Emperor or his statue,' even spoken
words without acts, brought the offender under its
penal clauses. The refusal to pay the taxes or
tribute to Caesar might also, by a lawyer's ingenuity,
be brought under the same head. The penalties
were fixed by law aa either banishment or death.^
How hardly all this bore on the Christians we shall
see later.
On their first bringing the prisoner before Pilate
the Sanhedrim attempted to obtain His condemnation
on a general unspecified warrant. But when Pilate
refused to touch such a case they were driven to
formulate a specific accusation. By Roman law and
usage each count in an indictment had to be tried
separately. Of the three counts alleged against Jesus
— perverting the nation, the forbidding tribute to
Caesar, and the making Himself a king — Pilate
fastened upon the last as the most important and
comprehensive. The fact, if true, would be fatal.
As procurator or imperial legate he was bound to

' Dig. xlviii 4, 5-6. Most important for the early Christians,
' Por the crime of majestas see the various comments of Roman
lawyers on the Lex Julia majestatis in Dig. xlviii 4. Readers of
English only may consult Merivale BE v 247-64, or briefly Dill
BSNA 33 ; Innes o.c. 85 ; or Buss o.e. 208-12.

16 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
conduct such a case himself. The trial took place in
the Praetorium — either some hall in the Castle of
Antonia', or, more probably, the Palace of Herod the
Great ' — and would appear to have been but brief. In
answer to the formal charge our Lord put in a plea
known to English law aa confession and avoidance,
admitting in effect the truth of the accusation, but
pleading "new matter to avoid the effect of it, and
show that the plaintiff is, notwithstanding, not
entitled to his action." ^ ' My kingdom,' He said, 'is
not of thia world.' He pleaded that His kingdom
dealt with spiritual things, as, for instance, the truth.
After some discussion, not unmixed with scorn, Pilate
accepted the plea. Evidently Jesus was a religious
enthusiast, or wandering philosopher whom it would
be absurd to destroy by so imposing a legal process.
Let the Jews deal with the matter themselves. So
far as majestas was concerned, Pilate pronounced the
sentence of acquittal — ' I find no crime in Him,' dbsolvo,
Not guilty.
Up to this point Pilate had kept true to the im
mortal traditions of Roman equity, which more than
aught else constituted the secret and strength of the
Empire. But the sentence of acquittal led to an out
burst of the mob, which seems to have swept Pilate
off his feet. Hearing the word Galilee, he tried to
change the venue, to send the prisoner from the place
of arrest to the place of Hia crime ; a step which would
have been perfectly legal if only taken earlier, but
» Edersheim ii 565 ; DB s.v. ; infra p. 19, n. 4.
' Buss O.C. 214.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 17
which after acquittal became a travesty of justice.
But Herod Agrippa was too prudent to meddle in a
charge of majestas. He turned the matter into a
pleasant pantomime by arraying Jesus in 'gorgeous
apparel' — either the purple robe of a king, or the
white garment of a candidate — and sent Him back to
Pilate. " The Idumaean fox dreaded the lion's paw
while very willing to exchange courtesies with the
lion's deputy."' The after proceedings were a still
deeper mockery of Roman justice ; "a veritable phan
tasmagoria of injustice and brutality to the accused,
of alternate conciliation and expostulation towards
the prosecutors, ending in the defeat of the Judge. " ^
For two hours Pilate faced the mob, trying to accom
plish the impossible, the reconciliation of acquittal
and condemnation, of popularity and duty, of Roman
law and Jewish fanaticism. Hia wife even came to
the assistance of her husband's conscience.^ But all
was in vain. At length Pilate yielded. Roman judges,
pronouncing the death-sentence, called the sun to
witness the justice of their acts; Pilate paid some
homage to his conscience and the majesty of Roman
law by taking refuge in a merely Jewish practice.
He cajled for water, and threw the responsibility of
his fferdict on the priests and elders. Mob rule and
priestly hatred had conquered. Utilitarian theories *
* Innes o.c. 94. The purple suits better the charge of majestas.
See Plummer St. Luke in loo. ' Buss o.o. 224.
' Roman wives had only recently been allowed, or rather not
forbidden, to accompany their husbanda to the provincial governments.
Buss 0.C, 227.
¦• Utilitarian theories of morals and politics are always ready, if
0

18 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
of justice and politics had won their greatest triumph.
Christ was at length informally condemned on the
charge of majestas, in spite of His previous judicial
acquittal. In years to come, when facing the mob of
Lyons, Smyrna, or Antioch on the same charge, and
with the same issue aa their Master, the Christians
would comfort themselves with the thought that they
were treading in His steps. In this, as in all else. He
was their forerunner and example.
In His punishment also Christ suffered with His
brethren. They were tortured as p^rt of their ex
amination. From this the lingering remnants of
justice in Pilate's mind had spared Him, though
the mockeries of Herod's soldiers were not without
elements of brutality. But after the informal verdict
He drank the cup to the dregs. He was bound to the
whipping-post and lashed with leather thongs loaded
with balls of lead or spikes of bone ; then handed
over to the soldiers to furnish a half-hour's jest in
the barrack-room. Naturally the sport took its
colour from the legal proceedings. The declared
rival of Caesar should enter Hia kingdom. So the
soldiera clothed Him with purple, some worn-out
garment of Pilate, then crowned Him with thorns,'
the occasion so demand, to crucify the Christ for the sake of a
vested interest. It is not surprising that the ablest defence of Pilate
will be found in the Utilitarian writer Sir J. Stephen's Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity (1873), pp. 89 ff.
' In the flrst recension of the Acta Pilati c. 10 (Tisoh. EA 231) the
coronation with thorns does not take place until the cruciflxion. So
also Codex Bezae (TS ii (1) 271). In the second recension of the
Acta Pilati (Tisoh. EA 280) the incident runs as in St. Matt. St.
Luke does uot mention it.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 19
and kept marching round Him, pretending to kneel
as they passed. According to one authority,' Pilate
even sank so low as to join in their sport, charac
teristically combining with his undignified brutality
a last effort at release. But all was in vain. The
Jews pointed out that there were other counts in the
indictment with which Pilate had not dealt, even if he
were disposed to pay no further heed to the charge of
treason,'^ on which, in fact, he had already pronounced
informal condemnation, and which they for their part
were inclined to press, if necessary, by appeal to
Rome. Pilate was entangled in the meahea of his
own weakness. To let off a prisoner whom he had
already condemned, however informally, for majestas,
would be too dangerous for him to contemplate.
There was no help for it but to pronounce the formal
sentence. So Pilate ascended his tribunal,' an elevated
seat on a mosaic pavement, commanding, it would
seem, a view over the whole city.* In accordance
with Roman forma, the public was admitted, and the
prisoner brought in, still wearing His robes and crown.
The verdict was read.® As the superscription on His
cross ahowa, Jesus was condemned for majestas. The
' John xix 1-12. ' So I interpret the curious John xix 7.
' Justin I Apol. 35 and the Gospel of Peter (ed. Robinson and
James 1892 p. 17) read that he set Jesus on the seat as part of the
mockery. But this, though possible in Greek, should be rejected.
Roman judges had scarcely sunk so low. On the other side see
Expositor (1893) 296 ff.
* John xix 13. Edersheim ii 578 n. But see DB s.v. Gabbatha.
' See Le Blant SAM 167, 223-4, who shows that this was the
custom with the Christian martyrs. Cf . Tert. Apol. 2, ' de tabella
recitatis Ulum Christianum, &o.' This written verdict could not be

20 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
death penalty was inevitable, nor was it more cruel
than the penalties in England, until recent days, for
the same offence. The due forms would be observed.
"Ilium duci ad crucem placet,"' said the Judge, to the
prisoner. "I, miles, expedi crucem," "Go, soldier,
get ready the cross," he would add as he bade the
officials execute the sentence without delay. With
the writing of the official titulus, a board giving the
crime, usually carried before the prisoner,^ and the
forwarding a precis of the case to Rome,' or at least
entering it in the archives at Jerusalem or Caesarea,
altered. See Le Blant SAM 167, ' Judex quam tulit de reo tabellam
revocare non potest.' With this cf. Pilate's h yiypa<pa y4ypa<pa
(John xix 22).
» Le Blant SAM 224.
•' Common also in the case of Christian martyrs. Cf. Thekla
(infra p. 91 n) ; Euseb. HE v 1, 44 (Attains ; see infra p. 104 n.).
' Such reports were common, and fonn the basis of the most
authentic ofthe Acta Martyrum. See infra p. 285 n 1 ; Justin I Apol.
35 ; 48 ; Tert. Apol. 21, Euseb. HE ii 2, all assume its existence at
Eome. Cf. the Syriac Sermon of Simon Cepha (Cureton. Ancient
Syriac Docs. 38 or Clark ANL xx (2) 52). Justin and Tertullian may
allude to the Anaphora Pilati (with its sequel Paradosis Pilati), a
work which has many remarkable coincidences with the recently
discovered Gospel of Peter (Gibson Apocrypha Sinaitica pp. x-xii), and
is probably older. The legends of the Anaphora (" Giving up ") have
a very early date therefore. For the Anaphora in Greek see
Tischendorf EA 413-31, or Pabrioius Cod. Apoc. (1719) ii ; and for an
older Syriac text (with translation) see Gibson o.c. 1-6. A transla
tion from the text of Tischendorf of the Pilate literature will be
found in Clark ANCL xvi 223 ff.
Mrs. Gibson dwells (p. xiv) on "the author's truly Christian
appreciation of the scope of divine forgiveness." But in reality the
whitewashing of Pilate was one form of Judenhetze in the early
Church. See infra p. 116. Here the hate takes the form of stating
that it was the Jews, not Pilate, who put Jesus to death (see Paradosis
Pilati 0. 9, in Gibson o.c. 7, 8, 12, or Tisch. EA 430). The Abyssinian

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 21
Pilate's task was finished. So the Man of Sorrows
passed out to His death, carrying as usual' His
own cross — not the cross rendered familiar by the
exaggerations of artists, for the Eomans wasted no
wood on their criminals. In one sense the charge of
majestas on the ' title ' was true. The King had come
to His own at last. Lifted up in shame. He drew all
men to Him in adoration. Ill
By a sure instinct the Church discerned in the
death of the martyr the repetition, not the less real
Church even went so far as to canonize Pilate (his festival is June 25)
as well as his wife Procla (Neale East. Church i 806), while in the
Paradosis Pilati c. 10 (Gibson o.o. 13, Tisch. o.o. 431), when Tiberius
outs off Pilate's head, angels receive it, and a voice cries, 'All
generations shall call thee blessed ... for under thee all these
things were fulfilled.' Similar lenient views of Pilate will be found
in Tertul. Apol. 21, ' Pilate, a Christian in his convictions ' ; in the
Epistolae Pilati et Herodis (ed. Dr. James in TS ii 66-75). How far all
this was from the truth will be evident from our rendering of the trial.
As Euseb. HE ix 5 tells us, the Acts of Pilate extant under Maximin
were forged by the heathen, as a weapon against Christianity. See
Harnack CAL i 603 ff. As part of the persecution they were ordered
by Maximin to be taught to the school children of every city. They
must be carefully distinguished from those now extant in two
recensions better known as the Gospel of Nicodemus. See Tisch. EA
203 ff. According to Euseb. HE i 9, they were only ' lately forged.'
References to these ' Acts ' (i.e. the last ones) occur in several of the
records of the contemporary martyrs ; e.g. Andronicus (Ruinart AM
442 ; XliXdrov {nro/ivlifiara Kori^KeicTai, says Maximin). Infra 280.
' See Artemidorus Oneirocritica ii 56 (infra p. 128, n.), who tells
us that to dream of carrying the cross was common, and in the case of
those who go to sea a good omen ; on the principles of Shak. Temp, i 1 :
"His complexion is perfect gallows. He hath no drowning mark
upon him."

22 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
because faint, of the central Sacrifice of Calvary. ' As
we behold the martyrs,' writes Origen,' ' coming forth
from every Church to be brought before the tribunal,
we see in each the Lord Himself condemned.' So
Irenaeus speaks of the martyrs aa ' endeavouring to
follow in the footsteps of Christ,' and of St. Stephen, as
' imitating in all things the Master of Martyrdom.' ^
In the early Church the imitation of Christ, as a
formal principle in ethics, played but a secondary
part, so far, at any rate, as the average member was
concerned.' The martyrs and confessora alone were
thought of as actually following and imitating Jesus ;
they alone were the 'true disciples' of the Master.*
It was enough for the servant that he should be as
his Lord.
One consequence of thia laat idea made ita appear
ance in the Church at a very early date. We refer to
the legends of martyrdom of the first Apostles.®
These are manifestly the production of an age which
could scarcely conceive of a perfect renunciation
which did not issue in the cross or the stake. Such
Christians interpreted too literally the cry of love : Let
' Orig. In Jerem. Homil. xiv 7 (Migne PG xiii 411).
^ Adv. Haer. iii c 18, 5 ; o 12, 13.
' See Harnack EC i 107 n. The modern strength of the idea is
due to Thomas "i, Kempis.
' See especially Ignatius Eph. 1, Bom. 4, 5, Mart. Polye. 17, and
infra pp. 343 ff.
' We see the same tendency in the exaggeration of the number
of martyrs among the early popes in the Liber Pontificalis, in whose
lists only ten before Silvester (Constantine) are not ' crowned with
martyrdom.' Duchesne LP i Intro. § 4, owns that many must be
abandoned.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 23
us also go, that we may die with Him. They reduced
the way of the cross to one well-trodden path. They
remembered, perhaps too literally, our Lord's ordina
tion charge to Hia disciples, with its foreahadowings
of the hour when they should stand before kings and
governors for Hia name'a sake, and its warning of the
greater fear than the fear of them that kill the body
and after that have no more that they can do.' We
in these latter days, for whom self-surrender must
take a different form, not the less complete because
of gentler type, may rejoice that God's demanda upon
His servants are not all the same. They also serve
who stand and wait, and the Apostles who died in
peace at home are not less truly Hia heroea than they
who, like St. Paul or St. Peter, counted their lives to
be but dross for the sake of Christ.
These legends, moreover, must be discredited,
inasmuch aa they are largely the outcome of the
parouaian beliefs which dominated the early
Church. We see in them the attempts to show that
the Gospel had been preached to every nation, even
by the first Apostles, and that all things, therefore,
were ready for His coming.^ But the absence of
early tradition ia almoat proof of their falaity; at
any rate, we are not now able to distinguish the
kernel of fact which the legends, many of them of
Gnostic or Ebionite origin, may contain.'
Slight, however, as may be their basis of fact,
' Matt. X 16-32.
' See infra p. 233.
' See infra Appendix C § vi.

24 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
the student would do well to remember the wise
worda of Dr. Montague James :
"Not many will deny that these books possess considerable
historical value. The high-road will serve us well if we want to
visit our cathedral cities ; but in order to get an idea of the popular
architecture of a district we must often digress into obscure and
devious by-paths. The apocryphal books stand in the relation
of by-paths — not always clean or pleasant — to the broad and well-
trodden high-road of ordinary patristic literature. If a future
historian wants to realize vividly what were the beliefs of many
large classes of ordinary Christians in our time, he will derive great
help, I doubt not, from the " Sunday Stories " of tho last thirty years :
and not less information can be gathered from the apocryphal
books as to the popular beliefs of average Christians in far earlier
times." '
The same remark is equally true of many of the
less authentic Acts of martyrs.
The record of the earliest martyr, Stephen, is in
the Scriptures. In his case the lead in prosecution
would appear to have been taken by the synagogue of
the Eoman freedmen,^ possibly through the influence
of another Roman citizen, a young man from Tarsus,
a most bitter enemy of the new Way. Immediately
after the stoning of the proto-martyr a general perse
cution, which reached as far as Damascus, drove all
except the Apostles from the city. By what means
' Apocrypha Anecdota in TS ii (3) p. viii.
' Acts vi 9. For the Libertini, strictly the descendants of the Jew
slaves sold at Rome by Pompey, who had won their freedom and
citizenship, see Schiirer JPO ii (2) 276 n ; DB oi EBs.v. Possibly the
reading is wrong. See commentaries in loc. In favour of the reading
note the active part taken in the city politics of Pompej| by the
Synagogue of the Libertines (Lanciani PCB 310).

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 25
the twelve were able to stay on and yet escape
destruction we know not.
From the Acts ' also we learn how Herod Agrippa
L, the grandson of Herod, killed James, the brother
of John,^ with the aword, and would have seized St.
Peter, whose time, however, was not yet come. Accord
ing to Clement of Alexandria,' the man who had led
St. James to the judgement-seat, possibly, though not
necessarily, his accuser, was ao impreaaed with his
testimony that he too professed faith in Chriat, the first
of many led to the truth by the " witness " of the
" martyrs." ' Both therefore were led away to die.
On their way he entreated James to be forgiven by
him. James, considering a little while, replied,
" Peace be to .thee," and kissed him. So these two
were beheaded together,' Thua St. James drank at
last of the same cup, and was baptized with the
baptism of Christ. O great Apostle 1 rightly now
Thou readest all thy Saviour meant.*
With St. James there seems to have perished a
disciple of our Lord belonging to the highest caste in
' Acts xii 1-19. The date is fixed by the subsequent death of
Agrippa I. (Acts xii 20-4, Joseph. Antiq. xix 8, 2) as early in 44. See
DB (s.v. Chronology) i 416.
' Por an examination of the view that St. John the Apostle was
also killed at the same time, see infra Appendix B.
' Euseb. HE n 9, from Clement's lost Hypotyposeis (or " Sketches ")
bk. vii. A similar story is told iu Pseudo-Abdias Historiae
Apostolicae lib. iv c. 13. The details read rather suspiciously like a
transference to earlier days of later conditions and incidents. See
infra p. 346.
' Keble, Christian Tear, St. James' Day.

26 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHUECH
the hierarchy, who bore the somewhat common name
of John. Possibly this mysterious martyr Buffered
later, perhaps at the same time as the other St.
James. But the date, the place of execution, and
the identity of this John are alike matters of dispute.
Some have boldly claimed that this early martyr was
the Apostle John, ie. John the son of Zebedee ; others
have recognized in him the shadowy ' Elder John '
of Papias; not a few have denied his existence.
Unfortunately the solution of the question is so
wrapped up with the most momentous isauea of New
Testament criticism that it has become the favourite
battle-ground of opposing achoola.
Of the martyrdom of the other Jamea, the brother
of our Lord, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, we have
an account in Hegesippus,' the exact historical value
' Hegesippus, Hypomenmata, "Memorials," bk. v., a lost work
quoted in Eusebius HE ii 23. But the support which Eusebius,
foUowing Origen (Gels, i 47), claims from Josephus Aniiq. xx 9 is in
part a spurious Christian interpolation, while the genuine part is not
in harmony with Hegesippus. See Lightfoot Gal. 366 n. ; Mayor 8t.
James xxxviii-xli. Lightfoot, who rejects the story, conjectures (ib.
367 n.) that Hegesippus' account is " the grand finale " of the Ebionite
work. The Ascents of James (discourses supposed to have been delivered
on the Temple steps), traces of which we find iu the Clementine
Becognitions (ib. 330). I may point out one mark of Ebionite influence
in the description of James. We are told ' that he never wore woollen,
but linen garments ' — one of the peculiarities of the Essenes. The
Ascents of James is a notoriously Anti-PauUne work of the extreme
Jewish-Christian school (see infra p. 122 n.), as is evident from the
scurrilous tale regarding St. Paul found in the same by Eplphanius
Haer. xxx 16.
The date in Hegesippus, ' immediately before Vespasian's invasion,'
cannot possibly be correct. From Josephus l.e. we learn that in the
interval between the death of Festus and the arrival of his successor

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 27
of which it is difficult for the historian to appraise.
But though the details may be doubtful, some of them
evidently written for polemical ends, we may accept,
though not without miagivings, the truth of the main
outlinea.' By the strictness of hia life and hia exceed
ing piety — ' hia knees had become aa hard aa camela'
in consequence of his habitual supplication ' — St.
James had won the respect of all parties. So the
rulers came to James and said, 'We entreat thee
restrain the people who are led astray after Jesus . . .
for we all have confidence in thee. Persuade them
not to be led astray. Stand therefore upon a wing of
the Temple, that thy words may be heard by all the
people.' Then they placed James upon a wing of the
Temple and cried out to him, ' 0 thou Just One,* since
the people are led astray after Jesus who was crucified,
declare to us what is the door to Jesus ' the crucified.'
Albinus the high priest Annas, the son of the Annas in the Gospels,
made this vicious " tiger-leap " against the Christians thus temporarily
deprived of Roman protection. Por this Annas was deposed. But
the date of the death of Festus is doubtful (see DB i 417 ff., Schiirer
JPC i (2) 183 n.). I incline to date as in the summer of 61 rather
than in 62. See infra pp. 33 n., 34 n.
' From the fact that there is also a short account of the death of
St. James in Euseb. HE ii i, from Clement Alex. Hypotyp. bk. vii, we
may accept the martyrdom as certain. Some of the details seem to
me in keeping with the character of St. James.
' 06Wa«, which Hegesippus conf usedly translated as the Righteous,
»'.«. the one who fulfils the Mosaic Law. Two later Bishops of
Jerusalem (3rd and Ilth) bear the name (i.e. Justus) in memory of
their predecessor (Euseb. HE iv 5). But possibly it means 'the
defence of the people.' The title of ' Just ' is, however, in Clement
I.e., on which see Lightf. Gal. 280, n.
' The phrase is difficult. It may be translated " the door of which
Jesus spake " (John x 7, 9), or else, possibly, as Mosheim suggested.

28 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
But James announced with a loud voice, ' Why do ye
ask me respecting Jesus the Son of Man ? ' He is now
Bitting in the heavens, on the right hand of a great
Power, and is about to come on the clouds of heaven.'
In their rage at his testimony they hurled him down
from the tower and atoned him. But he kneeled down
and prayed. ' I entreat Thee God and Father forgive
them, for they know not what they do.' ' Stop your
stoning,' cried one of the priests, 'the Just One is
praying for you.' 'But a fuller ran up, and beat out his
braina with the club which he used to beat his clothes.'
The story may be little more than a romance ; but it
was a romance with a purpose. The tale was intended
to show that " in James, the Lord's brother, we have
the prototype of these later saints, whose rigid life
and formal devotion elicits, it may be, the contempt
of the world, but of whom nevertheless, the world was
not, and is not, worthy." ^ The death of St. James thus
set the seal on the doctrine of renunciation. The
croaa, aa Tertullian exhausts his eloquence in show
ing us, is the sacred legacy of all who are His, with
out which there could not be perfection.'
The murder of St. James was the last great event
of which we possess any knowledge in the long perse
cution of the Christians at Jerusalem. Seven years
Jesus is an early misreading for Jesohua, i.e. salvation. See Mayor
Ep. James (1897) xxxviii, n.
' The use of this title of James is peculiar. If more than a
reminiscence of St. Stephen's words (Acts vii 56), it shows (what we
should not have gathered from the N.T.) that the title was in use
in the Early Church.
= Lightfoot Phil. 368. ' Tert, Scorp. co. 10, 11,

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 29
later' 'those who believed in Christ' migrated to
Bella, driven out by the tyranny of the Zealot party,
who were now supreme in the doomed city. As we
shall see later, their aufferinga at the handa of the
Jews did not cease with the destruction of the Temple.^
From the days of St. Stephen until their final ex
tinction the Judaistic Church knew no peace, save
perhaps during the brief years spent in exile. The
murder of James was more than a crime ; for the
future both of Christianity and Judaism it was a dis-
aater. Judaiatic Christianity, the earliest form of
Christianity, waa doomed. Henceforth Christianity
could be of but one type. But the gain of Christianity
by this concentration of itself upon one line of
development was purchased by the losa of that
sympathetic toleration which the existence of another
type would have rendered needful. Upon none did
this losa of the apirit of Jesus fall more hardly in a
later age than upon the Jews themselves.'
A few years before their murder of James the Just
the Jews tried hard to destroy the apostle whom they
considered the great enemy of their creed. St. Peter
and St. John had already left Jerusalem,* possibly
because with growing light they felt out of touch with
its rigid Judaistic Christianity, when a fortunate
' i.e. between the capture of Pella by Vespasian in the spring of
68 and the gathering of the army of Titus at Caesarea in the spring
of 70. See Hort Judaistic Christianity 175; Euseb. HE iii 5;
Epiphanius Haer. xxix 7.
« Infra p. 118 ff.
' Infra p. 159.
' Inference from Acts xxi 18.

30 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
chance delivered, as they thought, St, Paul himself
into the hands of the priests. The story of the perse
cution of the great apostle is told at some length, and
throws much light on the methods employed by-the
Jews in their attacks upon the Christians. Not that
this was the first time that St. Paul had Buffered at
their hands. In one of his letters he refers to the
imprisonments and scourgings by which the Jews
had tried to destroy his Gospel.' But this new perse
cution so manifestly formed a crisis in the life of the
Apostle and the Church that St. Luke devotes apecial
attention to it.^
Some years before there had happened in Jerusalem
a notable instance of lynch jaw. The mob, incited by
the Sanhedrim, had stoned to death the most far-
sighted of the Nazarenes, trusting to the weakness or
indifference of the procurators to overlook this glaring
defiance of order. The leader on that occasion was
one Saul of Tarsus, against whom, now that occasion
demanded, the same methods might be employed.
A report spread that St. Paul had introduced into the
Temple one of his uncircumcised converts. The
rumour waa cunningly deviaed, for the Romana had
given the Jewa the power of putting to death any
Gentile, even though a Roman citizen, who profaned
by his presence the sacred building.' The mob did
' II Cor. xi 24. But the fighting with beasts at Ephesus (I Cor.
XV 32) must be taken figuratively.
' Acts xxi 17 to xxvi. Well expounded in Bass o.o. 322-402.
' See Mommsen PBE ii 189, n., for a copy of the tablet engraved
with this notice, now at Constantinople. A photograph in Encyc.
Jew. xii 85 shows the axe-cuts of the soldiers of Titus.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 31
not stop to investigate its truth. They fell upon the
apostle and tried to drag him out of the Temple into
the court of the Gentiles, intending there to beat him
to death. But a company of soldiera on duty in the
neighbouring castle of Antonia, the walls of which
overlooked the sacred precincts, had observed and
reported the tumult. They ran down the steps,
secured the cause of the disturbance, and bound St.
Paul with ' two chains,' i.e. with handcuffs, to a soldier
on either side. On the giving the order that he
should be removed to the citadel an ugly rush was
made by the mob. But the soldiers lifted St. Paul
into their arms and carried him up the steps to the
castle. At the top Lysias the tribune, who was him
self with several centurions superintending the pro
ceedings, allowed the fettered prisoner to address the
people, an irregularity which in the upshot drove the
mob into fresh riot. St. Paul was hurried into the
castle and orders given for hia examination by torture.
From this he was saved by pleading hia Eoman
citizenship. Lysias was in a difficulty. As a, citizen
St. Paul must be set free or some definite charge
under Roman, not Jewish, law brought against him.
The attempts of Lysias to conciliate the Sanhedrim,
and at the same time obtain a definite charge, ended
in the renewal of the riot, and the carrying off of the
Apostle once more to the caatle. But the Jews were
determined not to be baulked of their prey. Where
the mob had failed forty desperadoes might succeed.
But the plot was revealed, and St. Paul despatched
for safety under an armed escort to Caesarea. With St.

32 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Paul was forwarded an official statement from Lysias
of the charges against him ielogium) ' to his excellency
the procurator Felix.'
Felix, in accordance with the usual forms, regis
tered the charge and sent at once for the prosecutors.
On their arrival, five days later, the trial began. The
proceedings were probably in Latin, a language with
which we must suppose St. Paul to be familiar, for he
elected to defend himself. There were three counts
in the indictment. The second, that of heresy
(atjOECTEwe), was rather a matter of Jewish law. With
this the prosecution linked two othera, a charge of
majestas, and an accusation of sacrilege, or profanation
of their Temple. But the priests, strange to say, had
overlooked the need of witnesses, two of whom at
least by Roman law were necessary to prove the case.
The rhetorician, TertuUus, did his best by adroit
flattery of the enfranchised slave, whom fortune had
placed on the judgement-seat, to secure condemnation.
But even Felix, who, in the words of Tacitus, ' exer
cised the power of a king with the temper of a slave,"
dare not so degrade the law. By rights St. Paul
should have been acquitted, but the procurator,
whether in the hopes of a bribe or from a desire to
conciliate the hierarchy, decided on a remand. He
urged the absence of a material witness, the tribune
Lysias. For two years St. Paul lingered in prison. Felix
was too busy dealing with the serious riots in Caesarea
between Jew and Syrian to concern himself with St.
' Hist, v 9.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 33
Paul. But on the arrival of the new procurator,
Festus,' at the suit of the Jews a new trial was
ordered. This second trial, though Pestus himself
waa a better 'man than the degenerate Felix, was
much more disorderly than the firat. The forms of
law were not observed, no witnesses were produced,
and yet FestuSi in hia anxiety to please the Jews,
offered to transfer the case to Jerusalem, and have it
tried before the Sanhedrim as an ecclesiaatical offence.
St. Paul cut short this travesty of justice by an appeal
to Caesar. After a short consultation the appeal waa
allowed. In apite of the inconvenience and expense,
Festus could not do otherwise. Only if St. Paul had
been taken in arms against the authorities could the
procurator have quashed the appeal of a citizen.*^
Doubtless, as Prof. Ramsay points out, " the right of
appeal was hedged in by fees aiid pledges." This
expense St. Paul must have met, possibly by the sale
of his hereditary property.' But Festus had as yet no
specific charge to enter in the litterae dimissoriae, or
apostoli,* letters stating the case forwarded with the
• The date of the arrival of Festus is uncertain. See DB i 417-9,
Schiirer JPO i (2) 182, Harnack CAL i 287. I strongly incline to
59 for the recall of Felix, 57 for St. Paul's arrest. Lightfoot's dates
(Bib. Essays 217-20) seem to me too late. See also Zahn Einleitung
ii 638. See infra p. 34, n.
" The case to the contrary recorded in Suet. GaTba 9 is clearly an
illegal arbitrary act. The right of appeal was an extension of the
tribunician powers of Caesar.
' Ramsay St. Paul the Traveller (ed. 7) 310-3.
* Paulus Sent, v 33. See also Du Cange, s.v. for its similar
mediaeval use in the Roman Church. The N.T. term is indirectly, it
seems to me, connected with this UEje. See infra p, 120 n., for the
Jewish use of apostoli, which probably served as the link. D

34 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
appellant. That he might fill up properly the charge-
sheet (elogiwn), Festus laid the case before Agrippa
and his sister Bernice. An informal hearing was
arranged, and the prisoner introduced. In the middle
of the Apostle'a impassioned exhortation Festus inter
rupted the proceedings. Evidently St. Paul's books
were turning his brain ; but at any rate nothing
criminal could be discovered for entry in the elogium.
So with the well-known sneer of Agrippa at St. Paul's
impulaiveness, or disregard of logic' — the precise
nuance is uncertain — the audience terminated.
The final issue of the appeal seems tolerably
certain. After a delay of close upon three years,
counting in the time occupied in the voyage to Rome,
the case was heard.* Of the causes of delay, as well
as the parties to the prosecution, we know nothing.
Even after the hearing had commenced there were
many delays before the decision was given. But in
his letter to the Philippians St. Paul was confident
of the issue, and full of thankfulness for the way in
' Acts xxvi 28. The use of the word ' Christian ' is itself a sneer.
See infra p. 58 n,
' I take St. Paul's first trial and acquittal to have taken place, at
latest, early in 62, probably at the close of 61, certainly not in 63.
My reasons, apart from the question of the date of Pestus (supra
p. 33 n.), are : (a) The change in the character of Nero that occurred
on tbe death of the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Bnrrus, in 62,
the rise of the infamous TigeUinus, and the retirement of Seneca,
(6) The release of St, Paul would take place before the triumph
of Poppaea, who favoured the Jews, if not herself a proselyte.
Poppaea's influence was at the full when on June 9, 62, she
obtained an order for the slaughter of Octavia, Nero's wife. During
the greater part of 62 and 63 Poppaea could do anything, and
assuredly St. Paul would not escape. See infra pp, 38 n., 57 n.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 35
which his trial had turned out already to the further
ance of the Gospel. The successive adjournments
had enabled him to lay his case, not once nor twice,
before the Supreme Court.' He expects shortly to see
both Philemon and the Philippian brethren — ^not a
word, be it noted, of any plans for a journey to Spain.*
The Apostle would be tried before Nero — or, in his
absence, before the Prefect of the Pretorian Guard ; as
we understand it, the upright Burrus. The court
would be a room of Nero's palace, not, however,
the Golden House of later days. Associated with
the emperor were twenty assessors,' selected from
the senators. Formerly the votes of the senators
were taken by ballot. But Nero preferred to receive
from each a written opinion, and on the next day to
deliver his judgement in person. From the Pastoral
Epistles we gather that Nero pronounced for acquittal.
He could scarcely do otherwise on the elogium of
Festus, though perhaps the length of the trial shows
the powerful influences brought to bear against the
Apostle. The matter was too palpably a Jewish
squabble, another instance of the wild hatreds of
this fanatical people, to be of much concern to the

' Phil, i 12-3, understanding (with Mommsen Berlin Akad.
Sitzungsber. 1895 p. 501, Ramsay PT 357, Findlay DB iii 713,
and others) by the Praetorium, not the Praetorian Guard (R.V.) or
the Palace, but the Praetor's Court, or Supreme Court. (See supra
p. 16, for use in the Gospels.) Philip, therefore, was written during
the trial. Lightfoot's influence (Phil. p. 99-104) for the Praetorian
Guard is still strong ; e.g. see Vincent Inter. Crit. Com. Philip, p. 51.
' Infra p. 36, n, 4.
' See infra p, 37 n.

36 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
central authorities. Two years later thia official
indifference gave place to a contrary policy.'

IV
The murders of St. Stephen and St. James,
the persecution at Damascus and elsewhere, and the
early imprisonments of St. Paul, were the results of
Jewish hatred. The infant Church was now to
experience the more dreaded enmity of the Empire.
For the martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul the
earliest evidence, thirty years at least after the
event, is a letter — somewhat too rhetorical, alas ! —
from the Church of Eome to that of Corinth : *
Let us come to the athletes who lived but lately, the noble
examples of our own generation. . . . Let us set before our eyes the
good Apostles. There was Peter, who by reason of unrighteous
jealousy endured not one nor two but many labours, and thus having
bome his witness (/noprup^iros) went to his appointed place of glory.
Paul also, by reason of jealousy and strife,* pointed out the way to
the prize of patient endurance, . . . He won the noble renown
which was the reward of his faith ; having taught righteousness
unto the whole world, and having reached the bounds of the West; *
• Prof. Ramsay (PT 362) treats the acquittal as a "charter of
freedom " for the preaching of the new creed. On this he builds a
whole superstructure of theories. I prefer to read into it indifference
to Jewish minutiae joined with regard for the rights of citizens and^
Jews, See infra p, 56 for further on this.
" Por the date of the Ep. Cor. of Clement see infra App. A II.
3 See infra Appendix D (6).
* M rh T€pp.a TTJs Siireas. On this much debated passage (Spain,
&c.) I would only add that to nle the passage seems too rhetorical
(' whole world,' &c,) to be more than a proof that the Roman Church
believed in the early coming of Christ, and that the Gospel had
already been preached to all nations by the Apostles. See infra

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 37
and when he had borne his witness (fiaprvp-liiras) before the rulers,' so
he departed from the world and went unto tho holy place, having
been found a noble pattern of patient endurance.'
With the acquittal of St. Paul after his first
captivity (a.d. 62) the Apostle vanishes, though as
oije immortal, from the pages of certain history.' The
rest, his journeys East and West, his sudden arrest
at Troas or Nicopolis, his second entrance as a
captive into Eome, the letters of this second captivity,
p. 232. The absence of tradition, the silence of Eusebius HE iii 1 (in
this case more than negative), of the Philippians (supra p. 35 n), and
the Pastorals, the tradition in Spain of St. James (on wliich see DB
of s.v.) seem to me fairly conclusive. Surely otherwise Gaul and Spain
would have claimed St. Paul as theirs, some legend or tale would
have survived. Clement's statement — the absence of details all
through is exasperating, and one of the results of Roman rhetorical
education — seems to me an inference from Bomans xv 24, (See
EB 4599-600.) For the other side see Lightfoot Biblical Essays
(1893) p. 423 n, (really written, however, in 1862, and somewhat un
satisfactory in consequence), who brings St. Paul to Marseilles, taking
II Tim. iv 10, ' Crescens to Galatia,' to mean Gaul (p. 432). In
N the reading, it is true, is els FaKKia. Cf. Neander i 116-7.
But surely the Greek Churches of tho Rhone vaUey, which were
fairly flourishing in 177, and in bp. Pothinus had a link that went
back into the flrst century, would have known of this and had a
tradition. (Infra p. 295 n.)
' i.e. unless mere rhetoric, the " assessors." See supra p. 35. Some
have tried to discover in the use of this phrase (rav riyaviihav) a
mark of time. Its use would fit in with 67, when Nero was in
Greece, and so would not be mentioned. But the writer is too vague
and rhetorical to be trusted in so fine a point. Seo also infra p, 38 u.
' Clem. Rom. Cor. 5, with Lightfoot's notes, or EB 4598.
' The two most deplorable gaps in early Church history are (a)
the loss of the records of the early Roman Church, especially of its
martyrs ; (&) our complete ignorance of affairs at Alexandria before
180, except by conjectures based upon the Ep. Barnabas, &c. These
losses should constantly be borne in mind. In the ^lase of the first
the loss is partially made up by the researches of archaeologists.

38 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
the manner of hia trial, the date of his death, are
matters of diapute, the exact details of which in any
case are lost. One thing, however, is clear from a
comparison of Philippians with II Timothy} There
had been in the interval a complete change in the
policy towards Christianity of the Roman Govern
ment. Thia change was due, as we shall see,^ to
the great fire of Rome (July, 64). As part of the
persecution which then broke out, orders were given
for the imprisonment of the Christian leaders.
Poppaea, TigeUinus, and their Jewish friends ' were
not likely to forget the prisoner of two years before.
At the time St. Paul waa away from Rome, but steps
were instantly taken for his arrest. The Apostle was
brought back to the city in the autumn or winter of
64.* Very different was his entrance into Rome from
' Even Harnack allows that II Tim, contains some genuine
traditions, ^ Infra p, 53.
' Infra p, 57.
* The weak point in Lightfoot's chronology of St. Paul (e.g. in his
essay written in 1862, " St, Paul's History after the Close of the Acts,"
published in Bib. Essays, 1893, pp. 421-37), seems to me to be that he
allows St. Paul far too much freedom after the fire (o.c. 423 n,, 430).
In his Chronology of St. Paul's Life (o.c. 215-33) he puts the martyr
dom (following the untrustworthy evidence of Jerome (Ja Vir. III. 5,
' in the fourteenth year of Nero,' and Euseb. Chron., ' in the thirteenth
year ') as in the spring of 68 or the autumn of 67. But a late date is
not necessary for the defence of the Pastorals, while I have already
shown reasons for rejecting the visit to Spain. I accordingly date St.
Paul's death as very early in 65, possibly Feb. 22 (see A.SS June
V, 5 pp, 409, 473 for an ancient festival on this date), his arrest in the
late autumn (Titus iii 12) of 64. Another reason against a late date
is that with the outbreak of the great Jewish war in 66 the Jews
would lose their influence ; see supra p. 34 n,, infra pp 57, 110 n.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 39
that which had been his lot on the former memor
able occasion. No kindly officer-courier ' now did his
beat to make thinga smooth for his captive. On the
contrary, the police had not even allowed him time to
find his overcoat or necessary documents.^ The just
and humane Burrus was dead. No Christians came
down the Appian Way to meet him ; the fear of the
awful terror still lay heavy upon them. Instead of
his own hired lodging there would be a noisome
dungeon. His friends had deaerted him, some, as
Demas, for fear of the persecution ; others even had
turned traitor and were willing to appear in court
against him, He was hated by the mob, treated as
a malefactor,' and as such now put upon his trial.
That he had a trial at all instead of the summary
punishment of hia brethren witnesses to the im
portance attached by the Government to a show
of legality in the persecution of the leader.
There seem to have been two counts * in the indict
ment. By ancient rules each was tried separately.^
The first count probably, as Conybeare and Howson
suggest, was complicity in the fire.^ But even the
false witness of Alexander, the coppersmith, who
had turned informer (delator) because of his recent
' ' Augustan band,' Acts xxvii 3 , on which see Mommsen in Ramsay
PT 315.
^ II Tim. iv 13. By rhs neiiPpiuas I understand the proofs of his
citizenship. For <pe\6v7is (a rough overcoat), which some interpret as
a sort of bookcase, see Grimm s.v.
' II Tim. ii 9 ; of, I Peter iv 15 ; infra p. 61 n. 4
* II Tim. iv 16. ' Supra p. 15.
• Cf. ' malefactor,' II Tim. ii 9.

40 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
excommunication by the Apostle,' could not upset the
alibi which St. Paul was able to establish. So on this
charge he 'was delivered out of the mouth of the
lion,' 2 a phrase which possibly may point to the trial
taking place before Nero himself. In the interval
between the two actions he wrote his immortal last
words. He had 'fought the good fight,' he had 'run
his race.' He had no deluaiona, no hope save to
depart and be with Chriat. There remained the
' offering up,' and then ' the crown of righteousness.'
The second count was either majestas — almost any
thing could be brought under this head — or the new
crime of being a Christian, the crime of ' the Name,' '
in itself a mere variation, as we shall see later,* of
majestas or high treason. On thia indictment there
could be but one verdict.
Round St. Paul's last days legend has woven thick
a web of fancy, unless indeed, as well may be, loving
tradition has thus preserved for us the real facts.
After his condemnation he would probably be confined
in the dungeon of Eoman citizens and captives of
eminence, the famous Mamertine. In itself there is
little, save perhaps the distance from Eome, to
prevent us from accepting the story consecrated by
long ages that St. Paul 'offered up' his life in the
green and level spot, with low hills around it, about
three miles from the city, known in those days as the
Aquae Salviae, now as the Tre Fontane.^ As he left
' II Tim. iv. 14, 1 Tim. i 20. ^ II Tim. iv 17.
' See infra pp. 55 n., 104. * Infra p, 101 n, 2.
° The tradition is first mentioned by Gregory the Great, Ep. xiv 14

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 41
Rome, almost the last object upon which hia eyes
would rest would be the pyramid of Caius Cestius, in
its origin a record of the luxury' of thejeunesse doree,
which thus became "a monument unconsciously
erected by a pagan to the memory of a martyr " who
suffered, like his Lord, 'without the gate.' As a
Eoman citizen Paul escaped the more cruel fate of his
brethren, and died by the sword.^ According to tra
dition, a convert of distinction, Lucina' by name,
took up the body by night and buried it in her
garden on the Ostian Way, where to-day stands in
(Migne Ixxvii), though its sources are much older. The Liber Ponti
ficalis, i 150, places the execution ' hard by ' the burial-place. The
Tre Fontane certainly seems a long way for lazy soldiers to go to
execute a Jew. Possibly the Three Fountains were popular shrines
of heathenism, to which at a later date the Christian tradition was
transferred, on the plan of Gregory Thaumaturgus (see infra p. 133).
In certain MSS of the Acta Petri et Pauli we find added a late
variation or addition consisting of the story of a Perpetua and her
handkerchief (see Tisoh. AAA 35, Lipsius and Bonnet AAA i 213 ;
also in Clark's ANCL xvi 276). To the simple statement of the
older Acta ' that Paul was beheaded on the Ostesian (Ostian) Way,'
cf. Lib. Pontif. supra, we find the addition : ' at Aquae Salviae near
a pine-tree.' Lanciani PCB 157 points out that in 1875 the
Trappists, who occupied the memorial abbey of the Tre Fontane,
in the course of excavations discovered a mass of coins of Nero
together with several pine cones fossilized by age. But this only
proves that the pines were there when the later Acta was written,
and that its author was a realist. Possibly this Gnostic romance is
the real source of the tradition mentioned by Gregory.
' Hare Walks in Bome ii 414 for the story.
' He was one of the honestiores. See infra p. 64 n.
" Lucina possibly is a mere confusion of name with a later Lucina,
who, in 252, according to a late account, buried the remains of St.
Paul and St. Peter in her garden. See LP i 66, 150-2, and infra
p, 262 n. Probably, however, the tradition alludes to Pomponia
Graecina, in whose story a ' Lucina ' occurs. See infra p. 61 n. 3.

42 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
hia name one of the most stately churches of
Christendom. Constantine, when he built the first basilica of
St. Paul's, ia aaid to have placed the body in a
coffin of aolid bronze.' If so the coffin was stolen or
destroyed, probably with its contents, at the time of
the sack of the church by the Saracens in 846.^ All
that can be seen to-day is a slab of marble, with
the words somewhat rudely carved thereon —
PAVLO APOSTOLO MART.^
But Western Christianity itself is really his monu
ment.* The date and circumstances of the martyrdom of
St. Peter are even more uncertain.^ According to an
ancient story, the truth of which we see no reason to
doubt, the Apostle saw his wife suffer first, one of the
many victims of Nero's cruelty. 'Then was the
blessed Peter glad because she had been called and
was now going home. So he lifted up his voice and
cried to her in an encouraging voice, addressing
her by name, and aaying, " 0 thou, remember the
Lord." Such was the marriage of the blessed ones
and their perfect love.' ^
' Duchesne LP i 178.
' See Gregorovius Some in MA (Trans. Hamilton 1895) iii 89 n,,
LP ii (s.v. Sergius II,) says nothing as to the matter, unfortunately.
' LP i 195 or Lanciani FOB 157.
• Por the sources and evidence see Appendix C.
^ The festival of " St. Peter ad vincula," as well as the churches
of that dedication both in Rome and London (Tower of L,), refer to
St. Peter's imprisonment in Acts xii. The reference to Nero is of
late origin. See A.SS June vii 410,
» Clem. Alex. Strom, vii 11, 63, quoted also in Euseb, HE iii 30.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 43
Very beautiful is the story of St. Peter's own
release, though, unfortunately, its historical value is
not without doubt. When the persecution of Nero
broke out, the Apostle, who had arrived in Rome, as
we read it, towards the close of St. Paul's first
captivity,' was persuaded to flee. So in the dead of
night Peter left the city, and hastened down the
Appian Way. But when he came to a place where
to-day there stands a chapel with the legend Domine
quo vadis,^ then —
The traditional name of the wife (Concordia) is probably derived from
Clement's ' perfect love.'
' The Lib. Pontif. i 118, as Duchesne owns, 119 n,, expressly states
that St. Peter entered Rome ' Nerone Caesare.' So also Lactant. de
mort. Persec. 2, But he certainly was not there when the Acts of the
Apostles ended. I see no reason for doubting that the Apostles worked
harmoniously in later life, and that St. Peter, knowing St. Paul's
intention to leave Rome, hastened to take his place, or possibly, as
Chase suggests (DB iii 778), to confer with him as to the best way of
welding Christianity together. I prefer this to Lightfoot's idea (Gal.
337) of a double Church, Jewish and Gentile, with a double founda
tion (one Peter, the other Paul) and a double succession of bishops.
This last, it is true, would solve a few puzzles in the early lists, but
would introduce new difficulties.
^ This familiar story is flrst found in the Gnostic Acts of Peter in
the so-called Linus document. (See Lipsius and Bonnet AAA i 7 and
infra App. C § VL). This Gnostic romance was written at the latest
about the middle of the third century (Harnack CAL. i 552 ff.), if not
a century earlier (Chase in DB iii 774). The story is also fotmd in the
catholic Acts of Peter, a late fifth-century romance, based, however, on
second-century traditions (DCB i 27), where, however, it is absurdly
put into the mouth of St. Peter on the cross (Lipsius AAA i 215).
The story has passed into Western literature through the Pseudo-
Ambrose Sermo contra Auxentium Invasorem (see Ambrose, ed. Bene
dictine, ii 867), and will be found in the A.8S June vol. v pp. 427-8.
Chase, DB iii 775, suggests as origin the dramatization of John xiii
36-8 (in Vulgate ' Domine quo vadis '), A more likely solution would

44 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
Lo on the darkness brake a wandering ray ;
A vision flashed along the Appian Way.
Divinely on the pagan night it shone —
A mournful Pace — a Figure hurrying on —
Though haggard and dishevelled, frail and worn,
A King, of David's lineage, crowned with thorn.
" Lord, whither farest ? " Peter, wondering, cried,
" To Rome," said Christ, " to be re-cruoified," '
' Whereupon Peter ' — we cite the Pseudo- Ambrose — ' perceived that
Christ must be crucified a second time in his little servant. And
he turned and went back and made answer to the Christians as they
questioned him, and forthwith men laid hands upon him, and by
his cross he glorified the Lord Jesus.'
Thus Peter, as our Lord had prophesied,® was
' girt ' by another, and ' carried ' out to die along the
Aurelian Way, to a place hard by the gardens of
Nero on the Vatican hill. At his own request he was
crucified head downwards, as unworthy to suffer like
his Master.' Where he died he was buried ' under
seem to me to be the following ; (i) St, Peter clearly was absent from
Rome when U Tim. was written, (ii) yet in tradition he was executed
at the same time as St. Paul. This temporary absence, the cause
of which may have been that hinted at in the story, gave rise to the
legend, which was possibly developed when "flight" became a
burning question. (Infra p. 343 n.)
' William Watson. Poems.
' John xxi 18, 19. Tert. Scorp. 15 points this out.
" Origen, in Euseb. HE iii i, amplified in Jerome Vir. III. 1,
Farrar (EDO in Zoo,), discovers a contradiction with Tert. Praes. 36 >
' Ubi Petrus passioni Dominicae adaequatur.' But 'adaequatur ' may
well mean ' conformed,' and does not tie down to details. This was
exactly one of the ' mockeries ' (Judihria) in which Tacitus tells us (xv
44) Nero delighted. For similar cases cf. Euseb. HE viii 8. The
4ale of St. Peter's crucifixion is also in the ancient Syriac Sermon of
Simon Cepha (Cureton Andent Syriac Documents 40 or Clark ANCL
XX (2) 55) In its present form this work is of 5th-century origin

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 45
a terebinth,' close to the obelisk of Nero, where to-day
the world's most splendid temple rises to his
memory.' According to an old tradition, St. Peter had been
accompanied to Rome by the Apostle John. He too
was seized by the police and condemned to be
plunged into a cauldron of boiling oil at a spot near
the Latin Gate.^ By what Providence St. John
escaped we know not, but in the Apocalypse as we
interpret it, we have " the cry of horror of a witness
who has known the Beast, who has seen the bleeding
bodies of his brother martyrs," ' and who in his exile
at Patmos tells us of the affiictions and consolations
of the children of God. In his fierce song over the
burning of Eome — in Patmos he dreamed not of the
and of monophysite colouring (DOB i 20), but founded on older
materials. See also Lipsius AAA i 215.
' For sources and critical discussion see Appendix C. ,
' Tert. Praes. 36. Cf, Jerome In Matt, xx 23, adv. Jovin. i 26, Origen
In Matt. Hom. 16. Tertullian, who believes any fable, states that he
was plunged into the cauldron. This and other similar tales are an
inference from Mk. xvi 18, a passage certainly not by St, Mark, and
absolutely alien to our Lord's teaching. Por its possible author
(Aristion, see Papias in Euseb, HE iii 39) see Swete St. Mark ciii ff.
TertuUian's tale possesses possibly some basis of fact, the details of
which are lost, but which would explain St, John's subsequent career.
Some event happened which appealed to the popular superstition,
and saved the apostle from death. That the Latin Gate was not built
until 271 is, of course, no argument against the incident. Possibly
there is an allusion to this incident in the title ndprvs given to St.
John by Polycrates in Euseb. EE iii 31. In Pseudo-Abdias Hist.
Apost. V 2 (in Pabrioius Codex Apoc. N.T. ii) an early form of this
Gnostic tradition places it at Ephesus. This would be easier to
understand than Rome. But see further in Appendix B,
^ Renan i'4»«. 198. For the date and authorship of the .ipocoZj/jjse
see infra Appendix A I.

46 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
new magnificence with which Nero had rebuilt it — as
well as in the hatred of the Empire which breathes
through every page, we see clearly some of the
reasons which explain the attitude of the Govern
ment to the Christiana.' Intensely Jewish as is the
imagery and tone of the book as a whole, the
Apocalypse, nevertheless, means the definite break of
the Church and Judaism. In the new Jerusalem the
Apostle saw ' no temple therein ' ; ' the ark of the
covenant' is now in 'the temple of God that is in
heaven.' ^
St. John's banishment to Patmos waa itself a result
of the great persecution of Nero.' Hard labour for life
in the mines and quarries of certain islands, especially
Sardinia, formed one of the commonest punishments
for Christians. The writer tells us that he was ' the
brother and partaker with you in the tribulation,'
of those who were suffering elaewhere for the sake
of Christ, a statement which would appear to rule
out voluntary retirement.* At work in the quarries
' See infra p. 99 ff. ' Apoc. xxi 22, xi 19.
' Euseb. HE iii 18, quoting Irenaeus Haer. v 30, 3 ; dates as in
Domitian. This can be reconciled with the internal evidence of the
Apoc. itself. See App. A I (6). I would suggest, as a second way of
reconciling the evidence, that while the Apocalypse was mainly written
in or about 69 (certainly before 70), the opportunities for a convict in
Patmos to transmit such a work to the mainland were few — the letters
to the Seven Churches would be short notes sent separately, easily
concealed — and consequently the publication of the work as a whole
in Asia was not until 95 or so. The persecution of Domitian then
raging would give rise to the impression that ' the vision was seen in
our time,' as Irenaeus states. Por similar misdating through the
same cause see infra p. 329 n.
• Apoc. i 9. Against EB 2514.

THE MASTER AND HIS DISCIPLES 47
or engaged in other convict task — mines in the
island there are none — the seer dreamed his dreams
and saw his visions. He stood on the shore of the
sea and beheld the Beast rise out of the waves, he
saw the battle joined, he heard the clash of arms in
heaven and hell, he rejoiced in victory won, and the
descent of the City of God. In the long weary years
of exile his faith in the future never grows faint ; he
brings in rather a new world to redreaa the balance of
the old.
We know nothing of the eventa which secured St.
John's release from this convict settlement. The
fall of Domitian and the annulment of his acts ' may
have led, aa Clement of Alexandria tells us, to an
amnesty for the Apostle,® after a quarter of a century
of suffering. More probably, in our judgement, he had
been banished not so much by direct imperial as by
magisterial sentence' — ^perhaps by the magistrates
of Ephesus — which in some way or other became
reversed. There are grounds also for thinking that
the Apostle returned to Ephesus from Patmos, already
' This explanation will also apply if St. John was banished in
the regency of Domitian in a.d. 70. See App. A (6).
2 Clem. Alex. Quis Dives Salvetur o 42. (Ed. Barnard TSy p, 32,)
But TOU Tvpivvov is unspecified in the best MSS., and may mean Nero
in spite of Euseb. HE iii 23.
' Patmos was not an imperial convict settlement. Moreover, the
word used (Tert. Praes. 36) is relegatio, not the stricter deportatio.
This did not carry loss of property or citizenship (Dig. xlviii 22, 17 ;
22, 14). Moreover, says the Digest (xlviii 22, 7), ' there is this differ
ence between deportatio and relegatio , that relegatio to an island may
be either perpetual or for a time.' See also Neumann B8K i 147,
215, It would be easier also to explain the annulling a magisterial
sentence than au imperial.

48 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
his home before his exile,' some years before tihe death
of Domitian.^ But whatever the cause or date of
release, for the apostle of love life ended in peace.
He lived through the horrors of two great persecutions,
and died quietly in extreme old age at Ephesus,
possibly as late as the reign of Trajan — '
And now the man
Lies as he lay once, breast to breast with God,
' An inference from his Epistles to the Seven Churches in the
.4^00. The objection that he is not mentioned in St. Paul's Ephesians
(so-called) or Colossians falls to the ground if (assuming their
genuineness) they were written at Caesarea (57-9), for which early
date there is much to be said. In that case they would merely fix
the terminus a quo of St, John's possible residence. This is confirmed
by the silence of St. Paul in Acts xx 17-38.
2 The beautiful tale of St. John and the robber (Clem. Alex, I.e.
supra) cannot, I think, have taken place in extreme old age ; to which
more appropriately belongs Jerome's ' Little children, love one another '
(Jer. in Gal. vi 10), and Cassian's tale of the tame partridge (Coll.
xxiv 21). The tale of Cerinthus and the bath-house I should reject,
in spite of Irenaeus Haer. iii 3, 4. St. John, as a Jew, would
scarcely go to the public bath-house,
' See on this matter, as well as on other problems connected with
St. John, Appendix B. The Catholic redaction of the Leucian or
Gnostic Acts of John (DCB i 29) cannot rest without adorning the
tale of his departure with legendary particulars exalting his virginity,
&c. See Tisch, AAA 272 ff ; Lipsius and Bonnet AAA ii (1) 156 ff,
Clark ANCL xvi 449.

CHAPTER n
CAESAE OE CHEIST

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves ... for
they will deliver you up to councils (els a-weSpta) and in their syna
gogues they will scourge you; yea, and before procurators aud
emperors (-Iiyefi6iias Se koI PatriKeTs) shall ye be brought for My sake. . . .
And ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake (8m rh ipo/id
iwv). Fear them not therefore. — Matt, x 16-26,
Bo(rtAei5o>'TOs els roiis ai&vas
'IijcroD XpuTToS (See infra, p. 103).
Considering the issue of their life, imitate their faith; Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. — He6. xiii 7, 8.
Think not that I came to send peace on earth : I came not to send
peace, but a sword. — Matt, x 34.

CONTENTS
§ I, p. 51. Confiict of Christianity aud Rome unavoidable — The
origin of the struggle— The fire of Rome— Nero's policy — The
Flavians and Christianity — Judaism as a religio licita — Early
result of this upon Christianity — Christianity and Judaism
distinguished by Roman officials — Causes and date of the
distinction — The case of Pomponia Graecina.
§ II, p. 62. The Christians charged with anarchism — Treated as out
laws — Results of the charge— Christianity put down by police
measures.
§ III, p. 66. The Empire and sodalities— The danger of unlicensed
clubs — An age of clubs — Were the Christians punished for
belonging to illegal clubs ?
§ IV, p, 73. The Roman Empire and toleration — Orontes flows into
the Tiber — Religious opportunism — Toleration and political
considerations — The case of Druidism — Toleration and contempt
— Toleration merely a Roman form of Home Rule — Toleration
of a universal creed impossible for the Empire.
§ V, p. 81. Roman toleration of Isis and Mithra — Examination of
this — The different treatment of Christianity — Causes thereof —
The effects of syncretism — The revival of paganism.
§ VI, p. 88. Religion and patriotism^The intolerance of Christianity
— The charge of ' atheism ' — The reasons for the charge — ' One
god, lonely and forsaken' — "Mediatised gods" — Christianity
and ' the monarchy.'
§ VII, p. 94. The worship of Eome and Augustus — Its growth —
Antinoiis — Christianity and the imperial cult — Necessary
antagonism of Caesar and Christ — The festivals of Caesar aud
the outbreak of persecution — ' The reign of the Eternal King.'
§ VIII, p, 103. Summary of the chapter. Pp, 49-104.

Persecution in its origin must be ascribed to the
Jews ; it was really an attempt of the hierarchy to
crush out the new sect. But within a few years perse
cution ceased to be Jewish, and became Imperial, thus
realizing the determination of the Jews from Calvary
onwards. In opposition to the infant Church there
arose the might of Eome. The conflict was inevitable,
the direct result of the genius of Christianity. A
Christianity which had ceased to be aggressive would
speedily have ceased to exist. Christ came not to send
peace on earth but a sword ^ against the restless and
resistless force of the new religion the gates of hell
should not prevail. But polytheism could not be"
dethroned without a struggle ; nor mankind regene
rated without a baptism of blood. Persecution, in
fact, is the other side of aggression, the inevitable
outcome of a truly missionary spirit; the two are
linked together as action and reaction. To the
student of ancient hiatory all this will appear in
teUigible, perhaps even axiomatic. " The birth-
throes of the new religion must needs be agonizing.
The religion of the civilized world was passing through
Medea's cauldron.' " Out of the cauldron there would
¦ Henderson FN 355.

52 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
come a new world, but not without fire and blood.
Persecution, in short, ia no mere incident in the life of
the Church which might possibly have been avoided.
Not so do we read either history or Christianity.
Persecution rather was the necessary antagonism of
certain fundamental principles and policies in the
Empire of Caesar and the Kingdom of Christ. But
on this more anon. We shall do well first to clear
up certain matters connected with the early martyrs
which have given rise to much controversy. The date
at which persecution began, the extent to which it
prevailed, its exact legal character, are questions of
moment to which we shall attempt a brief answer.
We shall then be in a better position to explain the
reasons for persecution and its true inwardness from
the standpoint both of the Empire and the Church.
Scholars are now fairly agreed that by the time of
Domitian' it had become the settled policy of the
Roman emperors, and of the wonderfully efficient
police administration which they controlled, to treat
, Christianity as itself a crime. But in our judgement
Domitian was not the originator of a new departure.
The establishment of this policy in the first instance
• Before the researches of Neumann, Lightfoot, Mommsen, Hardy,
Ramsay, and the majority, perhaps, of modern scholars, especially in
Germany, were given to dating persecution as not earlier than
Trajan's Rescript (see infra p. 212), or even Septimius Severus. On
this as a basis many theories were founded, e.g. that any document
which mentioned ' the Name ' as the ground of death (I Pet. iv 15,
16, Apoc. ii 13, Matt, x 22) must be later than Trajan's Rescript. Por
the history of this theory up to 1885 see Lightfoot, Ign. i. 7 n. Nero's
persecution was got over by claiming that it was either an isolated
case or not of Christians at all (infra Appendix D (a).

CAESAE OR CHRIST 53
waa due to Nero. On the evening of July 19, 64, there
broke out in Rome a disastrous fire, the least effect of
which was the burning down of no small part of the
congested quarters of the city. The fire marks a
crisis in the fortunes of the Church, the beginning of
an era of persecution which lasted for over two
centuries. In a well-known chapter of Tacitus,'— the
meaning of which is by no means as clear as we
should wish, though its genuineness seema beyond
dispute — we read :
'Neither human assistance in the shape of imperial gifts, nor
attempts to appease the gods, could remove the sinister report that
the fire was due to Nero's own order.' And so, in the hope of
dissipating this rumour, he falsely diverted the charge on to a set of
people to whom the vulgar gave the name of Ohrestians,^ and who
were detested for the abominations which they perpetrated. The
founder of this name, one Christus by name, had been executed by
Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius ; and the dangerous superstition,
though put down for the moment, again broke out, not only in Judea,
the original home of the pest, but even in Rome, where everything
horrible and shameful collects and is practised.'
The charge of incendiarism broke down completely,
both with the Roman judges and the populace.*
' Tac. Ann. xv 44. But Suet. Nero 16 does not connect the
Christians or their persecution with the fire. Nor does Tert. Apol. 5.
' On the question of Nero's complicity see Henderson o.c. 482 ;
Furneaux Tac. Ann. ii 72.
' This seems to be the correct reading. See Harnack EO ii 19,
and of. Suet. OZaad. 25, 'Chrestoimpulsore.' Cl. infra p. 58. Tacitus
silently corrects by giving the right name of Jesus as Christus. In
any case, Christiani at that early date should rather be translated
' Christ's faction ' than Christians.
* Arnold NO 20 considers that many of the Christians, whether
under torture, or because, as Millenarians, they had actually been
guilty, confessed to the charge. He falls back on the words of
Tacitus (I.C.), ' Igitur primum correpti qui fatebantur ' — ' Those were

54 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
But The lie
Had time on its own wings to fly,
and was made the occasion — not without some ground
in the incautious utterancea of enthusiastic Millenar
ians — of an accusation more dangerous by far, odiwm
generis humani, ' hatred against civilized society,' ' or,
as we should phrase it to-day, the crime of anarchism.
Not specific acts of incendiarism, but " the question
whether a man was a Christian became the most
essential part of the charge against him." ^
The policy of thus treating the Christians as
anarchists, begun by Nero, was continued — developed,
perhaps, in some small details — by the Flavian
first brought to trial who were admitting the charge ' ; where some
would translate correpti as 'arrested.' We do not deny that the
Christians may have been guilty of wild talk about the burning of the
world, &c,, which may have been misinterpreted (see Duruy Hist.
Bom. iv 511, Milman i 456, Henderson o.c. 435). See infra p, 153.
But the charge may have been Christianity, not incendiarism, for
Tacitus goes on to add, ' delude indicio eorum multitude ingens baud
proiude in crimine incendii quam odio humani generis convicti sunt,'
— ' And then from information gained from them a great number of
people were convicted, not so much on the charge of incendiarism as on
tbat of danger to civilization,' [The MSS. for convicti read conju-ncti,
which Ramsay takes to mean 'were involved in their fa,te' (ChE
233, n,) But see Furneaux in loo.'] For the idea that the Christians
turned informers see infra App. D (c).
' This phrase of Tacitus (I.e.) might be translated, as by Tillemont,
Duruy, and others, ' hatred of all men for the Christians.' But Tac.
Hist. V 5 (re Jews) settles the matter. Cf. Tert. Apol. 37, ' You have
chosen to call us enemies of the human race, rather than of human
error 'lib. 35, ' publici hostes.' Minuc. Felix Oct. 8, 9 supplies illustra
tions. For 'genus humanum'= the Eoman world, cf. Luke ii 1 and
Hardy CBG 74, n,
2 Furneaux Tac. ii 529,

CAESAR OR CHRIST 55
emperors Titus and Domitian,' and by the Antoninea
after them, aa a cardinal principle of imperial govern
ment. In this they were aided by the revulsion of
feeling which Christianity had aroused against itself
among the masses of the people, and the rumours
already current of its impure orgies.^ Long before
' Hilary of Poictiers (c. Arian. 3) adds Vespasian. Ramsay (ChE
256, n.) treats this as an error for Domitian. But Hilary may have had
access to materials now lost (Lightf. Ign. i 16), or may have referred
to local troubles in Gaul (ib . Clem, i 350). This last seems to me very
doubtful ; see supra p. 36 n 4. The passage in Suet. Vesp. 15, which
Ramsay (o.c. 257) restores as further proof of Vespasian's persecutions,
can scarcely claim to be more than a plausible guess. On the other
hand, there was undoubtedly a persecution of Jews under Vespasian
(Euseb. HE iii 12, on which see Schiirer o.c. ii (1) 279) which may weU
have included Christians, The authority for coupling Titus with the
persecutors is a passage in Sulpic, Severus Chron. ii o 30, 6 : ' Everten-
dum templum . . . censebant quo pleuius Judaeorum et Christianorum
religio toUeretur,' etc. Severus, it is true, is a late author, but there are
grounds for believing, as Bemays has shown, that this passage is a
reproduction from the lost books of Tac. Annals. See Ramsay ChE
253-5, Lightf, Ign. i 15, n. But the interpretation of the passage
seems to me doubtful, though I do not doubt the continuity of the
imperial policy. Further evidence for persecution under Flavian em
perors besides Domitian will depend on the date we assign to the Apoc.
and I. Peter. On this see infra App, A. In addition there is the im
portant inference from Pliny's letter. See infra p, 210 n. It is scarcely
needful to add that the martyrdom of Gaudentius, the fabled Christian
architect of Coliseum (see Hare Walks in Bome i, 232) is a myth.
I see no reason to accept Ramsay's view that while Nero punished
Christians for definite offences, or rather charges, incendiarism, magic
(see infra p. 133), &o., the Flavians began to punish for Christianity
itself — ' the Name.' (Ramsay o.e. 251 ff.) The view is rejected by
most modem scholars. Mommsen (Expos. July, 1893), Sanday (ib.
June, 1893), Hardy (o.c. 90, 125), Henderson (o.c. 251, 448, " the
name was enough"), Furneaux (o.c. ii 529), all hold that after 64
(Henderson exaggerates into " before ") Christians were punished for
' the Name "alone. See supra p, 40,
' AccordingtoTao.(?,c,)'quosper flagitiainvisos vulgus Chrestianos

66 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
the close of the century the prophecy of Christ had
come true : the Christians were hated of all men
' because of the name ' (Matt, x 22).
Leaps and bounds are aa alien to- history as in
nature. We must not, therefore, imagine that Chris-\
tianity suddenly became a persecuted religion in the
year 64, though hitherto it had enjoyed a certain
measure of protection, possibly even favour, from the
Roman Government. True it ia, as the Acts of
the Apostles shows, and as Gibbon claims, that in
the earlier days the Christians found that " the
tribunal of the pagan magistrates often proved the
moat assured refuge against the fury of the syna
gogue." ' But the cause of thia waa not any official
countenance of Christianity as such, but a careless
indifference to what appeared the mere minutiae oi
Judaism. Judaism was a religio licita,'^ and Christi
anity at first seems to have been confused with it' and^
thus to have obtained a certain measure of protection
as against the Gentiles from the authorities. But the
hatred of the synagogues aoon undeceived the Roman
world, and persecution, instead of being, as hitherto,
the work of the mob stirred up by Jewish gold, became
the duty of the Empire. To this last, in fact, the
bureaucracy was driven by the political charges
(sic) appellabat,' this hatred was a real thing in 64 ; unless indeed
Tacitus is reading in the feelings of bis own age. But see infra 'p. 61,
' Gibbon ii 83, Of, the death of James, supra p, 27, n.
' For the privileges of Judaism, see infra p. 108. The phrase
religio licita is derived from Tert. Apol. 21 ' insignissima religio, certe
licita.' The Roman law only speaks of collegia licita.
' Of. Suet, Claud. 25'quoted infra App, D (o).

CAESAR OR CHRIST 57
which the Jews brought against the new sect, a
weapon the value of which they had learned on
Calvary.' We can date with some certainty this distinction
in the official mind between Jew and Christian as
first becoming clear in the summer of 64. The ac
quittal of St. Paul in 61 or 62 — an event we may
fairly assume as probable — is proof that in that year
Christianity, a distinct name for which waa only
slowly coming into use, could still claim that it was
a religio licita, or, as St. James would have put it,
still recognised as a branch of Judaism. But soon
after, as Tacitus showa,^ Christians aa such, as distinct
from the Jews, came under the ban of the Empire.
The Jews, working probably through Poppaea, the
famous mistress and wife of Nero, whose superstitious
nature led her to dally with Judaism, or through
Aliturus, a favourite Jewish mime,' took the oppor
tunity of the great fire and the need of a scapegoat
to save themselves and at the same time to wreak
vengeance on the Christians. At any rate, both
Nero and Rome now clearly distinguished between the
reUgio licita of Judaism and the new sect, the majority
of whose members possibly were already Gentiles.*
' Acts xvii 7, xxv 8.
" Tac, Ann. xv 44. The lost section of Tac, Hist, v, as preserved
for us in Sulpic, Severus Chron. ii 30, 6-8 (supra 55 n,) is proof that
the two were distinguished before 71. See also I Pet. iv 16.
^ For the influence of Aliturus on Poppaea and his continued
interest in Judaism see Josephus Vita c. 3. Por Poppaea's Jewish
leanings, ib. Antiq. xx 8, 11 (8eo<reP-{is).
* But see infra p. 233 n. At any rate they were Greek-speaking
Jews.

58 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
The destruction of Jerusalem would remove the
last elementa of confusion. The breach between
Judaism and Christianity was now complete, while
the forced registration of all Jews, and the payment
by them of two drachmas a head to the temple of
Jupiter Capitolinus at Rome, would enable the
officials to discover whether a Christian waa or waa
not entitled to the protection of the religio licita. A
more apeedy method of identification was also avail
able. The second generation of Christians, led by St.
Paul, had discontinued circumcision. The Christians
also, hitherto distinguished by mere sub-titlea of
Judaiam, The Way, Nazarenes, and others, had now
found, or rather had foisted upon them, a distinctive
name of their own.'
' The course of events becomes clearer if we remember that the
Christians did not start with a ready-made label. The title Christian,
i.e.' Christ's faction' (of, Fompeiani, &c.),was a bitter nickname of Latin
formation (and so but vernacular Greek), invented either by the wits
or magistrates of Antioch (inference from its Latin form), which may
have been originally (Suet. Claud. 25, ' Chresto impulaore '), and was
still popularly, mispronounced as " Chrestian " as late as Tertullian.
(Cf. Justin I, Apol. 4, ' We are accused of being Christians, yet to hate
what is Chrestian (excellent) is unjust.' Tert, Apol. 3, 'For you do
not even know accurately the name you hate ' ; ad Nat. 3 ; Lactantius
Instit. iv 7 ; so X in I Fet. iv 16 and Acts xi 26, and the best MSS. in
Tac. Ann. xv 44. Of. Le Blant SAM 312.) The name at first was
resented and ignored by the Christians (eg. Acts xxvi 29) while to
the Jews the Christians were Na(aipa7oi. (Acts xxiv 5, Tert. o. Marc.
iv 8). The name had however caught on among the mob of Rome by
64 (Tac. l.c.) and was accepted by Gentile Christians by the time of
Ignatius (.Epfe, ii, iJom. S, Folyo. 7), though the Christian Jews still
called themselves Nazarenes, even after their retreat to Pella, and
possibly still survive under that name at Bussorah (Encyc. Brit. s.v.
" Mandaean "). For further on the history of the word see Lightf,
Ign. i 415 ff, ; DB s.v, ; Harnack EO ii 5 n., 15-19 ; i 94 n.

CAESAR OR CHRIST 59
Many writers of repute have objected to the early
date at which in our judgement the distinction be
came clear between Judaism and Christianity. Some
extremists, constructing facts to suit their theories,
have held that the two were confused until the time
of Trajan ; ' others, as a conceaaion, have moved the
date forward to Domitian.^ Such arguments do
strange injustice both to the power of the Jews to
make themselves understood, and to the vigilance
of the officials of the most marvellously organized
and centralized empire the world has ever seen. No
reader, for instance, of the Epistle of Barnabas,^ could
imagine that such violent hatred of the two sections *
would not make itself manifest to the lynx-eyed
police ; no historian who realized the vast numbers of
the Jews and their world-wide power ^ could suppose
that the Jews allowed the hated sect to be classified
with them. The English people, to say nothing of
English governors, do not confuse Brahmins and
Buddhists. Roman officials, we may be sure, would
be quick to note the rise of a new sect. As Professor
Lindsay points out :
" When we remember the wise political dread of religious combi
nations which the emperors from Augustus downward showed ; their
discernment that religion was the most powerful political motive
' Supra p, 52 n.
' Neumann B8K i 5 ff., 14 ff., who thinks that it was due to the
investigations of Domitian's officials in collecting the poll-tax.
' The date of Barnabas is doubtful ; see infra p. 116. But the
Acts of the Apostles (a late date for which seems to me absurd) will
do as well for the argument. See supra p, 56.
* Infra p. 115 ff. » Infra p. 113-4.

60 PERSECUTION IN THE EAELY CHUECH
power in the East ; the presence in every province of men trained to
note the beginnings of all movements which might disturb the state ;
and when we glance at the objective picture of that old system of
ruling provinces which modem India furnishes — ^none but an armchair
critic would deny it. British officials in India know of all the small
beginnings of religious movements in their districts long before the
public know anything about them, if they ever acquire the know
ledge." '
If, then, we date the distinction between Jew and
Christian as first becoming officially clear in or about
the summer of the year 64, we can understand what
really took place in the interesting case of Pomponia
Graecina.^ This high-born Roman lady, the wife of
Plautius, the conqueror of Britain, may claim with
some certainty to have been the first Roman of whose
sufferings for the sake of Christ we have any record.
In the year 57 Pomponia was arraigned before the
Senate on the charge of ' foreign superstition,' and in
accordance with usage, handed over by that court
to the judgement of a family tribunal. She was
acquitted, but for the remaining twenty-six years of
her life never put off -her seriousness of demeanour or
her deep mourning.' Critics of repute have claimed
that this ' foreign superstition ' was Christianity,
and in the judgement of Lightfoot "this surmise,
probable in itself, has been converted almost into a
' Church and Ministry in Early Centuries (1902) p. 134, n.
' Por this case soe Wandinger Pomponia Graecina (1873) 30 ff,
Lightfoot Clma. i 30-2, Merivale vi 271-3 (who rejects), Henderson
O.C. 344, 492 (doubtfully), AUard Les Catacombs (1896) 81-2, 1 HP
26 ff ; N, and B. BS i 83, 278-82.
" Tac. Annals xiii 32, ' longa huic Pomponiae aetas et continua
ti'istitia fuit. . . . per quadraginta annos non cultu nisi Ingubri, nou
animo nisi maesto egit.'

CAESAR OE CHEIST 61
certainty by an archaeological discovery of recent
years." For de Rossi has shown that in the so-
called crypt of Lucina, a first-century fragment of
the catacombs of Callistus, we have the name of a
descendant or near kinsman of Pomponia Graecina.'
Evidently, then, there were Christians in her family
within a generation of her trial. Furthermore, this
crypt must have been built by a lady of rank and
wealth, and as the name Lucina does not occur else
where in Eoman history,^ De Eossi suggests that this
is none other than the baptismal name ' of Pomponia
Graecina, who, as Tacitus tells us, died in a.d. 83,
or about the time of the erection of this crypt. If
then, it may be objected, Pomponia was a Christian,
how can we account for her acquittal ? Wandinger's
answer, adopted by Lightfoot, is ingenious and pro
bable. The real matter referred to the judgement of
the domestic tribunal was not her faith. This neither
the Senate nor the family were careful to distinguish
from Judaism, a recognized religion. She was really
tried because of the rumours already abroad accus
ing the Christians of impure orgies,* which shortly
' See the plate in de Rossi BS xlix 27.
For the two inscriptions in this crypt dated 107 aud 111 see de
Rossi ICUB i 3 ff— or Allard Les Catacombs 67-8.
^ It was, however, common among Roman Christians. Cf. Duchesne
LP i 150, 164. We find in Eome a church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina ,
as well as a catacomb of Lucina, both indications of the high rank
of this Lucina.
' Harnack EO ii 41 doubts this, but see infra p. 170 n. No infer
ence can be drawn from St. Luke's Theophilus, as the name was
common among pagans and Jews (DCA ii 1373).
' I Pet. iv 14-16. When St. Paul arrived in Eome (say 60 at latest)

62 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHUECH
afterwards led to such an outburst of popular
hatred. Thus the fire of 64 did not create, but brought to
a head the growing suspicion and dislike by both
people and government of this new religion, and at
the same time threw out into sharp relief its distinction
from Judaism. Indecision on the part of the executive
was now at an end ; it was to the advantage of Nero,
in his desperate need of popular favour, that it
should be. In its place we have a policy of persecu
tion. The persecution, though by no means wide
spread — Christianity itself, be it remembered, as yet
only existed here and there — waa not confined to
Eome, but extended to various cities and districts of
Asia Minor, rather, however, as a police-measure than
because of any formal rescript.' Within a generation
of Calvary the sheep were in the midst of the wolves.

II
The imperial idea that Christianity was a danger
to the State and civilization itself, an anarchist
institution, was maintained with varying insistence,
some modification in detail, and occasional intervals of
toleration, from the days of Nero to the final victory
he was told by the Jews that the new sect (aipe<reus, distinction not
yet absolute) was 'everywhere spoken against' (Acts xxviii 21-2).
Cf. Tac. Ann. xv 44, quoted supra p. 73 n. ; II Tim. ii 8, where St. Paul
complains that he is classed with malefactors.
' For this and other questions with regard to the persecution of
Nero see Appendix D.

CAESAE OE CHRIST 63
of the Church under Constantine. To the changes
and fortunes of this policy in the fixat three centuries,
as also to the reasons which gave it plausibility and
credence with both statesmen and people, we shall
return later. Meanwhile the student should notice
certain consequences of moment. ""
The charge of anarchism exposed the Christians
to one peril in special. It put them outside the law
and brought them under the arbitrary executive juris
diction of the magistrates and police superintendents.'
These, aa Mommsen has pointed out, were entrusted
with large powera of immediate action (coercitio),-
on their own reaponsibility, against all persons
whose conduct was likely to lead to political trouble.^
Just as in modern Russia the Nihilist or the innocent
reformer can be arrested and sentenced, even banished
for life to Sakhalien, on mere " administrative order,"
without the pretence of trial, or the need that the
bureaucrat quote any law at all,' so with the early
Christian. Their trial (cognitio) * could be conducted
in private, the results alone being made public.^ In
the case of Christians torture and death were within
the magistrates' competence, though, curious to say,
they were not allowed to inflict banishment (deportatio)
' Eirenarchae, on whose functions for the summary arrest of thieves,
etc., see Hardy o.c. 76, n.
" Mommsen PBE i 351-3 ; Paulus Sent, v 21 ; Ulpian Dig. i 18, 13 ;
Marcian Dig. xlviii 13, 14. See also infra p. 240 n. 1.
' In spite of recent events, I leave this sentence as originally written
(July, 1905).
* See for this word infra p, 212 n.
' Mommsen J?oi». Slaatsrecht (ed. 2, 1887) ii p. 964 or § 926, See
also Ramsay ChE 216 n.

64 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHUECH
until the time of Marcus Aurelius.' And the penalty
waa fixed ; * in the case of base-born Christians (humi-
liores), the fighting with beasta in the arena, or
the being burnt alive ; in the case of Roman citizens
(honestiores), the headsman's sword.' ^
The reader who has followed our argument will
find an answer to the further question. Were per-
fiecutiona the exception or the rule? In theory,
Christianity was a hateful thing, a danger to society
and the State, to be crushed out wherever found. In
practice, vigilance varied considerably; there were
spasms of enforcement of the law followed by reactions
of indifference on the part of both Government and
people. Persecution was also to a large extent a
local matter ; an outburst of popular hatred driving
the magistrates to put into force enactments that
would be distasteful to some if only because of the
extra work that they involved, to others because of
their consciousness of their futility. A modern illus
tration may make the matter clear. The Christian
was looked upon very much as an Anarchist or
Nihilist is looked upon by the police of Paris or St.
Petersburg. He is kept under strict observation ;
the police can proceed against him any day without
' Infra p, 226 n,, and Modestinus in Dig. xlviii 19, 30. This was
because deportatio involved the loss of citizenship as well as goods.
For the case of St. John (relegatio) see supra p. 47 n.
" Paulus Sent, v 29, 1, makes this very clear. In case of treason
' humiliores bestiis obiiciuntur vel vivi exuruutur, honestiores capite
puniuntur.' Christians for the most part would be among the
' humiliores.' Cf. also Ulpian Dig. xlviii 13, 7 (similar penalty for
sacrilege), and see infra p. 219 n., for the beheading of honestiores ;
e.g. ApoUonhis.

CAESAE OR CHRIST 65
formality or delay. But because of that very fact
the Anarchist is only arrested when popular feeling
or his own doings demand. If he keep quiet the
police do not trouble him. So with the Christian.
"The current conceptions," writes Mommsen, "of
the so-called persecutions of the Christians labour
under a defective apprehension of the rule of law and
the practice of law subsisting in the Roman Empire.
In reality the persecution of the Christians was a
standing matter, aa was that of robbers ; only such
regulations were put into practice at times more gently
or even negligently, at other times more strictly, and
were doubtless on occasion specially enforced firom
high quarters." ' These times of " enforcement from
high quarters " formed the seasons of special stress
and strain known to the historians of the Church aa
the " General Persecutions." To these likewise in
due course we shall return. They have received an
attention which by its very exaggeration has spread
confusion. Of more importance is it that the student
should realize that these " general peraecutiona " are
but, aa it were, the coming to a head of a virulence
against the Christiana alwaya more or less at work
in the imperial system.
Another consequence of thia main argument
ahould be noted. Christianity, as we have seen, waa ¦
put down aa a police meaaure, by " administrative
order " rather than by formal laws,^ or stately trials.
From the outlook of the later historian the result was
' Mommsen PBE ii 199, n.
' For further on this question see App. E.

66 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHUECH
disastrous. Police-court caaea are not enrolled among
the archivea of the nation. A great trial, a Verres or
Warren Hastings, brings forth the orationa, immortal
not merely in themselvea, but because of the light
they throw upon current law or history. But no
orator defended St. Paul or St. Perpetua ; few records
are preserved of the trials of insignificant Anarchists.
The very laws under which they were prosecuted do
not demean themselves to illustrations of their bear
ing and application at the hands of great jurists by
instances gathered from the scum of society. Ulpian,
Paulus, Modestinua — the Cokes and Lyttletona of
the third century — leave the crime of Chriatianity
aa such alone;' they saw no reason for singling it
out from other moral enormities with which the
police had ample powera of dealing. If only St. Paul
or St. Ignatius had been a Verres or Clodius — gigantic
peculators, administrators whose tyranny set a pro
vince on fire, daring revolutionaries — all would have
been clear, aet forth with preciaion in the text-books
of the schools. As it is, the historian ia reduced to
the scanty flotsam and jetsam thrown up from the
sea of oblivion ; a detail here, a fragment there from
which we must reconstruct as best we may the great
conflict between the Church and the Empire.

Ill
There was a second way in which the State might
have tried to suppress the Christiana other than by
' For Ulpian's exception see infra p. 240 n.

CAESAR OE CHEIST 67
the method of treating them as outlaws and anarchists.
The Empire, as distinct from the later Republic,' was
alwaya jealoua of all unregistered clubs and societies.
We must own that the dread was not unwarranted,
when we remember on the one hand the constant
disaffection of the displaced oligarchy, and on the
other the vast slave populations, the complex racial
elementa, and the smallness of the standing army by
means of which peace was preserved: In the days
of the Republic the only societies under the ban were
those which met secretly or by night. But Julius
Caesar, on political grounds, suppressed all sodalities
except those of ancient origin, while Augustus placed
all religious societies under the strictest control.^
Henceforth all new societiea had to obtain permission
either from the emperor or senate, according to
whether they belonged to imperial or senatorial pro
vinces.' Unregistered clubs could be suppressed by
the police at any time ; though here again the power
of suppression must not be confused with the deed
itself. Probably clubs of all aorta would be allowed
to meet, more or less openly recognized though with
out formal licence, theimore so because the police knew
that they could at any time put an end to their
existence. By the Lex Julia (b.c. 48) members of
unregistered clubs could be summarily punished by
' We see the dread of clubs in the early days of the Eepublic in
the decree of the Senate (b.o. 184), that those who wished to celebrate
Bacchic rites could do so on obtaining a licence, provided that not
more than two men and three women mel^together (Hardy o.e. 11).
' Suet. Caes. 42, Oct. 32, Dio. Cass, lii 36.
' Marcian in Dig. xlvii 22, 3. See also Hardy o.c. 170.

68 PEESECUTION IN THE EAELY CHUECH
the police, if necessary with the extreme penalties of
treason.' But at the same time care was taken that
such prohibition should not be a pecuniary benefit to
the State. The common funds of a diaaolved sodality
were to be divided, not confiscated,^ a restriction
which would not apply in the case of treason.
Of the jealousy of the Empire of the power of
clubs and guilds we have several illustrations. In
Nicomedeia, the future residence of Diocletian, one
of the greatest cities of Asia Minor, a disastrous fire
.destroyed many dwellings, a club for old men,' and a
temple of Isis. The authorities applied for permission
to form a fire brigade of 150 men. Pliny, the then
governor of Bithynia-Pontus, who forwarded their
request, promised that he would take care 'that no
workman should be received into the brigade, and
¦that it would not be used for other purposes.' But
Trajan dreaded cluba more than fires, and so refused.
Nor would he allow the citizens of Amisus to con
tinue their subscription suppers.* Trades unions too
' The penalty for belonging to a collegium illicitum was the same
as that of an armed riot (Ulpian Dig. xlvii 22, 2), and armed riot was
a form of majestatis laesae (Ulpian Dig. xlviii 4, 1 ; Neumann BSK
124, n.), the punishment of which was death (Paulus B&nt. v 29. See
supra p. 64).
' Dig. xlvii 22, 3. The student will compare with interest the
struggles of trade unions in England iu the nineteenth century. Ac
cording to Hardy o.o. 178, the chief necessary disadvantage of an illicit
sodality was its non-recognition by law as a juristic person.
' See infra p. 70 n. 1.
« Pliny Eps. 33, 34, 92, 93. For the bearing of this on the Christians
of Bithynia, see infra p. 211. Bithynia was in a disturbed condition,
and Trajan probably more strict than some emperors.

CAESAE OR CHRIST 69
were considered illegal ; ' not until the time of Alex
ander Severus did they obtain any legal status,^
though here again the student should beware of con
fusing legal recognition with absence of existence.
Their recognition waa the result of accomplished facts
which it were idle for wise stateamen any longer to
deny. For these rigid restrictions overshot themselves
and proved impossible. Laws and ordinances were
paralysed by greater though impalpable forces ; the
universal craving for mutual sympathy and succour ;
the immense development of a free proletariat with
collective interests of its own ; above all the intense
desire of the people to obtain relief from the deadly
dullness of their lives. For "the Empire which
had striven to prevent combination, really fur
nished the greatest incentive to combine. In the
face of that world-wide and all-powerful system, the
individual subject felt, ever more and more, his lone
liness and helplessness." ' So, slowly but surely, the
people asaerted for themselves the right to organize
' Ramsay ChE 200 (strike of bakers at Magnesia). Cf. Tac. Ann.
xiv 17. Nevertheless, such trades unions were winked at, so long as
they did not become political (Hardy o.e. 181).
' Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 33 ; Dig. xlvii 22, 1. But there are grounds
for believing that in senatorial provinces legal sanction was given
before 133. See Hardy o.c. 182.
' Dill BSNA 256. For a good account of these clubs see bk. ii c. 3
of this able work. The student should consult Boissier Bel. Bom. ii
292 ff. ; Renan Les Apdtres o. 18. Hardy o.c. c. 9 is rather too legal
for the general reader. The fullest work is Liebenam's Geschichte
des rSm. Vereinswesens (Leipzig, 1890). There is a vast literature
on their relation to the Church. See infra p. 261 n.

70 PERSECUTION IN THE EAELY CHURCH
societies, though under restrictions jealously guarded,
in theory at least, down to the time of Justinian.
Thus the age of the infant Church became an age
of clubs and guilds, of efforts in various ways to
attain the new ideas of unity and brotherhood. There
were clubs and sodalities of all sorts — colleges of old
men' and of young men, of wandering traders and
military veterana, and of artisans in almost every
conceivable branch of industry or specialized skill, from
the mule-drivers of the Alps to the men whose business
it was to strew the fine sand in the arena. The
Great Mother, Isis, Serapis, and other gods, all alike
had their colleges ; religion, in fact, played no small
part in this vast club life.^ We have also one sodality
at least that was virtually a White Cross Guild,
though this must be balanced by the sodalities of the
' late sleepers ' and ' late drinkers ' at Pompeji.' As
Mommsen showed in one of his earliest works, it was
not difficult for any aociety desirous of making con
tributions for any purpose, to enroll itself under forms
allowed by law, though freedom was somewhat
narrowed by the fact that meetings were only allowed
once a month, and that no permanent head, or
' master of sacred rites,' could be appointed. Owing
to these last restrictions, perhaps, or from unwilling
ness to lower their religion to the level of a sodality or
mutual benefit club, or because they were aware that
' On the gerusia see Mommsen PBE i 354, n., and for a very
different interpretation Ramsay CBP i 110-4, 438-9.
' See illustrations in Hardy o.o. 170. Compare the guild life of the
days of Wyclif. (See my Age of Wyclif, pp, 269-70.)
' DiU ESNA 265.

CAESAR OR CHEIST 71
there were many religious clubs which had received no
licence and yet existed,' the early Christians either
refused or neglected the opportunity and freedom of
such registration, while their ayairai, or love-feasts —
which would appear to have existed longer than is
sometimes supposed ^ —would make them an illegal
sodality the crushing of which would need no further
formalities.' As a matter of fact, the State preferred,
as a rule, to proceed against th-e Christiana, not as
members of an illegal guild, but as political agitators
or anarchists of the most dangerous form. We have
proof of this in the fact that at the commencement
of the third century, when the Christians here and
there took steps, apparently, to enroll themselves as
burial clubs,* the persecutions did not thereby cease.
The Christians were punished, not as members of an
illicit sodality, but ' for the Name.' ^
The student ahould beware, however, lest he over
look the momentous isauea involved in the refusal of
the State to allow any society or club to exist which
had not first obtained official recognition, and the
equally momentous refusal of the Church to obtain
' Hardy o.c. 177. See also Dig. xiii 22, 1 ' sed religionis causa
cpire non prohibentur, dum tamen per hoc non fiat contra senatus
consnltum quo illicita collegia aroentur.'
« See Harnack EC i 199.
' In Bithynia they gave up the agape in consequence. See Ep.
Pliny, infra p. 211. ¦¦ See infra p. 261 n.
' The chief proof of this lies in the fact that when Tertullian wrote
his Apology a general liberty had been given for clubs by Severus (see
supra p. 69 n, 2). But possibly the difference between the two
procedures was not so great, for illicitum at this time had come to be
identical with " political " (Hardy o.o. 179), the very ground on which
Christians were persecuted.

72 PEESECUTION IN THE EAELY CHURCH
such recognition. The question is not one of legal
technicalities or procedure, or the ' sheer obstinacy,'
as Marcus Aurelius would have phrased it, of Chris
tian fanatics, but points rather to one of those root
antagonisms of principle the influence of which, in
different forms, may be felt in the twentieth as much
as in the second century. By Roman theory the
State was the one society which must engross every
interest of its subjects, religious, social, political,
humanitarian, with the one possible exception of the
family. There was no room in Roman law for the
existence, much less the development on its own
lines of organic growth, of any corporation or society
which did not recognize itself from the first as a mere-
department or auxiliary of the State. The State was
all and in all, the one organism with a life of its own.
Such a theory the Church, as the living kingdom of
Jesus, could not posaibly accept either in the first
century or the twentieth.' Here, in fact, we strike a
root antagonism of political ideals between the
Church and the Empire, the details and consequences
of which will need further examination. Suffice to
say that this was not the least of the factors which
led from the first to an outbreak of persecution.
' Thus the famous United Free Church decision was a reversion
f o a theory as a protest against which the martyrs died. That it was
an unhistorical reversion (i.e. not true to the line of development) is
shown by Gierke's Fol. Theories of Med. Age ed. Maitland (1900).

CAESAR OR CHRIST 7^
IV
To the modern reader the crime of anarchism
thus aUeged against Christianity seems so pre
posterous, that he finds it hard to believe that such a
charge could ever have been seriously entertained.
Nothing, in fact, is more difficult in the study of
history than to put oneself back into the thoughts
and feelings of past centuriea, and to view events
from a standpoint the very foundations of which
have utterly perished. The student who succeeds in
doing this in his investigation of the relationa in
early days of the Church and the Empire will discover
that the notion waa not ao utterly abaurd after all aa
at firat sight it appears. To both people and bureau
crat the Chriatians would seem, if not exactly Anar
chists, yet something scarce distinguishable. History,
the judge from whose verdicta there is no appeal, has
shown that the statesmen and magistrates of the
Empire were wrong, as history has exposed similar
follies in every century. Nevertheless, the astute
rulers of the Empire did not adopt their views with
out reasons which on the surface appeared sufficient.
What these were we shall explain in a later chapter.
The difficulty of ihe reader in understanding this
charge ia increased when he remembera the known
tolerance of the Roman Empire for all sorts of
religions.' For the city had slowly adopted as her
own, by senatorial decree or popular verdict, a vast
' On this and other matters connected with Roman religion
Boissier Beligion Bomaine (Paris 1874) is of great value.

74 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
pantheon of other gods; not merely Italian deities,
Juno and Diana, or the gods of Greece, Apollo,
Athene, but Oriental deities, such as the Great
Mother, and the worship of Mithra. The belief in
the old Roman deities that had contented the rude
farmers of Latium had slowly melted away under
the solvent of Greek philosophy and world-wide con
quest ; their places had been taken by alien mytho
logies of larger human interest and more alluring
legend. Not only had strangers introduced into the
great city the various superstitions of their native
countries, but Rome herself had bestowed " the free
dom of the city on all the gods of mankind." '
Orontes had flowed into the Tiber ; but the Tiber
had seemed no less anxious to receive her. In the
case of some of these adopted or imported gods the
rites were not always remarkable for their moral
power. And yet the worship of Isis, though never
formally adopted by the State, was allowed, in spite
of attendant orgies ; that of Jesus was forbidden. The
licentious rites of Adonis were the glory and disgrace
of Antioch; the brotherhood in Christ Jesus was
under the ban of the Empire. The cult of Aesculapius
(a foreign deity introduced from Epidaurus, on the
advice of the Sibylline books, as far back as b.c. 290)
— ' God the Saviour,' ' the friend of man ' ((j>iXavBpw-
TroTttTog) — was especially popular, as his numerous
inscriptions and statues testify. The worship of ' the
• See Gibbon i 28-32, to whose "philosophy" this especially
appealed. Cf, Arnobius Adv. Gent, vi 7, ' Civitas omnium numinum
cultvix.'

CAESAR OR CHRIST 75
great Physician ' * who went about doing good ' was
suppressed.' How came these things to be, the reader
asks? By what perversion of logic or fact did it^
come to pass that an Empire so tolerant in its general
practice could be so hostile to the Church? Is it
that the toleration of the Empire was less complete
than is supposed, or has the measure of the persecu
tions of the Christians been exaggerated by ecclesi
astical zealots ?
The answer to these questions cannot be given in
a simple yea or no. We must distinguish between
things that differ ; for instance, the liberty of thought
and the liberty of worship. Liberty of thought, so
far as the Government was concerned, was complete,
far more so than in the later days of Giordano Bruno,
Servetus, or Galileo. The theologieum odium did not
exist, at any rate in Eome, if only because men
were not sufficiently interested in their gods to make.,
them a battle-grounds But liberty of worship was a
different matter, depending chiefly on political and
local considerations. The rites allowed, or even-
favoured, in Phrygia or Gaul could not be equally
tolerated elsewhere. In this matter the Eomans, like
most great imperial administrators, were opportunists.
In Jerusalem they protected the worship of Jehovah ;
the Eoman who passed within the portals of the
temple waa put to death. In Epheaua they were
equally ready in the interests of Artemis to crucify
the Jew. Political expediency rather than abstract
theory lay at the root of their system of toleration,
' See infra p. 80, n.

76 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
or rather protection, of local deities. For the same
administrative reasons Eome, the centre of the world,
the great meeting-place of all nations and ages, the
fountain of honour, welcomed within her borders,
under certain restrictions, the deities of all her subject
nationa. Whatever he might think in his heart, in
his public utterance the Eoman was not guilty of the
scornful folly of a Sennacherib. The wrath of a
Cambyses pouring itself out in the destruction of the
embalmed bulls and shrines of Egypt did not aeem
to him the best model for attaching Egypt to the
imperial city ; ' nor would the nations love Eome the
more if the stranger visiting the capital should find
himself cut off from the rites with which he was
familiar. But it was all a matter of political ex
pediency and administrative fitness ; toleration as a
philosophical theory never entered Eoman thoughts.^
For this very reason we must not forget that the
toleration of Eome was always less complete than is
sometimes claimed. Especially was this the case in
the early Eepublic. From Livy's account of the
Bacchanalian scandal in b.o. 188, we see the sternness
with which the executive put down all religious
associations that tended to become a danger to the
State or to morals,^ while even in later and looser
days no new worship was allowed to be introduced
'except by decree of the Emperor ratified by the
Senate.' ' But this last was the very thing that for
' Assuming, for the argument, the truth of the tales of Herodotus.
' Livy xxxix 8 ff. On Roman toleration the reader should consult
Hardy o.c. c. 1.
' Tert, Apol. 5, 13. Cf, also the " Law of the XII, Tables " in Cie.

CAESAR OR CHRIST 77
Christianity, as for Judaism before it, was an impossi
bility. Christ could not be one among many; His
claims rested upon higher grounds than senatorial
allowance. Furthermore, even when a religion was
tolerated, Roman citizens, in theory at any rate,
might not participate in it, whatever was allowed to
the alien. For the Roman citizen whatever went
beyond the prescription of ancestral worship fell
under the definition df ' superstition.' ' We have an
illustration of this in the case of the worship of the
Great Mother. Though formally adopted by the
Senate in b.c. 204, not for a century were Roman
citizens permitted to join its priesthood.^ In Egypt
Augustus revered the majesty of Isis ; but prohibited
the worship within a mile of the pomerium, the sacred
centre of Rome.'
Thus when political considerations demanded the
Romans crushed out remorselessly religion or rites
which seemed to them to stand in their way. We,
have an illustration of this in the case of Druidism.
The political power of this religion, the resistance to
Eoman rule that found a head in the priests, was
felt to be too great. Hence, though Augustus had
tolerated the faith, steps were taken by Tiberius
de Leg. ii 9. ' Separatim nemo habessit deos neve novos neve advenag
nisi publico adscitos ; privatim colunto, quos rite a patribus (cultos
a^ceperint).' See Huschke Jurisprudentiae Antejustinianae for a
convenient text of these XII Tables.
' See Cio. de Nat. Deorum i 42, §,117 ; ii 28, § 70 ; and of. Tac.
Ann. ii 85, 5 ; xv 44, 4.
' Dill BSNA 548 ; Hardy o.c. 9-10.
" Gibbon i 32, n. See infra p. 81,

78 PERSECUTION IN THE EAELY CHDECH
and Claudius for suppressing the great annual
meeting of the Druids at the centre of their cult,
the hill of Chartres. As part of the same plan,
it was determined to occupy the Druid strongholds in
Britain. An excuse was found, if any were needed,
in the traffic in charms carried on by the priests, the
annual human sacrifices in great wickerwork pens,
and the healing of the sick by the flesh of the slain.
The result was seen in the rapid Eomaniz ation of
Celtic Gaul.'
Nor must we forget that the toleration of Eome,
such as it was, was nearer akin to contempt and
indifference. Now, the toleration which springs from
contempt is often intensely intolerant of one thing,
namely, of enthusiasm, using the word in a sense
better understood and disliked in the eighteenth
century than to-day. 'What a fool you are,' said
Maximus the judge to the veteran Julius, ' to make
more of a crucified man than of living emperors ' ;
nor would his contempt be lessened by the answer of
Julius : ' He died for our sins that He might give us
eternal life.' ^ ' Sacrifice and live, then,' retorted
Maximus. 'If I choose life,' replied the veteran,
' Mommsen PBE ilOi-e, 173; Suet. aaud. 25.
..- ' Ruinart AM 550. A better text of this interesting trial will be
ifound in Anal. Boll, x (1891)50ff,, or Harnack ilfC119-21. The date
is unknown, probably the persecution of Diocletian ; but the docu
ment is certainly pre-Constantine. Possibly this is the Julius who
suffered at Dorostorum in Moesia on May 27th, year unknown, whose
record is in the old martyrologies of Ado and Notker. But see
Harnack OAL ii 477 n. The date in DCB iii 533 (14) as under
Alex. Severus seems to me most improbable. (Cf. opening words
' tempore persQCutionis ' with infra pp. 238-9.)

CAESAR OR CHRIST 79
' I choose death ; if I die, I live for ever.' At this
Maximus, who hitherto had been most anxious to
save so old a soldier, lost his temper. He would feel
that in sentencing the man to death he was ridding
the earth of a madman. We see this contempt of
enthusiasm breaking out time after time; in tbe
sneers of Pilate and Agrippa,' in the satires of
Lucian, and in the acta and sayings of magistrates
and governors for nearly three centuries.
The idea of toleration may therefore be dismissed.
The whole conception was yet unborn ; many centuries
would elapse before it should arise. Nor was tolera
tion, when it came, due to the influence or example
of the Church. The so-called toleration of Eome was
founded in reality upon political expediency. But
a toleration founded on political expediency must
always at some point or other, if only it is logical,
become intolerant. From the utilitarian standpoint
the policy of a Pobiedonoataeff has much to plead on
its own behalf. Expediency demands, for the sake of
unity, that the Stundists or Old Believers be crushed
out, though at the same time the heathenism of the
tribes that dwell on the barren tundras of Siberia
may receive recognition, at any rate for the nonce.
So in Eome. A wise recognition of local usages was
one thing, provided always that the interests of the
State were duly conserved ; a toleration founded upon
the claims of conscience and the rights of the in
dividual soul was a matter too absurd even for
philosophers to discuss. .,
' John xviii 38 ; Acts xxvi 28.

80 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
The reader will not fail to notice one result.
Toleration was a local matter, if only for the
simple reason that polytheism waa essentially a
local matter. Each god had his rights, within
certain areas ; but each god must be careful to
respect the rights of his neighbour. To ignore this
rule would lead to chaos, or rather the end of
the whole system. A universal faith, provided it
makes any real demands on its devotees, must
come into conflict with polytheism. The claims of
the local and of the universal cannot be conciliated.
We see this in later days in the case of Muhammad.
The same thing was illustrated even more abundantly
in the rise of the Church. The Christians were not^
persecuted because of their creed, but because of their
universal claims. For monotheism, viewed merely as a
philosophy, the Eomans had some sympathy. But a
monotheism which refused to allow place for others
must be brushed aside as a political nuisance or
' atheistic ' monster.' This universality of claim, this
aggressiveness of temper, this consciousness from the
' A good illustration of this is the rivalry between the worship of
Aesculapius and Jesus. Both had the title Sairiip (' Saviour,' or
' Healer '), both proclaimed a " gospel of the Saviour," i.e. healer.
Hence the special hatred of Christian writers for Aesculapius. See
Hamack EC i o. 2, espec. i 146, n. See also the story of the five
sculptors, infra p, 136 ; and add, possibly, Apoc. ii 13 (on which see
infra p. 97). A statue of 'Aesculapius the Saviour ' at Paneas (Caesarea
Philippi), with the usual curative plant upon it as a symbol, was
mistaken by Eusebius (HEyii 18) for a statue of Jesus erected by the
woman with the issue of blood. For Aesculapius see also Pater
Marims the Epicurean c, 3, Dill BSNA 459-60. See Also Ramsay CBP
i 52, 104, 138, 262-4, 348 for his influence in Phrygia. Students
will remember the last words of Socrates.

CAESAR OR CHRIST 81
first of world-wide dominion — in a word, all that in
later days was summed up in the title of Catholic —
was the inevitable cause of Eoman persecution^
Neither the Church nor the Empire could act other
wise save by running contrary to their true genius.
The failure to understand this essential opposition
lies at the root of the constant complaints of Christian
apologists as to the different treatment measured out
to them and * to the men who worship trees and rivers
and mice and cats and crocodiles.' '

We have referred already to the toleration by the
State of the worship of lais and Mithra.^ On deeper
examination the contradiction between this toleration
and the persecution of Christianity disappears ; their
history, in fact, is seen to run on somewhat parallel
lines, and to afford illustration rather than contra
diction. The worship of Isis ' won its way to recog
nition in the face of fierce opposition; its story is
' Justin I Apol. i 24 ; Athenag. Suppl. 1, 14.
' Por Mithraism the standard work is Cumont, Textes et Monu
ments figmes relatifs aux mysteres de Mithra (Brussels, 1899). The
reader may content himself with The Mysteries of Mithra (Chicago,
1903, a translation by T. J. McCormack of Cumont's Introduction).
For a sunomary of Cumont see also DUI BSNA 586-626, or my article
in the London Quarterly Beview, Oct. 1905.
' See Gibbon i 32, n., corrected by Bury ; Hardy o.e. 14-15 ; West
cott CAW 245-6, who all give the lod classici. On Isis the student
may read with advantage Dill BSNA 560-85 ; or the exhaustive work
of Lafaye Hist, du Culte des Divinites d'Alexandrie hors de VEgypte,
Paris 1884. a

82 PERSECUTION IN THE EAELY CHURCH
the story of a popular religious movement of Eastern
origin in perpetual conflict with Eoman conservatism.
Time after time the temples of Isis were destroyed,
only to be re-erected on a larger scale by popular
enthusiasm and the growing cosmopolitanism. Slaves
and freedmen, especially those from Egypt, were the
apoatlea of the new faith long before it became
faahionable in higher circles. Not until the latter
years of the first century of our era did Isis succeed
in obtaining the aanction and worship of the bureau
cracy itself.
Even more valuable as an illustration both in its
arguments and differences is the case of Mithraism,
the greatest rival which Christianity ever had to face.'
In some respects Christianity and Mithraism were
curioualy alike. Both religions were of Eastern origin.
Both religions had entered Europe much about the
same time, with the advantage of a few years in favour
of Mithraism. Both religions poaaessed a strongly
developed ecclesiastical organization, and emphasized
the value of mysteries or sacraments, these last in
some of their details strangely similar. Both religions
were treated with scorn and indifference by the
historians, poets, and philosophers of the Empire.
The worship of Mithra waa one of the oldest cults
of the Aryan race, in ita origin identical with the
worship of the sun. Adopted by the Persians, Mithra
* It is of interest to note that Christianity owes to Mithraism the
names of tbe days, Sunday included, and also probably the date of
Christmas Day, originally the ' Natalis Invicti ' i.e. of Mithra (Cumont
i 299, 342, with which cf. Dio, Cass, xxxvii 18). ' Sunday' is flrst used
by Justin I Apol. 67. Por its Mithraic origin see Orig. Oels. vi 22.

CAESAR OR CHEIST 83
found a place in the Zoroastrian system, occupying a
middle place between Ormuzd, who dwelt in eternal
light, and Ahriman, whose sphere was darkness. In
time Mithra became regarded as the viceroy on earth
of the supreme deity, whose serene bliss no mortal
cares could disturb. As his viceroy, Mithra was ' the
Saviour,' the head of the celestial armies in their
ceaseless combat with the Spirit of Darkness. IKs
' invincible ' might — the adjective is almost an in
separable — causes Ahriman himself in the depth of
heU to tremble with fear. It is as the ' Saviour,' the
conqueror of Ahriman, that we see Mithra represented
in a thousand inscriptions from Scotland to Egypt,
with his sword buried in the neck of a bull.
In Europe the growth of Mithraism, almost con
temporary with that of Christianity, seems to have
run pretty much the same course, reaching its climax
in the third century. We find its first home in the
seaports ; ita earliest devotees were aliens and Syrian
slaves. Thus in Ostia, the port of Eome, there were
at least four shrines of Mithra. In Eome, the caravan
sary of the Empire, Mithraism reared a temple in the
sacred Capitol itself. But a more interesting evidence
of its strength lies in the fact revealed by de Eossi,
that the oldest Church of St. Clement, the crypt of
the present building (originally in all probability an
early Christian chapel of the aristocratic family
which in the year 96 gave Domitillaand her husband,
the consul, to the Church'), seems at a later date to
have lapsed into a Mithraic shrine. The well-known
' See infra pp. 204-6.

84 PEESECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
bas-reliefs of Mithra in his birth from the rock may
still be seen cut in its walls.'
Mithra possessed one potent missionary agency
which Christianity lacked. The stronghold of the
former creed lay in the army. Not without good reason
was the name of milites given to a certain grade of its
initiates. In the second and third centuries the rank
and file of the regular legions of the Eoman army
were for the most part stationary (stationarii). They
were not liable for service, save in their own native
province. But the centurions were always on the
move, as were also the foreign auxiliaries of Eastern
origin, with whom the cult of Mithraism originated.
As they were quartered here and there throughout
the world, centurions and auxiliaries erected their
temples and devotional tablets, and spread abroad
the gospel of their 'invincible Saviour.' From
the army the worship was carried to the Court
and the educated classes. Throughout the third
century Mithra had his chaplains in the palace of
Caesar. Commodus was enrolled among his adepts ;
Diocletian and Galerius, the great enemies of Christi
anity, dedicated to Mithra many temples ; while
Aurelian and Julian the Apostate sought to make
Mithraism, or a variation thereof, the official cult.
The Court, in fact, found in its doctrines that support
for the autocracy which Christianity, as we shall see,
refused to give. But the worship was by no means
confined to the army and Court. Mithra possessed a
second line of missionaries in the slaves of Eastern
' Cumont Tifii 203-4.

CAESAR OR CHRIST 85
origin, the commonest article on the slave markets of
Europe, who carried its cult to the obscurest corners
of the Empire. An inscription at Nersae, in the
heart of the Apenninea, recounta how a alave, who
had worked hia way up into the position of treasurer
of the town, in the year 172 restored the temple of
Mithra, one only of many evidences of the activity of
these servile missionaries.
With thia introduction we may now face the
question : How was it that of the two religions the
one was persecuted, the other tolerated ? The answer
is most pertinent to our theme. Mithraism escaped
persecution by taking refuge from ita earliest days
under the shelter of a religio licita, the worship of the
Great Mother, with which it had many points of con
tact.' Christianity, on the other hand, waa not only
driven out from the shelter of Judaism, but the Jews
became its deadliest foes. Mithraism, moreover, early
took advantage of the privileges afforded by enrolling
its congregationa as members of funerary societies.
But the third reason is the most important. The
worships of Isis and Mithra were by no means local
cults ; they too aspired to world-wide homage. But
their strength lay in their power of absorbing and
assimilating the best elements in surrounding pagan
ism. They were willing not only to live and let live,
but to take up and make part of themselves what
ever feature of local religion, Christianity included,^
' This legalized association is an inference from the adoption by
Mithraism of the taurobolium. See infra p. 160.
- It is difficult to say to what extent Mithraism borrowed its

86 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
seemed especially popular or serviceable. 'Et ipse
pileatus, Christianus est ' — ' That man with the
Mithraic cap is a Christian,' said a priest of Mithra
to St. Augustine,' who shrank back in horror from thia
attempt to identify his faith with this ' devil's imita
tion.' The Mithraic priest knew what he was about.
The strength of Mithra and Isis lay in the current^
syncretism, that tendency to find unity and identity
amid the multitudinous details of polytheism, the
most familiar example of which is the identification, '
of the gods of Greece and Eome. But for Chriatianit^
this compromise with other faiths, this syncretism,
practical or philosophic, was an impossibility, at any
rate in its earlier and purer days.^ With sublime
audacity the followers of Jesus proclaimed that Christ
must be all and in all. Once more we come back by
a different route to the same cause of persecution, the
essential absoluteness of the Christian faith. Christi
anity emblazoned on its banners its loathing and
disdain for the cults around : ' We know that no idol
is anything in the world, and that there is no God
but one.' And the Christiana demonstrated their con
victions by the logic of the rack and the stake. We
to-day, who suffer from the curse of a compromise with
the world which gnaws at the heart of the Church,
could not wish it otherwise. An accommodated
Christianity would never have conquered the world.
similarities (sacraments, &c,) from Chiistianity. The question is fully
discussed in Cumont TM i 338 ff.
' In Joh. evang. tract. ; Migne FL xxxv p. 1440.
' Many practices in the Roman Catholic Church are due to
syncretism.

CAESAR OR CHRIST 87
Nor must we overlook in this connexion a factor
of great importance. The advent of Christianity''
coincided with a great spiritual movement in the
heathen world,' which showed itself, not merely in the
rapid spread of the newer cults, the worship of Isis,
Mithra, and the like, but in the revival of belief in
the older faiths and forma ; above all in th% growth
throughout Europe of a social conscience. We see^
this awakened spiritual life in the guilds and charities,
the constant efforts to extend and endow education,
to found orphanagea and hospitals, to emancipate
women, and to rescue the slave from the unlimited
power of his lord, which form the nobler features of
the legislation of the Antoninea, sad persecutors
though they were of the Church of Jesus. That this
upward movement of thought and creed, of which
Mithraism was the best expression, undoubtedly
helped the ultimate triumph of Christianity seems to
us a certainty ; nay, who shall say that this upward
movement was not the work of the Spirit fulfilling
Himself in diverse ways ? But ita first effects were
far otherwise. During the later years of the Eepublic
the old religion had. almost fallen into decay ; scores
of temples were abandoned, priesthooda unfilled, the
very names of the gods, aa Varro tells us, recalled
with difficulty.^ For political reasons the Empire se^
itself, as we have already seen,' to the revival of the,
neglected religion, the rehabilitation of the ancient
sacred colleges of Eome. The antique ritual of the
» On this see Dill BSNA iii o. 3 and iv.
' Dio. Cass. liv. 36; Suet. Oetav. 30. ' Cf. infra p. 203.

88 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Arval brotherhood was made a potent support of the
imperial power; the worship of Jupiter received at
the hands of philosophers a new meaning and
strength ; while the secular games in honour of Dis
and Proserpine were revived and celebrated with a
wealth and magnificence which baffles description,
Horace himself writing a notable hymn for the
occasion. With all this revival of old religions and
belief Christianity, in the nature of things, was bound
to come into conflict. By a correct instinct paganisms
of all sorts discerned in the infant Church their only
rival. So, while the new Hercules was yet in the
cradle, they sent their snakes to kill him. But
Hercules lived to cleanse out the Augean stalls.

VI
We may approach this argument, with the same
result, from another direction. Eeligion to the
Eoman was chiefly a matter of patriotism. The
ecstatic emotions that we are accustomed to aaaociate
.with the idea, the spiritual elevation, the recognition
in divers forma of the unaeen world and its claims,
for him had little, if any, existence. But of one thing
he was certain : no one could be a patriot who did noT
show due honour to the national gods. To refuse to -
do this was to bring upon oneself the charge of
'atheism' or 'sacrilege.' Belief or unbelief, corre
spondence between act and conviction, was beside the
mark ; as regards this the gods could defend them
selves. As the schoolman would have phrased it, the

CAESAR OR CHRIST 89
sole concern of the State was with the opus operatum,
the adequate discharge of the formal duty. The rest
scarcely counted : " the various modes of worship
which prevailed in the Eoman world were all con
sidered by the people as equally true ; by the philo
sopher as equally false; and by the magistrates as
equally useful." '
Whatever the other truth that may underlie this
eneer of Gibbon, the last clause ia correct. To the'
Eoman magistrate religious recusancy was practically
tantamount to political disaffection. ' The introduc
tion of strange divinities,' said Maecenas to Augustus,
' visit at once with hatred and chastisement ... for
from this cause conspiracies and combinations and
secret conspiracies are formed which are by no means
expedient for a monarchy.'^ The whole speech is
probably imaginary ; none the less, Augustus acted in
the spirit of the advice, while his successors, with
few exceptions, identified themselvea with his policy.
They recognized that a wise conservatism in matters
religious tended to the stability of the body political.
One great exception they made. They left the local
gods their rights, but established alongside of their
worahip a new imperial religion to serve, in the words
of Mommsen, as " the spiritual symbol of the political
union." The claima of thia new religion, the nature
of which we shall later explain, they insisted should
be acknowledged universally. The only exception
they made was the Jews.'
' Gibbon i 28. » Dio. Cass.- lii 36. See infra p. 239.
' Dig. 1 1, 3, 3. See also Infra p. 109 n. 4.

90 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Now it waa precisely this religious recusancy,
between which and rebellion the Eoman judge could
see but little difference, that Christianity demanded
from all. The Church spurned the claimslboth of the
local gods and of the new religion, the foundation and
symbol of the Empire. " The foundation was sapped,
the symbol rejected by the Christiana, and by the
Christians first and alone." ' To the Eoman governor
it waa the Christian, not himself, that was intolerant.
Whether or not Christians worshipped a crucified ass,
as popular rumour had it, was a matter of profound
indifference to the governor, provided only the Chris
tian would take his part as a citizen in discharg
ing the dues of the national gods, or at least allow
others to do so without his interference. Said the
Prefect of Alexandria to Dionysius, its bishop, whom he
was anxioua to save from the lions, ' What prevents
you from worshipping this one god of youra, together
with those that are the natural (sic) gods?' 'We
worship,' was the reply, 'no other.' ^ It was thia abaoX
luteness of the Christian faith, this intolerance of
others, as the Eomans considered it, that led to its
being charged with anarchism because of ita neces
sarily dissolvent effects on both the current religions
and the political unity. For this anarchism on ita
religioua side the Eomans had a special name. They '
called it sacrilege, or atheism.' / <r
' Mommsen Expos. 1893, viii 3. Harnack ,BOii 117|exaggerates
- this into the sole ground of persecution. On this see supra p. 54.
2 Euseb. HE vii 11.
' It was the ' crimen laesae Romanae religionis!' (Tert. Apol. 24),

CAESAR OR CHRIST 91
From his own standpoint the Roman was right.
The Christians were ' atheists ' (aOioi, " men without
gods "), who proclaimed loudly that the gods — radiant
Apollo, ' the Saviour ' Aesculapius, even Jupiter
Capitolinus himself — were but malignant ' demons '
ensconced behind wood and stone ; the imps of Satan,
who had thua introduced the worahip of themaelves
in order, to quote Tertullian, 'that they might
obtain their favourite food of flesh fumes and blood.' '
from which, unlike the Jews, the Christians were not absolved (Modes
tinus ap. Dig. xlviii 13, 4). For the charge of ' atheism ' against the
Christians, see Justin I Apol. 5 ; 6 ; 13 ; Mart. Polyc. 3 ; 9 ; Athenag.
Suppl. 3 ; 4 ; 30 ; Clem. Alex. Strom, vii 1.
aBeSrris, ' atheism,' would seem to be a translation of saorilegium
(Tert. Apol. 2, ' nomen sacrilegium ' ; 10 ; Neumann BSK 16 n. 4), the
more natural aae^eia being preoccupied by majestas (Ramsay ChE 260
n.). When Thekla was exhibited in the arena a tablet was placed on
her -with the inscription tV Up6av\ov, i.e. sacrilega (Gebhardt AMS
225). Technically, as Mommsen has pointed out, sacrilegium in law
was deflned as stealing from a temple (Dig. xlviii 13, 11, 1, which
explains Acts xix 37). But the mob were not lawyers, though
Tertullian (ad Bcap. 2) as a lawyer defends the Christians from the
charge by pointing to the legal definition.
Since the above was printed a complete study of ' Atheism ' has
appeared by Hamack TU (xiv) 4. I have not had the opportunity of
studying it.
' The following are the chief references to this idea that I have
met with : —
St. Paul I Cor. x 20, the fons et origo of the whole, on which, how
ever, see the valuable note in T. C. Edwards Ep. Cor. (1885) ; St. Paul
must not be held responsible for the later developments. Tertullian
Apol. 22 ff., a most important passage, de Spectao. 13. Justin M. I.
Apol. 5 ; 14 ; 25 ; 54. Origen Cels. iii 35, vii 69, et passim. (On the
whole, Origen's statement, as we might expect, is free from exaggera
tions.) Athenagoras Suppl. 25-6. Lactantius Instit. Div. ii; 14-19.
Minuc. Felix Oct. 27. Tatian ad Graeeos 7-18. Augustine de^ Civ.
Dei viii 28. 'These demons were the offspring of the angels in Gen. vi
2. See Justin II Apol. 5 ; Lactant. I.e. The student will notice the

92 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Other Christian writers and preachers were not
quite so 'atheistic' The gods, they aaid, were
ancient kinga who in timea prehistoric obtained
Apotheosis.' But thia more charitable view waa held
by few. The science of comparative religion was yet
unborn. The majority held that it was a devil-ridden
world, whose temples and shrines, however majestic,
were among the works of darkness which Christ came
to destroy, and which His followers also must seek to
overturn, if neceasary, by physical force and outrage.^
With these hordes of hell there could be no com
promise : ' though there be that are called gods, yet
to us there is one God the Father, of whom are all
things, and we unto Him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom are all things and we through Him.' '
This was the foundation of the faith, the first article
of their creed. We can scarcely wonder that the
Eomans called such uncompromising monotheists by
the hard name of ' atheists.' The Christians, they
said, reduce our deities to devils. ' They despise the
temples as dead houses, they scorn the gods, they
absence from this list of Clement of Alexandria. This is only what
we might expect from that wise mediator of the old and new, whose
great idea was the preparation of the world for the coming of Christ.
Clement could not approve of the twist given by Christian theologians
to the elaborate theory of ' daemons ' of Plutarch and Maximus of Tyre.
' Athenag. Suppl. 28 ff,, who gives the example of Antinous (infra
p, 98), So also Pseudo-Cyprian Quod idola dii non sint 1 ff,, who, in
cc. 6, 7, falls back on the first theory. So by exception Tert. ad Nat.
ii 12 ff. Minuc. Felix Oct. 20-1. Aristides Apol. 13 holds for the
most part the myth theory, ' some are hymns and songs.' See also
Augustine Civ. Dei. vii 18.
' For the outrages of Christians on heathen temples see infra p. 162.
' I Cm: viii 5.

CAESAR OR CHRIST 93
mock sacred things.' ' To this charge there was no
possible answer, inasmuch as it was true ; the glory
and danger of the Christian faith.
There was another way, of lesser importance, in
which the Christians seemed to be ' atheists.' Strange
as it seems to us to-day, Christian monotheism did
not altogether appeal to some thinkers. The pagan
Caecilius complains that the Christians made the
heavens a wilderneaa and aolitude with their ' one
god, lonely and forsaken ' — ' deus unicus, aolitarius,
destitutus ' — ^the unutterable isolation and aloofness
of whose position in heaven was fitly represented by
his service on earth, ' who has neither templea, altars,
victims, nor ceremonies.' ^ To the Greek mind this
' lonely heaven ' seemed an ' atheistic ' impossibility.'
Polytheism, it is true, in the sense of a number of
gods of equal power, was a discarded theory. As
Plutarch and Maximus of Tyre are ever insisting,
there must be one god supreme above all others.
But this did not prevent belief in the existence of
lesser deities, " mediatiaed goda," as Dr. Bigg" calls
them, borrowing a figure from the relation in the
German Empire of the lesser kings to the Emperor.
All thia hierarchy, with the underlying conception of
the ' monarchy ' of one god, Christianity swept away.
' See the pagan Caecilius in Minuc. Felix Oct. 8.
' Minuc. Felix Oct. cc. 8, 10.
' So, for that matter, is it to the Christian, as we see from the rapid
acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity, and the wide belief in
innumerable angels, &c. This last let in polytheism into the Church
by a back door. Cf. Harnack EC i 291 n., and the dangerous tendency
in Justin I Apol. 6.

94 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
' The heathen,' writes Tertullian, ' hurl in our teeth
that we preach two gods or three goda . . . We, say
they, maintain the monarchy.' ' Some maintained
the ' monarchy ' by means of a theory of ' daemons,'
partly human and part divine, which degenerated
with the vulgar into the wildest pantheiam.*^ Others,
for instance Porphyry, reasoned more boldly still
against the Christian conception :
' Let us proceed to enquire explicitly about the monarchy of the
one God, and the joint-rule of those deities who are worshipped. . . .
A monarch is not one who is alone, but one who rules alone over sub
jects of kindred nature with himself; as the Emperor Hadrian for
instance, who was a monarch, not because he stood alone, or because he
ruled cattle or sheep, but because he was king over human beings of
like nature with his own.' '
To men of this way of thinking Christianity was
bound to aeem a choice between tritheism and ' athe
ism.' For the most part they chose the latter.

VII
The religious system of the Empire was thus^
built upon a foundation of liberty for local cults, a
very different thing from toleration of a Catholic
Church. Within certain limits the stranger might
carry his worship and ritual with him when he moved
to another portion of the Eoman world. But to
' Tert. ad Prax. 3.
' Por Plutarch's 'daemons' see Dill BSNA 425-40; and cf Bige
CTBE72-Q. ' Porphyry in Macarius Magnes Apocritica iv 20. Quoted at
length in Harnack EC i 37 n.

^

CAESAR OR CHRIST 95
obtain this freedom he must be willing to live and let
live, and to abstain, if needful, from proselytizing
zeal. All was local, and yet at the same time all was
universal. For Augustus, the better to work out
those ideas of univeral citizenship, equality, and
government for which the Empire stood, had found
it necessary to institute, or rather develop,' through
out the Empire, a common religion to give a unity tp
provinces otherwise diverse in creed, language, an3
custom. This was the beginning of a universal
church with a priesthood,^ sacrifices, and temples of
its own, in conception and aim very similar and yet
very different from the Catholic Church with which
it waa destined to come into conflict. But, such as it
was, the worship of Rome and Augustus undoubtedly
supplied something, which the local polytheisms had
failed to give, a common religious link holding
together the innumerable races and creeds of a
dominion that stretched from the Irish Sea to the
Euphrates. In connexion with this new worship
there grew up a system of festivals and games, the
conduct and cost of which fell to the lot of the
president of the provincial diet' (in Asia called
Asiarch, in Galatia the Galatarch, and so on),*
' The tendency was in existence in the Republic. See the able
paper of Professor FiJdes, TAe Beginnings of Caesar Worship, in the
Owens College Historical Essays (1902), pp. 1-16.
' Sodales Augustales (Marquardt Bdm. Staatsverwalt. iii 463).
' Commune, or To Komby.
* Ramsay CBP i 76 differs from Mommsen in holding that the
high priests of the municipal cults of the emperors held these shows
as well as the Asiarchs. If so, the more opportunities of persecution
would arise (see infra p. 102, n.).

96 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
though in many places endowments for the purpose
were soon provided by the zeal of individual citizens
or towns.' The worship of Rome and Augustus speedily
became a fixed part of the imperial economy in the
development of which the aervile cities of Asia vied with
each other.^ Domitian took the matter so seriously,
' In Asia the chief priest of the new religion was generally, in
later times invariably, the Asiarch, who appears to have been elected
for a period of five years, and to have retained the title after laying
down the office, thus forming a Council (Acts xix 31 ; see also Ramsay
CBP i 465). The games were named after him. The Asiarch had not
merely the oversight of the worship of Caesar and its annual festival,
but a superintendence over religious matters in general, with full
military forces at his disposal (Euseb. HE viii 14, 9.) This will
explain the constant references to him and his brethren (Galatarch,
&c.) in the various Acts of martys. The famous letter of Julian to
the Galatarch (Ep. 49) gives a clear view of his obligations at a time
when heathenism was collapsing. See on his position Mommsen
PBE i 345-9; Lightf. Ign. iii 407-11; and for a slightly different
view, Ramsay DB s.v. Hardy (o.c. infra) considers the appointment
was but for one year.
In Gaul the annual festival first instituted by Drusus in b.o. 12
was held at Lyons on the 1st of August, under the lead of ' the priest
of the three Gauls,' who does not seem ever to have borne the title of
Galatarch. The festival was held at the same time as the Diet of the
64 cantons of the three Gauls, whose powers of local government
extended even to the appointment of taxes. In Britain the seat of
the diet, guch as it was, and the chief altar of Caesar, was probably at
Colchester. For Germany, the cantons of which were never unified,
as those of Gaul, under one diet, the chief altar of Caesar was at
Cologne. The Diet of Achaia met at Argos, and on one occasion
dedicated statues of Trajan and Hadilan at Olympia. The church
of Ainay at Lyons is founded on the-site of the old altar of Augustus.
(See Hardy, " Provincial Concilia from Augustus to Diocletian," in
Eng. Hist. Bev. April, 1890, for a good summary of what is known on
the matter; see also Momm. PBEi 92-8, 117-8, 191 n., 264 n.)
^ See a good note by Westcott ChW 261-2. Better still, Ramsay
CBP passim.

CAESAR OR CHRIST 97
that he ordered all official proclamations to begin
with formulae recognizing his deity.' In Asia the
temple of Eome and Augustus was first erected in
B.C. 29 at Pergamum,^ the official capital of the
province, ' where the throne of Satan is.' ' The writer
of the Apocalypse has handed down to us the name
of one brave Christian, Antipas,* who suffered death
there rather than join in the worship of ' the Beast.'
With the decay of Pergamum the great city of
Smyrna, the home of Polycarp, became the head
centre of the new cult.^ Within a few years all the
chief places of judicial circuit in Asia had their
temples to Caesar, and their festivals in his honour.^
Their proudest boast was the confirmation upon them
by the diet of the province of the title of ' Keeper of
the Imperial Temple.'' On the death of Tiberius
' ' Dominus et deus noster hoc fieri jubet.' Suet. Dom. 13. Cf.
Westcott ChW 255, n, 2 ; Conybeare MEC 105 ; and for similar coins
of Aurelian, 'domino et deo' Le Blant SAM 126, With Aurelian
this was a step in the transformation of the Prinoipate into absolutism
(Bury's Gibbon i 382 n.)
2 Tac. Ann. iv 37 ; and Pumeaux's note, i6, i 197.
' But Pergamum was also the chief seat of the worship of Aescu
lapius (Momm. PBE i 350 ; Ramsay 80 125), and it is possible, though
less likely, that the reference is to this,
* Apoc. ii 13, cf. xiii 8, 15 ; Ramsay 80 294,
* According to Tac, Ann. iv cc. 56, 15, Smyrna was the first to erect
a, temple to Rome (b.o. 195), But not untU b.o, 23 did it erect a
temple to Tiberius. For the ' theologians,' ' choristers ' (hymnodoi),
and special privileges of Smyrna as the head centre of Caesar worship,
see Lightf, Ign. i 451, Ramsay OBF i 630-1, 646, points out their
existence elsewhere.
» In view of Apoc. i-iii the list is of interest : Smyrna, Ephesus
Pergamum, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, and Oyzicus. (Ramsay
CBP i 55 ; and on Cyzicus, Mommsen PBE i 348,)
' vemK6pos : see Mommsen PBE i 346 n. ; Ligl^Jjf, Ign. iii 405-6
H

98 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
eleven cities of Asia struggled for the honour of
erecting a temple to hia memory. From Aaia the
worship spread to every province of the Empire.
There was a temple to Claudius erected at Colchester
during his lifetime, the costly ritual of which was
one of the causes of Boudicca's revolt.' In the West
the new religion was little more than a matter of
magnificent patriotic ceremonial. But in the East
there existed " a tendency to give reality to thia
imperial cult by identifying the divine Emperor with
the local god, whatever form the latter had." ^
This apotheosia was not limited to the reigning
Caesar, but was extended to hia family and favourites.
Coins still exist testifying to the deification of no lesff
than forty-eight members of the imperial families,
including the shameless Faustina.' The worst case
of all was the consecration by Hadrian of his vicious
favourite — the word is a euphemism — Antinoiis,
after his mysterious death in the Nile. ' All men,'
saya Justin, ' were eager through fear to reverence
him as a god, though they knew who he was and
whence he had sprung.' * " Hia statues rose in
Ramsay 80 232, 259 ; and for the meaning of the Neooorate, Ramsay
CBP i 58-9.
' Tac. Ann. xiv 31 ; Momm. PBEi 192-2,
2 Ramsay 80 123, 231 ; CBP i 54.
' Westcott ChW 263, 266. Poppaea, the wife of Nero, was
worshipped at Akmonia as ' Imperial Fertility ' (Ramsay CBP i 637-40,
who points out the part in this cult played by the Jews). For the
apotheosis of the elder Faustina see plate in Duruy HB v 168, and
of the younger ib. v 208.
' Justin I Apol. 29. Cf. Athenag. 8uppl. 30 ; ' Antinoiis, through
the benevolence of your ancestors, came to be regarded as a god,'

CAESAR OR CHRIST 99
every market-place; his soul was supposed to have
found a home in a new star in the region of the
Milky Way ; temples were built in his honour, and the
strange cult was maintained for at least one hundred
years after any motive could be found for adulation."
The obelisk now on Monte Pincio at Eome was
dedicated to his memory; in Egypt a town called
Besantinopolis made him their special deity, while at
Lanuvium, the burial-club of the place — whose rules
by rare fortune we still possess — combined their
other functions with the worship of Antinoiis and
Diana.' The Christians alone ^ stood out against this mark
of a theocratic despotism. Whatever the political
value of the new cult in the consolidation of the
Empire, they would never bow the knee to the
emperors, around whose heads, from the days of Nero
onwards, were gilded darting rays in token of their
divine solar ancestry. No patriotic words as to the
Orig. CeU. iii 36-8, viii 9; Hegesippus in Euseb, HE iv 8; Orac.
Sibyll. viii 57-8 (undoubtedly a Christian Sibyl), Tatian adv Grace
10, Theoph. ad Autolyc. iii 8, Tert. adv. Marc i 18, all testify to the
impression this produced on the Christians.
' Dill BSNA 478, 260-3, 277. According to Ramsay CBP i 309,
the town of Olbasa, in Phrygia, set up a statue to Vergil (dei
Maronis). I prefer with Mommsen to take it as the Thracian god
Maron; though after Antinoiis all things are possible. Any dead
person, even a slave, might, however, have a cult as a ^pas (Ramsay,
CBP i 384). This fact taken over into the Christian Church accounts
largely for saint-worship. The modern name of Lanuvium is CivitJi
Lavinia. ' For the action of the Jews , see infra p, 109, u. According to
Suet, Calig. 27, Caius put Romans to death for not swearing by his
genius.

100 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Genius of the Empire, no sophisms of the elder Pliny
that ' for a mortal to help mortals is the essence of
deity,' no philosophic subtleties about the divine life
of the State and its connexion with an unseen order,
could deceive the Christian into forgetting the degra
dation for God and man alike of this system of apo
theosis. He saw clearly the insult to God ; the putting
the Genius of the Empire in the place of Divine
Providence, the attributing to man prerogatives which
belong solely to the Almighty. He realized the
inevitable degradation of man from thus fixing the
worship of men upon one of themaelves, however
exalted. He knew that in all ages a man's viewa of
his god are the meaaures of his ideals for himself and
his neighbour. He was aware of all that could be
aaid in its favour ; that it was a symbol of unity, the
" keystone of the imperial policy," ' an incarnation of
the race's solidarity, the recognition of a divine
foundation for order and empire, and the like. Such
specious arguments did not move him. Por the Chris
tian there was but one Lord and Master, to whom
he owned supreme allegiance ; this he was prepared
to prove by the renunciation of all things, even life
itself. Por the Christian the unity of the race wa\
symbolized not by a Tiberius or a Marcus Aurelius,
but by the incarnation of Jesus Christ ; in the Man/
Christ Jesus alone was the hope of humanity. This
apotheosis of Jesus, to look at the matter for the
moment from the standpoint of the heathen philo
sopher, he claimed to be on a different footing to the
1 Ramsay ChE 324, Mommsen Expos. 1893, viii 2.

CAESAR OR CHRIST 101
apotheosis of Claudius or Vespasian. Putting on one
side all question of character, the one was the apotheo
sis of a supreme renunciation, the other the idolatry
of success. And there is nothing so fatal in the long
run to aU higher instincts and aspirations as the
idolatry of success, whether in the form of a second-
century emperor or a twentieth-century millionaire.
This imperial cult, because of its universal
character and obligations, thui furnished an eaay
touchstone whereby the Christians could be distin
guished ; a matter beyond the power of merely local
polytheisms. Moreover, it proved a useful means of
summary conviction. The alternative, " Caesar is
Lord" and " Christ is Lord," was in itself a judicial
process, only needing an altar and its usual emblems
to be complete. The Christian who refused this
sacrifice ' fell automatically under the charge of
majestas, i.e. of mortal insult or treason to the
Emperor,^ who represented in his own person the
majesty, wisdom, and beneficent power of Eome.
Nor was the peril slight. The Asiarch, Galatarch,
and other presidents of the diets, were armed with
ample powers for calling in the aid of the secular
arm against all who refused to take part in this
popular cult.
' The mie that every Christian should sacrifice was allowed by
Trajan (infra p. 210), insisted upon by Marcus Aurelius, and made a
formal edict by Decius. See Harnack's note in Conybeare MEC 36,
and cf. infra p. 244.
' Cf. Ulpian in Dig. xlviii 4, 1. Bt^t majestas, as Mommsen has
shown (see infra Appendix B), included dishonour to the national
gods. See also supra p. 14 n. 1.

102 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
We can thus see how it came to pass that the
annual festivals instituted in every province of the
Empire on the Emperor's name-day were generally
the occasions for the breaking out against the
Christians of the smouldering fires of hatred and
persecution. On these days the magistrates, even if
otherwise averse to cruelty, were not anxioua, for
political reasons, to restrain the people ^from their
exhibitions of loyalty. The festival of Caesar supplied
all that was needed ; vast crowds gathered together
from every city of the province ; the presence of the
official diets and of judges with power of summary
conviction, spurred on too by the sense of personal
affront to themselves as the high-priests of the new
ritual ; beasts of prey already procured for the games
— a most important point this, lions and tigers were
not always in stock — a frenzied jingoism on the part
of the mob, and an endeavour on the part of the Jews
to divert attention from themselves and their preju
dices to the hated Christian. Of thia connexion we
have an illustration in the martyrdom of Polycarp,
who was burned at Smyrna on Caesar's festival,
February 23, 165, 'in the consulship of Statins
Quadratus, but in the reign of the Eternal King.' '
' See infra p, 305 n,, and Lightf. Ign. i 714. The great outbreak
at Lyons (infra p, 295) furnishes another illustration (supra p. 96 n.).
So also the case of Thekla at Antioch (see infra p. 140 n, ; Gebhardt
AMS 224; Conybeare MEC 76, with Conybeare's note on p. 88).
Thekla the Phrygian was especially reserved for the approaching
games at Caesarea (Euseb. MP 3). Perpetua and her companions
were sacrificed on ' Geta's birthday ' (infra p. 314 n. 1). Compare
also the explanation given by Lightf, Ign. i 514 of the story of
Felicitas, Januarius, &c. (infra p, 320 n. 3).

CAESAR OR CHRIST 103
'In the reign of the Eternal King' — the phrase
occurs again and again in the records of the martyrs.
The instinct which led one Christian Church when
writing to another to describe itself as ' The Church
which has ita tranaitory home ' ' at Lyons or else
where, reveals itself again in this scorn of the temporal
sub specie aeternitatis. Martyrdom might be the
inevitable outcome, but after all it was a struggle
between the Emperor of a moment and the King of
endless ages, who had chosen for Himself the Crown
of Thorns and deigned to allow the meanest of His
subjects to don the royal insignia.
VIII
We must bring this chapter to a conclusion. But
the student should realize all that our argument
involves. For two hundred years the leaders among
the Christians were branded as ' anarchists ' and
' atheists,' and hated accordingly. Por two hundred
years — we take a broad survey, qualifications and
details have been pointed out, or will be dealt with
later — to become a Christian meant the great renun
ciation, the joining a despised and persecuted sect,
the swimming against the tide of popular prejudice,
the coming under the ban of the Empire, the possi
bility at any moment of imprisonment and death
' TlapoiKovvTes (irapoMia, hence 'parish') and not KaroMovvres,
Euseb. HE v (1) 3. Until the discovery of better MSS. of the
Martyrium Folycarpi (Geb. AMS 10), the phrase $aai\eiovros els rovs
aiSyas, 'iritraS Xpiffrov was supposed by some to be a mark of late date
in any Acta.

104 PERSECUTION IN THE EAELY CHUECH
under its most fearful forms.' For two hundred years
he that would follow Christ must count the cost, and
be prepared to pay the same with his liberty and
life. For two hundred years the mere profession of
Christianity was itself a crime. Christianus sum was,
almost the one plea for which there was no forgive
ness, in itself all that was necessary as a ' title ' on
the back of the condemned.^ He who made it was
allowed neither to present apology nor call in the aid
of a pleader. ' Public hatred,' writes Tertullian,
' asks but one thing, and that not investigation into
the crimes charged, but simply the confession of the
Christian Name.'
' In tbe case of any other criininal,' he continues, ' it is not enough
that he declare himself to bo a homicide, sacrilegious, incestuous, an
enemy to the State. Before you give sentence, judges, you enquire
vigorously into the circumstances, the nature of tbe deed, the time,
place, and manner of its commission, the witnesses and accomplices.
But in the trial of the Christians all this is dispensed with.' '
For the Name itself in periods of stress not a few
meant the rack, the blazing shirt of pitch, the lion,
the panther, or in the case of maidens an infamy
worse than death.
> Cf. Renan EO 316.
2 Case of Attains at Lyons, Euseb, HEy (1) 44; Gebhardt AMS
p. 37: irlyaKOs ahrov irpodyovros iv ^ eyeypanro ^Pufiaitrrl : ovt6s iffriv
"Arrahos i Xpi<rriav6s. See infra p. 295 n, 3 ; and supra p, 20.
' Tert. .4j3oZ, 2 ; ad Nat. 2, S; Justin IL .4yoJ. 2 ; I. Apol. i; Trypho
96 ; and for the first century I Pet. iv 15, 16. Illustrations abound in
the Acts of Martyrs, A famous case is that of Vettius Epagathus at
Lyons, See infra p. 296.

CHAPTER III
THE CAUSES OF HATEED
If ye were of the world, the world (6 K6ap.os) would love its own ;
but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth yon. — John xv 19.
So to the wild wolf Hate were sacrificed
The panting, huddled flock, whose crime was Christ,
William Watson.
Ah, for their faith 1
And I would splash the flames about my head
Gladly as in a bath for splendid death. Stephen Phillips.
I bid them look on you.
And see there what was the highest throne on earth —
The throne of suffering, where the Son of God
Endured and triumphed. C. Kingsley,

CONTENTS
§1, p,107, Judaism and Christianity — Its strength — Effect of the
destruction of the Temple— Popular hatred of the Jews — Their
numbers and influence — Hatred of Christians — ' Fontes perse-
cutionum'— Oouon — Jewish Christians— Pella — 'The relatives
of our Lord ' — Symeon.
§ II, p, 125. Popular superstition and Christianity — Belief in magic
— Demons— The Christian attitude — St. Augustine and St, Martin
— The Christian exorcists— Christians and magic — Christians
and the disasters of nature —Alexander of Abonutiohos — The
five sculptors of Sirmium.
§ III, p. 138. Christianity and the familia — ^Anti-social views— PauZ
and Thekla— PoWio — "Call no man father" — Dativus and
Victoria — Mixed marriages — Patria potestas — Callistus and
the marriage with freedmen of noble-born girls,
§ IV, p, 148. Christians and property — Slavery — Slaves as priests —
Ebionite conceptions — Maran Atha — Sibylline Oracles — Effect of
the preaching of retribution — 'The Crucified repels all glad
ness.'
§ V, p. 157. Christian sacraments — " Kiss of peace " — Charge of
cannibalism — The taurobolium — Apuleius — Christian aggression
— Leo of Patara — Romanus — Theodore the recruit.
§ VI, p,. 165. A peculiar people — A peculiar dialect — Early Puritans
— The via media — Ep. Diognetus — Christian names — The
Christian and business — The Christian and the schools — Cassian —
Converted actors — ^Providing work— The Christian and social life
— The Christian and ofiices in the State — The Christian and the
army — Marcellus — Dasius — Mithraism and the army — Militia
Christi — Maximilian of Theveste — " The Thundering Legion " 
' The third race.'
§ VII, p. 191, Dangerous politicians — Alarm of the State — Prayers
for Caesar — The great rivals — A summary — The Christian
doctrine of renunciation — ' The slaves of Christ,' Pp, 105-196,

Hitherto in our study of Persecution we have dealt
with the relations of the Church and the Empire in
their broadest outlines. We have seen that perse
cution was no accident, but the necessary resultant
of certain main principles in Christianity itself, which
brought the new faith into conflict with the outer
world. We have also noted that the state of conflict
was continuous, though persecution itself was inter
mittent. The fires of popular hatred were ever
smouldering, liable at any moment to break out into
sudden flame. A modern illustration will make our
meaning clearer. The Jews in Russia are not always
the victims of persecution, whether by the mob or
the police. Periods, long or short, may elapse of
comparative security, in which they suffer little save
the curses and scowls of their neighbours. But ever
and anon the fires blaze. So with the early Christians.
They lived under the shadow of a great hate. We
purpose in the present chapter to examine the reasons
for this hate. We shall first point out two permanent
causes of peraecution apart from all political or social
.queations. The one was the ill-will of the Jews, the
other the superstition of the heathen. We shall theif
inquire into the factors in the life or thought of the

108 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Church itself which brought upon it the suspicion
and hatred of the world.
One caution at the outset may not be needless.
For the economy of space, and that we may better
grasp the broad outlines of our subject, we are driven
to neglect, to some extent, the notes of time. But the
student should not forget that persecution stretched
over a period of two hundred and fifty years, and
that during this period there were many changes not
only in the Empire and other outer factors, but i^
the life of the Church. Nevertheless from the stand
point of the twentieth century the period forms a
unity in itself, in which for our immediate purpose we
may neglect without great loss the details of internal
change and development.
Judaism,' in spite of its aggressive monotheisnv
had been recognized as a religio licita by the astute
founder of the Empire, Julius Caesar, and endowed
by himself and his successors with many privileges.^,
Tiberius' and Claudius, it ia true, made efforts to
check the growth of the Jews in Rome itself. But
the attempt came too late,* and ended in renewed
' For the Roman treatment of Judaism the student should consult
Mommsen PBE ii 160-231 ; Schiirer JPC ii (2) ; or (concise) Hardy
0,0. c. 2. Gill Notice of the Jews by Classic Writers (2nd ed., 1872)
will be found of service. The chief sources are indicated in the notes.
' See the lists in Joseph. Ant. xiv 10, xvi 6.
' Tac. Ann. ii 85 ; Suet. Tib. 36; Joseph. Ant. xviii 3, 5.
-¦ Whether the expulsion of the Jews from Rome (Acts xviii 2)
was ever carried out is uncertain. According to Dio. Cass. Ix 6, only
their assemblies were prohibited, the expulsion proving impossible.
The date is uncertain, about 50. See Schurer JPC ii (2) 236-7 ;
DB S.V. Claudius ; DS v 98 ; Harnack EO i 6, u.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 109
and enlarged liberties. Not the least were the rights
of civil jurisdiction over their own, especially in the
East, constituting the Jews, as in the Middle Ages, a'"
state within the State.' With some reason the Jews x
claimed to be 'the second race' in the Empire.^ They.
alone, in spite of the outcries of literary swash
bucklers and more sober historians,' were exempt from*^
offering sacrifices to the fortunes of Caesar and Rome,*
nor were they, as the conquered tribes, under the"")
obligation of military service.® To these franchises
the destruction of Jerusalem made no difference ; if
anything, the loss of a local centre of intense nation
alism and possible danger made concession the
more easy. ^
The reader ahould beware lest he allow the fall of '
Jerusalem (Sept., 70) to lead him astray. Long
before the Christian era the great centres of the
Jewish race lay outside Palestine ; Alexandria was
of more importance than Jerusalem. Judaism in'"'
' Cf. their constitution at Alexandria described from Strabo in
Joseph. Ant. xiv (7) 2. See also Schiirer DB v 103 6. Origen ad
Afric. 14 (for the power of the patriarch in third century).
' See infra p. 190.
' Tac. Hist. V 5, ' non regibus haec adulatio, non Caesaribus honor.'
< Schurer JPO ii (2) 265-6; Joseph. Ant. xix (5) 2-3. The
attempt of Caius (a.d. 39) to enforce it was never repeated (Joseph.
Ant. xviii 8 ; BJ ii 10 ; Mommsen PBE ii 191-5). Relations were
often amicable between the two faiths. At Akmonia the high
priestess of Augustus built the Jews a synagogue, perhaps was a
Jewess herself (Ramsay CBP i 637-40, 649-50, see supra p, 98 n.).
At Alexandria they put ' inscriptions in honour of the emperors ' in
their synagogues (Philo in Flaccum 7, ad Gaium 20).
» Schiirer JPC ii (2) 264. See Joseph. Ant. xiv (10) 11-13, 16, 19,
25, for examples.

110 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
fact, under pressure from without, had slowly moulded
itself into a non-sacrificial, non-sacerdotal religion,
the bonds of which with the centre of the faith were
rather sentimental than real. The synagogue and
its ministry had become of more importance than
the priest. The destruction of Jerusalem was the
overthrow of a local sacrificial system, not the
impairing of the rejid influence or spiritual vitality of
Judaism.' The power of the Dispersion, great before,
was even increased by the abandonment of a centre
whose intense and scornful conservatism had grown
out of touch with the more progressive emigrant
communities. We might even claim, without ex- ^
aggeration, that the chief effect of the destruction of
the Temple was the destruction not of Judaism, but
of Jewish Christianity, the faith, that is, of St. James
and the Church at Pella. Its influence on Judaiam
at large was not great : the substitution of a patriarch
at Tiberias for the high-priest, of the schools of
the rabbis for the struggling cliques at Jerusalem.
Politically its effects were still less. In spite of
growing hatred on the one side, and growing exclu-
siveness ^ on the other, the Jewish religion continued
to be privileged by the State, the Jews paying to the
temple of Jupiter Capitolinus the two drachmae a
head which they had hitherto paid to Jerusalem.'
' Mommsen PBE ii 216-20, followed by Hardy o.c. 31, considers
that the Jews now ceased to be a privileged nation, and became only
a 'religio licita.' Against this see Schiirer DB v 102 (6), n. ; and
especially Harnack EO i 346-9.
' On this see Momm. PBE ii 207, 230-1.
» Joseph. .8/ vii (6) 6; Suet. Dom. 12; Orig. ad Afric. 14; Dio,

THB CAUSES OF HATRED 111
The Jews were too invaluable for the finances of an
Empire, impoveriahed by the excesses of Nero, to
allow the Flavians and Antoninea to yield to the
outcries of the mob, or the scorn of their Juvenals. .
The hatred felt for the Jews by the people at
large, and the protection afforded them by the rulers
for reasons of self-interest, form two of the most per
manent features of history, as true in the first century^
as in the England of Henry II. Tales innumerable
were told against them, full of poison and malice,
but eagerly believed by all classes of society. They
had been expelled from Egypt because of their
leprosy. In their Holy of Holies was found an ass's
head, a memorial, says Tacitus, of the salvation
wrought for them, when dying of thirst in the wilder
ness, by a herd of wild assea who led them to the
springs. Plutarch, however, rejects this idea ; he is
convinced that the Jews abstained from swine's flesh,
because the pig was their god. After thia we need
not wonder that Juvenal sneers at the land where
hogs never die except as the result of ripe old age ;
for swine's flesh ia more precious there than human
beings.' But what can you expect, men argued, from
Cass, ixvi 7. The more offensive features of the tax were relaxed by
Nerva (Schiirer JPC ii (2) 267, n. See also Mommsen PBE ii 217 ;
Lightf. Ign. i 11, n. ; Henderson Nero 348 ff.). The heathen Caecilius
(Minuc. Felix Oct. 8) speaks of the Jews as ' in bondage to the deities
of Rome.' The drawing away of money to Jerusalem to pay the old
Temple tax had always been a grievance with the Gentiles (Schiirer
JPC ii (2) 261). Cf. Cicero Pro Flacco 28 ; Joseph. Antiq. xvi (6)
4-7. 1 See Tac. Hist, v 2-5 ; Joseph. Ap. ii 7 ; Plutarch Symp. iv 5 ;
Juvenal Sat. vi 160, xiv. 96-106 (with the parallel passages In the

112 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
a people who spend every seventh day in idleness,
who despise Roman law and customs, who teach that
they are never to point out the way except to those
of their own faith, nor show the thirsty where to find
a well, unless he is circumcised. At Alexandria, two
of whose five districts were in the possession of the
Jews, it was believed that they annually offered a
Greek in sacrifice.' Had it not been for the protection
of the Roman officials, the Jews would have fared
badly at the hands of the people. The police, it is
true, generally came to their rescue, from motives of
policy. But the real feeling of the Romans was one
of utter contempt. ' 0 Marcomanni, 0 Quadi, 0
Sarmatians,' cried Marcus Aurelius, on the com
pletion of his journey through Palestine, ' at last I
have found a race more lazy than you.' ^ Every now^
and then, in spite of the police, the mob got the
upper hand, slaughtered the Jews and burnt their
houses.' Of this hatred, at any rate in the earliest
days, the Christians were the lineal heirs. But in
their case the Roman protection was withdrawn. /
edition of Pearson and Strong); Schiirer JPC ii (2) 293-7. Tert.
Apol. 16, ad Nat. i 11, points out that the tale of Tacitus was the
origin of the similar idea of the Christian's worship of a crucified ass.
For a copy of the well-known graffito of ' Alexamenos worships his
god' (a crucified ass) see Duruy HR vi 211 and cf. Orig. Cels. vi. 30.
' Joseph. Ap. ii 8.
" Amm. Marcell. xxii 5, For Eoman contempt of the Jews, see
Harnack EO i 337, n.
" Cf. the massacre at Caesarea (Aug. 6, 66), Jos, BJ ii 18 ; the
slaughter of ten to eighteen thousand Jews at Damascus, ib. BJ
ii (20) 2 ; vii (8) 7. A case like that of Sardis guaranteeing the
privilege of the Jews by popular resolution, is rare ; Joseph. Ant xiv
(10) 24,

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 113
Even more important was the hatred of the Jews
for the Christians. As the synagogues, in the phrase,
of Tertullian,' were ' the sources of persecution,' it is
important that we should realize the extent of the
Jewish Dispersion.'' There were Jews in nearly every
province of the Empire; but their numbers were
greatest in Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor. In Egyjtt,
according to Philo, they totalled a million, or about
one-seventh of the whole, figures presumably taken
from the registers of taxation kept in that country.'
In Alexandria, where they governed themSelves by
means of a council (gerusia) and archons,* they
occupied at one time two out of the five quarters of a
city of half a million inhabitants. In Syria, especially
Antioch and Asia Minor, their numbers, though not
the percentage, were even greater. ' The Jews,' said
Philo, ' abound in every city of Asia and Syria.' Such
was their influence at Apamea that at the beginning
of the third century coins were struck by the city
authorities with a figure and legend of Noah and hia
wife descending from the ark.® In Rome, whence
Tiberius ^ transported four thousand able-bodied males
' Infra p. 119, n.
^ For the Dispersion (Diaspora) and its extent see Schiirer JPO ii
(2) 220-42, or his article in DB v 91 ff. Ramsay Expos. Jan. 1902,
CBP c. 15 ; Hamack EO i e. 1 ; Mommsen PBE ii 162 ff. The
sources, chiefly Fhilo(Legatioad Gaium audin J'ioooj{m,ed. Mangey),
Josephus, and inscriptions, are given in Schiirer DB.
' Mommsen PBE ii 258 ; Harnack EC i 8, n.
* Schurer in DB v 99, 1006. (Cf. Tert. de Cor. 9.) They lost one
of their wards in the time of Claudius (Momm. PBE ii 200, n.).
» Ramsay CBP i 670.
' Harnack EO i 5, n., for a diaoussiou of this matter. I

114 PERSBCUT40N IN THE EARLY CHURCH
to Sardinia (a.d. 19), they would number in the days
of Claudius between ten and fifteen thousand in a city
of a million. Here they were not organized into one
great corporation as at Alexandria, but into a number
of email private societies.' Altogether the Jews
formed seven per cent, of the total population of the
Empire, or at the least computation between four
and five millions in all. Not without justice could
Seneca complain :
* The customs of this notorious people have already come into such
vogue that they have been introduced into every land ; the conquered
have given laws to the conquerors.' "
Mere numbers formed the least part of their
influence. In some respects, though without a
country, capital, or centre of worship,' the Jews'
were the most homogeneous race in the Empire ; i^
the most scattered, yet the most united ; in the real
elements of culture, second only to the Greeks ; in
wealth, then as now, the bankers of the world;
strongest of all because of the rigid exclusiveness oi
their religion,* a weapon more potent to guard theiii
race than fortified frontiers. Nor must we under
rate their social influence. In spite of the popular
hatred, Judaism, owing to the decay of the old heathen
faiths and the fascination of the Eastern cults, had
attracted to itself proselytes and semi- proselytes in
' Schiirer DB v 100.
' Seneca de Superstit. in Augustine Civ. Dei. vi 11. Por the
population of the Empire see infra Appendix F (I).
' Tert. Apol. 21 exaggerates this and its importance.
' See the passages from the Mishna in Milman S/ii 460-1.

THE CAUSES OP HATRED 115
every land. Theae were not the less influential
because both in motives and character they were
curiously mixed, the eunuch of the Candace dynasty
of Ethiopia side by side with the Empress Poppaea.'
In Rome Judaism became at one time a fashionable
form of dilettanteism,^ circumcision included, until
this laat was stopped by the edicts of Hadrian and
Septimius Severus.' Nor was their power the less
because it waa massed in crowded ghettoes. Then,
as now, the Jews refused to settle in the country.
But Christianity also, whether because it originally
grew up under the shadow of the synagogue, from its
Hellenic affinities, its lack of native missionaries, or
other causes, was also at this period a town religion,
which aa yet had made little impression on the
rural districts. Jews and Christians faced each
other in the same cities, severed by a hatred that
daily grew more intense. Not the least element in
the persecution of the Christians would be the serious
economic consequences which the Jews were able to
inflict, especially upon those of their number who
joined the Church.
The hatred, in the second century and afterwards,
was not on the side of the Jew only. An intense
hostility to everything Jewish is one of the marks of
' Supra p. 57 n. 3, Por the influence of Jews at the Roman court,
see Schurer JPO ii (2) 239, n.
' Cf. Horace Sat. ix ; Schurer JPO ii (2) 304-11. The fashion
ceased after Hadrian's edicts.
' Spartian Had. 14 ; Sept. Sev. 17; Paulus Sent, v 22, 3, 4. The
penalty for circumcising a non-Jew was death (Orig. Oels. ii 13,
ambiguous), or castration (Modestinus in Dig. xlviii 8, 11).

116 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
early Christian literature, most strongly emphasized
perhaps in orthodox writings, in the Epistle of
Barnabas.''' In this work, possibly a picture of the
intense antagonisms at Alexandria, the writer claims
that all Jewish ceremonies are of the devil. Con
fronted with the difficulty in this case what to make
of the Old Testament, he and hie achool boldly
twisted it into a merely allegorical or spiritual
narrative, which the Jews had misunderstood from
' The date of the Ep. Barnabas is very doubtful. The question
turns on the reckoning of the two emperors, &o., in ib. iv 4. Lightfoot
dates under the Flavians (Clem, i 5) ; probably Vespasian (ib. ii 509).
So also with certain modifications, Ramsay ChE 308-9 ; Milligan in
DCB ; Bartlet Apostolic Age 521, &o. But if so, it is difficult to
harmonize its tendency with the tendency in the Ep. Hebrews (also
Alexandrian), unless indeed they were expressions of two schools in
Christianity already contradictory, and existing in the same town.
Bartlet o.o, 378, gets over this by taking Barnabas to be "Syrian
Christianity." Harnack CAL i 411 dates as just before Bar-kokheba
(c. 130). The student of the mutual hatred of Jew and Christian in the
second century, a subject of great importance in our theme, will find
material in the following references : — Ep, Barn, ix 4,iv 6 f.,xiv 1 f. ;
Ep. Diognetus 1, 3, 4 (' the common silliness and error of the Jews,
and their excessive fussiuess and pride'); Justin Martyr Dial. v.
Trypho 16, 17, 25, 30, 46; I. Apol. 47; Kerugma Petri (in Clem.
Strom, vi 5) ; Pseudo-Clement Romanus Ancient Homily 2, ' those who
seemed to have God ' ; St. John Gospel ; use of 'lovSaloi, ' the Jews,'
passim (end of flrst century). See also the note on " Pilate," supra,
p. 20, and other references in the notes of this chapter, espec. p. 119, n.
For a second-century Western orthodox document, Aristides Apol. 14
(ed, Harris TS (i) 13. For date see Appendix G), in its friendliness
to Jews is an exception. The first century (possibly Syrian) " Two
Ways" (the older part oitheDidache), shows many affinities with Ep.
James; so also Hermas Shepherd in a still more exaggerated fashion
(Lightf, Clem, i 9 ; Gal. 339-40). From these two Writings we may
expect sympathy with the Jews. So also from the Test. xii. Patriarchs
infra p. 122 n. 3).

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 117
the first, others went further and maintained that
the Old Testament from cover to cover had nothing
to do with the Jews, who were but a synagogue of
Satan. The heresy of Marcion, with its repudiation
of the Old Testament along with Judaism, was but
the logical expression of a widespread belief, of a
hatred almost without parallel in history. From this
heresy the Church was saved, not so much by the
logic of its leaders — for the theology into which they
were driven, to the twentieth century must seem
more than questionable — as by its sense of historic
spiritual continuity, that ' rock ' upon which so much
that is more valuable than logic is founded.' Men
realized that it was better to attempt, with St. Paul,
to throw a bridge between the two, than, with Marcion
of Pontus, to leave Christianity without historic (i.e.
Jewish) foundations and supports. Even Tertullian,
much as he detested Judaism, dreaded even more
' the Pontic mouse who nibbled away the Gospels.' ^
The hatred of Jew and Christian was the more
bitter inasmuch as it thus partook of the nature of a
I 'The gates of death (Hades) shall not prevail against it'
(Matt, xvi 18).
' In Marcion i 1. Marcion was not alone. What, for instance,
could more strike at much of St. Paul's theology of the Atonement
than the following extract from the Ep. Diognetus (on which see
infra p. 168 n.) ? — ' The Jews ... so far as they offer God this
worship in methods similar to those already mentioned, are altogether
at fault. . . . Those who think to perform sacrifices to God with
blood and fat and whole burnt-offerings, and to honour Him with
such honours, seem to me in nowise different from those who show
the same respect towards deaf images ; for the one class think fit to
make offerings to things unable to participate in the honour, the
other class to One who is in need of nothing' (Ep. Diog. c. 3).

118 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHPRCH
family quarrel. As such it seems at first to have been
regarded by the Romans, with a consequent indiffer
ence on their part to the real meaning of Christianity.
This official indifference, of which we have many
illustrations in the Acts,'- only stirred up the Jewa
the more vehemently to make the distinction between
themselves and the Christians clear to their rulers.
We have seen how the great fire of 64 gave them
their opportunity. They succeeded once for all in
convincing the police, who, according to a possible
interpretation of a passage in Suetonius,^ had hitherto
been in doubt on the subject, that the Christians were
not members of the synagogues, and therefore not
entitled to the political and religious franchiees which
enrolled members of the eynagoguee received. Thie
distinction secured, the Jews lost no occasion of
arousing against the Christians the political dread
of the bureaucracy. The fall of Jerusalem and the
later troubles of Judaism only added fresh fuel to the
Jewish hatred. Said Justin Martyr, ' The Jews treat
ua as open enemies, putting us to death and torturing
us, just as you heathens do, whenever they can."
Justin was speaking of the cruelty of the Jews to the
Christians during ' their late war under Barcochba.'
As a rule they were driven to more secret methods,
the stirring up of the heathen mob, the scattering
broadcast of horrible charges as to the Christians
' xxi 31, xviii 14-15, xxv 19.
' Suet. Claud. 25. But see infra Appendix D (a).
' I Apol. 31. Cf. Ep. Diognetus 5, ' war is waged against them as
aliens by tbe Jews.' Cf, Graetz Hist. Jews ii 415.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 119
and their Saviour. In all persecutions, at any rate in
Asia, we may detect the Jew in the background. We
have illustrations of this in the cases of Polycarp and
Pionius.' To the Jew also the Roman governor was
generally indebted for the distorted impression he
formed of the religion of the prisoner before him.
Said the prefect Epolius to Conon, an old gardener
up6n an imperial estate in Pamphylia, of whom we
shall hear again :
' Why are you such a fool as to call a man God, and that, too,
one who died a violent death ? For so have I learnt accurately from
the Jews, both as to his race and his manifestations to their nation,
and his death by crucifixion. They brought his memoirs, and read
them out to me. Leave off this folly, and enjoy Ufe along with us.' '

' In/j-a pp. 297, 309. Cf. .4c«8 xvii 7, xviii. Tert. Scoi-p. 10, ' Syna-
gogas Judaeorum fontes perseoutionum,' According to Christian
writers, the Jews were the authors of the tales that the Christians
sacrificed children, &c, (infra p. 159). So Justin Dial. c. Tryph. 10,
16, 17, 108, 117. Cf. Tert. ad. Nat A 14, ad. Marc, iii 23, adv. Jud.
13. This is even more emphatically asserted in Orig. Cels. vi 27,
The Jews, as we know from the Mishna, originated the scandals con
cerning the birth of Jesus (Renan ; Evang. 189-90, EC 263-4), See
also case of Leo of Patara infra p. 162 n.
Of the connexion of Jews and persecution we have a curious
story in Hippolytus (Fhilos. ix 12). He states that Callistus, before
he was Pope (218-22), in order to secure martyrdom (or, as
Hippolytus puts it, to avoid his creditors), took up his station one
Sabbath before a synagogue in Rome and derided the Jews. For
this he was banished to Sardinia. We may hope that in this, as
in other things, Callistus was an exception, if not misrepresented.
^ Mart. Oononis in Gebhardt AMS 130 ; time of Decius. A most
interesting and genuine narrative, not in Ruinart AM. The genuine
Acta were "improved" by a later age to suit their taste. Conon
shuts up devils in casks, &c. Hamack CAL ii 469, while recognizing
a genuine kernel, is inclined to attribute dependence on the Acts of
Pionius (ses infra p. 297 n,). He detects falsity in the reference to

120 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
As Eusebius informs us :
' Their apostles, conveying formal letters . . . (for the Jews give
the name of " apostle " to those who convey encyclical epistles from
their rulers) swarmed everywhere on earth, calumniating the gospel
of our Saviour ' ' —
spreading abroad also infamous tales about the
Christians, destined in later agee to return in awful
retribution on their own head.^ v
The hatred of the Jewa was especially felt by"^
the Jewish Christiana. This Church, the original'
Church of Christendom, to which at one time all the
apostles belonged with the exception of St. Paul, split
-up even during the lifetime of St. James into two
sections. The one section, led by St. Peter and St,-
John, recognized the logic of accomplished facts, and
remembered the words of Jesus concerning the guid
ance of the Spirit. After a period of hesitation, which
filled St. Paul with indignation, St. Peter, as we see
from his Epistle, and as his death at Rome conclu
sively proves, ceased to be a " Jewish Christian," and
became one with the Gentile Church. But the party ,\
known later aa Nazarenes, survived hia defection.
The other section, at a later date called the Ebionites,..
refused to own the Gentile Church aa the true ChurcK,
and after doing all they could in his lifetime to thwart
the ' memoirs,' i.e. as he interprets it the Acta Pilati, which were
not brought out until later (supra p. 21 n,). But the reference is
not necessarily so deflnite.
' Euseb. on Isaiah xviii 1, quoted in Schiirer JPC ii (2) 269, n. ;
or Harnack EC ii 67, n. St. Paul was thus an " apostle " of the
Sanhedrim before he became an 'apostle of Jesus Christ.' See
supra p. 33 n.
' See Jewish Encyc. uij.v.y Blood Accusation."

THE CAUSES OP HATRED 121
St. Paul, tried to discredit his memory after death.'
With a fidelity worthy of a better cause, both sections
clung to their Judaism, even after the destruction of
the Temple had destroyed their basis of existence.
So they fell between two firea. On the one hand they
were despised by the Church. Jerome, who knevi^
them well, contemptuously but accurately describes
them as ' semi-Jews ' and ' semi-Christians.' A^
such the Church in time put them on her roll of
heretics ; an astonishing but deserved result for a ^
Church, undoubtedly primitive and apostolic, but
which refused to recognize the laws of growth and
development ; in other words, could not discern the
mission of the Holy Ghost. On the other hand they
were pursued with especial hatred ;
' not merely at the hands of Jewish children, but, rising at dawn,
at noon, at eventide, when they perform their orisons in the
synagogues, the Jews curse them and anathematize them, saying,
" God, curse the Nazarenes." . . . They are Jews more than any
thing else, and yet they are detested by the Jews.' '
So this band of irreconcileables lingered on, first
at Pella, then afterwards amid the ruins of
Jerusalem,' until driven away froin the new city of
Aelia Capitolina, founded by Hadrian on the site
of the Holy City. It would not tend to peace between
the two branches of Christendom that while no Jew
' See on this Hort. Clementine Becognitions (1901), pp, 114-132 ;
Lightf, Gal. 327-30.
' Epiphanius Haer. xxix 9,
= Ibid, xxix 7 ; Euseb. HE iii 32, 35, iv 5 (this last, 13 bishops
in about as many years, contains some error). Very few returned
from Pella.

122 PERSECUTION IN THB EAELY CHUECH
was allowed to approach the city under pain of death,'
a prohibition which Jewish Chriatiana, we imagine,
would apply to themselves,'' other Christians, Gentiles
in origin, made the new Jerusalem the seat of a
bishopric under the Gentile Marcus. As with other
similar movements that mark arrested development^
these Jewish Christians but slowly decayed.' They '
still survive, it would seem, in Mesopotamia, in a
hopelesaly corrupt condition.* Their history, for ther
moat part a blank, is that of a rudimentary organ in
the Church, a perpetual warning of the atrophy
which attends unreasoning observience to the dead
hand. Their record — throughout their early exist
ence under the control of ' the relatives of our Lord '^
— ahowa the value of the decision of St. Paul, that
henceforth he would not know Christ after the
flesh (II Cor. v 16).
' Justin I Apol. 47 ; Tert, in Jud. 13 ; Aristion of Pella in Euseb.
HE iv 6, The image of a pig was placed over the Bethlehem gate.
^ Milman HJ ii 438 is ambiguous. If the Jewish Christians had
entered Aelia they would have ceased to be Jews, The list of bishops
(Euseb. HE iv 6, v 12) shows henceforth nothing but Graeco-Eoman
names. On this list see Harnack OAL i 220 ff. Zahn FGK vi 282,
3 According to Epiphanius, I.e., their strongholds were PeUa in
Perea, Kochaba in Basanitis, and in Beroea, On these places see
Harnack EC ii 253, n. But the Ebionites were more widely scattered.
The Church of Pella produced one author, Aristion (Euseb. HE iv 6
Harnack CAL i 268, Drummond FG 198 fl). Another Jewish Christian
was Hegesippus, on whom see Lightf. Gal. 332-4, or better, Hort. Jud.
Christianity 164-74. Their most characteristic document (second
century) is the Test, of xii. Patriarchs (ed. Sinker, Camb. 1869), on
which see Eenan EO 268-70 ; Lightf. Gal. 319-21 .
* Encyc. Brit. s.v. Mandaeans.
° Seffiriffwot ; a curious title.

THE CAUSES OP HATRED 123
But whatever their record theologically, the
' relatives ' of Jesus did not shrink from suffering for
their faith. The death of St. James, their leader, was
for them the beginning of persecution. Eusebius
tells us that ' after the martyrdom of St. James ' the
disciples at Jerusalem, led by ' those related to our .
Lord,' elected ' Hia paternal uncle'a son, Symeon the
son of Clopas,' the couain-german of Jeaus,' to be the
aecond bishop. A few years later Vespasian ' com
manded all of the family of David to be sought after,
that no one might be left among the Jews of the
royal stock.' ^ Symeon and his brethren survived
thia peraecution, evidently political rather than
religious in character. We may find the reason in a
story, told at a later date, of two grandsons of St.
Jude, the brother of Jesus. Domitian, for reasons
similar to those of his father Vespasian, had renewed
the persecution of ' the descendants of David.'
Whereupon ' some of the heretica accuaed the grand
sons of Jude.' When brought before the emperor,
'Domitian demanded whether they were of the stock of David?
This being confessed, he asked again: What possession and what
substance they had. They answered that they had no more between
them but nine and thirty acres of land, and that they sustained their
families by their own labour ; sho-wing forth their hands to the
emperor, being hard and rough, and worn with labours, to witness
that the words they had spoken were true. . . . So Domitian, despising
them as vile persons, let them go.' '
^ On the identification of Clopas and Alphaeus and the relation to
Jesus, see Lightf. Gal. 266-7.
' Euseb. HE iii 11, 12. Euseb, is probably quoting from Julius
Africanus, who was a native of Emmaus. See De Boor in TU iv (2)
169 and Harnack OAL ii 89 ff.
' Euseb, HE iii 20, from Hegesippus, I see no reason to suppose

124 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
After this release 'they ruled the Church as
witnesses (fidprvpeg) and as relatives of the Lord.'
But at a later date Symeon, if we may trust
Hegesippus,' was crucified as a Christian ' after he
had been tortured for several days.'
The last relative of Jesus of whom we have know
ledge died as a martyr, probably under Decius, on the
accusation, as it would appear, of the Jews. Conon,
the gardener of Magydus, on being asked by the
governor Epolius the usual preliminary questions,
declared :
" I came from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, and am a kinsman
of Christ." " If you know Christ," replied the tyrant,"know our gods
also. Be persuaded by me and, by all the gods, you shall gain great
honours. I don't say ' Sacrifice,' or anything of that sort. It will
be enough to take a pinch of incense, a drop of wine and an olive
branch, and say : ' Most sovereign Zeus, save this multitude I ""
But Conon waa true to his royal lineage, one only of
many hundreds of Christiana throughout the Empire
who suffered death by reason of the hatred of the
Jews. with Allard I HP 129 that in consequence of this incident Domitian
ceased his persecution of the Church. Considering its source, the
story itself is not above suspicion,
' Euseb. HE iii 32. The statement of Hegesippus ' that he
suffered as a martyr when he was an hundred and twenty years old,
in the reign of Trajan,' is absurd. (N.B. ' torture for several days,')
But I should not doubt his martyrdom under Trajan, probably a,d.
104, as Hegesippus (who states that his death took place in the
Syrian proconsulship of Attious, i.e. Sextius Attius; see Harnack
CAL i 129) would on this be correct.
' Gebhardt AMS 130-1. See supra p. 119 n.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 125

II

Not less universal aa a factor in the peraecution
of the Chriatians was the superstition of the heathen.
This affected the Church in two ways ; the one
familiar to us from frequent references in the apolo
gists ; the other closely connected with the first, the
widespread belief in the practice by the Christians
of the magic arts. But upon thie second the Christian •
apologists do not dwell.
For their old religion, in the higher sense of the
word, the Eomans in the second century had little
concern. They sought the satisfaction of their
spiritual longings in devotion to some exotic cult, or
in the pursuit of the Stoic and Platonic philosophies.
But the governing classes still attached importance
to religion as a branch of the civil service primarily
concerned with the safety of. the State. " Its ob
servance was the duty of every citizen, and was
even a more necessary part of patriotism than
service in the army, because the sin of a single
recusant might call down the anger of the neglected
gods on the whole state." ' Thia last in fact wae the
very thing that in the judgement of popular super
stition occurred. Flood, earthquake, and pestilence
were all of them traced to the offended gods, who had
thus visited upon the people the neglect and sacrilege
of the Chriatians. ' If,' writes Tertullian,
'the Tiber floods the City, or the Nile refuses to rise, or the sky
• Hardy o.e. 4.

126 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
withholds its rain, if there is an earthquake, famine, or pestilence, at
once the cry is raised : Christians to the lions.' '
In North Africa the practice passed into a proverb :
' If there is no rain, lay the blame on the Christians.' ^
The superstition of the heathen further charged
the Chrietiane with the practice of magic arts. In
this matter it is important that we should be fair.
The blame must not be thrown altogether upon the
heathen. Throughout the Empire the Jews were
known as exorcists.' The belief in the magic of
Solomon ia no invention of the Arabian Nights ; we
find it well established in the days of Josephus.*
The Christians probably believed in magic every
whit as heartily as the heathen ; nor would they have
been backward in claiming for their leaders the
possession of supernatural powera. The diffidence in
this matter of a Church familiarized with the argu
ments of Hume or Huxley never dawned upon
them. In the study of history we must beware above
' Tert. Apol. 40, ad Nat. 9. See also Arnob. ad Gent, i 1, 2, 13-16,
vii 38 ; Cyprian ad! Demetr. 2 and passim (Benson Cyprian 249 ff,);
Euseb. EE iv 13 ; Clementine Hom. vii 9. (That these last two are
not historical does not lessen their evidence in this connexion.) The
persecutor Maximin enlarges on this (Euseb. HE ix 7). Apologists tried
to meet the argument by pointing to the prosperity of the Empire
since the rise of Christianity, and that it was the bad emperors,
Nero, &c., who persecuted Christianity (Melito in Euseb. HE iv 26.
See also infra p. 208). Also a greater than Melito, Augustine, whose
City of God is designed to show that the sack of Rome (410) was not
due to the anger of the abandoned gods.
' Augustine Civ. Dei ii 3, See also infra pp. 134, 136, 268 n,
' Acts xix 13.
* Ant. viii 2, 5, where Eleazer draws a devil through a demoniac's
nose, in the presence of Vespasian, by means of Solomon's ring.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 127
all of mental anachronism. To approach the subject
of the charge of magic with modern prepossessions
is fatal.' In fact, the charge against the Christians'
of using the black arts was to some extent the result
of their own claims. These claims we may explain
as we will. For the historian explanation or lack
of explanation is immaterial. For him a belief, how
ever erroneous, if widely held, is a factor in human
life and progress which he dare not ignore.
In the second and third centuries superstition was,
if anything, a growing force. The old Latin farmer
was superstitious enough, but hia auperstitions were
rather nature-dreads, fears, such as ever haunt the
illiterate, of the vast forces of the world around hira.
These he tried to propitiate m diverse ways. But the
later Roman, for whom an age of conquest and travel
had robbed the aolitude of forest and sea of much of
their awe, had fled to religions, whose mysticism, such
as it was, was largely founded upon spiritual horror;
From the Emperor on the throne to the meanest
slave, men trembled at the awful powers of the
unknown, and trembled the more because of their
loss of religious faith.^ They peopled the heaven;
' The student should read Harnack EG i 152-80, Dill BSNA iv
o, 1, article " Demonology " in DCB. To obtain an idea of what was
held even by cultivated pagans he should read, not a clear-headed
sceptic like Lucian, or the credulous Apuleius, but, say, Macrobius
Saturnaliorum bk, vii (ed, Janus, 1848 ; No English translation, but
one in French, ed, Nisard, 1850), which gives us what passed for science,
e,g. c 14, why objects are bigger under water. Other important
references are given in the notes. I should add that the explanation
of miracles, real or imaginary, forms no part of my plan.
^ See s.v. ' magi' in the index to Apuleius, ed. Hildebrand (1842),
for examples ; Plutarch de Defectu Oraoulorum 14.

128 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
and earth with a host of demons — daemons the
philosophers vainly called them — and believed with
all their hearts in the alliance of magicians and
sorcerers with the hordes of the black one. Dreams
and omens haunted high and low alike. We see
this in the popular treatise on their interpretation
published at the close of the second century by
Artemidorus, a work full of the wildest and moat
superatitioue hallucinations. The curious student
who turns over its pages will find " besotted credulity
disguising itself under the forms of scientific inquiry." '
Spiritualism, with all its paraphernalia of table-
rapping, writing by invisible hands, clairvoyance, and
the like, became the fashion, and succeeded in
seducing Julian the Apostate from Christianity.^
Sludge the Medium has his prototype in Alexander
of Abonutichos, or the earlier Simon Magus.' For
the more devout there were the mysteries of Isis and
Mithra, with their beliefs in the tyranny of the stars
over human lives. From his youth Tiberius waa the
slave of astrologists. Domitian lived in perpetual
fear of the fulfilment of Chaldean prophecies, while

' For the Oneirocritica of Artemidorus (f 160) a sufficient account
will be found in Dill BSNA 467-71. The only English translation
in the British Museum is by R. Wood (abbreviated). In 1740 it
reached a 24th edition, a fact which is in itself a light-giving
comment on the England of the early Wesleys.
^ Allard Julien L'Apostat (1903) ii 217-9, i 310-11.
» For the historical character of Simon Magus, see Hort. JO 120-7,
DB, or Salmon in DCB. The Clementine literature that centres'
round him witnesses, to the belief of the (heretical) Early Church in
the reality of magic. Por Alexander see infra p. 135,

THB CAUSES OF HATRED 129
Marcua Aurelius surrounded himself with Egyptian
magicians. In their belief in demons and other supernatural^
agencies the Christians were not before their age,
save in their grasp of the supremacy of one benign
Father of good. Behind every idol statue, however'
beautiful, they diaeerned the grinning face of a fiend.
The devil and his angela were terrible realities, whose
evil machinations were only thwarted by the ceaseless
vigilance of the attendant spirits of good. As in the
romance of Enoch, archangels and demons struggled
for the soul and body, nor was the struggle one-sided.
For the demons ' fill the atmosphere which extends
between earth and heaven.' ' Owing to their speed
they are almost omniscient, and thus ' attain credit
for causing that which they announce.' For thev
Christian the miraculous was so common that it
ceased to be miraculous. For him, as for the pagan, ity
formed'part of the ordinary liiachinery of the universe.
Illustrations of this belief are almoat co-extensive
with the literature of the early and mediaeval Church.
Two examples muet auffice, by no means either
extraordinary or peculiar. St. Auguatine, whom no"^
one can accuse of either insincerity or stupidity,
' Cassian Cmf. viii 12 (ed. Petschenig. CSEL). Cf. Tert. Apol. 22,
' Every spirit is winged . . . they are everywhere in a moment.'
For the ideas of devils current in Christian circles in the fourth
century the student should see Cassian Conf. vii 9-25, 27, -viii 8 ;
Augustine Civ. Dei viii 14, 23 ff. ; Ame'lineau De Historia Lausiaca
pp. 111-21. Por the third century see Lactantius Instit. Div. ii 15,
17 ; Tatian Orat. ad Oraecos -viii-xviii. Origen (references in DOB
iv 135). The ideas current among heretics were more extravagant
still, of. Iron. Haer. i 25 (3). K

130 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
solemnly asserts that in his own diooeae of Hippo,
in the space of two years there had occurred no less
than seventy-two miracles, among them five cases of
restoration to life.'
The works of Sulpicius Severus bear the marks
of a cultured mind of singular sincerity. His Life of
St. Martin of Tours, one of the gems of Christian
biography, is the record of an eye-witness, yet marred
with the grossest tales of the miraculous. He begins
by imploring his readers
' to give full faith to my statements, and not to believe that I
have written anything of which I have not certain knowledge and proof,
for I should have preferred to have kept sUenoe rather than relate
the false.'
' Martin,' he claims elsewhere, ' does not need to be
defended by untruths.' Yet in one place he teUs us
how St. Martin restored three dead men to life, and
twits Egyptian monks, for whom otherwise he has
a profound reverence, with their inability to perform
this feat.^
With this brief statement of the Chriatian poeition,
a matter which might well claim a volume for its
adequate exposition, the reader will the better under
stand how the heathen came to associate their name
with the black arts. So far as demons were con
cerned, the Church professed that it was part of its
mission to fight them, as, in fact, it had been part of
the work of Jesus on earth. For the Christian,
' Civ. Dei xxii 8. Cf. Confess, ix 16 ; Irenaeus Haer. ii 31, 2.
^ Sulpic. Severus Vit. Martin (ed. Halm CSEL) cc. 1 § 9 ; 7, 8, 16 ;
Dial. X 24 § 25, ii 4, iii 5 § 5.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 131
" The ancient Prince of ill.
Look grim as e'er he will,"
is absolutely the most futile of beings. ' Thou art
utterly despicable,' said St. Anthony, one of the
great, if shadowy types of the early Church, to the
demon that cowered at his feet ; ' thou art black of
soul, yet weak as a child. Henceforth I will not
cast one thought on thee.' ' In this consciousness oX
victory over the powera of evil lay one secret of the
success of the Church. Devils existed — that was
undeniable, accepted by heathen and Christian alike.
But the Christians claimed that they possessed th&
means of subduing them.
' I will not argue the matter any further,' writes Tertullian.
' There is a quicker way of demonstrating the truth. Let a demoniac,
acknowledged as such, be brought before your tribunal. Then let
that spirit be commanded to speak by any Christian, and he will
profess himself a devil as sincerely as elsewhere he falsely asserts
that he is a god.' '
And the conquered devils, adds Minucius Felix,
because of their fears, stir up against the Chris
tians persecution and hatred.' One early order in
the Church, the exorcists, was specially dedicated
to the task. They cast out devils, so the Church
' See the Vita Antonii cc. 5, 16, 43 etc. in Migne PG xxvi 835 ff.
Whether this work is a romance (Weingarten) or historical in the
main, as Dom Butler has, I think, succeeded in showing (Hist.
Lausiaca, Camb, 1905), is immaterial. The success of the romance, if
romance it be, lay partly in its insistence upon the power of the monk
over devils. See Glover: Life and Letters in Fourth Cent. (IdOl)
p. 385. Cf. Vita Pachomii 49 (Migne PL Ixxiii 267).
' Tert. Apol. 23. Cf. Minuc. Felix Oct. 27.
' The Christians at Lyons ascribe their persecution (infra p. 295)
to demons under the lead of ' the adversary ' (S avriKelfievos) Euseb.
HE f 1,5; Gebhardt AMS 28.

132 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHUECH
believed, by the use of the name of Jesus,' and by
the sign or mention of the Croas.^ Their superior
powers in this matter — for the Christians acknow
ledged some reality in heathen enchantments — were
acknowledged by the heathen, and were twisted
against them, for instance, by Celsus, as they had
been twisted by the scribes against our Lord, into
a proof of alliance with the demons themaelves.
Undoubtedly they were aorcerers, their auccesses
showed that, of whom Jeaua with Hia "miraclea"
had been the master and leader.' \
Of the widespread belief in the second and
third centuriea in the magic arts of the Chriatians
the proofa are overwhelming. ' Where are the'
magiciana, your teachers in this jugglery?' said
Marcian to the martyr Achatius.* Some have found
' Justin Dial. 85 (an important chapter) ; Orig. Cels. i 6, ' by the
name of Jesus together with the reading of the narratives which
relate to Him.' -This is effectual 'even when pronounced by bad men '
(cf. Acts xix 13 ; Pseudo-Cyprian BAwptism 7) ib. i 67. Elsewhere
Origen sinks even lower, ih. i 24, 'names spoken in Coptic are
efficacious against certain demons.'
" Justin Dial. 30, 49 (last clause) 76, 85, Apol. 55 (Cross
dominates all, as is shown by human body being in its form)
II Apol. 6 (contrast heathen exorcists with their incantations);
Irenaeus Haer. ii 32, 4; Lactantius Instit. Div. iv 27. Por the
widespread use of the sign of the cross from a.d. 150 onwards see
Tert. de Cor. Mil. 3, ' when we put on our clothes and shoes, when
we bathe, when we light the lamps, &c. &c.' Cf. Minuc. Felix.
Oct. 29 fin. For exorcism as a regular part of Church work see
Theophilus Ad. Autolyc, ii 8 fin. ; Orig. Oels. i 46; Cyprian ad Demetr.
15 ; Vanity of Idols 7 ; Pseudo-Clement L De Virginitate 10 ;
Augustine Civ. Dei x 22. Origen Cels. vii 4 admits that exorcists
as a rule were uneducated men.
' For the views of Celsus see Orig, Cels. i 6, 68.
•* Gebhardt AMS 119. See what follows, ' magi estis quia novum

THE CAUSES OP HATEED 133
evidence of this suspicion in the earliest timea in
the punishment devised for the Chriatians by Nero.
By Roman law, thoae condemned for abetting
magical practices were condemned to be thrown to
the beasts, or to be crucified, while actual sorcerers
were to be burnt alive.' Nero confused these punish
ments together, by condemning the Christiana to be
wrapped in the akina of beaata and thua expoaed
to savage dogs, or to be smeared with pitch, then
fastened to crosses, and set on fire.^ Probably, in
our judgement, the punishment was rather the
coincidence of cruelty than a judicial sentence. But
if Nero had lived in a later age we should have
decided otherwise, not merely because of heathen
opinion, but also by reason of the magical or semi-
magical beliefs which had invaded the Church itself,
and which atill, alaa! in aome quarters retain
their ancient power. Cyprian tells us stories of the
supernatural powers of the consecrated elements
worthy of that great master of mediaeval superstition,
Caesar of Heisterbach ; ' while Gregory the Wonder
worker (Thaumaturgus), deliberately adopted credulity
aa one of the auxiliaries of the Church in the
nescio quod genus religionis inducitis ; ' ' You must be sorcerers, for
you are bringing in some new kind of religion.' See also Perpetua
infra p. 316 ; Tarachus and others (Euinart AM 436, infra pp. 285,
330). For Achatius see infra p. 330.
' Paulus Sent, v 23, 17. 'Magicae artis conscioa . . . bestiis
obici aut oruoibus suffigi ; ipsi autem magi vivi exuruntur.'
^ Tac. Ann. xv 44 ; see infra pp. 285-6,
' Cyprian de Lapsis 25, 26 (two astonishing chapters). Caesar
Heisterbach's Dialogus Miraculorum (Ed. Strange 1851), is the best
storehouse of mediaeval marvels that I know of.

134 PEESECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
conversion of the heathen.' The Christians of the
third century had largely themselves to- thank if they
were looked upon as too familiar with the black art.
The effect of all this on the persecution of the
Christians needs but little explanation. To the dire
magic of the Christians were attributed not only the
disasters of nature, but the failure of the current
religion. The heathen believed that by their superior^
exorcisms the Christians could reduce to silence
oracles which hitherto had proved the fortune of
a whole country ; that in many ways their black arts
caused the customary manifestations of the super
natural to miscarry. According to Dionysius of
Alexandria, it was thia that led to the outbreak of
the Valerian persecution :
' Never was there any of the emperors before him so favourably
and benevolently disposed towards the Christians. . . . His palace
was indeed an ecclesia of the Lord. But the chief of the Egyptian
magi persuaded him to abandon this course, exhorting him to slay
these holy men as enemies and obstacles to their detestable in
cantations. For there were and still are among the Christians many
whose mere presence and look, though they merely breathed and
spoke, are able to put to nought the artifices of wicked demons.' ^
We have an intereating illustration, both of the
current superstition and its relation to the peraecution
of the Christians, in the career of the impostor
Alexander of Abonutichos, as described for us by
the master-hand of Lucian.' Acting on the credulity
> See infra p. 345. Gregory (f 270) is credited with a fine
collection of miracles. He was evidently a man of magnetic
personality as well as a great missionary. See DCB s.v.
' Euseb. HE vii 10, 4. See also case of Diocletian, infra p. 267,
= Lucian Alexander the Oracle-Monger, Ed. Dindorff, ii 205 ff.

THE CAUSES OP HATRED 135
of the ' fat-head ' Paphlagonians, Alexander, ' a fine,
handsome man with a real touch of divinity about
him,'. set up in his native town of Abonutichos an
oracle of Aesculapius. Lucian describes minutely
how the trick wae done. Brazen tablets were buried
in the temple of ApoUo at Chalcedon, announcing
that Aesculapius would shortly pay a visit to Pontus.
The ' chewing of soap-wort,' a ' serpent's head of
linen,' and the ' burying of a goose-egg in which he
had inserted a new-born reptile,' did the rest. The
clever rascal — ' who never made a small plan, his
ideas were always large' — after proper formalities,
dug up the buried egg, ' and announced that here he
held Aeaculapiua.' ' When the crowd saw the reptile,
' they raised a about, hailed the God, blessed the
city, and every mouth was full of prayers.' Bithynia
and Galatia flocked to see the new-born deity.
' Alexander proclaimed that ou a stated day the god would give
answers to all comers. Each person was to write down his. wish
and the object of his curiosity, fasten the packet with thread, seal
it with wax. Alexander would receive these . . . and return the
packets with the seals intact and the answers attached.'
Lucian adds, for the information of the unskilled
in these matters, three methods by which the seals
could be opened and refastened. As for his oracles,
'some were crabbed and ambiguous, others un
intelligible.' Of the latter, the following may serve :
' Morphi ebargulia for night Chnenchiorante ahall
Well translated in Fowler's Lucian (1905) ii 212 ff. This brochure
is dedicated to Celsus.
' The serpent in Anatolia was the symbol of Aesculapius. See
e.g. Ramsay SC 285 plate.

136 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
leave the light.' But unintelligible or ambiguoua,
the trick eucceeded. At a fixed charge of a shilling
per oracle, Alexander made something like £8,000 a
year. His agenta were everywhere, apreading abroad,
on commiasion, the fame of the new god. ' At Rome
the only question wae who ehould be the first to fly
to Abonutichos.' We must not prolong the astonish
ing story. But it ia of importance to note that when
Alexander waa
'instituting his mysteries with hierophants and torohbearers
complete ... on the flrst day proclamation was made to this
effect : If there be any atheist or Christian or Epicurean ' here spying
upon our rites, let him depart in haste. . . . Alexander himself led
the litany with the cry, " Christians, begone." *
The crowd responded ; for the evil eye of the
Christiana, to aay nothing of their sorceries, could
ruin even an oracle of Aesculapius.
Another interesting illustration is the story of the
five sculptors of Sirmium. At one of Diocletian's
quarries in Pannonia there was an encampment of
622 masons and carvers, under a number of ' philo
sophers,' or foremen. Among them there were four
Christiana of special ability who won the praise of
' Cf. the enthusiasm with which the Christians acclaimed
Oenomaus of Gadara's Cynic attack on a false oracle, by which at
one time he had been deceived (Euseb. Prep. Evang. v il8-36, vi
6-7 ; Chron. yr. 3 of Hadrian, ed. Sohoene ii 164). For Christianity
in Pontus see infra p. 210.
The Christians were often classed in popular hatred with both
Cynics and Epicureans. According to Lucian, Peregrinus from a
Christian became a Cynic, and died as such. Lucian PF. 36. To
tho casual observer there were certain points of similarity in their
creeds; Lightf. Ign. i 344, u, ; Renan EC 309, 312-3.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 137
Diocletian by quarrying a single block of stone, out
of which they carved a group twenty-five feet in
length. One of the gang, Simplicius, found that hia
tools broke more frequently than those of his comrades.
He asked the reason, and was told by his companions
that it waa because they were Christians. He there
upon requested his friends to bless hia tools also, and
waa ao impressed by the good results that he too
became a disciple, and was baptized by Bishop Cyril
of Antioch, who for three yeara had been a slave in
the quarries.' The little band soon fell into trouble,
through the jealousy of their pagan comrades. One
of the ' philoaophera ' observed them making the sign
of the cross upon all their works. ' A few months
later Diocletian ordered the four to carve an image
of Aeaculapiua. The Christians, who had carved
without demur an image of the sun, refused to touch
that of the hated rival saviour.^ The ' philosophers '
saw their opportunity, and accused the stonemasons
of Christianity and magic. Diocletian was vexed. ' I
will not have my akilled workmen reviled,' he eaid.
But after some delay his hatred of Christianity pre
vailed over his love of good artists. He ordered them
to be beaten with scorpions, then enclosed in lead
and thrown into the river Save.'
* This fixes the date as 306, after Diocletian's retirement (infra
p. 277). See Harnack CAL i 217, " See supra p. 80, n.
' Por the Fassio quatuor Coronatorum Petsohenig's text in Wien
akad. xcvii 761, or the translation in Mason DP 259 ff. The
' Four Crowned,' the name by which the narrative is known in church
liturgies and dedications (DCA i 461), is an unhistorical addition to
this story of the stonemasons.

138 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
III
Hitherto we have considered the causes of hatred
that in some degree might be considered as external
to Christianity, discordant or antagonistic factors in
its environment. We now turn to the elements in
the life and faith of the Early Church which brought
against it the charge of anarchism, and the wrath of
both mob and empire. The study of these will throw
light, not only upon the origin of persecution, but also
upon the thought and character of the Church of
the early Fathers. One caution must be given at
the outset. Persecution as a rule did not affect the
average member of the Church ; it fell hardly upon
the extremists, the out-and-outs, call them what we
will. The clemente in Chrietian life upon which we
ahall dwell in the aectiona of thie chapter must not,
therefore, be taken to be of necessity the character
istics of the ordinary member. But earthly institu
tions should not be judged by their averages, but by
the ideals of their leaders. s
There were in the main five internal causes of the
hatred felt for the Church by government and people.
First, though not foremost in importance, was the
effect of Christianity as a disintegrating factor upon
the familia — a word not adequately represented by the
modern "family" — including the tendency among
many of the early Christians to discourage marriage.
In the eyes of St. Paul, this last was part of the
renunciation laid upon him by the Lord Jesus, and
though he ia careful not to elevate this individual

THE CAUSES OP HATRED 139
rule into a law for all, nevertheless there can be little
doubt of the general impression that his defence of
celibacy produced. Even in the-cases where marriages
were allowed, intermarriage with heathen was for
bidden ; ' a command necessary indeed if the purity
of the Christian faith should be maintained. The
effect, however, must have been constant friction with
heathen families, who would bitterly resent what
they would regard as the Christian pride and aloof
ness. They would feel, not without justice, that the
Christians despised the world in which they lived,
and were somewhat contemptuous of its race interests ^
and family bonds. * Tampering with domestic rela-.
tions' ' was one of the earliest charges brought against-
the followers of Jesus. Thia belief in Christian
misanthropy would be strengthened by the in
cautious quotation before the heathen of the many
hard sayings of the Saviour, especially those dealing
with the family. Por Jesus had owned that He
' came not to send peace, but a sword. Por I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall
be they of his own household.' Matt, x 34-5.
All this was inevitable, and needa neither explana
tion nor illustration. Variance in the home is the
' So St. Paul, 1 Cor. vii 37. The Church, though at first siding
with St. Paul, never seems to have been strong enough to enforce this
rale. Harnack EO ii 235-8.
' See the remark of Arrius, Antoninus infra p. 332.
' ' kKKorpioenlaKomos 1 Fet. iv 15. So Ramsay ChE 293, n., but
see Bigg St. Peter 178. The word, according to Grimm, only occurs
elsewhere in Dionysius Areop. Ep. 8.

140 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
first effect of missionary effort, whether in the second
or the twentieth century. One example must suffice
for many, the caae of Alee of Smyrna, whom Ignatius
calle 'that name beloved by me.' Her brother
Herod, the eirenarch or chief of the police, and her
father Nicetae were foremost in securing the con
demnation of Polycarp.'
The student, moreover, should remember that the
pagan world would not distinguish, with the care of his
text-books, between the heretical and Catholic views.
Heretical anti-aocial viewa abounded, and would add
to the uneasiness of the governing classes. For the^
Eoman, in spite of growing luxury and licence, still
looked upon the family as the unit-cell of the State
and the foundation of morality. If the Acts of St:
Paul and Thekla^ had fallen into the hands of an
' Ignatius Ep. Smyrn. 3 Pdya. 8 ; Mart. Poly. co. 8, 17.
« For theMcto Pauli et Theolae see the text in Gebhardt AMS
216-9, or his critical ed. in TU, 1902, or Lipsius and Bonnet AAA 1
235 ff,, or Tischendorf 44.4,40 ff. There is an Bng. trans, iu Clark's
Ante-Nie. Library vol. xvi. The early origin, as well as its popularity,
is proved by references in Tertullian de Bapt. 17, and other early
writers (see list in Lipsius AAA i prolog, xov ff., or DCB iv 887, 888,
n.). It would appear to be the oldest of our extant N.T. Apocrypha
(DCB iv 886, for a later date Lipsius Apoh. Apostel. ii 424 ff.). The
whole story turns on the exaltation of virginity over marriage, and
shows Encratio influences, though Tert. gives no hint that he con
sidered it heretical. Though the -writer utterly fails to grasp the
character of St. Paul (DCB iv 890), it is probable that the work has
some historical basis underlying it (see Ramsay ChE 375-428 ; Cony
beare MEO 22-6, 57-8, 65 ff. ; Gebhardt TU (1902). Gutschmidt has
shown that Oastelius the govemor and Queen 'Tryphaena are real
persons (DCB iv 893, n,). For the purposes of this lecture, I only
refer to such incidents, &c., as are of historical value because of the
early date of the work, whatever its basis of truth.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 141
intelligent Eoman official, could we have blamed him
if he had detected its dangerous tendencies ? Here
is a document, he would have argued, dealing with
one of the leaders of thia sect, in which we see that
the firat effect of the preaching of St. Paul ia for
Thekla to refuse as sinful the marriage arranged for
her by her parents :
Whereupon her betrothed went out into the street and kept a watch
upon those who went in and out to Paul. And he saw two men bitterly
contending with each other. "Men," he said, "who are you? and
who is that fellow with you in the house who leads astray the souls of
young men and deceives virgins so that they refuse to marry, but
remain as they are ? " And Demas answered him : " Who this is we
do not know, but he deprives young men of wives and maidens of
husbands by saying that in no other way shall there be a resurrection
for yon save by remaining chaste and keeping the flesh chaste." ',
Nor would our Eoman official have been favourably
impressed by the rest of the story, how Thekla bribed
the gaoler with her bracelets that ahe might gain
acceaa by night to the Apoatle, how on eacape from
priaon Thekla ran after St. Paul and said, ' I will cut
off my hair and follow thee whithersoever thou goest,'
and much else to the same effect.
The Acts of Paul and Thekla is a second-century
romance written by a Syrian presbyter,^ the historical
basis of which it is difficult to dissever from its later
accretions. But the romance for our present purpose
' o.c. 0. 11. Inscriptions recording virginity or chastity on tho
part of married folk are common, and show the drift of the Church.
In the case of mixed marriages we can understand friction. See
Allard Les Catacombs (Paris, 1896) p. 207. But Le Blant ICG i 400,
ii 240, understands virginius to equal mmwgamus, however.
» Tert d» bapt. 17. Por the date see Hamack CAL i 496-505.

142 PERSECUTION IN THE EAELY CHUECH
is a real document, for the tale was accepted by the
Church with enthusiastic belief. We may instance,
moreover, as confirmation of the same tendency in
certain sections of the Church, the examination in
the time of Diocletian of Pollio, a " reader " of Cibalae
(Vinkovce), a town of Hungary.
" What is your name ? " asked the judge. " Pollio." " Are you
a Christian?" "Yes," "What office do you hold?" "I am the
chief of the readers." "What do you mean by a reader?" "One
whose duty it is to read God's word to the congregation." " You
mean those people who impose upon silly women (mulierculas) and
tell them that they must not marry, and persuade them to adopt
a fanciful chastity." '
Le Blant has pointed out another way in which,
in certain extreme sections, Christianity would run
counter to the Eoman ideas of the family. In Gaul,^
it seema. Christian inscriptions rarely mention
parentage. Acting on a mistaken interpretation of
the words of Jesus, the Christians of Gaul refused
t^ call any man father.^ We have illustrations of
this of an earlier date. "Of what parents are you
born ? " said the judge to Lucian of Antioch. " I am
a Christian," he answered, "and a Christian's only
relatives are the Baints."'
' Euinart AM 404, April 27th, 304. This document was
transcribed from the original by order of Valentinian I (f 375), a
native of Cibalae, The only churches which possess an order of
bishops which have not retained the order of " readers " seem to be
those of England and Abyssinia. See DCA ii 1472 ; also ib. 1509.
' Matt, xxiii 9; Le Blant lOG i 126.
' Euinart AM 507, ' Cognates habet sanctos omnes.' Cf. Irenaeus
of Sirmium, infra p. 320. For Lucian f Jan. 7, 312 and his supposed
Arianism, see DOB s.v. (12) ; Harnack CAL ii 138 ff.

THE CAUSES OF HATEED 143
Moreover, with the best intentions in the world,
and under the most judicious missionaries, the
proselytizing efforts of the Christians, by thrusting a
wedge into the life of the home, could not fail at times
to give rise to scandals. We see this in the case of
Dativus, a decurion or senator of Carthage, who, on
the defection of ita bishop, had shepherded the
Church of Abitini. Forty-nine of the little flock
were brought to Carthage and tried. When Dativus
was Btretched on the hobby horse, a charge waa laid
against him by a certain Fortunatianus, a noble
barrister of Carthage,
" that in the absence of oui father, and while I was at my studies,
he seduced our sister Victoria and led her and two other girls away
from this great city to Abitini. In fact, he never entered our house
without beguiling the girls' minds with his soft soap." Victoria
interrupted with a Christian's freedom of speech : " I set out and
journeyed to Abitini of my own free will, and not at the persuasion
or in the company of Dativus. I can call citizens to prove this." '
Dativus would not be alone in such charges. W^
may be sure that the heathen interpreted the most
innocent acts into occasions of scandal. Thus we
read, during the peraecution of Diocletian, of several
Christian girls from Thessalonica, who ran off to the
mountains without their father's knowledge. By
the sentence he passed upon Irene, their leader, the
judge DulcetiuB evidently considered that they were
women of frail reputation.'^
• Euinart AM 385. Feb. 12, 304. Fortunatianus afterwards
became a Christian. The site of Abitini is unknown (Tissot FBA
ii 771). '' Ib, 395, and for sentence see infra App. H. Date April 1, 304.

144 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Or turn to the misunderstandings and persecutions
to which Christians were exposed in the home itself.
The Roman familia was scarcely the modern English^
family; it was a little world of its own, the head
of which had autocratic powers jealously guarded
by the law from autocratic interference. The reault^'
as in modern India, was inevitable. Unfortunately,
we possesa no reeorda giving ua an account in any
detail of the experiencea of a convert in a heathen
home of the old world. Lanciani has published an
inscription of the second century written on the tomb
of a daughter, of whom the father says : ' She was
a pagan among pagans, a believer among believers.' '
Between the lines we can read much; the child of
a mixed marriage doing her best to live in peace^
in a home where the father was a heathen, the
mother a Christian. Justin Martyr also tells a tale,
in many of its details, probably, characteristic of the
times.'' A woman after her conversion sought to
purify her own life and that of her licentious
husband. Finding this laat to be imposaible, ahe
determined to separate from him, and sought a
divorce. In revenge the husband denounced his wife
and her 'teacher,' ' Ptolemy, as Christians.* Ptolemy
» Lanciani FOB 15-6.
" Justin M. II Apol. 2; also in Ruinart AM 53, and Euseb. HE
iv 17. Date between 155-160 (see Aub^: St. Justin 68 ff.). On the
legal question involved in this dowry, see Roby Boman Private Law
(1902) i 142-5.
' SiScJo-KoXoj, i.e, one of the order of "teachers," on whom see
Lindsay Oh. and Ministry 103 ff., or Allen Christian Instils. 55, 57.
? Cf. the case of Claudius Herminianus in Cappadocia, who, on

THE CAUSES DP HATRED 145
was 'questioned on this sole point,' and on his
confesaion waa led away to death. The wife, how
ever, escaped, by the subtlety of her lawyers. They
persuaded her to appeal to the emperor for time ' to
settle her affairs,' before making answer on thia
capital charge. This was granted. But such a
settlement involved the restoration by the spend
thrift husband of the dowry of hia wife. As the
husband could not find the money, he took care not
to present himself in court. In the absence of
accuser the charge fell to the ground, in accordance
with the decision of Hadrian. (Infra p. 218.)
For the Christian wife, confiict with her heathen
husband ' would be accentuated by the arrival of the
first baby. No woman who had worshipped the Child
of Bethlehem could ever allow to go unchallenged the
patria potestas, the right of the father to decide
which of his children should be permitted to live,
and which should be cast into the street, or exposed
on the Island in the Tiber. 'If it proves a girl,'
writes a father in Alexandria to his expectant wife,
' throw it out.' ^ As to this and other evil practices
sanctioned by a home-life in many respects elevated
and pure the issue waa clear. But our sympathies
his wife becoming a Christian, cruelly persecuted the Christians in
his province. Tert. ad Saap. 3.
' In the case of a Christian marrying a heathen a difficulty
would arise over the marriage itself. It would have to be by
co&faptio. On this legal question, see Roby o.o. i 69-71.
' Grenfell and Hunt Oxyr. Papyri iv 744. With this contrast
Lactantius Intlit. vi 20, Justin I Apol. 27. Por the Church and the
care of foundlings, see Allard Les Esolaves Chretiens iii c. 2. Ii

146 PERSECUTION IN THE EAELY CHUECH
are less assured in other matters, for instance,
TertuUian's portrait of a Christian wife who has at
her side a servant of the devil — this is his pleasant
name for her husband. The man, he says, ia sure
to be auch a brute that if it is a fast day he will
' arrange to hold a feast the same day.' He will
further prove his allegiance to Satan by taking it
ill that his wife
' for the sake of visiting the brethren goes round from street to street
to other men's cottages, especially those of the poor. ... He -will not
allow her to be absent all night long at nocturnal convocations and
paschal solemnities ... or suffer her to creep into prison to kiss a
martyr's bonds, or even to exchange a kiss with one of the brethren,'
After this it is a little matter that her signing ' her
bed and her body with the Cross ' will arouse his
suspicions. If the fellow endures hia wife and her
ways at all it will simply be because of her dowry,
or that he may make her his slave by hia threats
of dragging her before the executioner.' We can
hardly believe that all pagan husbands were brutes,
or all Christian wives so lacking at times in discre
tion. But, at the best, the situation in a mixed-
marriage was difficult, almost impossible, as Tertul
lian, in spite of his extravagance, rightly saw.
The difficulties of the Christian in a pagan home
did not cease with hie death. Should he be buried ,
with pagan rites and inscriptions, amid his pagan,
relatives, or should he lie apart ? The matter of the
• Tert, ad Uxor, ii 4, 5. The whole book deals with the matter
of mixed marriages. Cf. also ib. Apol. 3 and Arnobius adv. Gent.
ii 5 (divorce of Christian wives).

THE CAUSES OP HATRED 147
inscription waa not of much importance ; it was not
well for the Christian to advertise his religion too
prominently on his tomb. Many, in fact, inserted
the customary pagan formula D.M. (Dis Manibus),
probably without clear idea of ita meaning.' In many
cases the epitaphs and signs are ambiguous.^ But
the question of the separate tomb is of more moment.
The early Christians rightly laid stress on burial
among the brethren. This, however, involved the
exclusion of pagans. Hence husbands lie apart from
their wives, children from their parents. In one caser
permission is actually given in an epitaph for two
husbands to be buried with their wivea, provided they
become converts.'
As regards one cauae of offence the heathen cer
tainly had justice on their side. In 220 Callistus, who-'
had risen from a slave to be the pope, unfortunately
declared that henceforth the Church would sanction
that a girl of high position should give her hand to
a freedman, careless of the fact that such a union'^
could not possibly be a legal marriage. The plea of
Callistus, that Christian girls of noble rank far out
numbered young men in the Church of the aame
poaition — 'a rich unmarried man in the houae of
God it ia difficult to find,' owns Tertullian — can
» Ramsay CBP i. 523 ; Le Blant ICG i 490. The original idea of
the Di Manes was the deification or apotheosis of the dead, i.e. ancestor
worship ; Ramsay CBP i 100. Hence the sanctity of the graves ; on
which see infra p. 258.
' Ramsay OBF i 502.
' Ramsay CBP i. 531. For instances of this family separation, see
ib. i 536.

148 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
hardly justify this daring defiance of public opinion.'
Ita effect, all questions of morality apart, was to open
the door to the many abuses of an ecclesiastical as
distinct from a civil law of marriage. In matters
like these we see aome of the reaeona for the dislike
and persecution of the Church.

IV
We pass on to the consideration of two minor
causes of heathen hatred. As regards both the
student should beware of exaggeration. But in some
quarters they would have importance.
The first of these was the Christian conception
of property. We do not allude to the communism
which at first prevailed at Jerusalem. Too much
importance has been attached to an experiment, soon
abandoned, at no time so completely developed as
among the Jewish sects of Essenes and Therapeutae.
Communism in the Church, uuder the guise of
' Public opinion, contrary to the case of a deceased wife's sister
to-day, was undoubtedly hostile, as we may see from the Constantine
legislation (infra). Por this decree of Callistus see Hippolytus
Philos. ix 12. The highly coloured additions may be discounted as due
to H.'s hatred of C. or a transference of what Tertullian says about the
Gentiles. The idea that Callistus sanctioned marriage with slaves
(Hippolytus, it is true, speaks of it in less honourable terms) is pre
posterous. By the decree of Claudius a woman doing this became a
slave. Constantine changed this into the death penalty, and the slave
to the flre (Codex Justinianus ix 1 1, Ed. Krueger, p. 377). Tertullian ad
Uxor, ii 8 shows that Callistus only sanctioned a practice already
prevalent, of which Tertullian approves. The LP (Duchesne) does not
mention the matter. The Apostolic Constitutions viii 32 are clearly
opposed to the idea, but the date (espec. of bk, viii) is too uncertain.

THE CAUSES OP HATRED 149
Monasticism, did not become a power until the age
of persecution was past. Nor do we refer to the
hostility of vested interests, though undoubtedly at
all times this would be a serious factor.' We allude \
rather to the completely altered conception that
Christianity must have effected in its disciples aa
regarda property in alaves. No doubt Harnack is
right when he claims that no "alave queation" in''
the modern sense of the word occupied the early
Church.^ In the Kingdom of God, as in the realm
of nature, slow development is the law of life. In the
case of au institution so interwoven with the whole
social fabric as was slavery this was inevitable.
Though in his Epistle to Philemon the word eman
cipation is always trembling on the lips of St. Paul,
he never quite uttera it, while it took the Church
centuriea to rise to the noble ideal of the great
apostle.' Christians throughout, the era of persecu
tion held slaves, as other men, and as the Jews had
done before them, and were troubled by no stings
• Acts xvi, xix ; Pliny's letter infra p. 209, re market for fodder.
' Harnack EC i 207, who, however, does not do St. Paul justice.
Still it is true that in his earlier days St. Paul's attitude towards
slavery was less pronounced (I Cor. vii 21, on which difficult passage
see Lightf. Phil. 324, n., or Edwards in loc), perhaps because of his
early parousian ideas, than in his Ep. Philemon. St. Peter also in his
epistle (I Peter ii 18, which is far stronger than Eph. vi 5-9, Ool.
iii 22) shows no consciousness of a slave question even in the case of
bad masters. The matter of slavery only indirectly touches my theme.
The student will find the best guide to the subject in Wallon Histoire
d'Esolavagedans I'Antiquite (Paxie, 2nded. 1879, 3 vols.), or Allard ieg
Esclaves Chretiens (Paris, 1876) (this last not always critical).
' Lightf, Phil. 323. The Church of the fourth century had a
strong bias against St. Paul's Philemon (Lightf. o.c. 316).

150 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
of conscience.' But every Christian who knew any
thing of the religion he professed must have recog
nized that with Jesus legal rights ^ are strictly limited
by the higher law of love. The code, for instance,
refused to recognize the marriage of slavee ; the
Chriatian maeter could not content himself with
mere cohabitation (contubernium), unblessed by
the Church, dissoluble at will.' Slavery might be
necessary; nevertheless, pleads Clement of Alex
andria, ' slaves are men like ourselves,' to whom the
Golden Rule applies.* To the same effect was the
* Athenagoras Flea 35, 'And yet we have slaves, some more and
some fewer.' Tatian adv. Grace. 4 looks on slavery as a species of
tribute. Ign. Polye. 4 urges slaves 'not to desire to be set free at
the public cost.' That this, however, was frequent among the Christians,
see Apostol. Constit. iv 9. But ib. iv 12 shows that slavery, was not
considered unnatural. See also Tert. de Cor. 13, who seems to consider
the question as academic ; Lactantius Instit. v 16 ; Tatian o.o. 11. For
the Fathers and slavery, see Wallon o.o. iii c. 8, and for the Church
and enfranchisement ib. iii c. 9, or Allard o.o. Bk ii co. 1 and 2. The
tales of wholesale liberation of slaves at baptisms (e.g. A.S8 May i 371 ;
Jan. ii 275) are either myths or belong to a later date. See list in
Allard o.c. 336, who accepts them. There was, in fact, much to be
said against wholesale liberation. What was the freed slave to do in a
country where free labour scarcely existed? Especially would it have
been cruel in the case of women slaves. "A freed- woman-slave and a
courtesan are synonyms iu Latin. The same word, libertina, serves
for both" (Allard o.c. 179).
' By Roman law the slave had no rights. Dig. iv 5, 3, ' servile
caput nullum jus habet,' and fully, Wallon o.c. ii o 5.
3 For the marriage of slaves in Eoman law, see a brutal illustration
in Marcian Dig. xxx 121, dealing with a sale ('ventrem cum
liberis '). See also Gaius ib. xx 1, 15, and Wallon o.e. ii 206-7 ; and
for Christianity and the marriage of slaves, Allard o.o. lii c 4 ; Wallon
0,0, iii 531,
* Clem. Faed. iii 12, with which compare Juvenal Sat. vi 219-23.
' Pone crucem servo, . . . O demens, ita servus homo est ! nil fecerit.

THB CAUSES OP HATEED 151
reply of Lactantius ' to those who pointed out that
the Christians possessed slaves : ' Slaves are not
slaves to us. We deem them brothers after the
spirit, in religion feUow-servants.' A confirmation
of this may be found in the fact pointed out by de
Rossi that the inscription ' slave ' is never met with
in the catacombs, though nothing is more common
on the tombs of heathen.^ .
Moreover, from the first the Church claimed to^
ordain slaves as deacons, priests, and bishops, a
revolution, silent, unheralded, the full effect of which
it is difficult to exaggerate.' Hitherto a alave had
been a thing, acarcely human. * Implementa,' writea
Varro, * are of three kinda ; vocal, including slaves,
semi-vocal, e.g. oxen, and dumb, for instance ploughs.' *
esto ; Hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas.' Clement of
Alexandria, in his humane views, represents not only the effect of
Christianity, but of philosophy. The more humane treatment of
slaves was largely due to Stoic teaching. See Wallon 0,0, iii cc.
1 and 2, for the influence of philosophy upon Roman legislation.
» Instit.ylG.
2 Allard 0.0. 236-7. See Le Blant lOG i 119-20 for the rare
exceptions in Gaul. The matter cannot be as accidental as Hamack
EC i 208, n,, hints.
' In addition to Callistus, we have the case of Pius, Bishop of Bome,
140-155 (Duchesne LP i 132 n, 4), who appears to have been a slave,
i,e. if he was the brother of Hermas, the author of the Shepherd (see
Muratorian fragment in Westcott Canon N.T. 537 and infra p. 220).
Pliny's deaconesses were also slaves {infra p. 211 n,). Before ordination
to the priesthood slaves had to be freed. See Apost. Constit. viii 82,
and the 80th canon of the Synod of Elvira (c. 300) 'ut liberti,
quorum pafroni in seculo fuerint' ("freedmen whose owners are stUl
alive," Dale 8E 80, 339). For the history of slaves and the priest
hood, see Allard o.e. 225-35.
* Varro de Be rust, i 17, 1.

152 PERSECUTION IN THE EAELY CHUECH
Now, in the language of a growing sacerdotalism,
thia ' implement,' that could be bought on the market
for less than £20,' could become the successor of the
Apostles, or, in the words of Ignatius, the represen
tative of the Lord Himself. That Callistus, Bishop
of Rome, had been a slave, whatever be the truth, or
otherwise, as to his faults, marks a new era in the
history of humanity not without its parallel in th^-'
case of Epictetus, the slave-apostle of Stoicism. But
this higher law of love, this conception of the slave
not only as a brother in Christ Jeaua, who sat aide
by side at the same agap6, or partook of the same
loaf and cup at the Lord's Supper, but as a leader in
the Church, responsible to God for the souls of his
flock, could hardly fail to arouse suapicion and mis
understanding. Roman governors, conacioua of the
vast alave populations, were ever anxious lest there
should be a servile outbreak. Heathen legatees
would scarcely view with approval a familia which
they found leavened through and through with the
freedom of Christ. In a few instances also the new
doctrines might lead to the alterationa of wills, and
the bequeathing of slaves out of the family to members
of the aame Church. In any caee the master, of
whom Tertullian tells us, who, directly that he heard
that his slave had become a Christian, sent him to
the dreaded ergastulum, or slaves' work-prison, would
not be alone in his fear or cruelty.^
' For the prices of slaves, see two chapters in Wallon, or, briefly,
Allard 0,0. 16. An ordinary female slave, e.g. Blandina, was worth £8.
' Tert. ad Nat. 4 ; cf. Arnobius ii 5. As an illustration of how

THE CAUSES OP HATEED 153
Nor can there be reaaonable doubt tbat the early
Church, apart altogether from questions of slavery,
was saturated through and through with Ebionite
conceptions. In some writers poverty was as much
the essential mark of the Christian aa it afterwards,
became of the spiritual Franciscans.' Wealth was one
of the things of the world which it was the Christian's
busineaa to renounce, though, alas, complete renun
ciation could only be achieved by the few. For the
higher orders of the ministry, however, poverty waa
considered absolutely essential.'' All thia would lend
colour to the charge of anarchism under which, aa
we have seen, the Christians were condemned.
A further cause of suspicion, not, it is true, of
much importance, would be found in the viewa of
many Christians as to the fate of the world, including
their neighbours.' The Church in the second century
Christianity would work in this matter, take the case of Sabina, who
fled from her mistress to the deacon Pionius of Smyrna, and to avoid
detection changed her name, on Pionius' advice, to Theodot^ (Gebhardt
AMS 103).
' E.g. Hermas Shep. S. i ; ix 20. (The plea that this was the
work of a Christian slave of Gnostic tendencies is counterbalanced by
its wide acceptance by all ranks in the Church. See infra pp. 220
and 154 n. 3.) See also Lucian FF 13.
' Didache xi 4-6 (cf. Matt, x) ; Euseb. HE iii 37.
" IUustrations are too numerous to quote. The following are
amongst the most striking : Justin M. II Apol. cc. 7, 9 ; SibyUine
Oracles viii 55 ff. (most important); Cyprian ad Demet. 22 ; Tertullian
passim, e.g. de Spectao. 30 ; Apol. 42 ; de Idol. 13 ; Lactantius Instit,
Div. vii 15 ff. ; Minuc. Felix Oct. 35. Our Lord's warning as to the
tower of Siloam was often forgotten. Cf. Tert. ad Scap, 3, and
especially Lactantius De mort. Persecutorum passim ; and see Eenan
EC 298, n.
The existing parousian literature in my judgement is but a

154 PEESECUTION IN THE EAELY CHUECH
believed that the world lay in the grip of the Evil One,
and that it was fast hastening to its doom of ' bloo(^
and fire.' ' The Christian watchword was still, as in^-
the first century, Maran Atha, "the Lord is at
hand." ^ Their wandering ' prophets ' ' — an order in.
the Church which died out after the second century,
to reappear in sundry forms in modern Nonconformity
— made this theme, in especial, the basis of their
sermons. Many seem to have gloried (at least that
waa the impreasion produced upon the heathen) in
the retribution so speedily to come upon the world.
No doubt some of their utterances — illustrations may
be found in the Christian Sibylline Oracles — were as
indiscreet as have been the utterances on this matter

fraction of that which existed in the second century, before the
discredit of the order of " prophets." This the Church gladly allowed
to become lost when it made the discovery that the early Millenarian
theology was not correct in fact. Of such literature, perhaps the most
striking is the " chaotic wilderness " of the Jewish-Christian Sibylline
Oracles, which Celsus (Orig. Oels. vii 53, 56) charged the Christians
with forging or interpolating. In part, these are undoubtedly
Christian, e.g. books vi, vii, viii (in viii 217 ff, there is the acrostic
ixfluj), and possibly i, ii, xi-xiv. Others are Jewish. Best eds.
Alexandre (Paris, 1841-56, or 2nd ed. 1869, with excursuses omitted,
or Friedlieb, 1852). Best of all is the new edition by Geffcken,
Leipzig, 1902. See also Schurer JPC iii (2) 271-292, The Christian
Sibyl still lives in Thomas of Celano's famous line, ' Teste Da-vid
cum Sibylla,' "See fulfilled the prophet's warning." Eead also
August. Civ. Dei xviii 23.
' Herm. Shep. V, iv, 3 (the whole of this Vision should be read).
= Didache X 6. Cf. infra pp. 232-3,
3 For "prophets" the student should consult Lindsay Qi. and
Ministry 90 ff, ; Harnack Ency. Brit, xix 822; Allen Christian
Instils. 54 ff. DB i 434 ff,, EB 3883 ff,, or Selwyn Chnstian Prophets,
1900. Montanism was really the protest against their suppression.

THE CAUSES OP HATRED 155
of fanatics in later ages.' Celsus, for instance,
naturally complains of the —
'many who roam like tramps through cities and camps . . . and
commit to everlasting fire cities and lands and their inhabitants
. . . mixing up their mighty threats with half-crazy and perfectly
senseless words, which every fool applies to suit his own purpose.' ^
Impostors, from whom the Church in every century
has suffered many things, were foremost, aa was
natural, in these exaggerations and half truths. We
see thia in the case of Proteus Peregrinus, who seems
to have passed aa a ' prophet.' ' By these impostora,
too often beggara in dieguiee, would the Church be
judged by outsiders, as it was by Lucian and Celsus.
The effect of this preaching of retribution by
means of terrific images regarded as actual realities
would vary with different classes. The cultured, whose
ideal waa that of Vergil : ' Happy the man who has
placed beneath his feet fears and inexorable fate and
the roar of greedy Hell,' * would look on it with loath
ing, as a return to those horrors of superstition from
which Lucretius had sought td deliver mankind by
means of his great sceptical poem. ' The Crucified,'
' Cf. Milman Xty. ii 125, "these dangerous and injudicious
effusions of zeal," &c.
' Orig. Cels. vii 9, 11 ; a very important passage, In ib. iii 16
Celsus charges the Christians with ' inventing terrors.'
' The Didache c xi (cf . I John iv 1-3) supplies tests for impostor
prophets, which shows how common they were in the early second
century. 'No prophet when he ordereth a meal (rpdire^av) in the
spirit shall eat of it ; otherwise he is a false prophet,' &c. Prophets
who settled down in a place were to be supported with the flrst of
a baking of bread, of a jar of oil or wine, &c. (ib. c. xiii).
* Georg. ii 490-2.

156 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
they aaid, 'repela all gladness "—' Tantum religio
potuit auadere malorum.' The followers of Epicurus,
with their profound belief in a morningless and un-
awakening sleep, would disdain teacher and teaching
alike. Said Tertullian :
' We get ourselves laughed at for proclaiming that God -will one
day judge the world, though, like us, poets and philosophers set up a
judgement-seat in the world below. And if we threaten Gehenna, a
reservoir of secret fire under the earth for purposes of punishment, we
have derision heaped upon ub' (Apol. 47).
To the vulgar the dread of Tartarus, ' with its vistas
of rivers of fire and stygian cliffs ... of spectres
moving at us with terrible faces,' was atill a living
reality; and the preaching of the Christiana was
not without ita reaults. But, broadly speaking,-
the gloomy Millenarianism of much second-century
Christianity could not fail to arouse hatred and
suapicion. Nor would it lessen the offence that th^
doom of the heathen would usher in the reign of the
saints, 'the coming age in which the elect of God
ahall dwell.' 2
' Ruinart AM 75, case of Epipodius and Alexander at Lyons in
178. Framework genuine. Cf. Plutarch lforai!ia§ 166. In a Phrygian
inscription an Epicurean calls the Christian -views 'death in life'
(Ramsay CBP i 477). Cf. Irenaeus' fragment quoted by John of
Damascus Parattela, 'The business of the Christian is to be ever
preparing to die ' (Migne PG vii 1234).
' Hermas Shep. V iv 3. The Shepherd is one of the great books of
the ' prophets.' Possibly also the Apocalypse.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 157

A more important cause of popular hatred lay in -
the misunderstanding of the nature of certain Chris
tian rites and ceremonies. " The conviction," writes
Mommsen,"that the Christian conventicles were orgies of lewdness, and recep
tacles of every crime, got hold on tbe popular mind with all the terrible
vehemence of an aversion that resists all arguments and heeds not
refutation." In part these charges were due to Christian secrecy, ~
a necessary result of the aloofness or renunciation
which underlay their faith. Of this secrecy or aloof
ness, and the jealousy mth which it was guarded,
we have an extreme instance, if Chrysostom is to
be trusted, in the case of Babylas of Antioch, who
endured martyrdom rather than allow the Emperor
Decius to intrude upon the privacy of hia congrega
tion.' We need not be surprised at the result. That
which is secret, as Caecilius pointed out to Minucius
Felix, alwaya liea under the auapicion of being the
abominable.^ In part, also, the charges were due to the
' This story (A.S8 Sept. iv 439), though very doubtful (see Lightf.
Ign. i 40, n., and Euseb. HE vi 34, who refers it to his compelling the
Emperor Philip to penitence, see infra p. 242) is at least a proof of
" tendency " in the Church. For his date see infra p. 329. The case
of Tarsioius (temp. Valerian), a young acolyte who was carrying the
Sacrament to some confessors, and who was slain by the soldiera
because he would not reveal his burden, is more historical (Damasus
in Migne PL xiii 392, Northcote BS i 153).
2 These tales were largely due to the Jews (supra, p. 119, n.). But
they were widely held, e.g. by Pronto of Cirta, the tutor of Marcus

158 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
misunderstanding or distortion of Christian phrases.
The " kiss of peace " which St. Paul had instituted,
and which long continued a factor in the life of the
Western Church, both lent itself to licentious inter
pretations, and, as Clement of Alexandria owns, was
put to wrong usee by some who ' do nothing but make
the Church reeound with their kisses.' ' See how
these Christians love one another' may have been
originally the sarcasm of impure minds upon theee
' unholy kisses, full of poison, counterfeiting sanctity,'
wrested by Tertullian to a nobler use.' The evening
agapes — the title itself waa suspicious — were twisted
Aurelius. See Minuc. Felix Oct. 9, 31, and cf. 10 ('why do they
conceal whatever they worship '), 28, 30.
For the charges against Christians of impurity, cannibalism, &c., in
addition to the above, see Justin M. Dial c. Tryph. 10, 17, 108; lApol.
26; II Apol. 12, 13; Tert. Apol. 2, 4, 7, 8, 39; Athenagoras Plea 3,
with which compare the identical charges brought against the Chris
tians at Lyons (Euseb. HE v i) ; Basilides in Clem. Alex. Strom, iv 12.
Possibly also Apuleius Metam. ix. 14 hints at the same thing.
Some have considered the title of genus tertium applied to the
Christians (infra, p. 190, n.) to refer to their supposed unnatural lusts.
But on this see Hamack EC i 347, n., who rightly rejects the idea. I
incline to regard all these stories as originating in primitive cidts
and folk-lore. The triumph of Christianity merely transferred them to
other objects. See e.g. Inquisition in M.A. iii c, 7 on " The Sabbat " for
reproduction in mediaeval times. From Apuleius Metam. viii co. 27, 28
we see that the heathen merely shouldered upon the Christians some
of the moral horrors of the day that lingered on in ruder districts.
' Tert. Apol. 39. For the "kiss" and its dangers see Justin I
Apol. 65 (precedes the Eucharist) ; Clem. Alex. Faed. iii 11 end ;
Athenag. Pha 32 (source of his quotation unknown) ; Orig. in Bom.
X 33. According to Tert. de Orat. 18 it was a part of all common
prayer. It is still in use in the Greek Church. There is, as it were,
the rudimentary organ in the Anglican Liturgy in the words " Peace be
with you," which immediately preceded the kiss (see Apost. Constit.
viii 11). See also Duchesne Christian Worship (E.T.) 211 ff.

THE CAUSES OF HATEED 159
into scenes of unbridled lust, at which ' the dogs, our
friends forsooth ! overturn the lamps, and obtain for
us the shamelessness of darkness.' ' Three things,'
writes Athenagoras, • are alleged against us : Atheism,
Thyestean feasts, Oedipodean intercourse,' — in other
words, cannibalism and incest — ' If theae thinga are
true, apare none of ua.' And becauee the people
thought they were true they epared but few when
the fury seized them.
The charge of cannibalism was the result of a
misunderstanding of the Christian Sacraments. The
carrying of infants to the houee of prayer to obtain
Baptism was twisted, as in the caee of the Jewe in
the Middle Agea, into a horrible design, mixed up in
popular imagination with the Eucharist, the bread of
which was supposed to be used ' to collect the gushing
blood ' of the babes. For us the language of the
Lord's Supper, hallowed by nineteen hundred yeara
of association, has lost its original and startling
daring. 'Except ye eat My flesh and drink My
blood, ye have no life in yourselvee ' would sound
more than strange to heathen ears. To Porphyry,
by no means an unfair critic, it seemed
' trivial and absurd, surpassing all absurdity and trivial coarseness, for
a man to eat human flesh and drink the blood of his fellow-tribesman
or relative, and thereby win eternal life. Tell me what greater coarse
ness could you introduce into life, if you practise that habit ? What
crime will you start more accursed than this loathsome profligacy ?
[Then follows Thyestes and his meals, &c,, the Scythians, who eat lice,
but are not cannibals, &c. Porphyry continues] What, then, does this
saying mean ? For even though it were meant to be taken in a mystical
or allegorical sense, still the mere sound of the words grates inevitably

160 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
on the soul and makes it rebel against a loathsome saying . . . un
suitable and alien to the habits of a noble life.' '
The Christian apologist might have pleaded that
other religions had their myateries and yet eacaped
peraecution. Suspicion in the case of all mysteries
was inevitable, in fact, one of the charms which made
initiation so sought after by a blas^ aociety. The
worahip of Cybele and Mithra, for inetance, had its
taurobolium. To the Fathers of the Church this
seemed a travesty of the Cross ; ^ but in its origin it
goes back to times before Calvary. The rite took
place, as a rule, in early spring, and was often
prolonged for two or three days. Only seventeen
years before the massacre of the Chrietiane at Lyons
(177) there had been a great taurobolium at thia
capital of Gaul, the record of which is still preserved
for us.' The ceremony was superintended by the
magistrates, and attended by a vast crowd of people.
With many solemn forms the consecrated bull was
lifted on to a platform and slaughtered. Meanwhile
the devotees were placed in a trench beneath, that
they might bathe in the streams of blood and thus
obtain strength and purification. The effect of this
sacrament waa auppoaed to laet for twenty yeara
> Porphyry, Hierocles (infra p. 268), or whoever is the sceptic, in
Macarius Magnes aljjoon'Mco. iii 15. (See DCB iii 767.) Celsus, who
attacked Christianity more from the outside, does not seem to have
dwelt on this.
' Tert. de Praesoript 40. . ,
' Discovered at Fourvifere (Lyons) in 1704. See plates in Duruy
HB V 166, 704. Note how the flrst line shows the taurobolium
legalized by association with the Great Mother.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 161
without the need of renewal. The devotee who died
in the interval could engrave on his tomb the record
of his cleansing in the phrase, whose claims so stirred
the wrath of the Christians, renatus in ceternum, ' born
again to eternal life.' '
The taurobolium was a costly public function avail
able only for the few. But there were other mysteries
secret in their nature,^ attempts to lift the veil of Isis,
to penetrate by strange symbols and ritea into the
inner eecret of Pantheism. ' What I saw there,'
writes one of these initiates, Apuleius, who for once
ceases to be a mere sensualist —
' I would tell if it were lawful ... I trode the confines of death and
the threshold of Proserpine. I was swept round all the elements and
returned. I beheld the sun at midnight shining with purest radiance.
Gods of heaven and gods of hell I I saw you face to face and adored
in presence.' '
But Mithraism, the worship of Isis, and other
religions had all taken steps, as we have seen, to
avoid persecution. The mysteries of the Christians^
on the other hand, were the secrets of men who would
not stoop to secure either official aaiiction or popular
support, but who yet, by the very necessities of their
religion and its mission, were aggressive, perhaps at
times imprudent, enthusiasts. /
This imprudent aggression especially manifested
itself in frequent 'atheistic' attacks upon heathen
' See instances of this phrase in lie Blant ICG ii 71-2.
" Cf. Tert. de Cor. 15 ; Justin Dial. Tryph. 70 ; I Apol. 66, There
is a curious account of one in Orig, CeU. vi 22. For the mysteries
themselves, see Cumont TM i 320 ff., 334-5.
' See Apuleius Metam. xi'cc, 11, 24. M

162 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
temples and ritual, in themselves sufficient explana
tion of the persecuting fury of the mob. ' If you will
give me leave,' eaid Symphorian of Autun to the
judge, ' I should like to smash this image of a devil
with a mallet.' ' In spite of the official discourage
ment of the Church,'' the spirit of Symphorian
animated the more stalwart of its adherents. A few
illustrations will show how this issued in martyrdom.
We may take the case of Leo of Patara, an aged
ascetic of Asia Minor, whose friend Paregorius had
suffered death in the persecution of Decius.
' Now it happened in those days that the proconsul Lollianus
came to Patara and celebrated the feast of Serapis, taking occasion
against the Christians and compelling all to sacrifice to idols. And
when many were hastening to the temple Leo withdrew in indignation
to the place where rested the bones of the blessed martyr Paregorius.
There he poured out his wonted supplications and returned home,
wrapped in the thought of the glorious deeds of his friend. After a
while he fell asleep and dreamed a dream. He thought that he saw a
mighty storm, and a raging torrent, with Paregorius and himself in
the midst of the fioods, for he found it not difficult to reach Paregorius,
When he awoke he set out at once for the burial-place of his friend,
nor would he choose a quiet road, but the one which lay through the
midst of the market. And when he came to the temple (of Fortune)
and saw the lanterns and tapers burning before the shrine, he tore
down tho lanterns with his hands, and trampled the tapers beneath
his feet, crying out the while : " If you think the gods have any power
let them defend themselves." '
' AM 79 ff. ; about a.d. 179, probably on Aug. 22. The framework
seems genuine (Conybeare MEO 12-13, Duchesne FEG ii 153, as
against Aub^ FE 387). The persecution was a backwash of that at
Lyons in 177,
' Synod of Elvira canon 60 (see infra p. 180 n.). For the effect of
these mockeries on heathen, see Orig. Cels. -vii 62, viii 38, 41 ; Minuc.
Felix Oct. 8. For illustrations cf. Prudentius Feristeph. iii 126 f. ;
Conybeare MEO 197.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 163
The inevitable result followed. On his return to
the city — for the outrage would seem to have taken
place very early in the morning — Leo was arrested.
To the charges brought against him Leo's only answer
was a somewhat irrelevant lecture to the judge on
the doctrines of Christianity. Taking pity on his
white hairs, Lollianus offered to forgo the act of
sacrifice if only Leo would repeat after him the words,
"Great are the gods." 'Yes,' replied the old man,
' great in deetroying the eoula of those who believe in
them.' At length the patience of Lollianus gave
way. He sentenced Leo to be dragged to the top of
a high rock and pitched into the torrent which flowed
through the town. ' But that brave athlete of Christ,'
worn out with the lashings, died on the way.'
Even when innocent of actual outrage on the .
temples or rites the Christians at times acted almost
as indiscreetly. We may instance Romanus, a deacon-'
and exorcist of Antioch, who tried to stop a heathen
proceaaion. For this he was condemned by Galerius
to lose his tongue (Nov. 17, 303).^
The case of Theodore the Tiro or recruit, aympa-
thetically related for ue by Gregory of Nyesa,' was of
' Ruinart AM 545-8. Date unknown, probably persecution of
Valerian (see Healy VF 248 n.). His day (Feb. 18) is a mere
confusion with that of Pope Leo the Great. From AM 547 we see
the Jews were to the front in securing his condemnation.
' Euseb. MP 2 ; Mason DP 188.
" Gregory Nyssa Oratio de Theodoro Martyre Opera in Migne PG
iii 735-48, delivered at the opening of his magnificent memorial at
Euchaites, I do not believe Gregory's statement about the bribes
offered the incendiary by the judges, 'nobility, priesthood,' &c,
Roman governors were not made of this stuff. The statement is on a

164 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
a more daring order. Arrested for his Christianity,
he was brought before the authorities of Amasea, the
capital of Pontus. When asked why he would not
sacrifice, the rough enthusiast replied —
' I know nothing of your gods. They don't exist. You are wrong in
calling seducing impostors of devils by the name of gods. My God is
Christ, the only begotten Son of God.'
An officer with a reputation for wit mockingly asked
him : ' How ia it, Theodore, your God haa a Son ? '
Theodore replied by a quotation from hie Catechiem,
that would be perfectly unintelligible to the by-
standers, then happily retorted upon his questioner
by asking him about the favourite cult of Amasea,
the worship of the Great Mother. The authorities,
pleased with hia readiness, gave him a little time for
'reconsidering his insanity.' Theodore used his
reprieve for a different purpose. That night he aet
on fire the temple of the Great Mother. Building and
atatue were alike reduced to ashes. Theodore made
no attempt to escape, but boldly proclaimed the deed.
His defence before the magistrates was an impossible
assertion of the individualistic standpoint. He was
condemned to be burnt, and ' so passed to God by a
par with Gregory's description of the angels tbat visited his cell
during the night. His great popularity (see Mosohus Pratum
Spirituale 180 in Migne PL Ixxiv 211) was due to the fact that \his
memorial at Euchaites was opened just after a threatened invasion of
Scythians into Pontus had. been averted, as it was thought, by his
prayers. In 1256 the Venetians brought his body to Venice. This
record will serve as a fair specimen of hagiology (cf. Conybeare MEO
220, DCB iv 956, aud Ruinart AM 480 ff., who, however, gives not
the Greek but only a Latin translation of Gregory). Date 308 : see
Mason FD 284 n.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 165
splendid road,' singing as he went : " I will bless the
Lord at all times ; His praise shall continually be in
my mouth."

VI
The governing classes persecuted Christianity n
because they saw clearly its political danger; the
lower classes had an intense hatred for the new
religion, because it was a thing apart. The two-'
causes were in reality one ; ignorance and imperial
ism were united in their hatred of the individualistic
spirit. 'The language of sedition,' said Celsus, 'is
only used by those who separate and stand aloof
from the society of their fellows.'' The Christians"
were a peculiar people, with peculiar views of their '
own. Though, unlike the philosophers, they wore no
distinctive garb — unless, indeed, absence of ostenta
tion be counted a garb ^ — in this world, they were yet
not of the world. 'We are supposed,' writes Ter
tullian, 'to live aloof from crowds.'' Their oppo
nents, it ia true, phrased the matter differently : ' a
people who skulk and shun the light of day, silent in
public, but garrulous in their holes and corners ; '
' people who separate themselves and break away from"
' Orig. Cels. viii 2.
' Clem. Alex. Paed. ii 10-iii 3 ; iii 11. Tert. On the Dress of Women
passim. Justin, after his conversion, continued to wear the philoso
pher's napless cloak. So also Aristides (infra p. 216 and App. G).
' Tert. Apol. 31, ' licet extranei a turbis aestimemur ' mistranslated
in Clark's ANL as " we are not thought to be given to disorder."
For the charge of aloofness see also Tert. Apol'. 42 and infra p. 168.

166 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
the rest of mankind.' ' Their very titles among them
aelves were peculiar, a sign of this ' breaking away,'
a barbarous jargon of their own — ' little fish,' ' the
new-born,' 'the newly caught,' and the like.^ Nor
could the conscientious Christian save himself from
thrusting forward his peculiarities before a society
which had surrounded every act of life with pagan
ritual. For, as Milman has well put it :
" Paganism met him in" every form, in every quarter, in every act
and function of every day's business ; not merely in the graver offices
of the State, but in the civil and military acts of public men ; in the
senate which commenced its deliberations with sacrifice ; in the camp,
the centre of which was a consecrated temple. The Pagan's domestic
hearth was guarded by the Penates, or by the ancestral gods of his
family or tribe ; by land he travelled under the protection of one
tutelar divinity, by sea of .another ; the birth, the bridal, the funeral
had each its presiding deity ; tho very commonest household utensils
were cast in mythological forms; he could scarcely drink without
being reminded of libations to the gods ; and the language itself was
impregnated with constant allusions to the popular religion." '
That the "peculiarity" of Chriatianity exposed
its disciples to various persecutions needs no evi
dence. The same haa happened in every age and
clime, is happening to-day on every mission-field.
But when we pass from this general statement to par
ticulars, when we try to estimate the precise measure
' The heathen Caecilius in Minucius Felix Oct. 8.
2 'Pisciouli' (Tert. Bapt. 1,'we little fish are born in water'),
ve6<i>vToi, passim ; see also DCA ii 1385-6. veie-npoi (Ramsay BOP i
535). tpiKoBeoi (ib. i 554 n.). The love of religious enthusiasms for
new names that really form a sort of slang has always been remark
able. The little dictionary that Methodism has formed for itself is no
new thing.
' Milman i 427 and cf. Tert. de Spectao. o. 8 fin. Gibbon ii 16-18.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 167
of " peculiarity," and the precise effect of the spirit
of aloofness upon the daily life of the Church, we are
met with difficulties. Writers of diverse schools
have too often idealized the early Church, in forget
fulness of the exact parallel furnished by modern
work among the heathen. Then, as now, many*
Christians brought with them into their new religion
the habits and faults of their old life. Only the more
stalwart succeeded in disengaging themselves com
pletely from their pagan environment. The ordinary
converts did not, as a rule, alter the outward appear
ance of their lives ; nor did they, for that matter,
supply the martyrs with whoae reeorda we are deal
ing. But when we leave the unknown multitude of
average and probably eomewhat commonplace con
verts,' and turn to the leaders and teachers of the
Church, our perplexities are by no means at an end.
Even stalwarts must live, and to some extent confornl>
to the usages of society. Where to draw the line was
a matter of debate, upon which the Church was hope
lessly divided. Then, as now, there were two parties ;
the one, which for lack of a better term we may call
the Puritan, making up for the fewness of its numbers
by dogmatism and devotion ; the other, probably the
more cultured, certainly the more influential, but
hampered by the lack of logic and utterance so gene
rally characteristic of the via media. A few, if we
may judge from their writings, tried to belong to both
' For these average converts " who are not represented to us in
Christian literature, except when their errors have to be castigated,"
the best guide are sepulchral inscriptions, e.g. Ramsay CBP c. 12;
Le Blant ICG passim ; de Rossi ICUB passim.

168 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
parties, and to prove that there was really no differ
ence between the two views. Of these last the most
eloquent and persuasive is the anonymous author of
the well-known Epistle to Diognetus} The writer, in
an oft-quoted passage, pleads that
' Christians are not- distinguished from the rest of mankind either
in locality or in speech or in customs. Por they dwell not some
where in cities of their own, neither do they use some different
language, nor practise an extraordinary (irapdarmov) manner of life.
But while they dwell in cities of Greeks and barbarians, as the lot of
each is cast, and follow the native customs in dress, food, and the other
arrangements of life, yet the constitution of their own citizenship
which they set forth is marvellous, and confessedly contradicts
expectation. They dwell in their own countries, but only as
sojourners. They bear their share in all things as citizens, and they
endure all hardships as strangers. Every foreign country is a
fatherland to them, and every fatherland is foreign.'
' Ep. Diognetus c, 5. We owe the incomplete text of this Epistle
to a single 14th century MS, which perished in the burning of the
Strassburg library during the Franco-German war of 1870. This
letter was formerly ascribed to Justin Martyr, with whose works (e.g.
in the great edition of Otto 1876-80) it is usually bound up. In DCB
ii 163 the author is identified with a certain 'Ambrosius, a chief man
of Greece who became a Christian, and all his fellow-councUlors
raised a clamour against him.' To this Ambrose is attributed the
oration ad Grseoos formerly assigned to Justin, and which also was
only preserved in the same MS. as the Diognetus. Others have
conjectured that its author waa the Alexandrian Pantaenus, the master
of Clement (180-210), and in some respects its tone is not unlike
Clement's. The date is uncertain. The only Diognetus of fame was the paint
ing master who in 133 so infiuenced the lad afterwards the Emperor
Marcus Aurelius, This apology, for such it -virtually is, might well
be dedicated to him. In favour of this is the reference to the emperor
commissioning his son (c. 7), which may allude to either the adoption
of M. Aurelius by Antoninus Pius (147), or the association of
L. Aelius (161) or Commodus (176) in the empire by M. Aurelius.
But Hamack OAL i 516 incliiifeB to date not earlier than 240 and

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 169
This matter of the relation of the Christian to the
current life of his age is of such importance, not
merely for the study of martyrdom and renunciation
in general, but for the gaining a correct insight
into the inner life of the Church of the martyrs, that
we propose to examine it more fully. For in it
lay not the least of the causes of hatred and
persecution. ,
We may dismiss at once the extremists of both
types; those on the one hand whose laxity of con
viction or conduct defended even attendance at the
degrading public spectacles, quoting scripture to their
purpose,' and those who from extreme parousian
standpoints made life of any sort practically im
possible. The sincere Christian who tried to follow
the light, and yet act out hia part as citizen ana
to look with favour on the identification of its author with Ambrosius,
the friend of Origen (infra p. 241 n. 2).
I cannot concur in the praise which has been so abundantly
lavished on this Epistle (see especially Ep. Diognetus in DOB ii). It
seems to me too rhetorical to give us real information, while it suffers
from a tendency to combine contradictions and to sffeak of them as
one. The eloquent passage quoted is an illustration. Read from
the standpoint of to-day, it is splendid ; from the standpoint of the age
when it was written, it seems to me the use of language to conceal
difficulties. Another illustration will |be found in its doctrine of the
Atonement (see supra p. 1 17 n.). In his Fernley lecture on the Spiritual
Principle of the Atonement, p. 424, Mr, Scott Lidgett rightly points out
" that this epistle might stand with equal propriety at the head of the
so-called moral doctrines of the Atonement, and of those who look upon
it as a satisfaction for sin." But apologies rarely reveal the real
man. The writer is always thinking of his opponent.
' Pseudo-Cyprian (possibly Novatian) de Speotac. 1-2. They
pleaded David's dancing, &c. ; or (Tert. de Idol. 14) St. Paul's ' even
as I also please all men in all things' (I Cor. x 32-3).

170 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
neighbour found difficulties enough confront him,
without inventing the impasses of a rigid logic.
Logic in fact, then as now, rarely formed the final
arbiter by whose decision the affairs of life were
settled. We have an interesting illustration of this
in the names of the Christian. The martyrs perished
becauee they declined to eacrifice to gods whose very
names they bore — ApoUos, ApoUonius, Dionysius,
Hermas, Saturninus, Phoebe, and the like.' Not until
the age of persecution had ceased do Chriatian namea,
i.e. namea from the Old or New Teatament, for
instance Mary, begin to displace the old heathen
names. Even then Christians were more frequently
called by the name of some distinguished martyr,
whoae blood had washed it from ite original heathen
stain. In this matter "the general custom of the
world in which people were living proved stronger
than any refiections of their own."^ The early
• See complete list in DCA U 1369, Even the name of Venus
(Venerius) seems to occur (Le Blant IOO ii 117, 467).
" On this question of names see Harnack EO ii 35-45 ; DOA ii
1367-74; Ramsay CBP i 491-4, 533, 565; Le Blant ICG ii 66, 263.
The first step seems to have been to add a Christian title to the
heathen name, e.g, ' Ignatius Theophorus,' ' Caedualla qui et Petms '
(Bede HE v 7), 'Valentina quae et Stephana,' Na6Sapos 6 koI
'AweWris. Cyprian added the name Caecilius from the priest who
converted him (Jerome de Vir. Illust. 67). But these Christian eke-
names were not always engraved on the tombs. In many cases they
would be assumed at baptism (supra p. 61 n.). How early this became
the custom is shown by the name of Cletus, the 2nd pope. O.T.
names, except Susanna, were always rare in the West (Le Blant ICG
i 145). Le Blant (ib. i. 147 n.) also points out that names connecte
with the sea, Marina, Thalasia, Pelagia, Navicius, &c., became
especial favourites with Christians because of their symbolism. We
may note also names of joy, Gaudentius, Hilaris, &c. (Le Blant ib. i

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 171
Christians, with rare common sense, declined to strain
out the gnats while the real problems and difficulties
still awaited solution.' A public change of name
would have been a dangerous advertisement of their
new faith. But when prudence wae no longer of any
avail, the Christians in the fourth century often
changed their pagan names for others more hallowed
by association, before they met their death. 'One
martyr,' writes Procopius of Gaza, 'called himself
Jacob, another Israel, another Jeremiah, another
Daniel, and having taken these names they readily
went forth to martyrdom.',^
The question of namee wae not of much import
ance. But the relation of the Christian to the
business life of the world was no email difficulty.
In an age when manual work was considered ae
suitable only for slaves, the Church insisted thereon
as a duty;' but some, for instance Tertullian,
155), as well as the names that have reference to the new spiritual
life, Renatus, Vitalis, Sozomen (see list in DCA ii 1372 6). On the
other hand, a common baptismal name was Stercorius I (Le Blant
ICG ii 69 n.) Mary is a very rare name untU the close of the 4th
century. * It is more surprising that the victorious Christians did not
change the Mithraistic names of the days of the week, especially
Sunday. See supra p. 82 n.
' Procopius of Gaza (early 6th cent.) Comment in Isaiah c, 44 ;
Migne PG Ixxxvii 2401, based on Euseb, MP 11.
' I Thess. iii 10 ; Pseudo-Justin ad Zenam 17 (FG vi 1202) ; Ep.
Barnabas 17. ' Thou shalt work with thy hands as a ransom for thy
sins.' See especially Apost. Constit. ii 63 ; and for a list of trades pur
sued by Christians as evidenced by inscriptions DCA ii 1993. Among
them is a manufacturer of dice. At first the clergy also were ex
pected to practise some handicraft (Apost. Constit. ii 63 ; Epiphanius

172 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
whose fervid nature admits nothing short of the
ideal, can scarcely find an occupation in which the
Christian could engage without compromise with
idolatry.' To those who pleaded that if they followed
his advice they would be cut off from every means
of livelihood, Tertullian answers that 'faith must
despise starvation as much as it despises death.'
His indignation with the Christian manufacturer of
idols we can underetand — 'how can a man raise in
the worship of God hands that have made idols ? '
but he carries his logic to the prohibition of all
trades engaged however indirectly in supplying the
needs of idol-makers, e.g. goldbeaters and engravers.^
' With what face,' he asks, ' can a Christian dealer in incense, who
happens to pass a temple, spit on the smoking altars ; and puff aside
their fames when he himself has sold the very material for the
altar ? ' Ib.de Idol. 2.
That no Christian could be an actor or gladiator, or
teach acting, is intelligible,' but Tertullian would bar
the Christian from becoming a schoolmaster, since
it involved the teaching the names and myths of the
gods. For ' that idolatry which is midwife to us all ' *
"still ruled the schools in the shape of Greek and
Latin literature, and, in spite of the protests of
Haer. 80 n. 5, 6 ; 70 n, 2 ; Ramsay CBP ii 521, case of Pronto). The
effect of all this in ennobling work needs no illustration.
» Tert. de Idol. 5, 12 cc. 10, 11, 17. In the de Idol, we get Tertul-
lian's real views on the matter more than in his oft-quoted Apol. 42,
See infra 189. For a full study of TertuUian's views see Neumann
BSK i 119-39 ; Boissier FP iii c 1.
' lb. 4, 7, 8, 11. Por ' idols ' substitute " the drink-trade," and
TertuUian's arguments are repeated in many quarters to-day.
' Cyprian to Euohratius Ep. ii.
* Tert. de Anima 39, de Idol. 10.

THE CAUSES OP HATRED 173
Tertullian and Jerome and Gregory the Great, was
destined still to rule them.
The question whether a Christian could become a
teacher is so characteristic of the general difficulty
that it deserves fuller examination. The emphatic
negative of Tertullian and hia achool did not, we
imagine, commend itself to many, though inscriptions,
it is true, give ua the names of but few Christian
schoolmasters.' Inasmuch as Tertullian did not
counsel the withdrawal of Christian children from
the schools — ' studying literature is allowable, but
not teaching' — his advice would simply have led to
the depriving the little ones of all teachers whose
example and silent infiuence might have done some
thing to counteract the secular and pagan education.
The Canons of Hippolytus, of the same age probably
as Tertullian, are more practical in allowing the
convert to continue to act aa achoolmaster, on con
dition of reciting a sentence of his creed before the
lessons, ' Non est deus nisi Pater et Filius et Spiritua
Sanctus.' They urge, also, that the Christian teacher
should use his influence, if possible, to win over some
of his heathen pupils to the faith in Christ.^ No
doubt the difficulties confronting a Christian gram
marian were considerable. In a chapter of his
Confessions Augustine declaims against
' I believe but one has been found, an elementary teacher called
Gorgonus ; de Rossi BS ii 310.
2 Canones Hippolyti ed. Achelis p, 81 in TU vi (4) 1891. A trans
lation of this very important work will be found in Duchesne
Chriatian Worship (E,T. 2nd ed. London, 1904) pp. 524r-42. There
is a vast literature on the Canons ; see Hamack CAL ii 501 ff.

174 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
' the hellish torrent of use and custom which sweeps away the sons of
Eve into that vast and stormy sea which scarcely they who have
embarked upon the tree can cross in safety.'
He is speaking of the school lessons, the shower of
gold in the lap of Danae, and the like, ' the wine of
error held to our lips by drunken teachers ! ' ' Nor
were the heathen text-books and the constant de
clamations on mythological topics the sole trouble.
Holidays and payment were alike associated with
heathen rites and deities. The first fee was the due of
Minerva ; at the feast of Flora the schoolroom must
be adorned with garlands. The necessary aloofness
of the Christian teacher from most of his boys both
in the social and religious life would not make
matters easier. Of all this we have an illustration,
extreme, perhaps, and yet to eome extent character-
ietic, in the case of the martyred schoolmaster Cassian
of Imola (Forum Cornelii). Thie man, who was, it
must be confessed, somewhat of a martinet, aa in
fact were meet schoolmasters in those daya, waa
arrested in the midst of hia work. On refuaing to
sacrifice, he was handed over to his lads. They
bound hia hands and stabbed him to death with
their sharp pens (acutis stylis).^
' Confess, cc. 16-18.
* Prudentius Feristeph. ix, a poem interesting for its glimpse into
school life. According to William of Malmesbury, the same fate befell
the famous John Scot Brigena from the boys of Malmesbury. See
Poole Hist. Med. Tliought 316-29. Por the birobings, &c,, of the day,
see a charming letter of Ausonius to his grandson, translated in Glover
Life and Letters Fourth Cent. 107.
The school difficulty may perhaps account for the fact that "the
Greek of the Christian inscriptions is undoubtedly worse than that

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 175
That the Church made no attempt to provide
schools of its own for children will not excite surprise.
This would have led to the very identification which
the more part were anxioua to avoid. The school
system of the Empire was too well established and
endowed for the attempt to succeed, unless supported
by larger resources than the Church could command.
But in tho case of Christians thrown out of a situation
by their convereion, especially actors and others simi
larly engaged,' the Church sought to ease the strain
by itself providing work for its members. We see
this clearly brought out in a passage of the DidacM,
where it forms part of a section on the duties of the
Church to the brethren on their journeys :
' But let every one that cometh in the name of the Lord be received.
of ordinary pagan epitaphs " (Ramsay OBF i 517). Aristides com
plained of the shocking Christian Greek (Arist. Orat. 46 ed. Dindorf
ii 394; Neumann BSK i 35 ff.). At a very early date, as we see
from Celsus (Orig, Cels. vi 14), many Christians began to doubt
the wisdom of studying pagan literature. We see this also in
TertuUian's famous saying : ' Haereticorum patriarchae Philosophi '
(Ad. Hermog. 18). Clement Alex. (Strom, i 9) and the school of
Alexandria were almost alone in their plea for Greek culture. From
the 5th century onwards tbe hostiUty of the Church towards pagan
literature became fixed, and reached its triumph in Gregory Gt. (Ep.
ix 54 to bp. Desiderius of Vienne) : ' A report has reached us which
we cannot mention without a blush, that thou expoundest grammar
to certain friends,' &c. On Christianity and education see Boissier
FPdi CO. land 2.
' Cyprian to Euchratius Ep. ii 2. Cyprian adds that the actor so
supported is not to think that ' he is redeemed by an allowance in
order to cease from sinning.'
The Synod of Elvira (c, 62) required a pantomime to renounce his
craft before baptism (Dale SE 334, 175). Por a fuU collection of
passages bearing on the Church's treatment of actors, &o., see the
historic Prynne's Histriomastix (1633) p. 545 ff.

176 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
If the comer is a traveller, assist him, so far as ye are able, but he
shall not stay with you more than two or three days, if it be necessary.
But if he -wishes to settle with you, being a craftsman, let him work
for and eat his bread. But if he has no craft, according to your
wisdom provide how he shall live as a Christian among you, but not
in idleness. If he will not do this, he is trafficking upon Christ.' '
In the Apostolic Constitutions this becomes one of
the manifold charitable duties so characteristic of the
early Church, the discharge of which fell upon the
bishop :
' Exhibit to the orphan the care of parents ; to the widows the care
of husband ; to those of suitable age marriage ; for the artificer obtain
work ; to the incapable give alms ; for strangers provide an home ; for
the sick visitation ; for prisoners assistance ; ... for the young
orphan help that he may learn a trade.' '
Naturally, with the growth of the Church such
methods became unworkable, in part because of the
'trafficking upon Christ' of rogues, of whom Pere
grinus may be taken as a sample, who found that to
paaa as a Christian by means of the secret signs, the
fish and the like, enabled them to live in luxury at
the expense of the brethren.' The existence of such
a system of support proves the presence in the Church
from its earliest days of a fair proportion of wealthy
men, without whose generous gifts such a scheme
could not have been attempted.
The effect of all this on the aloofness of the Chris
tian, and the consequent gulf between himself and
other classes, will not need illustration. The system
' Xptareiiiropos. Didache xii, cf. Ill John 5-8.
^ Apost. Constit. iv 2 ; a passage throwing a fine sidelight on the
Church of that day.
' Lucian PP 16. Cf. II John 7, 8-11.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 177
worked in two ways. Early Christianity was essen
tially, a brotherhood founded upon a gospel of love
and charity. As such it stood apart from its sur
roundings.' At the same time, by its exaltation of
the value and need of work, there can be little doubt,
though the matter is not capable, perhaps, of formal
proof, that this brotherhood, in spite of the fact that
they were necessarily shut out from certain tradeB^
won for itself no small wealth. In a population bent.
on 'bread and the games,' which had long handed
over to slaves the pursuits of industry, where a middle
class scarcely existed, an earnest, industrious brother
hood, which shurmed as "works of the devil" the
amusements and idleness which sapped the life of
the Eoman world, could not fail to prosper. But the
more they proepered, the more they would draw down
upon themselves the hatred of their neighbours, who,
from causes into which we cannot now enter, but
which finally dragged down in financial ruin the
Roman Empire itself, were daily growing poorer.^
From the difficulties of business we pass tb the
questions of social intercourse and daily Ufe. The
' On this matter see Harnack EC i bk 2 c, 3. Such works as
Uhlhorn Christian Cliarity in the Ancient Church (Eng. Trans. Taylor
1883) or Brace Gesta Christi (1882) must be read with caution. They
do not do justice to the social legislation of Trajan and the
Antonines, or to the philanthropies of the collegia.
* Historians are now fairly agreed that the Western Empire fell
chiefly through growing flnancial rottenness, e.g. Dill BS WE iii c 2.
Do the materials exist to enable us to reconstruct the commercial and
flnancial position of Christianity in this bankrupt world? I am
persuaded myself that in the 2nd century Christianity was largely a
middle-class movement. See infra Appendix P. N

178 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
consistent Christian — inconsistent Christians, alas !
abounded — was never seen at theatre, circus, or
Coliseum. 'Where more,' said Tertullian, bluntly,
'will you find the devil with his angels?'' But
outside these acknowledged restrictions there was
then as now, a large and often doubtful borderland
of duty. On Caesar's birthday should the Christian
illuminate his house, and festoon hie gates with
wreaths ? ^ Could the Christian attend the weddings,
funerals, birthday rejoicings, and other festivities in
the homes of heathen friends ? Could matters be
conveniently arranged by leaving out on the invita
tion card the words ' to assist at a sacrifice ' ? ' If
the Christian was sick, ahould he seek shelter in the
hospitals attached to the temples of Aesculapius, in
whose long dormitories, when the lamps were lighted,
the prieats of the god of healing recited the vesper
prayers?* If he were wronged, must he refuse to
appear in the law-courts, the business and forms of
which were mixed up with heathen ritea ? ^
From many offices in the State, the duties of
which involved the performance of heathen rites, the
conscientious Christian, in the opinion of many, was
necessarily excluded. For office involved not only
' Tert. de Spectaculis 4, 10, 17; in c. 27 Tert. rules out even
plays that teach moral lessons. Minuc. Felix Oct. 12; Tatian ad
Graeeos 22, Clement Alex, Paed iii 11. Pseudo-Cyprian de Spectao 4
lays down the good rule that it is ' unlawful to witness what it is
unlawful to do.'
' Text, de Idol 15; Apol. '85.
' So Tert, de Idol 16, a subtle distinction !
• DiU BSNA 460-2.
' I Cor. vi. 1-11 ; Lact. MP 15.

THB CAUSES OF HATRED 179
pagan sacrifice, but ' the holding spectacles either at
his own or the State's expense,' * the presiding at the
same,' to say nothing of judicial duties which could
not be carried out ' without chaining and torturing.' '
' The Christian,' eaid Tertullian, ' hae no desire to be
aedile ' ; ^ he classes ' politics ' (res publicae) among
the things that are ' alien,' for ' the Christian has but
one commonwealth — the world,' ' a doctrine which
drew forth the taunt of Celsus : ' Were all to behave
as you do, the affairs of thie world would fall into the
hands of wild and lawless barbarians.' * Tertullian/
does not mention that the expenses of office in the
second century (much more so in the third) had be
come so great as to involve financial ruin for all but
the wealthiest. Others besides Christians caught at
every means of eecape from the intolerable burden.®
Some went so far ae to unfit themselves by marriage
with a slave ; others bought themselves out at a price.
The Christian's excuse of religion would seem to his
neighbour either cant or selfishness, if not the cloak
of a heavy bribe, unless accompanied, aa in the case
of Cyprian and Basil, by such a surrender of their
property as would put them outside the list of those
' Tert. de Idol. 17, 18.
^ ib. Apol, 46. Caecilius in Minuc. Felix Oct. 8, 'honores et
purpuras despiciunt.' Tatian ad Graeeos 11, ' I do not wish to be a
king,' &c.
' Tert. Apol. 38 f. Cf. Ep. Diog. y 5 (quoted supra p. 168). Clem.
Alex. Faed. iii 8. vaTptSa iir\ yriv oiiK exo/iev, with which of. Wesley's
Hymns (Old CoUection) No. 68.
? Orig. Oels. viii 68 ; cf. Aristides Orat, 46 (Bd. Dindorf ii 402).
' On this see Dill BSNA 245-7, also B8WE 250-1, 253-4. Bigg
Church's Task 119 n. Boissier FF ii 409-16.

180 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
eligible for office.' There are grounde also for believ
ing that Christiana, for whom escape from office
proved impossible, tried to shelter themselvea by a
policy which outsiders rightly or wrongly dubbed aa
' lazineas.' ^ We can well imagine that they would
do no more in the matter of spectacles than they were
obliged. Some, it is true, tried to perform to the
full all their municipal functions, including the bow
ing in the house of Rimmon, and excused themselves
by the examples of Joseph and Daniel, who, ' clean
from idolatry,' wore 'the livery and purple of the
prefecture.' ' That there was no direct command of
the Church in the age of Tertullian against taking
office is shown by the Canons of Hippolytus,^ as well
as by the later decision of the Council of Elvira,® and
the number of Christians who actually took office.®
' Bigg 0.0. 102-4.
' E.g. Flavius Clemens (infra p. 204) whom Suetonius Dom. 10
accuses of ' contemptissimae inertiae.'
» Tert. de Idol. 17.
* 0. 13, 73. Ed. Achelis p, 82 in TU (vi) 4.
° Canon 56. This important Synod was held at Illiberis, near
Granada, on May 15 of some year between 295-302 (Harnack CAL
ii 450-2). It shows that there were many Christians who were
yet fiamens or priests, and throws anything but a good Ught on the
purity of the Spanish Church as the result of the long peace (infra
p. 267). See Dale Synod of Elvira (1882) for a full account.
* Por Christian magistrates at Alexandria see Euseb. HEvi 41, 11,
viii. Dativus (supra p. 143) was a senator of Carthage. The martyr
Papylus of Thyatira was a senator (Harnack TU iii (3) 4 or Gebhardt
AMS 15). For ApoUonius, a senator of Rome, see infra p. 219 n. For
three Christian senators of Eumeneia see Ramsay CBP i 520, 522,
525. According to Euseb. HE viii 1 at the commencement of the reign
of Diocletian some of the Christians were actually governors of
provinces. See also Hermes of Heraolea infra p. 275.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 181
But it was acknowledged that office should only be
undertaken as the last resort, while escape from it
can scarcely be classed as renunciation.
Finally there was the question of the army, the
symbol of patriotiam, the refuge of a trembling world
against the barbarians. Should the Christian serve
at all, or, if unable to escape thia obligation, what was
hia duty ? Opinion on the army varied conaiderably.
Tertullian held that 'there could be no agreement
between the human and divine sacramentum, the
standard of Christ and the devil, the camp of light
and the camp of darkness,' and went so far as to urge
desertion. He waa followed by Lactantius and Origen.
When Celsus pointed out the consequences, Origen
fell back at first on Providence — in reality he becomes
a fatalist — and then ended the argument by stating
that all Christians are priests, and as priests are
exempt from military service, but will ' form an army
of piety, and fight by offering prayers.' He definitely
states that ' Christians will not fight, even if the king'
(emperor) requires us to do.' Similar decisions might
be quoted from others of the Fathers.'
The difficulty of a Christian becoming or con
tinuing as a soldier was not merely theological, but
' Tert. de Idol. 19 ; de Cor. il; de Fallio 5, ' non milito ; ' de
Besurrect. 16. Orig. Cels. viii 69-75 (sections well worth reading).
Tatian ad Graeeos 11, 'I decline military command'; Lactantius
Instit. vi, (20) 16, TertuUian's de Corona was undoubtedly written
(211) after he had become a Montanist (207). See Bury's Gibbon ii
19; Harnack CAL ii 280, According to 'Tertullian, desertion was
frequent, ' ut a multis actum,' On the other side note Clem. Alex
Protreph (i.e. adv. Gentes) c. x (Migne PG viii 215), ' When know
ledge hfts come to you in military service.'

182 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
practical. A Christian in the army, if appointed a
non-commissioned officer, for instance a centurion,
was bound to perform, or at least to witness in silence,
certain sacrifices or else resign at once office and
life. Thia happened in many cases, of some of which
we still possess the records. We may take as an
example the story of Marcellus, * a centurion of the
Trajan legion' stationed at Tangiers. The birthday
of Maximian' was being celebrated with the usual
sacrifices (July 21), when Marcellus, horrified with
all that he saw around him, suddenly flung away his
military belt and his centurion's vine-stick and cried,
' I am a soldier of Jesus Christ, the eternal King. I have done
with fighting for your emperors. I despise the worship of deaf and
dumb gods of wood and stone. If the terms of service are such that
one is bound to offer sacrifices to gods and emperors, then I refuse
to be a soldier.'
He was, of course, arrested and tried (Oct. 30).
" How came you to be so mad as to renounce your oath and speak
like that ? " asked the deputy prefect. " There is no madness in those
who serve the Lord," was the reply. " Did you say the very words
given here in the commandant's report ? " "I did." "Did you throw
away your vine-stick ? " "I did."
As he was led away to be beheaded, Marcellus turned
• There are one or two difficulties in this undoubtedly genuine
Acts. The usual quarters of the ' legio H Trajana ' were Alexandria,
the only troops at Tangiers being auxiliaries, perhaps of that legion
(Hamack MC 85). The ' feast of the emperor ' (festum imperatoris)
must be Maximian's, not Constantius Oblorus (Harnack CAL ii 473 n.,
who relies on o. 3 ' in Caesarem '), for the district of Mauritania
Tingitana went with the diocese of Spain, which at this time was
assigned to Maximian (Bury's Gibbon App. ii 555, 560). The year
is uncertain (? 295 or 303),

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 183
to the prefect ; ' God bless you,' he said. ' That,' adds
the writer of this old record, ' was the proper way in
which a martyr should take leave of the world.' '
The difficulty of sacrifices scarcely applied to
the rank and file.^ But there were other dangers
that the Christian soldier ran, an illustration of
which will be found in the recently published story
of Daeiua, of the army of Moeaia. The troops there
were accustomed to elect one of their number to act
as "king " during the Saturnalia, the annual heathen
feast of alaves, now supplanted by Christmas. After
thirty days of rule this " king " waa expected to offer
himself as a sacrifice to Saturn. When the lot fell
upon Dasius he refused to act, pleading that he was
a Christian. Needleaa to say, he suffered the con
sequences.' Moreover, the army, at the time when Tertullian
and Origen wrote, was carried away by the cult of
Mithraism. Throughout Europe, as Cumont has
shown, the 'Invincible Saviour' Mithra was at this
time the special deity of soldiera. Dacia and
' Ruinart AM 303 or Harnack ilfC 117. Por other cases, see
that of Marinus (Euseb. HE vii 15) ; Callistratns (Conybeare, MEO
289 ff.) ; and cf. Tert. de Corona, 1. But the fact that Tertullian
devotes a treatise to this last case shows how rare it was.
^ So Tert. de Idol. 19 expressly. Tertullian objects almost as much
to the capital punishment which a Christian officer might have to
infiict. " A Greek version was first published by Cumont (Anal. Boll, xvi
(1897) 5 ff). The Latin original is lost. The day is Nov. 20.
Harnack CAL ii 476 dates in 303, but the words ' when Maximian
and Diocletian were emperors ' seem to me to point to a date after
Diocletian's failure of health, i.e. Nov. 304 (see infra p. 276).

184 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Pannonia, for instance, the great military outposts of
the Empire, are full of hia ehrinee; the apread of
Mithraism in Pannonia, especially in the chain
of Roman defences along the Danube, being the
work of the auxiliaries of two legions, the second and
fifteenth, whose recruiting ground was Cappadocia.
In one camp no leas than three Mithraeums have
been discovered. From the Danube the religion was
carried to the two Germanies, probably by the eighth
legion, in or about the year 20 a.d. Along the
Rhine from Basel to Cologne, and especiaUy in the
military district between the Main and the Neckar,
the temples and inscriptione of Mithra are to be
seen everywhere. Prom this stronghold of the faith
the triumphant march of Mithra may be traced by
Cologne, Treves, and Boulogne, the station of the
British fieet, to the great port of London and the
camps of Caerleon, Chester, and York; while five
guard-houses in the wall of Hadrian, as well as an
outpost among the Cheviots, still show the shrines
of the god. All this added complication to a situation
difficult enough already. To enter the army, or to
remain in it after conversion, involved a Christian
profession in the midst of a specially organized and
aggressive heathenism.
There waa also a theological or theoretical
difficulty of some importance.' The Christians, in-
' For this section see Harnack's little monograph, MiUtia Christi
(1905), the Appendix of which contains a full citation of all authorities.
The idea is especially developed by Origen, but is foijud not only in
St, Paul, but in I Clem. Cor. 37 ; Hermas Shep. S, v, 1 ; Justin I Apol.
39; Clem, A]ex. passim, and Tertullian ad mart. 3; Apol. 37, 39, 50;

THE CAUSES OP HATEED 185
fluenced by the words of Jesus and of St. Paul, had
from the first adopted the conception of the Church
as the Militia Christi, the army of Christ. They were
' soldiers ' in a ' holy war ' which ahould bring in
'with violence' the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was
their Imperator, that great Captain, to whom they
were bound in allegiance by no common sacramentum,
or oath ; under whose standard, the Cross — the
vexilhtm Christi — they were enrolled, and whoae last
worda had been an earnest of victory : ' Be of good
cheer: I have conquered the world.' But how can
a man serve two Emperors, be enrolled under two
flags, live in two camps, or go on two different
campaigns at the eame time? Does not the one
exclude the other ? So powerful indeed in the Early
Church was this military metaphor, that many acted
or rather reasoned as if it were a reality. They were
' the army of the living God,' ' prepared, if need be, to
become ' the army of martyrs ' rather than deny their
Captain. One of these stalwarts, a youth called
Maximilian of Theveste,* wae preesed as a recruit, and
on his refusal to serve was brought before the pro
consul Dion. The magistrate ordered the attendants
de Corona, 1, 11, 15; de Idol. 19, and elsewhere. Of later writers,
much stress is laid on it by Cyprian.
' See note on " pagan," infra p. 234 n, 3.
' Por Maximilian of Theveste, see his Acta in Euinart AM 300 ff,
or Harnack MO 114-7. His father Fabius Victor was temonarius,i.e.
his business was to collect the money of conscripts who wished to
commute service for a fine. Victor was a Christian, but naturally
had no sympathy with the views of his son on this matter. See also
infra p. 335. The date was March 12, 295. On Theveste (Tabessa)
and its importance see Tissot PBA passim.

186 PEESECUTION IN THE EARLY CHUECH
to measure him. 'He is five foot ten,' was the
answer. 'Enroll him then at once,' said Dion.
' Cut off my head if you like,' cried the youth, ' but
I cannot be a soldier of the world, I am a soldier of
my God.' They hung the leaden badge of service
round his neck. ' I don't accept it,' he said ; ' I have
already the badge of service under Chriet.' So he
persisted to the end, and with ' a bright smile '
obtained his ' crown.' ' Give to the executioner,' he
said, turning to his father, ' the soldier's dress you
made ready for me.'
Such cases as that of Maximilian were rare ; not
many soldiers were impressed against their will.'
In spite of all difficulties, theological or practical, the
Christians in the army were fairly numerous.* The
story of the " Thundering Legion," ' whatever be its
' See Neumann BSK i 128, who quotes Mommsen Bom. Slaats
recht. ii (2) 849 f. and his paper on Conscription in Hermes xix (1884),
' This is expressly stated by the proconsul Dion (295). See
Euinart AM 300 or Harnack MC 116. Christian soldiers were
especially common in Africa (Harnack EO i 461). According to Le
Blant ICG i 85, out of every hundred epitaphs in Gaul pagan soldiers
are mentioned in 542, Christians in 057 per cent. When pleading
before civil governors, Tertullian is shrewd enough to lay stress on the
number of Christians ' implevimus castra ipsa ' (Apol. 37) ; ' militamns
vobiscum ' (ib. 47).
It is interesting to note the continuity of Christians in the same
legion. Take the ' Legio XII Fulminata.' We have the Christians
of the famous story (a.d. 174). To the same regiment belong the
Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (see infra), Polyeuctes (temp. Decius. On
the historical basis of this famous story see Allard II HP App, D.
Conybeare|ilfi;C 123 f).
' The title fulminatrix, at " Thundering," is a mistake. It was
really the ' legio XII fulminata Melitensis ' (cf, Dio, Cass, Iv 23), i,e.
the shields of the 'legion of Melitene' bore the device of Jupiter

THE CAUSES OP HATRED 187
value otherwise, proves concluaively that the views of
Origen and Tertullian were not accepted by the early
Church, which preferred to point to the many Chris
tian soldiers in the pages of the New Testament,
above all to the story of the believing centurion at
the foot of the cross.'
Then, as now, there were soldiers not a few who
could be as patriotic as Celsus himself, and as firm
for their faith, when occasion called, as Tertullian.
The army never lacked Christians, true heroes of
God, who were prepared, if need be, to lay down their
lives rather than deny their Christ. The proportion
of martyr-soldiers is uncommonly large, and ia, no
doubt, to be explained by the fact that in timea of
stress and persecution the detection of Christians
who were soldiers was easy, escape, in other words
desertion, impossible ; while the first effort of the
Government when persecution broke out would be
directed to the purging the army of the accursed
taint.* The number of Christians who refused to
brandishing the thunderbolt, a title of the 12th legion long before
the war with the Quadi and the date of this story (174 a.d.). That
the story (see Euseb. HE v 5, Tert. ad Scap. 4) has a basis of fact is
shown By its being depicted on the column of Marcus Aurelius. See
Lightf. Ign. i 485-92 ; Renan MA 273 ff. for full investigation.
Harnack points out (MO 57 ; ECU 206-7, 342) that this 'Legion of
Melitene ' in South Armenia was largely recruited from Edessa, an
early Christian stronghold whose royal house by the year 200 was
Christian (ib. EO ii 293) as well as from Armenia, where Christianity
was also strong soon afterwards (Euseb. HJ? viii 6, 8, infra p. 270 n.).
' Tert. de Idol. 19 retorted that Jesus 'in disarming Peter
unbelted every soldier ' (John xviii 10, 11 ; Luke xxii 38).
« So Euseb, HE viiil,7; Lact. M.P. 10 ; Hamack MG 80. The first
move of Licinian in his final struggle with Constantine was to purge

188 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
serve and suffered in conaequence would appear to
have been but few ; the Christians in the army who
laid down their lives for their Lord and Master form
a goodly company.' These were they of whom the
seer had his vision, 'the armiea in heaven which
follow the' Word upon white horaea, clothed in fine
linen, white and clean.' (Apoc. xix 14.)
Such were some of the difficulties with which the
Christian waa daily faced. The answer he gave
varied. Some, as we have seen, led on by Tertullian,
took up a position of irreconcilable aloofness from
life, which led Celsus and others to urge that Chris
tianity constituted a danger to the social fabric itself.
Others found that in practice, provided only that
they maintained a certain reserve, difficulties were
less real than they appeared. For them solvitwr
ambulando proved a better guide than logic. They
did their best in that state of life in which God had
placed them, to keep themselvea unspotted from the
world. These, as Tertullian owns in an oft-quoted
passage wrung from him by the needs of his Apology,
formed the vast majority of the Church. Christiana,
he claims, are not infructuosi in negotiis, ' of no use
in the affairs of life.'
' How can that be when we dwell beside you, sharing your mode
his army (Euseb, HE x 8). To this must be assigned the martyrdom
of the Forty Soldiers of Sebaste. Part of their torture was to stand
all night, almost naked, near a frozen pond. They wrote a last
Testament, the original Greek of which has been recently published
by Bonwetsoh. See Geb. AMS 166-70. Their Acts (Geb. AMS
171-81) require some care, as they are much later.
' See a list in Harnack EC u 213-6.

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 189
of Ufe, dress, habits ? We are not Brahmins or Indian gymnosophists
dw^ling in woods and exiled from life. We live beside you in the
world, making use of the same forum, market, bath, shop, inn, and
all other places of trade. We saU with you, fight shoulder to shoulder,
till the soil, and traffic with you.' '
Chrietiane, in fact, in the third century were to be
met with everywhere, in business, in all positions of
the State, in the army, and even in the Senate.
But their presence in theae positions was surrounded
with many difficulties ; they could scarcely avoid
arousing popular suspicion both by what they did and
by what they left undone. With the best will in the
world, they remained a peculiar people, who must be
prepared at any moment to meet the storm of hatred.
The hatred was the more acute because the Chris
tians were not only peculiar, but proud of their pecu
liarities, by which, as they claimed, they rose euperior
to the world. To Celsus they seemed, in their admix
ture of humility and pride,
' frogs in council on a marsh, worms in synod on a dunghill, quarrel
ling as to which is the greatest sinner, and yet declaring that God
announces all things to us beforehand. . . . Land and water, air and
stars, all things are for our sake and are appointed to serve us.' '
• Tert. Apol. 42. To write such a passage must have been gall
to Tertullian. 2 Orig. Cds. iv 23 (read the whole chapter); cf. iv 28. The
student may be interested in the following collection of adjectives
applied to Christianity : Acts xvii 6. oi rijv olKov/iein)v AvaaraTiiaavTes
(" These that have tumed the world upside down "). Tac. Ann. xv
44, 'exitiabilis superstitio' ("a deadly superstition"); Suetonius
Nero 16, superstitio nova et malefioa ("new and pernicious");
Pliny Ep. x 96, superstitio prava et immodica ("depraved and
extravagant"); so also Minuc. Felix Oct, 10. Marcus Aurelius
Medit. xi 3. Karet i|'iA.^j' irapdra^iv, iis ol xp'tmavot (" sheer obstinacy "),

190 PEESECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
The Christians, in their own proud phrase, were ' the
new people,' ' ' the third race ' * — this last, possibly,
of Gentile rather than Chrietian origin, though
adopted by them without demur. Such titlee were
not merely the signs of separation and aloofnees ;
they were the assertions of a purpose. The Chris
tians claimed that they would accomplish a task
which in the end baffled the Empire ; — build into a
new unity the diverse nations of earth.'
Tert. Apol. 35, 'publici hostes.' Caecilius in Minuc. Felix Oct.
BuppUes a choice supply ; e.g. ib. 9, • vana et demens superstitio ' ; ib.
8, 'inUcitae ac desperatae factionis' ("an unlawful and desperate
faction ") ; ib. ix, ' sacraria taeterrima impiae citionis ' (" abominable
shrines of an impious assembly ") ; ' oruenda et execranda consensio '
(" a confederacy to be rooted out and detested ") ; ib. viii, ' latebrosa
et lucifuga natio ' (" lurking in dens and darkness ").
' On this see Harnack's elaborate note EO i 306-7, and add to the
authorities there cited, Euseb. HE i 4, ' And, indeed, though we are
evidently a new people.'
' Forithis title see Harnack EC i 313, 336-52, especially the quota
tions 343-8. Cf. Neumann BSK i 138. The first nation was in
differently called Roman, Greek, or Gentile, the second the Jews. The
heathen adopted the title before the close of the second century ; then
the cry in the circus of Carthage was: 'Usque quo genus tertium?'
("How long must we endure this third race?" Tert. Scorp. 10).
Tert. ad Nat. i 8 and i 20 is emphatic that the ground of classification
was religion, not race. Hamack o.c. i 349 suggests that the title was
" due to the influence of the writings of Varro, who had a genius for
classification." It seems to have been current only iu the West. The
scorn of Tertullian for the title (see especially ad Nat. i 8) seems to
me to be fatal to Harnack's idea that it was of Christian origin,
though undoubtedly accepted by them.
" See Hermas Shep. S ix 7 for an aUegorical setting forth of
this idea.

THE CAUSES OP HATEED 191

VII

The moat powerful cause of hatred yet remains.
The Christiana profeased that 'nothing wae more
alien to them than politice ' ; ' in reality, from the
standpoint of the Roman governor, they were intense
politicians of a most dangerous type. The Christians
were condemned, not because of their theological
views, but because of their eupreme loyalty to a law
and throne outside the Eoman law and throne.
They were not anxious to run counter to the law and
customs of the Empire ; they were, in fact, unanimous
in upholding them.* But if at any time such law and
customs came into conflict with the will of God, as
interpreted by themaelves and their standarda, they
must obey God rather than man. To the Eoman
executive, which demanded absolute aubmieeion of
will and life from all ite subjects, euch a doctrine^
could not be other than a danger to the State, once
its purport was clear. They could not overlook the
existence in their midst of ' a new people,' ' a third
race,' of cosmopolitan character, who proclaimed
openly that ' they looked for a kingdom ' ; ' who went
so far as to ' frame laws for themselves according to
their own purposes, and observed these laws,' * and
' Tert. Apol. 38, ' nee uUa magis res aliena quam pubiica.'
'' Cf. Justin I Apol. 17 ; Tatian adv. Graeeos 4 ; Apost. Constit.
iv. 13. ' Justin M. I Apol. 11 and cf. Euseb. MP 1, 5 Zaochaeus and
Alphaeus, who were put to death for saying 'Jesus Christ is
emperor.' * See the cotnplaint of Galerius, Euseb. HE viii 17.

192 PEESECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
refueed to obey any laws which ran contrary thereto,
and who daily grew in numbers, influence, and
wealth. Nothing ia more natural than the political diagust
and hatred which the Christians in consequence
aroused. If to-day powerful governments take alarm
lest the fealty of Eoman Catholics to the Pope should
prove stronger under certain circumstances than
their allegiance to the state, if the doctrine of Passive
Eesistance excites suspicion among many who claim
that a man cannot be a loyal citizen who accepts its
basis, we can well imagine the hatred that would
weU out against the Christians when first they
asserted these startling doctrines in a world whoae
fabric, civil and religious, was built upon the absolu
tism of Caesar. Even the great political maxim of
Jesus, 'Eender unto Caeaar the things that are
Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's,'
becomes meaningleaa, if not treasonable, in a etate
that made little difference between Caesar and
God.' The refusal, moreover, of the Christians to worship
Caesar was naturally interpreted by judge and mob
as a confession of disloyalty to the Empire and its
head. In not a few of their trials, which for the
most part resolve themeelvee into cases of high
treason, we find the Christians protesting their
loyalty and devotion to Caesar, but at the aame time
laying emphaais upon ita limits. Said one of the
Scillitan martyrs, ' We give honour to Csesar aa
' Tert. de Idol. 15, ' If all is Caesar's, what will remain for God ?

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 193
Caesar; we offer worship (timorem) to God alone.''
This was, in fact, in their case, as in that of the
majority of Christians, the cause of their condemna
tion. We see thie clearly brought out in their formal
sentence :
' Speratus and the rest having confessed that they are Christians,
and having refused to render worship to Caesar, I pronounce that they
be punished -with the sword.'
Tertullian is equaUy explicit :
Therefore as to what relates to the honour due to kings or
emperors, we have sufficiently laid it down that it behoves us to
render all obedience, according to the apostle's precept, but within
the limits of our discipline and provided that we keep ourselves free
from idolatry. De Idol. 15.
The popular feeling in this matter was correct.
Many passages no doubt can be adduced expressive of
the utmost loyalty. A beautiful Litany for those
' to whom Thou hast given the power of sovereignty, through Thine
excellent and unspeakable might, that we, knowing the glory and
honour which Thou hast given them, may submit ourselves unto
them; . . . Grant unto them, therefore, O Lord, that they may
administer the government which Thou hast given them without
failure '
forms the conclusion of the letter of the first Apostolic
Father, who in thie wae but foUowing the example of
' Gebhardt AMS 24. As we shall make several references to the
Scillitan martyrs (i.e. from Scili, less probably Scillium or Soillita, in
Numidia, see Neumann BSK i 71 n,), we may refer here to Dean
Robinson's study and text (in TS 1891 (I), 106 ff,) of this most
interesting ;trial. The text only will be found in Gebhardt AMS
22-7, or Anal. Bolland viii (1) 5-8. For the true date of their
martyrdom— July 17, 180, and not 202 as formerly accepted (before
Usener's pubUcation in 1881 of a new MS,)— see Robinson o.c. or
Lightf. Ign. i 524-7. See infra p. 227 n. 1 (II). According to Tert.
ad Scap. 3, their persecutor Vigellius Saturninus lost his sight. 0

194 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
St. Paul.' Prayers for the emperors, in fact, constituted
a fixed part of the organization of Christian worship
from the first. Tertullian gives us a moving picture
of the Church on its knees for Caesar, 'with handa
outspread, with head uncovered, without a prompter,'
and with bitter irony exhorts the magistrates 'to
draw forth with tortures the souls that are thus loyally
pleading with God ' for one whom the Christians hold
to be ' second to God alone.' * ' The Christian,' he
argues,
' is the enemy of no man, assuredly not of the Emperor, whom he
knows to be ordained of God. Of necessity therefore he loves,
reveres, and honours him, and prays for his safety, -with that of the
whole Roman Empire, that it may endure — as endure it wiU — as long
as the world itself ' (ad Scap. 2).
But TertuUian was writing an apology. In our
judgement the Apocalypse, or the Christian interpella
tions in the Sibylline Oracles, represent much more
accurately the real views of the early Church upon the
Empire. The noble conception which St. Paul had
formed of uaing the Empire and ita inatitutione as a
means for the spread of Christianity waa one natural
to a Eoman citizen ; in practice Chriatianity and th^
Empire proved fundamentally antagonistic, if only
because they were rivals in conception and metho(jk
Each claimed to be a kingdom of universal away;
each created a Church of univeraal obligation, each
demanded absolute fealty to its supreme Lord.
• Clem. Rom. Ep. Cor.-co. 60-1. This Litany is not found in the
earlier MSS. of Clement (so in consequence not in Lightf. Clem.
1st ed,); cf. I Tim. ii 1, 2; Justin I Apol. 17; Athenag. Pha 37.
' Tert, Apol. 30, 39,

THE CAUSES OF HATRED 195
Between Caesar and Christ there could be no com
promise, at any rate on the existing footing of
Caesar.' When Celsue pleaded that the ideas of
.Christians, if carried out, meant the destruction of
existing society, he was but urging a truth hidden
from Origen and other apologiata.*
Such were, in the main, the causes of the charge
against Christianity of ' hostility to the race or state.'
From the atandpoint of our present purpose the
reader should note that persecution was the direct
outcome of the Christian doctrine of renunciation.
For the causes which led to popular and official hatred
were not theological, or the outcome of esoteric
doctrines of worahip, or the result of certain ethical
postulates. Nor were they the result of religioua
animosity. Polytheism as such is indifferent whether
a man worship one God or twenty. They were rather
the outcome of the fundamental tenet of primitive
Christianity, that the Christian ceased to be hia own
maater, ceased to have his old environment, ceased
to hold his old connexions with the state ; in every
thing he became the bondeervant of Jeaus Christ,
in everything owing supreme allegiance and fealty
to the new Empire and the Crucified Head. 'We
engage in these conflicts,' said TertuUian, ' as men
whose very lives are not our own . . . We have no
master but God.' ' ' What is thy condition ? ' said the
' This was written before the publication in the Hibbert Journal
(January, 1906) of an article Caesar or Christ, by Professor Iverach,
expressing the same conclusions in almost identical words.
' See Appendix J. ' M Scap. 1, 5.

196 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
judge to the martyr Maximus. ' I am a free man,'
was the reply, ' but the slave of Chriat.' Similar was
the answer of Febronia, a wealthy and beautiful
virgin. ' A slave ! ' asked the judge Selenus, in sur
prise ; ' whose slave ? ' ' The slave of Christ.' ' But
the rise of the 'slaves of Chriat' meant the faU of
the rule of the Caesars. As St. John saw clearly, the
Empire (Koafiog) was bound to hate the Church.
Nor waa the hatred the leas because the Empire
knew that it was in the pangs of dieeolution — ' the
world,' aaid the seer, ' is passing away.' *
' Geb. AMS 121 or AM 157. Maximus was martyred at Ephesus
a few months after Pionius, of. infra p. 330. For Febronia, see A.
SS June vii. 12-27. Her Acts, originally in Greek or Syriac, though
touched up in the interests of monasticism, possibly contain a genuine
kernel. (The version in Dunbar's Saintly Women (1904) i 309 is
whoUy for edification.) In the Roman legal interrogations of
Christians the order is almost invariably, as in the examination of
Maximus, (1) name, (2) condition, (3) family, (4) country, (5)
profession, (6) rank. The student will leam much by taking a few
Acta and noting this. See Le Blant SAM 211-7.
' I John iii 13 with Westcott's note on K6<Tfws, I Ep. John 255.

CHAPTER IV
THE GEEAT PERSECUTIONS
' Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake :
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall
revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:
for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the
prophets which were before you.' — Mait. v 10-12.
' And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and
with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her
I wondered with a great wonder,' — Apoc, xvii 6.
' For martyrdoms, I reckon them amongst miracles ; because they
seem to exceed the strength of human nature.' Bacon.
• For all the saints who from their labours rest.
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed.
Thy name, O Jesu, be for ever blessed.
AHeluia.'

CONTENTS
§ I, p. 199. The number of the martyrs — Misconceptions — The great
persecutions — Two periods.
§ II, p. 202. The persecution of Ngro— Of Domitian.
§ III, p. 208. Trajan — His correspondence -with Pliny — Martyrs
under Trajan — Hadriap — His Character — 'Delation' — His
Rescript to Minicius Pundanus — Hermas^ Shepherd.
§ IV, p. 220. Antoninus Pius — Marcus Aurelius — His character —
His views on Renunciation — Antipathy to Christianity — Perse
cution under — Commodus and Marcia.
§ V, p. 229. A new era — Growth of the Church — The great struggle
— Exaggerations — ^The unequal contest — Septimus Severus—
Elagabulus— Alexander Severus — ^Maximin — PhiUp the Arab
— Decius — His edicts — Great persecution — Fabian, Cyprian,
Dionysius, and Origen — End of the persecution.
§ VI, p. 251. Valerian — His character — ^Macrianus — The great perse
cution — Xystus — ^Fall of Valerian — Peace of GalUenus — Origin
of the Catacombs-^Burial clubs — The sanctity of graves.
§ VII, p. 265. Diocletian — Outbreak of persecution — Galerius Maxi
mian — Passion let loose — ^Alban — Searching for Bibles — Felix of
Aptungi — Felix of Tibjuca — Buplius — Retirement of Diocletian
— Maximin Daza — A reign of Terror — Interposition of Constantine
—Edict of Milan. Pp. 199-282.

I
The reader who has foUowed our investigation will
be in a position to answer the further question :
Were the martyrs of the Early Church many or few ? '
The queation is not one of mere statistics or curiosity.
Especially is the answer of importance for our present
purpose. Was this supreme renunciation a rare or
common event, a factor ao infrequent that so far as
the general run of Christians is considered it might
be neglected ; or was persecution, or at any rate the
fear of it, part of the price that each Christian was
caUed upon to pay ? Unfortunately, the queation, at
the best not easy to answer, has become mixed up
with theological polemics. Some have represented
the Roman magistrates as men of singular humanity
and moderation, whoae " philoaophy " led them, as a
rule, to decline the task of persecution, or who, at
most, singled out here and there some Christian dis
tinguished in rank or influence by whose death they
might strike terror into the whole sect. Others, on
the other hand, have reckoned the battalions of the
" noble army of martyrs " aa almost inexhaustible.
* There is no day in the whole year,' wrote Jerome,
' On p. 64 this question was briefly considered in a different
connexion. See further the discussion in Appendix F.

200 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
in his epistle to Heliodorus, ' unto which the number
of five thousand martyrs cannot be ascribed, except
only the first day of January.' But compared with
later stories the computation of Jerome was moderate.
It is, at any rate, somewhat borne out by the state
ment of Eusebius, that in the persecution in the
Thebaia ae many ae one hundred martyra a day were
often sacrificed, ' ao that the weapons of the murderers
were completely blunted.' '
The truth, aa is generally the caae, lies between
the two extremea. We may dismiaa at once the
incredible legenda, in which the mediaeval Church
delighted, of the thousands of virgins or aoldiere elain
at Cologne,* on Mount Ararat,' and the like. Accuracy
in figuree ia but a modern foible. But with equal
justice may we claim as an exaggeration the idea
that the penal laws against the Christians were not
put into force, save at certain rare and infrequent
intervals. The Christians, like the anarchists of
Russia, were always liable to persecution and death ;
the smouldering fires of popular hatred or official
1 Euseb. HE viu 9. But Gibbon (ii 137 n.) rightly poinft out
that Euseb. knew only the Thebais by hearsay. In Palestine, where
he had been an eye-witness, he mentions only ninety-two oases in all.
^ Cf. Acts of Flwcas, infra p. 212 n. Nevertheless even in the
case of St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand there seems some
groundwork of fact, either a misreading of XI M.V., €.e. martyres
virgines into miUia virgines, or more probably, as De Buck contends,
a great massacre of Christians at Cologne by the Huns after their
return from defeat at Chalons in 451. For the whole subject see
Owens College Hist. Essays 17-56 and the learned treatise of De
Buck in A.SS Oct. ix 73-303.
' For this story see an investigation in my Letters of Bus, 249 n.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 201
zeal might break out against them at any moment.
They lived from day to day conscious of a danger to
which they were exposed, and which some act of
indiscretion on their part might bring to a head.
We may grant that the outbreak of persecution in
systematic form was an infrequent occurrence ;
depending chi«fiy on local circumstances of popular
feeling, on the zeal,- superstition, or humanity of the
district magistrates. There were, however, seasons of
special activity in persecution — enumerated by the
early Church as ten in all — when the hatred against
the Christians burst forth, not locally, but over wide
areas. The history of theae great persecutions, their
causes, special features, and results, claims our
notice. Hitherto in our treatment, in order that we might
the better grasp the broad outlines, we have neglected
to some extent the notes of time. We have treated
the age of persecution as if it were a unity in itself.
Such a broad generalization of a movement stretching
over a period of two hundred and fifty years, though
advantageous for the aimplification of our argument,
needs of course considerable revision. There are, in
fact, two main periods into which the history of perse
cution in the early Church may be divided. The one
period, marked by outbreaks neither systematic nor
severe, closes with the early yeara of the third cen
tury. The other period ia characterized by a desperate
strugglie, or rather series of struggles, between the
Empire and the Church, and closes with the triumph
of the Church under Constantine. These two periods .

202 PERSECUTION IN THE EAELY CHUECH
are not mere artificial marks of time. They corre
spond to a real distinction upon which too much
stress cannot be laid. In the first period the Churcl^
was comparatively small and weak, and by no means
widely represented ; in the second period the Empire
woke up to diacover a vaat hoatile organization created
in ita midst, whose rapid growth in every land was
sweeping all before it. Thus in the first period'
persecution was fitful and local, the result rather of
passing hates than clear atateamanship ; in the
second period the State bent aU its energies to the
task, deliberately undertaken, of crushing out the
Church before it was too late. In the first period the
number of martyrs wae but few, for the Christians
themselves were not numerous ; in the aecond period
there were times of wholesale massacre, though
usually, as in other similar caaea, the persecution
was intensive rather than extensive.

II
The first of the ten persecutions, to follow for the
time the traditional reckoning, was that of Nero.'
This, though certainly local rather than universal,
stamped iteelf for ever upon the memory of the
Church by reason of its fiendish cruelties ae well aa
' In reading this chapter the student should refresh his memory
of the details of Eoman history and its emperors from Tiberius to
Constantine. He cannot do better than keep Bury's Gibbon by his
side. Duruy HB is well illustrated. For all sources of secular
affairs the student must look to one of these. The Chronological
Table that I have supplied will be found of use.

THE GEEAT PERSECUTIONS 203
its distinguished victims. The number who suffered
ia unknown. Tacitus, it is true, speaks of a * vast
multitude ' in Eome alone ; but we have no means of
checking his rhetoric' The total lose of the early
written recorde of the Eoman Church has robbed us of
all names. Only with difficulty can we recover the
story of St. Peter and St. Paul. The rest is a blank.
Under the Flavians there was a respite, so far, at
any rate, as an organized persecution was concerned,*
until the aecond great outbreak under Domitian.'
The Chriatians were not alone in suffering from the
cruel and suspicious nature of this tyrant. The-
inner secret of that sombre reign is stUl a mystery,
]but of the agony of the Eoman world under his rule
there can be no doubt. Domitian united ability andT
astuteness with timidity and cruelty. He seema to"'
have been anxious, also, to conceal hia vicea, perhaps
from himself, certainly from othera, by a scrupulous
devotion to the old forma of religion.* So he flung'
his whole strength into a moral and religious reaction,
and, in accordance with this design, sought to crush
out the Christians. Domitian struck at the highest,
' Ann. XV 44. Gibbon aptly quotes Livy xxxix 13, 14. On the
other hand, ^poc. xvii 6 points to a large number (i.e. assuming its
Neronian date), and cf. Clem. Cor. 6 troKh irA^flos.
^ See supra p. 55 n. for qualifications. Isolated persecutions
possibly wentiOn.
' Por persecution under Domitian our authorities are Clem. Rom.
Ep. 5-7. (Note 'We are in the same lists, and the same contests
await us,' and for date of. infra p. 206 n.) Melito in Euseb. HE iv 26 ;
also HE iii 17-20 (o. 17 is ambiguous), and Chron. ii 160 (ed.
Schoene) Tert. Apol. 5 Lactant. de mort. Persec. 3.
* See the references in Renan Les Evang. 291.

.\

204 PERSECUTION IN THE EAELY CHURCH
putting to death ' aa an innovator ' (' quasi molitorea
rerum novarum') the ex-conaul Acilius Glabrio,'
whom he had compeUed (a.d. 91) to fight against a
lion and two bears; also 'for atheism,' Flavius
Clemens, hia cousin, who was either consul at that
time or had but recently resigned the office, and
whose two sons were Domitian's destined heirs in
' The main sources, apart from the archaeological, for our know
ledge of Glabrio, Flavius, Clemens, &c., will be found in Dio. Cass.
Ixvii 14 ; Suet. Dom. 10, 15, 17 ; Euseb. HE iu 18 ; Chron. ed Schoene
ii 160 ; OIL vi 948. (AU the above are given in full in Lightf. Clem.
i 104 ff. ; or briefly in ib. Phil. 22 n.) Renan Les Evang. 228 ff.
incUned to believe that Clement became a Jew, though his wife may
have been a Christian. But Judaism surely would not be called
' atheism.' De Rossi has shown how closely Domitilla was associated
with the Christians. The Catacomb of Tor Marancia on the Ardea-
tine Way seems to have been given by her to her fellow Christians,
and many Christian Flavu of the second century are buried therein.
See de Rossi BS i 131 ff. or Lanciani FOB 335-45, Lightf. Clem, i
35-9, Renan Evang. 342 a. AUard I HP 96-115.
It is of interest to note that Flavius Clemens the consul was the
son of the Flavius Sabinus who, as city prefect, must have been the
chief executor of Nero's hatred against the Christians (Lightfoot
Clem, i.75-6). The persecution, or rather the heroism of the martyrs,
may have been the beginning of the son's conversion. Another
relative of Flavius Clemens and of Domitian was certainly a Christian
martyr. This was Aurelia Petronilla, the daughter of Titus Flavius
Petron, an uncle of Vespasian. Later ages by mistaken etymology
made her the daughter of St. Peter, and preserved in a distorted form
the memory of a martyr otherwise unknown. The discovery of her
tomb in 1875 has shown the real truth which underlay the tradition
(DCS iv 327 or Lanciani I.e., Northcote and Brownlow BS i 176-86).
The Christianity of Manius Acilius Glabrio is not certain, but
seems probable. See on the one side Lanciani PCB 4-9, who gives an
account of de Rossi's discovery in 1888 of the crypt of the famUy in
the Catacomb of PriscUla, conclusively proving the Christianity, at
any rate, of his near relatives and freedmen, or Allard o.o. 113-5 ; and
on the other Lightf. Clem, i 81 n., Aub^ PE 164-8. On the whole,
I incline to the affirmative.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 205
the Empire. On the same charge of ' atheism ' he
banished Clemens' wife Domitilla, hia own niece, to
Pontia,' a little island in the Tyrrhenee sea (a.d. 95).
There in a narrow cell, in later years (885) visited by
the lady Paula when on her travels, ' Domitilla drew
out a long martyrdom for the confession of the
Christian name.' Not long afterwards Domitian was
slain by Stephen, the steward of Domitilla.*
According to tradition, the wrath of Domitian fell
on othera in the Church even more illus|rious than
his cousins. He ie aaid to have put to death Clement
the Christian doctor, the third or fourth bishop of
Rome.' Tradition affirma that he struck at the aged
' See Lightf. Clem, i 49-50, but Renan Les Evang. 296 inclines to
Pandateria with Dio. Cass. But many writers (especially R.C.) make
two Plavia Domitillas, one the wife of the consul, and the other her
niece. The aunt was banished to Pandataria, the other to Pontia.
The matter has been hotly disputed since Scaliger's day ; see Allard
I HP 109 n., or DOB i 875.
* Jerome Ep. 108 § 7 ; Suet. Dom. 17. Whether Stephen was a
Christian we do not know. The language put into his mouth at the
murder (Philostratus Vit. ApoUon. viu 25) has a Christian ring:
' Clement, your enemy is not dead as you think ' (Lightf. Clem, i 41).
But according to Suet. Dom. 17, Stephen's motive was to cover up
a charge of peculation (Allard I HP 132-3).
' Attempts have been made in Germany to identify Clement the
bishop and Clement the consul. See Lightf. Clem, i 52 n. The sole
authority in favour of it would seem to be the worthless fourth-
century Clementine romance in the Homilies and Becognitions, and
this only indirectly (Lightf. l.c. i 55, 23 n). Clement the bishop was
much more likely a freedman in the house of the consul (ib. 61),
though even in that case, as Renan points out (Evang. 311 n.), he
would have been called Flavius, and not Clement. Moreover, there
are some indications (ib. 313) that Clement the bishop was a Jew
by birth. The statement that he was a Roman 'de regione
ceUomonte ' in LP i 123 is taken from Becog. Clem, i 1, vii 8, and from

206 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
apoatle John. The apostle of love escaped,' but how
great was the danger of the Christiana under this
tyrant may be seen in the well-known tale, recorded
by Dion, of Domitian's funeral banquet to a select
number of noblea :

the situation of the church of that name. Por the martyrdom of
Clement the bishop, his exile to Cherson, &c., the earliest authority
is the fictitious Acts of Clement, a romance of the second half of the
fourth century. They may be read in Migne PG ii 617 ff., or Funk
PF. Apost. i 808 ff. See also Lightf. Clem, i 85-90. De Rossi
considers that the whole story rests upon his confusion with a later
Crimean martyr of the same name. According to Euseb. HE iii 34,
Jerome de Vir. III. 15, Clement the bishop died ' in the third year of
Trajan,' i.e. a.d. 100. So LP i 123, with the addition of the word ' as
a martyr' ; but Irenaeus Haer. iii 3 knows nothing of hia martyrdom.
The confusion of the two Clements may be found also in the
question as to the ownership of the famous third or lowest of the
churches in the basilica of St. Clement at Rome. Lightf. (Clem, i
94-5) believed that this was part of the house of the consul; de
Rossi of the bishop. At one time it became perverted to the rites of
Mithra (see supra p. 83).
As I incline to a later date for the Epistle of St. Clement, I see
no reason to reject the succession of bishops of Rome as Linus, Cletus,
Clement. See Duchesne LP i Introd. Mx-lxxii; Irenaeus Haer, iii
3 ; Harnack CAL i 144 ff. The question of succession is bound up
with the date of the Epistle. This has been assigned as late as
Hadrian, and as early as Nero. If we date with Lightf. (Clem, i
346-58) as the last year of Domitian, or the flrst of Nerva (95 or 96),
we must face the difficulty stated in App. A as to St. John. The
Andent Homily (often cited as 2nd Ep. Oor.) bound up with Ep.
Clem, ad Cor. is anonymous. Its genuineness was doubted by Euseb.
HE iii 37 and rejected by Jerome (Vir. HI. 15). As it has no
bearing on our subject, its date need not detain us.
' See App. infra. According to Dio. Cass. Ixviii 1, Nerva re
called Domitian's exiles. Among them, according to Clem. Alex.
(quoted supra p. 47 n.) and Jerome Vir. III. 9, was St. John. How
was it, then, he did not recall Domitilla? ('longum martyrium
duxerat,' Jerome Ep. 108 § 7).

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 207
' So he fitted up an apartment all in black. The ceiling was black,
the walls were black, the pavement was black, and upon it were
ranged rows of bare stone seats, black also. The guests were
introduced at night -without their attendants, and each might see
at the head of his couch a column placed, like a tombstone, on which
his own name was engraved, with a cresset lamp above it, such as
is suspended in the tombs. Presently there entered a troop of naked
boys, black also, who danced a horrid dance, and then stood still,
offering the guests the morsels of food which are commonly presented
to the dead. The guests were paralysed with terror, expecting death
at every moment — the more so as, amid the deep sUence of the
company, Domitian spake of the things that appertain to the state of
the dead' (Dio. Cass. Ixvii 4).
In thia case Domitian's delight in exquisite torture
did not end tragically ; but the result was generally
otherwise. If Juvenal's satire is true, that even to
talk with Domitian about the weather was to cast
hazards for your life, how real wae the peril of those
who through allegiance to Christ disdained to ascribe
to a suspicious madman the divinity on which he
laid auch stress ! ' This tale points, moreover, to one
characteriatic of Domitian's persecution, aa dietinct
from that of Nero. The Neronian peraecution had
proved "a wholesale onslaught of reckleaa fury,"
Bomewhat reatricted, it ia true, in ite area ; that of
Domitian was " a euccession of sharp, sudden, partial
assaults, striking down one here and one th^e from
malice or jealousy or caprice, and harassing the
Church with an agony of suspense." *
• Juven. Sat. iv 87. See also supra p. 97 n. 1.
' Lightfoot Ckm. i 81.

208 PERSECUTION IN THE EAELY CHURCH

III
The murder of Domitian ushered in the golden
age of the Empire. From Nerva to Marcus Aurelius
a succession of rulers of rare gifts and insight pre
served the peace and prosperity of the world, in spite
of the signs of growing bankruptcy and dissolution.
But for the Church their rule was by n6 means a
golden age of toleration. The depravity of a Nero or
, Domitian has too often led apologists and hiatoriane
astray. As a matter of fact, it wae not the woret
emperors — a favourite fiction of the apologists in their
appeal to the outside public ' — but the best who were
Jhe persecutors of the Church. The greater the
vigilance of the emperor, the more determined he waa
to cruah out aedition and dieorder, the deeper his
eense of responsibUity for the preservation of the
unity of his vast dominions, the more was he likely
to come into conflict with ao divieive a factor ae the
religion of Jesue. A great administrator, Tigjan for
instance, just because he was firm and vigilant,
" would send a Christian to punishment with no more
hesitation and remorse than if it had been a question
of a refractory soldier or a fugitive slave." *
' See Lightf. Ign. i 2-4 n,, who aptly cites Lactant de Mort.
Persec. 3, 4, who in his list of persecutors skips from Domitian to
Decius. Cf. Melito of Sardis Apology in Euseb. HE iv 26, with its
stress on ' Nero and Domitian alone ' as persecutors. Hence forged
letters favourable to Christianity are always attributed to "good"
emperors. See infra p. 220 n. 1, and add as a further illustration the
story of the Thundering Legion, supra p. 186 n. 3,
' Duruy HB iv 819. But iv 819 n, seems to me wrong.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 209
The two great provincial emperors, Trajan and
Hadrian, made no change of moment in the policy of
their predecessors. The Eoman view of Christianity
is nowhere better illustrated than in the correspond
ence of Pliny and Trajan.' In September, 111, Pliny
the younger, a cultivated Eoman lawyer, was sent
out to restore order in the disorganized province^of
Bithynia-Pontus. About a year after his arrival,
when sojourning, probably, at Amisue, in the eastern
districts of hia rule, he received anonymoua accusa
tions charging ' many persona ' with Christianity.
The new reUgion, it seema, had taken conaiderable
hold of the whole diatrict, both in town and country.
According to Pliny, who poasibly exaggerated matters
in order to magnify hia vigilance, the templea were
abandoned, the trade in aacrificial animals and in
the fodder needful for their keep in a parloue state.
' The Letters of Pliny and Trajan (Pliny Eps. 96, 97) wiU be
found in Lightf. Ign. i 50-6 or Keil's Pliny, Leipzig, 1870. A useful
edition with English notes is Merrill's Selected Letters of Pliny or
Hardy Plinii Epistulae (many of the views since retracted in his
Christianity and Boman Government, 1894). Merrill's notes are,
however, very biassed.
This valuable correspondence depends on a single MS. found in
Paris about 1500, used by several scholars about 1508, and never since
seen. But its genuineness is beyond question (cf. Renan Les Evang.
476 n.). The lettres re Christians were possibly known to Melito of
Sardis (Euseb. HE iv 26, so Renan l.c. 480 ; contra Lightf. Ign. i 2),
and are mentioned in Tert. Apol. 2, from whom Euseb. HE iii 33 is
derived through a faulty Greek translation.
For their date (Sept. Ill-early 113, probably winter 112) see
Harnack CAL i 256, Lightf. Ign. ii 536, Renan o.c. 475. The real
inwardness of the correspondence was flrst brought out by Neumann
BSK i 19-26. See also Eamsay ChE o. 10, Hardy CBG c. 6, for
slight variations. P

210 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Acting on information volunteered, probably, by
the aggrieved tradesmen, the police arrested the
Christians, and Pliny examined them. The upshot
was various. Some acknowledged the charge, and
on the third time of asking were at once ordered off
to execution as if they were assassins or coiners, while
the Eoman citizens among them were despatched to
Eome to await Trajan's pleasure.' There was no
delay, no aearching for precedents, no uncertain legal
points on which advice might be necessary. The
mere profession of Christianity waa evidently a capital
offence in iteelf, without the teat of refusal to worship
the emperor. Some, however, denied, and substanti
ated their denial by offering wine and incense to Trajan
as the fortune or guardian spirit of the Empire.*
Others claimed they had ceased to be Christians, in
some cases, as far back as twenty-five years previous
to the trial.' Such were now wiUing to worship the
emperor and curse Christ ; to this last, owns Pliny,
' real Christiana could never be forced.' Nevertheless
' On the importance of this in the case of Ignatius, see infra p. 335.
' Bithynia was the earliest province of Asia to build a temple to
Eome and Augustus (Dio. Cass. U 20). For the extent of Bithynia-
Pontus, see Ramsay ChE 224-5.
' This is important as a proof that twenty-flve years before 112
(i.e. 87) there had been a persecution in Bithynia, which led to
many recanting. Of this former persecution we have no other
record, unless, indeed, Ramsay's date for I Peter be correct (infra,
App. A). But I Pet. i 1 proves, at any rate, the existence of Christians
at an early date in Bithynia. By whom the Gospel was introduced
is not known. St. Paul had passed it by (Acts xvi 7), 'prevented by
the Spirit,' possibly because St. Peter was already at work there.
It is important to note the considerable Greek population in Bithynia,
especially on the coast : Mommsen PBE i 330.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 211
they maintained that when they were Christiana they
had done nothing wrong :
' they had been accustomed to meet before daybreak on a flxed day
that they might sing a hymn to Christ as God, to bind themselves by
a mystic ordinance ' to commit no crime, neither be guilty of theft,
robbery, adultery,* the breaking of a promise, or the keeping back
of a pledge.'
Later in the day they assembled, they said, for a
common meal, probably the agapS, an action, they
owned, contrary to the imperial edict against social
clubs ' which Pliny had published immediately on his
arrival.* To test thia report Pliny examined by torture two
alave women (ancillae), who were called deaconesses,^
but could discover nothing ' save a degrading and
irrational superstition.' Pliny profesaed to feel in a
dilemma. He apologizes that he had been without
' Sacramentum. See Lightf. Ign. i 51 n. Hardy and others
translate ' by an oath.' The word, it is true, means especially the
soldier's oath of allegiance, but in view of Matt, v 37 and the known
rcluotance of early Christians for oaths, I prefer the other rendering.
^ Is not this a second-hand quotation of I Fet. iv. 15, an epistle
to these very people ?
' Hetaerias. For Irajan's action in this matter, see supra, p. 68,
and Ep. Plin. 102, 103.
* For Pliny's account of early worship, cf. Justin I Apol. 55-7.
Whether the sacramentum and agape yiere so markedly dissevered in
the time of Pliny is a matter of controversy. By the time of Justin,
0.0. 65, 67, they were separate,
' Ministrae. The first mention of this order, who were often
widows (of. I Tim. v 9). Deacons form no inconsiderable proportion of
the martyrs. To this peril their office of looking after the sick
especially exposed them. For the female diaconate, which seems to
have been limited to the East, of, Uhlhorn Christian Charity 165 ff.

212 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
any previous experience of these investigations ' into
the case of Christians, though the whole, tone of hia
letter and hia earlier persecution at Amisus show
plainly that he ia aware of a recognized method of
law for dealing with Crimea of thie order. But hie
kindly nature prompts him to point out to Trajan
certain difficulties, possibly in the hope of obtaining
some mitigation of current procedure. Ia he, he asks,
to take into account extenuating circumstances such
as youth ? Is he to punish Chriatians aimply becauee
of their religion — for the Name, nomen ipsum — and
therefore criminals ipso facto, or is he to decide by
proved misdeeds ? Further, should the accused recant
is that sufficient, without punishment for holding
auch baleful errors in the past ? *
Trajan answered that ' there can be no hard and
fast rule.' Christiana openly accused and convicted
must be punished; that they purge themeelves by
performing heathen ritea will suffice. Moreover, a
magistrate may make this distinction between a thief
' Cognitiones, i.e. executive investigations conducted in private by
the Emperor or his delegates (the prefect, procurators, &o.). For the
meaning of this word, see Ramsay ChE 215-7 ; Lewis and Short Lat.
Diet. s.v. Pliny's experience as a lawyer had lain in civU cases
(judicia,) before the centumviral courts, not in administration or
poUce work. See also Lightf. Ign. i 50.
' Of this persecution under Pliny, Conybeare has pointed out the
confirmation given by the possibly genuine Armenian Acts of Flwcas,
probably written at the close of second century. Phocas seems to have
been martyred under Pliny's successor, Africanus (MEC 89, 102).
According to this document, about 500 suffered under Pliny (MEC 92,
111). A later Greek copyist, after his kind, turned this flgure into
50,000. All that Pliny states is ' nomina multorum,' say fifty. Cf.
supra p. 203. Against Conybeare see Harnack CAL i 317 n.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 213
or murderer and a Christian ; he need not spend hia
time in hunting down the Christians until they were
formally accused. Anonymous accusations, whether
of Christianity or other crime, must be thrown into
the paper basket ; ' they form a bad precedent con
trary to the real spirit of the age.' '
Trajan's reply puts the matter into a nutshell.
Tertullian, it ie true, calls it a self-contradiction, and
points out its mixture of Jedburgh justice and official
laxity.* But Tertullian was one of the hunted, and
the logic of the persecuted and the persecutor are
never in agreement. To us the decision seems clear.
To be a Christian ie to be an outlaw, ae in fact Pliny
had owned by his action at Amisus. But zeal should
be tempered with discretion. So long as the Chris
tians are kept in check, the magistrate need not hunt
them down until he is obliged. The last is a detail
of administration the wisdom or occasion of which
each governor must decide for himself, for Trajan
expresely refuses 'to lay down a general principle
which may serve as a fixed rule of procedure.' The
correspondence gives no indication that Trajan was
inaugurating a new policy, commencing, aa some have
claimed, the systematic peraecution of the Christians.'
Its whole drift, in fact, is rather the opposite — a desire
' Trajan hated delatores; see PUny Faneg. 34, 35 for his vengeance
on them. 2 Apol. 2.
' On this see Lightf. Ign. i 13 ; Henderson Nero 447. All that
Trajan did was to point out that the previous method of magisterial
cognitio had better give place to a regular judicium with set trial and
formal accusation.

214 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
on the part of Pliny to change a policy which he had
discovered led to much suffering inflicted on harmless
if deluded fanatics. Trajan's concesaions also, such
as they were, were changes in procedure rather than
in the law. No clearer commentary upon the renun
ciation involved a century later in becoming a
Christian can be found than the fact that the Christian
apologists looked back to the days of Trajan as times
of exceptional liberty.' Two points in Trajan's letter
told in their favour. The emperor plainly intimates
that the magiatratea must lead, not be led by popular
hatred or private spleen. The necessity, again, of the
presence of a formal accuser gave the Christians a
general protection which, under various pleas, enabled
merciful judges to dismiss a case when brought into
court. Thus Tertullian tells us of a magistrate called
Pudens, who, when a Christian was brought before
him ' without the presence of the informer,' tore the
charge-sheet in pieces ' as not being conaiatent with
the imperial edict.' *
' * E.g. Tert. Apol 5, ' quas Trajanus ex parte frustratus est vetando
inquiri Christianos' — a complete mistake on TertuUian's part. Cf.
Sulpic. Sev. Chron. ii 31, and see si^ra p. 208.
Of martyrdoms under Trajan, in addition to those in Bithynia-
Pontus, the following seem to me certain : (a) Ignatius at Eome,
infra p. 335 ; (6) Symeon of Jerusalem, supra p. 124 n. ; (c) Zosimus
and Rufus in Macedonia (Polycarp. ad Phil. 9). On the alleged
martyrdom of Clement see supra p. 206 n. The Acts of SharbU and
Barsamya (Cureton Syriac. Docs. 41) are spurious. But how
incomplete are our sources of knowledge is indicated by the fact that
but for the heathen Pliny we should never have heard of the martyrs
of Pontus. " Tert. Scap. 4, Neumann BSK i 33 n. dates this in the pro-
consulship of Pudens in Cyrene and Crete, a few years before 106.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 215
Trajan's successor, the Emperor Hadrian, another
Spaniard of inferior character though almost equal
administrative abiUty, appears to have made aome
slight alteration, more favourable to the Christians,
in the legal procedure. The circumstances which
gave rise to this rescript of Hadrian are, however,
involved and difficult, though of the genuineness of
the rescript itself there can be no reasonable doubt.
The following seem to be the facta. Both in Greece
and Aaia the protection given to the Christians by
Trajan against anonymous accusations had not proved
sufficient. Informers and false witnesses abounded,
and introduced by their methods a reign of terror.
' Delation * — the word is difficult to translate into the
language of more favoured times, though probably
there is a perfect equivalent in the Eueeian tongue —
was one of the curses of the Empire, a recognized
system even under the most blameless emperors. To
turn informer was to enter a regular and lucrative
profession. The legal fee for a successful delation was
one-fourth of the eatate of the condemned man. " In
no other way could a man so easily make himself a
millionaire." ' The Chrietiana had no frienda, and for
some time the delatores, or false witneasea, reaped a
But he was also proconsul of Africa between 177-179, and may have
been later. The first date fits in better than one under Marcus
Aurelius, unless we extend his consulship in Africa until the reign
of Commodus, for which there seems no certain evidence. Other
lenient judges of whom Tert. ib. tells us were, however, African, and
probably belong to the time of Commodus — Julius Asper, Cinoius
Sevems of Thrysdus, and Vespronius Candidus. See infra p. 228.
' Tac. Ann, iv 20. Dill. BBNA 35-6, who gives illustrations.

216 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
golden reward. Thus far, as Hadrian's rescript
shows, we are on certain ground. We may aurmiae
that the existence of thia reign of terror waa brought
to the notice of Hadrian by the Christians themselves.
On the occasion of the emperor's second viait to hia
favourite Athens, in the winter of 128-9, a certain
Christian, Quadratus by name — Eusebius has it that
he was also aasisted by a converted philosopher
called Marcianus Aristides' — made some effort to
appeal to him, and publiehed the earliest Christian
Apology of which we have record. According to a
late and more than doubtful story, Hadrian had been
wiUing to welcome Christ among his goda, and had
ordered the building of temples that should be free
from images, and ao adapted for the new religion.
We are told that he waa only diaauaded by the report
' that all would become Christiana if this were done,
and the temples would be deserted.' * Hadrian was
known to be ' an eager explorer into all curiosities,' '
who had sought initiation into the deepest mysteries
of the heathen world.* His insatiable curiosity —
'garrulous chattering,' Julian called it — had an endless
variety of moods, and at different times came under
' On this difficult question see Appendix G.
' See Lampridius Vita Alex. Sev. 43. But Lampridius wrote two
centuries later. The temples, as Oasaubon suggested, were much more
likely empty because intended by Hadrian to be dedicated to himself.
' Tert. Apol. 5, orrmium curiositatum explorator. Of. Gibbon i 75 ;
Merivale BE viii 232, 234 ; Renan EO 2-5, 37. But the severest
portrait of Hadrian is that given by the Emperor Julian the Apostate
in his Caesares. But of Hadrian's practical genius there can be
no doubt. * See plate in Duruy HB y 101.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 217
the influence of diverse creeds. But in one thing he
was changeless — his sarcastic scepticism whether any
creed was either genuine or worth belief. ' In Egypt,'
he sneered —
' the Christians and the worshippers of Serapis are the same ; those
devoted to Serapis call themselves bishops of Christ. Rulers of
synagogues, Samaritans, Christian presbyters are all astrologers,
soothsayers, quacks ; Christians, Jews, and Gentiles aU alike worship
money.' '
In approaching such a cynic, Quadratus and his
fellow-Christians would not be without hopes of auc-
cesa when they asked that the crime of Christianity
should be brought under the regular law.
The efforts of Quadratus were of no avail. ' A
rescript from Hadrian to Minicius (Minucius) Pun
danus, the proconsul of Aaia, givea the decieion of the
emperor. Thia important document ran as follows : —
'I have received the letter sent me by your distinguished
predecessor, Serenus'^ Granianus, and am unwUling to pass over his
' Hadrian's letter to Servianus, preserved by Vopiscus Vita
Satumini 8. Vopiscus states that he obtained it from Fhlegon, a
freedman of Antinous. There are, however, grave doubts as to its
genuineness. Its classification of Christians as the ' third race ' (supra
p. 190) is suspicious, though not conclusive (Harnack EC i 348 n,).
Mommsen PBE ii 227 n. condemns it as a forgery. See also Renan
EC 188 n. We may own that it is quite in harmony with the
portrait of Hadrian, and as such is accepted by Dur«y HB v 94.
' A primitive error (perhaps Justin's) for Silvanus (Lightf. Tgn.
i 479), his name being Licinius Silvanus Granianus (see Waddington
Fasfes Asiat. (1872) i 197 ff. who dates 123-4). This rescript must
have been originally written in Latin, in which language it was
copied by Justin I Apol. 68 (see ed. Otto i 190), though unfortunately
in all existing MSS. of Justin we find substituted the faulty Greek
translation of Eusebius HE iv 9. The original Latin possibly exists.

218 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
report without reply, lest innocent persons he subjected to attack,
and opportunity given to false accusers to despise them. If, there
fore, it is manifest that the people of your province are wishful to
support their complaints agains,t the Christians by presenting formal
charges against them on some point before your judgement-seat, I do
not forbid them this course, though I will not allow them to resort to
mere appeals and outcries. The fairer course, if any one -wishes
to bring an indictment, is, that you give a formal hearing. H,
therefore, any one brings an indictment, and proves that the said
Christians are committing any violation of the law, you are to
punish them in proportion to their offences. But you must also
take special care, if any one knowingly brings false charges against
any man, that he be punished more severely because of this crime.'
The meaning of the rescript is plain. To be a
Christian was still in itself a crime, though the ques
tion of what conatituted a Christian seems to have
been left eomewhat vague — no longer neeeeearily the
name itself. The magistrate should see to it that he
is not governed by the mob. The cry, ' Christians to
the lions,' must not take the place of a judicial
investigation, and thereby cause the punishment of
innocent men. The prosecutor, or delator, who failed
to make good his case must be punished for false
witness' — a gain this of considerable value. Yet
however, in Rufinus' translation of Eusebius. See Hamack CAL i
256 n. The Rescript is undoubtedly genuine (Lightf. Ign. i 477-80 ;
Ramsay ChE 320-1 ; Eenan L'Ant, 32 n. ; so Harnack TU xui (4).
It is mentioned by MeUto in his Apology (Euseb. HE iv 26). Possibly
the Christians obtained a copy of the rescript, by purchase. (See
infra p. 285 n. 1). The arguments of A.xM PE 272 against the
genuineness are not of much worth.
' We have an irregular illustration of this in the case of ApoUonius,
a Christian senator of Eome, beheaded in the reign of Commodus
before 185 (when Perennis his judge fell, Hamack OAL i 317 ; Gibbon
i 88), probably a few years earUer (infra p. 228 n.). The prefect
Perennis ordered the legs of the informer to be broken, though

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 219
Hadrian, in spite of his liberalism, not to say license
of thought — " half sceptic, half devotee, a scoffer and
a mystic by turns," ' whose only settled conviction
was probably the conviction that nothing can be
settled — wae driven into the formal allowance of the
existing lawe against Christianity. The lot of the
Christians was still, as in the past, one of great
uncertainty, at the best an unauthorized toleration
liable at any moment, under the pressure of popular
feeling, to give place to violent peraecution. Though
the reeorda of but few cases of martyrdom under
Hadrian have been preserved,* nevertheless the
Christian writers of that time, as we see from the
Shepherd of Hermas, were ever haunted by the dread
spectre of persecution.'
afterwards he put ApoUonius on his trial before the Senate (Euseb.
HE V 21. The Acts of ApoUonius, flrst published from the Armenian
by Conybeare MEO 35 ff,, are of great importance. They may be read
in Gebhardt AMS 44 ff. or Klette TU xv (2) and have received the
comments of Hardy CBG 200-8. The Greek recension flrst- published
in Anal. Bolland xiv 284 ff. is inferior to the Armenian.
' Ligbtf. Ign. i 456 with his excellent note.
' Only ona martyrc^om is quite certain — that of pope Telesphoras.
See Irenaeus Haer. iii 3 (also quoted in Euseb. HE v 6), who gives no
date. From the Liberian Catalogue (Duchesne LP i 3) we learn that
he died iu 137 (LP i 129 is misleading). Por a full examination
of the reputed martyrs under Hadrian see Lightf. Ign. i 502-6, Renan
EC 393 n,, and on the other side Allard I HP 210-33. But after all
our lists of the Christian martyrs are very incomplete (supra p. 37 n, 3),
and Conybeare (MEC 239 ff,) has edited from the Armenian another
martyrdom, that of Thalelaeus, which probably took place at Aegae
near Iskanderuu in the reign of Hadrian, For Pope Alexander see
infra p. 260 n. Por Symphorosa (AM 23) see infra p. 320 n., and in
defence Allard I HP 270 ff.
^ Thoevidenoeof this book must not be, lightly dismissed, Renan

220 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH

IV
The two great emperors, Antoninus Pius and
Marcua Antoninus (Aurelius), must also be numbered
among the persecutors of the Church, the former,
probably, in spite of his inclinations.' Certainly
EC 303 describes it in somewhat exaggerated language as " issuing
from a bath of blood." The following passages may be quoted as
containing indications of the persecution of the times, though some
may be interpreted allegorioally or of spiritual struggle : Vis. i 4, ii 2,
3, iii 1, 2 (quoted infra p. 344), 5, 6 ; Mand. viii 10 ; Sim. vui 3, 6,
8, 10 ; ix 21, 26, 28. The Shepherd was written during the episcopate
at Rome of Pius, his brother (Muratorian fragment in Duchesne LP i
132 n. 4 or Westcott Canon (ed. 5) 537). The date is uncertain,
owing to uncertainty as to when Pius was pope. The date in the
Liberian catalogue from 146-61 (LP i 4, of. 132) is too late, owing to
a misplacement of pope Anicetus (LP i p. Ixxi). The oldest list, that
of Julius Africanus, dates from 140-55. (Hamack CAL i 171. See
further the discussions in Lightf. Clem, i -264 ff., Hamack CAL i 144 ff.,
257 ff.) The Shepherd's dread of persecution — for it is impossible to
say whether the work is prophecy or history — may thus be due either
to the recent martyrdom of Telesphorus or point to persecutions, other
wise unknown, under Antoninus Pius. See infra p. 221 n. 2. Salmon
(DOB ii s.v. Hermas Introd. N.T. 570 ff.) dates in the lifetime of Clem.
Romanus. Salmon thus refers the persecution to that of Domitian.
See also Ramsay CliE 432 n,, who dates even earlier. But I cannot
see that Salmon has made out his case for discrediting the Muratorian
fragment, and incline to date publication as about 140, though the
book probably was -written, in part at least, some years earlier.
A convenient text of the Shepherd with E. T. will be found in
Harmer's Apostolic Fathers, 1898.
' The question of the authenticity of the rescript of Antoninus
Pius, which practicaUy conferred toleration on the Christians, is
somewhat difficult. The rescript itself, an answer to the Diet (t6
KoivSv) of Asia, exists in three forms ; in Euseb. HE iv 13 (where it is
clumsily assigned to Marcus Aurelius), Ruflnus HE iv 13 (merely
a free rendering of Eusebius), and in a fourteenth-century MS. of
Justin Apol. (see Op. Justin, ed. Otto i 244). Harnack TU xui

THB GREAT PERSECUTIONS 221
under Antoninus Pius, who, in his own noble words, .
chose rather ' to save tthe life of one citizen than to
slay a thousand foes,' ^persecutions were local out
breaks, the details of which may, poaeibly, never
have come before the emperor until after the ieeue.
But the martyrdoma of Polycarp and hia companiona
in Smyrna,' the great dread which we see haunting
the pages of the Shepherd of Hermas,^ the execution
in Eome by the prefect LoUius Urbicus of Ptolemaeus
and Lucius,' show that the peace of the Church was
often broken, in spite of the Apologies by whidh
Justin, Quadratus and others sought to procure reat
for the persecuted. If the surmise of Harnack be
correct, the rescript of Antoninus Piua to the Diet
(Koivov) of Asia is itself a vntness, not ao much to
toleration — this is a later Christian interpolation — as
to the irregular persecutions that ever and anon broke
(4) has examined these, and attempted to restore a Greek original
which he 'regards as original, though, as he owns, full of Christian
interpolations. Others, following the lead of Dodwell (infra App. F),
reject ; see the arguments in Lightf. Ign. i 481-5. But whatever be
the original form of this rescript, of actual persecution under Pius
there can be no doubt, though the personal responsibility of the
emperor probably was but slight. The (forged) rescript is variously
dated by Waddington 152, Mommsen and Lightfoot 158. For the
similar forged letter of Marcus to Euxenianus see Lightf. Ign, i
493-501. ' Por date under Pius see infra p. 306 n.
' In addition to Hermas there is the evidence of Minucius Felix,
if, as Lightf. and others think, his Octavius, instead of being indebted
to Tert. Apol., is antecedent, and written about the year 160 (Lightf.
Ign. i 535 ff.). But the.later date (234, Salmon DCB iu 924 ; between
240-50, Hamack CAL ii 324-30) is more probable,
' See supra p. 144 ; cf. Harnack CAL i 276, Add Publius, bishop
of Athens, Euseb. HE iv 23. . - -;

222 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
out in the cities of the East, as well aa in Greece
and Thrace. Disorder of thia sort Pius wae deter
mined to put down, aa we see from his letter to ' the
Larissaeans, Thessalonians, Athenians, and all
Greeks.' '
The presence of Marcus Aurelius among the perse
cutors of the Church must ever prove a matter of
astonishment and regret. That the one ruler of men
who at first blush realizes to the full Plato's dream
of the philosopher on the throne should be the hard
taskmaster of the followers of Jesus is one of the
ironies of history. No doubt part of our surprise
arises from a false estimate of the reign of Marcus
AureUuB. Historians have too often been misled by
the panegyrics of the philosophers who crowded his
court, and wrote the record of his rule.^ In some
respects his reign was successful. His lawe on behalf
of the slave, the child, and the orphan ' mark the rise
in the world of a new moral consciousness, to which,
however, Marcus AureUus was not the first to appeal.
Nevertheless, as SchUler * has shown ua, the reign of
the great thinker waa, on the whole, a dismal faUure,
marked by incapacity, and dogged by continual
' liinSiv veurepi^eiv, i.e. no illegal action. The letter is quoted by
Melito in Euseb. HE iv (26) 10. Perhaps it was due to the out
break in Smyrna (Polycarp infra p. 307) in 155, as Smyma was
undoubtedly one of the ' Greek ' cities. If not it witnesses, as also
the rescript to the Diet, to outbreaks of which we have now no
knowledge. By the rescript of Hadrian such outbreaks were illegal.
^ This applies especiaUy to Gibbon (e.g. i 78) and Renan MA.
= Renan MA 23-30.
* See his Gesch. der rSm. Kaiserzeit (1888) i (2) 653 ff., and cf.
Mommsen PBE i 532 ; Duruy HB v 231,

THB GREAT PERSECUTIONS 223
disaster. " Marcua, partly because he was a good
Stoic, was a very bad emperor."' The puzzle further
vaniehes when we ceaae to look at Marcua Aurelius
from a Christian standpoint, which he would have
been the last to understand. Nevertheless, the strange
vision of one " the very dust of whose thoughts was
gold," whose soul soared to heights of resignation to
the divine will given to few even among the saints of
God, as the deliberate persecutor of 'the bond-servants
of Jesus Christ,' leads ue to pauee for a moment that
we may contraet the doctrine of renunciation as
proclaimed by the Christian and the Stoic emperor.
The reUgion of Marcus Aurelius, which may briefly
be described aa ethical Calvinism, is undoubtedly
founded, as that of Epictetus before him, upon
uncomplaining submission to the will of God as the
law of the whole universe. For him renunciation
must be complete; we must, as Epictetus urged,
' desire nothing too much,' but — and herein lies the
difference between Marcus Aureliua and the Christian
— this renunciation is without germ of hope either
for the individual or society. With Marcus Aurelius
renunciation is something essentially Eastern rather
than Chriatian ; the aweeping, aa by a wintry torrent,
of thie poor human life into the eternal vortex of the
' universal substance ' ; ^ the passing from a troubled
consciousness into the dreamless life of the God, or
'Logos,' 'the governing inteUigence,' who governs
' Bigg, Church's Tash 70.
2 Med. vi 1, vii 9. The best translation is still that by G. Long,
whose historical notes, however, must be checked occasionally.

224 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
all. For Marcua Aurelius immortality is meaning
less; what is the atom of consciouaneea amid the
endleae flux of cyclic change, ' that one and all which
we name Cosmos,' but which ia all ' little, changeable,
periehable,' ' that man should dream of permanence ?
For him nature is absolute, merciless as death, un
alterably fixed and ordered.^ Marcus Aurelius, just
because he has no belief in the existence of real evil
in the best of all predestined worlds, has no yearning
for all that to the Christian is contained in the idea
of heaven ' — that opportunity for completing the in
complete, for making life's crooked straight. The
last word of renunciation ia for the Stoic emperor a
rayless negation, at the best a great uncertainty ; for
him life is but a moment of consciousness that comes
to the surface of the stream of infinite and endless
mutation.* ' After fame is oblivion ' ; after death, at
best, the soul ehall be received back into ' the seminal
principle of the universe ' ^ —
We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded by a sleep.
Hie is the renunciation both of feeling and hope,
necessarily passing into despair of the spiritual
poesibilitiee of human nature. Thus with Marcua
Aurelius renunciation becomes a hopeless concentra
tion upon present duty, for whose sake all else must
1 Med. vi 36.
' Ib. iv 27, -vi 1, ix 28, xii 5 et passim.
• Cf. infra p. 327, the sneer of Junius Rustious to Justin.
* See Med. v 23, vi 15, 23, 42, 47, vu 19, ix 29, 32, 36.
» lb. ii 17, iv 21.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 225
be put aside.' It is magnificent — in some respects
the most magnificent flight of the unaided human
aoul. None the lese it ia not eo much renunciation
as despair. But for the Christian the basis of renun
ciation is hope, both for himself and society. He
ever objectifies, if we may so put it, the cause of his
eelf-discipline. The likeness to God is the incentive
to his purification ; ^ the city of God descending from
heaven like a bride is the vision that nerves him
to every form of self-sacrifice. But this city of God,
or realized Kingdom of Heaven, that organized ideal
in which lay the strongest appeal of the new religion,
by ite very nature utterly subversive of the established
order as it then existed, had little meaning fpr the
absolutenesa of Stoic individualism.
The atudent who remembera these things will
understand the antipathy of Marcus Aurelius to
Christianity. The heroism of the Christian martyr,
with his delusion of a golden hereafter, seemed to
him, aa to Epictetus his master, based on folly,
and an illustration merely of ' Galilean obstinacy.' '
He is probably contrasting it with the true courage
which men display when, in accordance with ' stoic
teaching,' they anticipate Nature and seek death by
their own suicide. The dread of another world in all
its forms he classed with 'superstition.' For those
who yielded to this delusion, whether in its nobler
' Med. vi 2, 22, x 22.
' I John iii 3, Matt, v 8, 48.
' Med. xi 3, see supra p. 189 n. Cf. Epictetus in Arrian, Dissert.
iv 7 ; Aelius Aristides Orat. 46. (Ed. Dindorf ii 402.)

226 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
or baser forms, he decreed banishment or the
axe.' Moreover, Marcus Aurelius, for whom the Roman
tradition had become a dogma,^ saw in the Christians
the great obstacle to the revival of the national
religion in a Stoic and eclectic form. He saw no diffi
culty in incorporating in his religion both the popular
mythology and rites and the teneta of the philoaopher.
On the commencement of his war with the Marco
manni, his slaughter of victims was so great that in
the popular skite of the day the white cattle lodged a
complaint that his final victory would entail their
annihilation.' From the Christiana alone did he
meet with a resistance aa obstinate as, in his opinion,
it was senseleaa. The philosopher, whatever his
private opinione, kept hia countenance and fell in
with the current ritual. Not so with the untutored
Galileans. But whatever the cause, the fact itself cannot be
gamsaid that Christian blood fiowed more freely
under Marcua Aurelius than at any previous date,
with the possible exception of Domitian. Wholesale
slaughters in the amphitheatre of Lyons, the martyr
dom of Justin and his companions at Rome, of the
seven men and five women at Scili, of Namphano and
Miggin, Suname and Lucitas — harsh Punic names,
• See his decrees in Modestinus Dig. xlviii 19, 30, ' si quis aliquid
fecerit, quo leves hominum animi superstitione numinis terrentur,
in insulam relegari rescripsit,' and Paulus Sent, v 21, 2, ' humiliores
capite.' ^ Med. ii 5.
' Ammian, xxv 4, 17 ; Capitolinus Marc. Antoninus 13. Cf. Renan
MA 48, and Lucian Alex. Abon. 31-5, 48,

THB GREAT PERSECUTIONS 227
written, however, in the Lamb's Book of Life— at
Madaura, near Carthage, are sufficient evidence,
though but fragmentary and incomplete, of the wide
spread persecution of the Christians.' For the details
' I do not pretend to give a complete list. Such is impossil^le ;
see supra 214 n.
I. The following martyrdoms under Marcus Aurelius are certain : —
(a) Justin Martyr and six others from Asia Minor. (For his Acts
see Otto Justin Op, li 266 ff,, or Gebhardt AM8 18-21. Eenan's
rejection of the Acts in EC 492 n. is without reason. They are
undoubtedly genuine.) The martyrdom is certain ; see Tatian adv.
Graeeos 19, Iren. Haer, i 28, Euseb. HE iv 16, Chron. p. 170-1 ed.
Schoene. The date (determined by the prefecture of Rusticus) is
between 163-7 (Aub^ St. Justin 74, DOB iu 564, Harnack OAL i
282-7). The early date under Pius (placed by Hort as early as 148),
which attributed the death to the malice of the philosopher Crescens,
is an error, due chiefly to Justin's II Apol. 3 (flrst sentence).
(5) For the persecution at Lyons in 177-8, see infra p. 295 ff.
The persecution at Vienne is more doubtful (Neumann BSK i 29 n. 6 ;
Lyons and Vienne were in different provinces), though Sanctus of
Vienne was among the martyrs at Lyons. (Euseb. HE v 1, 17. See
also Duchesne FEG i 39.) For other Gallic martyrs see supra
p. 162. (o) The deaths of Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonike at Pergamum
should probably be dated in this reign. See Neumann BSK i 38
and Harnack OAL i 362. So probably the martyrdom of Caecilia at
Rome. Her Acts are very corrupt, but seem to contain a kernel of
truth. See Allard I HP 428 ff. ; N. & B. BS ii 329-3; Lightf. Ign.
i 516 ff.
II. The following persecutions, though chronologically under
Commodus, reaUy belong to the administration of Marcus Aurelius :—
(i.) The Scillitan martyrs ; see infra pp. 193, 327.
(ii.) The martyrs of Madaura (July-Dec. 180. See Neumann
BSK i 286). See St. Augustine's correspondence with the heathen
grammarian Maximus of Madaura, who ridiculed their Punic names
(Aug, Epp. 16, 17; Lightf. Ign. i 523).
(iii.) The persecution under Arrius Antoninus in Asia (infra p.
832), dated by Waddington Fastes Asiat. i 239-41 as 184-5, but in the
judgement of Lightf. (Ign. i 540) probably two or three years earlier.

228 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
of these persecutions, the cruelty with which they
were executed, we must not hold Marcus Aurelius
responsible. He administered an empire a dozen
times as large as France; details were neceesarily
left to local officers. But the emperor decided the
general policy; and in this sense the noblest soul
of the ancient world became a strenuous persecutor,
who did not, it is true, initiate a new antagonism to
Christianity so much as carry out more strictly, and
in a different spirit, the existing penal code. If it be
said that for an emperor there wae no choice, we may
add that the evidence indicates that Marcua Aurelius
was not so careful as Trajan and Hadrian in insisting
that in all persecutions the magistrate and not the
mob should lead. Moreover, there are clear indica
tions throughout his reign of an active pursuit of the
Christians by the magistrates, a return to the proce
dure discouraged by Trajan and Hadrian.'
MarcuB Aurelius was succeeded by the worthless
Commodus. Throughout his reign the Church enjoyed
an unaccustomed peace ;^ in part because of the
influence of hie mistreee, Marcia, who, if not a
(iv.) The case of ApoUonius; see supra p. 219 n.
(v.) Gaius and Alexander at Eumeneia in Phrygia. Oct. 27th,
179. See Neumann BSK i 283 and Euseb. HE v 16.
Ill, The persecution in Byzantium under Marcus Aurelius (Tert,
Scap. 3) is doubtful ; see Lightf, Ign. i 526 n. For Felicitas see infra
p. 320 n.
^ See supra p. 213. Neumann BSK 31-2 dates persecution from
what he calls the second res6ript of Marcus Aurelius (Modestinus
Dig. xlvui 19, 30, supra p. 226 n.), which he dates in 176. But see
Ramsay ChE 340, and even more decisively Hardy CBG 152-3.
« Euseb. HE.v 21.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 229
Christian herself, had sympathy with the new
religion;' more perhaps because of an easy-going
indifference to causes of disturbance which to more
etrenuouB rulers had seemed of the highest moment.
His whole sympathies were with Eastern religions,
Mithraism especially, rather than the old national
faith. Shortly after his accession the policy of per-
eecution waa stopped,^ while many of those condemned
by Marcua to the minea of Sardinia were released,
including the famous, or infamous, pope Callistus.'
The Church grew mightily, and in Rome many of the
upper classes and in the court attached themselves
to the new faith with their whole households.*

With the dawn of the third century we enter upon
a new era in the history of persecution. Hitherto,
as we have shown, the suppression of Christianity,
though the rule "of the Empire, had been a matter of
police regulation, carried out locally in a somewhat
» Neumann BSK i 85-6 for her attitude, and Hippoly t. Phil, ix 1 2,
Dio. Cass, ixxii 4. Marcia was practically morganatically married
(Duruy HB vi 25 n.). Her influence begun in 183 aud was at its
height in 189. See Allard I HP 454.
' Supra p.' 227 n. 1 (II) ; see the full examination of the martyr
doms in this reign in Neumann BSK i 283-91.
' Hippolytus Fhilos. ix 12. See eupra p. 119 n. 1.
* See Neumann BSK i 83 n. 2, 84 n. 2 for illustrations, including
the high ebamberlain Prosenes, who died in 217. For the spread
of Christianity at court from Nero to Constantine, see Harnack EO
ii 192-204.

230 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
fitful manner, rather than pursued systematically
pn definite instructions from headquarters. The
rescripts of Trajan and Hadrian were not directed
against Christianity as an organization, but dealt
with certain details of executive administration ex
actly in the aame way as if the question had been
one of brigandage, or illegal trades unions. Of any
consciousness that Christianity as a Church was in
itself a danger to the State, except in the sense that
all wrong-doers are dangerous, we see as yet little
sign or proof. The existing hatred of the new religion
was more a matter of personal feeling than a question
of high politica, though the outbreak of local pereecu-
tione could not fail to come under the ken of the
emperore, and to receive their sanction or regulation.
But all thie was now changed. In the early years
of the third century we see the emperore realizing,
dimly and imperfectly at first, that the Church which
their predecessors had peraecuted was no mere body
of anarchists to be rooted out wherever necessary,
but a rival organization of growing strength, whose
increase in numbers and unity of administration
made ita suppression, if poaaible, or if not its adoption
as a 'tolerated religion,' a political necessity. By
the middle of the century thie consciousness of a
great struggle and danger had become so clear and
definite, that we see organized efforta on the part of
the more energetic rulers to crush out the Church by
the use of all the reeources of the State. The police
measures of the Antonines gave place to a civil war
without quarter. But, unlike all other civil wars, only

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 231
one side waa armed. Strange to aay, this was the
side that was ultimately defeated. On the one hand
were the immense resources of the Empire centralized
in one supreme will; on the other the passive re
sistance of enthusiasts making these resources use
less. Nor were the forces of paganism material
only. She called to her aid a succession of able
philosophers and controversialists, Celsus, Porphyry,
Hierocles, Theotecnus,' and others, who sought in
various ways to entrench the established religion,
and to destroy with their criticisms the claims of
the new faith. Paganism itself became more serious
and spiritual as she realized the mortal nature of the
struggle. The student should note the apparent unequal-
neae of the conflict. To aome extent he may be
misled in this matter by the glowing rhetoric of the
apologists. If we were to accept the statements of
Tertullian and other Fathers, the conquest of Chris
tianity would not be so marvellous as it must ever
seem to the sober historian ; for the Fathers write
aa if the famoue sentence ' Veni, vidi, vici ' could be
applied literally to the Church. They leave us with
the impression that nothing could withstand the
onward "sweep of the hosts of God, and yet, somehow
or other, Christiana were almost powerless against
the persecutor ; two positions one or other of which
must be incorrect. Irenaeus boasts of ' many nations
among the barbarians who believe, having salvation
written on their hearts by the Spirit, without ink or
' Infra pp. 277, 280.

232 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
paper.' ' He is foUowed by TertuUian. ' Places in
accessible to Rome,' cries the orator, ' have yielded
to Christ ' — he is epeaking of the apread of the gospel
in Britain 2— and dweUa on the ' remote peoplea, pro
vinces, and islands which we know not nor can
enumerate,' which have embraced the faith. In
another place he threatens the State with the
dangers that arise from the universality of the
Christians —
' If we wanted to play the part of avowed enemies, should we be
lacking in numbers or resources ? Do the Parthiaus themselves, or
any nation, however great, which is yet restricted to one country
and dwells within its own boundaries, outnumber one that is spread
all over the world? We are but of yesterday, yet we have fllled
all the places you frequent — cities, villages, mariets, the camp
itself, town councils, the palace, the senate, the forum. All we have
left you is your temples, . . . Nearly all the citizens of nearly all
your cities are Christians.' '
Such passages could be multiplied, without, how
ever, increasing their value ae evidence. For all
thia wae little more than rhetoric, the result to
some extent of millenarian or parousian concep-
tiona. It waa neceeeary for the Second Advent
that the goapel ahould first have been preached in
every land. At the close of the first century we find
Clement of Rome maintaining that this condition
• Iren. Haer. iii 4, 2. Por a collection of passages in early writers
giving their estimate of the expansion of the Church, see Harnack
EC ii 147-71, As a specimen of their general exaggeration we
select the following from Euseb. HE i 13, 1 : ' Christ in His lifetime
was visited by myriads from remotest lands, imploring aid,'
2 Adv. Jud. 7. See infra Appendix P.
= Apol. 37 ; cf. *. 2, ad Soap. 2, 5 ; adv Marc, iii 20.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 233
had been fulfilled by St. Paul so far as the Empire
was concerned.' A few years later Ignatius talks of
' bishops settled in the utmost corners of the earth.'
By the middle of the second century, as we have seen,
the Church had persuaded herself that her warfare
was accomplished. The Shepherd of Hermaa speaks
' of aU the nations under heaven called by the name
of the Son of God,' ^ while Justin Martyr claimed
that 'there is not a single race of human beings,
barbarians, Greeks, or nomads, where prayers in the
name of Jesue the crucified are not offered up.' '
Hope was mistaken for accomplished fact. Imagi
nation, untrammelled by statistics, soared above mere
details. Such glorious optimism is characteristic of
Christianity. To the Church, aa to her Master, time
is but an accident. She sees already of the travail
of her aoul, and ia aatisfied. The ' not yet ' of the
cautioua critic is more than neutralized by the vision
of the triumphant King. (Heb. ii 8, 9.)
Aa a matter of fact, Chriatianity in the opening
yeara of the aecond century waa atill but a feeble
minority when compared with the vaat maases and
resources of heathenism, of less importance probably
than Judaism.* The statement of Origen is explicit :
' Many people, not only barbarians, but even in the
' Clem. Rom. Ep. 5, 'having taught righteousness to all the
world,' Spain included. Cf. supra p. 36 n.
' Ignatius Eph. iii. Shepherd Sim. ix 17. See supra pp. 23, 219 n. 3.
s Dial. 0. Tryph. 117. Cf. 52 fin, 53, 91, 121, 131.
* See supra p. 113, Pseudo-Clem, ad Oor. ii claims the opposite.
But Justin I Apol. 53 shows that it was long before the Gentile
Christians outnumbered the Jewish Christians, let alone the Jews.

234 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Empire, have not yet heard the word of Christ.'
Elsewhere he speake of the Christians ' aa at present
a mere handful of people,' in comparison with the
Empire.' No statiatics of Christianity are avaUable;
for that matter, we are ignorant of the population of
the Empire iteelf.^ But the lines of proof are aufficient
to show that only here and there, in a few great
towne such as Eome, Antioch, and Alexandria, in
atill fewer country districts chiefly in Asia Minor, was
Christianity at all strong numerically speaking. In
most regions of the Empire it was still non-existent ;
while the country side, even in the neighbourhood of
Christian cities, was almost wholly pagan.' The
extension of Christianity in the main coincided with
the extension throughout the world of Hellenism ; ita
linea of development for the most part were along the
great trade routes. In many places we find that the
Christians belong almost whoUy to the floating popu
lation, commercial or otherwise.
But though a minority, the emperors aaw that the
Christians were a dangerous minority, daily growing,
moreover, in numbers and power. Between the years
200 and 250 Christianity seems to have made rapid
advance ; while the increasing unity of its organiza
tion, under the pressure of Gnostic heresies, made
' In Matt. Com. 39 (ed. Lommatzsch iv 269 f.) Cels. viii 69.
' See fer this question,. and for a further discussion of the number
of Christians, Appendix P.
' But Zahn has shown that the word ' pagan ' does not mean
' villagers,' but ' civilians,' in opposition to the ' milites Christi,' who
have taken the oath of service to Christ (supra p. 185). See Harnack
EG ii 22 n. or ib. MC 68 f. The sense of paganus - ' civilian ' is
found in Dig. xlix 17, 19; Tac. Hist, iii 24 ; Pliny, Juvenal, &c.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 235
it the more dangerous. The insight of Decius was
correct when he declared that he would rather see a
rival emperor in the field than another pope in Eome.'
His outburst was due perhaps to his hearing that
Pope Fabian had actually substituted for the fourteen
civil districts of Eome a division into seven of his
own.^ Moreover, the Christians were exceedingly
wealthy ; sobriety and character had produced their
usual results. The confiscation of their public and
private property would provide relief for the impend
ing bankruptcy of the State.'
We do well to note that the conflict of the Church
and the Empire synchronized with a new conception
on the part of the Empire, of its own constitution.
Hitherto citizenship had been restricted to a few,
chiefly Italians, the inhabitants of certain special
colonies, or the successful legions. By an edict of
CaracaUa the name and privileges of Eomans was
conceded to all the free inhabitants of the Empire.
Thus a Catholic Church faced a world-wide Empire.
The first emperor to realize the new conditions
and to attempt the suppression of the Church was
the able Septimius Severus. At the outset of his
reign Severus had treated the Christians with a
certain degree of leniency ; * he had received benefit
' Cyprian Ep. 55, 9. See infra p. 245 n. 2.
« LP i 148.
s Schiller BK i (2) 890. The wealth of many Christians is evident
from such works as TertuUian's de cultu feminarwm (of. ii 13), as well
as Clement Alex. Paed, e.g, ii 12.
< The alleged martyrdom of Pope Victor (LP i 137) in 197 should
be rejected (cf. Hippolytus Phil, ix 12).

236 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHUECH
during a dangerous illness from a Christian alave,
who had anointed him with oil. He allowed Chriatians
in his court. The nurse aa well aa the tutor of hia
son CaracaUa were Christians.' According to one
account, on hia entry into Eome after hia victory over
his rival Albinus, Severus protected certain well-
known Christians from the anger of the mob.^ But
in the beginning of the year 201, on his journey
through Palestine to Egypt, Severus, alarmed by the
rapid growth of the new religion, and the increasing
menace of its tone, possibly resenting also certain
indiscretions in the army,' found it necessary to take
active measures against Chrietianity. He ordered
that no one should be allowed to become a proselyte
to Judaism, and applied the same to the Church,* a
needless edict this last — except in so far as it was
designed to correct his previous toleration — when we
remember that it was still illegal to be a Christian at
all.^ This warning given, Severue in the following
year passed to the severest measures of repression,
though hia persecution, which lasted until the second
' Tert. Scap, 4 ; Spartianus Caracall. 1.
* The Christians seem to have been loyal to Severus in the
recent civil struggles. Cf. Tert. Scap. 2, 'No one ever found a
Christian among the followers of Albinus, Niger, or Cassius.' (On
these usurpers see Gibbon, i 115 f.)
= See supra p. 183 n. 1 ; Tert. de C<^. 1.
* See the statement of Spartianus Sept. Severi 17 ; Paul. Sent, v
(22) 3, 4. The matter is critically discussed in Neumann BSK i
157-62. For the date of the persecution see Neumann BSK i 162 n. ;
Harnack CAL ii 324.
= Tert. Spec. 2 (a work written before 202 ; Harnack CAL ii 267)
speaks of the ' periculum vitae ' involved in being a Christian.

THE GEEAT PEESECUTIONS 237
year of CaracaUa, was chiefly confined to the East,
and to North Africa. According to Eusebius, the
' great theatre of God for these heroic wrestlers waa
Alexandria,' where, among others, Leonides, the father
of Origen, ' obtained the crown.' ' The student of
Tertullian, our chief Western authority for the rela
tione of State and Church under Septimius Severus,
especially of the address which at this time (211-2)
he presented to Scapula, the prefect of Africa, will be
' Euseb. HEyi 1, 2. According to ib. ' many thousands obtained
the crown.' Cf. Clem. Alex. Strom, ii 20 ' inexhaustible wells of
martyrs, burnt, impaled, beheaded.' But these are Eastern exaggera
tions. We know the names of fifteen (Neumann BSK i 291-3),
including Potamiaena (infra p. 302). Probably in striking at this
great catechetical school of the Church Severus had a deliberate
purpose foreshadowing the later policy of Valerian (infra p. 254). By
driving Clement, the successor of Pantaenus, into Cappadocia, the
school was for the time being broken up.
Other certain martyrs are as follows : (1) Eome ; Natalis (Natalis
was at one time a bishop in a sect of which Theodotus the banker
was leader, and received a salary of ' 150 denarii a month : ' Euseb.
HE V 28), Felicitas, and Januarius (infra p. 320 n.). But the escape of
Zephyrinus (198-217, LP i 139) shows that in^Rome the persecution
was slight. (2) In Africa. At Carthage : June 27, 203, Guddene,
a Phoenician girl (Neumann BSK i 177 n,). Castus and Aemilius
(Cyprian de Lapsis 13 ; possibly under Decius ; they recanted, then
repented and were burnt). Jocundus, Saturninus, and two others
(infra p. 323). Perpetua and her companions (infra p. 313 ff,). Also
MavUus of Hadrumetum (Tert. Scap. 3. For date May 11, 211,
Neumann BSK i 184 n,). This last was the overwash of the
Severian persecution. Also Eutilius (Tert. de Fuga 5, place and
date unknown). (3) In Asia. Asolepiades, bishop of Antioch
(? confessor only, about 217. Euseb. fl^vi 11).
The martyrdom of Irenaeus at Lyons (202 or 203) is very doubtful
(Lipsius in DCB iii 256. It seems to be an invention of Gregory of
Tours, dor. Mart. 50, Migne PL Ixxi 752); that of Elfan and
Medwin in Britain is pure legend.

238 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
at no loss to discover the cause of peraecution.
Every sentence of the Apologist breathee defiance, or
heape contempt upon the customs of heathenism.
Nor were the pagans backward in their hatred and
slander of the Christians.'
With the death of Septimius Severus at York
(Feb. 4, 211) and the succession of his worthless
sons, the Church for a time enjoyed comparative rest.^
In part this was due to a succession of foreign
emperore with no hereditary attachment to the
Eoman national religion ; half-mad Syrian voluptu
aries like Elagabalus, who dreamed of a universal
religion to be obtained by the fusion of all other
faiths, Christianity included, into one great system
in which the sun, under the form of a black conical
stone,' should be the central object of worship.* In
the cousin and successor of Elagabalus, another
Syrian of nobler mould, who assumed the title of
Alexander Severua, we see the aame syncretism in a
higher form. In his private oratory (lararium) he
erected, so gossip ran, a statue of Jesus, side by side
with those of Abraham, Orpheus, and ApoUonius of
Tyana.^ Many of high rank in hia court were believera.

' Supra p. 159 and generally c. 3.
¦' For an examination of the aUeged martyrdoms between Sept.
Sev. and Maximin Thrax, see Neumann BSK i 301-18. I have
little doubt of some, e.g. Alexander of Baccanae in Etruria (ib. i 203).
' This was called Al-gebel, " the mountain ; " hence Ela-gabalus.
The form Heliogabalus was a mistaken Greek rendering.
' Lamprid, Vit, Heliogab, cc. 1, 2, 3, 5.
' Lamprid. Alex, Sev. 29, 2. ApoUonius of Tyana was a sort
of heathen Christ, whose life (ed. Kayser, 1844) was written by

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 239
He had ordered, it was said, the Golden Eule to be
written up in his palace.' In a lawsuit between the
Christiana and a company of victuallera for the
posseseion of a piece of ground in Eome, Alexander
awarded the site to the Christians. ' Better,' he said,
' that the land should be devoted to the worahip of
God in any form than that it should be handed over
for the uses of cookshops.' ^ When his mother, the
Empress Julia Mamaea, passed through Antioch, she
sent for Origen :
' With her he staid some time, exhibiting innumerable matters
calculated to promote the glory of the Lord, and to evince the
excellence of divine instruction. After this he returned to his
accustomed duties.' '
But beneath thia apparent calm there was the grow
ing dread and hostility of paganism. We see this,
as Gibbon haa auggeated, in those counsels of perse
cution which Dion Cassius, who composed his history
during this reign, has put into the mouth of Maecenas,
and which were " most probably intended for the use
of hia maater." * We have a further iUuatration in
Philostratus as a rival to the Founder of Christianity. Aurelian
erected altars to him (Vopiscus Aurel, 24).
' Lamprid. Vit Alex. Severus 51, 7, 8.
" Ib. 49, 6. Possibly the site of S. Maria in Trastavere or S.
CecUia ; Neumann BSK i 209 n.
' Euseb. HE vi 21. Orosius vii 18 calls her a Christian. But
his evidence is of little value. Hippolytus also seems to have
addressed a work to her on the resurrection (^ly Se^-lipetyav is the title
on his famous chair), unless indeed it be to Julia Severa, the second
wife of Elagabalus. See DOB iii 100 ; Neumann BSK i 206 n. ;
Harnack CAL ii 216. (Orosius is in Migne PL xxxi.)
* Gibbon, ii 112 n. See supra p, 89 for the counsels.

240 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
the fact that it waa at this time that the lawyers
codified the existing laws against Christianity.'
With the murder of Alexander Severus and hie
mother at Mainz peraecution once more broke out. The
very succesa of the Chriatiana proved their undoing.
Hitherto they had met for worahip in private houses,
or in the cemeteries of their dead ; now they were
permitted to purchase sites, to erect churches. Their
bishope already poaaessed an influence by no means
limited to their congregations. The upper clergy,
therefore, were the first to feel the hatred of Maximin
the Thracian, a gigantic barbarian, ignorant of Latin,
the first who sat on the throne of the Caesars. Many
perished in the massacre of the friends of Alexander
with which this tyrant began his short disastrous
reign.^ In Rome Pope Pontian and Hippolytus were
exiled to Sardinia. There the pope wae beaten to
death.' The ehort papacy of his successor Anteros
shows the bitterness of the persecution.* Hia execution

1 Lact. Instit, v 11 fin. The lead was taken by Ulpian (between
212-7), but his coUection is lost. It should be noticed that this work
formed part of his De Officio Froconsulis, This is of great import
ance, as showing that the repression of Christianity was not so much
by special law as executive act. See supra p. 65.
' Euseb. HE vi 28.
' Sept. 28, 235. Duchesne LP i 4, and Introd. xciv (LP i 145 is
an error). Their bodies were brought back to Rome (see infra p. 258)-
by Pope Fabian, and buried Aug. 13 (? 236) in the catacombs of
Callistus and Hippolytus (LP i 12 ' depositio martyrum '). The
identity of this Hippolytus is a difficult question. See Neumann
BSK i 257-64, 321-3 ; DCB ui 88 ; Harnack OAL u 212-3.
* Nov. 21, 235 to Jan. 3, 236. But the martyrdom of Anteros is
uncertain. In the Liberian Cat. (LP i 4) the opposite (' dormit ') is

THB GREAT PERSECUTIONS 241
may have been due to the ' diligence ' with which
he 'collected from the notariee the reeorda of the
martyra.'' In Cappadocia and Pontus, where an
earthquake had irritated the people against the Chris
tians, the persecution was especially eevere.^ But
Maximin'e oppression of the Church, though wide
spread, was not so much systematic as a part of the
general horror of his rule.' Public opinion, usually
cast against the Christians, in thie case refused to
side with the tyrant. Maximin's purging his court
of Christiane waa afterwards copied by Decius and
Valerian. There wae, in fact, no alternative. The
position had become such that an emperor must
either drive out the Christians from his palace, or
allow himself to be dominated by them.
/ Under the Emperor PhUip the Arabian, the
Christians enjoyed for five brief years, not only rest,
but a measure of protection and encouragement. The
growth of the Church in all ranks and classes was
remarkable.* Everywhere the Christians felt the
need of larger buildings to replace the older oratories.
How great was the peace of the Church ^ we see from
stated. See on the one side Duchesne LP i 145 and xov, and on the
other Neumann BSK i 318-9.
' His collection is lost. His successor Fabian made an attempt
to complete his task (LP i 148).
' A.D. 235 under Serenianus. Cyprian Ep. 75, 10; Origen in
Matt, xxiv 9. To the sufferings of Ambrosius and Protootetus of
Caesarea (Cap,), who were carried off ' to Germany,' we owe Origen's
Exhortation to Martyrdom.
' The names and details of martyrs under Maximin Thrax are
very uncertain : see Neumann BSK i 318-27,
* Lact. MP 3.
" But in Alexandria a severe persecution broke out in the last
R

242 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
the prevalence in later daya of the idea that the head
of the State had become a convert to the new faith.'
Nor was the idea dispelled by the magnificence with
which Philip celebrated on the thousandth anniver
sary of the foundation of Rome the eecular games, the
great religious rites of Eome (April 21, 248). Per
haps the suspicion was due to the fact that he had
not visited with stern punishment the Christians, the
more rigid of whom would abstain from this great
festival of national pride. But with the fall of Philip
the Empire set itself reaolutely to the task of crushing
out. the Christians.
The movement for reform — for such it seemed to
the pagan party — had its centre in the army, the one
branch of the body politic least influenced by Chris
tianity, where the old manners and discipline atill
retained to eome extent their power. Deciue,^ an

months of his reign (Euseb. HE vi 41, 1) due to local hatreds, or
possibly to the pestUence (Euseb. HE vii 11, 24). The leader was
a local poet.
' See Euseb. HE vi 34, Chron. ii 180, and the fact that Origen
corresponded with Philip and his wife Severa (Euseb. HE vi 36).
Cf. also supra p. 239 n. 3. But no heathen writer mentions it, and the
secular games could hardly have been performed by a Christian.
Moreover, Philip was deified at his death (Eutrop. ix 3). I reject,
therefore, the idea of Allard II HP o. 6, Aube CEB 471, Duchesne,
and others, and, with Neumann BSK i 246-50, DCB iv 355, believe
Philip was not a Christian.
' For our knowledge of the Decian persecution our sources are
Cyprian's Letters (including those of Lucian) and his De Lapsis;
fragments of Dionysius of Alex, in Euseb. HE vi 40-2 (these two
lived and wrote in the persecution) ; Gregory of Nyssa (t o, 395),
Vita Greg. Thaumaturgi (this last somewhat highly coloured : in Migne
FG xlvi 893 ff.). Acts abound. The most trustworthy are the Acta

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 243
able Pannonian aoldier whoee virtuea ' ranked him
with the anciente,' ' conscious of the weakness of the
Empire, and ite growing inability to bear its burdens,
attempted to restore strength by striking at what he
considered a prime cause of disunion.^ He deter
mined to enforce universal observance of the national
religion. This, with most Eomans, he deemed to be
catholic enough for all tastes.' Thua he would put
an end to aocial and moral confusion. For thie
purpose he allied himself with the Senate, the home
of all heathen and conservative reactions. To
strengthen hie hand he revived in the pereon of
Valerian the office of censor.* For outbreaks of local
hatred he would substitute a universal and organized
scheme. With Goths, Franks, and Persians threat
ening to inundate the Empire, no more inopportune
time could have been chosen for thus estranging an
influential and numerous section of his people. But
Pionii (infra p. 297), Acta Carpi et Papyli (infra p. 328), and Acta
Maximi (Hamack CAL u 469, supra 196 n.).
Of monographs we may mention Gregg DF ; Benson's Cyprian ;
Aube" EE pp. 1-275; Giirres in Jahrb, Prot. Theol. Ixvi 1890,
244 ff.
' Christian writers naturally are unfair to Decius. Lact. MP 4
calls him ' execrabile animal ' ; Lucian in Gyp. Ep. 22 ' a great snake,
the pioneer (metator) of Antichrist.' But Vopiscus Aur. 42 ' quorum
et vita et mors veteribus comparanda est ' is more accurate. Cf. also
Gregg DF 21 n.
' Euseb. HE vi 39 attributes the persecution to Decius' hatred of
Philip. But we must look deeper.
' See the argument of the heathen Caecilius, Minuc. Felix Oct. 6.
* Gregg's idea (DP 82-4) that the edict was issued in the names
of Decius and Valerian should be rejected. The mistake originated
with LP i 155, Cf, Aubg EE 38,

244 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Decius was a political idealist rather than a practical
statesman. Early in 250 Decius pubUshed his edict against
Christianity.' He commanded provincial governors
and magistrates, assisted where necessary by a com
mission of notable citizens,^ to see to it that all men
sacrificed to the gods and to the genius of the emperor
on a certain fixed day. Part of the ritual consisted
also in tasting the sacrifices, as we see from the story
of the apostate bishop Euctemon.' Special attention
was to be paid to the officers of the Church, under the
belief 'that if he removed all the heads the entire
fabric would dissolve.' * But Decius did not contem.-.
plate extermination. . At first capital punishment, ex
cept in the caee of bishopa, does not seem to have been
authorized, though banishment and torture might be
employed to break the stubborn. The emperor was
perauaded that if the magistrates only put sufficient
pressure upon the Christians, they would abandon
their faith. He had grounds for this belief in the
recent addition to the Church of thousands of converts
who had rather changed their creeds than their
characters, self-indulgent, effeminate men, painted
women, and ambitious clergy, upon whose worldly
' The text of the e'dict has not been preserved, but its contents
can be pieced together. See Gregg DP 68-86, Its date is fixed as
early in January, by the execution of Pope Fabian on. Jan. 20 (infra),.
and possibly that of Polyeuctes on Jan. 10 (AUard II HP 532
quoting investigations of Duchesne).
' In Carthage called pusilUores, Cyp, Ep. 22.
'" Inf-r'a p. 342, See also p. 341.
* Bee Acta Farthenii, &c. (infra p. 246 n,), in A.SS iv May 301,
and of. infra p. 270 n. for a nineteenth-century version of the same idea.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 245
Uvea the persecution seemed to some to be a fitting
judgement.' Such rushed eagerly to the magistrates
to obtain their libelli, or certificates of sacrifice, and
when the days of persecution were over were as eager
to be readmitted to the Church.
There was hardly a province of the Empire in
which the violence of the storm was not felt, and
which did not obtain its bede-roU of martyra. For
the faithful who refueed to sell their Lord were hunted
out, banished, their property confiscated, they them
selves exposed to inaulta, outrage, torture, death.
The confeasors, it ia true, were more numeroua than
the martyra, for the object of Decius was by prison
and torture to produce recantation. A measure of
forbearance also was shown to the humbler Christians,
unless indeed it be that no steps were taken by the
Church to record their sufferings. In Eome itself the
policy of striking down the officials rather than the
members was strictly carried out. Qn January 20,
s 250, Pope Fabian was executed, and so severe was
the p^ersecution that for fourteen monthe no successor
could safely be appointed.^ But 'the Church held
firmly to the faith, though eome fell through fear.'

' Cyprian de Lapsis 5. For the laxity of the Church see ib. o.c. 6
(mixed marriages ; bishops) ; Ep. 4, 1 (curious conduct of virgins).
But the chief evidence is the general apostasy (infra p. 246).
2 LP i 148, Cyp. Ep. 9, For his tomb see N. and B. BS i 300,
where de Rossi points out that the title 'MR' (martyr) was not
added at the time of his burial, but later, i.e, when his successor,
Cornelius, was able to authenticate his martyrdom. But Cornelius
was not appointed until March, 251 (Harnack OAL i 155-6, ii 351 n.
2 ; Lightf. Clem, i 288 ; not June as DOB i 689).

246 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
The proportion of brave women among the confessors,
of whom, alas ! we know nothing but the names,' ie
remarkable. Two high-born Pereians, Abdon and
Sennen,^ ae well as two Armenians, Parthenius and
Calocerus, witness by their deaths at Eome to the
spread of the gospel.' They were perhaps fugitives
from persecution elsewhere, for, strange to say, Eome,
with its large Chrietian Church, seems to have been
almoat the safest place in the Empire, at any rate
after the departure of Decius.* We see this in the
arrival of no less than sixty-five confessors in one
ship, who were met at the harbour by Numeria and
Candida, two girls who attempted to atone for their
weakness in the day of trial by ministering to the
needy.^ But the severity of the peraecution was most ex
perienced in Africa. In Carthage the more part of the
Church apostatized, ' spurring one another on with
encouraging words, and in turn pledging each other
in the cup of death.' Among the weaklings were
some of the clergy, who probably missed the presence
' Lucian in Cyp, Ep. 22, 3 for a list.
^ Duchesne LP ill. Their Acts are worthless. Date July 30, 250.
For their tombs discovered in 1019 see DOA i 8.
^ The tombs of these two Armenians are in Cat, Callistus (N.
and B. BS i 344-5). Date probably May 19, 250. Their Acts (A.SS
iv May, 300) are very corrupt, but with historical kernel (Aub^ EE
52-61). * March or April, 250. There were troubles in Gaul and with the
Goths (Aube' EE 69-70).
» Cyp. Ep. 21. Numeria's real name seems to have been Etecusa,
and ' Numeria ' merely a scornful title given her by her brother
Celerinus because she had paid (nvmeravit) for immunity (DCB ii
209).

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 247
and support of their bishop, Cyprian. Certain
bishops also denied the faith. But many, among
them women not a few, were faithful unto death.
We hear of seventeen, the comrades of a confessor
called Lucian, who died together in priaon of hunger
and thirat.'
In Egypt the persecution in Alexandria, begun
under Philip, was renewed. Here also, as at Carthage,
there were many backsliders. ' Others, however, were
firm and blessed pillars of the Lord,' among them an
old man, Julian by name. As his gout would not
allow him to walk, he was carried to the stake on a
camel, amid the jeers of the mob. We read also of
DioacuroB, a boy of fifteen, 'who wae neither per
suaded by words nor constrained by tortures.' Five
Christian soldiers, one of them a veteran, were stand
ing on duty by the tribunal. Noticing signs of
wavering in a prisoner, they made vigorous signs to
him to stand firm. On being observed, ' they ran up
to the tribunal and declared that they were Christians.'
Dionysius, the great bishop of Alexandria, escaped.
For four days he lay hid in his own home while the
police searched high and low. He then decided on
flight, and was captured by the soldiers. But as one
of his frienda, a certain Timothy, who happened to
have escaped, was flying along in great distress, ' he
met a peasant, who asked the cause of his haste. On
• For this p.iragraph see Cyprian de Lap, 7, 8, 9, 13, 24, 25 ; Epp.
6, 10, 11, 14, 22, 24, 38, 40, 56. (Ed. Hartel.) The chronology
and order of these letters and events is dealt with in Harnack OA L
ii 339 ff. For the absence of Cyprian see infra p. 311.

248 PERSECUTION IN THE EAELY CHURCH
hearing the same the peasant went his way, for he
was going to a marriage feast.' On his arrival the
countryman told the story to the others, Bome of
whom, apparently, were Christians :
' These, forthwith, with a single impulse arose and came as quickly
as possible with a rush and a shout upon us' — (Dionysius himself
tells the story)—' The soldiers immediately took to flight, and the
peasants came upon us, lying as we were upon the bare bedsteads.
I indeed, God knows, thought at flrst that they were robbers. Lying
there on my bed, naked save for a linen cloth, I offered them the
rest of my clothes. But they told me to get up and get away as
quickly as possible.'
As Dionysius seemed unwilling to flee," hia friends
set him on an unsaddled asa and carried him off to
the deaert.'
In Syria and Asia Minor the peraecution raged
fitfully. The great theologian Origen,*^ who wae now
in his eixty-eighth year, was racked to the fourth hole. ¦
Only by the ingenuity of his judge was he saved from
succumbing to his tortures, from the effects of which,
however, he died at Tyre in 254. In Pontus, as in
Carthage and Alexandria, the laxity of the authorities
was such that Gregory the Wonder-worker succeeded
' For this paragraph see Dionysius in Euseb, HE vi 40-2 ; also ib.
Ep. ad Germanum in Euseb. BE vii 11. The flight of Dionysius
seems to me to have occurred in 250 (so Westcott DCB i 850), though
Harnack GAL ii 58 follows Euseb. HE vii 11 in dating under
Valerian. If so, Euseb. BE vi 40 is out of place.
^ Euseb. BE vi 39 (Origen's letters describing this, to which
Eusebius refers, are unfortunately lost), 46, vii 1 ; Jerome Ep. 65,
and for his tomb at Tyre DCB iv 103. His great work against
Celsus, to which we have so often referred, was probably written
a few years earlier — between 246-8 (Neumann BSK i 265 ff., Harnack
04iu35n.).

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 249
in escaping. Deciua was too busy with his campaigns
in Gaul and Pannonia to see that the magistrates
carried out his instructions. But here and there the
prisons were filled, and the torturers busy. In
Smyrna ' the luety athlete ' Pionius and his com
panions witnessed the good confession, in spite of the
apostasy of their bishop, Euctemon. But Babylas
of Antioch and Alexander of Jeruaalem proved by
their deaths that not all the hierarchy were cowards.'
The peraecution of Decius, happily, was of but brief
duration. The barbarians providentially came to the
aeeistance of the Church, as also in the later crisis
under Valerian. Even before the death of Decius
at the hands of the Gotha in the marshes of the
Dobrudaha (Auguat, 251),^ the preaaure of his foes
had wrung from him a measure of rest for the
Christiane. We eee this in their election in the
previous March of Pope Cornelius. In the following
year the persecution Tvae renewed by Gallus, through
whose treachery Decius had perished. The occaeion
wae found in the terror inspired by a pestilence which
swept from end to end of the Roman world.' Expi
atory sacrifices to avert the anger of the gods were
ordered to be offered throughout the Empire. ' We
see,' wrote the African bishops, ' that a second season
of attack is drawing near.'* But the treacherous
' Euseb. BE vi 39 ; supra p. 157 n,, and infra p. 829.
' Schiller BK i 806-7. Not Nov. 251, as AuU EE 276, Duchesne
LP i xcvi n,, &o.
' Dion. Alex, in Euseb. HE vii 21 ; Pontius Cyp. Vita 8, 9 ; Cyp.
ad Demetr 5,7 ; de Mortalitate 14.
* Cyp. Epp, 57, 59.

250 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
Gallua was a foe far inferior to the virtuous Decius ;
while the Church, purified by its trials and repentance,
was stronger than in the former persecution. The
attack failed, though we know that for a time the
persecution extended over Italy, Africa, and Egypt.
In Carthage the mob clamoured for Cyprian to be
thrown to the beasta. In Rome Cornelius was ban
ished to Civita Vecchia, where shortly afterwards he
died.' His succeaaor Lucius was no sooner appointed
than he too was banished. But the murder of Gallus
by his own troops put an end to the struggle. Lucius
was allowed to return to Rome, where shortly after
wards he died in peace.^ The secret of Rome's
succesa in the past lay in her continuity of policy.
Now her growing weakneas waa ahown by the way in
which aucceaaive emperora cancelled the meaaures
taken against the Christiana by their predecessors.
' The earliest source (LP i 6) knows nothing of his martyrdom.
Probably the title, like that of Lucius, is due to Cyprian Ep. 68, who,
because of their banishment, salutes them as martyrs. Cyprian
certainly does not make the distiuction between confessor and martyr
that is now common (see Gregg DP 289-97, and cf. Aube EE 301 n,),
though possibly the title is due to his dying as the result of his
banishment. That the tradition of his martyrdom is earlier than the
fourth century is seen from his Acts (on which see Aub6 EE 282 ff.)
which are used in LP i 150 (see Duchesne's note ib. i xcvi). Por his
tomb, among those of the patrician gens Cornelia, and his epitaph,
which is in Latin, and not, as that of other popes, in Greek, see N.
and B. BS i 272, 352-63, or Lanciani PCB i 215-9, who, however,
wrongly dates under Decius. Cornelius died June, 253 (Harnack
CAL i 155), and was buried Sept. 14, 253 (LP i 151).
* iP i 6, 153. See also Aube' EE 295 ff. Lucius dates from
June 25, 253 to March 5, 254,

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 251

VI
The accession of the aged censor Valerian ' (Aug.
253), a noble Roman of rigid life and unswerving
fidelity of duty, but of somewhat irresolute character,
aoon issued in the renewal of the struggle. The reign
of Valerian — who at an early date aseociated with
himeelf hie son GalUenus^ — in spite of the many
virtues of the emperor, was one of the most unfor
tunate in the annals of Rome. On its frontiers
Franks, Alemanni, Marcomanni, and Gotha in all
directions were preaaing in upon the dying Empire.
For fifteen yeara a great plague ravaged ita provincea,
carrying off in Alexandria and other citiea more than
half the population. Seaaona of scorching drought
were followed by terrific tornadoes.' A debased coin
age * led to financial disaster. Famine, earthquakes,
and huge tidal waves completed the ruin.
In the early months of his reign, though the laws
of Decius were still in force,® the Christians were
not molested. Valerian waa too busy attempting to
' For the life of Valerian, see Trebellius Pollio Fragmentum Vitae
Valeriani in the Historiae Augustae, a noble picture, if accurate
(Bury G i 446) ; Healy, Valerian Persecution (a broad-minded R,0.
survey, though accepting much that should in my judgement be
dismissed as fable). Aubd EE (the very opposite of Healy) and
Benson Cyprian give good accounts of the persecution.
' Before Oct. 22, 253 (Gibbon i 253 n.).
' Supra p. 249 n. 3. Cyprian ad Demet. 7,
* SchUler BK i (2) p. 843 for detaUs.
» The martyrdoms of Hippolytus, Hadrias, &c., accepted as taking
place at this time by Healy (VP 126-9), seem to me romance. See
also Aubd.B.B 332.

252 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
reduce the chaos in the State to order, and in pro
viding for the defence of the frontiers, to meddle with
the Church. There are grounds for believing that at
firet he viewed the Chrietiane with eome favour. He
allowed Pope Luciue to return from his exile. ' His
houae was in truth a congregation (iKKXrjata) of the
Lord ' ; ' ao numeroua were the Chriatiana in hia
palace that the ' Caeaariani ' are expressly singled out
for punishment in his second edict of persecution.^
But now there came a change ; to some extent due
to the constant calamities of the Empire and the
superstition of the people, more, perhaps, becauee of
the growing influence upon Valerian of Macrianua,
one of the chief membera of hia court, the head of the
magi of Egypt.' Through thia man's machinations
Valerian began a terrible persecution of the Church.
In the summer of 257 he issued an edict specially
directed against the bishops and priests. Theae the
magiatratea muet eeize and compel, under the alter
native of banishment, to offer the outer signs of con
formity, ae in the persecution of Decius. The decree
also forbade, under pain of death, the assembling
together for worship, or the use by the Christians of
their cemeteries.*
' See supra p. 134.
= Infra p. 254.
' Aube EE 337-40 doubts the character of Maorianus given by
Dionysius (see supra p. 134). No doubt there is strong bias. But in
the main the portrait seems correct, see Healy o.c. 109-21.
< The edict is lost, but can be reconstructed from the Acta
proconsularia of Cyprian (infra p. 313 n.) and the trial of Dionysius
of Alex, in Euseb. HE vii 11.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 253
Few details of the effect of this rescript have come
down to us. At Rome, for reasons which are now
lost, the Christians succeeded to a large extent in
evading it.' In Carthage it led to the banishment of
Cyprian to Curubia. In aome places where the
Christians continued to hold their meetings they
were arrested in large numbers, and condemned to
death or to the mines. Among these laat were nine
Numidian biahops, to whom Cyprian wrote a letter of
conaolation from his place of exile.^ Dionysius of
Alexandria was deported to Kephron, a wretched
village in the desert, where the pagans attacked the
Christian aliens with stones.' Recantations were few,
if any,* though in eome districts the edict was rigidly
enforced. The worldling and coward had been driven
out of the Church by the fire and sword of Decius.
A year later (Aug. 258) Valerian, conscious of the
failure of his first edict, published a second of
increased severity. This rescript was possibly the
result of the reports he had received from hia lieu-
tenante, meet of whom had been present at the
emperor'e brilliant levee at Byzantium in the eummer
of 258. Valerian deemed that the time wae oppor-
' Inference from the freedom of Popes Stephen (t Aug. 2, 257,
shortly after the edict was out. Certainly not a martyr ; see
Duchesne's note in LP i 154) and his successor Xystus, who, though
elected on Aug. 24, 257 (the date of Cyprian's banishment), was not
troubled until the next year (Hamack CAL i 155 ; Lightf. Clem, i
290). ' Cyp. Epp. 76-9 deal with this period.
^ Dionysius in Euseb. HE vii 11.
* Aub6 EE 349 finds evidence for a few recantations in Com-
modian Car. Apol. 762-3, on which see ib. 517 ff.

254 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
tune for hie reform, inasmuch aa he had recently
won several aucceeeea on the Rhine and Danube. He
determined to strike at the clergy. Wherever found,
of whatever grade, the penalty for the clergy wae
death, without the avail of recantation. The leadera
among the laity, aenators, and knighta, were con
demned to the same fate, but with the option of
backsliding. Noble ladies were sentenced to be
banished. Membera of the court were to be aent in
chains to work as slaves on the imperial estates.'
No mention ia made of the treatment of humble
Christiane. Valerian hoped that the eheep thue left
without shepherds would come back to the true
fold without being worried.
The first victim of the rescript was Pope Xystus.
In spite of the edict, he had assembled the faithful in
a little oratory, or schola, in the cemetery of Praetex-
tatus — not in the catacomb of Callixtus; that was
too well known to the authorities for safety. The
soldiera rushed in, the pope was hurried before the
judge, and of course condemned. He was brought
back to the cemetery and put to death as he sat in
his episcopal chair, together with four of his deacons.^

' No longer extant. Its drift can be gathered from Cyp. j^. 80.
I am not sure that the idea of treason among the Christians,
regarding the barbarians as allies, etc. (Aube' EE 351-2), as a cause
of this second edict can be so lightly dismissed as Healy VP 165.
See supra p. 153 ff,, especially 153 n, 3.
^ Sixtus II ; Aug. 6, 258. See Duchesne LP i 68, 155 ; Cyprian
Ep. 80 ; Prudentius Feristeph ii 21 is untrustworthy. For his tomb,
and that of his deacons, see N. and B, BS i 132 ff., 150 ff., and for this
schola and its site Lanciani PCB 117-8.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 255
Four days later the aame fate overtook other deacons
and readers, among them the famous St. Lawrence.'
In the provinces Cyprian at Carthage,'^ Agapiua and
Secundinua at Cirta, Bishop Fructuosue of Tarragona,*
Luciue and Montanus,* Marianus and James,® Leo of
Patara,^ and many others, suffered torture and death,
of a few of whom we know but the names, of most
poaaess no record at all.''
But the fall of Valerian was at hand. The legione,
enfeebled by the plague, diatracted by civil wars, were
powerless to hurl back the seething hordes that
pushed over the frontiers. In the West the Alemanni
ravaged Italy up to the walls of Eavenna (259),
while Dacia was torn from the Empire by the
Goths,^ who thence pursued their ravagee across
the Boephorue into Asia. In the East Valerian,
in attempting, probably, to prevent the junction of
Goths and Persians, was defeated by the latter under
' Aug. 10.' His genuine Acts were lost before St. Augustine's
time (see August. Serm. 302). The church of S. Lorenzo fuori waa
built over his grave (Lanciani PCB 120-2). Nothing is said in the
earliest sources (LP i 68) as to the manner of his death, slow fire
on the gridiron, &c. This legend may have arisen, as Franchi de
Cavalieri suggests, by a mistaken reading of assiis est for passus est
(LP i 155 ; Healy VP 184). The delay in his execution may be
due to attempts to wring from him as treasurer of the Church (the
function of the deacon) some of its wealth (Healy o.c. 182).
' See infra pp. 310-3. ' Infra p. 325.
* Infra p. 324 n. ' Infrci p. 322 ff. " Supra p. 162-3.
' The martyrdom of the boy Cyril at Caesarea (AM 246), accepted
by Healy (VP 242), Mason (Hist. Martyrs 198), seems to me to bear
on its face proofs that it is written for edification. If historical it
would surely have been mentioned by Euseb. HE vii 12, which deals
with three young meu martyred at Caesarea.
» 255-6. See Mommsen PBE i 241.

256 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Shapur (Sapor) and betrayed to the enemy.' For
six yeara the unfortunate emperor waa dragged about
at the stirrup of his conqueror, robed in purple but
weighed down with chains. When at length death
came to hia releaae, his skin was dyed with vermilion,
stuffed with etraw, and hung up in unavenged deriaion
in a Persian temple.''
Valerian waa succeeded by Gallienua, a clever
man without character or real patriotism. He took
no steps to procure hia father's release; the revolt
of provinces was accepted with a smile. Usurpers
sprang up everywhere ; the Thirty Tyrants ' reduced
the Empire to chaos. For all these things Gallienus,
cynic and voluptuary, cared nothing. But whether
from indifference, rare atateamanship, the influence
of his wife Salonina,* or the philosophical syncretism
which attached him to Plotinus and the Neoplatoniate,
GallienuB determined to put an end to the sanguinary
struggle between Christianity and the State. The
Empire waa bleeding to death; one wound, at any
rate, might be staunched. So Gallienus issued an
edict of toleration, restoring to the Church their
confiscated basilicas, reopening their cemeteries, and
guaranteeing freedom of worahip.® In the East the
' About 260. See Bury's Gibbon i App. 17. Mommsen PBE ii
100. ' Lact. MP 5 ; Euseb. Vita Constant, i 3, with which cf. PoUio
Valer. 4 ; Trig. Tyr. 12, ' senex apud Persas oonsenuit.'
' Eeally sixteen in all; see Bury's Gibbon i App. 18.
* That she was a Christian seems to me very doubtful. See
Duruy HB vi 387, Healy VP 271 n., AUard III BP 163 ff.
' Euseb. BE vu 13. Text of edict lost. Date, autumn, 260.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 257
social diaorders led to some delay ; but finally, both
in East and Weat, Chriatianity thua became definitely
euiroUed as a religio licita, and so continued until
the persecution of Diocletian. How strong waa now
their legal poaition is shown by the incident' of the
appeal of the Christians of Antioch against their
bishop Paul of Samoaata to the Emperor Aurelian,
the issue of which was the recognition by Aurelian
of the righta of the Eoman section in the Church to
the buildings.' The edict of Milan fifty-three years
later did little more than restore the legislation of
Gallienus. The execution of Xystus in the catacombs tempts
ua to interrupt our story that we may explain more
fully a matter intimately bound up with the martyrs
from the daye of the Apoatles onward. We allude
to their tombs.^ The reader familiar with the savage
fanaticism which tossed the ashes of Hus into the
Ehine, tore up Wyclif from his grave at Lutterworth
' Euseb. EE vii 27-30. I agree with Lindsay Church and
Ministry 332 n. that the question was far more one of Paul having
sided with Zenobia, who held possession of Antioch, than of heresy.
Aurelian intended to rescind the toleration, but was hindered by his
death, March, 275 (Euseb. BE vii 30 ; Lact. MP 6), The hagiologies
are full of legends of his martyrs, on which see Aub^ EE 469-85.
Some, however, may have a basis of fact, but be wrongly dated.
^ Por the origin and nature of the catacombs, &c,, see Lanciani
PCB 0. 7, Northcote and Brownlow BS i 1-364, Allard Les Catacombs
(Paris, 1896), or the brief but good DOA i s.v. The source of all
these works will be found in the main ia the indefatigable researches
of de Rossi, whose superb BS may be consulted with advantage even
by those ignorant of Italian, for the sake of its plates. But for these
the superb edition of Wilpert Le Fitture delle Catacombe Bomane
(two vols,, Rome, 1903), is even better. S

258 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
and cast the dust into the Swift' — two only out of
many illuatrationa — may wonder that the Roman
governora allowed the burial of the martyra at all.
But in thia matter pagan Rome muet not be com
pared with the horrible vindictivenesa of the mediaeval
Inquisition. To the heathen judge, unlike the
Council of Constance or Bishop Fleming of Lincoln,
the dust even of the criminal was sacred, and must
be delivered up to the relatives or friends.^ Even
a Nero dare not tamper with that right, and there
is nothing in iteelf more probable than that a Roman
matron of wealth ehould be allowed to claim and bury
the bodies of St. Paul and St. Peter in her own free
hold. What wae more, the place of burial by that
very fact became eacred (religiosus) in the eyee of
the law,' a place aa inviolable aa the holieat temple.

' See my Dawn of i'he Beformation i 245, ii 332. Bernard Gui,
the inquisitor, between 1308-22 exhumed and burnt 67 bodies of
heretics. Lea Bist. Inquis. i 495, The contrast between pagan
Rome and papal Eome is in this matter not to the credit of the
latter (cf, the Roman laws in Dig. xi 7).
" See Paulus and Ulpian in Dig. xlviii 24, 1 and 3, 'Corpora
animadversorum (those who are punished) quibuslibet petentibus ad
sepulturam danda sunt ' ; so also ' corpora eorum qui exurendi.' The
exceptions were in cases of majestas (Ulpian in Dig. xlviii 24, 1,
where, however, the ' nonnunquam non permittitur ' shows that even
this was rare) and banishment (Marcian in Dig. xlviii 24, 2 ; it must
not be done ' incpnsulto principe '). The two exceptions could both
hit the Christians hard if the rulers were so inclined (see infra p, 263),
But as a rule this last exception was not carried out, as we see from
the case of Fabian and Hippolytus (supra p. 240), and as Marcian
states (^0. ' multis petentibus hoc ipsum indulserunt ').
' Dig. i 8, 6. 'Religiosum locum unusquisque sua voluntate
facit, dum mortuura infert in locum suum.' This applied also to

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 259
Thus the tomba of the martyra, for instance of St.
Peter on the Aurelian Way, of St. Paul on the Ostian,
whether above ground or below, would be built with
as much impunity aa the mole of Hadrian or the
mausoleum of Augustus, and with rights of access
to the tombs fully secured, even in case of the sale
of the property.' Thus the law itaelf, by the eafety ,
it insured for the graves of the martyrs, assisted
by the reverence of the Church and the desire of
the faithful to be buried side by [side with the holy
dead, waa the real force that dug out the catacombs.
For the catacombs were not, as was once supposed,
diauaed quarriea which trembUng Christians secretly
adapted for their own purposes. They were galleries
deliberately constructed by several generations of
Christians at great coat by aextons (fossores) recog
nized as servants of the Church, and with an evident
consciousness of security and right. In this, as
in so much else, the Church waa but the lineal
descendant of Judaism, whoae catacombs at Rome,
undoubtedly anterior to Christianity, furnished to
aome extent the model of all later developments.
We have an iUuatration of thia in the fact that of
the fifteen biahopa of Eome who preceded Zephyrinua
all but Clement and Alexander were buried 'hard
by the body of St. Peter.' ^ We cannot imagine that
slaves. Dig. xi 7, 2. The origin lies in ancestor worship. Cf. XII
Tables in Cie. de Leg. u 9, ' Deorum Manium jura sancta sunto.'
» Paul. Sent, i 21, 7; Dig. xlvu 12, 5.
= See the lists in Duchesne LP i 118-38, or briefly ib. i clvu. The
fact that the burial-place of Clement at a very early date was un
known- (cf. LP i 123) led to his identification with Clement of

260 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
the imperial police were ignorant of this recognized
burial-place of the leadera of a aect officially classed
with cutthroats and anarchists. Nevertheless, no
interference was attempted. In the third century
Zephyrinus changed the tomb of the popes to the
cemetery which he had provided,' possibly becauee
the little plot on the Vatican was full. But the
thirteen bishopa of Eome buried in thia new cemetery
were perfectly safe, despite the persecutions of
Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian, of which, in fact,
some had been the victims.
Theee burial-placee were at firat known by the
namea of the owner of the freehold,^ not only for
legal reasona, but because the familiar galleries were
really developments that radiated out from theae
private aepulchral areas. Only in later timea, and
then by no means commonly, were they called firom
some fatjaous saint whoee tomb they contained.'
Furthermore, in every case, by Eoman law, they
were without the walls. No corpse save that of
a vestal virgin was allowed to be buried within the
Cherson (supra p. 206 n.), Alexander's was either unknown, or the
true site lost through the false identification (as early as the LP, see
ib. i 127) of this pope (f 116) with a martyr Alexander, who, with a
priest, Eventius, and a deacon, Theodulus, are buried on the Via
Nomentana, about seven miles out from the city, and whose tomb
was discovered in 1855. This identification, accepted by N. and B.
BS i 506-8, should be rejected ; seo Duchesne's note LP i xci.
' Infra p. 261 n. Called now the catacomb of Callistus.
'' E.g. the cemetery of Praetextatus (supra), a perfectly unknown
Christian freeholder.
' E.g. the catacomb of Domitilla (supra p. 204 n,) becomes that
of NereuB and AchUleus, So often. See the list in DCA i 315.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 261
city itself. But this very fact gave them a certain
privacy, which, added to their inviolability, enabled
the catacombe to become a safe meeting-place for
worship in times of persecutions. The provision
of theee cemeteries was left at firat to private
generosity. But early in the third century the
Church took advantage of the laws relating to
burial clube to purchase cemeteries, the freehold
of which was vested in the bishop or other official.'
' Tert. Apol. 38 pleaded 'that Christians should have a place
among licensed societies,' and in ib. 39 mentions among the objects of
the 'monthly coUection' the 'burying poor people.' With this cf.
Aristides Apol. 15; Lactant. Instit, vi 12. Burial clubs (collegia
tenuiorilm) abounded in the second century, and one of the objects of all
sodalities was to look after burial (DiU o.c. 258-61). For the regis
tration of Christians as burial clubs, the student should consult further
Le Blant SAM 282, 288; Ramsay CBP i 119, ii 549-50, 563; de
Rossi B/Sf i 10 ff., ii 82. The first mention of the Church holding its
own cemetery seems to be under Pope Zephyrinus (f 218), who made
Callistus overseer of it (Hippolytus Philos. ix 12), and was himself
buried in it (Duchesne LP i 139-40).
As a collegium tenuiorum, or burial club. Christians would acquire
the right to hold property, especially cemeteries. This was formally
permitted by Gallienus (260) when he restored the cemeteries (Euseb.
BE vii 13, 3 ; Hatch Organ. Early Ch, 152, n. ; Duchesne l.c). The
question of the relation of burial clubs to the Church seems to me
rather a legal queation of property held by a sodality, more or less
numerous in its members, than one affecting the status of the Church
as a church. That is, I cannot think that the theory of de Rossi,
which for some time met with general approval [that the decree of
Sept. Severus extending to the provinces the rights of burial thus
hitherto restricted to Italy (Dig. xlvii 22, 1) enabled the Church
as such to obtain a legal corporate existence, and was thus first
recognized by the State as a monster burial club], is correct. In
dividual Christians might so band themselves, but that the police
at Rome allowed the 50,000 members (see infra App. F) to form
a club seems ridiculous, as Duchesne aud other critics of de Rossi
have pointed out.

262 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
In this very development we mark one of the notes
of Christianity. Pagan cemeteries were usually
restricted to the members of a particular familia,
but in the brotherhood of Christ they were open
to the community of the faithful.
From the earliest daye of the City jurisdiction in
all matters of burial, including the reaponsibility
for guarding inviolability, was left to the pontiffs
(pontifices). Every transference of a body, even
simple repairs of the tomb, had first to obtain their
sanction.' If this wae eecured (and in such mattere
the pontiffs were lenient), the transference of a
Chriatian from one tomb to another became a legal
act, in spite of the fact that Christianity iteelf waa
illegal. Thia will illustrate a most interesting event
which took place towards the close of the first year
of persecution under Valerian, and which may well
have led to the immediate issue of his second rescript.
On June 29, 258, a few weeks before the martyrdom
of Xystus, the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul were
transferred from the places where hitherto they had
rested to another place ' in Catacumbae.' ^ Whether
' See a certificate of transfer dated Nov. 3, a.d. 155, quoted in
Ivanciani o.c. 308.
" See the record in Duchesne LP i 11 and cf. infra App, C. The
words are ambiguous, but I should reject as most improbable Dr.
Northcote's idea (B8 i 369 from Gregory the Great Ep. iv 30) that they
relate to an attempt of the churches in the East to obtain the bodies
shortly after their deaths (see Duchesne's full examination LP i
oiv-ovii). The Apostles were not returned to their original tombs for
some time ('forty years,' say the Itineraries; N. and B. JB/Si265),
probably not until the peace of Constantine (D. LP i c vii), for the
record under Pope Cornelius (252), with its story of Lucina (LP i

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 263
this was done for the greater security in time of
persecution of the precious remains, in dread leet the
heathen should attack their well-known shrines, or
from some other cause— for instance, the need of
repairing the tombs — we cannot tell. If carried out
ostentatiously with the pontiffs' consent, it waa a
dangeroua step, as it marked out the men who took
part in it, Xystus included ; if done secretly at night,
it could not fail to be reported by the police, and
thus give Valerian reason for striking harder at such
daring law-breakers.
We have said the cemeteries were guarded by .
custom and legislation. But in tim.es of peraecution
the mob occasionally defied the law, the more eaaily
as Christiana condemned for ' majestas ' were really
outside its pale.' In the great outbreak at Lyons-
the persecutors cast the ashes of the martyrs into
the Ehone —
* in order, as they said, that they may not have hope in a resurrection,
in the strength of which they despise dangers and go with joy td
meet death' (Euseb. BEyI).
Outrages upon the tombs of the hated anarchists
150; see also supra p. 41), is evidently misplaced. Henceforth
,Tune 29, the date of the 'deposition,' was held as the Feast of St.
Peter and St. Paul (infra App. C).
The place of ' deposition ' was in the cemetery of St. Sebastian
(Lanciani PCB 345 ; N. and B. BS i 268). This district seems to have
had the name of " the Hollows " (Kbt^ Kv/i)3os, a word akin to Welsh
cwm, English combe ; DOA i 295. Possibly, however, the word is a
hybrid, Kard — cumbo, ooemeterium), and so by this pre-eminence of
the 'deposition' to have given the name of 'catacomb' to all the
Roman Christian cemeteries.
» See supra p. 258 n. 2.

264 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
might also at timea be committed with impunity by
reason of the sympathetic blindnese of the police.
This will account for the frequent appeala to the
fears of the law-breaker which we find on Christian
graves. Thua on a tomb at MUan we read : ' May the
wrath of God and of His Christ fall on him who dares
to disturb the peace of our sleep.' But the Christian
did not as a rule so openly expose his faith. In
Phrygia, for instance, he used a phrase that would
not jar on pagan susceptibilities : ' the violator shall
account to the God.'' Underground vaults were
naturally less exposed to such lawless deeds, and, eo
far as we know, until the persecutions of the third
century the aanctity of the catacombe waa acrupu-
lously respected by the responsible magistrates.
De Eosei waa of opinion that the first attempts
to make the Catacombs eecret may be dated as due
to the peraecutione of Septimius Severus. Tertullian
speake of the Christiana as being arrested ' in their
secret gathering-places ' ; while in Carthage the cry
arose, ' No burial-grounds for the Christians.' ^ The
edict of Valerian and the arrest of Xystus II led to
many devices — irregular and circuitous pasaagea,
concealed waya of entrance through the sand quarries
(arenariae) which often lay adjacent, atepe deatroyed
so that without a ladder the intruder waa help-
leas, and the like — for the better guarding of their
• Lanciani FOB 318, Ramsay CBP u 497-9, Le Blant CIG i
289-92, give a coUection of prayers and menaces which are by no
means, in Gaul or Phrygia, conflned to Christians.
^ Tert. ad Nat. i 7, Scap. 3 (' areae nou sint '),

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 265
cemeteries.' But, in spite of all precautione, the cata
combe were probably the scene of many surprises and
not a few tragedies. On one occasion, if we may
quote a doubtful tale of Gregory of Tours, when the
Christians were seen to enter, the passage was hastily
walled up, so that they were all buried alive.^ What
ever be the truth of Gregory's tale, such a fate for
the Christians was probably not unknown.

VII
With the accession of the great Emperor Dio- '
cletian (September 17, 284), we enter upon the final] 3 ^
struggle — the tenth wave, as Christians said, of the.
great storm.' Diocletian's parents had been alaves
in the houaehold of the Senator Anulinua; their
> N. and B.iJSi 154-5,
"^ Greg, Tours de Gloria Martyrum i 38, Pope Damasus, we are
told, found their living tomb, and put a window into it, so that they
might be seen undisturbed. The doubtful element in the story, apart
from certain absurd details, absence of date, &c,, lies in the fact that
it is really a repetition to some extent of the martyrdom of Chysanthus
and Daria, whose tomb they were visiting. These two were buried
alive in an arenarium (sand-quarry) on the Via Salaria Nova, pro
bably under Valerian. (See DCB i 514 ; Allard DF 46 n. Aub^ EE
494 n. rejects as a ' reman d'edifioation.' Their Acts certainly are
such, but the two themselves seem historical.)
' Our chief authorities are Euseb. HE and Lactantius iHP. For the
questions connected with Lactantius see infra App. A II. Of modern
works Mason FD (1876) is very valuable, though needing correction
here and there in small details. Its lengthy polemics against
Hunziker, &c., though perhaps necessary when written, could well
be curtailed in a future edition.

266 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
child refounded the Empire on a new basis, trans
forming the principate of Augustus into an absolute
monarchy. Diocletian's reorganization of the Empire
was followed by the concentration of the forces of
that Empire against the Church. All was chang
ing ; Eome had become almost a provincial city,
forced to pay taxes like the rest of the world,
of less importance than Milan or Nicomedeia. The
old rule of a solitary imperator gave place to the
tetrarchy of two Augusti and two Caesars ; the old
provinces had been regrouped as dioceeee.' Nothing
would have been more natural than that Diocletian
ehould have done what Constantine found it neceeeary
to do later — to coneolidate hia other changea by a
change in the national religion. But the time for
that waa not yet. In epite of himeelf, Diocletian wae
driven into persecution.
The conflict with the Church did not break out
immediately. In his early years, Diocletian had
somewhat favoured Christianity. His wife Prisca
and daughter Valeria were catechumens, though as
yet they had made no open confession of faith. So
also were many of his court officials, among them
the infiuential eunuchs Dorotheus and Gorgoniue,
as also Lucian the chamberlain.^ As his earlier
acts show, by temper Diocletian was tolerant, in
clined to look on all national religions aa worthy of
' The student who is puzzled as to the different groupings of the
Empire by Diocletian under its Augusti and Caesars should study
Bury's Gibbon ii App. 15.
" Lact. MP 10, 15.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 267
patronage. Nevertheless, by his adoption at hie
accession of the title of Jovius, Diocletian showed
his determination to revive and uphold the religion
of the Empire. Isolated persecutions here and there
in the army ' show the slumbering forces of hatred ;
while Eusebius' description of the 'vast congrega
tions of men who fiocked to the religion of Christ,'
and of the ' spacious churches ' that were daily being
erected,^ indicate that the death-grip of the two
rivals could not long be averted. In Nicomedeia, the
capital of Diocletian, the most conapicuoue edifice
in the city was the great Christian basilica, which
towered up on an eminence in full sight of hia palace
windows. For the Church in' every province the last
fifty years had been years of remarkable growth.
The Empire must determine whether it should main- •
tain the national religion, or allow it to be displaced
by the new faith to which Gallienus had granted
toleration. The heathen priests soon found their opportunity,
as in the case of Valerian,' in the devotion of Dio
cletian to the rites of divination. The emperor, who
was anxiously awaiting at Antioch for news of the
succeee of Galerius in hie second expedition against
the Persians (297), consulted the omens. Victim after
victim was sacrificed, but with no result. Then the
master of the aoothsayere, who had observed eome of
' Maximilian of Theveste (supra p. 185) ; Marcellus of Tangiers
(supra p. 182). See also Euseb. BE viii (4) 2, Twv Karti t& (rTpaT6ireSa
fL6uav aTOTieipaiievov. The army cases were perhaps the necessary
outcome of military disciplina
' Euseb. HE viu i, » Supra p. 134,

268 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
the court sign themselves with the cross — the famUiar
remedy of Christian officials for bowing themselves in
the house of Eimmon — informed Diocletian : ' There
are profane persone here who obstruct the rites.'
Diocletian, in a rage, gave orders that all who were
present should be made to sacrifice, and sent messages
that the same test should be applied to the troops.
But his anger passed away, and for a time nothing
further was done.' With the success of Galerius,
Diocletian celebrated the laat triumph which ever
swept along the Sacred Way.^
Galerius Maximian, in his youth a Dacian neat
herd, was the evU genius of Diocletian. A brave and
able soldier, faithful and obedient, aa cruel as he was
superstitious, he had grown up imbued with his
mother Romula's hatred of the Chrietiane, who had
angered the old lady by fasting and praying when
invited to join her entertainments.' After long but
secret conferences, Diocletian was induced by Galerius
and Hieroclea, the President of Bithynia — this last
an able controversialist against the Christians — to
issue a decree on the feast of Terminalia (Feb. 23,
303), an appropriate day for the purpose, intended
to set a limit or term to the growth of the new
society. By this rescript the edict of toleration of
GaUienua was repealed; the statutes of Valerian
re-enacted. All churches were to be demolished ; all
• Lact. MP. 10.
" Date uncertain, probably 302, though possibly at the time of
Diocletian's Vicennalia (i.e. 20th anniversary), Nov. 20, 803.
' Lact. MP 11.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 269
sacred books to be burnt — in this last we may surely
trace the counsels of Hieroclea, who ia said to have
known the Scriptures by heart — all Christian officials
were to be deprived of their civil rights ; Christians
who were not officials to be reduced to the rank of
slaves.' Galerius had wished to condemn to the
flames all thoae who declined to sacrifice. Diocletian
refused to allow the shedding of blood; He intended
to crush out the Church, not rob his empire of
citizens. He aimed at a Teats Act, not a meaaure of
extermination. But two fires in the palace within a
fortnight — the work of the Chrietiane, said the hea
then ; a plot of the heathen, retorted the Christians ^ —
were skilfully used by Galerius to stir up Diocletian
to still greater repression. 'Aa Diocletian himself
used to Bay, "the best of emperore, no matter how
well intentioned, sometimes errs ! " ' ' Persecution,
once begun, could not long proceed on methods of
rose-water. Prisca and Valeria were compelled to
sacrifice ; the trusted officials Dorotheus, Gorgonius,
and a page named Peter put to death, the first victims
of the accusation of incendiarism. Everywhere perse
cution raged ; the Christians were seized, thrust into
prisons, burnt, or drowned.*
A few monthe later® Diocletian iseued a aecond
'¦ Euseb. BE-^iii (2) 4 ; Lact, MP 13. See Mason DP App, I for a
critical examination. The preamble, if it ever existed, is lost. Com
pare the edict of Valerian (supra p. 254), on which to some extent it
is based. ' Lact. MP 14; Euseb. EE yiii (6) 6; Mason DP 118 n., 121,
' Vopiscus Aurel. xliii 2. ¦• Lact, MP 15,
« From the Fassio Felicis (see infra p, 275 n,) we learn that the

270 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
edict. The immediate reason is unknown, but Dio
cletian's severe treatment of a revolt at Antioch,
if a mad eacapade of five hundred soldiers engaged in
dredging may be ao described, ahowa that he was
nervous of disaffection in one of the centrea of the
new faith. In Melitene, another stronghold of the
Church, there seema also to have been some attempt
at rebellion.' In Armenia Tiridates (Trdat) the king
was known to be a convert to Christianity.^ So
Diocletian deemed it wise to take decided meaauree.
He put into force the chapter in the edict of Valerian
hitherto omitted, and ordered the impriaonment of
all the clergy.
Throughout the world the passions of the heathen
were let loose without restraint. The clergy were
seized.' Especial search also waa made for the
edict arrived at Tibjuca, near Carthage, on June 5, 303, It arrived
at Cirta before May 19 (Geb, AMS 189).
1 Euseb. HE viu 68 ; Mason FD 124-8, and supra p. 187 n.
2 The conversion of Armenia Major through the labours of Gregory
the Illuminator, and the examprfof Trdat (261-314), began in 280.
Before 290 many of the temples, including the national shrine at
Asti''at, were destroyed, though the peasants, especially the women,
clung as usual to the old faith. (The chief authority is Gelzer's Die
Anfange der arm, Kifclie, 1895. See also Bury's Gibbon ii. App. 18.
Hamack EC ii 344-7.)
' Canon Mason, FD 137-8, states that if only Diocletian had
known it, he could have out off the life of the Church for ever by
seizing all the bishops, " and the Church would have lain beneath his
feet a corpse," without "the means of propagating the life" (of,
supra p. 244). The conclusion follows that in Scotland, Switzerland,
America, N. Germany, Wales, Sweden and Norway, and elsewhere
the prevalent Christianity is but "a corpse." It is difficult to
characterize as it deserves such a narrow conception of tbe kingdom
of Christ and the work of the Holj' Spirit. When -wUl theologians

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 271
Scriptures. Deacons and readera were tortured until
they surrendered their copies to the flames. In Asia
Minor a town in which the Christians were in a
majority was wiped out for ever.' Only in Britain
and Gaul, where Conatantius ruled — Spain was in the
government of the cruel Datian, an officer of Maxi
mian — was there any safety for the Christians, though
even that tolerant emperor deemed it wiser to con
form to the letters he had received from Diocletian
BO far as to destroy their churches.^ In our own
island the Christians, it must be confessed, were but
few in numbers, though not without the powerful
support of the Empress Helena. To thia date we
must aasign the martyrdom of a young Roman
soldier of Verulam, named Alban, who was executed,
according to the doubtful story, for harbouring a
priest — a defiance both of the edict and of the disci
pline of the camp.3
learn that a priori theories which won't fit in with the facts of experi
ence are scientific absurdities, and degrade theology from being the
' queen of the sciences ' into a laughing-stock ?
' Euseb. BE yiii 11 ; Lactant. Znsiit Div. v. 11 ; and cf. Ramsay's
remarks on Eumeneia iu Phrygia, CBP ii 505-9.
' Lact. MP 15 as against Euseb. BE viii (13) 13, MP (13) 10, 11.
Even if Eusebius be correct, one or two martyrdoms might occur.
^ It is difficult to know what to decide about St. Alban, That
Christianity existed at this date in Britain is certain. See the
evidence in Haverfield Eng: Bist. Bev. xi. 420 ; and especially note
that three bishops (? London, York and ? Lincoln) attended the Synod
of Aries in 316.
On the other hand, the narrative in Bede BE i7 is full of impossi
bilities (see Bede BE ed, Plummer ii, 17-20). Haddan and Stubbs
Councils i 6, following Euseb. BE viu 13 (13), deny that the persecu
tion of Diocletian extended to England. No doubt a country -withgut

272 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
The effort of the persecutors to stamp out the
Scriptures led to some interesting incidente. In
many churches the precious manuecripts were hur
riedly hidden, so that ' when the officers reached the
library the bookshelves were empty.' At Cirta,' in
consequence, we see the magistrates with a police
man called Ox (Bos), going round from house to
house, guided by the bishop's traitor secretaries (May
19, 303) :—
•And when they came to the house of Felix the tailor, he
brought out five books, and when they.came to the house of Projectus,
he brought five big and two little books. Victor the schoolmaster
brought out two books, and four books of five volumes each (quiniones
quattuor). Felix the perpetual flamen said to him, "Bring your
Scriptures out ; you have more," Victor the schoolmaster said, " If
I had had more I should have brought them," ^ When they came to
the house of Eutychius, who was in the civil service (Caesariensis),
the flamen said, " Bring out your books, that you may obey the
order." " I have none," he replied. " Your answer," said Felix, " is
martyrs felt humiliated and under constraint to invent some. Yet, on
the whole, I incline to agree with Harnack EO ii 410 n. 4 (see also
DCB i 69) that there is some foundation for the story, though that of
Aaron and Julius of Caerleon (Bede l.c.) seems to me more doubtful.
The earliest evidence is Constantius' Life of Germanus (Constant.
Vit. Germani i 25 in Surius Sanctorum Bistoriis iv), in which we are
told that Germanus flf ty years previously had visited the relics. The
date of Alban was June 22, (See also my Letters of Bus 249 n.)
That Alban was a soldier is an inference from Bede's phrase ' miles
ille,' which, however, may be merely figurative (see supra p. 185),
though scarcely likely of one executed on the day of his conversion.
' Cirta is the modem Constantine, in Algiers.
' Human nature is much the same always. When asked his
occupation, Victor said, ' I am » professor of Roman literature,' and
ran out a long genealogy. As becomes a grammaticus, his answer
might serve as an example of conditional sentences in a Latin
grammar.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 273
taken down." At the house of Coddeo, Coddeo's wife brougbt out
six books. Felix said, " Look and see if you have not some more.' '
The woman said, " I have no more." So FeUx said to policeman Ox,
" Go in and see if she has any more." Said the policeman, " I have
looked, and found none." ' '
We hear of one wily bishop, Mensurius of Car
thage, who removed all the library of his church,
but took care not to leave the shelves bare. He
placed thereon a number of heretical works of little
value. The pagans fell into the trap, destroyed the
poison, and the bishop's library escaped, in spite of
certain busybodies who tried to inform the pro-consul
of the mistake his police had made.^
We owe the record of the doings at Cirta to a later
inquiry, under Constantine the Great, into the cha
racter of certain of the parties concerned. To the
same cause we are indebted for another photograph
of the times, which deals with the trial, in the year
314, in the vicarial court of Carthage, of FeUx, bishop
of Aptungi,' ' for giving his consent to the aurrender
of the Scriptures.' Caecilian, who had been in office

' Gesta apud Zenophilum c. 2 in Geb. AMS 187-204, or CSEL xxvi
(1893) 185 ff. Written Dec, 320. In place of the books the officers
found at the church, ' thirteen pairs of men's shoes, forty-seven pairs of
women's, sixteen men's tunics, eighty-two ditto for women, thirty-eight
women's head-dresses,' &o,, evidently a clothing club for the poor.
They found also eighteen smocks, for the use, I imagine, of the six
grave-diggers who are mentioned. At the moment of writing, the
history of church inventories is repeating itself in France.
2 See DCB i 880, iv 903. Mensurius died in 311.
' The correct name seems to be Autumni (Geb, AMS 213); un
identified, but probably in Numidia. Tissot La Province D'Afrique
ii 579 discusses the matter fully. T

274 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
in Aptungi in 303 — the year of the persecution — is
put into the witness-box. He deposed as follows : —
'I had been with Saturninus to Zama over a question of
boundaries,' When we came back to Aptungi, the Christians sent
to me to the court, to ask, " Has the imperial decree reached you
yet ? " I said, " No ; but I have already seen copies of it, and at
Zama and Furni I have seen churches destroyed, and books burned,
so you may as well be ready to produce whatever books you
have, . , ." Shortly afterwards I sent to the house of the accused
Bishop Felix. The police brought back word that he was away. . . ¦
So I wrote a letter to the said Bishop FeUx.'
The letter was handed up, hastily recognized by
Caecilian, and then read to the court. It was as
follows : —
' I hope you are very well. I enclose the signet-ring which the
Christians, among them the keeper of the courts, sent to me to avert
punishment. You remember you said, " Here is the key. You may
take away all the books in my stall, aud all the MSS. on the stone
slab. But please do not let the police take away my oil and wheat,"
And I said to you, " Do you not know that every house in which
Bibles are found must be pulled down?" You said then, "What
shall we do ? " I said, " Get one of your people to take the Bibles
into the yard that you use for your talks, and put them there, and
I will come with the police to take them away." ' '
On further inquiry it turned out that the latter
part of this letter waa the forgery of a man called
Ingentius, one of the secretaries of the court. But
the picture it gives of the shifts in which magistrates
and Christians too often took refuge is in the main
correct. Some of the Christiane were made of eterner stuff.
* ' Propter lineas comparandas.' Mason DP 160 (whose account
of this trial is fairly full) translates, ' to get some shirts.'
' For this remarkable trial see Geb. AMS 205-14 or CSEL xxvi.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 275
Of such waa Felix, bishop of Tibjuca, a village near
Carthage. The mayor of the town (curator) wrote to
him 'to surrender his Scriptures, or some parch
ments of some sort,' for the more merciful judges
were often willing to take any ' waste scraps.' Felix
refused. ' It is better,' he said, ' that I should be
burnt myself rather than the Scriptures.' So he was
hurried off to Carthage. ' Why don't you surrender
aome spare or useless books?' asked the proconsul
Anulinus. But all aubterfugee and hinta were in
vain. So, after a month of misery, Felix was shipped
off to Italy, heavily chained in the hold of a ship
carrying horses, and at Venusia, in Apulia, with
"pious obstinacy,"' laid down his life rather than
give up his Gospels.^
Hermes, a deacon of Heraclea, in Thrace, who
had at one time been its chief magistrate, waa even
more daring in hie confidence : —
' If we were to surrender to you, torturer I all the Scriptures, so
that there should be no trace left anywhere of this our true tradition,
then our descendants will compose greater Scriptures, and will teach
yet more earnestly the fear we have of Christ.' »
' Where did these come from ? ' asked Calvisianus,
the govemor of Catana, in Sicily, of a Christian
deacon called Euplius, who was discovered with a
manuscript of the Gospels ; ' did you bring them from
' Gibbon u 126.
2 AM 355, Aug. 30, 303. The form Tibjura in Ruinart, Mason,
&c,, is a mistake for Tibjuca or Tubzuca, the modern Zouitiua, about
forty miles from Carthage (Tissot Prov. d' Afrique ii 287-9). The
conjecture Thibaris (DCB ii 497 from Baronius) is needless.
' Ruinart AM 411 ; see Harnack CAL ii 478 for its authenticity.

276 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
your home ? ' 'I have no home, aa my Lord Jeaua
Christ knows,' replied Euplius. ' Eead them,' said
the judge. So Eupliua opened the booke and read :
' Blessed are they which are pereecuted for righteoua-
ness' sake, for theire ia the kingdom of heaven.' He
turned over a few pages, and read again : ' Whoso
ever wiU come after Me, let him take up his cross
and foUow Me.' After many tortures Euplius was
executed, repeating to the end, ' Thanks be to Christ
my God.' '
In the autumn of 304 the health of Diocletian
failed. For forty years he had borne the burden of
erecting a new empire out of chaos; now his mind
refused to rise to higher themes than the opening
of a new cu'cus at Nicomedeia.^ Galerius and
Maximian could thus pursue with less restraint their
own designs. ' 0 Augustus,' shouted the mob to
Maximian, on the occasion of a rare visit to Eome,
' no Christianity.' The cry fell in with Maximian's
wishes. A fourth edict was iseued affixing to
Christianity the penalty of death, while the magis
trates were informed that the entire population must
be tested by sacrifices.' Nobly did the Church
respond to the call. The design of the pagans was
more than met by the ' obstinacy ' of the Christians.
Hell waa let loose in its vilest and most cruel forms ; *
' AM 406. Aug. 12, 304. EupUus seems to have sought martyr
dom. See infra p. 343 n.
« Lact, MP 17.
' See Mason PD 210-7 for the circumstances of this fourth edict.
See also Euseb. MP 3.
* To this period we must assign the cases in infra App. H.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 277
but against the onward march of the hosts of God
ita gatea could not prevaU.
The retirement of Diocletian (May 1, 305) removed
from the persecutors all restraint. Diodes, for the
ex-emperor resumed his original name, settled down
to cultivate his cabbages at Salona, in Dalmatia;
Galerius and Maximin Daza — this last ' a young
half savage, more accustomed to herds and woods,' '
a kinsman of Galerius — addressed themselves to
their task of crushing out the Church, though
distracted for a while by many difficulties with regard
to the succeeaion. But the pace waa too great to
last, and in 308 mutilation was substituted for death
as the punishment of the faith. At Caesarea Eusebius
saw one day ninety-seven Christians, men, women,
and even young children, on their way to the mines
at Phaeno, each one minus the right eye, and with
the left foot disabled by hot irons. ^ For a few
monthe the ' fiame of persecution relaxed its
violence, almost extinguished by the streams of
sacred blood.'' But in the autumn of 308 there
began a new reign of terror, in the various acts of
which we may trace the diabolical genius of
Theotecnus, a Neoplatonist. A fifth edict appeared
even more stringent than the previous. The fallen
idols were to be re-erected, all households were to
sacrifice, and, lest there should be any escape, all
For Daza's sensuality see Lact MP (38) 4, which Brandt, the critic
of Lactantius, however, considers exaggerated.
• Lact. MP 19. Salona is the modern Spalato.
^ Euseb. MP 8. ' i6, 9,

278 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
goods for sale in the markets were to be polluted by
libations.' For two yeara it rained blood. In some
towns the atreets were atrewn with fragmenta of
corpses. But in 311 Galerius relented. He was
on his deathbed, tormented with the disease vulgarly
known as the being eaten of worme.^ Like all the
men of his day, he was the prey of superstition.
The goda whom he had defended had not helped
him; perhaps it waa not too late to appeal to the new
deity. So from hia dying bed he issued (April 30,
311) his famous edict of toleration — 'ut denuo sint
Christiani,' ' which bore also the signature of Con-
etantine and Licinius, or, aa he ahould rightly be
called after hia elevation, Licinian, for Maxentius,
who ruled in Italy, the aon of Diocletian'e colleague
Maximian Herculiue, was not recognized by the
others as a lawful emperor. In this extraordinary
document, wrung from a man by the terrore of the
unknown, Galeriue tried to dupe the Christiana and
their God into remitting for him the punishment of
his cruelties. He had only persecuted, he maintained,
to ' bring back to a good disposition the Christians
who had abandoned the persuaaion (sectam) of their
own fathers ' and ' the institutions of the ancients.' *
• Euseb. MP 9 (2).
" Fully described (evidently con amore) by Lact. MP 33, and
Euseb. HE viu 16.
' The phraseology is probably legal. The law against Christians
in TertuUian's time was this : ' non licet esse vos.' Tert. Apol. 4.
» The phrase is crafty. The heathen would take it to mean the
national gods; many Christians, especiaUy the zealous Montanists,
&c., would hold that it signified primitive Christianity.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 279
He confessed that he had faUed to induce his victims
' to display due reverence for the gods, or pay heed
to the God of the Chriatians.' So the edicta are
rescinded; in return the Christians were expected
' to pray to their God for our recovery.' But it was
too late. " The unknown God to whom Galeriue had
at laat betaken himself gave no answer to his insolent
and tardy invocation." ' Five days or so after the
decree was posted at Nicomedeia Galeriue died in
Sardica. His dominions were shared between Maximin
Daza and Licinian.
Maximin Daza had refueed to affix his seal to
this edict of toleration. He seems, however, to have
issued some instructions of his own to the magistrates
of the Eastern provinces, informing them that they
' need not for the present exert themselves further in
the cause.' ^ From a thousand prisons and ergastula,
from mines and islands, the scarred warriors of Christ
streamed home. Everywhere men began to re-erect
their ruined churches, or to build new oratories over
the graves of the sainted martyrs. But Theotecnus
and his band did not intend thus tamely to yield.
As Maximin toured round the East he was met
by deputations from the heathen cities, urging that
they might have local option in the matter of
persecution. In Nicomedeia, to take one illustration
recorded for us by Maximin himself, a huge memorial
' Broglie L'£lglise et L'Empire i 207, quoted by Mason. For this
edict in Latin see Lact. MP 34, and in Greek Euseb, EE viii 17.
Note the imposing array of titles.
' Euseb. HE ix (1)4.

280 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH

was presented to him, with due procession of gods
and the like, asking permission to banish the atheists.'
At Tyre the town council put up a brass tablet for
bidding Christianity within the city. On receiving
the news, Maximin wrote to them his delight :
' At last weakness has become strong. The night of error is scatter
ing. The mist is breaking. . . . Ask what you like; you shall
assuredly receive it.' '
At the same time steps were taken for the reforma
tion of paganism. The Chriatian sacraments and
institutions were imitated ; heathen hierarchy estab
lished of men of high rank.' For the mob there
was a clever winking Jove, for the devout a daily
heathen service.* To the new pontiffs waa given the
power of mulcting in noses, eyes, and ears thoae
who absented themselvea from the temples. Four
prostitutes of Damascus profesaed that they had
once been Chriatians, and had learned their trade by
participating at Christian sacramenta. Copiea of
their etatements were circulated broadcaat, while
Theotecnue ordered that the infamous Acts of Pilate,
which bespattered the Saviour with mud and His
Cross with contempt, should be taught in all the
schools.® The device of local option in persecution succeeded
' Euseb. BEiz (9) 17, 18, 19.
« Euseb, HE ix 7 gives this extraordinary letter in fuU, It also
was engraved on brass by the town council,
' Cf. illustrations in Ramsay CBP ii 567.
« Euseb. BE ix 3, ix 4, viu 14, 9 ; Lact. MP 36, 37, Date, end £|f
312. ° Supra p. 21 n. ; Euseb. HE ix 5.

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS 281
admirably. Wherever in the East the heathen were
in a majority, they tried to cut down the leaders of
the Church. Lucian of Antioch, Peter of Alexandria,
Anthimus of Nicomedeia, are but three names out of
' a perfect choir of martyrs ' who suffered at this
time. Christian Armenia determined to interfere.
The war which foUowed — the first crusade known to
history — ended in the defeat of Daza.'
At this stage a gireater than Armenia intervened.
The fortunes of Constantine, whose grandfather, on
his mother Helena's aide, kept a village inn in Dacia,
from hia birth to his famoue ride from Nicomedeia
across Europe back to his father Constantius' court
at Boulogne, may be read elsewhere. The death of
Constantius at York (July 25, 306) waa followed by
his own elevation to the purple, with the title of
Caesar. His passage of the Alps and subsequent
victory over the vicious Maxentius at the Milvian
Bridge (October 27, 312) will stand out for ever in
the annals of both Empire and Church. Constantine
had seen his vision ; henceforth he did homage to
the conquering power of the Cross. The God of
the Christians was too powerful to be despised.
Pagan and Christian alike attributed his succeee to
divine interpoeition — 'instinctu divinitatis,' as the
ambiguous inacription on his arch phrases it. With
this conviction deeply implanted — we may call it
Constantino's conversion provided we clearly under
stand our terms ^ — the great statesman went down to
1 Euseb. HE ix 8.
* The various views on the opnversion of Constantine are

282 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Milan to meet his colleague Licinian. Thence he
issued (March, 313) the famous document which
marks an era in the hiatory of the world.'
' We have long seen,' ran the edict, ' that we have no business to
refuse freedom of religion. The power of seeing to matters of belief
must be left to the judgement and desire of each individual, according
to the man's own free will.'
The defeat of Daza by Licinian near Adrianople
(April 30, 313) turned the edict into accomplished
fact in the East as well as the West. On June 13,
313, Lactantius heard the edict read aloud to the
remnant of the sorely tried Church at Nicomedeia.
A few weeks later Daza, a hunted fugitive, died of
delirium tremens in Tarsus. Before the end came
he had signified hia adheaion to the policy of Con
stantine. He waa the last of the persecutora to die.
Diocletian, broken with diaappointment and sick
ness, had already starved himself to death.^ He had
seen the Church which he had tried to crush arise
from the contest with etill greater strength. The
Empire wae defeated; the Galilean had conquered.
A new chapter had begun in the long annals of
humanity.adequately summarized by Bury o.o. ii App, 19. See also Boissier FP
i c. 1 and p. 61.
' The Latin original in Lact. MP 48; Gk. trans, in Euseb. HEs. 5.
Whether this edict was actually issued is not quite certain. See,
however, Bury's Gibbon ii 567.
' But this story is very doubtful. See Duruy EB vi 636.
Diocletian died in the summer of 313.

CHAPTER V
THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PEESECUTED

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me. What are these
which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And
I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These
are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their
robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. — Apoc. vii
13, 14.
Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance ; that they might
obtain a better resurrection : And others had trial of cruel mockings
and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment : They were
stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the
sword ... (of whom the world was not worthy :) . . . Wherefore, seeing
we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let
us run with patience the race that is set before us. — Beb. xi 35-xii 1.
Do I feel much pain ?
Not much. Not maddening. None I cannot bear.
It has become like part of my own life,
Or part of God's life in me— heaven— bliss I
I dreaded madness, and instead comes rest.
Kingsley, St. Maura.
Via crucis, via luois ;
Per angusta, ad augusta.

CONTENTS
( I, p. 285. The horrors of persecution — The cruelty of Nero — Mob
rule— The story of Genesius — The prisons — Good Samaritans
and their fate— The mines — The martyrs of Lyons — Pionius of
Smyrna — Julitta.
I II, p. 298. The punishments of Christians — Life in the mines — The
fate of women.
^ III, p. 303. Mr. Fearing — Polycarp — Cyprian — Perpetua and
Felicitas.
} IV, p. 318. The entreaties of loved ones — Perpetua — Phileas of
Thmuis — Irenaeus of Sirmium — Afra — Marianus — Quartillosia —
Flavian — Pructuosus — The meaning of 'Birthday' — 'Going to
Heaven ' — Dativus — ^Agathonice — Babylas — Maximus and Tara
chus— The martyrs' contempt of death — Nestor — The story of
Ignatius.
I V, p. 338. Backsliders — LibeUi — Copies recently discovered —
— Euctemon.
§ VI, p. 343. Conclusion, The dangers and triumphs of martyrdom
— The martyrs as 'Witnesses' — Blandina — The Cause of
Triumph. Pp. 283-352,

The. student should realize all that the profession of
the Name involved.' The persecution of Nero, that
baptism of blood of the Eoman Church, hae been
described for us by a master of language, the vividness
of whose picture loaea nothing from his manifest
contempt for the Christiane themeelves etruggUng
with his horror at the outrage, or hia hatred of the
tyrant. In a short chapter of Tacitus we have one
of the most awful scenes of infamy of all time :
' Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with
the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs aud perished, or were
nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt,' to serve as
a nightly iUumination when daylight had expired. Nero offered his
' Throughout this chapter the abbreviation AM wiU be used for
Ruinart Acta Martyrum Sincera, The best Ads of martyrs have
their origin in the official reports of their trials (Boissier FP i 449,
supra p. 20 n., infra p, 313 n.). The Christians of CUioia paid 200
denarii for a copy of the official report of the trial of Tarachus,
Probus, and Andronicus in 304. See AM 422.
' 'Aut crucibus adflxi aut flammandi, atque,' &c. I should
prefer the reading multi crucibus affixi sunt fiarmnandi, utqve, &c.
See Furneaux in loo. Juvenal viii 235 calls this the ' tunica molesta '
(it was the punishment appropriated to incendiaries; cf. supra
p. 133) and cf. ib. i 155-7.
' Pone TigelUnum : taeda lucebis in iUa
Qua stantes ardent, qui fixo gutture fumant
Et latum media sulcum deducit arena.'
For other references see Seneca Ep. xiv 5 ; Martial Epig. x 25, 5.

286 PERSECUTION m THE EARLY CHURCH
gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus,
while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or
stood aloft in a car ' (Ann. xv 44),
We can see it all after the lapse of centuries, so lurid
are the colours : the twofold entertainment, by night
in the gardens thronged with Nero's gueets, the
victims in their pitchy tunics eerving as living torches,
while Nero drivee round to gloat upon their agony ;
by day ' in the great wooden theatre of Caius the new
sport, the hunt of men clad in the skins of wild
beaata; the inaulta worse than death inflicted upon
women and girla ; ^ and looking down upon all the
selfsame obelisk from Heliopolis which has witnessed
alike the oppreeeion and deliverance of Israel in
Egypt, the crucifixion of St. Peter, and the building
of his famous church, the deaths of the martyrs and
' The sacrifice of Christians to the beasts was generally a morning
spectacle. See Renan L'Ant. 165 n. Nero's choice of a circus in his
own gardens on the Vatican was perhaps due to the two others, the
great circus and the circus of Flaminius, being burnt (Allard I BP 47).
" Clem. Rom. Ep. Cor. 6, Siwxee7irai ywiuKes, Aavai'Ses kcH AipKai,
a passage which probably has reference to some of Nero's brutal scenic
tortures, criminals being often exhibited as Orpheus, Hercules, &c.
(Suet. Nero 11, 12 ; Martial Speotac. 5 Epig. viii 30, x 25). Diroe was
tied by her hair to a bull ; but of the reference in the legend of the
Danaids we know nothing, though see Renan L'Antech. 169-70 for
suggestions, and cf. Suet. Nero 29 for possibUities of infamy. Light
foot (in loc.) inclines to read yedmSes, -iraiSla-Kai, 'women, tender
maidens, and slave-girls.' But surely this would have been for the
ancients a case of bathos. Moreover, the representation of Dirce was
frequent. See Renan ib. 171; AUard I BP 52;' Arnold NC 38;
Boissier FP i 413. For the terrors of Christian women, see infra
Appendix H.
Nero's punishment of Christians was perfectly legal— this is often
forgotten— though characteristically theatrical. In torchlight execu
tions he had been preceded by Caius (Seneca de Ira iu 18).

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 287
the fall of the Empire. Henceforth the Christians
were known in the slang of the day as the sarmenticii
or the semaxii, 'because bound to a half-axle stake
we are burned in a circle of faggots.' '
The Christian was ever exposed to a double danger;
on the one hand popular hatred, on the other the
wilfulness of the local magistrates, who could twist
into an instrument of cruelty the very laws and
procedure which had been devised to prevent injustice.
For instance, the threefold chance of abjuring their
religion before condemnation, which, as we see from
Pliny's letter, was a right of the Christians, soon
became a threefold torture to secure denial. For
many governors there was no easier way of winning
popularity with the mob than the persecution of the
Christians.^ Spies abounded, and the delatores, or
professional accusers,' were not slow in attempting
to wring money from the Christians by the threat of
reporting their crime. Add to thia ' the threata and
extortions of the soldiers and of private enemies.' *
In caae of refusal, 'vile informers' entered the
houses of the Christians ' by day and night and gave
them up to piUage.'^ Murder, theft, groae crimee,
tampering with family relations, were some of the
• Tert, Apol. 50 'licet nunc sarmentitios et semiaxios appelletis
quia ad stipitem dimldii axis revincti, sarmentorum ambitu uriemur.'
'' Tertul. Apol. 50, ' boni praesides, meliores multo apud populum
si illis Christianos immolaveritis.'
' Supra p. 215.
* Tert. ad Scap. 5. Justin feared death from the enmity of the
rival philosopher Crescens. Justin II .4poZ. 3. Supra p. 227 ii.(Ia).
<- « Melito of Sardis in Euseb. HEiv 26. Cf. Beb. x 34 and Euseb.
BE iii 17, ' conflsoation of their property.'

288 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
charges, as we have already seen, that were freely
brought against the Christiana and accepted aa proved
by evidence wrung out from their servants by torture.'
Against them, as Seneca said of slaves, everything
was lawful. City mobs laughed at the vile placards
which caricatured their God, 'born of an ass, with the
ears of an aaa, hoofed in one foot, carrying a book and
wearing a toga,' or drew an obscene representation
of a cock with the inscription beneath, " The Saviour
of the world." ^ For the conscientious a new difficulty
was added to life by the sprinkling of everything sold
in the markets with heathen drink-offerings.'
In the theatres mimes clothed in white garments
parodied the Christian's hopes and aacred rites to
the huge amusement of the crowd. But in one caae
thia jest turned out to the furtherance of the Goapel.
To pleaae Diocletian, who happened to be present,
the mime Genesius —
' made sport of the Christian mysteries. " I feel so heavy," he cried,
as he lay down on the stage as if he were ill, " I want to be made

' Case of Lyons : Euseb. BE v 1. See infra p. 295. Such
evidence was not admissible except in trials for majestas (Dig. xlviii
417; 18 ; Paul. Sent, v 16; and for the torture of women. Dig. xlviii
4, 8). In older times such torture was limited to charges of incest
(Cio. Pro Milone 22). Christian masters with heathen slaves were in
a very awkward position.
'^ Tert. ad Nat. i 14. See supra p. Ill n. Por obscene representa
tions of Christianity on walls, &o., see Renan L'Ant. 40 n. MA 64-5.
The well-known graffito discovered in 1856 on the wall of the Palatine
of a crucified ass, with a motto " Alexamenos is worshipping his god "
underneath, dates probably from the second century. See Lanciani
Ancient Bome 122 and ib. CFB 12.
' Euseb. MP 9. Time of Maximin.

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 289
light." " How are we to do it ? " his companions cried. " Are we to
plane you as if we were carpenters ? " " Idiots," replied Genesius ;
" I want to die a Christian, that on that day I may file up to God
as a refuge." So they summoned a (sham) presbyter and exorcist.
" Why have you sent for us, my son ? " they asked.'
The rest of the story is one of the miracles of grace.
Genesius would appear to have sprung from a Chriatian
home in Arlea ; he had picked up hia knowledge of
religious phrases when a little lad. Of the story of
his faU we know nothing, or rather we know all
from ten thousand similar experiences. But now
' in a moment ' the work of conviction began, and
on the boards of the theatre, with mock priest and
exorcist at hie side, the laughing crowd all round,
Genesius cried out, 'no longer in acting, but from
an unfeigned desire : " I want to receive the grace of
Christ, that I may be born again, and be set free
from the sins which have been my ruin.'" The
pantomime was turned into reality. The mock bap
tism over — for the crowd still thought he was acting
— Genesius boldly proclaimed aloud his faith : ' Il
lustrious emperor, and all you people who have
laughed loudly at this parody, believe me : Christ
is the true Lord.' When Diocletian understood how
matters lay he ordered Genesius to be stretched
on the hobby-horse. His sides were torn with the
claws, and burned with torches. But he kept
repeating —
' There is no king except Christ, whom I have seen and worship.
For Him I will die a thousand times. I am sorry for my sin, and
for becoming so late a soldier of the true King.' U

290 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
At length, ae all tortures failed, Plautian the prefect
ordered him to be beheaded.'
When the storm broke, no retreat however secluded
could save the pereecuted from the pursuer; no
station in life however humble was too lowly or
insignificant to supply its victims :
Remember what a martyr said
On the rude tablet overhead 1
" I was born sickly, poor, and mean,
A slave : no misery could screen
The holders of the pearl of price
Prom Caesar's envy : therefore twice
I fought -with beasts, and three times saw
My children suffer by his law."
For the believer the routine of life itaelf became a
martyrdom. ' We are baniahed,' wrote the Christians
of Lyons, ' from the bathe and forum ; we are for
bidden to appear in any public place whatever,'^ a
' AM 270. Ruinart dates in 286. But if Diocletian was really
present, it must have been on the occasion of one of his rare visits to
Rome, probably, as Baronius suggests, in 303. In DCB u 627 there
are two martyrs Genesius, both with the same day, August 25, 303.
Probably DCB is wrong in thus making them distinct, for the two
stories so well fit into each other that (compare Prudent, Feristeph iv,
35-6) we may well assume this Genesius the mime was originaUy a
notary of Aries, who was thus ' baptized with his own blood.' (See
also Lightf. Clem, ii 455 n.) Genesius is buried in the cemetery
of Hippolytus. (Rossi BS i 178.) In tbe Chronicon Faschale s.v.
297 (Migne PG xcii p. 686), he is called Gelasinus, and the scene is
changed to ' Heliopolis Libaniensis,' i.e. Baalbek. The story is too
widely spread and also too simply told not to have a foundation of
truth. It is, however, rejected by V. der Lage Studien z. Genesius-
Legende (Beriin 1898-9).
- Euseb. EE y(1) 5 ; Gebhardt AMS 28. In Caesarea in 310 no
one was allowed to use the baths unless he flrst sacrificed. Euseb.
MP 9.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 291
boycott by no means unusual. The Christian lived
at the mercy of the mob ; who, stirred up by pagan
priest or Jewish gold, might burst at any moment into
his house and drag him forth to torture and death.
' Every one,' writea Phileaa of Thmuia, ' had the
liberty t® abuae us as they pleased, with clubs, rods,
and scourges.' ' ' We saw the mob ' — we quote
Dionysius of Alexandria in hia description of the
persecution of Decius —
' suddenly burst into our dwellings as if by one common impulse.
Every man entered some house known to him and began to spoil and
destroy. All valuables were seized ; things not worth carrying away,
wooden furniture for instance, were burnt in the road. The scene
resembled a town taken by storm.' '
When brought before the judge, the mob followed and
clamoured for the Christian's condemnation. At
other times, as in the case of ApoUonia, in the same
persecution at Alexandria, they took the law into
their own hands, 'breaking all her teeth, and kindling
a fire in which they threatened to burn her alive.' '
Even after death — though, to the honour of the
Eomans, this was rare — popular hatred pursued the
Christians atill, tearing their corpses from the tombs
and cutting them in pieces,* throwing to the dogs
those who had died in prison 'that none should receive
burial from us,' or casting the ashes into the river,
lest, as the cruel Maximus eneered, ' they should be
tended by silly women and anointed with spices.' ®
» Euseb. BE viu. 10. In 305 (Hamack CAL u 70).
2 Euseb. HE vi 41 or AM 125. Cf. Mart. Polyc. 13.
' Euseb. HEvi 41. * Tert. Apol. 37, Euseb. MP 9.
¦ Lyons; Euseb. HE v (1) 59, 61; Geb. AMS 40, 41. Case of
Tarachus AM 436. See supra p. 285 n., infra 330-1.

292 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Happy indeed were those Christians for whom
kindly death soon ended all. Others were thrown
into horrible prisons into which light and air could
scarcely enter. In the persecution of Diocletian,
' dungeons destined for murderera and the vilest
criminals were filled with biahops, presbyters, deacons,
readers, exorcists, so that there was no room left for
real criminals.' ' ' We have been cast,' write the
martyrs of Carthage —
' into two dungeons. There, doomed to die of hunger and thirst, our
life is being consumed away. The stifiing heat, caused by our
crowded numbers, is intolerable. Bight days have passed since this
letter was begun. During the last five days only bread and water
have been doled out to us.' ^
' You conquer hunger,' wrote Cyprian, ' despiae thirst,
and tread underfoot the squalor of the dungeon and
its horrors by the vigour of your courage.' ' ' Prison,'
exclaims TertuUian in his impassioned address To the
Martyrs (c. 2) —
' does the same service for the Christian which the desert did for the
prophet. . . . Let us therefore drop the name of prison and call it
a place of retirement. Though the body is shut in, aU things are
open to the spirit. In spirit, then, roam abroad, not setting before
you shady paths or long colonnades but the way which leads to God.
. . . Tbe leg does not feel the chain if the mind is in heaven.'
But even the horrors of the prison could not quench
their faith and zeal. At Smyrna Pionius and his
comrades, when flung into the darkest hole, ' sang
without ceasing, Glory to Thee, O God.' *
' Euseb, BE viu 6.
'' Lucian in Cyprian Ep. xxii 2, a free rendering. Cf. AM 231
(Montanus, Lucius, &c,).
' Cyprian Ep. xxxvii 3.
• AM 145. Gebhardt AMS 105. See infra p. 297,

THE EXPERIENCES OP THB PERSECUTED 293
The one relief of the imprisoned Christians lay in
the visita and charity of their brethren. These visita
were allowed, poseibly ae the easiest way whereby
the authorities could learn the names of others of the
faith atill at large, more probably because of the itch
ing palma of the gaolere,' and the indifference of the
governors. So easy in fact waa it to obtain admission,
that Cyprian found it necessary to urge the Chriatiana
of Carthage not to viait the prison in crowds, ' lest
the means of access be denied.' ^ But in the case of
distinguished confessors, converse with whom was
held to be itself a bleaeing, it was difficult to keep the
Chriatiana away from their celia. ' Creeping into gaol
to kiae the martyra' chains ' waa one of the thinga
which the heathen huaband, in the complaint of
Tertullian, would not allow hia Christian wife to do.'
The prison system, by flinging the burden of sup
port upon the prisoner, as was the case in all countries
until recent daya, lent itself to these visita. Lucian
tella us that when Peregrinus, at that time a pro-
fessor, waa cast into prison, the Christians, especiaUy
the widows,* ' looked after his wants with unremitting
care and zeal, waiting about the doors of hia gaol,'
' For entrance by bribery cf. Acta Theclae 18 (in Lips, and Bon,
AAA i 247, or Gebhardt AMS 220), Lucian PP 12. But in Euseb,
BE V (1) 61, 'money failed' in the drastic persecution at Lyons.
Sometimes gaolers admitted friends from sympathy or respect, e.g.
Acta Perpet. 9 (ed. Robinson 75 or Geb. AMS 75).
' Cyprian Ep, v 2.
' Tert. ad. Uxor, ii 4, 5. See supra p. 146.
* I.e. the sub-order of deaconesses. On the " widows " see
Uhlhorn CCAC 168 ff. or DOA u 2034 and supra p. 211 n. The locus
classicus is Apost. Constit, iii § 1,

294 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
sending in 'costly meals,' and collecting large sums
in Asia for his defence.' We have a confirmation of
this in the Acts of many martyrs, in the positive
direction of the Apostolic Constitutions, as well aa in
the statement of Tertullian, that * the monthly col
lection ' — the law, as we have seen, would not allow
collections more frequently ^ — waa apent, among other
objects of charity, on the Christians banished to the
islands and mines, 'so long aa their distress is for the
sake of God'a fellowship.'' Thie last clause was a
needful precaution against designing rogues of the
Peregrinus order, who tried to make out that their
imprisonment for other misdemeanours was really on
behalf of the faith, and thus sponged on the unfailing
charity of the Church.* Of the young Origen we are
told that 'not only was he at the aide of the holy
martyrs in their imprisonment and until their final
condemnation ; when led out to death he boldly
accompanied them.'^ Such ministriea of love were
not alwaya without danger. In February, 309 or 310,
five Egyptian travellers arrived before the gates of
Caesarea. They were Chriatiana who had accom
panied their brethren to the mines in Cilicia, to aet
» Lucian PF 12, 13, 16.
' Supra p. 70.
' Tert. Apol. 39, Of notices of the Church's care for confessors
in prison (I omit captivity among robbers, &c,) the folio-wing will
serve : Aristides Apol. 15 (in TS (i) 1) ; Apost. Constit. v 1 (important),
iv 9 ; Tert. ad Mart. 1; Justin M. I Apol. 67; Acta Perpet. iii (7);
Acts of Codratius in Conybeare MEG 193 ; Ign. ad Smyr. 6.
* Cf. Tert. Fasting 12, 'restaurants for dubious martyrs,' ' all sorts
of baths,' (But this passage is very exaggerated.)
^ Euseb. HE vi 3, cf. ib, vu (u) 3 (ease of a ' brother from Rome ').

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 295
as good Samaritans, and who were now returning
home. They were seized, and after incredible tortures
entered ' the mighty portals of eternal life.' ' There
were times when to give the kiss of brotherhood to
one of the martyrs was itself to court instant death.^
Of mob rule and its dangers to the Church no
better illustration can be found than in the famous
caae of the Christians of Lyons.' The peraecution in
' Euseb. MP 11, also another case MP 10. The Church of Rome
especially looked after the brethren in the mines (Letter of Dionysius
to bp. Soter in Euseb. HE iv 23). Bp. Victor kept a Ust of all
sentenced in Sardinia (Hippolytus Philos. ix 12). See supra p. 119 n.
' Cases of Theodulus and Julian at Caesarea in 310 (Euseb.
MP 11). Licinian made it penal to supply Christians 'starving in
prison ' with food (Euseb. HE x 8).
' For Blandina (infra p. 349), Pothinus, and the persecution at
Lyons in 177 see Euseb. HE v 1 (Gebhardt ^ilfS 28 ff.), quoting from
' a letter to the brethren of Phrygia and Asia.' Two of the brethren.
Attains of Pergamum and Alexander the physician, hailed from
those parts. Renan EC 467 conjectures that the Church of Lyons
was foimded by a Christian colony from Smyma, and several of the
names given in Gregory of Teurs (Glor. Mart, i 49 see infra) are
Greek;. see also supra 37 n. (also the reatling of N in II Tim, iv 10)
for possible origin of the churches in the Rhone valley, and Duchesne
FEG i 179-80, 246-7.
As Mommsen PBE i 87 f. points out, Lyons, unlike the majority of
the cities of S. Prance, was founded direct from Italy, and was a
Roman city in character and origin. The Greek or alien nature
of its Church is therefore remarkable. The name Blandina may be
Celtic (see infra), but except for this the Church of Lyons seems
to have made no impression on the Celtic populations. But under
Irenaeus Baer, i (10) 2 Christianity spread to the Celts of Condate,
the vUlage on the tip of land between the Rhone and Saone.
Pothinus, i.e. (puTeiv6s, the bishop of this Church, is said to have
been over ninety years of age. Though there is no evidence for his
having migrated from Asia Minor to Lyons (Lightf. Ign, i 446 n.),
he yet forms a link with the apostles. He was succeeded at Lyons
by Irenaeus, who was educated in Asia Minor under Polycarp (Euseb.

296 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
that great capital of Gaul had begun in a boycott,
rendered the more easy by the foreign origin— in
part Greek, to aome extent Phrygian — of the little
Church. From this it passed to
' hootings and blows, draggings, plunderings, starvings, and confine
ments, everything that an infuriated mob is wont to perpetrate
against those whom they deem bitter enemies. And at length, being
brought to the forum by the tribune of the soldiers, and the magis
trates that bad charge of the city, they were examined in the
presence of the whole multitude; and having confessed they were
shut up in prison until the arrival of the governor.'
When the Christiana were brought before the judge
ment seat, Vettius Epagathus, no alien but a young
nobleman of Lyons,
' asked that he should be heard in defence of his brethren. On this
those who were round the judgement-seat so cried out against him
that the govemor, not for a moment listening to his just request,
merely asked if he were a Christian. And on his confessing in the
clearest voice that he was, he was immediately taken up into the
number of the martyrs.'
When the aged bishop Pothinus was brought to the
bar, the mob
* maltreated him in every way with their hands and feet, while those
at a distance hurled at him whatever came to hand, for so they
thought they would avenge their gods.'
Before the persecution ceased forty-eight martyrs had
won their discharge.'
BE V 20, Lightfoot Ign. i 448 n. Tourists must look for the scene
of this martyrdom in the oldest quarter of Lyons, now called Fourviere,
i,e, "Forum Vetus" (Renan MA 306 n,). For all that is known
concerning the Church at Lyons see Hirschfeld's monograph in
Preuss. Akad, (1895) 381 ff. ; Duchesne FEG ii 160 ff,
' So Greg. Tours Glor. Mart, i 49 quoting Eusebius and giving the

THE EXPERIENCES OF THB PERSECUTED 297
Or let the reader study the records of the presbyter
Pionius,' who waa arreated with hia companions ' on
the birthday of the blessed martyr Polycarp.' See
the little band on the eastern side of the square of
Smyrna, surrounded by a brutal and jeering mob.
They are not all 'of the Catholic Church.' One of
the prisoners, Eutychian by name, is a Montanist ;
another, Metrodore, is ' a presbyter of the Marcio-
nites ' ; yet they are one in the courage and loyalty
of their faith. A alave girl, Sabina, in her terror at
the threata of a punishment worse than death, was
clinging to Pioniua. ' Look,' cried a wit, ' the babe
ie afraid she is going to be robbed of her mother's
milk.' Others handled the ropes, and asked ironi
cally : ' And what are these for ? ' Said the con
tractor for the public games to the martyr Asclepiades,
' I am going to ask for you to fight in my son's
exhibition of gladiators ' ; while a police officer gave
names. But in the transcription three names have dropped out.
Possibly, however, as Hirschfeld suggests (o.o. 385 f.), the number
was really less, inasmuch as some of the names treated as separate
individuals probably are the double designation (e.g. Vettius Epaga
thus in Greg. Tours. l,c, Migne PL Ixxi 751) of the same.
' For the Acts of Pionius, " a most veracious narrative " (Lightf.
Ign. i 639), in the original Greek see Geb. AMS 96 ff. The early Latin
translation in Ruinart AM 140 ff, is abridged and inaccurate. All
references to heretics as martyrs, &c,, are left out, e.g. infra. A much
better Latin translation is that in A.SS Feb. 1. The date is incorrectly
given in Euseb. BE iv 15 fin. as a century too early. He mistook
the meaning of the statement that Pionius was ' celebrating the
birthday of Polycarp.' It should really be March 12, 250. See
Lightf. Ign, i 641, 715 ff. ; Harnack CAL u 467. The Acts are not in
Euseb, BE, as he had incorporated them iu his lost work on the
Andent Martyrs.

298 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
Pionius a knock on the head so violent that the blood
ran. All thia was but preliminary to the clawings
and burnings with which the festival concluded.
Apart altogether from mob rule, the Christian
was at all times expoaed to dangers, not the leas
formidable becauae legal. We have an iUuatration
of these dangers in the case of Julitta,' a wealthy
widow of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, who brought an
action to recover some property of which ahe had
been wrongfully disposaessed. The rogue pleaded
that the widow was a Christian, and therefore not
entitled to seek legal redrese. The case actually
ended in the burning of Julitta. Truly might it have
been eaid of the early believers : ' In the midst of
life we are in death.'

II
What shall we say of the punishments and of the
tortures which formed part of the judicial processes
by which evidence was sought to be extracted from
the Christians?^ Roman citizens aa a rule were
aent to the capital; for them there waa the long
' BasU Bom. 5 in AM 515. Basil gives no date. Perhaps time
of Diocletian. Another similar case is that of Claudius and his
mother-in-law (AM 266, where the date 285 should rather be Aug.
23, 304 ; Harnack CAL ii 475), The action against Parthenius and
Calocerus (supra p. 246) of wasting the fortune of Aiiatolia of whom
they had been left trustees ended in their being burnt at Rome as
Christians (Aube' EE 60-1, Gregg DP 106).
' That tortures were judicial processes see Conybeare MEC 280-2,
and of. Pliny's letter, supra p, 210.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 299
miaery of the journey in company with brutal guarda.'
FinaUy, as an act of special ' benevolence,' they were
handed over, as St. Paul, to the headsman ; '^ though
the law in thia matter waa not strictly observed-'
Inasmuch aa they were often charged with majestas,
their citizenship did not alwaya aave them from the
tortures, endless in the variety and ingenuity of their
cruelty, which for non-citizens were almost inevitable.
In the later martyrologies there is a manifest
tendency to pile up the horrors. But if we confine
ourselves to strictly historical cases, the savagery,
though to a large extent a part of the ordinary
judicial processes of the age, is appalling. Some,
suffering the punishmeht of parricides, were shut up
in a sack with snakes and thrown into the sea;
others were tied to huge atones and cast into a river.
For Christians the croae itself was not deemed suf
ficient agony ; hanging on the tree, they were beaten
with rods until their bowels gushed out, while vinegar
and ealt were rubbed into their wounds. In the
Thebais, during the persecution of Diocletian, Chris
tians were tied to catapults, and so wrenched limb
from limb. Some, like Ignatius, were thrown to the
beasts; othera tied to their horns. Women were
stripped, enclosed in nets, and exposed to the attacks
of furious bulls. Many were ' made to lie on sharp
shells,' and tortured with scrapers, claws, and'pincers,
' Cf. infra p. 336.
' Supra pp. 41, 64 n. In the case of ApoUonius the magistrates
dwell on the ' benevolence,' MEC 48. See supra p. 218 n.
' Infra p. 318 n. 1 (case of Perpetua).

300 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
before being delivered to the mercy of the flames.
Not a few were broken on the wheel, or torn in pieces
by wild horses. Of some the feet were slowly burned
away, cold water being poured over them the while lest
the victima should expire too rapidly. Peter, one of
the servanta of Diocletian, was scourged to the bone,
then placed near a gridiron that he might witness the
roasting of pieces torn from his own body. At Lyons
they tried to overcome the obstinacy of Sanctus of
Vienne ' by fixing red-hot plates of brass to the most
delicate parts of his body.' After this he waa slowly
roasted in the iron chair. Down the backs of others
' melted lead, hissing and bubbling, was poured ' ;
while a few, ' by the clemency of the emperor,'
escaped with the searing out of their eyea, or the
tearing off of their lega. Theae inatancea' — but a
few out of a long catalogue that might be compiled —
will ahow what it cost to witness the good confession ;
to say nothing of the rack, the hobby-horse, the clawa,
and other tortures preparatory to the sentence.
Fortunate were thoae for whom there waa the
relief of death. Some were baniahed to the mines of
'deadly Sardinia,' and there, with fetters on their
limbs, insufficient food, almoat naked, beaten with
clubs by savage overseers,^ passed a life of ceaseless
toil amid surroundings of indescribable filth. Others
were denied even the refuge of the mines, and were
' For these horrors see Euseb. BE iv 15, v 1, viii 6, 8, 9, 10, 12 ;
MP 5, 6 ; Mart. Polyc. 2 ; Lact, MP 21 ; Conybeare MEC 213, 295,
as a few out of many passages that might be quoted.
' Supra p. 240 (Pontian and Hippolytus). For life in the mines
see Cyprian Epp. 77, 78. Neumann BSK 215 n.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 301
dragged about from town to town in the train of the
governor, and exhibited for the sport of the people.'
For women there were punishments worse than
death, the leaet of which wae their expoaure almost
naked in the arena. Perpetua waa not alone in the
horror she felt when she dreamed that ' she was
atripped, turned into the arena and rubbed down with
oil aa they do for the gamee.' ^ In the great persecu
tion under Diocletian in the Thebais, if we may trust
EusebiuB, women were tied to trees by one foot and
there left to perish, hanging downwards, atark naked.
They were more fortunate than some of their sisters,
many of whom were dragged to the brothels to suffer
ahame before being led to the stake or cast to the
lions. ' Either sacrifice to the goda or be handed over
to infamy ' was the awful dilemma which confronted
more than one Christian maiden. The danger was
real, for the Roman mob had twisted a regulation,
originally framed in the interests of humanity, into
the occasion of beatial cruelty.' 'Christians to the
• Tarachus and his companions ; AM 434 ff. Cf. AM 162 ff., 542.
See infra p. 330-1.
' Robinson o.c, 76; Geb. AMS 77. By Roman law women
were not aUowed to be executed absolutely nude. The law in the
case of Christians was generally evaded by giving them a mere
cincture, in the case of Theonilla of Sebastia a girdle of wUd briars
Cf. Thekla in Conybeare MEO 81 ; Acta Thek. c 38 (Lipsius AAA i
261) ; AM 269 ; Euseb. BE viu 9 ; and cf. John xxi 18, ' another shall
gird thee.' Le Blant SAM i 248, quotes the case of an executioner
who was burned to death because he refused this cincture (from
Amm, Marcellin, xxviu 1).
' Tac. Ann. v 5, ' triumvirali supplicio adfici virginem inauditum
habebatur a camifioe laqueum juxta compressam,' narrating the
treatment of the daughters of Sejanus by the mob. Suet. Tib. 61,

302 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
panthers, virgins to the pandars,' was no mere jeat,
but part of the cost that must be paid ' for Chriat's
sake.' In the romances of the early mediaeval Church
the chaetity of these maidens is always miraculously
preserved amidst the most unholy surroundings ; but
probably the actual facts were often otherwise. They
paid a price dearer than life rather than deny their
Lord. Said Theodora of Alexandria when the judge
read to her the brutal order : ' If you force me to do
this, I do not think that God will count it a sin.' '
Some sought escape in the destruction of their beauty,
or even in suicide.^ Potamiaena of Alexandria,
whose beauty was noted, was told that unless she
recanted she should be given over to the lust of
gladiators. She escaped by a defiance so daring that
the judge in his anger ' ordered boiling pitch to be
poured over her limbs, gradually working up from the
states that this was the general custom. This seems to me very
doubtful, though not without value, when remembering the danger
of Christian women.
• AM 397 ; and cf. Ambrose de Virg. ii c 4, who relates the same
story with differences. The ^tory is in the main a romance, with
some kernel of truth. Theodora was delivered by the Christian
Didymus, who pushed his way in and insisted on the ' dove of God '
taking his long soldier's cloak. ' Hang your head down,' he said,
' and speak to no one.' One of the earliest of these romances is that
of a maiden of Corinth and a certain ' Magisterianus ' (Palladius,
BL 148, 149 ; HP 53 in Migne PL Ixxiii 1213, Ixxiv 336), from a lost
work of Hippolytus. Here also there is a simple change of clothes.
(N.B. 'Magisterianus' is not, as is usually taken, a proper name, but
the name of an officer of the court. See Du Cange g.-y.) Por other
similar romances cf. Prudent. Feristeph. 14 (Agnes ; certainly a myth
arising from misunderstanding of Ambrose de virg. i 2) ; the incident
of Drusiana in the Acts of John c. 63 ff. (Lipsius AAA i (2) 181).
* Ambrose o.c. iii 6 ; Euseb. HE viii 14,

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 303
feet to the crown of the head.' ' For three houra she
suffered agonies, until the pitch reached her neck.' '
Such horrors, no doubt, were exceptional, and limited
to the frenzied East. But the untold heroism of
women, not a few, should not altogether be forgotten
in these latter days.^

HI
The question is sometimes asked, not merely from
motivea of curioaity : What waa the experience of the
martyr aa he thua passed through his great renunci
ation? The materials for answering the queation
are abundant, and the anewer hae a apiritual value
of its own. We believe it can be shown that Christ
alone really suffered aU the horror of His martyrdom —
' Yea, once Immanuel's orphaned cry His universe hath shaken.
It went up single, echoless, " My God, I am forsaken." '
Thus Christ alone tasted death, drained the cup of
ita bitters to the drega. For othera there was a grace
of God which dulled the pain, turning agony into
' AM 121 ; Euseb. HE vi 5, who dates in the persecution of
Severus (supra p. 236) ; Palladius dates a century later. But his
account— written thirty years after the time he says he heard it, on
his visit to Alexandria, from Isidore the hospitaller, who had heard
it from the famous Anthony — differs considerably from Eusebius,
and seems to me less historical (see Palladius Beraclidis Paradisus
1 in Migne PL Ixxiv 254, or BL 3 in Migne PL Ixxiii 1094).
This is a good instance of how the tales of the martyrs were handed
on and altered in the process.
' See Appendix H.

304 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
victory. When the great day came, and they passed
into the furnace, lo ! there was One standing beside
them, like unto the Son of Man, and so ' they found
the fire of their inhuman torturers cold."
We believe that Browning is right when in his
Epitaph in the Catacombs he lays streae upon the
absence of all remembrance of time in the sufferer.
But remembrance of time is the measure of the
consciousness of pain :
' I was some time in being burned.
But at the close a Hand came through
The fire above my head, and drew
My soul to Christ, whom now I see.
Sergius, a brother, writes for me
This testimony on the waU —
For me, I have forgot it all.'
When Mr. Fearing came to the river, Bunyan saw
that the waters were so low that he paaaed over
almoat dryahod. The early Church was not without its
Mr. Fearing, and Mr. Despondency's daughter Much-
Afraid ; timid souls, who dreaded that when the
trial came they would be found wanting. But when
they passed through the dark valley He was there,
and their fear left them. ' Sufferings borne for the
Name are not torments,' said the martyr Maximus of
Ephesus, ae they etretched him on the hobby-horee,
' but soothing ointments.' ^ ' 0 blessed martyrs,' cries
TertuUian, ' Mart. Polycarp 2. Cf. AM 431 for an actual retort by a martyr,
Probus, to this effect.
' AM 157 or Geb, AMS 122, May 14, 250, See Harnack CAL ii
469 n., Gregg DP 236.

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 305
'you have gone out of prison, rather than into one, , . . Your
dungeon is full of darkness, but ye yourselves are light; it has
bonds, but God has made you free,' *
The absence of all fear, in fact, ie one of the notes
of the early Church. Cyprian was right when he
speaks of ' the white-robed cohort of Chriet'e soldiers '
as ' passing through footprints of glory to the embrace
and kisB of Christ.' ^ Theira was a triumphal march
along a greater Sacred Way than Eoman conquerors
ever trod. ' These are not chains,' exclaims Cyprian,
' they are ornaments, O fettered feet of the blessed ones treading
the path to Paradise! You have no bed, no place of rest in tho
mines ; your wearied limbs are stretched on the cold earth ; naked,
there are no clothes to cover you; hungry, no bread to feed you.
But what a glory lights up this your shame 1 ' '
The cause waa not far to aeek ; ' The Holy Ghost has
entered the prison with you,' * the Lord Jesus was
suffering in them and with them ; and so a secret
spell preserved them in their living death.
No tale of early centuriea ia more familiar than
the atory of the passion of Polycarp^ — the most
' Ad Mart. 2. The whole chapter is worth reading. Cf. also in
the same strain Cyprian Epp. xxxvii, Ixxx (1).
' De Lapsis 2 and Ep. xxxvii.
' Cyprian Ep. Ixxvi 2 abbreviated,
-• Tertullian ad Mart. 1, on which Montanist expression see Sohm
Kirchenrecht i 32 n. 9. In later days these spiritual truths become
legends of angels filling dungeons with flowers, &o,, e.g. Vincent of
Saragossa (AM 370 ; but the main part is historical, see Prudentius
Feristeph. v), time of Diocletian, perhaps Jan 22, 304).
= The narrative of Polycarp's passion is contained in a Itetter
(Martyrium Folycarpi) written immediately after the event by the
Church at Smyrna to the Christians at Philomelium. For this
letter the student should consult the masterly study in Lightf.
X

306 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
ancient example known of " Acts of Martyrdom."
On his way to hia own paeeion in Eome Ignatius had
exhorted the young bishop, of whose early life we
know little save his intimacy with St. John,' 'to
stand firm as an anvil when it ia amitten. A great
athlete ahould receive blowa and conquer.' ^ Nearly
Ign. i 578-645, Renan EC c, 23. A good text is in Gebhardt
AMS 1 ff. or Harmer's Apost. Fathers with translation. The letter
was copied by Euseb, BE iv 15, from whom the version in Foxe, &c,,
was derived. To an incorrect interpretation of Euseb, Chron. we owe
the wrong date of 167 or 169. From the inscriptions of the letter,
Waddington (Fastes des Provinces Asiatiques, Paris, 1872 — " a masterly
piece of critical work "), followed by Lightfoot (Ign. i 646-722), Renan
EC 452 n.,and C. H, Turner (Studia Biblica ii 105-155) demonstrated
that the correct date is either Feb. 23, 155, or, less likely, Feb, 22,
156 (Lightf. Ign. i 727). Such a date brings Polycarp much more
into touch with St, John than 167, and is a most valuable result
of modem criticism, Dr, Salmon (Acad. July 21, 1883 ; see also
DOB iv 430) urged that the day should not be Feb. 23rd, the
traditional day among the Greeks, which also corresponds to ' the
second of the beginning of the month Xanthicus ' in the Ephesian
calendar (see Mart. Polyc. 21 and Lightfoot Ign. i 678 ff.), but March
23rd. His argument is highly technical, and depends on the date of
the substitution at Smyma of the solar for the lunar calendar. Light
foot (Ign. i 691-702) treats the argument with great respect, as offering
an adequate solution of ' the great sabbath ' (see infra) ; but points
out that the Asiatic calendar was changed in b.o. 8, In the Roman
calendar Polycarp's day is not Feb. 23, but Jan. 26. At the late
date when his cult was introduced to the West, Feb. 23 was
already occupied by a local Roman Polycarp, a companion of St.
Sebastian, martyred at Rome under Diocletian (see AM 50 n.).
Jan. 26 or 27 was the festival of a Polycarp of Nicaea, who was thus
displaced to make way for Polycarp of Smyrna. See Lightfoot Ign.
i 709, Harnack CAL i 334 ff.
' Iren. Baer. iii 3 (quoted also in Euseb. BE iv 14). In 1881
Duchesne first published from a tenth-century MS. a valueless Vita
Folycarpi, with full details of his childhood, a slave, &c. It vrill be
found in Lightf. Ign. iu 423 ff.
' Ign. Polyc. 3.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 307
half a century later the ' athlete ' received his crown,
a few months only after his return from a journey
which, in the interests of ecclesiastical unity, the old
man had found it necessary to make to Eome.'
The annual festival of Caesar was in progress at
Smyrna. As was usually the case, the occasion was
turned to profit by the enemies of Christ. Eleven
martyrs, mostly from Philadelphia, had already
fought with beasts. One of them, Germanicus by
name, when exhorted by the proconaul ' to have pity
on his youth,' dragged the beast to him that he
might the quicker perish. The cry arose : ' Away
with the Atheists ; let search be made for Polycarp.'
By the torture of a slave the aged bishop's hiding-
place was found. Mounted police were despatched ;
late at night they burst- into the upper room of a
small cottage. 'God's wUl be done,' said Polycarp,
and requested a short time for prayer. This was
granted; the police were busy at the supper which
the saint provided for them, and in nowise anxious to
journey back in the dark. For two hours he stood in
intercession ' for the Catholic Church ' ; then as morn
ing was breaking set off to the city, riding on an ass.
' See Iren. Baer, iii 3 (Euseb. BE iv 14). The visit was in
connexion with the Quartodeoiman controversy, on which see Drum
mond FG 444 ff. The date is ' the episcopate of Anicetus,' Accord
ing to Duchesne LP i 134, Anicetus was a ' Syrian from Emesa ' —
hence, probably, Polycarp's belief that he could influence an Eastern
— who was bishop of Rome from 150-153. (There is a gap here in the
LP, Liberian Cat., which makes the chronology difficult. See on
the date Renan L'Ant. 566 ff,, Lightf, Ign. 450.) This journey seems
to me to make Zahn's view of the age of Polycarp (86 -^ ? 15)
impossible (Harnack CAL i 344 n,).

308 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
The captain of the police, one Herod by name, together
with hia father Nicetes, met him on the way, and
took him into their chariot, endeavouring to persuade
him to recant and say : ' Caesar is Lord.' Their
interest waa not merely that of officiala; perhapa
Herod waa thinking of the perU of his own sister
Alee, one of Polycarp's flock. But all their efforta
were vain ; so, on Polycarp's repeated refusal, they
thrust him out of the chariot with auch violence that
' he bruiaed hia ahin.' On hia entrance into the
arena, ' our people who were present heard a voice,
though no man saw the speaker : Polycarp, be strong,
and play the man.' ' Swear,' said the proconsul, ' by
the genius of Caeaar ; retract and say. Away with the
atheists.' The old man gazed in sorrow at the raging
crowd ; then with uplifted eyes, waving his hand, he
said: 'Away with the atheiata.' The proconaul,
Titua StatiuB Quadratus, mistaking Polycarp's mean
ing, pressed him further : ' Swear, and I release thee ;
blaspheme Christ.' ' Eighty and six years,' was the
immortal reply, ' have I served Chriat, and He haa
never done me wrong. How can I blaspheme my
King, who saved me ? ' After further entreaties, the
proconsul threatened to throw him to the beasts or
burn him alive. ' 'Tis well,' replied Polycarp ; * I fear
not the fire that burns for a eeason and after a while
is quenched. Why delayest thou ? Come, do what
thou wilt.' So the herald thrice proclaimed, ' Poly
carp has confessed himself a Christian.' A howl of
vengeance rose from the heathen, in which the Jews,
who were present in large numbers, joined — it was

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 309
' a great eabbath,' probably the feast of Purim,' and
their fanaticism was specially excited. ' This,' they
cried, ' ia the teacher of Asia, the overthrower of our
goda, who has perverted so many from sacrifice and
adoration.' So they desired the Asiarch, one Gaius
Julius PhUippus of Trales,^ as inacriptions ahow, to
let looae upon him a lion. The Aeiarch excueed
himself ; the games in honour of Caesar were over ;
he had exhausted his stock of beasts.
' So the mob with one accord lifted up its voice, clamouring that
he should be burnt alive. The execution followed close upon the
sentence. The wood for the stake, torn in an instant from shops and
baths, was carried to the fatal spot by eager hands, the Jews as usual
freely offering their services.'
The old man was stripped. But
' As they were going to nail him to the stake : " Leave me," he said,
" as I am, for He that hath granted me to endure the flre will grant
me also to endure the pile unmoved, even without the security that ye
seek from the nails." So they did not nail him, but tied him.'
Then he offered his last prayer : — ^
' O Lord God Almighty, the Father of Thy well-beloved and ever-
blessed Son, Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the knowledge
of Thee, ... I thank Thee that Thou hast graciously thought me
worthy of this day and of this hour, that I may receive a portion
among the number of the martyrs, in the cup of Thy Christ.'
No Booner had he uttered his Amen, than the fire waa
kindled and blazed up. But it arose, curving like an
1 See Lightfoot Ign. i 711-7 and 727 (where he discusses the
objections of Turner) ; and for the hatred of the Jews, supra 119.
' See an interesting note in Lightfoot Ign. i 628-37 for this Philip
in inscriptions. Apart from the monuments and this letter, nothing
is known about him. For asiarchs see supra, p. 96 n.

310 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
arch or the bellying sail of a ship, leaving him in the
centre like a treasure of gold or silver, unharmed.
The student wUl remember the similar cases of
Savonarola and Hooper of Gloucester.' An execu
tioner was sent to give the coup de grace. To the
amazement of the apectators, blood flowed in streams
from the aged body and extinguished the flames.^ In
their fear lest the body ahould fall into the hands of
the Christians, the Jews took stepa, uaing Nicetee as
their leader, to have it thrust back into the midst of
the fire. At the moment of Polycarp's death, his pupil
Irenaeus, then on a visit to Eome, heard a voice as
of a trumpet saying, ' Polycarp haa been martyred.' '
By his death ' Polycarp stayed the persecution,
having, as it were, set his seal upon it.' The annual
festival of Caesar was over, and the excited mob
returned to their homes.
" The martyrdom of Cyprian," writea Gibbon,
"will convey the cleareat information of the spirit
and of the forms of Eoman persecution." * We may
• ViUari Savonarola (ed. 1896) 759 ; Foxe, Ed, Pratt vi 658.
" Milman Christianity ii 140 well compares Macbeth v i, " Who
would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him ? "
The reader may be interested to note the rise of a myth. For -Trepl
iTTepvh., " round the chest," or ircp! mipaKo, " about the sword-haft,"
or ^ir' apinTepit, the MSS. read Trephrepa, "a dove." Hence the
tale, which figures much in later legends, of the dove which came
out of Polycarp's dead body. The incident is not in Eusebius.
Lightfoot (Ign. iii 390-3, i 644 n,) rejects these explanations, and
considers the myth a deliberate addition.
^ Mart. Polyc. 22 in the Moscow MS. See Lightfoot Ign. ii 986.
Renan EG 462 n. For similar voices aud clairvoyance, Lightfoot
refers to the Proceedings Psychical Besearch Society, AprU, 1883.
* Ed, Bury ii 100, For the accurate way in which these Acts of

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 311
add that few of the Acts keep more close to the
original official records. During the severe persecu
tion of Deciue, Cyprian, at that time undoubtedly the
moet diatinguished prelate of Western Christendom,
had yielded to counsels of prudence and withdrawn
for a while from Carthage (Jan. 250). In the spring
of 251 he had returned, and had distinguished him
self by the zeal with which he had flung himself into
the work of viaiting the plague-stricken city (a.d. 252).
Under his lead. Christians "juat emerged from the
mines or the priaon, with the scars or the mutilations
of recent tortures upon their bodies, were seen ex
posing their limbs, if possible, to a more honourable
martyrdom." ' But such works of charity did not
lessen the hostility of the heathen, who looked upon
the plague aa the chastisement of the gods for their
toleration of an unnatural religion.^ On the renewal
of the persecution by Valerian (257), Cyprian, who did
not this time withdraw from the city, was summoned
before the proconsul Paternus, and ordered to return
to the practice of the religion of his ancestors (Aug. 30,
257). On his refusal he was banished to Curubis,
fifty miles from Carthage, though after a while he
was suffered to return to his former country house.
Shortly after the accession of a new proconsul,
Galerius Maximus, Cyprian was once more appre
hended, and brought to Carthage. He was lodged
Cyprian reproduce the technical procedure of Roman courts, the
student should read Le Blant SAM (see his Index).
' Milman Cliristianity ii 195. Benson l.c. 544-5. See Cyprian's
De Opere et Eleemosynis; Pontius Vita Cyp. ix.
^ Supra p. 126 n. Pont. Vita Cyp. 11.

312 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
for the night in the private house of one of his
gaolers,' and treated with respect and consideration.
All through the night the streets were filled with
a vast but orderly crowd of enemies and friends.
In the morning Cyprian, whose habitual seriousness
of countenance was transfigured with joyfulness, was
brought before the proconsul. No words were wasted.
' Art thou,' said the judge, ' Thascius Cyprian, the
bishop (papa) of many impious men? The most
sacred emperors command thee to sacrifice.' ' I wUl
not,' replied the bishop. 'Consider well,' was the
answer. ' Execute your orders,' replied Cyprian ;
'the case admits of no consideration.' With some
reluctance the judge, after conf erring with his council,
read the sentence :
'That Thascius Cyprian should be immediately beheaded, as the
enemy of the gods of Rome, and as the standard-bearer and ring
leader of a criminal association which he had seduced into an impious
resistance against the laws of the most holy emperors. Valerian and
GalUenus' (Geb. AMS 127).
'God be thanked,' answered the bishop, when the
reading of the sentence was finished. ' We will die
with him,' shouted the Christians ; but Cyprian was
led away under an escort of the famous Third Legion
to a plain near the city, or rather a natural amphi
theatre with steep, high slopes, thick with trees,
into which the spectators climbed. There his
presbyters and deacons were allowed to assiet him
in laying aside hie garmente. With his usual
' Prindpes, chief centurions attached to the proconsul. See
Benson l.c. 497 n. Acta proconsularia 2 in Geb, AMS 125.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 313
indifference to money, the bishop desired hie friends
to hand the executioner twenty-five gold pieces, a
fee of about J15. Meanwhile his friends strewed
the ground with handkerchiefs, with a view to future
relics and mementoes. This done, Cyprian covered
his face with a cloth ; the sword of the executioner
flashed, and at one blow the head was severed from
the body (Sept. 14, 258).'
Of all the stories of martyrdom in early times
none is more unexaggerated, true to Ufe and human
nature, than the story of the two Carthaginian
martyrs, Perpetua^ and Felicitas, who appear to
' For the death of Cyprian see Pontius Vita Cyp. 18. Pontius,
who was with him at his death, quotes the official Acta Proconsularia
(Hartel Op. Cyp. iu (pt. 3) pp. ex ff., or Geb. AMS 124-8).
Por an interesting account of how Cyprian's day in England came
to be changed to Sept. 26th, see Benson o.o. App. L. It became dis
placed by Holy Cross Day (in commemoration of Heraclius' recovery
of the Cross in 628).
'' For the passion of St. Perpetua the best edition is by Dean
Robinson in TS (1891) i. A good edition of tbe text, both Greek and
Latin, is in Geb. AMS 61 ff. The complete Greek text was found by
Rendel Harris in a convent at Jerusalem in 1889. The text in
Ruinart AM is infelicitous. The work, as Robinson shows, was
probably written in Latin, and not in Greek as was the judgement
of tbe older writers (e.g. Milman Christianity ii 165 n,). But the
new Latin MS. discovered in 1892 (Anal. Boll., 1892, 369 ff,) somewhat
weakens the argument.
The visions of Perpetua were widely known in the early Church,
e.g. Acts of Polyeuctes (Conybeare MEC 128). Rendel Harris TS ii
(1) 148-53, gives reasons for believing that the famous Codex Bezae
of the N.T. was a Montanist document evidently familiar to Perpetua,
and of African origin (ib, 259 ff.). Robinson has shown that the visions
were dictated by the martyrs themselves in spite of indebtedness
to the Shepherd of Hermas and the Apocalypse of St. Peter (o.c. 26-46).
Milman's conjecture that they show "suspicious marks of Monta
nism " in the editing (Christianity u 165 n.) is, however, correct, and

314 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
have suffered on the birthday of Geta,' the worthless
son of Septimius Severus. Vibia Perpetua — one of
the few saints still honoured in the Anglican
calendar'* — with her ecstatic visions and her un
conquerable faith, is indeed truly one of the heroic
figures of the early Church. Of good family, liberal
education, and honourably married, Perpetua tells
her own story, though the introduction and com
pletion are by another hand, possibly TertuUian's.
She was but twenty-two when arrested and cast into
prison :
' I was terrified ; never before had I experienced such awful darkness.
0 dreadful day! the heat overpowering by reason of the crowd of
strengthens the case for the editorship of Tertullian (Robinson o.e.
43-58 ; but see Harnack OAL ii 322). For an English translation
of the passion see Clark ANOL xiii 276 ff.
' 0,c. c. 7 Geb. AMS 74. Geta was born on May 27, and Perpetua
suffered on March 7. Hence the 'birthday' must mean the anni
versary of Geta's adoption as Caesar. In the Greek version (c. 1
Geb. AMS 61) the date is wrongly assigned to Valerian and
Gallienus. Robinson (o.c, 25 n.) mistaking the meaning of ' natale
Getae ' assigned to Geta's reign (Feb. 4, 211-Feb. 27, 212, i.e. March 7,
211). But in 0, 6 (Geb. AMS 71) we see that Hilarian was not yet
fully proconsul, but only provisional in place of Minucius Timinianus,
who had died in his year of office (Allard II BP 87 n.). The execu
tion was therefore anterior to Tert, ad Scap. 3, in which Hilarian
is proconsul, (See Chronological Table.)
From the Greek version (c. 2 AMS 64) we see that the place was
not Carthage, but Thuburbo major or minus. See Neumann BSK i 300.
^ March 7. Curious to say, though thus honoured, there are
no churches in England dedicated to her. That she was retained
in the English calendar is the more remarkable inasmuch as ne
copy of her passion was published before 1668. Hence the story is
not in Foxe. I may add that Perpetua is thus a good specimen of
the value of tradition. In the Roman breviary Perpetua is displaced
by Thomas Aquinas. See Robinson o.c. 15 n.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 315
prisoners, the extortions of the guard. Above all, I was torn with
anxiety for my babe.'
Two deacons, Tertius and Pomponius, obtained her
removal for some hours a day to a better room :
'There I sat suckling my babe, who was slowly wasting away.
Nevertheless the prison was made to me a palace, where I would
rather have been than anywhere else.'
In part her joy was due to her visions. In one of
these Perpetua saw a ladder of gold, the top of which
rested in heaven. Beyond the highest rung, sur
rounded by a white-robed throng, stood the Good
Shepherd in the midst of a wonderful garden like
unto Eden. But on either aide of the ladder were
instruments of torture, while a terrible dragon
guarded the approach. Up this ladder of gold, so
narrow that only one could climb at a time, the
saints paeeed to God. But they must first crush
the dragon's head ere they could hear the welcome
of the Shepherd : " Thou hast borne thee well,
chUd." ' For Perpetua the * crushing ' was without
hesitation. When brought before the judge, she was
ordered to sacrifice to the emperor. She refused,
and waa condemned with her comrades to fight the
beaats. ' So we went with joy to our priaon.'
W« muet not forget Felicitas.^ When arrested
with Perpetua, she was in the eighth month of
> 'Bene venisti tegnon' — one of Perpetua's many Greek words
which led Milman and others to suppose a Greek original ; Robinson
0,0. 68 ; Geb. AMS 68. See also for this vision Robinson o.c. 19.
" Felicitas is described (o. 2) aa a slave (Geb. AMS 64), as also
was Revooatus her brother.

316 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
pregnancy. As the day of the games approached
she feared above all lest on that account her martyr
dom should be postponed.' So her ' brother martyrs
prayed with united groaning,' and her travail began.
As she lay in her agony in the crowded gaol the keeper of the
stocks^ said to her, 'If you cannot endure these pains, what will
you do when you are thrown to the beasts ? ' 'I suffer now alone,'
she replied, 'but then there will be One in me who will suffer
for me because I shall suffer for Him.' ^
Perpetua maintained her calmness to the end.
When a tribune, who had the popular idea that the
Christians dealt in the black art,* and so might
escape from prison by their enchantments, dealt
harshly with the prisoners, she reminded him that
since they were to fight on Caesar's birthday they
ought not to disgrace Caesar by their condition. On
their last night they joined together in the agape.®
The lovefeast was interrupted by people whose
curiosity had led them to visit the prison, that they
might see what sort of victims would be provided on
the morrow. 'Mark well our faces,' aaid Saturus,
' that you may recognize us again on the day of
judgement' ^
' So the law ordered ; Ulpian in Dig. xlviii 19, 3.
' Cataractariorum, that is, either the meu who looked after the
portcullis (classical) or, more probably, the stocks (see Jer. xx 2, 3 in
LXX for this use),
= Robinson 84 ; Geb. AMS 85.
» Supra p. 132.
' ' Pridie quoque cum illam cenam ultimam, quam liberam vocant,
quantum in ipsis erat non cenam liberam sed agapen cenarent.'
Robinson 86 ; Geb. AMS 86. Cf. supra p. 211 n.
' O.c. 0, 17. ' In die illo.' See supra p. 154, How the idea of the

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 317
' When the day of victory dawned, the Christians marched in
procession from the prison to the arena as if they were marching
to heaven, with joyous countenances, agitated rather by gladness
than fear. Perpetua followed, with radiant step, as became the bride
of Christ, the dear one of God.' '
Attempta were made to force them to put on certain
dreases, the men the robea of those devoted to
Saturn,^ the women of Ceres. They refused, and
' injustice recognized the justice ' of their refusal.
So they marched to death in their own garments,
' Perpetua singing Psalms, for she was now treading
down the Egyptian's head.' ' In the arena Saturus
was expoaed on a alightly raised platform to the
attack of a bear. As the beast would not leave its
den, he was handed over to a leopard, who with one
bite covered him with blood. The mob called out
in their glee, in derision of the Christian rite of
baptism, ' That's the bath that brings salvation.' *
The two women, one of them scarce recovered from
childbirth, were hung up in nets, lightly clad, to
'day of judgement' dominated the early Church is evidenced by
Apoc. i 10, where Kvpiaxri fi/iepa is probably not Sunday, but the
prophet's vision of the last day.
' 'Lucido incessu, ut matrona Christi, ut Dei delioata,' a bold
oratorical flight worthy of Tertullian. See Robinson o.e. p. 87.
' Tert, Apol. 9 may throw light on this : ' Children were openly
sacriflced in Africa to Saturn as late as the proconsulship of Tiberius.
. . . And even now that sacred crime still continues to be done in
secret.' Cf. ib. ad Scorp. 7 near end. For Ceres see Tert. ad Uxor. 6,
Por martyrs thus to be clothed was not so unusual as Milman
(Christianity ii 172) supposes. See Le Blant SAM 242 n.
» Infra p. 322.
* ' Salvum lotum.' Cf. Tert. Bapt, o 16. But on the floor of a
room in Brescia it can only mean, as perhaps here, ' wash well '
(AUard II BP 129 n.).

318 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
be gored by a bull.' When Perpetua was tossed her
first thought was of her shame, as she tried to cover
herself with her torn tunic. ' She then clasped up
her hair, for it did not become a martyr to suffer
with disheveUed locks, lest she should seem to be
mourning in her glory.' This done she raised up
Felicitas, and 'the cruelty of people being for a
while appeased,' they were permitted to retire.^
Perpetua herself seemed in a trance. ' When are
we to be tossed ? ' she asked, and could scarcely be
induced to believe that she had suffered, in spite
of the marks on her body. Finally the two heroines
of God were put to death by gladiators. After
exhorting the others ' to stand fast in the faith and
love one another,' Perpetua, 'first stabbed between
the bones that she might have the more pain,
guided to her own throat the uncertain hand of the
young gladiator.'' So she too passed over, and all
the trumpets sounded for her on the other side.

IV
Not the least part of the agony of Perpetua,
as well as of other martyrs, lay in the frenzied
entreaties of loved ones, oftentimes brought by the
' As Perpetua was one of the lionestiores, noble, this was illegal ;
see supra p. 64 n.
' We are told she retired by the porta Sanavivaria (o. 20 Geb.
AMS 91), i.e. the gate by which Uving, as distinct from dead,
gladiators (porta Libiiensis) retired from the amphitheatre.
' Probably a confeclor, i.e. one who gave the coup de grace in case
the beasts did their work imperfectly.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 319
magistrates into the hall of justice for the very
purpose. Origen was right : ' It is the love of wife
and chUdren that filla up the meaaure of martyr
dom.'' For Perpetua there were the entreaties of
her aged heathen father, the waUings of the babe
at her breast ' :
' When I was in the hands of the persecutors, my father in his
tender solicitude tried hard to pervert me from the faith. "My
father," I said, " you see this pitcher ; can we call it by any other name
than what it is?" "No," he said. " Nor can I call myself by any
other name than that of Christian." So he went away, but, on the
rumour that we were to be tried, returned, wasted away -with anxiety :
" Daughter," he said, " have pity on my grey hairs ; have compassion
on thy father. Do not give me over to disgrace. Behold thy brothers,
thy mother, thy aunt ; behold thy child who canuot live without thee.
Do not destroy us all." Thus spake my father, kissing my hands, and
throwing himself at my feet. And I wept because of my father, for
he alone of all my famUy would not rejoice in my martyrdom. So I
comforted him, saying : " In this trial what God determines will take
place. We are not in our own keeping, but in God's." So he left me
weeping bitterly.' (Robinson o.o. 62-4 ; Geb. AMS 64-6,)
But when the day of trial came her father was once
more at the bar, caUing out to the mother as he held
her child in his arms, ' Have pity on your babe.'
When Phileas of Thmuis was brought before
Culcian, the prefect of Egypt, the trusted friend of
Maximin, Culcian tried with many arguments to
induce him to sacrifice. ' Have you,' he asked, ' a
conscientious objection ? ' On PhUeas replying, ' Yes ' :
'Why does not conscience,' pursued the prefect,
' tell you to pay regard to the intereata of your wife
and children ? ' ' Because a conscience Godwards has
' Origen ad Mart. 11. He knew from experience; see Euseb.
HEvi, 2.

320 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
a higher claim,' was the answer. Upon this the
officials of the court, the mayor of Thmuis, together
with his family, threw themselves at his feet, beseech
ing the bishop to have pity on his wife and children.
But he stood ' like a rock unmoved ' until ' his
unquenchable spirit was set free by the sword.' '
Over Irenaeus of Sirmium — a city on the Save
near its union with the Danube — his children, wife,
and parents lamented with bitter groans : ' have pity
on yourself and us ' ; while his friends implored him
to have pity on his tender youth. ' My Lord Jesus,'
was the reply, ' told us that he that loved father or
mother more than Me was not worthy of Me.' ^ To
Felicitas of Eome : ' Have pity,' said the judge, ' on
your sons, young men in the prime of life.' ' Your
exhortation,' replied Felicitas, * is cruel mockery.'
Then turning to her sons : ' Lads,' she said, ' look up
and behold the heavens where Christ awaits you with
His saints. Fight for your souls and show your
selves faithful in the love of Christ.'.' 'Dionysia of
' AM 495-6 ; shortly after a.d. 304. The Acts of Phileas are
interesting, and possibly genuine. See Le Blant SAM l\2; Mason
DP 290, but contra Harnack CAL ii 70 n. Euseb. BE viii 10
does not mention them, though he gives the Epistle of Phileas.
The difficulty is the talk on 'conscience.'
2 ^il!r402; Gebhardt AMS 163. Time of Diocletian, AprU 6,
? 304. See also supra p. 142.
' AM 26. The story of Felicitas is undoubtedly based upen fact
(against Neumann BSK i 295). This is shown by the discovery by
de Rossi, in 1858, of the tomb of Januarius, in the story styled the
eldest of the seven sons, in the cemetery of Praetextatus (see North
cote and Brownlow BS i 130-44). But in its present form the story,
as that of Symphorosa (supra p. 219), is only one of many variations
of the popular but late and worthless iv Maccab. -viii 1. See Lightf.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 321
Alexandria, the mother of many children,' we are
told, ' did not love them more than the Lord,' ' simple
words which conceal the depths of anguish through
which she passed. In the case of Afra of Augsburg,
a converted prostitute, who is reputed to have suffered
in the terror of Diocletian, we are introduced to a
new form of temptation of even more subtle power :
' I hear you were a prostitute,' said the judge ; * sacrifice, then, for the
God of Christians will have nothing to do with you,' ' My Lord,' she
replied, ' said that He came down from heaven to save sinners such
as me.'
In spite of all reproachea and argumenta, she peraiated
in her faith in the power of Chriat to save even to the
uttermost. So she too was handed over to the flames.^
Thus the harlot gained what Cyprian rightly calls
' the purple robe of the Lamb.' '
For weeks before the fatal issue, we find the
martyrs living in a state of ecstasy. They see the
heavens open, and the triumphant ones that follow
the Lamb riding upon white horses. Three days
before hia capture, Polycarp dreamed that hia pillow
was on fire; this he interpreted as signifying by
what death he should glorify God.* In most of the
Ign. i 502-5, 511-5. The date in DOB u 478, following AM, &c„ is
probably wrong. It should not be 150, but 162 (i.e. not Antoninus
Pius, but Marcus Aurelius, Allard I BP 346 n. 353), See also Aube
PE 439 ff,, who dates (ib. 464) under Sept. Severus, 202-3.
• Euseb. HEvi 41. Eariy in 250.
' AM 456. Even if the narrative is not historical (see Harnack
CAL ii 475 n,), the story has its value. According to Ruinart the
date is Aug. 5, 304.
' Cyprian de Exhort. Mart. Pref. 3. Purple was the imperial colour.
< Mart. Polyc. 5. Cf. Cyprian in Pont. Vit. 12. Y

322 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
records we have visions of recent martyrs. On the
night before her fight with the beasts Perpetua
dreamed that the martyred deacon Pomponius came
to her ceU. ' Come,' he aaid, ' for we are waiting for
thee.'' So he held my hand, and we began to climb by rough and -winding
ways. At length, gasping for breath, we came to the amphitheatre.
There he placed me in the middle of tbe arena and said, " Fear not,
I am here with thee." '
In her dream she fought with a foul Egyptian
gladiator, but one stood by ' with a green branch in
hie hand on which were applee of gold. At last
Perpetua threw the Egyptian down and received the
bough. When she awoke, ' I knew,' she said, ' the
victory was mine.' She had seen the ' devil rolling
in the dust.' '
Marianus, a martyr possibly of Cirta, dreamed
that he saw a great scaffold, on which the judge was
condemning to the sword bands of Christians. ' My
turn came. Then I heard a great voice saying,
"Fasten Marianus up."' So he too mounted the
scaffold; but, lo, instead of the judge, he found him
self amidst green fields and grass waving with
sunlight, holding the hand of the martyr Cyprian,
who smiled, as he said, ' Come and sit beside me.'
The day before this dream Marianus had been hung
up by the thumbs, with unequal weights tied to his
feet, while his body had been torn by an iron claw,
In the awful thirst which such torture brings, we can
understand the further vision ; how he aaw
1 Robinson o.e. 78 or Geb. AMS 78.

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 323
' a dell in the midst of the woods, with a full clear spring flowing
with many waters. Then Cyprian caught up a bowl which lay beside
the spring, filled it and drained it, filled it again and reached it out
to me, and I drank it, nothing loath. As I was saying. Thanks be to
God, I woke at the sound of my own voice.' '
Saturus, the companion of Perpetua, had a vision
in which he was carried by four angels into the midst
of heaven itself, ' though their hands touched ua not.'
There, in a palace ' whoae walls were built of light,'
and which stood in the midst of fields covered with
violets and flowers, he ' heard the voice of those who
sing unceasingly. Holy, Holy, Holy,' and received
the kiss of Christ :
' There also we found Jocundus and Saturninus, and Artaxius who had
been burnt alive in the same prosecuti6n, and Quintus who had died
as a martyr in prison' (Geb. AMS 80).
QuartiUosia, who suffered in the aame persecution
as Marianus, whose husband and son had witneaaed
the good confeasion three days before, saw her son
enter the prison in which ahe herself lay, expecting
death.
' And he sat on the brim of a fountain and said, " God hath seen
your tribulation and labour." And after him entered a young man,
wonderfully tall, carrying two bowls of milk in his hands. And from
these bowls he gave us all to drink ; and the bowls failed not. And
suddenly the stone which divided the vrindow in the middle was
taken away, letting in the free face of the sky.' Geb. AMS 149.
¦ Por Marianus see Geb. AMS 134 ff. The date is fixed by the
reference to Cyprian as May 6, 259. Cf. Flavian p. 324 infra. The
Acta Mariani et Jacobi seems to have been written at the time by a
Christian at Cirta, who cut an inscription to his two friends on a
rock in his garden (Benson Cyp. 471 n.). The genuineness of the
Fassio Mariani has been demonstrated by Franchi de' Cavalieri
(1900). See Ailard III EF 130 n., Harnack CAL ii 470.

324 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
But the images in the martyrs' dreams are not
always thoae of thirat, of green fielda and orcharda,
or of the free breezes, natural as auch dreama are to
tortured Bonis in prison. Eenus, another of the same
band of African martyrs, had a vision in which he
saw his companiona brought into court one by one ;
' as each one advanced, a lantern was carried before
him.' When he awoke and told hie story to his
comrade in prison, ' then were we glad, having
confidence to walk with Christ, who is a lantern to
our feet.' ' A martyr named Flavian, one of Cyprian's
flock at Carthage, dreamed that he aaked hie bishop
' whether the death-stroke was painful.' And
Cyprian answered and said, ' The body does not
feel when the mind is wholly devoted to God.' ^ On
the night before his martyrdom, another of the same
devoted company, James of Cirta, dreamed that he
saw the martyred bishop Agapius
' surrounded by all the others who were imprisoned with us, holding
a joyous feast. Marianus and I were carried away by the spirit of
love to join it, as if to one of our love-feasts, when a boy ran to meet
us, who turned out to be one of the twins who had suffered three days
before in company with their mother. He had a wreath of roses
round his neck, and bore a green palm in bis right hand. And he
said, " Rejoice and be glad, for to-morrow you shaU sup with us." ' '
In her fijst vision Perpetua saw the Good Shepherd,
who gave her a morsel of cheese, which she ate with
» AM 231 ; Geb. AMS 148. Prom the Acts of Montanus. In
spite of the doubts of Rendel Harris I see no reason to deny the
genuineness of these Acts. See Allard III BP 116 ; Harnack OAL
ii 471 ; Healy VP 207 ff. Date May, 259.
" AM 237; Geh. -AMS i53.
' AM 228 ; Geb. AMS 143.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 325
folded hands ! When she awoke with the sweet
taste still in her mouth, ' we knew that our passion
was at hand.' '
Nor were the ecstasies limited to the martyrs
themselves : the Christians who witnessed their
sufferings also dreamed their dreams and saw their
visions. We have an instance of this in the last
chapter of the Antiochene Acts of Martyrdom of St.
Ignatius, one of the few fragments true to life in an
otherwise worthless romance. There the writer tells
how' we weak men, after what had passed, when we fell asleep for a while,
some of us suddenly beheld the blessed Ignatius standing by and
embracing us, while by others again he was seen praying over us, and
by others dripping with sweat, as if he were come from a hard
struggle, and were standing at the Lord's side, with much boldness
and unutterable glory.' Lightf. Ign, ii 49.
After the burning of Pructuosus, the bishop of
Tarragona, and his deacons (January 21, 259), two of
the Christian servants of the judge saw the martyrs
ascending to heaven, 'with their chains still upon
them, but crowns on their brows,' and pointed them
out to the governor's daughter. She fetched her
father, ' who, however, was not worthy to see
them.' ^ But at Alexandria the vision of the martyr
Potamiaena led to the conversion of many heathen
who had witnessed her sufferings.' To the same
exalted and nervous condition we may well attribute
• Robinson o.o. 68 ; Geb. AMS 68. Por other visions of martyrs
whose passion was but recent, see Euseb. BE vi 5.
' AM 221. Aub^ EE 408-12.
' Por Potamiaena, see supra p. 303 n. 1.

326 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
the strange sweet smeUs, the heavenly voices, and other
incidents which the faithful were quick to discern at
the passing of their heroes. At Lyons the martyrs,
we are told, ' were so fragrant with the sweet odour
of Christ that some bystanders supposed that they
had been anointed with myrrh.' ' At the execution
of Polycarp, his friends heard a voice from heaven
calling upon him to play the man; after his death
there arose from his ashes, as they thought, a
fragrant odour ' like the fumes of incense, or other
fragrant drugs.' ^
When the day of their trial came, the confidence
of the Christians — Pliny, in his famous letter, had
called it their ' inflexible obstinacy ' — was in no wise
shaken. The Eoman court, with its instruments of
torture, set out in grim array — the hobby-horse, the
claws, the rack, the heated irons, the boUing oil — the
howling mob, the insignia of an imperial power, from
which there was no escape, did not overawe the
confessors. Theirs was the confidence of the Angel
of Eepentance in the Shepherd of Hermas — one of the
books that profoundly influenced the eariy martyrs, as
we may learn from the allusions to it in the story of
Perpetua —
' Fear not the Devil, for there is no power in him against you. The
Devil hath fear alone, but his fear hath no force. The Devil can
wrestle against you, but wrestle you down he cannot ! ' '

1 Euseb. BE v (1) 35, Geb. AMS 35.
^ Mart. Polyc, 9. Due to the burnt wood. See supra p. 309.
' See Hermas Shep. Mand. xii 4, 5, and cf, ib. Mand, xii 6, Sim,
viii 3 (a passage not in all MSS.).

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 327
In all churches the day of martyrdom became known
as the confessor's 'birthday,' a joyous term, signi
ficant of much. At the martyrdom of Polycarp,
eleven heroes from Philadelphia
' were so torn with lashes that the inward veins and arteries were
visible, so that the very bystanders had pity and wept. But they
themselves uttered neither cry nor groan, thus proving to us all that
at that hour the martyrs of Christ, though tortured, were absent
from the flesh, or rather, that the Lord was standing by and con
versing with them' (Mart, Polyc, 2).
When the Scillitan martyrs, seven men and five
women, were condemned by Saturninus at Carthage :
' We give God thanks,' cried one ; ' To-day we shall
be in heaven,' added a second.' This talk of heaven
sometimes bewUdered, sometimes amused the magis
trates. ' Do you suppose,' said the prefect Junius
Eusticus to Justin and hia companions, ' that you
will ascend up to heaven to receive some recompense
there ? ' ^ 'I do not suppose,' was Justin's answer, 'for
I know it, and am persuaded of it.' ' Earth,' cried
Cyprian, in the same spirit of assurance,
' is shut against us, but heaven is opened ; death overtakes ns, but
immortality follows ; the world recedes, but Paradise receives. What
honour, what peace, what joy, to shut our eyes on the world and men,
and open them on the face of God and His Christ I Oh, short and
blessed voyage I ' (de Exhort, Mart, 13).
Of Dativus we read that he was ' rather a spectator
of his own tortures than a sufferer.' ' When Carpus
' Geb. AM8 26. See supra p. 193 n.
^ Geb. AMS 20-1. This seems to be the flrst recorded use of the
phrase ' going to heaven.'
' Supra p. 143.

328 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
was nailed up to the cross he was observed to smile.
' What made you laugh ? ' asked his tormentors, in
astonishment. '1 saw the glory of the Lord, and
was glad,' was the answer. Standing by was a
woman named Agathonice. She caught the infection
of his enthusiasm. 'That dinner,' she cried, 'is
prepared for me ' ; then tore off her garments and laid
herself upon the cross.' So great was the Christians'
eagerness and confidence, that Saturninus — one of
the friends of Perpetua — used to say to his com
panions in prison, as they talked over their coming
fate, 'that he wished he could fight aU the beasts,
that so he might win a more glorious crown.' ^
When PhUeas of Thmuis was condemned to the
Bword : ' Present my thanks,' he said, ' to the
emperors, for they have made me joint heir with
Christ.'' When the cruel Datian ordered hie
executioners to furrow the sides of the young girl
Eulalia of Merida in Spain : 'Lord,' she cried, ' they
are writing that Thou art mine.' * At the trial of
James of Cirta, the attention of the heathen in court
was drawn to one of the bystanders. So joyous was
' For the Acts of Oarpus, Papylus and Agathonike in Greek see
Harnack TU (3) 1888, 440 ff. or Geb, AMS 33. Until recently these
Acts were only known in the spurious form of Symeon Metaphrast.
(FG cxv 106 ff,). But in 1881 Aube published a shorter form, without
doubt the authentic Acts to which Euseb. BE iv 15 fln. refers. (See
Aube EE 499 ff.) Por date see supra p. 227 c, and not as Gregg PD
244 under Decius.
' Robinson o.e, 88 ; Geb. AMS 89.
= AM 496. See supra p. 320 n.
* Prudentius Feristeph, iii 31 ff. But the Feristephanon is far
from a strictly historical work.

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 329
his mien, that the magistrates, in suspicion, asked him
if he were not a Christian — for, added the writer,
' Chriet shone in his face and bearing.' ' Babylas of
Antioch aaw six of his catechumens perish before his
eyea. He then laid his head upon the block, saying,
' Here am I, 0 God, and the children whom Thou hast
given me.' According to Chrysostom, whose evidence
in this particular may be trusted, his chains were
buried with him, by his own desire, ' to show to the
world that the things which the world despises are
the glory of the Christian.' ^
Both Aristides and Celsus find fault with the
Christians for their mixture of humility and arro
gance.' At the bar the assurance of the Christians
was overwhelming. Oftentimes the confessor lectured
his judge, as if they, not he, were pleading for their
lives. ' You judge us, but God shall judge you,' said
the Carthaginian martyrs — the friends of Perpetua —
to the prefect Hilarian; nor were they daunted by
the cries of the people, that for this insult they
should be scourged.* For the martyrs believed, in
the words of Tertullian, that the day should come
when they ' would judge their judges.' ^ ' Sacrifice
' Geb. AMS 142. See sa^jm p. 323 n.
" For Babylas see Lightfoot Ign. i 40-2. According to Eusebius
EE vi 39, he suffered in the reign of Decius ; see supra p. 157 n.
His Acts assign it to Numerian (284), the tendency being to transfer
martyrdoms to the persecution last in the writer's mind. Numerian's
obscurity invited martyrologists to assign to him martyrdoms of
whose dates they were ignorant. As a matter of fact, he did not
persecute at all (Aube EE 494 n.).
' Arist. Orat, 46 ; Orig. Oels. iv 23 and 29,
* Robinson o.c, 88 ; Geb, AMS 89, Cf, passim in AM.
s Tert. ad Mart, 2. Cf. supra p. 155.

330 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
or die,' said the proconsul Marcian to Achatius, who
seema to have been a bishop of one of the lesser
Antiochs, or of some village near Antioch. ' That is
what the highwaymen of Dalmatia say,' was the con
temptuous reply, ' when they meet you in a dark,
narrow lane. Your verdicts are of the same order.' '
Claudius, a young Christian of Aegea, in Cilicia, was
placed on a hobby-horse and flames applied to his
feet, while the claw tore his sides. * Fool and mad
man,' cried the youth to his judge, ' do you not care
for what the Lord will make you pay for this ? You
are blind, altogether blind ! ' ^ Andronicus, another
of the many martyrs of Cilicia, was beaten with raw
hides until his whole body was one wound. 'Eub
his back well with salt,' said the cruel Flavius
Numerianus Maximus. ' You must rub in more aalt
than that,' waa the joking anewer, ' if I am to keep.'
' You cureed fellow,' eaid Maximua, * you talk to me
aa if you were my equal.' 'I am not your equal,'
retorted the Chriatian, ' but I have the right to talk.'
'I will cut out your right, you ruffian,' cried the
judge. ' You will never be able to do that,' said the
prisoner, 'neither you, nor your father Satan, nor
the devils whom you serve.' ' Take hold of his cheeks
and rip them up,' said Maximus, as another of the
same band, Tarachus by name, stood before him for
' AM. 154 or Geb. AMS 115. The narrative has been touched up
for edification, and the conclusion that Decius, ' lectis gestis,'
ordered his release is absurd, though, as shortly afterwards Decius
terminated the persecution, Achatius may have escaped. Date about
251. See Hamack CAL u 468, and in defence Allard II HP 436 ff,
'' See supra p. 298. Aug, 23, 304.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 331
the third time of torture, with jaws crushed, ears
burnt off, his body one mass of wounds. 'Don't
think,' replied Tarachus, 'that you can terrify me
with your worda; I am ready for you at all pointa, for
I wear the armour of God ! ' A long dialogue foUowed,
but all the varied torturee of the judge were powerless
to break the daring defiance and contempt of the
prisoner.' Against such men the gates of hell could
not prevaU. ' These are they,' said St. Cyprian, with
a glance back at his heathen days —
' whom we held sometimes in derision, and as a proverb of reproach.
We fools counted their life madness, and their end to be without
honour. How are they numbered among the children of God, and
their lot is among the saints 1 ' '
The Christian's contempt of death was remarkable
even in an age in which indifference to death formed
one of the pleasures of life. The satirist Lucian tells
us, with laughter, of the contempt of death which led
the Christians, as well as the Cynics, with whom they
were often confounded, to surrender themselves of
their own free will to martyrdom, and thus ' bring a
golden life to a golden close.' ' ' These imbecUes,' he
sneered, 'are persuaded that they are absolutely
immortal, and that they will live for ever.' 'Our
» AM 422 ff. The date is doubtful (Ruinart 421) ; about 304.
For the genuineness of this document, see supra p. 196 n., and Harnack
CAL ii 479 n. Long extracts are given in Mason DP 189 ff.
Maximus naturally considered that ' the armour of God ' pointed to
sorcery ; see mpra p. 132 n. The case of Tarachus is a genuine
case of sedition.
^ De Exhort, Mart. 12. Cyprian is quoting Wisdom v 4, 5.
' Lucian FP 13, 33. The self-immolation of Peregrinus as a
Cynic took place in 165. (EuSeb. Chron, u 170, ed. Schoene.)

332 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
young men and maidens,' boasts Minucius Felix,
writing a few years earlier, ' mock your crosses and
tortures, your wild beasts and all the terrors of your
punishments ! ' ' With this agrees the testimony of
Cyprian : ' The tortured stood more firm than the
torturers ; the torn limbs overcame the hooks that
tore them.' ^ * The Christians,' writes another, ' all
disregard the world and despise death.' ' ' Christianus
sum,' — the fatal confession, to which there was but
one ieeue — was the sole answer to all their questions
which the magistrates of Antioch could extort from
Lucian.* ' Condemnation,' said Tertullian, ' gives us
more pleasure than acquittal ' ; ^ and we have evidence
of this other than that of an enthusiast, in the fact
that their contempt of death was actually one of the
charges brought against the Christians by the heathen.'
' Unhappy men ! ' exclaimed the proconsul Arrius
Antoninus on aeeing all the Chrietiane of a certain
town in Aaia present themselvea at his bar, though
they knew well the consequences ; ' if you are weary
of your lives, cannot you find halters and precipices ? ''
' Go, then, and kUl yourselves,' cried another in
derision, ' and pass to your God, but do not trouble
' Octavius 37. Date uncertain, possibly 160. See supra p. 221 n.
' Cyprian Ep,
» Ep. Diog. i. Cf. Justin II Apol. 12.
* AM 506. See supra p. 142 n.
' Ad Scapulam 1.
« Tert, ad Nationes 19 ; Apol. 50. Celsus in Orig. u 38, 45, 73
makes this one of his charges against Jesus. Marcus Aurelius Med.
xi 3 attributes it to ' obstinacy,' Epictetus, Arrian Epic. Diss, iv 7, 6
to habit. But Tac. Hist, v 5 has reference to Jews only.
' Tert, ad Scap. 5, For the date, 184-5, see supra p. 227,

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 333
US.' ' ' As a rule,' said the Emperor Diocletian, ' the
Christiana are only too happy to die ' — and Diocletian
certainly was in a position to know. Eusebius, an
eye-witness, tells us that the martyrs of the Thebais,
in the time of Diocletian, ' received the sentence of
death with gladness and exultation, so far even as to
sing hymns of praise and thanksgiving untU they
breathed their last.' ^ For they believed that after
death the —
' angels would carry them eastward, past the storehouse of hail and
snow, past the fountains of rain, past the spirits of wickedness which
are in the air, and carry them to the seventh circle, setting them
down full opposite the glory of God.' '
'Why are you so bent upon death?' said an
official to the martyr Pioniua of Smyrna. ' You are
80 bent upon death,' he added, 'that you make
nothing of it.' ' We are bent, not upon death,' replied
Pionius, 'but upon life.' When nailed to the cross,
the officer made one last effort to induce him to
recant. ' Carry out the edict,' he promised, ' and the
nails shall be withdrawn.' ' I felt that they were in,'
was the answer, as, turning to the people, he bid
them remember that * after death came the resurrec
tion.' When the fires were lighted, 'with joyous
' Justin M. II Apol. 4.
' HE viu 9.
' CaUistratus in Conybeare MEO 312. For the belief tbat the
soul went eastward, of. an interesting passage in Eusebius MP 11,
where a martyr puzzles Pirmilianus with this doctrine, ' phUosophiz-
ing on and paying uo regard to the tortures.' It is interesting to
note that Pirmilianus evidently did not know the name Jerusalem
at all. In his day Aelia (supra p. 121) had supplanted it.

334 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
countenance, he cried. Amen.' ' So he too,' adds the
chronicler, 'passed through the narrow gate to the
large place and great light.' ' ' Will you be with us,
or with your Christ?' asked the governor, as they
hung Nestor, bishop of Perga, the chief city of
Pamphylia, ' well strapped and curry-combed,' upon
the cross. The bishop answered : ' With Chriat I
am, and alwaya waa, and alwaya shall be.' ^ When
Nicander, a soldier quartered in Moesia (Bulgaria),
arrived at the place of execution, hia wife Daria waa
brought to hia Bide. ' God be with you,' aaid the
husband. 'Be of good cheer,' replied the wife, for
whom the years of separation when she was a
Christian and he a heathen still were now at an
end —
' play the hero. Ten years I spent at home without you, and every
moment I prayed God that I might see you. Now I have seen you,
I rejoice that you are setting out for life. How loud shaU I sing, and
how proud I am that soon I shall be a martyr's wife ! So be of good
cheer, and bear your witness to God.' '
When IrenaeuB of Sirmium was condemned to be
' Geb. AMS 114. See supra p. 297 ff., and infra p. 342.
' For the Acts of Nestor in Latin, see A.SS Feb. iii 629 ff., un
doubtedly worked up in this form into an edifying romance. But
the original Greek discovered by Aub^, and printed in EE 507 ff.,
is more historical. See Le Blant SAM passim, who often illustrates
his positions from them; see his Index. The date, according to
Aub6 ib. 177 Allard II BP 442 ff,, is 250, but, as Hamack observes
(CAL ii 470 n.), its Christologioal formulae (coeternus, &o.) point to
a later date.
' AM 551-4, The date is either June 8 or 17 (AM 551 n.), year
unknown, but probably temp, Diocletian. Soldiers were not per
mitted to live with their wives until Sept. Severus. The husband and
wife were buried together at Venafrio, near Capua (AM 554). The
touching tale of Timothy and Maura (Kingsley'a Poems) is not historical.

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 335
thrown into the Save, hia face showed his disappoint
ment —
'I expected,' he said, 'many tortures. Torture me, I beseech you,
that you may leam how Christians, because of their faith in God,
have schooled themselves to despise death.' *
Of Victor, the father of the martyr Maximilian of
Theveste, we read that after the execution —
' he returned to the house with great joy, thanking God that he had
sent on such a gift before him, and determined to follow after.' ^
In no document of the early Church is the ecstasy
of the martyrs, and their indifference to— ^we might
almost call it their enthusiasm for — death more
clearly brought out than in the Epistles of Ignatius,
though no doubt some aUowance must be made for
the excitable Syrian nature. Of the circumstances
which led to the condemnation of Ignatius, the second
bishop of Antioch and metropolitan of Syria,' we
know nothing. The persecutions at Antioch, by no
means limited to Ignatius,* has left no other
memorials of itself than these Epistles. As a rule
Christians, unless Eoman citizens, were executed in
the place of their crime; but for special reasons,
probably connected with the extraordinary spectacles
which Trajan had given in the Coliseum, whose magni
tude had long since drained Eome of both gladiators
and criminals,^ Theophorus Ignatius ' entwined with
1 AM i03. See tiipra p. 320.
' AM 302, See supra p. 185.
» Hamack EO n 89.
* Ign, Fhiladelph x 2, ' the Church in Antioch hath now peace,'
' Merivale Bomans under the Empire viii 150 and many othera
have found this journey to Rome to be a, fiction moulded on the

336 PERSECUTION IN THB EARLY CHURCH
saintly fetters, the diadem of the truly elect,' ' was
sent from Antioch to Eome, "to make a Eoman
holiday." He tells us that he was in the charge of
ten soldiers, whom he compares, with a touch of
humour, to ' ten leopards.' ^ Every effort on the part
of himself and his friends to appease them only led to
fresh cruelties, in the hope, probably, of fresh exac
tions. The details of this journey of Ignatius, the
letters which he wrote en route to various churches,
with their wealth of intercourse and love, need not
concern us. At Smyrna he held delightful fellowship
with one destined in later years to tread the narrow
way himself, the bishop Polycarp. Landing in
Europe in the footsteps of St. Paul, we lose sight of
him after PhUippi. The rest is only legend.' But
analogy of St. Paul's, But criminals and Christians were frequently
sent to Rome for use in the games, cf. Pliny's statement supra p. 210 ;
and the Acts of Phocas (MEC 94) for the case of Phocas. In
Polycarp Phil. 9 we have the names of two others thus sent, Zosimus
and Rufus, while Ignatius implies that it was a common practice by
his phrase ' Ye are a highway of them that are on their way to die
unto God ' (Eph. 12 with Lightfoot's notes). For the history of this
transport see Lightf. Ign. i 342-3, Ramsay ChE 317-8, Momm. PBE
ii 199. By an edict of Severus aud CaracaUa (198-211) it was made
illegal except by the permit of the emperor. See Modestinus in Dig.
xlviii 19. How drained Rome would be of gladiators and criminals
wiU be clear to those who remember that one of Trajan's shows
lasted 123 days, and that 11,000 beasts and 10,000 gladiators were
engaged (Dion. Cass. Ixviii 15).
'¦ Polyc. Phil. 1. For his name see supra 170 n.
^ Ign. Bom, 5.
' There are two accounts of the laat scenes in the life of
Ignatius, the Antiochene and the Boman Acts. The Boman Acts are
pure romance, written at the close of the fifth century (Lightfoot Ign.
ii 382). The Antiochene (in Ruinart AM from Ussher) may contain

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 337
there is little doubt that, as Origen tells us,' in a fight
with wild beasts, in the Coliseum at Eome, Ignatius,
whom Lightfoot well calls "the captain of martyrs,"
paid the price of his faith with his own life about the
eame time as his feUow-Christians in Bithynia suffered
under Pliny and Trajan.
In his Epistle to the Rmiians — "his paean pro
phetic of the coming victory " ^ — Ignatius had already
anticipated the final act in his description of himself
as ' God's wheat, ground fine by the teeth of wild
beasta, that he may be found pure bread, a sacrifice
to God.' ' In more than one paaeage we see Ignatius
not BO much resigned as eager for the day of martyr
dom—' in the midst of life,'yet lusting after death.'
He realizes all the struggle, he is more than assured
of the victory :
' Come fire, and cross, and grapplings with wild beasts, cuttings and
manglings, wrenchinga of bones, breaking of limbs, cruahing of my
whole body, come cruel tortuiea of the devil to assail me. 'Only be it
mine to attain unto Jesus Christ.' '*
In passages such as these we hear the shout of one
a kernel of genuine tradition. See supra p. 325. (They were accepted
by Pearson, Ussher, etc., as genuine. But see Lightfoot Ign. ii
383-90.) • Orig. Bom. m Luc. i. The date is uncertain, probably Oct. 17,
but the year is unknown, the Umits being between 107 and 118. See
Lightfoot's investigation Ign, ii 416-72. Hamack dates about 115,
CAL i 406.
^ Lightf. Ign. i 37, i 38.
=" Ign. Bom, 4 Jerome de Vir. III. 16 transfers this saying to the
Coliseum, foUowing Euseb. EE iii 36, with, however, a characteristic
flourish of his own, cum rugienies audiret leones, ' when he heard the
roaring of the Uons.'
« Eph. 1 ; Trail, 12 end ; Bom. 5, 6, 7.

338 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
triumphant already, who felt * the pangs of the new
birth' upon him. 'Near the sword,' he cries, 'the
nearer to God; in company with wild beasts, in
company with God.' ' Do not hinder me,' he con
tinues — ^he refers to some possible appeal by influential
parties at Eome to the emperor, which might save
him —
' from living, do not desire my death. . . . Suffer me to receive the
pure light. When I am come to the arena, then shaU I become a
man. Permit me to be an imitator of the passion of my God.'
He bids men ' sing a chorus of love to the Father ' for
the grace that is his, ' to be poured out as a libation
to God.' For he is assured : * If I shall suffer, then
am I a freedman of Jesus Christ, and I shall rise free
in Him.' ' So he prays that he
' may have joy in the beasts, and find them prompt. If not I will
entice them that they may devour me promptly, not as they have
done to some, refusing to touch them through fear ' (Bom, 5).

Many there were, among them not a few clerics,
whom the hour of trial found wanting, who in the
expressive phrase of Ignatius 'hawked about the
Name.'^ For there ia nothing which so testa the
reality of faith as the call to the great renunciation.
Nor must we overlook how eaay recantation deeiguedly
had been made. For, as TertulUan pointed out,
there was this curious feature about Chriatianity,
n. 4. Bom. 2, 4, 6, ' Eph, 7, Th ifo/ia irepKpepeiv.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 339
diatinguishing it from every other criminal charge,
that a mere denial was sufficient to procure acquittal.'
There were degrees and stages of apostasy. Some,
who had no deepness of root, ' when the sun was
risen, withered away.' As the Christians of Lyons
wrote with sadness of ten of their number, ' they were
unable to bear the tension of a great conflict.' ^
' Many of our brethren,' adds Cyprian —
' vanquished before the fight, did not even make a show of sacrificing
under compulsion. They ran of their own account to the Forum,
as if they were indulging a long-cherished desire. There you could
see them entreating the magistrates to receive their recantations,
although it was already night ' (de Lapsis 8).
Such apostates, when brought before the altar, ' stood
pale and trembling, as if they were not to sacrifice,
but themselves to be the sacrifice.' ' A few, not con
tent with denying their Lord, under the terror of
pain betrayed their brethren.* Some there were, of
stouter faith, who could endure days of imprison
ment, but whom torture or the horrid anticipation
thereof overcame.^ Nor were those who had thrust
themselves forward for martyrdom always the most
courageous. At the supreme moment their enthu
siasm failed, and they denied the faith for which
' Tert. Apol. 2, ad Nat. 2, The case at Lyons, where those who
recanted were afterwards punished as 'murderers and guilty
criminals ' (Euseb. v (I) 33 ; Geb, AMS 35), is quite exceptional.
« Euseb. BE v (i) 11 in Geb. AMS 30. Cf. BE vi 41.
' Dionysius of Alexandria in Euseb. BE vi 41. Persecution of
Decius. * Possibly this happened in the earliest persecution at Rome.
See Tac. Ann. xv 44 quoted on p. 54 with note.
" Cyprian de Lapsis 13, Case of Nicomaohus AM 259,

340 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
the Much-afraids unhesitatingly laid down their
lives. We have an instance of this in the case of
Quintus the Phrygian, at the time of the martyrdom
of Polycarp. (Mart. Polyc. 4.)
Others again, who did not actually recant, did not
scruple to purchaae the neceseary certificates of eacri
fice (libelli) from easy-going magistrates, or to use
those procured for them by anxious pagan friends.
We hear also of some Christians of the baser sort
who sent their Christian slaves to represent them at
the sacrifice,' or who succeeded in bribing the at
tendants to let them slip past the altar without actual
sacrifice or eating of the sacrifices. These certifi
cates, which form such a feature in the persecution
of Decius, were probably all of similar form, and ran
as follows (we quote from one discovered in the
Fayfim in 1893, and now at Berlin) :— ^
' Cases at Alexandria dealt with by Peter its bishop in 306.
Peter carefully distinguished between the purchase of certiflcatea
and the paying money under the belief that they were merely
purchasing exemption from the obligation to conform. He held that
this last had involved a worthy renunciation (of money) (Routh Bel,
Sac. iv 21 ff.). But othera looked on this matter more sternly (case of
Etecusa, supra p. 246 n., Benson Cyprian 71-5). The number of the
oertiflcated (lil>ellatici) at Carthage alone mounted to thousands, and
points to wholesale indifference and connivance on the part of the
magistrates. The libelli is dealt with fully in Benson's Cyprian.
(His article in DCA u s.v, is out of date.) The most important
references are the following (all quoted from the ed. Hartel in CSEL) :
Cyprian Eps. 16, 2 ; 20, 2 ; 30, 3 ; 31, 7 ; 55, 3, 13, 14, 17, 26 ; 59, 12 ;
67, 1, 6; de Lapsis 10, 15, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 35.
' See Gebhardt AMS 183 or Benson Cyprian App. B. There ia
a second certificate now at Vienna in which 'I, Isidore, wrote for
them as unlearned,' to adopt Harnack's ingenious commendation

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 341
To THE COMMISBIONEES OP SACRIFICE OP THB -VILLAGE OP AlBX-
andeb's Island, pkom AuRELitrs DioasNES, the son op Satabus, op
THE VILLAGE OP AlEXANDEB's ISLAND, AGED 72 ; SCAB ON HIS BIGHT
BTEBKOW. I have always sacrificed regularly to the gods, and now, in your
presence, in accordance with the edict, I have done sacrifice, and
poured the drink-offering, and tasted of the sacrifices, and I request
you to certify the same. Farewell. Handed in b-; me, Aurelius Diogenes.^
I CERTIPT THAT I SAW HiM SaORIPIOING, . . . nonUS.
(Magistrate's signature partly obliterated.)
In the first tbae of the Empebob, CasAE Qaius Messhjs Qunrans Tbajanhs
Decius, Pius, Fclix, Augustus; the second of the month Epith.*
For others, true saints of God, there were, as for
Simon Peter, moments of weakness over which they
wept bitter tears. One woman tore with her teeth the
tongue which had denied her Lord.* Some, of whom
the Shepherd of Hermas tells us, 'became cowards,
and were lost in uncertainty, and considered in their
hearts whether they should deny or confess, and yet
finally suffered ' * for the faith. Of auch waa a
woman at Lyona, Bibliaa, who at first denied, but
when brought out by the authorities to bear witness
of atheism against her fellow-Christiane, ' awoke, as
of the damaged papyrus leaf [^IcrlSwpos eyp(a^a) i(vep) a\jr(Siv) ayp-
(a/i/juirav) ; see Geb. AMS 182; and for the general average of
illiteracy in Egypt, Bigg Church's Task 9 n.]. The technical Latin
term for the legal procedure involved in these libelU is contestatio.
See also Gregg DP 153 ff. for this matter.
' Diogenes need not necessarily be regarded as a recreant
Christian ; though, alas I recreant Christians abounded, he may be a
mere name in a well-understood game.
' Le. June 26, 250.
^ Cyprian de Lapsis 24. Cyprian uncharitably ascribes this to
an ' unclean spirit.'
* Herm. Shep. Par. ix 28.

342 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
it were, out of a deep sleep, and was added to the
number of the martyrs.' "-
Of cases of recantation, one of the most interesting
will be found in the records of the martyrdom of
Pionius and his comrades. Not the least of . the
torturee of that brave band of Chrietians lay in the
knowledge that their bishop, Euctemon, had fallen
away like Judae. PioniuB and others were dragged
to the temple at the instigation, it was said, of
Euctemon himself, in the hope that the example of
their superior might lead to their own fall. On
arrival they flung themselves to the ground, but six
constables held Pionius fast and brought him to the
altar, struggling and shouting, ' We are Christians.'
There the apostate bishop, with garland on his fore
head, waa still standing beside his sacrifice, part of
which he had reserved to take home in order that he
might hold a feast. But backsliders, so hardened in
their crime, were not common.^
' Euseb. BE v (i), 25, 26 ; Geb. AMS 33. Cf. de Lap, 13 (cases
of Castus and Aemilius supra 237 n.).
" Geb. AMS 109. Por recanting bishops, cf. also the interesting
cases of Martial of Merida, and Basilides of Leon in Spain, given by
Cyprian Ep. Ixvii. The cases are of some importance in the Roman
controversy. See Benson Cyp. 233. Cyprian Ep. 54, 10 tells us of
one bishop, Bepostus of Tuburnuo near Carthage, who carried back
most of his flock to paganism.
Whether Pope Maroellinus (t 304) recanted, but afterwards
repented and was beheaded (so LP i 162) is not easy to settle. See
on the one side Duchesne LP i Ixxlii-iv, and on the other Lightfoot
Clem, i 293-5, DCB ffi 804. See also DoUinger Papcd Fables s.v.
Duchesne pleads that the idea has arisen from the fact that the pope
who ruled from 296-304 was called confusedly Marcellus or Maroel
linus. In later days this waa made into the rule of two different

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 343

VI
We must bring this study of persecution to a close.
But there are one or two deductions which may be
gathered on which a word is advisable.
In the Church, as in the world, the wheat and the
tares grow together ; the image of gold ia always
mixed with clay. So it has proved in the case of the
martyrs. The danger of all forms of self -renunciation
ie the mistaking the means as an end in itself. We
see examples of this in Monasticism and Puritanism ;
and the same thing happened in the early Church.
At times there swept over all sections an extravagant
thirst for self-immolation, and Christians, in plain
disregard of the teaching of Jesus, courted death with
culpable recklessness, and exalted martyrdom into
the one royal road to perfection.^
popea, one Marcellinua, the other Maroellua, and his record in the LP
is suppUed from a lost Acta Marcellini of an undoubted Diocletian
martyr, whose tomb, as we know, was much visited. The explanation
is ingenious but scarcely satisfactory, as the two are distinguished as
early as the Liberian catalogue (354 ; Duchesne LP i 6) though un
doubtedly often confused. The discovery of the tomb of Marcellinus,
whose position, though carefully indicated (LP i 162), is still, I
believe, unknown, might clear up this diflScult question. '
' The Church denounced the courting of death (Synod Elvira o.
60), but popular feeling approved (case of Romanus Euseb. MP 2,
Euplius, supra p. 275 &o.). The craving for martyrdom was one o£
the marks of Montanism, from which Ignatius Bom. 5 is only
narrowly separated. The Church also aUowed flight in persecution,
following Matt, x 23 ; cf. Cyprian supra p. 311, who gives his reasons
in Ep. 20. To flight TertulUan as a Montanist was bitterly opposed
(cf. his de fuga in persecutione, espec. c. 11). For Augustine's
decision see Ep. 228 (Bd. Maur. ii 830-5). The matter was a sore
perplexity to Hus {Letters of Bus pp. 80-2).

344 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
' " What did they suffer ? " say L " Listen," saith she. " Stripes,
imprisonments, great tribulations, crosses, wild beasts, for the Name's
sake. Therefore to them belongs the right side of the holiness of
God, to them and to all who shall suffer for the Name. But for the
rest is the left side " ' (Herm. Shep. Vis, iii 2).
By martyrdom —
the frail becomes the perfect, rapt
From glory of pain to glory of joy.'
' Let me be given to the wUd beasts,' cries
Ignatius, * for through them I can attain unto God.' ^
By martyrdom ' aU sins were healed.' ^ Persecution
was the ' second baptism in blood which stands in
lieu of fontal baptism when that has not been
received, and restores it when lost.' * A certificate
from a martyr, transferring, ao to apeak, hia merit to
another, not alwaya epecifically named, waa looked
upon by the lapsed as sufficient pardon for their
denial of their Lord, a door of repentance, as Cyprian
complained, ' very wide indeed,' ^ a cause of much
trouble to the early Church, especially in North Africa,
and which led in later times to further erroneous
developments of the doctrine of Indulgences.
Materialism, in one or other of its many forme, is
ever the great enemy against which the spiritual has
to fight ; and of all forma of materialism the most
dangerous, because the most insidious, is that which
' Browning, Bing and Book, iv 78.
« Bom. 4 ; Polyc. 7. Cf. supra pp. 337-8.
' The earliest deflnite statement that I have met with is in
Hermas Shep. Par. ix 28. The idea flgures largely in the last letters
of Hus. See my Letters of Hus, p. 268.
' TertuU. Baptism 16.
° On these troubles see Benson'a Cyprian 89 ff„ 156 ff,, 176 ff.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 345
entrenches itself within the Church itself. Unfortun
ately nothing more assisted the growing materialism
in spiritual life in its worst forms than the excessive
regard felt by the Church for her martyrs. When
Gregory Thaumaturgus began the syatem of substi
tuting for pagan feasts wakes over the remains of
martyrs, he struck a blow, unconscious but profound,
as we may see from the later mediaeval corruptions,
at spiritual life itself. From this to the vast system
of the veneration of relics for their own sakes, and
the attributing to them every conceivable form of
miraculous power, was but a atep^ the disasters of
which are writ large in the whole history of the
Church. The apotheosis against which the martyrs
had protested in the case of the emperors, wae now
introduced into the Church in the guise of semi-divine
apostles and saints. Even Lucian had noted the
danger, as we see from hie eneer that after his death
Peregrinus passed as a god among the Christians.^
But to dwell on these things is an ungrateful task.
Eather let us turn to the wreath of gold which the
martyrs laid at the feet of the crucified Christ.
Purposeless renunciation, the renunciation of dervish
or fakir, can never appeal to the Western world.
But the renunciation of the martyrs was neither
purposeless nor self-centred. As their name shows,
they were ' witnesses ' ; ^ as the needle turns to the
' Lucian PP 40 ff. Cf. the feara of the pagans at Smyrna as to
the dead Polycarp (Mart. Folyc. 17).
^ It is difficult to say at what date ndprvs, a ' witneaa,' becomes
technical and must be translated as ' martyr.' Cf. Clem, Rom. Cor.

346 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Pole, so they must point, not to themselves, but to
another. Every martyr's death was an emphatic
credo, uttered in a language that all could understand.
' See Socrates,' exclaims Justin Martyr, ' no one trusted in him so
as to die for his doctrine : but in Christ ... not only philosophers
and scholars believed, but also artisans, and people illiterate '
(II Apol. 10).
They made this manifest by ' despising both glory
and fear and death.' We may own with Tertullian ^
that the argument, historically considered, is not
perfectly sound. But in reality it fitted in not merely
with the experience of Justin Martyr himself, but
with that of thousands of others.
' For I myself, when I was contented with the doctrines of Plato,
and heard the Christians slandered, yet saw them fearless of death
and of everything that men count terrible, felt that it was impossible
that these men could be living, as was reputed, in wickedness and
mere pleasure ' (II Apol. 12).
We see this power of conviction of which Justin
speaks in the records, too numerous to be later
inventions, of those who were won to Christ by
witnessing the martyr's death, or by having the
custody of the prieonere in their last houre.^ One
illustration may suffice — that of a young officer of the
6 (supra p. 36) ; Apoc. ii 13 (R.V. " witness ") ; and Bp. of Church of
Lyons (Euseb. HE v 2 Geb. AMS 42) as loci classici.
^ Tert. Apol. 46. He was thinking perhaps of Peregrinus (supra
p. 331 n). Cf. ad Mart. 4 and Tatian adv Oraeo. 25. But Peregrinus
witnesses in a way to the power of martyrdom. He obtained, in
consequence, a cult at Parium (Athenag. Flea 26).
" E.g. Basilides, in the case of Potamiaena (Euseb. BE vi 5) ;
Alban of Verulam (supra p. 271), and the unnamed companion of St.
James (supra p, 25).

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 347
court in attendance on Galerius, who was so impressed
by the faith of the confessors at Nicomedeia that he
asked them the secret of their courage, and, on
receiving instruction, when next the Christians were
examined, stepped forward and requested Galerius to
make a note of his name among theira. 'Are you
mad ? ' aaked Galeriue. ' Do you wieh to throw away
your life ? ' ' I am not mad,' was the reply. ' I was
mad once, but am now in my right mind.' After
many tortures he won his crown. In his case, ae in
countless conversions in every age, it was not full-
orbed knowledge of Christian truth, but one ray of
light that wrought the change. The confession
' Jesus is Lord ' was sufficient.
The martyrs also were witnesses to a creed, simple
it is true, but none the less definite and real. They
did not lay down their lives for vague generalities,
wider visions, or larger hopes. They knew not only
in whom, but in what they believed, and bore witness
before judge and mob, oftentimes with their dying
breath, to the vitalizing power of a concrete and
definite faith. In the later stories of the martyrs
there is a tendency to amplify their creeds, to turn
them from their simplicity into argumentative and
theological systems.^ In the earlier records, however,
faith is not a philosophy, but dwells rather on the
central truths ^ which to the martyr seemed ao all-
important that for them he would lay down life itself.
' Illustrations abound. One of the best will be found in the
Acts of CaUistratus, Conybeare MEO 300 ff.
' Conybeare MEC33,from the silence of ApoUonius (supra p. 218 n.)

348 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Prominent among these was the belief in his own
immortality as the result of the resurrection of his
Lord.^ But the central ' witness ' of the martyrs was
to the living reality of the person of Christ, and to
'the reign of the Eternal King.'^ In bearing this
testimony they shared the power of such beliefs to
exalt human nature. By his death the martyr proved
that man "was more than a dull jest." An instance
will illustrate our meaning. Let the reader contrast
the typical slave as depicted in the pages of Plautus
or Terence with the slave that we See, not once nor
twice, ennobling the annals of the Church. The
slave of Terence may be exceptional — in his wit he
certainly was — and so also was the slave-martyr. But
this does not alter our argument, the contrast of the
ideals they represent. In the records of slave-martyrs
we have the witness to a social revolution going on
in the world, the depth and meaning of which was
probably hidden even from the Christians themselves.
' And you too, Evelpistus, what are you ? ' said the
judge Eusticus, the friend of Marcus Aurelius, to one
in his simple defence and creed, infers " that the martyr had not
heard of the legend of the birth of Christ ftom a virgin." Arguments
from silence are notoriously dangerous ; while the undoubted silence
of martyrs on this matter (though see Acta Thedae o. I ; Geb. AMS
p. 215) might well be due to a correct unwUUngness to degrade their
Saviour by arguments or statements which would probably be mis
understood by heathen audiences weU versed in the Uoentious tales
of their gods. Moreover, the statement of Conybeare breaks down
when tested by wider literature. " No passage made so deep an
impression as the birth-narratives in Matthew, and especially in
Luke " (Harnack EO i 115 n,).
' Supra p, 327. « See su/pra p. 103.

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE PERSECUTED 349
of the companions of Justin, a slave in Caesar's
household. ' I am a Christian,' waa the reply, ' aet
free by Christ.' '
Nowhere do we see this more beautifully brought
out than in the case of Blandina, the slave-girl
of Lyons. Even her miatresa had feared for her
* that ahe would not be able to make a bold confeasion
on account of the weakness of her body.' But after
the tormentors had tortured her ' from morning until
evening, until they were tired and weary, confessing
that they were baffled, for they had no other tortures
that they could apply to her,' her fellow-Christians
realized that ' in Blandina Christ showed that the
thinga which to man appear mean and deformed and
contemptible are with God deemed worthy of great
honour.' So when finally ahe was
' hung up, fastened to a stake in the shape of a cross, as food for the
wild beasts that were let loose against her, she inspired the others
with great eagerness, for in the combat of their sister they saw Him
who was crucified for them. . . . And after she had been scourged,
and exposed to the wild beasts, and roasted in the iron chair, she
was at laat enclosed in a net aud cast before a bull,'
So Blandina passed over ' as one invited to a
marriage supper,' and sat down with Vettius Epa
gathus, the rich young nobleman, in the King's
presence.^ The consideration of the triumph of Blandina,
and of the hundreds of others of whom she is but
a representative, leads us to ask a question? We
do so in the words of a great master of English :
» Gebhardt AMS p. 20, « See supra p. 296.

350 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
" Whence came this tremendous spirit, scaring, nay offending, the
criticism of our delicate days? Does Gibbon think to sound the
depths of etemal ocean with the tape and measuring-rod of merely
literary philosophy ? " '
We would quote in answer the wise summary of
a recent secular historian, whoae etudy of the
principate of Nero haa led him to aurvey the conflict
and ita iseue :
We may not under-rate the " secondary causes " of Christianity's
growth. But neither may we neglect the external circumstances
which promised only, it might seem, too surely to destroy it
altogether. Persecution may be a sign of strength. It is hardly a
cause of strength when it is cruel and persistent. . . . Persecution
may kill a religion and destroy it utterly, if that religion's strength
lies only in its numbers, by a simple process of 'exhaustion. The
opinion that no belief, no moral conviction, can be eradicated from
a country by persecution is a grave popular fallacy.
Christianity, we conclude, answered man's needs and his cry for
aid, articulate and inarticulate, conscious or unconscious, in the early
days of the Roman Empire, as did no other creed or philosophy.
When, however, we face soberly the questions whence came such
a creed into existence which could satisfy human wants, as none
other before or since, and how came the new, despised, and persecuted
reUgion to overcome perUs and dangers of a terrible kind, with no
external agency in its favour and every extemal power ranged
against it, we do not feel inclined to deduce the rapidity of its
growth and ita victory over all opponents from a mere balance of
ita internal advantages over its external disqualifications. We admit
the vigorous secondary causes of its growth, but we have left its
origin unexplained, and cannot but see as well the vigour and
strength of the foes which willed its destruction and powerfully
dissuaded from its acceptance. And there exists for us, as historians,
no secondary nor human cause or combination of causes sufficient
to account for the triumph of Christianity.''
1 Newman (Grammar of Assent 483. The context is magnificent
declamation, though its instances are not always strictly hiatoricaL
The reference ia, of course, to Gibbon's famous o. 15.
' Henderson PN 357. The whole of the chapter is well worth
reading.

THE EXPERIENCES OP THE PERSECUTED 351
There is but one sufficient explanation : the new
religion descended ' out of heaven from God.'
We have pointed out already that the martyrs
were witnesses to the absoluteness of the Chriatian
faith, that the religion of Jeaua would have nothing
to do with the current syncretism.^ Time after time
we find judges, either actuated by mercy or prompted
by their "philosophy," striving to draw the martyrs
into syncretistic admissions which would have given
them their liberty. But the martyra refueed to pur
chase life by any compromise between their faith and
'the world.' Well would it be for the Church to-day if
she could learn the lesson they taught. The fashion
able syncretism of the empire has passed away ; men
are no longer intent on the identification of the gods
of Greece and Eome. In its place we see a more
dangerous fusion, the identification of the world and
the Church, the syncretism of material and spiritual
things. We need once more to catch the martyr-
spirit, a belief in the absoluteness of the Christian
faith translated into facts which shall make the
Church ' a peculiar people,' whose strength does not
lie in any blending of light and darkness, but in her
renunciation of and aloofness from ' the world.'
The resolute renunciation of the world, of which
the martyrs were the crown and symbol, did more
than anything else to make the Church strong to
conquer the world. The martyrs were witnesses to
the truth that only by renouncing the world can we
really do anything for it. Critics of different schools
' Supra pp. 85-6.

352 PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
have found fault with primitive Christianity for being
too imworldly and ascetic, and have pointed to the
more excellent mean of modern times. But twentieth-
century ideals of renunciation would never have
effected the gigantic revolution which sapped and
dissolved gigantic polytheisms, and overthrew the
Eoman Empire itself. Vieisti Galilaee is not merely
the self-conscious cry of a dying paganism ; it is the
splendid testimony wrung from reluctant lips to the
power of the ideals of the Cross.
For the obedience unto death of those who followed
the Lamb whithersoever He went, partook also of the
persuasiveness of the supreme Sacrifice. In the
noble army of martyrs we salute the conquerors of
the world. In the fine figure of Justin the Church
was a vine which, the more it bled under the pruning-
knife, the more fruitful it became. ' The more men
multiply our sufferings, the more does the number of
the faithful grow.' ^ For in the words of the dying
martyrs men heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, con
victing the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judge
ment.* The proud boast of Tertullian was correct.
' The blood of the martjnrs is indeed the seed of the
Church. Dying we conquer. The moment we are
crushed, that moment we go forth victorious.' ^
1 Justin Dial. 110. Cf. Tert. Scap. 5.
' Cf. Cyprian Ep. 8, ' Vox plena Spiritus Sancti de martyris ore
prorupit.' ' Tert. Apol. 50.

O God, to whom the faithful dead
StiU Uve, united to their Head,
Their Lord and ours the same ;
Por all Thy saints, to memory dear.
Departed in Thy faith and fear.
We bless Thy holy name.
By the same grace upheld, may we
So follow those who followed Thee,
As with them to partake
The full reward of heavenly bliss.
Merciful Father ! grant us this,
Por our Redeemer's sake.

APPENDIX A
NOTES ON THE DATES AND AUTHORSHIP OF
CERTAIN DISPUTED WORKS
N.B. — These notes are not intended «8 i' discussion of the matters
concerned, but as a brief indication of the position assumed in the
Lecture in the «se of certain most important documents, and of the
reasons.
I. New Testament.
(a) Philippians. See supra p. 35 n.
(6) II TniOTHT. Whatever the date and whoever the author,
I think the genuineness of its traditions re St. Paul's trial
(whether first or second is another matter) must be
conceded. See Moffatt BNT 561, and supra p. 38 n, 1.
(c) Ep. Petek. This ^important Ep. proves a general persecution
(i 6, iv 12, 16) in Asia Minor north of the Taurus (i 1 ; note
especially Bithynia and cf. supra p. 210 n.), and elsewhere
(v 9). The Christians suffer ' for the Name,' but not the
Name alone (iv 14). They are the objects of vile slanders
(ii 12, 15, iii 14-16, iv 4, 15) as well as of considerable
zeal on the part of the officials (v 8, ui 15 Gk.). As
regards the slanders, the Christians should be cironmapect
(ii 15-16, iii 16-17, iv 15). The peraecution wiU be short,
for the end of all thinga ia at hand (iv 7, 13, v 4).
The important matter for us is the date. There are
three main theories :
(i.) Ramsay OhE 279-95 dates in 75-80. The evidence
in favour (' the Name ') seems to me slight. See
supra p. 55 n., and of. Moffatt BNT 245. For
Harnack's view 83-93 (GAL i 457) see Chase's
criticism DB iii 786.
(ii.) As late as Trajan. This rests on a mistaken and

APPENDIX A 355
abandoned hypotheais. See supra 52 n. and cf.
Moffatt HJVT 246-7.
(iii.) Written by St. Peter ill the summer of 64. So
Lightf. aem, u 498, Hort, JO 154-5, Farrar EDO
81, Sanday and Headlam Bomans xxxi n., Hender
son PN 439. This view is the one which seems
to me best to explain the circumstances. The
objection of the silence of II Tim. re ' the Name '
(though cf. U Tim, ii 8) is overcome by not
pressing too much ita technical meaning.
Zahn Ein. ii 17-27, Renan, Bartlet AA 306 n,,
Chaae in DB iu 791, Bigg Ep. Peter 87, date before
the Great Fire. But if so St. Paul cannot have
been acquitted (cf, Ramsay PT 308), and the
persecution must have been due to the Jews alone,
I prefer to bring in Tac, xv 44, and to believe in
the acquittal of St, Paul.
(d) II Petee. The absence of aU reference to persecution ia so
remarkable, considering the date of I Ep, Peter, that we
are driven to conclude either
(i,) That it ia really anterior to I Peter, (So apparently
Bigg Ep. Peter 215, though cf. 289 on ib. iii 1.)
(U.) Or if thia explanation be rejected, as by most scholars
(Moffatt BNT 596), to surrender its Petrine author
ship.
(iii.) Or to adopt Ramsay's view of the date of I Peter ;
already rejected.
(e) Ep. Hebrews. Chaps, x-xiii undoubtedly refer to some
persecution. Hamack conjectures that x 32, 33 (eem-pi.-
C6p.epoi) refers to Nero's scenic punishments (supra p. 286),
So also Renan L'Ant. 163 n., 217 n. But this is rejected
by Lightf. Clem. 6, largely, one feels, in the interest of
his proposed new reading. ' Those from Italy ' (xiu 24,
cf. Apoc. xviii 4) may refer to fugitives from Nero's per
secution (Renan o.o. 205 n.), and the Smaloi TfTeMidi/ievoi
(xii 23) to his victims. But the date, authorship, aud
persons addressed are so uncertain that I have not built
any conclusion upon this Epistle.
(/) Apooaltpsb. This work ia of auch importance for my
subject that I give a full notice. It proves severe persecution
in Aaia (i 9, ii 10, iii 10, vii 14, xii 11-17, xvi 6), and in
Rome (xvii 6, xviii 24), the ground of which apparently
2 A 2

356 APPENDIX A
was Caesar-worship (u 13, xiii 15, 18, xv 2, xvi 5-10, xvii
6, xix 20, XX 4). Some of the victims (? honestiores, supra
p. 64 n.) were beheaded (xx 4), but there is no clear
mention of burning (? xvi 8, 9). The Christians have
suffered for ' the Name ' (ii 13, cf. I Pet. iv 14 and supra)
and will suffer even more in the future (ii 10, iii 10, vi
9-11, xiu 7),
The great question is the date. Two theories :
(i.) Written under the Flavians (Vespasian, Mommsen
PBE ii 199 ; a date not far removed from (ii) infra),
probably Domitian. So the older commentators
and recent critics, e.g. Bury Gibbon ii 25 n.,
Harnack, Ramsay ChE and 8G, Hardy CBG 96,
Zahn Ein. ii 582-616, Moffatt BNT 460, Bousset
in EB 207, DB iv 259, and Scott Anderson.
Th6 great arguments in favour are: (a) the
testimony of Irenaeus Haer. v 30, 3, ' almost in our
own day, towards the end of Domitian's reign ' (cf.
Euseb. HE iii 18, v 8). But this may be the date
of publication ; see supra p. 46 n. It has also been
suggested (Simcox, Selwyn CP 29 ff.) that this
refers to, or arose from a confusion of, Domitian's
very arbitrary regency in Rome, Jan. to Oct., 70,
while Vespasian was coming from the East (Suet.
Dom. 1, Tac. Bist. iv 2, 11). (ff) Stress is laid
upon the developed character of Caesar- worship,
and the wide extent of the persecution, which
demand a late date. But these are the questions
in dispute, in the solution of which Apoc. is no
small part of the evidence (supra 94 ff).
(ii.) Due to the persecution of Nero, and written shortly
after his death. Renan, Parrar EDO 404-36,
Selwyn CP 215 ff., Henderaon'PJV439 ff., and many
others. To this solution I incline as the only
alternative to composite elements and authorship.
The arguments in favour are : (o) Renan's argu
ment from the list of emperors (xvii 10, 11) im
possible for Vespasian unless we omit Galba, Otho,
VitelUus, while for Domitian the list must be more
strained. (j8) The number of the Beast. See
Renan L'Ant. 415 ff. In spite of Salmon's fun
(NT 224 ft'.), this seems the only solution yet

APPENDIX A 357
proposed of any value. (7) The book, at any rate
a portion, ia written before the destruction of
Jerusalem (xi 1-13). (S) Its intense hatred of the
Empire would suit well a date while the great war
with the Jewa was still in progress, (e) The
references to Pseudo-Nero (xiii 3, 12, xviii 8), who
flrst appeared about Jan., 69 (Tac. Bist. i 2, ii 8 ;
Suet. Nero 57, hints at same. Soe Henderson PN
415-21, Renan L'Ant. 316-20, 352 n., 457). There
was a second pretender in the reign of Titus
(Momm. PBE u 62-4), and a third in 88 (Suet.
Nero 57. Cf. also on thia matter Orac. Sibyl, iv
119 ff., 137 ff. ; V 145 ff., 363 ff, ; xiu 122). The firat
Nero redivivus seems to flt best. (Q The song of
the burning of Rome (xviii) seems a memory, too
realistic to be remote, of the flre of 64. But the
absence of any reference to the burning of Chris
tians (Tac. Ann. xv 44) would seein to show that
the author was not himself in Rome (supra 45 n.
2 fin). The question of the author of the Apoc. is not
of such importance to my subject as its date. But,
provided an early date is assigned to the Apoc,
I do not see that the impossibility of ita author
being the writer of the Gospel is established, in
spite of the great contrast in grammar and ideas
(well set out in Selwyn OF 0. 5, 224-5, 258-63).
Ramsay's combination of a late date with the
authorship of the Gospel (SC passim) seems to me
absolutely impossible (cf. J. H. Moulton Grammar
NT (1906) 9 n.). But in any case the difficulties of
assigning the same authorship are great.
If the early date for Apoc. be surrendered, I
should be inclined to surrender the Jewish author
ship of the Apoc. rather than of the Gospel (so Drum
mond FG 442), and to assign Apoc. to Elder John
(as Euseb. BE iii 24, 25, Dionysius of Alexandria
in Euseb. BE vii 25). Certainly tbe references in
the Apoc, to Apostles (xix 14, xviii 20) are hard
to reconcile with the author being one of them.
There is much to be said, also, for Vischer's theory
that Apoc, i-iii was pubUshed later than iv-xxii.

358 APPENDIX B
and that Apoo. embodies composite sources. This
would combine the Neronio references and the
Domitianio date of recast. (Cf, supra 46 n., Selwyn
OP 184-94, Moffatt BNT 461-2.)
II. Other Writers.
(a) Ep, Clement, Supra p. 206 n.
(6) Ep. Ignatius. I see no reason to doubt the conclusions of
Lightfoot. For date see supra p. 337 u. Harnack, who
rejects the Ignatian authorship, dates but a few years later.
(c) Ep. Barnabas. Supra p. 116 n.
(d) Ep. Dioqnetus. Supra p. 168 n.
(/) Shep. of Hermas. Supra p. 219 n. 3.
(g) MiNuo, Felix, Octavius. Supra p. 221,
(h) Justin I Apol. Since the investigations of Volkmar and
F. G. Kenyon, the older date (138) has been abandoned for
shortly ofter 150 (Harnack CAL i 274 ff.). The so-called
II Apol. not much later. See also supra 227 n. I (a).
(k) Lactantius de Mortibus Persecutorum. That Lactantius was
the author of this work was suspected by Gibbon (o xx n. 40),
and has been challenged by Brandt. As the work is of
great importance for the study of Diocletian's persecution,
the matter is of some moment. The arguments of Brandt
are carefully investigated by Bury (Gibbon ii 530-1) who
decides in favour of Lactantius ; date 314-5.

APPENDIX B
THE ALLEGED MARTYRDOM OP ST. JOHN IN A.D. 44
N.B. — In the following appendix I do not enter, except inci
dentally, into questions of the authorship of the Gospel, &c. I desire
merely to state briefly the facts or data of this very difficult preliminary
matter, which strikes at the root of all the traditional views, viz. that
St, John, tbe son of Zebedee, perished in 44 along with his brother.
Since the monograph of Schwarz (Ueber den Tod der SBhne Zebedaei;
Berlin, 1904), the question cannot be neglected, especiaUy in a work
that deals with the martyrdom inter alia of the Apostles. But for a
fuller investigation of the problems connected with St. John the

APPENDIX B 359
student must refer to the works of Hamack, Bacon, Schwarz, Bousset,
EB, on the one side, and Drummond FG, Sanday Ciiticism of the
Fourth Gospel (1905), &c., on the other.
I. The arguments in favour of the alleged martyrdom are the
following : (o) A fragment of the la-Topia xpicTiai/i/c^ of PhiUp of Sid^
(c. 430), published by De Boor in TU (1888) v (2) 170, claims for it
the authority of Papias (Xla-jrias iv rep SeuTep[p \6yip \4yet Hri 'Iwdyifrjs
i 6eoK6yos Kal 'idKaffos & aieXtphs avrov vit'b 'louSoton' avripeBiiffav ;
" Papias in his second book states that Johu the Divine and James
bis brother were slain by Jews"). (6) This conflrms a previously
known statement of George the Sinner (" Hamartolus " ; ninth cen
tury), ed. de Boor p. 447 to tbe same effect, (c) Some claim an
evident allusion in Mark x. 39 to this death as already accomplished,
at the time when St. Mark's Gospel was written.
n. On this evidence we may remark (a) Philip of Side's quotation
can scarcely be literal, for <J eeo\6yos as a title of St. John cannot have
been in existence as early as Papias. To maintain the literal accuracy
of this sentence leads to the following dilemma : St. John was called
' the divine ' because of his writings, yet was slain in 44 before he
had written anything (except possibly a few fragments written in the
reign of Caius, afterwards incorporated into an anonymous Apocalypse,
to which his name in conaequence became attached). (6) But if the
statement be not a literal quotation, the confusion may be on the part
of Philip of Sidd, who has identified an otherwise unknown martyr-
John with the Apostle, (c) Nor is much support to be gained from
George the Sinner, If this last stood alone, he could be explained,
as by Lightfoot (Essays Supernal. Belig. 212), by a lacuna, (d) In
any case, Philip of Sidd does not state that tbe two brothers were
martjrred together, though the order of words lends itself to tbat
interpretation. We may date the death of this John at the hands
' of Jews' (N.B. not ot 'lovSaloi, ' the Jews,' i.e. of Judea ; the vaguer
phrase may refer to Jews of Asia) in any year from 41 to 100, and in
any place, (e) The whole, in fact, reads like a later inference from
Mark x 39, where the two are coupled together in ' drinking the cup,'
In the case of a careless writer such as Papiaa, this is as likely as a
hypotbesia the difficulties of which are enormous.
III. There are other objectiona to the early martyrdom of St, John.
(a) Gal. u 9. That St. Paul ia here speaking of the Elder John, or of
John Mark (I), seema to be incredible, (b) The silence of Acts xii 2
is inexplicable unless we assume that it is a (purposely) inaccurate
account written to bolster up a later tradition in the interests of the
fourth Gospel, (e) The fact that in this case all the Johannine

360 APPENDIX B
literature is pseudonymous, II and III Ep. John and Apoc. may be
written by another, perhaps by ' the Elder.' But I Ep, John and the
Gospel seem to me to be written by the Apostle; at any rate, the
difficulties in the way of supposing that the early Church mistook so
great a writer for one who had perished almost unnoticed half a
century before seem to me overwhelming (on this see Drummond
FG especially 191-3). (d) In this connection we may note the
evidence of the modern name of Ephesus (Ayasaluk, a corruption of
aytos 6eo\6yos). Towns do not receive their names from anonymous
writers. On the contraryj to identify this writer with the Elder Johu
leaves more difficulties than il solves, as Drummond FG has shown.
IV. Against this almost solitary statement of Philip of Sid€ with
all its difficulties we must place the positive evidence that a John
died a natural death at Ephesus in the reign of Trajan, whom Irenaeus
and others in a position to know identifled with the son of Zebedee.
On this matter (excellently discussed in Drummond FG c. 5), the
following are the most important loci classici: (a) Jb%» xxi 22, 23 ;
Irenaeus Baer ii (22) 5 ; iii (1) 1 ; (3) 4 ; v (33) 4 ; especially the
letter of Irenaeus to Florinus in Euseb. BE v 20. See also the letter
of Irenaeus to Victor bishop of Rome (189-99) in Euseb, BE v 24.
Dionysius of Alexandria (c. 170) in Euseb. BE vu 25. (5) The
tradition of the Syrian Churches ; Drummond EC? 233.
V. The only orthodox writer who states that a John of Ephesus
died as 'a martyr' (for by 195 the meaning of fidprvs was more than
' witness') is Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus (c. 195), in Euseb. HE iii
31 and v 24. He mentions among the ' great luminaries ' who have
fallen asleep in Aaia : ' John who leaned on the breast of the Lord,
who had been (made) a priest (lepeis) wearing the ireraXov, both
fuiprvs and SiSda-KaKos : he sleeps in Ephesus.' (On this ireTaAov, or
high priest's golden plate, see Drummond FG 209 n.)
According to Lightf. Gal. 362 n., " the whole passage is a very
rude specimen of the florid ' Asiatic ' style," and the wearing of the
mraXov is merely flgurative. The statement of an early bishop of
Ephesus cannot, I think, be dismissed in so summary a atyle. But it
is evident that the passage cannot refer to St. John the Apostle, for
' apostle' and 'teacher' (supra 144 n. 3) are distinct orders. On the
other hand, this 'teacher' John who wore the TteraKov may well be the
Elder John (Euseb, HElu 39 ; the author probably of II and III Ep.
John, and possibly of the Apoc. ; see supra App. A I / (ii), taking
' Elder ' to refer, not to the order of ' presbyters ' in the Church (an
' elder ' in this sense could not be a ' teacher '), but to the fact that he
had borne a Jewish office, probably as a member of the Sanhedrim

APPENDIX B 361
(Selwyn CP 127), aud was a connexion of the high priest's, (That
the Apoc. was written by one of the ' elders,' or Sanhedrim, would
explain the use of the word in Apoc, iv 4, &c,, where it cannot mean
' presbyter.') VI. The difficulties every way are not slight. As regards the view
taken on p. 48, the two chief objections to identifying thia St. John
with :the Apostle are (a) the ailence of Polycarp and of Ignatiua,
especially that the latter, writing a few yeara after the death of St.
John to the Ephesians, should ignore St. John and mention St. Paul.
But the date of Epp. Ignatius is uncertain, (b) So also Clem. Rom.
Ep. Cor. 42, 44 aeems to hint that the Apostolic age is over. Now, if
this epistle was -written 95-6 (Lightfoot), or 93-5 (Harnack), this is
remarkable, if St. John was atUl alive at Ephesus. But the language
of Ep, Cor. is often loose and rhetorical ; cf, supra pp, 36, 37 n. 1.
VII. To sum up. The following seem to me the Unes of least
resistance and difficulty — ^it is impossible in so intricate a matter to
say more, (a) The story of Papias, if not a mere blunder of Philip
of Sid^, refers to some otherwise unknown John, whom Philip of Sid(?,
acting on a blundering interpretation of Mark x 39, mistook for the
Apostle, the tradition of whose death has lingered not only in Papias,
but possibly in Clem. Alex, (see supra p. 25). (6) There was a
John the Elder, a member of a Jewish priestly family, who died,
possibly, as a ' martyr ' in Ephesus, and who may have been the
author of II and III Epp. John and Apoc. In this last case (by no
means absolutely proven), it was the Elder John who was the victim
of the persecution of Nero (see supra p. 46 and App. A I / (ii). (c) St.
John the Apostle died in extreme old age a natural death at Ephesus
in the reign of Trajan, and was the author fn extreme old age of the
Gospel and I Epistle. Por the theory recently put forth that the
' disciple whom Jesus loved ' was not St. John (John xxi 2 is unfor
tunately ambiguous), but John of Ephesus, leads to the hopeless puzzle
that at the Last Supper the place of honour next to Jesus was occupied
by a young man not an Apostle, whom no Apostle or companion of
Apostles ever mention by name, and that such an honoured aud pre
sumably, therefoie, great man was afterwards mistaken by people who
ought to know for the perfectly obscure John-Zebedee, The larger
this ' beloved disciple ' loomed, the more honoured he was by Jesus,
the greater his literary works, the more absurd, in my judgement,
such a theory becomes.

362 APPENDIX C
APPENDIX C
THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL
I. The crucifixion by Nero of St. Peter at Rome (Babylon I Pet.
V 13) seems to me beyond reasonable doubt. The evidence in favour
is well set out by Dr. Chase in DCB iii 769-78, while aU that can
be pleaded against will be found in EB 4591-4627. The main
passages in favour are Clem. Rom, Oor. 5, 6 (supra 36), Tert. Adv
Marc, iv 5, Praescript 36, Scorp. 15, Dionysius of Corinth (o. 170) in
Euseb. HE ii 25, Origen in 46, iii 1, Lactant. MP 2, and the doubtful
AAA (see mpra 43 n,), whose witness, however, as to the fact of St.
Peter's death in Rome is almost unanimous, and not to be explained
on the tendency-principles of EB 4614, Special value should
perhaps be assigned to the evidence of the Ascension of Isaiah (Bd.
Charles, 1900) iv 3 (' of the twelve one wUl be delivered into his,
i.e. Nero's, hands'), especially if the date assigned by Charles
(between 88 and 100) be correct. (See, however, EB 4596.)
II, That St, Peter died within a few months of the fire of July,
64, seems to me a fair inference from the position of his tomb (supra
44 and 286 n, 1) and his presence in Rome. For St. Paul's death
see supra 38 n. The order of names in Clem, Oor. 5 (supra 36) may
thus be chronological. The date in the Liberian Catalogue (LP i 3)
for St, Peter's death as 55 is evidently made by adding 25 (supposed
length of episcopacy) to 30 (supposed death of Christ), The argu
ments of Swete Mark (1898) xvii-viii for the death of St. Paul prior
to St. Peter's seem to me unconvincing. For Ramsay's date for St.
Peter's death (a.d. 80) see supra App. A I (c) (i). It seems to me to
lead to many difficulties.
III. The idea that St. Peter and St, Paul suffered together is an
inference from the union of their names in Clem, Cor. 5, Ign. Bom. 4,
further developed by Dionysius of Corinth in Euseb. BE ii 25 into
the statement that they ' suffered martyrdom at the same time ' (Kurct
rhy avrhv Kaip6v, which need not be pressed). Later writers (Tert,
Scorp. 15, Praescript. 36) always join together the two, though loosely.
Prudentius Feristeph. xii 5 represented them as suffering on the same
day one year apart. Prom the festival of their temporary depositio
(see supra p. 262) we gain tbe common festival of their deaths on
June 29, and the tiiediaeval idea that they suffered the same day of

APPENDIX 0 363
the same year. This idea is first found in the Liberian Catalogue ;
(o, 354) in LP i 2, of, «6, i 118 ; thence adopted by Jerome Vir. 111. 5).
IV. For the martyrdom of St. Paul tbe authorities are practically
the same as for St. Peter. See DCB iii 769-78, Lewin's St. Paul ii
405 (set out in full), Hamack CAL i 240-3. For the date see supra
38. The date in McGiffert Apostolic Age (1897) p.' 419 (a.d. 58)
seems to me as much too early as that of Lightfoot (supra 38) is too
late. It swings back to that of the Liberian Catalogue (supra II).
V. For the places of burial of St. Peter and St, Paul see the
statement of Caius (198-217) quoted in Euseb. BE ii 25, 6 and
Jerome de Vir. III. 1. 'But I am able to show the "trophies" (tA
Tp6iraia) of the Apostles. Por if you wUl come to the Vatican or
Ostean way,' &c,, where rh rpdirata may mean 'places of burial' or
' places of death ' (lit, ' signs of victory ') or ' monumenta,' i.e. tomba
over the same. But in thia case the two meaninga are the same,
eapecially if we reject the story of the Tre Fontane (supra 40 n. 3).
In the case of St. Peter the traditions are very deflnite : ' Qui
sepultus est via Aurelia, in templum Apollonis, juxta locum ubi
cruciflxus est, juxta palatium Neronianum, juxta territurium
Triumphalem ' ; LP i 118 with Duchesne's notes (i 120) showing
that the pal. Neronianum was the circus (supra p. 286) and the
templum Apollonis a confusion of a temple of the Great Mother.
Cf. also the definite location in Acta Petri et Pauli 84 (Lipsius AAA
216). So also, in spite of its manifest "tendency" against the
Eastern Church (supra 262 n, 2), is tbe deflnite location in the
Fassio 88. Petri et Pauli (Lipsius AAA 177). The depositio in 258
(LP i 11) near St. Sebastian I have explained already (supra
p. 262). How well the traditional accounts, in the case of both
St, Peter and St. Paul, flt in with the results of archaeology is
set out in Lanciani FOB 126 ff., 150 ff. Nor is there any difficulty
in understanding how the bodies would be handed over (supra p. 258).
The Janiculan tradition of the place of death of St. Peter
commemorated by the Church of S. Pietro in Montorio (i.e.
Montaurelio) arose from a confusion of the via Aurelia on the
Vatican with the older road of the same name on the Janiculan, and
from a mistaken interpretation of the ' inter duas metas,' between
which tradition held that St, Peter was executed (see Lanciani
PCB 128).
VI. As regards the deaths of the Apostles, the various legends
would appear to have had their origin in a work called TrepidSoi ttSiv
airoiTT6\ay, "The Wanderings of tho Apostles," a work of Gnostic
origin ascribed to Leuoiua (Cbarinus), and dating between 160 and

364 APPENDIX D
170, possibly (Zahn) as early as 130, They may be studied in
Lipsius and Bonnet AAA (text only) — my references are to thia — or
Hennecke Neutestamentliche Apokryphen Leipzig, 1904, 2 vols,, one
text and one of " Handbuch." These two editions supplant the older
Tischendorf, AAA. See also Malau's Conflicts of the Apostles. To
what extent the legends are early Christian poetry (Boissier FP ii
8) due to parousian and Gnostic tendencies, and to what extent they
are founded upon some basis of tradition, it is now impossible to
decide. The earlier their date the more likely that they contain
some basis of fact.

APPENDIX D
THE PERSECUTION OF NERO
Aa regards the persecution of Nero there are three theories —
(a) The sufferers were Jews, probably zealots, not Christians at all.
So Gibbon ii 88-9, and, in different forms, by many Germans. Bury
(ed. Gibbon) dismisses it as not worth discussion. See also Hardy
CBG 61 ff. ; Lightfoot Phil. 24 ff, ; Furneaux Tac. ii 573.
Merivale's refinement (vi 448-9) that the Jews dragged tbe Chris
tians into the same condemnation, is without evidence, except possibly
Suetonius Claud. 25, Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumuHuantes
Boma expulit, which seems to me (unless indeed one of many marks of
Suetonius' carelessness) a proof merely that at that date (c. 50) the
distinction between Jew and Christian was not clearly made. So
Gibbon ii 82, n. The whole passage, in fact, is very doubtful.
' (6) The Jews were first accused, but succeeded in shifting the
blame on to the Christiana. Renan L'Antech. 157 ff.
There is no evidence except a doubtful interpretation of Clement,
Oor. 6, Sth f^Aos TraB6vTes (aee also infra (e)), and Paeudo-Seneca'a
correspondence With St. Paul, Ep. 12 (Seneca ; ed. Haase iii 476 ff,),
Christiani et Judaei quasi machinatores incendii affecti supplicio uri
Solent. This fourth-century statement might possibly be derived from
some earlier source. But the silence of Josephus seems to me
conclusive. (e) The Christiana alone accused and punished, probably at the
instigation of the Jews (Liglitf. Ign. i 10-11, Harnack EO ii 116, n.).

APPENDIX E 365
To this last probably the passage in Clem, Cor. 6, cited above, refers.
The Christiana suffered ' through spite ' (Jewish), for I ahould reject the
view of Hardy (o.c. 68) of two parties in the Church, one of which
denounced the other. The words of Tacitus, 'indicio eorum,' &c.
(quoted supra p. 54 n.), do not necessitate this, though there may have
been those who turned traitor under torture (of. fle6. vi 4-6). Bather
the ' evidence ' was that of the Jews (Furneaux U 580).
As regards the extent of the persecution of 64 there are two
theories —
(i.) Conflned to Rome. So Dodwell de Martyrum Faucitate
(Oxford, 1684) xiii, Merivale, Gibbon, Harnack EC u 116, and many
others. (u.) General, at any rate in Asia Minor. The only evidence earUer
than the late Orosius Bist. vii 17 is I Peter and Apoc. Their evidence
depends on their date. If thia be settled as early (see Appendix A),
the evidence is conclusive. (Cf. Renan L'Ant. 183.) But the fact of
Pliny's hesitation (supra p. 211) is proof that the persecution of 64 was
not founded on any imperial rescript, and was merely executive. The
supposed graffito of Pompeji (CIL iv 679, the letters hkistian, traced in
charcoal, now faded), which has been accepted (e.g Hardy o.c. 64,
Lightf. Ign. i 416) as evidence of persecution and use of the name
Christian in that region, is very doubtful ; see Mau Pompei 18, Renan
o.c. 184, n. ; and cf. Tert, Apol. 40, who states that there were no Chris
tians in the Campagna at the time of the destruction of Pompeii. But
TertuUiau is too rhetorical to be pressed. Moreover, St. Paul found
Christians at PuteoU (Acts xxviii 14), A copy of the graffito may be
seen in Aube PE 416. The oft-quoted Lusitanian inscription at
Clunia (OIL ii fals. 231) is also a forgery. Por the supposed
evidence of Sulpic. Sev. Chron. u 29 see infra App. E.

APPENDIX E
THE LAWS UNDER WHICH CHRISTIANS WERE
CONDEMNED
The article of Th. Mommsen : Der Beligionsfrevel nach rSmischen
Becht in Hist. Zeitschrift (1890) Ixiv pp. 389-429 created a revolution
in the views taken by historians of this matter. The views of
Mommsen have been followed by Hardy CBG, Ramsay ChE, Le

366 APPENDIX E
Blant (in his Bases juridiques des poursuites dirigees centre les
martyrs, reprinted in his Les Perseeuteurs et les Martyrs, Paris, 1893),
and tbe majority of recent historians. The arguments have been set
forth at length in o. II of this Lecture. Only by Mommaen's view-
briefly stated, that persecution in the flrst two centuries waa a police
matter rather than the result of special laws — does it seem to me
that we are able to explain the correspondence of Pliny and Trajan,
the fact that Ulpian put the regulations against Christiana under
the heading of ' de officio proconsulis ' (see supra p. 240 n. 1), and,
above all, the alternations of toleration and persecution as set forth in
c. IV. The control of religion, moreover, was undoubtedly a magis
terial function, part of their regular 'jus exercitionis.' On this
matter, in addition to Mommsen's article, the student may consult
with advantage Dr. Max Conrat (or Cohn) Die Christenverfolgungen
im rSmischen Beiclie vom Standpunkte des Juristen (Leipzig, 1897).
The views of Mommsen have not, however, been accepted by all
historians. The best statement of the arguments against that I am
acquainted with is C. Callewaert : Les premiers Chretiens furent-ils
persecutes par edits generaux ou par mesures de police 1 two articles
in the Bevue Histoire Ecclesiastique for Oct., 1901, and April, 1902
(readers at the Brit. Mus. should look under " Academies ; Louvain ").
Cf. also AUard I HP 164-7. Callewaert, who quotes many other
writers, none of which, so far as I have checked them, add to his
arguments, makes much of certain passages in TertuUian (especially
Apol. 4, and ad Nat. i 6, ' non licet esse vos,' ' Christianum puniunt
leges '), and also of the passage in Sulpic. Severus Chron. ii 29 (not
41 as Callewaert) speaking of Nero, ' post, etiam datis legibua religio
vetebatur, palamque edictia propositis Christianum esse non lioebat.'
But Sulpicius Severus, in spite of his indebtedness to Tacitus, as
Bernaya haa ahown, ia too late an authority to be relied upon.
I cannot see that Callewaert has made out his case. The only thing
that can be said in favour is this, that undoubtedly the laws against
Christianity, if any such existed in the flrst two centuries, would be
destroyed by the Justinian legislators, just as the edicts of Deciua,
Valerian, and Diocletian were unfortunately destroyed, so that
all that we have left in the Digest are certain poUce regulations
which would affect Christianity inter alia. On the existing evidence
I see no escape from the conclusions of Mommsen.

APPENDIX F 367

APPENDIX F
THE NUMBER OP THE MARTYRS; THE PERCENTAGE
OF CHRISTIANS IN THE POPULATION OF THE EMPIRE
These two questions are intimately bound up together. To the
Church, if small, a few martyrs would seem many, and its propor
tions would in time certainly become exaggerated.
I. Many difficulties would be solved if we could settle the popula
tion of the Empire. The latest attempt, Beloch's Die Bevolkerung
der gr-rSm. Welt, gives the total under Augustus at 54 miUions;
Egypt, 5 millions, including Alexandria 500,000 ; Syria, 6 millions,
under Nero 7 millions, including Antioch 300,000 without slaves,
Rome : male plebeians over 10 in b,o, 5, 320,000, or about 800,000 in
all. Beloch's figures seem rather small, as in this case the Jews
would form about one-eighth of the population of the Empire, unless
indeed all our sources of information as to the number of Jews are
grossly exaggerated (see supra p. 113). The figures of Gibbon (i 42),
120 millions, are however far too large. The figures of Dureau
de la Malle ilconomie Politique have been adopted by Merivale BBE
cc. 39, 40. They give for Italy below the Rubicon a total of 8 or
9 millions, including 1,200,000 for Sicily ; for Asia Minor and Syria,
27 millions ; and for Egypt, 8 miUions (cf. Joseph. BJ ii 16, 4, who
states that his figures were taken from the poll-tax) ; a total for the
Empire of 85,000,000. His estimate for Rome (506,000, t.e. of
freemen) ia practically the same as Beloch's, and Beloch's ia as
generona as the data will allow, as 3-400,000 is a liberal aUowance
for foreigners and slaves.
Taking, then, the population of the Empire under Nero as about
60 millions, we shall not be far wrong, in view of the plagues,
famines, and disasters of the time, if we compute it as somewhat less,
at any rate no greater, under Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian.
II. In this population, what was the proportion of Christians
under (a) Decius and Valerian, (6) under Diocletian ?
(a) We may dismiss at once the exaggerations of the Fathers
(supra pp. 231 ff,). At the outside, in the year 180 the
Christiana would not ouiniunber the Jewa (supra 233 n.),
whoae numbera had been much reduced by their struggle.
with Hadrian. Only for a few towns have we any data-

368 APPENDIX F
At Rome in the time of Decius there were 46 presbyters,
14 in deacons' orders, and 52 clergy in minor orders
(Euseb. BE vi 43), and a congregation which supported
as weU 1,500 poor people, at a cost of £5-10,000 a year
(Harnack EO i 195). At the outside this means a church
of from 40-50,000, or about one-sixteenth of the population.
In Lyons, the largest city of Gaul, in 177, as a result of
a severe persecution, not 48 adults were executed (supra
296 n,). At the most the Church cannot have numbered
more than 200-300 persons, including children, if we take
into account its alien character. If the reader will take
the list of places in which Christianity existed in or about
180 (see Harnack EC u 245-6), and -wiU compare it with
the excellent map, constructed on the same principles, of
where Mithraism existed (in Cumont TM vol, 2), he will
see how feeble Christianity was at this date. By the time
of Decius no doubt there had been great growth, but
nothing to warrant us in supposing that the Church was
anything yet but a small fraction of the population.
(6) Materials for framing an estimate of the strength of Christianity
under Diocletian will be found in Harnack's elaborate
survey (EC ii 240-456). From a careful study of this
survey, I see no reason to believe ihat the Christians,
except in a few great towns, were other than a small,
though powerful, wealthy, and well-organized minority, at
the outside one-ninth or so of the whole (see Bury's
Gibbon, Appendix ii 542); i.e. not much more than
6,000,000 in all at the time of the conversion of the Empire
to Christianity. But numbers are not everything, and no
other body in the Empire was ita equal in unity and
driving power.
III. From the above arguments, if correct, it is evident that the
unlimited massacres of the martyrologists must be ruled out, though
often repeated even to-day. Persecution was intensive rather than
extensive, and relatively rather than absolutely great, except, of
course, in certain special diatricta and timea. But the estimate of
Gibbon (ed. Bury ii 95 ff. 137) is too small. He relied, following
Dodwell's de Martyrum Faucitate (Oxford, 1684), on the statement of
Origen that those who perished before his time were few and far
between (Cels. iii 8, oKlyoi kotA Kaipobs, /col ir^SSpa eiaplBfuiiToi virip
tSiv XpiiTTtaiiav Beoffefielas Te@vliKi.aC), on the fact that Dionysiua only
mentions ten men and seven women who suffered in the great city of

APPENDIX G 369
Alexandria during the persecution of Decius (Euseb. HE vi 41),
and on the statement of Eusebius MP 13 that the martyrs of Palestine
were ninety-two in all. Prom these flgures he deduces 2,000 martyra
for the whole Diocletian peraecution at the outaide. But Gibbon and
Dodwell minimize almoat as much aa the martyrologiats exaggerate.
We must remember (a) No systematic lists were kept, or if kept in
the case of Rome were all destroyed, possibly by Diocletian (supra
p. 37. For a very imperfect Roman list see Ruinart AM 617. We
sorely miaa the records of Anteroa, supra p. 241). (6) Only by
accident do we hear from Pliny of the severe persecution in Bithynia,
and Tertullian seems to be ignorant of the great outbreak at Lyons.
But for St. Augustine we should never have known of the persecu
tion at the same time in Madaura. (e) Our knowledge of persecutions
is chiefly derived from apologetic writers, whose whole policy it waa
to accentuate the indulgent attitude of good emperora, Trajan, &c., in
times anterior to their own (supra p. 208).
We conclude, therefore, that the truth lies between the small
flgure of Gibbon and the usual exaggerations, though nearer Gibbon
than to the martyrologists. (Cf. Boissier FP i 443-59 for some
judicious remarks.)

APPENDIX G
THE APOLOGIES OF ARISTIDES AND QUADRATUS
It is of some importance that we examine more fully the con
nexion of the Apology of Aristides with Hadrian, as also the date
of the Apology of Quadratua. The following are the data : —
(i.) Hadrian paid two visits to Athens — one in the winter of 125,
the other in the winter of 128-9. Either year would be possible for
the Asian proconsulate of Minicius Pundanus and hia predecessor
Granianus, though perhaps the earlier year would be the more
probable, considering the somewhat lengthy period since they had
passed their earlier unknown offices (see supra, p. 217 n. 2). If then,
as Eusebius HE iv 3, Chron. s.v. 125, represent, the rescript of Hadrian
was the effect of the Apology of Quadratus — with whom Eusebius
couples Aristides and his ApiAogy — we are able to date approximately
as either 124^5 or 128-9.
2 B

370 APPENDIX G
(ii.) The question, bowever, arises whether Eusebius was not
mistaken, certainly as regards Aristides, and possibly Quadratus,
The Apology of Aristides until of late was supposed to be lost.
Recently, however, it was diaoovered by the research of Dean Robin
son. Curious to say, in reality the major part of this auppoaed
lost work had been known for centuriea. It had been incorporated
in the romance entitled Barlaam and Joasaph or Josaphat (i.e.
Buddha, under which name Buddha has obtained a place in the
Christian calendar), popularly attributed to John of Damascus.
(Por this romance in Latin, see Rosweyd Vitae Patrum i in Migne PL
Ixxiii 443 ff. It was translated into Icelandic as early as 1204. The
Apology exists also in various Syriac, flrst recovered by Rendel
Harris, and Armenian versions.) A-aeording to the second superscrip
tion of the Syriac -Version, which gives us also the full name of the
author, it was dedicated, not to the well-known Hadrian, as Eusebius
asserted, but to Antoninus Pius (i.e. T. Aurelius Pulvius, who became
known as Hadrian Antoninus Pins on bis adoption on Feb. 25, 138,
though the use of bis flrst name (Hadrian) is not common). If tbe
Syriac is correct, this flxes the date as later than Feb., 138. (Harnack
CAL i 271-8 gives 138-61, and adds possibly 138-47 as the narrower
limits.) In this case the Apology of Aristides was not connected
with the rescript of Hadrian at all. As evidence of a late date we
may urge the total absence in Aristides of the usual Jewish hatred.
This would indicate a time removed from the insurrection of Bar-
Kokheba (see supra, p. 116 n,),
(iii,) The same doubt applies, but in a lesser degree, to the state
ment of Euseb. BE iv 3 as to Quadratus presenting bis Apology to
Hadrian.* It is poasible that Eusebius, and after him Jerome Vir. Ill-
19 Ep. 70, confused the apologist with an earlier Quadratus of
Athens, ' who was bishop after the martyrdom of Publius ' (EE iv 23).
The name, in fact, was faii-ly common (Renan EO 40 n., see Euseb.
BE V 17, iii 37). On this view the Apology of Quadratus was also
presented to the other Hadrian, i.e. Antoninus Piua (see the argu
ments of Lightf. Ign. i 540), In the absence of the Apology itaelf
it ia not easy to decide. The one sentence that has been preserved
for us (Euseb. HE iv 3), if correct, is however conclusive for the
earlier date. Quadratus claims that the miraclea of Jesus were
' true miracles,' and instances that some whom He had healed ' lived
to our own times.' Harris (o.c. 6-16) and Ramsay ChE 341 date
under Hadrian.
(iv.) The best edition of the Apology of Aristides, with full
discussions, ia that by Harris and Robinson Cambridge TS (i) 1, or

APPENDIX H 371
Hennecke in TU (iv) 3, or the elaborate study of Seeberg in Zahn
FGK V 245. A translation will be found in the additional volume of
Clark's ANCL.
APPENDIX H
THE PUNISHMENTS OF WOMEN
Instances of the danger of women, especially of young and
beautiful girls, are too numerous to be dismissed as fiction. In spite
of the repulsiveness of the subject, the student ahould realize all
that it meant to be a Chriatian in early days. The following cases,
in addition to those mentioned^ujira p. 301 ff., seem to me to contain
historical elements, though often mixed up with legendary matter,
created by the demand of an age that exalted virginity above all
else. Euseb. MP 5 states that there were many oases at Alexandria.
Sabina (certainly genuine); .4iir 143. 'Rides? IUa respondit:
Rideo, si Deus vult. Tum illi : passura es, inquiunt, ilia quae noris.
Quae non sacrifioent enim, lupanaribus deputatae praestent meretri-
cibus collegium, et lenonibus supplementum.'
Irene AM 395 for keeping copies of the Scriptures, ' in lupanari
nudam statui praecipio,' with the provision of one loaf a day. She
was finally burnt on April 1st, 304. (Cf. Harnack GAL ii 475.)
The Seven Virgins of Ancyra, with a certain Tecusa at their
head, were driven naked to the annual bathing of the images of
Artemis and Athene, and drowned (a.d. 303),
More doubtful cases are those of Dionysia (AM 160), Domnina
(AM 476), ' Non metuebat ne quis latera ipsi effoderet, sed ne quis
filiarum corrumperet virginitatem ' (cf. Pelagia AM 518). But the
story of Polyxena in the Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena c. 36 (ed.
Dr. Montague James in TS (2) no. 3) is myth. But such myths, like
tbe tale in Lucian Asinus c. 52 (ii 620 ed. Dind.), Apuleius Metam. x
23, -witness to the horrors that were possible for condemned Christian
women. Tertullian Apol. 50 mentions another 'recent' case, but in such a
way as to show that these brutalities were the rare exception, a con
clusion at which we should otherwise arrive from the study of such
documents as the Fassio Perpetuae, &c. Like the ' Danaids and Dircae '
(supra p. 287 n. 2), they belong to special outbursts of horror and
rage. But Tert. ad Nat. 4 tells us that he knew of more than one
heathen husband who tried to drive his Christian wife into
prostitution.

372 APPENDIX J
APPENDIX J
THE FATHERS AND THE EMPIRE
Orig. Cels, viu 69 ff. The views of the Fathers, &c., on the
Empire would form an interesting study, but would take us too far
afleld. Some knowledge is, however, indispensable to our subject,
and to the understanding of the relations of Christianity and the
State. Broadly speaking, we discern the following drifts of thought,
both often held by the same -writer.
(1) Absolute antagonism to the Empire, as a diabolic state.
So Jewish apocalyptic literature in general.
So Apoc. John throughout. Orae. Sibyllina (some Christian, some
Jewish, supra p. 154 n.), see especially viii 50 ff.
Chriatian writers in part inherited this idea from Judaism, in part
developed it as the result of the self-consciousness of the Church of
herself as a ' third race' (supra p-. 190) of universal extent. We flnd
the idea brought out more or less in tbe following passages : —
Justin Dial. 39 ; Tert. Apol. 21, ' Yea, and the Caesars would' have
believed in Christ ... if the Caesars could have been Christians '
(antagonism so absolute that a Christian Caesar is impossible I) 37 ;
Hippolytus in Dan. iv. 9.
(2) The idea of co-operation, providential in design, mutually bene-
floial. When Tert. Apol. 32 owns that Christians should pray for the
Emperor, ' because we know that the end of all things is only delayed
by the continued existence of the Empire,' when he states that
'Caesar is more ours than youra, for our God has appointed him'
(ib. 35), we see in germ the whole theory of the Holy Roman Empire,
and of much of the logic in Dante's De Monarchia. See my Dawn of
the Beformation, i c. 2, and Bryce, BBE c. 7, especially p. 93 n.
Of early writers holding this view note St. Paul II Thess. ii 5-7,
where ' that which restrains ' is probably the Empire ; Bom, xiii 1-3 ;
Tert. ad Scap. 2 (quoted on p, 194), Athenag. Plea 37 ; Justin M.
I Apol. 12, ' We, more than any others, are great helpers and allies
in promoting peace.' Apology of Melito in Euseb. BE iv. 26 (a
remarkable passage). Augustine Civ. Dei v 3, 6, 12, Add also the
passage cited, supra, p, 168 n,, from the Ep. Diognetus.
(3) Without any formal theory of relation or antagonism, the fact
of the Empire is accepted, and its value as a factor of stability,
universality, &c,, pointed out. So Orig. Cels. ii 30 (value in tlie
spread of Christianity). In time this will lead to the universal
dominion of tbe Church, Orig. Oels. vui 67-75,

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

This table deals only with events or writings directly connected with
the lecture. Though based in the main on Barnaek's OAL, I have not
hesitated in certain cases to adopt a different date. Many dates are, of
course, very doubtful. For matters connected with the emperors I have
relied on Bury and Schiller.

?Mar. 18,29.
Mar. 16, 37.
Mar. 18, 37— Jan. 24, 41.
Jan. 41— Oct. 54.
44.
C.50.
Oct. 54— June 9, 68. 57. 59.
March, 60.
Summer, 61.
Late autumn, 61.
July 19, 64.
Autumn, 64.
Feb. (?), 65.
66-73.
Summer, 68 (?).
68-9.
July 1, 69— June 23, 79.

Crucifixion of Jesus.
Death op Tiberius.
Caius (Caligula) emperor,
Claudius emperor.
Execution of St. James (Zebedee).
Banishment of Jews and Christians from
Rome.
Nero emperor.
Arrest of St. Paul at Jerusalem. Trial at
Rome of Pomponia Graecina.
Recall of- Felix. Pestus sends St. Paul
to Rome.
Arrival of St. Paul in Rome.
Death of Festus ; execution of St. James.
Trial of St. Paul ; his release ; arrival of
St. Peter in Rome.
Burning of Rome; persecution of the
Christiana. Ep, Peter written.
Martyrdom of St. Peter. Arrest of St.
Paul. ,
Martyrdom of St. Paul.
Wara of the Jewa and Romana.
Jewiah Christiana retire to Pella.
Galba, Otho, and VitelUus successive
emperors.
Vespasian emperor.
Birth of Polycarp.

374

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

Before Aug. 70,
Aug, 70,
June23,79— Sept,13, 81,
Sept, 13,81— Sept, 18, 96.
93-95 (?).
94-5.
c. 96 (?).
Sept, 96— Jan, 27, 98,
Jan, 27, 98— Aug, 117,
99 (?),
104.
0, Dec, 112,
c, 115,
115-7,
Aug, 11, 117— July 138, 120,
124-5, or 128-9. 0. 130.
130.
132-5.
c. 133.
135-160. 137.
Julyl0,138— Mar. 7,161.
138-9.
c. 140.
144.
150-5.
0. 151.
Feb. 23, 155.
155-60. 159.
Mar.7,161— Mar, 17,180,
160-70.

Part of the Apocalypse written.
Destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem.
Titus emperor.
Domitian emperor.
Epistle of Clement sent from Rome.
Persecution of Doijoitian ; persecution of
Clement the consul and Domitilla.
Publication of the Apocalypse in present
form,
Nerva emperor ; recall of those banished
by Domitian,
Teajan emperor.
Death of St. John at Ephesus.
Martyrdom of Symeon of Jerusalem,
Correspondence of Pliny and Trajan re
Christians.
Journey and martyi'dom of Ignatius.
Epistles of Ignatius, Epistle of Polycarp.
Annals of Tacitus written.
Hadrian emperor.
Suetonius' de Vitis Caesarum written.
Rescript of Hadrian to Minicius Pundanus.
Epistle of Barnabas.
Aelia Capitolina founded.
War of Bar-Kokheba.
Justin's conversion to Christianity.
The Didache written in the recension of
the MS. of Jerusalem.
Martyrdom of Pope Telesphoms at Rome.
Antoninus Pius emperor.
Marcion cornea to Rome from Pontus.
The Shepherd of Hermaa published.
Irenaeus born.
Marcion'a achism.
Birth of TertulUan.
Justin's I Apology published. Hegesippus
journeys to Rome.
Martyrdom of Polycarp.
Justin's Dialogue with Trypho.
Beginnings of Montanism.
Marcus Aurelius emperor.
Acts of Paul and Thekla written.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

375

0. 165.
c. 170.
169-176 (?).
o. 175.
174-89. 176.
176-80. 177-80. 177-8.
Mar. 17, 180— Dec. 31,
192.
180-5.
July 17, 180.
c. 180.

Ap. 13, 193-

181-9. 185.
-4 Feb. 211. 179.
198-202.

202.
Mar. 7, 203.
0. 203.
207. 210.
Feb. 4,211— Feb. 27, 212.
Feb, 27, 212— Ap. 8, 217. 211.
212.
Autumn 212,
210-15.

218

217/8—222/3. 218.
-Mar. 10, 222.

Martyrdom of Justin ; self-immolation of
Proteus Peregrinus.
Dionyains of Corinth writea.
Apology of MeUto written.
Death of Montanus.
Hegesippus writea his Hypomnemata.
Commodus joint Caesar.
Writings of Celsus.
The Plea of Athenagoras written.
Great persecution in Lyons.
Commodus emperor.
Martyrdom of ApoUonius in Rome,
The martyrs of Scili.
The Gnostic Gospels and Acts of Thomas
written.
Irenaeus -writes his adv, Baeres,
Birth of Origen.
Septimius Severus emperor.
Tertullian writes his ad Marf. and ad
Nationes ; also hia Apology,
Tertullian wjitea bia de Spectac; de
Praescript. ; adv. Marc, ; de Idol. ; and
ad Uxor.
Outbreak of the persecution under
Severus.
Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas.
Clement of Alexander writes his Stro-
mateis,
Tertullian joins the Montaniata.
TertulUan writea his de Fallio.
Caraoalla and Geta emperors.
Caraoalla sole emperor.
Tertullian writes hia de Corona.
Tertullian writea his de Fuga.
Tertullian writea hia ad Seapulam.
Birth of Cyprian; death of Clement of
Alexandria.
Calliatus biahop of Rome.
Origen meets Mamea at Antioch.
Elagabalus emperor.

376

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

Mar. 10, 222— Mar. 19,
235.
222-3.
Mar. 25, 235 -Ap, 238.
c. 235.
Sept. 235.
Mar. 244— Deo. 248.
246.
Ap. 21, 248.
246-9.248-9.
Dec^^48— Aug. 251.
Jan. 250.
Feb. 250— May 251.
c, Aug. 251— May 253.
254,
0, Oct, 253— (?) 260.
Aug. 257,
End of July, 258,
Sept, 14, 258.
260— Mar, 20, 268.
Autumn, 260.
247-64. 260-5.
270— Aug. (?), 275.
270-5. 272. 274.
Sept. 17,284— May 1,305.
Ap. 1, 284.
Mar. 1, 293.
Feb, 23, 303,
Nov. 20, 303.
Winter, 304.
July 25, 306.
Oct. 27, 306,

Alexander Severus emperor.
Death of TertulUan.
Maximin Theax emperor.
Origen writes his Exhortation to Martyrs.
Bishop Pontian exiled with Hippolytus
to Sardinia.
Julius Philip, the Arab, emperor.
Baptism of Cyprian.
The 1000th anniversary of the founding of
Rome ; the Secular games.
Origen writes his work against Celsus.
Cyprian appointed Bishop of Carthage.
Deoiub emperor.
Great persecution commenced.
Cyprian in exile.
Gallus emperor ; persecution of Gallus.
Death of Origen in Tyre.
Valerian and Gallienus emperors.
First Rescript of Valerian.
Second Rescript of Valerian.
Martyrdom of Cyprian.
GallibnusI sole emperor. The Thirty
Tyrants.
Edict of Toleration.
Dionysius bishop of Alexandria.
Birth of Eusebius of Carosarea.
Aurelian emperor.
Death of Gregory Thaumaturgus.
Deposition of Paul of Samosata.
Birth of Constantino the Great.
Diocletian emperor.
Maximian associated with Diocletian.
Association of the two Caesars, Galerius
and Constantinus.
Outbreak of the great persecution.
Diocletian's triumph (?) and Vicennalia at
Rome.
lUness of Diocletian.
Death of Constantius at York. Elevation
of Constantine,
Maxentius declared emperor at Bome.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 377
Nov. 11, 307. Licinius (Licinian) elevated to th» rank
of Augustus.
Ap. 30, 311. Galeriua' edict of Toleration.
May 5, 311. Death of Galeriua.
Nov. 311. Death of Peter of Alexandria.
312-14. Eusebius concludes hia Ecclesiastical
Bistory and Martyrs of Palestine.
Oct. 27, 312. Constantine defeats Maxentius at the
Milvian Bridge.
Mar. 313. Edict of MUan.
Ap. 30, 313. Licinian defeats Maximin near Adria
nople.
314-15. Lactantius writes his de Mortibus Perse
cutorum.
Sept. 18, 324. Constantine finally defeats Licinian.
Constantine sole emperor.

INDEX

This index is in the main restricted to names. For subjects see
" Contents " of each chapter. Authors quoted, &o., whether ancient
or modern, are not indexed unleea aome criticiara or account ia given
of them; The namea of martyra are given under " Martyr."

Abyssinian Church, 21 n
Acts of Martyrs, 285 n
Aelia Capitolina, 122, 333 n
Aesculapius, 74, 80 n, 97 n 3,
135-8
agape, 71, 211 n
Akmonia, 109 n
Alee, 140, 308
Alexamenos, 112 n, 288 n
Alexander of Abonutiohos, 134-6
Alexander, Pope, 260 n
Alexander the coppersmith, 39
Alexandria, 37 n, 241, ?,47-8
'AWOTpiOeTrltTKOTTOS, 139 n
Anicetus, 307 n
Annas, 11-13
Anthony, 131
Antinoiie, 92 n, 98-9
Apocalypse, 46 n, 355-7
apostoli, 33 n, 120
Apuleius, 161
Aristides, 216; Apology of, 116 n
Aristion, 45 n, 122 n
Armenia, 187 n, 270, 281
Arrius Antoninus, 227 n, 332
Artemidorus, 21 n, 128 n
Asiarchs, 95, 96 n
Atheists, 88, 91 n, 92-4
' Augustan band,' 39 n
Augustine, 86, 1 26 u
Augustus, worship of, c, 2 § 7
Aurelian, 97 n, 257

Bacchanalian scandal, 76
Barnabas (Epistle), 59, 116 n
Bithym'a, Christians of, 210
Burial clubs, 261 n

CaecUian, 273-4
Caesar of Heisterbach, 133
CaUistus, 119, 147-8, 151-2, 229
CaracaUa, 235
Catacombs, 257 ff
Celsus, 7, 132, 155, 160 n, 179,
184, 188, 189, 329
Christian, meaning of, 53 n 3,
58 n
Christians, tales against, 119 n;
slang of, 166 n ; names of, 171 ;
teachers among, 173-4 ; Greek
of, 175 n ; and office, 178 ff,
180 n; and the army, 181 ff;
and politics, 191 ff
Claudius Herminianus, 144 n
Clemens, Flavius, 186 n, 204
Clement of Alexandria, 175 n,
237 n
Clement of Rome, 83, 205-6, 259
Clubs, o. 2 § 3, 69 n
cognitiones, 212 n
Commodus, 228
Conatantine, 278-82
Constantius, 271
Cornelius, Pope, 250

INDEX

379

Cyprian, 133, 179, 247,253, 310 ff

Damasus, 265 n
Datian, 271
Days of week, 82 n
Daza : see Maximin
Deacons, 211 n
Deciua, 242 ff
delatio, 215
Demona, 91, 127 ff, 129
dt^ortatio, 47 n, 64 n \
diaspora : see Jewa >
Diocletian, 136, 265 ff
Diognetus, EpisOe of, 117, 168-9
Dionyaius of Alexandria, 90, 134,
247-8, 253 ,
Dionyaiua of Corinth 360
DM, 147
Domitian, 47, 96-7, 123, 128,
203-7
DomitiUa, 83, 205
Druidism, 77-8

Ebionites, 122, 153
Elagabalus, 238
Elvira, 151 n, 162 n, 175 n, 180 n
Empire, causes of fall, 177 n
Etecuaa, 246 n
Euctemon, 342
Exorcists, 131-2

Fabian, Pope, 235, 240 n, 241 n,
244 n
Faustina, 98 n
FeUx, 32
FeUx of Aptungi, 273-4
Festivals, outbreaks at, 102 n
Festus, 27 n, 33
Fontane, Tre, 40 n
Pronto of Cirta, 157 n

Galeriua, 191 n, 268 ff
GaUienua, 251, 256
Gaudentius, 55 n
Glabrio, 204

Gnoaticiem, 8, 363
Graecina, Pomponia, 41 n, 60
Gregory Thaumaturgus, 41
133-4, 248, 345
Gregory th« Great, 175 n

Hadrian, 215 ff
Hermas, Shepherd of, 151 n, 219
n 3, 221
Herod, Agrippa, 17
Hierocles, 160 n, 268-9
Bippolytus, Canons of, 173
Hippolytus of Portus, 119, 148
Boros, 8

Irenaeus, 295 n, 310
Isis, 77, 81-2

James, St., 13 n, 26-8
James, Ascents of, 26 u
James, St. (Zebedee), 25
Jeruaalem, fall of, 109-10
Jesus, 10 n, c. 1 § 2
Jewish Christians, 29, 46, 120 ff
Jews, 51, 56, 107, 108 ff, 111-2,
113, 115 ff, 157 n
Jews and Chriatiana distin
guished, 58-9, 118
John, Acts of, 48 n
John, St., 26, 45-8, 206 n, 358 f
Jude, grandsons of, 123
Justin Martyr, 227 n, 287 n, 327,
346

Kempis, Thomas k, 22 n
Kiss of peace, 158

Lanuvium, 99
libelU, 340 ff
Libertini, 24 n
Licinian, 187 n, 278, 282
Lucian : see Proteua Peregrinus
Lucina, 41, 61 n, 262 n
Lucius, Pope, 250

380

INDEX

Lyons, 96 n, 160, 227 n, 293 n,
295 ff

Maorianus, 134, 252
Macrobius, 127 n
Madaura, 227 n
Maecenas, 89
Magic, Christians and, o. Ill § 2
magisterianus, 302 n
majestas, 14-5, 19, 101 n
Mamaea, 239
Mandaeans, 58 n, 122
fidprvs, 345 n
Maroellinus, Pope, 342 n
Marcia, 228, 229 n
Marcion, 117
MareuB Aureliua, 112, 129, 222 ff
Maron, 99 n
Marriage, Christians and, 140-1,
147-8
Martin of Tours, 9, 130
Martyrs, cases of —
Abdon, 246
Achatius, 132, 330
Afra, 321
Agathonice, 328
Agnes, 302 ii
Alban, 271-2
Alexander, 249, 260 n
Alphaeus, 191 n
Anteroa, 240 n
Antipaa, 97
ApoUonia, 291
Apolloniua, 180 n, 218 n, 299 n
Aaolepiades, 237 n, 297
Attalua, 104 n
Babylaa, 157, 249, 329
Bibliaa, 341
Blandina, 295 n, 349
CaecUia, 227 n
CaUistratus, 333
Calocems, 246, 298
Carpus, 227 n, 328
Cassian, 174
Claudius, 298 n, 330
Conon, 119, 124
Cyprian, 310 ff
OyrU, 255 n

Martyrs, cases of (continued) —
Dasius, 183
Dativus, 143, 327
Dionysia, 321
Dioscuros, 247
Dorotheus, 266, 269
EulaUa, 328
EupUus, 275
Fabian, 244 n, 245
Febronia, 196
FeUcitas, 102 n, 313 ff
Felicitas, 237 n, 320
Felix of Tibjuca, 275
Flavian, 324
Pructuosus, 325
Genesius, 288-90
Germanicus, 307
Gorgonius, 266, 269
Guddene, 237 n
Hermes, 275
Hippolytus, 240
Ignatius, 306, 325, 335 ff
Irenaeus of Lyons, 237 n
Irenaeus of Sirmium, 320,
334-5
Irene, 143
James of Cirta, 323 n, 324, 328
Januarius, 320 n
Julian, 247, 295 n
Julitta, 298
Julius, 78
Justin, 327
Lawrence, 255
Leonides, 237
Leo of Patara, 162-3
Lucian of Antioch, 142, 332
Lyons, martyrs of, 295 ff
Marianus, 322, 323 n, 324
Maura, 334 n
Mavilus, 237 n
Maximilian, 185-6, 335
Maximus, 196, 330
Montanus, 324 n
Natalis, 237 n
Nestor, 334
Nicander, 334
Origen, 248, 319
PapyluB, 180 n
Parthenius, 246

INDEX

381

Martyrs, cases of (oontintied) —
Perpetua, 102 n, 313 ff, 319,
322
Phileas of Thmuis, 291, 319-20,
328
Phocas, 212 n
Pionius, 292, 297 ff, 333, 342
PolUo, 142
Polycarp, 102 n, 297, 306 ff,
326
Pontian, 240
Potamiaena, 302, 325, 346 n
Pothinus, 295
Probus, 304 n
Ptolemy, 144
Quartillosia, 323
Quatuor Coronati, 137 n
Quintus, 340
Sabina, 152 n, 297
Sanctus, 300
Saturninus, 323, 328
Saturus, 316-17, 323
Scili, martyrs of, 193, 327
Sebaste, Forty of, 186 n, 188 n
Sennen, 246
Sirmium, masons of, 136
Symeon, 123-4
Symphorian, 162
Symphorosa, 320 n
Renus, 324
Romanus, 163
Tarachus, 285 n, 301 n, 330-1
Tarsioius, 157 n
Telesphorus, 219 n
Thalelaeus, 219 n
Theodora, 302
Theodore, 163-4
Theodulus, 295 n
TheoniUa, 301 n
Ursula, 200 n
Vettius Epagathus, 104 n, 296
Xystus, 253 n, 254
Zacchaeus, 191 n
Maxentius, 278, 281
Maximin Daza, 277 ff
Maximin Thrax, 240
Melitene, 189 n, 270
Mensurius, 273
Milan, decree of, 282

Minucius Felix, 221 n
Minucius Pundaaus, 217
Mithraism, o. 2 § 5, 81 n, 84, 160,
171 n, 184
"monarchy," 93-4
Montanism, 154, 181 n, 305 n,
343 n
Mother, Great, 77, 160

Name," " The, 40, 55 n, 104
yeiDK6pos, 97 u
Nero, 53-4, 133, 202, 285-6, 364
Nersae, 85
"New people," 190
Nicomedeia, 68, 267, 282
Numeria, 246

Origen, 248, 294

Pachomius, 9
Pagan, meaning of, 234 n
TrapoiKovirres, 103 n
Parousian beliefs, 23, 53 n 4, 153
ff, 232-3
patria potestas, 145
Paul of Samosata, 257
Paul, St., 30-5, 36-42, 43, 138-9
149, 262, 362-4
Paul, St. (dates of), 33 u, 34 n,
38 n, 48 n, 57
Peregrinus ProteuS, 136, 155,
176, 293, 331, 345, 346
Pei-petua (handkerchief of), 41 n,
Perpetua : see Martyrs
Peter, Acts of, 43 n
Peter, Gospel of, 19 n
Peter of Alexandria, 340 n, 362 f
Peter, St., 42-5, 262, 354-5
Petronilla, 204 n
Philip of Trales, 309
Philip the Arab, 241 ff
Pilate, 13-20
Pilate, Acts of, 18 n, 20 n, 21 n
Pius (Antoninus), 220-1
Pius, Pope, 151
Pliny, 209 ff

382

INDEX

Pompeji, 24 n
Pontus, Christians of, 210
Popes, martyrdom of, 22 n
Poppaea, 34 n, 38, 57, 98 n 3,
115
Porphyry, 94, 159, 160 n
Pothinus, 37
Praetorium, 35 n
Prophets, 154 n, 155 n
Prosenes, 229
Pudens (magistrate), 214

Quadratus, 216, 369

Readers, 142 n
relegatio, 47 n
Rome, Church at, 37 n
Rome, fire of, 53-4

Sacramentum, 211 n
Sardinia, 300
Secular games, 88, 242
Servianus, 217
Severus Alexander, 238 ff
Severus Septimius, 69, 71 n,
235 fl
Sibylline Oracles, 154 n, 194
Simon Magus, 128 n
Sirmium, masons of, 136 ff

Slavery, Christianity and, 149 ff
Smyrna, 97 n
Soldiers and Mithra, 84
Soldiers and Christianity, 181 ff
Spain, St. Paul and, 35, 36 n
Stephen, St., 24
Stephen, Pope, 253 n
Superstition and Christianity, c.
3§2
Syncretism, 86

Taurobolium, 160
Teachers, 144 n
Tertullian, 146, 171-2, 178-9,
181 n
TheMa, Acts of, 102 n, 140 n, 140-2
Theotecnus, 277, 280
"Third Race," 158 n, 190, 217 n
Thundering Legion, 186
titulus, 20
Trajan, 209 ff
Tyre, 280

Valeria, 266
Valerian, 134, 251 ff
Victor, Pope, 235 n, 295 n

Zephyrinus, 260

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Professor Salmond in The Critical Beview.
" It ia seldom one comes across a book on Church history which
ia at once so readable and scholarly." — The Glasgow Berald.
" Untiring industry in research and absolute impartiality in
judgement are characteristics of his latest work on ' The Age of Hus.'
. , . Accuracy in details is combined with the rarer gift of a fine
power of generalization." — Methodist Becorder.
"The writer shows the trained aptitude of a literary and
historical critic. His judgements on these topics are eminently sane
and safe. The volume on Hus is worthy to take its place beside the
other." — Prino. Iverach, Aberdeen Free Press.
" In his judgements Mr. Workman is studiously fair and impartial.
He shows not only great mental detachment, but real historical
instinct, in his power of looking atmovements." — The Guardian.
" The book does for an important and obscure period what is not
done with the same fullness and care by any other book in English."
— Dr. Moss in the Methodist Times.
" A valuable contribution to Church history." — Spectator.

London : CHARLES H. KELLY, 2 Castle Street, Citv Road,
and 26 Paternoster Row, E.C.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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