Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To

Constantine.—Part VIII.

The vague descriptions of exile and imprisonment, of pain and
torture, are so easily exaggerated or softened by the pencil of
an artful orator, 1811 that we are naturally induced to inquire
into a fact of a more distinct and stubborn kind; the number of
persons who suffered death in consequence of the edicts published
by Diocletian, his associates, and his successors. The recent
legendaries record whole armies and cities, which were at once
swept away by the undistinguishing rage of persecution. The more
ancient writers content themselves with pouring out a liberal
effusion of loose and tragical invectives, without condescending
to ascertain the precise number of those persons who were
permitted to seal with their blood their belief of the gospel.
From the history of Eusebius, it may, however, be collected, that
only nine bishops were punished with death; and we are assured,
by his particular enumeration of the martyrs of Palestine, 182
that no more than ninety-two Christians were entitled to that
honorable appellation. 1821 As we are unacquainted with the
degree of episcopal zeal and courage which prevailed at that
time, it is not in our power to draw any useful inferences from
the former of these facts: but the latter may serve to justify a
very important and probable conclusion. According to the
distribution of Roman provinces, Palestine may be considered as
the sixteenth part of the Eastern empire: 183 and since there
were some governors, who from a real or affected clemency had
preserved their hands unstained with the blood of the faithful,
184 it is reasonable to believe, that the country which had given
birth to Christianity, produced at least the sixteenth part of
the martyrs who suffered death within the dominions of Galerius
and Maximin; the whole might consequently amount to about fifteen
hundred, a number which, if it is equally divided between the ten
years of the persecution, will allow an annual consumption of one
hundred and fifty martyrs. Allotting the same proportion to the
provinces of Italy, Africa, and perhaps Spain, where, at the end
of two or three years, the rigor of the penal laws was either
suspended or abolished, the multitude of Christians in the Roman
empire, on whom a capital punishment was inflicted by a judicia,
sentence, will be reduced to somewhat less than two thousand
persons. Since it cannot be doubted that the Christians were more
numerous, and their enemies more exasperated, in the time of
Diocletian, than they had ever been in any former persecution,
this probable and moderate computation may teach us to estimate
the number of primitive saints and martyrs who sacrificed their
lives for the important purpose of introducing Christianity into
the world.

1811 (return) [ Perhaps there never was an instance of an author
committing so deliberately the fault which he reprobates so
strongly in others. What is the dexterous management of the more
inartificial historians of Christianity, in exaggerating the
numbers of the martyrs, compared to the unfair address with which
Gibbon here quietly dismisses from the account all the horrible
and excruciating tortures which fell short of death? The reader
may refer to the xiith chapter (book viii.) of Eusebius for the
description and for the scenes of these tortures.—M.]

182 (return) [ Eusebius de Martyr. Palestin. c. 13. He closes his
narration by assuring us that these were the martyrdoms inflicted
in Palestine, during the _whole_ course of the persecution. The
9th chapter of his viiith book, which relates to the province of
Thebais in Egypt, may seem to contradict our moderate
computation; but it will only lead us to admire the artful
management of the historian. Choosing for the scene of the most
exquisite cruelty the most remote and sequestered country of the
Roman empire, he relates that in Thebais from ten to one hundred
persons had frequently suffered martyrdom in the same day. But
when he proceeds to mention his own journey into Egypt, his
language insensibly becomes more cautious and moderate. Instead
of a large, but definite number, he speaks of many Christians,
and most artfully selects two ambiguous words, which may signify
either what he had seen, or what he had heard; either the
expectation, or the execution of the punishment. Having thus
provided a secure evasion, he commits the equivocal passage to
his readers and translators; justly conceiving that their piety
would induce them to prefer the most favorable sense. There was
perhaps some malice in the remark of Theodorus Metochita, that
all who, like Eusebius, had been conversant with the Egyptians,
delighted in an obscure and intricate style. (See Valesius ad
loc.)]

1821 (return) [ This calculation is made from the martyrs, of
whom Eusebius speaks by name; but he recognizes a much greater
number. Thus the ninth and tenth chapters of his work are
entitled, “Of Antoninus, Zebinus, Germanus, and other martyrs; of
Peter the monk. of Asclepius the Maroionite, and other martyrs.”
[Are these vague contents of chapters very good authority?—M.]
Speaking of those who suffered under Diocletian, he says, “I will
only relate the death of one of these, from which, the reader may
divine what befell the rest.” Hist. Eccl. viii. 6. [This relates
only to the martyrs in the royal household.—M.] Dodwell had made,
before Gibbon, this calculation and these objections; but Ruinart
(Act. Mart. Pref p. 27, _et seq_.) has answered him in a
peremptory manner: Nobis constat Eusebium in historia infinitos
passim martyres admisisse. quamvis revera paucorum nomina
recensuerit. Nec alium Eusebii interpretem quam ipsummet Eusebium
proferimus, qui (l. iii. c. 33) ait sub Trajano plurimosa ex
fidelibus martyrii certamen subiisse (l. v. init.) sub Antonino
et Vero innumerabiles prope martyres per universum orbem
enituisse affirmat. (L. vi. c. 1.) Severum persecutionem
concitasse refert, in qua per omnes ubique locorum Ecclesias, ab
athletis pro pietate certantibus, illustria confecta fuerunt
martyria. Sic de Decii, sic de Valeriani, persecutionibus
loquitur, quæ an Dodwelli faveant conjectionibus judicet æquus
lector. Even in the persecutions which Gibbon has represented as
much more mild than that of Diocletian, the number of martyrs
appears much greater than that to which he limits the martyrs of
the latter: and this number is attested by incontestable
monuments. I will quote but one example. We find among the
letters of St. Cyprian one from Lucianus to Celerinus, written
from the depth of a prison, in which Lucianus names seventeen of
his brethren dead, some in the quarries, some in the midst of
tortures some of starvation in prison. Jussi sumus (he proceeds)
secundum præ ceptum imperatoris, fame et siti necari, et reclusi
sumus in duabus cellis, ta ut nos afficerent fame et siti et
ignis vapore.—G.]

183 (return) [ When Palestine was divided into three, the
præfecture of the East contained forty-eight provinces. As the
ancient distinctions of nations were long since abolished, the
Romans distributed the provinces according to a general
proportion of their extent and opulence.]

184 (return) [ Ut gloriari possint nullam se innocentium
poremisse, nam et ipse audivi aloquos gloriantes, quia
administratio sua, in hac paris merit incruenta. Lactant.
Institur. Divin v. 11.]

We shall conclude this chapter by a melancholy truth, which
obtrudes itself on the reluctant mind; that even admitting,
without hesitation or inquiry, all that history has recorded, or
devotion has feigned, on the subject of martyrdoms, it must still
be acknowledged, that the Christians, in the course of their
intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater severities on
each other, than they had experienced from the zeal of infidels.
During the ages of ignorance which followed the subversion of the
Roman empire in the West, the bishops of the Imperial city
extended their dominion over the laity as well as clergy of the
Latin church. The fabric of superstition which they had erected,
and which might long have defied the feeble efforts of reason,
was at length assaulted by a crowd of daring fanatics, who from
the twelfth to the sixteenth century assumed the popular
character of reformers. The church of Rome defended by violence
the empire which she had acquired by fraud; a system of peace and
benevolence was soon disgraced by proscriptions, war, massacres,
and the institution of the holy office. And as the reformers were
animated by the love of civil as well as of religious freedom,
the Catholic princes connected their own interest with that of
the clergy, and enforced by fire and the sword the terrors of
spiritual censures. In the Netherlands alone, more than one
hundred thousand of the subjects of Charles V. are said to have
suffered by the hand of the executioner; and this extraordinary
number is attested by Grotius, 185 a man of genius and learning,
who preserved his moderation amidst the fury of contending sects,
and who composed the annals of his own age and country, at a time
when the invention of printing had facilitated the means of
intelligence, and increased the danger of detection.

If we are obliged to submit our belief to the authority of
Grotius, it must be allowed, that the number of Protestants, who
were executed in a single province and a single reign, far
exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three
centuries, and of the Roman empire. But if the improbability of
the fact itself should prevail over the weight of evidence; if
Grotius should be convicted of exaggerating the merit and
sufferings of the Reformers; 186 we shall be naturally led to
inquire what confidence can be placed in the doubtful and
imperfect monuments of ancient credulity; what degree of credit
can be assigned to a courtly bishop, and a passionate declaimer,
1861 who, under the protection of Constantine, enjoyed the
exclusive privilege of recording the persecutions inflicted on
the Christians by the vanquished rivals or disregarded
predecessors of their gracious sovereign.

185 (return) [ Grot. Annal. de Rebus Belgicis, l. i. p. 12, edit.
fol.]

186 (return) [ Fra Paola (Istoria del Concilio Tridentino, l.
iii.) reduces the number of the Belgic martyrs to 50,000. In
learning and moderation Fra Paola was not inferior to Grotius.
The priority of time gives some advantage to the evidence of the
former, which he loses, on the other hand, by the distance of
Venice from the Netherlands.]

1861 (return) [ Eusebius and the author of the Treatise de
Mortibus Persecutorum. It is deeply to be regretted that the
history of this period rest so much on the loose and, it must be
admitted, by no means scrupulous authority of Eusebius.
Ecclesiastical history is a solemn and melancholy lesson that the
best, even the most sacred, cause will eventually the least
departure from truth!—M.]