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Chapter
III.
1. In
the course of the second year, the persecution against us increased
greatly. And at that time Urbanus2633
2633 Of Urbanus governor of Palestine, we know only what is told us in
the present work (he is mentioned in this passage and in chaps. 4, 7,
and 8, below) and in the Syriac version. From the latter we learn that
he succeeded Flavianus in the second year of the persecution (304), and
that he was deposed by Maximinus in the fifth year (see also chap. 8,
§7, below), and miserably executed. | being
governor of the province, imperial edicts were first issued to him,
commanding by a general decree that all the people should sacrifice at
once in the different cities, and offer libations to the idols. 2634
2634 This is the famous fourth edict of Diocletian, which was issued in
the year 304. It marks a stupendous change of method; in fact,
Christianity as such is made, for the first time since the toleration
edict of Gallienus, a religio illicita, whose profession is
punishable by death. The general persecution, in the full sense, begins
with the publication of this edict. Hitherto persecution had been
directed only against supposed political offenders and church officers.
The edict is a complete stultification of Diocletian’s principles
as revealed in the first three edicts, and shows a lamentable lack of
the wisdom which had dictated those measures. Mason has performed an
immense service in proving (to my opinion conclusively) that this
brutal edict, senseless in its very severity, was not issued by
Diocletian, but by Maximian, while Diocletian was quite incapacitated
by illness for the performance of any public duties. Mason’s
arguments cannot be reproduced here; they are given at length on p. 212
sq. of his work. He remarks at the close of the discussion:
“Diocletian, though he might have wished Christianity safely
abolished, feared the growing power of the Church, and dared not
persecute (till he was forced), lest he should rouse her from her
passivity. But this Fourth Edict was nothing more nor less than a loud
alarum to muster the army of the Church: as the centurions called over
their lists, it taught her the statistics of her numbers, down to the
last child: it proved to her that her troops could endure all the
hardships of the campaign: it ranged her generals in the exact order of
merit. Diocletian, by an exquisite refinement of thought, while he did
not neglect the salutary fear which strong penalties might inspire in
the Christians, knew well enough that though he might torture every
believer in the world into sacrificing, yet Christianity was not
killed: he knew that men were Christians again afterwards as well as
before: could he have seen deeper yet, he would have known that the
utter humiliation of a fall before men and angels converted many a hard
and worldly prelate into a broken-hearted saint: and so he rested his
hopes, not merely on the punishment of individuals, but on his three
great measures for crushing the corporate life,—the destruction
of the churches, the Scriptures, and the clergy. But this Fourth Edict
evidently returns with crass dullness and brutal complacency to the
thought that if half the church were racked till they poured the
libations, and the other half burned or butchered, Paganism would reign
alone forever more, and that the means were as eminently desirable as
the end. Lastly, Diocletian had anxiously avoided all that could rouse
fanatic zeal. The first result of the Fourth Edict was to rouse
it.”
According to the
Passio S. Sabini, which Mason accepts as in the main reliable,
and which forms the strongest support for his theory, the edict was
published in April, 304. Diocletian, meanwhile, as we know from
Lactantius (de Mort. pers. 17) did not recover sufficiently to
take any part in the government until early in the year 305, so that
Maximian and Galerius had matters all their own way during the entire
year, and could persecute as severely as they chose. As a result, the
Christians, both east and west, suffered greatly during this
period. |
In Gaza, a city of Palestine,
Timotheus endured countless tortures, and afterwards was subjected to a
slow and moderate fire. Having given, by his patience in all his
sufferings, most genuine evidence of sincerest piety toward the Deity,
he bore away the crown of the victorious athletes of religion. At the
same time Agapius2635
2635 Agapius, as we learn from chap. 6, below, survived his contest
with the wild beasts at this time, and was thrown into prison, where he
remained until the fourth year of the persecution, when he was again
brought into the arena in the presence of the tyrant Maximinus, and was
finally thrown into the sea. | and our
contemporary, Thecla, 2636
2636 ἡ καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς
Θέκλα. Thecla seems
to be thus designated to distinguish her from her more famous namesake,
whom tradition connected with Paul and who has played so large a part
in romantic legend (see the Acts of Paul and Thecla in the
Ante-Nicene Fathers, VIII. 487 sq., and the Dict. of Christ.
Biog., s.v.). She is referred to again in chap. 6, below, but we
are not told whether she actually suffered or not. | having
exhibited most noble constancy, were condemned as food for the wild
beasts.
2. But who that beheld these
things would not have admired, or if they heard of them by report,
would not have been astonished? For when the heathen everywhere were
holding a festival and the customary shows, it was noised abroad that
besides the other entertainments, the public combat of those who had
lately been condemned to wild beasts would also take place.
3. As this report increased and
spread in all directions, six young men, namely, Timolaus, a native of
Pontus, Dionysius from Tripolis in Phœnicia, Romulus, a sub-deacon
of the parish of Diospolis,2637
2637 A city of Palestine, lying northwest of Jerusalem, and identical
with the Lydda of Acts ix. 32
sq. For many centuries the seat of a bishop, and still
prominent in the time of the crusades. The persons referred to in this
paragraph are to be distinguished from others of the same names
mentioned elsewhere. | Pæsis
and Alexander, both Egyptians, and another Alexander from Gaza, having
first bound their own hands, went in haste to Urbanus, who was about to
open the exhibition, evidencing great zeal for martyrdom. They
confessed that they were Christians, and by their ambition for all
terrible things, showed that those who glory in the religion of the God
of the universe do not cower before the attacks of wild
beasts.
4. Immediately, after creating
no ordinary astonishment in the governor and those who were with him,
they were cast into prison. After a few days two others were added to
them. One of them, named Agapius,2638
2638 To be distinguished from the Agapius mentioned earlier in the
chapter, as is clear from the date of his death, given in this
paragraph. | had in
former confessions endured dreadful torments of various kinds. The
other, who had supplied them with the necessaries of life, was called
Dionysius. All of these eight were beheaded on one day at Cæsarea,
on the twenty-fourth day of the month Dystrus, 2639
2639 Dystrus was the seventh month of the Macedonian year,
corresponding to our March. See the table on p. 403, below. | which is the ninth before the Kalends
of April.
5. Meanwhile, a change in the
emperors occurred, and the first of them all in dignity, and the second
retired into private life,2640
2640 Diocletian and Maximian abdicated on May 1, 305. See above, Bk.
VIII. chap. 13, note 16. | and public
affairs began to be troubled.
6. Shortly after the Roman
government became divided against itself, and a cruel war arose among
them.2641
2641 When Maxentius usurped the purple in Rome, in the year 306. See
above, Bk. VIII. chap. 13, note 21. | And this division, with the troubles
which grew out of it, was not settled until peace toward us had been
established throughout the entire Roman Empire.
7. For when this peace arose for
all, as the daylight after the darkest and most gloomy night, the
public affairs of the Roman government were re-established, and became
happy and peaceful, and the ancestral good-will toward each other was
revived. But we will relate these things more fully at the proper time.
Now let us return to the regular course of events. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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