The History of Christianity / Consisting of the Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth; the Adventures of Paul and the Apostles; and the Most Interesting Events in the Progress of Christianity, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.

by John S. C. Abbott

It will be noticed in the above paragraph that Tacitus alludes to a charge which Nero brought against the Christians, of having set fire to the city of Rome. One day, some one repeated in conversation, in presence of the tyrant, the line, “When I am dead, let fire devour the world.” Nero replied, “It shall be said, ‘When I am living, let fire devour the world.’”

Rome then contained, according to the general estimate,about four million inhabitants. They were crowded together in narrow, winding streets. Nero ordered his emissaries to apply the torch in various sections of the city. The wind was fresh; the buildings, which were mostly of wood, were dry; the flames fierce. Nero ascended a neighboring tower to view the cruel, sublime, awful spectacle. Earth never witnessed such a scene before, has never since. For nine days and nights the flames raged in quenchless fury. Uncounted multitudes, caught in the narrow streets, perished miserably. The most magnificent specimens of architecture and priceless works of art were consumed.

The motives which led to this diabolical deed were probably complex. It is said that Nero, satiated with every conceivable indulgence, longed for some new excitement. The spectacle of the dwellings of four millions of people in flames; the frenzy, the dismay, the runnings to and fro, of the perishing millions,—men, women, and children; the rush and roar of the conflagration, flashing in billowy flames by night to the clouds,—all combined to present a spectacle such as mortal eye had never gazed upon before.

The estimated population of the Roman empire at this time was about a hundred and fifty millions. By the assessment of enormous taxes upon these millions, funds could easily be raised to rebuild Rome in hitherto unimagined splendor. It is said that this ambition was one of the motives which inspired Nero to his infamous deed.

Nero commenced with great energy, levying taxes, and rebuilding the city; but the cry of the starving, houseless millions could not be stifled. The tyrant was alarmed. To shield himself from obloquy, he accused the Christians of the crime, and visited them with the most terrible retribution.

“Not all the relief,” writes Tacitus, “that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow, nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration. Hence, to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons called Christians.”

To enter into the detail of the outrages to which the Christians were exposed would but harrow the feelings of the reader. Demoniac ingenuity was employed in inflicting the most revolting and terrible suffering; while at the same time the victims were so disguised, sewed up in skins of wild beasts, or wrapped in tarred sheets, as to deprive them of all sympathy, and expose them to the derision of the brutal mob. Tender Christian maidens passed through ordeals of exposure, suffering, and death, too dreadful for us, in these modern days, even to contemplate. That divine support which Christ promised to his followers in these predicted hours of persecution sustained them. The imagination cannot conceive of greater cruelty than Nero inflicted upon these disciples of Jesus: and yet in death they came off more than conquerors; and it proved then emphatically true, that “the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church.”

It was during this persecution by Nero that Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome. He had been there a prisoner in chains for some years. With his accustomed power and success, he had preached the gospel of Jesus; and those pure doctrines had gained access even to the palace of the Cæsars. A large and flourishing church had been gathered in that city, which in corruption equalled, even if it did not outvie, Sodom and Gomorrah. On no page of Holy Writ does the light of inspiration beam more brightly than in Paul’s Epistle to the Church at Rome.

Chrysostom says, that a cup-bearer of Nero, and one of the most distinguished females of his court, became, through the preaching of Paul, disciples of Jesus, and recoiled from the sin and the shame everywhere around them. This so enraged the tyrant, that he ordered Paul immediately to be beheaded.

It is one of the legends of the Romish Church, founded upon evidence which has not generally been entirely satisfactory to Protestants, that the apostle Peter visited Rome, where he was arrested, and imprisoned with Paul. It is said that the two apostles were incarcerated together in the prison of Mamertin, which was at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, andwhich was constructed of damp and gloomy underground vaults, extensive in their range, and crowded with the victims of tyranny. Two of the prison-guards and forty-seven of the prisoners, impressed by the character and by the teachings of these holy men, became converts. Peter baptized them. Nero ordered both of the apostles to be executed. Their death took place, according to the declaration of the Catholic fathers, on the same day,—the 29th of June, A.D. 67. St. Paul, being a Roman citizen, could not be subjected to the ignominy of crucifixion: he was beheaded. St. Peter, being a Jew, was regarded as a vile person, and doomed to the cross. Paul was led a distance of three miles from the city to a place called the Fountain of Salvienne, where the block of the executioner awaited him. On the way, forgetful of self, he preached the gospel of Jesus to the soldiers who guarded him. Three of them became converts, and soon after suffered martyrdom.