become mixed with miry clay, and that the men of his time were very
different from their fathers, and much less brave and public spirited.
He fancied this was the fault of new ways, and that Christianity was
one of these. There were Christians everywhere, in every town of every
province, nobles, soldiers, women, slaves, rich and poor; all feeling
themselves members of one body, all with the same faith, the same
prayers and Sacraments. All day they did their daily tasks, only
refusing to show any honour to idols, such as pouring out wine to the
gods before partaking of food, or paying adoration to the figures of the
Cæsars, which were carried with the eagle standards of the army; and so
close was the brotherhood between them, that the heathen used to say,
"See how these Christians love one another!" At night they endeavoured
to meet in some secret chamber, or underground cave. At Rome, the
usual place was the Catacombs, great vaults, whence the soft stone for
building the city had been dug out, and where the quarry-men alone knew
the way through the long winding passages. Here, in the very early
morning of Lord's Day, the Christians made every effort to assemble,
for they were sure of meeting their Bishop, and of receiving the Holy
Communion to strengthen them for the trials of the week. The Christian
men and women stood on opposite sides; a little further off were the
learners, as yet unbaptized, who might only hear the prayers and
instructions; and beyond them was any person who had been forbidden to
receive the Holy Eucharist on account of some sin, and who was waiting
to be taken back again. The heathen knew nothing of what happened in
these meetings, and fancied that a great deal that was shocking was done
there; and Trajan ordered that Christians should be put to the torture,
if they would not confess what were their ceremonies. Very few would
betray anything, and what they said, the heathen could not understand;
but the emperor imagining that these rites would destroy the old Roman
spirit, forbade them, and persecuted the Christians, because they
obeyed God rather than man. The Bishop of Antioch was an old man named
Ignatius, who is believed to have been the little child whom our blessed
Lord had set in the midst of His disciples as an example of lowliness.
He had been St. John's pupil, and always walked in his steps, and he is
the first Father of the Church, that is, the first of the great wise men
in those early days, whose writings have come down to us. As Trajan was
going through Antioch, he saw this holy man, and sentenced him to be
carried to Rome, there to be thrown to the lions for the amusement
of the bloody-minded Romans. As has been said, from early days the
favourite sport of this nation had been to sit round on galleries,
built up within a round building called an amphitheatre, to watch the
gladiators fight with each other, or with savage beasts. Many of these
buildings are still to be found ruined in different parts of the empire,
and one in especial at Rome, named the Coliseum, where it is most likely
that the death of St. Ignatius took place, when, as he said, he was the
wheat of Christ, ground by the teeth of the lions. He is reckoned as one
of the Fathers of the Church. His great friend was Polycarp, Bishop
or Angel of Smyrna, the same, as it is believed, to whom St. John had
written in the Revelation, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give
thee a crown of life."
The Emperor Antoninus began a persecution, which was carried on by his
successor, Marcus Aurelius; and in 167, St. Polycarp, who was a very
aged man, and had ruled the Church of Smyrna towards seventy years, was
led before the tribunal. The governor had pity on his grey hairs, and
entreated him to save his life by swearing by the fortunes of Caesar,
and denying Christ. "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has
never done me a wrong; how could I then blaspheme my King, who hath
saved me?" said Polycarp; and all the threats of the governor did but
make him glad to be so near glorifying God by his death. He was taken
out to be burnt alive, and as he stood bound to the stake, he cried
aloud, "Lord God Almighty, Father of the blessed and well-beloved Son,
Jesus Christ, by Whom we have received the grace to know Thee; God of
angels and of powers, God of all creatures, and of the just who live in
Thy Presence, I thank Thee that Thou hast brought me to this day and
hour, when I may take part in the number of the martyrs in the Cup
of Thy Christ, to rise to the eternal life of soul and body in the
incorruption of the Holy Spirit. May I be received into Thy Presence
with them as an acceptable offering, as Thou hast prepared and foretold,
Thou the true God Who canst not lie. Therefore I praise Thee, I bless
Thee, I glorify Thee by the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus
Christ, Thy beloved Son, to Whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be glory
now and for ever and ever. Amen." The fire was kindled, and to the
wonder of the beholders, it rose into a bright vault of flame, like a
glory around the martyr, without touching him; whereupon the governor
became impatient, and caused him to be slain with the sword. He was the
last of the companions of the Apostles; but there was no lessening
of the grace bestowed on the Church. Even when Aurelius's army was
suffering from a terrible drought in an expedition to Germany, a
legion who were nearly all Christians, prayed aloud for rain, a shower
descended in floods of refreshment. The emperor said that his god
Jupiter sent it, and caused his triumphal arch to be carved with figures
of soldiers, some praying, others catching rain in their helmets and
shields; but the band was ever afterwards called the Thundering Legion.
This unbelieving emperor persecuted frightfully, and great numbers
suffered at Vienne in Gaul, many dying of the damp of their prison, and
many more tortured to death. Of these was the Bishop Pothinus of Lyons,
ninety years old, who died of the torments; and those who lived through
them were thrown to wild beasts, till the animals were so glutted as to
turn from the prey; but no pain was so great as not to be counted joy
by the Christians; and the more they were slain, the more persons were
convinced that the hope must be precious for which they endured so much;
and the more the Word of God prevailed. Aurelius Caesar died in 180, and
the Church was left at rest for a little while,
LESSON XXV.
THE PERSECUTIONS.
"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for
theirs is the Kingdom of heaven."--_Matt_ v. 10
It had been revealed to St. John that the Church should have tribulation
for ten days; and accordingly, in her first three hundred years, ten
emperors tried to put out her light. Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Antoninus,
and Aurelius, have been mentioned; and the next persecutor was Severus,
an emperor who went to Britain, firmly established the Roman power over
England, and built the great wall to keep the Scots from injuring the
northern settlers.
In his time died the glorious band of martyrs of Carthage--five young
converts, two men, named Satur and Saturninus, a noble young married
lady, called Perpetua, who had a young infant, and two slaves, Revocatus
and Felicitas, the last of whom gave birth to a daughter in the prison.
But not even love to their babes could lead these faithful women to
dissemble their belief; Perpetua left her child with her family;
Felicitas gave hers to a Christian woman to bring up; and the lady and
the slave went out singing, hand in hand, to the amphitheatre, where
they were to be torn by beasts. A wild cow was let loose on them, and
threw down the two women; but Perpetua at once sat up again, covered
herself with her garments, and helped up Felicitas, but as if in a
dream, for she did not remember that the cow had been loosed on her.
Satur had an especial horror of a bear, which was intended to be the
means of his death, and a good soldier named Pudens put meat in front of
the den, that the beast might not come out. A leopard then flew at him,
and tore him; Satur asked the soldier for his ring, dipped it in his own
blood, and gave it back as a memorial, just before he died under the
teeth and claws of the animal. The others were all killed by soldiers in
the middle of the amphitheatre, Perpetua guiding the sword to her own
throat.
The persecution of the Emperor Decius was one of the worst of all,
for the heathen grew more ingenious by practice in inventing horrible
deaths.
Under the Emperor Valerian died St. Lawrence, a young deacon at Rome,
whom the judge commanded to produce the treasures of the Church.
He called together all the aged widows and poor cripples who were
maintained by the alms of the faithful, "These," he said, "are the
treasures of the Church." In the rage of the persecutors, he was roasted
to death on bars of iron over a fire. St. Cyprian, the great Bishop of
Carthage, was beheaded; and one hundred and fifty martyrs at Utica
were thrown alive into a pit of quick-lime. At Antioch one man failed;
Sapricius, a priest, was being led out to die, when a Christian named
Nicephorus, with whom he had a quarrel, came to beg his forgiveness ere
his death. Sapricius would not pardon, and Nicephorus went on humbly
entreating, amid the mockery of the guards, until the spot of execution
was reached, and the prisoner was bidden to kneel down to have his bead
cut off. Then it appeared that he who had not the heart to forgive, had
not the heart to die; Sapricius's courage failed him, and he promised to
sacrifice to the idols; and Nicephorus was put to death, receiving the
crown of martyrdom in his stead. The persecuting Valerian himself came
to a miserable end, for he was made prisoner in a battle, in 258, with
the Persians, and their king for many years forced the unhappy captive
to bow down on his hands and knees so as to be a step by which to climb
on his elephant, and when he died, his skin was taken off, dyed red, and
hung up in a temple. After his captivity, the Church enjoyed greater
tranquillity; many more persons ventured to avow themselves Christians,
and their worship was carried on without so much concealment as
formerly.
But the troublous times were not yet over, and the rage of the prince of
this world moved the Romans to make a yet more violent effort than any
before to put down the kingdom of the Prince of Peace. Two emperors
began to reign together, named Diocletian and Maximian, dividing the
whole empire between them into two parts, the East and the West. After a
few years' rule, they both of them fell savagely upon the Christians.
In Switzerland, a whole division of the army, called the Theban Legion,
6,000 in number, with the leader, St. Maurice, all were cut to pieces
together rather than deny their faith. In Egypt the Christians were
mangled with potsherds, and every torture was invented that could shake
their constancy. Each tribunal was provided with a little altar to some
idol, and if the Christians would but scatter a few grains of incense
upon it, they were free; but this was a denying of their Lord, and the
few who yielded in the fear of them who could kill the body, grieved all
their lives afterwards for the act, and were not restored to their place
in the Church until after long years of penance, or until they had
atoned for their fall by witnessing a good confession. Sometimes they
were not allowed to receive the Holy Communion again till they were
on their dying beds. But these were the exceptions; in general, God's
strength was made perfect in weakness, and not only grown men, but
timid women, tender maidens, and little children, would bear the utmost
torture with glad faith, and trust that it was working for them an
exceeding 'weight of glory. St. Margaret of Antioch was but fifteen
years old, St. Agnes of Rome only twelve, and at Merida, in Spain,
Eulalia, at the same age, went out in search of martyrdom, insulting
the idols, until she was seized and put to death full of joy; but in
general, the Christians were advised not needlessly to run into the way
of danger.
This was the first persecution that reached to Britain, There a
kind-hearted Roman soldier, named Alban, received into his house a
priest who was fleeing from his persecutors, and while he was there,
learnt from him the true faith. When search was made for his guest,
Alban threw on the dress of the priest, and was taken in his stead; he
was carried to the tribunal, and there declaring himself a Christian,
was sentenced to be beheaded. The city where he suffered is called after
him St. Alban's, and a beautiful church was afterwards built in memory
of him. These cruelties did not long continue in Britain, for the
governor, Constantius, had married a Christian British lady, named
Helena; and as soon as he ventured to interfere, he stopped the
persecution.
Diocletian became tired of reigning, and persuaded his comrade,
Maximian, to resign their thrones to Constantius and to another prince
named Galerius. Constantius forbade all persecution in the West, but
Galerius and his son-in-law, Maximin, were very violent in the East; and
Maximin is counted as the last of the ten persecuting emperors. Under
him a great many Christians were blinded, scarred with hot iron, or had
their fingers and ears cut off. Some were sent to the deserts to keep
the emperor's cattle; some were driven in chains to work in the mines.
These, who suffered bravely everything except death, were called
confessors instead of martyrs. Galerius died in great misery in 311,
of the same horrible disease as the persecutor of the Jews, Antiochus
Epiphanes; and like him, he at last owned too late the God whom he had
rejected, and sent entreaties that prayers might be offered up for him.
LESSON XXVI.
THE CONVERSION OF CONSTANTINE.
"The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and
of his Christ."--_Rev_. xi, 15.
The son of Constantius, Constantine, became emperor in 307. He was in
doubt between the two religions; he saw that Christianity made people
good, and yet he could not quite leave off believing in the heathen
gods, and was afraid of neglecting them. As he was passing the Alps to
put down a very powerful and cruel tyrant, who had made himself master
of Italy, he and all his army suddenly beheld in the sky, at mid-day, a
bright light shaped like a cross, and in glorious letters round it, the
Latin words meaning, "In this sign thou shalt conquer." This wonderful
sight made Constantine believe that the cross was truly the sign of
salvation, and that He who could show such marvels in heaven, must be
the true God. He set the cross on his standards instead of the Roman
Eagle; and such great victories were vouchsafed to him, that by-and-by
he became the only emperor, and put down all his enemies.
He was not as yet baptized, but he was a hearty believer, and he tried
in everything to make the Church prosperous, and to govern by Christian
rules. From that time all the chief powers of this world have professed
to be Christian, and the Church has been owned as the great means
appointed by God of leading His people to Himself. Constantine's mother,
Helena, though in her eightieth year, set off to the ruins of Jerusalem
to try to trace out the places hallowed by our Saviour's suffering. All
was waste and desolate, and no one lived there save a few very poor Jews
and Christians in wretched huts. The latter had never lost the memory of
the places where the holy events of the Passion had taken place; and the
empress set men to dig among the ruins on Mount Calvary, till she found
the Holy Sepulchre, and not far from it, three crosses, and the nails
belonging to them. She built a most beautiful church, so large as to
cover the whole of Golgotha. The sepulchre itself formed a round vault
within, crusted over with marble, and lighted with silver lamps. The
true Cross was kept in the church, but the nails she brought home as the
most precious gift she could carry to her son. She also beautified and
made into a church the cave of the Nativity at Bethlehem, and she built
another church on Mount Carmel in memory of Elijah. From her time it
became a habit with devout persons to go on pilgrimage, to worship at
the holy tomb and in the Cave of Bethlehem; and a new city of Jerusalem
rose upon the ruins of the old one, though, of course, without a Temple.
Rome was so fall of the tokens of heathenism, that Constantine feared
that his court would never be heartily Christian till he took it to a
fresh place; so he resolved to build a new capital city for his empire.
This was the city called after him, Constantinople, the city of
Constantine, on the banks of the Bosphorus, just where Europe and Asia
nearly meet. The chief building there was a most beautiful church,
dedicated to the holy Wisdom of God, and named in Greek St. Sophia. The
Bishop there was termed the Patriarch of Constantinople. There were
already five patriarchs, or great Father Bishops, to rule over divisions
of the Church at Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. The Patriarch
of Rome was called the Pope. All was peace and prosperity, and the
Christians were so much at their ease, that some finding that they
missed the life of hardness, which they used to think a great blessing,
went apart from men, and lived in caves, quite alone, working hard for
very scanty food, and praying constantly. These were called hermits. But
there soon were troubles enough rising up within the Church herself, for
a man named Arius, a priest at Alexandria, began wickedly to teach that
our blessed Lord was not from all eternity, nor equal with God the
Father. So many persons were led away by this blasphemous heresy, (which
means a denial of the faith,) that it was resolved to call together
as many Bishops as possible from the entire Church, to hold a General
Council, and declare the truth.
The emperor came to Nicea, in Asia Minor, in the year 325, and there
met three hundred and eighteen bishops from every quarter, many of them
still scarred by the injuries they had received in the persecutions,
and many learned priests and deacons, among whom the most noted
was Athanasius of Alexandria. Together, they drew up the two first
paragraphs of the confession of faith called the Nicene Creed, and three
hundred of the bishops set their sign and seal to it, declaring it was
the truth, as they had been charged to hold and teach it fast, the
Catholic or universal faith. Arius was put out of the Communion of the
Church, and all his followers with him. But they were many and
powerful; and in after times, Constantine became confused by their
representations. He ought to have seen that he who was not even baptized
ought not to interfere in Church matters; but instead of this, he wrote
to Athanasius, who had just been made Patriarch of Alexandria, telling
him to preserve peace by receiving Arius back to Communion. Athanasius
refused to do what would have tainted the whole Church, so Constantine
banished him, and allowed Arius to come to Constantinople. There the
heretic deceived him so completely, that he desired that he should be
received back on the next Sunday. While the faithful clergy wept and
prayed that the Church might be kept clear from the man who denied
honour to the Lord who bought him, Arius went through the streets in
triumph; but in the midst he was smitten by a sudden disease, and died
in a few moments. This judgment convinced Constantine, and he held
to the Catholic faith for the rest of his life. He was baptized, and
received his first Communion on his death-bed, when sixty-four years
old, and is remembered as the first believing monarch.
After him came worse times, for his son, Constantius, was an Arian, and
persecuted the Catholics, though not to the death. St. Athanasius was
driven to hide among the hermits in Egypt, and a great part of the
Eastern Church fell into the heresy. Then, in 361, reigned his cousin,
Julian the Apostate, who, from being a Christian, had turned back to be
a heathen, and wanted to have the old gods worshipped. In hopes to show
that the prophecies were untrue, he tried to build up the Temple at
Jerusalem, and the foundations were being dug out, when balls of fire
came bursting out of the ground; and thus God's will and power were made
known, so that the workmen were forced to leave off. Julian was very
severe towards the Catholics, and it seemed as though the old times of
persecution were coming back; but after three years he was killed in
battle, and the next emperor brought back better days. St. Athanasius
finished this life in peace, and left behind him writings, whence was
taken the glorious Creed that bears his name.
LESSON XXVI.
THEODOSIUS.
"The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee;
and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles
of thy feet; and they shall call thee the City of the Lord, the Zion of
the Holy One of Israel"--_Isa_. lx. 14.
The empire was again divided into two parts, which were held by two
brothers. Valentinian, who had the eastern half, was an Arian; and
Valens, who ruled at Rome, was a Catholic. Though all the empire was
Christian, still there were sad disputes; for many had fallen away into
the heresy, and there was so great a love of arguing in a light careless
manner in market-places, baths, feasts, and places of common resort,
that it was a great distress to the truly devout to hear the most sacred
mysteries discoursed of so freely.
The great and learned Saint Jerome hid himself away from this strife of
tongues, to pray and study in a hermitage at Bethlehem. By the desire of
the Pope, he did the same work for the New Testament as Simon the Great
had done for the Old Testament: he examined into the history of all the
writings that professed to have come down from the Apostles' time, and
proved clearly which had been really written under the inspiration of
God, and had been always held as Holy Scriptures by the Church. Then
he translated the whole Bible into Latin, and wrote an account of each
book, setting apart those old writings of the Jews that are called
the Apocrypha, and are read as wise instruction, though they be not
certainly known to be the Word of God, in the same manner as the Holy
Scriptures themselves. St. Jerome is counted as one of the chief Fathers
or doctors of the Church.
Another great Father of the Church who lived at the same time, was
Ambrose. He was the Governor of the Italian city of Milan; and though a
devout believer, was still unbaptized, when the clergy and the people,
as was then the custom, met to choose their Bishop. A little child in
the crowd cried out, "Ambrose Bishop!" and everyone took up the cry with
one voice, and thought that the choice was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Ambrose was very unwilling to accept the office, but at last he
submitted; he was baptized, and a week after was first confirmed, and
then ordained priest, and consecrated Bishop. He was one of the most
kind and gentle of men, but he had a hard struggle to fight for the
truth. The Emperor, Valens, died, and his widow, Justina, who ruled for
her little son, was an Arian. She wanted a church for her friends, but
Ambrose would allow none to be profaned by a service where the blessed
Saviour would be robbed of His honour. He knew his duty as a subject too
well to lift a hand against the empress, but he filled up the Church
with his faithful flock, and there they prayed, and sang psalms and
hymns without ceasing; and when Justina sent soldiers to turn them out,
they were so firm, that only one woman ran away. Instead of offering
violence, the soldiers joined and prayed with them, and thus Justina was
obliged to give up her attempt in despair.
A very good emperor named Theodosius had begun to reign in the east,
and assisted Justina's young son to govern the west. He was a thorough
Catholic, and loved the Church with all his heart. Some fresh heretics
had risen up, who taught falsehoods respecting the Third Person of the
most Holy Trinity; and to put them down, Theodosius called another
General Council to meet at Constantinople, and there the following
addition was made to the Nicene Creed: "I believe in the Holy Ghost, the
Lord and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father, Who with the
Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified--" and so on to
the end. Thus each heresy was made the occasion of giving the faithful a
beautiful watchword.