The Formation of Christendom, Volume II

146

Euseb. Hist. iv. 25; Tertull. Apol. 5.

147

In Tertullian's words, “debellator Christianorum,” Apol. 5.

148

Thus a late Protestant writer, Schmidt (Geschichte der Denk- und Glaubensfreiheit, p. 165), remarks of the condition of Christians, “Vollkommen gewiss ist, dass unter Domitian eine neue Drangperiode für die Christen begann, die sich in Verfolgungen, in Hinrichtungen, und Verbannungen äusserte. (Dio. 67, 14, und die Ausleger.) Damals soll auch der Apostel Johannes nach Pathmos verwiesen worden sein. Erst Nerva lüftete wiederum diesen Druck, indem er den Verhafteten die Freiheit gab, und die Verbannten zurückberief. (Dio. 68, 1.) Es war dies aber doch nur als eine Amnestie, als ein Gnadenact anzusehen, nicht als eine Anerkennung der Unsträflichkeit, wie das schwankende Verhalten des nicht minder hochherzigen und freisinnigen Trajan zur Genüge darthut.”

149

Döllinger, Heidenthum und Judenthum, Vorwort, iv.

150

Justin, Dialog. with Tryphon, 117. Tertullian, 50 years later, adv. Judæos, 7, goes beyond this.

151

Kellner, Hellenismus und Christenthum, p. 85.

152

Origen cont. Cels. i. 27.

153

Lib. iii.3. Ἔτι ἔναυλον τὸ κήρυγμα τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ τὴν παράδοσιν πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν ἔχων, οὐ μόνος, ἔτι γὰρ πολλοὶ ἐπελείποντο τότε ἀπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων δεδιδαγμένοι: where τὸ κήρυγμα and ἡ παράδοσις τῶν ἀποστόλων indicate the whole body of truth which they communicated to the Church, whether written or unwritten.

154

S. Ign. ad Smyrn. 1 and 8.

155

S. Ignat. ad Ephes. i. – iv.

156

Ad Ephes. xix.

157

Another point on which S. Ignatius dwells repeatedly is the receiving the flesh of Christ in the Eucharist: thus he says of the heterodox, ad Smyrn. 6: “They abstain from the Eucharist and prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is that flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ which suffered for our sins, which in His goodness the Father raised.”

158

He says, ad Rom. ii.: Ὅτι τὸν ἐπίσκοπον Συρίας ὁ Θεὸς κατηξίωσεν εὑρεθῆναι εἰς δύσιν ἀπὸ ἀνατολῆς μεταπεμψάμενος. Merivale, Hist. c. lxv. p. 150, note 1, says, “We are at a loss to account for the bishop being sent to suffer martyrdom at Rome.” This passage in the epistle confirms the acts of martyrdom. It was the wish of Trajan to make a great example, and the Bishop of Rome, S. Alexander, was at this time in prison, and shortly afterwards martyred.

159

See Epist. ad Magnes. 13.

160

Ad Trall. 6.

161

Ad Smyrn. viii.

162

Compare with this expression of S. Ignatius that of the Church of Polycarp, fifty years later, describing how after his martyrdom, σὺν τοῖς Ἀποστόλοις καὶ πᾶσι δικαίοις ἀγαλλιώμενος, δοξάζει τὸν Θεὸν καὶ Πατέρα, καὶ εὐλογεῖ τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν καὶ κυβερνήτην τῶν [ψυχῶν τε καὶ] σωμάτων ἡμῶν, καὶ ποιμένα τῆς κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην καθολικῆς ἐκκλησίας. Acta Polycarpi, xix Ruinart, p. 45.

163

Ephes. iv. 4-16.

164

See Eusebius, Hist. iii. 37, who speaks exactly in this sense; and an important passage in Döllinger, Kallistus und Hippolytus, 338-343, on the force of the word πρεσβύτερος, as Ecclesiæ Doctor, one particularly charged with the magisterium veritatis. See also Hagemann, die Römische Kirche, pp. 607-8.

165

Tillemont, Ecc. Hist. ii. 132.

166

Tertull. Apol. 5, and Euseb. Hist. v. 21, assert the existence of this law.

167

Tillemont, E. H. ii. 182-3.

168

See the singular instance given by Euseb. v. 21, in the reign of Commodus. An informer accuses Apollonius of being a Christian, at a time when the imperial laws made such an accusation a capital offence. The accuser is put to death; but Apollonius, who is supposed to have been a senator, having made a brilliant defence before the Senate, suffers martyrdom.

169

Duci jussi (confer Acts xii. 19, ἐκέλευσεν ἀπαχθῆναι). The extreme brevity with which the most urbane, kind-hearted, and accomplished of Roman gentlemen, as Mr. Merivale conceives him, describes himself as having ordered a number of men and women to be put to death for the profession of Christianity, is remarkable and significant. Compare it with the bearing of his friend Trajan to S. Ignatius below. As soon as the saint's confession of “bearing the Crucified in his heart” is specific, Trajan without a word of remark orders his execution. The “duci jussi” of Pliny and Trajan's manner in sentencing perfectly correspond and bear witness to each other's authenticity. So later the like tone used by Junius Rusticus, prefect of the city under Marcus Aurelius, to Justin Martyr, as will be seen further on.

170

Pliny, Ep. x. 97, chiefly Melmoth's translation.