LETTER FROM PLINY TO TRAJAN.

195

lows:-I interrogated them-' Are you Christians?' If they avowed it, I put the same question a second, and a third time, threatening them with the punishment which the law has decreed. If they persisted, I ordered them to be instantly executed; for of this I had no doubt, whatever was the nature of their religion, that such perverseness and inflexible obstinacy certainly deserved punishment. Some, that were infected with this madness, I reserved to be sent to Rome, on account of their privileges as Roman citizens, to be referred to your tribunal.

"In the discussion of these matters, accusations multiplying, a diversity of cases occurred. A schedule of names was sent me by an unknown accuser; but, when I cited the persons before me, many denied that they were, or ever had been Christians; and they repeated after me an invocation of the gods, and of your image, which, for this purpose, I had ordered to be brought with the statues of the other deities. They performed sacred rites with wine and frankincense, and abjured the name of Christ; none of which things, I am assured, a real Christian can ever be compelled to do: these, therefore, I thought proper to discharge. Others, named by an informer, at first acknowledged themselves Christians, and afterwards denied it; declaring that, though they had been Christians, they had renounced their profession, some of them three years ago, others still longer, and some even twenty years ago. All these worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and at the same time abjured Christ.

"And this was the account which they gave me of the nature of the religion they had once professed, whether it deserves the name of crime or error: viz. that they were accustomed on a stated day to assemble before sunrise, and to join together in singing hymns to Christ as to a Deity; binding themselves as with a solemn oath, not to commit wickedness of any kind; neither to be guilty of theft, robbery, nor adultery; never to break a promise, or keep back a deposit when called upon. The worship being ended, it was their custom to separate, and meet together again for a repast, promiscuous indeed, and without any distinction of rank or sex, but perfectly harmless; and even from this they desisted since the publication of my

edict, in which, agreeably to your orders, I forbade any societies of that sort.

"That I might obtain further information, and in order to come at the truth, I thought it necessary to put to the torture two females, who were called 'deaconesses.' But I could extort nothing from them, except the acknowledgment of an excessive and depraved superstition; and, therefore, desisting from further investigation, I determined to consult you; for the number of culprits is so great as to call for the most serious deliberation. Informations are pouring in against multitudes of every age, of all orders, and of both sexes, and more will be impeached; for the contagion of this superstition hath spread, not only throughout cities, but villages also, and it has even reached the farm houses. I am, nevertheless, of opinion that it may be checked, and the success of my endeavours hitherto forbids despondency, for the [Pagan] temples, once almost deserted, again begin to be frequented; the sacred solemnities, which had been for some time intermitted, are now attended afresh; and the sacrificial victims, which once could scarcely find a purchaser, now obtain a brisk sale; whence I infer that many might be reclaimed, were the hope of pardon on their repentance absolutely confirmed.”

To this Letter the Emperor returned the following answer :

"You have done perfectly right in managing as you have the matters which relate to the impeachment of the Chris tians. No one general rule can be laid down which will apply to all cases. These people are not to be hunted up by informers: but, if accused and convicted, let them be executed yet with this restriction, that if any renounce Christianity, and give proof of it by offering supplications to our gods, however suspicious their past conduct may have been, they shall be pardoned on their repentance. But anonymous accusations should never be attended to, since it would be establishing a precedent of the worst kind, and altogether inconsistent with the maxims of my government."

REFLECTIONS ON THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIANS.

197

I have laid both these Letters before you on account of their very interesting contents; they throw a flood of light on the actual state of the Christian profession at the time they were written. Let me remind you of a few of the more prominent particulars which are suggested by them.

First, it must strike every reflecting mind that, at this early period, Christianity had made an extraordinary progress in the empire; for Pliny acknowledges that the Heathen temples had become almost desolate and forsaken of the worshippers, the animals prepared for slaughter could with dif ficulty obtain purchasers, and scarcely any persons came to the "sacred solemnities," as the proconsul was pleased to term them. And we shall afterwards find a similar account given us by Tertullian of its rapid and extensive spread in Africa, towards the end of the second century.

Another thing that deserves your notice is the sanguinary edicts that were in force against the Christians, and the severe persecutions to which they were at this time exposed. We find that it was a capital offence, punishable by death, for any one to avow himself a Christian! "I did not in the least hesitate,” says the amiable and philosophic Pliny, "but that, whatever should appear on confession to be their faith, yet that their forwardness in avowing it, and their inflexible obstinacy in persisting so to do, would certainly entitle them to punishment." And yet this forwardness and inflexible obstinacy, which appeared to him so unreasonable and wicked, was nothing more than what the Lord requires of all his faithful followers. Hear his own words: "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven; but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven," Matt. x. 32; Luke xii. 8. And we see the emperor Trajan not only confirming the equity of the sentence, but enjoining the continuance of such executions, unless where Christians could be intimidated by the dread of punishment to deny their God and Saviour, and do homage to the Pagan deities.

And let us not overlook the pleasing view that is given us in these letters of the holy and exemplary lives of the Christians of that age. It appears, by the confession of apostates, that no

one could continue a member of the Christian community whose deportment in the world did not correspond with his profession. Even females were put to the torture, to induce them to accuse their brethren, but all in vain-no charge of guilt could be extorted. To meet together for the worship of God—to sing hymns to Christ their Saviour-to exhort one another to abstain from every evil word and work-to unite in commemorating the death of their Lord, by partaking of the symbols of his broken body and shed blood-these things constitute what Pliny has termed a “depraved superstition," an "execrable crime," which could only be expiated by the blood of the Christians. Such was the aspect which the Gentile philosophy bore towards the religion of the cross. Thus verifying what the apostle Paul said to the Corinthians-"the doctrine of Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness." And, from what took place in the province of Bithynia, it seems not unreasonable to infer, that the state of affairs was much the same in every other part of the empire.

"

While Pliny was thus conducting matters in Bithynia, the province of Syria was under the government of Tiberianus; and there is still extant a letter which he addressed to Trajan, in which he says, "I am quite wearied with punishing and destroying the Galilæans, or those of the sect called Christians, according to your orders. Yet they never cease to profess voluntarily what they are, and to offer themselves to death. Wherefore I have laboured, by exhortation and threatening, to discourage them from daring to confess to me that they are of that sect. Yet, in defiance of all persecution, they still continue to do it. Be pleased therefore to inform me what your highness thinks proper to be done with them.”

About the time that Pliny wrote his celebrated letter, the emperor Trajan, who was then entering upon the Parthian war, arrived at Antioch in Syria. Ignatius was at that time one of the elders or presbyters of the church in that renowned city—a man of "exemplary piety and in all things like unto the apostles." During the emperor's stay at Antioch, the city was almost entirely ruined by an earthquake. It was preceded by violent claps of thunder, unusual winds, and a dreadful rumbling noise under ground, which was succeeded by so severe a shock that

ARREST OF IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH.

199

the earth trembled, several houses were overturned, and others tossed to and fro like a ship at sea. The noise of the cracking and breaking of the timber, and of the falling of houses, drowned the cries of the dismayed populace. Such of them as happened to be in their houses were, for the most part, buried under their ruins and those who were walking in the streets and squares were, by the violence of the shock, dashed against each other, and many of them either killed or dangerously wounded. The emperor himself was much hurt, but made his escape through a window from the house in which he had taken up his residence. When the earthquake was over, a woman's voice was heard from under the ruins, which being removed, she was found with a sucking child in her arms, which she had kept alive, as well as herself, by means of her own milk.

Nothing was more common than to resolve calamities of this kind into the anger of the gods against the Christians, whose impiety in forsaking their worship, it was said, had at length provoked the divine justice. The eminent station of Ignatius, and the popularity which generally attends superior talents, marked him out as the victim of popular fury on this occasion. He was seized, and by the emperor's order sent from Antioch to Rome. But his history is too interesting to be passed over with a slight incidental mention-I must give you a concise biographical account of him.

IGNATIUS was a native of Syria, and is said to have been brought to the knowledge of the truth under the ministry of the apostle John; but he was also intimately acquainted with both Peter and Paul. His eminent attainments in the doctrines of Christianity, combined with his fervent piety, pointed him out to the church in Antioch, of which he was a member, as a fit person to fill the office of elder, and he was accordingly ordained by the apostle John, about the year 67. In this important station he continued to preside with great reputation to himself and usefulness to the church during a period of forty years, in the midst of a stormy and tempestuous season. In the year 107, when the emperor Trajan, flushed with a victory which he had obtained over the Scythians and Daci, came to Antioch to prepare for a war against the Parthians and Armenians, he entered the city with the pomp and solemnities of a triumph, and, as he