185 (return) [ Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. _The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

186 (return) [ The story is prettily told in Justin’s Dialogues.

Tillemont, (Mem Ecclesiast. tom. ii. p. 384,) who relates it

after him is sure that the old man was a disguised angel.]

187 (return) [ Eusebius, v. 28. It may be hoped, that none,

except the heretics, gave occasion to the complaint of Celsus,

(ap. Origen, l. ii. p. 77,) that the Christians were perpetually

correcting and altering their Gospels. * Note: Origen states in

reply, that he knows of none who had altered the Gospels except

the Marcionites, the Valentinians, and perhaps some followers of

Lucanus.—M.]

Nor can it be affirmed with truth, that the advantages of birth

and fortune were always separated from the profession of

Christianity. Several Roman citizens were brought before the

tribunal of Pliny, and he soon discovered, that a great number of

persons of _every order_ of men in Bithynia had deserted the

religion of their ancestors. 188 His unsuspected testimony may,

in this instance, obtain more credit than the bold challenge of

Tertullian, when he addresses himself to the fears as well as the

humanity of the proconsul of Africa, by assuring him, that if he

persists in his cruel intentions, he must decimate Carthage, and

that he will find among the guilty many persons of his own rank,

senators and matrons of noblest extraction, and the friends or

relations of his most intimate friends. 189 It appears, however,

that about forty years afterwards the emperor Valerian was

persuaded of the truth of this assertion, since in one of his

rescripts he evidently supposes that senators, Roman knights, and

ladies of quality, were engaged in the Christian sect. 190 The

church still continued to increase its outward splendor as it

lost its internal purity; and, in the reign of Diocletian, the

palace, the courts of justice, and even the army, concealed a

multitude of Christians, who endeavored to reconcile the

interests of the present with those of a future life.

188 (return) [ Plin. Epist. x. 97. Fuerunt alii similis amentiæ,

cives Romani—-Multi enim omnis ætatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque

sexus, etiam vocuntur in periculum et vocabuntur.]

189 (return) [ Tertullian ad Scapulum. Yet even his rhetoric

rises no higher than to claim a tenth part of Carthage.]

190 (return) [ Cyprian. Epist. 70.]

And yet these exceptions are either too few in number, or too

recent in time, entirely to remove the imputation of ignorance

and obscurity which has been so arrogantly cast on the first

proselytes of Christianity. 1901 Instead of employing in our

defence the fictions of later ages, it will be more prudent to

convert the occasion of scandal into a subject of edification.

Our serious thoughts will suggest to us, that the apostles

themselves were chosen by Providence among the fishermen of

Galilee, and that the lower we depress the temporal condition of

the first Christians, the more reason we shall find to admire

their merit and success. It is incumbent on us diligently to

remember, that the kingdom of heaven was promised to the poor in

spirit, and that minds afflicted by calamity and the contempt of

mankind, cheerfully listen to the divine promise of future

happiness; while, on the contrary, the fortunate are satisfied

with the possession of this world; and the wise abuse in doubt

and dispute their vain superiority of reason and knowledge.

1901 (return) [ This incomplete enumeration ought to be increased

by the names of several Pagans converted at the dawn of

Christianity, and whose conversion weakens the reproach which the

historian appears to support. Such are, the Proconsul Sergius

Paulus, converted at Paphos, (Acts xiii. 7—12.) Dionysius, member

of the Areopagus, converted with several others, al Athens, (Acts

xvii. 34;) several persons at the court of Nero, (Philip. iv 22;)

Erastus, receiver at Corinth, (Rom. xvi.23;) some Asiarchs, (Acts

xix. 31) As to the philosophers, we may add Tatian, Athenagoras,

Theophilus of Antioch, Hegesippus, Melito, Miltiades, Pantænus,

Ammenius, all distinguished for their genius and learning.—G.]

We stand in need of such reflections to comfort us for the loss

of some illustrious characters, which in our eyes might have

seemed the most worthy of the heavenly present. The names of

Seneca, of the elder and the younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of

Plutarch, of Galen, of the slave Epictetus, and of the emperor

Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age in which they flourished, and

exalt the dignity of human nature. They filled with glory their

respective stations, either in active or contemplative life;

their excellent understandings were improved by study; Philosophy

had purified their minds from the prejudices of the popular

superstitions; and their days were spent in the pursuit of truth

and the practice of virtue. Yet all these sages (it is no less an

object of surprise than of concern) overlooked or rejected the

perfection of the Christian system. Their language or their

silence equally discover their contempt for the growing sect,

which in their time had diffused itself over the Roman empire.

Those among them who condescended to mention the Christians,

consider them only as obstinate and perverse enthusiasts, who

exacted an implicit submission to their mysterious doctrines,

without being able to produce a single argument that could engage

the attention of men of sense and learning. 191

191 (return) [ Dr. Lardner, in his first and second volumes of

Jewish and Christian testimonies, collects and illustrates those

of Pliny the younger, of Tacitus, of Galen, of Marcus Antoninus,

and perhaps of Epictetus, (for it is doubtful whether that

philosopher means to speak of the Christians.) The new sect is

totally unnoticed by Seneca, the elder Pliny, and Plutarch.]

It is at least doubtful whether any of these philosophers perused

the apologies 1911 which the primitive Christians repeatedly

published in behalf of themselves and of their religion; but it

is much to be lamented that such a cause was not defended by

abler advocates. They expose with superfluous wit and eloquence

the extravagance of Polytheism. They interest our compassion by

displaying the innocence and sufferings of their injured

brethren. But when they would demonstrate the divine origin of

Christianity, they insist much more strongly on the predictions

which announced, than on the miracles which accompanied, the

appearance of the Messiah. Their favorite argument might serve to

edify a Christian or to convert a Jew, since both the one and the

other acknowledge the authority of those prophecies, and both are

obliged, with devout reverence, to search for their sense and

their accomplishment. But this mode of persuasion loses much of

its weight and influence, when it is addressed to those who

neither understand nor respect the Mosaic dispensation and the

prophetic style. 192 In the unskilful hands of Justin and of the

succeeding apologists, the sublime meaning of the Hebrew oracles

evaporates in distant types, affected conceits, and cold

allegories; and even their authenticity was rendered suspicious

to an unenlightened Gentile, by the mixture of pious forgeries,

which, under the names of Orpheus, Hermes, and the Sibyls, 193

were obtruded on him as of equal value with the genuine

inspirations of Heaven. The adoption of fraud and sophistry in

the defence of revelation too often reminds us of the injudicious

conduct of those poets who load their _invulnerable_ heroes with

a useless weight of cumbersome and brittle armor.

1911 (return) [ The emperors Hadrian, Antoninus &c., read with

astonishment the apologies of Justin Martyr, of Aristides, of

Melito, &c. (See St. Hieron. ad mag. orat. Orosius, lviii. c.

13.) Eusebius says expressly, that the cause of Christianity was

defended before the senate, in a very elegant discourse, by

Apollonius the Martyr.—G. ——Gibbon, in his severer spirit of

criticism, may have questioned the authority of Jerome and

Eusebius. There are some difficulties about Apollonius, which

Heinichen (note in loc. Eusebii) would solve, by suppose lag him

to have been, as Jerome states, a senator.—M.]

192 (return) [ If the famous prophecy of the Seventy Weeks had

been alleged to a Roman philosopher, would he not have replied in

the words of Cicero, “Quæ tandem ista auguratio est, annorum

potius quam aut rænsium aut dierum?” De Divinatione, ii. 30.

Observe with what irreverence Lucian, (in Alexandro, c. 13.) and

his friend Celsus ap. Origen, (l. vii. p. 327,) express

themselves concerning the Hebrew prophets.]

193 (return) [ The philosophers who derided the more ancient

predictions of the Sibyls, would easily have detected the Jewish

and Christian forgeries, which have been so triumphantly quoted

by the fathers, from Justin Martyr to Lactantius. When the

Sibylline verses had performed their appointed task, they, like

the system of the millennium, were quietly laid aside. The

Christian Sybil had unluckily fixed the ruin of Rome for the year

195, A. U. C. 948.]

But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and

philosophic world, to those evidences which were represented by

the hand of Omnipotence, not to their reason, but to their

senses? During the age of Christ, of his apostles, and of their

first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed

by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the

sick were healed, the dead were raised, dæmons were expelled, and

the laws of Nature were frequently suspended for the benefit of

the church. But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from

the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occupations of

life and study, appeared unconscious of any alterations in the

moral or physical government of the world. Under the reign of

Tiberius, the whole earth, 194 or at least a celebrated province

of the Roman empire, 195 was involved in a preternatural darkness

of three hours. Even this miraculous event, which ought to have

excited the wonder, the curiosity, and the devotion of mankind,

passed without notice in an age of science and history. 196 It

happened during the lifetime of Seneca and the elder Pliny, who

must have experienced the immediate effects, or received the

earliest intelligence, of the prodigy. Each of these

philosophers, in a laborious work, has recorded all the great

phenomena of Nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses,

which his indefatigable curiosity could collect. 197 Both the one

and the other have omitted to mention the greatest phenomenon to

which the mortal eye has been witness since the creation of the

globe. A distinct chapter of Pliny 198 is designed for eclipses

of an extraordinary nature and unusual duration; but he contents

himself with describing the singular defect of light which

followed the murder of Cæsar, when, during the greatest part of a

year, the orb of the sun appeared pale and without splendor. The

season of obscurity, which cannot surely be compared with the

preternatural darkness of the Passion, had been already

celebrated by most of the poets 199 and historians of that

memorable age. 200

194 (return) [ The fathers, as they are drawn out in battle array

by Dom Calmet, (Dissertations sur la Bible, tom. iii. p.

295—308,) seem to cover the whole earth with darkness, in which

they are followed by most of the moderns.]

195 (return) [ Origen ad Matth. c. 27, and a few modern critics,

Beza, Le Clerc, Lardner, &c., are desirous of confining it to the

land of Judea.]

196 (return) [ The celebrated passage of Phlegon is now wisely

abandoned. When Tertullian assures the Pagans that the mention of

the prodigy is found in Arcanis (not Archivis) vestris, (see his

Apology, c. 21,) he probably appeals to the Sibylline verses,

which relate it exactly in the words of the Gospel. * Note:

According to some learned theologians a misunderstanding of the

text in the Gospel has given rise to this mistake, which has

employed and wearied so many laborious commentators, though

Origen had already taken the pains to preinform them. The

expression does not mean, they assert, an eclipse, but any kind

of obscurity occasioned in the atmosphere, whether by clouds or

any other cause. As this obscuration of the sun rarely took place

in Palestine, where in the middle of April the sky was usually

clear, it assumed, in the eyes of the Jews and Christians, an

importance conformable to the received notion, that the sun

concealed at midday was a sinister presage. See Amos viii. 9, 10.

The word is often taken in this sense by contemporary writers;

the Apocalypse says the sun was concealed, when speaking of an

obscuration caused by smoke and dust. (Revel. ix. 2.) Moreover,

the Hebrew word ophal, which in the LXX. answers to the Greek,

signifies any darkness; and the Evangelists, who have modelled

the sense of their expressions by those of the LXX., must have

taken it in the same latitude. This darkening of the sky usually

precedes earthquakes. (Matt. xxvii. 51.) The Heathen authors

furnish us a number of examples, of which a miraculous

explanation was given at the time. See Ovid. ii. v. 33, l. xv. v.

785. Pliny, Hist. Nat. l. ii. c 30. Wetstein has collected all

these examples in his edition of the New Testament. We need not,

then, be astonished at the silence of the Pagan authors

concerning a phenomenon which did not extend beyond Jerusalem,

and which might have nothing contrary to the laws of nature;

although the Christians and the Jews may have regarded it as a

sinister presage. See Michaelis Notes on New Testament, v. i. p.

290. Paulus, Commentary on New Testament, iii. p. 760.—G.]

197 (return) [ Seneca, Quæst. Natur. l. i. 15, vi. l. vii. 17.

Plin. Hist. Natur. l. ii.]

198 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. ii. 30.]

199 (return) [ Virgil. Georgic. i. 466. Tibullus, l. i. Eleg. v.

ver. 75. Ovid Metamorph. xv. 782. Lucan. Pharsal. i. 540. The

last of these poets places this prodigy before the civil war.]

200 (return) [ See a public epistle of M. Antony in Joseph.

Antiquit. xiv. 12. Plutarch in Cæsar. p. 471. Appian. Bell.

Civil. l. iv. Dion Cassius, l. xlv. p. 431. Julius Obsequens, c.

128. His little treatise is an abstract of Livy’s prodigies.]

VOLUME TWO

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To

Constantine.—Part I.

The Conduct Of The Roman Government Towards The Christians, From

The Reign Of Nero To That Of Constantine. 1111

1111 (return) [ The sixteenth chapter I cannot help considering

as a very ingenious and specious, but very disgraceful

extenuation of the cruelties perpetrated by the Roman magistrates

against the Christians. It is written in the most contemptibly

factious spirit of prejudice against the sufferers; it is

unworthy of a philosopher and of humanity. Let the narrative of

Cyprian’s death be examined. He had to relate the murder of an

innocent man of advanced age, and in a station deemed venerable

by a considerable body of the provincials of Africa, put to death

because he refused to sacrifice to Jupiter. Instead of pointing

the indignation of posterity against such an atrocious act of

tyranny, he dwells, with visible art, on the small circumstances

of decorum and politeness which attended this murder, and which

he relates with as much parade as if they were the most important

particulars of the event. Dr. Robertson has been the subject of

much blame for his real or supposed lenity towards the Spanish

murderers and tyrants in America. That the sixteenth chapter of

Mr. G. did not excite the same or greater disapprobation, is a

proof of the unphilosophical and indeed fanatical animosity

against Christianity, which was so prevalent during the latter

part of the eighteenth century.—_Mackintosh:_ see Life, i. p.

244, 245.]

If we seriously consider the purity of the Christian religion,

the sanctity of its moral precepts, and the innocent as well as

austere lives of the greater number of those who during the first

ages embraced the faith of the gospel, we should naturally

suppose, that so benevolent a doctrine would have been received

with due reverence, even by the unbelieving world; that the

learned and the polite, however they may deride the miracles,

would have esteemed the virtues, of the new sect; and that the

magistrates, instead of persecuting, would have protected an

order of men who yielded the most passive obedience to the laws,

though they declined the active cares of war and government. If,

on the other hand, we recollect the universal toleration of

Polytheism, as it was invariably maintained by the faith of the

people, the incredulity of philosophers, and the policy of the

Roman senate and emperors, we are at a loss to discover what new

offence the Christians had committed, what new provocation could

exasperate the mild indifference of antiquity, and what new

motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld without concern

a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their

gentle sway, to inflict a severe punishment on any part of their

subjects, who had chosen for themselves a singular but an

inoffensive mode of faith and worship.

The religious policy of the ancient world seems to have assumed a

more stern and intolerant character, to oppose the progress of

Christianity. About fourscore years after the death of Christ,

his innocent disciples were punished with death by the sentence

of a proconsul of the most amiable and philosophic character, and

according to the laws of an emperor distinguished by the wisdom

and justice of his general administration. The apologies which

were repeatedly addressed to the successors of Trajan are filled

with the most pathetic complaints, that the Christians, who

obeyed the dictates, and solicited the liberty, of conscience,

were alone, among all the subjects of the Roman empire, excluded

from the common benefits of their auspicious government. The

deaths of a few eminent martyrs have been recorded with care; and

from the time that Christianity was invested with the supreme

power, the governors of the church have been no less diligently

employed in displaying the cruelty, than in imitating the

conduct, of their Pagan adversaries. To separate (if it be

possible) a few authentic as well as interesting facts from an

undigested mass of fiction and error, and to relate, in a clear

and rational manner, the causes, the extent, the duration, and

the most important circumstances of the persecutions to which the

first Christians were exposed, is the design of the present

chapter. 1222

1222 (return) [ The history of the first age of Christianity is

only found in the Acts of the Apostles, and in order to speak of

the first persecutions experienced by the Christians, that book

should naturally have been consulted; those persecutions, then

limited to individuals and to a narrow sphere, interested only

the persecuted, and have been related by them alone. Gibbon

making the persecutions ascend no higher than Nero, has entirely

omitted those which preceded this epoch, and of which St. Luke

has preserved the memory. The only way to justify this omission

was, to attack the authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles; for,

if authentic, they must necessarily be consulted and quoted. Now,

antiquity has left very few works of which the authenticity is so

well established as that of the Acts of the Apostles. (See

Lardner’s Cred. of Gospel Hist. part iii.) It is therefore,

without sufficient reason, that Gibbon has maintained silence

concerning the narrative of St. Luke, and this omission is not

without importance.—G.]

The sectaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear

animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by enthusiasm, are

seldom in a proper temper of mind calmly to investigate, or

candidly to appreciate, the motives of their enemies, which often

escape the impartial and discerning view even of those who are

placed at a secure distance from the flames of persecution. A

reason has been assigned for the conduct of the emperors towards

the primitive Christians, which may appear the more specious and

probable as it is drawn from the acknowledged genius of

Polytheism. It has already been observed, that the religious

concord of the world was principally supported by the implicit

assent and reverence which the nations of antiquity expressed for

their respective traditions and ceremonies. It might therefore be

expected, that they would unite with indignation against any sect

or people which should separate itself from the communion of

mankind, and claiming the exclusive possession of divine

knowledge, should disdain every form of worship, except its own,

as impious and idolatrous. The rights of toleration were held by

mutual indulgence: they were justly forfeited by a refusal of the

accustomed tribute. As the payment of this tribute was inflexibly

refused by the Jews, and by them alone, the consideration of the

treatment which they experienced from the Roman magistrates, will

serve to explain how far these speculations are justified by

facts, and will lead us to discover the true causes of the

persecution of Christianity.

Without repeating what has already been mentioned of the

reverence of the Roman princes and governors for the temple of

Jerusalem, we shall only observe, that the destruction of the

temple and city was accompanied and followed by every

circumstance that could exasperate the minds of the conquerors,

and authorize religious persecution by the most specious

arguments of political justice and the public safety. From the

reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a

fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke

out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is

shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they

committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where

they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting

natives; 1 and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation

which was exercised by the arms of the legions against a race of

fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render

them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but

of human kind. 2 The enthusiasm of the Jews was supported by the

opinion, that it was unlawful for them to pay taxes to an

idolatrous master; and by the flattering promise which they

derived from their ancient oracles, that a conquering Messiah

would soon arise, destined to break their fetters, and to invest

the favorites of heaven with the empire of the earth. It was by

announcing himself as their long-expected deliverer, and by

calling on all the descendants of Abraham to assert the hope of

Israel, that the famous Barchochebas collected a formidable army,

with which he resisted during two years the power of the emperor

Hadrian. 3

1 (return) [ In Cyrene, they massacred 220,000 Greeks; in Cyprus,

240,000; in Egypt, a very great multitude. Many of these unhappy

victims were sawn asunder, according to a precedent to which

David had given the sanction of his example. The victorious Jews

devoured the flesh, licked up the blood, and twisted the entrails

like a girdle round their bodies. See Dion Cassius, l. lxviii. p.

1145. * Note: Some commentators, among them Reimar, in his notes

on Dion Cassius think that the hatred of the Romans against the

Jews has led the historian to exaggerate the cruelties committed

by the latter. Don. Cass. lxviii. p. 1146.—G.]

2 (return) [ Without repeating the well-known narratives of

Josephus, we may learn from Dion, (l. lxix. p. 1162,) that in

Hadrian’s war 580,000 Jews were cut off by the sword, besides an

infinite number which perished by famine, by disease, and by

fire.]

3 (return) [ For the sect of the Zealots, see Basnage, Histoire

des Juifs, l. i. c. 17; for the characters of the Messiah,

according to the Rabbis, l. v. c. 11, 12, 13; for the actions of

Barchochebas, l. vii. c. 12. (Hist. of Jews iii. 115, &c.)—M.]

Notwithstanding these repeated provocations, the resentment of

the Roman princes expired after the victory; nor were their

apprehensions continued beyond the period of war and danger. By

the general indulgence of polytheism, and by the mild temper of

Antoninus Pius, the Jews were restored to their ancient

privileges, and once more obtained the permission of circumcising

their children, with the easy restraint, that they should never

confer on any foreign proselyte that distinguishing mark of the

Hebrew race. 4 The numerous remains of that people, though they

were still excluded from the precincts of Jerusalem, were

permitted to form and to maintain considerable establishments

both in Italy and in the provinces, to acquire the freedom of

Rome, to enjoy municipal honors, and to obtain at the same time

an exemption from the burdensome and expensive offices of

society. The moderation or the contempt of the Romans gave a

legal sanction to the form of ecclesiastical police which was

instituted by the vanquished sect. The patriarch, who had fixed

his residence at Tiberias, was empowered to appoint his

subordinate ministers and apostles, to exercise a domestic

jurisdiction, and to receive from his dispersed brethren an

annual contribution. 5 New synagogues were frequently erected in

the principal cities of the empire; and the sabbaths, the fasts,

and the festivals, which were either commanded by the Mosaic law,

or enjoined by the traditions of the Rabbis, were celebrated in

the most solemn and public manner. 6 Such gentle treatment

insensibly assuaged the stern temper of the Jews. Awakened from

their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behavior

of peaceable and industrious subjects. Their irreconcilable

hatred of mankind, instead of flaming out in acts of blood and

violence, evaporated in less dangerous gratifications. They

embraced every opportunity of overreaching the idolaters in

trade; and they pronounced secret and ambiguous imprecations

against the haughty kingdom of Edom. 7

4 (return) [ It is to Modestinus, a Roman lawyer (l. vi.

regular.) that we are indebted for a distinct knowledge of the

Edict of Antoninus. See Casaubon ad Hist. August. p. 27.]

5 (return) [ See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l. iii. c. 2, 3.

The office of Patriarch was suppressed by Theodosius the

younger.]

6 (return) [ We need only mention the Purim, or deliverance of

the Jews from he rage of Haman, which, till the reign of

Theodosius, was celebrated with insolent triumph and riotous

intemperance. Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, l. vi. c. 17, l. viii. c.

6.]

7 (return) [ According to the false Josephus, Tsepho, the

grandson of Esau, conducted into Italy the army of Eneas, king of

Carthage. Another colony of Idumæans, flying from the sword of

David, took refuge in the dominions of Romulus. For these, or for

other reasons of equal weight, the name of Edom was applied by

the Jews to the Roman empire. * Note: The false Josephus is a

romancer of very modern date, though some of these legends are

probably more ancient. It may be worth considering whether many

of the stories in the Talmud are not history in a figurative

disguise, adopted from prudence. The Jews might dare to say many

things of Rome, under the significant appellation of Edom, which

they feared to utter publicly. Later and more ignorant ages took

literally, and perhaps embellished, what was intelligible among

the generation to which it was addressed. Hist. of Jews, iii.

131. ——The false Josephus has the inauguration of the emperor,

with the seven electors and apparently the pope assisting at the

coronation! Pref. page xxvi.—M.]

Since the Jews, who rejected with abhorrence the deities adored

by their sovereign and by their fellow-subjects, enjoyed,

however, the free exercise of their unsocial religion, there must

have existed some other cause, which exposed the disciples of

Christ to those severities from which the posterity of Abraham

was exempt. The difference between them is simple and obvious;

but, according to the sentiments of antiquity, it was of the

highest importance. The Jews were a _nation;_ the Christians were

a _sect:_ and if it was natural for every community to respect

the sacred institutions of their neighbors, it was incumbent on

them to persevere in those of their ancestors. The voice of

oracles, the precepts of philosophers, and the authority of the

laws, unanimously enforced this national obligation. By their

lofty claim of superior sanctity the Jews might provoke the

Polytheists to consider them as an odious and impure race. By

disdaining the intercourse of other nations, they might deserve

their contempt. The laws of Moses might be for the most part

frivolous or absurd; yet, since they had been received during

many ages by a large society, his followers were justified by the

example of mankind; and it was universally acknowledged, that

they had a right to practise what it would have been criminal in

them to neglect. But this principle, which protected the Jewish

synagogue, afforded not any favor or security to the primitive

church. By embracing the faith of the gospel, the Christians

incurred the supposed guilt of an unnatural and unpardonable

offence. They dissolved the sacred ties of custom and education,

violated the religious institutions of their country, and

presumptuously despised whatever their fathers had believed as

true, or had reverenced as sacred. Nor was this apostasy (if we

may use the expression) merely of a partial or local kind; since

the pious deserter who withdrew himself from the temples of Egypt

or Syria, would equally disdain to seek an asylum in those of

Athens or Carthage. Every Christian rejected with contempt the

superstitions of his family, his city, and his province. 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, 8111 or the language of their native country. 8

8 (return) [ From the arguments of Celsus, as they are

represented and refuted by Origen, (l. v. p. 247—259,) we may

clearly discover the distinction that was made between the Jewish

_people_ and the Christian _sect_. See, in the Dialogue of

Minucius Felix, (c. 5, 6,) a fair and not inelegant description

of the popular sentiments, with regard to the desertion of the

established worship.]

8111 (return) [ In all this there is doubtless much truth; yet

does not the more important difference lie on the surface? The

Christians made many converts the Jews but few. Had the Jewish

been equally a proselyting religion would it not have encountered

as violent persecution?—M.]

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 figure or visible symbol, nor was

adored with the accustomed pomp of libations and festivals, of

altars and sacrifices. 9 The sages of Greece and Rome, who had

elevated their minds to the contemplation of the existence and

attributes of the First Cause, were induced by reason or by

vanity to reserve for themselves and their chosen disciples the

privilege of this philosophical devotion. 10 They were far from

admitting the prejudices of mankind as the standard of truth, but

they considered them as flowing from the original disposition of

human nature; and they supposed that any popular mode of faith

and worship which presumed to disclaim the assistance of the

senses, would, in proportion as it receded from superstition,

find itself incapable of restraining the wanderings of the fancy,

and the visions of fanaticism. The careless glance which men of

wit and learning condescended to cast on the Christian

revelation, served only to confirm their hasty opinion, and to

persuade them that the principle, which they might have revered,

of the Divine Unity, was defaced by the wild enthusiasm, and

annihilated by the airy speculations, of the new sectaries. The

author of a celebrated dialogue, which has been attributed to

Lucian, whilst he affects to treat the mysterious subject of the

Trinity in a style of ridicule and contempt, betrays his own

ignorance of the weakness of human reason, and of the inscrutable

nature of the divine perfections. 11

9 (return) [ Cur nullas aras habent? templa nulla? nulla nota

simulacra!—Unde autem, vel quis ille, aut ubi, Deus unicus,

solitarius, desti tutus? Minucius Felix, c. 10. The Pagan

interlocutor goes on to make a distinction in favor of the Jews,

who had once a temple, altars, victims, &c.]

10 (return) [ It is difficult (says Plato) to attain, and

dangerous to publish, the knowledge of the true God. See the

Theologie des Philosophes, in the Abbé d’Olivet’s French

translation of Tully de Naturâ Deorum, tom. i. p. 275.]

11 (return) [ The author of the Philopatris perpetually treats

the Christians as a company of dreaming enthusiasts, &c.; and in

one place he manifestly alludes to the vision in which St. Paul

was transported to the third heaven. In another place, Triephon,

who personates a Christian, after deriding the gods of Paganism,

proposes a mysterious oath.]

It might appear less surprising, that the founder of Christianity

should not only be revered by his disciples as a sage and a

prophet, but that he should be adored as a God. The Polytheists

were disposed to adopt every article of faith, which seemed to

offer any resemblance, however distant or imperfect, with the

popular mythology; and the legends of Bacchus, of Hercules, and

of Æsculapius, had, in some measure, prepared their imagination

for the appearance of the Son of God under a human form. 12 But

they were astonished that the Christians should abandon the

temples of those ancient heroes, who, in the infancy of the

world, had invented arts, instituted laws, and vanquished the

tyrants or monsters who infested the earth, in order to choose

for the exclusive object of their religious worship an obscure

teacher, who, in a recent age, and among a barbarous people, had

fallen a sacrifice either to the malice of his own countrymen, or

to the jealousy of the Roman government. The Pagan multitude,

reserving their gratitude for temporal benefits alone, rejected

the inestimable present of life and immortality, which was

offered to mankind by Jesus of Nazareth. His mild constancy in

the midst of cruel and voluntary sufferings, his universal

benevolence, and the sublime simplicity of his actions and

character, were insufficient, in the opinion of those carnal men,

to compensate for the want of fame, of empire, and of success;

and whilst they refused to acknowledge his stupendous triumph

over the powers of darkness and of the grave, they

misrepresented, or they insulted, the equivocal birth, wandering

life, and ignominious death, of the divine Author of

Christianity. 13

12 (return) [ According to Justin Martyr, (Apolog. Major, c.

70-85,) the dæmon who had gained some imperfect knowledge of the

prophecies, purposely contrived this resemblance, which might

deter, though by different means, both the people and the

philosophers from embracing the faith of Christ.]

13 (return) [ In the first and second books of Origen, Celsus

treats the birth and character of our Savior with the most

impious contempt. The orator Libanius praises Porphyry and Julian

for confuting the folly of a sect., which styles a dead man of

Palestine, God, and the Son of God. Socrates, Hist. Ecclesiast.

iii. 23.]

The personal guilt which every Christian had contracted, in thus

preferring his private sentiment to the national religion, was

aggravated in a very high degree by the number and union of the

criminals. It is well known, and has been already observed, that

Roman policy viewed with the utmost jealousy and distrust any

association among its subjects; and that the privileges of

private corporations, though formed for the most harmless or

beneficial purposes, were bestowed with a very sparing hand. 14

The religious assemblies of the Christians who had separated

themselves from the public worship, appeared of a much less

innocent nature; they were illegal in their principle, and in

their consequences might become dangerous; nor were the emperors

conscious that they violated the laws of justice, when, for the

peace of society, they prohibited those secret and sometimes

nocturnal meetings. 15 The pious disobedience of the Christians

made their conduct, or perhaps their designs, appear in a much

more serious and criminal light; and the Roman princes, who might

perhaps have suffered themselves to be disarmed by a ready

submission, deeming their honor concerned in the execution of

their commands, sometimes attempted, by rigorous punishments, to

subdue this independent spirit, which boldly acknowledged an

authority superior to that of the magistrate. The extent and

duration of this spiritual conspiracy seemed to render it

everyday more deserving of his animadversion. We have already

seen that the active and successful zeal of the Christians had

insensibly diffused them through every province and almost every

city of the empire. The new converts seemed to renounce their

family and country, that they might connect themselves in an

indissoluble band of union with a peculiar society, which every

where assumed a different character from the rest of mankind.

Their gloomy and austere aspect, their abhorrence of the common

business and pleasures of life, and their frequent predictions of

impending calamities, 16 inspired the Pagans with the

apprehension of some danger, which would arise from the new sect,

the more alarming as it was the more obscure. “Whatever,” says

Pliny, “may be the principle of their conduct, their inflexible

obstinacy appeared deserving of punishment.” 17

14 (return) [ The emperor Trajan refused to incorporate a company

of 150 firemen, for the use of the city of Nicomedia. He disliked

all associations. See Plin. Epist. x. 42, 43.]

15 (return) [ The proconsul Pliny had published a general edict

against unlawful meetings. The prudence of the Christians

suspended their Agapæ; but it was impossible for them to omit the

exercise of public worship.]

16 (return) [ As the prophecies of the Antichrist, approaching

conflagration, &c., provoked those Pagans whom they did not

convert, they were mentioned with caution and reserve; and the

Montanists were censured for disclosing too freely the dangerous

secret. See Mosheim, 413.]

17 (return) [ Neque enim dubitabam, quodcunque esset quod

faterentur, (such are the words of Pliny,) pervicacian certe et

inflexibilem obstinationem lebere puniri.]

The precautions with which the disciples of Christ performed the

offices of religion were at first dictated by fear and necessity;

but they were continued from choice. By imitating the awful

secrecy which reigned in the Eleusinian mysteries, the Christians

had flattered themselves that they should render their sacred

institutions more respectable in the eyes of the Pagan world. 18

But the event, as it often happens to the operations of subtile

policy, deceived their wishes and their expectations. It was

concluded, that they only concealed what they would have blushed

to disclose. Their mistaken prudence afforded an opportunity for

malice to invent, and for suspicious credulity to believe, the

horrid tales which described the Christians as the most wicked of

human kind, who practised in their dark recesses every

abomination that a depraved fancy could suggest, and who

solicited the favor of their unknown God by the sacrifice of

every moral virtue. There were many who pretended to confess or

to relate the ceremonies of this abhorred society. It was

asserted, “that a new-born infant, entirely covered over with

flour, was presented, like some mystic symbol of initiation, to

the knife of the proselyte, who unknowingly inflicted many a

secret and mortal wound on the innocent victim of his error; that

as soon as the cruel deed was perpetrated, the sectaries drank up

the blood, greedily tore asunder the quivering members, and

pledged themselves to eternal secrecy, by a mutual consciousness

of guilt. It was as confidently affirmed, that this inhuman

sacrifice was succeeded by a suitable entertainment, in which

intemperance served as a provocative to brutal lust; till, at the

appointed moment, the lights were suddenly extinguished, shame

was banished, nature was forgotten; and, as accident might

direct, the darkness of the night was polluted by the incestuous

commerce of sisters and brothers, of sons and of mothers.” 19

18 (return) [ See Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. p.

101, and Spanheim, Remarques sur les Cæsars de Julien, p. 468,

&c.]

19 (return) [ See Justin Martyr, Apolog. i. 35, ii. 14.

Athenagoras, in Legation, c. 27. Tertullian, Apolog. c. 7, 8, 9.

Minucius Felix, c. 9, 10, 80, 31. The last of these writers

relates the accusation in the most elegant and circumstantial

manner. The answer of Tertullian is the boldest and most

vigorous.]

But the perusal of the ancient apologies was sufficient to remove

even the slightest suspicion from the mind of a candid adversary.

The Christians, with the intrepid security of innocence, appeal

from the voice of rumor to the equity of the magistrates. They

acknowledge, that if any proof can be produced of the crimes

which calumny has imputed to them, they are worthy of the most

severe punishment. They provoke the punishment, and they

challenge the proof. At the same time they urge, with equal truth

and propriety, that the charge is not less devoid of probability,

than it is destitute of evidence; they ask, whether any one can

seriously believe that the pure and holy precepts of the gospel,

which so frequently restrain the use of the most lawful

enjoyments, should inculcate the practice of the most abominable

crimes; that a large society should resolve to dishonor itself in

the eyes of its own members; and that a great number of persons

of either sex, and every age and character, insensible to the

fear of death or infamy, should consent to violate those

principles which nature and education had imprinted most deeply

in their minds. 20 Nothing, it should seem, could weaken the

force or destroy the effect of so unanswerable a justification,

unless it were the injudicious conduct of the apologists

themselves, who betrayed the common cause of religion, to gratify

their devout hatred to the domestic enemies of the church. It was

sometimes faintly insinuated, and sometimes boldly asserted, that

the same bloody sacrifices, and the same incestuous festivals,

which were so falsely ascribed to the orthodox believers, were in

reality celebrated by the Marcionites, by the Carpocratians, and

by several other sects of the Gnostics, who, notwithstanding they

might deviate into the paths of heresy, were still actuated by

the sentiments of men, and still governed by the precepts of

Christianity. 21 Accusations of a similar kind were retorted upon

the church by the schismatics who had departed from its

communion, 22 and it was confessed on all sides, that the most

scandalous licentiousness of manners prevailed among great

numbers of those who affected the name of Christians. A Pagan

magistrate, who possessed neither leisure nor abilities to

discern the almost imperceptible line which divides the orthodox

faith from heretical pravity, might easily have imagined that

their mutual animosity had extorted the discovery of their common

guilt. It was fortunate for the repose, or at least for the

reputation, of the first Christians, that the magistrates

sometimes proceeded with more temper and moderation than is

usually consistent with religious zeal, and that they reported,

as the impartial result of their judicial inquiry, that the

sectaries, who had deserted the established worship, appeared to

them sincere in their professions, and blameless in their

manners; however they might incur, by their absurd and excessive

superstition, the censure of the laws. 23

20 (return) [ In the persecution of Lyons, some Gentile slaves

were compelled, by the fear of tortures, to accuse their

Christian master. The church of Lyons, writing to their brethren

of Asia, treat the horrid charge with proper indignation and

contempt. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. v. i.]

21 (return) [ See Justin Martyr, Apolog. i. 35. Irenæus adv.

Hæres. i. 24. Clemens. Alexandrin. Stromat. l. iii. p. 438.

Euseb. iv. 8. It would be tedious and disgusting to relate all

that the succeeding writers have imagined, all that Epiphanius

has received, and all that Tillemont has copied. M. de Beausobre

(Hist. du Manicheisme, l. ix. c. 8, 9) has exposed, with great

spirit, the disingenuous arts of Augustin and Pope Leo I.]

22 (return) [ When Tertullian became a Montanist, he aspersed the

morals of the church which he had so resolutely defended. “Sed

majoris est Agape, quia per hanc adolescentes tui cum sororibus

dormiunt, appendices scilicet gulæ lascivia et luxuria.” De

Jejuniis c. 17. The 85th canon of the council of Illiberis

provides against the scandals which too often polluted the vigils

of the church, and disgraced the Christian name in the eyes of

unbelievers.]

23 (return) [ Tertullian (Apolog. c. 2) expatiates on the fair

and honorable testimony of Pliny, with much reason and some

declamation.]

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To

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, 24 it may still be in our power to

confirm each of these probable suppositions, by the evidence of

authentic facts.

24 (return) [ In the various compilation of the Augustan History,

(a part of which was composed under the reign of Constantine,)

there are not six lines which relate to the Christians; nor has

the diligence of Xiphilin discovered their name in the large

history of Dion Cassius. * Note: The greater part of the Augustan

History is dedicated to Diocletian. This may account for the

silence of its authors concerning Christianity. The notices that

occur are almost all in the lives composed under the reign of

Constantine. It may fairly be concluded, from the language which

he had into the mouth of Mæcenas, that Dion was an enemy to all

innovations in religion. (See Gibbon, _infra_, note 105.) In

fact, when the silence of Pagan historians is noticed, it should

be remembered how meagre and mutilated are all the extant

histories of the period—M.]

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 Israel, were likewise confounded under

the garb and appearance of Jews, 25 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. 26

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.

27 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.

25 (return) [ An obscure passage of Suetonius (in Claud. c. 25)

may seem to offer a proof how strangely the Jews and Christians

of Rome were confounded with each other.]

26 (return) [ See, in the xviiith and xxvth chapters of the Acts

of the Apostles, the behavior of Gallio, proconsul of Achaia, and

of Festus, procurator of Judea.]

27 (return) [ In the time of Tertullian and Clemens of

Alexandria, the glory of martyrdom was confined to St. Peter, St.

Paul, and St. James. It was gradually bestowed on the rest of the

apostles, by the more recent Greeks, who prudently selected for

the theatre of their preaching and sufferings some remote country

beyond the limits of the Roman empire. See Mosheim, p. 81; and

Tillemont, Mémoires Ecclésiastiques, tom. i. part iii.]

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. 28 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. 29 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. 30 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. 31 For a while this dire

superstition was checked; but it again burst forth; 3111 and not

only spread itself over Judæa, 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. 32 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.” 33

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, 34 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 Cæsars, 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.

28 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. xv. 38—44. Sueton in Neron. c. 38.

Dion Cassius, l. lxii. p. 1014. Orosius, vii. 7.]

29 (return) [ The price of wheat (probably of the _modius_,) was

reduced as low as _terni Nummi;_ which would be equivalent to

about fifteen shillings the English quarter.]

30 (return) [ We may observe, that the rumor is mentioned by

Tacitus with a very becoming distrust and hesitation, whilst it

is greedily transcribed by Suetonius, and solemnly confirmed by

Dion.]

31 (return) [ This testimony is alone sufficient to expose the

anachronism of the Jews, who place the birth of Christ near a

century sooner. (Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l. v. c. 14, 15.)

We may learn from Josephus, (Antiquitat. xviii. 3,) that the

procuratorship of Pilate corresponded with the last ten years of

Tiberius, A. D. 27—37. As to the particular time of the death of

Christ, a very early tradition fixed it to the 25th of March, A.

D. 29, under the consulship of the two Gemini. (Tertullian adv.

Judæos, c. 8.) This date, which is adopted by Pagi, Cardinal

Norris, and Le Clerc, seems at least as probable as the vulgar

æra, which is placed (I know not from what conjectures) four

years later.]

3111 (return) [ This single phrase, Repressa in præsens

exitiabilis superstitio rursus erumpebat, proves that the

Christians had already attracted the attention of the government;

and that Nero was not the first to persecute them. I am surprised

that more stress has not been laid on the confirmation which the

Acts of the Apostles derive from these words of Tacitus, Repressa

in præsens, and rursus erumpebat.—G. ——I have been unwilling to

suppress this note, but surely the expression of Tacitus refers

to the expected extirpation of the religion by the death of its

founder, Christ.—M.]

32 (return) [ _Odio humani generis convicti_. These words may

either signify the hatred of mankind towards the Christians, or

the hatred of the Christians towards mankind. I have preferred

the latter sense, as the most agreeable to the style of Tacitus,

and to the popular error, of which a precept of the gospel (see

Luke xiv. 26) had been, perhaps, the innocent occasion. My

interpretation is justified by the authority of Lipsius; of the

Italian, the French, and the English translators of Tacitus; of

Mosheim, (p. 102,) of Le Clerc, (Historia Ecclesiast. p. 427,) of

Dr. Lardner, (Testimonies, vol. i. p. 345,) and of the Bishop of

Gloucester, (Divine Legation, vol. iii. p. 38.) But as the word

_convicti_ does not unite very happily with the rest of the

sentence, James Gronovius has preferred the reading of

_conjuncti_, which is authorized by the valuable MS. of

Florence.]

33 (return) [ Tacit. Annal xv. 44.]

34 (return) [ Nardini Roma Antica, p. 487. Donatus de Roma

Antiqua, l. iii. p. 449.]

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. 35 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. 36 2. Notwithstanding it is probable that Tacitus was

born some years before the fire of Rome, 37 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; 38 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; 39 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 Poppæa, and a favorite player of

the race of Abraham, who had already employed their intercession

in behalf of the obnoxious people. 40 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 Galilæans, which was capable of the most

horrid crimes. Under the appellation of Galilæans, 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, 41 and the zealots who

had followed the standard of Judas the Gaulonite. 42 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, 4211 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, 43 that the religious tenets of

the Galilæans or Christians, 431 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.

35 (return) [ Sueton. in Nerone, c. 16. The epithet of

_malefica_, which some sagacious commentators have translated

magical, is considered by the more rational Mosheim as only

synonymous to the _exitiabilis_ of Tacitus.]

36 (return) [ The passage concerning Jesus Christ, which was

inserted into the text of Josephus, between the time of Origen

and that of Eusebius, may furnish an example of no vulgar

forgery. The accomplishment of the prophecies, the virtues,

miracles, and resurrection of Jesus, are distinctly related.

Josephus acknowledges that he was the Messiah, and hesitates

whether he should call him a man. If any doubt can still remain

concerning this celebrated passage, the reader may examine the

pointed objections of Le Fevre, (Havercamp. Joseph. tom. ii. p.

267-273), the labored answers of Daubuz, (p. 187-232, and the

masterly reply (Bibliothèque Ancienne et Moderne, tom. vii. p.

237-288) of an anonymous critic, whom I believe to have been the

learned Abbé de Longuerue. * Note: The modern editor of Eusebius,

Heinichen, has adopted, and ably supported, a notion, which had

before suggested itself to the editor, that this passage is not

altogether a forgery, but interpolated with many additional

clauses. Heinichen has endeavored to disengage the original text

from the foreign and more recent matter.—M.]

37 (return) [ See the lives of Tacitus by Lipsius and the Abbé de

la Bleterie, Dictionnaire de Bayle a l’article Particle Tacite,

and Fabricius, Biblioth. Latin tem. Latin. tom. ii. p. 386, edit.

Ernest. Ernst.]

38 (return) [ Principatum Divi Nervæ, et imperium Trajani,

uberiorem, securioremque materiam senectuti seposui. Tacit. Hist.

i.]

39 (return) [ See Tacit. Annal. ii. 61, iv. 4. * Note: The

perusal of this passage of Tacitus alone is sufficient, as I have

already said, to show that the Christian sect was not so obscure

as not already to have been repressed, (repressa,) and that it

did not pass for innocent in the eyes of the Romans.—G.]

40 (return) [ The player’s name was Aliturus. Through the same

channel, Josephus, (de vitâ suâ, c. 2,) about two years before,

had obtained the pardon and release of some Jewish priests, who

were prisoners at Rome.]

41 (return) [ The learned Dr. Lardner (Jewish and Heathen

Testimonies, vol ii. p. 102, 103) has proved that the name of

Galilæans was a very ancient, and perhaps the primitive

appellation of the Christians.]

42 (return) [ Joseph. Antiquitat. xviii. 1, 2. Tillemont, Ruine

des Juifs, p. 742 The sons of Judas were crucified in the time of

Claudius. His grandson Eleazar, after Jerusalem was taken,

defended a strong fortress with 960 of his most desperate

followers. When the battering ram had made a breach, they turned

their swords against their wives their children, and at length

against their own breasts. They dies to the last man.]

4211 (return) [ This conjecture is entirely devoid, not merely of

verisimilitude, but even of possibility. Tacitus could not be

deceived in appropriating to the Christians of Rome the guilt and

the sufferings which he might have attributed with far greater

truth to the followers of Judas the Gaulonite, for the latter

never went to Rome. Their revolt, their attempts, their opinions,

their wars, their punishment, had no other theatre but Judæa

(Basn. Hist. des. Juifs, t. i. p. 491.) Moreover the name of

Christians had long been given in Rome to the disciples of Jesus;

and Tacitus affirms too positively, refers too distinctly to its

etymology, to allow us to suspect any mistake on his part.—G.

——M. Guizot’s expressions are not in the least too strong against

this strange imagination of Gibbon; it may be doubted whether the

followers of Judas were known as a sect under the name of

Galilæans.—M.]

43 (return) [ See Dodwell. Paucitat. Mart. l. xiii. The Spanish

Inscription in Gruter. p. 238, No. 9, is a manifest and

acknowledged forgery contrived by that noted imposter. Cyriacus

of Ancona, to flatter the pride and prejudices of the Spaniards.

See Ferreras, Histoire D’Espagne, tom. i. p. 192.]

431 (return) [ M. Guizot, on the authority of Sulpicius Severus,

ii. 37, and of Orosius, viii. 5, inclines to the opinion of those

who extend the persecution to the provinces. Mosheim rather leans

to that side on this much disputed question, (c. xxxv.) Neander

takes the view of Gibbon, which is in general that of the most

learned writers. There is indeed no evidence, which I can

discover, of its reaching the provinces; and the apparent

security, at least as regards his life, with which St. Paul

pursued his travels during this period, affords at least a strong

inference against a rigid and general inquisition against the

Christians in other parts of the empire.—M.]

It is somewhat remarkable that the flames of war consumed, almost

at the same time, the temple of Jerusalem and the Capitol of

Rome; 44 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. 45 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. 46 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 dæmon 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; 47 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 Judæa, 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. 48 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, 49 and of the value of

nine thousand drachms, or three hundred pounds sterling. The

grandsons of St. Jude were dismissed with compassion and

contempt. 50

44 (return) [ The Capitol was burnt during the civil war between

Vitellius and Vespasian, the 19th of December, A. D. 69. On the

10th of August, A. D. 70, the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed

by the hands of the Jews themselves, rather than by those of the

Romans.]

45 (return) [ The new Capitol was dedicated by Domitian. Sueton.

in Domitian. c. 5. Plutarch in Poplicola, tom. i. p. 230, edit.

Bryant. The gilding alone cost 12,000 talents (above two millions

and a half.) It was the opinion of Martial, (l. ix. Epigram 3,)

that if the emperor had called in his debts, Jupiter himself,

even though he had made a general auction of Olympus, would have

been unable to pay two shillings in the pound.]

46 (return) [ With regard to the tribute, see Dion Cassius, l.

lxvi. p. 1082, with Reimarus’s notes. Spanheim, de Usu

Numismatum, tom. ii. p. 571; and Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l.

vii. c. 2.]

47 (return) [ Suetonius (in Domitian. c. 12) had seen an old man

of ninety publicly examined before the procurator’s tribunal.

This is what Martial calls, Mentula tributis damnata.]

48 (return) [ This appellation was at first understood in the

most obvious sense, and it was supposed, that the brothers of

Jesus were the lawful issue of Joseph and Mary. A devout respect

for the virginity of the mother of God suggested to the Gnostics,

and afterwards to the orthodox Greeks, the expedient of bestowing

a second wife on Joseph. The Latins (from the time of Jerome)

improved on that hint, asserted the perpetual celibacy of Joseph,

and justified by many similar examples the new interpretation

that Jude, as well as Simon and James, who were styled the

brothers of Jesus Christ, were only his first cousins. See

Tillemont, Mém. Ecclesiast. tom. i. part iii.: and Beausobre,

Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, l. ii. c. 2.]

49 (return) [ Thirty-nine, squares of a hundred feet each, which,

if strictly computed, would scarcely amount to nine acres.]

50 (return) [ Eusebius, iii. 20. The story is taken from

Hegesippus.]

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, 51 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. 52 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.

51 (return) [ See the death and character of Sabinus in Tacitus,

(Hist. iii. 74 ) Sabinus was the elder brother, and, till the

accession of Vespasian, had been considered as the principal

support of the Flavium family]

52 (return) [ Flavium Clementem patruelem suum _contemptissimæ

inertiæ_.. ex tenuissimâ suspicione interemit. Sueton. in

Domitian. c. 15.]

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; 53 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;_ 54 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, 5411 assassinated

the emperor in his palace. 55 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. 56

53 (return) [ The Isle of Pandataria, according to Dion. Bruttius

Præsens (apud Euseb. iii. 18) banishes her to that of Pontia,

which was not far distant from the other. That difference, and a

mistake, either of Eusebius or of his transcribers, have given

occasion to suppose two Domitillas, the wife and the niece of

Clemens. See Tillemont, Mémoires Ecclésiastiques, tom. ii. p.

224.]

54 (return) [ Dion. l. lxvii. p. 1112. If the Bruttius Præsens,

from whom it is probable that he collected this account, was the

correspondent of Pliny, (Epistol. vii. 3,) we may consider him as

a contemporary writer.]

5411 (return) [ This is an uncandid sarcasm. There is nothing to

connect Stephen with the religion of Domitilla. He was a knave

detected in the malversation of money—interceptarum pecuniaram

reus.—M.]

55 (return) [ Suet. in Domit. c. 17. Philostratus in Vit.

Apollon. l. viii.]

56 (return) [ Dion. l. lxviii. p. 1118. Plin. Epistol. iv. 22.]

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 name

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. 57 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, 58 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.

57 (return) [ Plin. Epistol. x. 97. The learned Mosheim expresses

himself (p. 147, 232) with the highest approbation of Pliny’s

moderate and candid temper. Notwithstanding Dr. Lardner’s

suspicions (see Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. ii. p. 46,)

I am unable to discover any bigotry in his language or

proceedings. * Note: Yet the humane Pliny put two female

attendants, probably deaconesses to the torture, in order to

ascertain the real nature of these suspicious meetings:

necessarium credidi, ex duabus ancillis, quæ ministræ dicebantor

quid asset veri et _per tormenta_ quærere.—M.]

58 (return) [ Plin. Epist. v. 8. He pleaded his first cause A. D.

81; the year after the famous eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, in

which his uncle lost his life.]

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To

Constantine.—Part III.

The answer of Trajan, to which the Christians of the succeeding

age have frequently appealed, discovers as much regard for

justice and humanity as could be reconciled with his mistaken

notions of religious policy. 59 Instead of displaying the

implacable zeal of an inquisitor, anxious to discover the most

minute particles of heresy, and exulting in the number of his

victims, the emperor expresses much more solicitude to protect

the security of the innocent, than to prevent the escape of the

guilty. He acknowledged the difficulty of fixing any general

plan; but he lays down two salutary rules, which often afforded

relief and support to the distressed Christians. Though he

directs the magistrates to punish such persons as are legally

convicted, he prohibits them, with a very humane inconsistency,

from making any inquiries concerning the supposed criminals. Nor

was the magistrate allowed to proceed on every kind of

information. Anonymous charges the emperor rejects, as too

repugnant to the equity of his government; and he strictly

requires, for the conviction of those to whom the guilt of

Christianity is imputed, the positive evidence of a fair and open

accuser. It is likewise probable, that the persons who assumed so

invidiuous an office, were obliged to declare the grounds of

their suspicions, to specify (both in respect to time and place)

the secret assemblies, which their Christian adversary had

frequented, and to disclose a great number of circumstances,

which were concealed with the most vigilant jealousy from the eye

of the profane. If they succeeded in their prosecution, they were

exposed to the resentment of a considerable and active party, to

the censure of the more liberal portion of mankind, and to the

ignominy which, in every age and country, has attended the

character of an informer. If, on the contrary, they failed in

their proofs, they incurred the severe and perhaps capital

penalty, which, according to a law published by the emperor

Hadrian, was inflicted on those who falsely attributed to their

fellow-citizens the crime of Christianity. The violence of

personal or superstitious animosity might sometimes prevail over

the most natural apprehensions of disgrace and danger but it

cannot surely be imagined, 60 that accusations of so unpromising

an appearance were either lightly or frequently undertaken by the

Pagan subjects of the Roman empire. 6011

59 (return) [ Plin. Epist. x. 98. Tertullian (Apolog. c. 5)

considers this rescript as a relaxation of the ancient penal

laws, “quas Trajanus exparte frustratus est:” and yet Tertullian,

in another part of his Apology, exposes the inconsistency of

prohibiting inquiries, and enjoining punishments.]

60 (return) [ Eusebius (Hist. Ecclesiast. l. iv. c. 9) has

preserved the edict of Hadrian. He has likewise (c. 13) given us

one still more favorable, under the name of Antoninus; the

authenticity of which is not so universally allowed. The second

Apology of Justin contains some curious particulars relative to

the accusations of Christians. * Note: Professor Hegelmayer has

proved the authenticity of the edict of Antoninus, in his Comm.

Hist. Theol. in Edict. Imp. Antonini. Tubing. 1777, in 4to.—G.

——Neander doubts its authenticity, (vol. i. p. 152.) In my

opinion, the internal evidence is decisive against it.—M]

6011 (return) [ The enactment of this law affords strong

presumption, that accusations of the “crime of Christianity,”

were by no means so uncommon, nor received with so much mistrust

and caution by the ruling authorities, as Gibbon would insinuate.

—M.]

The expedient which was employed to elude the prudence of the

laws, affords a sufficient proof how effectually they

disappointed the mischievous designs of private malice or

superstitious zeal. In a large and tumultuous assembly, the

restraints of fear and shame, so forcible on the minds of

individuals, are deprived of the greatest part of their

influence. The pious Christian, as he was desirous to obtain, or

to escape, the glory of martyrdom, expected, either with

impatience or with terror, the stated returns of the public games

and festivals. On those occasions the inhabitants of the great

cities of the empire were collected in the circus or the theatre,

where every circumstance of the place, as well as of the

ceremony, contributed to kindle their devotion, and to extinguish

their humanity. Whilst the numerous spectators, crowned with

garlands, perfumed with incense, purified with the blood of

victims, and surrounded with the altars and statues of their

tutelar deities, resigned themselves to the enjoyment of

pleasures, which they considered as an essential part of their

religious worship, they recollected, that the Christians alone

abhorred the gods of mankind, and by their absence and melancholy

on these solemn festivals, seemed to insult or to lament the

public felicity. If the empire had been afflicted by any recent

calamity, by a plague, a famine, or an unsuccessful war; if the

Tyber had, or if the Nile had not, risen beyond its banks; if the

earth had shaken, or if the temperate order of the seasons had

been interrupted, the superstitious Pagans were convinced that

the crimes and the impiety of the Christians, who were spared by

the excessive lenity of the government, had at length provoked

the divine justice. It was not among a licentious and exasperated

populace, that the forms of legal proceedings could be observed;

it was not in an amphitheatre, stained with the blood of wild

beasts and gladiators, that the voice of compassion could be

heard. The impatient clamors of the multitude denounced the

Christians as the enemies of gods and men, doomed them to the

severest tortures, and venturing to accuse by name some of the

most distinguished of the new sectaries, required with

irresistible vehemence that they should be instantly apprehended

and cast to the lions. 61 The provincial governors and

magistrates who presided in the public spectacles were usually

inclined to gratify the inclinations, and to appease the rage, of

the people, by the sacrifice of a few obnoxious victims. But the

wisdom of the emperors protected the church from the danger of

these tumultuous clamors and irregular accusations, which they

justly censured as repugnant both to the firmness and to the

equity of their administration. The edicts of Hadrian and of

Antoninus Pius expressly declared, that the voice of the

multitude should never be admitted as legal evidence to convict

or to punish those unfortunate persons who had embraced the

enthusiasm of the Christians. 62

61 (return) [ See Tertullian, (Apolog. c. 40.) The acts of the

martyrdom of Polycarp exhibit a lively picture of these tumults,

which were usually fomented by the malice of the Jews.]

62 (return) [ These regulations are inserted in the above

mentioned document of Hadrian and Pius. See the apology of

Melito, (apud Euseb. l iv 26)]

III. Punishment was not the inevitable consequence of conviction,

and the Christians, whose guilt was the most clearly proved by

the testimony of witnesses, or even by their voluntary

confession, still retained in their own power the alternative of

life or death. It was not so much the past offence, as the actual

resistance, which excited the indignation of the magistrate. He

was persuaded that he offered them an easy pardon, since, if they

consented to cast a few grains of incense upon the altar, they

were dismissed from the tribunal in safety and with applause. It

was esteemed the duty of a humane judge to endeavor to reclaim,

rather than to punish, those deluded enthusiasts. Varying his

tone according to the age, the sex, or the situation of the

prisoners, he frequently condescended to set before their eyes

every circumstance which could render life more pleasing, or

death more terrible; and to solicit, nay, to entreat, them, that

they would show some compassion to themselves, to their families,

and to their friends. 63 If threats and persuasions proved

ineffectual, he had often recourse to violence; the scourge and

the rack were called in to supply the deficiency of argument, and

every art of cruelty was employed to subdue such inflexible, and,

as it appeared to the Pagans, such criminal, obstinacy. The

ancient apologists of Christianity have censured, with equal

truth and severity, the irregular conduct of their persecutors

who, contrary to every principle of judicial proceeding, admitted

the use of torture, in order to obtain, not a confession, but a

denial, of the crime which was the object of their inquiry. 64

The monks of succeeding ages, who, in their peaceful solitudes,

entertained themselves with diversifying the deaths and

sufferings of the primitive martyrs, have frequently invented

torments of a much more refined and ingenious nature. In

particular, it has pleased them to suppose, that the zeal of the

Roman magistrates, disdaining every consideration of moral virtue

or public decency, endeavored to seduce those whom they were

unable to vanquish, and that by their orders the most brutal

violence was offered to those whom they found it impossible to

seduce. It is related, that females, who were prepared to despise

death, were sometimes condemned to a more severe trial, 6411 and

called upon to determine whether they set a higher value on their

religion or on their chastity. The youths to whose licentious

embraces they were abandoned, received a solemn exhortation from

the judge, to exert their most strenuous efforts to maintain the

honor of Venus against the impious virgin who refused to burn

incense on her altars. Their violence, however, was commonly

disappointed, and the seasonable interposition of some miraculous

power preserved the chaste spouses of Christ from the dishonor

even of an involuntary defeat. We should not indeed neglect to

remark, that the more ancient as well as authentic memorials of

the church are seldom polluted with these extravagant and

indecent fictions. 65

63 (return) [ See the rescript of Trajan, and the conduct of

Pliny. The most authentic acts of the martyrs abound in these

exhortations. Note: Pliny’s test was the worship of the gods,

offerings to the statue of the emperor, and blaspheming

Christ—præterea maledicerent Christo.—M.]

64 (return) [ In particular, see Tertullian, (Apolog. c. 2, 3,)

and Lactantius, (Institut. Divin. v. 9.) Their reasonings are

almost the same; but we may discover, that one of these

apologists had been a lawyer, and the other a rhetorician.]

6411 (return) [ The more ancient as well as authentic memorials

of the church, relate many examples of the fact, (of these

_severe trials_,) which there is nothing to contradict.

Tertullian, among others, says, Nam proxime ad lenonem damnando

Christianam, potius quam ad leonem, confessi estis labem

pudicitiæ apud nos atrociorem omni pœna et omni morte reputari,

Apol. cap. ult. Eusebius likewise says, “Other virgins, dragged

to brothels, have lost their life rather than defile their

virtue.” Euseb. Hist. Ecc. viii. 14.—G. The miraculous

interpositions were the offspring of the coarse imaginations of

the monks.—M.]

65 (return) [ See two instances of this kind of torture in the

Acta Sincere Martyrum, published by Ruinart, p. 160, 399. Jerome,

in his Legend of Paul the Hermit, tells a strange story of a

young man, who was chained naked on a bed of flowers, and

assaulted by a beautiful and wanton courtesan. He quelled the

rising temptation by biting off his tongue.]

The total disregard of truth and probability in the

representation of these primitive martyrdoms was occasioned by a

very natural mistake. The ecclesiastical writers of the fourth or

fifth centuries ascribed to the magistrates of Rome the same

degree of implacable and unrelenting zeal which filled their own

breasts against the heretics or the idolaters of their own times.

It is not improbable that some of those persons who were raised

to the dignities of the empire, might have imbibed the prejudices

of the populace, and that the cruel disposition of others might

occasionally be stimulated by motives of avarice or of personal

resentment. 66 But it is certain, and we may appeal to the

grateful confessions of the first Christians, that the greatest

part of those magistrates who exercised in the provinces the

authority of the emperor, or of the senate, and to whose hands

alone the jurisdiction of life and death was intrusted, behaved

like men of polished manners and liberal education, who respected

the rules of justice, and who were conversant with the precepts

of philosophy. They frequently declined the odious task of

persecution, dismissed the charge with contempt, or suggested to

the accused Christian some legal evasion, by which he might elude

the severity of the laws. 67 Whenever they were invested with a

discretionary power, 68 they used it much less for the

oppression, than for the relief and benefit of the afflicted

church. They were far from condemning all the Christians who were

accused before their tribunal, and very far from punishing with

death all those who were convicted of an obstinate adherence to

the new superstition. Contenting themselves, for the most part,

with the milder chastisements of imprisonment, exile, or slavery

in the mines, 69 they left the unhappy victims of their justice

some reason to hope, that a prosperous event, the accession, the

marriage, or the triumph of an emperor, might speedily restore

them, by a general pardon, to their former state. The martyrs,

devoted to immediate execution by the Roman magistrates, appear

to have been selected from the most opposite extremes. They were

either bishops and presbyters, the persons the most distinguished

among the Christians by their rank and influence, and whose

example might strike terror into the whole sect; 70 or else they

were the meanest and most abject among them, particularly those

of the servile condition, whose lives were esteemed of little

value, and whose sufferings were viewed by the ancients with too

careless an indifference. 71 The learned Origen, who, from his

experience as well as reading, was intimately acquainted with the

history of the Christians, declares, in the most express terms,

that the number of martyrs was very inconsiderable. 72 His

authority would alone be sufficient to annihilate that formidable

army of martyrs, whose relics, drawn for the most part from the

catacombs of Rome, have replenished so many churches, 73 and

whose marvellous achievements have been the subject of so many

volumes of Holy Romance. 74 But the general assertion of Origen

may be explained and confirmed by the particular testimony of his

friend Dionysius, who, in the immense city of Alexandria, and

under the rigorous persecution of Decius, reckons only ten men

and seven women who suffered for the profession of the Christian

name. 75

66 (return) [ The conversion of his wife provoked Claudius

Herminianus, governor of Cappadocia, to treat the Christians with

uncommon severity. Tertullian ad Scapulam, c. 3.]

67 (return) [ Tertullian, in his epistle to the governor of

Africa, mentions several remarkable instances of lenity and

forbearance, which had happened within his knowledge.]

68 (return) [ Neque enim in universum aliquid quod quasi certam

formam habeat, constitui potest; an expression of Trajan, which

gave a very great latitude to the governors of provinces. * Note:

Gibbon altogether forgets that Trajan fully approved of the

course pursued by Pliny. That course was, to order all who

persevered in their faith to be led to execution: perseverantes

duci jussi.—M.]

69 (return) [ In Metalla damnamur, in insulas relegamur.

Tertullian, Apolog. c. 12. The mines of Numidia contained nine

bishops, with a proportionable number of their clergy and people,

to whom Cyprian addressed a pious epistle of praise and comfort.

See Cyprian. Epistol. 76, 77.]

70 (return) [ Though we cannot receive with entire confidence

either the epistles, or the acts, of Ignatius, (they may be found

in the 2d volume of the Apostolic Fathers,) yet we may quote that

bishop of Antioch as one of these _exemplary_ martyrs. He was

sent in chains to Rome as a public spectacle, and when he arrived

at Troas, he received the pleasing intelligence, that the

persecution of Antioch was already at an end. * Note: The acts of

Ignatius are generally received as authentic, as are seven of his

letters. Eusebius and St. Jerome mention them: there are two

editions; in one, the letters are longer, and many passages

appear to have been interpolated; the other edition is that which

contains the real letters of St. Ignatius; such at least is the

opinion of the wisest and most enlightened critics. (See Lardner.

Cred. of Gospel Hist.) Less, uber dis Religion, v. i. p. 529.

Usser. Diss. de Ign. Epist. Pearson, Vindic, Ignatianæ. It should

be remarked, that it was under the reign of Trajan that the

bishop Ignatius was carried from Antioch to Rome, to be exposed

to the lions in the amphitheatre, the year of J. C. 107,

according to some; of 116, according to others.—G.]

71 (return) [ Among the martyrs of Lyons, (Euseb. l. v. c. 1,)

the slave Blandina was distinguished by more exquisite tortures.

Of the five martyrs so much celebrated in the acts of Felicitas

and Perpetua, two were of a servile, and two others of a very

mean, condition.]

72 (return) [ Origen. advers. Celsum, l. iii. p. 116. His words

deserve to be transcribed. * Note: The words that follow should

be quoted. “God not permitting that all his class of men should

be exterminated:” which appears to indicate that Origen thought

the number put to death inconsiderable only when compared to the

numbers who had survived. Besides this, he is speaking of the

state of the religion under Caracalla, Elagabalus, Alexander

Severus, and Philip, who had not persecuted the Christians. It

was during the reign of the latter that Origen wrote his books

against Celsus.—G.]

73 (return) [ If we recollect that all the Plebeians of Rome were

not Christians, and that all the Christians were not saints and

martyrs, we may judge with how much safety religious honors can

be ascribed to bones or urns, indiscriminately taken from the

public burial-place. After ten centuries of a very free and open

trade, some suspicions have arisen among the more learned

Catholics. They now require as a proof of sanctity and martyrdom,

the letters B.M., a vial full of red liquor supposed to be blood,

or the figure of a palm-tree. But the two former signs are of

little weight, and with regard to the last, it is observed by the

critics, 1. That the figure, as it is called, of a palm, is

perhaps a cypress, and perhaps only a stop, the flourish of a

comma used in the monumental inscriptions. 2. That the palm was

the symbol of victory among the Pagans. 3. That among the

Christians it served as the emblem, not only of martyrdom, but in

general of a joyful resurrection. See the epistle of P. Mabillon,

on the worship of unknown saints, and Muratori sopra le Antichita

Italiane, Dissertat. lviii.]

74 (return) [ As a specimen of these legends, we may be satisfied

with 10,000 Christian soldiers crucified in one day, either by

Trajan or Hadrian on Mount Ararat. See Baronius ad Martyrologium

Romanum; Tille mont, Mém. Ecclesiast. tom. ii. part ii. p. 438;

and Geddes’s Miscellanies, vol. ii. p. 203. The abbreviation of

Mil., which may signify either _soldiers_ or _thousands_, is said

to have occasioned some extraordinary mistakes.]

75 (return) [ Dionysius ap. Euseb l. vi. c. 41 One of the

seventeen was likewise accused of robbery. * Note: Gibbon ought

to have said, was falsely accused of robbery, for so it is in the

Greek text. This Christian, named Nemesion, falsely accused of

robbery before the centurion, was acquitted of a crime altogether

foreign to his character, but he was led before the governor as

guilty of being a Christian, and the governor inflicted upon him

a double torture. (Euseb. loc. cit.) It must be added, that Saint

Dionysius only makes particular mention of the principal martyrs,

[this is very doubtful.—M.] and that he says, in general, that

the fury of the Pagans against the Christians gave to Alexandria

the appearance of a city taken by storm. [This refers to plunder

and ill usage, not to actual slaughter.—M.] Finally it should be

observed that Origen wrote before the persecution of the emperor

Decius.—G.]

During the same period of persecution, the zealous, the eloquent,

the ambitious Cyprian governed the church, not only of Carthage,

but even of Africa. He possessed every quality which could engage

the reverence of the faithful, or provoke the suspicions and

resentment of the Pagan magistrates. His character as well as his

station seemed to mark out that holy prelate as the most

distinguished object of envy and danger. 76 The experience,

however, of the life of Cyprian, is sufficient to prove that our

fancy has exaggerated the perilous situation of a Christian

bishop; and the dangers to which he was exposed were less

imminent than those which temporal ambition is always prepared to

encounter in the pursuit of honors. Four Roman emperors, with

their families, their favorites, and their adherents, perished by

the sword in the space of ten years, during which the bishop of

Carthage guided by his authority and eloquence the councils of

the African church. It was only in the third year of his

administration, that he had reason, during a few months, to

apprehend the severe edicts of Decius, the vigilance of the

magistrate and the clamors of the multitude, who loudly demanded,

that Cyprian, the leader of the Christians, should be thrown to

the lions. Prudence suggested the necessity of a temporary

retreat, and the voice of prudence was obeyed. He withdrew

himself into an obscure solitude, from whence he could maintain a

constant correspondence with the clergy and people of Carthage;

and, concealing himself till the tempest was past, he preserved

his life, without relinquishing either his power or his

reputation. His extreme caution did not, however, escape the

censure of the more rigid Christians, who lamented, or the

reproaches of his personal enemies, who insulted, a conduct which

they considered as a pusillanimous and criminal desertion of the

most sacred duty. 77 The propriety of reserving himself for the

future exigencies of the church, the example of several holy

bishops, 78 and the divine admonitions, which, as he declares

himself, he frequently received in visions and ecstacies, were

the reasons alleged in his justification. 79 But his best apology

may be found in the cheerful resolution, with which, about eight

years afterwards, he suffered death in the cause of religion. The

authentic history of his martyrdom has been recorded with unusual

candor and impartiality. A short abstract, therefore, of its most

important circumstances, will convey the clearest information of

the spirit, and of the forms, of the Roman persecutions. 80

76 (return) [ The letters of Cyprian exhibit a very curious and

original picture both of the _man_ and of the _times_. See

likewise the two lives of Cyprian, composed with equal accuracy,

though with very different views; the one by Le Clerc

(Bibliothèque Universelle, tom. xii. p. 208-378,) the other by

Tillemont, Mémoires Ecclésiastiques, tom. iv part i. p. 76-459.]

77 (return) [ See the polite but severe epistle of the clergy of

Rome to the bishop of Carthage. (Cyprian. Epist. 8, 9.) Pontius

labors with the greatest care and diligence to justify his master

against the general censure.]

78 (return) [ In particular those of Dionysius of Alexandria, and

Gregory Thaumaturgus, of Neo-Cæsarea. See Euseb. Hist.

Ecclesiast. l. vi. c. 40; and Mémoires de Tillemont, tom. iv.

part ii. p. 685.]

79 (return) [ See Cyprian. Epist. 16, and his life by Pontius.]

80 (return) [ We have an original life of Cyprian by the deacon

Pontius, the companion of his exile, and the spectator of his

death; and we likewise possess the ancient proconsular acts of

his martyrdom. These two relations are consistent with each

other, and with probability; and what is somewhat remarkable,

they are both unsullied by any miraculous circumstances.]

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To

Constantine.—Part IV.

When Valerian was consul for the third, and Gallienus for the

fourth time, Paternus, proconsul of Africa, summoned Cyprian to

appear in his private council-chamber. He there acquainted him

with the Imperial mandate which he had just received, 81 that

those who had abandoned the Roman religion should immediately

return to the practice of the ceremonies of their ancestors.

Cyprian replied without hesitation, that he was a Christian and a

bishop, devoted to the worship of the true and only Deity, to

whom he offered up his daily supplications for the safety and

prosperity of the two emperors, his lawful sovereigns.

With modest confidence he pleaded the privilege of a citizen, in

refusing to give any answer to some invidious and indeed illegal

questions which the proconsul had proposed. A sentence of

banishment was pronounced as the penalty of Cyprian’s

disobedience; and he was conducted without delay to Curubis, a

free and maritime city of Zeugitania, in a pleasant situation, a

fertile territory, and at the distance of about forty miles from

Carthage. 82 The exiled bishop enjoyed the conveniences of life

and the consciousness of virtue. His reputation was diffused over

Africa and Italy; an account of his behavior was published for

the edification of the Christian world; 83 and his solitude was

frequently interrupted by the letters, the visits, and the

congratulations of the faithful. On the arrival of a new

proconsul in the province the fortune of Cyprian appeared for

some time to wear a still more favorable aspect. He was recalled

from banishment; and though not yet permitted to return to

Carthage, his own gardens in the neighborhood of the capital were

assigned for the place of his residence. 84

81 (return) [ It should seem that these were circular orders,

sent at the same time to all the governors. Dionysius (ap. Euseb.

l. vii. c. 11) relates the history of his own banishment from

Alexandria almost in the same manner. But as he escaped and

survived the persecution, we must account him either more or less

fortunate than Cyprian.]

82 (return) [ See Plin. Hist. Natur. v. 3. Cellarius, Geograph.

Antiq. part iii. p. 96. Shaw’s Travels, p. 90; and for the

adjacent country, (which is terminated by Cape Bona, or the

promontory of Mercury,) l’Afrique de Marmol. tom. ii. p. 494.

There are the remains of an aqueduct near Curubis, or Curbis, at

present altered into Gurbes; and Dr. Shaw read an inscription,

which styles that city _Colonia Fulvia_. The deacon Pontius (in

Vit. Cyprian. c. 12) calls it “Apricum et competentem locum,

hospitium pro voluntate secretum, et quicquid apponi eis ante

promissum est, qui regnum et justitiam Dei quærunt.”]

83 (return) [ See Cyprian. Epistol. 77, edit. Fell.]

84 (return) [ Upon his conversion, he had sold those gardens for

the benefit of the poor. The indulgence of God (most probably the

liberality of some Christian friend) restored them to Cyprian.

See Pontius, c. 15.]

At length, exactly one year 85 after Cyprian was first

apprehended, Galerius Maximus, proconsul of Africa, received the

Imperial warrant for the execution of the Christian teachers. The

bishop of Carthage was sensible that he should be singled out for

one of the first victims; and the frailty of nature tempted him

to withdraw himself, by a secret flight, from the danger and the

honor of martyrdom; 8511 but soon recovering that fortitude which

his character required, he returned to his gardens, and patiently

expected the ministers of death. Two officers of rank, who were

intrusted with that commission, placed Cyprian between them in a

chariot, and as the proconsul was not then at leisure, they

conducted him, not to a prison, but to a private house in

Carthage, which belonged to one of them. An elegant supper was

provided for the entertainment of the bishop, and his Christian

friends were permitted for the last time to enjoy his society,

whilst the streets were filled with a multitude of the faithful,

anxious and alarmed at the approaching fate of their spiritual

father. 86 In the morning he appeared before the tribunal of the

proconsul, who, after informing himself of the name and situation

of Cyprian, commanded him to offer sacrifice, and pressed him to

reflect on the consequences of his disobedience. The refusal of

Cyprian was firm and decisive; and the magistrate, when he had

taken the opinion of his council, pronounced with some reluctance

the sentence of death. It was conceived in the following terms:

“That Thascius Cyprianus should be immediately beheaded, as the

enemy of the gods of Rome, and as the chief and ringleader of a

criminal association, which he had seduced into an impious

resistance against the laws of the most holy emperors, Valerian

and Gallienus.” 87 The manner of his execution was the mildest

and least painful that could be inflicted on a person convicted

of any capital offence; nor was the use of torture admitted to

obtain from the bishop of Carthage either the recantation of his

principles or the discovery of his accomplices.

85 (return) [ When Cyprian; a twelvemonth before, was sent into

exile, he dreamt that he should be put to death the next day. The

event made it necessary to explain that word, as signifying a

year. Pontius, c. 12.]

8511 (return) [ This was not, as it appears, the motive which

induced St. Cyprian to conceal himself for a short time; he was

threatened to be carried to Utica; he preferred remaining at

Carthage, in order to suffer martyrdom in the midst of his flock,

and in order that his death might conduce to the edification of

those whom he had guided during life. Such, at least, is his own

explanation of his conduct in one of his letters: Cum perlatum ad

nos fuisset, fratres carissimi, frumentarios esse missos qui me

Uticam per ducerent, consilioque carissimorum persuasum est, ut

de hortis interim recederemus, justa interveniente causâ,

consensi; eo quod congruat episcopum in eâ civitate, in quâ

Ecclesiæ dominicæ præest, illie. Dominum confiteri et plebem

universam præpositi præsentis confessione clarificari Ep. 83.—G]

86 (return) [ Pontius (c. 15) acknowledges that Cyprian, with

whom he supped, passed the night custodia delicata. The bishop

exercised a last and very proper act of jurisdiction, by

directing that the younger females, who watched in the streets,

should be removed from the dangers and temptations of a nocturnal

crowd. Act. Preconsularia, c. 2.]

87 (return) [ See the original sentence in the Acts, c. 4; and in

Pontius, c. 17 The latter expresses it in a more rhetorical

manner.]

As soon as the sentence was proclaimed, a general cry of “We will

die with him,” arose at once among the listening multitude of

Christians who waited before the palace gates. The generous

effusions of their zeal and their affection were neither

serviceable to Cyprian nor dangerous to themselves. He was led

away under a guard of tribunes and centurions, without resistance

and without insult, to the place of his execution, a spacious and

level plain near the city, which was already filled with great

numbers of spectators. His faithful presbyters and deacons were

permitted to accompany their holy bishop. 8711 They assisted him

in laying aside his upper garment, spread linen on the ground to

catch the precious relics of his blood, and received his orders

to bestow five-and-twenty pieces of gold on the executioner. The

martyr then covered his face with his hands, and at one blow his

head was separated from his body. His corpse remained during some

hours exposed to the curiosity of the Gentiles: but in the night

it was removed, and transported in a triumphal procession, and

with a splendid illumination, to the burial-place of the

Christians. The funeral of Cyprian was publicly celebrated

without receiving any interruption from the Roman magistrates;

and those among the faithful, who had performed the last offices

to his person and his memory, were secure from the danger of

inquiry or of punishment. It is remarkable, that of so great a

multitude of bishops in the province of Africa, Cyprian was the

first who was esteemed worthy to obtain the crown of martyrdom.

8711 (return) [ There is nothing in the life of St. Cyprian, by

Pontius, nor in the ancient manuscripts, which can make us

suppose that the presbyters and deacons in their clerical

character, and known to be such, had the permission to attend

their holy bishop. Setting aside all religious considerations, it

is impossible not to be surprised at the kind of complaisance

with which the historian here insists, in favor of the

persecutors, on some mitigating circumstances allowed at the

death of a man whose only crime was maintaining his own opinions

with frankness and courage.—G.]

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185 (return) [ Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. 3. Hieronym. Epist. 83.]