natural vigor of his understanding, and the perfect honesty and
integrity of his mind, and his dauntless courage. Every day, and all the
day, is he to be found in the streets of Rome, sometimes in one quarter,
sometimes in another, gathering an audience of the passengers or idlers,
as it may be, and sounding in their ears the truths of the new religion.
That he, and others of the same character, deserve in all they do the
approbation of the Christian body, or receive it, is more than can be
said. They are often, by their violences in the midst of their
harangues, by harsh and uncharitable denunciations, by false and
exaggerated statements, the causes of tumult and disorder, and
contribute greatly to increase the general exasperation against us. With
them it seems to be a maxim, that all means are lawful in a good cause.
Nay, they seem rather to prefer the ruder and rougher forms of attack.
They seem possessed of the idea that the world is to be converted in a
day, and that if men will not at once relinquish the prejudices or the
faith of years, they are fit but for cursings and burnings. In setting
forth the mildest doctrine the world ever knew, delivered to mankind by
the gentlest, the most patient and compassionate being it ever saw they
assume a manner and use a language so entirely at variance with their
theme, that it is no wonder if prejudices are strengthened oftener than
they are set loose, incredulity made more incredulous, and the hardened
yet harder of heart. They who hear notice the discrepancy, and fail not
to make the use of it they may. When will men learn that the mind is a
fortress that can never be taken by storm? You may indeed enter it
rudely and by violence, and the signs of submission shall be made: but
all the elements of opposition are still there. Reason has not been
convinced; errors and misconceptions have not been removed, by a wise
and logical and humane dealing, and supplanted by truths well proved,
and shown to be truths;--and the victory is one in appearance only. And,
what is more, violence, on the part of the reformer and assailant,
begets violence on the other side. The whole inward man, with all his
feelings, prejudices, reason, is instantly put into a posture of
defence; not only of defence, for that were right, but of angry defence,
which is wrong. Passion is up, which might otherwise have slept; and it
is passion, never reason, which truth has to fear. The intellect in its
pure form, the advocate of truth would always prefer to meet, for he can
never feel sure of a single step made till this has been gained. But
intellect, inflamed by passion, he may well dread, as what there is but
small hope even of approaching, much less of convincing.
Often has Probus remonstrated with this order of men, but in vain. They
heed him not, but in return charge him with coldness and indifference,
worldliness, and all other associated faults. Especially has he labored
to preserve Macer from the extremes to which he has run; for he has seen
in him an able advocate of Christian truth, could he but be moderated
and restrained. But Macer, though he has conceived the strongest
affection for Probus, will not allow himself in this matter to be
influenced by him. He holds himself answerable to conscience and God
alone for the course he pursues. As for the consequences that may ensue,
either to himself or his family, his mind cannot entertain them. It is
for Christ he lives, and for Christ he is ready to die.
I had long wished to meet him and witness his manner both of acting and
of preaching, and yesterday I was fortunate enough to encounter him. I
shall give you, as exactly as I can, what took place; it will show you
better than many letters could do what, in one direction, are our
present position and prospects.
I was in the act of crossing the great avenue, which, on the south,
leads to the Forum, when I was arrested by a disorderly crowd, such as
we often see gathered suddenly in the street of a city about a thief who
has been caught, or a person who has been trodden down on the pavement.
It moved quickly in the direction of the tribunal of Varus, and, what
was my surprise, to behold Macer, in the midst, with head aloft, and
inflamed countenance, holding in his grasp, and dragging onwards, one,
who would willingly have escaped. The crowd seemed disposed, as I judged
by the vituperations that were directed against Macer, to interfere, but
were apparently deterred by both the gigantic form of Macer and their
vicinity to the tribunal, whither he was going. Waiting till they were
at some distance in advance of me, I then followed, determined to judge
for myself of this singular man. I was with them in the common hall
before the prefect had taken his seat. When seated at his tribunal, he
inquired the cause of the tumult, and who it was that wished to appeal
to him.
'I am the person,' said Macer; 'and I come to drag to justice this
miscreant--'
'And who may you be?'
'I should think Varus might recognize Macer.'
'It is so long since I met thee last at the Emperor's table, that thy
features have escaped me.'
At which, as was their duty, the attendant rabble laughed.
'Is there any one present,' continued the prefect, 'who knows this man?'
'Varus need apply to no other than myself,' said Macer. 'I am Macer, the
son of that Macer who was neighbor of the gladiator Pollex,--'
'Hold, I say,' interrupted the prefect; 'a man witnesses not here of
himself. Can any one here say that this man is not crazy or drunk?'
'Varus! prefect Varus--' cried Macer, his eyes flashing lightning, and
his voice not less than thunder; but he was again interrupted.
'Peace, slave! or rods shall teach thee where thou art.' And at the same
moment, at a sign from Varus, he was laid hold of with violence by
officials of the place armed with spears and rods, and held.
'What I wish to know then,' said Varus, turning to the crowd, 'is,
whether this is not the street brawler, one of the impious Gallileans, a
man who should long ago have been set in the stocks to find leisure for
better thoughts?'
Several testified, as was desired, that this was he.
'This is all I wish to know,' said the prefect. 'The man is either
without wits, or they are disordered, or else the pestilent faith he
teaches has made the nuisance of him he is, as it does of all who meddle
with it. It is scarcely right that he should be abroad. Yet has he
committed no offence that condemns him either to scourging or the
prison. Hearken therefore, fellow! I now dismiss thee without the
scourging thou well deservest; but, if thou keep on thy wild and lawless
way, racks and dungeons shall teach thee what there is in Roman justice.
Away with him!'
'Romans! Roman citizens!' cried Macer; 'are these your laws and this
your judge?--'
'Away with him, I say!' cried the prefect; and the officers of the
palace hurried him out of the hall.
As he went, a voice from the crowd shouted,
'Roman citizens, Macer, are long since dead. 'Tis a vain appeal.'
'I believe you,' replied Macer; 'tyrant and slave stand now for all who
once bore the proud name of Roman.'
This violence and injustice on the part of Varus must be traced--for
though capricious, and imperious, this is not his character--to the
language of Macer in the shop of Publius, and to his apprehension lest
the same references to his origin, which he would willingly have
forgotten, should be made, and perhaps more offensively still, in the
presence of the people. Probus, on the former occasion, lamented deeply
that Macer should have been tempted to rehearse in the way he did some
of the circumstances of the prefect's history, as its only end could be
to needlessly irritate the man of power, and raise up a bitterer enemy
than we might otherwise have found in him.
Upon leaving the tribunal, I was curious to watch still further the
movements of the Christian. The crowd about him increased rather than
diminished, as he left the building and passed into the street. At but a
little distance from the hall of the prefect, stands the Temple of
Peace, with its broad and lofty flights of steps. When Macer had reached
it he paused, and looked round upon the motley crowd that had gathered
about him.
'Go up! go up!' cried several voices. 'We will hear thee.'
'There is no prefect here,' cried another.
Macer needed no urging, but quickly strode up the steps, till he stood
between the central columns of the temple and his audience had disposed
themselves below him in every direction, when he turned and gazed upon
the assembled people, who had now--by the addition of such as passed
along, and who had no more urgent business than to attend to that of any
others whom they might chance to meet,--grown to a multitude. After
looking upon them for a space, as if studying their characters, and how
he could best adapt his discourse to their occasions, he suddenly and
abruptly broke out--
'You have asked me to come up here; and I am here; glad for once to be
in such a place by invitation. And now I am here, and am about to speak,
you will expect me to say something of the Christians.'
'Yes yes.'
'But I shall not--not yet. Perhaps by and by. In the meantime my theme
shall be the prefect! the prefect Varus!'
'A subject full of matter,' cried one near Macer.
'Better send for him,' said another. 'Twere a pity he lost it.'
'Yes,' continued Macer, 'it is a subject full of matter, and I wish
myself he were here to see himself in the mirror I would hold before
him; he could not but grow pale with affright. You have just had a
sample of Roman justice! How do you like it, Romans? I had gone there to
seek justice; not for a Christian, but against a Christian. A Christian
master had abused his slave with cruelty, I standing by; and when to my
remonstrance--myself feeling the bitter stripes he laid on--he did but
ply his thongs the more, I seized the hardened monster by the neck, and
wrenching from his grasp the lash, I first plied it upon his own back,
and then dragged him to the judgment-seat of Varus,--'
'O fool!'
'You say well--fool that I was, crying for justice! How I was dealt
with, some of you have seen. There, I say, was a sample of Roman justice
for you! So in these times does power sport itself with poverty. It was
not so once in Rome. Were Cincinnatus or Regulus at the tribunal of
Varus, they would fare like the soldier Macer. And who, Romans, is this
Varus? and why is he here in the seat of authority? At the tribunal,
Varus did not know me. But what if I were to tell you there was but a
thin wall between the rooms where we were born, and that when we were
boys we were ever at the same school!--not such schools as you are
thinking of, where the young go for letters and for Greek, but the
school where many of you have been and are now at, I dare say, the
school of Roman vice, which you may find always open all along the
streets, but especially where I and Varus were, in one of the sinks near
the Flavian. Pollex, the gladiator, was father of Varus!--not worse, but
just as bad, as savage, as beastly in his vices, as are all of that
butcher tribe. My father--Macer too--I will not say more of him than
that he was keeper of the Vivaria of the amphitheatre, and passed his
days in caging and uncaging the wild beasts of Asia and Africa; in
feeding them when there were no games on foot, and starving them when
there were. Varus, the prefect, Romans, and I, were at this school till
I joined the legions under Valerian, and he, by a luckier fortune, as it
would be deemed, found favor in the eyes of Gallienus, to whom, with his
fair sister Fannia, he was sold by those demons Pollex and Cæicina. I
say nothing of how it fared with him in that keeping. Fannia has long
since found the grave. Is Varus one who should sit at the head of Rome?
He is a man of blood, of crime, of vice, such as you would not bear to
be told of! I say not this as if he were answerable for his birth and
early vice, but that, being such, this is not his place. He could not
help it, nor I, that we were born and nurtured where we were; that the
sight of blood and the smell of it, either of men or beasts, was never
out of our eyes and nostrils, during all our boyhood and youth; that to
him, and me, the sweetest pleasure of our young life was, when the games
came on, and the beasts were let loose upon one another, and,--O the
hardening of that life!--when, specially, there were prisoners or
captives, on which to glut their raging hunger! Those were the days and
hours marked whitest in our calendar. And, whitest of all, were the days
of the Decian persecution, when the blood of thrice cursed Christians,
as I was taught to name them, flowed like water. Every day then Varus
and I had our sport; working up the beasts, by our torments, to an
unnatural height of madness ere they were let loose, and then rushing to
the gratings, as the doors were thrown open, to see the fury with which
they would spring upon their defenceless victims too, and tear them
piecemeal. The Romans required such servants--and we were they. They
require them now, and you may find any number of such about the
theatres. But if there must be such there, why should they be taken
thence and put upon the judgment-seat? save, for the reason, that they
may have been thoroughly purged, as it were, by fire--which Varus has
not been. What with him was necessary and forced when young, is now
chosen and voluntary. Vice is now his by election. Now, I ask, why has
the life of Varus been such? and why, being such, is he here? Because
you are so! Yes, because you are all like him! It is you, Roman
citizens, who rear the theatres, the circuses, and the thousand temples
of vice, which crowd the streets of Rome,--'
'No, no! it is the emperors.'
'But who make the emperors? You Romans of these times, are a race of
cowards and slaves, and it is therefore that tyrants rule over you. Were
you freemen, with the souls of freemen in you, do you think you would
bear as you do--and love and glory in the yoke--this rule of such
creatures as Varus, and others whom it were not hard to name? I know
what you are--for I have been one of you. I have not been, nor am I now,
hermit, as you may think, being a Christian. A Christian is a man of the
world--a man of action and of suffering--not of rest and sleep. I have
ever been abroad among men, both before I was a Christian and since; and
I know what you are. You are of the same stamp as Varus! nay, start not,
nor threaten with your eyes,--I fear you not. If you are not so, why, I
say, is Varus there? You know that I speak the truth. The people of Rome
are corrupt as their rulers! How should it be much otherwise? You are
fed by the largesses of the Emperor, you have your two loaves a day and
your pork, and you need not and so do not work. You have no employment
but idleness, and idleness is not so much a vice itself as the prolific
mother of all vices. When I was one of you, it was so; and so it is now.
My father's labor was nothing; he was kept by the state. The Emperor was
not more a man of pleasure than he, nor the princes, than I and Varus.
Was that a school of virtue? When I left the service of the amphitheatre
I joined the Legions. In the army I had work, and I had fighting, but my
passions, in the early days of that service, raged like the sea; and
during all the reign of Valerian's son there was no bridle upon
them;--for I served under the general Carinus, and what Carinus was and
is, most of you know. O the double horrors of those years! I was older,
and yet worse and worse. God! I marvel that thou didst not interpose and
strike me dead! But thy mercy spared me, and now the lowest, lowest hell
shall not be mine.' Tears, forced by these recollections, flowed down
his cheeks, and for a time he was speechless.
'Such, Romans, was I once. What am I now? I am a changed man--through
and through. There is not a thought of my mind, nor a fibre of my body,
what they were once. You may possibly think the change has been for the
worse, seeing me thus thrust forth from the tribunal of the prefect with
dishonor, when I was once a soldier and an officer under Aurelian. I
would rather a thousand times be what I am, a soldier of Jesus Christ.
And I would that, by anything I could do, you, any one of you, might be
made to think so too; I would that Varus might, for I bear him no ill
will.
'But what am I now? I am so different a man from what I once was, that I
can hardly believe myself to be the same. The life which I once led, I
would not lead again--no--not one day nor hour of it, though you would
depose Aurelian to day and crown me Cæsar to-morrow. I would no more
return to that life, than I would consent to lose my nature and take a
swine's, and find elysium where as a man I once did, in sinks and sties.
I would not renounce for the wealth of all the world, and its empire
too, that belief in the faith of Christ, the head of the Christians,
which has wrought so within me.
'And what has made me so--would make you so--if you would but hearken to
it. And would it not be a good thing if the flood of vice, which pours
all through the streets of Rome, were stayed? Would it not be a happy
thing, if the misery which dwells beneath these vaulted roofs and these
humbler ones equally, the misery which drunkenness and lust, the lust of
money, and the love of place, and every evil passion generates, were all
wiped away, and we all lived together observant of the rights of one
another, helping one another; not oppressing; loving, not hating;
showing in our conduct as men, the virtues of little children? Would it
not be happier if all this vast population were bound together by some
common ties of kindred; if all held all as brethren; if the poor man
felt himself to be the same as Aurelian himself, because he is a man
like him and weighs just as much as he in the scales of God, and that it
is the vice in the one or the other, and that only that sinks him lower?
Would it not be better, if you all could see in the presiding power of
the universe, one great and good Being, who needs not to be propitiated
by costly sacrifices of oxen or bulls, nor by cruel ones of men,--but is
always kindly disposed towards you, and desires nothing so much as to
see you living virtuously, and is never grieved as he is to see you
ruining your own peace,--not harming him--by your vices? for you will
bear witness with me that your vices are never a cause of happiness.
Would it not be better if you could behold such a God over you, in the
place of those who are called gods, and whom you worship, as I did
once, because I feared to do otherwise, and yet sin on never the less:
who are your patterns not so much in virtue as in all imaginable vice?'
'Away with the wicked!'--'Away with the fellow!' cried several voices;
but others predominated, saying, 'Let him alone!'--'He speaks well! We
will hear him!'--'We will defend him! go on, go on!'
'I have little or nothing more to say,' continued Macer. 'I will only
ask you whether you must not judge that to be a very powerful principle
of some kind that drew me up out of that foul pit into which I was
fallen, and made me what I am now? Which of you now feels that he has
motive strong enough to work out such a deliverance for him? What help
in this way do you receive from your priests, if perchance you ever
apply to them? What book of instructions concerning the will of the gods
have you, to which you can go at any time and all times? Only believe as
I do, Romans, and you will hate sin as I do. You cannot help it. Believe
in the God that I do, and in the revealer of his will, the teacher whom
he sent into the world to save us from our heathen errors and vices, and
you will then be more than the Romans you once were. You are now, and
you know it, infinitely less. Then you will be what the old Romans were
and more. You will be as brave as they, and more just. You will be as
generous and more gentle. You will love your own country as well, but
you will love others too. You will be more ready to offer up your lives
for your country, for it will be better worth dying for; every citizen
will be a brother; every ruler a brother; it will be like dying for
your own little household. If you would see Rome flourish, she must
become more pure. She can stagger along not much longer under this
mountain weight of iniquity that presses her into the dust. She needs a
new Hercules to cleanse her foul chambers. Christ is he; and if you will
invite him, he will come and sweep away these abominations, so that
imperial Rome shall smell fragrantly as a garden of spices.'
Loud exclamations of approval here interrupted Macer. The great
proportion of those who were present were now evidently with him, and
interested in his communications.
'Tell us,' cried one, as soon as the noise subsided, 'how you became
what you are? What is to be done?'
'Yes,' cried many voices, 'tell us.'
'I will tell you gladly,' answered Macer. 'I first heard the word of
truth from the lips of Probus, a preacher of the Christians, whom you
too may hear whenever you will, by seeking him out on the days when the
Christians worship. Probus was in early life a priest of the temple of
Jupiter, and if any man in Rome can place the two religions side by
side, and make the differences plain, it is he. Go to him such of you as
can, and you will never repent it. But if you would all learn the first
step toward Christian truth, and all truth, it is this; lay aside your
prejudices, be willing to see, hear, and judge for yourselves. Take not
rumor for truth. Do not believe without evidence both for and against.
You would not, without evidence and reason, charge Aurelian with the
death of Aurelia, though ten thousand tongues report it. Charge not the
Christians with worse things then, merely because the wicked and
ill-disposed maliciously invent them and spread them. If you would know
the whole truth and doctrine of Christians; if you would ascend to the
fountain-head of all Christian wisdom, take to your homes our sacred
books and read them. Some of you at least can obtain them. Let one
purchase, and then twenty or fifty read. One thing before I cease.
Believe not the wicked aspersions of the prefect. He charges me as a
brawler, a disturber of the peace and order of the city. Romans, believe
me, I am a lover of peace, but I am a lover of freedom too. Because I am
a lover of peace, and would promote it, do I labor to teach the
doctrines of Christ, which are doctrines of peace and love, both at home
and abroad, in the city and throughout the world; and because I am the
friend of freedom, do I open my mouth at all times and in every place,
wherever I can find those who, like you, are ready to hear the words of
salvation. When in Rome I can no longer speak--no longer speak for the
cause of what I deem truth, then will I no longer be a Roman. Then will
I that day renounce my name and my country. Thanks to Aurelian, he has
never chained up the tongue. I have fought and bled under him, and never
was there a braver man, or who honored courage more in others. I do not
believe he will ever do so cowardly a thing as to restrain the freedom
of men's speech. Aurelian is some things, but he is not others. He is
severe and cruel, but not mean. Cut Aurelian in two, and throw the
worser half away, and t'other is as royal a man as ever the world saw.
'One thing more, good friends and citizens: If I am sometimes carried
away by my passions to do that which seems a disturbance of the common
order, say that it is the soldier Macer that does it, not his Christian
zeal--his human passions, not his new-adopted faith. It is not at once
and perfectly that a man passes from one life to another; puts off one
nature and takes another. Much that belonged to Macer of the
amphitheatre, and Macer the soldier, cleaves to him now. But make not
his religion amenable for that. You who would see the law of Christ
written, not only on a book but in the character and life of a living
man, go read the Christian Probus.'
As he said these words he began to descend the steps of the temple; but
many crowded round him, assailing him, some with reproaches, and others
with inquiries put by those who seemed anxious to know the truth. The
voices of his opponents were the most violent and prevailed, and made me
apprehensive that they would proceed to greater length than speech. But
Macer stood firm, nothing daunted by the uproar. One, who signalized
himself by the loudness and fierceness of his cries, exclaimed, 'that he
was nothing else than an atheist like all the rest of the Christians;
they have no gods; they deny the gods of Rome, and they give us nothing
in their stead.'