faith within the period in which Lactantius assures us there was no violent persecution at all. But whether their numbers and sufferings were such as to justify one in considering those periods, times of violent persecution, though they are thus commonly regarded by writers, the reader will be better able to determine, when in the sequel we treat of them consecutively.

Meantime it may be here interesting to enquire how under the non-persecuting emperors, the Christians were generally treated. Were they uniformly regarded with suspicion and distrust-were they excluded from all offices of position, power and emolument-were they crushed by exorbitant taxes and imposts? Were they disfranchised and deprived of all rights, civil, national and religious? Far from it. If the liberty and privileges enjoyed by them, prior to the last general persecution under Diocletian, be any test of how they were treated under the other Roman emperors, their general condition was anything but deplorable. For, according to the testimony of Eusebius, for years prior to 302, the Church enjoyed the amplest liberty; her children were not only not oppressed by their pagan masters, but they enjoyed the confidence of their sovereigns, even to the extent of being entrusted with the highest and most responsible positions in the community. Of this we have given already the most satisfactory proof, in the words of Eusebius. Unhappily however, the liberty they enjoyed and which should have been employed by them in advancing the interest of religion, became only the occasion of their ruin. "But when by reason of an excessive liberty," writes Eusebius, "we sank into negligence and sloth, one envying and reviling another in different ways, and we were almost as it were, on the point of taking up arms against each other, and were assailing each other with words as with

darts and spears, prelates inveighing against prelates, and people rising up against people; and hypocrisy and dissimulation had arisen to the greatest height of malignity. Then the divine judgment, which usually proceeds with a lenient hand, whilst the multitudes were yet crowding into the Church, with gentle and mild visitations, began to afflict its episcopacy, the persecution having begun with those brethren that were in the army. **** But some, that appeared to be our pastors, deserting the laws of piety, were inflamed against each other with mutual strife, and accumulating quarrels and threats, rivalship, hostility and hatred to each other, only anxious to assert the government as a kind of sovereignty for themselves."*

A truly deplorable description it must be acknowledged is the foregoing, of the state of religion at the close of the third century, prelates inveighing against prelates, people rising up against people, hypocrisy and dissimulation; pastors yielding themselves up to impiety and inflamed against each other with mutual strife, etc. Poorly indeed did such a condition of affairs fit them for encountering the terrible storm that speedily followed and hence, as we shall presently see the deplorable weakness of many in abandoning in the presence of torments their holy religion. It is not in the spirit of a cynic we make these admissions, for that would ill become our sacred profession. It is in the interests of truth and to convey to the mind of the reader an accurate idea of the subject on which we are writing. The object of all historical research should be the communication of truth and the dispelling of error. No good can accrue to the Church from concealing facts and misrepresenting events. Religion is not to be subserved by such means: the Church stands in need of no such an advocacy; she seeks no imaginary glory and she 'Eusebius, b. vii, chap. i.

desires no fictitious renown, and least of all what is founded on palpable untruth.

The sword of persecution, constantly drawn against the primitive Christians for three hundred years, is an engaging and favorite subject with fervid orators and enthusiastic declaimers. The thousands constantly suffering in the cause of divine truth, is what they love to picture to the fancies of their hearers. But is this in accordance with truth? Is there sufficient historic evidence to bear it out? Far from it. Millions indeed died for the faith, but, unhappily, numbers apostatized. The fact is there was great courage and much weakness exhibited in that time, while as regards the periods of suffering themselves the truth is there was, as we have seen, more peace than persecution under the Roman emperors. The great majority of those pagan rulers treated their Christian subjects with greater lenity, granted them more important immunities, and conferred upon them more solid and substantial favors, than many Christian monarchs of after ages did on theirs. For the truth of this, the reader will be furnished with ample proof in the proper place. Meantime, we solicit the attention of the reader to the examination of the extent to which the primitive Christians, as a body, expressed their readiness to suffer and die for the faith.

CHAPTER VII.

WEAKNESS OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS IN DENYING THE FAITH-ST. CYPRIAN'S TESTIMONY TO THIS EFFECT-INROADS MADE ON THE FAITH BY HERESY-MOTIVES THAT LED TO THE PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS—THE PREJUDICES AGAINST THEM IN THE MINDS OF THE PAGANS— TACITUS' IDEA OF THE CHRISTIANS-GREATER INJURY DONE TO THE CHURCH BY HER OWN UNNATURAL CHILDREN THAN BY PAGANISM-DISLOYALTY TO CÆSAR THE LEADING PLEA FOR PERSECUTING THE FAITHFUL IN EVERY AGE.

In keeping with the vague impression regarding the extent of the primitive persecutions, is the equally erroneous idea of the readiness of the faithful as a body to die for the faith. Much indeed were it to be wished that such were the case, for then the church would have been spared the humiliation of so many apostacies. History, however, teaches us exactly the contrary: nor is this to be a matter of surprise, for if apostacies have occured in subsequent ages, there is no particular reason why they should not have happened in the beginning. The extent to which these defections occurred, must ever remain a subject of conjecture, owing to the absence of impartial historians and the readiness of writers in drawing a veil over the weaknesses of the brethren. Neither Origen, Tertullian, Lactantius, nor Jerome, though entirely in their way, gives any account of the numbers that abandoned the faith in the presence of torments. Sufficient, however, is furnished in the casual admissions of others to warrant us in believing the number of apostates in the primitive times to have been very considerable. In a letter addressed by Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, to Fabius, bishop of Antioch, in which the former is recounting the sufferings of the

Alexandrian Christians during the persecution of Decius, the following passage occurs: "All indeed are greatly alarmed and many of the more eminent immediately gave way. Some who were in the public offices were immediately led forth. Others were brought by their acquaintances, and when called by name they approached the impure and unholy sacrifices, but pale and trembling, as if they were not to sacrifice but themselves to be the victims and the sacrifices for the idols. They were jeered by the surrounding multitude and were obviously equally as afraid to die as to offer the sacrifice. But some advanced with greater readiness to the altars and boldly asserted that they never had been Christians, concerning whom the declaration of the Lord is most true, that they will scarcely be saved. Of the rest, some followed the good or bad example of those that preceded them. Some fled, but were retaken, and of these some held out as far as imprisonment and bonds; but, after a few days, abjured the faith before entering the tribunals. Some too, after enduring the torture for a time, at last apostatized. Others, however, remained firm and blessed pillars of the Lord, confirmed by himself, and, receiving strength and power suited to their faith, became admirable witnesses of his kingdom."*

Not very flattering, it must be acknowledged, is this account of the weakness of the Alexandrian Christians. But stronger and plainer still is the admission of the bishop of Cæsarea, who, contrary to his usual reticence, frankly acknowledges that numbers abandoned the faith in his country during the persecution of Diocletian. After stating that great numbers of the prelates of the Church endured, with a noble resolution, the greatest of torments, he immediately adds: “But vast numbers of others, broken and relaxed. . . . voluntarily yielded at the outset." Cyprian, * Eusebius, book vi., chap. 41.

+ Eusebius, book viii. chap. iii.