1.

PART 1.

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 [s]; 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.

secution

XIII. It would have been surprising, if under Their persuch a monster of cruelty as Nero, the Christians under Nero. 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

[t] 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.

ᏢᎪᎡᎢ 1,

sure.

CENT. fire to the city of Rome, that horrid crime, which he himself had committed with a barbarous pleaIn avenging this crime upon the innocent Christians, he ordered matters so, that the punishment should bear some resemblance to the offence. He, therefore, wrapped up some of them in combustible garments, and ordered fire to be set to them when the darkness came on, that thus, like torches, they might dispel the obscurity of the night; while others were fastened to crosses, or torn in pieces by wild beasts, or put to death in some such dreadful manner. This horrid perse

The extent

secution.

cution was set on foot in the month of November [u], in the 64th year of Christ, and in it, according to some ancient accounts, St. Paul and St. Peter suffered martyrdom; though this latter fact is contested by many, as being absolutely irreconcileable with chronology [w]. The death of Nero, who perished miserably in the year 68, put an end to the calamities of this first persecution, under which, during the space of four years, the Christians suffered every sort of torment and affliction, which the ingenious cruelty of their enemies could invent.

XIV. Learned men are not entirely agreed conof this per- cerning the extent of this persecution under Nero. Some confine it to the city of Rome, while others represent it as having raged throughout the whole empire. The latter opinion, which is also the most ancient [x], is undoubtedly to be preferred;

[u] See, for a further illustration of this point of chronology, two French Dissertations of the very learned Alphonse de Vignoles, concerning the cause, and the commencement of the persecution under Nero, which are printed in Masson's Histoire Critique de la Republique des Lettres, tom. viii. p. 74-117. tom. ix. p. 172-186. See also Toinard. Ad Lactantium de Mortibus Persequut. p. 398.

[w] See Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, tom. i. P. Baratier, De Successione Romanor. Pontif. cap. v. p. 60.

564.

[a] This opinion was first defended by Franc. Balduin, in his Comm. ad Edicta Imperator. in Christianos, p. 27, 28.

I.

PART I.

as it is certain that the laws enacted against the CENT. Christians were enacted against the whole body, and not against particular churches, and were consequently in force in the remotest provinces. The authority of Tertullian confirms this, who tells us, that Nero and Domitian had enacted laws against the Christians, of which Trajan had in part taken away the force, and rendered them in some mea. sure without effect [y]. We shall not have reeourse for a further confirmation of this opinion to that famous Portuguese or Spanish inscription, in which Nero is praised for having purged that province from the new superstition; since that inscription is justly suspected to be a mere forgery, and the best Spanish authors consider it as such [z]. But we may, however, make one obser vation, which will tend to illustrate the point in question, and that is, that, since the Christians After him Launoius maintained the same opinion in his Dissert. quâ Sulpitii Severi locus de prima martyrum Galliæ epocha vindicatur, sect. i. p. 139, 140. tom. ii. part i. opp. This opinion, however, is still more acutely and learnedly defended by Dodwell in the xith of his Dissertationes Cyprianicæ.

[y] Apologet. cap. iv. p. 46. according to the edition of Havercamp.

[z] This celebrated inscription is published by the learned Gruterus, in the first volume of his Inscriptions, p. ccxxxviii. B. 9. It must, however, be observed, that the best Spanish writers dare not venture to defend the genuineness and authority of this inscription, as it has not been seen by any of them, and was first produced by Cyriac of Ancona, a person universally known to be utterly unworthy of the least credit. We shall add here the judgment which the excellent historian of Spain, Jo. de Ferreras, has given of this inscription, in his Histoire générale d'Espagne, tom. i. p. 192. "Je ne puis m'empêcher, (says he) d'observer que Cyriac d'Ancone fut le premier qui publia cette inscription, et que c'est de lui que les autres l'ont tirée; mais comme la foi de cet ecrivain est suspect au jugement de tous les savans, que d'ailluers il n'y a ni vestige, ni souvenir de cette inscription dans les places où l'on dit qu'elle s'est trouvée, et qu'on ne scait où la prendre à present, chacun peut en porter le jugement qu'il voudra."

VOL. I.

I.

PART 1.

CENT. 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.

cution un

tian.

The perse- 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 rehewed 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].

[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.

PART II.

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

01010000

CHAPTER I.

Containing an Account of the State of Learning and Philosophy.

I.

PART II.

The state of

not suffi

I. If we had any certain or satisfactory account CENT. of the doctrines which were received among the wiser of the eastern nations, when the light of the gospel first rose upon the world, this would contribute to illustrate many important points in the philosophy ancient history of the church. But the case is in the east quite otherwise: the fragments of the ancient ori- ciently ental philosophy that are come down to us are, as every one knows, few in number, and, such as they are, they yet require the diligence, erudition, and sagacity of some learned man, to collect them into a body, to arrange them with method, and to explain them with perspicuity [e].

known.

the Per

II. The doctrine of the magi, who believed the The philouniverse to be governed by two principles, the one sophy of good, and the other evil, flourished in Persia. sians, ChalTheir followers, however, were not all agreed con

[e] The history of the oriental philosophy by Mr. Stanley, though it is not void of all kind of merit, is yet extremely defective. That learned author is so far from having exhausted his subject, that he has left it, on the contrary, in many places wholly untouched. The history of philosophy, published in Germany, by the very learned Mr. Brucker, is vastly preferable to Mr. Stanley's work; and the German author, indeed, much superior to the English one, both in point of genius and of erudition.

deans, and

Arabians.