The First Century of Christianity by Homersham Cox

Author:Homersham Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Longmans, Green
Published: 1885-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

That is to say, that Pliny is to avoid persecution as near as possible—but if cases of obstinate nonconformity are brought under his direct notice he must punish the offenders. However, he is to give them every opportunity of retracting, and he is not to take any notice of anonymous information.

Tertullian, writing in the next century, calls this a self-contradictory decision, because on the one hand it assumes the innocence of the Christians by directing that they shall not be sought after, and on the other hand assumes their guilt by directing that they should be punished. But from the Emperor's point of view, the guilt of Christians would consist, not in their religion, but their customs and disobedience to the civil magistrate. As long as they did not exhibit that fault Trajan was content to let them practise their religious rites without molestation.

At the time when Trajan wrote he was unwilling to issue any general edict on this subject. He appears, however, to have done so shortly afterwards. In the famous "Ancient Syriac Documents" there is a version of such an edict, which has all the appearance of genuineness. These Syriac documents undoubtedly contain much that is spurious, but the version in question is authenticated by the subscription of two notaries in the presence of two attesting witnesses, "as the ancient law of the ancient kings prescribe," and we cannot suppose that a document of this formal character, purporting to be a translation of an edict of the Emperor, is spurious. In the translation from the Syriac it is as follows:—

"Since our majesty gave orders that there should be a persecution against the people of the Christians, we have heard and learned from our sharirs, which we have in the country of the dominion of our majesty, that the people of the Christians are men who avoid murder, and sorcery, and adultery, and theft, and bribery, and fraud, and those things from which even the laws of our majesty require punishment for such as do them. We, therefore, by the justice of our rectitude have given command that, on account of these things, the persecution of the sword shall cease from them, and that there shall be rest and quietness in all our dominions, they continuing to minister according to their custom, and that no man shall hinder them. But it is not that we show affection towards them, but towards their laws which agree with the laws of our majesty. And if any man hinder them after this our decree, that sword which is ordered by us to pass upon those who neglect our decree, the same have we ordered to pass upon those who sought this decree of our clemency."

This edict was published in Edessa, a city of Mesopotamia, which is near Pontus, and it appears by the context that the decree was sent not only to the two provinces over which Pliny presided, but also to many other Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.

At the time

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.