heroic loyalty, and what were the crimes it led to and justified. To his surprise, as he wrote in a letter to Trajan, there was no crime at all— "They maintained that the extent of their crime is this, that on a fixed day they meet before daylight and sing by turns a hymn to Christ as God (carmen Christo quasi Deo); and bind themselves with an oath (sacramentum)-not for the commission of a crime, but—not to commit theft or robbery or adultery, not to break their word, nor to deny a deposit when claimed. After this it is their custom to depart and meet again for the purpose of taking food— common and innocent food (not human flesh, as has been alleged); and even this they ceased doing after my edict was issued forbidding clubs, according to your instructions."-Pliny, Epistle 97. Trajan's rescript.-In order to find out if this testimony were really true, Pliny ordered two Christian slave-women tortured; but they only affirmed what had already been said, and so the governor concluded that Christianity was nothing more than "a baneful and absurd superstition." He could not very well go on trying Christians for their belief, since it seemed politically harmless, and especially as the Christians included a large part of the population of the province. So he wrote to the Emperor for directions, in the letter just quoted, and received in reply Trajan's answer, or rescript: "You have adopted, my dear Secundus, exactly the right course in examining the cases of those denounced to you as Christians. For, indeed, no general rule can be laid down as a fixed form of procedure. They must not be sought out; but if they are denounced and convicted, they must be punished, unless anyone who denies he is a Christian proves it by adoring the gods; however suspicious his conduct may have been, he shall earn pardon by repentance. But anonymous posters ought not to be regarded in the case of any crime; for that would set a very bad example, unworthy of our times."-Pliny, Epistle 98. It is evident that Trajan was anxious to suppress the activities of anonymous and irresponsible informers. This was a measure of safety for the persecuted Christians. But it is also evident that the Roman authorities had no intention of compromising with a faith which denied the gods and refused a simple and complacent rite of loyalty to the imperial authority. It was only a step from this to the persecution of Christianity as a religion. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH About this time, or perhaps a little later, an attack was made upon the church in Antioch in Syria. Christianity had been established there for sixty years or more-two generations so that many of the faithful had been followers of Christ all their lives long. And the church was, of course, large in numbers to provoke the opposition that arose. Condemned to the lions.-It is not said what occasioned the persecution. It may have been the disastrous earthquake which destroyed part of the city in 115 (if the date of the persecution is that late); such calamities were often attributed to the wrath of the gods against believers in alien religions, who were robbing the local deity of his lawful worship and offerings. Antioch was a city of polyglot population, divided by factions and parties, and alarmed at that time by the threatened approach of the Parthians. However the persecution began, it led to the arrest and condemnation of the bishop, Ignatius, before the Roman legate. He was sentenced to be conducted to Rome and there thrown to the beasts in the arena. On the way to Rome.-Soon began his long, slow journey overland to Troas, guarded by military escorts and accompanied, like Saint Paul on his way to Rome, by friends and companions. At Philadelphia, Smyrna, Troas, delegations from the nearby churches visited him, fondly kissing his chains in token of their homage; and he wrote to the congregations they represented the brief letters of greeting and exhortation and counsel which still survive. One of these is his epistle to the Ephesians, whose bishop, Onesimus, had come to Smyrna to visit him. It begins as follows: "Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the church which is at Ephesus in Asia, most deservedly happy, being blessed through the greatness and fullness of God the Father, and predestinated before the world began to an enduring and unchangeable glory, being united and chosen through his true passion, according to the will of the Father and Jesus Christ our God: All happiness, by Jesus Christ, and his undefiled grace!"-Ignatius, Ephesians 1: I. No sad and melancholy greeting, this, for a man on his way to the lions! An exuberant joy and intense devotion has obliterated, for Ignatius, all thought of his own fate. The spirit of the martyr comes out toward the end of this letter, where he wishes that his life may be laid 1 Was this the Onesimus for whom Paul wrote the note to Philemon? |