These reasons, carefully considered, will partly account for the peculiar suspicion which armed itself against the Christian superstition,' and at the same time will exhibit to us the motives, through the influence of which some of the wisest and best among the emperors unhappily numbered themselves among our adversaries *.

The persecution of Decius proceeded on a broader principle than that of Severus, as it pretended no less than to constrain all subjects of the empire to return to the religion of their ancestors t; it was also strictly universal, as neither confined to particular provinces nor classes, but extending from the lowest confessors to the highest authorities of the Church. Several were consigned to exile or death: Fabienus, bishop of Rome, Alexander of Jerusalem, Babylas of Antioch, were among the latter; and the celebrated Origen was subjected to imprisonment and torture. At Alexandria, in the year preceding the accession of Decius, some Christians had been massacred by the hatred or the avarice of the Pagan mob; and as such fatal outrages, in addition to authorized injustice, were rather tolerated than promptly repressed by the government which succeeded that sanguinary reign, it was much more calamitous to the faith than its short duration of three years would lead us to apprehend. Indeed, the unusual number of those who fell away from their profession in the hour of trial, by which this persecution is distinguished from those preceding it, is a sufficient proof of its intolerable barbarity §.

We pass over the comparatively lenient inflictions of Gallus and Volusianus; but the sceptre of Valerian was more darkly stained Valerian. by the blood of Cyprian ||, bishop of Carthage, a man of learning and eloquence and piety, whose blameless life and final calmness and constancy have escaped the censure and almost the sarcasm of history. It will be instructive, as well as interesting, to transcribe the simple narrative of his martyrdom.

On the 13th of September, 258, an officer with soldiers was sent to Cyprian's gardens by the proconsul to bring him into his presence. Cyprian mysteries, which also held the place of doctrines, the ceremonies, and the name were provided by the religion; the ethics by philosophy. We need not particularize the numerous points of advantage which both branches of the Christian system possess over the corre sponding departments of paganism. But the distinctions chiefly to be remarked, are, that the religion demanded no belief, proposed no creed, inculcated no faith, but was, in fact, identified with its ceremonies, procession and sacrifice; and that the philosophy which undertook the whole charge of morals, in vain proposed an elaborate series of barren rules and lifeless exhortations, since it possessed no substantial motive whereby to enforce them. When we reflect how essential are these distinctions, we shall see reason sufficient for the jealousy with which Christianity was assailed both by the one and the other. But their incongruity and incoherence with each other formed the most striking and hopeless deformity of the system; for philosophy lived in open warfare with her senseless associate, and employed a great portion of her diligence and her wit in exposing the multiform absurdities of polytheism. Quinimo et Deos vestros palam destruunt... laudantibus vobis! Tertul. Apol., c. 46.

* Eusebius (II. E., lib. vi. c. 39.) very concisely attributes the persecution of Decius to the hatred borne by that emperor to his predecessor Philip. Cyprian considers it as a divine chastisement for the sins of the Church.

Tillemont, vol. iii. p. 310, on the authority of Greg. Nyssensis, who gives a very vivid description of the effects of the edict.

Alexander and Babylas died in prison. Some of the sufferings of Origen are par ticularized in Eusebius, loc. cit.; and those of the most celebrated martyrs who perished on this occasion occupy above a hundred pages in the Mémoires de Tillem, vol. iii. p. 325-428. Ed. 2.

The fable of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus belongs to this persecution; the supposed martyrdom of the Theban legion to the reign of Diocletian.

It appears from Cyprian's Epistles that, in his Church at least, the full severity of the persecution scarcely raged for more than one year. See Tiilem., vol. iii. p. 324.

then knew his end was near; and with a ready and constant mind and cheerful countenance he went without delay to Sexti, a place about six miles from Carthage, where the proconsul resided. Cyprian's cause was deferred for that day. He was therefore ordered to the house of an officer, where he was detained for the night, but was well accommodated and his friends had free access to him. The news of this having been brought to Carthage, a great number of people of all sorts, and the Christians in general, flocked thence to Sexti; and Cyprian's people lay all night before the door of the officer, thus keeping, as Pontius expresses it, the vigil of their bishop's passion.

On the next morning, the 14th of September, he was led to the proconsul's palace, surrounded by a mixed multitude of people and a strong guard of soldiers. After some time, the proconsul came out into the hall, and Cyprian being placed before him, he said, Art thou Thascius Cyprian?' Cyprian the bishop answered, 'I am.' Galerius Maximus the proconsul said, The most sacred emperors have commanded thee to sacrifice.' Cyprian the bishop answered, 'I do not sacrifice.' Galerius Maximus said, 'Be well advised.' Cyprian the bishop answered, Do as thou art commanded; in so just a cause thou needest no consultation. The proconsul having advised with his council, spoke to Cyprian in angry terms as being an enemy to the gods and a seducer of the people, and then read his sentence from a tablet, 'It is decreed that Thascius Cyprian be beheaded.' Cyprian the bishop said, God be praised;' and the crowd of his brethren exclaimed, 'Let us too be beheaded with him.'

This is the account given in the acts of Cyprian's passion, and that of Pontius is to the same purpose*.

For nearly fifty years after this outrage, the peace and progress of religion were not seriously interrupted. The earliest portion even of the

reign of Diocletian was favourable to its security, and it was Diocletian. through the weakness of that prince, rather than his wickedness,

that his name is now inscribed on the tablets of infamy as the most savage among our persecutors. Two circumstances may be mentioned as having engaged his tardy consent to the commencement of a plan into which he appears to have entered with the most considerate calmness, though it is also true that during its progress some incidents occurred which enlisted his passions in the cause, and even so inflamed them that, in the height of his madness, he certainly proposed nothing less than the extermination of the Christian name. The influence of the Cæsar, Galerius, who was animated, from whatsoever motive, by an unmitigated detestation of the worshippers of Christ, and who thirsted for their destruction, was probably the most powerful of those circumstances. But the second must not be forgotten. In the disputes, now become general, between the Christian ministers and the pagan priests, the teachers of philosophy are almost invariably found on the side of the latter; and as it is not denied-not even by Gibbon-that those learned persons directed the course and suggested the means of persecution, we need not hesitate to attribute a considerable share in the guilt of its origin to their pernicious eloquence.

Diocletian published his first edict in the February of 303. Three others

* Lardner, vol. iii. p. 141. The more usual date of Cyprian's martyrdom is 257. + Galerius represented to him that the permanence of the Roman institutions was incompatible with the prevalence of Christianity, which should therefore be extirpated. Diocletian proposed the subject to a surt of Council, composed of some eminent military and judicial officers. They assented to the opinion of Galerius; but the emperor still hesitated, until the measure was sanctioned and sanctified by the oracle of the Milesian Apollo.

of greater severity succeeded it; and, during a shameful period of ten years, they were very generally and rigorously enforced by himself, his colleagues, and successors. It is needless to particularize the degrees of barbarity by which those edicts were severally distinguished; the substance of the whole series is this. The sacred books of the Christians were sought for and burnt; death was the punishment of all who assembled secretly for religious worship; imprisonment, slavery, and infamy were inflicted on the dignitaries and presidents of the Churches; every art and method was enjoined for the conversion of the believers, and among those methods were various descriptions of torture, some of them fatal. During the preceding ninety years, the Church had availed itself of the consent or connivance of the civil government to erect numerous religious edifices, and to purchase some landed property; these buildings were now demolished, and the property underwent the usual process of confiscation. A more degrading, but less effectual, measure attended these; Christians were excluded from all public honours and offices, and even removed without the pale of the laws and the protection of justice; liable to all accusations, and inviting them by their adversity, they were deprived of every form of legal redress. Such were the penalties contained in thoseedicts; and though it be true that in some of the western provinces of the empire. as in Gaul and perhaps Britain, their asperity was somewhat softened by the character and influence of the Cæsar, Constantius, we are not allowed to believe that their execution even there was generally neglected, and we have too much reason to be assured that it was conducted with very subservient zeal throughout the rest of the empire. In process of time the sufferings of the Christians were partially alleviated by the victories of Constantine; but they did not finally terminate till his accession.

That event, which took place in the year 313, and which Accession of marks the first grand epoch in ecclesiastical history, ended Constantine. at the same time both the fears and the sufferings of the followers of Christ, and established his worship as the acknowledged religion of the Roman empire.

As the account here given of the persecutions of the early Christians differs in some respects from the views usually taken of this important portion of our history, it may be proper to close this chapter with a few additional remarks.

1st. Contemporary evidence obliges us to admit, that the Christian name was for many years (so late at least as the reign of Unpopularity Decius) an object of decided aversion to many of those of Christians. who did not profess it; whether of the learned, who scorned the origin, were ignorant of the principles, and feared the progress, of the new religion, or of the vulgar, who believed the calumnies so industriously propagated against its professors. Hence proceeded those popular tumults, which, during the first two centuries (if we except from them the reign of Marcus Antoninus), may have destroyed as many victims as the deliberate policy of the emperors, or the established system of religious government. Still it must appear singular that a body of persons, distinguished by the moral qualities which are almost universally attributed to the first Christians, should have incurred the hatred of their fellow-subjects, rather than the admiration, or at least the sympathy, which was claimed by the character

Nearly the whole of Eusebius's 8th book is devoted to this subject; on which he possesses, indeed, the authority of a contemporary, as he is believed to have been born about the year 270 A. D. Sce, too, Lactant. de Morte Persecut, cap. 13.

of their virtues. There are several reasons by which we may account for this strange circumstance. The prejudices and passions of mankind were opposed to the new religion; it contradicted their received ways of worship, the dictates and practices of their forefathers, their own indulged lusts and evil habits. Even the fame and semblance of peculiar sanctity are ever objects of bitter jealousy to those who are incapable of its practice, and who consequently dispute its reality. Again, when it was observed that Christians were not contented with mere inactive profession, but were animated with industrious zeal for the extension of their faith, a disposition to suspect and resist it, as it were in self-defence, was excited among many; and those who might have tolerated an indifferent or merely speculative superstition, armed themselves against the active and converting spirit of Christianity. Another, perhaps the most effective, and certainly the original cause of that aversion, was the persevering hostility of the Jews to the name of Christ. In some of the more populous and commercial cities, the Jews formed no inconsiderable portion of the inhabitants, and they were scattered in smaller numbers over the whole face of the East. The destruction of their capital increased the crowd of exiles, and inflamed the angry spirit by which they were animated. It is true that, in their attempts at open outrage, they were sometimes restrained by the civil power; but they were more successful in their secret endeavours to excite against the rising sect the contempt or malice of the heathen. To their malignity we may probably attribute those monstrous calumnies which tainted the Christian name, at the very period when its professors were farthest removed from corruption. It was rumoured and believed that the religious meetings of the faithful were polluted by alternate excesses of superstition and debauchery; the mysteries especially were invested with the most revolting character; the Eucharist was said to be celebrated by the sacrifice of an infant, and the Feast of Charity was represented to be a revel of cannibals *. These stories contained nothing incredible to a pagan, whom the external piety of the new religionists rendered still more suspicious of their private conversation. Without difficulty he believed in the perpetration of rites. which bore some resemblance to the darker parts of his own superstition; and his belief was followed by insult and outrage.

The notorious malevolence of the Jews did not prevent the prevalence of another very early and very injurious opinion respecting Christianitythat it was merely a form, and a rejected form, of Judaism. This was a natural error-since the religion proceeded from Judæa, and many among its original preachers, and all its most active enemies were Jews-it was indeed gradually, though slowly, removed by the writings of the early fathers, and the progress of the faith; but the prejudice arising from it was the chief cause of that contempt with which the worship was regarded for above one hundred years both by philosophers and statesmen.

Again, in the scenes of public festivity, in the temples, and at the sacrifices of the gods, the Christian was never present; he partook not in triumphs and rejoicings of which religion formed any portion, and appeared not at the sports of the amphitheatre, except as a victim. This seclusion from the amusements of his fellow-countrymen was mistaken for indifference to the happiness and interests of his country; it was mistaken for disaffection to the government, for moroseness or misanthropy; its real motive was never estimated or even conceived; for the careless temper of poly

* See Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 35., ii. 14.

theism was unable to comprehend an exclusive religion, or to understand why the worship of Jupiter was not consistent with that of Christ. Another difficulty was created by the spiritual nature of our religion. It was in vain that the Roman magistrate inquired for the images and statues of the God of the Christians, for the altars and temples consecrated to him. Unwilling, or unable to believe that an Invisible Being could be the immediate object of adoration, he pronounced that to be atheism, which differed so widely from the general appearance of theism; and thus, among the ignorant at least, the Christians were liable to the double imputation, not only that they repudiated the national divinities, but that they substituted none other in their place. It was probably this last charge which inflamed and envenomed the rest; for the same moral enormities which were pardonable in the devotee of Apollo, became infamous in those who partook of no devotion, and the worshippers of every idol under heaven united their clamours against the impiety of the atheists; and unhappily, among the impassioned natives of the East, clamours are seldom unattended by violence, and violence is only satisfied with blood.

There is, perhaps, no characteristic by which Christianity was so early and so strongly distinguished, as the pious horror of every approach to idolatry*; this singularity would be more commonly forced on the attention of pagans than any other, and no doubt, in the opinion of the vast majority, with whom the image was in fact the object of worship, it would be sufficient alone to constitute irreligion. Again, it led them into a second and scarcely less dangerous imputation, that of disloyalty; since the image of the emperor, which was usually exalted among the standards and in public places, was not honoured by the devout salutation of the Christian; and this omission naturally gave pretext to a political charge.

As another cause of the early unpopularity of the Christians, we may mention the unceasing opposition of all whose personal interests were concerned in the support of paganism. The magnificent temples and gorgeous ceremonies of that superstition were a source of unfailing profit, not only to a numerous race of priests and hierodules, of architects and statuaries, but to multitudes of citizens, who lived, like the craftsmen of Ephesus, on the treasury of the temple, and were engaged by their most immediate necessities to maintain the worship; and not these only, but the whole mass of the populace, were in some degree gainers by the sacrificial profusion which distinguished their religion; to say nothing of the share which they took in those splendid processions and rites, which converted the practice of religion into mere sensual enjoyment and careless festivity. When, in the place of this pompous pageantry, it was proposed to substitute a simple spiritual worship, recommended, not by the display of external ceremony, which it scorned, but by inward purity and the sanctity of moral excellence, in opposition at the same time to the passions of all men, and to the immediate interests of many, it would have been strange indeed if the popular voice had not been raised against it.

To the many causes of excitement already mentioned we may add one more-the substantial motive of avarice; since we invariably find that the Christians, who were the objects of these popular commotions, sustained, among other injuries, the loss of their property. And we must not

*This extreme ayersion from every form of idolatry is ascribed to a prevalent belief, that the statues were actually animated by those supposed beings whom the pagans worshipped as gods, and whom the Christians abominated as devils.