Chapter 9
Share
FROM GALLIENUS
CHAPTER IX: FROM GALLIENUS
TO THE END OF THE LAST PERSECUTION (AD 261-313)
Valerian, who had treated the Christians so cruelly, came to a
miserable end. He led his army into Persia, where he was defeated
and taken prisoner. He was kept for some time in captivity; and we
are told that he used to be led forth, loaded with chains, but with
the purple robes of an emperor thrown over him, that the Persians
might mock at his misfortunes. And when he had died from the effects
of shame and grief, it is said that his skin was stuffed with straw,
and was kept in a temple, as a remembrance of the triumph which the
Persians had gained over the Romans, whose pride had never been so
humbled before.
When Valerian was taken prisoner, his son Gallienus became emperor
(AD261). Gallienus sent forth a law by which the Christians, for the
first time, got the liberty of serving God without the risk of being
persecuted. We might think him a good emperor for making such a law;
but he really does not deserve much credit for it, since he seems to
have made it merely because he did not care much either for his own
religion, or for any other.
And now there is hardly anything to be said of the next forty years,
except that the Christians enjoyed peace and prosperity. Instead of
being obliged to hold their services in the upper rooms of houses or
in burial-places under ground, and in the dead of night, they built
splendid churches, which they furnished with gold and silver plate,
and with other costly ornaments. Christians were appointed to high
offices, such as the government of countries, and many of them held
places in the emperor's palace. And, now that there was no danger or
loss to be risked by being Christians, multitudes of people joined
the Church who would have kept at a distance from it if there had
been anything to fear. But, unhappily, the Christians did not make a
good use of all their prosperity. Many of them grew worldly and
careless, and had little of the Christian about them except the
name; and they quarrelled and disputed among themselves, as if they
were no better than mere heathens. But it pleased God to punish them
severely for their faults, for at length there came such a
persecution as had never before been known.
At this time there were no fewer than four emperors at once; for
Diocletian, who became emperor in the year 284, afterwards took in
Maximian, Galerius, and Constantius, to share his power, and to
help him in the labour of government. Galerius and Constantius,
however, were not quite so high, and had not such full authority, as
the other two. Galerius married Diocletian's daughter, and it was
supposed that both this lady and the empress, her mother, were
Christians. The priests and others, whose interest it was to keep up
the old heathenism, began to be afraid lest the empresses should
make Christians of their husbands; and they sought how this might be
prevented.
Now the heathens had some ways by which they used to try to find out
the will of their gods. Sometimes they offered sacrifices of beasts,
and, when the beasts were killed, they cut them open, and judged
from the appearance of the inside, whether the gods were well
pleased or angry. And at certain places there were what they called
oracles, where people who wished to know the will of the gods went
through some ceremonies, and expected a voice to come from this or
that god in answer to them. Sure enough, the voice very often did
come, although it was not really from any god, but was managed by
the juggling of the priests. And the answers which these voices gave
were often contrived very cunningly, that they might have more than
one meaning, so that, however things might turn out, the oracle was
sure to come true. And now the priests set to frighten Diocletian
with tricks of this kind. When he sacrificed, the insides of the
victims (as the beasts offered in sacrifice were called) were said
to look in such a way as to show that the gods were angry. When he
consulted the oracles, answers were given declaring that, so long as
Christians were allowed to live on the earth, the gods would be
displeased. And thus Diocletian, although at first he had been
inclined to let them alone, became terrified, and was ready to
persecute.
The first order against the Christians was a proclamation requiring
that all soldiers, and all persons who held any office under the
emperor, should sacrifice to the heathen gods (AD 298). And five
years after this, Galerius, who was a cruel man, and very bitter
against the Christians (although his wife was supposed to be one),
persuaded Diocletian to begin a persecution in earnest.
Diocletian did not usually live at Rome, like the earlier emperors,
but at Nicomedia, a town in Asia Minor, on the shore of the
Propontis (now called the Sea of Marmora). And there the persecution
began, by his sending forth an order that all who would not serve
the gods of Rome should lose their offices; that their property
should be seized, and, if they were persons of rank, they should
lose their rank. Christians were no longer allowed to meet for
worship; their churches were to be destroyed, and their holy books
were to be sought out and burnt (Feb. 24, 303). As soon as this
proclamation was set forth, a Christian tore it down, and broke into
loud reproaches against the emperors. Such violent acts and words
were not becoming in a follower of Him, "who, when He was reviled,
reviled not again, and when He suffered, threatened not" (1 Peter
ii. 23). But the man who had forgotten himself so far, showed the
strength of his principles in the patience with which he bore the
punishment of what he had done, for he was roasted alive at a slow
fire, and did not even utter a groan.
This was in February, 303; and before the end of that year,
Diocletian put forth three more proclamations against the
Christians. One of them ordered that the Christian teachers should
be imprisoned; and very soon the prisons were filled with bishops
and clergy, while the evil-doers who were usually confined in them
were turned loose. The next proclamation ordered that the prisoners
should either sacrifice or be tortured; and the fourth directed that
not only the bishops and clergy, but all Christians, should be
required to sacrifice, on pain of torture.
These cruel laws were put in execution. Churches were pulled down,
beginning with the great church of Nicomedia, which was built on a
height, and overlooked the emperor's palace. All the Bibles and
service-books that could be found, and a great number of other
Christian writings, were thrown into the flames; and many Christians
who refused to give up their holy books were put to death. The plate
of churches was carried off, and was turned to profane uses, as the
vessels of the Jewish temple had formerly been by Belshazzar.
The sufferings of the Christians were frightful, but after what has
been already said of such things, I will not shock you by telling
you much about them here. Some were thrown to wild beasts; some were
burnt alive, or roasted on gridirons; some had their skins pulled
off, or their flesh scraped from their bones; some were crucified;
some were tied to branches of trees, which had been bent so as to
meet, and then they were torn to pieces by the starting asunder of
the branches. Thousands of them perished by one horrible death or
other, so that the heathens themselves grew tired and disgusted with
inflicting or seeing their sufferings; and at length, instead of
putting them to death, they sent them to work in mines, or plucked
out one of their eyes, or lamed one of their hands or feet, or set
bishops to look after horses or camels, or to do other work unfit
for persons of their venerable character. And it is impossible to
think what miseries even those who escaped must have undergone, for
the persecution lasted ten years, and they had not only to witness
the sufferings of their own dear relations, or friends, or teachers,
but knew that the like might, at any hour, come on themselves.
It was in the East that the persecution was hottest and lasted
longest; for in Europe it was not much felt after the first two
years. The Emperor Constantius, who ruled over Gaul (now called
France), Spain and Britain, was kind to the Christians, and after
his death, his son Constantine was still more favourable to them.
There were several changes among the other emperors, and the
Christians felt them for better or for worse, according to the
character of each emperor; but it is needless to speak much of them
in a little book like this. Galerius went on in his cruelty until,
at the end of eight years, he found that it had been of no use
towards putting down the Gospel, and that he was sinking under a
fearful disease, something like that of which Herod, who had killed
St. James, died (Acts xii. 23). He then thought with grief and
horror of what he had done, and (perhaps in the hope of getting some
relief from the God of Christians) he sent forth a proclamation
allowing them to rebuild their churches, and to hold their worship,
and begging them to remember him in their prayers. Soon after this
he died (AD 311).
The cruellest of all the persecutors was Maximin, who, from the year
305, had possession of Asia Minor, Syria, the Holy Land, and Egypt.
When Galerius made his law in favour of the Christians, Maximin for
a while pretended to give them the same kind of liberty in his
dominions. But he soon changed again, and required that all his
subjects should sacrifice--even that little babies should take some
grains of incense into their hands, and should burn it in honour of
the heathen gods; and when a season of great plenty followed after
this, Maximin boasted that it was a sign of the favour with which
the gods received his law. But it very soon appeared how false his
boast was, for famine and plague began to rage throughout his
dominions. The Christians, of course, had their share in the
distress; but instead of triumphing over their persecutors they
showed the true spirit of the Gospel by treating them with kindness,
by relieving the poor, by tending the sick, and by burying the dead,
who had been abandoned by their own nearest relations.
Although there is no room to give any particular account of the
martyrs here, there is one of them who especially deserves to be
remembered, because he was the first who suffered in our own island.
This good man, Alban, while he was yet a heathen, fell in with a
poor Christian priest, who was trying to hide himself from the
persecutors. Alban took him into his own house, and sheltered him
there; and he was so much struck with observing how the priest
prayed to God, and spent long hours of the night in religious
exercises, that he soon became a believer in Christ. But the priest
was hotly searched for, and information was given that he was hidden
in Alban's house. And when the soldiers came to look for him there,
Alban knew their errand, and put on the priest's dress, so that the
soldiers seized him and carried him before the judge. The judge
found that they had brought the wrong man, and, in his rage at the
disappointment, he told Alban that he must himself endure the
punishment which had been meant for the other. Alban heard this
without any fear, and on being questioned, he declared that he was a
Christian, a worshipper of the one true God, and that he would not
sacrifice to idols which could do no good. He was put to the
torture, but bore it gladly for his Saviour's sake, and then, as he
was still firm in professing his faith, the judge gave orders that
he should be beheaded. And when he had been led out to the place of
execution, which was a little grassy knoll that rose gently on one
side of the town, the soldier, who was to have put him to death, was
so moved by the sight of Alban's behaviour, that he threw away his
sword, and desired to be put to death with him. They were both
beheaded, and the town of Verulam, where they suffered, has since
been called St. Alban's, from the name of the first British martyr.
This martyrdom took place early in the persecution; but, (as we have
seen) Constantius afterwards protected the British Christians, and
his son Constantine, who succeeded to his share in the empire,
treated them with yet greater favour. In the year 312, Constantine
marched against Maxentius, who had usurped the government of Italy
and Africa. Constantine seems to have been brought up by his father
to believe in one God, although he did not at all know who this God
was, nor how He had revealed Himself in Holy Scripture. But as he
was on his way to fight Maxentius, he saw in the sky a wonderful
appearance, which seemed like the figure of a cross, with words
around it--"By this conquer!" He then caused the cross to be put on
the standards (or colours) of his army; and when he had defeated
Maxentius, he set up at Rome a statue of himself, with a cross in
its right hand, and with an inscription which declared that he owed
his victory to that saving sign. About the same time that
Constantine overcame Maxentius, Licinius put down Maximin in the
East. The two conquerors now had possession of the whole empire, and
they joined in publishing laws by which Christians were allowed to
worship God freely according to their conscience (AD 313).
TO THE END OF THE LAST PERSECUTION (AD 261-313)
Valerian, who had treated the Christians so cruelly, came to a
miserable end. He led his army into Persia, where he was defeated
and taken prisoner. He was kept for some time in captivity; and we
are told that he used to be led forth, loaded with chains, but with
the purple robes of an emperor thrown over him, that the Persians
might mock at his misfortunes. And when he had died from the effects
of shame and grief, it is said that his skin was stuffed with straw,
and was kept in a temple, as a remembrance of the triumph which the
Persians had gained over the Romans, whose pride had never been so
humbled before.
When Valerian was taken prisoner, his son Gallienus became emperor
(AD261). Gallienus sent forth a law by which the Christians, for the
first time, got the liberty of serving God without the risk of being
persecuted. We might think him a good emperor for making such a law;
but he really does not deserve much credit for it, since he seems to
have made it merely because he did not care much either for his own
religion, or for any other.
And now there is hardly anything to be said of the next forty years,
except that the Christians enjoyed peace and prosperity. Instead of
being obliged to hold their services in the upper rooms of houses or
in burial-places under ground, and in the dead of night, they built
splendid churches, which they furnished with gold and silver plate,
and with other costly ornaments. Christians were appointed to high
offices, such as the government of countries, and many of them held
places in the emperor's palace. And, now that there was no danger or
loss to be risked by being Christians, multitudes of people joined
the Church who would have kept at a distance from it if there had
been anything to fear. But, unhappily, the Christians did not make a
good use of all their prosperity. Many of them grew worldly and
careless, and had little of the Christian about them except the
name; and they quarrelled and disputed among themselves, as if they
were no better than mere heathens. But it pleased God to punish them
severely for their faults, for at length there came such a
persecution as had never before been known.
At this time there were no fewer than four emperors at once; for
Diocletian, who became emperor in the year 284, afterwards took in
Maximian, Galerius, and Constantius, to share his power, and to
help him in the labour of government. Galerius and Constantius,
however, were not quite so high, and had not such full authority, as
the other two. Galerius married Diocletian's daughter, and it was
supposed that both this lady and the empress, her mother, were
Christians. The priests and others, whose interest it was to keep up
the old heathenism, began to be afraid lest the empresses should
make Christians of their husbands; and they sought how this might be
prevented.
Now the heathens had some ways by which they used to try to find out
the will of their gods. Sometimes they offered sacrifices of beasts,
and, when the beasts were killed, they cut them open, and judged
from the appearance of the inside, whether the gods were well
pleased or angry. And at certain places there were what they called
oracles, where people who wished to know the will of the gods went
through some ceremonies, and expected a voice to come from this or
that god in answer to them. Sure enough, the voice very often did
come, although it was not really from any god, but was managed by
the juggling of the priests. And the answers which these voices gave
were often contrived very cunningly, that they might have more than
one meaning, so that, however things might turn out, the oracle was
sure to come true. And now the priests set to frighten Diocletian
with tricks of this kind. When he sacrificed, the insides of the
victims (as the beasts offered in sacrifice were called) were said
to look in such a way as to show that the gods were angry. When he
consulted the oracles, answers were given declaring that, so long as
Christians were allowed to live on the earth, the gods would be
displeased. And thus Diocletian, although at first he had been
inclined to let them alone, became terrified, and was ready to
persecute.
The first order against the Christians was a proclamation requiring
that all soldiers, and all persons who held any office under the
emperor, should sacrifice to the heathen gods (AD 298). And five
years after this, Galerius, who was a cruel man, and very bitter
against the Christians (although his wife was supposed to be one),
persuaded Diocletian to begin a persecution in earnest.
Diocletian did not usually live at Rome, like the earlier emperors,
but at Nicomedia, a town in Asia Minor, on the shore of the
Propontis (now called the Sea of Marmora). And there the persecution
began, by his sending forth an order that all who would not serve
the gods of Rome should lose their offices; that their property
should be seized, and, if they were persons of rank, they should
lose their rank. Christians were no longer allowed to meet for
worship; their churches were to be destroyed, and their holy books
were to be sought out and burnt (Feb. 24, 303). As soon as this
proclamation was set forth, a Christian tore it down, and broke into
loud reproaches against the emperors. Such violent acts and words
were not becoming in a follower of Him, "who, when He was reviled,
reviled not again, and when He suffered, threatened not" (1 Peter
ii. 23). But the man who had forgotten himself so far, showed the
strength of his principles in the patience with which he bore the
punishment of what he had done, for he was roasted alive at a slow
fire, and did not even utter a groan.
This was in February, 303; and before the end of that year,
Diocletian put forth three more proclamations against the
Christians. One of them ordered that the Christian teachers should
be imprisoned; and very soon the prisons were filled with bishops
and clergy, while the evil-doers who were usually confined in them
were turned loose. The next proclamation ordered that the prisoners
should either sacrifice or be tortured; and the fourth directed that
not only the bishops and clergy, but all Christians, should be
required to sacrifice, on pain of torture.
These cruel laws were put in execution. Churches were pulled down,
beginning with the great church of Nicomedia, which was built on a
height, and overlooked the emperor's palace. All the Bibles and
service-books that could be found, and a great number of other
Christian writings, were thrown into the flames; and many Christians
who refused to give up their holy books were put to death. The plate
of churches was carried off, and was turned to profane uses, as the
vessels of the Jewish temple had formerly been by Belshazzar.
The sufferings of the Christians were frightful, but after what has
been already said of such things, I will not shock you by telling
you much about them here. Some were thrown to wild beasts; some were
burnt alive, or roasted on gridirons; some had their skins pulled
off, or their flesh scraped from their bones; some were crucified;
some were tied to branches of trees, which had been bent so as to
meet, and then they were torn to pieces by the starting asunder of
the branches. Thousands of them perished by one horrible death or
other, so that the heathens themselves grew tired and disgusted with
inflicting or seeing their sufferings; and at length, instead of
putting them to death, they sent them to work in mines, or plucked
out one of their eyes, or lamed one of their hands or feet, or set
bishops to look after horses or camels, or to do other work unfit
for persons of their venerable character. And it is impossible to
think what miseries even those who escaped must have undergone, for
the persecution lasted ten years, and they had not only to witness
the sufferings of their own dear relations, or friends, or teachers,
but knew that the like might, at any hour, come on themselves.
It was in the East that the persecution was hottest and lasted
longest; for in Europe it was not much felt after the first two
years. The Emperor Constantius, who ruled over Gaul (now called
France), Spain and Britain, was kind to the Christians, and after
his death, his son Constantine was still more favourable to them.
There were several changes among the other emperors, and the
Christians felt them for better or for worse, according to the
character of each emperor; but it is needless to speak much of them
in a little book like this. Galerius went on in his cruelty until,
at the end of eight years, he found that it had been of no use
towards putting down the Gospel, and that he was sinking under a
fearful disease, something like that of which Herod, who had killed
St. James, died (Acts xii. 23). He then thought with grief and
horror of what he had done, and (perhaps in the hope of getting some
relief from the God of Christians) he sent forth a proclamation
allowing them to rebuild their churches, and to hold their worship,
and begging them to remember him in their prayers. Soon after this
he died (AD 311).
The cruellest of all the persecutors was Maximin, who, from the year
305, had possession of Asia Minor, Syria, the Holy Land, and Egypt.
When Galerius made his law in favour of the Christians, Maximin for
a while pretended to give them the same kind of liberty in his
dominions. But he soon changed again, and required that all his
subjects should sacrifice--even that little babies should take some
grains of incense into their hands, and should burn it in honour of
the heathen gods; and when a season of great plenty followed after
this, Maximin boasted that it was a sign of the favour with which
the gods received his law. But it very soon appeared how false his
boast was, for famine and plague began to rage throughout his
dominions. The Christians, of course, had their share in the
distress; but instead of triumphing over their persecutors they
showed the true spirit of the Gospel by treating them with kindness,
by relieving the poor, by tending the sick, and by burying the dead,
who had been abandoned by their own nearest relations.
Although there is no room to give any particular account of the
martyrs here, there is one of them who especially deserves to be
remembered, because he was the first who suffered in our own island.
This good man, Alban, while he was yet a heathen, fell in with a
poor Christian priest, who was trying to hide himself from the
persecutors. Alban took him into his own house, and sheltered him
there; and he was so much struck with observing how the priest
prayed to God, and spent long hours of the night in religious
exercises, that he soon became a believer in Christ. But the priest
was hotly searched for, and information was given that he was hidden
in Alban's house. And when the soldiers came to look for him there,
Alban knew their errand, and put on the priest's dress, so that the
soldiers seized him and carried him before the judge. The judge
found that they had brought the wrong man, and, in his rage at the
disappointment, he told Alban that he must himself endure the
punishment which had been meant for the other. Alban heard this
without any fear, and on being questioned, he declared that he was a
Christian, a worshipper of the one true God, and that he would not
sacrifice to idols which could do no good. He was put to the
torture, but bore it gladly for his Saviour's sake, and then, as he
was still firm in professing his faith, the judge gave orders that
he should be beheaded. And when he had been led out to the place of
execution, which was a little grassy knoll that rose gently on one
side of the town, the soldier, who was to have put him to death, was
so moved by the sight of Alban's behaviour, that he threw away his
sword, and desired to be put to death with him. They were both
beheaded, and the town of Verulam, where they suffered, has since
been called St. Alban's, from the name of the first British martyr.
This martyrdom took place early in the persecution; but, (as we have
seen) Constantius afterwards protected the British Christians, and
his son Constantine, who succeeded to his share in the empire,
treated them with yet greater favour. In the year 312, Constantine
marched against Maxentius, who had usurped the government of Italy
and Africa. Constantine seems to have been brought up by his father
to believe in one God, although he did not at all know who this God
was, nor how He had revealed Himself in Holy Scripture. But as he
was on his way to fight Maxentius, he saw in the sky a wonderful
appearance, which seemed like the figure of a cross, with words
around it--"By this conquer!" He then caused the cross to be put on
the standards (or colours) of his army; and when he had defeated
Maxentius, he set up at Rome a statue of himself, with a cross in
its right hand, and with an inscription which declared that he owed
his victory to that saving sign. About the same time that
Constantine overcame Maxentius, Licinius put down Maximin in the
East. The two conquerors now had possession of the whole empire, and
they joined in publishing laws by which Christians were allowed to
worship God freely according to their conscience (AD 313).