In completing our picture of Polycarp, we have anticipated a somewhat distant date; since his life was a long one, and stretched from the days of the Apostles well into the middle of the second century. The materials for our picture were not numerous, nor abundant, but they sufficed for our purpose and, what is of the highest importance, were absolutely authentic.
Now, however, we must retrace our steps, and see what we can gather respecting the fortunes of the Church between the year of Ignatius' martyrdom, circa A. D. 107-10 and the date of Polycarp's death, circa A. D. 157.
Anything like a consecutive and detailed history of the Church during the age of persecution, especially during the first and second centuries, is impossible. There are no contemporary annals, no chronicles of events to assist us in such a work.
What we do possess are a few contemporary writings of unimpeachable genuineness, and a few contemporary notes from Pagan writers. Out of these we construct our story; but the writings which have come down to us are after all but few and fragmentary, and the notices fitful, touching only certain years, and affecting only certain localities. Still, there are enough of these flashes of light amidst the darkness which shrouds the early years of the Church's existence for us to form some conception of the marvelously rapid progress of the superhuman courage and endurance, of the widespread quiet influence, of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth in those far back years of the first and second centuries.
In quite the early part of the second century, when the memory of John, who had only passed away some dozen years before, was still fresh and vivid; in the comparatively early days of Polycarp's long episcopate at Smyrna, just after the long drawn out tragedy of Ignatius had been played in the cities of Proconsular Asia and in Rome; another and a strong light is flashed upon the then condition of Christianity. A light from a very different source; proceeding from no treasured letters of a martyred Christian leader, from no fragment of the correspondence of an early Christian bishop which has survived the wear and tear of eighteen centuries, from no precious memories preserved to us by an Irenaeus, or gathered up by the pious and scholarly care of an Eusebius, but from the very heart of the Imperial Pagan Government of the day
In the year 112 the younger Pliny filled the important post of propraetor or governor of the large province of Bithynia-Pontus. This wide district, roughly speaking, included the countries of modern Asia Minor, from the coasts which lie opposite to Constantinople to a point some eighty or more miles beyond Sinope on the Black Sea, and stretched far into the interior to the borders of Proconsular Asia and Galatia. Pliny was a noble Roman of high character, a statesman and lawyer of great reputation, who enjoyed the confidence and friendship of the Emperor Trajan, the master of the Roman world. Trajan, whose policy to a great degree determined the relations between Christianity and the Empire during well nigh the whole of the second century, ranks high on the list of the good and great Emperors—not a long list, alas! This powerful sovereign in many respects has been the object of exaggerated praise, for his life was sadly stained by not a few dark crimes and by shameless immorality, as well as by his love of war and foreign conquest. But the sharp contrast which, on the whole, his wise and far-seeing administration presented to the tyrannical and wicked rule of many of his predecessors and successors, has won him unstinted adulation not only from Pagan but from Christian writers. It cannot be denied, however, that his government of the vast Roman world was just and his measures moderate, and generally tending to stillness at home.
TRAJAN.
From a Bust found in the Campagna, now in the British Museum.
The reply of such an Emperor to his friend the Propraetor Pliny on the attitude to be observed by the Government towards Christians, crystallizing as it did the Imperial policy for a long period, is of the highest importance to any history which deals with the early story of the Church.
A somewhat perplexing question had arisen in Pliny's province. The propraetor felt that the decision once for all of the points at issue would have far-reaching consequences; and therefore he wrote for instructions to his friend and master, Trajan, whom he regarded, and rightly, as a very able and far-sighted administrator. Our knowledge of the transaction is derived from a volume in which the correspondence of Pliny with Trajan is preserved.
We learn from the letter of Pliny to the Emperor that the new religion (Christianity) had spread so widely in his province of Bithynia, that not merely in the cities, but also in the villages and rural districts, the temples were well-nigh deserted and the trades connected with the elaborate system of sacrifice were being rapidly ruined. It was evident in Pliny's mind that the wonderful progress of the new religion bade fair sooner or later to upset the existing conditions of Roman society. Ought not, then, some severe check to be at once imposed upon a society which threatened to bring about such disturbing influences? From Pliny's letter we see that the grave matter which he referred to the Emperor had already passed through two stages. The first stage had included a number of accusations directed evidently against the more prominent adherents of the faith.
The accused appear all without exception to have boldly confessed their faith, and these the propraetor, in accordance with the acknowledged and universal precedents of Roman procedure in the case of Christianity, at once condemned to death if they were provincials; those who were Roman citizens he sent to Rome for the Emperor's final decision.
But there was a second stage. A further development of the matter had taken place, in which decision on the part of the propraetor was not so easy or simple a matter. Emboldened probably by the success of their first information, the informers, through the instrumentality of an anonymous writing, denounced to the Roman governor a very large number of other persons alleged to be Christians.
Further trials were the result of this information. In this second group of trials, different from the first group (when the accused doubtless were prominent Christians firm and steadfast in their faith), there were some who entirely denied that they had ever been Christians at all; others of the accused, terrified at the thought of death, forthwith recanted, offered incense before the statue of Trajan the Emperor, and reviled Christ.
Pliny hesitated whether or not he should let such repentant persons go scot-free without punishment, and referred the question to the Emperor. But before the reference was sent to Rome the propraetor caused a searching inquiry to be made into the peculiar life led by these Christians who were so widely hated. Had the persons, for instance, who had so readily when threatened with death abjured the religion, been guilty in the exercise of their peculiar rites, of any of the secret crimes with which their enemies so freely charged them, such as child-murder, cannibalism, and divers dark offenses against morality? Such offenses as these, had they been committed, surely demanded some punishment (short, perhaps, of death), even though the offender had repented. Those who recanted were strictly examined, and two ministrae, who occupied some official position (deaconesses, no doubt) among the Christians, being slaves, were interrogated under torture.
The results of these inquiries Pliny transmitted to the Emperor, together with his opinion. He (Pliny) was satisfied that these secret charges of wickedness were absolutely without foundation. He reported that the lives led by the professors of the unlawful religion were innocent and simple. He transmitted, too, in his report a fairly accurate, though somewhat meager outline of Christian worship and life which he had gathered in the course of his searching inquiries. The votaries of the unlawful religion were in the habit of meeting before sunrise on a certain day, when they used to sing hymns together in praise of Christ as God. They had the custom, too, of binding themselves by a solemn oath (Sacramentum) or undertaking never to commit theft, adultery, or any breach of trust, and subsequently after the religious service was ended they would gather together for an innocent repast. He concludes that this Christianity was nothing more than a "superstitio prava immodica," a kind of superstitious worship, utterly un-Roman; hurtful to the State in that it inculcated a worship hostile to that which was sanctioned by the Government, and formed an integral part of the life led by the loyal citizens of the Empire.
Pliny besides pointed out that in consequence of his energetic (persecuting) measures a great improvement had already taken place in the provinces. The gods of Rome were now being again worshipped by crowds who had deserted their sanctuaries, as was shown, too, by a marked improvement, already noticeable, in the sale of the fodder for the beasts kept for sacrifice at the heathen altars, and thus a grave injury to lawful trades and industries which were under the patronage of the State was in process of being remedied.
The answer of Trajan, without replying formally to each of Pliny's references, gives a general summary of the policy which he desired should be pursued in the relations of the Empire to the Christian sect. First the Emperor confirms Pliny's view of the precedents heretofore followed by the State; in the case of the accused persisting in styling himself a Christian after due warning, the extreme penalty of death would follow. In the various instances suggested by Pliny which might be pleaded as supplying extenuating circumstance, such as youth or sex, a free hand was left to the magistrate. Penitence, recantation, willing public compliance with the rites of the Roman religion, were in all cases to be deemed sufficient. An accused Christian thus purged must at once be set at liberty. No doubt the Emperor was here largely influenced by Pliny's strongly expressed conviction of the innocence of the Christian life and the harmless nature of the rites practised by the sect.
Then follows a very merciful direction, which plainly shows that the great Emperor was personally averse to any new harsh persecuting measures being devised against his Christian subjects, if by any means these could be avoided. The governor of a province was not to search for Christians, nor to entertain any anonymous accusations. Only in the event of a formal accuser coming publicly forward must the charge be formally investigated; but in the case of the charge being proven (and no recantation being forthcoming), the full penalty must, in accordance with Roman precedent, be inflicted.
Briefly to sum up the signification of the Roman precedent upon which Pliny acted in the case of his death sentences: The action of Nero, A. D. 64-8, first determined the relations of the Empire towards Christianity. From that date the profession of the religion of Jesus Christ was illegal, and its votaries were liable to the penalty of death. Under Vespasian the precedent of Nero was again considered, and confirmed in a more definite shape. The correspondence of Pliny with Trajan, just dwelt upon, marks a third stage and shows us how in A. D. 112-13 the question of the relations of Christianity and the Empire was again under consideration. It was once more, as we shall see, considered by the Emperor Hadrian a few years later; who, however, scarcely altered the line of conduct to be pursued by the magistrates as laid down by Trajan.
The State correspondence of the Emperor Trajan and his friend and subordinate the Propraetor Pliny, possesses for the scholar a peculiar importance, as it shows what in A. D. 112 were the exact relations between the Imperial Government and the Christian Church; indicating, too, the view which an upright statesmen and lawyer had formed of the sect which in so marvelous a manner had taken such rapid root in the complex society of the Empire—a view apparently partly endorsed by a wise and able Emperor. For the general student it is of yet greater interest, for it enables him, on the evidence of a Pagan official of the highest character and ability, to form an estimate of the great numbers and general influence in an important province of the Empire.
The letter of Pliny, it is clear, exercised considerable influence on the Emperor, who, while clearly regarding the proscription of Christians as a fundamental principle of Imperial policy which he did not choose to alter, still in his reply inaugurated a policy milder in practice that that before pursued towards the Christians.
Ramsay with great force dwells on the pleasant thought that Pliny's noble, although cautious pleading for the Christians, emanating from his sense of what was just and right, was the deliberate work of one "whose life gives us a finer conception than any other of the character of the Roman gentleman under the Empire."
We have already seen how in Italy, and especially in Rome at a yet earlier date, in the year 64, the number of Christians was very considerable; so large that Tacitus speaks of the Christian victims of Nero as "a great multitude." We know, too, from the letters of Clement to the Corinthians how that sorely tried Roman community, decimated by persecution, had again before the first century closed become a great power among the Christians. We dwelt on the flourishing churches of the populous and wealthy Proconsular Asia, when we spoke of the seven letters of Ignatius and the work of Polycarp; and now we learn incidentally from the correspondence of a well-known provincial governor with the Emperor Trajan, that Christianity, before the years 112-13, had penetrated into the more remote districts of northern Asia Minor; and that the religion of Jesus in the provinces of Bithynia and Pontus had taken such a hold on the masses of the population in the villages and rural districts, as well as in the cities, that the temples of the Roman gods were almost deserted, and the sacrificial ritual in their sacred shrines was interrupted to such an extent as to interfere gravely with the traders, who depended largely on the sale of victims provided for the numerous Pagan sacrifices.
Thus from these chance notices we can gather some idea as to the progress Christianity had made—at least in those countries which bordered upon or were adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea—in the eighty years which followed the first preaching of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus by the Apostles in Jerusalem, the city where His deadly enemies were the ruling power.