secutions.

excite civil wars and commotions in the empire. It is probably on this account, that Tacitus reproaches them with the odious character of haters of mankind', and styles the religion of Jesus a destructive superstition; and that Suetonius speaks of the Christians, and their doctrine, in terms of the same kind ". Other causes... VII. Another circumstance that irritated the of these per- Romans against the Christians, was the simplicity of their worship, which resembled in nothing the sacred rites of any other people. They had no sacrifices, temples, images, oracles, or sacerdotal orders; and this was sufficient to bring upon them the re proaches of an ignorant multitude, who imagined that there could be no religion without these. Thus they were looked upon as a sort of atheists; and, by the Roman laws, those who were chargeable with atheism were declared the pests of human society. But this was not all: the sordid interests of a mul titude of lazy and selfish priests were immediately connected with the ruin and oppression of the Christian cause. The public worship of such an immense

number of deities was a source of subsistence, and even of riches, to the whole rabble of priests and augurs, and also to a multitude of merchants and artists. And, as the progress of the Gospel threatened the ruin of that religious traffic, this consideration raised up new enemies to the Christians, and armed the rage of mercenary superstition against their lives and their cause".

Annal. lib. xv. cap, xliv.

m In Nerone, cap. xvi. These odious epithets, which Tacitus gives to the Christians and their religion, as likewise the language of Suetonius, who calls Christianity a poisonous or malig nant superstition (malefica superstitio), are founded upon the same reasons. A sect, which could not endure, and even labored to abolish, the religious practices of the Romans, and also those of all the other nations of the universe, appeared to the short-sighted and superficial observers of religious matters, as the determined enemies of mankind.

This observation is verified by the story of Demetrius the silversmith, Acts xix. 25, and by the following passage in the 97th letter of the xth book of Pliny's epistles; "The temples,

calumnies

VIII. To accomplish more speedily the ruin of the CENT. I. Christians, all those persons whose interests were The most incompatible with the progress of the Gospel, loaded odious them with the most opprobrious calumnies, which spread were too easily received as truth, by the credulous abroad and unthinking multitude, among whom they were Christians. against the dispersed with the utmost industry. We find a sufficient account of these perfidious and ill-grounded reproaches in the writings of the first defenders of the Christian cause. And these, indeed, were the only arms the assailants had to oppose the truth, since the excellence of the Gospel, and the virtue of its ministers and followers, left to its enemies no resources but calumny and persecution. Nothing can be imagined, in point of virulence and fury, that they did not employ for the ruin of the Christians. They even went so far as to persuade the multitude, that all the calamities, wars, tempests, and diseases that afflicted mankind, were judgements sent down by the angry gods, because the Christians, who contemned their authority, were suffered in the empire". - IX. The various kinds of punishment, both capital The punishand corrective, which were employed against the judicial Christians, are particularly described by learned men forms used who have written professedly on that subject 4. The Christians. forms of proceeding, used in their condemnation, may be seen in the Acts of the Martyrs, in the letters of Pliny and Trajan, and other ancient monuments ". These judicial forms were very different at different

"which were almost deserted, begin to be frequented again; and "the sacred rites, which have been long neglected, are again "performed. The victims, which have had hitherto few pur"chasers, begin to come again to the market," &c.

See the laborious work of Christ. Kortholt, entitled, Paganus Obtrectator, seu de Calumniis Gentilium in Christianos; to which may be added, Jo. Jac. Huldricus, de Calumniis Gentilium in Christianos, published at Zurich in 1744.

P See Arnobius contra Gentes.

See for this purpose Ant. Gallonius and Gasp. Sagittarius, de Cruciatibus Martyrum.

I See Bohmer, Juris Eccles. Protestant. tom, iv. lib. v. Decretal. tit. 1. sec. 32.

ments and

against the

CENT. 1.

Martyrs and

times, and changed naturally, according to the mildness or severity of the laws enacted by the different emperors against the Christians. Thus, at one time, we observe appearances of the most diligent search after the followers of Christ; at another, we find all perquisition suspended, and positive accusation and information only allowed. Under one reign we see them, on their being proved Christians, or their confessing themselves such, immediately dragged away to execution, unless they prevent their punishment by apostasy; under another, we see inhuman magistrates endeavouring to compel them, by all sorts of tortures, to renounce their religious profession.

X. All who, in the perilous times of the church, confessors. fell by the hand of bloody persecution, and expired in the cause of the divine Saviour, were called martyrs; a term borrowed from the sacred writings, signifying witnesses, and thus expressing the glorious testimony which these magnanimous believers bore to the truth. The title of confessor was given to such, as, in the face of death, and at the expence of honors, fortune, and all the other advantages of the world, had confessed with fortitude, before the Roman tribunals, their firm attachment to the religion of Jesus. Great was the veneration that was paid both to martyrs and confessors; and there was, no doubt, as much wisdom as justice in treating with profound respect these Christian heroes, since nothing was more adapted to encourage others to suffer with cheerfulness in the cause of Christ. But, as the best and wisest institutions are generally perverted, by the weakness or corruption of men, from their original purposes, so the authority and privileges granted, in the beginning, to martyrs and confessors, became, in process of time, a support to superstition, an incentive to enthusiasm, and a source of innumerable evils and abuses.

Their number.

XI. The first three or four ages of the church were stained with the blood of martyrs, who suffered for the name of Jesus. The greatness of their number is acknowleged by all who have a competent acquaint

3

ance with ancient history, and who have examined CENT. I. that matter with any degree of impartiality. It is true, the learned Dodwell has endeavoured to invalidate this unanimous decision of the ancient historians", and to diminish considerably the number of those who suffered death for the Gospel; and, after him, several writers have maintained his opinion, and asserted, that whatever may have been the calamities which the Christians, in general, suffered for their attachment to the Gospel, very few were put to death on that account. This hypothesis has been warmly opposed, as derogating from that divine power which enabled Christians to be faithful even unto death, and a contrary one embraced, which augments prodigiously the number of these heroic sufferers. It will be wise to avoid both these extremes, and to hold the middle path, which certainly leads nearest to the truth. The martyrs were less in number than several of the ancient and modern writers have supposed them to be, but much more numerous than Dodwell and his followers are willing to believe; and this medium will be easily admitted by such as have learned from the ancient writers, that, in the darkest and most calamitous times of the church, all Christians were not equally or promiscuously disturbed, or called before the public tribunals. Those who were of the lowest rank of the people, escaped the best; their obscurity, in some measure, screened them from the fury of persecution. The learned and eloquent, the doctors and ministers, and chiefly the rich, for the confiscation of whose fortunes the rapacious magistrates were perpetually gaping, were the persons most exposed to the dangers of the times.

XII. The actions and sayings of these holy mar- Their lives tyrs, from the moment of their imprisonment to their and actions. last gasp, were carefully recorded, in order to be read on certain days, and thus proposed as models to future ages. Few, however, of these ancient acts have

• See Dodwell's Dissertation, de Paucitate Martyrum, in his Dissertationes Cyprianicæ.

CENT. I. reached our times; the greatest part of them having been destroyed during that dreadful persecution which Diocletian carried on ten years with such fury against the Christians: for a most diligent search was then made after all their books and papers; and all of them that were found were committed to the flames. From the eighth century downwards, several Greek and Latin writers endeavoured to make up this loss, by compiling, with vast labor, accounts of the lives and actions of the ancient martyrs. But most of them have given us scarcely any thing more than a series of fables, adorned with a profusion of rhetorical flowers and striking images, as the wiser, even among the Romish doctors, frankly acknowlege. Nor are those records, which pass under the name of martyrology, worthy of superior credit, since they bear the most evident marks both of ignorance and falsehood; so that, upon the whole, this part of ecclesiastical history, for want of ancient and authentic monuments, is extremely imperfect, and necessarily attended with much obscurity.

Their perse

Nero.

XIII. It would have been surprising, if, under cution under such a monster of cruelty as Nero, the Christians had enjoyed the sweets of tranquillity and freedom. This, indeed, was far from being the case; for the perfidious tyrant accused them of having set fire to the city of Rome, that horrid crime which he himself had committed with a barbarous pleasure. In avenging this crime upon the innocent Christians, he ordered matters so, that the punishment should bear some resemblance to the offence. He, therefore, wrapped up some of them in combustible garments, and ordered fire to be set to them when the darkness came on, that thus, like torches, they might dispel the obscurity of the night while others were fastened to crosses, or

:

Such of those acts as are worthy of credit have been collected by the learned Ruinart, into one volume in folio, of a moderate size, entitled Selecta et sincera Martyrum Acta, Amstelod. 1713. The hypothesis of Dodwell is amply refuted in the author's preface.