Chapter III: The Conversion of Rome (9)

827 This has been a matter of very great controversy. Looking at the
question apart from direct testimony, it appears improbable that a
persecution directed against the Christians on the charge of having
burnt Rome, should have extended to Christians who did not live near
Rome. On the other hand, it has been argued that Tacitus speaks of
them as “haud perinde in crimine incendii, quam odio humani generis
convicti;” and it has been maintained that “hatred of the human
race” was treated as a crime, and punished in the provinces. But
this is, I think, extremely far-fetched; and it is evident from the
sequel that the Christians at Rome were burnt as incendiaries, and
that it was the conviction that they were not guilty of that crime
that extorted the pity which Tacitus notices. There is also no
reference in Tacitus to any persecution beyond the walls. If we pass
to the Christian evidence, a Spanish inscription referring to the
Neronian persecution, which was once appealed to as decisive, is now
unanimously admitted to be a forgery. In the fourth century,
however, Sulp. Severus (lib. ii.) and Orosius (_Hist._ vii. 7)
declared that general laws condemnatory of Christianity were
promulgated by Nero; but the testimony of credulous historians who
wrote so long after the event is not of much value. Rossi, however,
imagines that a fragment of an inscription found at Pompeii
indicates a general law against Christians. See his _Bulletino
d’Archeologia Cristiana_ (Roma, Dec. 1865), which, however, should
be compared with the very remarkable _Compte rendu_ of M. Aubé,
_Acad. des Inscrip. et Belles-lettres_, Juin 1866. These two papers
contain an almost complete discussion of the persecutions of Nero
and Domitian. Gibbon thinks it quite certain the persecution was
confined to the city; Mosheim (_Eccl. Hist._ i. p. 71) adopts the
opposite view, and appeals to the passage in Tertullian (_Ap._ v.),
in which he speaks of “leges istæ ... quas Trajanus ex parte
frustratus est, vitando inquiri Christianos,” as implying the
existence of special laws against the Christians. This passage,
however, may merely refer to the general law against unauthorised
religions, which Tertullian notices in this very chapter; and Pliny,
in his famous letter, does not show any knowledge of the existence
of special legislation about the Christians.

828 Ecclesiastical historians maintain, but not on very strong evidence,
that the Church of Rome was founded by St. Peter, A.D. 42 or 44. St.
Paul came to Rome A.D. 61.

829 On this horrible punishment see Juvenal, _Sat._ i. 155-157.

830 Lactantius, in the fourth century, speaks of this opinion as still
held by some “madmen” (_De Mort. Persec._ cap. ii.); but Sulp.
Severus (_Hist._ lib. ii.) speaks of it as a common notion, and he
says that St. Martin, when asked about the end of the world,
answered, “Neronem et Antichristum prius esse venturos: Neronem in
occidentali plaga regibus subactis decem, imperaturum, persecutionem
autem ab eo hactenus exercendam ut idola gentium coli
cogat.”—_Dial._ ii. Among the Pagans, the notion that Nero was yet
alive lingered long, and twenty years after his death an adventurer
pretending to be Nero was enthusiastically received by the Parthians
(Sueton. _Nero_, lvii.).

831 See the full description of it in Rossi’s _Bulletino d’Archeol.
Crist._ Dec. 1865. Eusebius (iii. 17) and Tertullian (_Apol._ v.)
have expressly noticed the very remarkable fact that Vespasian, who
was a bitter enemy to the Jews, and who exiled all the leading
Stoical philosophers except Musonius, never troubled the Christians.

832 See a pathetic letter of Pliny, lib. iii. _Ep._ xi. and also lib. i.
_Ep._ v. and the _Agricola_ of Tacitus.

833 Euseb. iii. 20.

834 “Præter cæteros Judaicus fiscus acerbissime actus est. Ad quem
deferebantur, qui vel improfessi Judaicam intra urbem viverent
vitam, vel dissimulata origine imposita genti tributa non
pependissent.”—Sueton. _Domit._ xi. Suetonius adds that, when a
young man, he saw an old man of ninety examined before a large
assembly to ascertain whether he was circumcised.

835 Euseb. iii. 18.

836 See the accounts of these transactions in Xiphilin, the abbreviator
of Dion Cassius (lxvii. 14); Euseb. iii. 17-18. Suetonius notices
(_Domit._ xv.) that Flavius Clemens (whom he calls a man
“contemptissimæ inertiæ”) was killed “ex tenuissima suspicione.” The
language of Xiphilin, who says he was killed for “impiety and Jewish
rites;” the express assertion of Eusebius, that it was for
Christianity; and the declaration of Tertullian, that Christians
were persecuted at the close of this reign, leave, I think, little
doubt that this execution was connected with Christianity, though
some writers have questioned it. At the same time, it is very
probable, as Mr. Merivale thinks (_Hist. of Rome_, vol. vii. pp.
381-384), that though the pretext of the execution might have been
religious, the real motive was political jealousy. Domitian had
already put to death the brother of Flavius Clemens on the charge of
treason. His sons had been recognised as successors to the throne,
and at the time of his execution another leading noble named Glabrio
was accused of having fought in the arena. Some ecclesiastical
historians have imagined that there may have been two Domitillas—the
wife and niece of Flavius Clemens. The islands of Pontia and
Pandataria were close to one another.

837 “Tentaverat et Domitianus, portio Neronis de crudelitate; sed qua et
homo facile cœptum repressit, restitutis etiam quos relegaverat.”
(_Apol._ 5.) It will be observed that Tertullian makes no mention of
any punishment more severe than exile.

838 Euseb. iii. 20.

_ 839 De Mort. Persec._ iii.

840 Xiphilin, lxviii. 1. An annotator to Mosheim conjectures that the
edict may have been issued just before the death of the emperor, but
not acted on till after it.

841 Euseb. iv. 26. The whole of this apology has been recently
recovered, and translated into Latin by M. Renan in the _Spicilegium
Solesmense_.

_ 842 Apol._ 5.

843 Lactant. _De Mort. Persec._ 3-4.

844 Pliny, _Ep._ x. 97-98.

845 Euseb. lib. iii.

846 There is a description of this earthquake in Merivale’s _Hist. of
the Romans_, vol. viii. pp. 155-156. Orosius (_Hist._ vii. 12)
thought it was a judgment on account of the persecution of the
Christians.

847 Eusebius, iv. 8-9. See, too, Justin Martyr, _Apol._ i. 68-69.

848 This is mentioned incidentally by Lampridius in his _Life of A.
Severus_.

849 See this very curious letter in Vopiscus, _Saturninus_.

850 Justin Mart. _Ap._ i. 31. Eusebius quotes a passage from Hegesippus
to the same effect. (iv. 8.)

851 “Præcepitque ne cui Judæo introeundi Hierosolymam esset licentia,
Christianis tantum civitate permissa.”—_Oros._ vii. 13.

852 A letter which Eusebius gives at full (iv. 13), and ascribes to
Antoninus Pius, has created a good deal of controversy. Justin Mart.
(_Apol._ i. 71) and Tertullian (_Apol._ 5) ascribe it to Marcus
Aurelius. It is now generally believed to be a forgery by a
Christian hand, being more like a Christian apology than the letter
of a Pagan emperor. St. Melito, however, writing to Marcus Aurelius,
expressly states that Antoninus had written a letter forbidding the
persecution of Christians. (Euseb. iv. 26.)

853 It is alluded to by Minucius Felix.

854 Eusebius, iv. 16.

855 St. Melito expressly states that the edicts of Marcus Aurelius
produced the Asiatic persecution.

856 Eusebius, iv. 15.

857 See the most touching and horrible description of this persecution
in a letter written by the Christians of Lyons, in Eusebius, v. 1.

858 Sulpicius Severus (who was himself a Gaul) says of their martyrdom
(_H. E._, lib. ii.), “Tum primum intra Gallias Martyria visa, serius
trans Alpes Dei religione suscepta.” Tradition ascribes Gallic
Christianity to the apostles, but the evidence of inscriptions
appears to confirm the account of Severus. It is at least certain
that Christianity did not acquire a great extension till later. The
earliest Christian inscriptions found are (one in each year) of A.D.
334, 347, 377, 405, and 409. They do not become common till the
middle of the fifth century. See a full discussion of this in the
preface of M. Le Blant’s admirable and indeed exhaustive work,
_Inscriptions Chrétiennes de la Gaule_.

859 It was alleged among the Christians, that towards the close of his
reign Marcus Aurelius issued an edict protecting the Christians, on
account of a Christian legion having, in Germany, in a moment of
great distress, procured a shower of rain by their prayers. (Tert.
_Apol._ 5.) The shower is mentioned by Pagan as well as Christian
writers, and is portrayed on the column of Antoninus. It was
“ascribed to the incantations of an Egyptian magician, to the
prayers of a legion of Christians, or to the favour of Jove towards
the best of mortals, according to the various prejudices of
different observers.”—Merivale’s _Hist. of Rome_, vol. viii. p. 338.

860 Xiphilin, lxxii. 4. The most atrocious of the Pagan persecutions was
attributed, as we shall see, to the mother of Galerius, and in
Christian times the Spanish Inquisition was founded by Isabella the
Catholic; the massacre of St. Bartholomew was chiefly due to
Catherine of Medicis, and the most horrible English persecution to
Mary Tudor.

861 Euseb. v. 21. The accuser, we learn from St. Jerome, was a slave. On
the law condemning slaves who accused their masters, compare
Pressensé, _Hist. des Trois premiers Siècles_ (2me série), tome i.
pp. 182-183, and Jeremie’s _Church History of Second and Third
Centuries_, p. 29. Apollonius was of senatorial rank. It is said
that some other martyrs died at the same time.

862 “Judæos fieri sub gravi pœna vetuit. Idem etiam de Christianis
sanxit.”—Spartian. _S. Severus_. The persecution is described by
Eusebius, lib. vi. Tertullian says Severus was favourable to the
Christians, a Christian named Proculus (whom he, in consequence,
retained in the palace till his death) having cured him of an
illness by the application of oil. (_Ad Scapul._ 4.)

863 “Of the persecution under Severus there are few, if any, traces in
the West. It is confined to Syria, perhaps to Cappadocia, to Egypt,
and to Africa, and in the latter provinces appears as the act of
hostile governors proceeding upon the existing laws, rather than the
consequence of any recent edict of the emperor.”—Milman’s _Hist. of
Christianity_, vol. ii. pp. 156-157.

_ 864 Adv. Cels._ iii. See Gibbon, ch. xvi.

865 Eusebius, vi. 28.

866 Lampridius, _A. Severus_. The historian adds, “Judæis privilegia
reservavit. Christianos esse passus est.”

867 Compare Milman’s _History of Early Christianity_ (1867), vol. ii. p.
188, and his _History of Latin Christianity_ (1867), vol. i. pp.
26-59. There are only two cases of alleged martyrdom before this
time that can excite any reasonable doubt. Irenæus distinctly
asserts that Telesphorus was martyred; but his martyrdom is put in
the beginning of the reign of Antoninus Pius (he had assumed the
mitre near the end of the reign of Hadrian), and Antoninus is
represented, by the general voice of the Church, as perfectly free
from the stain of persecution. A tradition, which is in itself
sufficiently probable, states that Pontianus, having been exiled by
Maximinus, was killed in banishment.

868 Tacitus has a very ingenious remark on this subject, which
illustrates happily the half-scepticism of the Empire. After
recounting a number of prodigies that were said to have taken place
in the reign of Otho, he remarks that these were things habitually
noticed in the ages of ignorance, but now only noticed in periods of
terror. “Rudibus sæculis etiam in pace observata, quæ nunc tantum in
metu audiuntur.”—_Hist._ i. 86.

869 M. de Champagny has devoted an extremely beautiful chapter (_Les
Antonins_, tome ii. pp. 179-200) to the liberty of the Roman Empire.
See, too, the fifty-fourth chapter of Mr. Merivale’s _History_. It
is the custom of some of the apologists for modern Cæsarism to
defend it by pointing to the Roman Empire as the happiest period in
human history. No apology can be more unfortunate. The first task of
a modern despot is to centralise to the highest point, to bring
every department of thought and action under a system of police
regulation, and, above all, to impose his shackling tyranny upon the
human mind. The very perfection of the Roman Empire was, that the
municipal and personal liberty it admitted had never been surpassed,
and the intellectual liberty had never been equalled.

870 Sueton. _Aug._ xxxi. It appears from a passage in Livy (xxxix. 16)
that books of oracles had been sometimes burnt in the Republic.

871 Tacitus has given us a very remarkable account of the trial of
Cremutius Cordus, under Tiberius, for having published a history in
which he had praised Brutus and called Cassius the last of Romans.
(_Annal._ iv. 34-35.) He expressly terms this “novo ac tunc primum
audito crimine,” and he puts a speech in the mouth of the accused,
describing the liberty previously accorded to writers. Cordus
avoided execution by suicide. His daughter, Marcia, preserved some
copies of his work, and published it in the reign and with the
approbation of Caligula. (Senec. _Ad. Marc._ 1; Suet. _Calig._ 16.)
There are, however, some traces of an earlier persecution of
letters. Under the sanction of a law of the decemvirs against
libellers, Augustus exiled the satiric writer Cassius Severus, and
he also destroyed the works of an historian named Labienus, on
account of their seditious sentiments. These writings were
re-published with those of Cordus. Generally, however, Augustus was
very magnanimous in his dealings with his assailants. He refused the
request of Tiberius to punish them (Suet. _Aug._ 51), and only
excluded from his palace Timagenes, who bitterly satirised both him
and the empress, and proclaimed himself everywhere the enemy of the
emperor. (Senec. _De Ira_, iii. 23.) A similar magnanimity was shown
by most of the other emperors; among others, by Nero. (Suet. _Nero_,
39.) Under Vespasian, however, a poet, named Maternus, was obliged
to retouch a tragedy on Cato (Tacit. _De Or._ 2-3), and Domitian
allowed no writings opposed to his policy. (Tacit. _Agric._) But no
attempt appears to have been made in the Empire to control religious
writings till the persecution of Diocletian, who ordered the
Scriptures to be burnt. The example was speedily followed by the
Christian emperors. The writings of Arius were burnt in A.D. 321,
those of Porphyry in A.D. 388. Pope Gelasius, in A.D. 496, drew up a
list of books which should not be read, and all liberty of
publication speedily became extinct. See on this subject Peignot,
_Essai historique sur la Liberté d’Écrire_; Villemain, _Études de
Littèr. ancienne_; Sir C. Lewis on the _Credibility of Roman Hist._
vol. i. p. 52; Nadal, _Mémoire sur la liberté qu’avoient les soldats
romains de dire des vers satyriques contre ceux qui triomphoient_
(Paris 1725).

872 See a collection of passages on this point in Pressensé, _Hist. des
Trois premiers Siècles_ (2me série), tome i. pp. 3-4.

_ 873 Trypho._

_ 874 Apol._ xxxvii.

875 Euseb. vi. 43.

876 Eusebius, it is true, ascribes this persecution (vi. 39) to the
hatred Decius bore to his predecessor Philip, who was very friendly
to the Christians. But although such a motive might account for a
persecution like that of Maximin, which was directed chiefly against
the bishops who had been about the Court of Severus, it is
insufficient to account for a persecution so general and so severe
as that of Decius. It is remarkable that this emperor is uniformly
represented by the Pagan historians as an eminently wise and humane
sovereign. See Dodwell, _De Paucitate Martyrum_, lii.

877 St. Cyprian (_Ep._ vii.) and, at a later period, St. Jerome (_Vit.
Pauli_), both notice that during this persecution the desire of the
persecutors was to subdue the constancy of the Christians by
torture, without gratifying their desire for martyrdom. The
consignment of Christian virgins to houses of ill fame was one of
the most common incidents in the later acts of martyrs which were
invented in the middle ages. Unhappily, however, it must be
acknowledged that there are some undoubted traces of it at an
earlier date. Tertullian, in a famous passage, speaks of the cry “Ad
Lenonem” as substituted for that of “Ad Leonem;” and St. Ambrose
recounts some strange stories on this subject in his treatise _De
Virginibus_.

878 St. Cyprian has drawn a very highly coloured picture of this general
corruption, and of the apostasy it produced, in his treatise _De
Lapsis_, a most interesting picture of the society of his time. See,
too, the _Life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus_, by Greg. of Nyssa.

879 “La persécution de Dèce ne dura qu’environ un an dans sa grande
violence. Car S. Cyprien, dans les lettres écrites en 251, dès
devant Pasque, et mesme dans quelques-unes écrites apparemment dès
la fin de 250, témoigne que son église jouissoit déjà de quelque
paix, mais d’une paix encore peu affermie, en sorte que le moindre
accident eust pu renouveler le trouble et la persécution. Il semble
mesme que l’on n’eust pas encore la liberté d’y tenir les
assemblées, et néanmoins il paroist que tous les confesseurs
prisonniers à Carthage y avoient esté mis en liberté dès ce
temps-là.”—Tillemont, _Mém. d’Hist. ecclésiastique_, tome iii. p.
324.

880 Dionysius the bishop wrote a full account of it, which Eusebius has
preserved (vi. 41-42). In Alexandria, Dionysius says, the
persecution produced by popular fanaticism preceded the edict of
Decius by an entire year. He has preserved a particular catalogue of
all who were put to death in Alexandria during the entire Decian
persecution. They were seventeen persons. Several of these were
killed by the mob, and their deaths were in nearly all cases
accompanied by circumstances of extreme atrocity. Besides these,
others (we know not how many) had been put to torture. Many,
Dionysius says, perished in other cities or villages of Egypt.

881 See St. Cyprian, _Ep._ viii.

882 There was much controversy at this time as to the propriety of
bishops evading persecution by flight. The Montanists maintained
that such a conduct was equivalent to apostasy. Tertullian had
written a book, _De Fuga in Persecutione_, maintaining this view;
and among the orthodox the conduct of St. Cyprian (who afterwards
nobly attested his courage by his death) did not escape
animadversion. The more moderate opinion prevailed, but the leading
bishops found it necessary to support their conduct by declaring
that they had received special revelations exhorting them to fly.
St. Cyprian, who constantly appealed to his dreams to justify him in
his controversies (see some curious instances collected in
Middleton’s _Free Enquiry_, pp. 101-105), declared (_Ep._ ix.), and
his biographer and friend Pontius re-asserted (_Vit. Cyprianis_),
that his flight was “by the command of God.” Dionysius, the Bishop
of Alexandria, asserts the same thing of his own flight, and attests
it by an oath (see his own words in Euseb. vi. 40); and the same
thing was afterwards related of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. (See his
_Life_ by Gregory of Nyssa.)

883 “E veramente che almeno fino dal secolo terzo i fedeli abbiano
posseduto cimiteri a nome commune, e che il loro possesso sia stato
riconosciuto dagl’ imperatori, è cosa impossibile a negare.”—Rossi,
_Roma Sotterranea_, tomo i. p. 103.

884 This is all fully discussed by Rossi, _Roma Sotterranea_, tomo i.
pp. 101-108. Rossi thinks the Church, in its capacity of burial
society, was known by the name of “ecclesia fratrum.”

885 See, on the history of early Christian Churches, Cave’s _Primitive
Christianity_, part i. c. vi.

886 Dodwell (_De Paucit. Martyr._ lvii.) has collected evidence of the
subsidence of the persecution in the last year of the reign of
Decius.

887 This persecution is not noticed by St. Jerome, Orosius, Sulpicius
Severus, or Lactantius. The very little we know about it is derived
from the letters of St. Cyprian, and from a short notice by
Dionysius of Alexandria, in Eusebius, vii. 1. Dionysius says, Gallus
began the persecution when his reign was advancing prosperously, and
his affairs succeeding, which probably means, after he had procured
the departure of the Goths from the Illyrian province, early in A.D.
252 (see Gibbon, chap. x.). The disastrous position into which
affairs had been thrown by the defeat of Decius appears, at first,
to have engrossed his attention.

888 Lucius was at first exiled and then permitted to return, on which
occasion St. Cyprian wrote him a letter of congratulation (_Ep._
lvii.). He was, however, afterwards re-arrested and slain, but it is
not, I think, clear whether it was under Gallus or Valerian. St.
Cyprian speaks (_Ep._ lxvi.) of both Cornelius and Lucius as
martyred. The emperors were probably at this time beginning to
realise the power the Bishops of Rome possessed. We know hardly
anything of the Decian persecution at Rome except the execution of
the bishop; and St. Cyprian says (_Ep._ li.) that Decius would have
preferred a pretender to the throne to a Bishop of Rome.

889 Dionysius, Archbishop of Alexandria; see Euseb. vii. 10.

890 Eusebius, vii. 10-12; Cyprian, _Ep._ lxxxi. Lactantius says of
Valerian, “Multum quamvis brevi tempore justi sanguinis fudit.”—_De
Mort. Persec._ c. v.

891 Cyprian. _Ep._ lxxxi.

892 See his _Life_ by the deacon Pontius, which is reproduced by Gibbon.

893 Eusebius, vii. 13.

894 Tertullian had before, in a curious passage, spoken of the
impossibility of Christian Cæsars. “Sed et Cæsares credidissent
super Christo si aut Cæsares non essent seculo necessarii, aut si et
Christiani potuissent esse Cæsares.”—_Apol._ xxi.

_ 895 Contra Demetrianum._

896 Eusebius, vii. 30. Aurelian decided that the cathedral at Antioch
should be given up to whoever was appointed by the bishops of Italy.

897 Compare the accounts in Eusebius, vii. 30, and Lactantius, _De
Mort._ c. vi.

898 See the forcible and very candid description of Eusebius, viii. 1.

899 This is noticed by Optatus.

900 See the vivid pictures in Lact. _De Mort. Persec._

901 Lactant. _De Mort. Persec._ 15.

902 Eusebius, viii.

903 These incidents are noticed by Eusebius in his _History_, and in his
_Life of Constantine_, and by Lactantius, _De Mort. Persec._

904 “Italy, Sicily, Gaul, and whatever parts extend towards the
West,—Spain, Mauritania, and Africa.”—Euseb. _Mart. Palest._ ch.
xiii. But in Gaul, as I have said, the persecution had not extended
beyond the destruction of churches; in these provinces the
persecution, Eusebius says, lasted not quite two years.

905 The history of this persecution is given by Eusebius, _Hist._ lib.
viii., in his work on the _Martyrs of Palestine_, and in Lactantius,
_De Mort. Persec._ The persecution in Palestine was not quite
continuous: in A.D. 308 it had almost ceased; it then revived
fiercely, but at the close of A.D. 309, and in the beginning of A.D.
310, there was again a short lull, apparently due to political
causes. See Mosheim, _Eccles. Hist._ (edited by Soames), vol. i. pp.
286-287.

906 Eusebius.

907 See two passages, which Gibbon justly calls remarkable. (_H. E._
viii. 2; _Martyrs of Palest._ ch. xii.)

908 There is one instance of a wholesale massacre which appears to rest
on good authority. Eusebius asserts that, during the Diocletian
persecution, a village in Phrygia, the name of which he does not
mention, being inhabited entirely by Christians who refused to
sacrifice, was attacked and burnt with all that were in it by the
Pagan soldiery. Lactantius (_Inst. Div._ v. 11) confines the
conflagration to a church in which the entire population was burnt;
and an early Latin translation of Eusebius states that the people
were first summoned to withdraw, but refused to do so. Gibbon (ch.
xvi.) thinks that this tragedy took place when the decree of
Diocletian ordered the destruction of the churches.

909 Mariana (_De Rebus Hispaniæ_, xxiv. 17). Llorente thought this
number perished in the single year 1482; but the expressions of
Mariana, though he speaks of “this beginning,” do not necessarily
imply this restriction. Besides these martyrs, 17,000 persons in
Spain recanted, and endured punishments less than death, while great
numbers fled. There does not appear to have been, in this case,
either the provocation or the political danger which stimulated the
Diocletian persecution.

910 This is according to the calculation of Sarpi. Grotius estimates the
victims at 100,000.—Gibbon, ch. xvi.

911 See some curious information on this in Ticknor’s _Hist. of Spanish
Literature_ (3rd American edition), vol. iii. pp. 236-237.

912 This was the case in the persecutions at Lyons and Smyrna, under
Marcus Aurelius. In the Diocletian persecution at Alexandria the
populace were allowed to torture the Christians as they pleased.
(_Eusebius_, viii. 10.)