Progress With Impediments.

   Under the Apostles' successors during the second and third centuries Christianity still continued to gain ground day by day. The philosopher and martyr, Justin, who died in A.D. 166, was already able to affirm that in his time there was scarcely a single race of men on earth, barbarous or civilized, nomad, or dwelling in tents, among whom prayers were not offered up to the one true God, revealed through Jesus Christ. And the facts proved that Justin's assertion was no mere rhetorical bombast. In Asia Minor, at Bithynia, the younger Pliny viewed with alarm the swift spread of the new religion. In Syria, the light of the Gospel shone out from Antioch as from a glowing hearth. In Athens the apostolic Bishops, Dionysius the Areopagite and Quadratus, continued Paul's preaching of the Unknown God. In Italy the Christian communities were multiplying, with Rome as their spiritual metropolis; while in the south of France Lyons and Vienne were prominent Christian centers. In Africa great men of the Church covered Carthage with glory, and disseminated the faith in the neighboring towns; while the Church of Alexandria, founded by Mark the Evangelist, was like another Pharos to Egypt. But such great progress was not made without encountering serious obstacles. The Roman Empire, which held the mastery of the world, was a pagan empire, and naturally looked upon the undermining of paganism as equivalent to the sapping of its own foundations. Hence there arose the persecutions of the first three centuries, which broke out at intervals with renewed violence, with the object of exterminating the Christian faith, until after three hundred years of fighting the Empire laid down its sword at the feet of Christ.

Persecution Under Nero and Domitian.

   The first persecution took place, as it were by chance, in the reign of Nero, in A.D. 64. This ghoulish and demented monarch, who had murdered his tutor, his brother and his mother with as much enjoyment as he read the poems of Homer, took it into his head to set fire to Rome, in order to obtain a realistic impression of the burning of Troy by the Greeks. But his people discovered the origin of the conflagration, and to save himself from their rage he threw the responsibility on the newly-risen sect of the Christians, whom the pagans already hated as godless and unsocial people. Some of the Christians were crucified, some sawn in two; other were sewn up into skins and thrown to the dogs, or cast as defenseless prey to the beasts. And some, smeared with pitch and tar, were impaled on stakes and lighted like torches to illuminate the imperial gardens. During this persecution, as we have seen, Peter and Paul were martyred. In the year A.D. 95 Domitian in his turn persecuted the new faith, considering that belief in Jesus Christ was incompatible with belief in the divinity of the Roman Caesar. To this persecution were due the death of Domitian’s nephew, Flavius Clemens, the banishment of the Apostle John to Patmos, the martyrdom of Dionysius the Areopagite, and the execution, exile or imprisonment of many other Christians. This suspicious emperor, interpreting literally Christ's words on the Kingdom of God, even sent to Palestine for certain of our Lord's kinsmen, in order to condemn them as revolutionaries; but when he saw their poverty-stricken mien and their horny hands, he dismissed them again as madmen.

Persecution Under Trajan.

   Under the Emperor Trajan (98-117) Pliny the younger, then Governor of Bithynia and Pontus, observed the daily increase of the Christian communities in his province; and uncertain how to check the progress of this “evil and mischievous superstition,” as he called it, wrote to the Emperor for instructions. Trajan replied that no measures should be taken deliberately to hunt out Christians; if, however, they were once summoned before the magistrates, they should be forced to choose between sacrifice to the pagan gods and death. Thus Christianity, whose fate had hitherto depended on the caprice of successive emperors, became, from now onwards, by the explicit provisions of Roman law, a punishable offence. The most notable victim of this persecution was the Bishop of Antioch, Ignatius Theophorus, by reason both of his own distinguished position and of the eminence of his judge; for the Emperor Trajan himself, during a campaign against the Parthians, happened to pass through Antioch, and Ignatius appeared before him to intercede on behalf of his flock. — “Who art thou, evil spirit, who despisest my decrees?” asked Trajan. — “A God-bearer cannot be called an evil spirit,” replied Ignatius. — “And what man is a God-bearer?” — “He who bears Christ in his bosom.” — “Who is this Christ? He who was crucified under Pilate?” — “I mean Him who crucified sin, my adored Lord.” — “And thinkest thou that those whom we worship are no gods?” — “O king, you call the demons gods, for there is one God alone, He who created heaven and earth.” — “Very good,” said Trajan; “I command that this man, who says he bears within him the crucified Christ, be sent in chains to Rome, and be torn to pieces by wild beasts for the entertainment of the Roman people.” When he heard the Emperor's decision, Ignatius gave praise to God that he was to be glorified by the same end as the Apostle Paul had suffered; and, following his guards, he made the long journey to Rome, where before thousands of spectators he was thrown into the Coliseum and devoured by I wild beasts.