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)i(.^V:C\\
LIVES
OF THE MOST EMINENT
FATHERS OF THE CHURCH
THAT FLOUKISHED IN THE
FIRST FOUE CENTURIES;
WITH
AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE STATE OF PAGANISM UNDER THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS.
EY
WILLIAM CAVE, D. D.
A NEW EDITION, CAREFULLY REVISED, BY
HENRY GARY, M.A.
WORCESTER COLLEGE, AXD PERPETUAL CURATE OF ST. PAUL's, OXFORD.
VOL. 1.
IJBIIARY.
OXFORD,
PRINTED BY J. VINCENT, FOR THOMAS T E G G, 73, C H E A P S I D E, L 0 N D 0 N.
1840.
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
The writings of Cave, especially his Lives of the Fathers, are so well known and appreciated, that the Editor is persuaded a lengthened preface of his own would not add at all to their value. He need therefore only state what his task has been in preparing the present edition for the press. The text has been carefully revised throughout, and the authorities quoted and referred to have been collated and examined.
But the most laborious part of the editor's undertaking has been in correcting his author's references. Cave had, in great measure from necessity, made use of inferior editions of the Fathers ; of some of them, there were not at the time of his writing accurate imprints. In the present work, therefore, later and improved editions of the authors quoted or referred to, have been in many cases consulted throughout. The following table of editions used, will enable the studious reader to verify Cave's statements : many, however, are not here particularized, either because they are only once or twice referred to, or because, being quoted by chapter or section, or both, they may readily be found in the various editions.
a 2
^-v wr i^
TABLE OF EDITIONS REFERRED TO.
A MBROSirS, ^'"■- 1 '''"'' ''^•
Ammianus Mara-Uinus, Lucid. Bat. 1693.
Apostolonira Canoncs inter Patkks Apo-
stolicos. Apostolorum Constitutioncs, inter Patrks
Apostolicos. Aristidcs, Ojton. 1722. Amobius, Lugd. Bit. 1651. Atlianasius, Par. 1698. Athcn.TUS, /,!«/</. 16.57. Athcnagoras, cum Jlstino Mart. Augwstinus, Par. 1683. Ausonius, inter Panegvricos.
Baronius Annal. Mogunt. 1601-8. MartjTol. Antv. 1589.
Basilius Magnus, Par. 17-1.
Hrda, Basil. 1563.
Hcnjamin. \\.\n.'Anir. 1575.
Bortcsius, Pithan. Tolosee. 1608.
Brocardus, Descript terr. sanct. Colon. 1 624.
Burton, comm. on Antoninus's Itinerary, I^nd. 1658.
BusbequiuR, Kpistt. Hanor. 1605.
Buxtorfiu8,Reccn9. opp. Talmud. Budl.\C)AQ.
Cedrenus, Compend. Hist. Par. 1647.
Chcranitius, Exam. Genev. 1634.
Chronicon Alexandrin. sou Piischale, per du Yrem^Par. 1688.
Chrj'sostomus Par. 1718.
(neraens Alexandrinus, Oxon. 1715.
Clemens RomaniiR, inter Patrks Apostoli-
COK.
Codex Tlirodosianus per Gothofredum,
Lugd. 106.5. CodinuR, orig. Constant, cum Const. Ma-
na^ir. Par. 1G55.
Combefis, Demonstr. Chronol. cum Leone
Allatio, 1664. Concilia. Harduin. Par. 1710.
ed. reg. Par. 1644.
Cyprianus, Ooeon. 1682.
Cyril, Alexandrinus, Lutet. 1638.
Cyril, Hierosol. Oxon. 1703. *
Dexter, Chronicon. Lugd. 1627.
Diodonis Siculus, Ilanov. 1604.
Diogenes Lacrtius, Amst. 1692.
Dionis Excerpta, (cum Polybio,) Par. 1634.
Oratt. Lutct. 1623.
Dionysius. Areopag. Aniv. 1634.
Dorotheus, Synops, in vol. ii. bibl. patrum, ed. 1575.
Epiphanius, Colon. 1682.
Evagrius, Hist. Eccl. cum Eisebii Hist. Eccl.
Eunopius de vit. philos. Ilmldh. 1 596.
et Coll. Allobr. 1616.
Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. Cantab. 1720.
De vita Constantini, Ihid.
Chronicon, j4n(s<. 1658.
De locis llebraicis. Par. 1631.
Demonstr. Evang. Par. 1628.
Prajpar. Evang. Par. 1628.
Eutropius, Oxon. 1703. Eutychius, Annal. O.iwj. 1656. Eccles. sua; orig. per Seldenum.
Lond. 1642. Firmicus, Matom. de error prof, relig. cum
Minuc. Felic. per J. a Wower, O.roii.
1662. fiodign. de rebus Abyssin, Lugd. 161.5. fiotbofrcdus, \'et. orb. descript. Ceiier.
1628.
TABLE OF EDITIONS REFERRED TO.
Gregorius Nazianzen, Lut. Par. 1609,
Gregorius Nyssen, Par. 1615.
et Par. 1623.
Gregorius Presbyter, cum. Gregorio, Naz.
Gregorius Thaumaturgus, Par. 1621.
Herodian, Oxon. 1678.
Hieronymus, Par. 1706.
Hilarius, Pictav. Par. 1693.
Idatius, Fasti consulares, intcE opera Sir- mondi. Par. 1696.
Ignatius, inter Patres Apostolicos.
Josephus, Oxon. 1720.
Irenaeus, Par. 1710.
Isidorus Peleus. Par. 1638.
Julianus, Lips. 1696.
Julius Firmicus, Par. 1668.
Justinus Martyr, Pur. 1742.
Lactantius, Lut. Par. 1748.
Leontius, in bibl. Patrum, Gr. Lat. Par. 1624.
Libanius, Lips, et Lutet. 1616-27.
Orat. de templis, inter J. Gotho-
fredi, opusc. Genev. 1634.
Lucianus, Samosat. Salmant. 1618.
Mamertinus Paneg. inter Panegyricos.
Minucius Felix, CarAah. 1712,
Nazarius, Pancg. Const, inter Panegy- ricos.
Nicephorus, Hist. Eccl. Par. 1630.
Oecumenius, Par. 1631.
Optatus, Par. 1679.
Origen, Par. 1733.
Orosius, Lugd. Bat. 1738.
Panegyrici, ad calc. C. Plinii Csecilii Epistt. Par. 1600.
Patres Apostolici, per Cotelerium. 1724.
Philo Judaeus, Lut. Par. 1640.
Philostorgius cum Eusebii Hist. Eccl.
Photius, Myriabiblion sive Bibliotheca, 1611.
Epistt. Lond. 1651.
Polybius, Par. 1609.
Polycarpus, inter Patres Apoatolicos.
Pontius Diac. vit. Cypriani, cum Cypriano.
Procopius, Par. 1662.
Sandius, Hist. Eccl. Cosmop. 1669.
Sixtus Senena. Col. Agr. 1626.
Socrates, Hist. EccL cum Eusebii Hist. Eccl.
Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. cum Eusebii Hist. Eccl.
Strabo, Geograpb. Amst. 1707.
Suidas, Genev. 1618.
Sulpicius Severus, Verotia. 1754.
Surius, Col. Agr. 1576.
Symmachus, Epistt. Par. 1604.
Synccllus, Antv. 1634.
Synesius, cum Cyril. Hieros. Lut. Par, 1631.
Tatianus, cum Justino Mart.
TertuUian, Lut. Par. 1664.
Theodor. Lect. cum Eusebii Hist. Eccl.
Theodoretus, Opera. Halce. 1770.
Hist. Eccl. cum Eusebii Hist.
Eccl.
Theophilus Antioclienus cum Justino Mart.
Trebonius Pollio inter Rom. Hist.
Victor Utic. Hist. Persec. Vandal, ap Pa- tres orthodox. Grymaei, Par. 1694.
Vincentius Lirinensis, Cantab. 1687.
Voisius, de leg. divin. Par. 1650.
Volaterranus, Lugd. 1599.
Zonaras, Par. 1687.
Zosiraus, Lips. 1784.
PREFACE.
It is not the least argument for the spiritual and incorporeal nature of human souls, and that they are acted by a higher principle than mere matter and motion, their boundless and inquisitive researches after knowledge. Our minds naturally grasp at a kind of omnisciency, and not content with the specula- tions of this or that particular science, hunt over the whole course of nature ; nor are they satisfied with the present state of things, but pursue the notices of former ages, and are desirous to comprehend whatever transactions have been since time itself had a being. We endeavour to make up the shortness of our lives by the extent of our knowledge ; and because we cannot see forwards and spy what lies concealed in the womb of fu- turity, we look back, and eagerly trace the footsteps of those times that went before us. Indeed, to be ignorant of what hap- pened before we ourselves came into tlie world, is (as Cicero truly observes") to be always children, and to deprive ourselves of what would at once entertain our minds with the highest pleasure, and add the greatest authority and advantage to us. The knowledge of antiquity, besides that it gratifies one of our noblest curiosities, improves our minds by the wisdom of pre- ceding ages, acquaints us with the most remarkable occurrences of the Divine Providence, and presents us with the most apt
* In Oratore.
vlii PREFACE.
and proper rules and instances that may form us to a life of true philosophy and virtue ; history (says Thucydides'') heing nothing else but (piXoaoipia eV TrapaBeiyfiaTcov, " philosojjhy drawn from examples:" the one is a more gross and popular philosoi)hy, the other a more subtle and refined history.
These considerations, together with a desire to perpetuate the memory of brave and great actions, gave birth to history, and obliged mankind to transmit the more observable passages, both of their own and foregoing times, to the notice of posterity. The first in this kind was Moses, the great prince and legislator of the Jewish nation, who from the creation of the world conveyed down the records of above two thousand five hundred and fifty years ; the same course being more or less continued through all the periods of the Jewish state. Among the Babylonians they had their public archives, which were transcribed by Be- rosus, the priest of Belus, who composed the Chaldean history. The Egyptians were wont to record their memorable acts upon pillars in hieroglyphic notes and sacred characters, first begun (as they pretend) by Thouth, or the first of their Mercuries ; out of which Manethos, their chief priest, collected his three books of Egyptian Dynasties, which he dedicated to Ptolemy Philadelphus, second of that line. The Phoenician history was first attempted by Sanchoniathon ; digested partly out of the annals of cities, partly out of the books kept in the temple, and communicated to him by Jerombaal, priest of the god Jao : this lie dedicated to Abibalus king of Berytus ; which Philo-Byblius, about the time of the emperor Adrian, translated into Greek.
'' Ap. Dion. Hiilic. Tltpl K6ywv i^tr.
PREFACE. ix
The Greeks boast of the antiquity of Cadmus, Archilochus, and manv others ; though the most ancient of their historians now extant are Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. Among the Romans, the foundations of history were laid in Annals ; the public acts of every year being made up by the Pontifex Maximus, who kept them at his own house, that the people upon any emergency might resort to them for satisfaction. These were the Annaks Maximi, and afforded excellent ma- terials to those who afterwards wrote the history of that great and powerful common Avealth.
But that which of all others challenges the greatest regard, both as it more immediately concerns the present inquiry, and as it contains accounts of things relating to our biggest interests, is the history of the church. For herein, as in a glass, we have the true face of the church in its several ages represented to us. Here we find with what infinite care those divine records, which are the great instruments of our eternal happiness, have through the several periods of time been conveyed down to us ; with what a mighty success religion has triumphed over the greatest oppositions, and spread its banners in the remotest corners of the world. With how incomparable a zeal good men have " con- tended earnestly for that faith which was once delivered to the saints ;" with what a bitter and implacable fury the enemies of religion have set upon it, and how signally the Divine Provi- dence has appeared in its preservation, and returned the mis- chief upon their own heads. Here we see the constant succession of bishops and the ministers of religion in their several stations, " the glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs ;" who with the most
X FRKFACE.
cheerful and couiposed minds have gone to heaven through the acntcst torments/ In short, we have here the most admirable examples of a divine and religious life, of a real and unfeigned pietv, a sincere and universal charity, a strict temperance and sobriety, an unconquerable patience and submission clearly represented to us. And the higher we go, the more illustrious are the instances of piety and virtue. For however later ages may have improved in knowledge, experience daily making new additions to arts and sciences, yet former times were most eminent for the practice and virtues of a holy life. The divine laws, while newly published, had a stronger influence upon the minds of men, and the spirit of religion was more active and vigorous, till men by degrees began to be debauched into that impiety and profaneness, that in these last times has overrun the world.
It were altogether needless and improper for me to consider what records there are of the state of the church before our Saviour's incarnation : it is sufficient to my purpose to inquire by what hands the first affairs of the Christian church have been transmitted to us. As for the life and death, the actions and miracles of our Saviour, and some of the first acts of his apostles, they are fully represented by the evangelical historians. Indeed, immediately after them we meet with nothing of this nature, the apostles and their immediate successors (as Eusebius ob- serves'') not being at leisure to write many books, as being em- ployed in ministeries greater and more immediately serviceable to the world. The first that engaged in this way was Hegesippus,
'■■ Hist. Angl. "• Hist. Eccl. 1. iii. c. 24.
PREFACE. xi
" an ancient and apostolic man," (as he in Photius styles him/) an Hebrew by descent, and born (as is probable) in Palestine. He flourished principally in the reign of M. Aurelius, and came to Rome in the time of Anicetus, where he resided till the time of Eleutherius. He wrote five books of ecclesiastical history, which he styled " Commentaries of the Acts of the Church ;" wherein, in a plain and familiar style, he described the apostles' travels and preachings, the remarkable passages of the church, the several schisms, heresies, and persecutions that infested it, from our Lord's death till his own time. But these, alas ! are long since lost. The next that succeeded in this province, though the first that reduced it to any exactness and perfection, was Eusebias. He was born in Palestine, about the later times of the emperor Gallienus, ordained presbyter by Agapius bishop of Csesarea, who suffering about the end of the Dioclesian persecu- tion, Eusebius succeeded in his see : a man of incomparable parts and learning, and of no less industry and diligence in searching out the records and antiquities of the church. After several other volumes in defence of the Christian cause against the assaults both of Jews and Gentiles, he set himself to write an ecclesiastical history; wherein he designed (as himself tells us^) to recount, from the birth of our Lord till his time, the most memorable transactions of the church, the apostolical successions, the first preachers and planters of the gospel, the bishops that presided in the most eminent sees, the most noted errors and heresies, the calamities that befell the Jewish state, the attempts and persecutions made against the Christians by the powers of the world, the torments and sufferings of the martyrs, and the
« Cod. CCXXXll. J Lib. i. c 1.
xii PREFACE.
blessed nnd liappy period that was put to them by the conversion of Constantino the Great. All this accordingly he digested in ten books, which he composed in the declining part of his life, and (as Valcsius conjectures*^) some years after the council of Nice, though when not long before he expressly affirms that history to have been written before the Nicene synod : how he can herein be excused from a palpable contradiction I cannot imagine. It is true Eusebius takes no notice of that council, but that might be partly because he designed to end in that joyful and prosperous scene of things which Constantine re- stored to the church, (as he himself plainly intimates in the beginning of his history,) which he was not willing to discompose with the controversies and contentions of that synod, according to the humour of all historians, who delight to shut up their histories with some happy and successful period ; and i)urtly because he intended to give some account of the affairs of that council in his book of the Life of Constantine the Great.
The materials wherewith he was furnished for this great undertaking, (which he complains were very small and incon- siderable,) were, besides Hegesippus's Commentaries, then extant, Africanus's Chronology, the books and writings of several fathers, the records of particular cities, ecclesiastical epistles written by the bishops of those times, and kept in the archives of their several churches, especially that famous library at Jerusalem, erected by Alexander bishop of that place, l)ut chicflv the Acts of the Martyrs, which in those times were taken at large with great care and accuracy. These, at least a great many of them,
« I'lxfaU Je Vil. vl t>cn]it. Kubub.
PREFACE. xiii
Euseblus collected into one volume, under the title of 'Ap')(^aLcov Maprvpi(Dv Swaycoyr], "A Collection of the Ancient Martyr- doms,"" which he refers to at every turn ; besides a particular narrative which he wrote (still extant as an appendage to the eighth book of his Ecclesiastical History) " concerning the Mar- tyrs that suffered in Palestine." A great part of these acts, by the negligence and unfaithfulness of succeeding times, were interpolated and corrupted ; especially in the darker and more undiscerning ages, when su]ierstition had overspread the church, and when ignorance and interest conspired to fill the world with idle and improbable stories, and men took what liberty they pleased in venting the issue of their own brains, insomuch that some of the more wise and moderate even of the Roman commu- nion have complained, not without a just resentment and indigna- tion, that Laertius has written the lives of philosophers with more truth and chasteness than many have done the lives of the saints. Upon this account, a great and general outcry has been made against Simeon Metaphrastes, as the father of incredible legends, and one that has notoriously imposed upon the Avorld by the most fabulous reports. Nay, some, to reflect the more disgrace upon him, have represented him as a petty schoolmaster : a charge, in my mind, rash and inconsiderate, and in a great measure groundless and uncharitable. He was a person of very considerable birth and fortunes, advanced to the highest honours and ofiices, one of the premier ministers of state, and, as is probable, great chancellor to the emperor of Constantinople ; learned and eloquent above the common standard, and who, by the persuasions not only of some great ones of that time, (he flourished under Leo the Wise about the year 900, but principally wrote under the reign of his successor,) but of the emperor him-
x'lv l'RKKA(JE.
self", was prevailed with to reduce the lives of the saints into order : to which end, hy his own infinite labour, and the no less expenses of the emperor, he ransacked the libraries of the em- pire, till he had amassed a vast heap of volumes. The more ancient acts he passed without any considerable alteration, more than the correcting them by a collation of several copies, and the enlarging some circumstances to render them more plain and easy, as appears by comparing some that are extant at this day. Where lives were confused and inmiethodical, or written in a style rude and barbarous, he digested the history into order, and clothed it in more polite and elegant language : others, that were defective in neither, he left as they were, and gave them place amongst his own. So that I see no reason for so severe a censure, unless it were evident, that he took his accounts of things not from the writings of those that had gone before him, but forged them of his own head. Not to say, that things have been made much worse by translations, seldom appearing in any but the dress of the Latin church, and that many lives are laid at his door, of which he never was the father, it being usual with some, when they met with the life of a saint, the author whereof they knew not, presently to fasten it upon Metaphrastes, But to return to Eusebius, from whom we have digressed.
His ecclesiastical history, the almost only remaining records of the ancient church, deserves a just esteem and veneration, without which those very fragments of antiquity had been lost, which by this means have escaped the common shipwreck. And indeed St. Ilierom, Nicephorus, and the rest, do not only build upon his foundation, but almost entirely derive their ma- terials from him. As for Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and the
PREFACE. XV
*
later historians, they relate to times without the limits of my present business, generally conveying down little more than the history of their own times, the church history of those more early ages being either quite neglected, or very negligently managed. The first that to any purpose broke the ice after the Reformation, were the centuriators of Magdeburg, a combination of learned and industrious men, the chief of whom were John Wigandus, Matth. Judex, Basilius Faber, Andreas Corvinus, but especially Matth. Flaccius Illyricus, who was the very soul of the undertaking. They set themselves to traverse the writings of the fathers, and all the ancient monuments of the church, col- lecting whatever made to their purpose, which with indefatigable pains they digested into an ecclesiastic history. This they di- vided into centuries, and each century into fifteen chapters, into each of which, as into its proper classes and repository, they re- duced whatever concerned the propagation of religion, the peace or persecutions of the Christians, the doctrines of the church, and the heresies that arose in it ; the rites and ceremonies, the government, schisms, councils, bishops, and persons noted either for religion or learning ; heretics, martyrs, miracles, the state of the Jews, the religion of " them that were without," and the political revolutions of that age : a method accurate and useful, and which administers to a very distinct and particular under- standing the aifairs of the church. The four first centuries were finished in the city of Magdeburg, the rest elsewhere : a work of prodigious diligence and singular use. True it is, that it labours under some faults and imperfections, and is chargeable with considerable errors and mistakes. And no wonder : for besides that the persons themselves may be supposed to have been sometimes betrayed into an afierpla t7]<; dv6oXK7]<;, by
xvi PREFACE.
the lieats and contentions of those times, it was tlie first at- tempt in this kind, and whicli never passed the emendations of a second review ; an nndertakin<2f vast and diffusive, and en- gaged in whih' books were yet more scarce and less correct. Accordingly they modestly enough confess,'' that they rather attempted a delineation of church-history, than one that was complete and absolute, desiring only to minister opportunity to those who were able and willing to furnish out one more entire and perfect. And yet take it with all the faults and disad- vantages that can be charged upon it, and they bear no propor- tion to the usefulness and excellency of the thing itself.
No sooner did this work come abroad, but it made a loud noise and bustle at Rome, as wherein the corruptions and in- novations of that church were sufficiently exposed and laid open to the world. Accordingly it was necessary that an antidote should be provided against it. For which purpose, Philip Nereus (who had lately founded the oratorian order at Rome) com- mands Jiaronius, then a very young man, and newly entered into the congregation, to undertake it ; and in order thereunto daily to read nothing but ecclesiastical lectures in the oratory. This course he held for thirty years together, seven several times going over the history of the church. Thus trained up, and abundantly furnished with fit materials, he sets upon the work itself, which he disposed by way of Annals, comprising the affairs of the whole Christian world in the orderly series and succession of every year : a method much more natural and historical than that of the Centuries: a noble design, ;ind which it were injustice
'■ Prafat. in Hist. Ecclcs. prrefix. Cent. i.
PREFACE. xvii
to defraud of its due praise and commendation, as wherein, be- sides whatever occurrences that concern the state of the church, reduced (as far as his skill in chronology could enable him) under their proper periods, he has brought to light many pas- sages of the ancients not known before, peculiarly advantaged herein by the many noble libraries that are at Rome : a monu- ment of incredible pains and labour, as which, besides the diffi- culties of the thing itself, was entirely carried on by his single endeavours, and written all with his own hand, and that too in the midst of infinite avocations, the distractions of a parish-cure, the private affairs of his own oratory, preaching, hearing con- fessions, writing other books, not to mention the very trouble- some though honourable offices and employments which in the course of the work were heaped upon him. In short, a work it was by which he had infinitely more obliged the world than can be well expressed, had he managed it with as much faithfulness and impartiality as he has done with learning and industry. But, alas, too evident it is, that he designed not so much the advance- ment of truth, as the honour and interest of a cause, and there- fore drew the face of the ancient church, not as antiquity truly represents it, but according to the present form and complexion of the church of Rome, forcing every thing to look that way, to justify the traditions and practices, and to exalt the supereminent power and grandeur of that church, making both the sceptre and the crosier stoop to the triple-crown. This is that that runs almost through every page ; and indeed both he himself,' and the writer of his Life,'' more than once expressly affirm, that
' Epist. Ded. ad. Sixt. V. vol. i. Annal. praefix. ^ Hier. Bamah. dc vit. Bavoii. 1. i. c. 18, 10.
vol,. I. t
vviii PREFACE.
his design was to det'ond the traditions, and to preserve tlie dignity of that chnrch against the late innovators, and the la- bours of the Magdeburgensian centuriators, and that the op- posing of them was the occasion of that work. So fatally does partiality and the interest of a cause spoil the most brave and generous undertakings.
What has been hitherto prefaced, the reader, I hope, will not censure as an unprofitable digression, nor think it altogether unsuitable to the present work, whereof it is like he will expect some short account. Being some time .since engaged, I know not how, in searching after the antiquities of the apostolic age, I was then strongly iiuportuned to have carried on the design for some of the succeeding ages. This I then wholly laid aside, without any further thoughts of reassuming it. For experience had made me sufficiently sensible of the difficulty of the thing, ami I well foresaw how almost impossible it was to be managed to any tolerable satisfaction ; so small and inconsiderable, so broken and imperfect are the accounts that are left us of those early times. Notwithstanding which, 1 have once more sutlered myself to be engaged in it, and have endeavoured to hunt out and gather together those ruins of primitive .story that yet re- main, that I might do what honour I was able to the memory of those brave and worthy men, who were so instrumental to plant Christianity in the world, to seal it with their blood, and to oblige posterity by those excellent monuments of learning and piety which they left behind them. I have bounded my account within the first three hundred years, notwithstanding the barren- ness and obscurity of those ages of the church. Had I consulted my own ease or credit, I should have commenced mv design
PREFACE. xix
from that time which is the period of my present undertaking, viz. the following swculum, when Christianity became the reli- gion of the empire, and the records of the church furnish us with large and plentiful materials for such a work. But I confess my humour and inclination led me to the first and best ages of religion, the memoirs whereof I have picked up, and thereby enabled myself to draw the lineaments of as many of those apostolical persons, as concerning whom 1 could retrieve any considerable notices and accounts of things. With what success, the reader must judge : with whom, what entertainment it will find, I know not, nor am I much solicitous. I have done what 1 could, and am not conscious to myself that I have been wanting in any point either of fidelity or care. If there be fewer persons here described than the space of almost three hundred years may seem to promise, and less said concerning some of them than the reader does expect, he will, I presume, be more just and charitable than to charge it upon me, but rather impute it to the unhappy fate of so many ancient records as have been lost through the carelessness and unfaithfuhiess of succeeding times. As far as my mean abilities do reach, and the nature of the thing will admit, I have endeavoured the reader's satisfaction ; and though I pretend not to present him an exact church-history of those times, yet I think I may with- out vanity assure him, that there is scarce any material passage of church-antiquity of which, in some of these Lives, he will not find a competent and reasonable account. Nor is the history of those ages maimed and lame only in its main limbs and parts, but (what is greatly to be bewailed) purblind and defective in its eyes ; I mean, confused and uncertain in point of chronology. The greatest part of what we have is from Eusebius, in whose
XX PKKFACE.
aceoimt of times suiue things are false, more uncertain, and the whole the worse for passing through other hands after his. In- deed, next to the recovering the lost portions of antiquity, I know nothing would be more acceptable than the setting right the disjointed frame of those times : a cure which we hope for shortly from a very able hand. In the mean time, for my own part, and so far as may be useful to the purposes of the following papers, I have, by the best measures I could take in some haste, drawn uj) a chronology of these three ages, which though it pre- tends not to the utmost exactness and accuracy that is due to a matter of this nature, yet it will serve however to give a quick and present prospect of things, and to shew the connexure and concurrence of ecclesiastic aifairs with the times of the Roman empire. So far as I follow Eusebius, I princij)ally rely upon the accounts given in his history, which being written after his Chronicon, may be supposed the issue of his more exact re- searches, and to have passed the judgment of his riper and more considering thoughts. And perhaps the reader will say, (and I confess I am somewhat of his mind,) had I observed the same rule towards these papers, he had never been troubled with them. But that is too late now to be recalled ; and it is folly to bewail what is impossible to be remedied.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
The Introduction --------- ...j
The Life of St. Stephen the Protomartyr 47
The Life of St. Philip the Deacon and Evangelist 77
The Life of St. Barnabas the Apostle ----..-.90
The Life of St. Timothy the Apostle and Evangelist 106
The Life of St, Titus, Bishop of Crete 118
The Life of St. Dionysius the Areopagite - - - - - - - -130
The Life of St. Clemens, Bishop of Rome - - - - - - - -147
The Life of St. Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem - - - - - - -164
The Life of St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch ------- \'jq
The Life of St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna - - - - - - -192
The Life of St. Quadratus, Bishop of Athens ----... 219
The Life of St. Justin the Martyr 228
The Life of St. Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons .-...-- 258
The Life of St. Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch 273
The Life of St. Melito, Bishop of Sardis -------- 280
The Life of St. Pantsenus, Catechist of Alexandria ------ 287
The Life of St. Clemens of Alexandria 296
The Life of Tertullian, Presbyter of Carthage 305
The Life of Origen, Presbyter, Catechist of Alexandria - - - - - 321
The Life of St. Babylas, Bishop of Antioch 362
The Life of St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage --...-. 374
The Life of St. Gregory, Bishop of Neocassarea 396
The Life of St. Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria - - 417
Chronological Table of the first three Ages of the Christian Church - - - 438
LIVES
OF THE MOST EMINENT
FATHERS OF THE CHURCH
THAT FLOURISHED IN THE
FIRST FOUR CENTURIES.
COI.COI.L,.
X
^
IJBRARY
N.YORK.
INTRODUCTION.
Thb several periods of the three first ages. Our Lord's coming, and the seasonableness of it for the propagation of the gospel. His entrance upon his prophetic office, and the sum of his ministr}^ The success of his doctrine, and the several places where he preached. The story of Agbarus not altogether improbable. Our Lord's death. What attestation given to the passages concerning Christ by heathen writers. The testimony of Tacitus. Pilate's relation sent to Tiberius. The Acts of Pilate what. Pilate's letter now extant, spurious. The apostles entering upon their commission, and first acts after our Lord's ascension. How long they continued- in Judea. Their dispersion to preach in the Gentile provinces, and the success of it. The state of the church after the apostolic age. The mighty progress of Christianity. The numbers and quality of its converts. Its speedy and incredible success in all countries, noted out of the writers of those times. The early conversion of Britain to Christianity. The general declension of Paganism. The silence and ceasing of their oracles. This acknowledged by Porphyry to be the effect of the Christian religion appearing in the world. A great argument of its truth and divinity. The means contributing to the success of Christianity. The miraculous powers then resident in the church. This proved at large out of the primitive writers. The great learning and abilities of many of the church's champions. The most eminent of the Christian apologists. The prin- cipal of them that engaged against the heresies of those times. Others renowned for other parts of learning. The indefatigable zeal and industry used in the propagation of Christianity. Instructing and catechizing new converts. Schools erected. Travel- ling to preach in all parts of the world. The admirable lives of the ancient Christians. The singular efficacy of the Christian doctrine upon the minds of men. A holy life the most acceptable sacrifice. Their incomparable patience and constancy under suf- ferings. A brief survey of the ten Persecutions. The first begun by Nero. His brutish extravagances, and inhuman cruelties. His burning Rome, and the dreadful- ness of that conflagration. This charged upon the Christians, and their several kinds of punishment noted out of Tacitus. The chief of them that suffered. The Persecu- tion under Domitian. The vices of that prince. The cruel usage of St. John. The third begun by Trajan. His character. His proceeding against the Christians as illegal societies. Pliny's letter to Trajan concerning the Christians, with the emperor's answer. Adrian, Trajan's successor ; a mixture in him of vice and virtue. His per- secuting the Christians. This the fourth Persecution. The mitigation of it, and its breaking out again under Antoninus Pius. The excellent temper and learning of M. Aurelius. The fifth Persecution raised by him. Its fierceness in the East, at Rome, especially in France ; the most eminent that suffered there. The emperor's victory in his German wars gained by the Christians' prayers. Severus's temper : his cruelty towards the Christians. Tiie ciiief of the martyrs under the sixth Persecution. Maximinus's immoderate ambition and barbarous cruelty. The author of the seventh ^^ Persecution. This not universal. The common evils and calamities charged upon the Christians. Decius the eighth persecutor ; otherwise an excellent prince. The
VOL. I. n ^
2 I NTHODLCTION.
violence of tliis Persecution, and llie most noted sufferers. The foundations of nio- nnchisin when laid. The ninth Persecution, and its rage under Valerian. The most eminent martyrs. The severe punishment of Valerian : his miserable us;igc by the Persian king. The tenth Persecution begun under Dioclesian, and when. The fierce- ness and cruelty of that time. The admirable carriage and resolution of the Chris- tians under nil these sufferings. The proper influence of this argument to convince the world. The whole concluded with Lactantius's excellent reasonings to this purpose.
I. The state of the Chi-istian church in the three first ages of it may be considered under a threefold period : as it was first planted and established by our Lord himself during his residence in the ^\■orld ; as it was enlarged and propagated by the apo- stles and first missionaries of the Christian faith ; and as it grew up and prospered from the apostolic age till the times of Con- stantine, when the empire submitted itself to Christianity. God, who in former times was pleased by various methods of revela- tion to convey his will to mankind, " hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son." For the great blessing of the pro- mised seed after a long succession of several ages being come to ■its just maturity and perfection, God was resolved " to perform the mercy promised to the fathers, and to remember his holv covenant, the oath which he sware to our father Abraham." Accordingly, " In the fulness of time God sent his Son." It was in the declining part of Augustus's reign, when this great Am- bassador arrived from heaven, to publish to the world the glad tidings of salvation. A period of time (as ''Origen observes) wisely ordered by the divine providence. For the Roman em- pire being now in the highest pitch of its grandeur, all its parts united under a monarchical government, and an universal peace spread over all the provinces of the empire, that had opened a way to a free and uninterrupted commerce with all nations, a smoother and sj)cedier passage was hereby jn-epared for the pub- lishing the doctrine of the gospel, which the apostles and first preachers of religion might with the greater ease and .security carry up and down to all quarters of the world. As for the Jews, their minds were awakened about this time with busy expectations of their Messiah's coming : and no sooner was the birth of the holy Jesus proclaimed by the arrival of the eastern magi, who came to pay homage to him, l)ut Jcrusah^m was filled » Contr. Cels. 1. ii. c. .10. vol. i. i,. tl:.'.
INTRODUCTION. 3
with noise and tumult, the Sanhedrin was convened, and con- sulted by Herod, who, jealous of his late gotten sovereignty, was resolved to dispatch this new competitor out of the way. De- luded in his hopes of discovery by the magi, he betakes himself to acts of open force and cruelty, commanding all infants under two years old to be put to death, and among them it seems his own son, which made ''Augustus pleasantly say, (alluding to the Jewish custom of abstaining from swine''s flesh,) " It is better to be Herod's hog than his son." But the providence of God se- cured the holy infant, by timely admonishing his parents to re- tire into Egypt, where they remained till the death of Herod, which happening not long after, they returned.
II. Near thirty years our Lord remained obscure under the retirements of a private life, applying himself (as the ancients tell us, and the evangelical history plainly intimates) to Joseph's employment, the trade of a carpenter. So little patronage did he give to an idle unaccountable course of life. But now he was called out of his shades and solitudes, and publicly owned to be that person, whom God had sent to be the great prophet of his church. This was done at his baptism, when the Holy Ghost in a visible shape descended upon him, and God by an audible voice testified of him, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Accordingly he set himself to declare the counsels of God, "going about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom." He particularly explained the moral law, and restored it to its just authority and dominion over the minds of men, redeeming it from those corrupt and perverse interpretations which the masters of the Jewish church had put upon it. He next in- sinuated the abrogation of the Mosaic economy, to which he was sent to put a period, to enlarge the bounds of salvation, and admit both Jew and Gentile to terms of mercy : that he came as a mediator between God and man, to reconcile the world to the favour of heaven by his death and sufferings,' and to propound pardon of sin and eternal life to all that by an hearty belief, a sincere repentance, and an holy life, were willing to embrace and entertain iL Tliis was the sum of the doctrine which he preached every where, as opportunity and occasion led him, and which he did not impose upon the world merely upon
'' Macrob. Saturnal. 1. ii. c. 4.
B 2
t INTRODUCTION.
the account of his own authority and power, or beg a precarious enterttiinmont of it ; he did not tell men tliev niunt believe hitn, because he said he came from God, and had his warrant and commission to instruct and reform the world, but gave them the most satisfactory and convictive evidence, by doing such miracles as were beyond all powers and contrivances either of art or nature, whereby he unanswerably demonstrated, that "he was a teacher come from God, in that no man could do those miracles which he did, except God were with him." And because he himself was in a little time to return back to heaven, he or- dained twelve, whom he called apostles, as his immediate delegates and vicegerents, to whom he deputed his authority and power, furnished them with miraculous gifts, and left them to carry on that excellent religion which he himself had begun, to whose assistance he joined seventy disciples, as ordinary coadjutors and companions to them. Their commission for the present was limited to Palestine, and they sent out only "■' to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
III. How great the success of our Saviour's ministry was, may be guessed from that complaint of the Pharisees, " Behold the world is gone after him;''"''' people from all parts in such vast multitudes flocking after him, that they gave him not time for necessary solitude and retirement. Indeed he " went about doing good, preaching the word throughout all Judea, and healing all that were possessed of the devil." The seat of his ordinary abode was Galilee, residing for the most part (says one of the ancients'') in Galilee of the Gentiles, that he might there sow and reap the first fruits of the calling of the Gentiles. We usually find him preaching at Nazareth, at Cana, at Corazin and }3ethsaida, and the cities about the sea of Tiberias, but especially at Capernaum, the metropolis of the province, a place of great conmierce and traflic. He often visited Judea and the parts about Jerusalem, whither he was wont to go up at the paschal solemnities, and some of the greater festivals, that so the ge- neral concourse of people at those times might minister the fitter opportunity to spread the net, and to communicate and impart his doctrine to them. Nor did he, who was -to be a common Saviour, and came to break down the partition-wall, disdain to converse with the Samaritans, so contemptible and hateful to
•^ Jolin xii. 19. "i F.usoK Donionstr. Kvjing. 1. i.\. p. 4'MK
INTRODUCTION. 5
the Jews. In Sychar, not far from Samaria, he freely preached, and gained most of the inhabitants of that city to be proselytes to his doctrine. He travelled up and down the towns and villages of Cesarea Philippi, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis, and where he could not come, the renown of him spread itself, bringing him disciples, and followers from all quarters. Indeed " his fame went throughout all Syria, and there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, Judea, Decapolis, Idumsea, from beyond Jordan, and from Tyre and Sidon." Nay, might we believe the story so solemnly reported by Eusebius" and the ancients, (and excepting the silence of the evangelical historians, who recorded onl}- some of the actions and passages concerning our Saviour, I know no wise argument against it,) Agbarus, prince of Edessa beyond Euphrates, having heard of the fame of our Saviour's miracles, by letters humbly besought him to come over to hira ; whose letter, together with our Lord's answer, are extant in Eusebius, there being nothing in the letters themselves that may justly shake their credit and authority, with much more to this purpose, transcribed (as he tells us) out of the records of that city, and by hira translated out of Syria c into Greek, which may give us some account why none of the ancients before him make any mention of this aifair, being generally strangers to the language, the customs, and antiquities of those eastern countries.
IV. Our Lord having spent somewhat more than three years in the public exercise of his ministry, kept his last passover with his apostles ; which done, he instituted the sacramental supper, consigning it to his church as the standing memorial of his death, and the seal of the evangelical covenant, as he appointed baptism to be the federal rite of initiation, and the public tessera or badge of those that should profess his religion. And now the fatal hour was at hand : being betrayed by the treachery of one of his own apostles, he was apprehended by the officers and brought before the public tribunals. Heavy were the crimes charged upon him, but as false as spiteful ; the two luain ar- ticles of the charge were blasphemy against God, and treason against the emperor : and though they were not able to make them good by any tolerable pretence of proof, yet did they con-
« Hist. Eccl. 1, i. c. 1 3.
6 INTRODUCTION.
deinn and execute liini upon the cross, several of themselves vindicating his innocency, that he was a "righteous man," and " the Son of God." The third day after his interment he rose again, appeared to and conversed with his disciples and followers, and having taken care of the affairs of his church, given a larger commission, and fuller instructions to his apostles, he took his leave of them, and visibly ascended into heaven, and "sat down on the right hand of God, as head over all things to the church, angels, authorities, and powers being made subject unto him."
V. The faith of these passages concerning our Saviour, are not only secured to us by the report of the evangelical historians, and that justified by eye-witnesses, the evidence of miracles, and the successive and uncontrolled consent of all ages of the church, but (as to the substance of them) by the plain confession of heathen writers, and the enemies of Christianity. 'Tacitus tells us, that the author of this religion was Christ, who under the reign of Tiberius was put to death by Pontius Pilate, the pro- curator of Judea : wliereby though this detestable superstition was sujipressed for the present, yet did it break out again, spreading itself not only through Judea, the fountain of the mischief, but in the very city of Home itself, where whatever is wicked and shameful meets together, and is greedily advanced into reputation. ^Eusebius assures us, that after our Lord's ascension, Pilate, according to custom, sent an account of him to the emperor: which Tiberius brought before the senate, but they rejected it under pretence that cognizance had been taken of it before it came to them ; it being a fundamental law of the Roman state, that no new god could be taken in without the decree of the senate ; but that however Tiberius continued his good thoughts of Christ, and kindness to the Christians. For this he cites the testimony of Tertullian, who in his ''Apology presented to the Roman poAvers affirms, that Tiberius, in whose time the Christian religion entered into the world, having re- ceived an account from Pilate out of Palestine in Syria con- cerning the truth of that divinity that was there, brought it to the senate Avith the prerogative of his own vote : but that the senate, because they had not before approved of it, would not admit it ; however the emperor continued of the same mind, and
' Anna). I. xv. c. 44. " Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 2. vid. OroB. adv. Pag. I. vii. c. 4.
'' Apol. r. ."). of c. '21.
INTRODUCTION. 7
threatened punishment to them that accused the Christians. And before Tertullian, Justin Martyr,' speaking concerning the death and sufterings of our Saviour, tells the emperors, that they might satisfy themselves in the truth of these things from the Acts written under Pontius Pilate ; it being customary not only at Rome to keep the Acts of the senate and the people, but for the governors of provinces to keep account of what memorable things happened in their government, the Acts whereof they transmitted to the emperor. And thus did Pilate during the procuratorship of his province. How long these Acts remained in being, I know not : but in the controversy about Easter, we find the Quartodecimans ^ justifying the day on which they ob- served it from the Acts of Pilate, wherein they gloried that they had found the truth. Whether these were the Acts of Pilate to which Justin appealed, or rather those Acts of Pilate drawn up and published by the command of ' Maximinus, Dioclesian's successor, in disparagement of our Lord and his religion, is uncertain, but the latter of the two far more probable. How- ever Pilate's letter to Tiberius, (or as he is there called Claudius,) at this day extant in the Anacephalseosis"" of the younger Egesippus, is of no great credit, though that author challenges greater antiquity than some allow him, being probably con- temporary with St. Ambrose, and by many, from the great con- formity of style and phrase, thought to be St. Ambrose himself, who with some few additions compiled it out of Josephus. But then it is to be considered, whether that Anacephalseosis be done by the same, or (which is most probable) by a much later hand. Some other particular passages concerning our Saviour are taken notice of by G-entile writers, the appearance of the star by Calcidius, the murder of the infants by Macrobius, the eclipse at our Saviour's passion by Phlegon Trallianus, (not to speak of his miracles frequently acknowledged by Celsus, Julian, and Porphyry,) which I shall not insist upon. '
VI. Immediately after our Lord's ascension (from whence we date the next period of the church) the apostles began to execute the powers intrusted with them. They presently filled up Judas's vacancy by the election of a new apostle, " the lot falling upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven
' Apol. i. c. 35. '' Epiph. Haeres. xxx. sive L. vol. i. p. 419.
' Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. ix. c. 5. >" Ad calcem lib. de Excid. urb. Hieros.
8 INTRODUCTION.
apostles." Being next endued with power t'roiii on higli, (as our Lord had j)ronii!;ied them,) furnislied with the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, they set themselves to preach in places of the greatest concourse, and to the faces of their greatest enemies. They w ho but a while before fled at the first approach of danger, now boldly plead the cause of their crucified Master, with the immediate hazard of their lives. And that nothing might inter- rupt them in this employment, they instituted the office of deacons, who nnght attend the inferior services of the church while they devoted themselves to what was more immediately necessary to the good of souls. By which prudent course religion got ground apace, and innumerable converts were daily added to the faith : till a persecution arising upon St. Stephcn"'s mar- tyrdom, banished the church out of Jerusalem, though this also proved its advantage in the event and issue, Christianity being by this means the sooner spread up and down the neighbour countries. The apostles, notwithstanding the rage of the perse- cution, remained still at Jerusalem, only now and then dis- patching some few of their number to confirm and settle the plantations, and to propagate the faith, as the necessities of the church required. And thus they continued for near twelve years together, our Lord himself having commanded them not to de- part Jerusalem and the parts thereabouts, till twelve years after his ascension, as the ancient tradition mentioned both by Apol- lonius" and Clemens Alexandrinus" informs us. And now they thought it high time to apply themselves to the full execution of that conmiission w^hich Christ had given them, "to go teach and bapti/e all nations." Accordingly having settled the general afi'airs and concernments of the church, they betook themselves to the several provinces of the C-entile world, preaching the gospel to every nation under heaven, so that even in a literal sense " their sound Avent into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." " Infinite multitudes of people in all cities and countries, (says Eusebius,') like corn into a well- filled granary, being brought in by that grace of God that brings salvation. And they whose minds were heretofore distempered and overrun with the error and idolatry of their ancestors, were cured by the sermons and miracles of our Lord's disciples, and
" Kti-'ob. Hist. Keel. l.v. c. 18. " Stromat. 1. vi. c. 5. vid. Life of St. Peter,-*. 11. n. .i. r Etcl. Hist. 1. ii. r. 3,
INTRODUCTION. 9
shaking oft' those chains of darkness and slavery which the mer- ciless demons had put upon them^ freely embraced and enter- tained the knowledge and service of the only true God, the great Creator of tlie world, whom they worshipped according to the holy rites and rules of that divine and wisely-contrived religion which our Saviour had introduced into the world." But con- cerning the apostles' travels, the success of their ministry, the places and countries to which they went, the churches they planted, their acts and martyrdoms for the faith, we have given an account in a work peculiar to that subject, so far as the records of those times have conveyed any material notices of things to us. It may suffice to observe, that God was pleased to continue St. John to a very great age beyond any of the rest, that he might superintend and cultivate, confirm and establish what they had planted, and be as a standing and lively oracle, to which they might from all parts have recoui'se in any consi- derable doubts and exigences of the church, and that he might seal and attest the truth of those things, which men of corrupt and perverse minds even then began to call in question.
VII. Hence then we pass on to survey the state of the church from the apostolic age till the times of Constantine, for the space of at least two hundred years. And under this period we shall principally remark two things. What progress the Christian religion made in the world. Secondly, what it was that con- tributed to so vast a growth and increase of it. That Christianity, from, the nature of its precepts, the sublimeness of its principles, its contrariety to the established rites and religions of the world, was likely to find bad entertainment, and the fiercest opposition, could not but be obvious to ever}' impartial considerer of things; which accordingly came to pass. For it met with all the dis- couragement, the secret undermining, and open assaults which malice and prejudice, wit and parts, learning and power were able to make upon it. Notwithstanding all which, it lift up its head, and prospered under the greatest oppositions. And the triumph of the Christian faith will appear the more considerable, whether we regard the number and quality of its converts, or the vast circumference to which it did extend and diff"use itself. Though it appeared under all manner of disadvantages to recom- mend itself, yet no sooner did it set up its standard, but persons from all parts, and of all kinds of principles and educations.
10 INTRODUCTION.
hogau to tlofk to it, so acliuiriibly aticftiiig very many, both of the Greeks uii<l Barbarians, (as Origen"' tells (Jelsus,) and they both wise and unwise, that they contended for the truth of their religion even to the laying down their lives, a thing not known in aiiv other profession in the world. And " elsewhere he chal- lenges him to shew such an unspeakable nniltitude of Greeks and Barbarians reposing such a confidence in -^sculapius, as he could of those that had embraced the faith of the holy Jesus. And when Celsus* objected that Christianity was a clandestine religion, that sculked and crept up and down in corners; Origen answers, that the religion of the Christians was better known throughout the whole world, than the dictates of their best phi- losophers. Nor were they only mean and ignorant persons that thus came over, but (as Arnobius' observes) men of the acutest parts and learning; orators, grammarians, rhetoricians, law- yers, physicians, philosophers, despising their formerly-beloved sentiments, sat down here. TertuUian," addressing himself to the Roman governors in behalf of the Christians, assures them, that although they were of no long standing, yet that they had filled all places of their dominions, their cities, islands, castles, corporations, councils, armies, tribes, companies, the palace, senate, and courts of judicature : that if they had a mind to revenge themselves, they need not betake themselves to dancular and sculking arts, their numbers were great enough to appear in open arms, having a party not in this or that province, but in all quarters of the world : nay, that naked as they were, they could be sufficiently revenged upon them ; for should they but all agree to retire out of the lioman enii)ire, the world would stand amazed at that solitude and desolation that would ensue upon it, and they would have more enemies than friends or citizens left among them. And he " bids president Scapula consider, that if he went on with the persecution, what he would do with those many thousands both of men and women, of all ranks and ages, that would readily otter themselves, what fires and swords he must have to dispatch them. Nor is this any more than what IMiny'' liimself confesses to the emperor, that the case of the
•> Contr. Ceh. 1. i. c. --'7. vol. i. j.. 345. ' Ibid. 1. iii. c. 24. vol. i. p. 461.
• Uiiil. I. i. c. 7. vol. i. p. 3'2o. • Adv. Cent. I. ii. p. '21.
" Apol. c. :i7. X Ad Scapul. c. :.. J" Ad Traj. 1. x. ppist. 97.
. INTRODUCTION. 11
Christians was a matter worthy of deliberation, especially by reason of the multitudes that were concerned, for that many of each sex, of every age and quality, were and must be called in question, this superstition having infected and overrun not the city only, but towns and countries, the temples and sacrifices being generally desolate and forsaken.
VIII. Nor was it thus only in some parts and provinces of the Roman empire, but in most nations and countries. Justin Martyr ^ tells the Jews, that whatever they might boast of the universality of their religion, there were many places of the world whither neither they nor it ever came : whereas there was no part of mankind, whether Greeks or Barbarians, or by what name soever they were called, even the most rude and unpo- lished nations, where prayers and thanksgivings were not made to the great Creator of the world through the name of the cruci- fied Jesus. The same Bardesanes," the Syrian, Justin's contem- porary, affirms, that the followei-s of the Christian institution, though living in diiferent parts of the world, and being very numerous in every climate and country, were yet all called by the name of Christians. So Lactantius ;'' the Christian law (says he) is entertained from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, where every sex, and age, and nation, and country does Avith one heart and soul worship God. If from generals we de- scend to particular places and countries, Irenseus,'' who entered upon the see of Lyons, A. D. 179, affirms, that though there were different languages in the world, yet that the force of tradition (or that doctrine that had been delivered to the church) was but one and the same ; that there were churches settled in Germany, Spain, France, in the East, in Egypt and Lybia, as well as in the middle of the world. Tertullian,'^ who probably wrote not above twenty years after Irenseus, gives us in a lai-ger account. " Their sound," says he, " went through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. For in whom but Christ did all nations believe ? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Armenia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia, of Pontus, Asia, and Pamphylia, those who dwell in Egypt, Africa, and beyond Cyrene, strangers at Rome,
^ Dial, cum Tryph. p. 34.5. ■'' Lib. de Fat. ap. Euseb. prsep. Evang. l.vi. c. 10. p.27n. *> De Justit. 1. V. c. 13. p. 494. -^^ Adv. Hieres. 1. i. c. 3. p. 52.
<< Adv. JiKbcos, c. 7. p. 18.0.
12 INTHUUrCTlON.
Jews at Jcrii.saleni, and other nations; as also now tlie (jietnll and the Mauri, the Spaniards and the (ianls, yea, and those places of Britain, which were unapproachable by the Roman armies, are yet subdued to Christ ; the Sarmatre also and the Daci, the Germans and the Scythians, together with manv undis- covered countries, many islands and provinces unknown to us, which he professes himself unable to reckon up. In all which places (says he) the name of Christ reigns, as before whom the gates of all cities are set open, and to whom none are shut; before whom gates of brass fly open, and bars of iron arc snapt asunder." To which Arnobius^ adds the Indians, the Persians, the Serre, and all the islands and provinces which are visited by the rising or setting sun, yea, and Rome itself, the empress of all. IX. From Tertullian''s account we have a most authentic tes- timony how early Christianity stretched itself over this other world, having before his time conquered the most rough and in- accessible parts of Britain to the banner of the cross, -which may probably refer to the conversion of king Lucius, (the first Chris- tian king that ever was,) a potent and considerable prince in this island, who embraced the Christian religion about the vear 186, and sent a solemn embassy to Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, for some who might further instruct him and his people in the faith ; who accordingly dispatched Faganus and Derwia- nu8 hither upon that errand. Not that this was the first time that the gospel made its way through the 0DKeav6<; aTrepavro?, (as Clemens' calls the British ocean, and so the ancients con- stantly style it,) " the unpassable ocean, and those worlds which are beyond it;" that is, the liritannic islands: it had been here many years before, though proljably stifled and overgrown with the ancient jjaganism and idolatry. St. Clemens = tells us of St. Van], that he preached both in the East and West; and liaving instructed the whole world in righteousness, made his way to the utmost bounds of the West : bv which he must either mean Spain, or more probably Britain, and it may be both. Accordingly Theodoret,*" speaking of his coming into Spain, says, that besides that, he brought great advantage to the isles of the sea; and he reckons' the Cimbri and the IJritains among the
' ■'•''■ '•• P- 23. I F.pist. ad Corinth, p. 28.
•'*'••*• P- «• "Comment, in Psal. 116
' He cunind. firaccor. affect Serin, ix. p. liA.
INTRODUCTION. 13
nations which the apostles (and he particularly mentions the tent-maker) converted to the Christian faith. If after all this it were necessary to enter into a more minute and particular disquisition, I might inquire, not only in what countries, but in what towns and cities in those countries, Christianity fixed itself, in what places episcopal sees were erected, and what succession of bishops are mentioned in the records of the church ; but that this would not well consist with the designed shortness of this Introduction, and would be more perhaps than the reader's patience would allow.
X. The shadows of the night do not more naturally vanish at the rising of the sun, than the darkness of pagan idolatry and superstition fled before the light of the gospel ; which the more it prevailed, the clearer it discovered the folly and impiety of their worship : their solemn rites appeared more trifling and ridiculous, their sacrifices more barbarous and inhuman, their demons were expelled by the meanest Christian, their oracles became mute and silent, and their very priests began to be ashamed of their magic charms and conjurations ; and the more prudent and subtle heads among them, who stood up for the rites and solemnities of their religion, were forced to turn thera into mystical and allegorical meanings, far enough either from the apprehension or intention of the vulgar. The truth is, the devil, who for so many ages had usurped an empire and tyranny over the souls of men, became more sensible every day that his kingdom shaked ; and therefore sought, though in vain, by all ways to support and prop it up. Indeed, some time before our Saviour's incarnation, the most celebrated oracle at Delphos had lost its credit and reputation, as after his appearance in the world they sunk and declined every day ; whereof their best writers universally complain, that their gods had forsaken their temples and oracular recesses, and had left the world in dark- ness and obscurity ; and that their votaries did in vain solicit their counsels and answers. Plutarch, who lived under Trajan, wrote a particular tract (still extant) Concerning the Ceasing of Oracles, which he endeavours to resolve partly into natural, partly into moral, partly into political causes, though all his philosophy was too short to give a just and satisfactory account of it. One cause he assigns of it is, the death and departure of those demons, that heretofore presided over these oracles.
U IXTKODrCTIOX.
To which purpose he relates a memorable passage, concerning a voice that called three times aloud to one Thamus, an Egyptian ship-master, and his company, as they sailed by the Echinadae islands, commanding him when they came near to Palodes to make proclamation, that " the great Pan was dead," which he did ; and the news was entertained not with the resentment of one or two, but of many, who received it with great mourning and consternation. The circumstances of this story he there reports more at large, and adds, that the thing being published at Rome, Thamus was sent for by Tiberius, to whom he gave an account, and satisfied him in the truth of it. AVliich cir- cumstance of time, EusebiusJ observes, corresponds with our Lord's conversing in the world, when he began openly to dis- possess demons of that power and tyranny which they had gained over mankind. And (if the calculation which some make, hit right) it fell in about the time of our Saviour's passion, who " led captivity captive, spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross, and by his death destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil."
XI. However that the silence of oracles, and the enervating the power of demons, was the effect of the Christian religion in the world, we need no more than the plain confession of Porphyry himself, (truth will sometimes extort a confession out of the mouth of its gi-eatest enemy,) who says, that " now it is no wonder if the city for so many years* has been overrun with sickness, -^sculapius and the rest of the gods having with- drawn their converse with men : for that since Jesus began to be worshipped, no man hath received any public help or benefit by the gods."** A great argument, as Eusebius well urges, of our Saviour's divine authority, and the truth of his doctrine. For when (says he a little before) such numbers of fictitious deities fled at our Lord's appearance, who would not with ad- miration behold it as an uncontrolable demonstration of his truly saving and excellent religion, whereby so many churches and oratories through all the world, both in cities and villages, and even in the deserts and solitudes of the most barbarous nations, have been erected and consecrated to the great Creator, and the only Sovereign of the world : when such multitudes of books
> Pnepar. Kvaiia. 1. v. c. 17. p. "207. i* Kiisoh. iilii siipr. c. 1. p. 17?'.
INTRODUCTION. 15
have been written, containing the most incomparable rules and institutions to form mankind to a life of the most perfect virtue and religion, precepts accommodate not to men only, but to women and children : when he shall see that the oracles and divinations of the demons are ceased and gone ; and that the divine and evangelical virtue of our Saviour no sooner visited mankind, but they began to leave off their wild and frantic ways of worship, and to abhor those human sacrifices (many times of their dearest relations) wherewith they had been wont to propitiate and atone their blood}^ and merciless demons, and into which their wisest and greatest men had been bewitched and seduced. I add no more but St. Chrysostom's' challenge, "Judge now with me, O thou incredulous Jew, and learn the excellency of the truth ; what impostor ever gathered to himself so many churches throughout the world, and propagated his worship from one end of it to the other, and subdued so many subjects to his crown, even when thousands of impediments lay in the way to hinder him ? certainly no man : a plain evidence that Christ was no impostor, but a Saviour and Benefactor, and the Author of our life and happiness.
XII. We have seen with what a mighty success Christianity displayed its banners over the world ; let us next consider what it was that contributed to so vast an increase and propagation of it. And here not to insist upon the blessing of the divine pro- vidence, which did immediately superintend its prosperity and welfare, nor upon the intrinsic excellency of the religion itself, which carried essential characters of divinity upon it, sufficient to recommend it to every wise and good man, there were five things among others that did especially conduce to make way for it ; the miraculous powers then resident in the church, the great learning and abilities of its champions and defenders, the indefatigable industry used in propagating of it, the incomparable lives of its professors, and their patience and constancy under suiferings. It was not the least means that procured the Christian religion a just veneration from the world, the miraculous attestations that were given to it. I shall not here concern myself to shew, that miracles truly and publicly wrought are the highest external evidence that can be given to the truth of that religion, which they are brought to confirm ; the force of the argument is suf-
' Orat. iii. adv. Judaos, p. 420. torn. i.
IG INTHODrCTION.
fioienlly pleaded by the Christian apologists. That such lui- lacnlous powers were then ordinary in the church, wo have the concurrent testimonies of all the first writers of it. Justin Martyr' tells the emperor and the senate, that our Lord wa« born for the subversion of the demons, which they might know from the very things done in their sight ; for that very many who had been vexed and possessed by demons, throughout the world, and in this very city of theirs, whom all their exorcists and conjurers were not able to relieve, had been cured by several Christians through the name of Jesus that was crucified under Pontius Pilate; and that at this very time they still cured them, disarming and expelling the demons out of those whom they had possessed. The same he affirms in his discourse with Trypho*" the Jew, more than once, that the devils trembled and stood in awe of the power of Christ ; and to this day, being ad- jured by the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate the procurator of Judea, they were obedient to Christians. Ire- nreus" assures us, that in his time the Christians, enabled by the grace of Christ, raised the dead, ejected demons and unclean .spirits ; the persons so dispossessed coming over to the church : others had visions and the gift of prophecy ; others by imposi- tion of hands healed the sick, and restored them to perfect health. But I am not able (says he) to reckon up the number of those gifts, which the church throughout the world, receiving from God, does every day freely exercise in the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate, to the benefit of the world. Tertullian" challenges the Roman governors to let any pos- sessed person be brought before their own tribunals, and they should sec, that the spirit being commanded to speak by any Christian, should as truly confess himself to be a devil, as at other times he falsely boasted himself to be a god. And he tells Scapula, P that they rejected, disgraced, and expelled demons every day, as most could bear them witness. Origen*" bids Celsus take notice, that whatever he might think of the reports which the gospel makes concerning our Saviour ; yet that it was the great and magnificent work of Jesus, by his name to heal even to this day, whom (rod pleased; that he
' Apol. i. p. 4'). •" Dial, cum Tryph. p. 247, &c. p. 30-2.
" Adv. Hares. 1. ii. c. oH. p. 21.'; ; r. .57. p. 218. " Apol. c. 23. p. 22.
P Ad S<iiji. r. 2. p. Ci). I Contr. CVIb. 1. ii. c. 48. vol. i. p. 422, 3.
INTRODUCTION. 17
■^liimself had seen many, who by having the name of God and Christ called over them, had been delivered from the greatest evils, frenzy and madness, and infinite other distempers, which neither men nor devils had been able to cure. What influence these miraculous effects had upon the world, he lets us know elsewhere. "The apostles of our Lord (says he*) without these miraculous powers would never have been able to have moved their auditors, nor persuaded them to desert the institutions of their country, and to embrace their new doctrine ; and having once embraced it, to defend it even to death, in defiance of the greatest dangers. Yea, even to this day, the footsteps of that Holy Spirit, which appeared in the shape of a dove, are preserved among the Christians ; they exorcise demons, perform many cures, and according to the will of God foresee and foretell things to come. At which though Celsus and his personated Jew may laugh, yet I affirm further, that many even against their inclina- tions have been brought over to the Christian religion, their former opposition of it being suddenly changed into a resolute maintaining of it unto death, after they have had visions com- municated to them ; several of which nature we ourselves have seen. And should we only reckon up those at which we our- selves have been present and beheld, it may be it would only make the infidels merry ; supposing that we like themselves did forge and feign them. But God bears witness with my con- science, that I do not endeavour by falsely-contrived stories, but by various powerful instances to recommend the divine religion of the holy Jesus. More testimonies of this kind I could easily produce from Minucius Felix, Cyprian, Arnobius, and Lactan- tius, but that these are enough to my purpose.
XIII. Another advantage that exceedingly contributed to the triumph of Christianity, was the singular learning of many, who became champions to defend it : for it could not but be a mighty satisfaction, especially to men of ordinary capacities and mean employments, (which are the far greatest part of mankind,) to see persons of the most smart and subtile reasonings, of the most acute and refined understandings, and consequently not easily capable of being imposed upon by arts of sophistry and plausible stories, trampling upon their former sentiments and opinions, and not only entertaining the Christian faith, but defending it
' Contr. Cels. 1. iii. q. 24. vol. i. p. 461. " Ibid. 1. i. c 46. vol. i. p. .361.
VOL. I. C
IS INTKODUCTION.
against its most virulent opposers. It is true indeed the gospel at its first setting out was left to its own naked strength, and men of the most unpolished breeding made choice of to convey it to the world, that it might not seem to be an human artifice, or 'the success of it be ascribed to the parts and powers of man. But after that for an hundred years together it had ap- proved itself to the world, and a sharper edge was set upon the malice and keenness of its adversaries, it was but proper to take in external helps to assist it. And herein the care of the divine providence was very remarkable, that as miracles became less common and frequent in the church, God was pleased to raise up, even from among the Gentiles themselves, men of profound abilities, and excellent learning, who might toi? olKeloL<i irTepoU ^dWeiv, (as Julian* said of the Christians of his time,) beat them at their own weapons, and wound them with arrows drawn out of their own quiver ; and it was high time to do so : for the Gentiles did not only attack the Christians and their religion by methods of cruelty, and by arts of insinuation, not only object what wit and subtilty could invent, to bear any shadow and pretence of reason, but load them with the blackest crimes, which nothing but the utmost malice and prejudice could ever suspect to be true. This gave occasion to the Christian apolo- gists, and the first writers against the Gentiles, who by their learned and rational discourses assoiled the Christians from the things charged against them, justified the reasonableness, ex- cellency, and divinity of their religion ; and exposed the folly and falsehood, the brutishness and impiety, the absurd and trifling rites of the pagan worship ; by which means prejudices were removed, and thousands brought over to the faith. In this way they that rendered themselves most renowned, and did greatest service to the Christian cause, were especially these : Quadratus bishop of Athens, and Aristides, formerly a famous philosoi>her of that city, a man Avise and eloquent, dedicated each an Apologetic to the emperor Adrian : Justin the Martyr, besides several tracts against the Gentiles, wrote two Apologies; the first presented to Antoninus Pius, the second to M. Aure- Hus and the senate: about which time also Athenagoras pre- sented his Apology to M. Aurelius and Aurelius Commodus;
' Theod. H. Eccl. 1. iii. t. 8. p. 1.31.
INTRODUCTION. 19
not to mention his excellent discourse concerning the resurrec- tion. To the same M. Aurelius, Melito bishop of Sardis exhi- bited his apologetic oration for the Christians : under this em- peror also flourished Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis in Asia, and dedicated to him an incomparable discourse in defence of the Christian faith ; besides five books which he wrote against the Gentiles, and two concerning the Truth. Not long after, Theophilus bishop of Antioch composed his three excellent books for the conviction of Autolycus : and Miltiades presented an Apology (probably) to the emperor Commodus. Tatian the Syrian, scholar to Justin Martyr, a man learned and eloquent, among other things wrote a book against the Gentiles, which sufiiciently evidences his great abilities. Tertullian, a man of admirable learning, and the first of the Latins that appeared in this cause, under the reign of Severus, published his Apologetic, directed to the magistrates of the Roman empire ; besides his books, " Ad Nationes," " De Idololatria," " Ad Scapulam," and many more. After him succeeded Origen, whose Eight Books against Celsus did not greater service to the Christian cause, than they did honour to himself. Minucius Felix, an eminent advocate at Rome, wrote a short, but most elegant Dialogue be- tween Octavius and Csecilius, which (as Lactantius long since observed) shews, how fit and able an advocate he would have been to assert the truth, had he wholly applied himself to it. About the time of Gallus and Volusian, Cyprian addresed him- self in a discourse to Demetrian the proconsul of Africa, in be- half of the Christians and their religion, and published his tract " De Idolorum vanitate," which is nothing but an epitome of Minucius's Dialogue. Towards the close of that age, under Dio- clesian, Arnobius taught rhetoric with great applause at Sicca in Africa; and being convinced of the truth of Christianity, could hardly make the Christians at first believe that he was real. In evidence therefore of his sincerity, he wrote seven books against the Gentiles, Avherein he smartly and rationally pleads the Christian cause : as not long after his scholar Lac- tantius, who under Dioclesian professed rhetoric at Nicomedia, set himself to the composing several discourses in defence of the Christian, and subversion of the Gentile religion. A man witty and eloquent, but more happy in attacking his adversaries than in establishing the principles of his own religion, many whereof
c 2
liU INTRODUCTION.
he seems not very distinctly to have understood. To all these I may add Apollonius, a man versed in all kind of learning and philosophy ; and (if St. Hierom say right) a senator of Rome, who in a set oration with so brave and generous a confidence eloquently pleaded his own, and the cause of Christianity before the senate itself; for which he suffered as a martyr in the reign
of Conimodus.
XIV. And as they thus defend Christianity on the one hand from the open assaults and calumnies of the Gentiles, so were they no less careful on the other to clear it from the errors and heresies wherewith men of perverse and evil minds sought to corrupt and poison it. And the chief of those that engaged in this way were these : Agrippa Castor, a man of great learning in the time of Adrian, wrote an accurate Refutation of Basilides and his Principles in twenty-four books. Theophilus of Antioch against Hermogenes and Marcion ; Apollinaris, Philip bishop of Gortyna in Crete, Musanus, Modestus, Rhodon, Tatian's scholar, Miltiades, Apollonius, Serapion bishop of Antioch, and hundreds more, who engaged against the Marcionites, Mon- tanists, and other heretics of those times. But the principal of all was Irenteus, who took to task the most noted heresies of those ages, and with incomparable industry and quickness of reasoning unravelled their principles, exposed their practices, re- futed their errors, whereby (as he frequently intimates) many were reduced and recovered to the church. I might also men- tion several others, who though not known to have particularly adventured in either of these ways, are yet renowned for their excellent skill in all arts and sciences, whereby they became eminently useful to the church. Such (besides those whereof an account is given in the following work) were Dionysius bishop of Corinth, Bardesanes the Syrian, whose learning and eloquence were above the common standard, though he also wrote against almost all the heresies of the age he lived in. Ammonius the celebrated philosopher of Alexandria; Julius Africanus, a man peculiarly eminent for history and chronology ; Dorotheus pres- byter of Antioch, famous for his skill in Hebrew, as well as other parts of learning; Anatolius the Alexandrian, whom Eu- sebius magnifies so much as the most learned man and acute philosopher of his age, exquisitely skilled in arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, logic, pliysic, rhetoric, and indeed what not? Picrius
INTRODUCTION. 21
presbyter of Alexandria, an eloquent jDreacher, and so great a scholar, that he was commonly styled Origen Junior. But this is a field too large to proceed any further in, and therefore I stop here. By all which it is evident, what St. Hierom"' re- marks, how little reason Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian had to clamour against the Christians, as a rude and illiterate genera- tion, who had no learning, no eloquence, or philosophy to recom- mend them.
XV, A third advantage that helped on the progress of Chris- tianity, was the indefatigable zeal and industry used in the pro- pagation of it. No stone was left unturned, no method unat- tempted, whereby they might reclaim men from error, and bring them over to the acknowledgment of the truth. Hence in an ancient inscription^'' said to be set up in Spain, to the honour of Nero, they are described under this character, qui novam generi HUM. SUPERSTITION. iNcuLCAB. " Tliosc wlio iuculcatcd and ob- truded a new superstition upon mankind." Indeed they were infinitely zealous to gain proselytes to the best religion in the world. They preached it boldly, and prayed heartily for the conversion and reformation of mankind, solicited their neigh- bours that were yet strangers to the faith, instructed and in- formed new converts, and built them up on the most holy faith. Those that were of greater parts and eminency erected and in- stituted schools, where they publicly taught those that resorted to them, grounding them in the rudiments of the faith, and an- tidoting them both against heathens on the one side, and here- tics on the other. Among us, (says Tatian,") not only the rich and the wealthy learn our philosophy, but the poor are freely disciplined and instructed : we admit all that are willing to learn, whether they be old or young. And what the success was, he tells us a little after,^ that all their virgins were sober and modest, and were wont to discourse concerning divine things, even while they were sitting at their distaffs. Nor did they content themselves only to do thus at home, many of them freely exposing themselves to all manner of hazards and hard- ships : no pains were thought great, no dangers considerable, no difficulties insuperable, that they might enlarge the bounds of the gospel, travelling into the most barbarous nations, and to
" S. Hieron. prsef. ad Catalog, de script. Eecles. "' Ap. Gruter. Inscript. p. 238. N. ix.
" Orat. contr. Grrec. p. 1 fi7. > Ibid. p. 1 68.
22 INTRODUCTION.
the remotest corners of the world. " The divine and adiniriible disciples of the apostles (says ^Eusehius) Imilt np the superstruc- tures of those churches, the foundations whereof the apostles had laid in all places where they came : they every where promoted the publication of the gospel, sowing the seeds of that heavenly doctrine throughout the whole world. For their minds being inflamed with the love of a more divine philosophy, according to our Lord's counsel, they distributed their estates to the poor ; and leaving their own countries, took upon them the ofl^ice of evangelists; preaching Christ, and delivering the evangelical writings to those who had not yet so much as heard of the Christian faith. And no sooner had they founded the faith in any foreign countries, and ordained guides and pastors, to whom they committed the care of those new plantations, but they pre- sently betook themselves to other nations, ratifying their doc- trine with the miraculous powers of that Divine Spirit that at- tended them : so that as soon as ever they began to preach, the people universally flocked to them, and cheerfully and heartily embraced the worship of the true God, the great Creator of the world." In the number of these evangelical missionaries, that were of the first apo.stolical succession, were Silas, Sylvanus, Crescens, Andronicus, Trophimus, Marcus, Aristarchus, &c. as afterwards Pant?enus who went into India, Pothinus and Ire- nseus from Smyrna into France, each successively becoming bishop of Lyons, and infinite others mentioned in the histories and martyrologies of the church, who " counted not their lives to be dear unto them, so that they might finish their course with joy," and make known the mysteries of the gospel to the ends of the earth.
XVI. Fourthly, Christianity recommended itself to the world by the admirable lives of its professors, which were so truly con- sonant to all the laws of virtue and goodness, as could not but reconcile the M'iser and more unprejudiced part of the Gentile world to a better opinion of it, and vindicate it from those absurd and senseless cavils that were made against it. For when they saw Christians every where so seriously devout and pious, so incomparably chaste and sober, of such humble and mortified tempers, so strictly just and righteous, so kind and charitable, not to themselves only, but to all mankind, they
» H. F,(xle». 1. iii. c. 37. p. 109.
INTRODUCTION. 23
concluded there must be something more than human in it : as indeed no argument is so convictive, as a demonstration from experience. Their singular piety, and the discipline of their manners, weighed down all the disadvantages they were under. The divine and most admirable apostles of Christ, (says Eusebius,") how rude soever they were in speech, were yet tov ^lov uKpco^ KeKadapfiivoi, koI dperfj irdar] ra? '\\rv')(a'^ KCKoafirjfMevoi, " of the most pure and holy lives, and had their minds adorned with all sorts of virtue." And such generally were the Christians of the succeeding ages ; they did not entertain the world with a jDarcel of good words and a plausible story, but shewed their faith by their works, and proved the divinity of their religion by the heavenliness of their lives. We (says the Christian in Minucius Felix '') despise the pride and superciliousness of philosophers, whom we know to be debauched persons, and always eloquent against those vices of which themselves are most guilt}^ For we measure not wisdom by men's garbs and habits, but by their mind Jind manners ; nor do we speak great things so much as live them, glorying that we have attained what they earnestly sought, but could never find. Christians were then the only persons that really were what they pretended to, men heartily reformed from vice to virtue : " Being persuaded (as Justin Martyr'^ tells the emperors) by the word, we have renounced the demons, and through the Son worship the only and unbegotten Deity : and we who heretefore took pleasure in adulteries, do now embrace the strictest chastity ; and who were addicted to magic arts, have devoted ourselves to the benign and immortal God : we who valued estate and riches before all things in the world, do now cast what we have in common, distribut- ing to every one according to his need : we who by hatred and slaughters mutually raged against each other, and refused to sit at the same fire with those who were not of our own tribe, since Christ''s appearing in the world, familiarly converse to- gether, pray for our enemies, and for the conversion of those that unjustly hate us, endeavouring to persuade them to live according to the excellent precepts of Christ, that so they may have just ground to hope for the same rewards with us from the great judge of the world."'* Indeed strange was the efficacy of
^ Ubi supr. c. 24. p. 94. *> M. Fael. Dial, non longe a fin. p. 31. <■ Apol. ii. p. 61. ^ Tcrtul. Apol. c. 3. p. 4. ad Nation, c. 1. p. 41. Orig. contr. Cels. 1. i. p. 9, 15, 21,
24 INTRODrCTION.
the Christian doctrine over the minds of men, which the Chris- tian apologists at every turn plead as uncontrolable evidence of their religion ; that it made all sorts of persons that complied with it chaste and temperate, quiet and peaceable, meek and modest, and afraid of the least appearance and colour of what was evil.* When the heathens derided them for the mean and unpompous solemnities of their religion, they imiversally de- clared, that God respected no man for any external excellencies or advantages, it was the pure and the holy soul he delighted in; that he stood in no need of blood or smoke, perfumes and in- cense ; that the greatest and best sacrifice was to offer up a mind truly devoted to him : that meekness and kindness, an humble heart, and an innocent life, was the sacrifice with which God was well pleased, and infinitely beyond all holocausts and oblations ; that a pious and devout mind was the fittest temple for God to dwell in, and that to do one"'s duty, to abstain from sin, to be intent upon the offices and ministrations of prayer and praise, is the truest festival ; yea, that the whole life of a good man is nothing else but a holy and festival solemnity. This was the religion of Christians then, and it rendered their pro- fession amiable and venerable to the world ; and forced many times its most violent opposers to fall down, and say, " that God was in them of a truth." But the less of this argument is said here, a full account having been given of it in a work peculiar to this subject.
XVII. Fifthly, the disciples of this holy and excellent re- ligion gained innumerable proselytes to their party by their patience and constancy under sufferings. They were immutably resolved to maintain their station, notwithstanding all the at- temj)ts made to beat them from it. They entertained the fiercest threatenings with an unshaken mind, and fearlessly beheld the racks and engines prepared for them ; they laughed at torments, and courted flames, and went out to meet death in its blackest dress : they died rejoicing, and triumphed in the
36, 50, 53. 1. ii. p. 61, 85, 88, 110. 1. iii. p. 128, 147, 152, 157. 1. iv. p. Ifi7. 1. vi. p. 306. 1. vii. p. 364. 1. viii. p. 409, et alibi passim. Lactant 1. iii. c. 26, p. .S28. 1. iv. c. 3. p. 351.
*■ .1. Mort Orat. ad Grace, p. 40. Athenag. Legat. p. 13. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. vii. p. 706, 709, 714, 719,728. Minuc. Fael. p. 26, 30. Amob. adv. Gent. 1. vii. p. 104. Orig. contr. Cels. 1. viii. p. 38.i, 3Rf). 392. TiBctant. 1. i. c. 20. p. 108. 1. vi. r. 1. p. 540. c. 21. p. ';.3«. Fpitom. c. 2. p. 736.
INTRODUCTION. 25
midst of the greatest tortures ; which happening for some ages ahnost every day, could not but convince their enemies that they were in good earnest, that they heartily believed their religion to be true, and that there must be a divine and super- natural power going along with it, that could support them under it ; which Justin Martyr confesses, was one main in- ducement of his conversion to Christianity. What particular methods of cruelty were used towards the primitive Christians, and with how brave and generous a patience, with what even- ness and tranquillity of mind they bore up under the heaviest and acutest torments, we have sufficiently declared in another place ; ^ and therefore shall here only take a short survey of those ten famous Persecutions, that so eminently exercised the faith and patience of the primitive saints, and then collect the force of the argument resulting from it. And this the rather, because it will present us with the best prospect of the state of the church in those early ages of it. As to the particular dates and periods of some of these persecutions, different ac- counts are assigned by Sulpitius Severus, Eusebius, Orosius, Hierom, and others ; we shall follow that which shall appear to be most likely and probable.
XVIII. The first that raised a general persecution against the Christians, was Nero, as Tertullian ^ tells the Gentiles ; and for the truth of it, refers them to their own public archives and records : a prince of that wild and ungovernable temper, of such brutish and extravagant manners, that their own writers scruple not to style him, a beast in human shape, and the very monster of mankind. He was guilty of the most unbounded pride and ambition, drunkenness, luxury and all manner of debauchery, sodomy and incest, which he attempted to commit with his own mother. But cruelty seemed to predominate among his other vices ; besides infinite others, he dispatched the greatest part of the senate, put to death his tutor Seneca and his wife, Lucan the poet ; nay, violated all the laws of nature, in falling upon his own near relations : he was privy to, if not guilty of the death of his father Claudius ; killed his two wives, Octavia and Poppeea, and murdered Antonia, because refusing to succeed in their bed ; he poisoned his brother Britannicus : and to complete Jill his villanies, fell next upon his own mother Agrippina, whom
f Prim. Christ, part ii. ch. 7. ' Apol. c. 5. p. 6.
26 INTR<.)l)rCT10N.
lie hatod tor her free reproving lii.s looseness anil extravaganey; and having iir.st spoiled her of all public honors, and caused her to be openly disgraced and derided, then thrice attempted her life by poison, he at last sent an assassin to stab her. And the tradition then went, that not content to do this, he himself came and beheld her naked corpse, contemplating and handling its several parts ; commending some and dispraising others. And if thus barbarous and inhuman towards his own kindred and subjects, we cannot think he was over-favourable to Christians ; wanting this title (says Eusebius '') to be added to all the rest, to be styled the first emperor that became an enemy to the Christian religion, publishing laws and edicts for the suppressing of it ; and prosecuting those that possessed it, with the utmost rigour in every place ; and that upon this occasion. Among infinite other instances of this madness and folly, he took up a resolution to burn Rome, either as being offended with the narrowness of the streets, and the deformity of the buildings, or ambitious to become the author of a more stately and magui ficent city, and to call it after his own name. But however it was, he caused it to be set on fire, about the 19th of July, A. D. (J4. The conquering flames quickly prevailed over that city, that had so often triumphed over the rest of the world, in six or seven days spoiling and reducing the far greatest part of it (ten regions of fourteen) into ashes ; laying waste houses and temples, and all the venerable antiquities and monuments of that place, which had been preserved with so mucli care and reverence for many ages ; himself in the mean while from Meca^nas^s tower beholding the sad spectacle with pleasure and delight, and in the habit of a player, singing the destruction of Troy. And when the people would but have searched the ruins of their own liouses, he forbade them, not suffering them to reap what the mercy of the flames had spared. This act (as well it might) exposed him to all the hatred and detestation wherewith an injured and abused people could resent it, M'hich he endeavoured to remove by large promises and great rewards, by consulting the Sibylline books, and by public supplications and sacrifices to the gods. Notwithstanding all which, Tacitus' tells us, the people still believed him to be the author of the mischief. This not suc- ceedijig, he sought to clear himself by deriving the odium upon
i" H. Ecclrs. 1. ii. c. 2.1. p. fi7. ' Annal. 1. xv. c. 44. p. 310.
INTRODUCTION. 27
the Christians, whom he knew to be sufficiently hateful to the people, charging them to have been the incendiaries, and pro- ceeding against them with the most exquisite torments. Having apprehended some, whom they either forced or persuaded to confess themselves guilty, by their means great numbers of others were betrayed; whom Tacitus confesses, that not the burning of the city, but the common hatred made criminal. They were treated with all the instances of scorn and cruelty; some of them were wrapt up in skins of wild beasts, and worried by dogs ; others crucified ; others burnt alive, being clad in paper coats, dipped in pitch, wax, and such combustible matter, that when day-light failed, they might serve for torches in the night. These spectacles Nero exhibited in his own gardens, which yet the people entertained with more pity than pleasure ; knowing they were done not for the public benefit, but merely to gratify his own private rage and malice. Little better usage did the Christians meet with in other parts of the empire, as appears from the inscription'' found at Clunia in Spain, dedicated to Nero in memory of his having cleared the province of those that had introduced a new superstition amongst mankind. Under this persecution suffered Tecla, Torques, Torquatus, Marcellus, and several others mentioned in the ancient mar- tyrologies, especially the apostles Peter and Paul ; the one upon the cross, the other by the sword.
XIX. The troublesome vicissitudes and revolutions of affairs that happened under the succeeding emperors, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius ; and the mild and merciful disposition of Vespasian and Titus, srave some rest to the Christians : till Domitian sue- ceeding, began a second Persecution. A man of a temper vastly different from that of his father and his brother ; for though at first he put on a plausible carriage, yet he soon left off the vizor, and appeared like himself; lazy and inactive, ill-natured and suspicious, griping and covetous, proud and insolent : yea, so vainly ambitious as to affect divinity, in all public edicts assum- ing to himself, and in all petitions and addresses requiring from others, the titles of Lord and God. He never truly loved any man ; and when he most pretended it, it was a sure sign of that man's ruin. His cruelty he exercised first upon flies, thousands whereof he dispatched every day ; next upon men, and those
'' Ap. Gruter. loc. supr. citat.
28 INTRODUCTION.
of all ranks and states: j)utting to death the most illustriousi ticnators, and persons of the greatest honour and nobility, upon the most trifling pretences; and many times for no cause at all. In the fierceness and brutality of his temper he equalled Nero, Portio Neronis de crudelitate^ as Tertullian styles him ; nay, in this exceeded him : that Nero was content to command execu- tion to be done at a distance, while Domitian took pleasure in beholding his cruelties exercised before his eyes ; an argument of a temper deeper dyed in blood. But the Christians, alas, bore the heaviest load of his rage and malice, whom he every where persecuted either by death or banishment. Under him, St. John the evangelist -was sent for to Rome, and by his com- mand thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil : in the midst whereof, when the divine providence had miraculously preserved him, he immediately banished him into Patmos. He put to death his cousin-german FI. Clemens (at that time consul) for being a Christian, and banished his wife Fl. Domitilla, (his own kins- woman also,) upon the same account, into the island Pandataria. At length his brutish and bloody pi-actices rendered him into- lerable to his own friends and servants, who conspired against him (his own wife Domitia being of the confederac}) and slew him. His successor Nerva abrogated his acts, and recalled those whom he had proscribed and banished ; among whom St. John, taking the benefit of that act of revocation, quitted Pat- mos, and returned to Ephesus.
XX. The third Persecution commenced under Trajan, whom Nerva had adopted to be his successor. A prince he was of excellent and incomparable virtues, whose justice and impar- tiality, gentleness and modesty, munificence and liberality, kind- ness and affability, rendered him infinitely dear and acceptable to the people; the extravagancies of his predecessors not a little contributing to sweeten his government to them. He was mild and dispassionate, familiar and courteous ; he shewed a great reverence to the senate, by whose advice he usually acted ; and they to requite him, gave him the title of Optimus, as whom they judged the best of all their princes. He conversed freely and innocently with all men, being desirous rather to be beloved than either feared or honoured by the people. The glory of all which is exceedingly stained in the records of the church by his
' I<or. »iipr. citat. r. ."). p. <n.
INTRODUCTION. 29
severe proceedings against the Christians. He looked upon the religion of the empire as daily undermined hy this new way of worship, that the numbers of Christians grew formidable, and might possibly endanger the peace and tranquillity of the Roman state ; and that there was no better way to secure to himself the favour of the gods, especially in his wars, than to vindicate their cause against the Christians. Accordingly therefore he issued out orders to proceed against them, as illegal societies, erected and acting contrary to the laws ; in which number all colleges and corporations were accounted, that were not" settled either by the emperor''s constitution, or the decree of the senate ; and the persons " frequenting them adjudged guilty of high trea- son. Indeed the emperors (as we have elsewhere observed) were infinitely suspicious of such meetings, as which might easily conspire into faction and treason : and therefore when Pliny ° interceded with Trajan in behalf of the city of Nicomedia, that being so subject to fires, he would constitute a corporation of smiths, though but a small number, which might be easily kept in order, and which he promised to keep a particular eye upon ; the emperor answered. By no means, for we ought to remember (says he) that that province, and especially those cities, are greatly disturbed by such kind of factions ; and what- ever the title or the occasion be, if they meet together, they will be Jieteriw^ though less numerous than the rest. That they looked upon the Christian assemblies as in the number of these unlawful corporations ; and that under this pretence, Trajan endeavoured to suppress them, will appear from Pliny's letter to him. In the mean time he commanded them either to ofter sacrifice to the gods, or to be punished as contemners of them. The people also in several places by popular tumults falling foul upon them. The chief of those who obtained the crown of mar- tyrdom under him, were St. Clemens bishop of Rome, St. Simeon bishop of Jerusalem, and St. Ignatius bishop of Antioch, whom Trajan himself condemned and sent to Rome, there to be thrown to wild beasts.
XXI. The persecution raged, as in the other parts of the empire, so especially in the provinces of Pontus and Bithynia, where Pliny the younger (who had some time since been consul)
™ Lib. i. et iii. fF. de Colleg. et corp. 1. xlvii. tit. 22.
" Lib. X. epist. 42, 43. " Ulpian de off. procons. 1. vi. ib. 1. ii.
30 INTRODTCTION.
then governed as pro-praetor, with consular power and dignity. Who seeing vast multitudes of Christians indicted by others, and pressing on of themselves to execution, and that to proceed severely against all that came, M'ould be in a manner to lay waste those provinces, he thought good to write to the emperor about this matter, to know his pleasure in the case. His letter, because acquainting us so exactly with the state of the Chris- tians, and the manner of proceeding against them, and giving so eminent a testimony to their innocency and integrity, we shall here insert.
C. Plinius to the Emperor Trajan,
" It is my custom. Sir, in all affairs wherein I doubt, to have re- course to you. For who can better either sway my irresolution, or instruct my ignorance ? I have never been heretofore present at the examination and trial of Christians ; and therefore know not what the crime is, and how far it is wont to be punished, or how to proceed in these enquiries. Nor was I a little at a loss, whether regard be to be had to difterence of age, whether the young and the weak be to be distinguished from the more strong and aged ? whether place may be allowed to repentance, and it may be of any advantage to him, who once was a Christian, to cease to be so I Whether the name alone without other offences, or the offences that go along with the name, ought to be punished ? In the mean time, towards those Avho as Christians have been brouo-ht before me, I have taken this course : I asked them whether they were Christians? if they confessed it, I asked them once and again, threatening punishment; if they per- sisted, I commanded them to be executed. For I did not at all doubt but that, whatever their confession was, their stub- bornness and inflexible obstinacy ought to be punished. Others there were guilty of the like madness, whom because they were Roman citizens, I adjudged to be transmitted to Rome. While things thus proceeded, the error, as is usual, spreading farther, more cases did ensue. A nameless libel was presented, contain- ing the names of many who denied themselves to be, or to have been Christians. These, when after my example they invocated the gods, and offered wine and incense to your statue, (which for that purpose I had conmianded to be brought together with the images of the gods,) and had moreover blasphemed Christ, (which
INTRODUCTION. SI
it is said none that are true Christians can be compelled to do,) I dismissed ; others mentioned in the libel confessed themselves Christians, but presently denied it, that they had indeed been such, but had renounced it ; some by the space of three years, others many years since, and one five and twenty years ago. All which paid their reverence and veneration to your statue, and the images of the gods, and blasphemed Christ. They af- firmed that the whole sum of that sect or error lay in this, that they were wont upon a set solemn day to meet together before sun-rise, and to sing among themselves a hymn to Christ, as the God whom they worshipped ; and oblige themselves by an oath, not to commit any wickedness, but to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, to keep faith, and, when required, to restore any pledge intrusted with them. Which done, then to depart for that time, and to meet again at a common meal, to partake of a pro- miscuous and harmless food ; which yet they laid aside, after I had published an edict, forbidding, according to your order, the hetericB (or unlawful assemblies) to be kept. To satisfy myself in the truth hereof, I commanded two maidens called deacon- esses to be examined upon the rack. But I perceived nothing but a lewd and immoderate superstition, and therefore surceasing any farther process, I have sent to pray your advice : for the case seemed to me very worthy to be consulted about, especially considering the great numbers that are in danger : for very many of all ages and ranks, both men and women, are and will be called in question ; the contagion of this superstition having over-spread not only cities, but towns and country villages, which yet seems possible to be stopped and cured. It is very evident that the temples, which were almost quite forsaken, begin to be frequented, that the holy rites and solemnities of a long time neglected are set on foot again, and that sacrifices are from all parts brought to be sold, which hitherto found very few to buy them. Whence it is easy to conjecture, what multi- tudes of persons might be reclaimed, if place be given to re- pentance."
This letter was written, as is probable, about the year of our Lord 107. Traj. 9.; Trajan lying then at Antioch, in order to his wars in the East, and where the persecution was very hot. By which it is evident, what unreasonable and inveterate
32 lNTK()i)i;('TION.
prejudices even the more moderate and ingenuous part of the Gentile world had entertained against the Christian religion : that though so innocent and unblamable, as to extort an honour- able character from its greatest enemies and most malicious apostates, though racks and tortures could force out nothing to its disadvantage ; yet rather than not express their resentments, (what was unbecoming men of parts and breeding,) they loaded it witli ill names and hard words. Pliny we see here scruples not to style it not only an error, but madness, and a wicked and immoderate superstition, charging the constant profession of it, for stubbornness, and an incurable obstinacy, what in itself was the effect of the most brave and generous resolution. And the very same civility it found from his two intimate friends, Tacitus and Suetonius, the one whereof calls it a " detestable,"' the other a "novel and mischievous superstition,""' By this account also we see, that though the severity of the persecution might tempt some to turn renegades, yet that so vast was the spread which Christianity had made in those parts, that this great man knew not how to deal with them. To direct him therefore in this affair, the emperor returned this following rescript.
Trajan to Pliny, greeting.
" As to the manner of your procedure, my Secundus, in ex- amining the causes of those who have been brought before j^ou for being Christians, you have taken the course which you ought to take : for no certain and general law can be so framed, as shall provide for all particular cases. Let them not be sought for ; but if they be accused and convicted, let them be punished : yet so, that if any denies himself to be a Christian, and shall give evidence of it by doing sacrifice to our gods, although here- tofore he has been suspected, let him be pardoned upon his re- pentance. But as for libels, published without the name of the authors, let them not be valid as to the crimes they charge ; for that were an ill precedent, and is not the usage of our reign."
Tertullian," speaking of this imperial edict, calls it "A sentence confounded by a strange necessity: it allows them not to be sought for, as if they were innocent, and 3et commands them
• Tacit. Annal 1. xv. c. 44. p. .'^l.O. ' Sufton. in Npron. c. 16. p. .S71.
" Apol. 0. -2. e. ."}.
INTRODUCTION. irS
to be punished, as if they were guilty : it spares and rages, dis- sembles and yet punishes. Why does he entangle himself in his own censure ? if he condemns them, why does he not hunt them out ? if he thinks them not to be searched out, why does he not acquit them f Where Tertullian seems to argue more like an orator than logician. For Trajan might be unwilling the Christians should be nicely hunted out, and yet not think them innocent : he could not find them guilty of any enormous crime, but only of a s^trange and novel superstition : and there- fore, while they concealed themselves, did not think it reason- able that they should be left to the malice and rapine of busy under officers, who acted under the presidents and governors of provinces, mere sycophants and calumniators, avai8et<i avKO(puy- rac Kol roiv aWorpcwv epaaral, as ''Melito styles them in his Apology to M. Antoninus, impudent accusers, and ravenous de- vourers of other men's estates ; of whom he complains, that under a pretence of the imperial edicts, they day and night openly spoil and plunder the harmless and the innocent. These Trajan might think fit to restrain ; but where there was notoriety of fact, where Christians were duly cited before the public tribunals, and the charge substantially made good, there they were to be left to the sentence of the law. But however it was, by this means the edge of their enemies'' fury was taken off; and though the popular rage inight in some particular places still continue, yet the general force and rigour of the persecution did abate and cease.
XXII. Trajan dying at Selinus in Cilicia, Adrian (whom he had adopted) succeeded in the empire. A prince of excellent parts, and no inconsiderable learning, /jbova-cKooTaTO<; ySao-tXeu?, as Athenseus ^ calls him, a prince greatly devoted to the muses, and yet one in whom it is hard to say, whether vice or virtue had the upper hand ; and, which is more, who seemed to reconcile most vices with their contrary virtues. He highly honoured the senate, without whose authority he would never transact any affairs of moment ; and upon solemn days would condescend to wait upon the consuls to their own houses ; and yet was proud and vain-glorious, and ambitious of honour, which he greedily caught at upon every little occasion. He was magnificent in his works, and liberal in his gifts ; but withal envious, detracting
" Ap. Euseb. H. Eccl. 1. iv. c. 26. y Deipnos. 1. viii. c. 16.
VOL. I. D
34 INTRODUCTION.
from the glory of his predecessor, censuring and discommending the most eminent artists in all kind of faculties. He familiarly conversed with liis friends, visited them in their sickness many times twice or thrice a day, treated them with the freedom and kindness of companions ; and yet he was fierce and cruel : as is evident by the many persons of nobility and renown whom he put to death. But we have noted enough of his character else- where, in the Life of St. Quadratus. He was addicted to magic, and a great zealot for religion, especially the rites of Greece, but despised and hated all other religions ; upon which account he was no good friend to Christians. In his time, a fourth Per- secution was raised against them, and so Sulpitius Severus' positively calls it. I know Eusebius, followed by Orosius and some others, assigns the fourth Persecution to the reign of M. Aurelius ; but whoever impartially considers the state of things, will see that it ought to be fixed here. It is true, we do not find any new laws which this emperor made against the Christians, but the laws of his predecessors were still in force, and the people in most places were ready enough to run upon this errand of their own accord, and to sacrifice the poor innocent Christians to their own spite and malice. Whence Eusebius, speaking of the Apologies presented to this emperor, says,* it was because wicked and ill-minded men began to vex and disturb the Chris- tians. And St. Hierom '' more particularly tells us, that the zeal which the emperor shewed in being initiated into the holy mys- teries and the rites of Greece, gave opportunity and encourage- ment to the people (though without any particular warrant) to fall upon them : and this he elsewhere "^ calls a " most grievous persecution." And so indeed it was, as is evident, not only from the Apologies which both (Quadratus and Aristides presented to the emperor in behalf of the Christians, but that when Arrius Antoninus'' (whom most suppose to have been the same with him that succeeded Adrian) was proconsul of Asia, and severely prosecuted the Christians there, all the Christians of the city where he resided as one man beset his tribunal, openly confessing themselves to be Christians. He, amazed at the multitude, caused some few of them to be executed, telling the rest, that if
' H. Sacr. 1. iu p. 142. • H. Eccles. 1. iv. c. 3.
'' De Bcript. in Quadrat. « Kpist. ad Majm. Orat.
•• TprtuU. ad vScapiil. c. 4.
INTRODUCTION. 36
they had a mind to end their lives, they had precipices and halters enough at home, and need not crowd thither for an exe- cution. Nay, so high did it arise, that Serenius Granianus, one of the following proconsuls, was forced to write to Adrian for its mitigation ; which the emperor accordingly commanded hy a rescript, directed to Minucius Fundanus, Granianus''s suc- cessor in that province, as he did also to several others ; as Melito particularly tells us in his Apology. But though the fire seemed to be pretty well quenched at present, yet did it break out again in the succeeding reign of Antoninus Pius, devouring many, whose sufferings are recorded in the martyrologies of the church ; and for the stopping whereof, Justin Martyr exhibited an Apology to this emperor, which produced that excellent letter of his to the common council of Asia, in favour of the Christians, which we have exemplified in the Life of Justin Martyr.
XXIII. To Antoninus Pius succeeded M. Aurelius Antoninus and his brother L. Verus. M. Aurelius was a person of whom the writers of his life deservedly speak great things. He was a good man, and a great philosopher, and whom the historian*' says, it is easier to admire than to commend. But he was infi- nitely superstitious in his religion, and therefore easily blown up by the priests and philosophers that were about him into a preju- dice against Christianity, and persuaded to set on foot the fifth Persecution against the Christians, whom he endeavoured to curb and suppress by new laws and edicts, exposing them to all the malice and fierceness of their enemies.^ The persecution began in the Eastern parts about the seventh year of his reign, where it continued almost all his time ; and not content to stay there, spread itself into the West, especially France, where it raged with great severity. That the conflict was very sharp and fierce, may be guessed at by the crowd of Apologies that were presented to him by Justin Martyr, Melito, Athenagoras, and Apollinaris. In Asia, St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, was first condemned to the fire, and then run through with a sword, with twelve more from Philadelphia, who suffered with him, and Germanicus, who a little before was devoured by wild beasts. At Rome, besides Ptolemy and Lucius, Justin the Martyr with his six compa- nions, Charito, Charitina, Euelpistus, Hierax, Peon, and Valeria- nus, were beheaded. In the French persecution suffered Vettius
« Eutrop. H. Rom. lib. viii. p. 1919.
D 2
36 INTRODUCTION.
Epaq-atbus, a young man of incomparable piety and magnani- mity ; IJbuulina, a lady of singular virtue, wbo, after iniinite and inexpressible torments, was tied to a beam in fasbion of a cross, and tbrown to wild beasts; Biblis, wbo tbougb at first tbrougb frailty sbe denied tbe faitb, yet recovered ber courage, and expired in the midst of tbe acutest tortures ; Potbinus, bisbop of Lyons, above ninety years old, beaten and stoned to deatb ; Sanctus, a deacon of Vienne, togetber witb INIaturus, exposed in tbe ampbi- theatre, tormented and imprisoned several dajs togetber, pre- sented to wild beasts, placed in an iron cbair red bot, and at last run tbrougb witb a spear; Attalus, a Roman citizen, dis- gracefully led up and down in triumpb, roasted in an iron cbair, and tben bebeaded ; as was also Alexander tbe pbysician, a Pbrygian, wbo readily professed bimself a Cbristian ; and Pon- ticus, a youtb of fifteen years of age, wbo tbrougb all the methods of cruelty and torment, which might have shaken a maturer age, entered into tbe kingdom of heaven. A larger and more particular account of all whose martyrdoms is recorded in the letter written by the churches of Lyons and Vienne in France to those of Asia and Phrygia, yet extant in Eusebius. At length the emperor seems to have relaxed the persecution, inclined to it, as is thought, by tbe remarkable victory which he gained in his German wars by the prayers of tbe Cbristian legion, when the fortunes of tbe Roman empire lay at stake, and tbe Chris- tians so signally, so immediately engaged heaven in its rescue and deliverance, by supi)lying them witb rain, and fighting against the enemy witb lightning and thunder. Whereu[)on the emperor is said to have written to the senate, acknow- ledging tbe greatness of the blessing, and commanding all just favour and indulgence to be shewed to the Christians. Tbe substance of tbe story is universally owned by the Gentile writers, tbougb, out of spite to the Christians, they either ascribe it to the power of magic, or the prevalency of the emperor's own prayers. Tbat there were such letters written, is plain, in that Tertullian,' who lived but a little after, cites them, and appeals to them ; though 1 confess little stress can be laid upon the epistle that is extant at this day. 1'bere is still extant^ a law of M. Aurelius and bis brother Verus, permitting those who
' Apol. c. o. vide lib. ad Scap. c. 4. Ap. Ulpian. 1. iii. ff. §. 3. lib. JO. tit. _».
INTRODUCTION. ST
follow the Jewish superstition to obtain honours, and grantinjr them guards to defend them from wrong and injury. By this, very learned men*" understand Christians, at least equally with the Jews ; these two being commonly confounded by the writers of those times, and superstition the word by which they usually denote Christianity. But however it was, this law was made before that Gennan victory, M. Aurelius not being engaged in that war till after the death of his brother Verus.
XXIV. The Christian affairs were tolerably quiet and peace- able during the reigns of Commodus, ^1. Pertinax, and Julian, till Severus got into the throne; a prince witty and learned, prudent and politic, hardy and valiant, but withal crafty and subtle, treacherous and unfaithful, bloody and passionate, and, as the historian' observes, of a nature truly answering to his name, Vere Pertinax, vere Severus. Under him began the sixth Per- secution : for though at first he shewed himself favourable to the Christians, yet afterwards he changed his mind, and gave ear to those who traduced them as an impious and infamous generation ; a people that designed nothing but treason and rebellion against the state. Whereupon he not only suffered his ministers and governors of provinces to treat them with all imaginable cruelty, but he himself gave out edicts, forbidding any, under the most terrible penalties, to profess either the Jewish or Christian reli- gion ; which were executed with that rigour and inhumanity, that the Christians of those days verily believed that the times of Antichrist did then take place. Martyrs of note whom this persecution sent to heaven, were Victor bishop of Rome ; Leo- nidas, Origen''s father, beheaded at Alexandria ; Serenus, Hera- clides, Heron, another Serenus, and Herais a catechumen, all Origen's scholars ; Potamiaena, an illustrious virgin, and her mother Marcella, after various torments, committed to the flames; and Basilides, one of the officers that had led them to execution. Felicitas and Perpetua, two noble ladies, at Tuburbis in Mau- ritania, the one brought to bed but the day before, the other at that time a nurse. Speratus and his companions beheaded at Carthage, by the command of Saturninus, the proconsul. Irenseus, bishop of Lyons, and many thousands of his people
^ Alciat. dispunct. 1. iii. c. 8. A. August, ad Modest, p 336. Petit, dejur. Princip. c. 6. vide Selden de Synedr. 1. i. c. 8. Raynaud. Indie. SS. Lugd. proleg. 3. p. 52. ' Spaitian. in vit. Sever, c. 14.
38 TNTllODUOTION.
in.iitvred with him ; whose names and sufferings, though un- known to us, are honourably written in the book of life.
XXV. The next that created any disturbance to the Chris- tians, was iMaximinus, by birth a Thracian ; a man of base and obscure originals, of a mean and sordid education : he had been first a shepherd, then a highwayman, and last of all a soldier: ^ he was of strength and stature beyond the ordinary size and standard ; and his manners were as robust and boisterous as his constitution, and saA^oured wholly of the rudeness of his educa- tion. Never did a more cruel beast, (says the historian,') tread upon the earth, relying altogether upon his strength, and upon that account reckoning himself almost immortal. He seized upon whatever came in his way, plundering and destroying without any difference, without any process or form of law : his strength was the law of justice, and his will the measure of his actions. He spared none, but especially killed all that knew any thing of his mean descent, that none might reproach him Avith the obscurity of his birth. Having slain his master Alexander Mammrcus, that excellent and incomparable prince, he usurped the government, and managed it suitably to his own maxim, that "the empire could not be maintained but by cruelty." The seventh Persecution was raised by him. Indeed Sulj)itius Severus admits not this into the number, and therefore makes no more than nine Pagan Per- secutions, reserving the tenth for the times of Antichrist. But Eusebius " expressly affirms, that Maximinus stirred up a perse- cution against the Christians, and that out of hatred to his predecessor, in whose family many Christians had found shelter and patronage, but that it was almost wholly levelled against the bishops and ministers of religion, as the prime authors and propagators of Christianity. Whence Firmilian, bishop of Cap- padocia, in his letter to St. Cyprian," says of it, that it was not a general, but a local persecution, and raged in some particular places, and especially in that province where he lived, Serenianus the president driving the Christians out of all those countries. He adds, that many dreadful earthquakes happening in those parts, whereby towns and cities were overturned and swallowed up, added life and vigour to the persecution, it being usual with the Gentiles, if a famine or pestilence, an earthquake or inunda-
•> Herod, lib. vii. in Maxim, p. 253. ' CapitoL in vit. Maxim, c. 0.
"" H. Keel. 1. vi. c. .^8. " Inter. Epist. Cypr.
INTRODUCTION. 39
tion happened, presently to fall foul upon the Christians, and conclude them the causes of all those evils and mischiefs that came upon the world. And, this Origen° meant when he tells us, that he knew some places overturned with earthquakes, the cause whereof the heathens cast upon the Christians ; for which their churches were persecuted and burnt to the ground: and that not only the common people, but the wiser sort among them did not stick openly to affirm, that these things came for the sake of the Christians. Hereupon he wrote his book " De Martyrio," for the comfort and support of those that suffered in this evil time.
XXVI. After Maximinus reigned Pupienus and Balbinus, to them succeeded Gordian, and to him Philip : all which time, for at least ten years together, the church enjoyed a competent calmness and tranquillity ; when Decius was in a manner forced in his own defence to take the empire upon him. A man of great activity and resolution, a stout commander, a wise and prudent governor, so universally acceptable for his modest and excellent carriage, that by the sentence of the senate he was voted not inferior to Trajan, and had the title of Optimus adjudged to him. But he was a bitter and implacable enemy to Christians, against whom he raised the eighth Persecution, which proved, though the shortest, the hottest of all the per- secutions that had hitherto afflicted and oppressed the church. The ecclesiastic '' historians generally put it upon the account of Decius's hatred to his predecessor Philip, for being a Christian; whereas it is more truly to be ascribed to his zeal for the cause of declining paganism, which he saw fatally undermined by Christianity, and that therefore there was no way to support the one, but by the ruin of the other. We have more than once taken notice of it in some of the following Lives, and therefore shall say the less here. Decius reigned somewhat above two years, during which time the storm was very black and violent, and no place but felt the dreadful effects of it. They were every where driven from their houses, spoiled in their estates, tormented in their bodies; whips and prisons, fires and wild beasts, scalding pitch and melted wax, sharp stakes and burning
" Horn, xxviii. in Matth.
P Euseb. H. Eccl. 1. vi. c. 39. Chron. ad Ann. 252. Oros. 1. vii. c. 21. Niceph. 1. v. c. 27.
40 INTKUDUCTION.
l)iiicers, were but suiue of the methods of their treatment; and when the okl ones were run over, new were daily invented and contrived. The hiws of nature and humanity were broken down, friend betrayed his friend, and the nearest reUitive his own father or brother. Every one was ambitious to promote the imperial edicts, and thought it meritorious to bring a Christian to the stake. This persecution swept away at Alexandria, Julian, Chronion, Epimachus, Alexander, Amnion, Zeno, Pto- lemy, Ammonaria, Mercuria, Isidore, and many others men- tioned by Dionysius bishop of that church ; at Carthage, Mappalicus, IJassus, Fortunio, Paulus, Donatus, Martialis, &c. ; it crowned ]Jabylas bishop of Antioch, Alexander of Jerusalem, Fabian bishop of Home, Victoria, Anatolia, Parthenius, Mar- cellianus, and thousands more: Nicepborus'' affirming it to be easier to count the sands of the shore, than to reckon up all the martyrs that suft'ered under this persecution. Not to say any thinof of those incredible numbers of confessors that were beaten, imprisoned, tormented ; nor of the far greater number of those who betook themselves to a voluntary exile; choosing rather to commit themselves to the barrenness of rocks and mountains, and the mercy of wild beasts, than to those that had put off all reason and humanity. Among whom was Paul of Thebais, a youth of fifteen years of age, who withdrew himself into the Egyptian deserts, where finding a large and convenient cavern in a rock, (which heretofore had been a private mint-house in the time of Antony and Cleopatra,) he took up his abode and residence, led a solitary and anchoretic course of life, and be- came the father of hermits, and those who afterwards were desirous to retire from the world, and to resign up themselves to solitude, and a more strict mortified life. In this pious and devout retirement he continued till he was one hundred and thirteen years of age; and in the last period of his life was visited by Antonius, who had spent the greatest part of ninety years in those desert places, and who now performed the last offices to him in committing his dead body to the earth.
XXVII. (jiallus succeeded Decius as in his government so in his enmity to Christians, carrying on what the other had begun. But the clou<l soon blew over; for he being cut off, was suc- ceeded by Valerian, who entered upon the empire with an
f Lib. V. c. •2.').
INTRODUCTION. 41
universal applause and expectation. In the beginning of his reign he was a great patron of Christians, whom he treated Avith all offices of kindness and humanity, entertaining them in his own family; so that his court seemed to be a little church for piety, and a sanctuary for refuge to good men. But, alas, this pleasant scene was quickly over ; seduced by a chief magician of Egypt, who persuaded him that the only way to prosper his affairs was to restore the Gentile rites, and to suppress Christianity, so hateful to the gods, he commenced a ninth Persecution, wherein he prosecuted the Christians with all imaginable fury in all parts of the empire. With what fierceness it raged in Egypt, is largely related by Dionysius of Alexandria, and we have in a great part noted in his Life. It is needless (says he '') particularly to reckon up the Christians that suffered in this persecution : only this you may observe, that both men and women, young and old, soldiers and country people, persons of all ranks and ages, were some of them scourged and whipped, others beheaded, others overcoming the violence of flames, received the crown of martyrdom. Cyprian elegantly and passionately bewails the miseries and sufferings which the martyrs underwent, in his letter to Nemesian, and the rest that were condemned to the mines. Nor did he himself escape, being beheaded at Carthage, as Xistus and Quartus had been before him, and the three hundred martyrs De Massa Candida, who, rather than do sacrifice, cheerfully leaped into a mighty pit of burning lime, kindled for that purpose, and were immediately stifled in the smoke and flames. In Spain suffered Fructuosus bishop of Tarragon, together with his two deacons, Augurius and Eulogius ; at Rome, Xistus the bishop, and St. Laurence his deacon and treasurer of that church ; at Csesarea, Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander, who, ashamed to think that they lay idle and secure while so many others were contending for the crown, unanimously went to the judge, confessed they were Christians, received their sentence, and underwent their martyrdom. But the divine providence, which sometimes in this world pleads the cause of oppressed innocence, was resolved to punish the emperor for his causeless cruelty towards those, whose interest with heaven (while he continued favourable to them) had secured his happiness ; and therefore did not only
1 Epist. ad Domit. et Did. ap. Euseb. 1. vii. c. 11.
42 INTRODUCTION.
suti'er the iioitliern nations to break in upon him, but he himself was taken prisoner by Sapor king of Persia, who treated him beK)w the rate of the meanest slave, used him as his footstool to get on horse-back, and after several years'* captivity caused him to be flayed alive, and rubbed with salt, and so put a period to his miserable life. A fair warning to his son Gallienus, who growing wiser by the mischiefs and miscarriages of his father, stopped the persecution, and restored peace and security to Christians.''
XXVIII. A long peace and prosperity (for except a little disturbance in the time of Aurelian, they met with no opposition through the reigns of Gallienus, Claudius, Tacitus, Florianus, Probus, Carus, and Numerian) had somewhat corrupted the manners of Christians, and therefore God was pleased to permit a tenth Persecution to come upon them, to purge and winnow the rubbish and the chaff: the ulcer began to putrefy, and it was time to call for the knife and the caustic. It began under Dioclesian and his colleague Maximian. Dioclesian was a prince active and diligent, crafty and subtle, fierce in his nature, but which he knew how cunningly to dissemble. His zeal for the pagan religion engaged him with all possible earnestness to oppose Christianity, which he carried on with a high hand ; it being as the last, so the fiercest persecution, like the last efi^brts of a dying enemy, that summons all his strength to give the parting blow. Dioclesian, then residing at Nicomedia, published his edicts about the very solemnity of our Saviour's passion, coumianding the Christian churches to be pulled down, their bibles to be burnt, the better sort of them to be branded with infamy, the vulgar to be made slaves ; as by subsequent orders he commanded the bishoj)s to be every where imj)ri.soucd, and forced to sacrifice. IJiit these were but a pra'ludium to what followed after ; other proclamations being put forth, commanding those that refused to offer sacrifice to be exposed to all manner of torments. It were endless to reckon up particular persons that suffered in this evil time. Eusebius, who lived under this very persecution, has recorded a vast number of them, with the acts of their martyrdom ; too many to account for in this place. It may suffice to note from him, that they were scourged to dojitli, had their flesh torn oft" with pincers, or raked off with
■■ t'nnstant. M. Orat. ad SS. Cfclum, cap. "24. p. fiOO.
INTRODUCTION. 43
pieces of broken pots; were cast to lions and tigers, to wild boars and bears, provoked and enraged with fire to set upon them ; burnt, beheaded, crucified, thrown into the sea ; torn in pieces by the distorted boughs of trees, or their legs miserably distended in the stocks; roasted at a gentle fire, or b}' holes made on purpose had melted lead poured into their bowels. But im- possible it is to conceive, much more to express the cruelties of that time. Eusebius himself, who saw them, tells us,^ that they were innimierable, and exceeded all relation. All which, he assures us, they endured with the most admirable and undaunted patience ; they thronged to the tribunals of their judges, and freely told them what they were ; despised the threatenings and barbarity of their enemies, and received the fatal and decretory sentence with a smile ; when persuaded to be tender of their lives, and to compassionate the case of their wives and children, they bore up against the temptation with a manly and philosophic mind, fxdWov Se evae^et koI (f>L\o6ea) "^v^^^ as he adds, "yea rather with a soul truly pious and devoted unto God ;" so that neither fears nor charms could take hold upon them, at once giving undeniable evidences both of their own courage and fortitude, and of that divine and unconceivable power of our Lord that went along with them. The acutest torments did not shake the firmness and stability of their minds, but they could with as much unconcernedness lay down their lives (as Origen' tells Celsus) as the best philosopher could put off his coat. They valued their innocency above their ease, or life itself; and sufficiently shewed they believed another state, by an argument beyond what any institution of philosophy could afford. " The great philosophers of the Gentiles, (as Eusebius" reasons in this matter,) as much as they talk of immortality, and the happiness of the future state, did yet shew that they looked upon it only as a childish and a trifling report : whereas amongst us, even boys and girls, and as to outward appearance the meanest and rudest persons, being assisted by the power and aid of our blessed Saviour, do by their actions, rather than their words, demonstrate the truth of this great principle, the im- mortality of the soul. Ten years this persecution lasted in its strength and vigour, under Dioclesian in the East, and Maximian in the West ; and they thought, it seems, they had done their
• Lib. viii. c. 12. ' Contr. Ccls. 1. vii. p. 357. " Praepar. Evang. 1. i. c. 4.
44 INTRODUCTION.
work, and actordingly tell tlie world in some ancient inscriptions/ that they had utterly tlefaced the name and superstition of the Christians, and had restored and propagated the worshij) of the gods ; hut were miserably mistaken in the case ; and, as if weary of the work, laid down their purple, and retired to tlie solitudes of a private life. And tliough Galerius, Maximianus, Jovius Maximinus, Maxentius, and Licinius did Avhat they could to set the persecution on foot again, yet all in vain ; both they and it in a very few years expiring and dwindling into nothing.
XXIX. Thus we have seen the hardships and miseries, the torments and sufferings which the Christians were exposed to for several ages, and with how invincible a patience they went through with them. Let us noAv a little review the argument, and see what force and influence it had to convince the world of the truth of their religion, and bring in converts to the faith. Tertullian*' tells the Gentiles, "That all their cruelty was to no l)urpose, that it was but a stronger invitation to bring over others to the party ; that the oftener they mowed them down, the faster they sprang up again ; and that the blood of Christians was a seed that grew up into a more plentiful harvest ; that several among the Gentiles had exhorted their auditors to patience under suffering, but could never make so many pro- selytes with all their fine discourses, as the Christians did by their actions : that that very obstinacy which was so much charged upon them was a tutor to instruct others. For who, when they beheld, such things, could not but be powerfully moved to enquire what really was within ? who when he had once found it, would not embrace it i and having once embraced it, not be desirous to suffer for it ; that so he may obtain the full grace of God, and the pardon of his sins assured by the shedding of his blood i Lactantins"^ manages this argument with incomparable ehxpience and strength of reason : his discourse is somewhat long, but not unworthy the reader's consideration. " Since our number (says he) is always increased from amongst the votaries of the heathen deities, and is never lessened, no not in the hottest persecution, who is so blind and stupid as not to sec in which party true wisdom does reside? But they, alas, are blinded with rage and malice, and think all to be fools, who
" Ap. (Jriiter. p. 280. nimi. :<. i. > Apol. c. nit. p. 40.
' I>e Justit. 1. V. c. 13.
INTRODUCTION. 45
when it is in their power to escape punishment, choose rather to be tortured and to die ; whenas they might perceive by this, that that can be no such folly, wherein so many thousands throughout the whole world do so unanimously conspire. Sup- pose that women through the weakness of their sex may mis- carry, (and they are pleased sometimes to style this religion an effeminate and old-wives' superstition,) yet certainly men are wiser. If children and young men may be rash, yet at least those of a mature age and old men have a more stable judgment. If one city might play the fool, yet innumerable others cannot be supposed to be guilty of the same folly. If one province, or one nation, should want care and providence, yet all the rest cannot lack understanding to judge what is right. But now, when the divine law is entertained from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, and every sex, age, nation, and country serves God with one heart and soul ; when there is every where the same patience, and contempt of death, they ought to consider that there is some reason for it, and that it is not without caiise, that it is maintained even unto death : that there is some fixed foundation when a religion is not only not shattered by injuries and persecutions, but always increased and rendered more firm and stable. When the very common people see men torn in pieces by various engines of torment, and yet maintain a patience unconquerable in the midst of their tired tormentors ; they cannot but think what the truth is, that the consent of so many, and their perseverance unto death, cannot be in vain, nor that patience itself, without the divine assistance, should be able to overcome such exquisite tortures. Highwaymen and persons of the most robust constitutions are not able to bear such pulling asunder; they roar, and groan, and sink under pain, because not furnished with a divine patience. But our very children (to say nothing of our men) and our tender wpmen, do by silence conquer their tormentors ; nor can the flames extort one sigh from them. Let the Romans go now, and boast of their Mutius and their Regulus, one of which delivered up himself to be put to death by his enemies, because he was ashamed to live a prisoner ; the other thrust his hand into the fire when he saw he could not escape death. Behold, with us the weaker sex, and the more delicate age, suffers the whole body to be torn and burnt ; not because they could not avoid it if they would, but
46 INTKODUCTTON.
voluntarily, because they trust in God. This is true virtue, which philosophers in vain only talk of, when they tell us, that nothing is so suitable to the gravity and constancy of a wise man, as not by any terrors to be driven from his sentiments and opinions ; but that it is virtuous, and great indeed, to be tor- tured and die, rather than betray one's faith, or be wanting in his duty, or do any thing that is unjust or dishonest, though for fear of death, or the acutest torment, unless they thought their own poet raved, when he said,''
' Justum ac tenacem propositi vinim, Non civium ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus instantis tyranni Mcnte quatit solida.'
The just man that resolved stands, Not tyrants' frowns, nor fierce commands, Nor all the people's rage combined, Can Bhake the firmness of his mind.
Than which nothing can be more truly said, if meant of those who refuse no tortures, nor death itself, that they may preserve fidelity and justice ; who regard not the command of tyrants, nor the swords of the governors, that they may with a constant mind preserve real and solid liberty, wherein true wisdom alone is to be maintained." Thus far that elegant apologist. And certainly the truth of his reasonings was abundantly verified by the experience of the world ; Christians getting ground, and conquering opposition by nothing more than their patience and their constancy, till they had subdued the empire itself to the acknowledgment of the truth. And when once the great Con- stantine had entertained Christianity, it went along with wind and tide, and bore down all before it. And surely it might be no unpleasant survey, to consider what was the true state of paganism under the first Christian emperors, and how and by what degrees that religion, which for so many ages had governed the world, slunk away into obscurity and silence. But this is a business without the bounds of my present enquiry to search into.
* Horat. Carm. I. iii. od. .3.
THE LIFE OF SAINT STEPHEN THE PROTOMARTYR.
The violent opposition that Christianity at its first appearance met with both from Jews and Gentiles. St. Stephen's kindred unknown. One of the Seventy. The great charity of the primitive believers. Dissension between the Hebrews and Grecians. Hellenists, who. The original of deacons in the Christian church. The nature of their office : the number and qualification of the persons. Stephen's eminent accom- plishments for the place. The envy and opposition of the Jews against him. The synagogue of the Libertines, what. Of the Cyrenians, Alexandrians, &c. Their disputation with St. Stephen, and the success of it. False witnesses suborned to de- pose against him. The several parts of their charge considered. The mighty venera- tion of the Jews for their temple and the Mosaic institutions. Its destruction by Titus ; and their attempts to rebuild it under Julian frustrated by a miracle. Stephen's apology before the Sanhedrin. The Jews rage against him. He is encouraged by a vision. Stoning to death, what kind of punishment ; the manner of it among the Jews. St. Stephen's martyrdom. His character, and excellent virtues. The time and place of his suffering. The place and manner of his burial. His body first discovered, when and how. The story of its translation to Constantinople. The miracles said to be done by his relics, and at his memorice. Several reported by St. Augustine. What credit to be given to them. Miracles, how long and why continued in the church. The vain pretences of the church of Rome.
I. The Christian religion being designed by God for the re- formation of mankind, and the rooting out that barbarism and idolatry wherewith the world was so over-grown, could not but meet with opposition, all corrupt interests conspiring to give it no very welcome entertainment. Vice and error had too long usurped the throne to part with it by a tame and easy resigna- tion, but would rather summon all their forces against a doctrine that openly proclaimed the subversion and ruin of their empire. Hence this sect was every where spoken against, equally op- posed both by Jew and Gentile. The Gentiles despised it for its lateness and novelty, as having no antiquity to recommend it, nor could they endure that their philosophy, which then every Avhere ruled the chair, should be controlled by a plain simple
48 THE LIFE OF
doctrine, th:it prcteiuled to no elaborate schemes, no insinuative strains of t'loquence, no nice and subtle arts of reasoning, no abstruse and sublime speculations. The Jews were vexed to see their expectations of a mighty prince, who should greatly exalt their state, and redeem it from that oppression and slavery under which it groaned, frustrated by the coming of a Messiah, who appeared under all the circumstances of meanness and dis- grace ; and who was so far from rescuing them from the power of the Roman yoke, that for their obstinacy and unbelief he threatened the final and irrevocable ruin of their countrv; and by the doctrine he published plainly told them he intended to abolish those ancient Mosaic institutions, for which they had such dear regards, and so solemn a veneration. Accordingly, when he came amongst them, they entertained him with all the instances of cruelty and contempt, and whatever might expose him to the scorn and odium of the people ; they vilified and re- proached his person, as but the son of a carpenter, a glutton and a drunkard, a traitor and an enemy unto Caesar ; they slighted his doctrine as the talk only of a rude and illiterate person, traduced his miracles as tricks of imposture, and the eifects of a black confederacy with the infernal powers. And when all this would not do, they violently laid hands upon him, and took away his life. And now one would have thought their spite and fury should have cooled and died : but malice and revenge are too fierce and hot to stop at the first attempt. On they re- solve to go in these bloody methods ; and to let the world see that the disciples and followers must expect no better than their Master, it was not many months before they took occasion to refresh their rage in St. Stephen's martyrdom : the history of whose life and death we now come to relate, and to make some brief remarks upon it.
II. The sacred story gives us no particular account either of the country or kindred of this holy man. That he was a Jew- is untjuestionable, himself sufficiently owns the relation in his apology to the people, but whether originally descended of the stock of Abraham, or of parents incorporated and brought in by the gate of proselytism, whether born at Jerusalem, or among the dispersed in the Gentile provinces, is impossible to determine. Baronius"" (grounding his conjecture upon an epistle of Lucian,
» Ad Ann. XXXIV. n. 27.i, 2f»8.
SAINT STEPHEN. 49
of which more afterwards) makes him to have been one of Gamaliel's disciples, and fellow-pupil with St. Paul, who proved afterwards his mortal enemy : but I must confess, I find not in all that epistle the least shadow of probability to countenance .that conjecture. Antiquity'' makes him, probably enough, to have been one of the seventy disciples, chosen by our Lord as coadjutoi-s to the apostles in the ministry of the gospel : and in- deed his admirable knowledge in the Christian doctrine, his singular ability to defend the cause of Christ ""s Messiahship against its most acute opposers, plainly argue him to have been some considerable time trained up under our Saviour\s immediate in- stitutions. Certain it is, that he was a man of great zeal and piety, endowed with extraordinary measures of that divine Spirit that was lately shed upon the church, and incomparably furnished with miraculous powers, which peculiarly qualified him for a place of honour and usefulness in the church, whereto he was advanced upon this occasion.
III. The primitive church, among the many instances of reli- gion for which it was famous and venerable, was for none more remarkable than their charity; they lived and loved as brethren, " were of one heart and one soul, and continued together with one accord." Love and charity were the common soul that animated the whole body of believers, and conveyed heat and vital spirits to every part. They prayed and vi^orshipped God in the same place, and fed together at the same table. None could want, for " they had all in common."" The rich sold their estates to mi- nister to the necessities of the poor, and deposited the money into one common treasury, the care whereof was committed to the apostles, to see distribution made as every one's case and exigency did require. But in the exactest harmony there will be some jars and discord, heaven only is free from quarrels, and the occasions of oifence. The church increasing every day by vast numbers of converts to the faith, the apostles could not exactly superintend the disposure of the church's stock, and the making provision for every part, and were therefore probably forced to take in the help of others, sometimes more and some- times less, to assist in this affiiir. By which means a due equality and proportion was not observed, but either through favour and
'• Epiph. Hagres. XX. Dorotb, Synops. de Vit. Apostt. in Bibl. PP. vol. ii. p. 182. ed. de la Eigne, 1575.
VOL. I. K
50 THE LIFE OF
partiality, or tlio oversight of those that managed the matter, some had hirger portions, others less relief tlian their just neces- sities called for. This begat some present heats and animosities in the first and purest church that ever was, " the Grecians murmuring against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration."''
IV. Who these Grecians or Hellenists were, opposed here to the Hebrews, however a matter of some difficulty and dispute, it may not be unuseful to enquire. The opinion that has most generally obtained, is that they were originally Jews, born and bred in Grecian or heathen countries, of "the dispersed among the Gentiles,"'' (the Bcaairopa rwv 'EXkijvcov, the word" EW'r]ye<i in the style of the New Testament, as also in the writings of the fathers, being commonly used for the Gentile world,) who ac- commodated themselves to their manner of living, spake the Greek language, but altogether mixed with Hebraisms and Jewish forms of speech, (and this called linr/ua Hellenistica^) and used no other Bible but the Greek translation of the Sep- tuagint. A notion which Salmasius" has taken a great deal of pains to confute, by shewing, that never any people went under that notion and character ; that the Jews, in what parts of the world soever they were, were not a distinct nation from those that lived in Palestine ; that there never was any such peculiar distinct Hellenistic dialect, nor any such ever mentioned by any ancient writer ; that the phrase is very improper to express such a mixed language, yea rather that ' EX\r]viaTy]<i implies one that expresseth himself in better Greek than ordinary, as ^ATTiKLaT7]<i denotes one that studies to speak j)ure Attic Greek. Probable therefore it is, that they were not of the Hebrew race, but Greek or Gentile proselytes, who had either themselves, or in their ancestors, deserted the pagan superstitions, and embodied them- selves into the Jewish church, taking upon them circumcision and the observation of the rites of the Mosaic laws, (which kind the Jews call Dnj pliiH, "proselytes of justice,") and were now converted to Christianity. That there were at this time great numbers of these proselytes at Jerusalem, is evident ; and strange it were, if when at other times they were desirous to
•■ Acts vi. 1. '1 .Iclin vii. 3.").
'■ Cnminent. dc Hollonist. Qn. 1. '2, 3. I, '>. pr^'(ii)ur>, p. '2',i2, &c. >'ide etiani inter alios Hfz. ot CniiHT. in loc.
SAINT STEPHEN. 51
have the gospel preached to them, none of them should have been brought over to the faith. Even among the seven made choice of to be deacons, (most, if not all, of whom we may reason- ably conclude to have been taken out of these Grecians,) we find one expressly said to have been " a proselyte of Antioch,"^ as in all likelihood some if not all the other might be proselytes of Jeru- salem. And thus wherever we meet with the word 'EXkij- viaral or Grecians in the history of the Apostolic Acts, (as it is to be met with in two places more,^) we may, and in reason are to understand it. So that these Hellenists (who spake Greek, and used the translation of the seventy) were Jews by religion, and Gentiles by descent ; with the "EXXijve^ or Gentiles they had the same common original, with the Jews the same common profession ; and therefore are not here opposed to Jews, (which all those might be styled who embrace Judaism and the rites of Moses, though they were not born of Jewish ancestors,) but to the Hebrews, who were Jews both by their religion and their nation. And this may give us some probable account, why the widows of these Hellenists had not so much care taken of them as those of the Hebrews ; the persons with whom the apostles in a great measure intrusted the ministration being kinder to those of their own nation, their neighbours, and it may be kindred, than to those who only agreed with them in the profession of the same religion, and who indeed were not generally so capable of contributing to the church's stock as the native Jews, who had lands and possessions, which they " sold and laid at the apostles' feet."
V. The peace and quiet of the church being by this means a little ruffled and discomposed, the apostles, who well understood how much order and unity conduced to the ends of religion, pre- sently called the church together, and told them, that the dis- posing of the common stock, and the daily providing for the necessities of the poor, however convenient and necessary, was yet a matter of too much trouble and distraction to consist with a faithful discharge of the other parts and duties of their office, and that they did not judge it fit and reasonable to neglect the one, that they might attend the other ; that therefore they should choose out among themselves some that were duly qualified, and present them to them, that they might set them apart peculiarly
f Acts vi. a. s Acts ix. 29. xi. 20.
K 2
52 THE LIFE OF
to .superintend this afFair, that so themselves, beinir freed from these ineunihrances, might the more freely and iniiiiterruptedly devote themselves to prayer and preaching of the gospel. Not that the apostles thought the care of the poor an office too much below them, but that this might be discharged by other hands, and they, as they were obliged, the better attend upon things of higher importance, ministeries more immediately serviceable to the souls of men. This was the first original of deacons in the Christian church : they were to " serve tables," that is, to wait upon the necessities of the poor, to make daily provisions for their public feasts, to keep the church's treasure, and to distri- bute to every one according to their need. And this admirably agrees to one ordinary notion of the word Biukovo^ in foreign writers,'' where it is used for that peculiar servant who waited at feasts, whose office it was to distribute the portions to every guest, either according to the command of the ap'x^LTpiKKivo'i, the orderer of the feast, or according to the rule of equality, to give every one alike. But though it is true this was a main part of the deacon's office, yet was it not the whole. For had this been all, the apostles needed not to have been so exact and curious in their choice of persons, seeing men of an ordinary rank and of a very mean capacity might have served the turn, nor have used such solemn rites of consecration to ordain them to it. No question therefore but their " serving tables" implied also their attendance at the table of the Lord's Supper.' For in those days their arfapo}^ or common love-feasts, (whereat both rich and poor sat down together.) were at the same time with the holy oucharist, and both administered every day, so that their ministration respected both the one and the other. And thus we find it was in the practice of the church : for so Justin Martyr J tells us it was in his time, that when the president of the assembly had consecrated the eucharist, the deacons dis- tributed the bread and the wine to all that were present, and after carried them to those who were necessarily absent from the congregation. Nor were they restrained to this one particu- lar service, but wei-e in some cases allowed to preach, baptize, and absolve penitents, especially where they iiad the peculiar warrant and authority of the bishop to bear them out : nor need
'■ Liicinn Clironosol. seu dc Lcgg. Satumiil. vol. ii. p. filf?. cd. 1687.
' Ign.it. Kpist. nd Trail. Ap])end. Usser. p. 17. •! Apol. i. c. 6.5.
SAINT STEPHEN. 53
we look far beyond the present story to find St. Philip, one of the deacons here elected, both preaching the gospel and baptizing converts with great success.
VI. That this excellent office might be duly managed, the apostles directed and enjoined the church to nominate such per- sons as were fitted for it, pious and good men, men of known honesty and integrity, of approved and untainted reputations, furnished and endowed with the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, wise and prudent men, who would discreetly discharge the trust committed to them. The number of these persons was limited to seven, probably for no other reason but because the apostles thought these sufficient for the business ; unless we will also suppose the whole body of believers to have been dis- posed into seven several divisions, for the more oi'derly and con- venient managery of their common feasts and distributions to the poor, and that to each of these a deacon was appointed to superintend and direct them ; without further designing any peculiar mystery, which ''some would fain pick out of it. How- ever the church thought good for a long time to conform to this primitive institution, insomuch that the fathers of the ' Neo- Csesarean council ordained, that in no city, how great soever, there should be more than seven deacons, a canon which they found upon this place : and "" Sozomen tells us, that in his time, though many other churches kept to no certain number, yet that the church of Rome, in compliance with this apostolical example, admitted no more than seven deacons in it. The people were infinitely pleased with the order and determination which the apostles had made in this matter, and accordingly made choice of seven, whom they presented to the apostles, who (as the solemnity of the thing required) first made their address to heaven by prayer for the divine blessing upon the undertaking, and then laid their hands upon them ; an ancient symbolic rite of investiture and consecration to any extraordinary office. The issue of all was, that the Christian religion got ground and prosjjered, converts came flocking over to the faith, yea, very many of the priests themselves, and of their tribe and family, of all others the most zealous and pertinacious asserters of the Mosaic constitutions, the bitterest adversaries of the Christian
^ Vid. Baron, ad Ann. 112. n. 7. • Cone. Neo-Caes. can. xv.
"' Hist. Eccl. lil). vii. c. 19.
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doctrine, the subtlest defenders of their religion, laid aside their prejudices, and embraced tlie gospel. So uiicontrolable is the ■efficacy of divine truth, as very often to lead its greatest enemies iu triumph after it.
VII. The first and chief of the persons here elected, (who were all chosen out of the seventy disciples, as " Epiphanius in- forms us,) and whom the ancients frequently style archdeacon, as having the ra irpooreia (as "Chrysostom speaks) the primacy and precedence among these new-elected officers, was our St. Stephen, whom the author of the Epistle to Ilero,^ under the name of Ignatius, as also the interpolator of that to the Tral- lians,*' makes in a more peculiar manner to have been deacon to St. James, as bishop of Jerusalem. He is not only placed first in the catalogue, but particularly recommended under this cha- racter, " a man full of foith, and of the Holy Ghost ;" he was exquisitely skilled in all parts of the Christian doctrine, and fitted with great eloquence and elocution to declare and publish it ; enriched with many miraculous gifts and powers, and a spirit of courage and resolution to encounter the most potent opposition. He preached and pleaded the cause of Christianity ■with a firm and undaunted mind ; and that nothing might be wanting to render it effectual, he confirmed his doctrine by many public and unquestionable miracles, plain evidences and demon- strations of the truth and divinity of that religion that he taught. But truth and innocency, and a better cause, is the usual object of bad men^s spite and hatred. The zeal and diligence of his ministry, and the extraordinary success that did attend it, quickly awakened the malice of the Jews, and there wanted not those that were ready to opj)osc and contradict him. So natural is it for error to rise up against the truth, as light and darkness mutually resist and expel each other.
VIII. There were at Jerusalem besides the temple, where sacrifices and the more solemn parts of their religion were per- formed, vast numbers of synagogues for prayer and expounding of the law, whereof the Jews themselves tell us there were not less than four hundred and eighty in that city. In these, or at least some aj)artments adjoining to them, there were schools or
" H.Tercs. XX. " Honiil. xv. in Act s. 1. vol. ix. p. 119.
^ Kpist. ad Heron, c. 3. in Cotclerii Patres Apostt. vol. ii. p. lOf. T Kp. iid Trail, c. 7. p. 6.3. ibid.
SAINT STEPHEN. 55
colleges for the instruction and education of scholars in their laws : many whereof were erected at the charges of the Jews who lived in foreign countries, and thence denominated after their names ; and hither they were wont to send their youth to be trained up in the knowledge of the law, and the mysterious rites of their religion. Of these, five combined together to send some of their societies to encounter and oppose St. Stephen. An unequal match ! avSpMV aae/BecrTdroiv TJevrdiroXi'^ (as Chrysos- tom*" calls it), a whole army of wicked adversaries, the chief of five several synagogues, are brought out against one, and him but a stripling too, as if they intended to oppress him rather with the number of assailants, than to overcome him by strength of argument.
IX. The first of them were those of the synagogue of the Libertines; but who these Libertines were, is variously conjec- tured. Passing by Junius's' conceit of Lahra signifying in the Egyptian language the whole precinct that was under one synagogue, whence Lahrateuu., or corruptly (says he) Libertini, must denote them that belonged to the synagogue of the Egypt- ians, omitting this as altogether absurd and fantastical, besides that the synagogue of the Alexandrians is mentioned afterwards ; Suidas* tells us it was the name of a nation, but in what part of the world this people or country were, he leaves us wholly in the dark. Most probably therefore it relates to the Jews that were emancipated and set at liberty. For the understanding whereof we must know that when Pompey had subdued Judeea, and reduced it under the Eoman government, he carried great numbers of Jews captive to Rome, as also did those generals that succeeded him, and that in such multitudes, that when the Jewish state sent an embassy to Augustus, Josephus" tells us, that there were about eight thousand of the Jews who then lived at Rome, that joined themselves to the ambassadors at their arrival thither. Here they continued in the condition of slaves, till by degrees they were manumitted and set at liberty, which was generally done in the time of Tiberius, who (as Philo" informs) suftered the Jews to inhabit the Transtiberine region, most whereof were Libertines, such who having been made cap-
•• Orat. in S. Steph. s. 1. vol. viii. p. 18. inter spuria. • Jun. in loc. et in Gen. viii. 4. ' Suid. in voc. Ai^epT^uos. " Antiq. Jud. lib. xvii. c. 12.
" De legat. ad Gaium. vol. ii. p. 568.
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lives by the t'urtiine of war, liuil been set free by their masters, and permitted to hvc after the manner of tlieir ancestors. They had their proseuchas or oratories, where they assembled, and performed their devotions according to the rehgion of their country : every year they sent a contribution instead of first- fruits to Jerusalem, and deputed certain persons to offer sacri- fices for them at the temple. Indeed afterwards, (as we find in Tacitus" and Suetonius^) by an order of senate, he caused four thousand Lihertini generis, of those Libertine Jews, so many as were young and lusty, to be transported into Sardinia to clear that island of robbers, (the occasion whereof is related by Jose- phus/) and the rest, both Jews and proselytes, to be banished the city, Tacitus adds, Italy itself. This occasion, I doubt not, many of these Libertine Jews took to return home into their own country, and at Jerusalem to erect this synagogue for themselves and the use of their countrymen who from Rome re- sorted thither, st3-ling it, from themselves, the synagogue of the Libertines ; and such questionless St. Luke means, when among the several nations that were at Jerusalem at the day of Pente- cost, he mentions " strangers of Rome," and they " both Jews and j)roselytes."
X. The next antagonists were of the synagogue of the Cj'- renians, that is, Jews who inhabited Cyrene, a noted city of Libya, where (as appears fiom a rescript of Augustus'') great numbers of them did reside, and who were annually wont to send their holy treasure or accustomed offerings to Jerusalem, where also (as we see) they had their peculiar synagogue. Accordingly we find among the several nations at Jerusalem, those who ''dwelt in the parts of Libya about Cyrene.'"'^ Thus we read of Simon of Cyrene,'' whom the Jews compelled to bear our Saviour's cross ; of Lucius of Cyrene,*" a famous doctor in the church of Antioch ; of men of Cyrene, who u])on the persecution that fol- lowed St. Stephen's death, " were scattered abroad from Je- rusalem, and preached as far as Phoenice, Cyprus, and Antioch.'"'^ The third were those of the synagogue of the Alexandrians, there being a mighty intercourse between the Jews at Jerusalem and Alexandria, where what vast multitudes of them dwelt, and
'' Annal. lib. ii. c. J^5. ' Stieton. in vit. Tib. c. .36. » Antiq. 1. xviii. c. h.
•• Apiul .lospph. Antiq. Jiul. 1. xvi. c. 10. ' Acts ii. 10. <^ Matt, xxvii. 32.
' Arts xiii. 1. f Acts xi. 10. 20.
SAINT STEPHEN. 57
what great privileges they enjoyed, is too well kuowa to need insisting on. The fourth were them of Cilicia, a known province of the Lesser Asia, the metropolis whereof was Tarsus, well stored with Jews ; it was St. PauFs birth-place, whom we cannot doubt to have borne a principal part among these assailants, finding him afterwards so active and busy in St. Stephen''s death. The last were those of the synagogue of Asia : where by Asia we are probably to understand no more than part of Asia properly so called, (as that was but part of Asia Minor,) viz. that part that lay near to Ephesus, in which sense it is plain Asia is to be taken in the New Testament. And what infinite numbers of Jews were in these parts, and especially at Ephesus, the history of the Apostles' Acts does sufficiently inform us.
XI. These were the several parties that were to take the field, persons of very diffi^rent countries, men skilled in the subtleties of their religion, ^ who all at once rose up to dispute with Stephen." What the particular subject of the disputation was, we find not, but may with St. Chrysostom'^ conceive them to have accosted him after this manner. " Tell us, young man, what comes into thy mind thus rashly to reproach the Deity? Why dost thou study with such cunningly-contrived discourses to inveigle and persuade the people I and with deceitful miracles to undo the nation ? Here lies the crisis of the controversy. Is it like that he should be God, who was born of Mary ; that the Maker of the world should be 'the son of a carpenter T was not Bethlehem the place of his nativity, and Nazareth of his educa- tion ? canst thou imagine him to be God, that was born upon earth? who was so poor that he was wrapt up in swaddling clothes and thrown into a manger ? who was forced to fly from the rage of Herod, and to wash away his pollution by being baptized in Joi'dan ? who was subject to hunger and thii'st, to sleep and weariness? who being bound, was not able to escape, nor being buffeted, to rescue or revenge himself? who, when he was hanged, could not come down from the cross, but underwent a cursed and a shameful death ? wilt thou make us believe that he is in heaven, whom we know to have been buried in his grave ? that he should be the life of the dead, who is so near akin to mortality him- self? Is it likely that God should suffer such things as these? would he not rather with an angry breath have struck his ad-
S Orat. in S. Steph. s. i. vol. viii. i>. 18. inter spuria.
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versariess dead at the lirst approach, aiul set them heyuiid the reach of making attempts upon his own person i either cease therefore to clehide the people with these impostures, or prepare thyself to undergo the same fate."
XII. lu answer to which we may imagine St. Stephen thus to have replied upon them. " And why, sirs, should these things seem so incredible^ have you not by you the writings of the prophets i do you not read the books of Moses, and profess yourselves to be his disciples ? did not Moses say, ' a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hearf' Have not the prophets long since foretold that he should be born at Bethlehem, and con- ceived in the womb of a virgin? that he should fly into Egypt? that he should 'bear our griefs and carry our sorroAvs ?"■ ' that they should 'pierce his hands and his feet,"' and hang him on a tree? that he should be buried, rise again, and ascend up to heaven with a shout ? Either now shew me some other in whom all these prophecies were accomplished, or learn with me to adore as God our crucified Saviour. Blind and ignorant that you are of the predictions of Moses, you thought you crucified a mere man ; but had you known him, you would not have crucified the Lord of Glory : you denied the Holy One, and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of Life."
XHL This is the sum of what that ingenious and eloquent father conceives St. Stephen did, or might have returned to their en(|uiries. Which, whatever it was, was delivered with that life and zeal, that evidence and strength of reason, that freedom and majesty of elocution, that his antagonists had not one word to say against it ; " they were not able to resist the w'isdom and the spirit by which he spake."' So particularly did our Lord make good what he had promised to his disciples, " Settle it in your hearts, not to meditate before what you shall answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist."'" Hereupon the men presently began to retreat, and departed the lists, equally divided between shame and grief. Ashamed they were to be so openly battled by one single adversary; vexed and troubled that they
•• Deut. xviii. 15. ' Is;ii. liii. 4. ^ Pk. xxii. KJ.
' Acts vi. 1 0. in Luke xxi. 1 4, 1 .5.
SAINT STEPHEN. 59
had not carried the day, and that the religion which they op- posed had herehy received such signal credit and confirmation. And now being no longer able dvT0<p6a\fielv rf} aXrjdeia^^ (as the addition in some very ancient manuscript copies does elegantly express it) "with open face to resist the truth,"" they betake them- selves to clancular arts, to sly and sinister designs, hoping to accomplish by craft and subtlety what they could not carry by fairness and force of reason.
XIV. To this purpose they tamper with men of debauched profligate consciences, to undermine him by false accusations, that so he might fall as a sacrifice to their spite and malice, and that by the hand of public justice. St. Chrysostom brings them ill with smooth and plausible insinuations encouraging the men to this mischievous attempt. " Come on, worthy and honourable friends, lend your assistance to our declining cause, and let your tongues minister to our counsels and contrivances. Behold a new patron and advocate of the Galilean is started up : one that worships a God that was buried, and preaches a Creator shut up in a tomb ; who thinks that he whom the soldiers despised and mocked upon earth, is now conversing with the host of angels in heaven, and promises that he shall come to judge the world, who was not able to vindicate and right himself: his disciples denied him, as if they thought him an impostor, and yet this man affirms, that every tongue shall confess and do homage to him : himself was not able to come down from the cross, and yet he talks of his second coming from heaven ; the vilest miscreants reproached him at his death, that he could not save either himself or them, and yet this man peremptorily proclaims him to be the Saviour of the world. Did you ever behold such boldness and impudence ? or have you ever heard words of so much madness and blasphemy ? Do you therefore undertake the cause, and find out some specious colour and pretence, and thereby purchase to yourselves glory and renown from the present generation.""
XV. The wretches were easily persuaded to the undertaking, and to swear whatever their tutors should direct them. And now the cause is ripe for action, the case is divulged, the elders and the scribes are dealt with, (and a little rhetoric would serve
" Cod. BezEe MS. et 2 Codd. H. Steph.
" Orat. in S. Steph. s. "2. vol. viii. p. 1. inter spuria.
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to persuade them,) the people possessed witli tlie horror of the fact, the Sanhedrim is summoned, the malefactor haled to the har, the witnesses produced, and the charge given in. "'They suhorned men which said, we have heard him speak hlasphemous words against Moses and against God ; the false witnesses said, this man ceaseth not to speak hlasphemous words against this holy place and the law : for we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered usf f that is," (that we may still proceed with that excellent man in opening the several parts of the charge) " he has dared to speak against our wise and great lawgiver, and hlasphemed that Moses, for whom our whole nation has so just a veneration ; that Moses who had the whole creation at his heck, who freed our ancestors from the house of bondage, and with his rod turned the waters into walls, and by his prayer drowned the Egyptian army in the bottom of the sea; who kindled a fiery pillar for a light by night, and without ploughing or sowing fed them with manna and bread from heaven, and with his rod pierced the rock and gave them drink. But what do we speak of Moses, when he has whetted his tongue, and stretched it out against God himself, and set up one that is dead as an anti-god to the great Creator of the world i He has not blushed to reproach the temple, that holy place, where the divine oracles are read, and the writings of the prophets set forth, the repository of the shew-bread and the heavenly manna, of the ark of the covenant, and the rod of Aaron ; where the hoary and venerable heads of the high-priests, the dignity of the elders, and the honour of the scribes is seen : this is the place which he has reviled and set at naught ; and not this only, but the law itself; which he boldl}' d(!clares to be but a shadow, and the ancient rites but types and figures: he affirms the Galilean to be greater than Moses, and the Son of Mary stronger than oui- hiwgiver; he has not honoured the dignity of the elders, nor had any reverence to the society of the scribes. He threatens us with a dead master; the young man dreams, sure, when he talks of Jesus of Nazareth rising again, and destroying this holy j)lace : he little considers with how much wisdom it was contrived, with what infinite.charges it was erected, and how long bel'ure it was brought to its perfection. And yet, forsooth, this
p Acts vi. 11—14.
SAINT STEPHEN. 61
Jesus of Nazareth must destroy it, and 'change the customs which Moses delivered to us:' our most holy sabbath must be turned out of doors, circumcision abolished, the new-moons rejected, and the feast of tabernacles laid aside ; our sacrifices must no longer be accepted with God, our sprinklings and solemn purga- tions must be done away: as if we knew not this Nazarene's end, and as if one that is dead could revenge himself upon them that are living. How many of the ancient prophets and holy men have been cruelly murdered, whose death none ever yet under- took to revenge ? and yet this man must needs appear in the cause of this crucified Nazarene, and tell us of a dead man that shall judge us : silly impostor! to fright us with a judge who is himself imprisoned in his own grave."
XVI. This then is the sum of the charge, that he should
threaten the ruin of the temple, and the abohtion of the Mosaic
rites, and blasphemously affirm that Jesus of Nazareth should
take away that religion which had been established by Moses,
and by God himself. Indeed the Jews had an unmeasurable
reverence and veneration for the Mosaic institutions, and could
not with any patience endure to hear of their being laid aside,
but accounted it a kind of blasphemy so much as to mention
their dissolution ; little thinking in how short a time these
things which they now so highly valued should be taken away,
and their temple itself laid level with the ground ; which a
few years after came to pass by the Roman army under the
conduct of Titus Vespasian the Roman general, when the city
was sacked, and the temple burnt to the ground. And so final
and irrevocable was the sentence bj which it was doomed to
ruin, that it could never afterwards be repaired, heaven itself
immediately declaring against it. Insomuch that when Julian
the emperor, out of spite and opposition to the Christians, was
resolved to give all possible encouragement to the Jews, and
not only permitted but commanded them to rebuild the temple,
furnishing them with all charges and materials necessary for the
work, (hoping that hereby he should prove our Saviour a false
prophet,) no sooner had they begun to clear the rubbish, and lay
the foundation, but a terrible earthquake shattered the foundation,
killed the undertakers, and shaked down all the buildings that
were round about it. And when they again attempted it the
next day, great balls of fire suddenly breaking out from under the
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foundations consumed the workmen and those that wore near it, and forced them to give over the attempt. A strange instance of the displeasure of heaven towards a place which God had fatally devoted to destruction. And this related not only by Christian writers,'' but, as to the substance of it, by the heathen historian himself."^ And the same curse has ever since pursued and followed them, they having been destitute of temple and sacrifice for sixteen hundred years together. " Were that bloody Sanhedrim now in being, and here present, (says one of the 'ancients, si)eaking of this accusation,) I would ask them about those things for which they were here so much concerned, what is now become of your once famous and renowned temple i where are those vast stones, and incredible piles of building? where is that gold that once equalled all the other materials of the temple? what are become of your legal sacrifices? your rams and calves, your lambs and heifers, pigeons, turtles, and scape- goats ? if they therefore condemned Stephen to die, that none of these miseries might befall them, let them shew which of them they avoided by putting him to death ; but if they escaped none of them, why then did they imbrue their hands in his in- nocent blood ?
XVII. "The court being thus set, and the charge brought in and opened, that nothing might be wanting to carry on their mock scene of justice, they gave him liberty to defend himself. In order whereunto, while the judges of the Sanhedrim earnestly looked upon him, they discovered the appearances of an extra- ordinary splendour and brightness upon his face, the innoccncy of his cause and the clearness of his conscience manifesting themselves in the brightness and cheerfulness of his countenance. The high-priest having asked him whether guilty or not, he in a large discourse pleaded his own cause to this effect : That what apprehensions soever they might have of the stateliness and mag- nificence of their temple, of the glory and grandeur of its services and ministrations, of those venerable customs and usages that were amongst them, as if they looked upon them as indispensably necessary, and that it was blasphemy to think God naight be
1 Socrat. Hist. Eccl. I. iii. c. 20. So/.nm. Hist. Eecl. 1. v. c. 22.
■■ A. Marcell. 1. xxiii. non longe ah init.
" Greg. Nys8. Orat. in S. Steph. vol. iii. ji. ^.'i9.
SAINT STEPHEN. 63
acceptably served without them ; yet that if they looked back to the first originals of their nation, they would find, that God chose Abraham to be the father and founder of it, not when he lived in a Jerusalem, and worshipped God with the pompous services of a temple, but when he dwelt among- the idolatrous nations: that then it was that God called him from the im- pieties of his father's house, and admitted him to a familiar ac- quaintance and intercourse with himself; wherein he continued for many years without any of those external and visible rites which they laid so much stress upon; and that when at last God entered into covenant with him, to give his posterity the land of Canaan, and that in ' his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed,' he bound it upon him with no other cere- mony, but only that of circumcision, as the badge and seal of that federal compact that was between them : that without any other fixed rite but this, the succeeding patriarchs worshipped God for several ages, till the times of Moses, a wise, learned, and prudent person, to whom God particularly revealed himself, and appointed him ruler over his people, to conduct them out of the house of bondage ; a great and famous prophet, and who was continually inculcating this lesson to their ancestors, 'A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me, him shall ye hear ;' that is, that God in the latter days would send amongst them a mighty prophet, who should do as Moses had done, introduce new rites, and set up more ex- cellent institutions and ways of worship, to whom they should yield all diligent attention and ready obedience : that when their forefathers had frequently lapsed into idolatry, God com- manded Moses to set up a tabernacle, as a place of public and solemn worship, where he would manifest himself, and receive the addresses and adorations of his people ; which yet however was but a transient and temporary ministration, and though erected by the immediate order of God himself, was yet after some years to give place to a standing temple designed by David, but built by Solomon ; stately indeed and majestic, but not ab- solutely necessary, seeing that infinite Being that made the world, who ' had the heaven for his throne and the earth for his footstool,' could not be confined within a material temple, nor tied to any particular way of worship ; and that therefore there could be no such absolute and indispensable necessity for
(14 THE LIFE OF
those Mosaical rites and ceremonies, as they pretended; especially Avlien God was resolved to introduce a new and better scene and state of things. But it was the humour of this loose and unruly, this refractory and undisciplinable generation, (as it ever had been of their ancestors,) to 'resist the Holy Clhost,*' and oppose him in all those methods, whereby he sought to reform and reclaim them; that there were few of the ])ropliets whom their fore- fathers had not persecuted, and slain them that had foretold the Messiairs coming, the 'just and the holy Jesus,"" as they their nnhappy posterity had actually betrayed and murdered him, without an}^ due reverence and regard to that law, which had been solemnly delivered to them by the ministry of angels, and which he came to fulfil and perfect.
XVIII. " The holy man was going on in the ajiplication, when the patience of liis auditors, which had hitherto holden out, at this began to fail ; that fire which gently warms at a distance, scorches when it comes too near ; their consciences being sensibly stung by the too near approach of the truths he delivered, they began to fume and fret, and express all the signs of rage and fury. But he, regardless of what was done below, had his eyes and thoughts directed to a higher and a nobler object, and look- ing up ' saw the heavens opened,'' and some bright and sensible appearances of the divine majesty, and the holy Jesus clothed in the robes of our glorified nature, not sitting (in which sense he is usually described in Scripture) but 'standing' (as ready to pro- tect and help, to crown and reward his suffering servant) 'at the right hand of God.' So easily can heaven delight and entertain us in the want of all earthly comforts ; and divine consolations are then nearest to us, when human assistances are farthest from us. The good man was infinitely ravished with the vision, and it inspired his soul with a fresh zeal and courage, and made him long to arrive at that happy place, and little concerned what use they would make of it, he could not but commum'cate and impart his happiness; the cup was full, and it easily overflowed; he tells his adversaries what himself beheld, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.'"
XIX. The heavenly vision had very different effects, it en- couraged Stephen, but enraged the Jews; who now taking it pro cou/esso that he was a blasphemer, resolved upon his death, with-
SAINT STEPHEN. G5
out any further process. How furious and impatient is mis- guided zeal ! they did not stand to procure a warrant from the Eoman governor, (without whose leave they had not power to put any man to death,) nay, they had not the patience to stay for the judicial sentence of the Sanhedrim, but acted the part of zealots, (who were wont to execute vengeance upon capital offenders without staying for the ordinary formalities of justice,) and raising a great noise and clamour, and " stopping their ears," that they might hear no further blasphemies, and be deaf to all cries for mercy, they unanimously rushed upon him. But zeal is superstitious in its maddest fury : they would not execute him within the walls, lest they should pollute the holy city with his blood, but hurried him " without the city," and there fell upon him with a shower of stones. Stoning was one of the four capital punishments among the Jews, inflicted upon greater and more enormous crimes, especially blasphemy, idolatry, and strange worship : and the Jews tell us of many particular circumstances used in this sort of punishment.* The malefactor was to be led out of the consistory, at the door whereof a person was to stand with a napkin in his hand, and a man on horseback at some distance from him, that if any one came and said, he had some- thing to offer for the deliverance of the malefactor, upon the moving of the napkin the horseman might give notice, and bring the offender back. He had two grave persons to go along with him to exhort him to confession by the way ; a crier went before him, proclaiming who he was, what his crime, and who the wit- nesses ; being come near the place of execution (which was two cubits from the ground) he was first stripped, and then stoned, and afterwards hanged, where he was to continue till sunset, and then being taken down, he and his gibbet were both buried together. XX. Such were their customs in ordinary cases, but, alas ! their greediness of St. Stephen's blood would not admit these tedious proceedings ; only one formality we find them using, which the law required, which was, that " the hands of the wit- nesses should be first upon him, to put him to death, and after- ward the hands of all the people :" " a law surely contrived with great wisdom and prudence, that so the witness, if forsworn, might derive the guilt of the blood upon himself, and the rest be free ; " so thou shalt put the evil away from among you." Ac-
' Vid. P. Fag. in Exod. xxi. 10. " Dout. xvii. 7.
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corclinii|-ly here the witnesses puttinii^ off tlioir upper ofannents, (which reiulereil them less nimble and expedite, l)eiiitr loose and long", according to the mode of those Eastern conntries,) laid them down at Sanl's feet, a zealous youth, at that time student under Gamaliel, the fiery zeal and activity of whose temper made him busy, no doubt, in this, as we find he was in the following persecution ; an action which afterwards cost him tears and penitent reflections, himself preferring the indictment against himself: " When the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him."'''* Thus prepared they began the tragedy, whose example was soon followed by the multitude. All which time the innocent and holy man was upon his knees, sending up his prayers faster to heaven than they could rain down stones upon him, piously recommending his own soul to God, and charitably interceding for his murderers, that God would not charge this guilt upon them, nor severely reckon with them for it ; and then gave up the ghost, or, as the sacred historian elegantly expresses it, " fell asleep." So soft a pillow is death to a good man, so willingly, so quietly does he leave the world, as a weary labourer goes to bed at night. What storms or tempests soever may follow him while he lives, his sun, in spite of all the malice and cruelty of his enemies, sets serene and calm : " Mark the perfect and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.""
XII. Thus died St. Stephen, the protomartyr of the Christian faith, obtaining rov avTco <f)€poovviJ.ov Sricpavov (says Eusebius),^ a reward truly answering to his name, a " crown." He was a man in whom the virtues of a divine life were very eminent and illustrious ; " a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost." Ad- mirable his zeal for God and for religion, for the propagating whereof he refused no pains, declined no troubles or ditHculties: his courage was not baffled either with the angry frowns, or the fierce threatenings of his enemies, nor did his sj)irit siidc, though he stood alone, and had neither friend nor kinsman to assist and comfort him ; his constancy firm and unshaken, notwithstanding temptations on the one hand, and the dangers that assaulted him on the other: in all the oppositions that he met with, under all
" Acts xxii. 20. " Ps. xxxvii. 37. > Hist. Ectl. 1. ii. c. 1.
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the torments and sufterings that he underwent, he discovered nothing but the meek and innocent temper of a lamb, never be- traying one passionate and revengeful word, but calmly resigned up his soul to God. He had a charity large enough to cover the highest affronts, and the greatest wrongs and injuries that were put upon him ; and accordingly, after the example of his Master, he prayed for the pardon of his murderers, even while they were raking in his blood. And " the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availed much;"^ heaven was not deaf to his peti- tion, as appeared in the speedy conversion of St. Paul,'' whose admirable change we may reasonably suppose to have been the birth of the good man's dying groans, the fruit of his prayer and interest in heaven. And what set off all these excellencies, he was not elated with lofty and arrogant conceits, nor " thought more highly of himself than he ought to think," ^ esteeming meanly of, and preferring others before himself. And therefore the author of the " Apostolic Constitutions"'^ brings in the apo- stles commending St. Stephen for his humility, that though he was so great a person, and honoured with such singular and ex- traordinary visions and revelations, yet never attempted any thing above his place, did not consecrate the eucharist, nor con- fer orders upon any ; but (as became a martyr of Christ rrjv evra^lav airoaoi^eiv, to preserve order and decency) he contented himself with the station of a deacon, wherein he persevered to the last minute of his life.
XXn. His martyrdom happened (say some) three years after our Saviour's passion, which Euodius, bishop of Antioch, (if that epistle Avere his cited by Nicephorus, ** which it is probable enough was not,) extends to no less than seven years. Doubtless a very wide mistake. Sure I am, Eusebius affirms,^ that it was not long after his ordination to his deacon's office ; and the author of the Excerpta Chronologica, published by Scaliger,*^ more par- ticularly, that it was some few days less than eight months after our Lord's ascension. He is generally supposed to have been young at the time of his martyrdom ; and Chrysostom ^ makes no scruple of styling him " young man" at every turn, though
* James v. 16. » See August. Semi. CCCLXXXII. de S. Steph. vol. v. p. 1483.
•• Rom. xii. 3. c lj^, y^ ^ 45. d jjist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 3.
« Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 1. f Ad calc. Chron. Euseb. p. 82,
s Orat. in S. Steph. vol. viii. p. 1 7. inter spuria.
f2
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for what reason, I confess I am yet to learn, lie was martyred without the walls, near the gate on the north side that leads to Cedar, (as Lucian tells us,'') and which was afterwards called St. Stephen''s Gate ; ' anciently (say some) styled the Gate of Ephraim ; ^ or, as others, the Valley Gate, or the Fish Gate ; ' which stood on the cast side of the city, where the place, we are told, is still shewed, where St. Paul sat when he kept the clothes of them that slew him. Over this place (wherever it was) the empress Eudocia,"' wife of Theodosius, when she repaired the walls of Jerusalem, erected a beautiful and stately church to the honour of St. Stephen, wherein she herself was buried afterwards. The great stone upon which he stood while he suffered martyr- dom, is said to have been afterwards removed into the church built to the honour of the apostles upon Mount Sion,° and there kept with great care and reverence : yea, one of the stones wherewith he was killed, being preserved by some Christian, was afterwards (as we are told") carried into Italy, and laid up as a choice treasure at Ancona, and a church there built to the me- mory of the martyr.
XXIII. The church received a great wound by the death of this pious and good man, and could not but express a very deep resentment of it : " Devout men" (probably proselytes) " carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation for him." p They carried, or, as the word avveKOfiicrav properly signifies, they dressed him up, and prepared the dead body for the burial. For we cannot reasonably suppose, that the Jews being at this time so mightily enraged against him, the apostles would think it prudent further to provoke the exasperated humour by making a solemn and pompous funeral. His burial (if we might believe one of the ancients,'' who pretends it was revealed to him in a vision by Gamaliel, whom many of the ancients make to have been a Christian convert) was on this manner. The Jewish Sanhedrim having given order that his carcase should remain in
^ Ep. (le Invent. S. Stcph. ap. Snr. ad Aug. Til. ' Ikd. dc locis Sanctis, c. 1. vol. iii. p. 487.
'' Brocardus, descript. terrse sanctae, c. viii. p. 35. ' Coto>'ic. Itin. 1. ii. c. 11.
"' Evagr. Hist. Eccl. 1, i. c. 22. " Bed. de locis Sanctis, c. 3. vol. iii. p. 489.
° Bar. not. in Martyr. Rora. ad Aug. III. p. 341. ex Martyrol. S. CjTiiic. p Acts viii. 2.
t Lucian. Ep. dc invent. S. Steph. in ap. Aug. opp. vol. vii. et apud Bar. ad ann. 415. vid. Nicejth. 1. xiv. c. 9.
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the place of its martyrdom to be consumed by wild beasts, here it lay for some time night and day, untouched either by beast or bird of prey. Till Gamaliel, compassionating the case of the holy martyr, persuaded some religious Christian proselytes, who dwelt at Jerusalem, and furnished them with all things necessary for it, to go with all possible secrecy and fetch off his body. They brought it away in his own carriage, and conveyed it to a place called Caphargamala, (corruptly, as is probable, for Caphar- gamaliel, otherwise i^bt2^ ")H)D, properly signifies the Toivn of Camels), that is, the village of Gamaliel, twenty miles distant from Jerusalem ; where a solemn mourning was kej)t for him seventy days at GamalieFs charge, who also caused him to be buried in the east side of his own monument, where afterwards he was interred himself The Greek Menjeon'' adds, that his body was put into a coffin made of the wood of the tree called persea, (this was a large beautiful Egyptian tree, as Theophrastus tells us,^ of which they were wont to make statues, beds, tables, &c.) though how they came by such very particular intelligence (there being nothing of it in GamalieFs revelation) I am not able to imagine. Johannes Phocas,* a Greek writer of the middle age of the church, agrees in the relation of his interment by Gamaliel ; but adds, that he was first buried in Mount Sion, in the house where the apostles were assembled when our Lord came in to them, " the doors being shut," after his resurrection, and afterwards removed by Gamaliel to another place, which (says he") was on the left side the city, as it looks towards Sa- maria, where a famous monastery was built afterwards.
XXIV. But wherever his body was interred, it rested quietly for several ages, till we hear of its being found out in the reign of Honorius ; for then, as Sozomen informs us,'' it was discovered at the same time with the bones of the prophet Zachary, an ac- count of both which he promises to give ; and having spoken of that of the prophet, there abruptly ends his history. But what is wanting in him is fully supplied by other hands, especially the forementioned Lucian,^ presbyter of the town of Caphargamala
•■ Menason Graeeor. rp kctt' tov AeKe/xfip. sub. lit. 2. 111.
' Histor. Plant. 1. iv. c. 2.
' "'E.KcppacT. tS>v ay. T6iro>v, &c. c. xiv. p. 19. edit. Allat.
" Ibid. c. XV. p. 2.5. ^ Hist. Eccl. 1. ix. c. 16, 17.
y Lucian. Ep. de invent. S. Steph. in ap. Aug. opp. vol. vii. et Phot. Cod. CLXXI.
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in the diocese of Jerusalem, who is very large and punctual in his account, the sum whereof (so far as concerns the present case, and is material to relate) is this. Sleeping one night in the laptisterium of his church, (this was anno 415. Honor. Imper. 21.) there appeared to him a grave venerable old man, who told him he was Gamaliel, bade him go to John bishop of Jeru- salem, and will him to remove his remains and some others (whereof St. Stephen was the principal) that were with him from the place where they lay. Three several times the vision appeared to him before he would be fully satisfied in the thing, and then he acquainted the bishop with it, who commanded him to search after the place. After some attempts, he found the place of their repository, and then gave the bishop notice, who came and brought two other bishops, Eleutherius of Sebaste and Eleutherius of Hiericho, along with him. The monument being opened, they found an inscription upon St. Stcphen''s tomb-stone in deep letters, " CELIEL," signifying (says mine author) the " Servant of God ;" at the opening of the coffin there was an earthquake, and a very pleasant and delightful fragrancy came from it, and several miraculous cures were done by it. The re- mains being closed up again, (only some few bones, and a little of the dust that was taken out, and bestowed upon Lucian,) were with great triumph and rejoicing conveyed to the church that stood upon Mount Sion, the place where he himself while alive had discharged the office of a deacon. I add no more of this, but that this story is not only mentioned by Photius,^ and before him by Marcellinus Comes," sometime chancellor or secretary to Justinian, afterwards emperor, (who sets it down as done in the very same year, and under the same consuls wherein Lucian's Epistle reports it) ; but before, both by Gennadius,*" presbyter of Marseilles, who lived anno 490, and many years before, and con- sequently not long after the time of Lucian himself; who also adds, that Lucian wrote a relation of it in Greek to all the churches, which Avitus, a Spanish presbyter, translated into Latin, whose epistle is prefixed to it, wherein he gives an ac- count of it to Balchonius bishop of Braga, and sent it by Orosius into Spain.
XXV. These remains (whether before or after, the reader
' riint. Coil. CLXXI. » Marcel. Chron. Indict, xiii. p. m. 17.
^ De Script. Eccl. c. 46, 47.
SAINT STEPHEN. 71
must judge by the sequel of the story, though I question whether he will have faith enough to believe all the circumstances of it) were translated to Constantinople upon this occasion. Alexander,^ a nobleman of the Senatorian order, having a par- ticular veneration for the protomartyr, had erected an oratory to him in Palestine, commanding that himself when dead, being put into a coffin like that of St. Stephen, should be buried by him. Eight years after, his lady, (whose name, say some, was Juliana,) removing to Constantinople, resolved to take her husband's body along with her : but in a hurry she chanced to mistake St. Stephen's coffin for that of her husband, and so set forward on her journey. But it soon betrayed itself by an extra- ordinary odour, and some miraculous effects : the fame whereof flying before to Constantinople, had prepared the people to conduct it with great joy and solemnity into the imperial palace. Which yet could not be effected: for the sturdy mules that carried the treasure being come as far as Constantine's baths, would not advance one step further. And when unreasonably whipped and pricked, they spake aloud, and told those that conducted them, that the martyr was to be reposed and interred in that place : which was accordingly done, and a beautiful church built there. But certainly they that first added this passage to the story had been at a great loss for invention, had not the story of Balaam's ass been upon record in Scripture. I confess Baronius ^ seems not over-forward to believe this rela- tion, not for the trifling and ridiculous improbabilities of it, but only because he could not well reconcile it with the time of its being first found out by Lucian. Indeed my authors tell us, that this was done in the time of Constantine, Metrophanes being then bishop of Constantinople, and that it was only some part of his remains, buried again by some devout Christians, that was discovered in a vision to Lucian ; and that the empress Pulcheria, by the help of her brother Theodosius, procured from the bishop of Jerusalem the martyr's right hand, which, being arrived at Constantinople, was with singular reverence and re- joicing brought into the palace, and there laid up, and a stately and magnificent church erected for it, set off with all rich and costly ornaments and advantages.
<= Niceph. Hist. Eccl. lib. xiv. c. 9, Eadem habet Menaeon Grsec. Avjovitt. tj? /8'. sub. lit, jS'. 1 1. ■* Bar. ad Ann. 439.
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XXN'^I. 'Autlior.s nicntion anotlier remove, anno 439, (and lot the curious and inquisitive after these matters reconcile the diflcTcnt accounts,) of his remains to Constantinople by the empress Eudocia, wife to Theodoslus, who having been at Jerusalem upon some pious and charitable designs, carried back with her to the imperial city the remains of St. Stephen, which she carefully laid up in the church of St. Laurence. The Roman Martyrology says,*^ that in the time of po])c Pelagius they were removed from Constantinople to Rome, and lodged in the sepulchre of St, Laurence the ^Martyr in ar/ro Verano, where they are honoured with great piety and devotion. But I find not any author near those times mentioning their translation into any of these western parts, except the little parcel which Orosius^ brought from Jerusalem, (whither he had been sent by St. Augustine to know St. Hierom's sense in the question about the original of the soul,) which he received from Avitus, who had procured it of Lucian, and brought it along with him into the West, that is, into Africa, for whether it went any further I find not.
XXVn. As for the miracles reported to have been done by the remains of this martyr, ^ Gregory bishop of Tours, and the writers of the following ages, have furnished the world with abundant instances, which I insist not upon, superstition having been the peculiar genius and humour of those middle ages of the church, and the Christian world miserably overrun Avith an excessive and immoderate veneration of the relics of departed saints. However I can venture the reader's displeasure for relating one, and the rather because it is so solemnly averred by Baronius' himself. St. Gaudiosus, an African bishop, flying from the Vandal ic persecution, brought with him a glass vial of St. Stephen's blood to Naples in Italy, where it was famous especially for one miraculous effect — that being set upon the altar, at the time of mass it was annually wont, upon the third of August, (the day whereon St. Stephen