PROGRESS OF PROPAGANDA TO THE TENTH PERSECUTION.
Seven Years’ Persecution of Equalitarian Innovators--Seventh
Great Persecution--Christians charged with Sorcery in Eighth
Persecution--Tortures of Ninth and Tenth Persecutions--Pretended
Conversion of Constantine--Lives of Early Christians Exemplars to
the Pagan World.
The persecutions under the “moderate” Trajan and the “philosophic”
Antoninus had no effect, as we have seen, in stopping the progress of
Christianity. On the contrary, they but served to extend it, by causing
the multitude to interest themselves more in examining a religion which
excited so much alarm amongst those orders of men who, from their power
and riches, they could not but regard as their natural oppressors.
The discreet conduct and humane character of the early Christians was
another, indeed, the chief cause of their success. Those pagans who had
relations with them in private life, and who had thereby opportunities
of judging them as men and citizens, could not be brought to regard
with horror a religion which had produced such characters, nor to
sympathise with the atrocious spirit which consigned them to the fate
of malefactors. Up to the reign of Severus, then, Christianity went on
conquering and to conquer, in despite of edicts and persecutions.
It was in this reign that the fifth great persecution took place.
In the early part of it no additions were made to the severe edicts
already in force against them; and history preserves but few cases of
their suffering from the application of the old. This was partly owing
to the greater caution imposed upon them by the laws against illegal
meetings and societies passed under Trajan and Antoninus, and partly,
it is said, to the interest at court of a celebrated Christian, named
Proculus, who, by an extraordinary application of his medical art, had
cured the emperor of a dangerous distemper. This precarious lenity,
however, did not endure long. After having been partially interrupted
by an occasional execution of the old laws in force, it was effectually
terminated by an edict of Severus (A.D. 197), which prohibited every
subject of the empire, under severe penalties, from embracing the
Jewish or Christian faith.
This edict would appear, at first sight, designed only to prevent the
further growth of Christianity; but as, in one of its clauses, it
urged the magistracy to enforce the law’s of former emperors, still in
force, it gave rise to a frightful proscription. For seven years the
Christians were exposed to all manner of persecution and prosecution,
not only in Rome and Italy, but in Gaul, Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine,
Syria, Egypt and the rest of Africa. Amongst the celebrated martyrs in
this persecution fell Leonidas, the father of Origen, and Irenæus,
Bishop of Lyons, in Gaul. It was on this occasion Tertullian composed
his well-known “Apologetica,” or apology on behalf of the victims--a
work from which a great deal may be learned of what the early
Christians had to endure in this persecution, more particularly at
Alexandria in Egypt, where the violence of pagan intolerance was most
felt.
The sixth persecution, under the Emperor Maximinus, which began about
A.D. 235, does not appear to have been so severe as the preceding ones.
Maximinus’s predecessor, the Emperor Alexander, was rather favourable
to the Christians, he and his family having given shelter and patronage
to many of them. This excited the envy and hatred of the party
favourable to Maximinus’s interests, and, at their instigation it is
supposed, the latter prince rekindled the flames of persecution against
the Christians. Celsus was the literary champion of the pagans on this
occasion; and Origen, that of the Christians. The latter gained great
credit and influence amongst his own party, by the zeal and energy with
which he supported the Christians in the fiery ordeal they had to pass
through in the trials of this period.
The seventh persecution is considered by many the severest that ever
befell the Christian world. It took place during the short reign
of Decius, and was ushered in by an imperial edict, couched in the
strongest terms, and issued A.D. 249. One of its first effects was the
putting to death of Fabianus, Bishop of Rome, with a number of his
followers. Immense numbers of the Christians were publicly destroyed
in almost every province of the empire. The Bishops of Jerusalem and
Antioch died in prison. Tortures the most excruciating were resorted
to, to extort confessions of guilt, the betrayal of accomplices, or a
renunciation of their faith. These were, for the most part, endured
with heroic fortitude; but many sank under the trial, and, to save
their lives, consented to burn incense upon the altars of the gods;
others purchased safety by bribes, or secured it by flight. The poor,
as usual, fared worst. Unable to secure themselves by patronage or
bribery, they were seized before they had time for flight, and put to
death with every refinement of torture, and in a variety of ways. Some
were publicly burnt in the market-places; others were whipped, branded,
and then impaled or crucified. Many were thrown to wild beasts to be
devoured; and not a few were stoned to death by an enraged populace,
whose “wild justice” was too impatient to await magisterial decisions.
At Alexandria in particular, they anticipated the emperor’s edict,
and in their blind fury put many to death who were not Christians
at all, mistaking them for such on account of their connections,
real or supposed. Political bias had much to do in embittering this
persecution. The leading Christians were known to be attached to
the family of the Emperor Philip, who was supposed to be secretly
favourable to their sect. This aggravated the rage of the opposite
faction, and superadded political passions to fanatic zeal in the
proscriptions under Decius. Upon the whole, no other pagan persecution
cost the Christians more lives than this, nor entailed upon them a
greater variety of sacrifices and sufferings.
The eighth general persecution was not upon so large a scale; but it
had its distinguishing barbarities to bear witness to the truth of a
celebrated saying of Plutarch, namely, that rage and rancour stifle
all sentiments of humanity in the human breast, and that “no beast
is more savage than man when he is possessed of power equal to his
passions.” We may conceive to what excess these passions were carried
under the Emperor Valerian (A.D. 257), when we find that potentate and
his aristocracy employing an Egyptian magician (named Macrinus) to give
out, as the result of his occult science, that he had discovered that
the peace and prosperity of the Roman empire were incompatible with the
“wicked spells” and “execrable charms” practised by the Christians.
This, of course, was a mere pretence to infuriate the rabble and the
distressed of all classes against them. To counteract the pretended
“spells” and “charms” of Christianity, Valerian is said, by the advice
of Macrinus, to have performed many impious rites and sacrifices,
amongst which was the cutting the throats of infants, &c. All this
jugglery was intended to disguise from his subjects the true nature
of the struggle between Christianity and pagan despotism, namely, the
struggle of humanity to vindicate its inherent rights against arbitrary
power and the barbarism of superstitious ignorance. At any rate, fresh
edicts were promulgated in all places against the Christians; and,
with the emperor’s sanction, they were exposed without protection to
the common rage. Amongst the noble army of martyrs sacrificed under
this brutal emperor, history makes honorary mention of St. Lawrence,
Archdeacon of Rome, and of St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, said to
have been two of the most learned and distinguished men of their age.
The ninth general persecution took place under the Emperor Aurelian,
about the year 274. So little, however, is recorded of this
persecution, that we may safely infer it gave but little interruption
to the peace of the church. Indeed, by this time the Christians were,
in many places, as numerous as the pagans; and many of their body were
opulent subjects, possessed of great local and general influence. One
more great persecution, and we shall find them upon an equality with
their proud oppressors. We shall next find them, in political parlance,
“masters of the situation;” we shall find them established in power,
and corrupted with riches and luxury. A portion of them, at least,
we shall find in that position; and then, agreeably to the laws of
human nature, we shall find them no longer Christians, but practising
the same vices, and committing the same crimes of tyranny and wrong,
they so much condemned in the old pagans. One great persecution more,
and lo! Christianity will be enthroned in power; and then farewell to
Christian progress and Christian principles! One great persecution more
will give to “Christians” the ascendancy; and in that ascendancy will
be the death of Christianity itself!
The tenth and last great persecution of the early church took place
under the Emperor Diocletian, and broke out in the nineteenth year
of his reign (about the year A.D. 303). Diocletian himself does not
appear to have been animated by any bigoted zeal or political hatred
against the Christians. Galerius, whom he had declared Cæsar, and the
mother of Galerius, who was a zealot in the pagan interest, vehemently
urged him to promulgate edicts for their suppression. To this end,
the philosopher Hierocles prepared public opinion for them by violent
writings against the Christians; and the pagan priesthood, as in
interest bound, supported Hierocles.
This persecution began in the city of Nicomedia, and thence extended
into other cities and provinces, till at last it became general all
over the empire. Though, doubtless, the historians of the church
have exaggerated this as well as other persecutions, yet there is a
sufficiency of well-authenticated facts to show that, however the
wealthy and intriguing Christians might have contrived to secure
lenity and even impunity for themselves, it was far otherwise with
the majority, who were poor, ardent, and enterprising. As in the
seventh persecution under Decius, the diabolical ingenuity of man
was racked to discover new modes of punishment, new refinements of
torture. Some were roasted alive at slow fires till death put an end
to their sufferings; others were hung by the feet, with their heads
downwards, and suffocated by the smoke of dull fires. Pouring melted
lead down the throats of the victims was one variety of torture;
another was tearing off the flesh from their quivering limbs with
shells. Some of the sufferers had splinters of reeds thrust into the
most sensitive parts of their persons--into their eyes, for example, or
under their finger-nails and nails of their toes; others were impaled
alive. Many had their limbs broken, and in that condition were left
to expire in protracted agonies. Such as were not capitally punished
were scourged or branded, or else had their limbs mutilated and their
features disfigured. Altogether, the victims were as numerous as in
the persecution under Decius. Amongst the more noted ones we read of
the Bishops of Tyre, Sidon, Emesa, and Nicomedia. Very many matrons
and virgins of unblemished character passed through the flames of
martyrdom. And as to the plebeian or poorer classes, they perished
literally in myriads. At length, upon the accession of the Emperor
Constantine the persecution slackened. He declared in favour of the
Christians, and soon after, openly embracing the new religion, he
published the first law in their favour. The death of Maximian, Emperor
of the East, soon after put an end to all their tribulations at the
hands of pagans.
It was then that, for the first time, Christianity (or rather a
something worse than paganism which usurped its name) took possession
of the thrones of princes. The religion of the court, it became
the fashionable religion. Aristocrats, military men, the leading
professions, men of the world, became converts to it in a twinkling. We
speak, of course, only of the _name_--not of the _thing_. It was the
_name_ only that was established by Constantine: the _thing_ itself he
knew and cared nothing about. The religion as taught by Jesus and his
disciples is not a religion for courts and courtiers; it flourishes not
in presence of emperors and prætorian guards. Constantine’s conversion
was but a _coup d’état_, or political _ruse_, to destroy Christianity
by itself; _alias_, to make its votaries (all true believers) ashamed
of its very name, through seeing it professed by base hypocrites--its
natural and irreconcilable enemies. Its immediate effect was to
neutralise the force of Christianity as operating against the abuses
of government and against social injustice. It became henceforward
impossible to know who were Christians and who were not--at least, who
were sincere and who were not; the false ones bearing the same name as
the true ones, and, in proportion to their hypocrisy, more emphatic
and ostentatious in their profession of faith than the true believers.
As a matter of course, the rich, the ambitious, the low intriguer, the
bustling man of the world, adhered publicly to the name or profession
of Christian for the sake of the good things attached thereto in
church and state. The honest, the simple-hearted, the oppressed many
saw they were foully tricked, but were powerless to right themselves.
Between the pagans, who still adhered to the old system, and their
hypocritical betrayers in high places, their fate was a deplorable one.
After all their struggles and sacrifices for Christianity, they had
the mortification to find that, just at the moment they counted upon
victory, they found discomfiture and shame; and that what 300 years of
pagan torturings, dungeonings, and terrorism had failed to accomplish
against their religion, was effected at once by an “organised
hypocrisy” of _soi-disant_ Christians supposed to belong to their own
church and party.
Most people date the triumph of Christianity from the accession, or
rather from the conversion, of Constantine. In our opinion, it is the
_decline_ of Christianity, or the _reaction_ against it, that ought
to date therefrom. During the first three centuries the progress of
Christianity was one continued series of triumphs--purchased, it is
true, by the blood of countless martyrs, but not the less real and
effective on that account; but from the moment it became a state
religion, under Constantine and his successors, it ceased to be the
religion of Christ and his apostles, and became a figment of forms and
ceremonies worthless as the ceremonialism of the Pharisees. Many, it is
true, continued sincerely attached to the real thing--the religion of
Jesus; but, discountenanced and discouraged by their own priests and
rulers, they soon fell into discredit, and their numbers diminished
with every succeeding reign, till at last Christianity (as at first
taught) was nowhere to be found.
In this present century, and in this present year 1850, it is reviving
again under new names and forms. It is allying itself with a philosophy
which has nothing in common with the hollow philosophism of the last
century, but much in common with the natural instincts and primitive
feelings of man. The Christianity which is being now revived in
France, Germany, and elsewhere on the Continent approaches nearer to
the Christianity of the first and second centuries than most people
are aware of. At bottom it is the same; but in form and garb it must
necessarily partake of the science and civilization of the times we
are in. Its object, like that of Christ and his disciples, is to
banish sin and slavery, crime and misery, from the world, but without
pretending to any extraordinary mission, or to any other light than
the revelations of Scripture interpreted and explained by reason. The
_Christianisme_ and the _humanité_ of Pierre Leroux may be taken as
samples of this modern revival of Christianity.
As a general rule, the early Christians exemplified in their lives
the charity, the purity, and the disinterestedness enjoined by the
Gospel; it was therefore they were so successful with the people. The
persecutions of the pagans did not make them retaliate. They were too
wise, too discreet, to rebel against laws or governments that could
have crushed them at once; and for the unfortunate, deluded populace
they had nothing but pity in the midst of their worst excesses. They
knew it was ignorance alone that made the populace so furious against
them: they knew they were the true friends of this populace; and that
this populace would be their friend, if they could but understand each
other. Hence the toleration preached and practised with such good
effect in the early ages of the church. It is true, there were disputes
and occasional intolerance amongst Christians from the first,--we have
sundry proofs of it in Paul’s Epistles, the Acts, and in the writings
of the early Fathers; but it was not till after the legal establishment
of Christianity that the guilt of intolerance or persecution could
be charged against Christians as a body. Though corruption had been
making way amongst them long before that, and though there were
symptoms enough in the Church prognosticative of the dire effect
that power and the mammon of unrighteousness might have upon them,
yet the main body remained sound. What they suffered from the pagans
naturally made them hold together for mutual aid and counsel; it also
cemented in them habits of mutual love and tenderness for each other’s
feelings: above all, it confirmed them in their aversion to tyranny
and intolerance, and enamoured them more and more of that Gospel which
everywhere enjoins charity, tenderness, mercy, and self-denial for
the sake of others. They remembered Christ’s sermon on the mount, his
unbounded compassion for sinners, his forgiveness of all, his love of
little children, his humility, his readiness to be the servant of his
followers, his teachings, fastings, prayers, and sufferings for all.
These were ever present in their minds. They knew and felt that, guided
by the spirit and precepts of the Gospel, by the conduct of its Author,
and by the preachings and examples of his apostles, true Christians
could not be otherwise than tolerant, forgiving, just, and affectionate
towards one another.
The general conduct of Christians before the age of Constantine was
in conformity with those maxims. They believed what they professed;
and they practised what they believed. Upon this head the writings of
the early Fathers are all but unanimous. We could cite a volume-full
of exemplifications; but the fact, as an historical one, is notorious
beyond the necessity for proof.
Up to the time of Constantine the progress of Christianity was one
continued series of triumphs over the principles and practices of
human slavery--one earnest, uninterrupted protest against those vices
and passions in which the subjection of man to his fellow-man has its
origin. In the minds of the early Christians, the Gospel dispensation
was no other than a divine protestation against the abasement of
the human race by tyranny, upon the one hand, and slavery upon the
other. Not one of the sublime virtues so beautifully pourtrayed and so
authoritatively enjoined by Christ and his disciples could flourish and
bear fruit in a world of tyrants and slaves. Either that divine Gospel
must, therefore, ever remain a dead letter, or the system of human
slavery, with all its violence, vice, and crimes, must be overthrown.
Every act, every institute, every martyrdom, of the early Christians
goes to show they were impressed with this belief. Hence their
marvellous labours, their still more marvellous sufferings (voluntarily
incurred and borne), and, most marvellous of all, their extraordinary
successes. Everything goes to prove their fixed determination to
subvert, from its foundation, that anti-social structure of society
which made man the slave of his fellow-man; their every act and
discourse tended accordingly to its overthrow. It cannot be overthrown
by an outbreak, a _coup de main_, a surprise, or onslaught of brute
force. Its existence being the work of opinion, it can be overthrown
only by opinion. The world must therefore be made to believe
differently. The minds and hearts that uphold it must be enlightened,
softened, refined, exalted, reformed. Behold the mission of the early
Christians--the means and end of their godlike labours.
Up to the age of Constantine, we repeat, the Christian revolution
gained ground incessantly, if not uninterruptedly. It progressed not
only in despite of, but actually _by means of_ every one of the ten
great imperial persecutions we have sketched. Like the Antæus of
mythology, it gathered fresh strength from every fall.
With its _establishment_ under Constantine ended its triumphant
progress! What churchmen call its final victory, its crowning glory,
was in reality its first decisive check--the cause and forerunner
of its downfall; in other words, it was the beginning of the
counter-revolution or reaction which soon afterwards rendered null and
void all the martyrdoms and triumphs of three hundred years.
[Illustration: Decoration]