The History of Christianity, John S. C. Abbott [ebook reader browser .txt] 📗

Infamy of Commodus.—​His Death.—​The Reign of Pertinax.—​The Mob of Soldiers.—​Death of Pertinax.—​Julian purchases the Crown.—​Rival Claimants.—​Severus.—​Persecutions.—​Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas.—​The Reign of Caracalla.—​Fiendlike Atrocities.—​Elagabalus, Priest of the Sun.—​Death by the Mob.—​Alexander and his Christian Mother.—​Contrast between Paganism and Christianity.—​The Sin of Unbelief.

FTER a stormy reign of twenty-three years, the Emperor Aurelius died, and his son Commodus, nineteen years of age, succeeded to the throne. He was a demon. His atrocities I must not describe: nothing can be imagined, in the way of loathsome, brutal, fiendlike vice, of which he was not guilty. A foul pagan, he filled the palaces of Rome with all the atrocities of iniquity.

He murdered one of his own sisters, and worse than murdered the rest. He amused himself in cutting off the lips and noses of those who incurred his displeasure. The rich he slew, to get their money; the virtuous, because their example reproved his vices; the influential, fearing lest they should attain too much power.

Under Commodus, the Christians were not exposed to governmental persecution, though there were occasional acts of the grossest outrage. One of his female favorites, who had great influence over him, became their protector. Conversions were rapidly multiplied. Many of the most noble and opulent in Rome embraced the Christian faith, which they could see presented the only hope for this lost world. One of these very distinguished men, Apollonius, an accomplished scholar, presented to the Roman senate a very eloquent appeal in favor of Christianity. The senate demanded that he should retract his opinions. As he refused, he was sent to the block, and beheaded.

The outrages Commodus was perpetrating, and the executions he was daily ordering, at length became intolerable. His nominal wife, the same Marcia who had protected the Christians, finding, from a memorandum which she picked from his pocket, that he had doomed her with several others to die, gave him a cup of poison. As he was reeling under the influence of the draught, an accomplice plunged a dagger into his heart, and “he went to his own place.” “To his own place!” Where was that place? No one can be familiar with the history of the awful crimes which have been perpetrated upon this globe, and not feel that there is necessity for justice and retribution beyond the grave.

The joy in Rome was indescribable when the rumor spread through the thronged streets, on the morning of the 1st of January, 193, that the tyrant was dead. The senate and army placed Pertinax, mayor of Rome, upon the vacant throne. He was, for a pagan, a good man. He found the nation with an empty treasury, and enormously in debt, and attempted to economize; but the army demanded the wealth and luxury which could be obtained only by rapine.

Commodus had accumulated a vast amount of gold and silver plate; chariots of most costly construction; robes of imperial purple, heavily embroidered with gems and gold; and last, but not least, he had seized, and crowded into his harem, six hundred of the most beautiful boys and girls. The plate, the chariots, the robes, and the handsome boys and beautiful girls, were all sold to the highest bidder. It is Christianity alone which recognizes the brotherhood of man. Pertinax, a pagan, could perhaps see no wrong in selling these young men and maidens into slavery. All the money thus infamously obtained was honestly paid into the exhausted treasury.

The army had loved Commodus. He allowed the soldiers unlimited license; he filled their purses with gold; he crowded their camp with male and female slaves. Pertinax wished to introduce reforms. The army hated Pertinax because he was good, as devils hate angels. “Away with him!” was the cry which resounded through the whole encampment.

Three hundred burly wretches, from the encampment outside the walls of Rome, marched to the palace. Deliberately they cut off the head of Pertinax. Parading it upon a lance, they, with shouts of triumph, marched back through the streets of Rome to their barracks. The citizens looked on in dismay: they dared not utter a word. The army was their master. A standing army and an unarmed people place any nation at the mercy of an ambitious general.

Sixteen thousand soldiers, thoroughly trained, and heavily armed in steel coats of mail, were always quartered just outside the gates of Rome. From their commanding encampment on the broad summits of the Quirinal and Viminal Hills they held the millions of the Roman capital in subjection. The gory head of Pertinax was elevated upon a pike. The brutal soldiery gathered around it with yells and hootings, and offered the crown to the highest bidder.

Julian, a vile demagogue, the richest man in Rome, offered a thousand dollars to each soldier, making sixteen millions of dollars. He could easily win back treble the sum by extortion and the plunder of war. The soldiers accepted the offer. Surrounding Julian, they marched in dense column into the city to the capitol, and compelled the senate to recognize him as emperor. There were sixteen thousand swords as so many indisputable arguments to enforce their demands. The senate, with the sword at its throat, obsequiously obeyed. The trembling populace was equally submissive. With apparently universal acclaim, Julian was proclaimed emperor.

But there were other imperial armies besides the sixteen thousand which held Rome in awe. There was one in Greece of twenty thousand, one of twenty thousand in Britain, and one of thirty thousand in Syria. Each of these armies followed the example of the Pretorian Guard, as the army at Rome was called. Each chose an emperor from among its generals. There were thus four rival emperors, each at the head of a powerful army. The arbitrament of bloody battle alone could decide who should hold the prize.

The three distant armies commenced an impetuous march upon Julian at Rome. Severus from Greece was nearest. With giant strides he pressed forward, sweeping all opposition before him. As he drew near the camp of the Pretorian Guard, the soldiers, who had already received their thousand dollars each from Julian, coolly cut off Julian’s head, and sent it to Severus. The two armies then fraternized under Severus, and took possession of Rome.

Albinus was advancing with his twenty thousand men from Britain. Enormous bribes were sent to him by Severus; and he gave in his adhesion to the successful general who was so formidably intrenched at Rome. Niger then, marching from Syria, was easily routed by the three combined armies opposed to him. He was taken captive, and beheaded. Severus thus became emperor without a rival. In commemoration of his victory, he reared in Rome a colossal triumphal arch, which remains to the present day.

Severus was a thoroughly bad man; and yet he protected the Christians. A physician who had embraced the new religion had saved the life of his child. Severus gratefully took him into the palace, and treated him with the utmost kindness. Though unwilling to regulate his own conduct by the religion of Jesus, he so far appreciated the excellence of Christianity as to appoint one of its advocates as teacher of his child. When the fury of the populace at Rome rose against the Christians, Severus interposed to shield them.

But in remote parts of the empire, where the power of the crown was but feebly felt, persecution raged terribly. The father of the renowned Eusebius was beheaded: his property was confiscated, and his widow and children left utterly destitute. Eusebius, who was then but seventeen years of age, and a very earnest Christian, was so anxious to follow his father to martyrdom, that his mother could with great difficulty restrain him. He lived to establish a reputation which has filled the world with his name.

In Africa, also, the persecution was violent. In Carthage, twelve Christians at one time were brought before the pro-consul, three of whom were females. They refused to abjure their faith, and were condemned to be beheaded. We have a minute account of the trial,—the questions and their answers. Upon being condemned to death simply for being Christians, they knelt together, and thanked God that they were honored with the crown of martyrdom. Joyfully each one received the death-blow. It was at this time, and at Carthage, that Tertullian wrote his world-renowned apology for Christianity. It was so eloquent in its rhetoric, and so convincing in its logic, that it exerted a very powerful influence over