customs of the Christians must have made on the unbiassed, was weakened by prejudices. The Jews, in whom an accurate knowledge of Christianity was presupposed, contributed to increase the disposition which was adverse to it.8 Many of the heathen recognised in the Christian doctrine much that was true, but believed that they possessed it still purer in their philosophy, and took offence at its positive doctrines. 10 Credulous persons allowed themselves to be deceived by ridiculous fabrications respecting the objects which the Christians worshipped; the superstitious

timas. c. 35: publici hostes Christiani.-nos nolunt Romanos haberi, sed hostes principum Romanorum. ad Scapulam c. 2: Circa majestatem imperatoris infamamur.-Christianus nullius est hostis, nedum imperatoris: quem sciens a Deo suo constitui, necesse est ut et ipsum diligat, et revereatur, et honoret, et salvum velit cum toto Romano imperio, quousque saeculum stabit. Tamdiu enim stabit. Colimus ergo et imperatorem sic, quomodo et nobis licet, et ipsi expedit, ut hominem a Deo secundum, et quicquid est, a Deo consecutum, solo Deo minorem. cf. contra Gnosticos, c. 14.

8 Justinus M. Dial. c. Tryph. c. 17 and 108, speaks of Jewish emissaries, who had gone out from Jerusalem into all the world, in order to calumniate Christ and the Christians. Accordingly, the Jews were particularly active about the execution of Polycarp, Epist. eccl. Smyrn. ap. Euseb. iv. 15, 11: μάλιστα Ἰουδαίων προθύμως, ὡς ἔθος αὐτοῖς, εἰς τοῦτο iπоUруоÚTV. Respecting the cursings of the Christians in the synagogues, see Justinus dial. c. Tryph. c. xvi. 47, 96, 108, 117, 137. Hieronymus in Es. v. 18; xlix. 7, lii. 5, in Amos i. 11. Semisch Justin d. Märtyrer, i. 28.

Celsus, in particular, often reverts to this (Orig. c. Cels. v. p. 274), βουλόμενος τὰ καλὰ—καὶ βέλτιον καὶ τρανότερον εἰρῆσθαι παρὰ τοῖς φιλοσοφοῦσιν (vi. p. 275) : καὶ χωρὶς ἀνατάσεως καὶ ἐπαγγελίας τῆς ἀπὸ θεοῦ, ἢ υἱοῦ θεοῦ. So he remarks (vii. p. 370) regarding the Christian prohibition of revenge, Matth. v. 39 : ἀρχαῖον καὶ τοῦτο εὖ μάλα πρόσθεν εἰρημένον, ἀγροικότερον δ ̓ αὐτὸ ἀπεμνημόνευται · ἐπεὶ καὶ Πλάτωνι πεποίηται Σωκράτης Κρίτωνι διαλεγόμενος

τάδε κ. τ. λ. He assumes, in plain terms, that the Christians had borrowed these doctrines from the Greek philosophers, particularly from Plato (vi. p. 283-288). Tertull. apolog. c. 46.

The heathen said, apud Arnobius, i. c. 36: Sed non iccirco dii vobis infesti sunt, quod omnipotentem colatis Deum: sed quod hominem natum, et quod personis infame est vilibus, crucis supplicio interemptum, et Deum fuisse contenditis, et superesse adhuc creditis, et quotidianis supplicationibus adoratis. The doctrine of the resurrection of the body, and the judgment, was particularly offensive, comp. Celsus (Teller fides. dogmatis de resurrect. carnis per. iv. priora secula. Halae 1766, 8, p. 270). Tertull. apologet. c. 18: Haec et nos risimus aliquando. De vestris fuimus: fiunt, non nascuntur Christiani.

11 Tertulliani apologet. c. 16: Somniastis, caput asininum esse Deum nostrum, crucis nos religiosos.-Alii plane humanius et verisimilius solem credunt deum nostrum.-Sed nova jam Dei nostri in ista civitate

14

inferred from their oppressed condition, the impotence of their God;12 and finally, the foreign origin of Christianity, as well as the humble lot of most of its votaries, were as offensive to all, as the idea of a universal religion was absurd.15 The external morality of the Christians could not fail to be perceived by the heathen;16 and the brotherly love prevailing among them had proximo edito publicata est, namely, pictura cum ejusmodi inscriptione: Deus Christianorum Ononychites (according to E. A. Schulzii exercitt. philolog. fasc. i. p. 30: Ononychotus; according to Havercamp. and Münter primord. eccl. Afr. p. 167: Onokoitis). Is erat auribus asininis, altero pede ungulatus, librum gestans, et togatus, (see Münter's Christinn im heidn. Hause, S. 18). Minucius Felix, c. 9, below note 19. Comp. above § 16, note 6.-Other fictions respecting the fate of Jesus are referred to by Celsus, Orig. c. Cels. i. p. 22 ss.

12 The heathen Caecilius says, apud Minuc. Felix. c. 12: Ecce pars vestrum et major et melior, ut dicitus, egetis, algetis, ope, re, fame laboratis et Deus patitur, dissimulat, non vult aut non potest opitulari suis, ita aut invalidus, ut iniquus est.-Nonni Romani sine vestro Deo imperant, regnant, fruuntur orbe toto, vestrique dominantur?

13 Celsus therefore calls it ßápßapov dbyμa, Orig. c. Cels. i. p. 5.

14 Caecilius apud Minuc. Felix, c. 5: Indignandum omnibus, indolescendumque est, audere quosdam, et hoc studiorum rudes, literarum profanos, expertes artium etiam nisi sordidarum, certum aliquid de summa rerum ac majestate decernere, de qua tot omnibus saeculis sectarum plurimarum usque adhuc ipsa philosophia deliberat. Cap. 12: Proinde si quid sapientiae vobis aut verecundiae est, .desinite coeli plagas, et mundi fata et secreta rimari: satis est pro pedibus adspicere, maxime indoctis, impolitis, rudibus, agrestibus: quibus non est datum intelligere civilia, multo magis denegatum est disserere divina. How the Christians drew over to themselves ignorant, humble, and immoral men, is described by Celsus with hostile exaggeration, apud Origines adv. Cels. iii. p. 144 ss.

15 Celsus (Orig. c. Cels. viii. p. 425): El yàp dǹ olóvre els èva ovμppovñoai νόμον τοὺς τὴν ̓Ασίαν, καὶ Εὐρώπην, καὶ Λιβύην, Ελληνάς τε καὶ βαρβάρους, ἄχρι περάτων νενεμημένους !—ὁ τοῦτο οἰόμενος οἶδεν οὐδέν.

16 The famous physician Claudius Galen (about 160) said in one of his last works (the passage is cited in a Syriac translation in Bar-Hebraei chron. syr. ed. Bruns et Kirsch, p. 55, from Gal. comm. in Phaedonem Platonis; more copiously in Arabic in Abulfedae historia anteislamica ed. Fleischer, p. 109, from Gal. de sententiis politiae Platonicae): Hominum plerique orationem demonstrativam continuam mente assequi nequeunt, quare indigent, ut instituantur parabolis. Veluti nostro tempore videmus, homines illos, qui Christiani vocantur, fidem suam e parabolis petiise. Hi tamen interdum talia faciunt, qualia qui vere philosophantur. Nam quod mortem contemnunt, id quidem omnes ante oculos habemus; item quod verecundia quadam ducti ab usu rerum venerearum abhorrent. Sunt enim inter eos et foeminae et viri, qui per totam vitam a concubitu abstinue

unquestionably attracted many a feeling heart to Christianity, although it sometimes also allured low selfishness;17 but the secret meetings of both sexes18 gave occasion to hatred, and furnished a ground for misinterpreting that love, by changing it into one of an impure character, and several Christian practices into crimes,19 rint; sunt etiam, qui in animis regendis coërcendisque et in acerrimo honestatis studio eo progressi sint, ut nihil cedant vere philosophantibus. 17 Lucianus de morte Peregrini, c. 11—16.

18 Particularly nightly meetings, which were strictly forbidden by the law, (see § 12, note 6), and consequently awakened suspicion.

19 Tertull. apologet. c. 39: Sed ejusmodi vel maxime dilectionis operatio notam nobis inurit penes quosdam. Vide, inquiunt, ut invicem se diligant; ipsi enim invicem oderunt: et ut pro alterutro mori sint parati: ipsi enim ad occidendum alterutrum paratiores. Sed et quod fratrum appellatione censemur,-infamant. The heathen Octavius ap. Minucius Felix, c. 9: Occultis se notis et insignibus (according to c. 31, $9, notaculo corporis: the Carpocratians actually marked themselves on the ear, Iren. i. 24. Epiphan. haer. xxvii. 5) noscunt, et amant mutuo paene ante quam noverint: passim etiam inter eos velut quaedam libidinum religio miscetur: ac se promiscue appellant fratres et sorores, ut etiam non insolens stuprum, intercessione sacri nominis, fiat incestum. Ita eorum vana et demens superstitio sceleribus gloriatur. Nec de ipsis, nisi subsisteret veritas, maxime nefaria et honore praefanda sagax fama loqueretur. Audio, eos turpissimae pecudis, caput asini consecratum inepta nescio qua persuasione venerari: digna et nata religio talibus moribus. Alii eos ferunt ipsius antistitis ae sacerdotis colere genitalia, et quasi parentis sui adorare naturam: nescio an falsa, certe occultis ac nocturnis sacris apposita suspicio : et qui hominem, summo supplicio pro facinore punitum, et crucis ligna feralia, eorum caerimonias fabulatur congruentia perditis sceleratisque tribuit altaria, ut id colant, quod merentur. Jam de initiandis tirunculis fabula tam detestanda, quam nota est. Infans farre contectus, ut decipiat incautos, apponitur ei, qui sacris imbuitur. Is infans a tirunculo, farris superficie quasi ad innoxios ictus provocata, caecis occultisque vulneribus occiditur: hujus (proh nefas!) sitienter sanguinem lambunt: hujus certatim membra discerpunt: hac foederantur hostia.-Et de convivio notum est, (passim omnes loquuntur), id etiam Cirtensis nostri testatur oratio: ad epulas solemni die coëunt, cum omnibus liberis, sororibus, matribus, sexus omnis homines et omnis aetatis. Illic post multas epulas, ubi convivium caluit, et incestae libidinis fervor ebrietate exarsit, canis, qui candelabra nexus est, jactu offulae ultra spatium lineae, qua vinctus est, ad impetum et saltum provocatur: sic everso et exstincto conscio lumine impudentibus tenebris nexus infandae cupiditatis involvunt per incertum sortis, &c. (Cf. Tertull. apolog. c. 8, ad nationes, i. 16: Also Apulejus metam. ix. p. 223, ed. Elmenhors. alludes to the same subject. Clemens Alex. Strom. iii. c. 2, relates the same thing of the Carpocratians, from whom it was falsely transferred to all Christians, cf. Euseb. h. e. iv. 7, 5). According to Athenagoras Apol. c. 4, the heathen brought three charges in particular against the Christians: ἀθεύτητα, Θυέστεια δεῖπνα and Οιδιποδείους μίξεις.

just as they had appeared in their own mysteries, and other secret societies.20 The steadfastness of the martyrs must, indeed, have invited every unbiassed mind to a nearer acquaintance with the source of this lofty spirit;21 but yet an unfavourable opinion was entertained regarding that too, even by the cultivated, agreeably to preconceived notions.22 The Jews were still protected by their peculiar national character.23 But the Christians were looked upon merely as ignorant and wild fanatics, who wished to destroy all established order. The cultivated laughed contemptuously at them on account of the confidence and obstinacy of their religious faith;24 the goetae (impostors) 20 So among the Bacchanals in Rome, A. d. 185. Comp. the expressions of Livy xxxix. 13: Ex quo in promiscuo sacra sint, et permixti viri feminis, et noctis licentia accesserit, nihil ibi facinoris, nihil flagitii praetermissum, plura vivorum inter sese, quam feminarum esse stupra. Si qui minus patientes dedecoris sint, et pigrioris ad facinus, pro victimis immolari, &c. Catiline employed human blood as pignus conjurationis (Sallust. Catil. 22), quo inter se fidi magis forent, alius alii tanti facinoris conscii. Dio Cassius, xxxvii. 30, relates of the same person: παιδά τινα καταθύσας, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν σπλάγχνων αὐτοῦ τὰ ὅρκια ποιήσας, ἔπειτα ἐσπλάγχνευσεν αὐτὰ μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων.

21 Justinus M. apol. ii. c. 12, speaks of the impression which they had made upon him. Tertull. apologeticus, c. 50: nec quicquam tamen proficit exquisitior quaeque crudelitas vestra, illecebra est magis sectae; plures efficimur, quoties metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis Christianorum.-Illa ipsa obstinatio, quam exprobratis, magistra est. Quis enim non contemplatione ejus concutitur ad requirendum, quid intus in re sit? Quis non, ubi requisivit, accedit? ubi accessit, pati exhortat?

22 Tertull. apolog. c. 27: Quidam dementiam existimant, quod cum possimus et sacrificare in praesenti, et illaesi abire, manente apud animum proposito, obstinationem saluti praeferamus, c. 50: propterea desperati et perditi existimamur. Arrianus comm. de Epicteti disputationibus, iv. c. 7: εἶτα ὑπὸ μανίας μὲν δύναταί τις οὕτω διατεθῆναι πρὸς ταῦτα (θάνατον κ. τ. λ.) καὶ ὑπὸ ἔθους ὡς οἱ Γαλιλαῖοι, ὑπὸ λόγου δὲ καὶ ἀποδείξεως ovdels dúvarai; Schweighäuser in his edition, Th. 2, S. 915, looks upon the words as oi l'ax. as a gloss. Marc. Aurel. eis eautóv, xi. c. 3: Oia ἐστὶν ἡ ψυχὴ ἡ ἕτοιμος, ἐὰν ἤδη ἀπολυθῆναι δέῃ τοῦ σώματος, καὶ ἤτοι σβεστ θῆναι ἡ σκεδασθήναι, ἢ συμμεῖναι ; τὸ δὲ ἔτοιμον τοῦτο, ἵνα ἀπὸ ἰδικῆς κρίσεως ἔρχηται, μὴ κατὰ Ψιλὴν παράταξιν, ὡς οἱ Χριστιανοί, ἀλλὰ λελογισμένως, καὶ σεμνῶς, καὶ ὥστε καὶ ἄλλον πεῖσαι, ἀτραγώδως. Eichstadt (Exercit. Antoniniana iii.(conjectures that the words is oi Xp. were a later interpolation in this place.

23 Celsus ap. Origen. contra Celsum, lib. v. p. 247, 259: el pèv dǹ katà ταῦτα περισέλλοιεν Ἰουδαῖοι τὸν ἴδιον νόμον, οὐ μεμπτὰ αὐτῶν, ἐκείνων δὲ μᾶλλον, τῶν καταλιπόντων τὰ σφέτερα, καὶ τὰ Ἰουδαίων προσποιουμένων.

24 How the Jews and Christians had become a proverb on this account, see Galenus de pulsuum differentiis, lib. ii. (ed. Kühn, viii. 579):

were inimical to them as opponents of their interest;25 the people hated them as despisers of their gods (ão, dσeßeis), and in the public misfortunes saw nothing but admonitions from heaven to exterminate them.26

§ 42.

PERSECUTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY.

The laws against religiones peregrinae and collegia illicita still remained in force even in reference to the Christians; but they were by no means universally and uniformly enforced. The persecutions of this period were rather the effects of the people's hatred, to which the magistrates gave way, and also of personal malevolence in those possessing official power. Hence all the

persecutions of the period were confined merely to single cities or provinces. Under Hadrian (117-138) the people first began to clamour for the execution of some Christians at the public festivals. But at the representation of Serenius Granianus, proconsul of Asia Minor, Hadrian issued a rescript to the successor of the proconsul, interdicting such tumultuous proceedings. The

Κάλλιον δ' ἂν ἦν πολλῷ προσθεῖναι τινα—ἀπόδειξιν,—ἵνα μή τις εὐθὺς κατ' ἀρχὰς, ὡς εἰς Μωϋσοῦ καὶ Χριστοῦ διατριβὴν ἀφιγμένος, νόμων ἀναποδείκτων ἀκούῃ. lib. iii. (p. 657): Θᾶττον γὰρ ἄν τις τοὺς ἀπὸ Μωϋσοῦ καὶ Χριστοῦ μεταδιδάξειεν, ἢ τοὺς ταῖς αἱρέσεσι προστετηκότας ἰατρούς τε καὶ φιλοσόφους.

25 Thus spoke the false prophet Alexander of Abonoteichos (Luciani Alex. c. 25), to the inhabitants of Pontus, ¿év éμπeñλîσbαι kai Xpioτιανῶν τὸν Πόντον,—οὺς ἐκέλευε λίθοις ἐλαύνειν, εἴγε ἐθέλουσιν ἵλεω ἔχειν τὸν θεόν. And he began his consecrations with the formula (c. 37): ei Tis ἄθεος ἢ Χριστιανὸς ἢ Επικούρειος ἥκει κατάσκοπος τῶν ὀργίων, φευγέτω.

26 Tertull. apologet. c. 37, to the Romani imperii antitistes : Quotiens in Christianos desaevitis, partim animis propriis, partim legibus obsequentes? Quotiens etiam praeteritis vobis suo jure nos inimicum vulgus invadit lapidibus et incendiis? Ipsis Bacchanalium furiis nec mortuis parcunt Christianis, quin illos de requie sepulturae, de asylo quodam mortis, jam alios, jam nec totos, avellant, dissecent, distrahant. c. 40: Existimant omnis publicae cladis, omnis popularis incommodi Christianos esse causam. Si Tiberis ascendit in moenia, si Nilus non ascendit in arva, si coelum stetit, si terra movit, si fames, si lues, statim: Christianos ad leonem.

1 Hence Caecilius apud Minuc. Fel. c. 8, calls them homines deplora.. tae, inlicitae ac desperatae factionis. Tertulliani apologetic. c. 38: Inter licitas factiones sectam istam deputari oportebat, a qua nihil tale committitur, quale de illicitis factionibus timeri solet, etc.

2 Originally preserved in Latin by Justin Martyr, apol. i. c. 69; then

K