Outlines of Ecclesiastical History

by B. H. Roberts

NOTES.

1. Pliny's Testimony to the Morality of the Christians.—The character which this writer gives of the Christians of that age (his celebrated letter was written to Trajan early in the second century), and which was drawn from a pretty accurate inquiry, because he considered their moral principles as the point in which the magistrate was interested, is as follows: He tells the emperor that some of those who had relinquished the society, or who, to save themselves pretended that they had relinquished it, affirmed "that they were wont to meet together on a stated day, before it was light, and sang among themselves alternately a hymn to Christ as a God; and to bind themselves by an oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, but that they would not be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery; that they would never falsify their word, or deny a pledge committed to them when called upon to return it." This proves that a morality more pure and strict than was ordinary, prevailed at that time in Christian societies.—Paley's "Evidences."

2. Interview of Domitian and the Relatives of the Lord.—There were yet living of the family of our Lord the grandchildren of Judas, called the brother of our Lord according to the flesh. These were reported as being of the family of David, and were brought to Domitian by the evocaties. For this emperor was as much alarmed at the appearance of Christ as Herod. He put the question whether they were of David's race and they confessed that they were. He then asked them what property they had, or how much money they owned. And both of them answered, that they had between them only nine thousand denarii, and this they had not in silver, but in the value of a piece of land, containing only thirty-nine acres; from which they raised their taxes and supported themselves by their own labor. Then they also began to show their hands, exhibiting the hardness of their bodies, and the callosity formed by incessant labor on their hands, as evidence of their own labor. When asked also, respecting Christ and his kingdom, what was its nature, and when and where it was to appear, they replied that it was not a temporal nor an earthly kingdom, but celestial and angelic; that it would appear at the end of the world, when coming in glory he would judge the quick and the dead, and give to every one according to his works. Upon which Domitian despising them, made no reply; but treating them with contempt, as simpletons, commanded them to be dismissed, and by a decree ordered the persecution to cease.—Hegesippus, quoted by Eusebius.

3. Character of Nero.—Nero was the incarnation of depravity—the very name by which men are accustomed to express the fury of unrestrained malignity. Bad as he was, he was not worse than Rome. She had but her due. Nay, when he died the rabble and the slaves crowned his statue with garlands and scattered flowers over his grave. And why not? Nero never injured the rabble, never oppressed the slave. He murdered his mother, his brother, his wife, and was the tyrant of the wealthy, the terror of the successful. He rendered poverty sweet, for poverty alone was secure; he rendered slavery tolerable, for slaves alone or slavish men were promoted to power. The reign of Nero was the golden reign of the populace, and the holiday of the bondman.—Bancroft.

REVIEW.

1. Of what did Messiah warn his followers?

2. What reason may be assigned for the hatred of the world towards the people of God?

3. What special reason can you assign for the persecution of the Christians by the Jews?

4. What can you say of the bitterness and extent of the first great persecution?

5. What circumstance rendered the Jewish power to injure the Christians unequal to the malice?