The Divine Origin of Revelation

II. The Heroism of the Martyrs

1. Broadly speaking, every person who embraces the Christian religion can be regarded as a witness (μάρτυρ) of its divine character. According to theological usage, however, the term martyr is applied only to those who have sealed their testimony to the truth and divine origin of Christianity by a violent death.

2. The heroic fortitude of the martyrs is a proof of the divine origin of Christianity in so far as it was not the result of natural power and energy of the will, but a supernatural, divine effect, a miracle in the moral order. However, it is not the heroism of the martyrs per se which we regard as a proof of the divinity of the Christian religion, but the fact that it was displayed under precisely the circumstances which history records.

3. Therefore, we have first to demonstrate the fact of the heroic fortitude of the martyrs, and, secondly, that it had a supernatural, divine cause. The latter point being established, it follows, since God cannot positively contribute to the spread of a false religion, that Christianity must be a divine institution.

We maintain that the heroic fortitude of the martyrs under the circumstances in which they laid down their lives for the faith, is a proof of the divine origin of the Christian religion.

If the heroic fortitude of the martyrs in testifying to their conviction of the truth of Christianity is a supernatural effect, which per se serves the profession, preservation, and expansion of the Christian religion, then, according to the teaching of its Founder, that religion must be accepted as divine. Now, the fortitude of the martyrs is such a supernatural effect. Therefore, the Christian religion must be accepted as divine.

A. The Heroic Fortitude of the Martyrs as a Supernatural Phenomenon

The extraordinary fortitude shown by the Christian martyrs appears all the more impressive, the greater was their number, the more terrible were the tortures they endured, and the nobler the spirit with which they suffered for the faith.

1. The Number of the Martyrs

The number of those who laid down their lives for the Christian faith during the first three centuries was very large. Tacitus writes that “an immense multitude” were put to death under Nero.⁵⁴²542Annal., XV, 44. Dio Cassius says that “Domitian put to death many others.”⁵⁴³543Hist. Rom., LXVII, 14. Trajan (98-117) inaugurated a persecution in the course of which “many of the faithful endured martyrdom in various ways.”⁵⁴⁴544Eusebius, H. E., III, 33; Loeb Classical Library, tr. by K. Lake, Eusebius, Vol. I, pp. 278 f. Under Marcus Aurelius (161-180) myriads (μυριάδας μαρτύρων) died for their faith all over the world.⁵⁴⁵545Eusebius, H. E., V, 1; Loeb Classical Library, l. c., pp. 404 sq. We have similar reports concerning the persecutions that took place under Septimius Severus, Decius, Gallus, and Valerian. The most brutal persecutor of all was Diocletian (284-305), under whom thirty, sixty, nay, a hundred Christians were often executed in one day, so that, as Eusebius says, “the swords grew dull and broke, and the executioners had to take turns from sheer exhaustion.”⁵⁴⁶546H. E., VIII, 9.

The total number of the martyrs cannot be estimated with any degree of accuracy, as no statistics were kept and many of the earliest “acts” were destroyed by the enemies of the Church. That the number was very large may be inferred from the statement of the Roman Martyrology that no less than 13,825 Christians were martyred in the city of Rome alone, including men and women of every age, class, and profession.⁵⁴⁷547Cfr. Dionysius of Alexandria, Ep. ad Domitium et Didymum, quoted by Eusebius, H. E., VII, 11; Lactantius, De Morte Persecutorum, XV (P. L., VII, 216); O. Marucchi and E. S. Berry, Catholic Library, Archeology Series, Vol. IV, The Early Martyrs, ed. by R. McEachen, Wheeling, W. Va., 1921, esp. p. 196; E. C. E. Owen, Some Authentic Acts of the Early Martyrs, Oxford, 1927. Lactantius says that so many Christians were burned at the stake that the executioners could not find time to slay them singly, but grouped them together and burned them in one great fire. Thousands died in exile, in prison, and in the mines. Great numbers were killed by wild beasts in the amphitheatres. Others were crucified, drowned or died under torture. The Roman law permitted slaveholders to punish their slaves with death. Thus many Christian slaves were undoubtedly martyred, but the fact was never recorded. Notaries were appointed at Rome in the early days to keep records of martyrdoms, but most of these records were unfortunately destroyed during the persecution under Diocletian. Marucchi estimates the number of martyrs at “hundreds of thousands, and perhaps several millions.”

2. The Terrible Tortures Endured by the Martyrs

The tortures which the martyrs endured for the faith were extremely variegated and painful. This was attributable partly to the severity of the pagan laws, which inflicted cruel punishment for the crimes with which the Christians were usually charged, e. g., lèse majesté; partly to the cruelty of the judges, who wished to make themselves popular with the masses who hated the Christians; and partly also to the purpose of the pagan authorities to force the accused Christians by long-drawn-out and severe tortures to deny their faith. The victims were subjected to manifold punishments: they were crucified, hung up by the hands or feet with weights tied to their limbs, their bones were broken upon the wheel, they were scourged, their flesh was lacerated with iron hooks, they were seared with red-hot metal plates and torches, or cremated in stoves, or at the stake, or in pans or kettles, roasted on grates, decapitated, pierced with arrows, their bellies ripped open with hooks and the entrails fed to the hogs; they were exposed to wild beasts, or buried alive, or condemned to work in the mines or on public buildings, and so forth.⁵⁴⁸548F. X. Kraus, Real-Enzyklopädie der christl. Altertümer, Vol. II, Freiburg, 1886, pp. 372 sqq., with the necessary documentary evidence. Cfr. James Bridge in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XI, pp. 707-711; P. Allard, Ten Lectures on the Martyrs, London, 1907, pp. 215 sqq.

3. The Sublime Fortitude of the Martyrs

The martyrs of every age and class and of both sexes suffered all these torments, not only without a trace of impatience and repugnance, but, on the contrary, with genuine joy. They steadfastly endured the most cruel tortures in spite of the alluring promises held out to them if they would deny the faith. By a single word or gesture they might have obtained their liberty, honor, and the respect of their fellowmen, not infrequently riches and a life of luxury, public offices and dignities, nay, even the favor of the imperial court. But they preferred to renounce every earthly advantage and suffered a cruel death rather than deny the faith.

This attitude was not the result of lack of sympathy or of dullness. For among the martyrs there were cultured and wealthy as well as ignorant and poor people. Nor can their behavior be ascribed to fanaticism or uncontrolled enthusiasm. This may be seen from the calmness and serenity of mind with which the martyrs met death, the humility and modesty with which they suffered,—not depending on their own strength, but relying on the help of God, they hoped to win in the terrible struggle. Moreover, it would be impossible to explain how exaltation and fanaticism could have spread so widely throughout the Roman Empire and lasted for three hundred years.

B. The Supernatural Character of This Phenomenon

Experience teaches that human nature has a strong repugnance to bodily pain, especially if it is inflicted upon the organism from without by cutting, burning, etc. It is justly regarded as a proof of extraordinary will-power if one is able to undergo a surgical operation while fully conscious and without flinching. A man must be a real hero to allow himself to be slowly tortured to death. There are men who possess this power of the will and iron nerves as a gift of nature, but they are few and far between.

Among the Christian martyrs we meet with a very large number of persons of both sexes and of every age, class, and profession, who, without a sufficient natural motive, exhibit such power and courage, not only at one time and in one place, but for three long centuries and throughout the Roman Empire.

The world had never witnessed such an extraordinary spectacle before. The scenes enacted in the course of the various persecutions exceeded the capacity of unaided human nature. Unless we are willing to admit an effect without an adequate cause, we must admit that divine forces were at work here. None other could enter into a case where there was question of a religion which paganism persecuted as its deadliest enemy.

The martyrs themselves, their brethren in the faith, and even many of the pagans who attended these scenes of heroism, were convinced that it was God who gave them courage and patience to endure their cruel sufferings with equanimity. When St. Felicitas, who was already suffering intense agony, was asked by her jailer what she would do when face to face with the wild beasts, she answered: “Now I suffer what I suffer; but then Another will be in me who will suffer for me, because I too am ready to suffer for Him.”⁵⁴⁹549Passio SS. Perpetuae et Felicitatis, XV, 10 (Migne, P. L., III, 47): “Quae sic modo doles, quid facies obiecta bestiis, quas contempsisti, cum sacrificare noluisti?” … “Modo ego patior quod patior, illic autem alius erit in me, qui patietur pro me, quia et ego pro illo passura sum.” Cfr. Owen, Some Authentic Acts of the Early Martyrs, Oxford, 1927, p. 88. Lactantius says of the pagans: “When the people see that men are lacerated by various kinds of tortures, and that they retain their patience unsubdued while the executioners are wearied, they think, as is really the case, that neither the agreement of so many nor the constancy of the dying could surmount such great tortures without the aid of God.”⁵⁵⁰550Inst. Div. l. V, c. 13 (P. L., VI, 592): “Cum videat vulgus dilacerari homines variis tormentorum generibus et inter fatigatos carnifices invictam tenere patientiam, existimant, id quod res est, nec consensum tam multorum nec perseverantiam sine Deo cruciatus tantos posse superare.”

It was precisely the observation that God so strengthened the Christian confessors that they remained loyal to their religion in all their sufferings, which attracted many pagans to the Christian faith. Justly, therefore, could Tertullian say to the pagan governors: “Torment us as much as you wish; your iniquity is the proof of our innocence. … Nor will it do any good to enhance your cruelty. The more of us you slay, the more numerous we grow: for the blood of Christians is a seed.”⁵⁵¹551Apolog., 50 (P. L., I, 534 sq.): “Cruciate, torquete, damnate, atterite nos: probatio est enim innocentiae nostrae iniquitas vestra. … Nec quidquam tamen proficit exquisitior quaeque crudelitas vestra. … Plures efficimur, quoties metimur a vobis: semen est sanguis christianorum.”

That the miraculous fortitude of the martyrs redounded to the advantage of Christianity and contributed much to its preservation and expansion, needs no further proof. It was the supernatural assistance of God that enabled so many confessors to die for their religious convictions and at the same time confirmed thousands of their brethren in the faith and won over innumerable pagans.

Consequently, it is not too much to say that God Himself was the chief factor in extending and solidifying Christianity by giving the martyrs supernatural courage and strength to profess their religion under the most difficult conditions, and, as a further consequence, the Christian religion, in whose favor He wrought these miracles, must be regarded as His own work.

C. Attempted Natural Explanation of the Fortitude of the Martyrs

The Rationalists account for the fortitude of the Christian martyrs by purely natural means. They point to the enthusiasm and zeal of the first Christians—which they describe as bordering on fanaticism—and remind us of kindred phenomena in the natural sphere, such as the bravery of soldiers in battle, the fortitude of criminals condemned to death, and the heroic courage shown by the followers of other religions under similar conditions. They emphasize the motives of honor, human respect, and hope of eternal reward, which are admittedly very powerful in inspiring men with courage. A closer inspection, however, will show that these causes are not sufficient to explain the effects with which they are credited.

1. The Enthusiasm of the First Christians and the Phenomena Resembling the Heroism of the Martyrs

As regards the enthusiasm of the first Christians, we have already observed in a general way that in the ordinary course of human events enthusiasm and zeal neither assume such dimensions nor endure as long as was the case in the early days of the Christian Church, nor do they explain the calmness with which the martyrs went to their death. Between the courage of soldiers in battle and the fortitude of the martyrs there is an essential difference. The circumstances that accompany the courage of the warrior and the motives of his conduct differ toto caelo from the circumstances by which the martyrs were surrounded and the motives which inspired them. The soldier on the battlefield is in a state of great excitement. Fighting for his life, he abandons himself unreservedly to the instinct of self-preservation, the strongest of all human motives. Egged on by the strains of martial music, carried away by the gallantry of his fellow-soldiers, mindful of his beloved country, the friends who are falling by his side, the glory which comes to the brave and the disgrace that attaches itself to the coward, the soldier rushes forward courageously, thinking only of victory and not of death. “Patriotism, the desire for glory, and ambition, stimulated by the hope of reward, develop and simultaneously exert their influence upon a mind excited by the extraordinary circumstances and the threatening danger, while the body finds itself in a most favorable position, enabling it to keep the passions aglow and in constant action by the movement and heat of the combat.”⁵⁵²552J. Balmes, Cartas á un Escéptico, Barcelona, 1845, p. 115. How different is the position and attitude of the martyr who is about to meet death for his faith! Instead of rushing to kill or to be killed, he awaits death calmly; instead of meeting force with force, he submits patiently to suffering. The passions are silent. The martyr’s body is usually weakened by previous maltreatment, his spirit looks forward to torture and certain death. There is nothing to inflame his courage or give him comfort. Whatever he sees and hears tends to depress and paralyze him. Mockery and contempt accompany him on his final walk, and he feels that not even his name will be handed down to posterity. There are none of the natural incentives and circumstances which are so many fountains of strength and consolation to the soldier. Therefore, it is foolish to compare the fortitude of the Christian martyrs with the courage of soldiers in battle.

To find a more fitting parallel, modern critics have compared the calm resignation of the martyrs with the patient perseverance of present-day soldiers in the trenches. But there are two factors which make this comparison appear inept. First of all, the soldiers under fire in the trenches are compelled to remain in their disagreeable position, whereas the martyrs could have escaped torture by a single word or sign indicating their willingness to deny the faith. Secondly, the soldiers are tormented only by the constant fear of death and mutilation, whereas the martyrs actually suffered cruel physical tortures in addition to their mental anguish.

Equally inept is the comparison of the martyrs with criminals condemned to death. Some of the latter, it is true, resemble the former in that they face the gallows with equanimity. But there is a vast difference between the two cases. The criminal condemned to hang can no longer escape death, whereas the martyrs could easily have obtained their freedom.

Scarcely more convincing are the references to the heroic fortitude of certain pagan heroes, such as the two Decii, Regulus, Mutius Scaevola, and Socrates. Here, too, the phenomena are utterly dissimilar. The cases mentioned are rare exceptions to a general rule, while the Christian Church can point to an immense number of martyrs who laid down their life for the faith. The pagan heroes in question were strong men, inured to warfare and almost without exception highly educated, who took a keen interest in all public questions and whose courage and energy were inflamed by some danger which threatened them or their native land. Among the heroes of the Christian faith, on the contrary, “we behold old men, women, children, members of the lowest social strata, who had never occupied a prominent position and therefore could not acquire that noble pride, which, being one of the strongest passions of the heart, sometimes endows men with a strength of which they would not otherwise be capable.”⁵⁵³553Op. cit.

It is asserted that some of the adherents of other religions died as courageously for their faith as the martyrs of the first Christian centuries died for theirs. But the number of these heroic confessors is extremely small in comparison with that of the Christian martyrs, and the fact adduced only proves that in certain individual cases human energy alone is sufficient to enable one to endure great suffering with fortitude.

The case is somewhat different with the Hindu widows who voluntarily seek death by fire after the demise of their consorts. This phenomenon (suttee) is part and parcel of an ancient custom, which exerts a moral compulsion upon all members of the tribe or nation. These unfortunate women are goaded on by a desire for honor and the good name of the family and by fear of the disgrace which they would incur if they refused to follow their husbands in death. The contrast between their conduct and that of the Christian martyrs is obvious. The martyrs were not impelled by custom or by a desire for glory or by fear of disgrace; on the contrary, all these motives urged them to deny the faith.⁵⁵⁴554Ign. Ottiger, S.J., Theol. Fundamentalis, Vol. I, pp. 890 sq.

2. The Motive of Glory and the Hope of Eternal Reward

After what we have said, it is hardly necessary to refute the assertion that the martyrs were impelled by ambition and a desire for glory. We will only call attention to a few points which must not be overlooked in this connection. The first is that the contention with which we are dealing plainly contradicts the humility of the martyrs and their trust in Divine Providence. The second is that the Christians, so long as they adhered to their religion, were regarded as fools or fanatics, or at best as victims of deception, and treated either with hatred and contempt or with pity; in either case there was small chance of their gaining any honor or glory. The third point to which we would call attention is that it cannot be explained how the many thousands of martyrs of the lower classes should have regarded honor and glory as more important than life itself.

But did not the hope of eternal reward in the life beyond inspire the Christian martyrs with fortitude? We admit that this is true. In fact, it is precisely our contention. Only it was not the merely natural hope of happiness in the life beyond, nor a natural fear of eternal punishment that gave them strength to sacrifice their earthly possessions and their life and to suffer the most excruciating torments. For human nature, as we all know, is so constituted that considerations of the future, good or bad, are not able to inspire heroic deeds or to help men bear extraordinary sufferings. Man is most forcibly impressed and most easily moved to action by the things which immediately affect his senses. Belief in a future reward or punishment may be deeply rooted in the soul without influencing one’s conduct, which is but too often determined by objects that directly attract or repel the mind. If the conduct of the many thousands of Christian martyrs is quite different from that of the average man, and they acted solely with a view to the future, this is a sure proof that they were inspired and assisted by God.

For further reading, see page 348.

3. The Benefits Conferred upon Mankind by Christianity in the Social, Moral, and Religious Spheres

The question here at issue is the influence exercised by the Christian religion upon the customs and habits of men, not the teaching of that religion in itself, which has already been offered as an independent argument. We deal only with the first three centuries of the Christian era, in order to restrict the scope of demonstration within convenient limits. Here again we have to demonstrate: (1) That Christianity exerted an extraordinarily favorable influence on the customs of nations and (2) that this influence was owing to its supernatural character. From the latter proposition it will then follow that, since God cannot favor a false religion by lending it His support, Christianity must be of divine origin.

We assert that the extraordinarily beneficent influence of Christianity upon the social, moral, and religious life of men is a proof of its divine origin.

The elevating effects of Christianity on the social, moral, and religious life of men during the first three centuries of the Christian era were so extraordinary that natural causes alone would not have been sufficient to produce them. They can be explained only by the action of a supernatural, divine power. Now, if God has positively favored and recommended the religion which was attributed to divine revelation by its founder, Jesus Christ, that religion must be of divine origin. Therefore, Christianity is of divine origin.

A. The Extraordinary Influence of Christianity upon the Social, Moral, and Religious Life of Men

1. The effects of Christianity on the moral and religious life are attested, for the converts from Judaism by Acts II, 42–47 and IV, 32–35; for the converts from heathenism by numerous Christian as well as pagan authorities.

a) Christian Testimonies.—St. Clement of Rome writes to the Corinthians: “For who has stayed with you without making proof of the virtue and steadfastness of your faith? Who has not admired the sobriety and Christian gentleness of your piety? Who has not reported your character so magnificent in its hospitality? And who has not blessed your perfect and secure knowledge?”⁵⁵⁵555Ep. ad Cor., I, 2 (K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers, I, 9 sq.)

Aristides, in his Apology, which is believed to have been addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161), describes the life of the early Christians as follows: “These are they who beyond all nations of the earth have found the truth; for they know God as Creator and Maker of all things, and they worship no other God beside Him; for they have His commandments graven on their hearts, and these they keep in expectation of the world to come. … (They do not commit adultery, nor fornication, nor do they bear false witness; they do not deny a deposit nor covet what is not theirs …) Whatsoever they would not should be done unto them, they do not to another. … (they do good to their enemies: and their wives, O King, are pure as virgins, and their daughters modest. … and they walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not found among them, and they love one another …) He that hath, supplieth him that hath not without grudging: if they see a stranger, they bring him under their roof and rejoice over him as over a brother indeed, for they call not one another brethren after the flesh, but after the spirit. They are ready for Christ’s sake to give up their own lives; for His commandments they securely keep, living holily and righteously according as the Lord their God hath commanded them, giving thanks to Him at all hours over their food and drink and the rest of their good things. … (But the good deeds they do, they do not proclaim in the ears of the multitude, and they take care that no one shall perceive them, … but their sayings and their ordinances, O King, and the glory of their service and the expectation of their recompense of reward … which they expect in another world, thou art able to know from their writings.) … Truly great and wonderful is their teaching to him that is willing to examine and understand it. And truly this is a new race, and there is something divine mingled with it. Take now their writings and read in them, and lo! you will find that not of myself have I brought these things forward, nor as their advocate have I said them, but as I have read in their writings these things, I firmly believe and those things that are to come. … And truly blessed is the race of the Christians more than all men that are upon the face of the earth. Let the tongue of those now be silenced who talk vanity and who oppress the Christians, and let them now speak the truth. … Let all those … who do not know God … anticipate the dread judgment which is to come by Jesus, the Messias, upon the whole race of men.”⁵⁵⁶556Apolog., c. 15 and circa finem. Cfr. O. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur, Vol. I, 2nd ed., Freiburg, 1913, p. 197. Aristides was a philosopher of Athens, who is mentioned by Eusebius (H. E., IV, 3) as a contemporary of Quadratus, who in turn lived so near to the lifetime of Christ that he declares some who had been healed by the Saviour “lived on to our own times.” His Apology, long lost, was recovered by J. Rendel Harris in 1889, in a Syriac translation, in one of the libraries of the Convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai. All that had been known of this work previously was an Armenian fragment published in 1878. (See The Newly Recovered Apology of Aristides, by Helen B. Harris, pp. 8–25). Harris and Harnack believe this Apology to have been presented to the Emperor Antoninus Pius; but Dr. Armitage Robinson accepts the claim made in the Apology itself, that it was addressed to the Emperor Hadrian (117–138). If the latter claim be correct, then “this earliest extant argument for Christianity came into existence within a short generation of the Apostolic age, and its author must have been a boy when the Apostle John died.” (C. M. Cobern, The New Archeological Discoveries and their Bearing upon the New Testament, New York, 1917, p. 246). For the full Syriac text and translation of the above bracketed portion see J. Rendel Harris, Texts and Studies, Vol. I, pp. 1–64; for a corrected text (represented in the unbracketed portion) see J. A. Robinson, “Apology of Aristides,” in the Encyclopedia Britannica. There is a marked similarity between some portions of the Apology of Aristides and the anonymous Epistle to Diognetus (second or third century), which has been known since the sixteenth century. (Cfr. Cobern, op. cit., p. 251). Other Editions: Greek text and study by R. Seeberg, in Th. Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des ntl. Kanons Vol. V (Erlangen and Leipzig, 1893), pp. 159–414. Text and study by E. Hennecke in Texte u. Untersuchungen, IV, 3, Leipzig, 1893. Transl. from Syriac by R. Raabe in T. u. U., IX, 1. Text, transl., and notes in J. Geffken, Zwei Griechische Apologeten (Leipzig and Berlin 1907) pp. 1–96. German transl. in Bibl. d. Kirchenväter, Vol. XII, pp. 1–54, Kempten, 1913.

Justin Martyr says: “We who formerly delighted in fornication, now embrace chastity alone; we who formerly used magical arts, dedicate ourselves to the good and unbegotten God; we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock and communicate to every one in need; we who hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different manners would not live with men of a different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies, and endeavor to persuade those who hate us unjustly to live in conformity with the splendid precepts of Christ, to the end that they may become partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a reward from God, the ruler of all.”⁵⁵⁷557Apolog., I, 14 (P. G., VI, 348); Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. II, Edinburgh, 1867, p. 17; ed. by L. Pautigny in Textes et Documents, Vol. I, Paris, 1904.

Athenagoras writes: “Among us you will find uneducated persons, artisans, and old women, who, if they are unable in words to prove the benefit of our doctrine, yet by their deeds exhibit the benefit arising from their persuasion of its truth: they do not rehearse speeches, but exhibit good works; when struck, they do not strike back; when robbed, they do not go to law; they give to those that ask of them, and love their neighbors as themselves.”⁵⁵⁸558Legat. pro Christ., 11 (P. L., VI, 912 sq.); Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. II, Edinburgh, 1867, p. 387. E. Schwartz, Athenagorae Libellus pro Christianis; Oratio de Resurrectione Cadaverum, in T. u. U., IV, 2, Leipsic, 1891; J. Geffken, Zwei Christliche Apologeten, pp. 115–238.

Tertullian says: “We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God, as with united force, we may wrestle with Him in our supplications. … We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers, and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation. … [We dispense gifts] to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines, or banished to the islands, or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God’s Church, they become the nurslings of their fellow-Christians. But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another.”

And the same writer says in another place: “We call your own acts to witness, you who are daily presiding at the trials of prisoners and passing sentence upon crimes. Well, in your long lists of those accused of many and various atrocities, has any assassin, any cutpurse, any man guilty of sacrilege or seduction or stealing bathers’ clothes, his name entered as being a Christian too? Or when Christians are brought before you on the mere ground of their name, is there ever found among them an ill-doer of the sort just mentioned? It is always with your folk that the prison is steaming, the mines are sighing, the wild beasts are fed: it is from you the exhibitors of gladiatorial shows always get their herds of criminals for the occasion. You find no Christian there, except simply as being such; or if one is there as something else, a Christian he is no longer.”⁵⁵⁹559Apolog., 39, 44 (P. L., I, 468 sqq., 496 sq.): “Coimus in coetum et congregationem, ut ad Deum, quasi manu facta, precationibus ambiamus. … Oramus etiam pro imperatoribus, pro ministeriis eorum ac potestatibus, pro statu saeculi, pro rerum quiete, pro mora finis … egenis [dispensatur] alendis humandisque, et pueris ac puellis re ac parentibus destitutis, iamque domesticis senibus, itemque naufragis, et si in metallis, et si qui in insulis, vel in custodiis, duntaxat ex causa Dei sectae alumni confessionis suae fiunt. Sed eiusmodi vel maxime dilectionis operatio notam nobis inurit penes quosdam. Vide, inquiunt, ut invicem se diligant. … Vestros iam contestamur actus, qui quotidie iudicandis custodiis praesidetis, qui sententiis elogia dispungitis. Tot a vobis nocentes variis criminum elogiis recensentur; quis ille sicarius, quis manticularius, quis sacrilegus aut corruptor aut lavantium praedo, idem etiam christianus adscribitur? Aut cum christiani suo titulo offerentur, quis ex illis etiam talis, quales tot nocentes? De vestris semper aestuat carcer, de vestris semper metalla suspirant, de vestris semper bestiae saginantur, de vestris semper munerarii noxiorum greges pascunt. Nemo illic christianus, nisi hoc tantum, aut si et aliud, iam non christianus.” (Tr. from the Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. XI, pp. 118 sq., 126 sq.)

Lactantius writes: “That, therefore, which they perceived to be justly required by the demands of nature, but which they were themselves unable to perform, and saw that the philosophers could not effect, is accomplished only by divine instruction; for that only is wisdom. Were they able to persuade anyone, who do not even persuade themselves of anything? Or will they crush the desires, moderate the anger, and restrain the lusts of anyone, when they themselves both yield to vices and acknowledge that they are overpowered by nature? But what influence is exerted on the souls of men by the precepts of God, because of their simplicity and truth, is shown by daily proofs. Give me a man who is passionate, scurrilous, and unrestrained; with a very few words of God ‘I will render him as gentle as a sheep.’ Give me one who is grasping, covetous, and tenacious; I will presently restore him to you liberal, and freely bestowing his money with full hands. Give me a man who is afraid of pain and death; he shall presently despise crosses, and fires, and the bull [a brazen bull invented by Perillus, which the tyrant Phalaris used as an instrument of torture; it was so constructed that the groans of the victims appeared to resemble the bellowing of the bull]. Give me one who is lustful, an adulterer, a glutton; you shall presently see him sober, chaste, and temperate. Give me one who is cruel and bloodthirsty; that fury shall presently be changed into true clemency. Give me a man who is unjust, foolish, an evil-doer; forthwith he shall be just, and wise, and innocent; for by one laver [i. e., Baptism] all his wickedness shall be taken away. So great is the power of divine wisdom that, when infused into the breast of man, by one impulse, it once for all expels folly, which is the mother of faults.”⁵⁶⁰560Instit. Div., l. III, 26 (P. L., VI, 431 sq.): “Quod ergo illi [philosophi ethnici] poscente natura faciendum esse senserunt, sed tamen neque ipsi facere potuerunt neque a philosophis fieri posse viderunt, sola haec efficit doctrina caelestis, quia sola sapientia est. Illi scilicet persuadere cuiquam potuerunt, qui nihil persuadent etiam sibi? aut cuiusquam cupiditates oppriment, iram temperabunt, libidinem coercebunt, cum ipsi et cedant vitiis, et fateantur, plus valere naturam? Dei autem praecepta, quia et simplicia et vera sunt, quantum valeant in animis hominum, quotidiana experimenta demonstrant. Da mihi virum, qui sit iracundus, maledicus, effraenatus: paucissimis Dei verbis ‘tam placidum, quam ovem, reddam.’ (Terence, Adelphi, IV, 1). Da cupidum, avarum, tenacem: iam tibi eum liberalem dabo, et pecuniam suam plenis manibus largientem. Da timidum doloris et mortis: iam cruces et ignes et taurum contemnet. Da libidinosum, adulterum, ganeonem: iam sobrium, castum, continentem videbis. Da crudelem et sanguinis appetentem: iam in veram clementiam furor ille mutabitur. Da iniustum, insipientem, peccatorem: continuo et aequus et prudens et innocens erit. Uno enim lavacro malitia omnis abolebitur. Tanta divinae sapientiae vis est, ut in hominis pectus infusa, matrem delictorum stultitiam uno semel impetu expellat.” (Tr. by Wm. Fletcher, The Works of Lactantius, Vol. I, Edinburgh, 1871, pp. 200 sq.)

Origen calls attention to the difference in the conduct of the Christians before and after their conversion. “Note well,” he writes, “to what dissipations, injustices, passions they [the Christians] were given over before [i. e., before they embraced the religion of Jesus Christ]” and “how honest, serious, and well-behaved they are since they have become acquainted with that [scil. the Christian] doctrine, and how many of them have even refrained from legitimate sexual intercourse out of love of extraordinary purity and also in order to serve God with a cleaner heart.”⁵⁶¹561Contra Celsum, I, 26 (P. G., XI, 712). And in another passage: “The churches of God, which are instructed by Christ, when carefully contrasted with the assemblies of the districts in which they are situated, are as beacons (φωστῆρες) in the world; for who would not admit that even the inferior members of the church, and those who, in comparison with the better, are less worthy, are nevertheless more excellent than many of those who belong to the assemblies in the different districts?”⁵⁶²562Op. cit., III, 29 (P. G., XI, 957). Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. XXII, p. 111, Edinburgh, 1872.

Eusebius pronounces a similar judgment. “The Persians,” he says, “since they have accepted his [Christ’s] teaching, no longer marry their mothers, and the Scythians no longer nourish themselves with the flesh of human beings since the doctrine of Christ has penetrated to them. Other rude and uncultured nations no more commit incest with daughters and sisters; the men are no longer inflamed with furious lust towards one another and no longer seek amusements which run counter to the law of nature.”⁵⁶³563Praep. Evang., I, 4 (P. G., XXI, 40).

b) Pagan Testimonies.—Pliny reported to the Emperor Trajan: “They [the Christians] declared, however, that this had been the sum-total of their delusion, that they had been wont to come together on a fixed day before dawn and sing a hymn alternately to Christ as a god, and to bind themselves by a solemn obligation, not for any guilty purpose, but not to commit theft or robbery or adultery, nor to break faith or repudiate a deposit when called upon to pay it.”⁵⁶⁴564Epp., l. X, 96 (ed. Müller, Leipsic, 1903, p. 291 sq.). See the full passage supra, p. 130.

Julian the Apostate, in a letter to the priest Arsakios of Galatia, advised the pagans to model their lives upon those of the Christians. He writes: “We pay no attention to the manner in which godlessness [Christianity] mostly spread by hospitality toward strangers, by tender solicitude for the burial of the dead, and by pretended holiness of life. All these things must in truth be practiced by us. … It is disgraceful if none among the Jews beg, but the godless Galileans, besides their poor also support ours, who seem to lack our aid.”⁵⁶⁵565Cfr. Sozomen, H. E., V, 16 (Migne, P. G., LXVII, 1261 sq.)

Galen, a pagan philosopher and physician, who died about the year 200 A.D., makes mention of the Christians in his book on the Doctrines of Plato’s Republic as follows: “The majority of men have not the mental capacity to follow the proof of any proposition conveyed in a consecutive discourse. Consequently, they require to be taught by parables, as we see in our own times that those men who are called Christians have drawn their beliefs from parables. These men, however, sometimes act like true philosophers. For we have ocular demonstration of the fact that they despise death; also that, in obedience to a sort of modesty, they abstain from sexual pleasures. For there are among them women and men who throughout life have refrained from marital intercourse. Some, too, there are who have progressed so far in self-control, based on their earnest pursuit of righteousness, as to be not one whit inferior to true philosophers.”⁵⁶⁶566“Hominum plerique orationem demonstrativam continuam mente assequi nequeunt; quare indigent, ut instituantur parabolis, veluti nostro tempore videmus homines illos, qui christiani vocantur, fidem suam a parabolis petiisse. Hi tamen interdum talia faciunt, qualia qui vere philosophantur. Nam quod mortem contemnunt, id quidem ante oculos habemus; item quod verecundia ducti ab usu rerum venerearum abhorrent. Sunt enim inter eos et feminae et viri, qui per totam vitam a concubitu abstinuerint; sunt etiam qui in animis regendis coercendisque et in acerrimo studio eo progressi sint, ut nihil cedant vere philosophantibus.” (De Sententiis Politiae Platonicae; the passage is preserved in the fragments of the Arab historian Abulfeda [† 1331]. The Latin translation is by Fleischer, Leipsic, 1831, p. 109.)

Its most enduring influence Christianity exerted upon the family life. The family had sadly degenerated almost everywhere when the Christian religion began to spread in Rome and Greece. The wife was little more than a slave, completely subject to the whims of her husband. The slightest pretext was sufficient to bring about divorce and wife abandonment. Weakly or crippled children were often slain at birth, as they could not be expected to become useful soldiers or citizens. The slaves were treated as chattels, of which the master could dispose according to his good pleasure.

With regard to all these customs Christianity wrought a complete change. It emphasized the unity and indissolubility of marriage. It proclaimed the equality of all human beings before God and thus made the wife the equal of her husband. For the same reason it championed the rights of slaves and children.⁵⁶⁷567Cfr. Döllinger-Darnell, The Gentile and the Jew in the Courts of the Temple of Christ, Vol. II, 2nd ed., pp. 229 sqq.