From A. D.

211.

to

313.

History. morning, the Præfect, attended by Generals, Tribunes, and Receivers of the revenue, proceeded to the Church of Nicomedia, which stood on an eminence within the view of the Imperial Palace. The doors were immediately forced open, and an ineffectual search was made for the Image of the God, whom the Christians worshipped. The sacred Scriptures, which were found there, were burnt; and whatever remained was divided as the spoil. While this work of confusion and ruin was busily proceeding, the two Princes, who viewed the scene from their Palace, debated long whether they should order fire to be set to the Church; but apprehensive of the danger, to which this method of destruction would expose the rest of the city, Diocletian resolved that it should be demolished by his guards. They came, accordingly, in array of battle, with axes and mattocks, and rased, in a few hours, that lofty edifice to the ground.*

First Edict of Diocle

tian.

Rash conduct and punishment of a Christian.

Fire in the Palace of

On the ensuing day an Edict was issued, by which it was decreed that the Churches should be demolished to their foundation, and the Scriptures committed to the flames; that such as professed Christianity should be considered incapable of holding any honour or office, and should be liable to torture, whatever might be their rank or dignity; that any action might be received against them, but that they, on the other hand, should have no right to sue upon any injury, whether by violence, adultery, or theft, which they themselves experienced. Slaves were also deprived of the hope of liberty; and the shield of the Law was withdrawn from every member of the proscribed Sect. It appears also to have been then enacted, that no Assemblies should be held by the Christians, and that all their places of resort should be confiscated.

This most unjust Edict was no sooner fixed up in the most public part of the city, than it was torn down by a Christian, who severely reflected on the conduct of the Emperors; and accused them of betraying a spirit as narrow and ferocious as that of the unenlightened hordes of Goths and Sarmatians, over whom they boasted of having triumphed. An action so daring could not fail to subject its author, however exalted might be his situation in life, to peremptory punishment. The Christian was immediately seized, and not merely tortured by the ordinary process of the rack, but destroyed by a slow fire, which he endured with a tranquillity of mind, which spread a smile over his features even in the agonies of death. The Historian, who acknowledged that his conduct was a deviation from the rules of rectitude, still considered it as having originated in courageous ardour; and, without approving of his dangerous indiscretion, it is difficult not to feel respect for the motive which inspired the extraordinary fortitude that baffled, to the last, the efforts of his tormentors.§

An event soon after occurred, which was productive of the most disastrous results to the Christian inhabitNicomedia. ants of Nicomedia. A destructive fire broke out in the Palace wherein Galerius and Diocletian resided, and the Christians were accused of having conspired with some of the eunuchs, for the destruction of the two Princes. The rack was, as usual, resorted to, but was not

Of the
Christian

Church in the IIIrd Century.

From

A. D.

211.

to

313.

attended by any discovery. A fortnight afterwards, the Palace was again in flames. The conflagration, indeed, was soon observed and extinguished; but the impression which it left on the mind of Diocletian was implacable resentment against the whole Sect, to which the calamity was immediately ascribed. Every kind of torment, which the most ingenious cruelty could invent, was now recklessly employed. Persons of all ages and of both sexes, in great numbers, were burned alive, and their servants cast into the sea; officers, who had conducted the affairs of the Palace, were put to death; Presbyters and Deacons, without legal proof, were condemned and executed; and the city presented an appalling spectacle of ferocity exasperated into madness, and the powers of destruction invested with their deepest horrors. The feelings of humanity were crushed; the internal pleadings of justice were no more heard; the mighty tide of Persecution had set in, and, no longer stemmed by prudence, it swept all before it in its progress. The cause of the calamity is still enveloped in uncertainty. One Historian has not hesi- Authors of tated to impute it to the artifices of Galerius, who had the fire. used every effort to stimulate his more mild, or more fearful associate; and who, in the depth of winter, hastened his departure from Nicomedia, protesting that he was forced to fly from the danger to which he was exposed by desperate incendiaries.* But it is manifest that such a plot could only have been known by conjecture, for its necessary secresy must have precluded any other means of information. The Emperor Constantine, who was himself an eye-witness of the fire, attributes it to lightning ;† and Eusebius acknowledges that he was ignorant of the real cause. Whether, therefore, it arose from accident or from design, it is not for us, in these later Ages, with no additional clue to guide our researches, to determine.

The Edict of Diocletian was published in all the Edict of Provinces of the Empire; but it circulated so slowly, Diocletian. that the Christians in the more remote quarters were visited by this affliction some months later than the brethren who dwelt near the seat of its first promulgation. The Magistrates were enjoined under the heaviest penalties to seize the sacred books, which were in the hands of the Bishops and Presbyters, and to consign them publicly to the flames. Hence, though the law seems not intended to affect the lives of the Christians, it proved destructive to many, who resolutely refused to deliver up the Holy Writings.§

Though most were doubtless influenced by the purest and holiest motives, by that strong sense of Religious duty which must draw forth the respect even of those who might dissent in their estimate of the course of action pursued; there were not wanting some few who, it must be confessed, were actuated by very different views; oppressed, it is said, by public debts, or haunted by the consciousness of a habitual neglect of the precepts of Christianity, they rashly imagined that the voluntary sacrifice of their lives, which were to them a burthen, would be an expiation of their former crimes.

Many, however, both of the Church and Laity, were willing to obey the Imperial Decree by delivering up the Scriptures, and were in consequence branded by the re

Lactant. de Mort. Persecut.

+ Orat. ad Sanctor. Cœtum, c. 25. Hist. Eccles, lib. viii. c. 6.

August. Brevical. Collat. cum Donat. lib. iii. c. 13.

*

History. proachful apellation of Traditors. But, notwithstand ing the ignominy which attended their conduct, it would surely be a breach of Charity to assert, that they meant by this act to express their formal renunciation of the Christian Religion.

From A. D.

211.

to

313.

Fourth Edict.

In consequence of some civil commotions in Armenia and Syria, a new Edict was published, commanding Second and that all the Presidents of the Churches should be seized, third Edicts. and the prisons were soon filled with Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, Readers, and Exorcists; insomuch, adds the Historian, that no place remained for the custody of condemned criminals. This Edict was followed by another, in which it was ordained that they who were imprisoned, should be set at liberty on their consenting to sacrifice, but that they who refused, should be compelled to undergo every variety of torment. And just before the resignation of Diocletian, a fourth Edict was issued, not merely directed, as the foregoing, against the Heads of the Church, but embracing all ranks of Christians, who had now no alternative but to worship the Heathen Idols, or to submit to all that could be devised to overpower their feelings and subdue their spirit, The extent of the Persecution which burst on the Christians, will be best conceived by reviewing their state in the different parts of the Roman Empire. But our limits will only allow us to sketch with a rapid pencil, those scenes which are drawn in deepened colours by contemporary Historians.

Galerius

and Con

stantius, Emperors.

Maximin

in the department of Constantius.

Constantius Chlorus, who presided over Gaul, was and Constan- induced by the natural mildness and benignity of his tine, Caesars. character, and by the favourable opinion which he entertained of the Christian doctrines, to mitigate seveState of the rities which he could not prevent. Unwilling to oppose Christians the authority of Diocletian, he complied with it, so far as regarded the demolition of the Churches, but he exerted his power to shield the persons of the Christians from violence and injury. And that protection, which he had partially exhibited as Cæsar, he subsequently maintained in all its vigour as Augustus. The tranquillity enjoyed by Gaul under Constantius, and afterwards under Constantine, was probably extended to Britain. But in Spain, which though it also belonged to the same Department, was not so directly under his superintendence, the Governor Datianus appears in no degree to have relaxed the rigorous conditions of the Imperial Edicts, and the consequent misery of the Christians is attested by the extant relations of numerous Martyrdoms. In Italy and Africa, where Maximianus, the inveterate enemy of the Christians, whom he regarded as opponents of his ambitious designs, the storm of Persecution raged with a fury which seemed destined, as it were, to tear up by the roots and cast down for ever the new Establishment. But the shock, though dreadful, was brief. On the resignation of Diocletian, Severus governed these Provinces, probably, in a milder manner, when Caesar, and watched by Constantius, than when Augustus, and influenced by Galerius. The revolt of Maxentius restored tranquillity in these Provinces to the Christian Church.

Italy and

Africa.

In the East.

In the East, the ambitious Galerius, long impatient of the restraints which a cautious policy had imposed on his impetuous spirit, no sooner obtained the Purple than

Optat. Milevit. de Schis. Donat. lib. i. § 12, 13.

Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. c.13. De Mart. Palest. c. 13. See the view of this Persecution taken in Dodwell, Dissert. Cyprian. dissert. xi. Mosheim, de Reb. Christ. p. 947, &c. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, &c. p. 575, &c.

Of the

he gave full scope to the measures of the most savage cruelty. His associate, Maximin, lent a willing cooper- Christian ation in the enormities of this eventful period.

Church in the IIIrd Century.

From

A. D. 211.

to

313.

The heart-sickening details of refined torments, which the Historians of the Church have transmitted to us, and which almost stagger belief, cannot be even touched upon without a feeling of mental convulsion. The method of burning by a slow fire, employed by men, whose only fear was lest the violence of their fury should be abridged by the too speedy death of their victim, is alone sufficient to give the reader a transient Torments. glance into those spectacles of human agony, which Burning by slow fire. were then so frequent. The victims were chained, and a gentle fire was applied to the soles of their feet, by which the callus was contracted, till at last it fell off from the bones. Torches which had been just lighted and extinguished, while still hot, were pressed against every limb, that no part of their bodies should be free from torture. And during this process of horror, cold water was poured on their faces and in their mouths, lest their throats being quite dried up, they should expire before the full measure of barbarity was exhausted. At length, when their skin was wholly consumed, and the flame had penetrated to their vitals, they were thrown on a funeral pile and burned to ashes, which were ignominiously cast to the winds.* One description of this nature is more than enough to give an idea of the punishments adopted. They varied, indeed, in their naturet and duration, according to the caprice of the different Provincial Governors, but they were even marked by circumstances more harrowing than imagination can conceive that cruelty could inflict.

In Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, which the superstitious Maximin administered, the same spirit of vengeance pursued the devoted Christians, who must have shrunk from the trial, had not Faith lifted up for them the veil of Immortality, and soothed and strengthened their oppressed spirits.

A. D. 311.

The cessation of Persecution in the Eastern part of Edict of the Empire was, if not caused, at least accelerated, by Galerius. a dreadful and loathsome disorder, under the protracted pains of which Galerius issued an Edict, permitting the Christians to resume their worship in tranquillity, and expressing his hope, that, in return for this indulgence, they would supplicate the Deity, whom they adored, for his health, and for the welfare of themselves and of the State. In this Edict he assigns as the motive which engaged him to employ means to compel the Christians to return to the institutions of their ancestors, a desire to correct all things for the benefit of the Public, according to the ancient laws and established discipline of the Romans.§ He adds, that this original design was abandoned, from his observation, that though many had been subjected to danger and torments, many continued still unchanged in their senti

Lactant. de M. P. c. 21.

Lactant. de M. P. c. 33. Lactant. de M. P. c. 34.

From A. D. 211.

to

313.

Maximin.

History. ments; though they no longer worshipped the God of the Christians, yet they adored not the Gods of Rome.* He felt at last, that Persecution may make hypocrites, but not converts. This Edict, which was warmly supported by Licinius and Constantine, was productive of much benefit to the Christians. But Maximin, who, after its Persecution promulgation, presided over the Asiatic Provinces, renewed by although at first he had so far acquiesced in its execution, that the Christians, delivered from prison and from the mines, were returning to their habitations with hymns of praise,† soon evinced a determination to reestablish Paganism in all its powers. Addresses from Antioch and other Cities, which prayed that the Christians might be expelled from their territories, either imposed on him the necessity of gratifying one class of his subjects at the expense of another, or were in fact secretly contrived by the emissaries of the Emperor himself, to give the appearance of popular sanction to the measures which he himself premeditated. The fomentor of these artful proceedings was one Theotecnus,‡a Curator at Antioch, who, availing himself of the Emperor's addiction to Magic and belief in Oracles, rekindled the flames of Persecution. Every means was now employed to degrade the Christian and to exalt the Heathen Religion. Acts of Pilate, filled with blasphemy against Christ, were industriously forged, and published in all quarters by Imperial authority.§ Abandoned women were suborned to testify the foulest falsehoods respecting the practice of the Christians.

* Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. c. 17. Lactant. de M. P. c. 34. + Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib, ix. c. 1.

1 Ibid. c. 2.

Of the

Church in the IIIrd Century.

From

A. D. 211.

to

313.

To give force and consistence to the Religious system of Paganism, he appointed Priests in all Cities, and Christian over them a Chief Priest in every Province, selected from the most distinguished ranks, and honoured with a military guard. Temples were everywhere erected or repaired. All that brutality can inflict, all that fortitude can endure, was again inflicted and endured. Superstition, now armed with all the energies of power, and guided by all the artifices of policy, seemed fitted to demolish the structure, so long assailed, of the Christian Church.* But the overruling arm, which, in its mysterious movements, confounds and destroys the schemes of the children of men, interposed. The Accession of death of Maximin,† and the accession of Constantine, Constantine overthrew one of the worst enemies, and established the strongest protector of the true Religion. after a Persecution of ten years' continuance, which had swept away a very considerable number of the faithful followers of Christ, and which, as Inscriptions still attest, was supposed to have extirpated His worship, the memorable Decree was past which acknowledged the inviolable rights of conscience, and the Spiritual was subsequently united with the Civil Establishment.

And,

*Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. c. 14; lib. ix. c. 2, &c. Lactant. de M. P. c. 36.

the Christians. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. ix. c. 10. + He had already relented and published an Edict in favour of

Gibbon computes it at somewhat less than 2000. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, c. 16, sub fin.

The two Inscriptions found at Clunia in Spain, in Gruter, Inscript. p. 280. num. 3.

Ibid. c. 5.

Ibid.

History. Of many Writers, it may be confidently asserted, that it is impossible to enter into their full meaning and Necessity of design without an adequate acquaintance with the Biography. general circumstances of the Time and Country in which they flourished. But of some, in particular, it may be added, that, in order to form a correct judgment on their Works, the reader must previously inquire into the peculiar incidents of their lives; the nature of their education; the tone of their opinions, considered in relation to the prevalent sentiments of their contemporaries; the profession which they followed; the estimation in which they were held; and, lastly, the order in which their Writings appeared, and the occasions which respectively called them forth. Without much of this introductory knowledge, the scope of many an argument is unnoticed; the spirit of many an observation unfelt; and the fine thread of allusion, which is often the best clue in unravelling intricacies, insensibly

Antecedent

escapes us.

These remarks are, in an especial degree, applicable points of to the study of the Christian Fathers. Their style and inquiry. manner are materially influenced by their situations and pursuits, and often vary at different periods of their lives. Origen, in more advanced years, repents of what he had composed in his early days.* Tertullian, after Tertullian, after his adoption of Montanism, treats many points with feelings unlike those which actuated him before his secession from the Church.

Moreover, in investigating any particular Treatise, it is of much consequence to ascertain beforehand, not merely (as must be obvious to the most hasty examiner) whether the Author was at the time of its publication esteemed orthodox or schismatic, whether he was a layman or a Priest, and whether he wrote at a period of tranquillity or of Persecution; but also, whether he had received a Pagan or a Christian education, and, above all, whether he wrote before the birth, or during the height, or after the extinction, of certain Heresies. As inattention to these points has occasionally led to mistakes, it may not be useless to illustrate, as briefly as possible, our reasons for laying down such of these antecedent queries as may not at first sight appear requisite.

* Hieron, ad Pammach, et Ocean. Ep. 41. (al. 65.)

VOL. XI.

Eccle

siastical

Writers of the IInd

and IIIrd Centuries.

of the Chris

1. It is necessary to inquire into his Early Life and Pursuits. Many of the Fathers were born and bred in Paganism, popular and philosophical. The defects of this education were sometimes imperfectly felt, and seldom wholly remedied. The seam of the wound was always visible, and it was liable to reopen. Even resolution was not unfrequently the dupe of habit. Some Effects proportion of early error still adhered to the opinions of duced on the convert; just as, in later thnes, some remains of the the Writings spirit of the Church of Rome broke out in the conduct tian Fathers of the Reformers. Bearing this fact in mind, we shall by early not be apt to lay undue weight on the authority of the Pagan edu Fathers, wherever there is reason to suppose that their cation. judgment has been warped by the prejudices and associations of their youth. We shall not be surprised to find vestiges of Platonism in the writings of men who were formerly Platonists, any more than to observe the figures of Rhetoric still appearing in the language of such as were formerly Rhetoricians.

2. It is also necessary to mark their age in reference By the state of Heresies. to particular Heresies. In examining their opinions on doctrinal questions, not formally made the subject of dispute in their time, it is not just to weigh the casual expressions of the early Fathers with so much nicety as the studied sentences and qualified terms of such as lived either during or after the agitation of the controverted points. This equitable rule prevails in the common converse of life. We draw a strong line of distinction between incidental remarks and deliberate judgments. For words dropped at random, or in a lax and unguarded manner, are necessarily deficient in precision, and sometimes applicable to the support of opinions, which, if stated to him, the speaker would probably have rejected. We are not, therefore, to be surprised if the Ante-Nicene Fathers speak of the Trinity in language much less measured and pointed than their

successors.

*

* Multa latebant in Scripturis, et cum præcisi essent Hæretici, quæstionibus agitaverunt Ecclesiam Dei. Aperta sunt quæ latebant, et intellecta est voluntas Dei. Numquid enim perfectè de Trinitate tractatum est antequam oblatrarent Ariani? Numquid perfectè de Pænitentia tractatum est untequam obsisterent Novatiani ?-Sic non perfectè de Baptismate tractatum est, antequam contradicercnt foris positi, rebaptizatores.-Nec de Unitate Christi, nisi posteaquam 113 Q