LETTER WRITTEN TO THE EMPEROR TRAJAN BY PLINY THE YOUNGER WHILE HE WAS
GOVERNOR OF BITHYNIA. It IS THE FIRST CONNECTED ACCOUNT OF CHRIST'S
FOLLOWERS THAT HAS COME TO US FROM A PAGAN SOURCE.
(From December, 1907, _Scrap Book_.)
Pliny the Younger was a typically cultivated Roman of the first
and second centuries, Anno Domini. Overeducated, self-conscious,
and very firmly convinced of his own importance, he was none the
less an amiable and well-meaning man. Whenever he wrote a letter,
he wrote it with the intention of publishing it at some future
time; so that the collection which we now have of his epistles is
an amusing example of literary pose. Nevertheless, the letters are
full of interesting sidelights upon the times in which Pliny lived.
As a boy, he witnessed from a distance the destruction of Pompeii,
in which his uncle perished. He beheld the awful excesses of some
of the Roman emperors. He observed much of human life, and he tells
many an interesting tale, ranging from ghost-stories to narratives
of historical value.
The Emperor Trajan gave Pliny an official appointment as governor
of the province of Bithynia. In that office Pliny first heard of
the new sect called Christians. He was told that the Christians
in reality formed a political organization, masking treason to
the emperor under the guise of religion. This was, in fact, the
prevalent belief in official circles; and the meetings of the
Christians were viewed very much as a Russian bureaucrat views any
private gathering of men and women for an unknown purpose. Having
made an investigation, however, Pliny discovered nothing to justify
this feeling; and he wrote a letter to the emperor asking how the
Christians should be treated. This letter, which is given here,
is interesting because it is the first connected account of the
Christians which we now possess from a pagan source.
It is my habit, your majesty, to refer to you all matters concerning
which I am in doubt. For who can better direct my hesitation or inform
my ignorance? I have never been present at any trials of Christians;
therefore I do not know in what way and to what extent it is customary
to question or punish them. And I have felt no little hesitation as
to whether some allowance should be made for age or whether the weak
and delicate should be treated exactly like the more robust, whether
pardon should follow retraction, or whether {487} the renunciation of
Christianity should be of no avail to him who has once professed it;
and whether the name of Christian itself, without any violation of the
law, should be punished or whether violation of the law is considered
as inhering in the name. Meanwhile, in the case of those who have
been accused to me as Christians, I have pursued the following plan.
I have asked them personally whether they were Christians. If they
confessed it, I asked them a second and a third time, with the threat
of punishment. If they still persisted, I ordered them to suffer the
penalty, since I am very sure that whatever it was that they were
confessing, stubbornness and unyielding obstinacy ought to be punished.
There were some afflicted by this madness who, because they were Roman
citizens, I remanded to Rome.
Presently, under this treatment, as is generally the case, the charge
began to spread and they were led into more overt acts. Anonymous
accusations containing many names were sent me. As for those who
denied that they either were or had been Christians, when at my
instigation they called upon the names of the gods and offered wine and
frankincense to your statue (which, anticipating this emergency, I had
caused to be set up with the images of the deities), and in addition to
that had abjured Christ--none of which things, they say, those who are
really Christians can be made to do--I thought that they ought to be
let off.
Some, whose names had been given to me by informers, said that they
were Christians and then denied it; that they had once been, but
had ceased to be. Certain of them said that they had ceased to be
Christians three years before, others more than that, a few even as
long as twenty years ago. All these, too, worshiped both your statue
and the images of the gods, and abjured Christ.
They declared moreover that this was the sum of their fault or error;
that they had been accustomed to meet on a stated day before dawn,
and to sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind
themselves by a solemn sacrament--not to any crime, but that they
should commit no theft, nor adultery, that they should not bear false
witness or refuse to give up a trust when it was demanded. When this
ceremony was over they said that it had been their custom to depart
and to assemble again for the breaking of bread, a common and harmless
practice among them.
They further said they had ceased to do even this after my edict, by
which, following your commands, I had forbidden all formal assemblies.
Wherefore I considered it the {488} more necessary to try to get at the
truth by torture from two women who were called deaconesses. I found
nothing further than a perverse, widespread superstition.
Having postponed action, I hastened to seek counsel from you, for it
seemed to me that the matter was worthy of consideration, especially on
account of the number of persons involved. For many of all ages, of all
ranks, and of both sexes even, are under suspicion and will hereafter
be under suspicion. The contagion of this superstition has spread, not
only in cities but to villages even and farms, though I think that it
can be checked and prevented. At any rate, it is pretty evident that
the temples of the gods, which were deserted up to a short time ago,
have begun to be thronged, the customary sacrifices, long interrupted,
to be renewed, and also the pasturing of victims for these sacrifices
which had been almost discontinued. From all of which it is my opinion
that this body of men can be made to see the error of their ways, if
only a chance is given them.
_"The Lord has sent angels to men at different times since the
creation of the world, but always with a message, or with something
to perform that could not be performed without."_
--_Wilford Woodruff_.
_"Earthly riches are only little things, in comparison to the great
principles of eternal lives and exaltation in the Kingdom of God;
these are the riches of eternity."_
--_John Taylor_.
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