 Chapter 16 Part 1 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 2 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater 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 embrace 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 to ride 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 mentioned 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 four score 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 successes 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. 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 ascent and reverence which the nations of antiquity express 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 in pious and idolatrous. The rites 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 Jerusalem, we shall only observe that the destruction of the 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 Rome, which repeatedly broke 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 Egypt, of Cyprus and of Serene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives, and we attempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of the legions against the race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government but of humankind. The enthusiasm of the Jews was supported by the opinion that it was on lawful of 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 favourites 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 assent the hope of Israel that the famous Barco Chebas collected a formidable army with which he resisted during two years the power of the Emperor Hadrian. 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. 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 honours and to obtain at the same time an exemption from the burdensome and expensive offices of society. The moderation of 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 Tiberius was empowered to appoint his subordinate ministers and apostles to exercise a domestic jurisdiction and to receive from his dispersed brethren an annual contribution. 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 tradition of the rabbis were celebrated in the most solemn and public manner. Such gentle treatment insensibly assuaged the stern temper of the Jews. Awaken from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behaviour 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 implications against the haughty kingdom of Edom. 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 in social 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 neighbours 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 practice what it would have been criminal on them to neglect. But this principle which protected the Jewish synagogue afforded not any favour 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 had threw 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 judgement. 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 individual should entertain the 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. 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 animid version 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 who 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. 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. They were far from admitting the prejudices of mankind as a standard of truth, but they considered them as flowing from the original dispensation 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, wiles the effects to treat the mysterious subject of the trinity in a style of ridicule and contempt which raises own ignorance of the weakness of human reason and of the inscrutable nature of the divine perfections. 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 Isculapius had in some measure prepared their imagination for the appearance of the Son of God under a human form. 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. The personal guilt which every Christian had contracted and 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 of beneficial purposes were bestowed with a very sparing hand. 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. 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 and 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 every day more deserving of his animate version we have already seen that the active and successful zeal of the Christians had insensibly defused them throughout 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 unity with a peculiar society which everywhere assumed a different character from the rest of mankind. Their gloomy and austere sect, their abhorrence of the common business and pleasures of life and their frequent predictions of impending calamities 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, maybe the principle of their conduct, their inflexible obstinacy appeared deserving of punishment. 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 but the event as it often happens to the operations of subtle 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 humankind who practised in their dark recesses every abomination that a depraved fancy could suggest and who solicited the favour 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 appalled society it was asserted that a newborn infant entirely covered over with flour was presented like some mystic symbol of initiation to the knife of the prosolite who were knowingly 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 us under 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 but the preusal 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 rumour to the equity of the magistrates they acknowledge that if any proof can be produced of the crimes which Calamity 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 anyone 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 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 apologist 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 Marconites by the Carpocratians and by several other sects of the Gnostics who notwithstanding they might deviate in the past of heresy were still actuated by the sentiments of men and still governed by the precepts of Christianity accusations of a similar kind were retorted upon the church by the schismatics who were departed from its communion 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 devised the orthodox faith from heretical pravati 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 seal 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 by Edward Gibbon Chapter 16 Conduct Towards the Christians from Nero to Constantine Part 2 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 please 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 the Fifth or a Lewis 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 breast any motive which would have prompted them to refuse illegal 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 ill of bigots but by the temperate policy of legislators contempt must often have relaxed and humanity must frequently have suspended the execution of those flaws which they enacted against the humble and obscure followers of Christ from the general view of their character and motives we might naturally conclude one, that a considerable time elapsed before they considered the new sectaries as an object deserving of the attention of government two, that in the conviction of any of their subjects who were accused of so very singular a crime they proceeded with caution and reluctance three, that they were a moderate in the use of punishments and four, 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 it may still be in our power to confirm each of these probable suppositions by the evidence of authentic facts by the wise dispensation of providence a mysterious fail 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 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 have been associated to the hope of Israel were likewise confounded under the garb and appearance of Jews and as the polytheist paid less regard to articles of faith in 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 centrist 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 ranker 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 a fact but of words a dispute relating only to the interpretation of the Jewish religious 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 if indeed we were disposed to adopt the traditions of too credulous antiquity we might relate the distant nations 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 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 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 two 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 in the tenth year of the reign of Nero the capital of the empire was afflicted by a fire which raged beyond the memory of example of former ages the monuments of Grecian art and 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 leveled 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 were distributed at a very moderate price 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 sufficient 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 indignity on the theater 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 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 and arrived their name and origin from Christ who in the region of Tiberias had suffered death by the sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate for a while this dire superstition was checked but it again burst forth and not only spread itself over Judea the first seat of this mischievous sect but was even introduced into Rome the common asylum which receives and protects whatever is impure 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 humankind they died in torments and their torments were embittered 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 riches were sacrificed not so much to the public welfare as to the cruelty of a jealous tyrant 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 a temple which far surpasses the ancient glories of the capital 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 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 the most skeptical criticism is obliged to respect the truth of this extraordinary fact and the integrity of the 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 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 Pius 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 notwithstanding it is probable that Tacitus was born some years before the fire of Rome 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 in 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 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 four score years and 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 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 analysts 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 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 those 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 papaya and a favorite player of the race of Abraham who had already employed their intercession in behalf of the obnoxious people 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 Galileans which was capable of the most horrid crimes under the appellation of Galileans 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 and the zealots who had followed the standard of Jesus the Golanite the former were the friends the latter were the enemies of humankind and the only resemblance between them consisted in the same inflexible constancy which in the defense of their cause rendered them insensible of death and tortures the followers of Judas who impaled their countrymen into rebellion were soon buried under the ruins of Jerusalem whilst those of Jesus known by the more celebrated name of Christians defused 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 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 that the religious tenants of the Galileans or Christians were never made a subject of punishment or even of inquiry and that as the idea of their sufferings were 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 the virtue and innocence it is somewhat remarkable that the flames of war consumed almost at the same time the temple of Jerusalem and the capital of Rome 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 the emperors levied a general capitation tax on the Jewish people and although the some 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 since the officers of the revenue extended their unjust claims 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 demon who had assumed the character of the capital line Jupiter as a very numerous though declining party among the Christians still adhere to the law of Moses their efforts to disassemble their Jewish origin were detected by the decisive test of circumcision 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 Judea 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 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 distributing 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 Kokoba of the extent of about twenty four English acres and of the value of nine thousand drams or three hundred pounds sterling the grandsons of St. Jude were dismissed with compassion and contempt 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 or the two sons of his uncle Flavius Sabinas 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 the emperor for a long time distinguished no harmless a kinsman by his favor and protection bestowed on him his own niece Domitila adopted the children of that marriage to the hope of the succession and invested their father with the honors of the consulship but he had scarcely finished the term of his annual magistry when on a slight pretense he was condemned and executed Domitila was banished to a desolate island on the coast of Campania 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 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 crying the church has placed both Clemens and Domitila 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 Domitila Steven, 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 the memory of Domitian was condemned by the senate his acts were rescinded his exiles recalled and under the gentle administration of Narva while the innocent were restored to their rank and fortunes even the most guilty either obtained pardon or escaped punishment about ten years afterwards under the reign of Trajan the younger Pliny was entrusted by his friend and master with the government of Bethenia 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 and 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 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 filled a place in the senate had been invested with the honors of the consulship and had formed very numerous connections with the very 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 Bethenia there were no general laws or decrees of the senate in force against the Christians that neither Trajan or any of his virtuous predecessors whose edicts were received into the civil and criminal jurisputants 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 End of Chapter 16 Part 2 Chapter 16 Part 3 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 2 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 2 by Edward Gibbon Chapter 16 Conduct towards the Christians from Nero to Constantine Part 3 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 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 for 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 invidious 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 ignomy 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 The expedient which was employed to elude the prudence of the laws affords a sufficient proof of how effectually they disappointed the mischievous designs of private malice or superstitious seal 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 tutelor 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 those 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 Tiber 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 leniency 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 amphitheater 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 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 those 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 a legal evidence to convict or to punish those unfortunate persons who had embraced the enthusiasm of the Christians 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 offense 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 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 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 act of cruelty was employed to subdue such an 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 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 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 The 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 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 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 whose hands alone the jurisdiction of life and death was entrusted 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 Christians some legal evasion by which he might allude the severity of the laws Whenever they were invested with a discretionary power they used it much less for the oppression than for the relief and the 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 minds 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 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 indifference The learned origin, who, from his experience as well as reading, was intimately acquainted with the history of the Christians, declares in the most expressed terms that the number of martyrs was very inconsiderable 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 and whose marvelous achievements have been the subject of so many volumes of holy romance But the general assertion of origin 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 Diceus reckons only ten men and seven women who suffered for the profession of the Christian name 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 provoked the suspicions and resentment of the pagan magistrates His character as well as his station seemed to mark out that holy prelate is the most distinguished object of envy and danger 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 eminent 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 Diceus 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 temperate 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 passed 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 their reproaches of his personal enemies, who insulted a conduct which they considered as a pusillanimous and criminal desertion of the most sacred duty The propriety of reserving himself for the future exigencies of the church the example of several holy bishops and the divine admonitions which, as he declares himself, he frequently received in visions and ecstasies were the reasons alleged in his justification But his best apology may be found in the cheerful resolution 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 Chapter 16 Conduct towards the Christians from Nero to Constantine Part 4 When Valerian was consul for the Third and Galienus 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 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 Syrabus, a free and maritime city of Zugatania in a pleasant situation, a fertile territory, and at the distance of about forty miles from Carthage 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 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 At length, exactly one year 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 entrusted 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 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 Thascus 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 The manner of his execution was the mildest and least painful that could be inflicted on a person convicted of any capital offense 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 As soon as the sentence was pronounced 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 a great number 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 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 punishment It is remarkable that of so great a multitude of bishops in the province of Africa Cyprian was the first who was assumed worthy to obtain the crown of martyrdom 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 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 appealed 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 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 Distinctions like these, whilst they display exalted merit, betray the inconsiderable number of those who suffered and of those who died for the profession of Christianity 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 sopicious severus, desired martyrdom with more eagerness than his own contemporaries solicited a bishopric The epistles which Ignatius composed as he was carried and changed through the cities of Asia, breathed sentiments the most repugnant to the ordinary feelings of human nature He earnestly beseeches the Romans that when he should be exposed in the amphitheater 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 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, 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 seemed 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 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? He was extremely cautious, as it is observed by a learned and pious 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 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 the martyrs, according to a well-known observation, became the seed of the church 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 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 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 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 a few except the Montanists who deviated into heresy by their strict and obstinate adherence to the rigor of ancient discipline The provincial governors, whose zeal was less prevalent than their avarice, had countenance 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 dissimilation 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 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 sailed 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 Notwithstanding the general rules established for the conviction and punishment of the Christians, the fate of these 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 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 illegal, yet an actual and public toleration of their religion The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 2 by Edward Gibbon This is a LibriVox recording. 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For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 2 by Edward Gibbon, Chapter 16, Conduct Towards the Christians, from Nero to Constantine, Part 5 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 Antonis, 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 skeptical mind 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 by 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 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 Antonis 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 Anton column that neither the prince nor the people entertained any sense of the single 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 By a singular fatality, the hardships which they had endured under the government of a virtuous prince immediately ceased on the ascension of a tyrant, and as none except themselves had experienced the injustice of Marcus, so they alone were protected by the leniency 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 abtone for the frailties of her sex and the profession by declaring herself the patroness of the Christians Under the gracious protection of Marcia, they passed in safety the thirteen years of cruel tyranny, and when the empire was established in the house of Servius, 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 precipiter of Caricalia, 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 Under the reign of Servius, 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 The controversy concerning the precise time at 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 tranquility Nor was the peace of the church interrupted till the increasing numbers of proselytites seemed at length to have attracted the attention, or to have alienated the mind of Servius 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 practice the religious ceremonies of their fathers But the laws which Servius had enacted soon expired with the authority of that emperor, and the Christians, after this accidental tempest, enjoyed a calm of 38 years 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 To purchase lands even at Rome itself for the use of the community and to conduct the elections of the ecclesiastical ministers in so public But at the same time in so exemplary a manner as to deserve the respectful attention of the Gentiles, 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 imminent 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 the sovereign When the Empress Mamea passed through Antioch, she expressed a desire for conversing with the celebrated origin, the fame of whose piety and learning was spread over the East Origin 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 The sentiments of Mamea 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 Orifice, of Apollonus, 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 A pure faith, as well as worship, was openly professed and practiced among his household. Bishops, perhaps for the first time, were seen at court, and after the death of Alexander, when the inhuman maximum 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 in the promiscuous massacre which, on their account, has improperly received the name of persecution Notwithstanding the cruel disposition of Maximum, the effects of his resentment against the Christians were of a very local and temporary nature, and the pious origin, who had been prescribed as a devoted victim, was still reserved to convey the truths of the gospel to the ear of the monarchs 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 scepter, the Christians acquired a friend and a protector The public, and even partial favor of Philip, toward the secretaries 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 and afforded some grounds for the fable which was afterwards invented that he had been purified by confession and pentance from the guilt contracted by the murder of his innocent predecessor 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 Diceus The virtues of that prince will scarcely allow us to suspect that he was accentuated by a mean resentment against the favorites of his predecessor, and it is more reasonable to believe that in the persecution 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 16 months from proceeding to a new election, and it was the opinion of the Christians that the emperor would be more patiently endure a competitor for the purple than a bishop in the capital Were it possible to suppose that the penetration of Diceus 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 The administration of Valerian was distinguished by elevity and in constancy 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 Diceus. The accession of Galenius, 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. The ancient laws, without being formally repealed, were suffered to sink into oblivion and accepting only some hostile intentions which were attributed to the emperor Eruleon. The disciples of Christ passed some forty years in a state of prosperity far more dangerous to their virtue than the severest trials of persecution. The story of Paul of Samosata, who filled the metropolitan sea of Antioch, while the east was in the hands of Onathius and Xenobibia, may serve to illustrate the condition and character of the times. The wealth of that prelate was 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. His ecclesiastical jurisdiction was venal and raptious. He exhorted 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 suplent 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 than 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. 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 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 obstantly maintained concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, excited the zeal and indignation of the Eastern churches. From Egypt to the X-Y and C 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 Zinobia, had maintained above four years the possession of the Episcopal house and office. The victory of Arulyan changed the face of the East, and the two contending parties, who applied to each other the epitaths of schism and heresy, were either commanded or permitted to plead their cause before the tribunal of the conqueror. This public in very singular trial affords a convincing proof that 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 Arulyan 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 Arulyan, who was desirous of restoring and cementing the dependence of the provinces on the capital, by every means which could bind the interests or prejudices of any part of his subjects. Amidst the frequent revelations of the empire, the Christians still flourished in peace and prosperity, and notwithstanding a celebrated heir of martyrs has been deduced from the extension of Diocletian. 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 labours of war and government. His prudence rendered him adverse to any great innovation, and though his temper was not very susceptible of zeal or enthusiasm, he always maintained a habitual regard for the ancient deities of the empire. But the leisure of the two emperorses, of his wife Priska and of Valaria, 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. The principal eunuchs, Lucian and Dorthius, Grigonius and Andrew, who attended the person, possessed the favour 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, 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 proselytites, and in their place more stately and capricious edifices were erected for the public worship of the faithful. The corruption of manners and principles so forcibly lamented by Eusebius 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, 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 their 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 invectiveness of implacable enemy produced in their mind 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 entrenched themselves behind a similar fortification of prodigies, invented new modes of sacrifice, of expiation and of initiation, attempted to revive the credit of their expiring oracles and listened with eager credulity to every impostor who flattered their prejudices by a tale of wonders. Both parties seemed to acknowledge the truth of those miracles which were claimed by their adversaries, and while they were content with excribing them to the arts of magic and to the power of demons, they mutually concurred in restoring and establishing the reign of superstition. Philosophy, her most dangerous enemy, was now converted into her most useful ally. The groves of the academy, the gardens of Ipocureus and even the portico of the Stoics were almost deserted as so many different schools of skepticism or impiety, and many among the Romans were desirous of the writings of Cicero should be condemned and suppressed by the authority of the Senate. The prevailing sect of the new platoticians judged it prudent to connect themselves with the priest, 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 their 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 treatsies which have since been committed to the flames by the prudence of orthodox emperors.