8. Opposition to Christianity on the par_The Great Apostasy, Considered in the Light of Scriptural and Secular History

House of Israel was rather Judaistic than Jewish. The conflict was

between systems, not between peoples or nations. Christ was a Jew: His

apostles were Jews, and the disciples who constituted the body of the

Church at its establishment and throughout the early years of its

existence were largely Jews. Our Lord's instructions to the chosen

twelve on their first missionary tour restricted their ministry to the

House of Israel;--(See Matt. 10:5, 6.) and when the time was

propitious for extending the privileges of the gospel to the Gentiles,

a miraculous manifestation was necessary to convince the apostles that

such extension was proper.--(See Acts, chapters 10 and 11.) The Church

was at first exclusively and for a long time pre-eminently Jewish in

membership. Judaism, the religious system founded on the law of Moses,

was the great enemy of Christianity. When therefore we read of the

Jews opposing the Church, we understand that Judaistic Jews are

meant--defenders of Judaism as a system, upholders of the law and

enemies of the gospel. With this explanation of the distinction

between the Jews as a people and Judaism as a system, we may employ

the terms "Jews" and "Jewish" according to common usage, keeping in

mind, however, the true signification of the terms.

9. Judaistic opposition to the Church was predicted. While Jesus

ministered in the flesh He specifically and repeatedly warned the

apostles of the persecution they would have to meet. In answering

certain inquiries Christ said to Peter and others: "But take heed to

yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the

synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers

and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them."--(Mark 13:9;

compare Matt. 10:16-18; 24:9-13; Luke 21:12.)

10. Shortly before His betrayal the Lord repeated the warning with

solemn impressiveness, citing the persecutions to which He had been

subject, and declaring that His disciples could not escape: "If the

world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye

were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are

not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore

the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The

servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they

will also persecute you."--(John 15:18-20.)

11. The extreme of depravity to which the bigoted persecutors would

sink is set forth in these further words of the Savior: "They shall

put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever

killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things

will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor

me."--(John 16:2, 3; compare 9:22, and 12:42.)

12. These predictions had speedy and literal fulfilment. From the time

of the crucifixion, Jewish malignity and hatred were directed against

all who professed a belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ. In the

early stages of their ministry several of the apostles were

imprisoned--(Acts 5:18; compare 4:3.) and the priestly leaders sought

to take their lives.--(Acts 5:33.) Stephen was stoned to death because

of his testimony;--(See Acts 6:8-15; 7:54-60.) and the persecution

against the Church became general.--(See Acts 8:1.) James, the son of

Zebedee, was slain by order of Herod,--(Acts 12:1, 2.) and Peter was

saved from a similar fate only by a miraculous intervention.--(Verses

3:10.) The scriptural record informs us as to the ultimate fate of but

few of the apostles; and secular history is likewise incomplete. That

Peter would be numbered with the martyrs was made known by the

resurrected Lord.--(See John 21:18, 19.) Paul sets forth the fact that

the apostles lived in the very shadow of death--(I Cor. 4:9.) and that

persecution was their heritage.--(Verses 11-13; see also II Cor. 4:8,

9; 6:4, 5.)

13. Not only did the Jews wage relentless persecution against those of

their number who professed Christ, but they sought to stir up

opposition on the part of the Romans, and to accomplish this end

charged that the Christians were plotting treason against the Roman

government. Even during the personal ministry of the early apostles,

persecution of the saints had spread from Jerusalem, throughout

Palestine and into the adjacent provinces. In this evil work the Jews

sought to incite their own people living in the outlying parts, and

also to arouse the opposition of the officers and rulers of the Roman

dominions. As evidence of this phase of the persecution, partly Jewish

and partly pagan, instigated by Jews and participated in by others,

the following quotation from Mosheim may suffice:

14. "The Jews who lived out of Palestine, in the Roman provinces, did

not yield to those of Jerusalem in point of cruelty to the innocent

disciples of Christ. We learn from the history of the Acts of the

Apostles, and other records of unquestionable authority, that they

spared no labor, but zealously seized every occasion of animating the

magistrates against the Christians, and setting on the multitude to

demand their destruction. The high priest of the nation and the Jews

who dwelt in Palestine were instrumental in inciting the rage of these

foreign Jews against the infant Church, by sending messengers to

exhort them, not only to avoid all intercourse with the Christians,

but also to persecute them in the most vehement manner. For this

inhuman order they endeavored to find out the most plausible pretexts;

and therefore, they gave out that the Christians were enemies to the

Roman emperor, since they acknowledged the authority of a certain

person whose name was Jesus, whom Pilate had punished capitally as a

malefactor by a most righteous sentence, and on whom, nevertheless,

they conferred the royal dignity."--(Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical

History," Cent. I, Part I, 5:2.)

15. In the latter half of the first century, the scene of Judaistic

persecution of the church had shifted from Jerusalem to the outlying

provinces; and the cause of this was the general exodus of Christians

from the city whose destruction had been decreed.--(See Note 4, end of

chapter.) Our Lord's predictions as to the fate of Jerusalem and His

warnings to the people--(See Luke 21:5-9, 20-24.) had been very

generally heeded. Eusebius--(Eusebius, "Ecclesiastical History," Book

III, ch. 5.) informs us that the body of the Church had moved from

Jerusalem into the provinces beyond the Jordan, and thus largely

escaped the calamities of the Jews who remained.

NOTES

1. _Persecution in Different Dispensations_. It may be argued that,

judging from the history of the re-established Church in the present

dispensation, may tend to strengthen rather than to weaken the Church,

and that therefore violent opposition in earlier times cannot be

considered a true cause leading to final disruption. In reply it may

be said that the present is the dispensation of the fulness of

times,--a period in which the Church shall triumph, and during which

the powers of evil are limited and restrained in their opposition;

whereas the period of the apostasy was one of temporary victory for

Satan. Our belief in the eventual triumph of good over evil must not

blind us to the fact that evil is frequently allowed a short-lived

success, and a seeming victory. The permanency of the Latter-day

Church has been not less surely predicted than was the temporary

duration of the Primitive Church. Satan was given power to overcome

the saints in former days, and the persecutions he waged against them

and the officers of the Church contributed to his passing success. It

has been decreed that he shall not have power to destroy the Church in

the last dispensation, and his persecution of the saints today will be

futile as a means of bringing about a general apostasy in these latter

times.

2. _Persecution as a Possible Cause of Apostasy_. "Let it not be a

matter of surprise that I class those persecutions as among the means

through which the church was destroyed. The force of heathen rage was

aimed at the leaders and strong men of the body religious; and being

long-continued and relentlessly cruel, those most steadfast in their

adherence to the Church invariably became its victims. These being

stricken down, it left none but weaklings to contend for the faith,

and made possible those subsequent innovations in the religion of

Jesus which a pagan public sentiment demanded, and which so completely

changed both the spirit and form of the Christian religion as to

subvert it utterly. Let me further ask that no one be surprised that

violence is permitted to operate in such a case. The idea that the

right is always victorious in this world, that truth is always

triumphant and innocence always divinely protected, are old, fond

fables with which well-meaning men have amused credulous multitudes;

but the stern facts of history and actual experience in life correct

the pleasing delusion. Do not misunderstand me. I believe in the

ultimate victory of the right, the ultimate triumph of truth, the

final immunity of innocence from violence. These--innocence, truth and

the right--will be at the last more than conquerors; they will be

successful in the war, but that does not prevent them from losing some

battles. It should be remembered always that God has given to man his

agency; and that fact implies that one man is as free to act wickedly

as another is to do righteousness. Cain was as free to murder his

brother as that brother was to worship God; and so the pagans and Jews

were as free to persecute and murder the Christians as the Christians

were to live virtuously and worship Christ as God. The agency of man

would not be worth the name if it did not grant liberty to the wicked

to fill the cup of their iniquity, as well as liberty to the virtuous

to round out the measure of their righteousness. Such perfect liberty

or agency God has given man; and it is only so variously modified as

not so thwart His general purposes." (B. H. Roberts, "A New Witness

for God," pp. 47, 48.)

3. _Early Persecutions by the Jews_. "The innocence and virtue that

distinguished so eminently the lives of Christ's servants the

apostles, the purity of the doctrine they taught, were not sufficient

to defend them against the virulence and malignity of the Jews. The

priests and rulers of that abandoned people not only loaded with

injuries and reproach the apostles of Jesus and their disciples, but

condemned as many of them as they could to death, and executed in the

most irregular and barbarous manner their decrees. The murder of

Stephen, of James the son of Zebedee, and of James surnamed the Just,

bishop of Jerusalem, furnished dreadful examples of the truth of what

we here advance. This odious malignity of the Jewish doctors against

the heralds of the gospel, was undoubtedly owing to a secret

apprehension that the progress of Christianity would destroy the

credit of Judaism, and bring on the ruin of their pompous ceremonies."

In a footnote to the foregoing, references appear as follows. "The

martyrdom of Stephen is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles 7:55; and

that of James the son of Zebedee, Acts 12:1, 2, and that of James the

Just, bishop of Jerusalem, is mentioned by Josephus in his Jewish

Antiquities, book XX, chap. 8; and by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical

History, book II, chap. 23."--(Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical History,"

Cent. I, Part I, 5:1.)

4. _Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans_. "A rebellious disturbance

among the Jews gave a semblance of excuse for a terrible chastisement

to be visited upon them by their Roman masters, which culminated in

the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 71. The city fell after a six

months' siege before the Roman arms led by Titus, son of the Emperor

Vespasian. Josephus, the famous historian, to whom we owe most of our

knowledge as to the details of the struggle, was himself a resident in

Galilee and was carried to Rome among the captives. From his record we

learn that nearly a million Jews lost their lives through the famine

incident to the siege; many more were sold into slavery, and uncounted

numbers were forced into exile. The city was utterly destroyed, and

the site upon which the temple had stood was plowed up by the Romans

in their search for treasure. Thus literally were the words of Christ

fulfilled, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that

shall not be thrown down.--(Matt. 24:1, 2; see also Luke 19:44.)" (The

Author, "The Articles of Faith," Lecture 17:18.)

CHAPTER V.

**Causes of Apostasy.--External Causes, Continued**.

1. As already pointed out, it is convenient to study the causes

leading to the great apostasy as belonging to two classes, external

and internal, or (1) causes due to conditions operating against the

Church from without; and (2) causes arising from dissension and heresy

within the Church itself. We have summarized external causes under

the general term persecution; and we have drawn a distinction between

Judaistic and pagan persecution waged against the Church. Having dealt

with the opposition suffered by the early Christians at the hands of

the Jews or through Jewish instigation, we have now to consider the

persecution brought upon the believers in Christ by pagan nations.

**Pagan Persecution**.

2. The term "pagan" as here used may be taken as a synonym of

"heathen," and is to be understood as referring to persons or peoples

who did not believe in the existence of the living God, and whose

worship was essentially idolatrous. The motives impelling

non-believing Jews to oppose the establishment and spread of

Christianity may readily be understood, in view of the fact that the

religion taught by Christ appeared as a rival of Judaism, and that the

growth and spread of one meant the decline if not the extinction of

the other. The immediate motive leading to bitter and widespread

persecution of the Christians by heathen peoples is not so easy to

perceive, since there was no uniform system of idolatrous worship in

any single nation, but a vast diversity of deities and cults of

idolatry, to no one of which was Christianity opposed more than to

all. Yet we find the worshipers of idols forgetting their own

differences and uniting in opposition to the gospel of peace,--in

persecution waged with incredible ferocity and indescribable

cruelty.--(See Note 1, end of chapter.)

3. Unfortunately, historians differ widely in their records of

persecution of Christians, according to the point of view from which

each writer wrote. Thus, in a general way, Christian authors have

given extreme accounts of the sufferings to which the Church and its

adherents individually were subjected; while non-Christian historians

have sought to lessen and minimize the extent and severity of the

cruelties practiced against the Christians. There are facts, however,

which neither party denies, and to which both give place in their

separate records. To make a fair interpretation of these facts,

drawing just and true inferences therefrom, should be our purpose.

4. Among pagan persecutors of the Church, the Roman empire is the

principal aggressor. This may appear strange in view of the general

tolerance exercised by Rome toward her tributary peoples; indeed, the

real cause of Roman opposition to Christianity has given rise to many

conjectures. It is probable that intolerant zeal on the part of the

Christians themselves had much to do with their unpopularity among

heathen nations. This subject is conservatively summed up by Mosheim

as follows:

5. "A very natural curiosity calls us to inquire, how it happened that

the Romans, who were troublesome to no nation on account of their

religion, and who suffered even the Jews to live under their own laws,

and follow their own methods of worship, treated the Christians alone

with such severity. This important question seems still more difficult

to be solved, when we consider, that the excellent nature of the

Christian religion, and its admirable tendency to promote both the

public welfare of the state, and the private felicity of the

individual, entitled it, in a singular manner, to the favor and

protection of the reigning powers. One of the principal reasons of the

severity with which the Romans persecuted the Christians,

notwithstanding these considerations, seems to have been the

abhorrence and contempt with which the latter regarded the religion of

the empire, which was so intimately connected with the form, and

indeed, with the very essence of its political constitution. For,

though the Romans gave an unlimited toleration to all religions which

had nothing in their tenets dangerous to the commonwealth, yet they

would not permit that of their ancestors, which was established by the

laws of the state, to be turned into derision nor the people to be

drawn away from their attachment to it. These, however, were the two

things which the Christians were charged with, and that justly, though

to their honor. They dared to ridicule the absurdities of the pagan

superstition, and they were ardent and assiduous in gaining proselytes

to the truth. Nor did they only attack the religion of Rome, but also

all the different shapes and forms under which superstition appeared

in the various countries where they exercised their ministry. From

this the Romans concluded, that the Christian sect was not only

insupportably daring and arrogant, but, moreover, an enemy to the

public tranquillity, and every way proper to excite civil wars and

commotions in the empire. It is probably on this account that Tacitus

reproaches them with the odious character of haters of mankind, and

styles the religion of Jesus as destructive superstition; and that

Suetonious speaks of the Christians and their doctrine in terms of the

same kind.

6. "Another circumstance that irritated the Romans against the

Christians, was the simplicity of their worship, which resembled in

nothing the sacred rites of any other people. The Christians had

neither sacrifices, nor temples, nor images, nor oracles, nor

sacerdotal orders; and this was sufficient to bring upon them the

reproaches of an ignorant multitude, who imagined that there could be

no religion without these."--(Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. 1, Part 1,

ch. 5:6, 7.)

7. Persecution of the Church by Roman authority may be said to have

begun in the reign of Nero (A. D. 64) and to have continued to the

close of Diocletian's reign (A. D. 305.) Within this range of time

there were many periods of diminished severity, if not of comparative

tranquillity; nevertheless, the Church was the object of heathen

oppression for about two and a half centuries. Attempts have been made

by Christian writers to segregate the persecutions into ten distinct

and separate onslaughts; and some profess to find a mystic relation

between the ten persecutions thus classified, and the ten plagues of

Egypt, as also an analogy with the ten horns mentioned by John the

Revelator.--(See Rev. 17:14.) As a matter of fact attested by history,

the number of persecutions of unusual severity was less than ten;

while the total of all, including local and restricted assaults, would

be much greater.--(See Note 2, end of chapter.)

8. _Persecution under Nero_. The first extended and notable

persecution of Christians under the official edict of a Roman emperor

was that instigated by Nero, A. D. 64. As students of history know,

this monarch is remembered mostly for his crimes. During the latter

part of his infamous reign, a large section of the city of Rome was

destroyed by fire. He was suspected by some of being responsible for

the disaster; and, fearing the resentment of the infuriated people, he

sought to implicate the unpopular and much-maligned Christians as the

incendiaries, and by torture tried to force a confession from them. As

to what followed the foul accusation, let us consider the words of a

non-Christian writer, Tacitus, whose integrity as a historian is held

in esteem.

9. "With this view, he (Nero) 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 Judea, 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 that 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 embittered by insults 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 punishments, 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."--(Tacitus, Annals,

Book 15, ch. 44.)

10. There is some disagreement among historians as to whether the

Neronian persecution is to be regarded as a local infliction,

practically confined to the city of Rome, or as general throughout the

provinces.--(See Note 3, end of chapter.) The consensus of opinion

favors the belief that the provinces followed the example of the

metropolis, and that the persecution was common throughout the Church.

11. This, the first persecution by Roman edict, practically ended with

the death of the tyrant Nero, A. D. 68. According to tradition handed

down from the early Christian writers, the Apostles Paul and Peter

suffered martyrdom at Rome, the former by beheading, the latter by

crucifixion, during this persecution; and it is further stated that

Peter's wife was put to death shortly before her husband; but the

tradition is neither confirmed nor disproved by authentic record.

12. _Persecution under Domitian_. The second officially appointed

persecution under Roman authority began 93 or 94 A. D. in the reign of

Domitian. Both Christians and Jews came under this prince's

displeasure, because they refused to reverence the statues he had

erected as objects of adoration. A further cause for his special

animosity against Christians, as affirmed by early writers, is as

follows. The emperor was persuaded that he was in danger of losing his

throne, in view of a reputed prediction that from the family to which

Jesus belonged there would arise one who would weaken if not overthrow

the power of Rome. With this as his ostensible excuse, this wicked

ruler waged terrible destruction on an innocent people. Happily, the

persecution thus started was of but few years duration. Mosheim and

others aver that the end of the persecution was caused by the

emperor's untimely death; though Eusebius, who wrote in the fourth

century, quotes an earlier writer as declaring that Domitian had the

living descendants of the Savior's family brought before him, and that

after questioning them he became convinced that he was in no danger

from them; and thereupon dismissed them with contempt and ordered the

persecution to cease. It is believed that while the edict of Domitian

was in force the Apostle John suffered banishment to the isle of

Patmos.

13. _Persecution under Trajan_. What is known in ecclesiastical

history as the third persecution of the Christian Church took place in

the reign of Trajan, who occupied the imperial throne from 98 to 117

A. D. He was and is regarded as one of the best of the Roman emperors,

yet he sanctioned violent persecution of the Christians owing to their

"inflexible obstinacy" in refusing to sacrifice to Roman gods. History

has preserved to us a very important letter asking instructions from

the emperor, by the younger Pliny, who was governor of Pontus, and the

emperor's reply thereto. This correspondence is instructive as showing

the extent to which Christianity had spread at that time, and the way

in which believers were treated by the officers of the state.

14. Pliny inquired of the emperor as to the policy to be pursued in

dealing with the Christians within his jurisdiction. Were young and

old, tender and robust, to be treated alike, or should punishment be

graded? Should opportunity be given the accused to recant, or was the

fact that they had once professed Christianity to be considered an

unpardonable offense? Were those convicted as Christians to be

punished for their religion alone, or only for specific offenses

resulting from their membership in the Christian Church? After

propounding such queries the governor proceeded to report to the

emperor what he had done in the absence of definite instructions. In

reply the emperor directed that the Christians were not to be hunted

nor sought after vindictively, but if accused and brought before the

judgment seat, and if then they refused to denounce their faith, they

were to be put to death.--(See Note 4, end of chapter.)

15. _Persecution under Marcus Aurelius_. Marcus Aurelius reigned from

161 to 180 A. D. He was noted as one who sought the greatest good of

his people; yet under his government the Christians suffered added

cruelties. Persecution was most severe in Gaul (now France.) Among

those who met the martyr's fate at that time, were Polycarp, bishop of

Smyrna, and Justin Martyr, known in history as the philosopher. With

reference to the seeming anomaly that even the best of rulers

permitted and even prosecuted vigorous opposition to Christian

devotees, as exemplified by the acts of this emperor, a modern writer

has said: "It should be noted that the persecution of the Christians

under the pagan emperors sprung from political rather than religious

motives, and that is why we find the names of the best emperors, as

well as those of the worst, in the list of persecutors. It was

believed that the welfare of the state was bound up with the careful

performance of the rites of the national worship; and hence, while the

Roman rulers were usually very tolerant allowing all forms of worship

among their subjects, still they required that men of every faith

should at least recognize the Roman gods, and burn incense before

their statues. This the Christians steadily refused to do. Their

neglect of the service of the temple, it was believed, angered the

gods, and endangered the safety of the state, bringing upon it

drought, pestilence, and every disaster. This was the main reason of

their persecution by the pagan emperors."--(General History by P. V.

N. Myers, edition of 1889, p. 322.)

16. _Later Persecutions_. With occasional periods of partial

cessation, the Christian believers continued to suffer at the hands of

heathen opponents throughout the second and third centuries. A violent

persecution marked the reign of Severus (193-211 A. D.) in the first

decade of the third century; another characterized the reign of

Maximin (235-238 A. D.) A period of unusual severity in persecution

and suffering befell the Christians during the short reign of Decius

known also as Decius Trajan (219-251 A. D.) The persecution under

Decius is designated in ecclesiastical history as the seventh

persecution of the Christian Church. Others followed in rapid

succession. Some of these periods of specific oppression we pass over

and come to the consideration of the

17. _Diocletian Persecution_, which is spoken of as the tenth, and

happily the last. Diocletian reigned from 284 to 305 A. D. At first he

was very tolerant toward Christian belief and practice; indeed it is

of record that his wife and daughter were Christians, though "in some

sense, secretly." Later, however, he turned against the Church and

undertook to bring about a total suppression of the Christian

religion. To this end he ordered a general destruction of Christian

books, and decreed the penalty of death against all who kept such

works in their possession.

18. Fire broke out twice in the royal palace at Nicomedia, and on each

occasion the incendiary act was charged against the Christians with

terrible results. Four separate edicts, each surpassing in vehemence

the earlier decrees, were issued against the believers; and for a

period of ten years they were the victims of unrestrained rapine,

spoliation and torture. At the end of the decade of terror the Church

was in a scattered and seemingly in a hopeless condition. Sacred

records had been burnt; places of worship had been razed to the

ground; thousands of Christians had been put to death; and every

possible effort had been made to destroy the Church and abolish

Christianity from the earth. Descriptions of the horrible extremes to

which brutality was carried are sickening to the soul. A single

example must suffice. Eusebius, referring to the persecutions in

Egypt, says: "And such too was the severity of the struggle which was

endured by the Egyptians, who wrestled gloriously for the faith at

Tyre. Thousands, both men, and women and children, despising the

present life for the sake of our Savior's doctrine, submitted to death

in various shapes. Some, after being tortured with scrappings and the

rack, and the most dreadful scourgings, and other innumerable agonies

which one might shudder to hear, were finally committed to the flames;

and some plunged and drowned in the sea, others voluntarily offering

their own heads to their executioners, others dying in the midst of

their torments, some wasted away by famine, and others again fixed to

the cross. Some, indeed, were executed as malefactors usually were;

others, more cruelly, were nailed with the head downwards, and kept

alive until they were destroyed by starving on the cross

itself."--(Eusebius, "Eccl. Hist.," Book 8, ch. 8.)

19. A modern writer, whose tendency ever was to minimize the extent of

Christian persecution, is Edward Gibbon. His account of the conditions

prevailing during this period of Diocletian outrage is as follows:

"The magistrates were commanded to employ every method of severity

which might reclaim them from their odious superstition, and oblige

them to return to the established worship of the gods. This rigorous

order was extended, by a subsequent edict, to the whole body of

Christians, who were exposed to a violent and general persecution.

Instead of those salutary restraints which had required the direct and

solemn testimony of an accuser, it became the duty as well as the

interest of the imperial officers to discover, to pursue, and to

torment the most obnoxious among the faithful. Heavy penalties were

denounced against all who should presume to save a proscribed sectary

from the just indignation of the gods and of the emperors."--(Gibbon,

"Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," ch. XVI.)

20. So general was the Diocletian persecution, and so destructive its

effect, that at its cessation the Christian Church was thought to be

forever extinct. Monuments were raised to commemorate the emperor's

zeal as a persecutor, notably two pillars erected in Spain. On one of

them is an inscription extolling the mighty Diocletian "_For having

extinguished the name of Christians who brought the Republic to

ruin_." A second pillar commemorates the reign of Diocletian, and

honors the imperator "_for having everywhere abolished the

superstition of Christ; for having extended the worship of the gods_."

A medal struck in honor of Diocletian bears the inscription "_The name

of Christian being extinguished_."--(Milner, "Church History," Cent.

IV, ch. 1:38.) To the fallacy of these assumptions subsequent events

testify.

21. The Diocletian oppression was the last of the great persecutions

brought by pagan Rome against Christianity as a whole. A stupendous

change, amounting to a revolution, now appears in the affairs of the

Church. Constantine, known in history as Constantine the Great, became

emperor of Rome A. D. 306, and reigned 31 years. Early in his reign he

espoused the hitherto unpopular cause of the Christians, and took the

Church under official protection. A legend gained currency that the

emperor's conversion was due to a supernatural manifestation, whereby

he saw a luminous cross appear in the heavens with the inscription,

"By this sign, conquer." The genuineness of this alleged manifestation

is doubtful, and the evidence of history is against it. The incident

is here mentioned to show the means devised to make Christianity

popular at the time.

22. It is held by many judicious historians that Constantine's

so-called conversion was rather a matter of policy than a sincere

acceptance of the truth of Christianity. The emperor himself remained

a catechumen, that is, an unbaptized believer, until shortly before

his death, when he became a member by baptism. But, whatever his

motives may have been, he made Christianity the religion of state,

issuing an official decree to this effect in 313. "He made the cross

the royal standard; and the Roman legions now for the first time

marched beneath the emblem of Christianity." (Myers.)

23. Immediately following the change there was a great competition for

church preferment. The office of a bishop came to be more highly

esteemed than the rank of a general. The emperor himself was the real

head of the Church. It became unpopular and decidedly disadvantageous

in a material sense to be known as a non-Christian. Pagan temples were

transformed into churches, and heathen idols were demolished. We read

that twelve thousand men and a proportionate number of women and

children were baptized into the Church of Rome alone within a single

year. Constantine removed the capital of the empire from Rome to

Byzantium, which city he re-named after himself, Constantinople. This,

the present capital of Turkey, became headquarters of the state

Church.

24. How empty and vain appears the Diocletian boast that Christianity

was forever extinguished! Yet how different was the Church under the

patronage of Constantine from the Church as established by Christ and

as built up by His apostles! The Church had already become apostate as

judged by the standard of its original constitution.

NOTES.

1. _Cause of Pagan Opposition to Christianity_. "The whole body of

Christians unanimously refused to hold any communion with the gods of

Rome, of the empire, and of mankind. It was in vain that the oppressed

believer asserted the inalienable rights of conscience and private

judgment. Though his situation might excite the pity, his arguments

could never reach the understanding, either of the philosophic or of

the believing part of the pagan world. To their apprehensions, it was

no less a matter of surprise that any individuals should entertain

scruples against complying with the established mode of worship, than

if they had conceived a sudden abhorrence to the manners, the dress,

or the language of their native country. The surprise of the pagans

was soon succeeded by resentment; and the most pious of men were

exposed to the unjust but dangerous imputation of impiety. Malice and

prejudice concurred in representing the Christians as a society of

atheists, who, by the most daring attack on the religious constitution

of the empire, had merited the severest animadversion of the civil

magistrate. They had separated themselves (they gloried in the

confession) from every mode of superstition which was received in any

part of the globe by the various temper of polytheism; but it was not

altogether so evident what deity or what form of worship they had

substituted to the gods and temples of antiquity. The pure and sublime

idea which they entertained of the Supreme Being escaped the gross

conception of the pagan multitude, who were at a loss to discover a

spiritual and solitary God, that was neither represented under any

corporeal figures or visible symbol, nor was adored with the

accustomed pomp of libations and festivals, of altars and sacrifices."

(Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chap. XVI.)

2. _As to the Number of Persecutions by the Romans_. "The Romans are

said to have pursued the Christians with the utmost violence in ten

persecutions, but this number is not verified by the ancient history

of the church. For if, by these persecutions, such only are meant as

were singularly severe and universal throughout the empire, then it is

certain that these amount not to the number above mentioned. And, if

we take the provincial and less remarkable persecutions into the

account, they far exceed it. In the fifth century, certain Christians

(were) led by some passages of the holy scriptures and by one

especially in the Revelations (Rev. 17:14), to imagine that the church

was to suffer ten calamities of a most grievous nature. To this

notion, therefore, they endeavored, though not all in the same way, to

accommodate the language of history, even against the testimony of

those ancient records, from whence alone history can speak with

authority." (Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical History," Cent. I, Part I; ch.

5:4.)

Speaking on the same subject, Gibbon says: "As often as any occasional

severities were exercised in the different parts of the empire, the

primitive Christians lamented and perhaps magnified their own

sufferings; but the celebrated number of ten persecutions has been

determined by the ecclesiastical writers of the fifth century, who

possessed a more distinct view of the prosperous or adverse fortunes

of the church from the age of Nero to that of Diocletian. The

ingenious parallels of the ten plagues of Egypt and of the ten horns

of the Apocalypse first suggested this calculation of their minds; and

in their application of the faith of prophecy to the truth of history

they were careful to select those reigns which were indeed the most

hostile to the Christian cause." (Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the

Roman Empire," ch. XVI.)

3. _Extent of the Neronian Persecution_. "Learned men are not entirely

agreed concerning the extent of this persecution under Nero. Some

confine it to the city of Rome, while others represent it as having

raged throughout the whole empire. The latter opinion, which is also

the most ancient, is undoubtedly to be preferred; as it is certain

that the laws enacted against the Christians were enacted against the

whole body, and not against particular churches, and were consequently

in force in the remotest provinces." (Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical

History," Cent. I. Part I, 5:14.)

4. _Correspondence Between Pliny and Trajan_. The inquiry of the

younger Pliny, governor of Pontus, addressed to Trajan, emperor of

Rome, and the imperial reply thereto, are of such interest as to be

worthy of reproduction in full. The version here given is that of

Milner as appears in his "History of the Church of Christ," edition of

1810, Cent. II, ch. 1.

"_Pliny to Trajan, Emperor_:

"Health.--It is my usual custom, Sir, to refer all things, of which I

harbor any doubts, to you. For who can better direct my judgment in

its hesitation, or instruct my understanding in its ignorance? I never

had the fortune to be present at any examination of Christians, before

I came into this province. I am therefore at a loss to determine what

is the usual object either of inquiry or of punishment, and to what

length either of them is to be carried. It has also been with me a

question very problematical,--whether any distinction should be made

between the young and the old, the tender and the robust;--whether any

room should be given for repentance, or the guilt of Christianity once

incurred is not to be expiated by the most unequivocal retraction;--

whether the name itself, abstracted from any flagitiousness of

conduct, or the crimes connected with the name, be the object of

punishment. In the meantime, this has been my method, with respect to

those who were brought before me as Christians. I asked them whether

they were Christians: if they pleaded guilty, I interrogated then

twice afresh with a menace of capital punishment. In case of obstinate

perseverance I ordered them to be executed. For of this I had no

doubt, whatever was the nature of their religion, that a sudden and

obstinate inflexibility called for the vengeance of the magistrate.

Some were infected with the same madness, whom, on account of their

privilege of citizenship, I reserved to be sent to Rome, to be

referred to your tribunal. In the course of this business,

informations pouring in, as is usual when they are encouraged, more

cases occurred. An anonymous libel was exhibited, with a catalogue of

names of persons, who yet declared that they were not Christians then,

nor ever had been; and they repeated after me an invocation of the

gods and of your image, which, for this purpose, I had ordered to be

brought with the images of the deities. They performed sacred rites

with wine and frankincense, and execrated Christ,--none of which

things I am told a real Christian can ever be compelled to do. On this

account I dismissed them. Others named by an informer, first affirmed,

and then denied the charge of Christianity; declaring that they had

been Christians, but had ceased to be so some three years ago, others

even longer, some even twenty years ago. All of them worshiped your

image, and the statues of the gods, and also execrated Christ. And

this was the account which they gave of the nature of the religion

they had once professed, whether it deserves the name of crime or

error,--namely--that they were accustomed on a stated day to meet

before daylight, and to repeat among themselves a hymn to Christ as to

a god, and to bind themselves by an oath, with an obligation of not

committing any wickedness;--but on the contrary, of abstaining from

thefts, robberies, and adulteries;--also of not violating their

promise or denying a pledge;--after which it was their custom to

separate, and to meet again at a promiscuous harmless meal, from which

last practice they however desisted, after the publication of my

edict, in which, agreeably to your order, I forbade any societies of

that sort. On which account I judged it the more necessary to inquire,

by torture, from two females, who were said to be deaconesses, what is

the real truth. But nothing could I collect except a depraved and

excessive superstition. Deferring, therefore, any further

investigation, I determined to consult you. For the number of culprits

is so great as to call for serious consultation. Many persons are

informed against of every age and of both sexes; and more still will

be in the same situation. The contagion of the superstition hath

spread not only through cities, but even villages and the country. Not

that I think it impossible to check and correct it. The success of my

endeavors hitherto forbids such desponding thoughts; for the temples,

almost once desolate, begin to be frequented, and the sacred

solemnities, which had long been intermitted, are now attended afresh;

and the sacrificial victims are now sold everywhere, which once could

scarcely find a purchaser. Whence I conclude that many might be

reclaimed were the hope of impunity, on repentance, absolutely

confirmed."

The emperor's reply follows:

"_Trajan to Pliny_:

"You have done perfectly right, my dear Pliny, in the inquiry which

you have made concerning Christians. For truly no one general rule can

be laid down, which will apply itself to all cases. These people must

not be sought after. If they are brought before you and convicted, let

them be capitally punished, yet with this restriction, that if any one

renounce Christianity, and evidence his sincerity by supplicating our

gods, however suspected he may be for the past, he shall obtain pardon

for the future, on his repentance. But anonymous libels in no case

ought to be attended to; for the precedent would be of the worst sort,

and perfectly incongruous to the maxims of my government."

CHAPTER VI.

**Causes of the Apostasy.--Internal Causes**.

1. The cruel persecution to which the adherents of Christianity and

the Church as an organized body were subjected during the first three

centuries of our era have been treated as external causes,

contributing at least indirectly to the general apostasy. Details of

Judaistic and heathen opposition have been given with sufficient

fulness to show that the unpopular Church had a troubled existence,

and that such of its members as remained faithful to the tenets and

principles of the gospel were martyrs in spirit if not in fact.

2. As would naturally be expected, the immediate effect of persistent

persecution on those who professed a belief in the divinity of the

Lord Jesus was diverse and varied; indeed it ranged from unrestrained

enthusiasm expressed in frenzied clamoring for martyrdom, to ready and

abject apostasy with ostentatious display of devotion in idolatrous

service.

3. Many of the Christian devotees developed a zeal amounting to mania,

and, disregarding all prudence and discretion, gloried in the prospect

of winning the martyr's crown. Some who had been left unassailed felt

themselves aggrieved, and became their own accusers; while others

openly committed acts of aggression with intent to bring resentment

upon themselves.--(See Note 1, end of chapter.) These extravagances

were doubtless encouraged by the excessive veneration accorded the

memories and the bodily remains of those who had fallen as victims in

the cause. The reverential respect so rendered developed later into

the impious practice of martyr worship.

4. Commenting on the imprudent enthusiasm of the early Christians,

Gibbon says: "The Christians sometimes supplied by their voluntary

declaration the want of an accuser, rudely disturbed the public

service of paganism, and, rushing in crowds round the tribunal of the

magistrates, called upon them to pronounce and to inflict the sentence

of the law. The behavior of the Christians was too remarkable to

escape the notice of the ancient philosophers; but they seem to have

received it with much less admiration than astonishment. Incapable of

conceiving the motives which sometimes transported the fortitude of

believers beyond the bounds of prudence and reason, they treated such

an eagerness to die as the strange result of obstinate despair, of

stupid insensibility or of superstitious frenzy."--(Gibbon, "Decline

and Fall of the Roman Empire," ch. XVI.)

5. But there is another side to the picture. While imprudent zealots

invited dangers from which they might have remained exempt, others,

affrighted at the possibility of being included among the victims,

voluntarily deserted the Church and returned to heathen allegiances.

Milner, speaking of conditions existing in the third century, and

incorporating the words of Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who lived at

the time of the incident described, says: "Vast numbers lapsed into

idolatry immediately. Even before men were accused as Christians, many

ran to the forum and sacrificed to the gods as they were ordered; and

the crowds of apostates were so great, that the magistrates wished to

delay numbers of them till the next day, but they were importuned by

the wretched suppliants to be allowed to prove themselves heathens

that very night."--(Milner, "Church History," Cent. III, ch. 8.)

6. In connection with this individual apostasy of Church members under

the pressure of persecution, there arose among the provincial

governors a practice of selling certificates or "libels" as these

documents were called, which "attested that the persons therein

mentioned had complied with the laws and sacrificed to the Roman

deities. By producing these false declarations, the opulent and timid

Christians were enabled to silence the malice of an informer, and to

reconcile, in some measure, their safety with their religion."--

(Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," ch. XVI.) A

modification of this practice of quasi-apostasy consisted in procuring

testimonials from persons of standing certifying that the holders had

abjured the gospel; these documents were presented to the heathen

magistrates, and they, on receipt of a specified fee, granted

exemption from the requirement of sacrificing to the pagan gods.--(See

Milner, "Church History," Cent. III, ch. 9.) As a result of these

practices, whereby under favorable circumstances the wealthy could

purchase immunity from persecution, and at the same time maintain a

semblance of standing in the Church, much dissension arose, the

question being as to whether those who had thus shown their weakness

could ever be received again into communion with the Church.

7. Persecution at most was but an indirect cause of the decline of

Christianity and the perversion of the saving principles of the gospel

of Christ. The greater and more immediate dangers threatening the

Church must be sought within the body itself. Indeed, the pressure of

opposition from without served to restrain the bubbling springs of

internal dissension, and actually delayed the more destructive

eruptions of schism and heresy.--(See Note 2, end of chapter.) A

general review of the history of the Church down to the end of the

third century shows that the periods of comparative peace were periods

of weakness and decline in spiritual earnestness, and that with the

return of persecution came an awakening and a renewal in Christian

devotion. Devout leaders of the people were not backward in declaring

that each recurring period of persecution was a time of natural and

necessary chastisement for the sin and corruption that had gained

headway within the Church.--(See Note 3, end of chapter.)

8. As to the condition of the Church in the middle of the third

century, Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, thus speaks: "If the cause

of our miseries be investigated, the cure of the wound may be found.

The Lord would have his family to be tried. And because long peace had

corrupted the discipline divinely revealed to us, the heavenly

chastisement hath raised up our faith, which had lain almost dormant:

and when, by our sins, we have deserved to suffer still more, the

merciful Lord so moderated all things, that the whole scene rather

deserves the name of a trial than a persecution. Each had been bent on

improving his patrimony; and had forgotten what believers had done

under the apostles, and what they ought always to do:--they were

brooding over the arts of amassing wealth:--the pastors and the

deacons each forgot their duty: Works of mercy were neglected, and

discipline was at the lowest ebb.--Luxury and effeminacy prevailed:

Meretricious arts in dress were cultivated: Frauds and deceit were

practiced among brethren.--Christians could unite themselves in

matrimony with unbelievers; could swear not only without reverence,

but even without veracity. With haughty asperity they despised their

ecclesiastical superiors: They railed against one another with

outrageous acrimony, and conducted quarrels with determined

malice:--Even many bishops, who ought to be guides and patterns to the

rest, neglecting the peculiar duties of their stations, gave

themselves up to secular pursuits:--They deserted their places of

residence and their flocks: They traveled through distant provinces in

quest of pleasure and gain; gave no assistance to the needy brethren;

but were insatiable in their thirst of money:--They possessed estates

by fraud and multiplied usury. What have we not deserved to suffer for

such conduct? Even the divine word hath foretold us what we might

expect.--'If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my

judgments, I will visit their offenses with the rod, and their sin

with scourges.' These things had been denounced and foretold, but in

vain. Our sins had brought our affairs to that pass, that because we

had despised the Lord's directions, we were obliged to undergo a

correction of our multiplied evils and a trial of our faith by severe

remedies."--(As quoted by Milner, "Church History," Cent. III, ch. 8.)

9. Milner, who quotes approvingly the severe arraignment of the Church

in the third century as given above, cannot be charged with bias

against Christian institutions, inasmuch as his declared purpose in

presenting to the world an additional "History of the Church of

Christ" was to give due attention to certain phases of the subject

slighted or neglected by earlier authors, and notably to emphasize the

piety, not the wickedness, of the professed followers of Christ. This

author, avowedly friendly to the Church and her votaries, admits the

growing depravity of the Christian sects, and declares that toward the

end of the third century the effect of the Pentecostal outpouring of

the Holy Spirit had become exhausted, and that there remained little

proof of any close relationship between Christ and the Church.

10. Note his summary of conditions: "The era of its actual declension

must be dated in the pacific part of Diocletian's reign. During this

whole century the work of God, in purity and power, had been tending

to decay. The connection with philosophers was one of the principal

causes. Outward peace and secular advantages completed the corruption.

Ecclesiastical discipline, which had been too strict, was now relaxed

exceedingly; bishops and people were in a state of malice. Endless

quarrels were fomented among contending parties, and ambition and

covetousness had in general gained the ascendency in the Christian

Church. * * * The faith of Christ itself appeared now an ordinary

business; and here _terminated_, or nearly so, as far as appears, the

first great effusion of the Spirit of God, which began at the day of

Pentecost. Human depravity effected throughout a general decay of

godliness; and one generation of men elapsed with very slender proofs

of the spiritual presence of Christ with His Church."--(Milner,

"Church History," Cent. III, ch. 17.)

11. If further evidence be wanted as to the fires of disaffection

smoldering within the Church, and so easily fanned into destructive

flame, let the testimony of Eusebius be considered with respect to

conditions characterizing the second half of the third century. And,

in weighing his words, let it be remembered that he had expressly

recorded his purpose of writing in defense of the Church, and in

support of her institutions. He bewails the tranquillity preceding the

Diocletian outbreak, because of its injurious effect upon both

officers and members of the Church. These are his words: "But when by

excessive liberty we have sunk into indolence and sloth, one envying

and reviling another in different ways, and we were almost, as it

were, on the point of taking up arms against each other, and were

assailing each other with words, as with darts and spears, prelates

inveighing against prelates, and people rising up against people, and

hypocrisy and dissimulation had arisen to the greater heights of

malignity, then the divine judgment, which usually proceeds with a

lenient hand, whilst the multitudes were yet crowding into the Church,

with gentle and mild visitations began to afflict its episcopacy; the

persecution having begun with those brethren that were in the army. *

* * But some that appeared to be our pastors, deserting the law of

piety, were inflamed against each other with mutual strifes,

accumulating quarrels and threats, rivalry, hostility, and hatred to

each other, only anxious to assert the government as a kind of

sovereignty for themselves."--(Eusebius, "Ecclesiastical History,"

Book VIII, ch. 1. See note 4, end of chapter.)

12. As further illustrative of the decline of the Christian spirit

toward the end of the third century, Milner quotes the following

observation of Eusebius, an eye-witness of the conditions described:

"The heavy hand of God's judgment began softly, by little and little,

to visit us after His wonted manner; * * * but we were not at all

moved with His hand, nor took any pains to return to God. We heaped

sin upon sin, judging like careless Epicureans, that God cared not for

our sins, nor would ever visit us on account of them. And our

pretended shepherds, laying aside the rule of godliness, practiced

among themselves contention and division." He adds that the "dreadful

persecution of Diocletian was then inflicted on the Church as a just

punishment, and as the most proper chastisement for their

iniquities."--(Milner, "Church History," Cent. III, ch. 17.)

13. It will be remembered that the great change whereby the Church was

raised to a place of honor in the state, occurred in the early part of

the fourth century. It is a popular error to assume that the decay of

the Church as a spiritual institution dates from that time. The

picture of the Church declining as to spiritual power in exact

proportion to her increase of temporal influence and wealth has

appealed to rhetoricians and writers of sensational literature; but

such a picture does not present the truth. The Church was saturated

with the spirit of apostasy long before Constantine took it under his

powerful protection by according it official standing in the state.

In support of this statement, I quote again from Milner, the avowed

friend of the Church: "I know it is common for authors to represent

the great declension of Christianity to have taken place only after

its external establishment under Constantine. But the evidence of

history has compelled me to dissent from this view of things. In fact,

we have seen that for a whole generation previous to the [Diocletian]

persecution, few marks of superior piety appeared. Scarce a luminary

of godliness existed; and it is not common in any age for a great work

of the Spirit of God to be exhibited but under the conduct of some

remarkable saints, pastors, and reformers. This whole period as well

as the whole scene of the persecution is very barren in such

characters. * * * Moral and philosophical and monastical instructions

will not effect for men what is to be expected from evangelical

doctrine. And if the faith of Christ was so much declined (and its

decayed state ought to be dated from about the year 270), we need not

wonder that such scenes as Eusebius hints at without any

circumstantial details, took place in the Christian world. * * * He

speaks also of the ambitious spirit of many, in aspiring to the

offices of the Church, the ill judged and unlawful ordinations, the

quarrels among confessors themselves, and the contentions excited by

young demagogues in the very relics of the persecuted Church, and the

multiplied evils which their vices excited among Christians. How sadly

must the Christian world have declined which could thus conduct itself

under the very rod of divine vengeance? Yet let not the infidel or the

profane world triumph. _It was not Christianity, but the departure

from it_, which brought on these evils."--(Milner, "Church History,"

Cent. IV, ch. 1. The italics are introduced by the present writer.

8. Opposition to Christianity on the part of those who belonged to the