black-mail. The accusation of Godlessness was brought against the Jews because they were monotheists, and would not worship the Gods of Rome. The same charge was brought against Christians. Some fifty years later, Justin Martyr, in his "Apologia," wrote, "They call us Atheists" (Apol. ii. 3). There is evidence that many cultured Romans in the first century were attracted by the monotheism of the Jews. In Nero's time Queen Helena, of Adiabene, travelled from Assyria to Jerusalem to be instructed in the religion of the Jews. Josephus says that he wrote his "Antiquities of the Jews" partly for the instruction of a noble Roman, Epaphroditas by name, who was inquiring into the religion and customs of the Jews (Pref. to Antiqs.). In the conclusion of his second book, "Against Apion," written after the death of Domitian, Josephus states,

"Nay further the multitude of mankind itself have had a great inclination, for a long time, to follow our religious observances; for there is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day, has not come; and by which our fasts, and lighting up lamps, and many of our prohibitions as to our food, are not observed (Sect. 40).

These things were novelties and innovations in the eyes of Rome, and Roman families which adopted them were sufficiently guilty in the eyes of the Emperor, who was Pontifex Maximus, to deserve punishment. They formed an adequate pretext for extortion, confiscation of estates, and even death itself, in a season of despotic violence. Lying informers were at work, and many noble Roman families suffered in one or other of these ways. Wealthy Jews were despoiled of their property, and the tax-gatherers exacted the Temple tribute from Jews and Christians alike. Indeed the Christians of the lower classes were entirely at their mercy. They were for the most part freedmen and their families, or slaves. They rested on the Lord's day, abstained from sacrificial meats, followed private forms of worship, and refused to worship the national Gods. Pagans by birth they appeared to be extreme Judaisers, and nothing could save them from plunder and even death itself but prompt apostasy. There is evidence in the Epistle of Pope Clement to the Corinthians, that a great many of them died for the faith.

Judging from contemporary history, however, it does not appear that these accusations had anything to do with the wholesale slaughter of noble Romans which took place after the discovery of the conspiracy of Saturninus. Nor were they the result of a religious persecution aimed at Christians.

Dion Cassius agrees with Suetonius in fixing on Domitian a special animus against the Jews.

Josephus, the historian of the Jews, then living at Rome, was one of the accused. He was a well-known Jew who had been general of the Jewish armies in Judæa. Taken captive by Titus, he had rendered him certain services as an intermediary between the hostile armies. He had also predicted the elevation of Vespasian to the purple. He was brought to Rome by Titus, and established as a guest in the suburbs. He was made a Roman citizen by Vespasian and received a pension from him and grants of land in Judæa. He says that Domitian who succeeded (Titus) "still augmented his respects to me. For he punished those Jews that were my accusers; and gave command that a servant of mine, who was a eunuch, and my accuser, should be punished. He also made that country I had in Judæa, tax free" (Life of Flav Jos., Sect. 76).

A fragment of Hegesippus, written about A.D. 150, preserved by Eusebius, seems to show that Domitian had no animus against Christians as such. It came to his knowledge that descendants of the Royal House of David were still living in Palestine. He sent for them.

"He asked them whether they were of David's race, and they confessed that they were. He then asked them what property they had, or how much money they owned. And both of them answered that they had between them only nine thousand denarii (about £400), and this not in silver but in the value of a piece of land, containing only thirty-nine acres, from which by their own labour, they supported themselves and paid taxes. Then they showed their hands, exhibiting their hard muscles and their horny hands, as evidence of toil. When asked also respecting Christ and his Kingdom, what was its nature and when and where it would appear? They replied that it was not a temporal nor an earthly kingdom, but celestial and angelic. That it would appear at the end of the world, when coming in glory Christ would judge the living and the dead and give to every one according to his works. Upon which Domitian despising them, made no reply, but treating them with contempt as simpletons, commanded them to be dismissed, and by a decree ordered the persecutions to cease" (Euseb. H. E. iii. 20).

Hegesippus apparently believed in a Domitian persecution of Christians. But these grand-children of S. Jude were confessed Christians. If their offence was Christianity and if Domitian was looking for Christian blood, the last thing one would expect him to do would be to dismiss them. But seeing that he could get no money out of them and that their claims to a throne were visionary, he sent them home. That was not the way of persecuting Emperors. It tallies very well how

ever with the other evidence before us that Domitian's obsessions were dynastic, anti-Jewish, and monetary, but not anti-Christian. Persecuting Emperors aimed at the total suppression of Christianity. And the more important the witnesses were, the more anxious were the Emperors to procure their conversion to pagan worship. The Christian descendants of the Royal House of David would have been put to death; but not till every means had been exhausted of persuading them by kindness or the reverse, to offer sacrifice to the Gods. Tertullian agrees with Hegesippus in saying that persecution ceased before the end of Domitian's reign. He says: "Domitian was in fact a limb of Nero, for cruelty. But I think because he had yet some remains of reason he very soon suppressed the persecution, even recalling those whom he had exiled" (Euseb. H. E. iii. 20). Tertullian wrote at the end of the second century and beginning of the third. He followed Hegesippus. Eusebius, whose Ecclesiastical History was written about the beginning of the fourth century, quotes them both. It is probable that all these writers took their information from the Epistle of Clemens Romanus to be noticed presently. They supply no real evidence of persecution.

The contemporary historians Tacitus and Suetonius who deal very fully with Domitian's reign never once mention Christian persecution. And this is all the more remarkable as they were in no way withheld from doing so by any sentiment of shame, or other cause of reticence. Tacitus has left us a long and harrowing account of Nero's persecution, which occurred in his youth. He wrote his "Annals" about the year 115, long after the end of Domitian's reign. In his account of Nero's persecution, he shows a great antipathy to Christians; but at the same time a strange want of familiarity with their creed. He calls the Christians of Nero's persecution "A race of men detested for their evil practices, commonly called Christians" (Anls. xv. 44). He looks back upon the Christians as a sect of the past and not as one holding a position of interest, in the eye of the public of his own day. He was a keen historian of his own times. Yet he not only never mentions Christian persecution in the reign of Domitian, but he writes of Christians as a curious and little known sect, in language which reminds one of Pliny the Younger's letter to Trajan, to be noted presently.

Suetonius in his "Life of the Twelve Cæsars," says of Nero's reign: "The Christians too were severely punished, a sort of people given up to a new and mischievous superstition." But although he attended the Courts of Justice in Domitian's reign and witnessed the fleecing of the Jews, he makes no mention of

Christian persecution. His language about the Christians, too, has a curious ring of aloofness about it.

When the stress of Domitian's exactions fell upon the poorer classes, the popular sentiment of Rome turned against him. The outraged nobles took courage to protect themselves. Towards the end of the year 96, Domitian meditated a cruel act of treachery. He included his wife Domitia, Norbanus, his faithful general, Patronius Secundus and Parthanius, in what proved to be a final list of the proscribed. This came to the knowledge of Domitia and the others condemned with her. In consequence, Domitian was assassinated in his own room by Stephanus, a freedman of Flavius Clemens, on the 18th Sept., A.D. 96. Juvenal puts it on record, that "when the common people were assailed, Domitian who had slain so many nobles with impunity, was himself overthrown" (Sat. iv. 150). His edicts were repealed and his exiles recalled by his successor, Nerva (Suet. Dom. 17, Pliny Epist. iv. 22).

We now come to the testimony of Clemens Romanus, postponed to this point because it is not certain whether it was given before or after Domitian's death.

The only evidence we have of persecution in Domitian's reign is found in the Epistle written by Clemens Romanus, Bishop of Rome, who is believed to have resided in the city in the period under review. He was the fourth Pope.

He received a petition from the Church at Corinth, in the year 96, asking him to put a stop to dissensions which were injuring that Church. There is no mention of persecution at Corinth in his Epistle. When persecution falls, dissensions cease. Owing to the panic at Rome, there was a long delay in answering the Corinthians. Clemens accounted for the delay by referring to "sudden and repeated calamities and reverses at Rome. He deals with the religious questions before him, and incidentally refers to the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul, which he introduces thus, "Let us come to those champions who lived very near our time. Let us set before us the noble examples which belong to our generation." After mentioning the deaths of the two great Apostles, he goes on to say, "Unto these men of holy lives was gathered a vast multitude of the elect who through many indignities and tortures, being the victims of jealousy, set a brave example among ourselves." This refers to Nero's persecution. He continues: "We are in the same lists, and the same contest awaits us." These last words are taken to mean that Domitian was at that time persecuting the Church.

Taken by itself, the Epistle of Clements to the Corinthians would lead to the conclusion that persecution had broken out

or was expected at Rome. The Corinthians took that view and spread the alarm of persecution to the East. But taken in connection with what we know of Domitian's reign, it is likely that Pope Clement anticipated persecution when the stress of Domitian's exactions fell upon the lower orders of Rome, and poor Christians as well as Jews were tortured to death. Clement seems to have belonged to the class affected. "Probably he was a freedman, or the son of a freedman of the Emperor's household, which included thousands or tens of thousands" (Don. Chapman, Encyc. Cath.). The date of this Epistle is very important. "It is now universally acknowledged, after Lightfoot, that it was written about the last year of Domitian (Harnack); or immediately after his death in 96 (Funk)," (Dom. Chapman, Encyc. Cath.). As Domitian died in September, 96, and his edicts were at once repealed, it may be assumed that the religious persecution which Clemens awaited, never came to pass.

It will be noted that Clemens Romanus does not mention the names of Flavius Clemens or Acilius Glabrio, who have since been claimed as Christians. He goes back to the time of Nero to find examples of martyrdom in his own generation. He himself survived Domitian and lived till the third year of Trajan. It is evident therefore that such persecution as there was in his day, was not aimed at the chief witnesses to Christianity, as in other persecutions. In the tranquil reign of Nerva, which followed that of Domitian, Clemens might have put on record the names of the more distinguished martyrs of his own time. But he did not do so. Neither in the martyrology of S. Jerome, nor in either of the Depositiones of the year 354, do we find the name of Flavius Clemens, or any other Domitian martyr. On the whole, the evidence of Clemens Romanus, is against the view that Domitian directly persecuted the Church.

A very important witness comes before us now, Pliny, the Younger, who lived through the Domitian reign of terror. He was an acute lawyer, famous as a pleader in the courts of the Centumviri, in the Julian basilica, in the Senate, and in public prosecutions. His abilities were recognised by frequent promotion. He was made a Senator in the year 82, Quaestor, in 89, Tribune in 91, and Prætor, by Domitian, in 93. In 94 Domitian made him President of the Military Tribunal. He was at Rome, holding this official position, when Flavius Clemens and other great men were put to death. He was amongst the number of those who retired before the end of Domitian's reign, to the obscurity of a country villa. Amongst the papers of the deceased Emperor, was found an information against Pliny, signed by Metus Carus, a noted informer.