brated name of Christians, diffused themselves over the Roman empire. How natural was it for Tacitus, in the time of Hadrian, to appropriate to the Christians the guilt and the sufferings, which he might, with far greater truth and justice, have attributed to a sect whose odious memory was almost extinguished! 4. Whatever opinion may be entertained of this conjecture (for it is no more than a conjecture), it is evident that the effect, as well as the cause, of Nero's persecution, were confined to the walls of Rome;" that the religious tenets of the Galilæans, or Christians, were never made a subject of punishment, or even of inquiry; and that, as the idea of their sufferings was, for a long time, connected with the idea of cruelty and injustice, the moderation of succeeding princes inclined them to spare a sect oppressed by a tyrant, whose rage had been usually directed against virtue and innocence.

Oppression of

the Jews

and

Chris

It is somewhat remarkable, that the flames of war consumed almost at the same time the temple of Jerusalem and the Capitol of Rome;* and it tians by appears no less singular, that the tribute which Domitian. devotion had destined to the former, should have been converted by the power of an assaulting victor to restore and adorn the splendour of the latter. The emperors levied a general capitation tax on the Jewish people; and although the sum assessed on the head of each individual was inconsiderable, the use for which it was designed, and the severity with which it was ex

u See Dodwell. Paucitat. Mart. lib. 13. The Spanish Inscription in Gruter, p. 238. No. 9. is a manifest and acknowledged forgery, contrived by that noted impostor, Cyriacus of Ancona, to flatter the pride and prejudices of the Spaniards. See Ferreras, Histoire d'Espagne, tom. 1. p. 192.

The capitol was burnt during the civil war between Vitellius and Vespasian, the 19th of December, A. D. 69. On the 10th of August, A. D. 70. the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by the hands of the Jews themselves, rather than by those of the Romans.

The new Capitol was dedicated by Domitian. Sueton. in Domitian, c. 5. Plutarch, in Poplicola, tom. 1. p. 230, edit. Bryan. The gilding alone cost twelve thousand talents (above two millions and a half). It was the opinion of Martial, (lib. 9. epigram. 3.) that if the emperor had called in his debts, Jupiter himself, even though he had made a general auction of Olympus would have been unable to pay two shillings in the pound..

acted, were considered as an intolerable grievance. 5. Since the officers of the revenue extended their unjust claims to many persons who were strangers to the blood or religion of the Jews, it was impossible that the Christians, who had so often sheltered themselves under the

shade of a synagogue, should now escape this rapacious persecution. Anxious as they were to avoid the slightest infection of idolatry, their conscience forbade them to contribute to the honour of that demon who had assumed the character of the Capitoline Jupiter. As a very numerous though declining party among the Christians still adhered to the law of Moses, their efforts to dissemble their Jewish origin were detected by the decisive test of circumcision; nor were the Roman magistrates at leisure to inquire into the difference of their religious tenets. Among the Christians who were brought before the tribunal of the emperor, or, as it seems more probable, before that of the procurator of Judea, two persons are said to have appeared, distinguished by their extraction, which was more truly noble, than that of the greatest monarchs. These were the grandsons of St. Jude the apostle, who himself was the brother of Jesus Christ." Their natural pretensions to the throne of David might perhaps attract the respect of the people, and excite the jealousy of the governor; but the meanness of their garb, and the simplicity of their answers, soon convinced him that they were neither desirous nor capable of disturbing

• With regard to the tribute, see Dion Cassius, lib. 66. p. 1082, with Reimarus's notes. Spanheim, de Usu Numismatum, tom. 2. p. 571. and Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, lib. 7. c. 2.

a Suetonius (in Domitian. c. 12.) had seen an old man of ninety publicly examined before the procurator's tribunal. This is what Martial calls, Mentula tributis damnata.

b This appellation was at first understood in the most obvious sense, and it was supposed that the brothers of Jesus were the lawful issue of Joseph and Mary. A devout respect for the virginity of the mother of God suggested to the Gnostics, and afterward to the orthodox Greeks, the expedient of bestowing a second wife on Joseph. The Latins (from the time of Jerome) improved on that hint, asserted the perpetual celibacy of Joseph, and justified by many similar examples the new interpretation that Jude, as well as Simon and James, who are styled the brothers of Jesus Christ, were only his first cousins. See Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiast. tom. 1. part 3. and Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, lib. 2. c. 2.

the peace of the Roman empire. They frankly confessed their royal origin, and their near relation to the Messiah; but they disclaimed any temporal views, and professed that his kingdom, which they devoutly expected, was purely of a spiritual and angelic nature. When they were examined concerning their fortune and occupation, they shewed their hands hardened with daily labour, and declared that they derived their whole subsistence from the cultivation of a farm near the village of Cocaba, of the extent of about twenty-four English acres,' and of the value of nine thousand drachms, or 300/. sterling. The grandsons of St. Jude were dismissed with compassion and contempt."

the

e

Execution But although the obscurity of the house of of Clemens David might protect them from the suspicions of consul. a tyrant, the present greatness of his own family alarmed the pusillanimous temper of Domitian, which could only be appeased by the blood of those Romans whom he either feared, or hated, or esteemed. Of the two sons of his uncle Flavius Sabinus, the elder was soon convicted of treasonable intentions, and the younger, who bore the name of Flavius Clemens, was indebted for his safety to his want of courage and ability. The emperor, for a long time, distinguished so harmless a kinsman by his favour and protection, bestowed on him his own neice Domitilla, adopted the children of that marriage to the hope of the succession, and invested their father with the honours of the consulship. But he had scarcely finished the term of his annual magistracy, when on a slight pretence he was condemned and executed;

Thirty-nine pa, squares of a hundred feet each, which, if strictly computed, would scarcely amount to nine acres. But the probability of circumstances, the practice of other Greek writers, and the authority of M. de Valois, inclined me to believe that the λpov is used to express the Roman jugerum.

d Eusebius, 3. 20. The story is taken from Hegesippus.

e See the death and character of Sabinus in Tacitus. (Hist. 3.74, 75.) Sabinus was the elder brother, and till the accession of Vespasian, had been considered as the principal support of the Flavian family.

Flavium Clementem patruelem suum contemtissimæ inertia suspicione interemit. Sueton. in Domitian. c. 15.

.... ex tenuissima

Domitilla was banished to a desolate island, on the coast of Campania ; and sentence either of death or of confis cation was pronounced against a great number of persons who were involved in the same accusation. The guilt imputed to their charge was that of Atheism and Jewish manners a singular association of ideas, which cannot with any propriety be applied except to the Christians, as they were obscurely and imperfectly viewed by the magistrates and by the writers of that period. On the strength of so probable an interpretation, and too eagerly admitting the suspicions of a tyrant as an evidence of their honourable crime, the church has placed both Clemens and Domitilla among its first martyrs, and has branded the cruelty of Domitian with the name of the second persecution. But this persecution (if it deserves that epithet) was of no long duration. A few months after the death of Clemens, and the banishment of Domitilla, Stephen, a freedman belonging to the latter, who had enjoyed the favour, but who had not surely embraced the faith of his mistress, assassinated the emperor in his palace. The memory of Domitian was condemned by the senate; his acts were rescinded; his exiles recalled; and, under the general administration of Nerva, while the innocent were restored to their rank and fortunes, even the most guilty either obtained pardon or escaped punishment.*

Ignorance

concern

II. About ten years afterward, under the of Pliny reign of Trajan, the younger Pliny was intrusted ing the by his friend and master with the government of Bithynia and Pontus. He soon found himself at a loss to determine by what rule of justice or of law

Chris

tians.

The isle of Pandataria, according to Dion. Bruttius Præsens (apud Euseb. 3. 18.) banishes her to that of Pontia, which was not far distant from the other. That difference, and a mistake, either of Eusebius, or of his transcribers, have given occasion to suppose two Domitillas, the wife and the niece of Clemens. See Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. 2. p. 244.

h Dion. lib. 67. p. 1112. If the Bruttius Præsens, from whom it is probable that he collected this account, was the correspondent of Pliny, (Epistol. 7. 3.) we may consider him as a contemporary writer.

i Suet. in Domit. c. 17. Philostratus in Vit. Apollon. lib. 8.

k Dion. lib. 67. p. 1118. Plin. Epistol. 4. 22.

he should direct his conduct in the execution of an office the most repugnant to his humanity. Pliny had never assisted at any judicial proceedings against the Christians, with whose name alone he seems to be acquainted; and he was totally uninformed with regard to the nature of their guilt, the method of their conviction, and the degree of their punishment. In this perplexity he had recourse to his usual expedient, of submitting to the wisdom of Trajan an impartial, and in some respects a favourable, account of the new superstition, requesting the emperor, that he would condescend to resolve his doubts, and to instruct his ignorance.' The life of Pliny had been employed in the acquisition of learning, and in the business of the world. Since the age of nineteen he had pleaded with distinction in the tribunals of Rome,TM filled a place in the senate, had been invested with the honours of the consulship, and had formed very numerous connexions with every order of men, both in Italy and in the provinces. From his ignorance, therefore, we may derive some useful information. We may assure ourselves, that when he accepted he government of Bithynia, there were no general laws or decrees of the senate in force against the Christians; that neither Trajan nor any of his virtuous predecessors, whose edicts were received into the civil and criminal jurisprudence, had publicly declared their intentions concerning the new sect; and that whatever proceedings had been carried on against the Christians, there were none of sufficient weight and authority to establish a precedent for the conduct of a Roman magistrate.

Trajan

and his

The answer of Trajan, to which the Christians successors of the succeeding age have frequently appealed, legal mode discovers so much regard for justice and hu

establish a

1 Plin. Epistol. 10. 97. The learned Mosheim expresses himself (p. 147. 232.) with the highest approbation of Pliny's moderate and candid temper. Notwithstanding Dr. Lardner's suspicions, (see Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. 2. p. 46.) I am unable to discover any bigotry in his language or proceedings.

m Plin. Epist. 5. 8. He pleaded his first cause A. D. 81, the year after the famous eruption of mount Vesuvius, in which his uncle lost his life.