THE INNER LIFE OF THE CHURCH
FROM THE DATE OF THE GREAT FIRE OF ROME IN THE REIGN OF NERO TO THE DEATH OF MARCUS ANTONINUS
A.D. 64–A.D. 180
INTRODUCTORY
There is really no doubt but that in the period of which we are writing in this Third Book, roughly stretching over some hundred and sixteen years, with very short intervals of comparative stillness, the Christian sect constantly lived under the veiled shadow of persecution; the penalties exacted for the confession of the Name were very severe—the confessors were ever exposed to confiscation of their goods, to harsh imprisonment, to torture, and to death.
This state of things, which existed in the Church in Rome and in all the communities of Christians, is disclosed to us not merely or even principally in the Acts of Martyrs, which for this very early period are comparatively few in number, and, with a few notable exceptions, of questionable authority, but largely from the fragments of contemporary Christian writings of undoubted authenticity which have come down to us.[92]
These fragments, for several of these writings are but fragments, represent a somewhat considerable literature, and they may be looked upon as descriptive of much of the life led by Christians during these hundred and sixteen years,[93] the period when the religion of Jesus was gradually but rapidly taking root in the world of Rome. With one notable exception the writings to which we refer issued from the heart of the New Sect.
We shall give a chain of some of the more striking passages from the fragments of the works in question, the passages which especially bear upon the ceaseless persecution which the Christians had to endure during that period we are dwelling upon in this section—which ended with the death of Marcus and the accession of his son Commodus in A.D. 180.
The quotations will be divided into two groups: the first from writings of apostles and apostolic men; that is, of men who had seen and conversed with the apostles themselves. The dates of this first group of witnesses range from the days of Nero to the days of Trajan, roughly from A.D. 64 to A.D. 107–10. The second group will include writings dating from the days of Trajan to the accession of Commodus, A.D. 180: the approximate dates of each writing and a very brief account of the several authors will be given.
It will be seen that the allusions to a state of persecution grow more numerous, more detailed and emphatic after A.D. 134–5, the date of the close of the last terrible Jewish war in the latter years of the Emperor Hadrian, when the line of separation between the Jew and the Christian became definitely marked, and the position and attitude of the Christians was no longer merely contemptuously viewed, but was misliked and even feared by the State authorities, who then (after A.D. 135) for the first time clearly saw what a great and powerful society had grown up in the heart of the Empire.
What a weighty group of words are those we are about to quote! They were written by men who lived in the heart of that little Society who with a love stronger than death loved Jesus of Nazareth as their friend and their God. They are words which are embedded in their letters—their devotional works—their histories—their pleading treatises and apologies for the faith, the faith which they esteemed of greater price than life.
Intensely real, they tell us of the life they and theirs were leading: reading them we seem to breathe the air they breathed; the simple unvarnished story tells us what daily, hourly perils were theirs,—what awful trials, what unspeakable dangers ever surrounded them; they show how hard it was to be a Christian in those early days in the first hundred years which followed the “passing” of S. John.
Nothing we can say now—write now—can give us a picture, a living picture, of the life of these first generations of believers in the Name, as do these words gathered from the fragments of contemporary writings which have come down to us across the long ages of storm and stress and change.
In the first group we will briefly examine the following:—The Epistle to the Hebrews, circa A.D. 65–6; the First Epistle of S. Peter, circa A.D. 65–7; the Apocalypse of S. John (the Revelation), circa A.D. 90; the 1st Epistle of S. Clement of Rome, circa A.D. 95. To this little selection we would add The Seven Epistles of S. Ignatius, A.D. 107–10, now generally received as undoubtedly genuine.
FIRST GROUP OF QUOTATIONS
EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, CIRCA A.D. 65–6
The first three of the above-mentioned writings possess a peculiar authority; they have been from very early times recognized as forming part of the Canon of New Testament Scriptures: of these three the Epistle to the Hebrews is generally believed to have been composed about A.D. 65–6. The congregations addressed in it had evidently been exposed to grave afflictions, and are told that a more awful trial awaits them in no distant future. For this bitter persecution they must prepare themselves.
A number of examples of noble and heroic resistances to trial and temptation are cited (Heb. xi. 32–40, xii. 1–4); the writer of the Epistle evidently expected that similar experiences will be the lot of the congregation he was addressing.
FIRST EPISTLE OF S. PETER, CIRCA A.D. 65–7
The second writing, which will be examined at rather greater length, is of the utmost importance as a witness to the view of the perpetual persecution to which after A.D. 64 the sect was exposed. The First Epistle of S. Peter[94] was put out circa 65–7. It was written manifestly in a time of persecution; the keynote of the Epistle is consolation and encouragement for the distant congregations addressed. The persecution was evidently raging in Rome, whence the letter was written, but it was rapidly spreading also in the provinces of the Empire. The language used shows it was no isolated capricious onslaught, but a systematic and legalized attack on the religion of Jesus. To quote a few passages:
“Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness by reason of manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being more precious than of gold which perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (i. 6, 7).
“If ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye; and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled.... It is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing” (iii. 14–17).
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you” (iv. 12).
“If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.... If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf” (iv. 14–16).
“Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (v. 9).
REVELATION OF S. JOHN, CIRCA A.D. 90
The Apocalypse of S. John is now generally dated circa A.D. 90; the keynote of this strange and in many parts beautiful writing—so unlike, save in certain sections, the other acknowledged books of the New Testament Canon—is the suffering of the Church: just a quarter of a century had elapsed since Nero and his advisers resolved upon the persecution of the congregations of the believers in Jesus.
No one can read this striking “Revelation” of S. John, with its wonderful visions, its exhortations, its words of warning, its messages of encouragement and comfort, without being keenly sensible that the Church therein portrayed had been exposed—was then exposed to a bitter, relentless persecution; that the sufferers were witnesses to the Name; and that their sufferings were not owing to any deeds of wrong or treason to the State, but purely because of the Name which they confessed. They had been condemned simply because they were Christians.
It is true that comparatively little is said directly about these persecutions. Other subjects clearly are far more important to the writer; but a number of incidental allusions to the sufferings endured in the course of persecution occur—allusions which cannot be mistaken.
We will quote a few of these. Many of them imply that the Church was exposed to a long continued harrying to the death:
“I saw under the altar the souls of those that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled” (vi. 9–11).
“These are they that came out of great tribulation ... therefore are they before the throne of God” (vii. 14–17).
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (xii. 11).
“They have shed the blood of saints and prophets” (xvi. 6).
“And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God ... and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” (xx. 4).
The victims of these persecutions, we are markedly told, are witnesses to the “Name” or the “Faith”: so in the letter to the Church in Pergamos we read:
“Thou holdest fast My name, and hast not denied My Faith” (ii. 13).
“And I saw the woman[95] drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (xvii. 6).
The persecution had been of long standing:
“I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast My name ... even in those days wherein Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was slain among you” (ii. 13).
And the persecution is to continue:
“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer ... be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (ii. 10).
Specially interesting from an historical point of view in this connexion of the testimony of the “Apocalypse” of S. John with the sleepless persecution to which the sect was subjected, is Professor Ramsay’s exegesis of the words, “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the beast) whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb” (xiii. 8), and “as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (xiii. 15).
“It is here implied that the persecutor is worshipped as a God by all people[96] except the Christians, and that the martyrs are slain because they do not worship ‘the beast’—i.e. the Roman Emperor. Hence their refusal to worship ‘the beast’ and their witness to their own God, are united in one act; and this implies that the worship of ‘the beast’ (the Emperor) formed a test, the refusal of which was equivalent to a confession and witness....
“The importance attached during this persecution to the worship of the Emperor, and the hatred of this special form of idolatry as the special enemy, have dictated the phrase addressed to the Church of Pergamos, ‘Thou dwellest where the throne of Satan, i.e. the temple of Rome and Augustus, is’” (ii. 13).
The peculiar partiality of the Emperor Domitian for this especial form of idolatry, in which he personally was adored as a god, has been already alluded to.
S. CLEMENT OF ROME, FIRST EPISTLE, CIRCA A.D. 95–6
About the year of grace 95–6, Clement, bishop of Rome, wrote his letter to the Christian congregation of Corinth—generally known as his 1st Epistle. From the days of Irenæus downwards this letter has ever been considered a work of the highest importance, and its genuineness as a writing of Clement of Rome has never been disputed. Its importance consists in its record of the traditional interpretation of the apostolic teaching which was held in the great congregation of the metropolis from the first days. The immediate reasons of the Bishop of Rome writing to the Church of Corinth were the disastrous internal dissensions which were harassing the Corinthian congregation, disputes which not only marred its influence at home, but were productive of grave scandal abroad, and which, unless checked, would seriously affect the work of the Church in cities far distant from Corinth.
It was a gentle loving letter of remonstrance; but its value to the Church at large in all times consists in its being an authoritative declaration of the doctrine taught in the great Church in Rome in the closing years of the first century, somewhat more than a quarter of a century after the deaths of SS. Peter and Paul.
Clement in his Epistle to the Church of Corinth had no intention of writing a history of his Church. The object of his writing was a very different one. There are, however, a few notices scattered here and there in the course of his long letter, which bear upon the subject now under discussion, i.e., the continuous nature of the persecution under which the Christian folk lived from the year 64 onward.
Clement begins by explaining the reason of his delay in taking up the questions which vexed the Corinthian congregation. “By reason of the sudden and repeated calamities which are befalling us, we consider, brethren, we have been somewhat tardy in giving heed to the matters of dispute that have arisen among you, dearly beloved” (1 Ep. 1).
The next allusion is a very striking one. “But to pass from the examples of ancient days” (Clement had been quoting from the Old Testament), “let us come to those champions who lived very near to our time. Let us set before us the examples which belong to our generation ... the greatest and most righteous pillars of the Church were persecuted and contended even unto death. There was Peter who ... endured not one nor two but many labours, and then having borne his testimony went to his appointed place of glory.... Paul by his example pointed out the prize of patient endurance ... he departed from the world, and went unto the holy place.... Unto these men of holy lives was gathered a vast multitude, who through many indignities and tortures ... set a brave example among ourselves.
“These things, dearly beloved, we write not only as admonishing you, but also as putting ourselves in remembrance; for we are in the same lists, and the same contest awaiteth us” (1 Ep. 5–7).
Clement’s words here, which occur in the middle of his argument, indisputably imply that after the martyr-death of the two great Christian teachers Peter and Paul, a continuous persecution harried the congregation (he is speaking especially of Rome) all through his own generation. “A vast multitude of the elect,” he tells us, in their turn suffered martyrdom, and were joined to the eminent leaders who had gone before them. When Domitian perished we know there was a temporary lull in the storm of persecution. Dion relates how the Emperor Nerva dismissed those who were awaiting their trial on the charge of sacrilege. It was no doubt in this very brief period of comparative quiet that Clement had leisure to attend to the troubled affairs at the Church of Corinth, and to write the important letter just quoted from.
But the Roman bishop was aware that “the lull” was quite a temporary one, and was due only to the reaction which set in after the murder of Domitian during the short reign of the Emperor Nerva; for he goes on to speak (in chap. vi.) of his condition and of the condition of his co-religionists at Rome: “We are in the same lists (with those who have been slain), and the same contest awaits us.”
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH, BISHOP AND MARTYR, CIRCA A.D. 107–10
Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who suffered martyrdom in the days of Trajan, circa A.D. 107–10,—some twelve or fifteen years after Clement of Rome wrote his memorable letter to the Church of Corinth,—is the next witness we propose to call in support of the contention advanced in the preceding pages, namely, that the persecution began by Nero in the year 64 was never really allowed again to slumber, but that with more or less vehemence it continued to harass the Christian sect all through the reigns of the Emperors of the Flavian dynasty and onward.
The Letters of Ignatius were written, it is true, a few years after the extinction of the Flavian House. But the martyr-bishop of Antioch was born about the year of grace 40, and he therefore was about twenty-four years old when the persecution of Nero began; and all through the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian without doubt he occupied a high position, probably in the Christian congregation at Antioch; he therefore may well be cited as a responsible witness of the relations which existed between the Christians and the government of the Empire during the last thirty-five years of the first century.
In the course of his journey from Syria to Rome, where he was condemned to be exposed to the wild beasts in the magnificent Flavian amphitheatre (the Colosseum), Ignatius wrote seven letters which have been preserved to us; six of these were addressed to special Churches, and one to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna.
Round these letters a long controversial war has raged respecting their authenticity. In our own day and time, thanks to the almost lifelong labours of the eminent scholar-bishop of Durham (Dr. Lightfoot), the controversy has virtually been closed. Serious European scholars, with rare exceptions, now accept the seven Epistles (the middle recension,[97] as Lightfoot calls it) of the Ignatian correspondence, as absolutely genuine.
Ramsay well and briefly sums up the purport of the allusions to the conditions under which the Christian sect had been and still was living during the long period of Ignatius’ own personal experience, which included the whole duration of the sovereignty of the Flavian family, i.e. during the reign of the Emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. These allusions all occur in the martyr’s four letters written in the course of his journey to Rome, during his halt at Smyrna, i.e. in the Epistles to the Churches of Ephesus, Tralles, Magnesia and Rome.
He says, “These abound in delicate phrases, the most explicit of which may be quoted—The life of a Christian is a life of suffering; the climax of his life, and the crowning honour of which he gradually hopes to make himself worthy, is martyrdom; but Ignatius is far from confident that he is worthy of it (Tralles, 4). Suffering and persecution are the education of the Christian, and through them he becomes a true disciple (Eph. iii. Magn. viii. 9). The teacher, then, is the person or Church which has gone through most suffering, and thus shown true discipleship, and Ignatius distinguished Ephesus and Rome as his teachers. Ignatius is still in danger, not having as yet completely proved his steadfastness, whereas Ephesus has been proved and is firmly fixed, the implication being that it has been specially distinguished by the number of its martyrs; and, moreover, Ephesus has been the highway of martyrs, the chief city of the province where many, even from other parts, appeared before the proconsul for trial, and was, at the same time, the port whence they were sent to Rome. We read in the Letter to Ephesus the somewhat curious expression, ‘Ye are a high road of them which are on their way to die unto God’ (Eph. xii.).”
“A detailed comparison is made in the Letter to the Magnesians, viii. 9, between the prophets and the Christians of the age. The prophets were persecuted, and the Christians endure persecution patiently in order to become true disciples.... Such is the principle of the Christian life; that suffering is the best training.... The impression which had been produced by persecution on the feelings of the Christians towards the Empire is very strongly marked in the Letters of Ignatius. Outside of the Apocalypse, the irreconcilable opposition between the State and Christianity is nowhere more strongly expressed than in them, and there runs throughout both groups of writings the same identification of the State with the world. The same magnificent audacity towards the State, the same refusal to accept what seemed to men to be the plain facts of the situation, the same perfect assurance of victory, characterize both.”[98]
With the exception, however, of passages in the Epistle to the Romans, Ignatius’ letters contain no direct reference to persecution; they are exclusively devoted to the affairs and prospects of the Churches to which he was writing, but the whole spirit of the little collection indicates that persecution and suffering were the common lot of the Christian sect in the days of the Flavian Emperors and their immediate successors.
The letter to the Roman Church is, however, quite different in its contents from the other six. It is entirely taken up with one single topic—the coming martyrdom of the writer. For the Christian, indeed, in earnest, “martyrdom is the new birth, the true life, the pure light, the complete discipleship; the martyr’s crown is better than all the kingdoms of the earth; only then, when the martyr sets to the world, will he rise to God. Crowned by martyrdom, his life becomes an utterance of God.”
This fervid, passionate—if somewhat exaggerated—picture of martyrdom would convey little meaning to the Roman congregations had not such scenes as that depicted by Ignatius been of common occurrence in Rome. Its reception, however, shows how well it was understood by those to whom the burning words of the martyr-bishop were addressed. His letters were most highly prized in very early days, but this special Epistle to the Roman Church from the beginning enjoyed a wider popularity than the others. Its details and teaching were absolutely unique. It appears to have been circulated apart from the other six, sometimes alone, sometimes attached to the story of the martyrdom for which Ignatius so longed.
Two or three references in this letter deserve to be noted as bearing especially on the question of the sleepless nature of the persecution endured by the sect.
Epistle to Romans, 3. Bishop Lightfoot well paraphrases this passage, thus:
“Do not,” writes Ignatius, urging the Roman Church not to take any step which might hinder his anticipated death in the arena, “depart from your true character; you have hitherto sped the martyrs forward to victory; do not now interpose and rob me of my crown.” Rome had hitherto been the chief arena of martyrdom; the Roman brethren had cheered on many a dying Christian hero in his glorious contest.
In the Epistle to Romans, 5, we come upon the following curious statement concerning the arena wild beasts to which he was condemned: “May I have joy of the beasts that have been prepared for me; and I pray that I may find them ready, nay, I will entice them that they may devour me quickly, not as they have done to some, refusing to touch them through fear; yea, though of themselves they should not be willing while I am ready, I myself will force them to it.”
This refusal of the wild beasts to touch their intended victims is by no means an uncommon incident in early martyrology. The capricious conduct of beasts suddenly released from confinement and darkness, and brought into the bright light of the amphitheatre, with the dense crowds of spectators all around shouting applause or execration, is quite natural. It is by no means necessary to impart the miraculous into all these stories, many of them absolutely authentic. Still that the Most High did at times close the mouths of the “wild” is quite credible. The strange, mysterious power often exercised by saintly men and women over furred and feathered untamed creatures is a well-known fact, and has been more than once the subject of discussion.[99] Such an allusion, however, to the occasional conduct of the wild creatures in the arena occurring in the midst of the writer’s arguments, plainly shows that the spectacle of terrible massacres of Christian folk in the arena, where they were exposed to wild beasts, was no uncommon feature in Roman life.
The grim catalogue of tortures which the heroic martyr enumerates in the same chapter of the Roman Epistle, completed the awful picture of the sufferings of brave Christian confessors, sufferings which the Roman citizens had no doubt for many past years often gazed at.
SECOND GROUP OF QUOTATIONS
LETTER OF PLINY TO TRAJAN, CIRCA A.D. 112
In the second group of quotations from ancient authorities must be placed the very important notice of the persecution in the days of Trajan, contained in the well-known correspondence of Pliny and the Emperor. This has been already discussed at some length.
It will be sufficient[100] here briefly to refer to the treatment of Christians whom Pliny found in his province of Bithynia not only in the towns but in the country villages, and to the influence which these Christians evidently exercised on the life of the province.
These Christians, with the exception of those who claimed to be citizens of Rome—who were sent to the capital for trial—were after the third examination, if they still continued contumacious, condemned and put to death on the authority of the governor (“perseverantes duci (ad mortem) jussi”).
This is the only heathen authority[101] quoted here, but its extreme importance in this inquiry into the condition of Christians in the Roman Empire in the days of Trajan and earlier will justify its insertion.
LETTER TO DIOGNETUS, CIRCA A.D. 117
The author of this very early Christian writing is unknown, and of the Diognetus to whom the letter is addressed we have no knowledge. But the short writing in question is interesting and even eloquent, and its date can be ascertained with fair certainty from expressions contained in the letter. Christianity, when the writing was put out, was a new thing in the world—this is several times noticed in the letter.[102]
The following notable references to persecution occur: “Christians love all men, and are persecuted by all; they are unknown and (yet) condemned; they are put to death ... they are in want of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour they are glorified; they are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled and bless; they are insulted and yet repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers; when punished they rejoice” (Letter to Diognetus, chap. v.).
“Do you not see them (the Christians) exposed to wild beasts, that they may be persuaded to deny the Lord, and yet not overcome? Do you not see that the more of them that are punished, the greater become the numbers of the rest” (Letter to Diognetus, chap. vii.).
“Then shalt thou both love and admire those that suffer punishment because they will not deny God.”
“Then shalt thou admire those who for righteousness’ sake endure the fire which is but for a moment, and shalt count them happy, when thou shalt know (the nature of) that fire” (Letter to Diognetus, chap. x.).
THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS, CIRCA A.D. 140
Hermas, the author or compiler of the onc