History. Christian was distinguished by purity. Hatred was transformed into love, and the violence of passion subsided into tenderness and peace. The proud became humble. The contemner submitted to contempt. All felt,* that the Morality of their Religion was a fixed and imperative Rule, and not, like the Ethics of Philosophy,† mere Reasoning, often too vague and imperfect to convince, and always too destitute of authority to command. But this reform was vital: it altered not so much the exterior appearance as the inward heart. The Christians, in general, appear to have affected no peculiarity in habit or diet, and to have refused no profession which was consistent with their Religious creed, and adapted to promote the welfare of Society. They frequented the Forum and the Baths: they were seen in the camp, and at the marts; they followed an agricultural, a mercantile, or a sea-faring life.§ Remarks on mission of nal, into the Church. That some Christians fell into extremes in their condemnation of innocent pleasures cannot be denied: but the critical time in which they lived, and the deep importance of being free from all that could be construed into impropriety, or which had any tendency to produce evil, are considerations which ought very much to diminish the severity with which their conduct has been viewed. But it has been urged as an objection that, among the objec- the early Converts, there were persons who had pretion drawn viously been guilty of immoral practices. It ought to from the ad- be remembered, that the number of such persons was persons, for comparatively small. The majority were men of remerly crimi- gular habits, whose feelings were naturally drawn by a congenial influence towards a Religion by which their sentiments of virtue were strengthened, refined, and elevated. But that persons who had fallen into sin, at a period of extreme licentiousness, should have sought forgiveness in the bosom of a Church, which, though it emphatically condemned guilt, pointed out Repentance, is, we conceive, a circumstance rather redounding to its honour than deserving of reproach. The nature of Paganism was little adapted to instruct, still less to console. The offender, who had once broken through the fence of his first scruples, felt no moral check to arrest him in his descent through the various stages of crime.** At the same time, he was not exempt from that inscrutable feeling of remorse, which, whether it flows from Nature, or from a combination of accidental influences, still clings to the heart from which even Belief has been banished.†† The uneasiness which consumed Tiberius,‡‡ the terrors which disturbed the dreams of Nero,§§ the phantoms of horror which haunted Caracalla,|||| were torments which Paganism could not assuage, and which Scep * The Christians, as long as they adhered to their Religion, though many suffered for the Faith, were not charged with specific crimes in the courts of justice. (Tertull. Apol. c. 44.) So Minucius Felix, De vestro numero carcer exæstuat: Christianus ibi nullus, nisi aut reus suæ Religionis aut profugus. c. 35, Tertull. Apol. c. 42. On this point, however, the views of different Christians seem to have been different. See Orig. c. Cels. lib. viii. p. 427, and the note of Spencer. Tertull. Apol. c. 45. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, &c. c. 16. Orig. c. Cels. lib. iii. p. 150. **Quis peccandi finem posuit sibi? Juv. Sat. xiii. ff Juv. Sat. xiii, &c. Tacit. Ann. lib. vi. c. 6. §§ Ibid. lib. xiv. Dio Cassius, lib. lxxvii. Of the Christian ticism could not reason away. Christianity alone offered the remedy: it is not surprising, therefore, if Church Christianity was chosen. In fact, a mighty change in the IInd seemed to have come over the hearts and minds of the and IIIrd Gentiles. Thoughts and feelings which, while the Centuries. possessors reposed beneath the shade of ancient Idolatry, lay shrunk and closed, were warmed and elicited. Strong principles evinced the operation of strong motives. The hopes and fears of futurity-almost as unknown in that Age to the uneducated as to the learned worked upon the Christian with all their force and fulness; and the effects were proportionate to the magnitude and activity of the cause. It is scarcely necessary to repeat here, that the early Converts were not men whose minds, suddenly struck and inflamed, had caught but a partial light on some prominent points, without extending their view over the general nature of Christianity; but men who, before their admission into the Church, had remained during a certain period, the length of which seems sometimes to have been considerable,† in the degree of Catechumens, in order that they might receive a course of gradual instruction on the great Moral truths of Revealed Religion, and give satisfactory proofs of the sincerity of their intentions by the holiness of their lives. And, if afterwards they should fall into guilt, a severe, and often a very protracted penance was required, as a necessary step for the attainment of pardon.§ III. Influence of the Pagan Religion; Causes of the Notwithstanding this view of the state of Christianity, Influence of its History, previous to its Civil establishment, is, for the the Poly theistic most part, the History of Persecutions: it is necessary system. therefore to develope the causes of so remarkable a circumstance. The Pagan Religion, with its rich succession of pageants, had naturally a strong ascendency over the minds of the unreflecting. Its Priests, its Temples, its Mysteries, its Sacrifices, its magnificent Processions, calling to their aid the varied powers of Music, Painting, and Sculpture, and awakening the different feelings of awe, pleasure, interest, and triumph, conspired with the force of early habits and recollections, to work a very powerful delusion. Attention was diverted from the poverty of its essence to the sumptuousness of its externals. meagre system of Ethics, and its cold and gloomy prospects of a dimly shadowed futurity, were forgotten amid a glow of ritual brilliancy, which was designed to kindle intense enthusiasm. Its But these were far from being the only means by which Paganism excited that train of emotions which precluded the free action of temperate inquiry. It was the care of the Statesman to implant and cherish the prejudice, which afterwards clung with extreme tenacity to the minds of the populace, that, to their deep respect for the Deities of the Republic, the unexampled success of the Roman Greatness of arms was to be attributed. The piety of Romulus and the Romans of Numa was believed to have laid the foundations of ascribed to their greatness. The vast extent of the Roman Em- their su perior Piety. Cic. Or. pro Cluent.; de Nat. Deor. lib. ii. c. 2. Juv. Sat. ii. 149, &c. Orig. c. Cels. lib. iii. p. 142, &c. Bingham, Antiquit. of the Christ. Church, vol. i. Tertull. de Pænit. Cyprian, de Laps, sec. 27. History. pire was deemed the recompense of assiduous devotion. "It was," they pompously exclaimed, “by exercising Religious discipline in the camp, and by fortifying the City with Sacred rites, with Vestal Virgins, and the various degrees of a numerous Priesthood, that they had stretched their dominion beyond the paths of the Sun and the limits of the Ocean."* And, as Public prosperity was universally ascribed to the favourable agency of the Gods, so were Public calamities considered as visitations of their anger. The influence of these opinions was peculiarly active among the Romans, whose attachment to their Religion was far greater than that of the other nations of the Heathen world. Hence arose that exclusion of Foreign rites, which, though practically modified by Political necessity, was theoretically a part of their Religious system. Observa the Roman Government It has been the practice of late Writers to expatiate tions on the in terms of the warmest admiration on the unbounded degree of toleration which characterised the Constitution of Religious toleration Rome,† yet it is evident from History, that this supposed which exindulgence was far more circumscribed than its panegyisted under rists have asserted. It was positively forbidden by Law to honour with private worship any other Deity than such as had been incorporated into the Roman Religion by Public authority; and this Law, though it might have been frequently allowed to slumber, was not abrogated at a very distant period from its original enactment. L. Æmilius Paulus, in his Consulship, ordered the Temples of Iris and Serapis, Gods not legally recognised by the Romans, to be destroyed, and, observing the religious fear which checked the People, he himself seized an axe, and struck the first blow against the portals of the sacred edifice.§ On several occasions the Senate exerted its power to prevent Religious innovations.|| The Consul Posthumius is represented by Livy as alleging in a powerful speech the ancient laws, so often repealed, against worships derived from other Countries, and as declaring that nothing, in the opinion of the wisest Legislators, was more calculated to dissolve the national Religion than the introduction of Foreign rites. Dion Cassius has transmitted to us a Sic imperium suum ultra Solis vias et ipsius Oceani limites propagavit, dum exercent in armis virtutem religiosam, dum urbem muniunt sacrorum religionibus, castis virginibus, multis honoribus ac nominibus sacerdotum. Min. Felix. Octavius, p. 51. Ed. 1672. + Montesquieu, in his Dissertation Sur la Politique des Romains dans la Religion; Voltaire, Dict. Philos. art. Tolerance, Euvr. tom. xxxviii. p. 404; Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, c. 16, &c. Tertull. Apolog. c. 5, &c. Val. Max. lib. i. c. 3. n. 2. In the year u.c. 326, when, in consequence of a severe drought, individuals had resorted to new rites with a view of appeasing the wrath of Heaven, the Senate enjoined the Ediles to suffer no other God and no other form of worship than that which had been sanctioned by Roman usage. (Liv. lib. iv.) În v. c. 541, in the height of the second Punic war, the Senate published a strict decree against certain Religious innovations, which had been introduced. (Liv. lib. xxv.) In u. c.615 the Prætor, C. Cornelius Hispalus, banished those who attempted to establish the worship of the Sabasian Jupiter, (Valer. Max. lib. i. c. 3.) and in u. c. 701, the Temples of Isis and Serapis were again demolished by order of the Senate. (Dion. lib. xl.) These laws may be found more fully detailed in an article, Sur le Respect que les Romains avoient pour la Religion. Histoire de l'Académ. des Inscript. tom. xxxiv. p. 110-125. ¶ Quoties hoc patrum avorumque ætate negotium est magistratibus datum, ut sacra externa fieri vetarent; sacrificulos vatesque foro, circo, urbe prohiberent; vaticinos libros conquirerent comburerentque, omnem disciplinam sacrificandi præterquam more Romano abolerent? Judicabant enim prudentissimi viri omnis divini humanique juris, nihil æquè dissolvendæ religionis esse, quam ubi non patrio, sed externo ritu sacrificaretur. (Liv. lib. xxxix. c. 16.) Church in the IInd Centuries. celebrated Oration, in which Maecenas endeavours to Of the press on Augustus a conviction of the dangers which Christian he conceives would result from the toleration of new Religions. And even under Tiberius, the Egyptian n ceremonies were violently proscribed. The mistaken opinion of an entire freedom from persecution, may have originated in a wrong inference, drawn from the very remarkable fact, that coexistent with intolerant laws against public deviations from the established rites, was an almost unlimited liberty enjoyed by individuals of expressing private sentiments. On the Stage, and in the works of professed Sceptics, the keenest ridicule against the popular Gods was exercised with perfect impunity.* The sarcastic attacks of Plautus and Terence, as well as the impious sentiments of Seneca the Tragedian, were heard without censure. The philosophic raillery of Cicero and of Lucian was indulged in without danger.† made to Chris The Christian Religion had therefore to encounter the Causes to aversion which the Romans entertained against Foreign which the Worship; an aversion, indeed, which the enlargement opposition of their Empire had considerably diminished, but which may still be thought not to have been wholly eradicated. tianity must But however inclined the ruling powers might have be ascribed. been in other cases to relax their severity, there were several distinctive features in the Christian Religion which soon awakened their apprehension. It was the Religion, not of any particular Nation or City, but of a Sect; and that not merely a recent, but a Proselyting Sect. It admitted no intercommunity of Worship; its existence required the destruction of all other Systems. It was not, like the Religions of Polytheism, a new scion, which might be grafted on the general stock. It was not an attempt to fill up an additional niche in the Pantheon. It was an exclusive, uncompromising Creed, which not merely did not harmonize with any other, but condemned all others. As it demanded undivided allegiance from its followers, so it did not accept proferred coalition with its opponents. The Christians took no pains to conceal their contempt for the Gods and Temples and Ceremonies of Idolatry. The Purple of the Pagan Priesthood, to which the Crowd had been taught to look up with reverence, was, in their eyes, mockery.‡ This spirit, though perhaps not at first fully perceived. was no sooner felt than resisted.§ It was imputed to a strange obliquity of intellect or of will. The ruling maxim of Roman administration was evidently, if Foreign Worships could not be excluded, at least to consolidate them into one great Religious federacy; to allow men the free enjoyment of their opinions, but to unite together those opinions by a common principle of accommodation and reciprocal indulgence. The Legislator, who could not bend and mould Christianity into a component part of the Polytheistic structure, put This was a circumstance which frequently struck the early Christians. Just. Mart. Apol. i. c. 4; Tertull. Apol. c. 46. Quinimo et Deos vestros palam destruunt.... laudantibus vobis, &c. The same licence existed in Ancient Greece; and, by a somewhat similar anomaly, the Church of Rome combined with her former spirit of rigid intolerance the strange permission of exhibiting theatrical pieces, in which the events of Scripture History were represented with irreverent buffoonery. Sacerdotum honores et purpuras despiciunt. (Min. Fel. c. 8.) See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, &c. c. 16. The observation of Voltaire, in accounting for the different treatment which the Jews and the Christians experienced is not without truth. Les Juifs ne voulaient pas que la statue de Jupiter fut à Jerusalem; mais les Chretiens ne voulaient pas qu'elle fût au Capitole. Dict. Philos. art. Tolerance. History. it out of the circle of toleration, however capacious, Christians and endeavoured to crush it, before its magnitude was increased. And hence, perhaps, it is, that the Christian was often condemned simply on account of his Profession, when no criminal acts were proved, or even alleged. The Name was a Test. The Magistrate was probably directed to consider it as such, with a view to prevent the ultimate consequences of a System, of which, in particular instances, it would have been difficult to define the mischief. But the sufferer, who felt unable to explain on what principle so singular a deviation from ordinary practice could be grounded, loudly complained of the palpable injustice of passing sentence on him, in consequence of a mere Name, without any judicial inquiry into his character and conduct.* Such, at least, seems to us to be the solution of the anomalous mode of treatment which the Christians experienced. But, independently of these apprehensions of the effects suspected of the new Religion, arising from its essential incomof disaffec patibility with Polytheism, the persons who professed it laboured under suspicions of disaffection to the Civil Government. They refused to adore the Image of the reigning Emperor;† they refused to offer Idolatrous Sacrifices for his safety; they refused to swear by the Genius of Cæsar, and to join in Festivals on the occasion of signal victories. They were sometimes accused of declining to assist in the wars, by which the dangers which encircled the Roman Empire were averted. Doubts were consequently awakened, which were not immediately dispelled by their declarations, however emphatic, that, although they turned with shuddering from profane Rites, yet they cherished fidelity, offered Prayers for the lives and prosperity of their appointed Governors, paid duly all Tributes and Taxes, abstained from factious commotions, and promoted charity and affection among the various members of the Social Body. The accusation made more impression than the defence. It is also probable that the habitual mention of the Kingdom of the Messiah may, by a misapprehension of its meaning, have tended to excite distrust. Nightly *Just. Mart. Apol. i. c. 4. Tertull. Apol. c. 3. Tertullian, in his Tract de Corona, considers it unlawful for a Christian to be a soldier. This was written after his secession from the Church; bat it must be remembered, that the Romans seem not to have distinguished the Orthodox from the Schismatic. The perusal of the conclusion of the VIIIth Book of Origen against Celsus, would, we think, have alone awakened, in a high degree, the fears of the Roman Rulers. Tertull. Apol. c. 38, &c. Justin Martyr (in Apol. i. c. 11,) acknowledges that it was suspected to mean a Kingdom on Earth. On the ancient custom of concealing the nature of the Sacraments, see Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, b. x. c. 5, Of the Church in the IInd and IIIrd tions on the The feeling of fear or hatred already entertained was considerably increased by the cloud of calumnies in Christian which their conduct was enveloped. Strange reports of disgusting Rites were industriously circulated, and credulously believed. The fury of the lower, and the dis- Centuries. trust of the higher Orders, were raised by absurd fictions, which represented the Christians as slaying a new-born Observainfant at their initiation; drinking the blood; tearing calumnies asunder the limbs; binding themselves to secrecy; against the and consummating their deeds of horror in the shades Christians. of night, by the uncontrolled indulgence of the most depraved passions.* In vain did the Christian, who avoided the sight of the sanguinary feats of the Amphitheatre, and who observed the Apostolic precept of abstaining from blood,† express his deepest abhorrence of inventions, which apparently originated in a monstrous perversion of the meaning of the Eucharistic Commemoration of the Death of Christ; in vain did he appeal to the common feelings of mankind, and challenge the minutest investigation of his actions; the progress of falsehood was but slowly repressed, and was attended by many and serious evils. The expressions of affection which the Christians employed were misconstrued. The remembrance of the infamous practices, which kindled the indignation of the Senate against the Bacchanals, inspired the Roman Statesman with a belief, that there was no crime so revolting which might not be committed under the cloak of Religion; and the knowledge of the disgraceful scenes which passed in the secret Ceremonies of the Bona Dea, had strengthened the opinion, that whatever was concealed was either improper in itself, or likely to lead to dangerous consequences. Nor would it be discharging the duties which Truth prescribes, to suppress the fact, that some among the Orthodox Christians charge the Heretics with impurities as deep, and cruelties as incredible, as the worst accusations of which they themselves complain. If their accounts are false, it must diminish our surprise, that the Pagans should have credited rumours, widely spread, while even Christians recorded calumnies too dreadful to admit of the faintest description: if, on the other hand, their accounts are true, we ought surely to make some allowances for the difficulty which men, unacquainted with the exact nature of the Christian Doctrine, must have found in accurately discriminating which Sects were justly, and which were not justly, entitled to the appellation of Christian, an appellation assumed by all, whether Catholic or Schismatic. Yet, after all which may be urged in their defence, the obstinacy of the Pagans in receiving reports which they had not in vestigated, notwithstanding the internal improbability of the pretended facts, notwithstanding the superior means of inquiry which they possessed, notwithstanding the bold challenge of the Apologists to sift thoroughly all charges adduced against their Society, is certainly unjustifiable; and the more so, as, on the supposed truth of these reports, extraordinary cruelties were not unfrequently exercised. See the description given in Minucius Felix, c. 9, &c. Epiphan. Hæres. xlviii. c. 14; xxvii, c. 1, &c. HISTORY. CHAPTER XXXIX. OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. FROM A. D. 101 To 211. History. From A. D. 101. to 211. Review of an. Its object, ALTHOUGH We have already briefly adverted to the celebrated Letter* which Pliny, during his residence as Governor in the Province of Pontus and Bithynia, addressed to Trajan, a more minute examination, and an illustration of it by a few additional remarks, will perhaps be the best method of conveying a clear and connected idea of the policy which directed the conPliny's Let- duct of the Roman Rulers at the period succeeding the ter to Tra- Apostolic Age. The object of Pliny is to ascertain the nature and extent of inquiry and of punishment, which it was necessary to adopt against the followers of the new Religion. He states, that he had never been present at their trials, and that he entertained doubts respecting the mode of proceeding, particularly on the following points; whether difference of age were taken into consideration, or whether the tender and the robust were treated with the same severity; whether pardon were granted on repentance, or a renunciation of Christianity were judged of no avail; whether the mere name of Christian, unconnected with any crime, or the crimes that accompanied the name were the object of punishment. Mosheim, Lardner, Gibbon, &c., are of opinion, that there were no Edicts in force against the Christians. Bishop Kaye remarks, that the conclusion is erroneous, if any weight is to be attached to the statements of Tertullian, in his first Book ad Nationes, c. 7. Apolog. c. 1, 5, 37; ad Scapul. c. 4. (Lectures on Tertullian, p. 115.) With respect to the abrogation of Domitian's laws by the Senate, which Mosheim and Lardner mention, and the belief in which rests upon the authority of Suetonius (in Dom. c. 23.) and the writer of the Treatise de Mortib. Persecut. c. 21, it ought to be remembered, that Trajan restored Domitian's Rescripts, Epistolis enim Domitiani standum est. (Plin. lib. x. Ep. 66.) (See Gibbon's Index Expurgator, in his Miscell. Works, vol. v. p. 560.) Of the Church in the IInd Century. From the laws of Nero, in this particular case, were not abrogated. Nor can the contrary be inferred from the Christian uncertainty of so experienced a lawyer as Pliny, since he himself, in another of his Letters, laments his deficiency on some points of legal knowledge.* It may, however, be reasonably concluded, that these laws, if not formally and entirely annulled, were, in many respects, become of dubious authority, and that the general decrees of the Senate against the introduction of new Deities, though they enabled harsh or unjust Governors to pursue the most vigorous measures, were regarded by milder Rulers as attended with considerable difficulty in their meaning and in their application. A. D. 101. to 211. In this state of perplexity, Pliny proceeds to describe Method the method which he had followed towards all who were pursued by brought before him on the charge of being Christians. Pliny. He put the question, Whether they were members of the Body to which they were accused of belonging? If they answered in the affirmative, he repeated the question a second and a third time, accompanying it with the threat of capital punishment. Such as still persisted in their confession he looked upon as infatuated, and ordered to be led away, to prison or to execution; for the word employed is susceptible of this ambiguity.† "For," he adds, in explanation of the Reasons as motives which impelled him to the adoption of this signed. course, "I never doubted, that, whatever might be the nature of their confession, stubbornness, at least, and inflexible obstinacy, ought to be punished." This sen- Remarks. tence, when considered in connection with his previous avowal of want of acquaintance with the trials of the Christians, throws great light on an investigation of the causes of the contempt and opposition which Christianity experienced from the Philosopher and the Magistrate. Ignorance of the new, and attachment to the old Religion, were the main springs which directed the learned and the powerful. The soft feelings of humanity were repressed by a conviction, that all attempts to endanger the Religious Establishment would necessarily shake the stability of those Civil institutions with which, by a variety of means, it had leng * Ep. 14. lib. viii. wherein he consults Aristo, and gives the reasons of his want of sufficient acquaintance with the Jus Senatorium. ↑ Perseverantes duci jussi; that it does not necessarily imply capital punishment is evident from many passages in other Writers, e. g. Ne mihi in carcere habitandum sit, si Tribunus plebis duci jussisset. Cic. de Lege Agrar. Or. ii. sec. 37. From A. D. 101. to 211. Consequences of the course adopted, History. been united. The great maxim of the Roman Government, in its external relations, and in its internal policy, was to spare the subject, but to enforce subjection. Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos. The progress, however, of Christianity seems not to have suffered that check which the severe proceedings of the Governor were intended to produce. A more natural circumstance was, probably, the result; informations continually multiplied. In consequence of an anonymous accusation, Pliny examined several persons, who denied the profession of Christianity, and who, as a mark of the sincerity of their assertions, repeated an appeal to the Gods, offered supplication with wine and frankincense to the Image of the Emperor, and reviled the name of Christ;*"with none of which things," adds the narrator, "as it is reported, can they who are really Christians be induced to comply." These, therefore, were discharged. Others at first confessed themselves Christians, and afterwards recanted. Some, it appears, had renounced the profession three years, some sooner, and others twenty years before; which periods cannot without difficulty be referred to the Persecutions under Domitian, and Nero.† Observa of the Christians The succeeding part of the Letter contains the favourtions on the able account of the Christians which we have already account of transcribed. This account, it will be observed, was the manners drawn by Pliny from those who had recanted; men who, in all probability, by revealing any impious tenet, if such had existed in the system, or any vicious habit in the professors, of the Religion which they had forsaken, would gladly have found a justification of their apostasy, satisfactory alike to themselves and to their judges, bringing peace to their consciences and security to their persons. An informer, who had any reason to believe that he was tearing the mask from the hypocrite, and dragging the criminal to light, would have consoled himself with the reflection, that he was justly entitled to the character of a public benefactor. Yet, far from finding any discovery of concealed vice, any detection of subtle intrigue, we have a testimony, recorded by an enemy, and derived from unsuspected witnesses, which affords not merely a refutation of the calumnies, by which the character of the first Christians was assailed, but a strong evidence of their piety and rectitude, their unaffected simplicity and affectionate union. Examina With a view, moreover, to ascertain the truth of this account, Pliny, as we have already observed, deemed it necessary to examine by torture two maid-servants, who are called Ministers, (perhaps Deaconesses :) he was unable, however, to discover any thing, except, to use his own language, a wilful and immoderate superstition;" an expression, as may be inferred from the whole tenour of the Epistle, only equivalent to 66 an obstinate deviation from the established rites, a presumptuous attempt to disturb the Religious harmony of the Heathen world." In considering the moderation and humanity, by which the general conduct of Pliny was distinguished, It is possible that this additional injunction may have been made in consequence of a singular equivocation, which we may, perhaps, suppose to have been tried before the time of the Valentinians, who argued that they might deny that they were Christians without incurring the penalty denounced in the words of our Saviour, "He who denies Me before men, him will I deny before My Father." (See Bishop Kaye, on Tertullian, p. 153.) + This inquiry was made probably A. D. 104. Domitian perished in the year 96, and Nero in 68, (i. e. 36 years before.) The persons examined were perhaps confused, and not scrupulously exact in the dates. Encyclopædia, HISTORY, Ch. xxxviii. p. 810. note. VOL. XI. Of the Christian Church in the IInd Century. From A. D. 101. to 211 it appears difficult to determine the reason which could induce him to select two females as fit subjects to be tried by the horrors of the rack.* It is most obvious to assign this act of cruelty to a desire of extorting their secret with greater facility, from the natural timidity of the weaker sex. We ought, however, to bear in mind, that the Roman Laws did not allow any persons to be put to the torture except slaves and female servants, whose evidence, unless by this process, was inadmissible.† It was not, however, his intention to continue these intolerant proceedings. Sensible of the inefficacy of any system of indiscriminate persecution; and anxious, it may be allowed, to yield to the dictates of pity, and to obtain from Imperial authority some definite regulation, which might alleviate the sufferings of the Christians, by silencing the clamours of their informers, he suspended all rigorous measures till the reply of Trajan should relieve his perplexity. To impress on the Em- State of peror's mind a proper sense of the magnitude of the sub- Christianity ject, he assures him that persons of all ranks and ages, and Bithyand of both sexes, were accused, and would still be nia. accused for the contagion, he adds, of the new superstition had not merely seized cities, but lesser towns, and the open country. The Temples had been almost deserted; the sacred ceremonies had suffered a long intermission; and the victims were for some time without purchasers. in Pontus These assertions render it a very probable conjecture Influence of that the severity of the Governors, and the exasperation the Priestof the populace, were excited and kept alive by the hood. Priests, by the inferior officers of Religion, and, in short, by all to whom the splendid solemnities, or gorgeous structures, which were consecrated to the maintenance of Polytheism, were a source of pleasure, of emolument, and of distinction. Nor would the representations of the Priesthood be received without alarm, even by the Philosophic Sceptic. Regarding the existing Religions Remarks. as instruments of controul, or incentives to exertion, many of the Sages of Antiquity had no sooner closed their free speculations on the Divinity, than they bent before the senseless objects of popular idolatry which they internally ridiculed.‡ Even the followers of Epicurus, and of Pyrrho, were willing to discharge the sacerdotal offices.§ But the ascendency of the Priesthood would be particularly great in the mind of Pliny, who was anxious that reverence should be entertained "for the Deities, for ancient glory, even for fables." The glowing imagery of Pagan Worship, with its train of varied associations, had taken possession of his ardent fancy. The elegance of his taste lent charms to empty pageantry; and his time was spent in building and in adorning Temples. *Mosheim adds, Presbyteris cum Episcopo aut fugâ dilapsis, exortá tempestate, aut in occulto latentibus. (De Reb. Chr. p. 232.) The assertion is, we think, unwarranted and unjust. This was not the case in other Countries. Dicendum...... de institutis Atheniensium, Rhodiorum, doctissimorum hominum, apud Cic. de Part. Orat, c. 34.) Hence, as Gibbon has remarked, the acquiquos etiam (id quod acerbissimum est) liberi, civesque torquentur. escence of the Provincials encouraged their Governors to acquire, and perhaps to usurp, a discretionary power of employing the rack to extort from vagrant and plebeian criminals the confession of their guilt, till they insensibly proceeded to confound the distinctions of rank, and to disregard the privileges of Roman Citizens, (see Decline and Fall, &c. c. 17.) It may be doubted, however, whether so conscientious a Governor as Pliny would have deviated from the practice of the State and the rule of Civilians. |