History Of The Decline And Fall Of The
Edward Gibbon, Esq.
With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman
Vol. 2
1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Part I.
Note: The
sixteenth chapter I cannot help considering as a
very ingenious and specious, but very disgraceful
extenuation of
the cruelties perpetrated by the Roman magistrates
against the
Christians. It is
written in the most contemptibly factious
spirit of prejudice against the sufferers; it is unworthy
of a
philosopher and of humanity. Let the narrative of Cyprian's
death be examined.
He had to relate the murder of an innocent
man of advanced age, and in a station deemed venerable by
a
considerable body of the provincials of
because he refused to sacrifice to Jupiter. Instead of pointing
the indignation of posterity against such an atrocious
act of
tyranny, he dwells, with visible art, on the small
circumstances
of decorum and politeness which attended this murder, and
which
he relates with as much parade as if they were the most
important
particulars of the event.
The Conduct Of
The Roman Government Towards The Christians,
From The Reign Of Nero To That Of
Dr. Robertson
has been the subject of much blame for his
real or supposed lenity towards the Spanish murderers and
tyrants
in
the same or greater disapprobation, is a proof of the
unphilosophical and indeed fanatical animosity against
Christianity, which was so prevalent during the latter
part of
the eighteenth century. - Mackintosh: see Life, i. p.
244, 245.]
If we seriously
consider the purity of the Christian
religion, the sanctity of its moral precepts, and the
innocent as
well as austere lives of the greater number of those who
during
the first ages embraced the faith of the gospel, we
should
naturally suppose, that so benevolent a doctrine would
have been
received with due reverence, even by the unbelieving
world; that
the learned and the polite, however they may deride the
miracles,
would have esteemed the virtues, of the new sect; and
that the
magistrates, instead of persecuting, would have protected
an
order of men who yielded the most passive obedience to
the laws,
though they declined the active cares of war and
government. If,
on the other hand, we recollect the universal toleration
of
Polytheism, as it was invariably maintained by the faith
of the
people, the incredulity of philosophers, and the policy
of the
Roman senate and emperors, we are at a loss to discover
what new
offence the Christians had committed, what new
provocation could
exasperate the mild indifference of antiquity, and what
new
motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld without
concern
a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under
their
gentle sway, to inflict a severe punishment on any part
of their
subjects, who had chosen for themselves a singular but an
inoffensive mode of faith and worship.
The religious
policy of the ancient world seems to have
assumed a more stern and intolerant character, to oppose
the
progress of Christianity. About fourscore years after the
death
of Christ, his innocent disciples were punished with
death by the
sentence of a proconsul of the most amiable and
philosophic
character, and according to the laws of an emperor
distinguished
by the wisdom and justice of his general
administration. The
apologies which were repeatedly addressed to the
successors of
Trajan are filled with the most pathetic complaints, that
the
Christians, who obeyed the dictates, and solicited the
liberty,
of conscience, were alone, among all the subjects of the
Roman
empire, excluded from the common benefits of their
auspicious
government. The
deaths of a few eminent martyrs have been
recorded with care; and from the time that Christianity
was
invested with the supreme power, the governors of the
church have
been no less diligently employed in displaying the
cruelty, than
in imitating the conduct, of their Pagan
adversaries. To
separate (if it be possible) a few authentic as well as
interesting facts from an undigested mass of fiction and
error,
and to relate, in a clear and rational manner, the
causes, the
extent, the duration, and the most important
circumstances of the
persecutions to which the first Christians were exposed,
is the
design of the present chapter. ^*
[Footnote *: The history of the first age of Christianity
is only
found in the Acts of the Apostles, and in order to speak
of the
first persecutions experienced by the Christians, that
book
should naturally have been consulted; those persecutions,
then
limited to individuals and to a narrow sphere, interested
only
the persecuted, and have been related by them alone. Gibbon
making the persecutions ascend no higher than Nero, has
entirely
omitted those which preceded this epoch, and of which St.
Luke
has preserved the memory. The only way to justify this
omission
was, to attack the authenticity of the Acts of the
Apostles; for,
if authentic, they must necessarily be consulted and
quoted.
Now, antiquity has left very few works of which the
authenticity
is so well established as that of the Acts of the
Apostles. (See
Lardner's Cred. of Gospel Hist. part iii.) It is
therefore,
without sufficient reason, that Gibbon has maintained
silence
concerning the narrative of St. Luke, and this omission
is not
without importance. - G.]
The sectaries
of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear
animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by
enthusiasm, are
seldom in a proper temper of mind calmly to investigate,
or
candidly to appreciate, the motives of their enemies,
which often
escape the impartial and discerning view even of those
who are
placed at a secure distance from the flames of
persecution. A
reason has been assigned for the conduct of the emperors
towards
the primitive Christians, which may appear the more
specious and
probable as it is drawn from the acknowledged genius of
Polytheism. It has
already been observed, that the religious
concord of the world was principally supported by the
implicit
assent and reverence which the nations of antiquity
expressed for
their respective traditions and ceremonies. It might therefore
be expected, that they would unite with indignation
against any
sect or people which should separate itself from the
communion of
mankind, and claiming the exclusive possession of divine
knowledge, should disdain every form of worship, except its
own,
as impious and idolatrous. The rights of toleration were held by
mutual indulgence: they were justly forfeited by a
refusal of the
accustomed tribute.
As the payment of this tribute was
inflexibly refused by the Jews, and by them alone, the
consideration of the treatment which they experienced
from the
Roman magistrates, will serve to explain how far these
speculations are justified by facts, and will lead us to
discover
the true causes of the persecution of Christianity.
Without
repeating what has already been mentioned of the
reverence of the Roman princes and governors for the
temple of
temple and city was accompanied and followed by every
circumstance that could exasperate the minds of the
conquerors,
and authorize religious persecution by the most specious
arguments of political justice and the public
safety. From the
reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews
discovered a
fierce impatience of the dominion of
out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is
shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they
committed in the cities of
they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting
natives; ^1 and we are tempted to applaud the severe
retaliation
which was exercised by the arms of the legions against a
race of
fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to
render
them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman
government, but
of human kind. ^2 The enthusiasm of the Jews was
supported by the
opinion, that it was unlawful for them to pay taxes to an
idolatrous master; and by the flattering promise which
they
derived from their ancient oracles, that a conquering Messiah
would soon arise, destined to break their fetters, and to
invest
the favorites of heaven with the empire of the
earth. It was by
announcing himself as their long-expected deliverer, and
by
calling on all the descendants of Abraham to assert the
hope of
with which he resisted during two years the power of the
emperor
Hadrian. ^3
[Footnote 1: In
240,000; in
victims were sawn asunder, according to a precedent to
which
David had given the sanction of his example. The victorious Jews
devoured the flesh, licked up the blood, and twisted the
entrails
like a girdle round their bodies. See Dion Cassius, l. lxviii.
p. 1145.
Note: Some
commentators, among them Reimar, in his notes on
Dion Cassius think that the hatred of the Romans against
the Jews
has led the historian to exaggerate the cruelties
committed by
the latter. Don.
Cass. lxviii. p. 1146. - G.]
[Footnote 2: Without repeating the well-known narratives
of
Josephus, we may learn from Dion, (l. lxix. p. 1162,)
that in
Hadrian's war 580,000 Jews were cut off by the sword,
besides an
infinite number which perished by famine, by disease, and
by
fire.]
[Footnote 3: For the sect of the Zealots, see Basnage,
Histoire
des Juifs, l. i. c. 17; for the characters of the
Messiah,
according to the Rabbis, l. v. c. 11, 12, 13; for the
actions of
Barchochebas, l. vii. c. 12. (Hist. of Jews iii. 115, &c.) - M.]
Notwithstanding these repeated provocations, the resentment
of the Roman princes expired after the victory; nor were
their
apprehensions continued beyond the period of war and
danger. By
the general indulgence of polytheism, and by the mild
temper of
Antoninus Pius, the Jews were restored to their ancient
privileges, and once more obtained the permission of
circumcising
their children, with the easy restraint, that they should
never
confer on any foreign proselyte that distinguishing mark
of the
Hebrew race. ^4 The numerous remains of that people,
though they
were still excluded from the precincts of Jerusalem, were
permitted to form and to maintain considerable
establishments
both in Italy and in the provinces, to acquire the freedom
of
Rome, to enjoy municipal honors, and to obtain at the
same time
an exemption from the burdensome and expensive offices of
society. The
moderation or the contempt of the Romans gave a
legal sanction to the form of ecclesiastical police which
was
instituted by the vanquished sect. The patriarch, who had fixed
his residence at Tiberias, was empowered to appoint his
subordinate ministers and apostles, to exercise a
domestic
jurisdiction, and to receive from his dispersed brethren
an
annual contribution. ^5 New synagogues were frequently
erected in
the principal cities of the empire; and the sabbaths, the
fasts,
and the festivals, which were either commanded by the
Mosaic law,
or enjoined by the traditions of the Rabbis, were
celebrated in
the most solemn and public manner. ^6 Such gentle
treatment
insensibly assuaged the stern temper of the Jews. Awakened from
their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the
behavior
of peaceable and industrious subjects. Their irreconcilable
hatred of mankind, instead of flaming out in acts of
blood and
violence, evaporated in less dangerous
gratifications. They
embraced every opportunity of overreaching the idolaters
in
trade; and they pronounced secret and ambiguous
imprecations
against the haughty kingdom of Edom. ^7
[Footnote 4: It is to Modestinus, a Roman lawyer (l. vi.
regular.) that we are indebted for a distinct knowledge
of the
Edict of Antoninus.
See Casaubon ad Hist. August. p. 27.]
[Footnote 5: See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l. iii. c.
2, 3.
The office of Patriarch was suppressed by Theodosius the
younger.]
[Footnote 6: We need only mention the Purim, or
deliverance of
the Jews from he rage of Haman, which, till the reign of
Theodosius, was celebrated with insolent triumph and
riotous
intemperance.
Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, l. vi. c. 17, l. viii.
c. 6.]
[Footnote 7: According to the false Josephus, Tsepho, the
grandson of Esau, conducted into Italy the army of Eneas,
king of
Carthage. Another
colony of Idumaeans, flying from the sword of
David, took refuge in the dominions of Romulus. For these, or
for other reasons of equal weight, the name of Edom was
applied
by the Jews to the Roman empire.
Note: The
false Josephus is a romancer of very modern date,
though some of these legends are probably more
ancient. It may
be worth considering whether many of the stories in the
Talmud
are not history in a figurative disguise, adopted from
prudence.
The Jews might dare to say many things of Rome, under the
significant appellation of Edom, which they feared to
utter
publicly. Later
and more ignorant ages took literally, and
perhaps embellished, what was intelligible among the
generation
to which it was addressed. Hist. of Jews, iii. 131.
The false
Josephus has the inauguration of the emperor, with
the seven electors and apparently the pope assisting at
the
coronation! Pref.
page xxvi. - M.]
Since the
Jews, who rejected with abhorrence the deities
adored by their sovereign and by their fellow-subjects,
enjoyed,
however, the free exercise of their unsocial religion,
there must
have existed some other cause, which exposed the
disciples of
Christ to those severities from which the posterity of
Abraham
was exempt. The
difference between them is simple and obvious;
but, according to the sentiments of antiquity, it was of
the
highest importance.
The Jews were a nation; the Christians were
a sect: and if it was natural for every community to
respect the
sacred institutions of their neighbors, it was incumbent
on them
to persevere in those of their ancestors. The voice of
oracles,
the precepts of philosophers, and the authority of the
laws,
unanimously enforced this national obligation. By their lofty
claim of superior sanctity the Jews might provoke the
Polytheists
to consider them as an odious and impure race. By disdaining the
intercourse of other nations, they might deserve their
contempt.
The laws of Moses might be for the most part frivolous or
absurd;
yet, since they had been received during many ages by a
large
society, his followers were justified by the example of
mankind;
and it was universally acknowledged, that they had a
right to
practise what it would have been criminal in them to
neglect.
But this principle, which protected the Jewish synagogue,
afforded not any favor or security to the primitive
church. By
embracing the faith of the gospel, the Christians
incurred the
supposed guilt of an unnatural and unpardonable
offence. They
dissolved the sacred ties of custom and education,
violated the
religious institutions of their country, and
presumptuously
despised whatever their fathers had believed as true, or
had
reverenced as sacred.
Nor was this apostasy (if we may use the
expression) merely of a partial or local kind; since the
pious
deserter who withdrew himself from the temples of Egypt
or Syria,
would equally disdain to seek an asylum in those of
Athens or
Carthage. Every Christian rejected with contempt the
superstitions of his family, his city, and his
province. The
whole body of Christians unanimously refused to hold any
communion with the gods of Rome, of the empire, and of
mankind.
It was in vain that the oppressed believer asserted the
inalienable rights of conscience and private
judgment. Though
his situation might excite the pity, his arguments could
never
reach the understanding, either of the philosophic or of
the
believing part of the Pagan world. To their apprehensions, it
was no less a matter of surprise, that any individuals
should
entertain scruples against complying with the established
mode of
worship, than if they had conceived a sudden abhorrence
to the
manners, the dress, or the language of their native
country. ^8
^*
[Footnote 8: From the arguments of Celsus, as they are
represented and refuted by Origen, (l. v. p. 247 - 259,)
we may
clearly discover the distinction that was made between
the Jewish
people and the Christian sect. See, in the Dialogue of
Minucius
Felix, (c. 5, 6,) a fair and not inelegant description of
the
popular sentiments, with regard to the desertion of the
established worship.]
[Footnote *: In all this there is doubtless much truth;
yet does
not the more important difference lie on the
surface? The
Christians made many converts the Jews but few. Had the Jewish
been equally a proselyting religion would it not have
encountered
as violent persecution? - M.]
The surprise
of the Pagans was soon succeeded by resentment;
and the most pious of men were exposed to the unjust but
dangerous imputation of impiety. Malice and prejudice
concurred
in representing the Christians as a society of atheists,
who, by
the most daring attack on the religious constitution of
the
empire, had merited the severest animadversion of the
civil
magistrate. They
had separated themselves (they gloried in the
confession) from every mode of superstition which was
received in
any part of the globe by the various temper of
polytheism: but it
was not altogether so evident what deity, or what form of
worship, they had substituted to the gods and temples of
antiquity. The
pure and sublime idea which they entertained of
the Supreme Being escaped the gross conception of the
Pagan
multitude, who were at a loss to discover a spiritual and
solitary God, that was neither represented under any
corporeal
figure or visible symbol, nor was adored with the
accustomed pomp
of libations and festivals, of altars and sacrifices. ^9
The
sages of Greece and Rome, who had elevated their minds to
the
contemplation of the existence and attributes of the
First Cause,
were induced by reason or by vanity to reserve for
themselves and
their chosen disciples the privilege of this
philosophical
devotion. ^10 They were far from admitting the prejudices
of
mankind as the standard of truth, but they considered
them as
flowing from the original disposition of human nature;
and they
supposed that any popular mode of faith and worship which
presumed to disclaim the assistance of the senses, would,
in
proportion as it receded from superstition, find itself
incapable
of restraining the wanderings of the fancy, and the
visions of
fanaticism. The careless glance which men of wit and
learning
condescended to cast on the Christian revelation, served
only to
confirm their hasty opinion, and to persuade them that
the
principle, which they might have revered, of the Divine
Unity,
was defaced by the wild enthusiasm, and annihilated by
the airy
speculations, of the new sectaries. The author of a celebrated
dialogue, which has been attributed to Lucian, whilst he
affects
to treat the mysterious subject of the Trinity in a style
of
ridicule and contempt, betrays his own ignorance of the
weakness
of human reason, and of the inscrutable nature of the
divine
perfections. ^11
[Footnote 9: Cur nullas aras habent? templa nulla?
nulla nota
simulacra! - Unde autem, vel quis ille, aut ubi, Deus
unicus,
solitarius, desti tutus? Minucius Felix, c. 10. The Pagan
interlocutor goes on to make a distinction in favor of
the Jews,
who had once a temple, altars, victims, &c.]
[Footnote 10: It is difficult (says Plato) to attain, and
dangerous to publish, the knowledge of the true God. See the
Theologie des Philosophes, in the Abbe d'Olivet's French
translation of Tully de Natura Deorum, tom. i. p. 275.]
[Footnote 11: The author of the Philopatris perpetually
treats
the Christians as a company of dreaming enthusiasts,
&c.; and in
one place he manifestly alludes to the vision in which
St. Paul
was transported to the third heaven. In another place,
Triephon,
who personates a Christian, after deriding the gods of
Paganism,
proposes a mysterious oath.]
It might
appear less surprising, that the founder of
Christianity should not only be revered by his disciples
as a
sage and a prophet, but that he should be adored as a
God. The
Polytheists were disposed to adopt every article of
faith, which
seemed to offer any resemblance, however distant or
imperfect,
with the popular mythology; and the legends of Bacchus,
of
Hercules, and of Aesculapius, had, in some measure,
prepared
their imagination for the appearance of the Son of God
under a
human form. ^12 But they were astonished that the
Christians
should abandon the temples of those ancient heroes, who,
in the
infancy of the world, had invented arts, instituted laws,
and
vanquished the tyrants or monsters who infested the
earth, in
order to choose for the exclusive object of their religious
worship an obscure teacher, who, in a recent age, and
among a
barbarous people, had fallen a sacrifice either to the
malice of
his own countrymen, or to the jealousy of the Roman
government.
The Pagan multitude, reserving their gratitude for temporal
benefits alone, rejected the inestimable present of life
and
immortality, which was offered to mankind by Jesus of
Nazareth.
His mild constancy in the midst of cruel and voluntary
sufferings, his universal benevolence, and the sublime
simplicity
of his actions and character, were insufficient, in the
opinion
of those carnal men, to compensate for the want of fame,
of
empire, and of success; and whilst they refused to
acknowledge
his stupendous triumph over the powers of darkness and of
the
grave, they misrepresented, or they insulted, the
equivocal
birth, wandering life, and ignominious death, of the
divine
Author of Christianity. ^13
[Footnote 12: According to Justin Martyr, (Apolog. Major,
c.
70-85,) the daemon who had gained some imperfect knowledge
of the
prophecies, purposely contrived this resemblance, which
might
deter, though by different means, both the people and the
philosophers from embracing the faith of Christ.]
[Footnote 13: In the first and second books of Origen,
Celsus
treats the birth and character of our Savior with the
most
impious contempt.
The orator Libanius praises Porphyry and
Julian for confuting the folly of a sect., which styles a
dead
man of Palestine, God, and the Son of God. Socrates,
Hist.
Ecclesiast. iii. 23.]
The personal
guilt which every Christian had contracted, in
thus preferring his private sentiment to the national
religion,
was aggravated in a very high degree by the number and
union of
the criminals. It
is well known, and has been already observed,
that Roman policy viewed with the utmost jealousy and
distrust
any association among its subjects; and that the
privileges of
private corporations, though formed for the most harmless
or
beneficial purposes, were bestowed with a very sparing
hand. ^14
The religious assemblies of the Christians who had
separated
themselves from the public worship, appeared of a much
less
innocent nature; they were illegal in their principle,
and in
their consequences might become dangerous; nor were the
emperors
conscious that they violated the laws of justice, when,
for the
peace of society, they prohibited those secret and
sometimes
nocturnal meetings. ^15 The pious disobedience of the
Christians
made their conduct, or perhaps their designs, appear in a
much
more serious and criminal light; and the Roman princes,
who might
perhaps have suffered themselves to be disarmed by a
ready
submission, deeming their honor concerned in the
execution of
their commands, sometimes attempted, by rigorous
punishments, to
subdue this independent spirit, which boldly acknowledged
an
authority superior to that of the magistrate. The extent and
duration of this spiritual conspiracy seemed to render it
everyday more deserving of his animadversion. We have already
seen that the active and successful zeal of the
Christians had
insensibly diffused them through every province and
almost every
city of the empire.
The new converts seemed to renounce their
family and country, that they might connect themselves in
an
indissoluble band of union with a peculiar society, which
every
where assumed a different character from the rest of
mankind.
Their gloomy and austere aspect, their abhorrence of the
common
business and pleasures of life, and their frequent
predictions of
impending calamities, ^16 inspired the Pagans with the
apprehension of some danger, which would arise from the
new sect,
the more alarming as it was the more obscure.
"Whatever," says
Pliny, "may be the principle of their conduct, their
inflexible
obstinacy appeared deserving of punishment." ^17
[Footnote 14: The emperor Trajan refused to incorporate a
company
of 150 firemen, for the use of the city of
Nicomedia. He
disliked all associations. See Plin. Epist. x. 42, 43.]
[Footnote 15: The proconsul Pliny had published a general
edict
against unlawful meetings. The prudence of the Christians
suspended their Agapae; but it was impossible for them to
omit
the exercise of public worship.]
[Footnote 16: As the prophecies of the Antichrist,
approaching
conflagration, &c., provoked those Pagans whom they
did not
convert, they were mentioned with caution and reserve;
and the
Montanists were censured for disclosing too freely the
dangerous
secret. See
Mosheim, 413.]
[Footnote 17: Neque enim dubitabam, quodcunque esset quod
faterentur, (such are the words of Pliny,) pervicacian
certe et
inflexibilem obstinationem lebere puniri.]
The
precautions with which the disciples of Christ performed
the offices of religion were at first dictated by fear
and
necessity; but they were continued from choice. By imitating the
awful secrecy which reigned in the Eleusinian mysteries,
the
Christians had flattered themselves that they should
render their
sacred institutions more respectable in the eyes of the
Pagan
world. ^18 But the event, as it often happens to the
operations
of subtile policy, deceived their wishes and their
expectations.
It was concluded, that they only concealed what they
would have
blushed to disclose.
Their mistaken prudence afforded an
opportunity for malice to invent, and for suspicious credulity
to
believe, the horrid tales which described the Christians
as the
most wicked of human kind, who practised in their dark
recesses
every abomination that a depraved fancy could suggest,
and who
solicited the favor of their unknown God by the sacrifice
of
every moral virtue.
There were many who pretended to confess or
to relate the ceremonies of this abhorred society. It was
asserted, "that a new-born infant, entirely covered
over with
flour, was presented, like some mystic symbol of
initiation, to
the knife of the proselyte, who unknowingly inflicted
many a
secret and mortal wound on the innocent victim of his
error; that
as soon as the cruel deed was perpetrated, the sectaries
drank up
the blood, greedily tore asunder the quivering members,
and
pledged themselves to eternal secrecy, by a mutual
consciousness
of guilt. It was as confidently affirmed, that this
inhuman
sacrifice was succeeded by a suitable entertainment, in
which
intemperance served as a provocative to brutal lust;
till, at the
appointed moment, the lights were suddenly extinguished,
shame
was banished, nature was forgotten; and, as accident
might
direct, the darkness of the night was polluted by the
incestuous
commerce of sisters and brothers, of sons and of
mothers." ^19
[Footnote 18: See Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol.
i. p.
101, and Spanheim, Remarques sur les Caesars de Julien,
p. 468,
&c.]
[Footnote 19: See Justin Martyr, Apolog. i. 35, ii. 14.
Athenagoras, in Legation, c. 27. Tertullian, Apolog. c. 7, 8, 9.
Minucius Felix, c. 9, 10, 80, 31. The last of these writers
relates the accusation in the most elegant and
circumstantial
manner. The answer
of Tertullian is the boldest and most
vigorous.]
But the
perusal of the ancient apologies was sufficient to
remove even the slightest suspicion from the mind of a
candid
adversary. The
Christians, with the intrepid security of
innocence, appeal from the voice of rumor to the equity
of the
magistrates. They
acknowledge, that if any proof can be produced
of the crimes which calumny has imputed to them, they are
worthy
of the most severe punishment. They provoke the punishment, and
they challenge the proof.
At the same time they urge, with equal
truth and propriety, that the charge is not less devoid
of
probability, than it is destitute of evidence; they ask,
whether
any one can seriously believe that the pure and holy
precepts of
the gospel, which so frequently restrain the use of the
most
lawful enjoyments, should inculcate the practice of the
most
abominable crimes; that a large society should resolve to
dishonor itself in the eyes of its own members; and that
a great
number of persons of either sex, and every age and
character,
insensible to the fear of death or infamy, should consent
to
violate those principles which nature and education had
imprinted
most deeply in their minds. ^20 Nothing, it should seem,
could
weaken the force or destroy the effect of so unanswerable
a
justification, unless it were the injudicious conduct of
the
apologists themselves, who betrayed the common cause of
religion,
to gratify their devout hatred to the domestic enemies of
the
church. It was
sometimes faintly insinuated, and sometimes
boldly asserted, that the same bloody sacrifices, and the
same
incestuous festivals, which were so falsely ascribed to
the
orthodox believers, were in reality celebrated by the
Marcionites, by the Carpocratians, and by several other
sects of
the Gnostics, who, notwithstanding they might deviate
into the
paths of heresy, were still actuated by the sentiments of
men,
and still governed by the precepts of Christianity. ^21
Accusations of a similar kind were retorted upon the
church by
the schismatics who had departed from its communion, ^22
and it
was confessed on all sides, that the most scandalous
licentiousness of manners prevailed among great numbers
of those
who affected the name of Christians. A Pagan magistrate, who
possessed neither leisure nor abilities to discern the
almost
imperceptible line which divides the orthodox faith from
heretical pravity, might easily have imagined that their
mutual
animosity had extorted the discovery of their common
guilt. It
was fortunate for the repose, or at least for the
reputation, of
the first Christians, that the magistrates sometimes
proceeded
with more temper and moderation than is usually
consistent with
religious zeal, and that they reported, as the impartial
result
of their judicial inquiry, that the sectaries, who had
deserted
the established worship, appeared to them sincere in
their
professions, and blameless in their manners; however they
might
incur, by their absurd and excessive superstition, the
censure of
the laws. ^23
[Footnote 20: In the persecution of Lyons, some Gentile
slaves
were compelled, by the fear of tortures, to accuse their
Christian master. The
church of Lyons, writing to their brethren
of Asia, treat the horrid charge with proper indignation
and
contempt. Euseb.
Hist. Eccles. v. i.]
[Footnote 21: See Justin Martyr, Apolog. i. 35. Irenaeus adv.
Haeres. i. 24. Clemens. Alexandrin. Stromat. l. iii. p.
438.
Euseb. iv. 8. It
would be tedious and disgusting to relate all
that the succeeding writers have imagined, all that
Epiphanius
has received, and all that Tillemont has copied. M. de
Beausobre
(Hist. du Manicheisme, l. ix. c. 8, 9) has exposed, with
great
spirit, the disingenuous arts of Augustin and Pope Leo
I.]
[Footnote 22: When Tertullian became a Montanist, he
aspersed the
morals of the church which he had so resolutely defended.
"Sed
majoris est Agape, quia per hanc adolescentes tui cum
sororibus
dormiunt, appendices scilicet gulae lascivia et
luxuria." De
Jejuniis c. 17.
The 85th canon of the council of Illiberis
provides against the scandals which too often polluted
the vigils
of the church, and disgraced the Christian name in the eyes
of
unbelievers.]
[Footnote 23: Tertullian (Apolog. c. 2) expatiates on the
fair
and honorable testimony of Pliny, with much reason and
some
declamation.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.
Part II.
History, which
undertakes to record the transactions of the
past, for the instruction of future ages, would ill
deserve that
honorable office, if she condescended to plead the cause
of
tyrants, or to justify the maxims of persecution. It must,
however, be acknowledged, that the conduct of the
emperors who
appeared the least favorable to the primitive church, is
by no
means so criminal as that of modern sovereigns, who have
employed
the arm of violence and terror against the religious
opinions of
any part of their subjects. From their reflections, or even from
their own feelings, a Charles V. or a Lewis XIV. might
have
acquired a just knowledge of the rights of conscience, of
the
obligation of faith, and of the innocence of error. But the
princes and magistrates of ancient Rome were strangers to
those
principles which inspired and authorized the inflexible
obstinacy
of the Christians in the cause of truth, nor could they
themselves discover in their own breasts any motive which
would
have prompted them to refuse a legal, and as it were a
natural,
submission to the sacred institutions of their
country. The same
reason which contributes to alleviate the guilt, must
have tended
to abate the vigor, of their persecutions. As they were
actuated, not by the furious zeal of bigots, but by the
temperate
policy of legislators, contempt must often have relaxed,
and
humanity must frequently have suspended, the execution of
those
laws which they enacted against the humble and obscure
followers
of Christ. From
the general view of their character and motives
we might naturally conclude: I. That a considerable time elapsed
before they considered the new sectaries as an object
deserving
of the attention of government. II.
That in the conviction of
any of their subjects who were accused of so very
singular a
crime, they proceeded with caution and reluctance. III.
That
they were moderate in the use of punishments; and, IV.
That the
afflicted church enjoyed many intervals of peace and
tranquility.
Notwithstanding the careless indifference which the most
copious
and the most minute of the Pagan writers have shown to
the
affairs of the Christians, ^24 it may still be in our
power to
confirm each of these probable suppositions, by the
evidence of
authentic facts.
[Footnote 24: In the various compilation of the Augustan
History,
(a part of which was composed under the reign of
Constantine,)
there are not six lines which relate to the Christians;
nor has
the diligence of Xiphilin discovered their name in the
large
history of Dion Cassius.
Note: The
greater part of the Augustan History is dedicated
to Diocletian.
This may account for the silence of its authors
concerning Christianity.
The notices that occur are almost all
in the lives composed under the reign of
Constantine. It may
fairly be concluded, from the language which he had into
the
mouth of Maecenas, that Dion was an enemy to all
innovations in
religion. (See
Gibbon, infra, note 105.) In fact, when the
silence of Pagan historians is noticed, it should be
remembered
how meagre and mutilated are all the extant histories of
the
period -M.]
1. By the wise
dispensation of Providence, a mysterious veil
was cast over the infancy of the church, which, till the
faith of
the Christians was matured, and their numbers were multiplied,
served to protect them not only from the malice but even
from the
knowledge of the Pagan world. The slow and gradual abolition of
the Mosaic ceremonies afforded a safe and innocent
disguise to
the more early proselytes of the gospel. As they were, for the
greater part, of the race of Abraham, they were
distinguished by
the peculiar mark of circumcision, offered up their
devotions in
the Temple of Jerusalem till its final destruction, and
received
both the Law and the Prophets as the genuine inspirations
of the
Deity. The Gentile
converts, who by a spiritual adoption had
been associated to the hope of Israel, were likewise
confounded
under the garb and appearance of Jews, ^25 and as the
Polytheists
paid less regard to articles of faith than to the
external
worship, the new sect, which carefully concealed, or
faintly
announced, its future greatness and ambition, was
permitted to
shelter itself under the general toleration which was
granted to
an ancient and celebrated people in the Roman
empire. It was not
long, perhaps, before the Jews themselves, animated with
a
fiercer zeal and a more jealous faith, perceived the
gradual
separation of their Nazarene brethren from the doctrine
of the
synagogue; and they would gladly have extinguished the
dangerous
heresy in the blood of its adherents. But the decrees of Heaven
had already disarmed their malice; and though they might
sometimes exert the licentious privilege of sedition,
they no
longer possessed the administration of criminal justice;
nor did
they find it easy to infuse into the calm breast of a
Roman
magistrate the rancor of their own zeal and
prejudice. The
provincial governors declared themselves ready to listen
to any
accusation that might affect the public safety; but as
soon as
they were informed that it was a question not of facts
but of
words, a dispute relating only to the interpretation of
the
Jewish laws and prophecies, they deemed it unworthy of
the
majesty of Rome seriously to discuss the obscure
differences
which might arise among a barbarous and superstitious
people.
The innocence of the first Christians was protected by
ignorance
and contempt; and the tribunal of the Pagan magistrate
often
proved their most assured refuge against the fury of the
synagogue. ^26 If indeed we were disposed to adopt the
traditions
of a too credulous antiquity, we might relate the distant
peregrinations, the wonderful achievements, and the
various
deaths of the twelve apostles: but a more accurate
inquiry will
induce us to doubt, whether any of those persons who had
been
witnesses to the miracles of Christ were permitted,
beyond the
limits of Palestine, to seal with their blood the truth
of their
testimony. ^27 From the ordinary term of human life, it
may very
naturally be presumed that most of them were deceased
before the
discontent of the Jews broke out into that furious war,
which was
terminated only by the ruin of Jerusalem. During a long period,
from the death of Christ to that memorable rebellion, we
cannot
discover any traces of Roman intolerance, unless they are
to be
found in the sudden, the transient, but the cruel
persecution,
which was exercised by Nero against the Christians of the
capital, thirty-five years after the former, and only two
years
before the latter, of those great events. The character of the
philosophic historian, to whom we are principally
indebted for
the knowledge of this singular transaction, would alone
be
sufficient to recommend it to our most attentive
consideration.
[Footnote 25: An obscure passage of Suetonius (in Claud.
c. 25)
may seem to offer a proof how strangely the Jews and
Christians
of Rome were confounded with each other.]
[Footnote 26: See, in the xviiith and xxvth chapters of
the Acts
of the Apostles, the behavior of Gallio, proconsul of
Achaia, and
of Festus, procurator of Judea.]
[Footnote 27: In the time of Tertullian and Clemens of
Alexandria, the glory of martyrdom was confined to St.
Peter, St.
Paul, and St. James.
It was gradually bestowed on the rest of
the apostles, by the more recent Greeks, who prudently
selected
for the theatre of their preaching and sufferings some
remote
country beyond the limits of the Roman empire. See Mosheim, p.
81; and Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. i. part
iii.]
In the tenth
year of the reign of Nero, the capital of the
empire was afflicted by a fire which raged beyond the
memory or
example of former ages. ^28 The monuments of Grecian art
and of
Roman virtue, the trophies of the Punic and Gallic wars,
the most
holy temples, and the most splendid palaces, were
involved in one
common destruction.
Of the fourteen regions or quarters into
which Rome was divided, four only subsisted entire, three
were
levelled with the ground, and the remaining seven, which
had
experienced the fury of the flames, displayed a melancholy
prospect of ruin and desolation. The vigilance of government
appears not to have neglected any of the precautions
which might
alleviate the sense of so dreadful a calamity. The Imperial
gardens were thrown open to the distressed multitude,
temporary
buildings were erected for their accommodation, and a
plentiful
supply of corn and provisions was distributed at a very
moderate
price. ^29 The most generous policy seemed to have
dictated the
edicts which regulated the disposition of the streets and
the
construction of private houses; and as it usually
happens, in an
age of prosperity, the conflagration of Rome, in the
course of a
few years, produced a new city, more regular and more
beautiful
than the former.
But all the prudence and humanity affected by
Nero on this occasion were insufficient to preserve him
from the
popular suspicion.
Every crime might be imputed to the assassin
of his wife and mother; nor could the prince who
prostituted his
person and dignity on the theatre be deemed incapable of
the most
extravagant folly.
The voice of rumor accused the emperor as the
incendiary of his own capital; and as the most incredible
stories
are the best adapted to the genius of an enraged people,
it was
gravely reported, and firmly believed, that Nero, enjoying
the
calamity which he had occasioned, amused himself with
singing to
his lyre the destruction of ancient Troy. ^30 To divert a
suspicion, which the power of despotism was unable to
suppress,
the emperor resolved to substitute in his own place some
fictitious criminals.
"With this view," continues Tacitus, "he
inflicted the most exquisite tortures on those men, who,
under
the vulgar appellation of Christians, were already
branded with
deserved infamy.
They derived their name and origin from Christ,
who in the reign of Tiberius had suffered death by the
sentence
of the procurator Pontius Pilate. ^31 For a while this
dire
superstition was checked; but it again burst forth; ^*
and not
only spread itself over Judaea, the first seat of this
mischievous sect, but was even introduced into Rome, the
common
asylum which receives and protects whatever is impure,
whatever
is atrocious. The
confessions of those who were seized
discovered a great multitude of their accomplices, and
they were
all convicted, not so much for the crime of setting fire
to the
city, as for their hatred of human kind. ^32 They died in
torments, and their torments were imbittered by insult
and
derision. Some
were nailed on crosses; others sewn up in the
skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the fury of dogs;
others
again, smeared over with combustible materials, were used
as
torches to illuminate the darkness of the night. The gardens of
Nero were destined for the melancholy spectacle, which
was
accompanied with a horse-race and honored with the
presence of
the emperor, who mingled with the populace in the dress
and
attitude of a charioteer.
The guilt of the Christians deserved
indeed the most exemplary punishment, but the public
abhorrence
was changed into commiseration, from the opinion that
those
unhappy wretches were sacrificed, not so much to the
public
welfare, as to the cruelty of a jealous tyrant." ^33
Those who
survey with a curious eye the revolutions of mankind, may
observe, that the gardens and circus of Nero on the
Vatican,
which were polluted with the blood of the first
Christians, have
been rendered still more famous by the triumph and by the
abuse
of the persecuted religion. On the same spot, ^34 a temple,
which far surpasses the ancient glories of the Capitol,
has been
since erected by the Christian Pontiffs, who, deriving
their
claim of universal dominion from an humble fisherman of
Galilee,
have succeeded to the throne of the Caesars, given laws
to the
barbarian conquerors of Rome, and extended their
spiritual
jurisdiction from the coast of the Baltic to the shores
of the
Pacific Ocean.
[Footnote 28: Tacit. Annal. xv. 38 - 44. Sueton in Neron. c. 38.
Dion Cassius, l. lxii. p. 1014. Orosius, vii. 7.]
[Footnote 29: The price of wheat (probably of the
modius,) was
reduced as low as terni Nummi; which would be equivalent
to about
fifteen shillings the English quarter.]
[Footnote 30: We may observe, that the rumor is mentioned
by
Tacitus with a very becoming distrust and hesitation,
whilst it
is greedily transcribed by Suetonius, and solemnly
confirmed by
Dion.]
[Footnote 31: This testimony is alone sufficient to
expose the
anachronism of the Jews, who place the birth of Christ
near a
century sooner. (Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l. v. c.
14, 15.)
We may learn from Josephus, (Antiquitat. xviii. 3,) that
the
procuratorship of Pilate corresponded with the last ten
years of
Tiberius, A. D. 27 - 37.
As to the particular time of the death
of Christ, a very early tradition fixed it to the 25th of
March,
A. D. 29, under the consulship of the two Gemini.
(Tertullian
adv. Judaeos, c. 8.) This date, which is adopted by Pagi,
Cardinal Norris, and Le Clerc, seems at least as probable
as the
vulgar aera, which is placed (I know not from what
conjectures)
four years later.]
[Footnote *: This single phrase, Repressa in praesens
exitiabilis
superstitio rursus erumpebat, proves that the Christians
had
already attracted the attention of the government; and
that Nero
was not the first to persecute them. I am surprised that more
stress has not been laid on the confirmation which the
Acts of
the Apostles derive from these words of Tacitus, Repressa
in
praesens, and rursus erumpebat. - G.
I have been
unwilling to suppress this note, but surely the
expression of Tacitus refers to the expected extirpation
of the
religion by the death of its founder, Christ. - M.]
[Footnote 32: Odio humani generis convicti. These words may
either signify the hatred of mankind towards the
Christians, or
the hatred of the Christians towards mankind. I have preferred
the latter sense, as the most agreeable to the style of
Tacitus,
and to the popular error, of which a precept of the
gospel (see
Luke xiv. 26) had been, perhaps, the innocent
occasion. My
interpretation is justified by the authority of Lipsius;
of the
Italian, the French, and the English translators of
Tacitus; of
Mosheim, (p. 102,) of Le Clerc, (Historia Ecclesiast. p.
427,) of
Dr. Lardner, (Testimonies, vol. i. p. 345,) and of the
Bishop of
Gloucester, (Divine Legation, vol. iii. p. 38.) But as the
word
convicti does not unite very happily with the rest of the
sentence, James Gronovius has preferred the reading of
conjuncti,
which is authorized by the valuable MS. of Florence.]
[Footnote 33: Tacit. Annal xv. 44.]
[Footnote 34: Nardini Roma Antica, p. 487. Donatus de
Roma
Antiqua, l. iii. p. 449.]
But it would
be improper to dismiss this account of Nero's
persecution, till we have made some observations that may
serve
to remove the difficulties with which it is perplexed,
and to
throw some light on the subsequent history of the church.
1. The most
sceptical criticism is obliged to respect the
truth of this extraordinary fact, and the integrity of
this
celebrated passage of Tacitus. The former is confirmed by
the
diligent and accurate Suetonius, who mentions the
punishment
which Nero inflicted on the Christians, a sect of men who
had
embraced a new and criminal superstition. ^35 The latter
may be
proved by the consent of the most ancient manuscripts; by
the
inimitable character of the style of Tacitus by his
reputation,
which guarded his text from the interpolations of pious
fraud;
and by the purport of his narration, which accused the
first
Christians of the most atrocious crimes, without
insinuating that
they possessed any miraculous or even magical powers
above the
rest of mankind. ^36 2. Notwithstanding it is probable
that
Tacitus was born some years before the fire of Rome, ^37
he could
derive only from reading and conversation the knowledge
of an
event which happened during his infancy. Before he gave
himself
to the public, he calmly waited till his genius had
attained its
full maturity, and he was more than forty years of age,
when a
grateful regard for the memory of the virtuous Agricola
extorted
from him the most early of those historical compositions
which
will delight and instruct the most distant posterity.
After
making a trial of his strength in the life of Agricola
and the
description of Germany, he conceived, and at length
executed, a
more arduous work; the history of Rome, in thirty books,
from the
fall of Nero to the accession of Nerva. The administration of
Nerva introduced an age of justice and propriety, which
Tacitus
had destined for the occupation of his old age; ^38 but
when he
took a nearer view of his subject, judging, perhaps, that
it was
a more honorable or a less invidious office to record the
vices
of past tyrants, than to celebrate the virtues of a
reigning
monarch, he chose rather to relate, under the form of
annals, the
actions of the four immediate successors of
Augustus. To
collect, to dispose, and to adorn a series of fourscore
years, in
an immortal work, every sentence of which is pregnant
with the
deepest observations and the most lively images, was an
undertaking sufficient to exercise the genius of Tacitus
himself
during the greatest part of his life. In the last years of the
reign of Trajan, whilst the victorious monarch extended
the power
of Rome beyond its ancient limits, the historian was
describing,
in the second and fourth books of his annals, the tyranny
of
Tiberius; ^39 and the emperor Hadrian must have succeeded
to the
throne, before Tacitus, in the regular prosecution of his
work,
could relate the fire of the capital, and the cruelty of
Nero
towards the unfortunate Christians. At the distance of sixty
years, it was the duty of the annalist to adopt the
narratives of
contemporaries; but it was natural for the philosopher to
indulge
himself in the description of the origin, the progress,
and the
character of the new sect, not so much according to the
knowledge
or prejudices of the age of Nero, as according to those
of the
time of Hadrian. 3
Tacitus very frequently trusts to the
curiosity or reflection of his readers to supply those
intermediate circumstances and ideas, which, in his
extreme
conciseness, he has thought proper to suppress. We may therefore
presume to imagine some probable cause which could direct
the
cruelty of Nero against the Christians of Rome, whose
obscurity,
as well as innocence, should have shielded them from his
indignation, and even from his notice. The Jews, who were
numerous in the capital, and oppressed in their own
country, were
a much fitter object for the suspicions of the emperor
and of the
people: nor did it seem unlikely that a vanquished
nation, who
already discovered their abhorrence of the Roman yoke,
might have
recourse to the most atrocious means of gratifying their
implacable revenge.
But the Jews possessed very powerful
advocates in the palace, and even in the heart of the
tyrant; his
wife and mistress, the beautiful Poppaea, and a favorite
player
of the race of Abraham, who had already employed their
intercession in behalf of the obnoxious people. ^40 In
their room
it was necessary to offer some other victims, and it
might easily
be suggested that, although the genuine followers of
Moses were
innocent of the fire of Rome, there had arisen among them
a new
and pernicious sect of Galilaeans, which was capable of
the most
horrid crimes.
Under the appellation of Galilaeans, two
distinctions of men were confounded, the most opposite to
each
other in their manners and principles; the disciples who
had
embraced the faith of Jesus of Nazareth, ^41 and the
zealots who
had followed the standard of Judas the Gaulonite. ^42 The
former
were the friends, the latter were the enemies, of human
kind; and
the only resemblance between them consisted in the same
inflexible constancy, which, in the defence of their
cause,
rendered them insensible of death and tortures. The followers of
Judas, who impelled their countrymen into rebellion, were
soon
buried under the ruins of Jerusalem; whilst those of
Jesus, known
by the more celebrated name of Christians, diffused
themselves
over the Roman empire.
How natural was it for Tacitus, in the
time of Hadrian, to appropriate to the Christians the
guilt and
the sufferings, ^* which he might, with far greater truth
and
justice, have attributed to a sect whose odious memory
was almost
extinguished! 4.
Whatever opinion may be entertained of this
conjecture, (for it is no more than a conjecture,) it is
evident
that the effect, as well as the cause, of Nero's
persecution, was
confined to the walls of Rome, ^43 ^! that the religious
tenets
of the Galilaeans or Christians, were never made a
subject of
punishment, or even of inquiry; and that, as the idea of
their
sufferings was for a long time connected with the idea of
cruelty
and injustice, the moderation of succeeding princes
inclined them
to spare a sect, oppressed by a tyrant, whose rage had
been
usually directed against virtue and innocence.
[Footnote 35: Sueton. in Nerone, c. 16. The epithet of malefica,
which some sagacious commentators have translated
magical, is
considered by the more rational Mosheim as only
synonymous to the
exitiabilis of Tacitus.]
[Footnote 36: The passage concerning Jesus Christ, which
was
inserted into the text of Josephus, between the time of
Origen
and that of Eusebius, may furnish an example of no vulgar
forgery. The
accomplishment of the prophecies, the virtues,
miracles, and resurrection of Jesus, are distinctly
related.
Josephus acknowledges that he was the Messiah, and
hesitates
whether he should call him a man. If any doubt can still remain
concerning this celebrated passage, the reader may
examine the
pointed objections of Le Fevre, (Havercamp. Joseph. tom.
ii. p.
267-273, the labored answers of Daubuz, (p. 187-232, and
the
masterly reply (Bibliotheque Ancienne et Moderne, tom.
vii. p.
237-288) of an anonymous critic, whom I believe to have
been the
learned Abbe de Longuerue.
Note: The
modern editor of Eusebius, Heinichen, has adopted,
and ably supported, a notion, which had before suggested
itself
to the editor, that this passage is not altogether a
forgery, but
interpolated with many additional clauses. Heinichen has
endeavored to disengage the original text from the
foreign and
more recent matter. - M.]
[Footnote 37: See the lives of Tacitus by Lipsius and the
Abbe de
la Bleterie, Dictionnaire de Bayle a l'article Particle
Tacite,
and Fabricius, Biblioth. Latin tem. Latin. tom. ii. p.
386, edit.
Ernest. Ernst.]
[Footnote 38: Principatum Divi Nervae, et imperium
Trajani,
uberiorem, securioremque materiam senectuti seposui. Tacit.
Hist. i.]
[Footnote 39: See Tacit. Annal. ii. 61, iv. 4.
Note: The
perusal of this passage of Tacitus alone is
sufficient, as I have already said, to show that the
Christian
sect was not so obscure as not already to have been
repressed,
(repressa,) and that it did not pass for innocent in the
eyes of
the Romans. - G.]
[Footnote 40: The player's name was Aliturus. Through the same
channel, Josephus, (de vita sua, c. 2,) about two years
before,
had obtained the pardon and release of some Jewish
priests, who
were prisoners at Rome.]
[Footnote 41: The learned Dr. Lardner (Jewish and Heathen
Testimonies, vol ii. p. 102, 103) has proved that the
name of
Galilaeans was a very ancient, and perhaps the primitive
appellation of the Christians.]
[Footnote 42: Joseph. Antiquitat. xviii. 1, 2. Tillemont, Ruine
des Juifs, p. 742 The sons of Judas were crucified in the
time of
Claudius. His
grandson Eleazar, after Jerusalem was taken,
defended a strong fortress with 960 of his most desperate
followers. When
the battering ram had made a breach, they turned
their swords against their wives their children, and at
length
against their own breasts. They dies to the last man.
[Footnote *: This conjecture is entirely devoid, not
merely of
verisimilitude, but even of possibility. Tacitus could not be
deceived in appropriating to the Christians of Rome the
guilt and
the sufferings which he might have attributed with far
greater
truth to the followers of Judas the Gaulonite, for the
latter
never went to Rome.
Their revolt, their attempts, their
opinions, their wars, their punishment, had no other
theatre but
Judaea (Basn. Hist. des. Juifs, t. i. p. 491.) Moreover
the name
of Christians had long been given in Rome to the
disciples of
Jesus; and Tacitus affirms too positively, refers too
distinctly
to its etymology, to allow us to suspect any mistake on
his part.
- G.
M. Guizot's
expressions are not in the least too strong
against this strange imagination of Gibbon; it may be
doubted
whether the followers of Judas were known as a sect under
the
name of Galilaeans. - M.]
[Footnote 43: See Dodwell. Paucitat. Mart. l. xiii. The Spanish
Inscription in Gruter. p. 238, No. 9, is a manifest and
acknowledged forgery contrived by that noted
imposter. Cyriacus
of Ancona, to flatter the pride and prejudices of the
Spaniards.
See Ferreras, Histoire D'Espagne, tom. i. p. 192.]
[Footnote !: M. Guizot, on the authority of Sulpicius
Severus,
ii. 37, and of Orosius, viii. 5, inclines to the opinion
of those
who extend the persecution to the provinces. Mosheim rather
leans to that side on this much disputed question, (c.
xxxv.)
Neander takes the view of Gibbon, which is in general
that of the
most learned writers.
There is indeed no evidence, which I can
discover, of its reaching the provinces; and the apparent
security, at least as regards his life, with which St.
Paul
pursued his travels during this period, affords at least
a strong
inference against a rigid and general inquisition against
the
Christians in other parts of the empire. - M.]
It is somewhat
remarkable that the flames of war consumed,
almost at the same time, the temple of Jerusalem and the
Capitol
of Rome; ^44 and it appears no less singular, that the
tribute
which devotion had destined to the former, should have
been
converted by the power of an assaulting victor to restore
and
adorn the splendor of the latter. ^45 The emperors levied
a
general capitation tax on the Jewish people; and although
the sum
assessed on the head of each individual was
inconsiderable, the
use for which it was designed, and the severity with
which it was
exacted, were considered as an intolerable grievance. ^46
Since
the officers of the revenue extended their unjust claim
to many
persons who were strangers to the blood or religion of
the Jews,
it was impossible that the Christians, who had so often
sheltered
themselves under the shade of the synagogue, should now
escape
this rapacious persecution. Anxious as they were to avoid the
slightest infection of idolatry, their conscience forbade
them to
contribute to the honor of that daemon who had assumed
the
character of the Capitoline Jupiter. As a very numerous though
declining party among the Christians still adhered to the
law of
Moses, their efforts to dissemble their Jewish origin
were
detected by the decisive test of circumcision; ^47 nor
were the
Roman magistrates at leisure to inquire into the difference
of
their religious tenets.
Among the Christians who were brought
before the tribunal of the emperor, or, as it seems more
probable, before that of the procurator of Judaea, two
persons
are said to have appeared, distinguished by their
extraction,
which was more truly noble than that of the greatest
monarchs.
These were the grandsons of St. Jude the apostle, who
himself was
the brother of Jesus Christ. ^48 Their natural
pretensions to the
throne of David might perhaps attract the respect of the
people,
and excite the jealousy of the governor; but the meanness
of
their garb, and the simplicity of their answers, soon
convinced
him that they were neither desirous nor capable of
disturbing the
peace of the Roman empire. They frankly confessed their
royal
origin, and their near relation to the Messiah; but they
disclaimed any temporal views, and professed that his
kingdom,
which they devoutly expected, was purely of a spiritual
and
angelic nature.
When they were examined concerning their fortune
and occupation, they showed their hands, hardened with
daily
labor, and declared that they derived their whole
subsistence
from the cultivation of a farm near the village of
Cocaba, of the
extent of about twenty-four English acres, ^49 and of the
value
of nine thousand drachms, or three hundred pounds
sterling. The
grandsons of St. Jude were dismissed with compassion and
contempt. ^50
[Footnote 44: The Capitol was burnt during the civil war
between
Vitellius and Vespasian, the 19th of December, A. D.
69. On the
10th of August, A. D. 70, the temple of Jerusalem was
destroyed
by the hands of the Jews themselves, rather than by those
of the
Romans.]
[Footnote 45: The new Capitol was dedicated by
Domitian. Sueton.
in Domitian. c. 5.
Plutarch in Poplicola, tom. i. p. 230, edit.
Bryant. The
gilding alone cost 12,000 talents (above two
millions and a half.) It was the opinion of Martial, (l.
ix.
Epigram 3,) that if the emperor had called in his debts,
Jupiter
himself, even though he had made a general auction of
Olympus,
would have been unable to pay two shillings in the
pound.]
[Footnote 46: With regard to the tribute, see Dion
Cassius, l.
lxvi. p. 1082, with Reimarus's notes. Spanheim, de Usu
Numismatum, tom. ii. p. 571; and Basnage, Histoire des
Juifs, l.
vii. c. 2.]
[Footnote 47: Suetonius (in Domitian. c. 12) had seen an
old man
of ninety publicly examined before the procurator's
tribunal.
This is what Martial calls, Mentula tributis damnata.]
[Footnote 48: This appellation was at first understood in
the
most obvious sense, and it was supposed, that the
brothers of
Jesus were the lawful issue of Joseph and Mary. A devout respect
for the virginity of the mother of God suggested to the
Gnostics,
and afterwards to the orthodox Greeks, the expedient of
bestowing
a second wife on Joseph.
The Latins (from the time of Jerome)
improved on that hint, asserted the perpetual celibacy of
Joseph,
and justified by many similar examples the new
interpretation
that Jude, as well as Simon and James, who were styled
the
brothers of Jesus Christ, were only his first
cousins. See
Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiat. tom. i. part iii.: and
Beausobre,
Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, l. ii. c. 2.]
[Footnote 49: Thirty-nine, squares of a hundred feet
each, which,
if strictly computed, would scarcely amount to nine
acres.]
[Footnote 50: Eusebius, iii. 20. The story is taken from
Hegesippus.]
But although
the obscurity of the house of David might
protect them from the suspicions of a tyrant, the present
greatness of his own family alarmed the pusillanimous
temper of
Domitian, which could only be appeased by the blood of
those
Romans whom he either feared, or hated, or esteemed. Of
the two
sons of his uncle Flavius Sabinus, ^51 the elder was soon
convicted of treasonable intentions, and the younger, who
bore
the name of Flavius Clemens, was indebted for his safety
to his
want of courage and ability. ^52 The emperor for a long
time,
distinguished so harmless a kinsman by his favor and
protection,
bestowed on him his own niece Domitilla, adopted the
children of
that marriage to the hope of the succession, and invested
their
father with the honors of the consulship.
[Footnote 51: See the death and character of Sabinus in
Tacitus,
(Hist. iii. 74 ) Sabinus was the elder brother, and, till
the
accession of Vespasian, had been considered as the
principal
support of the Flavium family]
[Footnote 52: Flavium Clementem patruelem suum
contemptissimoe
inertice . . ex tenuissima suspicione interemit. Sueton. in
Domitian. c. 15.]
But he had
scarcely finished the term of his annual
magistracy, when, on a slight pretence, he was condemned
and
executed; Domitilla was banished to a desolate island on
the
coast of Campania; ^53 and sentences either of death or
of
confiscation were pronounced against a great number of
who were
involved in the same accusation. The guilt imputed to their
charge was that of Atheism and Jewish manners; ^54 a
singular
association of ideas, which cannot with any propriety be
applied
except to the Christians, as they were obscurely and
imperfectly
viewed by the magistrates and by the writers of that
period. On
the strength of so probable an interpretation, and too
eagerly
admitting the suspicions of a tyrant as an evidence of
their
honorable crime, the church has placed both Clemens and
Domitilla
among its first martyrs, and has branded the cruelty of
Domitian
with the name of the second persecution. But this persecution
(if it deserves that epithet) was of no long
duration. A few
months after the death of Clemens, and the banishment of
Domitilla, Stephen, a freedman belonging to the latter,
who had
enjoyed the favor, but who had not surely embraced the
faith, of
his mistress, ^* assassinated the emperor in his palace.
^55 The
memory of Domitian was condemned by the senate; his acts
were
rescinded; his exiles recalled; and under the gentle
administration of Nerva, while the innocent were restored
to
their rank and fortunes, even the most guilty either
obtained
pardon or escaped punishment. ^56
[Footnote 53: The Isle of Pandataria, according to Dion.
Bruttius Praesens (apud Euseb. iii. 18) banishes her to
that of
Pontia, which was not far distant from the other. That
difference, and a mistake, either of Eusebius or of his
transcribers, have given occasion to suppose two
Domitillas, the
wife and the niece of Clemens. See Tillemont, Memoires
Ecclesiastiques, tom. ii. p. 224.]
[Footnote 54: Dion. l. lxvii. p. 1112. If the Bruttius Praesens,
from whom it is probable that he collected this account,
was the
correspondent of Pliny, (Epistol. vii. 3,) we may
consider him as
a contemporary writer.]
[Footnote *: This is an uncandid sarcasm. There is nothing to
connect Stephen with the religion of Domitilla. He was a knave
detected in the malversation of money - interceptarum
pecuniaram
reus. - M.]
[Footnote 55: Suet. in Domit. c. 17. Philostratus in Vit.
Apollon. l. viii.]
[Footnote 56: Dion. l. lxviii. p. 1118. Plin. Epistol. iv. 22.]
II. About ten years afterwards, under the reign
of Trajan,
the younger Pliny was intrusted by his friend and master
with the
government of Bithynia and Pontus. He soon found himself at a
loss to determine by what rule of justice or of law he
should
direct his conduct in the execution of an office the most
repugnant to his humanity. Pliny had never assisted at any
judicial proceedings against the Christians, with whose
lame
alone he seems to be acquainted; and he was totally
uninformed
with regard to the nature of their guilt, the method of
their
conviction, and the degree of their punishment. In this
perplexity he had recourse to his usual expedient, of
submitting
to the wisdom of Trajan an impartial, and, in some
respects, a
favorable account of the new superstition, requesting the
emperor, that he would condescend to resolve his doubts,
and to
instruct his ignorance. ^57 The life of Pliny had been
employed
in the acquisition of learning, and in the business of
the world.
Since the age of nineteen he had pleaded with distinction
in the
tribunals of Rome, ^58 filled a place in the senate, had
been
invested with the honors of the consulship, and had
formed very
numerous connections with every order of men, both in
Italy and
in the provinces.
From his ignorance therefore we may derive
some useful information.
We may assure ourselves, that when he
accepted the government of Bithynia, there were no
general laws
or decrees of the senate in force against the Christians;
that
neither Trajan nor any of his virtuous predecessors,
whose edicts
were received into the civil and criminal jurisprudence,
had
publicly declared their intentions concerning the new
sect; and
that whatever proceedings had been carried on against the
Christians, there were none of sufficient weight and
authority to
establish a precedent for the conduct of a Roman
magistrate.
[Footnote 57: Plin. Epistol. x. 97. The learned Mosheim
expresses himself (p. 147, 232) with the highest
approbation of
Pliny's moderate and candid temper. Notwithstanding Dr.
Lardner's
suspicions (see Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. ii.
p. 46,)
I am unable to discover any bigotry in his language or
proceedings.
Note: Yet the
humane Pliny put two female attendants,
probably deaconesses to the torture, in order to
ascertain the
real nature of these suspicious meetings: necessarium
credidi, ex
duabus ancillis, quae ministrae dicebantor quid asset
veri et per
tormenta quaerere. - M.]
[Footnote 58: Plin. Epist. v. 8. He pleaded his first cause A.
D. 81; the year after the famous eruptions of Mount
Vesuvius, in
which his uncle lost his life.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.
Part III.
The answer of
Trajan, to which the Christians of the
succeeding age have frequently appealed, discovers as
much regard
for justice and humanity as could be reconciled with his
mistaken
notions of religious policy. ^59 Instead of displaying
the
implacable zeal of an inquisitor, anxious to discover the
most
minute particles of heresy, and exulting in the number of
his
victims, the emperor expresses much more solicitude to
protect
the security of the innocent, than to prevent the escape
of the
guilty. He
acknowledged the difficulty of fixing any general
plan; but he lays down two salutary rules, which often
afforded
relief and support to the distressed Christians. Though he
directs the magistrates to punish such persons as are
legally
convicted, he prohibits them, with a very humane
inconsistency,
from making any inquiries concerning the supposed
criminals. Nor
was the magistrate allowed to proceed on every kind of
information. Anonymous charges the emperor rejects, as
too
repugnant to the equity of his government; and he
strictly
requires, for the conviction of those to whom the guilt
of
Christianity is imputed, the positive evidence of a fair
and open
accuser. It is
likewise probable, that the persons who assumed
so invidiuous an office, were obliged to declare the
grounds of
their suspicions, to specify (both in respect to time and
place)
the secret assemblies, which their Christian adversary
had
frequented, and to disclose a great number of
circumstances,
which were concealed with the most vigilant jealousy from
the eye
of the profane. If
they succeeded in their prosecution, they
were exposed to the resentment of a considerable and
active
party, to the censure of the more liberal portion of
mankind, and
to the ignominy which, in every age and country, has
attended the
character of an informer.
If, on the contrary, they failed in
their proofs, they incurred the severe and perhaps
capital
penalty, which, according to a law published by the
emperor
Hadrian, was inflicted on those who falsely attributed to
their
fellow-citizens the crime of Christianity. The violence of
personal or superstitious animosity might sometimes
prevail over
the most natural apprehensions of disgrace and danger but
it
cannot surely be imagined, that accusations of so
unpromising an
appearance were either lightly or frequently undertaken
by the
Pagan subjects of the Roman empire. ^60 ^*
[Footnote 59: Plin. Epist. x. 98. Tertullian (Apolog. c. 5)
considers this rescript as a relaxation of the ancient
penal
laws, "quas Trajanus exparte frustratus est: "
and yet
Tertullian, in another part of his Apology, exposes the
inconsistency of prohibiting inquiries, and enjoining
punishments.]
[Footnote 60: Eusebius (Hist. Ecclesiast. l. iv. c. 9)
has
preserved the edict of Hadrian. He has likewise (c. 13) given us
one still more favorable, under the name of Antoninus;
the
authenticity of which is not so universally allowed. The second
Apology of Justin contains some curious particulars
relative to
the accusations of Christians.
Note:
Professor Hegelmayer has proved the authenticity of
the edict of Antoninus, in his Comm. Hist. Theol. in
Edict. Imp.
Antonini. Tubing. 1777, in 4to. - G.
Neander doubts
its authenticity, (vol. i. p. 152.) In my
opinion, the internal evidence is decisive against it. -
M]
[Footnote *: The enactment of this law affords strong
presumption, that accusations of the "crime of
Christianity,"
were by no means so uncommon, nor received with so much
mistrust
and caution by the ruling authorities, as Gibbon would
insinuate.
- M.]
The expedient
which was employed to elude the prudence of
the laws, affords a sufficient proof how effectually they
disappointed the mischievous designs of private malice or
superstitious zeal.
In a large and tumultuous assembly, the
restraints of fear and shame, so forcible on the minds of
individuals, are deprived of the greatest part of their
influence. The
pious Christian, as he was desirous to obtain, or
to escape, the glory of martyrdom, expected, either with
impatience or with terror, the stated returns of the
public games
and festivals. On
those occasions the inhabitants of the great
cities of the empire were collected in the circus or the
theatre,
where every circumstance of the place, as well as of the
ceremony, contributed to kindle their devotion, and to
extinguish
their humanity.
Whilst the numerous spectators, crowned with
garlands, perfumed with incense, purified with the blood
of
victims, and surrounded with the altars and statues of
their
tutelar deities, resigned themselves to the enjoyment of
pleasures, which they considered as an essential part of
their
religious worship, they recollected, that the Christians
alone
abhorred the gods of mankind, and by their absence and
melancholy
on these solemn festivals, seemed to insult or to lament
the
public felicity.
If the empire had been afflicted by any recent
calamity, by a plague, a famine, or an unsuccessful war;
if the
Tyber had, or if the Nile had not, risen beyond its
banks; if the
earth had shaken, or if the temperate order of the
seasons had
been interrupted, the superstitious Pagans were convinced
that
the crimes and the impiety of the Christians, who were
spared by
the excessive lenity of the government, had at length
provoked
the divine justice.
It was not among a licentious and
exasperated populace, that the forms of legal proceedings
could
be observed; it was not in an amphitheatre, stained with
the
blood of wild beasts and gladiators, that the voice of
compassion
could be heard.
The impatient clamors of the multitude denounced
the Christians as the enemies of gods and men, doomed
them to the
severest tortures, and venturing to accuse by name some
of the
most distinguished of the new sectaries, required with
irresistible vehemence that they should be instantly
apprehended
and cast to the lions. ^61 The provincial governors and
magistrates who presided in the public spectacles were
usually
inclined to gratify the inclinations, and to appease the
rage, of
the people, by the sacrifice of a few obnoxious
victims. But the
wisdom of the emperors protected the church from the
danger of
these tumultuous clamors and irregular accusations, which
they
justly censured as repugnant both to the firmness and to
the
equity of their administration. The edicts of Hadrian and of
Antoninus Pius expressly declared, that the voice of the
multitude should never be admitted as legal evidence to
convict
or to punish those unfortunate persons who had embraced
the
enthusiasm of the Christians. ^62
[Footnote 61: See Tertullian, (Apolog. c. 40.) The acts
of the
martyrdom of Polycarp exhibit a lively picture of these
tumults,
which were usually fomented by the malice of the Jews.]
[Footnote 62: These regulations are inserted in the above
mentioned document of Hadrian and Pius. See the apology of
Melito, (apud Euseb. l iv 26)]
III. Punishment was not the inevitable consequence
of
conviction, and the Christians, whose guilt was the most
clearly
proved by the testimony of witnesses, or even by their
voluntary
confession, still retained in their own power the
alternative of
life or death. It
was not so much the past offence, as the
actual resistance, which excited the indignation of the
magistrate. He was
persuaded that he offered them an easy
pardon, since, if they consented to cast a few grains of
incense
upon the altar, they were dismissed from the tribunal in
safety
and with applause.
It was esteemed the duty of a humane judge to
endeavor to reclaim, rather than to punish, those deluded
enthusiasts.
Varying his tone according to the age, the sex, or
the situation of the prisoners, he frequently
condescended to set
before their eyes every circumstance which could render
life more
pleasing, or death more terrible; and to solicit, nay, to
entreat, them, that they would show some compassion to
themselves, to their families, and to their friends. ^63
If
threats and persuasions proved ineffectual, he had often
recourse
to violence; the scourge and the rack were called in to
supply
the deficiency of argument, and every art of cruelty was
employed
to subdue such inflexible, and, as it appeared to the
Pagans,
such criminal, obstinacy.
The ancient apologists of Christianity
have censured, with equal truth and severity, the
irregular
conduct of their persecutors who, contrary to every
principle of
judicial proceeding, admitted the use of torture, in
order to
obtain, not a confession, but a denial, of the crime
which was
the object of their inquiry. ^64 The monks of succeeding
ages,
who, in their peaceful solitudes, entertained themselves
with
diversifying the deaths and sufferings of the primitive
martyrs,
have frequently invented torments of a much more refined
and
ingenious nature.
In particular, it has pleased them to suppose,
that the zeal of the Roman magistrates, disdaining every
consideration of moral virtue or public decency,
endeavored to
seduce those whom they were unable to vanquish, and that
by their
orders the most brutal violence was offered to those whom
they
found it impossible to seduce. It is related, that
females, who
were prepared to despise death, were sometimes condemned
to a
more severe trial, ^! and called upon to determine
whether they
set a higher value on their religion or on their
chastity. The
youths to whose licentious embraces they were abandoned,
received
a solemn exhortation from the judge, to exert their most
strenuous efforts to maintain the honor of Venus against
the
impious virgin who refused to burn incense on her altars.
Their
violence, however, was commonly disappointed, and the
seasonable
interposition of some miraculous power preserved the
chaste
spouses of Christ from the dishonor even of an
involuntary
defeat. We should
not indeed neglect to remark, that the more
ancient as well as authentic memorials of the church are
seldom
polluted with these extravagant and indecent fictions.
^65
[Footnote 63: See the rescript of Trajan, and the conduct
of
Pliny. The most
authentic acts of the martyrs abound in these
exhortations.
Note: Pliny's
test was the worship of the gods, offerings to
the statue of the emperor, and blaspheming Christ -
praeterea
maledicerent Christo. - M.]
[Footnote 64: In particular, see Tertullian, (Apolog. c.
2, 3,)
and Lactantius, (Institut. Divin. v. 9.) Their reasonings
are
almost the same; but we may discover, that one of these
apologists had been a lawyer, and the other a
rhetorician.]
[Footnote !: The more ancient as well as authentic
memorials of
the church, relate many examples of the fact, (of these
severe
trials,) which there is nothing to contradict. Tertullian, among
others, says, Nam proxime ad lenonem damnando
Christianam, potius
quam ad leonem, confessi estis labem pudicitiae apud nos
atrociorem omni poena et omni morte reputari, Apol. cap.
ult.
Eusebius likewise says, "Other virgins, dragged to
brothels, have
lost their life rather than defile their virtue."
Euseb. Hist.
Ecc. viii. 14. - G.
The miraculous
interpositions were the offspring of the
coarse imaginations of the monks. - M.]
[Footnote 65: See two instances of this kind of torture
in the
Acta Sincere Martyrum, published by Ruinart, p. 160, 399.
Jerome, in his Legend of Paul the Hermit, tells a strange
story
of a young man, who was chained naked on a bed of
flowers, and
assaulted by a beautiful and wanton courtesan. He quelled the
rising temptation by biting off his tongue.]
The total
disregard of truth and probability in the
representation of these primitive martyrdoms was
occasioned by a
very natural mistake.
The ecclesiastical writers of the fourth
or fifth centuries ascribed to the magistrates of Rome
the same
degree of implacable and unrelenting zeal which filled
their own
breasts against the heretics or the idolaters of their
own times.
It is not improbable that some of those persons who were
raised
to the dignities of the empire, might have imbibed the
prejudices
of the populace, and that the cruel disposition of others
might
occasionally be stimulated by motives of avarice or of
personal
resentment. ^66 But it is certain, and we may appeal to
the
grateful confessions of the first Christians, that the
greatest
part of those magistrates who exercised in the provinces
the
authority of the emperor, or of the senate, and to whose
hands
alone the jurisdiction of life and death was intrusted,
behaved
like men of polished manners and liberal education, who
respected
the rules of justice, and who were conversant with the
precepts
of philosophy.
They frequently declined the odious task of
persecution, dismissed the charge with contempt, or
suggested to
the accused Christian some legal evasion, by which he
might elude
the severity of the laws. ^67 Whenever they were invested
with a
discretionary power, ^68 they used it much less for the
oppression, than for the relief and benefit of the
afflicted
church. They were
far from condemning all the Christians who
were accused before their tribunal, and very far from
punishing
with death all those who were convicted of an obstinate
adherence
to the new superstition.
Contenting themselves, for the most
part, with the milder chastisements of imprisonment,
exile, or
slavery in the mines, ^69 they left the unhappy victims
of their
justice some reason to hope, that a prosperous event, the
accession, the marriage, or the triumph of an emperor, might
speedily restore them, by a general pardon, to their
former
state. The
martyrs, devoted to immediate execution by the Roman
magistrates, appear to have been selected from the most
opposite
extremes. They
were either bishops and presbyters, the persons
the most distinguished among the Christians by their rank
and
influence, and whose example might strike terror into the
whole
sect; ^70 or else they were the meanest and most abject
among
them, particularly those of the servile condition, whose
lives
were esteemed of little value, and whose sufferings were
viewed
by the ancients with too careless an indifference. ^71
The
learned Origen, who, from his experience as well as
reading, was
intimately acquainted with the history of the Christians,
declares, in the most express terms, that the number of
martyrs
was very inconsiderable. ^72 His authority would alone be
sufficient to annihilate that formidable army of martyrs,
whose
relics, drawn for the most part from the catacombs of
Rome, have
replenished so many churches, ^73 and whose marvellous
achievements have been the subject of so many volumes of
Holy
Romance. ^74 But the general assertion of Origen may be
explained
and confirmed by the particular testimony of his friend
Dionysius, who, in the immense city of Alexandria, and
under the
rigorous persecution of Decius, reckons only ten men and
seven
women who suffered for the profession of the Christian
name. ^75
[Footnote 66: The conversion of his wife provoked
Claudius
Herminianus, governor of Cappadocia, to treat the
Christians with
uncommon severity. Tertullian ad Scapulam, c. 3.]
[Footnote 67: Tertullian, in his epistle to the governor
of
Africa, mentions several remarkable instances of lenity
and
forbearance, which had happened within his knowledge.]
[Footnote 68: Neque enim in universum aliquid quod quasi
certam
formam habeat, constitui potest; an expression of Trajan,
which
gave a very great latitude to the governors of provinces.
Note: Gibbon
altogether forgets that Trajan fully approved
of the course pursued by Pliny. That course was, to order all
who persevered in their faith to be led to execution:
perseverantes duci jussi. - M.]
[Footnote 69: In Metalla damnamur, in insulas relegamur.
Tertullian, Apolog. c. 12. The mines of Numidia contained nine
bishops, with a proportionable number of their clergy and
people,
to whom Cyprian addressed a pious epistle of praise and
comfort.
See Cyprian. Epistol. 76, 77.]
[Footnote 70: Though we cannot receive with entire
confidence
either the epistles, or the acts, of Ignatius, (they may
be found
in the 2d volume of the Apostolic Fathers,) yet we may
quote that
bishop of Antioch as one of these exemplary martyrs. He was sent
in chains to Rome as a public spectacle, and when he
arrived at
Troas, he received the pleasing intelligence, that the
persecution of Antioch was already at an end.
Note: The acts
of Ignatius are generally received as
authentic, as are seven of his letters. Eusebius and St. Jerome
mention them: there are two editions; in one, the letters
are
longer, and many passages appear to have been
interpolated; the
other edition is that which contains the real letters of
St.
Ignatius; such at least is the opinion of the wisest and
most
enlightened critics.
(See Lardner. Cred. of Gospel Hist.) Less,
uber dis Religion, v. i. p. 529. Usser.
Diss. de Ign. Epist.
Pearson, Vindic, Ignatianae. It should be remarked, that it was
under the reign of Trajan that the bishop Ignatius was
carried
from Antioch to Rome, to be exposed to the lions in the
amphitheatre, the year of J. C. 107, according to some;
of 116,
according to others. - G.]
[Footnote 71: Among the martyrs of Lyons, (Euseb. l. v.
c. 1,)
the slave Blandina was distinguished by more exquisite
tortures.
Of the five martyrs so much celebrated in the acts of
Felicitas
and Perpetua, two were of a servile, and two others of a
very
mean, condition.]
[Footnote 72: Origen. advers. Celsum, l. iii. p.
116. His words
deserve to be transcribed.
Note: The
words that follow should be quoted.
"God not
permitting that all his class of men should be
exterminated: "
which appears to indicate that Origen thought the number
put to
death inconsiderable only when compared to the numbers
who had
survived. Besides
this, he is speaking of the state of the
religion under Caracalla, Elagabalus, Alexander Severus,
and
Philip, who had not persecuted the Christians. It was during the
reign of the latter that Origen wrote his books against
Celsus. -
G.]
[Footnote 73: If we recollect that all the Plebeians of
Rome were
not Christians, and that all the Christians were not
saints and
martyrs, we may judge with how much safety religious
honors can
be ascribed to bones or urns, indiscriminately taken from
the
public burial-place.
After ten centuries of a very free and open
trade, some suspicions have arisen among the more learned
Catholics. They
now require as a proof of sanctity and
martyrdom, the letters B.M., a vial full of red liquor
supposed
to be blood, or the figure of a palm-tree. But the two former
signs are of little weight, and with regard to the last,
it is
observed by the critics, 1. That the figure, as it is
called, of
a palm, is perhaps a cypress, and perhaps only a stop,
the
flourish of a comma used in the monumental
inscriptions. 2. That
the palm was the symbol of victory among the Pagans. 3.
That
among the Christians it served as the emblem, not only of
martyrdom, but in general of a joyful resurrection. See the
epistle of P. Mabillon, on the worship of unknown saints,
and
Muratori sopra le Antichita Italiane, Dissertat. lviii.]
[Footnote 74: As a specimen of these legends, we may be
satisfied
with 10,000 Christian soldiers crucified in one day,
either by
Trajan or Hadrian on Mount Ararat. See Baronius ad Martyrologium
Romanum; Tille mont, Mem. Ecclesiast. tom. ii. part ii.
p. 438;
and Geddes's Miscellanies, vol. ii. p. 203. The abbreviation of
Mil., which may signify either soldiers or thousands, is
said to
have occasioned some extraordinary mistakes.]
[Footnote 75: Dionysius ap. Euseb l. vi. c. 41 One of the
seventeen was likewise accused of robbery.
Note: Gibbon
ought to have said, was falsely accused of
robbery, for so it is in the Greek text. This Christian, named
Nemesion, falsely accused of robbery before the
centurion, was
acquitted of a crime altogether foreign to his character,
but he
was led before the governor as guilty of being a
Christian, and
the governor inflicted upon him a double torture. (Euseb. loc.
cit.) It must be added, that Saint Dionysius only makes
particular mention of the principal martyrs, [this is
very
doubtful. - M.] and that he says, in general, that the
fury of
the Pagans against the Christians gave to Alexandria the
appearance of a city taken by storm. [This refers to
plunder and
ill usage, not to actual slaughter. - M.] Finally it
should be
observed that Origen wrote before the persecution of the
emperor
Decius. - G.]
During the
same period of persecution, the zealous, the
eloquent, the ambitious Cyprian governed the church, not
only of
Carthage, but even of Africa. He possessed every quality which
could engage the reverence of the faithful, or provoke
the
suspicions and resentment of the Pagan magistrates. His
character
as well as his station seemed to mark out that holy
prelate as
the most distinguished object of envy and danger. ^76 The
experience, however, of the life of Cyprian, is
sufficient to
prove that our fancy has exaggerated the perilous
situation of a
Christian bishop; and the dangers to which he was exposed
were
less imminent than those which temporal ambition is
always
prepared to encounter in the pursuit of honors. Four
Roman
emperors, with their families, their favorites, and their
adherents, perished by the sword in the space of ten
years,
during which the bishop of Carthage guided by his
authority and
eloquence the councils of the African church. It was only in the
third year of his administration, that he had reason,
during a
few months, to apprehend the severe edicts of Decius, the
vigilance of the magistrate and the clamors of the
multitude, who
loudly demanded, that Cyprian, the leader of the
Christians,
should be thrown to the lions. Prudence suggested the necessity
of a temporary retreat, and the voice of prudence was
obeyed. He
withdrew himself into an obscure solitude, from whence he
could
maintain a constant correspondence with the clergy and
people of
Carthage; and, concealing himself till the tempest was
past, he
preserved his life, without relinquishing either his
power or his
reputation. His
extreme caution did not, however, escape the
censure of the more rigid Christians, who lamented, or
the
reproaches of his personal enemies, who insulted, a
conduct which
they considered as a pusillanimous and criminal desertion
of the
most sacred duty. ^77 The propriety of reserving himself
for the
future exigencies of the church, the example of several
holy
bishops, ^78 and the divine admonitions, which, as he
declares
himself, he frequently received in visions and ecstacies,
were
the reasons alleged in his justification. ^79 But his
best
apology may be found in the cheerful resolution, with
which,
about eight years afterwards, he suffered death in the
cause of
religion. The
authentic history of his martyrdom has been
recorded with unusual candor and impartiality. A short abstract,
therefore, of its most important circumstances, will
convey the
clearest information of the spirit, and of the forms, of
the
Roman persecutions. ^80
[Footnote 76: The letters of Cyprian exhibit a very
curious and
original picture both of the man and of the times. See likewise
the two lives of Cyprian, composed with equal accuracy,
though
with very different views; the one by Le Clerc
(Bibliotheque
Universelle, tom. xii. p. 208-378,) the other by
Tillemont,
Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. iv part i. p. 76-459.]
[Footnote 77: See the polite but severe epistle of the
clergy of
Rome to the bishop of Carthage. (Cyprian. Epist. 8, 9.) Pontius
labors with the greatest care and diligence to justify
his master
against the general censure.]
[Footnote 78: In particular those of Dionysius of
Alexandria, and
Gregory Thaumaturgus, of Neo-Caesarea. See Euseb. Hist.
Ecclesiast. l. vi. c. 40; and Memoires de Tillemont, tom.
iv.
part ii. p. 685.]
[Footnote 79: See Cyprian. Epist. 16, and his life by
Pontius.]
[Footnote 80: We have an original life of Cyprian by the
deacon
Pontius, the companion of his exile, and the spectator of
his
death; and we likewise possess the ancient proconsular
acts of
his martyrdom.
These two relations are consistent with each
other, and with probability; and what is somewhat
remarkable,
they are both unsullied by any miraculous circumstances.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.
Part IV.
When Valerian
was consul for the third, and Gallienus for
the fourth time, Paternus, proconsul of Africa, summoned
Cyprian
to appear in his private council-chamber. He there acquainted
him with the Imperial mandate which he had just received,
^81
that those who had abandoned the Roman religion should
immediately return to the practice of the ceremonies of
their
ancestors. Cyprian replied without hesitation, that he
was a
Christian and a bishop, devoted to the worship of the
true and
only Deity, to whom he offered up his daily supplications
for the
safety and prosperity of the two emperors, his lawful
sovereigns.
With modest confidence he pleaded the privilege of a
citizen, in
refusing to give any answer to some invidious and indeed
illegal
questions which the proconsul had proposed. A sentence of
banishment was pronounced as the penalty of Cyprian's
disobedience; and he was conducted without delay to
Curubis, a
free and maritime city of Zeugitania, in a pleasant
situation, a
fertile territory, and at the distance of about forty
miles from
Carthage. ^82 The exiled bishop enjoyed the conveniences
of life
and the consciousness of virtue. His reputation was
diffused over
Africa and Italy; an account of his behavior was
published for
the edification of the Christian world; ^83 and his
solitude was
frequently interrupted by the letters, the visits, and
the
congratulations of the faithful. On the arrival of a new
proconsul in the province the fortune of Cyprian appeared
for
some time to wear a still more favorable aspect. He was recalled
from banishment; and though not yet permitted to return
to
Carthage, his own gardens in the neighborhood of the
capital were
assigned for the place of his residence. ^84
[Footnote 81: It should seem that these were circular
orders,
sent at the same time to all the governors. Dionysius (ap.
Euseb. l. vii. c. 11) relates the history of his own
banishment
from Alexandria almost in the same manner. But as he escaped and
survived the persecution, we must account him either more
or less
fortunate than Cyprian.]
[Footnote 82: See Plin. Hist. Natur. v. 3. Cellarius,
Geograph.
Antiq. part iii. p. 96.
Shaw's Travels, p. 90; and for the
adjacent country, (which is terminated by Cape Bona, or
the
promontory of Mercury,) l'Afrique de Marmol. tom. ii. p.
494.
There are the remains of an aqueduct near Curubis, or
Curbis, at
present altered into Gurbes; and Dr. Shaw read an
inscription,
which styles that city Colonia Fulvia. The deacon Pontius (in
Vit. Cyprian. c. 12) calls it "Apricum et
competentem locum,
hospitium pro voluntate secretum, et quicquid apponi eis
ante
promissum est, qui regnum et justitiam Dei
quaerunt."]
[Footnote 83: See Cyprian. Epistol. 77, edit. Fell.]
[Footnote 84: Upon his conversion, he had sold those
gardens for
the benefit of the poor.
The indulgence of God (most probably
the liberality of some Christian friend) restored them to
Cyprian. See
Pontius, c. 15.]
At length,
exactly one year ^85 after Cyprian was first
apprehended, Galerius Maximus, proconsul of Africa,
received the
Imperial warrant for the execution of the Christian
teachers.
The bishop of Carthage was sensible that he should be
singled out
for one of the first victims; and the frailty of nature
tempted
him to withdraw himself, by a secret flight, from the
danger and
the honor of martyrdom; ^* but soon recovering that
fortitude
which his character required, he returned to his gardens,
and
patiently expected the ministers of death. Two officers of rank,
who were intrusted with that commission, placed Cyprian
between
them in a chariot, and as the proconsul was not then at
leisure,
they conducted him, not to a prison, but to a private
house in
Carthage, which belonged to one of them. An elegant
supper was
provided for the entertainment of the bishop, and his
Christian
friends were permitted for the last time to enjoy his
society,
whilst the streets were filled with a multitude of the
faithful,
anxious and alarmed at the approaching fate of their
spiritual
father. ^86 In the morning he appeared before the
tribunal of the
proconsul, who, after informing himself of the name and
situation
of Cyprian, commanded him to offer sacrifice, and pressed
him to
reflect on the consequences of his disobedience. The refusal of
Cyprian was firm and decisive; and the magistrate, when
he had
taken the opinion of his council, pronounced with some
reluctance
the sentence of death.
It was conceived in the following terms:
"That Thascius Cyprianus should be immediately
beheaded, as the
enemy of the gods of Rome, and as the chief and
ringleader of a
criminal association, which he had seduced into an
impious
resistance against the laws of the most holy emperors,
Valerian
and Gallienus." ^87 The manner of his execution was
the mildest
and least painful that could be inflicted on a person
convicted
of any capital offence; nor was the use of torture
admitted to
obtain from the bishop of Carthage either the recantation
of his
principles or the discovery of his accomplices.
[Footnote 85: When Cyprian; a twelvemonth before, was
sent into
exile, he dreamt that he should be put to death the next
day.
The event made it necessary to explain that word, as
signifying a
year. Pontius, c.
12.]
[Footnote *: This was not, as it appears, the motive
which
induced St. Cyprian to conceal himself for a short time;
he was
threatened to be carried to Utica; he preferred remaining
at
Carthage, in order to suffer martyrdom in the midst of
his flock,
and in order that his death might conduce to the
edification of
those whom he had guided during life. Such, at least, is his own
explanation of his conduct in one of his letters: Cum
perlatum ad
nos fuisset, fratres carissimi, frumentarios esse missos
qui me
Uticam per ducerent, consilioque carissimorum persuasum
est, ut
de hortis interim recederemus, justa interveniente causa,
consensi; eo quod congruat episcopum in ea civitate, in
qua
Ecclesiae dominicae praeest, illie. Dominum confiteri et
plebem
universam praepositi praesentis confessione clarificari
Ep. 83. -
G]
[Footnote 86: Pontius (c. 15) acknowledges that Cyprian,
with
whom he supped, passed the night custodia delicata. The bishop
exercised a last and very proper act of jurisdiction, by
directing that the younger females, who watched in the
streets,
should be removed from the dangers and temptations of a
nocturnal
crowd. Act.
Preconsularia, c. 2.]
[Footnote 87: See the original sentence in the Acts, c.
4; and in
Pontius, c. 17 The latter expresses it in a more
rhetorical
manner.]
As soon as the
sentence was proclaimed, a general cry of "We
will die with him," arose at once among the
listening multitude
of Christians who waited before the palace gates. The generous
effusions of their zeal and their affection were neither
serviceable to Cyprian nor dangerous to themselves. He was led
away under a guard of tribunes and centurions, without
resistance
and without insult, to the place of his execution, a
spacious and
level plain near the city, which was already filled with
great
numbers of spectators.
His faithful presbyters and deacons were
permitted to accompany their holy bishop. ^* They
assisted him in
laying aside his upper garment, spread linen on the
ground to
catch the precious relics of his blood, and received his
orders
to bestow five-and-twenty pieces of gold on the
executioner. The
martyr then covered his face with his hands, and at one blow
his
head was separated from his body. His corpse remained during
some hours exposed to the curiosity of the Gentiles: but
in the
night it was removed, and transported in a triumphal
procession,
and with a splendid illumination, to the burial-place of the
Christians. The
funeral of Cyprian was publicly celebrated
without receiving any interruption from the Roman
magistrates;
and those among the faithful, who had performed the last
offices
to his person and his memory, were secure from the danger
of
inquiry or of punishment.
It is remarkable, that of so great a
multitude of bishops in the province of Africa, Cyprian
was the
first who was esteemed worthy to obtain the crown of
martyrdom.
^88
[Footnote *: There is nothing in the life of St. Cyprian,
by
Pontius, nor in the ancient manuscripts, which can make
us
suppose that the presbyters and deacons in their clerical
character, and known to be such, had the permission to
attend
their holy bishop.
Setting aside all religious considerations,
it is impossible not to be surprised at the kind of
complaisance
with which the historian here insists, in favor of the
persecutors, on some mitigating circumstances allowed at
the
death of a man whose only crime was maintaining his own
opinions
with frankness and courage. - G.]
[Footnote 88: Pontius, c. 19. M. de Tillemont (Memoires, tom.
iv. part i. p. 450, note 50) is not pleased with so
positive an
exclusion of any former martyr of the episcopal rank.
Note: M. de.
Tillemont, as an honest writer, explains the
difficulties which he felt about the text of Pontius, and
concludes by distinctly stating, that without doubt there
is some
mistake, and that Pontius must have meant only Africa
Minor or
Carthage; for St. Cyprian, in his 58th (69th) letter
addressed to
Pupianus, speaks expressly of many bishops his
colleagues, qui
proscripti sunt, vel apprehensi in carcere et catenis
fuerunt;
aut qui in exilium relegati, illustri itinere ed Dominum
profecti
sunt; aut qui quibusdam locis animadversi, coeleses
coronas de
Domini clarificatione sumpserunt. - G.]
It was in the
choice of Cyprian, either to die a martyr, or
to live an apostate; but on the choice depended the
alternative
of honor or infamy. Could we suppose that the bishop of
Carthage
had employed the profession of the Christian faith only
as the
instrument of his avarice or ambition, it was still
incumbent on
him to support the character he had assumed; ^89 and if
he
possessed the smallest degree of manly fortitude, rather
to
expose himself to the most cruel tortures, than by a
single act
to exchange the reputation of a whole life, for the
abhorrence of
his Christian brethren, and the contempt of the Gentile
world.
But if the zeal of Cyprian was supported by the sincere
conviction of the truth of those doctrines which he
preached, the
crown of martyrdom must have appeared to him as an object
of
desire rather than of terror. It is not easy to extract any
distinct ideas from the vague though eloquent
declamations of the
Fathers, or to ascertain the degree of immortal glory and
happiness which they confidently promised to those who
were so
fortunate as to shed their blood in the cause of
religion. ^90
They inculcated with becoming diligence, that the fire of
martyrdom supplied every defect and expiated every sin; that
while the souls of ordinary Christians were obliged to
pass
through a slow and painful purification, the triumphant
sufferers
entered into the immediate fruition of eternal bliss,
where, in
the society of the patriarchs, the apostles, and the
prophets,
they reigned with Christ, and acted as his assessors in
the
universal judgment of mankind. The assurance of a lasting
reputation upon earth, a motive so congenial to the
vanity of
human nature, often served to animate the courage of the
martyrs.
The honors which Rome or Athens bestowed on those
citizens who
had fallen in the cause of their country, were cold and
unmeaning
demonstrations of respect, when compared with the ardent
gratitude and devotion which the primitive church
expressed
towards the victorious champions of the faith. The annual
commemoration of their virtues and sufferings was
observed as a
sacred ceremony, and at length terminated in religious
worship.
Among the Christians who had publicly confessed their
religious
principles, those who (as it very frequently happened)
had been
dismissed from the tribunal or the prisons of the Pagan
magistrates, obtained such honors as were justly due to
their
imperfect martyrdom and their generous resolution. The most
pious females courted the permission of imprinting kisses
on the
fetters which they had worn, and on the wounds which they
had
received. Their
persons were esteemed holy, their decisions were
admitted with deference, and they too often abused, by
their
spiritual pride and licentious manners, the preeminence
which
their zeal and intrepidity had acquired. ^91 Distinctions
like
these, whilst they display the exalted merit, betray the
inconsiderable number of those who suffered, and of those
who
died, for the profession of Christianity.
[Footnote 89: Whatever opinion we may entertain of the
character
or principles of Thomas Becket, we must acknowledge that
he
suffered death with a constancy not unworthy of the
primitive
martyrs. See Lord
Lyttleton's History of Henry II. vol. ii. p.
592, &c.]
[Footnote 90: See in particular the treatise of Cyprian
de
Lapsis, p. 87- 98, edit. Fell. The learning of Dodwell
(Dissertat. Cyprianic. xii. xiii.,) and the ingenuity of
Middleton, (Free Inquiry, p. 162, &c.,) have left
scarcely any
thing to add concerning the merit, the honors, and the
motives of
the martyrs.]
[Footnote 91: Cyprian. Epistol. 5, 6, 7, 22, 24; and de
Unitat.
Ecclesiae. The number of pretended martyrs has been very
much
multiplied, by the custom which was introduced of
bestowing that
honorable name on confessors.
Note: M.
Guizot denies that the letters of Cyprian, to which
he refers, bear out the statement in the text. I cannot scruple
to admit the accuracy of Gibbon's quotation. To take only the
fifth letter, we find this passage: Doleo enim quando
audio
quosdam improbe et insolenter discurrere, et ad ineptian
vel ad
discordias vacare, Christi membra et jam Christum
confessa per
concubitus illicitos inquinari, nec a diaconis aut
presbyteris
regi posse, sed id agere ut per paucorum pravos et malos
mores,
multorum et bonorum confessorum gloria honesta maculetur.
Gibbon's misrepresentation lies in the ambiguous
expression "too
often." Were the epistles arranged in a different
manner in the
edition consulted by M. Guizot? - M.]
The sober
discretion of the present age will more readily
censure than admire, but can more easily admire than
imitate, the
fervor of the first Christians, who, according to the
lively
expressions of Sulpicius Severus, desired martyrdom with
more
eagerness than his own contemporaries solicited a
bishopric. ^92
The epistles which Ignatius composed as he was carried in
chains
through the cities of Asia, breathe sentiments the most
repugnant
to the ordinary feelings of human nature. He earnestly beseeches
the Romans, that when he should be exposed in the
amphitheatre,
they would not, by their kind but unseasonable
intercession,
deprive him of the crown of glory; and he declares his
resolution
to provoke and irritate the wild beasts which might be
employed
as the instruments of his death. ^93 Some stories are
related of
the courage of martyrs, who actually performed what
Ignatius had
intended; who exasperated the fury of the lions, pressed
the
executioner to hasten his office, cheerfully leaped into
the
fires which were kindled to consume them, and discovered
a
sensation of joy and pleasure in the midst of the most
exquisite
tortures. Several
examples have been preserved of a zeal
impatient of those restraints which the emperors had
provided for
the security of the church. The Christians sometimes supplied by
their voluntary declaration the want of an accuser,
rudely
disturbed the public service of paganism, ^94 and rushing
in
crowds round the tribunal of the magistrates, called upon
them to
pronounce and to inflict the sentence of the law. The behavior
of the Christians was too remarkable to escape the notice
of the
ancient philosophers; but they seem to have considered it
with
much less admiration than astonishment. Incapable of
conceiving
the motives which sometimes transported the fortitude of
believers beyond the bounds of prudence or reason, they
treated
such an eagerness to die as the strange result of
obstinate
despair, of stupid insensibility, or of superstitious
frenzy. ^95
"Unhappy men!" exclaimed the proconsul
Antoninus to the
Christians of Asia; "unhappy men! if you are thus
weary of your
lives, is it so difficult for you to find ropes and
precipices?"
^96 He was extremely cautious (as it is observed by a
learned and
picus historian) of punishing men who had found no
accusers but
themselves, the Imperial laws not having made any
provision for
so unexpected a case: condemning therefore a few as a
warning to
their brethren, he dismissed the multitude with
indignation and
contempt. ^97 Notwithstanding this real or affected
disdain, the
intrepid constancy of the faithful was productive of more
salutary effects on those minds which nature or grace had
disposed for the easy reception of religious truth. On these
melancholy occasions, there were many among the Gentiles
who
pitied, who admired, and who were converted. The generous
enthusiasm was communicated from the sufferer to the
spectators;
and the blood of martyrs, according to a well-known
observation,
became the seed of the church.
[Footnote 92: Certatim gloriosa in certamina ruebatur;
multique
avidius tum martyria gloriosis mortibus quaerebantur,
quam nunc
Episcopatus pravis ambitionibus appetuntur. Sulpicius Severus,
l. ii. He might
have omitted the word nunc.]
[Footnote 93: See Epist. ad Roman. c. 4, 5, ap. Patres
Apostol.
tom. ii. p. 27. It
suited the purpose of Bishop Pearson (see
Vindiciae Ignatianae, part ii. c. 9) to justify, by a
profusion
of examples and authorities, the sentiments of Ignatius.]
[Footnote 94: The story of Polyeuctes, on which Corneille
has
founded a very beautiful tragedy, is one of the most
celebrated,
though not perhaps the most authentic, instances of this
excessive zeal. We
should observe, that the 60th canon of the
council of Illiberis refuses the title of martyrs to those
who
exposed themselves to death, by publicly destroying the
idols.]
[Footnote 95: See Epictetus, l. iv. c. 7, (though there
is some
doubt whether he alludes to the Christians.) Marcus
Antoninus de
Rebus suis, l. xi. c. 3 Lucian in Peregrin.]
[Footnote 96: Tertullian ad Scapul. c. 5. The learned are
divided between three persons of the same name, who were
all
proconsuls of Asia.
I am inclined to ascribe this story to
Antoninus Pius, who was afterwards emperor; and who may
have
governed Asia under the reign of Trajan.]
[Footnote 97: Mosheim, de Rebus Christ, ante Constantin.
p. 235.]
But although
devotion had raised, and eloquence continued to
inflame, this fever of the mind, it insensibly gave way
to the
more natural hopes and fears of the human heart, to the
love of
life, the apprehension of pain, and the horror of
dissolution.
The more prudent rulers of the church found themselves
obliged to
restrain the indiscreet ardor of their followers, and to
distrust
a constancy which too often abandoned them in the hour of
trial.
^98 As the lives of the faithful became less mortified
and
austere, they were every day less ambitious of the honors
of
martyrdom; and the soldiers of Christ, instead of
distinguishing
themselves by voluntary deeds of heroism, frequently
deserted
their post, and fled in confusion before the enemy whom
it was
their duty to resist.
There were three methods, however, of
escaping the flames of persecution, which were not
attended with
an equal degree of guilt: first, indeed, was generally
allowed to
be innocent; the second was of a doubtful, or at least of
a
venial, nature; but the third implied a direct and
criminal
apostasy from the Christian faith.
[Footnote 98: See the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna,
ap. Euseb.
Hist. Eccles. Liv. c. 15
Note: The 15th
chapter of the 10th book of the Eccles.
History of Eusebius treats principally of the martyrdom
of St.
Polycarp, and mentions some other martyrs. A single example of
weakness is related; it is that of a Phrygian named Quintus,
who,
appalled at the sight of the wild beasts and the
tortures,
renounced his faith.
This example proves little against the mass
of Christians, and this chapter of Eusebius furnished
much
stronger evidence of their courage than of their
timidity. - G
This Quintus
had, however, rashly and of his own accord
appeared before the tribunal; and the church of Smyrna
condemn
"his indiscreet ardor," coupled as it was with
weakness in the
hour of trial. - M.]
I. A modern inquisitor would hear with surprise,
that
whenever an information was given to a Roman magistrate
of any
person within his jurisdiction who had embraced the sect
of the
Christians, the charge was communicated to the party
accused, and
that a convenient time was allowed him to settle his
domestic
concerns, and to prepare an answer to the crime which was
imputed
to him. ^99 If he entertained any doubt of his own
constancy,
such a delay afforded him the opportunity of preserving
his life
and honor by flight, of withdrawing himself into some
obscure
retirement or some distant province, and of patiently
expecting
the return of peace and security. A measure so consonant to
reason was soon authorized by the advice and example of
the most
holy prelates; and seems to have been censured by few
except by
the Montanists, who deviated into heresy by their strict
and
obstinate adherence to the rigor of ancient discipline.
^100 II.
The provincial governors, whose zeal was less prevalent
than
their avarice, had countenanced the practice of selling
certificates, (or libels, as they were called,) which
attested,
that the persons therein mentioned had complied with the
laws,
and sacrificed to the Roman deities. By producing these false
declarations, the opulent and timid Christians were
enabled to
silence the malice of an informer, and to reconcile in
some
measure their safety with their religion. A slight
penance atoned
for this profane dissimulation. ^101 ^* III. In every
persecution there were great numbers of unworthy
Christians who
publicly disowned or renounced the faith which they had
professed; and who confirmed the sincerity of their
abjuration,
by the legal acts of burning incense or of offering
sacrifices.
Some of these apostates had yielded on the first menace
or
exhortation of the magistrate; whilst the patience of
others had
been subdued by the length and repetition of
tortures. The
affrighted countenances of some betrayed their inward
remorse,
while others advanced with confidence and alacrity to the
altars
of the gods. ^102 But the disguise which fear had
imposed,
subsisted no longer than the present danger. As soon as the
severity of the persecution was abated, the doors of the
churches
were assailed by the returning multitude of penitents who
detested their idolatrous submission, and who solicited
with
equal ardor, but with various success, their readmission
into the
society of Christians. ^103 ^!
[Footnote 99: In the second apology of Justin, there is a
particular and very curious instance of this legal
delay. The
same indulgence was granted to accused Christians, in the
persecution of Decius: and Cyprian (de Lapsis) expressly
mentions
the "Dies negantibus praestitutus."
Note: The
examples drawn by the historian from Justin Martyr
and Cyprian relate altogether to particular cases, and
prove
nothing as to the general practice adopted towards the
accused;
it is evident, on the contrary, from the same apology of
St.
Justin, that they hardly ever obtained delay. "A man named
Lucius, himself a Christian, present at an unjust
sentence passed
against a Christian by the judge Urbicus, asked him why
he thus
punished a man who was neither adulterer nor robber, nor
guilty
of any other crime but that of avowing himself a
Christian."
Urbicus answered only in these words: "Thou also
hast the
appearance of being a Christian." "Yes, without
doubt," replied
Lucius. The judge
ordered that he should be put to death on the
instant. A third,
who came up, was condemned to be beaten with
rods. Here, then,
are three examples where no delay was granted.
[Surely these acts of a single passionate and irritated
judge
prove the general practice as little as those quoted by
Gibbon. -
M.] There exist a multitude of others, such as those of
Ptolemy,
Marcellus, &c. Justin expressly charges the judges
with ordering
the accused to be executed without hearing the
cause. The words
of St. Cyprian are as particular, and simply say, that he
had
appointed a day by which the Christians must have
renounced their
faith; those who had not done it by that time were
condemned. -
G. This confirms
the statement in the text. - M.]
[Footnote 100: Tertullian considers flight from
persecution as an
imperfect, but very criminal, apostasy, as an impious
attempt to
elude the will of God, &c., &c. He has written a treatise on
this subject, (see p. 536 - 544, edit. Rigalt.,) which is
filled
with the wildest fanaticism and the most incoherent
declamation.
It is, however, somewhat remarkable, that Tertullian did
not
suffer martyrdom himself.]
[Footnote 101: The libellatici, who are chiefly known by
the
writings of Cyprian, are described with the utmost
precision, in
the copious commentary of Mosheim, p. 483 - 489.]
[Footnote *: The penance was not so slight, for it was
exactly
the same with that of apostates who had sacrificed to idols;
it
lasted several years.
See Fleun Hist. Ecc. v. ii. p. 171. - G.]
[Footnote 102: Plin. Epist. x. 97. Dionysius Alexandrin. ap.
Euseb. l. vi. c. 41.
Ad prima statim verba minantis inimici
maximus fratrum numerus fidem suam prodidit: nec
prostratus est
persecutionis impetu, sed voluntario lapsu seipsum
prostravit.
Cyprian. Opera, p. 89.
Among these deserters were many priests,
and even bishops.]
[Footnote 103: It was on this occasion that Cyprian wrote
his
treatise De Lapsis, and many of his epistles. The controversy
concerning the treatment of penitent apostates, does not
occur
among the Christians of the preceding century. Shall we ascribe
this to the superiority of their faith and courage, or to
our
less intimate knowledge of their history!]
[Footnote !: Pliny says, that the greater part of the
Christians
persisted in avowing themselves to be so; the reason for
his
consulting Trajan was the periclitantium numerus. Eusebius (l.
vi. c. 41) does not permit us to doubt that the number of
those
who renounced their faith was infinitely below the number
of
those who boldly confessed it. The prefect, he says and his
assessors present at the council, were alarmed at seeing
the
crowd of Christians; the judges themselves trembled. Lastly, St.
Cyprian informs us, that the greater part of those who
had
appeared weak brethren in the persecution of Decius,
signalized
their courage in that of Gallius. Steterunt fortes, et
ipso
dolore poenitentiae facti ad praelium fortiores Epist.
lx. p.
142. - G.]
IV. Notwithstanding the general rules established
for the
conviction and punishment of the Christians, the fate of
those
sectaries, in an extensive and arbitrary government, must
still
in a great measure, have depended on their own behavior,
the
circumstances of the times, and the temper of their
supreme as
well as subordinate rulers. Zeal might sometimes provoke, and
prudence might sometimes avert or assuage, the
superstitious fury
of the Pagans. A
variety of motives might dispose the provincial
governors either to enforce or to relax the execution of
the
laws; and of these motives the most forcible was their
regard not
only for the public edicts, but for the secret intentions
of the
emperor, a glance from whose eye was sufficient to kindle
or to
extinguish the flames of persecution. As often as any occasional
severities were exercised in the different parts of the
empire,
the primitive Christians lamented and perhaps magnified
their own
sufferings; but the celebrated number of ten persecutions
has
been determined by the ecclesiastical writers of the
fifth
century, who possessed a more distinct view of the
prosperous or
adverse fortunes of the church, from the age of Nero to
that of
Diocletian. The
ingenious parallels of the ten plagues of Egypt,
and of the ten horns of the Apocalypse, first suggested
this
calculation to their minds; and in their application of
the faith
of prophecy to the truth of history, they were careful to
select
those reigns which were indeed the most hostile to the
Christian
cause. ^104 But these transient persecutions served only
to
revive the zeal and to restore the discipline of the
faithful;
and the moments of extraordinary rigor were compensated
by much
longer intervals of peace and security. The indifference of some
princes, and the indulgence of others, permitted the
Christians
to enjoy, though not perhaps a legal, yet an actual and
public,
toleration of their religion.
[Footnote 104: See Mosheim, p. 97. Sulpicius Severus was the
first author of this computation; though he seemed
desirous of
reserving the tenth and greatest persecution for the
coming of
the Antichrist.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.
Part V.
The apology of
Tertullian contains two very ancient, very
singular, but at the same time very suspicious, instances
of
Imperial clemency; the edicts published by Tiberius, and
by
Marcus Antoninus, and designed not only to protect the
innocence
of the Christians, but even to proclaim those stupendous
miracles
which had attested the truth of their doctrine. The first of
these examples is attended with some difficulties which
might
perplex a sceptical mind. ^105 We are required to
believe, that
Pontius Pilate informed the emperor of the unjust
sentence of
death which he had pronounced against an innocent, and,
as it
appeared, a divine, person; and that, without acquiring
the
merit, he exposed himself to the danger of martyrdom;
that
Tiberius, who avowed his contempt for all religion,
immediately
conceived the design of placing the Jewish Messiah among
the gods
of Rome; that his servile senate ventured to disobey the
commands
of their master; that Tiberius, instead of resenting
their
refusal, contented himself with protecting the Christians
from
the severity of the laws, many years before such laws
were
enacted, or before the church had assumed any distinct
name or
existence; and lastly, that the memory of this
extraordinary
transaction was preserved in the most public and
authentic
records, which escaped the knowledge of the historians of
Greece
and Rome, and were only visible to the eyes of an African
Christian, who composed his apology one hundred and sixty
years
after the death of Tiberius. The edict of Marcus Antoninus is
supposed to have been the effect of his devotion and gratitude
for the miraculous deliverance which he had obtained in
the
Marcomannic war.
The distress of the legions, the seasonable
tempest of rain and hail, of thunder and of lightning,
and the
dismay and defeat of the barbarians, have been celebrated
by the
eloquence of several Pagan writers. If there were any
Christians
in that army, it was natural that they should ascribe
some merit
to the fervent prayers, which, in the moment of danger,
they had
offered up for their own and the public safety. But we are still
assured by monuments of brass and marble, by the Imperial
medals,
and by the Antonine column, that neither the prince nor
the
people entertained any sense of this signal obligation,
since
they unanimously attribute their deliverance to the
providence of
Jupiter, and to the interposition of Mercury. During the whole
course of his reign, Marcus despised the Christians as a
philosopher, and punished them as a sovereign. ^106 ^*
[Footnote 105: The testimony given by Pontius Pilate is
first
mentioned by Justin.
The successive improvements which the story
acquired (as if has passed through the hands of
Tertullian,
Eusebius, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Orosius, Gregory of
Tours, and
the authors of the several editions of the acts of
Pilate) are
very fairly stated by Dom Calmet Dissertat. sur
l'Ecriture, tom.
iii. p. 651, &c.]
[Footnote 106: On this miracle, as it is commonly called,
of the
thundering legion, see the admirable criticism of Mr.
Moyle, in
his Works, vol. ii. p. 81 - 390.]
[Footnote *: Gibbon, with this phrase, and that below,
which
admits the injustice of Marcus, has dexterously glossed
over one
of the most remarkable facts in the early Christian
history, that
the reign of the wisest and most humane of the heathen
emperors
was the most fatal to the Christians. Most writers have ascribed
the persecutions under Marcus to the latent bigotry of
his
character; Mosheim, to the influence of the philosophic
party;
but the fact is admitted by all. A late writer (Mr. Waddington,
Hist. of the Church, p. 47) has not scrupled to assert,
that
"this prince polluted every year of a long reign
with innocent
blood;" but the causes as well as the date of the
persecutions
authorized or permitted by Marcus are equally uncertain.
Of the Asiatic
edict recorded by Melito. the date is
unknown, nor is it quite clear that it was an Imperial
edict. If
it was the act under which Polycarp suffered, his
martyrdom is
placed by Ruinart in the sixth, by Mosheim in the ninth,
year of
the reign of Marcus.
The martyrs of Vienne and Lyons are
assigned by Dodwell to the seventh, by most writers to
the
seventeenth. In fact, the commencement of the
persecutions of the
Christians appears to synchronize exactly with the period
of the
breaking out of the Marcomannic war, which seems to have
alarmed
the whole empire, and the emperor himself, into a
paroxysm of
returning piety to their gods, of which the Christians
were the
victims. See Jul,
Capit. Script. Hist August. p. 181, edit.
1661. It is
remarkable that Tertullian [Apologet. c. v.)
distinctly asserts that Verus (M. Aurelius) issued no
edicts
against the Christians, and almost positively exempts him
from
the charge of persecution. - M.
This
remarkable synchronism, which explains the persecutions
under M Aurelius, is shown at length in Milman's History
of
Christianity, book ii. v. - M. 1845.]
By a singular
fatality, the hardships which they had endured
under the government of a virtuous prince, immediately
ceased on
the accession of a tyrant; and as none except themselves
had
experienced the injustice of Marcus, so they alone were
protected
by the lenity of Commodus. The celebrated Marcia, the most
favored of his concubines, and who at length contrived
the murder
of her Imperial lover, entertained a singular affection
for the
oppressed church; and though it was impossible that she
could
reconcile the practice of vice with the precepts of the
gospel,
she might hope to atone for the frailties of her sex and
profession by declaring herself the patroness of the
Christians.
^107 Under the gracious protection of Marcia, they passed
in
safety the thirteen years of a cruel tyranny; and when
the empire
was established in the house of Severus, they formed a
domestic
but more honorable connection with the new court. The emperor
was persuaded, that in a dangerous sickness, he had
derived some
benefit, either spiritual or physical, from the holy oil,
with
which one of his slaves had anointed him. He always treated with
peculiar distinction several persons of both sexes who
had
embraced the new religion. The nurse as well as the preceptor of
Caracalla were Christians; ^* and if that young prince
ever
betrayed a sentiment of humanity, it was occasioned by an
incident, which, however trifling, bore some relation to
the
cause of Christianity. ^108 Under the reign of Severus,
the fury
of the populace was checked; the rigor of ancient laws
was for
some time suspended; and the provincial governors were
satisfied
with receiving an annual present from the churches within
their
jurisdiction, as the price, or as the reward, of their
moderation. ^109 The controversy concerning the precise
time of
the celebration of Easter, armed the bishops of Asia and
Italy
against each other, and was considered as the most
important
business of this period of leisure and tranquillity. ^110
Nor was
the peace of the church interrupted, till the increasing
numbers
of proselytes seem at length to have attracted the
attention, and
to have alienated the mind of Severus. With the design of
restraining the progress of Christianity, he published an
edict,
which, though it was designed to affect only the new
converts,
could not be carried into strict execution, without
exposing to
danger and punishment the most zealous of their teachers
and
missionaries. In
this mitigated persecution we may still
discover the indulgent spirit of Rome and of Polytheism,
which so
readily admitted every excuse in favor of those who
practised the
religious ceremonies of their fathers. ^111
[Footnote 107: Dion Cassius, or rather his abbreviator
Xiphilin,
l. lxxii. p. 1206.
Mr. Moyle (p. 266) has explained the
condition of the church under the reign of Commodus.]
[Footnote *: The Jews and Christians contest the honor of
having
furnished a nurse is the fratricide son of Severus
Caracalla.
Hist. of Jews, iii. 158. - M.]
[Footnote 108: Compare the life of Caracalla in the
Augustan
History, with the epistle of Tertullian to Scapula. Dr. Jortin
(Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 5,
&c.) considers
the cure of Severus by the means of holy oil, with a
strong
desire to convert it into a miracle.]
[Footnote 109: Tertullian de Fuga, c. 13. The present was made
during the feast of the Saturnalia; and it is a matter of
serious
concern to Tertullian, that the faithful should be
confounded
with the most infamous professions which purchased the
connivance
of the government.]
[Footnote 110: Euseb. l. v. c. 23, 24. Mosheim, p. 435 - 447.]
[Footnote 111: Judaeos fieri sub gravi poena vetuit. Idem etiam
de Christianis sanxit.
Hist. August. p. 70.]
But the laws
which Severus had enacted soon expired with the
authority of that emperor; and the Christians, after this
accidental tempest, enjoyed a calm of thirty-eight years.
^112
Till this period they had usually held their assemblies
in
private houses and sequestered places. They were now permitted
to erect and consecrate convenient edifices for the
purpose of
religious worship; ^113 to purchase lands, even at Rome
itself,
for the use of the community; and to conduct the
elections of
their ecclesiastical ministers in so public, but at the
same time
in so exemplary a manner, as to deserve the respectful
attention
of the Gentiles. ^114 This long repose of the church was
accompanied with dignity.
The reigns of those princes who
derived their extraction from the Asiatic provinces,
proved the
most favorable to the Christians; the eminent persons of
the
sect, instead of being reduced to implore the protection
of a
slave or concubine, were admitted into the palace in the
honorable characters of priests and philosophers; and
their
mysterious doctrines, which were already diffused among
the
people, insensibly attracted the curiosity of their
sovereign.
When the empress Mammaea passed through Antioch, she
expressed a
desire of conversing with the celebrated Origen, the fame
of
whose piety and learning was spread over the East. Origen obeyed
so flattering an invitation, and though he could not
expect to
succeed in the conversion of an artful and ambitious
woman, she
listened with pleasure to his eloquent exhortations, and
honorably dismissed him to his retirement in Palestine.
^115 The
sentiments of Mammaea were adopted by her son Alexander,
and the
philosophic devotion of that emperor was marked by a
singular but
injudicious regard for the Christian religion. In his domestic
chapel he placed the statues of Abraham, of Orpheus, of
Apollonius, and of Christ, as an honor justly due to
those
respectable sages who had instructed mankind in the
various modes
of addressing their homage to the supreme and universal
Deity.
^116 A purer faith, as well as worship, was openly
professed and
practised among his household. Bishops, perhaps for the first
time, were seen at court; and, after the death of
Alexander, when
the inhuman Maximin discharged his fury on the favorites
and
servants of his unfortunate benefactor, a great number of
Christians of every rank and of both sexes, were involved
the
promiscuous massacre, which, on their account, has
improperly
received the name of Persecution. ^117 ^*
[Footnote 112: Sulpicius Severus, l. ii. p. 384. This
computation (allowing for a single exception) is
confirmed by the
history of Eusebius, and by the writings of Cyprian.]
[Footnote 113: The antiquity of Christian churches is
discussed
by Tillemont, (Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. iii. part
ii. p.
68-72,) and by Mr. Moyle, (vol. i. p. 378-398.) The
former refers
the first construction of them to the peace of Alexander
Severus;
the latter, to the peace of Gallienus.]
[Footnote 114: See the Augustan History, p. 130. The emperor
Alexander adopted their method of publicly proposing the
names of
those persons who were candidates for ordination. It is true
that the honor of this practice is likewise attributed to
the
Jews.]
[Footnote 115: Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. l. vi. c. 21. Hieronym.
de Script. Eccles. c. 54.
Mammaea was styled a holy and pious
woman, both by the Christians and the Pagans. From the former,
therefore, it was impossible that she should deserve that
honorable epithet.]
[Footnote 116: See the Augustan History, p. 123. Mosheim (p.
465) seems to refine too much on the domestic religion of
Alexander. His
design of building a public temple to Christ,
(Hist. August. p. 129,) and the objection which was
suggested
either to him, or in similar circumstances to Hadrian,
appear to
have no other foundation than an improbable report,
invented by
the Christians, and credulously adopted by an historian
of the
age of Constantine.]
[Footnote 117: Euseb. l. vi. c. 28. It may be presumed that the
success of the Christians had exasperated the increasing
bigotry
of the Pagans.
Dion Cassius, who composed his history under the
former reign, had most probably intended for the use of
his
master those counsels of persecution, which he ascribes
to a
better age, and to and to the favorite of Augustus.
Concerning
this oration of Maecenas, or rather of Dion, I may refer
to my
own unbiased opinion, (vol. i. c. 1, note 25,) and to the
Abbe de
la Bleterie (Memoires de l'Academie, tom. xxiv. p. 303
tom xxv.
p. 432.)
Note: If this
be the case, Dion Cassius must have known the
Christians they must have been the subject of his
particular
attention, since the author supposes that he wished his
master to
profit by these "counsels of persecution." How
are we to
reconcile this necessary consequence with what Gibbon has
said of
the ignorance of Dion Cassius even of the name of the
Christians?
(c. xvi. n. 24.) [Gibbon speaks of Dion's silence, not of
his
ignorance. - M] The supposition in this note is supported
by no
proof; it is probable that Dion Cassius has often
designated the
Christians by the name of Jews. See Dion Cassius, l. lxvii. c
14, lxviii. l - G.
On this point
I should adopt the view of Gibbon rather than
that of M Guizot. - M]
[Footnote *: It is with good reason that this massacre
has been
called a persecution, for it lasted during the whole
reign of
Maximin, as may be seen in Eusebius. (l. vi. c. 28.)
Rufinus
expressly confirms it: Tribus annis a Maximino
persecutione
commota, in quibus finem et persecutionis fecit et vitas
Hist. l.
vi. c. 19. - G.]
Notwithstanding the cruel disposition of Maximin, the
effects of his resentment against the Christians were of
a very
local and temporary nature, and the pious Origen, who had
been
proscribed as a devoted victim, was still reserved to
convey the
truths of the gospel to the ear of monarchs. ^118 He
addressed
several edifying letters to the emperor Philip, to his
wife, and
to his mother; and as soon as that prince, who was born
in the
neighborhood of Palestine, had usurped the Imperial
sceptre, the
Christians acquired a friend and a protector. The public and
even partial favor of Philip towards the sectaries of the
new
religion, and his constant reverence for the ministers of
the
church, gave some color to the suspicion, which prevailed
in his
own times, that the emperor himself was become a convert
to the
faith; ^119 and afforded some grounds for a fable which
was
afterwards invented, that he had been purified by
confession and
penance from the guilt contracted by the murder of his
innocent
predecessor. ^120 the fall of Philip introduced, with the
change
of masters, a new system of government, so oppressive to
the
Christians, that their former condition, ever since the
time of
Domitian, was represented as a state of perfect freedom
and
security, if compared with the rigorous treatment which
they
experienced under the short reign of Decius. ^121 The
virtues of
that prince will scarcely allow us to suspect that he was
actuated by a mean resentment against the favorites of
his
predecessor; and it is more reasonable to believe, that
in the
prosecution of his general design to restore the purity
of Roman
manners, he was desirous of delivering the empire from
what he
condemned as a recent and criminal superstition. The bishops of
the most considerable cities were removed by exile or
death: the
vigilance of the magistrates prevented the clergy of Rome
during
sixteen months from proceeding to a new election; and it
was the
opinion of the Christians, that the emperor would more
patiently
endure a competitor for the purple, than a bishop in the
capital.
^122 Were it possible to suppose that the penetration of
Decius
had discovered pride under the disguise of humility, or
that he
could foresee the temporal dominion which might
insensibly arise
from the claims of spiritual authority, we might be less
surprised, that he should consider the successors of St.
Peter,
as the most formidable rivals to those of Augustus.
[Footnote 118: Orosius, l. vii. c. 19, mentions Origen as
the
object of Maximin's resentment; and Firmilianus, a
Cappadocian
bishop of that age, gives a just and confined idea of
this
persecution, (apud Cyprian Epist. 75.)]
[Footnote 119: The mention of those princes who were
publicly
supposed to be Christians, as we find it in an epistle of
Dionysius of Alexandria, (ap. Euseb. l. vii. c. 10,)
evidently
alludes to Philip and his family, and forms a
contemporary
evidence, that such a report had prevailed; but the
Egyptian
bishop, who lived at an humble distance from the court of
Rome,
expresses himself with a becoming diffidence concerning
the truth
of the fact. The
epistles of Origen (which were extant in the
time of Eusebius, see l. vi. c. 36) would most probably
decide
this curious rather than important question.]
[Footnote 120: Euseb. l. vi. c. 34. The story, as is usual, has
been embellished by succeeding writers, and is confuted,
with
much superfluous learning, by Frederick Spanheim, (Opera
Varia,
tom. ii. p. 400, &c.)]
[Footnote 121: Lactantius, de Mortibus Persecutorum, c. 3,
4.
After celebrating the felicity and increase of the
church, under
a long succession of good princes, he adds, "Extitit
post annos
plurimos, execrabile animal, Decius, qui vexaret
Ecclesiam."]
[Footnote 122: Euseb. l. vi. c. 39. Cyprian. Epistol. 55. The
see of Rome remained vacant from the martyrdom of
Fabianus, the
20th of January, A. D. 259, till the election of
Cornelius, the
4th of June, A. D. 251 Decius had probably left Rome,
since he
was killed before the end of that year.]
The administration
of Valerian was distinguished by a levity
and inconstancy ill suited to the gravity of the Roman
Censor.
In the first part of his reign, he surpassed in clemency
those
princes who had been suspected of an attachment to the
Christian
faith. In the last
three years and a half, listening to the
insinuations of a minister addicted to the superstitions
of
Egypt, he adopted the maxims, and imitated the severity,
of his
predecessor Decius. ^123 The accession of Gallienus,
which
increased the calamities of the empire, restored peace to
the
church; and the Christians obtained the free exercise of
their
religion by an edict addressed to the bishops, and
conceived in
such terms as seemed to acknowledge their office and
public
character. ^124 The ancient laws, without being formally
repealed, were suffered to sink into oblivion; and
(excepting
only some hostile intentions which are attributed to the
emperor
Aurelian ^125) the disciples of Christ passed above forty
years
in a state of prosperity, far more dangerous to their
virtue than
the severest trials of persecution.
[Footnote 123: Euseb. l. vii. c. 10. Mosheim (p. 548) has very
clearly shown that the praefect Macrianus, and the
Egyptian
Magus, are one and the same person.]
[Footnote 124: Eusebius (l. vii. c. 13) gives us a Greek
version
of this Latin edict, which seems to have been very
concise. By
another edict, he directed that the Coemeteria should be
restored
to the Christians.]
[Footnote 125: Euseb. l. vii. c. 30. Lactantius de M. P. c. 6.
Hieronym. in Chron. p. 177. Orosius, l. vii. c. 23. Their
language is in general so ambiguous and incorrect, that
we are at
a loss to determine how far Aurelian had carried his
intentions
before he was assassinated. Most of the moderns (except Dodwell,
Dissertat. Cyprian. vi. 64) have seized the occasion of
gaining a
few extraordinary martyrs.
Note: Dr.
Lardner has detailed, with his usual impartiality,
all that has come down to us relating to the persecution
of
Aurelian, and concludes by saying, "Upon more
carefully examining
the words of Eusebius, and observing the accounts of
other
authors, learned men have generally, and, as I think,
very
judiciously, determined, that Aurelian not only intended,
but did
actually persecute: but his persecution was short, he
having died
soon after the publication of his edicts." Heathen
Test. c.
xxxvi. - Basmage positively pronounces the same opinion:
Non
intentatum modo, sed executum quoque brevissimo tempore
mandatum,
nobis infixum est in aniasis. Basn. Ann. 275, No. 2 and compare
Pagi Ann. 272, Nos. 4, 12, 27 - G.]
The story of
Paul of Samosata, who filled the metropolitan
see of Antioch, while the East was in the hands of
Odenathus and
Zenobia, may serve to illustrate the condition and
character of
the times. The
wealth of that prelate was a sufficient evidence
of his guilt, since it was neither derived from the
inheritance
of his fathers, nor acquired by the arts of honest
industry. But
Paul considered the service of the church as a very
lucrative
profession. ^126 His ecclesiastical jurisdiction was
venal and
rapacious; he extorted frequent contributions from the
most
opulent of the faithful, and converted to his own use a
considerable part of the public revenue. By his pride and
luxury, the Christian religion was rendered odious in the
eyes of
the Gentiles. His
council chamber and his throne, the splendor
with which he appeared in public, the suppliant crowd who
solicited his attention, the multitude of letters and
petitions
to which he dictated his answers, and the perpetual hurry
of
business in which he was involved, were circumstances
much better
suited to the state of a civil magistrate, ^127 than to
the
humility of a primitive bishop. When he harangued his people
from the pulpit, Paul affected the figurative style and
the
theatrical gestures of an Asiatic sophist, while the
cathedral
resounded with the loudest and most extravagant
acclamations in
the praise of his divine eloquence. Against those who resisted
his power, or refused to flatter his vanity, the prelate
of
Antioch was arrogant, rigid, and inexorable; but he
relaxed the
discipline, and lavished the treasures of the church on
his
dependent clergy, who were permitted to imitate their
master in
the gratification of every sensual appetite. For Paul indulged
himself very freely in the pleasures of the table, and he
had
received into the episcopal palace two young and
beautiful women
as the constant companions of his leisure moments. ^128
[Footnote 126: Paul was better pleased with the title of
Ducenarius, than with that of bishop. The Ducenarius was an
Imperial procurator, so called from his salary of two
hundred
Sestertia, or 1600l. a year. (See Salmatius ad Hist. August. p.
124.) Some critics suppose that the bishop of Antioch had
actually obtained such an office from Zenobia, while
others
consider it only as a figurative expression of his pomp
and
insolence.]
[Footnote 127: Simony was not unknown in those times; and
the
clergy some times bought what they intended to sell. It appears
that the bishopric of Carthage was purchased by a wealthy
matron,
named Lucilla, for her servant Majorinus. The price was 400
Folles. (Monument.
Antiq. ad calcem Optati, p. 263.) Every
Follis contained 125 pieces of silver, and the whole sum
may be
computed at about 2400l.]
[Footnote 128: If we are desirous of extenuating the
vices of
Paul, we must suspect the assembled bishops of the East
of
publishing the most malicious calumnies in circular
epistles
addressed to all the churches of the empire, (ap. Euseb.
l. vii.
c. 30.)]
Notwithstanding these scandalous vices, if Paul of Samosata
had preserved the purity of the orthodox faith, his reign
over
the capital of Syria would have ended only with his life;
and had
a seasonable persecution intervened, an effort of courage
might
perhaps have placed him in the rank of saints and
martyrs. ^*
Some nice and subtle errors, which he imprudently adopted
and
obstinately maintained, concerning the doctrine of the
Trinity,
excited the zeal and indignation of the Eastern churches.
^129
From Egypt to the Euxine Sea, the bishops were in arms
and in
motion. Several
councils were held, confutations were published,
excommunications were pronounced, ambiguous explanations
were by
turns accepted and refused, treaties were concluded and
violated,
and at length Paul of Samosata was degraded from his
episcopal
character, by the sentence of seventy or eighty bishops,
who
assembled for that purpose at Antioch, and who, without
consulting the rights of the clergy or people, appointed
a
successor by their own authority. The manifest irregularity of
this proceeding increased the numbers of the discontented
faction; and as Paul, who was no stranger to the arts of
courts,
had insinuated himself into the favor of Zenobia, he
maintained
above four years the possession of the episcopal house
and
office. ^* The victory of Aurelian changed the face of
the East,
and the two contending parties, who applied to each other
the
epithets of schism and heresy, were either commanded or
permitted
to plead their cause before the tribunal of the
conqueror. This
public and very singular trial affords a convincing proof
that
the existence, the property, the privileges, and the
internal
policy of the Christians, were acknowledged, if not by
the laws,
at least by the magistrates, of the empire. As a Pagan
and as a
soldier, it could scarcely be expected that Aurelian
should enter
into the discussion, whether the sentiments of Paul or
those of
his adversaries were most agreeable to the true standard
of the
orthodox faith. His determination, however, was founded
on the
general principles of equity and reason. He considered the
bishops of Italy as the most impartial and respectable
judges
among the Christians, and as soon as he was informed that
they
had unanimously approved the sentence of the council, he
acquiesced in their opinion, and immediately gave orders
that
Paul should be compelled to relinquish the temporal
possessions
belonging to an office, of which, in the judgment of his
brethren, he had been regularly deprived. But while we
applaud
the justice, we should not overlook the policy, of
Aurelian, who
was desirous of restoring and cementing the dependence of
the
provinces on the capital, by every means which could bind
the
interest or prejudices of any part of his subjects. ^130
[Footnote *: It appears, nevertheless, that the vices and
immoralities of Paul of Samosata had much weight in the
sentence
pronounced against him by the bishops. The object of the letter,
addressed by the synod to the bishops of Rome and Alexandria,
was
to inform them of the change in the faith of Paul, the
altercations and discussions to which it had given rise,
as well
as of his morals and the whole of his conduct. Euseb. Hist.
Eccl. l. vii c. xxx - G.]
[Footnote 129: His heresy (like those of Noetus and
Sabellius, in
the same century) tended to confound the mysterious
distinction
of the divine persons. See Mosheim, p. 702, &c.]
[Footnote *: "Her favorite, (Zenobia's,) Paul of
Samosata, seems
to have entertained some views of attempting a union
between
Judaism and Christianity; both parties rejected the
unnatural
alliance." Hist. of Jews, iii. 175, and Jost.
Geschichte der
Israeliter, iv. 167.
The protection of the severe Zenobia is the
only circumstance which may raise a doubt of the notorious
immorality of Paul. - M.]
[Footnote 130: Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. l. vii. c.
30. We are
entirely indebted to him for the curious story of Paul of
Samosata.]
Amidst the
frequent revolutions of the empire, the
Christians still flourished in peace and prosperity; and
notwithstanding a celebrated aera of martyrs has been
deduced
from the accession of Diocletian, ^131 the new system of
policy,
introduced and maintained by the wisdom of that prince,
continued, during more than eighteen years, to breathe
the
mildest and most liberal spirit of religious
toleration. The
mind of Diocletian himself was less adapted indeed to
speculative
inquiries, than to the active labors of war and
government. His
prudence rendered him averse to any great innovation, and
though
his temper was not very susceptible of zeal or
enthusiasm, he
always maintained an habitual regard for the ancient
deities of
the empire. But
the leisure of the two empresses, of his wife
Prisca, and of Valeria, his daughter, permitted them to
listen
with more attention and respect to the truths of
Christianity,
which in every age has acknowledged its important
obligations to
female devotion. ^132 The principal eunuchs, Lucian ^133
and
Dorotheus, Gorgonius and Andrew, who attended the person,
possessed the favor, and governed the household of
Diocletian,
protected by their powerful influence the faith which
they had
embraced. Their
example was imitated by many of the most
considerable officers of the palace, who, in their
respective
stations, had the care of the Imperial ornaments, of the
robes,
of the furniture, of the jewels, and even of the private
treasury; and, though it might sometimes be incumbent on
them to
accompany the emperor when he sacrificed in the temple,
^134 they
enjoyed, with their wives, their children, and their
slaves, the
free exercise of the Christian religion. Diocletian and his
colleagues frequently conferred the most important
offices on
those persons who avowed their abhorrence for the worship
of the
gods, but who had displayed abilities proper for the
service of
the state. The
bishops held an honorable rank in their
respective provinces, and were treated with distinction
and
respect, not only by the people, but by the magistrates
themselves. Almost
in every city, the ancient churches were
found insufficient to contain the increasing multitude of
proselytes; and in their place more stately and capacious
edifices were erected for the public worship of the
faithful.
The corruption of manners and principles, so forcibly
lamented by
Eusebius, ^135 may be considered, not only as a
consequence, but
as a proof, of the liberty which the Christians enjoyed
and
abused under the reign of Diocletian. Prosperity had relaxed the
nerves of discipline.
Fraud, envy, and malice prevailed in every
congregation. The
presbyters aspired to the episcopal office,
which every day became an object more worthy of their
ambition.
The bishops, who contended with each other for
ecclesiastical
preeminence, appeared by their conduct to claim a secular
and
tyrannical power in the church; and the lively faith
which still
distinguished the Christians from the Gentiles, was shown
much
less in their lives, than in their controversial
writings.
[Footnote 131: The Aera of Martyrs, which is still in use
among
the Copts and the Abyssinians, must be reckoned from the
29th of
August, A. D. 284; as the beginning of the Egyptian year
was
nineteen days earlier than the real accession of
Diocletian. See
Dissertation Preliminaire a l'Art de verifier les Dates.
Note: On the
aera of martyrs see the very curious
dissertations of Mons Letronne on some recently
discovered
inscriptions in Egypt and Nubis, p. 102, &c. - M.]
[Footnote 132: The expression of Lactantius, (de M. P. c.
15,)
"sacrificio pollui coegit," implies their
antecedent conversion
to the faith, but does not seem to justify the assertion
of
Mosheim, (p. 912,) that they had been privately
baptized.]
[Footnote 133: M. de Tillemont (Memoires Ecclesiastiques,
tom. v.
part i. p. 11, 12) has quoted from the Spicilegium of Dom
Luc
d'Archeri a very curious instruction which Bishop Theonas
composed for the use of Lucian.]
[Footnote 134: Lactantius, de M. P. c. 10.]
[Footnote 135: Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiast. l. viii. c.
1. The
reader who consults the original will not accuse me of
heightening the picture. Eusebius was about sixteen years
of age
at the accession of the emperor Diocletian.]
Notwithstanding this seeming security, an attentive observer
might discern some symptoms that threatened the church
with a
more violent persecution than any which she had yet
endured. The
zeal and rapid progress of the Christians awakened the
Polytheists from their supine indifference in the cause
of those
deities, whom custom and education had taught them to revere.
The mutual provocations of a religious war, which had
already
continued above two hundred years, exasperated the
animosity of
the contending parties.
The Pagans were incensed at the rashness
of a recent and obscure sect, which presumed to accuse
their
countrymen of error, and to devote their ancestors to
eternal
misery. The habits
of justifying the popular mythology against
the invectives of an implacable enemy, produced in their
minds
some sentiments of faith and reverence for a system which
they
had been accustomed to consider with the most careless
levity.
The supernatural powers assumed by the church inspired at
the
same time terror and emulation. The followers of the established
religion intrenched themselves behind a similar
fortification of
prodigies; invented new modes of sacrifice, of expiation,
and of
initiation; ^136 attempted to revive the credit of their
expiring
oracles; ^137 and listened with eager credulity to every
impostor, who flattered their prejudices by a tale of
wonders.
^138 Both parties seemed to acknowledge the truth of
those
miracles which were claimed by their adversaries; and
while they
were contented with ascribing them to the arts of magic,
and to
the power of daemons, they mutually concurred in
restoring and
establishing the reign of superstition. ^139 Philosophy,
her most
dangerous enemy, was now converted into her most useful
ally.
The groves of the academy, the gardens of Epicurus, and
even the
portico of the Stoics, were almost deserted, as so many
different
schools of scepticism or impiety; ^140 and many among the
Romans
were desirous that the writings of Cicero should be
condemned and
suppressed by the authority of the senate. ^141 The
prevailing
sect of the new Platonicians judged it prudent to connect
themselves with the priests, whom perhaps they despised,
against
the Christians, whom they had reason to fear. These
fashionable
Philosophers prosecuted the design of extracting
allegorical
wisdom from the fictions of the Greek poets; instituted
mysterious rites of devotion for the use of their chosen
disciples; recommended the worship of the ancient gods as
the
emblems or ministers of the Supreme Deity, and composed
against
the faith of the gospel many elaborate treatises, ^142
which have
since been committed to the flames by the prudence of
orthodox
emperors. ^143
[Footnote 136: We might quote, among a great number of
instances,
the mysterious worship of Mythras, and the Taurobolia;
the latter
of which became fashionable in the time of the Antonines,
(see a
Dissertation of M. de Boze, in the Memoires de l'Academie
des
Inscriptions, tom. ii. p. 443.) The romance of Apuleius
is as
full of devotion as of satire.
Note: On the
extraordinary progress of the Mahriac rites, in
the West, see De Guigniaud's translation of Creuzer, vol.
i. p.
365, and Note 9, tom. i. part 2, p. 738, &c. - M.]
[Footnote 137: The impostor Alexander very strongly
recommended
the oracle of Trophonius at Mallos, and those of Apollo
at Claros
and Miletus, (Lucian, tom. ii. p. 236, edit. Reitz.) The
last of
these, whose singular history would furnish a very
curious
episode, was consulted by Diocletian before he published
his
edicts of persecution, (Lactantius, de M. P. c. 11.)]
[Footnote 138: Besides the ancient stories of Pythagoras
and
Aristeas, the cures performed at the shrine of
Aesculapius, and
the fables related of Apollonius of Tyana, were
frequently
opposed to the miracles of Christ; though I agree with
Dr.
Lardner, (see Testimonies, vol. iii. p. 253, 352,) that
when
Philostratus composed the life of Apollonius, he had no
such
intention.]
[Footnote 139: It is seriously to be lamented, that the
Christian
fathers, by acknowledging the supernatural, or, as they
deem it,
the infernal part of Paganism, destroy with their own
hands the
great advantage which we might otherwise derive from the
liberal
concessions of our adversaries.]
[Footnote 140: Julian (p. 301, edit. Spanheim) expresses
a pious
joy, that the providence of the gods had extinguished the
impious
sects, and for the most part destroyed the books of the
Pyrrhonians and Epicuraeans, which had been very
numerous, since
Epicurus himself composed no less than 300 volumes. See Diogenes
Laertius, l. x. c. 26.]
[Footnote 141: Cumque alios audiam mussitare indignanter,
et
dicere opportere statui per Senatum, aboleantur ut haec
scripta,
quibus Christiana Religio comprobetur, et vetustatis
opprimatur
auctoritas.
Arnobius adversus Gentes, l. iii. p. 103, 104. He
adds very properly, Erroris convincite Ciceronem . . .
nam
intercipere scripta, et publicatam velle submergere
lectionem,
non est Deum defendere sed veritatis testificationem
timere.]
[Footnote 142: Lactantius (Divin. Institut. l. v. c. 2,
3) gives
a very clear and spirited account of two of these
philosophic
adversaries of the faith. The large treatise of Porphyry
against
the Christians consisted of thirty books, and was
composed in
Sicily about the year 270.]
[Footnote 143: See Socrates, Hist. Ecclesiast. l. i. c.
9, and
Codex Justinian. l. i. i. l. s.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.
Part VI.
Although the
policy of Diocletian and the humanity of
Constantius inclined them to preserve inviolate the
maxims of
toleration, it was soon discovered that their two
associates,
Maximian and Galerius, entertained the most implacable
aversion
for the name and religion of the Christians. The minds of
those
princes had never been enlightened by science; education
had
never softened their temper. They owed their greatness to their
swords, and in their most elevated fortune they still
retained
their superstitious prejudices of soldiers and
peasants. In the
general administration of the provinces they obeyed the
laws
which their benefactor had established; but they
frequently found
occasions of exercising within their camp and palaces a
secret
persecution, ^144 for which the imprudent zeal of the
Christians
sometimes offered the most specious pretences. A sentence of
death was executed upon Maximilianus, an African youth,
who had
been produced by his own father ^* before the magistrate
as a
sufficient and legal recruit, but who obstinately
persisted in
declaring, that his conscience would not permit him to
embrace
the profession of a soldier. ^145 It could scarcely be
expected
that any government should suffer the action of Marcellus
the
Centurion to pass with impunity. On the day of a public
festival, that officer threw away his belt, his arms, and
the
ensigns of his office, and exclaimed with a loud voice,
that he
would obey none but Jesus Christ the eternal King, and
that he
renounced forever the use of carnal weapons, and the
service of
an idolatrous master.
The soldiers, as soon as they recovered
from their astonishment, secured the person of
Marcellus. He was
examined in the city of Tingi by the president of that
part of
Mauritania; and as he was convicted by his own
confession, he was
condemned and beheaded for the crime of desertion. ^146
Examples
of such a nature savor much less of religious persecution
than of
martial or even civil law; but they served to alienate
the mind
of the emperors, to justify the severity of Galerius, who
dismissed a great number of Christian officers from their
employments; and to authorize the opinion, that a sect of
enthusiastics, which avowed principles so repugnant to
the public
safety, must either remain useless, or would soon become
dangerous, subjects of the empire.
[Footnote 144: Eusebius, l. viii. c. 4, c. 17. He limits the
number of military martyrs, by a remarkable expression,
of which
neither his Latin nor French translator have rendered the
energy.
Notwithstanding the authority of Eusebius, and the
silence of
Lactantius, Ambrose, Sulpicius, Orosius, &c., it has
been long
believed, that the Thebaean legion, consisting of 6000
Christians, suffered martyrdom by the order of Maximian,
in the
valley of the Pennine Alps. The story was first published about
the middle of the 5th century, by Eucherius, bishop of
Lyons, who
received it from certain persons, who received it from
Isaac,
bishop of Geneva, who is said to have received it from
Theodore,
bishop of Octodurum. The abbey of St. Maurice still
subsists, a
rich monument of the credulity of Sigismund, king of
Burgundy.
See an excellent Dissertation in xxxvith volume of the
Bibliotheque Raisonnee, p. 427-454.]
[Footnote *: M. Guizot criticizes Gibbon's account of
this
incident. He
supposes that Maximilian was not "produced by his
father as a recruit," but was obliged to appear by
the law, which
compelled the sons of soldiers to serve at 21 years
old. Was not
this a law of Constantine? Neither does this circumstance appear
in the acts. His
father had clearly expected him to serve, as he
had bought him a new dress for the occasion; yet he
refused to
force the conscience of his son. and when Maximilian was
condemned to death, the father returned home in joy,
blessing God
for having bestowed upon him such a son. - M.]
[Footnote 145: See the Acta Sincera, p. 299. The accounts of his
martyrdom and that of Marcellus, bear every mark of truth
and
authenticity.]
[Footnote 146: Acta Sincera, p. 302.
Note: M.
Guizot here justly observes, that it was the
necessity of sacrificing to the gods, which induced
Marcellus to
act in this manner. - M.]
After the
success of the Persian war had raised the hopes
and the reputation of Galerius, he passed a winter with
Diocletian in the palace of Nicomedia; and the fate of
Christianity became the object of their secret
consultations.
^147 The experienced emperor was still inclined to pursue
measures of lenity; and though he readily consented to
exclude
the Christians from holding any employments in the
household or
the army, he urged in the strongest terms the danger as
well as
cruelty of shedding the blood of those deluded fanatics.
Galerius at length extorted ^!! from him the permission
of
summoning a council, composed of a few persons the most
distinguished in the civil and military departments of
the state.
The important question was agitated in their presence,
and those
ambitious courtiers easily discerned, that it was
incumbent on
them to second, by their eloquence, the importunate
violence of
the Caesar. It may
be presumed, that they insisted on every
topic which might interest the pride, the piety, or the
fears, of
their sovereign in the destruction of Christianity. Perhaps they
represented, that the glorious work of the deliverance of
the
empire was left imperfect, as long as an independent
people was
permitted to subsist and multiply in the heart of the
provinces.
The Christians, (it might specially be alleged,)
renouncing the
gods and the institutions of Rome, had constituted a
distinct
republic, which might yet be suppressed before it had
acquired
any military force; but which was already governed by its
own
laws and magistrates, was possessed of a public treasure,
and was
intimately connected in all its parts by the frequent
assemblies
of the bishops, to whose decrees their numerous and
opulent
congregations yielded an implicit obedience. Arguments like
these may seem to have determined the reluctant mind of
Diocletian to embrace a new system of persecution; but
though we
may suspect, it is not in our power to relate, the secret
intrigues of the palace, the private views and
resentments, the
jealousy of women or eunuchs, and all those trifling but
decisive
causes which so often influence the fate of empires, and
the
councils of the wisest monarchs. ^148
[Footnote 147: De M. P. c. 11. Lactantius (or whoever was the
author of this little treatise) was, at that time, an
inhabitant
of Nicomedia; but it seems difficult to conceive how he
could
acquire so accurate a knowledge of what passed in the
Imperial
cabinet.
Note:
Lactantius, who was subsequently chosen by Constantine
to educate Crispus, might easily have learned these
details from
Constantine himself, already of sufficient age to
interest
himself in the affairs of the government, and in a
position to
obtain the best information. - G.
This assumes
the doubtful point of the authorship of the
Treatise. - M.]
[Footnote !!: This permission was not extorted from
Diocletian;
he took the step of his own accord. Lactantius says, in truth,
Nec tamen deflectere potuit (Diocletianus) praecipitis
hominis
insaniam; placuit ergo amicorum sententiam experiri. (De Mort.
Pers. c. 11.) But this measure was in accordance with the
artificial character of Diocletian, who wished to have
the
appearance of doing good by his own impulse and evil by
the
impulse of others. Nam erat hujus malitiae, cum bonum
quid facere
decrevisse sine consilio faciebat, ut ipse laudaretur. Cum autem
malum. quoniam id reprehendendum sciebat, in consilium
multos
advocabat, ut alioram culpao adscriberetur quicquid ipse
deliquerat. Lact.
ib. Eutropius says likewise, Miratus callide
fuit, sagax praeterea et admodum subtilis ingenio, et qui
severitatem suam aliena invidia vellet explere. Eutrop.
ix. c.
26. - G.
The manner in
which the coarse and unfriendly pencil of the
author of the Treatise de Mort. Pers. has drawn the
character of
Diocletian, seems inconsistent with this profound subtilty. Many
readers will perhaps agree with Gibbon. - M.]
[Footnote 148: The only circumstance which we can
discover, is
the devotion and jealousy of the mother of Galerius. She is
described by Lactantius, as Deorum montium cultrix;
mulier
admodum superstitiosa.
She had a great influence over her son,
and was offended by the disregard of some of her
Christian
servants.
Note: This
disregard consisted in the Christians fasting and
praying instead of participating in the banquets and
sacrifices
which she celebrated with the Pagans. Dapibus sacrificabat poene
quotidie ac vicariis suis epulis exhibebat. Christiani
abstinebant, et illa cum gentibus epulante, jejuniis hi
et
oratiomibus insisteban; hine concepit odium Lact de Hist.
Pers.
c. 11. - G.]
The pleasure
of the emperors was at length signified to the
Christians, who, during the course of this melancholy
winter, had
expected, with anxiety, the result of so many secret
consultations. The
twenty-third of February, which coincided
with the Roman festival of the Terminalia, ^149 was
appointed
(whether from accident or design) to set bounds to the
progress
of Christianity.
At the earliest dawn of day, the Praetorian
praefect, ^150 accompanied by several generals, tribunes,
and
officers of the revenue, repaired to the principal church
of
Nicomedia, which was situated on an eminence in the most
populous
and beautiful part of the city. The doors were instantly broke
open; they rushed into the sanctuary; and as they
searched in
vain for some visible object of worship, they were
obliged to
content themselves with committing to the flames the
volumes of
the holy Scripture. The ministers of Diocletian were
followed by
a numerous body of guards and pioneers, who marched in
order of
battle, and were provided with all the instruments used
in the
destruction of fortified cities. By their incessant labor, a
sacred edifice, which towered above the Imperial palace,
and had
long excited the indignation and envy of the Gentiles,
was in a
few hours levelled with the ground. ^151
[Footnote 149: The worship and festival of the god
Terminus are
elegantly illustrated by M. de Boze, Mem. de l'Academie
des
Inscriptions, tom. i. p. 50.]
[Footnote 150: In our only MS. of Lactantius, we read
profectus;
but reason, and the authority of all the critics, allow
us,
instead of that word, which destroys the sense of the
passage, to
substitute proefectus.]
[Footnote 151: Lactantius, de M. P. c. 12, gives a very
lively
picture of the destruction of the church.]
The next day the
general edict of persecution was published;
^152 and though Diocletian, still averse to the effusion
of
blood, had moderated the fury of Galerius, who proposed,
that
every one refusing to offer sacrifice should immediately
be burnt
alive, the penalties inflicted on the obstinacy of the
Christians
might be deemed sufficiently rigorous and effectual. It was
enacted, that their churches, in all the provinces of the
empire,
should be demolished to their foundations; and the
punishment of
death was denounced against all who should presume to
hold any
secret assemblies for the purpose of religious
worship. The
philosophers, who now assumed the unworthy office of
directing
the blind zeal of persecution, had diligently studied the
nature
and genius of the Christian religion; and as they were
not
ignorant that the speculative doctrines of the faith were
supposed to be contained in the writings of the prophets,
of the
evangelists, and of the apostles, they most probably
suggested
the order, that the bishops and presbyters should deliver
all
their sacred books into the hands of the magistrates; who
were
commanded, under the severest penalties, to burn them in
a public
and solemn manner.
By the same edict, the property of the church
was at once confiscated; and the several parts of which
it might
consist were either sold to the highest bidder, united to
the
Imperial domain, bestowed on the cities and corporations,
or
granted to the solicitations of rapacious courtiers. After
taking such effectual measures to abolish the worship,
and to
dissolve the government of the Christians, it was thought
necessary to subject to the most intolerable hardships
the
condition of those perverse individuals who should still
reject
the religion of nature, of Rome, and of their ancestors. Persons
of a liberal birth were declared incapable of holding any
honors
or employments; slaves were forever deprived of the hopes
of
freedom, and the whole body of the people were put out of
the
protection of the law.
The judges were authorized to hear and to
determine every action that was brought against a
Christian. But
the Christians were not permitted to complain of any
injury which
they themselves had suffered; and thus those unfortunate
sectaries were exposed to the severity, while they were excluded
from the benefits, of public justice. This new species of
martyrdom, so painful and lingering, so obscure and
ignominious,
was, perhaps, the most proper to weary the constancy of
the
faithful: nor can it be doubted that the passions and
interest of
mankind were disposed on this occasion to second the
designs of
the emperors. But
the policy of a well-ordered government must
sometimes have interposed in behalf of the oppressed
Christians;
^* nor was it possible for the Roman princes entirely to
remove
the apprehension of punishment, or to connive at every
act of
fraud and violence, without exposing their own authority
and the
rest of their subjects to the most alarming dangers. ^153
[Footnote 152: Mosheim, (p. 922 - 926,) from man
scattered
passages of Lactantius and Eusebius, has collected a very
just
and accurate notion of this edict though he sometimes
deviates
into conjecture and refinement.]
[Footnote *: This wants proof. The edict of Diocletian was
executed in all its right during the rest of his
reign. Euseb.
Hist. Eccl. l viii. c. 13. - G.]
[Footnote 153: Many ages afterwards, Edward J. practised,
with
great success, the same mode of persecution against the
clergy of
England. See
Hume's History of England, vol. ii. p. 300, last
4to edition.]
This edict was
scarcely exhibited to the public view, in the
most conspicuous place of Nicomedia, before it was torn
down by
the hands of a Christian, who expressed at the same time,
by the
bitterest invectives, his contempt as well as abhorrence
for such
impious and tyrannical governors. His offence, according
to the
mildest laws, amounted to treason, and deserved
death. And if it
be true that he was a person of rank and education, those
circumstances could serve only to aggravate his
guilt. He was
burnt, or rather roasted, by a slow fire; and his
executioners,
zealous to revenge the personal insult which had been
offered to
the emperors, exhausted every refinement of cruelty,
without
being able to subdue his patience, or to alter the steady
and
insulting smile which in his dying agonies he still
preserved in
his countenance.
The Christians, though they confessed that his
conduct had not been strictly conformable to the laws of
prudence, admired the divine fervor of his zeal; and the
excessive commendations which they lavished on the memory
of
their hero and martyr, contributed to fix a deep
impression of
terror and hatred in the mind of Diocletian. ^154
[Footnote 154: Lactantius only calls him quidam, et si
non recte,
magno tamer animo, &c., c. 12. Eusebius (l. viii. c.
5) adorns
him with secular honora Neither have condescended to
mention his
name; but the Greeks celebrate his memory under that of
John.
See Tillemont, Memones Ecclesiastiques, tom. v. part ii.
p. 320.]
His fears were
soon alarmed by the view of a danger from
which he very narrowly escaped. Within fifteen days the palace
of Nicomedia, and even the bed-chamber of Diocletian,
were twice
in flames; and though both times they were extinguished
without
any material damage, the singular repetition of the fire
was
justly considered as an evident proof that it had not
been the
effect of chance or negligence. The suspicion naturally fell on
the Christians; and it was suggested, with some degree of
probability, that those desperate fanatics, provoked by
their
present sufferings, and apprehensive of impending
calamities, had
entered into a conspiracy with their faithful brethren,
the
eunuchs of the palace, against the lives of two emperors,
whom
they detested as the irreconcilable enemies of the church
of God.
Jealousy and resentment prevailed in every breast, but
especially
in that of Diocletian.
A great number of persons, distinguished
either by the offices which they had filled, or by the
favor
which they had enjoyed, were thrown into prison. Every mode of
torture was put in practice, and the court, as well as
city, was
polluted with many bloody executions. ^155 But as it was
found
impossible to extort any discovery of this mysterious
transaction, it seems incumbent on us either to presume
the
innocence, or to admire the resolution, of the
sufferers. A few
days afterwards Galerius hastily withdrew himself from
Nicomedia,
declaring, that if he delayed his departure from that
devoted
palace, he should fall a sacrifice to the rage of the
Christians.
The ecclesiastical historians, from whom alone we derive
a
partial and imperfect knowledge of this persecution, are
at a
loss how to account for the fears and dangers of the
emperors.
Two of these writers, a prince and a rhetorician, were
eye-
witnesses of the fire of Nicomedia. The one ascribes it to
lightning, and the divine wrath; the other affirms, that
it was
kindled by the malice of Galerius himself. ^156
[Footnote 155: Lactantius de M. P. c. 13, 14. Potentissimi
quondam Eunuchi necati, per quos Palatium et ipse
constabat.
Eusebius (l. viii. c. 6) mentions the cruel executions of
the
eunuchs, Gorgonius and Dorotheus, and of Anthimius,
bishop of
Nicomedia; and both those writers describe, in a vague
but
tragical manner, the horrid scenes which were acted even
in the
Imperial presence.]
[Footnote 156: See Lactantius, Eusebius, and Constantine,
ad
Coetum Sanctorum, c. xxv.
Eusebius confesses his ignorance of
the cause of this fire.
Note: As the
history of these times affords us no example of
any attempts made by the Christians against their
persecutors, we
have no reason, not the slightest probability, to
attribute to
them the fire in the palace; and the authority of
Constantine and
Lactantius remains to explain it. M. de Tillemont has shown how
they can be reconciled.
Hist. des Empereurs, Vie de Diocletian,
xix. - G. Had it
been done by a Christian, it would probably
have been a fanatic, who would have avowed and gloried in
it.
Tillemont's supposition that the fire was first caused by
lightning, and fed and increased by the malice of
Galerius, seems
singularly improbable. - M.]
As the edict
against the Christians was designed for a
general law of the whole empire, and as Diocletian and
Galerius,
though they might not wait for the consent, were assured
of the
concurrence, of the Western princes, it would appear more
consonant to our ideas of policy, that the governors of
all the
provinces should have received secret instructions to
publish, on
one and the same day, this declaration of war within
their
respective departments.
It was at least to be expected, that the
convenience of the public highways and established posts
would
have enabled the emperors to transmit their orders with
the
utmost despatch from the palace of Nicomedia to the
extremities
of the Roman world; and that they would not have suffered
fifty
days to elapse, before the edict was published in Syria,
and near
four months before it was signified to the cities of
Africa. ^157
This delay may perhaps be imputed to the cautious temper
of
Diocletian, who had yielded a reluctant consent to the
measures
of persecution, and who was desirous of trying the
experiment
under his more immediate eye, before he gave way to the
disorders
and discontent which it must inevitably occasion in the
distant
provinces. At
first, indeed, the magistrates were restrained
from the effusion of blood; but the use of every other
severity
was permitted, and even recommended to their zeal; nor
could the
Christians, though they cheerfully resigned the ornaments
of
their churches, resolve to interrupt their religious
assemblies,
or to deliver their sacred books to the flames. The pious
obstinacy of Felix, an African bishop, appears to have
embarrassed the subordinate ministers of the government. The
curator of his city sent him in chains to the
proconsul. The
proconsul transmitted him to the Praetorian praefect of
Italy;
and Felix, who disdained even to give an evasive answer,
was at
length beheaded at Venusia, in Lucania, a place on which
the
birth of Horace has conferred fame. ^158 This precedent,
and
perhaps some Imperial rescript, which was issued in
consequence
of it, appeared to authorize the governors of provinces,
in
punishing with death the refusal of the Christians to
deliver up
their sacred books.
There were undoubtedly many persons who
embraced this opportunity of obtaining the crown of
martyrdom;
but there were likewise too many who purchased an
ignominious
life, by discovering and betraying the holy Scripture
into the
hands of infidels.
A great number even of bishops and presbyters
acquired, by this criminal compliance, the opprobrious
epithet of
Traditors; and their offence was productive of much
present
scandal and of much future discord in the African church.
^159
[Footnote 157: Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiast. tom. v.
part i. p.
43.]
[Footnote 158: See the Acta Sincera of Ruinart, p. 353;
those of
Felix of Thibara, or Tibiur, appear much less corrupted
than in
the other editions, which afford a lively specimen of
legendary
license.]
[Footnote 159: See the first book of Optatus of Milevis
against
the Donatiste, Paris, 1700, edit. Dupin. He lived under the
reign of Valens.]
The copies as
well as the versions of Scripture, were
already so multiplied in the empire, that the most severe
inquisition could no longer be attended with any fatal
consequences; and even the sacrifice of those volumes,
which, in
every congregation, were preserved for public use,
required the
consent of some treacherous and unworthy Christians. But the
ruin of the churches was easily effected by the authority
of the
government, and by the labor of the Pagans. In some provinces,
however, the magistrates contented themselves with
shutting up
the places of religious worship. In others, they more literally
complied with the terms of the edict; and after taking
away the
doors, the benches, and the pulpit, which they burnt as
it were
in a funeral pile, they completely demolished the
remainder of
the edifice. ^160 It is perhaps to this melancholy occasion
that
we should apply a very remarkable story, which is related
with so
many circumstances of variety and improbability, that it
serves
rather to excite than to satisfy our curiosity. In a
small town
in Phrygia, of whose names as well as situation we are
left
ignorant, it should seem that the magistrates and the
body of the
people had embraced the Christian faith; and as some
resistance
might be apprehended to the execution of the edict, the
governor
of the province was supported by a numerous detachment of
legionaries. On
their approach the citizens threw themselves
into the church, with the resolution either of defending
by arms
that sacred edifice, or of perishing in its ruins. They
indignantly rejected the notice and permission which was
given
them to retire, till the soldiers, provoked by their
obstinate
refusal, set fire to the building on all sides, and
consumed, by
this extraordinary kind of martyrdom, a great number of
Phrygians, with their wives and children. ^161
[Footnote 160: The ancient monuments, published at the
end of
Optatus, p. 261, &c. describe, in a very
circumstantial manner,
the proceedings of the governors in the destruction of
churches.
They made a minute inventory of the plate, &c., which
they found
in them. That of
the church of Cirta, in Numidia, is still
extant. It
consisted of two chalices of gold, and six of silver;
six urns, one kettle, seven lamps, all likewise of
silver;
besides a large quantity of brass utensils, and wearing
apparel.]
[Footnote 161: Lactantius (Institut. Divin. v. 11)
confines the
calamity to the conventiculum, with its
congregation. Eusebius
(viii. 11) extends it to a whole city, and introduces
something
very like a regular siege. His ancient Latin translator,
Rufinus,
adds the important circumstance of the permission given
to the
inhabitants of retiring from thence. As Phrygia reached to the
confines of Isauria, it is possible that the restless
temper of
those independent barbarians may have contributed to this
misfortune.
Note:
Universum populum. Lact. Inst. Div. v.
11. - G.]
Some slight
disturbances, though they were suppressed almost
as soon as excited, in Syria and the frontiers of
Armenia,
afforded the enemies of the church a very plausible
occasion to
insinuate, that those troubles had been secretly fomented
by the
intrigues of the bishops, who had already forgotten their
ostentatious professions of passive and unlimited
obedience. ^162
The resentment, or the fears, of Diocletian, at length
transported him beyond the bounds of moderation, which he
had
hitherto preserved, and he declared, in a series of cruel
edicts,
^! his intention of abolishing the Christian name. By the first
of these edicts, the governors of the provinces were
directed to
apprehend all persons of the ecclesiastical order; and
the
prisons, destined for the vilest criminals, were soon
filled with
a multitude of bishops, presbyters, deacons, readers, and
exorcists. By a
second edict, the magistrates were commanded to
employ every method of severity, which might reclaim them
from
their odious superstition, and oblige them to return to
the
established worship of the gods. This rigorous order was
extended, by a subsequent edict, to the whole body of
Christians,
who were exposed to a violent and general persecution. ^163
Instead of those salutary restraints, which had required
the
direct and solemn testimony of an accuser, it became the
duty as
well as the interest of the Imperial officers to
discover, to
pursue, and to torment the most obnoxious among the
faithful.
Heavy penalties were denounced against all who should
presume to
save a prescribed sectary from the just indignation of
the gods,
and of the emperors.
Yet, notwithstanding the severity of this
law, the virtuous courage of many of the Pagans, in
concealing
their friends or relations, affords an honorable proof,
that the
rage of superstition had not extinguished in their minds
the
sentiments of nature and humanity. ^164
[Footnote 162: Eusebius, l. viii. c. 6. M. de Valois (with some
probability) thinks that he has discovered the Syrian
rebellion
in an oration of Libanius; and that it was a rash attempt
of the
tribune Eugenius, who with only five hundred men seized
Antioch,
and might perhaps allure the Christians by the promise of
religious toleration.
From Eusebius, (l. ix. c. 8,) as well as
from Moses of Chorene, (Hist. Armen. l. ii. 77, &c.,)
it may be
inferred, that Christianity was already introduced into
Armenia.]
[Footnote !: He had already passed them in his first
edict. It
does not appear that resentment or fear had any share in
the new
persecutions: perhaps they originated in superstition,
and a
specious apparent respect for its ministers. The oracle of
Apollo, consulted by Diocletian, gave no answer; and said
that
just men hindered it from speaking. Constantine, who assisted at
the ceremony, affirms, with an oath, that when questioned
about
these men, the high priest named the Christians. "The Emperor
eagerly seized on this answer; and drew against the
innocent a
sword, destined only to punish the guilty: he instantly
issued
edicts, written, if I may use the expression, with a
poniard; and
ordered the judges to employ all their skill to invent
new modes
of punishment.
Euseb. Vit Constant. l. ii c 54." - G.]
[Footnote 163: See Mosheim, p. 938: the text of Eusebius
very
plainly shows that the governors, whose powers were
enlarged, not
restrained, by the new laws, could punish with death the
most
obstinate Christians as an example to their brethren.]
[Footnote 164: Athanasius, p. 833, ap. Tillemont, Mem.
Ecclesiast. tom v part i. 90.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.
Part VII.
Diocletian had
no sooner published his edicts against the
Christians, than, as if he had been desirous of
committing to
other hands the work of persecution, he divested himself
of the
Imperial purple.
The character and situation of his colleagues
and successors sometimes urged them to enforce and
sometimes
inclined them to suspend, the execution of these rigorous
laws;
nor can we acquire a just and distinct idea of this
important
period of ecclesiastical history, unless we separately
consider
the state of Christianity, in the different parts of the
empire,
during the space of ten years, which elapsed between the
first
edicts of Diocletian and the final peace of the church.
The mild and
humane temper of Constantius was averse to the
oppression of any part of his subjects. The principal offices of
his palace were exercised by Christians. He loved their persons,
esteemed their fidelity, and entertained not any dislike
to their
religious principles.
But as long as Constantius remained in the
subordinate station of Caesar, it was not in his power
openly to
reject the edicts of Diocletian, or to disobey the
commands of
Maximian. His
authority contributed, however, to alleviate the
sufferings which he pitied and abhorred. He consented with
reluctance to the ruin of the churches; but he ventured
to
protect the Christians themselves from the fury of the
populace,
and from the rigor of the laws. The provinces of Gaul
(under
which we may probably include those of Britain) were
indebted for
the singular tranquillity which they enjoyed, to the
gentle
interposition of their sovereign. ^165 But Datianus, the
president or governor of Spain, actuated either by zeal
or
policy, chose rather to execute the public edicts of the
emperors, than to understand the secret intentions of
Constantius; and it can scarcely be doubted, that his
provincial
administration was stained with the blood of a few martyrs.
^166
The elevation of Constantius to the supreme and
independent
dignity of Augustus, gave a free scope to the exercise of
his
virtues, and the shortness of his reign did not prevent
him from
establishing a system of toleration, of which he left the
precept
and the example to his son Constantine. His fortunate son, from
the first moment of his accession, declaring himself the
protector of the church, at length deserved the
appellation of
the first emperor who publicly professed and established
the
Christian religion.
The motives of his conversion, as they may
variously be deduced from benevolence, from policy, from
conviction, or from remorse, and the progress of the
revolution,
which, under his powerful influence and that of his sons,
rendered Christianity the reigning religion of the Roman
empire,
will form a very interesting and important chapter in the
present
volume of this history.
At present it may be sufficient to
observe, that every victory of Constantine was productive
of some
relief or benefit to the church.
[Footnote 165: Eusebius, l. viii. c. 13. Lactantius de M. P. c.
15. Dodwell (Dissertat. Cyprian. xi. 75) represents them
as
inconsistent with each other. But the former evidently
speaks of
Constantius in the station of Caesar, and the latter of
the same
prince in the rank of Augustus.]
[Footnote 166: Datianus is mentioned, in Gruter's
Inscriptions,
as having determined the limits between the territories
of Pax
Julia, and those of Ebora, both cities in the southern
part of
Lusitania. If we
recollect the neighborhood of those places to
Cape St. Vincent, we may suspect that the celebrated
deacon and
martyr of that name had been inaccurately assigned by
Prudentius,
&c., to Saragossa, or Valentia. See the pompous history of his
sufferings, in the Memoires de Tillemont, tom. v. part
ii. p.
58-85. Some
critics are of opinion, that the department of
Constantius, as Caesar, did not include Spain, which
still
continued under the immediate jurisdiction of Maximian.]
The provinces
of Italy and Africa experienced a short but
violent persecution.
The rigorous edicts of Diocletian were
strictly and cheerfully executed by his associate
Maximian, who
had long hated the Christians, and who delighted in acts
of blood
and violence. In
the autumn of the first year of the
persecution, the two emperors met at Rome to celebrate
their
triumph; several oppressive laws appear to have issued
from their
secret consultations, and the diligence of the
magistrates was
animated by the presence of their sovereigns., After
Diocletian
had divested himself of the purple, Italy and Africa were
administered under the name of Severus, and were exposed,
without
defence, to the implacable resentment of his master
Galerius.
Among the martyrs of Rome, Adauctus deserves the notice
of
posterity. He was
of a noble family in Italy, and had raised
himself, through the successive honors of the palace, to
the
important office of treasurer of the private Jemesnes.
Adauctus
is the more remarkable for being the only person of rank
and
distinction who appears to have suffered death, during
the whole
course of this general persecution. ^167
[Footnote 167: Eusebius, l. viii. c. 11. Gruter, Inscrip. p.
1171, No. 18. Rufinus has mistaken the office of
Adauctus, as
well as the place of his martyrdom.
Note: M.
Guizot suggests the powerful cunuchs of the palace.
Dorotheus, Gorgonius, and Andrew, admitted by Gibbon
himself to
have been put to death, p. 66.]
The revolt of
Maxentius immediately restored peace to the
churches of Italy and Africa; and the same tyrant who
oppressed
every other class of his subjects, showed himself just,
humane,
and even partial, towards the afflicted Christians. He depended
on their gratitude and affection, and very naturally
presumed,
that the injuries which they had suffered, and the
dangers which
they still apprehended from his most inveterate enemy,
would
secure the fidelity of a party already considerable by
their
numbers and opulence. ^168 Even the conduct of Maxentius
towards
the bishops of Rome and Carthage may be considered as the
proof
of his toleration, since it is probable that the most
orthodox
princes would adopt the same measures with regard to
their
established clergy.
Marcellus, the former of these prelates, had
thrown the capital into confusion, by the severe penance
which he
imposed on a great number of Christians, who, during the
late
persecution, had renounced or dissembled their
religion. The
rage of faction broke out in frequent and violent
seditions; the
blood of the faithful was shed by each other's hands, and
the
exile of Marcellus, whose prudence seems to have been
less
eminent than his zeal, was found to be the only measure
capable
of restoring peace to the distracted church of Rome. ^169
The
behavior of Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, appears to
have been
still more reprehensible.
A deacon of that city had published a
libel against the emperor. The offender took refuge in the
episcopal palace; and though it was somewhat early to
advance any
claims of ecclesiastical immunities, the bishop refused
to
deliver him up to the officers of justice. For this treasonable
resistance, Mensurius was summoned to court, and instead
of
receiving a legal sentence of death or banishment, he was
permitted, after a short examination, to return to his
diocese.
^170 Such was the happy condition of the Christian
subjects of
Maxentius, that whenever they were desirous of procuring
for
their own use any bodies of martyrs, they were obliged to
purchase them from the most distant provinces of the East. A
story is related of Aglae, a Roman lady, descended from a
consular family, and possessed of so ample an estate,
that it
required the management of seventy-three stewards. Among these
Boniface was the favorite of his mistress; and as Aglae
mixed
love with devotion, it is reported that he was admitted
to share
her bed. Her
fortune enabled her to gratify the pious desire of
obtaining some sacred relics from the East. She intrusted
Boniface with a considerable sum of gold, and a large
quantity of
aromatics; and her lover, attended by twelve horsemen and
three
covered chariots, undertook a remote pilgrimage, as far
as Tarsus
in Cilicia. ^171
[Footnote 168: Eusebius, l. viii. c. 14. But as Maxentius was
vanquished by Constantine, it suited the purpose of
Lactantius to
place his death among those of the persecutors.
Note: M.
Guizot directly contradicts this statement of
Gibbon, and appeals to Eusebius. Maxentius, who assumed the
power in Italy, pretended at first to be a Christian, to
gain the
favor of the Roman people; he ordered his ministers to
cease to
persecute the Christians, affecting a hypocritical piety,
in
order to appear more mild than his predecessors; but his
actions
soon proved that he was very different from what they had
at
first hoped." The actions of Maxentius were those of
a cruel
tyrant,but not those of a persecutor: the Christians,
like the
rest of his subjects, suffered from his vices, but they
were not
oppressed as a sect.
Christian females were exposed to his
lusts, as well as to the brutal violence of his colleague
Maximian, but they were not selected as Christians. - M.]
[Footnote 169: The epitaph of Marcellus is to be found in
Gruter,
Inscrip. p 1172, No. 3, and it contains all that we know
of his
history. Marcellinus and Marcellus, whose names follow in
the
list of popes, are supposed by many critics to be
different
persons; but the learned Abbe de Longuerue was convinced
that
they were one and the same.
Veridicus
rector lapsis quia crimina flere
Praedixit miseris,
fuit omnibus hostis amarus.
Hinc furor,
hinc odium; sequitur discordia, lites,
Seditio,
caedes; solvuntur foedera pacis.
Crimen ob
alterius, Christum qui in pace negavit
Finibus
expulsus patriae est feritate Tyranni.
Haec breviter
Damasus voluit comperta referre:
Marcelli
populus meritum cognoscere posset.
We may observe that Damasus was made Bishop of Rome, A.
D. 366.]
[Footnote 170: Optatus contr. Donatist. l. i. c. 17, 18.
Note: The
words of Optatus are, Profectus (Roman) causam
dixit; jussus con reverti Carthaginem; perhaps, in
pleading his
cause, he exculpated himself, since he received an order
to
return to Carthage. - G.]
[Footnote 171: The Acts of the Passion of St. Boniface,
which
abound in miracles and declamation, are published by
Ruinart, (p.
283 - 291,) both in Greek and Latin, from the authority
of very
ancient manuscripts.
Note: We are
ignorant whether Aglae and Boniface were
Christians at the time of their unlawful connection. See
Tillemont. Mem,
Eccles. Note on the Persecution of
Domitian,
tom. v. note 82.
M. de Tillemont proves also that the history is
doubtful. - G.
Sir D.
Dalrymple (Lord Hailes) calls the story of Aglae and
Boniface as of equal authority with our popular histories
of
Whittington and Hickathrift. Christian Antiquities, ii.
64. - M.]
The sanguinary
temper of Galerius, the first and principal
author of the persecution, was formidable to those
Christians
whom their misfortunes had placed within the limits of
his
dominions; and it may fairly be presumed that many
persons of a
middle rank, who were not confined by the chains either
of wealth
or of poverty, very frequently deserted their native
country, and
sought a refuge in the milder climate of the West. ^! As
long as
he commanded only the armies and provinces of Illyricum,
he could
with difficulty either find or make a considerable number
of
martyrs, in a warlike country, which had entertained the
missionaries of the gospel with more coldness and
reluctance than
any other part of the empire. ^172 But when Galerius had
obtained
the supreme power, and the government of the East, he
indulged in
their fullest extent his zeal and cruelty, not only in
the
provinces of Thrace and Asia, which acknowledged his
immediate
jurisdiction, but in those of Syria, Palestine, and
Egypt, where
Maximin gratified his own inclination, by yielding a
rigorous
obedience to the stern commands of his benefactor. ^173
The
frequent disappointments of his ambitious views, the
experience
of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflections
which a
lingering and painful distemper suggested to the mind of
Galerius, at length convinced him that the most violent
efforts
of despotism are insufficient to extirpate a whole
people, or to
subdue their religious prejudices. Desirous of repairing the
mischief that he had occasioned, he published in his own
name,
and in those of Licinius and Constantine, a general
edict, which,
after a pompous recital of the Imperial titles, proceeded
in the
following manner: -
[Footnote !: A little after this, Christianity was
propagated to
the north of the Roman provinces, among the tribes of
Germany: a
multitude of Christians, forced by the persecutions of
the
Emperors to take refuge among the Barbarians, were
received with
kindness. Euseb.
de Vit. Constant. ii. 53. Semler Select. cap.
H. E. p. 115. The
Goths owed their first knowledge of
Christianity to a young girl, a prisoner of war; she
continued in
the midst of them her exercises of piety; she fasted,
prayed, and
praised God day and night. When she was asked what good would
come of so much painful trouble she answered, "It is
thus that
Christ, the Son of God, is to be honored." Sozomen,
ii. c. 6. -
G.]
[Footnote 172: During the four first centuries, there
exist few
traces of either bishops or bishoprics in the western
Illyricum.
It has been thought probable that the primate of Milan
extended
his jurisdiction over Sirmium, the capital of that great
province. See the
Geographia Sacra of Charles de St. Paul, p.
68-76, with the observations of Lucas Holstenius.]
[Footnote 173: The viiith book of Eusebius, as well as
the
supplement concerning the martyrs of Palestine,
principally
relate to the persecution of Galerius and Maximin. The general
lamentations with which Lactantius opens the vth book of
his
Divine Institutions allude to their cruelty.]
"Among
the important cares which have occupied our mind for
the utility and preservation of the empire, it was our
intention
to correct and reestablish all things according to the
ancient
laws and public discipline of the Romans. We were particularly
desirous of reclaiming into the way of reason and nature,
the
deluded Christians who had renounced the religion and
ceremonies
instituted by their fathers; and presumptuously despising
the
practice of antiquity, had invented extravagant laws and
opinions, according to the dictates of their fancy, and
had
collected a various society from the different provinces
of our
empire. The
edicts, which we have published to enforce the
worship of the gods, having exposed many of the
Christians to
danger and distress, many having suffered death, and many
more,
who still persist in their impious folly, being left
destitute of
any public exercise of religion, we are disposed to
extend to
those unhappy men the effects of our wonted
clemency. We permit
them therefore freely to profess their private opinions,
and to
assemble in their conventicles without fear or
molestation,
provided always that they preserve a due respect to the
established laws and government. By another rescript we shall
signify our intentions to the judges and magistrates; and
we hope
that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer
up their
prayers to the Deity whom they adore, for our safety and
prosperity for their own, and for that of the
republic." ^174 It
is not usually in the language of edicts and manifestos
that we
should search for the real character or the secret
motives of
princes; but as these were the words of a dying emperor,
his
situation, perhaps, may be admitted as a pledge of his
sincerity.
[Footnote 174: Eusebius (l. viii. c. 17) has given us a
Greek
version, and Lactantius (de M. P. c. 34) the Latin
original, of
this memorable edict. Neither of these writers seems to
recollect
how directly it contradicts whatever they have just
affirmed of
the remorse and repentance of Galerius.
Note: But
Gibbon has answered this by his just observation,
that it is not in the language of edicts and manifestos
that we
should search * * for the secre motives of princes. - M.]
When Galerius
subscribed this edict of toleration, he was
well assured that Licinius would readily comply with the
inclinations of his friend and benefactor, and that any
measures
in favor of the Christians would obtain the approbation
of
Constantine. But
the emperor would not venture to insert in the
preamble the name of Maximin, whose consent was of the
greatest
importance, and who succeeded a few days afterwards to
the
provinces of Asia. In the first six months, however, of
his new
reign, Maximin affected to adopt the prudent counsels of
his
predecessor; and though he never condescended to secure
the
tranquillity of the church by a public edict, Sabinus,
his
Praetorian praefect, addressed a circular letter to all
the
governors and magistrates of the provinces, expatiating
on the
Imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincible obstinacy
of the
Christians, and directing the officers of justice to
cease their
ineffectual prosecutions, and to connive at the secret
assemblies
of those enthusiasts.
In consequence of these orders, great
numbers of Christians were released from prison, or
delivered
from the mines.
The confessors, singing hymns of triumph,
returned into their own countries; and those who had
yielded to
the violence of the tempest, solicited with tears of
repentance
their readmission into the bosom of the church. ^175
[Footnote 175: Eusebius, l. ix. c. 1. He inserts the epistle of
the praefect.]
But this
treacherous calm was of short duration; nor could
the Christians of the East place any confidence in the
character
of their sovereign.
Cruelty and superstition were the ruling
passions of the soul of Maximin. The former suggested the means,
the latter pointed out the objects of persecution. The emperor
was devoted to the worship of the gods, to the study of
magic,
and to the belief of oracles. The prophets or philosophers, whom
he revered as the favorites of Heaven, were frequently
raised to
the government of provinces, and admitted into his most
secret
councils. They
easily convinced him that the Christians had been
indebted for their victories to their regular discipline,
and
that the weakness of polytheism had principally flowed
from a
want of union and subordination among the ministers of
religion.
A system of government was therefore instituted, which
was
evidently copied from the policy of the church. In all the great
cities of the empire, the temples were repaired and
beautified by
the order of Maximin, and the officiating priests of the
various
deities were subjected to the authority of a superior
pontiff
destined to oppose the bishop, and to promote the cause
of
paganism. These
pontiffs acknowledged, in their turn, the
supreme jurisdiction of the metropolitans or high priests
of the
province, who acted as the immediate vicegerents of the
emperor
himself. A white
robe was the ensign of their dignity; and these
new prelates were carefully selected from the most noble
and
opulent families.
By the influence of the magistrates, and of
the sacerdotal order, a great number of dutiful addresses
were
obtained, particularly from the cities of Nicomedia,
Antioch, and
Tyre, which artfully represented the well-known
intentions of the
court as the general sense of the people; solicited the
emperor
to consult the laws of justice rather than the dictates
of his
clemency; expressed their abhorrence of the Christians,
and
humbly prayed that those impious sectaries might at least
be
excluded from the limits of their respective
territories. The
answer of Maximin to the address which he obtained from
the
citizens of Tyre is still extant. He praises their zeal and
devotion in terms of the highest satisfaction, descants
on the
obstinate impiety of the Christians, and betrays, by the
readiness with which he consents to their banishment,
that he
considered himself as receiving, rather than as
conferring, an
obligation. The
priests as well as the magistrates were
empowered to enforce the execution of his edicts, which
were
engraved on tables of brass; and though it was recommended
to
them to avoid the effusion of blood, the most cruel and
ignominious punishments were inflicted on the refractory
Christians. ^176
[Footnote 176: See Eusebius, l. viii. c. 14, l. ix. c. 2
- 8.
Lactantius de M. P. c. 36. These writers agree in representing
the arts of Maximin; but the former relates the execution
of
several martyrs, while the latter expressly affirms,
occidi
servos Dei vetuit.
Note: It is
easy to reconcile them; it is sufficient to
quote the entire text of Lactantius: Nam cum clementiam
specie
tenus profiteretur, occidi servos Dei vetuit, debilitari
jussit.
Itaque confessoribus effodiebantur oculi, amputabantur
manus,
nares vel auriculae desecabantur. Haec ille moliens
Constantini
litteris deterretur. Dissimulavit ergo, et tamen, si quis
inciderit. mari
occulte mergebatur. This detail of torments
inflicted on the Christians easily reconciles Lactantius
and
Eusebius. Those
who died in consequence of their tortures, those
who were plunged into the sea, might well pass for martyrs. The
mutilation of the words of Lactantius has alone given
rise to the
apparent contradiction. - G.
Eusebius. ch.
vi., relates the public martyrdom of the aged
bishop of Emesa, with two others, who were thrown to the
wild
beasts, the beheading of Peter, bishop of Alexandria,
with
several others, and the death of Lucian, presbyter of
Antioch,
who was carried to Numidia, and put to death in prison.
The
contradiction is direct and undeniable, for although
Eusebius may
have misplaced the former martyrdoms, it may be doubted
whether
the authority of Maximin extended to Nicomedia till after
the
death of Galerius.
The last edict of toleration issued by
Maximin and published by Eusebius himself, Eccl. Hist.
ix. 9.
confirms the statement of Lactantius. - M.]
The Asiatic
Christians had every thing to dread from the
severity of a bigoted monarch who prepared his measures
of
violence with such deliberate policy. But a few months had
scarcely elapsed before the edicts published by the two
Western
emperors obliged Maximin to suspend the prosecution of
his
designs: the civil war which he so rashly undertook
against
Licinius employed all his attention; and the defeat and
death of
Maximin soon delivered the church from the last and most
implacable of her enemies. ^177
[Footnote 177: A few days before his death, he published
a very
ample edict of toleration, in which he imputes all the
severities
which the Christians suffered to the judges and
governors, who
had misunderstood his intentions.See the edict of Eusebius,
l.
ix. c. 10.]
In this
general view of the persecution, which was first
authorized by the edicts of Diocletian, I have purposely
refrained from describing the particular sufferings and
deaths of
the Christian martyrs.
It would have been an easy task, from the
history of Eusebius, from the declamations of Lactantius,
and
from the most ancient acts, to collect a long series of
horrid
and disgustful pictures, and to fill many pages with
racks and
scourges, with iron hooks and red-hot beds, and with all
the
variety of tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts,
and more
savage executioners, could inflict upon the human
body. These
melancholy scenes might be enlivened by a crowd of
visions and
miracles destined either to delay the death, to celebrate
the
triumph, or to discover the relics of those canonized
saints who
suffered for the name of Christ. But I cannot determine what I
ought to transcribe, till I am satisfied how much I ought
to
believe. The
gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius
himself, indirectly confesses, that he has related
whatever might
redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that
could
tend to the disgrace, of religion. ^178 Such an
acknowledgment
will naturally excite a suspicion that a writer who has
so openly
violated one of the fundamental laws of history, has not
paid a
very strict regard to the observance of the other; and
the
suspicion will derive additional credit from the
character of
Eusebius, ^* which was less tinctured with credulity, and
more
practised in the arts of courts, than that of almost any
of his
contemporaries. On
some particular occasions, when the
magistrates were exasperated by some personal motives of
interest
or resentment, the rules of prudence, and perhaps of
decency, to
overturn the altars, to pour out imprecations against the
emperors, or to strike the judge as he sat on his
tribunal, it
may be presumed, that every mode of torture which cruelty
could
invent, or constancy could endure, was exhausted on those
devoted
victims. ^179 Two circumstances, however, have been
unwarily
mentioned, which insinuate that the general treatment of
the
Christians, who had been apprehended by the officers of
justice,
was less intolerable than it is usually imagined to have
been.
1. The confessors who were condemned to work in the mines
were
permitted by the humanity or the negligence of their
keepers to
build chapels, and freely to profess their religion in
the midst
of those dreary habitations. ^180 2. The bishops were
obliged to
check and to censure the forward zeal of the Christians,
who
voluntarily threw themselves into the hands of the
magistrates.
Some of these were persons oppressed by poverty and
debts, who
blindly sought to terminate a miserable existence by a
glorious
death. Others were
allured by the hope that a short confinement
would expiate the sins of a whole life; and others again
were
actuated by the less honorable motive of deriving a
plentiful
subsistence, and perhaps a considerable profit, from the
alms
which the charity of the faithful bestowed on the
prisoners. ^181
After the church had triumphed over all her enemies, the
interest
as well as vanity of the captives prompted them to
magnify the
merit of their respective sufferings. A convenient distance of
time or place gave an ample scope to the progress of
fiction; and
the frequent instances which might be alleged of holy
martyrs,
whose wounds had been instantly healed, whose strength
had been
renewed, and whose lost members had miraculously been
restored,
were extremely convenient for the purpose of removing
every
difficulty, and of silencing every objection. The most
extravagant legends, as they conduced to the honor of the
church,
were applauded by the credulous multitude, countenanced
by the
power of the clergy, and attested by the suspicious
evidence of
ecclesiastical history.
[Footnote 178: Such is the fair deduction from two
remarkable
passages in Eusebius, l. viii. c. 2, and de Martyr. Palestin. c.
12. The prudence
of the historian has exposed his own character
to censure and suspicion.
It was well known that he himself had
been thrown into prison; and it was suggested that he had
purchased his deliverance by some dishonorable
compliance. The
reproach was urged in his lifetime, and even in his
presence, at
the council of Tyre.
See Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques,
tom. viii. part i. p. 67.]
[Footnote *: Historical criticism does not consist in
rejecting
indiscriminately all the facts which do not agree with a
particular system, as Gibbon does in this chapter, in
which,
except at the last extremity, he will not consent to
believe a
martyrdom.
Authorities are to be weighed, not excluded from
examination. Now,
the Pagan historians justify in many places
the detail which have been transmitted to us by the historians
of
the church, concerning the tortures endured by the
Christians.
Celsus reproaches the Christians with holding their
assemblies in
secret, on account of the fear inspired by their
sufferings, "for
when you are arrested," he says, "you are
dragged to punishment:
and, before you are put to death, you have to suffer all
kinds of
tortures." Origen cont. Cels. l. i. ii. vi. viii.
passing.
Libanius, the panegyrist of Julian, says, while speaking
of the
Christians.
Those who
followed a corrupt religion were in continual
apprehensions; they feared lest Julian should invent
tortures
still more refined than those to which they had been
exposed
before, as mutilation, burning alive, &c.; for the
emperors had
inflicted upon them all these barbarities." Lib.
Parent in
Julian. ap. Fab. Bib. Graec. No. 9, No. 58, p. 283 - G.]
[Footnote *: This sentence of Gibbon has given rise to
several
learned dissertation: Moller, de Fide Eusebii Caesar,
&c.,
Havniae, 1813.
Danzius, de Eusebio Caes. Hist. Eccl.
Scriptore,
ejusque tide historica recte aestimanda, &c., Jenae,
1815.
Kestner Commentatio de Eusebii Hist. Eccles. conditoris
auctoritate et fide, &c. See also Reuterdahl, de Fontibus
Historiae Eccles. Eusebianae, Lond. Goth., 1826. Gibbon's
inference may appear stronger than the text will warrant,
yet it
is difficult, after reading the passages, to dismiss all
suspicion of partiality from the mind. - M.]
[Footnote 179: The ancient, and perhaps authentic,
account of the
sufferings of Tarachus and his companions, (Acta Sincera
Ruinart,
p. 419 - 448,) is filled with strong expressions of
resentment
and contempt, which could not fail of irritating the
magistrate.
The behavior of Aedesius to Hierocles, praefect of Egypt,
was
still more extraordinary. Euseb. de Martyr. Palestin. c.
5.
Note: M.
Guizot states, that the acts of Tarachus and his
companion contain nothing that appears dictated by
violent
feelings, (sentiment outre.) Nothing can be more painful
than the
constant attempt of Gibbon throughout this discussion, to
find
some flaw in the virtue and heroism of the martyrs, some
extenuation for the cruelty of the persecutors. But truth must
not be sacrificed even to well-grounded moral
indignation.
Though the language of these martyrs is in great part
that of
calm de fiance, of noble firmness, yet there are many
expressions
which betray "resentment and contempt."
"Children of Satan,
worshippers of Devils," is their common appellation
of the
heathen. One of them calls the judge another, one curses,
and
declares that he will curse the Emperors, as pestilential
and
bloodthirsty tyrants, whom God will soon visit in his
wrath. On
the other hand, though at first they speak the milder
language of
persuasion, the cold barbarity of the judges and officers
might
surely have called forth one sentence of abhorrence from
Gibbon.
On the first unsatisfactory answer, "Break his
jaw," is the order
of the judge. They
direct and witness the most excruciating
tortures; the people, as M. Guizot observers, were so
much
revolted by the cruelty of Maximus that when the martyrs
appeared
in the amphitheatre, fear seized on all hearts, and
general
murmurs against the unjust judge rank through the
assembly. It
is singular, at least, that Gibbon should have quoted
"as
probably authentic," acts so much embellished with
miracle as
these of Tarachus are, particularly towards the end. - M.
Note: Scarcely
were the authorities informed of this, than
the president of the province, a man, says Eusebius,
harsh and
cruel, banished the confessors, some to Cyprus, others to
different parts of Palestine, and ordered them to be
tormented by
being set to the most painful labors. Four of them, whom he
required to abjure their faith and refused, were burnt
alive.
Euseb. de Mart. Palest. c. xiii. - G. Two of these were bishops;
a fifth, Silvanus, bishop of Gaza, was the last martyr;
another,
named John was blinded, but used to officiate, and recite
from
memory long passages of the sacred writings - M.]
[Footnote 180: Euseb. de Martyr. Palestin. c. 13.]
[Footnote 181: Augustin. Collat. Carthagin. Dei, iii. c.
13, ap.
Tillanant, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. v. part i. p.
46. The
controversy with the Donatists, has reflected some,
though
perhaps a partial, light on the history of the African
church.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.
Part VIII.
The vague
descriptions of exile and imprisonment, of pain
and torture, are so easily exaggerated or softened by the
pencil
of an artful orator, ^* that we are naturally induced to
inquire
into a fact of a more distinct and stubborn kind; the
number of
persons who suffered death in consequence of the edicts
published
by Diocletian, his associates, and his successors. The
recent
legendaries record whole armies and cities, which were at
once
swept away by the undistinguishing rage of
persecution. The more
ancient writers content themselves with pouring out a
liberal
effusion of loose and tragical invectives, without
condescending
to ascertain the precise number of those persons who were
permitted to seal with their blood their belief of the
gospel.
From the history of Eusebius, it may, however, be
collected, that
only nine bishops were punished with death; and we are
assured,
by his particular enumeration of the martyrs of
Palestine, that
no more than ninety-two Christians were entitled to that
honorable appellation. ^182 ^! As we are unacquainted
with the
degree of episcopal zeal and courage which prevailed at
that
time, it is not in our power to draw any useful inferences
from
the former of these facts: but the latter may serve to
justify a
very important and probable conclusion. According to the
distribution of Roman provinces, Palestine may be
considered as
the sixteenth part of the Eastern empire: ^183 and since
there
were some governors, who from a real or affected clemency
had
preserved their hands unstained with the blood of the
faithful,
^184 it is reasonable to believe, that the country which
had
given birth to Christianity, produced at least the
sixteenth part
of the martyrs who suffered death within the dominions of
Galerius and Maximin; the whole might consequently amount
to
about fifteen hundred, a number which, if it is equally
divided
between the ten years of the persecution, will allow an
annual
consumption of one hundred and fifty martyrs. Allotting the same
proportion to the provinces of Italy, Africa, and perhaps
Spain,
where, at the end of two or three years, the rigor of the
penal
laws was either suspended or abolished, the multitude of
Christians in the Roman empire, on whom a capital
punishment was
inflicted by a judicia, sentence, will be reduced to
somewhat
less than two thousand persons. Since it cannot be doubted that
the Christians were more numerous, and their enemies more
exasperated, in the time of Diocletian, than they had
ever been
in any former persecution, this probable and moderate
computation
may teach us to estimate the number of primitive saints
and
martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the important
purpose of
introducing Christianity into the world.
[Footnote *: Perhaps there never was an instance of an
author
committing so deliberately the fault which he reprobates
so
strongly in others.
What is the dexterous management of the more
inartificial historians of Christianity, in exaggerating
the
numbers of the martyrs, compared to the unfair address
with which
Gibbon here quietly dismisses from the account all the
horrible
and excruciating tortures which fell short of death? The reader
may refer to the xiith chapter (book viii.) of Eusebius
for the
description and for the scenes of these tortures. - M.]
[Footnote 182: Eusebius de Martyr. Palestin. c. 13. He closes
his narration by assuring us that these were the
martyrdoms
inflicted in Palestine, during the whole course of the
persecution. The
9th chapter of his viiith book, which relates
to the province of Thebais in Egypt, may seem to
contradict our
moderate computation; but it will only lead us to admire
the
artful management of the historian. Choosing for the scene of
the most exquisite cruelty the most remote and
sequestered
country of the Roman empire, he relates that in Thebais
from ten
to one hundred persons had frequently suffered martyrdom
in the
same day. But when
he proceeds to mention his own journey into
Egypt, his language insensibly becomes more cautious and
moderate. Instead
of a large, but definite number, he speaks of
many Christians, and most artfully selects two ambiguous
words,
which may signify either what he had seen, or what he had
heard;
either the expectation, or the execution of the
punishment.
Having thus provided a secure evasion, he commits the
equivocal
passage to his readers and translators; justly conceiving
that
their piety would induce them to prefer the most
favorable sense.
There was perhaps some malice in the remark of Theodorus
Metochita, that all who, like Eusebius, had been
conversant with
the Egyptians, delighted in an obscure and intricate
style. (See
Valesius ad loc.)
[Footnote !: This calculation is made from the martyrs,
of whom
Eusebius speaks by name; but he recognizes a much greater
number.
Thus the ninth and tenth chapters of his work are
entitled, "Of
Antoninus, Zebinus, Germanus, and other martyrs; of Peter
the
monk. of Asclepius
the Maroionite, and other martyrs." [Are
these vague contents of chapters very good authority? -
M.]
Speaking of those who suffered under Diocletian, he says,
"I will
only relate the death of one of these, from which, the
reader may
divine what befell the rest." Hist. Eccl. viii.
6. [This relates
only to the martyrs in the royal household. - M.] Dodwell
had
made, before Gibbon, this calculation and these
objections; but
Ruinart (Act. Mart. Pref p. 27, et seq.) has answered him
in a
peremptory manner: Nobis constat Eusebium in historia
infinitos
passim martyres admisisse. quamvis revera paucorum nomina
recensuerit. Nec
alium Eusebii interpretem quam ipsummet
Eusebium proferimus, qui (l. iii. c. 33) ait sub Trajano
plurimosa ex fidelibus martyrii certamen subiisse (l. v.
init.)
sub Antonino et Vero innumerabiles prope martyres per
universum
orbem enituisse affirmat.
(L. vi. c. 1.) Severum persecutionem
concitasse refert, in qua per omnes ubique locorum
Ecclesias, ab
athletis pro pietate certantibus, illustria confecta
fuerunt
martyria. Sic de
Decii, sic de Valeriani, persecutionibus
loquitur, quae an Dodwelli faveant conjectionibus judicet
aequus
lector. Even in the persecutions which Gibbon has
represented as
much more mild than that of Diocletian, the number of
martyrs
appears much greater than that to which he limits the
martyrs of
the latter: and this number is attested by incontestable
monuments. I will
quote but one example. We find among the
letters of St. Cyprian one from Lucianus to Celerinus,
written
from the depth of a prison, in which Lucianus names
seventeen of
his brethren dead, some in the quarries, some in the
midst of
tortures some of starvation in prison. Jussi sumus (he
proceeds)
secundum prae ceptum imperatoris, fame et siti necari, et
reclusi
sumus in duabus cellis, ta ut nos afficerent fame et siti
et
ignis vapore. - G.]
[Footnote 183: When Palestine was divided into three, the
praefecture of the East contained forty-eight
provinces. As the
ancient distinctions of nations were long since
abolished, the
Romans distributed the provinces according to a general
proportion of their extent and opulence.]
[Footnote 184: Ut gloriari possint nullam se innocentium
poremisse, nam et ipse audivi aloquos gloriantes, quia
administratio sua, in hac paris merit incruenta. Lactant.
Institur. Divin v. 11.]
We shall
conclude this chapter by a melancholy truth, which
obtrudes itself on the reluctant mind; that even
admitting,
without hesitation or inquiry, all that history has
recorded, or
devotion has feigned, on the subject of martyrdoms, it must
still
be acknowledged, that the Christians, in the course of
their
intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater
severities on
each other, than they had experienced from the zeal of
infidels.
During the ages of ignorance which followed the subversion
of the
Roman empire in the West, the bishops of the Imperial
city
extended their dominion over the laity as well as clergy
of the
Latin church. The
fabric of superstition which they had erected,
and which might long have defied the feeble efforts of reason,
was at length assaulted by a crowd of daring fanatics,
who from
the twelfth to the sixteenth century assumed the popular
character of reformers. The church of Rome defended by
violence
the empire which she had acquired by fraud; a system of
peace and
benevolence was soon disgraced by proscriptions, war,
massacres,
and the institution of the holy office. And as the reformers
were animated by the love of civil as well as of
religious
freedom, the Catholic princes connected their own
interest with
that of the clergy, and enforced by fire and the sword
the
terrors of spiritual censures. In the Netherlands alone, more
than one hundred thousand of the subjects of Charles V.
are said
to have suffered by the hand of the executioner; and this
extraordinary number is attested by Grotius, ^185 a man
of genius
and learning, who preserved his moderation amidst the
fury of
contending sects, and who composed the annals of his own
age and
country, at a time when the invention of printing had
facilitated
the means of intelligence, and increased the danger of
detection.
If we are obliged to submit our belief to the authority
of
Grotius, it must be allowed, that the number of
Protestants, who
were executed in a single province and a single reign,
far
exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of
three
centuries, and of the Roman empire. But if the
improbability of
the fact itself should prevail over the weight of
evidence; if
Grotius should be convicted of exaggerating the merit and
sufferings of the Reformers; ^186 we shall be naturally
led to
inquire what confidence can be placed in the doubtful and
imperfect monuments of ancient credulity; what degree of
credit
can be assigned to a courtly bishop, and a passionate
declaimer,
^* who, under the protection of Constantine, enjoyed the
exclusive privilege of recording the persecutions
inflicted on
the Christians by the vanquished rivals or disregarded
predecessors of their gracious sovereign.
[Footnote 185: Grot. Annal. de Rebus Belgicis, l. i. p.
12, edit.
fol.]
[Footnote 186: Fra Paola (Istoria del Concilio
Tridentino, l.
iii.) reduces the number of the Belgic martyrs to
50,000. In
learning and moderation Fra Paola was not inferior to
Grotius.
The priority of time gives some advantage to the evidence
of the
former, which he loses, on the other hand, by the
distance of
Venice from the Netherlands.]
[Footnote *: Eusebius and the author of the Treatise de
Mortibus
Persecutorum. It is deeply to be regretted that the
history of
this period rest so much on the loose and, it must be
admitted,
by no means scrupulous authority of Eusebius. Ecclesiastical
history is a solemn and melancholy lesson that the best,
even the
most sacred, cause will eventually the least departure
from
truth! - M.]
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.
Part I.
Foundation Of
Constantinople. - Political System
Constantine, And His Successors. - Military Discipline. -
The
Palace. - The Finances.
The
unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the
greatness, and the last captive who adorned the triumph,
of
Constantine. After
a tranquil and prosperous reign, the
conquerer bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the
Roman
empire; a new capital, a new policy, and a new religion;
and the
innovations which he established have been embraced and
consecrated by succeeding generations. The age of the great
Constantine and his sons is filled with important events;
but the
historian must be oppressed by their number and variety,
unless
he diligently separates from each other the scenes which
are
connected only by the order of time. He will describe the
political institutions that gave strength and stability
to the
empire, before he proceeds to relate the wars and
revolutions
which hastened its decline. He will adopt the division unknown
to the ancients of civil and ecclesiastical affairs: the
victory
of the Christians, and their intestine discord, will
supply
copious and distinct materials both for edification and
for
scandal.
After the
defeat and abdication of Licinius, his victorious
rival proceeded to lay the foundations of a city destined
to
reign in future times, the mistress of the East, and to
survive
the empire and religion of Constantine. The motives, whether of
pride or of policy, which first induced Diocletian to
withdraw
himself from the ancient seat of government, had acquired
additional weight by the example of his successors, and
the
habits of forty years.
Rome was insensibly confounded with the
dependent kingdoms which had once acknowledged her
supremacy; and
the country of the Caesars was viewed with cold
indifference by a
martial prince, born in the neighborhood of the Danube,
educated
in the courts and armies of Asia, and invested with the
purple by
the legions of Britain.
The Italians, who had received
Constantine as their deliverer, submissively obeyed the
edicts
which he sometimes condescended to address to the senate
and
people of Rome; but they were seldom honored with the
presence of
their new sovereign.
During the vigor of his age, Constantine,
according to the various exigencies of peace and war,
moved with
slow dignity, or with active diligence, along the
frontiers of
his extensive dominions; and was always prepared to take
the
field either against a foreign or a domestic enemy. But as he
gradually reached the summit of prosperity and the
decline of
life, he began to meditate the design of fixing in a more
permanent station the strength as well as majesty of the
throne.
In the choice of an advantageous situation, he preferred
the
confines of Europe and Asia; to curb with a powerful arm
the
barbarians who dwelt between the Danube and the Tanais;
to watch
with an eye of jealousy the conduct of the Persian
monarch, who
indignantly supported the yoke of an ignominious treaty.
With
these views, Diocletian had selected and embellished the
residence of Nicomedia: but the memory of Diocletian was
justly
abhorred by the protector of the church: and Constantine
was not
insensible to the ambition of founding a city which might
perpetuate the glory of his own name. During the late operations
of the war against Licinius, he had sufficient
opportunity to
contemplate, both as a soldier and as a statesman, the
incomparable position of Byzantium; and to observe how
strongly
it was guarded by nature against a hostile attack, whilst
it was
accessible on every side to the benefits of commercial
intercourse. Many
ages before Constantine, one of the most
judicious historians of antiquity ^1 had described the
advantages
of a situation, from whence a feeble colony of Greeks
derived the
command of the sea, and the honors of a flourishing and
independent republic. ^2
[Footnote 1: Polybius, l. iv. p. 423, edit.
Casaubon. He
observes that the peace of the Byzantines was frequently
disturbed, and the extent of their territory contracted,
by the
inroads of the wild Thracians.]
[Footnote 2: The navigator Byzas, who was styled the son
of
Neptune, founded the city 656 years before the Christian
aera.
His followers were drawn from Argos and Megara. Byzantium was
afterwards rebuild and fortified by the Spartan general
Pausanias. See
Scaliger Animadvers. ad Euseb. p. 81. Ducange,
Constantinopolis, l. i part i. cap 15, 16.
With regard to the
wars of the Byzantines against Philip, the Gauls, and the
kings
of Bithynia, we should trust none but the ancient writers
who
lived before the greatness of the Imperial city had
excited a
spirit of flattery and fiction.]
If we survey
Byzantium in the extent which it acquired with
the august name of Constantinople, the figure of the Imperial
city may be represented under that of an unequal
triangle. The
obtuse point, which advances towards the east and the
shores of
Asia, meets and repels the waves of the Thracian
Bosphorus. The
northern side of the city is bounded by the harbor; and the
southern is washed by the Propontis, or Sea of Marmara.
The basis
of the triangle is opposed to the west, and terminates
the
continent of Europe.
But the admirable form and division of the
circumjacent land and water cannot, without a more ample
explanation, be clearly or sufficiently understood.
The winding
channel through which the waters of the Euxine
flow with a rapid and incessant course towards the
Mediterranean,
received the appellation of Bosphorus, a name not less
celebrated
in the history, than in the fables, of antiquity. ^3 A
crowd of
temples and of votive altars, profusely scattered along
its steep
and woody banks, attested the unskilfulness, the terrors,
and the
devotion of the Grecian navigators, who, after the
example of the
Argonauts, explored the dangers of the inhospitable
Euxine. On
these banks tradition long preserved the memory of the
palace of
Phineus, infested by the obscene harpies; ^4 and of the
sylvan
reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to the combat
of the
cestus. ^5 The straits of the Bosphorus are terminated by
the
Cyanean rocks, which, according to the description of the
poets,
had once floated on the face of the waters; and were
destined by
the gods to protect the entrance of the Euxine against
the eye of
profane curiosity. ^6 From the Cyanean rocks to the point
and
harbor of Byzantium, the winding length of the Bosphorus
extends
about sixteen miles, ^7 and its most ordinary breadth may
be
computed at about one mile and a half. The new castles of Europe
and Asia are constructed, on either continent, upon the
foundations of two celebrated temples, of Serapis and of
Jupiter
Urius. The old
castles, a work of the Greek emperors, command
the narrowest part of the channel in a place where the
opposite
banks advance within five hundred paces of each
other. These
fortresses were destroyed and strengthened by Mahomet the
Second,
when he meditated the siege of Constantinople: ^8 but the
Turkish
conqueror was most probably ignorant, that near two
thousand
years before his reign, continents by a bridge of boats.
^9 At a
small distance from the old castles we discover the
little town
of Chrysopolis, or Scutari, which may almost be
considered as the
Asiatic suburb of Constantinople. The Bosphorus, as it begins to
open into the Propontis, passes between Byzantium and
Chalcedon.
The latter of those cities was built by the Greeks, a few
years
before the former; and the blindness of its founders, who
overlooked the superior advantages of the opposite coast,
has
been stigmatized by a proverbial expression of contempt.
^10
[Footnote 3: The Bosphorus has been very minutely
described by
Dionysius of Byzantium, who lived in the time of
Domitian,
(Hudson, Geograph Minor, tom. iii.,) and by Gilles or
Gyllius, a
French traveller of the XVIth century. Tournefort (Lettre
XV.)
seems to have used his own eyes, and the learning of
Gyllius.
[Add Von Hammer, Constantinopolis und der Bosphoros, 8vo.
- M.]
[Footnote 4: There are very few conjectures so happy as
that of
Le Clere, (Bibliotehque Universelle, tom. i. p. 148,) who
supposes that the harpies were only locusts. The Syriac or
Phoenician name of those insects, their noisy flight, the
stench
and devastation which they occasion, and the north wind
which
drives them into the sea, all contribute to form the
striking
resemblance.]
[Footnote 5: The residence of Amycus was in Asia, between
the old
and the new castles, at a place called Laurus
Insana. That of
Phineus was in Europe, near the village of Mauromole and
the
Black Sea. See
Gyllius de Bosph. l. ii. c. 23.
Tournefort,
Lettre XV.]
[Footnote 6: The deception was occasioned by several
pointed
rocks, alternately sovered and abandoned by the
waves. At
present there are two small islands, one towards either
shore;
that of Europe is distinguished by the column of Pompey.]
[Footnote 7: The ancients computed one hundred and twenty
stadia,
or fifteen Roman miles.
They measured only from the new castles,
but they carried the straits as far as the town of
Chalcedon.]
[Footnote 8: Ducas. Hist. c. 34. Leunclavius Hist. Turcica
Mussulmanica, l. xv. p. 577. Under the Greek empire these
castles were used as state prisons, under the tremendous
name of
Lethe, or towers of oblivion.]
[Footnote 9: Darius engraved in Greek and Assyrian
letters, on
two marble columns, the names of his subject nations, and
the
amazing numbers of his land and sea forces. The Byzantines
afterwards transported these columns into the city, and
used them
for the altars of their tutelar deities. Herodotus, l.
iv. c.
87.]
[Footnote 10: Namque arctissimo inter Europam Asiamque
divortio
Byzantium in extrema Europa posuere Greci, quibus,
Pythium
Apollinem consulentibus ubi conderent urbem, redditum
oraculum
est, quaererent sedem oecerum terris adversam. Ea ambage
Chalcedonii monstrabantur quod priores illuc advecti,
praevisa
locorum utilitate pejora legissent Tacit. Annal. xii. 63.]
The harbor of
Constantinople, which may be considered as an
arm of the Bosphorus, obtained, in a very remote period,
the
denomination of the Golden Horn. The curve which it describes
might be compared to the horn of a stag, or as it should
seem,
with more propriety, to that of an ox. ^11 The epithet of
golden
was expressive of the riches which every wind wafted from
the
most distant countries into the secure and capacious port
of
Constantinople.
The River Lycus, formed by the conflux of two
little streams, pours into the harbor a perpetual supply
of fresh
water, which serves to cleanse the bottom, and to invite
the
periodical shoals of fish to seek their retreat in that
convenient recess.
As the vicissitudes of tides are scarcely
felt in those seas, the constant depth of the harbor
allows goods
to be landed on the quays without the assistance of
boats; and it
has been observed, that in many places the largest
vessels may
rest their prows against the houses, while their sterns
are
floating in the water. ^12 From the mouth of the Lycus to
that of
the harbor, this arm of the Bosphorus is more than seven
miles in
length. The
entrance is about five hundred yards broad, and a
strong chain could be occasionally drawn across it, to
guard the
port and city from the attack of a hostile navy. ^13
[Footnote 11: Strabo, l. vii. p. 492, [edit. Casaub.]
Most of the
antlers are now broken off; or, to speak less
figuratively, most
of the recesses of the harbor are filled up. See Gill.
de
Bosphoro Thracio, l. i. c. 5.]
[Footnote 12: Procopius de Aedificiis, l. i. c. 5. His
description is confirmed by modern travellers. See Thevenot,
part i. l. i. c. 15. Tournefort, Lettre XII. Niebuhr, Voyage
d'Arabie, p. 22.]
[Footnote 13: See Ducange, C. P. l. i. part i. c. 16, and
his
Observations sur Villehardouin, p. 289. The chain was drawn from
the Acropolis near the modern Kiosk, to the tower of
Galata; and
was supported at convenient distances by large wooden
piles.]
Between the
Bosphorus and the Hellespont, the shores of
Europe and Asia, receding on either side, enclose the sea
of
Marmara, which was known to the ancients by the
denomination of
Propontis. The
navigation from the issue of the Bosphorus to the
entrance of the Hellespont is about one hundred and
twenty miles.
Those who steer their westward course through the middle
of the
Propontis, amt at once descry the high lands of Thrace
and
Bithynia, and never lose sight of the lofty summit of
Mount
Olympus, covered with eternal snows. ^14 They leave on
the left a
deep gulf, at the bottom of which Nicomedia was seated,
the
Imperial residence of Diocletian; and they pass the small
islands
of Cyzicus and Proconnesus before they cast anchor at
Gallipoli;
where the sea, which separates Asia from Europe, is again
contracted into a narrow channel.
[Footnote 14: Thevenot (Voyages au Levant, part i. l. i.
c. 14)
contracts the measure to 125 small Greek miles. Belon
(Observations, l. ii. c. 1.) gives a good description of
the
Propontis, but contents himself with the vague expression
of one
day and one night's sail.
When Sandy's (Travels, p. 21) talks of
150 furlongs in length, as well as breadth we can only suppose
some mistake of the press in the text of that judicious
traveller.]
The
geographers who, with the most skilful accuracy, have
surveyed the form and extent of the Hellespont, assign
about
sixty miles for the winding course, and about three miles
for the
ordinary breadth of those celebrated straits. ^15 But the
narrowest part of the channel is found to the northward
of the
old Turkish castles between the cities of Sestus and
Abydus. It
was here that the adventurous Leander braved the passage
of the
flood for the possession of his mistress. ^16 It was here
likewise, in a place where the distance between the
opposite
banks cannot exceed five hundred paces, that Xerxes
imposed a
stupendous bridge of boats, for the purpose of
transporting into
Europe a hundred and seventy myriads of barbarians. ^17 A
sea
contracted within such narrow limits may seem but ill to
deserve
the singular epithet of broad, which Homer, as well as
Orpheus,
has frequently bestowed on the Hellespont. ^* But our
ideas of
greatness are of a relative nature: the traveller, and
especially
the poet, who sailed along the Hellespont, who pursued
the
windings of the stream, and contemplated the rural
scenery, which
appeared on every side to terminate the prospect,
insensibly lost
the remembrance of the sea; and his fancy painted those
celebrated straits, with all the attributes of a mighty
river
flowing with a swift current, in the midst of a woody and
inland
country, and at length, through a wide mouth, discharging
itself
into the Aegean or Archipelago. ^18 Ancient Troy, ^19
seated on a
an eminence at the foot of Mount Ida, overlooked the
mouth of the
Hellespont, which scarcely received an accession of
waters from
the tribute of those immortal rivulets the Simois and
Scamander.
The Grecian camp had stretched twelve miles along the
shore from
the Sigaean to the Rhaetean promontory; and the flanks of
the
army were guarded by the bravest chiefs who fought under
the
banners of Agamemnon.
The first of those promontories was
occupied by Achilles with his invincible myrmidons, and
the
dauntless Ajax pitched his tents on the other. After Ajax had
fallen a sacrifice to his disappointed pride, and to the
ingratitude of the Greeks, his sepulchre was erected on
the
ground where he had defended the navy against the rage of
Jove
and of Hector; and the citizens of the rising town of
Rhaeteum
celebrated his memory with divine honors. ^20 Before
Constantine
gave a just preference to the situation of Byzantium, he
had
conceived the design of erecting the seat of empire on
this
celebrated spot, from whence the Romans derived their
fabulous
origin. The
extensive plain which lies below ancient Troy,
towards the Rhaetean promontory and the tomb of Ajax, was
first
chosen for his new capital; and though the undertaking
was soon
relinquished the stately remains of unfinished walls and
towers
attracted the notice of all who sailed through the
straits of the
Hellespont. ^21
[Footnote 15: See an admirable dissertation of M.
d'Anville upon
the Hellespont or Dardanelles, in the Memoires tom.
xxviii. p.
318 - 346. Yet
even that ingenious geographer is too fond of
supposing new, and perhaps imaginary measures, for the
purpose of
rendering ancient writers as accurate as himself. The stadia
employed by Herodotus in the description of the Euxine,
the
Bosphorus, &c., (l. iv. c. 85,) must undoubtedly be
all of the
same species; but it seems impossible to reconcile them
either
with truth or with each other.]
[Footnote 16: The oblique distance between Sestus and
Abydus was
thirty stadia. The
improbable tale of Hero and Leander is
exposed by M. Mahudel, but is defended on the authority
of poets
and medals by M. de la Nauze. See the Academie des
Inscriptions,
tom. vii. Hist. p. 74. elem. p. 240.
Note: The
practical illustration of the possibility of
Leander's feat by Lord Byron and other English swimmers
is too
well known to need particularly reference - M.]
[Footnote 17: See the seventh book of Herodotus, who has
erected
an elegant trophy to his own fame and to that of his
country.
The review appears to have been made with tolerable
accuracy; but
the vanity, first of the Persians, and afterwards of the
Greeks,
was interested to magnify the armament and the
victory. I should
much doubt whether the invaders have ever outnumbered the
men of
any country which they attacked.]
[Footnote *: Gibbon does not allow greater width between
the two
nearest points of the shores of the Hellespont than
between those
of the Bosphorus; yet all the ancient writers speak of
the
Hellespontic strait as broader than the other: they agree
in
giving it seven stadia in its narrowest width, (Herod. in
Melp.
c. 85. Polym. c.
34. Strabo, p. 591. Plin. iv. c. 12.) which
make 875 paces. It
is singular that Gibbon, who in the fifteenth
note of this chapter reproaches d'Anville with being fond
of
supposing new and perhaps imaginary measures, has here
adopted
the peculiar measurement which d'Anville has assigned to
the
stadium. This
great geographer believes that the ancients had a
stadium of fifty-one toises, and it is that which he
applies to
the walls of Babylon.
Now, seven of these stadia are equal to
about 500 paces, 7 stadia = 2142 feet: 500 paces = 2135
feet 5
inches. - G. See Rennell, Geog. of Herod. p. 121. Add Ukert,
Geographie der Griechen und Romer, v. i. p. 2, 71. - M.]
[Footnote 18: See Wood's Observations on Homer, p.
320. I have,
with pleasure, selected this remark from an author who in
general
seems to have disappointed the expectation of the public
as a
critic, and still more as a traveller. He had visited the banks
of the Hellespont; and had read Strabo; he ought to have
consulted the Roman itineraries. How was it possible for him to
confound Ilium and Alexandria Troas, (Observations, p.
340, 341,)
two cities which were sixteen miles distant from each
other?
Note: Compare
Walpole's Memoirs on Turkey, v. i. p. 101. Dr.
Clarke adopted Mr. Walpole's interpretation of the salt
Hellespont. But
the old interpretation is more graphic and
Homeric. Clarke's Travels, ii. 70. - M.]
[Footnote 19: Demetrius of Scepsis wrote sixty books on
thirty
lines of Homer's catalogue. The XIIIth Book of Strabo is
sufficient for our curiosity.]
[Footnote 20: Strabo, l. xiii. p. 595, [890, edit.
Casaub.] The
disposition of the ships, which were drawn upon dry land,
and the
posts of Ajax and Achilles, are very clearly described by
Homer.
See Iliad, ix. 220.]
[Footnote 21: Zosim. l. ii. [c. 30,] p. 105. Sozomen, l. ii. c.
3. Theophanes, p. 18.
Nicephorus Callistus, l. vii. p. 48.
Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 6. Zosimus places the new city
between Ilium and Alexandria, but this apparent
difference may be
reconciled by the large extent of its circumference. Before the
foundation of Constantinople, Thessalonica is mentioned
by
Cedrenus, (p. 283,) and Sardica by Zonaras, as the
intended
capital. They both
suppose with very little probability, that
the emperor, if he had not been prevented by a prodigy,
would
have repeated the mistake of the blind Chalcedonians.]
We are at
present qualified to view the advantageous
position of Constantinople; which appears to have been
formed by
nature for the centre and capital of a great
monarchy. Situated
in the forty-first degree of latitude, the Imperial city
commanded, from her seven hills, ^22 the opposite shores
of
Europe and Asia; the climate was healthy and temperate,
the soil
fertile, the harbor secure and capacious; and the
approach on the
side of the continent was of small extent and easy
defence. The
Bosphorus and the Hellespont may be considered as the two
gates
of Constantinople; and the prince who possessed those
important
passages could always shut them against a naval enemy,
and open
them to the fleets of commerce. The preservation of the eastern
provinces may, in some degree, be ascribed to the policy
of
Constantine, as the barbarians of the Euxine, who in the
preceding age had poured their armaments into the heart
of the
Mediterranean, soon desisted from the exercise of piracy,
and
despaired of forcing this insurmountable barrier. When the gates
of the Hellespont and Bosphorus were shut, the capital
still
enjoyed within their spacious enclosure every production
which
could supply the wants, or gratify the luxury, of its
numerous
inhabitants. The
sea-coasts of Thrace and Bithynia, which
languish under the weight of Turkish oppression, still
exhibit a
rich prospect of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful
harvests; and the Propontis has ever been renowned for an
inexhaustible store of the most exquisite fish, that are
taken in
their stated seasons, without skill, and almost without
labor.
^23 But when the passages of the straits were thrown open
for
trade, they alternately admitted the natural and
artificial
riches of the north and south, of the Euxine, and of the
Mediterranean.
Whatever rude commodities were collected in the
forests of Germany and Scythia, and far as the sources of
the
Tanais and the Borysthenes; whatsoever was manufactured
by the
skill of Europe or Asia; the corn of Egypt, and the gems
and
spices of the farthest India, were brought by the varying
winds
into the port of Constantinople, which for many ages
attracted
the commerce of the ancient world. ^24
[See Basilica Of Constantinople]
[Footnote 22: Pocock's Description of the East, vol. ii.
part ii.
p. 127. His plan of the seven hills is clear and
accurate. That
traveller is seldom unsatisfactory.]
[Footnote 23: See Belon, Observations, c. 72 - 76. Among a
variety of different species, the Pelamides, a sort of
Thunnies,
were the most celebrated.
We may learn from Polybius, Strabo,
and Tacitus, that the profits of the fishery constituted
the
principal revenue of Byzantium.]
[Footnote 24: See the eloquent description of Busbequius,
epistol. i. p. 64. Est in Europa; habet in conspectu
Asiam,
Egyptum. Africamque a dextra: quae tametsi contiguae non
sunt,
maris tamen navigandique commoditate veluti
junguntur. A
sinistra vero Pontus est Euxinus, &c.]
The prospect
of beauty, of safety, and of wealth, united in
a single spot, was sufficient to justify the choice of
Constantine. But
as some decent mixture of prodigy and fable
has, in every age, been supposed to reflect a becoming
majesty on
the origin of great cities, ^25 the emperor was desirous
of
ascribing his resolution, not so much to the uncertain
counsels
of human policy, as to the infallible and eternal decrees
of
divine wisdom. In
one of his laws he has been careful to
instruct posterity, that in obedience to the commands of
God, he
laid the everlasting foundations of Constantinople: ^26
and
though he has not condescended to relate in what manner
the
celestial inspiration was communicated to his mind, the
defect of
his modest silence has been liberally supplied by the
ingenuity
of succeeding writers; who describe the nocturnal vision
which
appeared to the fancy of Constantine, as he slept within
the
walls of Byzantium.
The tutelar genius of the city, a venerable
matron sinking under the weight of years and infirmities,
was
suddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom his own
hands
adorned with all the symbols of Imperial greatness. ^27
The
monarch awoke, interpreted the auspicious omen, and
obeyed,
without hesitation, the will of Heaven The day which gave
birth
to a city or colony was celebrated by the Romans with
such
ceremonies as had been ordained by a generous
superstition; ^28
and though Constantine might omit some rites which
savored too
strongly of their Pagan origin, yet he was anxious to
leave a
deep impression of hope and respect on the minds of the
spectators. On
foot, with a lance in his hand, the emperor
himself led the solemn procession; and directed the line,
which
was traced as the boundary of the destined capital: till
the
growing circumference was observed with astonishment by
the
assistants, who, at length, ventured to observe, that he
had
already exceeded the most ample measure of a great city.
"I shall
still advance," replied Constantine, "till He,
the invisible
guide who marches before me, thinks proper to stop."
^29 Without
presuming to investigate the nature or motives of this
extraordinary conductor, we shall content ourselves with
the more
humble task of describing the extent and limits of
Constantinople. ^30
[Footnote 25: Datur haec venia antiquitati, ut miscendo
humana
divinis, primordia urbium augustiora faciat. T. Liv. in prooem.]
[Footnote 26: He says in one of his laws, pro commoditate
urbis
quam aeteras nomine, jubente Deo, donavimus. Cod. Theodos. l.
xiii. tit. v. leg. 7.]
[Footnote 27: The Greeks, Theophanes, Cedrenus, and the
author of
the Alexandrian Chronicle, confine themselves to vague
and
general expressions. For a more particular account of the
vision,
we are obliged to have recourse to such Latin writers as
William
of Malmesbury. See
Ducange, C. P. l. i. p. 24, 25.]
[Footnote 28: See Plutarch in Romul. tom. i. p. 49, edit.
Bryan.
Among other ceremonies, a large hole, which had been dug
for that
purpose, was filled up with handfuls of earth, which each
of the
settlers brought from the place of his birth, and thus
adopted
his new country.]
[Footnote 29: Philostorgius, l. ii. c. 9. This incident, though
borrowed from a suspected writer, is characteristic and
probable.]
[Footnote 30: See in the Memoires de l'Academie, tom.
xxxv p. 747
- 758, a dissertation of M. d'Anville on the extent of
Constantinople. He
takes the plan inserted in the Imperium
Orientale of Banduri as the most complete; but, by a
series of
very nice observations, he reduced the extravagant
proportion of
the scale, and instead of 9500, determines the
circumference of
the city as consisting of about 7800 French toises.]
In the actual
state of the city, the palace and gardens of
the Seraglio occupy the eastern promontory, the first of
the
seven hills, and cover about one hundred and fifty acres
of our
own measure. The
seat of Turkish jealousy and despotism is
erected on the foundations of a Grecian republic; but it
may be
supposed that the Byzantines were tempted by the
conveniency of
the harbor to extend their habitations on that side
beyond the
modern limits of the Seraglio. The new walls of Constantine
stretched from the port to the Propontis across the
enlarged
breadth of the triangle, at the distance of fifteen
stadia from
the ancient fortification; and with the city of Byzantium
they
enclosed five of the seven hills, which, to the eyes of
those who
approach Constantinople, appear to rise above each other
in
beautiful order. ^31 About a century after the death of
the
founder, the new buildings, extending on one side up the
harbor,
and on the other along the Propontis, already covered the
narrow
ridge of the sixth, and the broad summit of the seventh
hill.
The necessity of protecting those suburbs from the
incessant
inroads of the barbarians engaged the younger Theodosius
to
surround his capital with an adequate and permanent
enclosure of
walls. ^32 From the eastern promontory to the golden
gate, the
extreme length of Constantinople was about three Roman
miles; ^33
the circumference measured between ten and eleven; and
the
surface might be computed as equal to about two thousand
English
acres. It is
impossible to justify the vain and credulous
exaggerations of modern travellers, who have sometimes
stretched
the limits of Constantinople over the adjacent villages
of the
European, and even of the Asiatic coast. ^34 But the
suburbs of
Pera and Galata, though situate beyond the harbor, may
deserve to
be considered as a part of the city; ^35 and this
addition may
perhaps authorize the measure of a Byzantine historian,
who
assigns sixteen Greek (about fourteen Roman) miles for
the
circumference of his native city. ^36 Such an extent may
not seem
unworthy of an Imperial residence. Yet Constantinople must yield
to Babylon and Thebes, ^37 to ancient Rome, to London,
and even
to Paris. ^38
[Footnote 31: Codinus, Antiquitat. Const. p. 12. He assigns the
church of St. Anthony as the boundary on the side of the
harbor.
It is mentioned in Ducange, l. iv. c. 6; but I have
tried,
without success, to discover the exact place where it was
situated.]
[Footnote 32: The new wall of Theodosius was constructed
in the
year 413. In 447 it was thrown down by an earthquake, and
rebuilt
in three months by the diligence of the praefect
Cyrus. The
suburb of the Blanchernae was first taken into the city
in the
reign of Heraclius Ducange, Const. l. i. c. 10, 11.]
[Footnote 33: The measurement is expressed in the Notitia
by
14,075 feet. It is reasonable to suppose that these were
Greek
feet, the proportion of which has been ingeniously
determined by
M. d'Anville. He
compares the 180 feet with 78 Hashemite cubits,
which in different writers are assigned for the heights
of St.
Sophia. Each of
these cubits was equal to 27 French inches.]
[Footnote 34: The accurate Thevenot (l. i. c. 15) walked
in one
hour and three quarters round two of the sides of the
triangle,
from the Kiosk of the Seraglio to the seven towers. D'Anville
examines with care, and receives with confidence, this
decisive
testimony, which gives a circumference of ten or twelve
miles.
The extravagant computation of Tournefort (Lettre XI) of
thirty-tour or thirty miles, without including Scutari,
is a
strange departure from his usual character.]
[Footnote 35: The sycae, or fig-trees, formed the
thirteenth
region, and were very much embellished by Justinian. It has
since borne the names of Pera and Galata. The etymology of the
former is obvious; that of the latter is unknown. See Ducange,
Const. l. i. c. 22, and Gyllius de Byzant. l. iv. c. 10.]
[Footnote 36: One hundred and eleven stadia, which may be
translated into modern Greek miles each of seven stadia,
or 660,
sometimes only 600 French toises. See D'Anville, Mesures
Itineraires, p. 53.]
[Footnote 37: When the ancient texts, which describe the
size of
Babylon and Thebes, are settled, the exaggerations
reduced, and
the measures ascertained, we find that those famous
cities filled
the great but not incredible circumference of about
twenty-five
or thirty miles.
Compare D'Anville, Mem. de l'Academie, tom.
xxviii. p. 235, with his Description de l'Egypte, p. 201,
202.]
[Footnote 38: If we divide Constantinople and Paris into
equal
squares of 50 French toises, the former contains 850, and
the
latter 1160, of those divisions.]
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.
Part II.
The master of
the Roman world, who aspired to erect an
eternal monument of the glories of his reign could employ
in the
prosecution of that great work, the wealth, the labor,
and all
that yet remained of the genius of obedient
millions. Some
estimate may be formed of the expense bestowed with
Imperial
liberality on the foundation of Constantinople, by the
allowance
of about two millions five hundred thousand pounds for
the
construction of the walls, the porticos, and the
aqueducts. ^39
The forests that overshadowed the shores of the Euxine,
and the
celebrated quarries of white marble in the little island
of
Proconnesus, supplied an inexhaustible stock of
materials, ready
to be conveyed, by the convenience of a short water
carriage, to
the harbor of Byzantium. ^40 A multitude of laborers and
artificers urged the conclusion of the work with
incessant toil:
but the impatience of Constantine soon discovered, that,
in the
decline of the arts, the skill as well as numbers of his
architects bore a very unequal proportion to the
greatness of his
designs. The
magistrates of the most distant provinces were
therefore directed to institute schools, to appoint
professors,
and by the hopes of rewards and privileges, to engage in
the
study and practice of architecture a sufficient number of
ingenious youths, who had received a liberal education.
^41 The
buildings of the new city were executed by such
artificers as the
reign of Constantine could afford; but they were
decorated by the
hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of
Pericles and
Alexander. To
revive the genius of Phidias and Lysippus,
surpassed indeed the power of a Roman emperor; but the
immortal
productions which they had bequeathed to posterity were
exposed
without defence to the rapacious vanity of a despot. By his
commands the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of
their
most valuable ornaments. ^42 The trophies of memorable
wars, the
objects of religious veneration, the most finished
statues of the
gods and heroes, of the sages and poets, of ancient
times,
contributed to the splendid triumph of Constantinople;
and gave
occasion to the remark of the historian Cedrenus, ^43 who
observes, with some enthusiasm, that nothing seemed
wanting
except the souls of the illustrious men whom these
admirable
monuments were intended to represent. But it is not in
the city
of Constantine, nor in the declining period of an empire,
when
the human mind was depressed by civil and religious
slavery, that
we should seek for the souls of Homer and of Demosthenes.
[Footnote 39: Six hundred centenaries, or sixty thousand
pounds'
weight of gold.
This sum is taken from Codinus, Antiquit.
Const. p. 11; but unless that contemptible author had
derived his
information from some purer sources, he would probably
have been
unacquainted with so obsolete a mode of reckoning.]
[Footnote 40: For the forests of the Black Sea, consult
Tournefort, Lettre XVI. for the marble quarries of
Proconnesus,
see Strabo, l. xiii. p. 588, (881, edit. Casaub.) The
latter had
already furnished the materials of the stately buildings
of
Cyzicus.]
[Footnote 41: See the Codex Theodos. l. xiii. tit. iv.
leg. 1.
This law is dated in the year 334, and was addressed to
the
praefect of Italy, whose jurisdiction extended over
Africa. The
commentary of Godefroy on the whole title well deserves
to be
consulted.]
[Footnote 42: Constantinopolis dedicatur poene omnium
urbium
nuditate. Hieronym. Chron. p. 181. See Codinus, p. 8, 9. The
author of the Antiquitat. Const. l. iii. (apud Banduri
Imp.
Orient. tom. i. p. 41) enumerates Rome, Sicily, Antioch,
Athens,
and a long list of other cities. The provinces of Greece
and Asia
Minor may be supposed to have yielded the richest booty.]
[Footnote 43: Hist. Compend. p. 369. He describes the statue, or
rather bust, of Homer with a degree of taste which
plainly
indicates that Cadrenus copied the style of a more
fortunate
age.]
During the
siege of Byzantium, the conqueror had pitched his
tent on the commanding eminence of the second hill. To
perpetuate the memory of his success, he chose the same
advantageous position for the principal Forum; ^44 which
appears
to have been of a circular, or rather elliptical
form. The two
opposite entrances formed triumphal arches; the porticos,
which
enclosed it on every side, were filled with statues; and
the
centre of the Forum was occupied by a lofty column, of
which a
mutilated fragment is now degraded by the appellation of
the
burnt pillar. This
column was erected on a pedestal of white
marble twenty feet high; and was composed of ten pieces
of
porphyry, each of which measured about ten feet in
height, and
about thirty-three in circumference. ^45 On the summit of
the
pillar, above one hundred and twenty feet from the
ground, stood
the colossal statue of Apollo. It was a bronze, had been
transported either from Athens or from a town of Phrygia,
and was
supposed to be the work of Phidias. The artist had represented
the god of day, or, as it was afterwards interpreted, the
emperor
Constantine himself, with a sceptre in his right hand,
the globe
of the world in his left, and a crown of rays glittering
on his
head. ^46 The Circus, or Hippodrome, was a stately
building about
four hundred paces in length, and one hundred in breadth.
^47 The
space between the two metoe or goals were filled with
statues and
obelisks; and we may still remark a very singular fragment
of
antiquity; the bodies of three serpents, twisted into one
pillar
of brass. Their
triple heads had once supported the golden
tripod which, after the defeat of Xerxes, was consecrated
in the
temple of Delphi by the victorious Greeks. ^48 The beauty
of the
Hippodrome has been long since defaced by the rude hands
of the
Turkish conquerors; ^! but, under the similar appellation
of
Atmeidan, it still serves as a place of exercise for
their
horses. From the
throne, whence the emperor viewed the
Circensian games, a winding staircase ^49 descended to
the
palace; a magnificent edifice, which scarcely yielded to
the
residence of Rome itself, and which, together with the
dependent
courts, gardens, and porticos, covered a considerable
extent of
ground upon the banks of the Propontis between the
Hippodrome and
the church of St. Sophia. ^50 We might likewise celebrate
the
baths, which still retained the name of Zeuxippus, after
they had
been enriched, by the munificence of Constantine, with
lofty
columns, various marbles, and above threescore statues of
bronze.
^51 But we should deviate from the design of this
history, if we
attempted minutely to describe the different buildings or
quarters of the city.
It may be sufficient to observe, that
whatever could adorn the dignity of a great capital, or
contribute to the benefit or pleasure of its numerous
inhabitants, was contained within the walls of
Constantinople. A
particular description, composed about a century after
its
foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a
circus,
two theatres, eight public, and one hundred and
fifty-three
private baths, fifty-two porticos, five granaries, eight
aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four spacious halls for
the
meetings of the senate or courts of justice, fourteen
churches,
fourteen palaces, and four thousand three hundred and
eighty-eight houses, which, for their size or beauty,
deserved to
be distinguished from the multitude of plebeian
inhabitants. ^52
[Footnote 44: Zosim. l. ii. p. 106. Chron. Alexandrin. vel
Paschal. p. 284, Ducange, Const. l. i. c. 24. Even the last of
those writers seems to confound the Forum of Constantine
with the
Augusteum, or court of the palace. I am not satisfied whether I
have properly distinguished what belongs to the one and
the
other.]
[Footnote 45: The most tolerable account of this column
is given
by Pocock. Description of the East, vol. ii. part ii. p.
131.
But it is still in many instances perplexed and
unsatisfactory.]
[Footnote 46: Ducange, Const. l. i. c. 24, p. 76, and his
notes
ad Alexiad. p. 382.
The statue of Constantine or Apollo was
thrown down under the reign of Alexius Comnenus.
Note: On this
column (says M. von Hammer) Constantine, with
singular shamelessness, placed his own statue with the
attributes
of Apollo and Christ. He substituted the nails of the
Passion for
the rays of the sun.
Such is the direct testimony of the author
of the Antiquit. Constantinop. apud Banduri. Constantine
was
replaced by the "great and religious" Julian,
Julian, by
Theodosius. A. D. 1412, the key stone was loosened by an
earthquake. The
statue fell in the reign of Alexius Comnenus,
and was replaced by the cross. The Palladium was said to
be
buried under the pillar.
Von Hammer, Constantinopolis und der
Bosporos, i. 162. - M.]
[Footnote 47: Tournefort (Lettre XII.) computes the
Atmeidan at
four hundred paces.
If he means geometrical paces of five feet
each, it was three hundred toises in length, about forty
more
than the great circus of Rome. See D'Anville, Mesures
Itineraires, p. 73.]
[Footnote 48: The guardians of the most holy relics would
rejoice
if they were able to produce such a chain of evidence as
may be
alleged on this occasion. See Banduri ad Antiquitat. Const. p.
668. Gyllius de
Byzant. l. ii. c. 13. 1. The original
consecration of the tripod and pillar in the temple of
Delphi may
be proved from Herodotus and Pausanias. 2. The Pagan Zosimus
agrees with the three ecclesiastical historians,
Eusebius,
Socrates, and Sozomen, that the sacred ornaments of the
temple of
Delphi were removed to Constantinople by the order of
Constantine; and among these the serpentine pillar of the
Hippodrome is particularly mentioned. 3. All the European
travellers who have visited Constantinople, from
Buondelmonte to
Pocock, describe it in the same place, and almost in the
same
manner; the differences between them are occasioned only
by the
injuries which it has sustained from the Turks. Mahomet the
Second broke the under jaw of one of the serpents with a
stroke
of his battle axe Thevenot, l. i. c. 17.
Note: See note
75, ch. lxviii. for Dr. Clarke's rejection of
Thevenot's authority.
Von Hammer, however, repeats the story of
Thevenot without questioning its authenticity. - M.]
[Footnote !: In 1808 the Janizaries revolted against the
vizier
Mustapha Baisactar, who wished to introduce a new system
of
military organization, besieged the quarter of the
Hippodrome, in
which stood the palace of the viziers, and the Hippodrome
was
consumed in the conflagration. - G.]
[Footnote 49: The Latin name Cochlea was adopted by the
Greeks,
and very frequently occurs in the Byzantine history. Ducange,
Const. i. c. l, p. 104.]
[Footnote 50: There are three topographical points which
indicate
the situation of the palace. 1. The staircase which connected it
with the Hippodrome or Atmeidan. 2. A small artificial port on
the Propontis, from whence there was an easy ascent, by a
flight
of marble steps, to the gardens of the palace. 3. The Augusteum
was a spacious court, one side of which was occupied by
the front
of the palace, and another by the church of St. Sophia.]
[Footnote 51: Zeuxippus was an epithet of Jupiter, and
the baths
were a part of old Byzantium. The difficulty of assigning their
true situation has not been felt by Ducange. History seems to
connect them with St. Sophia and the palace; but the
original
plan inserted in Banduri places them on the other side of
the
city, near the harbor.
For their beauties, see Chron. Paschal.
p. 285, and Gyllius de Byzant. l. ii. c. 7. Christodorus
(see