CHAPTER V. THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN The Golden DEFENCE THE Roman Empire with the assassination of Domitian and the accession of Nerva (A.D. 96) entered upon its most prosperous and splendid period. Five virtuous and highminded emperors in succession, three of whom were certainly also men of great ability, ruled the world for nearly a century (96-180). Gibbon gives his opinion that this was the period in history in which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous'; and of the last two emperors, the Antonines, he thinks their united reigns were 'possibly the only period in which the happiness of a great people was the sole object of government.' For the Church it was a time on the whole of growth and tolerance, though broken by martyrdoms, and ending in a bitter burst of persecution. And it was the age in which we first find the Church breaking her secrecy, and uttering formal protests. to the imperial government against the ban placed upon her. The aged and gentle Nerva reigned for less than a year and a half (96-98). No definite policy as regards the Church can be assigned to him. He endeavoured to reverse the tyrannical acts of his predecessor, and among the sentences he annulled tradition (p. 30) places that of S. John exiled to Patmos. Nerva was succeeded, at his own choice, by one who had no claim of family to the throne, the Spaniard Trajan (98-117), the most distinguished of the imperial generals. Trajan. He was a brilliant soldier and able administrator; the first after Augustus who materially advanced the frontiers of the Empire. His conquest of Dacia (the modern Rumania) is commemorated in the reliefs of the great column (erected 113) which still stands almost intact in Rome in the centre of the 'Forum of Trajan.' His name became proverbial with the Romans for goodness. Mayest thou be more prosperous than Augustus, and better than Trajan,' was the highest good wish that one man could give to another. Medieval legend told how Pope Gregory I., touched by the story of the Emperor's kindness to a widow's appeal, prayed for his soul until it was translated from hell to heaven, where Dante places him (Par. xx.; cp. Purg. x.). 'Now doth he know How dear it costeth not to follow Christ: From Trajan came the first definite imperial regulation with regard to the Christian Church. Hitherto Christianity had certainly not been a religio licita, and the mere profession of Christ had been considered a capital crime, but there was no imperial statute constituting it such. Its proscription was a matter of custom and precedent, dating back to the days of Nero. Matters came to a head in the famous correspondence between the Emperor and the distinguished scholar Pliny the younger, who was governor of Bithynia some time between Pliny's the years 103 and 113. Pliny wrote to the Emperor letter. to ask for guidance as to procedure in the case of those accused of being Christians. He states that Christianity is widely spread, and attracts a great number of all ages and ranks; it affects the country districts as well as the towns; the temples of the gods have been almost deserted, and the market for fodder for the sacrificial animals has fallen very low. What is he to do? He has no experience, and has never been present at the trials of Christians; he is not certain whether they are to be executed for the mere profession of the name of Christ, or for the crimes' which are intimately connected with it. His own procedure hitherto, he says, has been to ask the accused three times whether he were a Christian or not, warning him of the consequences; if he persisted he was ordered to execution, or if he was a Roman citizen he was sent to Rome to be judged. Matters had become more serious through anonymous accusations E involving a large number of persons. Some of these denied they had ever been Christians; others were ready to renounce Christ and sacrifice to the gods and the Emperor. What is to be done in these latter cases? Christian practices. The most interesting part of Pliny's letter to us is what he says he has discovered by examining prisoners, as to the practices of Christians. They told him that their crime was no more than this. They had been accustomed on a fixed day to meet before dawn and to recite by turns a hymn addressed to Christ as a God; they bound themselves by a sacramentum,' not indeed to commit any crime, but to abstain from theft or robbery or adultery, not to break faith, nor to repudiate a debt. After this was done it was their custom to depart, and again to assemble to take food, but food of an ordinary and innocent kind; and even this they had given up after Pliny had published Trajan's edict forbidding clubs. This was all that Pliny had been able to discover, even though he had put to the torture two women-servants whom the Christians called ministrae' (no doubt, deaconesses). But reading between the lines, it discloses a good deal. Sacramentum' may have meant to Pliny merely an oath,' or some solemn religious rite. There seems little doubt, however, that it was for the Christians a veiled allusion to their mystery,' the Eucharist. The fixed day on which it was celebrated was, no doubt, Sunday; the time was no longer night, but in the early morning, preceded by antiphonal psalmody; possibly the Commandments were recited, but at any rate Christians were solemnly admonished not to commit any sin unworthy of Christ. Then later in the day followed the Agapé or lovefeast, now definitely separated from the Eucharist, and which Christians had been willing to discontinue, to avoid as far as possible falling under the Emperor's edict. The reply of Trajan is terse and definite; but clearly of the nature of a compromise between the common sense of a ruler Trajan's who felt that there was not much danger in reply. Christianity, and the necessity, as he thought, of maintaining the precedents set by previous Emperors. No fixed rule, says Trajan, can be laid down to suit all cases. Christians are not to be sought out, but if accused and convicted they must be punished. Those who recant and sacrifice must be acquitted. Anonymous charges are to be ignored. They form a very bad precedent and are an anachronism (alluding to the evil of 'informers' under some previous Emperors). This letter or rescriptum of the Emperor would have the force of an imperial law. Christianity is now clearly a crime in itself, but systematic persecution is discouraged—a somewhat illogical piece of state-craft. The rescript seems to have had some effect in checking official persecution. The great danger for Christians now lay in the hatred and suspicion of the heathen populace, excited by Jews, heathen priests, or those whose livelihood was threatened by the spread of Christianity. Christians accused definitely before a magistrate, and confessing Christ, could hardly escape sentence of death. One most eminent Christian suffered martyrdom under Trajan, though the date and circumstances are somewhat uncertain. This was Ignatius, surnamed Theophoros S. Ignatius. (bearer of God), Bishop of Antioch. Scarcely anything is known of his early life; some fragments of tradition alone have been preserved, as, for example, that he was one of the little children whom our Lord blessed, that he had learned the faith from the Apostles themselves, and had been placed in the bishopric of Antioch, in succession to Euodius, by S. Peter himself. He is said to have been accused by the populace of Antioch of having caused an earthquake, and brought before the Emperor himself while he was staying at Antioch. bishop boldly confessed his faith, and explained his name, Theophoros, by saying that he carried the Crucified within his heart. Trajan sentenced him to be sent to Rome and thrown to the lions in the Colosseum. The martyr publicly thanked God for the sentence, which, he said, 'bound him to the Apostle Paul with bonds of iron.' The date of this is variously estimated between 107 and 117. Trajan was in Antioch in 114; but opinion now inclines to the earlier date. So far, however, all is legendary, but the journey to Rome brings the martyr into full historical view. It illustrates also The journey the remarkable way in which different centres of to Rome. the Church communicated with one another, and how easily and constantly messages and delegates passed between them. Ignatius, with two fellow-prisoners, was conducted from Antioch via Philadelphia to Smyrna, and thence to Troas, by a guard of ten soldiers, whom he himself describes as ' ten leopards who only grow worse as they are kindly treated.' Apparently the Christians of Tralles, Magnesia, and Ephesus had expected that he would be taken along the more southern road which passed through these places. But when it was found that another route was being taken, delegates from these churches, including in each case the bishop, were sent to Smyrna to greet the martyr. He received them and sent back to each church a letter. He also at the same time despatched a letter to the Church of Rome, to prepare the Roman Christians for his martyrdom, and to beseech them not to use their influence to deliver him from death. He was then conducted to Troas, whence he wrote three more letters, one to Philadelphia where he had stayed on the journey to Smyrna, another to Smyrna, and a third to his late host, Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. From Troas he was taken partly by sea and partly by land to Rome. The only other stopping place known to us on his journey is Philippi. At Rome he suffered martyrdom as he desired, being thrown to the lions in the great amphitheatre, as a spectacle to the idle crowds of Rome-the traditional date being December 20. These seven letters, in their two groups (Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, and Philadelphia, Smyrna, Polycarp), were known to Eusebius, but, though apparently much read, are comparatively little quoted in antiquity, with the exception of that to the Romans. The Letters of A long and remarkable controversy on the subject lasted from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, but it may now be regarded as practically certain that we possess |