Constantine.--Part II.
History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past, for
the instruction of future ages, would ill deserve that honorable office,
if she condescended to plead the cause of tyrants, or to justify the
maxims of persecution. It must, however, be acknowledged, that the
conduct of the emperors who appeared the least favorable to the
primitive church, is by no means so criminal as that of modern
sovereigns, who have employed the arm of violence and terror against
the religious opinions of any part of their subjects. From their
reflections, or even from their own feelings, a Charles V. or a Lewis
XIV. might have acquired a just knowledge of the rights of conscience,
of the obligation of faith, and of the innocence of error. But the
princes and magistrates of ancient Rome were strangers to those
principles which inspired and authorized the inflexible obstinacy of the
Christians in the cause of truth, nor could they themselves discover in
their own breasts any motive which would have prompted them to refuse a
legal, and as it were a natural, submission to the sacred institutions
of their country. The same reason which contributes to alleviate the
guilt, must have tended to abate the vigor, of their persecutions.
As they were actuated, not by the furious zeal of bigots, but by the
temperate policy of legislators, contempt must often have relaxed, and
humanity must frequently have suspended, the execution of those laws
which they enacted against the humble and obscure followers of Christ.
From the general view of their character and motives we might naturally
conclude: I. That a considerable time elapsed before they considered the
new sectaries as an object deserving of the attention of government. II.
That in the conviction of any of their subjects who were accused of so
very singular a crime, they proceeded with caution and reluctance. III.
That they were moderate in the use of punishments; and, IV. That the
afflicted church enjoyed many intervals of peace and tranquility.
Notwithstanding the careless indifference which the most copious and
the most minute of the Pagan writers have shown to the affairs of
the Christians, it may still be in our power to confirm each of these
probable suppositions, by the evidence of authentic facts.
1. By the wise dispensation of Providence, a mysterious veil was cast
over the infancy of the church, which, till the faith of the Christians
was matured, and their numbers were multiplied, served to protect them
not only from the malice but even from the knowledge of the Pagan world.
The slow and gradual abolition of the Mosaic ceremonies afforded a safe
and innocent disguise to the more early proselytes of the gospel. As
they were, for the greater part, of the race of Abraham, they were
distinguished by the peculiar mark of circumcision, offered up their
devotions in the Temple of Jerusalem till its final destruction, and
received both the Law and the Prophets as the genuine inspirations of
the Deity. The Gentile converts, who by a spiritual adoption had been
associated to the hope of IsrÊl, were likewise confounded under the
garb and appearance of Jews, and as the Polytheists paid less regard
to articles of faith than to the external worship, the new sect, which
carefully concealed, or faintly announced, its future greatness and
ambition, was permitted to shelter itself under the general toleration
which was granted to an ancient and celebrated people in the Roman
empire. It was not long, perhaps, before the Jews themselves, animated
with a fiercer zeal and a more jealous faith, perceived the gradual
separation of their Nazarene brethren from the doctrine of the
synagogue; and they would gladly have extinguished the dangerous heresy
in the blood of its adherents. But the decrees of Heaven had already
disarmed their malice; and though they might sometimes exert the
licentious privilege of sedition, they no longer possessed the
administration of criminal justice; nor did they find it easy to infuse
into the calm breast of a Roman magistrate the rancor of their own zeal
and prejudice. The provincial governors declared themselves ready to
listen to any accusation that might affect the public safety; but as
soon as they were informed that it was a question not of facts but of
words, a dispute relating only to the interpretation of the Jewish laws
and prophecies, they deemed it unworthy of the majesty of Rome seriously
to discuss the obscure differences which might arise among a barbarous
and superstitious people. The innocence of the first Christians was
protected by ignorance and contempt; and the tribunal of the Pagan
magistrate often proved their most assured refuge against the fury of
the synagogue. If indeed we were disposed to adopt the traditions of a
too credulous antiquity, we might relate the distant peregrinations, the
wonderful achievements, and the various deaths of the twelve apostles:
but a more accurate inquiry will induce us to doubt, whether any of
those persons who had been witnesses to the miracles of Christ were
permitted, beyond the limits of Palestine, to seal with their blood the
truth of their testimony. From the ordinary term of human life, it may
very naturally be presumed that most of them were deceased before
the discontent of the Jews broke out into that furious war, which was
terminated only by the ruin of Jerusalem. During a long period, from
the death of Christ to that memorable rebellion, we cannot discover any
traces of Roman intolerance, unless they are to be found in the sudden,
the transient, but the cruel persecution, which was exercised by Nero
against the Christians of the capital, thirty-five years after the
former, and only two years before the latter, of those great events.
The character of the philosophic historian, to whom we are principally
indebted for the knowledge of this singular transaction, would alone be
sufficient to recommend it to our most attentive consideration.
In the tenth year of the reign of Nero, the capital of the empire was
afflicted by a fire which raged beyond the memory or example of former
ages. The monuments of Grecian art and of Roman virtue, the trophies of
the Punic and Gallic wars, the most holy temples, and the most splendid
palaces, were involved in one common destruction. Of the fourteen
regions or quarters into which Rome was divided, four only subsisted
entire, three were levelled with the ground, and the remaining seven,
which had experienced the fury of the flames, displayed a melancholy
prospect of ruin and desolation. The vigilance of government appears not
to have neglected any of the precautions which might alleviate the sense
of so dreadful a calamity. The Imperial gardens were thrown open to
the distressed multitude, temporary buildings were erected for their
accommodation, and a plentiful supply of corn and provisions was
distributed at a very moderate price. The most generous policy seemed to
have dictated the edicts which regulated the disposition of the streets
and the construction of private houses; and as it usually happens, in
an age of prosperity, the conflagration of Rome, in the course of a few
years, produced a new city, more regular and more beautiful than the
former. But all the prudence and humanity affected by Nero on this
occasion were insufficient to preserve him from the popular suspicion.
Every crime might be imputed to the assassin of his wife and mother; nor
could the prince who prostituted his person and dignity on the theatre
be deemed incapable of the most extravagant folly. The voice of rumor
accused the emperor as the incendiary of his own capital; and as the
most incredible stories are the best adapted to the genius of an
enraged people, it was gravely reported, and firmly believed, that
Nero, enjoying the calamity which he had occasioned, amused himself
with singing to his lyre the destruction of ancient Troy. To divert
a suspicion, which the power of despotism was unable to suppress,
the emperor resolved to substitute in his own place some fictitious
criminals. "With this view," continues Tacitus, "he inflicted the most
exquisite tortures on those men, who, under the vulgar appellation of
Christians, were already branded with deserved infamy. They derived
their name and origin from Christ, who in the reign of Tiberius had
suffered death by the sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate. For a
while this dire superstition was checked; but it again burst forth;
* and not only spread itself over JudÊa, the first seat of this
mischievous sect, but was even introduced into Rome, the common asylum
which receives and protects whatever is impure, whatever is atrocious.
The confessions of those who were seized discovered a great multitude
of their accomplices, and they were all convicted, not so much for the
crime of setting fire to the city, as for their hatred of human kind.
They died in torments, and their torments were imbittered by insult and
derision. Some were nailed on crosses; others sewn up in the skins of
wild beasts, and exposed to the fury of dogs; others again, smeared
over with combustible materials, were used as torches to illuminate
the darkness of the night. The gardens of Nero were destined for the
melancholy spectacle, which was accompanied with a horse-race and
honored with the presence of the emperor, who mingled with the populace
in the dress and attitude of a charioteer. The guilt of the Christians
deserved indeed the most exemplary punishment, but the public abhorrence
was changed into commiseration, from the opinion that those unhappy
wretches were sacrificed, not so much to the public welfare, as to the
cruelty of a jealous tyrant." Those who survey with a curious eye the
revolutions of mankind, may observe, that the gardens and circus of
Nero on the Vatican, which were polluted with the blood of the first
Christians, have been rendered still more famous by the triumph and by
the abuse of the persecuted religion. On the same spot, a temple, which
far surpasses the ancient glories of the Capitol, has been since erected
by the Christian Pontiffs, who, deriving their claim of universal
dominion from an humble fisherman of Galilee, have succeeded to the
throne of the CÊsars, given laws to the barbarian conquerors of Rome,
and extended their spiritual jurisdiction from the coast of the Baltic
to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
But it would be improper to dismiss this account of Nero's persecution,
till we have made some observations that may serve to remove the
difficulties with which it is perplexed, and to throw some light on the
subsequent history of the church.
1. The most sceptical criticism is obliged to respect the truth of this
extraordinary fact, and the integrity of this celebrated passage of
Tacitus. The former is confirmed by the diligent and accurate Suetonius,
who mentions the punishment which Nero inflicted on the Christians, a
sect of men who had embraced a new and criminal superstition. The latter
may be proved by the consent of the most ancient manuscripts; by the
inimitable character of the style of Tacitus by his reputation, which
guarded his text from the interpolations of pious fraud; and by the
purport of his narration, which accused the first Christians of the most
atrocious crimes, without insinuating that they possessed any miraculous
or even magical powers above the rest of mankind. 2. Notwithstanding it
is probable that Tacitus was born some years before the fire of Rome,
he could derive only from reading and conversation the knowledge of an
event which happened during his infancy. Before he gave himself to the
public, he calmly waited till his genius had attained its full maturity,
and he was more than forty years of age, when a grateful regard for
the memory of the virtuous Agricola extorted from him the most early of
those historical compositions which will delight and instruct the most
distant posterity. After making a trial of his strength in the life of
Agricola and the description of Germany, he conceived, and at length
executed, a more arduous work; the history of Rome, in thirty books,
from the fall of Nero to the accession of Nerva. The administration
of Nerva introduced an age of justice and propriety, which Tacitus had
destined for the occupation of his old age; but when he took a nearer
view of his subject, judging, perhaps, that it was a more honorable or
a less invidious office to record the vices of past tyrants, than to
celebrate the virtues of a reigning monarch, he chose rather to relate,
under the form of annals, the actions of the four immediate successors
of Augustus. To collect, to dispose, and to adorn a series of fourscore
years, in an immortal work, every sentence of which is pregnant with
the deepest observations and the most lively images, was an undertaking
sufficient to exercise the genius of Tacitus himself during the greatest
part of his life. In the last years of the reign of Trajan, whilst the
victorious monarch extended the power of Rome beyond its ancient limits,
the historian was describing, in the second and fourth books of his
annals, the tyranny of Tiberius; and the emperor Hadrian must have
succeeded to the throne, before Tacitus, in the regular prosecution of
his work, could relate the fire of the capital, and the cruelty of Nero
towards the unfortunate Christians. At the distance of sixty years, it
was the duty of the annalist to adopt the narratives of contemporaries;
but it was natural for the philosopher to indulge himself in the
description of the origin, the progress, and the character of the new
sect, not so much according to the knowledge or prejudices of the age
of Nero, as according to those of the time of Hadrian. 3 Tacitus very
frequently trusts to the curiosity or reflection of his readers to
supply those intermediate circumstances and ideas, which, in his extreme
conciseness, he has thought proper to suppress. We may therefore presume
to imagine some probable cause which could direct the cruelty of Nero
against the Christians of Rome, whose obscurity, as well as innocence,
should have shielded them from his indignation, and even from his
notice. The Jews, who were numerous in the capital, and oppressed in
their own country, were a much fitter object for the suspicions of the
emperor and of the people: nor did it seem unlikely that a vanquished
nation, who already discovered their abhorrence of the Roman yoke, might
have recourse to the most atrocious means of gratifying their implacable
revenge. But the Jews possessed very powerful advocates in the palace,
and even in the heart of the tyrant; his wife and mistress, the
beautiful PoppÊa, and a favorite player of the race of Abraham, who had
already employed their intercession in behalf of the obnoxious people.
In their room it was necessary to offer some other victims, and it might
easily be suggested that, although the genuine followers of Moses were
innocent of the fire of Rome, there had arisen among them a new and
pernicious sect of GalilÊans, which was capable of the most horrid
crimes. Under the appellation of GalilÊans, two distinctions of men
were confounded, the most opposite to each other in their manners
and principles; the disciples who had embraced the faith of Jesus of
Nazareth, and the zealots who had followed the standard of Judas the
Gaulonite. The former were the friends, the latter were the enemies, of
human kind; and the only resemblance between them consisted in the same
inflexible constancy, which, in the defence of their cause, rendered
them insensible of death and tortures. The followers of Judas, who
impelled their countrymen into rebellion, were soon buried under the
ruins of Jerusalem; whilst those of Jesus, known by the more celebrated
name of Christians, diffused themselves over the Roman empire. How
natural was it for Tacitus, in the time of Hadrian, to appropriate to
the Christians the guilt and the sufferings, * which he might, with far
greater truth and justice, have attributed to a sect whose odious memory
was almost extinguished! 4. Whatever opinion may be entertained of this
conjecture, (for it is no more than a conjecture,) it is evident that
the effect, as well as the cause, of Nero's persecution, was confined
to the walls of Rome, that the religious tenets of the GalilÊans or
Christians, were never made a subject of punishment, or even of inquiry;
and that, as the idea of their sufferings was for a long time connected
with the idea of cruelty and injustice, the moderation of succeeding
princes inclined them to spare a sect, oppressed by a tyrant, whose rage
had been usually directed against virtue and innocence.
It is somewhat remarkable that the flames of war consumed, almost at
the same time, the temple of Jerusalem and the Capitol of Rome; and it
appears no less singular, that the tribute which devotion had destined
to the former, should have been converted by the power of an assaulting
victor to restore and adorn the splendor of the latter. The emperors
levied a general capitation tax on the Jewish people; and although the
sum assessed on the head of each individual was inconsiderable, the use
for which it was designed, and the severity with which it was exacted,
were considered as an intolerable grievance. Since the officers of the
revenue extended their unjust claim to many persons who were strangers
to the blood or religion of the Jews, it was impossible that the
Christians, who had so often sheltered themselves under the shade of the
synagogue, should now escape this rapacious persecution. Anxious as
they were to avoid the slightest infection of idolatry, their conscience
forbade them to contribute to the honor of that dÊmon who had assumed
the character of the Capitoline Jupiter. As a very numerous though
declining party among the Christians still adhered to the law of Moses,
their efforts to dissemble their Jewish origin were detected by the
decisive test of circumcision; nor were the Roman magistrates at leisure
to inquire into the difference of their religious tenets. Among the
Christians who were brought before the tribunal of the emperor, or,
as it seems more probable, before that of the procurator of JudÊa, two
persons are said to have appeared, distinguished by their extraction,
which was more truly noble than that of the greatest monarchs. These
were the grandsons of St. Jude the apostle, who himself was the brother
of Jesus Christ. Their natural pretensions to the throne of David might
perhaps attract the respect of the people, and excite the jealousy of
the governor; but the meanness of their garb, and the simplicity of
their answers, soon convinced him that they were neither desirous
nor capable of disturbing the peace of the Roman empire. They frankly
confessed their royal origin, and their near relation to the Messiah;
but they disclaimed any temporal views, and professed that his kingdom,
which they devoutly expected, was purely of a spiritual and angelic
nature. When they were examined concerning their fortune and occupation,
they showed their hands, hardened with daily labor, and declared that
they derived their whole subsistence from the cultivation of a farm near
the village of Cocaba, of the extent of about twenty-four English acres,
and of the value of nine thousand drachms, or three hundred pounds
sterling. The grandsons of St. Jude were dismissed with compassion and
contempt.
But although the obscurity of the house of David might protect them
from the suspicions of a tyrant, the present greatness of his own
family alarmed the pusillanimous temper of Domitian, which could only be
appeased by the blood of those Romans whom he either feared, or hated,
or esteemed. Of the two sons of his uncle Flavius Sabinus, the elder was
soon convicted of treasonable intentions, and the younger, who bore
the name of Flavius Clemens, was indebted for his safety to his want
of courage and ability. The emperor for a long time, distinguished so
harmless a kinsman by his favor and protection, bestowed on him his own
niece Domitilla, adopted the children of that marriage to the hope
of the succession, and invested their father with the honors of the
consulship.
But he had scarcely finished the term of his annual magistracy, when, on
a slight pretence, he was condemned and executed; Domitilla was banished
to a desolate island on the coast of Campania; and sentences either of
death or of confiscation were pronounced against a great number of who
were involved in the same accusation. The guilt imputed to their charge
was that of Atheism and Jewish manners; a singular association of ideas,
which cannot with any propriety be applied except to the Christians, as
they were obscurely and imperfectly viewed by the magistrates and by
the writers of that period. On the strength of so probable an
interpretation, and too eagerly admitting the suspicions of a tyrant as
an evidence of their honorable crime, the church has placed both Clemens
and Domitilla among its first martyrs, and has branded the cruelty of
Domitian with the name of the second persecution. But this persecution
(if it deserves that epithet) was of no long duration. A few months
after the death of Clemens, and the banishment of Domitilla, Stephen, a
freedman belonging to the latter, who had enjoyed the favor, but who
had not surely embraced the faith, of his mistress, * assassinated
the emperor in his palace. The memory of Domitian was condemned by the
senate; his acts were rescinded; his exiles recalled; and under the
gentle administration of Nerva, while the innocent were restored to
their rank and fortunes, even the most guilty either obtained pardon or
escaped punishment.
II. About ten years afterwards, under the reign of Trajan, the younger
Pliny was intrusted by his friend and master with the government of
Bithynia and Pontus. He soon found himself at a loss to determine by
what rule of justice or of law he should direct his conduct in the
execution of an office the most repugnant to his humanity. Pliny had
never assisted at any judicial proceedings against the Christians,
with whose lame alone he seems to be acquainted; and he was totally
uninformed with regard to the nature of their guilt, the method of their
conviction, and the degree of their punishment. In this perplexity he
had recourse to his usual expedient, of submitting to the wisdom of
Trajan an impartial, and, in some respects, a favorable account of the
new superstition, requesting the emperor, that he would condescend to
resolve his doubts, and to instruct his ignorance. The life of Pliny had
been employed in the acquisition of learning, and in the business of the
world. Since the age of nineteen he had pleaded with distinction in the
tribunals of Rome, filled a place in the senate, had been invested with
the honors of the consulship, and had formed very numerous connections
with every order of men, both in Italy and in the provinces. From his
ignorance therefore we may derive some useful information. We may assure
ourselves, that when he accepted the government of Bithynia, there
were no general laws or decrees of the senate in force against the
Christians; that neither Trajan nor any of his virtuous predecessors,
whose edicts were received into the civil and criminal jurisprudence,
had publicly declared their intentions concerning the new sect; and that
whatever proceedings had been carried on against the Christians, there
were none of sufficient weight and authority to establish a precedent
for the conduct of a Roman magistrate.