We have already observed that there exists no arranged and carefully composed history of the early progress of Christianity. In the Acts of the Apostles, and in most of the Epistles of the New Testament, are scattered notices of the rapid spread of the new Faith. From the scanty relics of the writings of some of the chief teachers of the Gospel we catch glimpses, more or less extensive, of the progress of the religion in different great centers, especially in Rome and Jerusalem, in Ephesus and Smyrna, and in the Syrian Antioch; but for the first century and a half after the Passion and Ascension of the Lord, save in Rome, Jerusalem, and Antioch, and some of the great sea-board cities of Asia Minor, we know little of the story of the propagation of the Faith. That its missionaries, however, were full of zeal, and that their early work was often wonderfully successful in other lands and centers, we learn from various isolated records of events which have come down to us—some of these records often bearing the date of the last quarter of the second century.
Of these isolated records, one of the most interesting and important reaches us from the province of Gaul. It is a letter addressed, to use the words of the writer, "by the servants of Christ dwelling at Lyons and Vienne in Gaul to those brethren in Asia and Phrygia having the same faith and hope with us." The letter is of unquestioned authenticity, and is of very considerable length. It relates the history of a terrible crisis through which the Churches in that populous district had just passed, and out of which, notwithstanding the awful trial to which a large group of some of their prominent members had been subjected, they had emerged unconquered and victorious.
The letter was written shortly after A. D. 177, when the Emperor Marcus was reigning. Up to this time there is absolutely no record of Christianity in Gaul, no sign even that the news of the religion of Jesus had crossed the Alps into the great Gallic provinces; but this epistle lifts the veil and breaks the silence which had hitherto rested over the Church of the provinces of Southern Gaul, and from the details contained in the communication we find that a large and flourishing community must have for many years before A. D. 177 existed in these parts. In other words, we have here in this contemporary record the earliest extant notice of Christianity in Gaul, and the record in question bears indeed a striking testimony to the vitality and to the careful organization of the Churches in this province.
Lyons, the scene of the persecution spoken of in the letter, was perhaps the most important of the provincial cities of the Western Roman Empire. Its commanding situation at the junction of the rivers Saone and Rhone designated it as a great commercial emporium, and at the time when Marcus was Emperor it was the civil and religious metropolis of the many cities of the three Gallic provinces. In common with other famous provincial centers, it was enthusiastically devoted to the worship of "Rome and Augustus," recognizing its connection with Rome and the Empire as the source of its grandeur, its prosperity and security.
Alongside of the Pagan population of Lyons, Vienne, and other south Gallic cities, had grown up, probably during the last half of the second century, flourishing communities belonging to the new Faith. We can in the light of the letter easily discern whence came the beginnings of these Christian communities. Between Southern Gaul and the sea-board of Syria and Asia Minor existed close and frequent communication. The commercial relations were intimate, and there was a constant passing to and fro from cities like Ephesus and Smyrna to the chief commercial emporium of Gaul, Lyons. Thither in the second century the story of the Gospel was brought from Asia Minor. The fact of the Gallic Christians now addressing their brethren in Asia Minor shows how close were the ties which connected the Gallic and Asiatic Churches. The Greek names, too, of many of the principal heroes of the story point to the same conclusion.
Among these heroes, Pothinus, the aged Bishop of Lyons, was conspicuous. Pothinus was more than ninety years old when he suffered. Tradition speaks of him as a native of Asia Minor; of two of the sufferers, it is incidentally stated that one was from Pergamos, the other a Phrygian, while nearly all of them bear Greek names. The most prominent figure in the Church of Lyons and Southern Gaul, who, immediately after the events related in the letter, appears as perhaps the most distinguished personality in the Catholic Church, was Irenaeus, who succeeded the aged martyr Pothinus as Bishop of Lyons. Irenaeus had been a disciple of Polycarp, and in our sketch of the life of the great Bishop of Smyrna we have already quoted some of his reminiscences of his revered master. Possibly owing to his absence from Lyons-at this juncture, Irenaeus, in spite of his influential position among the Christians of the province, was not one of the accused whose story the letter contains. This letter we will briefly summarize.
In the case of the persecution of Lyons, the exciting cause was angry popular clamor, so common in the earlier years of the growth of the Faith. A great festal gathering was arranged in the August of A. D. 177 at Lyons, the civil and religious metropolis of Gaul. It was partly commercial; a large fair was being held to which traders came from a distance; an imposing religious ceremony of which the Temple of "Rome and Augustus" was the central shrine, was part of the festival; and public games in the Amphitheatre, as usual of a bloody and cruel nature, were to be celebrated for the populace, ever greedy of such amusements. The cry of "Death to the Christians!" was generally heard. The populace insisted on a number of prominent and well-known Christians being arrested; well aware were these turbulent and factious rioters of the doom which would almost certainly follow such arrests.
By no means willingly, it would seem, did the Imperial magistrates of Lyons yield to these popular clamors. As a rule, the mob pressed for victims to be selected out of the hated sect, the magistrates being generally reluctant to satisfy them. Their reluctance seems to have proceeded from no love for Christianity, but was simply based on reasons of policy. Their statesman-like instincts told them that these persecutions were, on the whole, dangerous to the established state of things in the Empire, and rather advanced than retarded the progress of the dangerous and. proscribed sect. If the accused Christians apostatized and publicly sacrificed to the genius of "Augustus and Rome," or to any other of the prominent gods of Rome, it was well. Thus a blow was undoubtedly struck at Christianity; it helped to discredit the dangerously advancing religion. But if, on the other hand, the Christians stood firm, and resisted alike blandishments:and threats, as was by far the more common result, then the tortures and the horrible scenes which followed enormously helped the Christian cause. The martyr's death was not only a victory for the poor brave sufferer; but was a public demonstration of the earnestness and steadfastness, of the intense silent faith, which lived among these stubborn adversaries of Paganism and of Imperial idolatry.
The beginning of the Lyons persecution was unfavorable for the accused. Ten of the arrested were terror-stricken at what lay before them and consented to abjure their faith. A fresh departure was made in this persecution; a number of .slaves belonging to Christian families were threatened with torture, and, thus terrorized, charged the Christians with all manner of nameless crimes; the rage of the populace was still further inflamed by these accusations, none of which however, appeared to have been pressed, the baselessness of such charges being too well-known. Nothing, however, was omitted in this wild tempest of persecution which might induce recantation; but with the exception of the ten above mentioned, no torments, no threats, seemed to have moved any of the accused. They were scourged and exposed to wild beasts. Lions and tigers were not easily procured, and the-cost of importing them would have been too great for a provincial city, even of the importance of the capital of South Gaul. But bulls and dogs and wild boars were used to gore and injure the sufferers. This accounts for the appearance on more than one occasion of several of the Lyons martyrs in the Amphitheatre in the course of these games. They were hurt and torn and bruised, but not killed. If possible, the tortures they endured were even greater than those of exposure to the deadly rush of a lion or a leopard.
An apparently favorite and horrible device we read of in this recital; a red-hot chair was introduced and the accused made to sit on it, the fumes of the roasted flesh giving fresh pleasure to the jaded passions of the cruel spectators.
The heroism of the Lyons martyrs was not peculiar to rank or degree, or sex or age. The same splendid faith lived in them all alike. Among their numbers were men of good position and fortune. Deacons of the Church, the saintly aged Bishop, the boy Ponticus, only fifteen years old, the poor young slave girl, Blandina. This last, by her almost superhuman endurance of long and protracted agonies, spread over several days, has acquired a peculiar place of eminence even among the tens of thousands who, in many lands, willingly and joyfully gave up their lives rather than deny their Master. The letter, with a charming frankness, tells us how the Christian mistress of Blandina feared for her little slave girl; her frail body, she thought, never could endure severe pain and mortal suffering, and in consequence she would be moved ta recant. But Blandina's mistress miscalculated what strength the love of Christ would infuse into the delicate child-frame;, scourged, burnt, torn, Blandina uttered no complaint or moan, only repeating again and again, "I am a Christian." The savage servants of the arena, accustomed to these scenes of blood and torture, confessed themselves astonished at the girl's endurance of various punishments, any one of which, they thought, would have sufficed to kill her. In the end she was tossed by a bull several times, till all consciousness of suffering was lost, and the pure heroic spirit of the child-martyr had probably left the lacerated body before the sword of the executioner completed the work of the bull.
But the noble example was never forgotten. It was the after effect of such scenes as these that the wiser and more thoughtful of the Roman magistrates dreaded, when they hesitated before sanctioning a general and public persecution.
Indeed, in the course of the Lyons trials the Imperial magistrate sent a despatch to the Emperor Marcus for special instructions; since some of the accused, as we have seen, recanted, while others claimed the privilege of Roman citizenship, which would protect them from public exposure in the arena. The answer came at once. The Roman citizens, if they persisted, were to be simply decapitated, while those who recanted were to be at once set at liberty. The others, if they still refused to sacrifice, were to be exposed to the horrors of the arena.
But as regards those who recanted, the tardy Imperial mercy which ordered their immediate liberation came too late. In prison, the little group who, overcome with fear, had not been faithful unto death, had fallen under the influence of the brave confessors; the conduct of these steadfast ones in prison matched well with their behavior in court. They even refused the title of confessors in their beautiful humility, deeming themselves unworthy of the high title of honor. In the striking words of the letter of the Church of Lyons, 'They pleaded for all, they accused none, they absolved all, they bound none, they prayed for their bitter foes, they arrogated no superiority over the poor backsliders." The result of their conduct and loving advice was that scarcely one among those who had recanted was found who would accept the Emperor's clemency; they well-nigh all preferred rather to die with their brave companions.
The persecution raged on with especial fury in Gaul for many years, but the Acts of Martyrdom telling the story of the fate of many other confessors are not, like the letter we have been using, contemporaneous. General tradition, however, the authenticity of which we see no reason to doubt, places the death of the eminent confessors, whose memory is still enshrined in many of the great churches of this part of France, in the later years of the Emperor Marcus; such as S. Benignus of Dijon, S. Valentine of Tournus, S. Marcel of Chalons, S. Felix of Sauliers, S. Symphorian of Autun.