purple. Transported in the depth of winter from the soft retirement of Campania to the foot of Mount Caucasus, he sunk under the unaccustomed hardships of a military life. The fatigues of the body were aggravated by the cares of the mind. For a while, the angry and selfish passions of the soldiers had been suspended by the enthusiasm of public virtue. They soon broke out with redoubled violence, and raged in the camp, and even in the tent of the aged Emperor. His mild and amiable character served only to inspire contempt, and he was incessantly tormented with factions which he could not assuage, and by demands which it was impossible to satisfy. Whatever flattering expectations he had conceived of reconciling the public disorders, Tacitus soon was convinced that the licentiousness of the army disdained the feeble restraint of laws, and his last hour was hastened by anguish and disappointment. He expired at Tyana in Cappadocia, after a reign of only six months and about twenty days.* He was succeeded by his brother Florianus, who showed himself unworthy to reign by his hasty usurpation of the purple, without any assurance of the good-will of the Senate; and the soldiers, by whom he had been raised to the empire, after having witnessed his mode of treatment about three months, were glad to surrender all pretensions to him into the hands of Probus, whose activity and enterprise triumphed over every obstacle. His reign, on the whole, was a season of peace to the Christians. Probus had little else to do, during the six years of his reign, than to check the incursions of barbarians into various parts of his empire. The Emperor was successful, though none of these campaigns furnish subjects of ecclesiastical history. The Christians endured much suffering, and greatly rejoiced in the victories which Probus from time to time achieved over the barbarians. This was the case in Gaul, where Gregory of Tours states that the Germans had been the cause of considerable affliction to the Christians, but that Probus had rescued them from their incursions in 277. We have an account of some martyrdoms + which took place at Antioch in this reign; but the time is uncertain, and incidents of that kind may have happened occasionally, without any instructions to that effect having been given by the Emperor. Probus was put to death by the soldiers in 282, while he was preparing for a war with Persia; and Carus, who immediately succeeded him, gave the title of Cæsar to his two sons, Carinus and Numerianus. The latter has obtained the name of a persecutor; and, among others who are said to have suffered in this reign, mention is made of Eutychianus, Bishop of Rome. There appears but little ground for this assertion, inasmuch as Numerianus accompanied his father to Persia, and his facilities for persecuting the Christians would be very few and distant. He died in the autumn of 284. He can therefore hardly have molested the Christians during the short time that he held the empire with his brother Carinus, after the death of Carus. Numerian was engaged in the Persian expedition, his constitution Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. xii., vol. ii., p. 67. Milman's edit. 8vo. DIOCLETIAN, EMPEROR. 21 destroyed, and himself confined to the solitude and darkness of his tent. All civil and military affairs devolved upon Arrius Aper, the Prætorian Prefect, who to the power of his important office added the honour of being father-in-law to Numerian. The imperial pavilion was strictly guarded by his most trusty adherents, and during many days Aper delivered to the army the supposed mandates of their invisible Sovereign. On the return of the troops, the legions halted at Chalcedon, when a report soon circulated of the Emperor's death, and of the presumption of the Minister, who exercised the sovereign power in the name of a Prince who was no more. With rude curiosity the soldiers rushed into the imperial tent, and discovered the corpse of Numerian. His death might easily have been attributed to natural causes; but the concealment which Aper had practised betokened guilt: he was therefore accused of being his murderer. A general assembly of the army was appointed to be held at Chalcedon, whither Aper was transported in chains, as a prisoner and a criminal. A vacant tribunal was erected in the midst of the camp, and the Generals and Tribunes formed a great military council. They soon announced to the multitude that their choice had fallen on Diocletian, Commander of the domestics or body-guards, as the person the most capable of revenging and succeeding their beloved Emperor. The future fortunes of the candidate depended on the chance or conduct of the present hour. Conscious that the station he had filled exposed him to some suspicions, Diocletian ascended the tribunal, and, raising his eyes towards the sun, made a solemn profession of his own innocence, in the presence of the all-seeing deity. Then, assuming the tone of a Sovereign and a Judge, he commanded that Aper should be brought in chains to the foot of the tribunal. "This man," said he, "is the murderer of Numerian; and, without giving him time to enter on a dangerous justification, drew his sword and buried it in the breast of the unfortunate Prefect.* A charge supported by such decisive proof was admitted without contradiction, and the legions, with repeated acclamations, acknowledged the justice and authority of the Emperor Diocletian. It was not long before Carinus was put to death, and Diocletian reigned supreme. † The final contest between Paganism and Christianity approached. Almost three hundred years had elapsed since the divine Author of the new religion had entered upon his mortal life in a small village in Palestine; and now, having gained so powerful an ascendancy over the civilized world, the Gospel was to undergo its last and most trying ordeal, before it should assume the reins of empire, and Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. xii., vol. ii., p. 105. Milman's edit. "This Diocletian, ever having an ambitious mind, aspired greatly to be Emperor; to whom, when serving in Gaul as a common soldier, a Druidess foretold, that, after he had killed a wild boar, he should be Emperor.' He, taking effect at these words, used much to kill with his hands wild boars; but, seeing no success to come thereof, he used this proverb: Ego apros occido, alius pulpamento fruitur!' that is, I kill the boars, another eats the flesh!' At length the said Diocletian, being nominated Emperor, and seeing Aper (who had killed Numerian, the Emperor) standing thereby, sware to the soldiers that Numerian was wrongfully killed; and forthwith, running upon Aper with his sword, slew him." (Foxe.) become the established religion of the Roman world. The temporal authority was everywhere armed in defence of the ancient polytheistic creed. It is therefore of importance to look at the situation of Christianity, what front it had to present that was feasible, and promised ultimate success. Though menaced with persecution again and again, the Gospel of Christ had recently enjoyed security and peace. The Christians had become not merely a public, but an imposing and influential, body; their separate existence had been recognised by the law of Gallienus; their churches had arisen in most of the cities of the empire, as yet, probably, with no great pretensions to architectural grandeur, though no doubt ornamented by the liberality of the worshippers, and furnished with vestments and chalices, lamps and chandeliers, of silver. These buildings were constantly on the increase. The faithful no longer declined or refused to aspire to the honours of the state they filled offices of distinction, and even of supreme authority, in the provinces and in the army, and they were exempt, either by tacit connivance, or direct indulgence, from the accustomed sacrifices.* Christians were employed in offices of importance in the imperial court; some were found among the eunuchs and chamberlains, (cubicularii,)-from which, however, we are not entitled to infer that the Emperor had any particular partiality for the Christians, for there had been for a long time some Christians among the Cæsariani; and although at first only one of these was a Christian, yet he would probably use his influence, as Lucius, who, having obtained the confidence of the Emperor, was made by him the Præpositus Cubiculariorum, to extend Christianity amongst the people of the court.† These Christians immediately round the Emperor might also have great effect in rendering him favourable to their fellow-believers. Among the more immediate attendants upon the Emperor, two or three openly professed the Christian faith: Prisca the wife, and Valeria the daughter, of Diocletian, and the wife of Galerius, were suspected, if not avowed, partakers in the Christian mysteries.§ If it be impossible to form the most remote approximation to their relative numbers with that of the pagan population, it is equally erroneous • Milman, History of Christianity, vol. ii., p. 260. 8vo. edit. †Theonas, Bishop of Alexandria, who gave Lucius, one of the royal household, much excellent advice as to the duties of his office, charges him particularly not to be lifted up, and to pride himself, because many in the palace of the Prince had been brought to a knowledge of the truth through him; but far rather to give God thanks that he had made him the instrument of a good work. But we cannot here determine that this Emperor was Diocletian. At all events, it is quite clear that the Emperor in whose court he was, was no Christian, it is not even clear, that he had any prevailing inclination to Christianity; but only that there were hopes of winning him over to the cause by means of his Chamberlain. The Christians about the court were recommended to use the utmost precaution not to offend the heathen Emperor. If a Christian were appointed librarian, he was to take good care not to show any contempt for worldly knowledge and the old authors; he was to be as familiar as a Heathen with all the poets, philosophers, orators, and historians of old; but then he was sometimes to take an opportunity of praising the Scriptures, to mention Christ, and, by degrees, to hint that he is the only true God. "Insurgere poterit Christi mentio, explicabitur paulatim ejus sola divinitas. Omnia hæc cum Christi adjutorio provenire possent." (Galland, Bibl. Patr., tom. iv. ; Neander; see also Routh, Reliq. Sacr., vol. iii., p. 307.) ↑ Neander, Hist. of the Christ. Relig. and Church, vol. i., p. 145. Euseb., Eccles. Hist., lib. viii., cap. 1. DECAY OF PIETY IN THE CHURCH. 23 to estimate their strength and influence by numerical calculation. All political changes are wrought by a compact, organized, and disciplined minority. The mass of mankind are shown by experience, and appear fated by the constitution of our nature, to follow any vigorous impulse from a determined and incessantly aggressive few.* From the account given by Eusebius, it appears that the faithful were in every point of view treated with the greatest kindness and benevolence by the Emperors, who intrusted them with the government of provinces,† and gave free permission to the domestics. of the palace, together with their wives, their children, and their servants, to make open profession of the faith; nay, that they even manifested a preference for such of their attendants as were members of the Christian community. The Christian Bishops and Pastors, it moreover appears, were held in high respect by the Magistrates, and the Presidents of the provinces. A daily acceleration was hence experienced in the diffusion of Christianity, and churches of considerable extent were founded in most of the principal cities. The calumnies and invectives, also, with which the religion of Christ had in former times been so successfully assailed, were now no longer circulated, or at least failed of producing their accustomed effect. By the same historian, however, it is ingenuously acknowledged, and most deeply deplored, that, instead of turning the liberty they thus enjoyed to good account, the Christians appear to have given the rein to licentiousness, and to have plunged into faults of the most inexcusable and fatal nature.‡ A period of more than thirty years elapsed between the persecution of Valerian and that of Diocletian, in which the church enjoyed much external prosperity and peace; but, alas! many of those virtues which had distinguished their predecessors, and had enabled them to stand against the power and corruption of the whole heathen world, became inoperative and evanescent; and the Christian community displayed a fearful decay of piety and relaxation of morals. Ecclesiastical historians have not hesitated to ascribe the misery which afflicted the church in the latter part of the reign of Diocletian to the displeasure of the Most High on beholding the corruption of the sanctuary. Instead of manifesting gratitude and increased devotedness to God, as an acknowledgment of the many mercies and privileges conferred, the great mass of the people "waxed fat and kicked;" sloth, negligence, envy, discord, fraud, and malice, form the sad catalogue of sins with which the Bishop of Cæsarea charges the believers of this age; and the Christian will not feel disposed to contradict the conclusion to which he comes, that it was to purge the church of this bad leaven, that the providence of God again exposed • Milman, Hist. of Christianity, vol. ii., p. 260. ↑ It is perhaps worth recording, that one of the persons taken into the household of Diocletian was a Presbyter of the church in Antioch, by name Dorotheus. He was well versed in profane as well as sacred literature, to which he added a knowledge of Hebrew; and the Emperor was so pleased with him, that he gave him the honourable and probably lucrative post of presiding over the establishment for preparing purple dye at Tyre. (Burton; see also Euseb., Eccles. Hist., lib. vii., cap. 32.) Mosheim, Commentaries, vol. iii., p. 207 it to the purge of persecution.* The more flourishing and extensive the community, the more the pride; perhaps the temporal advantages of superiority predominated over the Christian motives, which led men to aspire to the supreme functions in the church. Sacerdotal domination began to exercise its awful powers, and the Bishop to assume the language and the authority of the vicegerent of God. Feuds distracted the bosom of peaceful communities, and disputes occasionally proceeded to open violence, so as to render them the prey of intestine wars; congregation was set in array against congregation, and Pastors against Pastors; whilst fraud and dissimulation were on every side carried to an alarming extent. The comparatively inconsiderable persecution which at the first affected the soldiers and servants of the palace had no apparent effect in restraining and correcting these evils. By an unfortunate delusion, or waywardness, the Christians seem rather to have been led to add crime to crime; and their Pastors, so far from permitting the mild and healing influence of Christianity to exert itself in assuaging their mutual heats, affected more the character of despotic rulers or tyrants, and assumed to themselves, in various other things, a licence no less incompatible with the respectability than with the sacred duties of their office. It is necessary that all these things should be taken into consideration by those who may be desirous of ascertaining the causes that gave rise to the very heavy persecution which took place a short time subsequently to the period of which we are now treating.‡ Such is the melan choly confession of the Christians themselves, who, according to the spirit of the times, considered the dangers and afflictions to which they were exposed in the light of divine judgments, and deplored, perhaps with something of the exaggeration of religious humiliation, the visible decay of holiness and peace.§ Diocletian was the son of a slave, or of obscure and doubtful parentage; and that he forced his way to sovereign power, and conceived, and actually accomplished, the project of re-constructing the empire, betokens him to have been a man of strong political courage, of profound, if not always of wise and statesmanlike, views: he reigned for a longer period than any Emperor since the days of Hadrian, and furnished more matter, though of a painful kind, for the ecclesiastical historian than any of his predecessors. He assumed the new title of Dominus or Lord, which gave considerable Stebbing, History of the Christian Church, vol. i., p. 121. "But as commonly the nature of all men, being of itself unruly and untoward, always seeketh and desireth prosperity, and yet can never well use prosperity; always would have peace, and yet having peace always abuseth the same: so here, likewise, it happened with these men, who through this so great liberty and prosperity of life began to degenerate and languish into idleness and delicacy, and one to work spite and contumely against another, striving and contending amongst themselves, for every occasion, with railing words after most despiteful manner; Bishops against Bishops, and people against people, moving hatred and sedition one against another; besides, also, cursed hypocrisy and simulation, with all extremity increasing more and more. By reason whereof, the judgment of God, after his wonted manner, (the multitude of the faithful as yet meeting in their assemblies,) began by little and little to visit the people with persecution, falling first upon the brethren who were abroad in warfare." (Foxe.) 1 Mosheim, Commentaries, vol. iii., p. 207. § Milman, History of Christianity, vol. ii., p. 261. |