Individuals in the pagan world, it is true, like Plato and Aurelius, held opinions regarding God, duty, immortality, not unlike the teachings of Christ; but through Christianity these higher doctrines, "which the noblest intellects of [pagan] antiquity could barely grasp, have become the truisms of the village school, the proverbs of the cottage and the alley."1

539. Debt to the Roman Empire."- In three distinct ways the Empire had made preparation for Christianity. (1) The gentler tendency of the age made easier the victory of Christianity, the religion of humility and self-sacrifice. (2) The political machinery of the empire had important influence upon the organization of Church government (§ 565). (3) An incalculable debt is due to the unity of the vast Roman world.

Except for the widespread rule of Rome, Christianity could hardly have reached beyond Judea. The early Christian writers recognized this, and regarded the creation of the Empire as a providential preparation. No other government was tolerant enough to permit the spread of such worship. The Empire had tolerated broadly the religions of all nations (except those believed to be seriously immoral), and so had melted down sharp local prejudices. The union of diverse peoples under the Empire, with a common language, common sentiments and customs, a common government, and habits of easy intercourse, laid the foundation for their spiritual union in Christianity. Says Renan:

"It is not easy to imagine how, in the face of an Asia Minor, a Greece, an Italy, split into a hundred small republics, and of Gaul, Spain, Africa, Egypt, in possession of their old national institutions, the apostles could have succeeded, or even how their project could have been started."

1 Lecky, European Morals. See that work (II, 1-4) on the relation of pagan speculation and teaching to Christian faith; and also some good pages in Matthew Arnold's Essays in Criticism, First Series, 345-348. Robinson's Readings in European History, I, 14-18, has some excellent source extracts to illustrate the same relation.

2 There is a good treatment in Fisher's Beginnings of Christianity, 47–73.

540. The Early Persecutions.-The Empire encouraged the utmost freedom of thought upon all subjects. Marcus Aurelius, in appointing men to the endowed chairs of philosophy at Rome, did not inquire whether or not they agreed with his own philosophical beliefs. Why, then, did Rome persecute the early Christians?

To understand this at all, it is best to treat separately the "persecution" under Nero, and the persecutions in the following century.

We know from the Book of Acts that within thirty years after the death of Christ his disciples were to be found in all large cities of the eastern part of the Empire, and that they had appeared in Rome itself. They were still confined, however, almost wholly to the lower classes of society. Cultivated Romans heard of them only by chance, if at all, and as a despised sect of the Jews. The Jews themselves accused the Christians of all crimes and impieties, of eating young children and of horrible orgies in the secret love-feasts (the communion suppers). The accusation was accepted carelessly, because of the secrecy of the Christian meetings1 and because there had been licentious rites in certain eastern religions which Rome had been compelled to check."

The great fire in Rome, 64 A.D. (§ 482), first brought the Christians to general notice, and gave occasion for the first important mention of them by a pagan historian. The origin of the fire, says Tacitus, was charged upon the new sect,

"Whom the vulgar call Christians, and who were already branded with deserved infamy. Christus, from whom the name was derived, was executed when Tiberius was imperator, by Pontius Pilate, the procurator in Judea. But the pernicious superstition, checked for the time, again broke out, not only in its first home, but even in Rome, the meeting place of all horrible and immoral practices from all parts of the world.”

1 See a significant extract from a pagan writer in Munro, 168 (No. 128). 2 A brief clear statement is given by Hardy, Christianity and the Roman Government, 9-11 and 14-15.

Tacitus plainly does not think the charge of incendiarism proven, but he approves the punishment of these "haters of the human race." Nero was glad to satisfy the rage of the Roman populace by sacrificing such victims with ingenious and fiendish tortures. As we have noted, however (§ 482), the punishment was not in name or fact a religious persecution, and it was confined to the city of Rome.

Fifty years later, Pliny was a provincial governor under Trajan (§§ 501, 527). Many persons in his province were accused by the people, sometimes anonymously, of belonging to the "deplorable superstition" of the Christians. Such men, it was charged, were guilty of immoral practices, and also brought down the anger of the gods upon the state, since they would not sacrifice to its gods. Pliny had investigated and had found that they lived pure, simple lives, but that they refused with "immovable obstinacy" to sacrifice to the Roman gods. This, he thought, deserved death. But the number of such offenders was so great, and they came forward so readily, that he was embarrassed, and he wrote to Rome for instructions. Trajan directed him not to seek them out, and not to receive anonymous accusations, but added that if Christians were brought before him and then refused to sacrifice, they must be punished.1 541. Causes of the Persecutions. - From these letters two things appear. (1) The populace hated the Christians as they did not hate the adherents of other strange religions, and pressed the government to persecute them. (2) The best rulers, though deploring bloodshed, thought it proper and right to punish the Christians with death.

These facts can be partly explained.

a. Rome tolerated and supported all religions, but she expected all her populations also to tolerate and support the state religion. The Christians alone not only refused to do so, but

1 Read the correspondence in Munro's Source Book, 165-167, Fling's Studies, 140-143, or in Bury, 446-448. See, too, Pennsylvania Reprints, IV, 10; Ramsay, 196-225, Hardy, 102–124.

declared war upon it as sinful and idolatrous. To the populace this seemed to challenge the wrath of the gods; and to enlightened men it seemed to indicate at least a dangerously stubborn and treasonable temper.

b. Secret societies were feared and forbidden by the Empire, on political grounds. Even the enlightened Trajan instructed Pliny to forbid the organization of a firemen's company in a large city of his province, because such associations were likely to become "factious assemblies." The church was a vast, highly organized, widely diffused, secret society, and "as such, was not only distinctly illegal, but in the highest degree was calculated to excite the apprehension of the government."1

c. The attitude of the Christians toward society added to their unpopularity. Many of them refused on religious grounds to join the legions, or to fight, if drafted. This seemed treason, inasmuch as a prime duty of the Roman world was to repel barbarism. Moreover, the Christians were unsocial: they abstained from most public amusements, as immoral, and they refused to illuminate their houses or garland their portals in honor of national triumphs.

Thus we have religious and social motives with the people, and a political motive with statesmen. It follows that the periods of persecution often came under those emperors who had the highest conception of duty.

542. The Attitude of the Government. - The first century, except for the horrors in Rome under Nero, afforded no persecution until its very close. In 95 there was a persecution, not very severe, and lasting only a few months. Under Trajan we see spasmodic local persecutions arising from popular hatred, but not instigated by the government. Hadrian and Antoninus Pius strove to repress popular outbreaks against the Christians. Aurelius, in the latter part of his reign, permitted a persecu

1 These are the words of George Burton Adams. For the jealousy of Trajan toward associations, see Munro, Source Book, 232, 233. Some scholars, however, deny that the Church was persecuted as a secret society; see Hardy, 90-91 and 195.

tion. On the whole, during the second century, the Christians were legally subject to punishment, but there were only a few enforcements of the law against them, and those were local,1 not general.

The third century was an age of anarchy in government, and, as we shall see, of decline in prosperity. The few able rulers strove strenuously to restore society to its ancient order; and this century accordingly was an age of definitely planned, imperial persecution. Says George Burton Adams: "There was really no alternative for men like Decius, and Valerian, and Diocletian.3 Christianity was a vast organized defiance of law." No return to earlier Roman conditions, such as the reformers hoped for, could be accomplished unless this sect was overcome.

But by this time Christianity was too strong. It had come to count nobles and rulers in its ranks. At the opening of the fourth century, the shrewd Constantine saw the advantage he might gain by enlisting it upon his side in the civil wars. Accordingly Christianity became a favored religion, and the era of persecution by the pagans ceased forever.

543. Summary. (1) It is possible to understand how some of the best emperors could persecute the Church. (2) The persecution was not of such a character as to endanger a vital faith. (3) It did give rise to multitudes of heroic martyrdoms of strong men and weak maidens, which make a glorious page in human history, and which by their effect upon contemporaries justify the saying, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church."4 (4) The moral results of Christianity in the first three centuries were most apparent in the social life of the lower classes in the cities. The effect upon legislation and government was to begin in the fourth century A.D.

1 This does not detract from the heroism of those noble men and women who chose to die in torture rather than deny their faith. On the slight nature of the persecution before Decius, 249 A.D., see Lecky, I, 443-445; Curteis, Roman Empire, 20-30.

2 § 494.

3 § 549.

4 Special report: stories of famous early martyrs; the persecutions of Decius and of Diocletian.