CENT. indeed were the only arms they had to oppose I. the truth; since the excellence of the gospel, and PART I. the virtue of its ministers and followers, left its

The punishments

against the

enemies no resources but calumny aud 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 judgments sent down by the angry gods, because the Christians, who contemned their authority, were suffered in the empire [p].

IX. The various kinds of punishments, both and judicial capital and corrective, which were employed forms used against the Christians, are particularly described Christians. by learned men who have written professedly upon that subject [7]. The 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 [r]. These judicial forms were very different at different 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 see the most diligent search made after the followers of Christ; at another, all perquisition suspended, and positive accusation and information only allowed. Under one reign we see them, upon their being proved Christians, or their confessing themselves such, immediately dragged away to execution, unless they prevent their punishment by apostasy; under another, we

[p] See Arnobius Contra gentes.

see

[q] See for this purpose Ant. Gallonius and Gasp. Sagittarius, De cruciatibus martyrum.

[r] See Bohmer, Juris Eccles. Protestant. tom. iv. lib. v. Decretal. tit. 1. sect. 32. p. 617.

I.

see inhuman magistrates endeavouring to compel CENT. them, by all sorts of tortures, to renounce their profession.

PART I.

sors.

X. They who, in the perilous times of the Martyrs church, fell by the hand of bloody persecution, and confesand expired in the cause of the divine Saviour, were called martyrs; a term borrowed from the sacred writings, which signifies witnesses, and thus expresses the glorious testimony which these magnanimous believers bore to the truth. The title of confessors was given to such, as in the face of death, and at the expence of honours, 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. The veneration that was paid to both martyrs and confessors is hardly credible. The distinguishing honours and privileges they enjoyed, the authority with which their counsels and decisions were attended, would furnish ample matter for a history apart; and such an undertaking might be highly useful in many respects. There was, no doubt, as much wisdom as justice, in treating with such respect, and investing with such privileges, 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 purpose; 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.

ber.

XI. The first three or four ages of the church Their num were stained with the blood of martyrs, who suffered for the name of Jesus. The greatness of their number is acknowledged by all who have a competent acquaintance with ancient history, and

who

I.

CENT. who have examined that matter with any degree of impartiality. It is true, the learned Dodwell PART I. has endeavoured to invalidate this unanimous de

cision of the ancient historians [s], and to diminish considerably the number of those that suffered death for the gospel. And, after him, several writers have maintained his opinion, and asserted, that whatever may have been the calamities that 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. Here, no doubt, 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, nor promiscuously disturbed, nor called before the public tribunals. Those who were of the lowest rank of the people, escaped the best; their obscurity, in some measure skreened them from the fury of persecution. The learned and eloquent, the doctors and ministers, and chiefly the rich, after the confiscation of whose fortunes a rapacious magistracy were perpetually gaping, these were the persons the most exposed to the dangers of the times.

XII.

[$] See Dodwell's dissertation, De paucitate martyrum, in his Dissertationes Cyprianica.

I.

PART I.

Their lives

XII. The actions and sayings of these holy CENT. martyrs, from the moment of their imprisonment to their last gasp, were carefully recorded, in order to be read on certain days, and thus proposed as models to future ages. But few, however, of and actions. these ancient acts are come down to our times [t]; 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 labour, accounts of the lives and actions of the ancient martyrs. But the most of them have given us little else than a series of fables, adorned with profusion of rhetorical flowers, and striking images, as the wiser, even among the Romish doctors, frankly acknowledge. Nor are those records, that 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.

under Nero,

XIII. It would have been surprising, if under Their persuch a monster of cruelty as Nero, the Christians secution had enjoyed the sweets of tranquillity and freedom. But this was far from being the case, for this perfidious tyrant accused them of having set fire to the city of Rome, that horrid crime, which

he

[] Such of those acts as are worthy of credit have been collected by the learned Ruinartus, 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 a laboured preface which the author has prefixed to this work.

I.

PART I.

CENT. tians were condemned by Nero, not so much on account of their religion, as for the falsely-imputed crime of burning the city [a], it is scarcely to be imagined, that he would leave unmolested even beyond the bounds of Rome, a sect whose members were accused of such an abominable deed.

The perse

cution un

tian.

XV. Though immediately after the death of der Domi- Nero, the rage of this first persecution against the Christians ceased, yet the flame broke out anew in the year ninety-three or ninety-four, under Domitian, a prince little inferior to Nero in all sorts of wickedness [b]. This persecution was occasioned, if we may give credit to Hegesippus, by the fears that Domitian was under of losing the empire [c]: for he had been informed that, among the relations of Christ, a man should arise, who, possessed of a turbulent and ambitious spirit, was to excite commotions in the state, and aim at supreme dominion. However that may have been, the persecution renewed by this unworthy prince was extremely violent, though his untimely death put a stop to it, not long after it commenced. Flavius Clemens, a man of consular dignity, and Flavia Domitilla, his niece, or, as some say, his wife, were the principal martyrs that suffered in this persecution, in which also the apostle John was banished to the isle of Patmos. Tertullian, and other writers inform us, that, before his banishment, he was thrown into a caldron of boiling oil, from whence he came forth, not only living, but even unhurt. This story, however, is not attested in such a manner as to leave no remaining doubt about its certainty [d]. PART

[a] See Theod. Ruinart. Præf. ad acta martyrum sincera et selecta, f. 31, &c.

[b] Idem Præf. ad acta martyrum, &c. f. 33. Thom. Ittigius, Selectis Histor. Eccl. Capit. Sæc. i. cap. vi, sect. 11. p. 331. [c] Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. cap. xix. xx.

[d] See Mosheim's Syntagma dissert. ad historiam eccles. pertinentium. p. 497-546.