Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate/Volume 1/Number 11/Persecution

PERSECUTION.

Few men in our day know of the extreme persecution the ancient saints endured for the sake of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Paul, who also suffered death for the testimony which he bore, has given us to understand that those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, and the author of the epistle to the Hebrews has mentioned the fact, that those who lived before him, were under the necessity of excluding themselves from society, and wander in dens and caves of the earth.

The following from "Fox's history of the Martyrs," may not be uninteresting to the readers of the Messenger and Advocate, as it will give us an idea of the unanimity of the enemies of truth, and the eagerness to deprive the saints of their privileges and rights. C.

Chap. VI.

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE FOURTH CENTURY TO THE DEATH OF GALERIUS.

We have been in some measure prepared for the awful scene which began to display itself at the commencement of the next century. The conflict was dreadful, but the conquest was glorious. For the human powers being first subdued by the influence of the christian doctrines, were at last compelled to become its protectors. But the furious wind of persecution was first to be once more raised, to purge away the remaining rubbish from the church, and winnow the chaff, by driving it to a distance from the genuine grain. It was declared impossible to describe particularly "the vast assemblies, the numerous congregations, and the multitudes, that thronged in every city to embrace the faith of Christ.—Spacious churches were erected from the very foundations, throughout all cities of the empires." But impieties and jealousies intruded themselves to the annoyance of the church, and schisms and divisions were productive of mischiefs, which were the occasion of great disturbances. The deprivation of Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis, of Thebais in Egypt, for sacrificing to idols and other crimes, disdaining to recant to cover his disgrace, disseminated many calumnies against Peter, bishop of Alexandria, and the other bishops assembled in a synod, as shewing too great indulgence in the restoration of apostates. But Hierocles the philosopher, now governor of Alexandria, who wrote against certain pretended inconsistencies of the Christian religion, and Galerius Maximian, who had been nominated Caesar, by the emperor, a most zealous and superstitious Pagan and hostile to the Christians, instigated thereunto by his mother, prevailed upon Dioclesian to form a system of persecution against them, to which the emperor was greatly adverse, but at last consulted his judges, and likewise the oracles of Apollo. Yet still his advice was to exercise moderation, whilst Galerius maintained the necessity of burning them alive. The day was at last fixed when the bloody scene was to commence.

The church of the Christians was the first place visited by the prefect and his officers in the morning of the day, when the doors were forced, and the first search was to find the image of their god. When they could find none, the sacred books and other things were cast into the fire, so that every place was at once filled with force and violence. Dioclesian overruled the proposal for burning the church; but it was soon leveled with the ground. By an edict of the following day all churches were ordered to be demolished, and the scriptures to be burned; and all Christians were interdicted from honors and officers, put out of the protection of the law, deprived of right by means of any suit, and no rank or dignity should exempt them from torture. This was immediately torn down by a Christian, for which he was seized and cruelly tormented, and afterwards burned alive. Another edict ordered all the bishops to be imprisoned, and every means to be used to compel them to sacrifice. All this did not satisfy the bloody-minded Galerius. The imperial palace, by his direction, was secretly set on fire, and charged upon the Christians. It was repeated, and a report was propagated, that the Christians had conspired with the eunuchs to murder the emperors; which had the designed effect, and Dioclesian in his fury resolved to compel every person to sacrifice, beginning with his daughter and empress. Many of the eunuchs and first-rate courtiers were put to death: amongst whom were Dorotheus, Gorgonius, and Peter, this last enduring courageously all their tortures, scourgings, gridirons, and fires. Many presbyters and deacons were seized, and, without requiring any manner of proof, condemned and executed. Anthimus, bishop of Nicomedia, was beheaded, with whom a great number of martyrs were joined. Mr. Echard relates, that "no regard was had to age, sex, or order; not contented with single executions, whole houses fell were burned at once, and droves tied together with ropes, thrown into the sea, with millstones about their necks. The persecution was not confined to Nicomedia; for the judges were sent to all temples to force people to sacrifice, and prisons were every where crowded, and unheard of torments invented.—That none but Pagans should have the benefit of the law, they placed altars in the very courts of judicature, where every person was obliged to sacrifice before he could plead. New edicts were daily sent into cities and provinces; so that in a short time the persecution spread through most of the empire, and became almost universal.—Multitudes of martyrs were made in all parts of the empire. The deaths were innumerable, far exceeding all former relations. Some were beheaded, as in Arabia; some devoured by wild beasts, as in Phœnicia; others slain by breaking their legs, as in Cappadocia; some were hung up with their heads downwards, and suffocated by slow fires, as in Mesopotamia; and others were broiled upon gridirons, as in Syria.—In Pontus, some had sharp reeds thrust up under all their nails; others had melted lead poured upon their naked skin, which ran down and burned the most necessary parts of their bodies; while others, without any commiseration, endured such obscene tortures as are unfit to be related, which the impious judges used as a demonstration of the acuteness of their wit, as if the greatness of that consisted in the most unnatural inventions."

Add to these the torments which the persecuted Christians endured in Egypt, where "infinite numbers of men, women, and children, suffered various kinds of deaths; some of whom, after their flesh had been torn off with torturing irons, after they had been racked, and most cruelly scourged, and sustained the most horrible torments, were committed to the fire, and others drowned in the sea. Other some cheerfully offered their necks to the executioners; some died under their tortures, others perished with hunger. Again, others were crucified, some according to the ordinary manner of malefactors, and others were nailed with their heads downwards, and left to die by famine. In the province of Thebais, the torments and indignities surpass all relation; instead of torturing irons, being torn with sharp shells all over their bodies till they expired. Women were tied by one of their feet, and by engines hoisted up into the air with their heads downwards, and their bodies, being entirely naked, were made a most detestable and inhuman spectacle. Others were tied up by the feet to great boughs and trees, violently forced together by machines, which, being let go, in a moment rent the bodies of the martyrs all in pieces. This continued for the space of whole years; sometimes no more than ten, at other times above twenty, were destroyed; sometimes not less than thirty, at others near sixty; and again at another time a hundred men together, with very small children and women, were executed in one day, being condemned to various and interchangeable kinds of punishments. In Phrygia, the soldiers invested a populous city, consisting all of Christians; and setting fire to it, men, women, and children, while calling upon God were all consumed in the flames."

When the governors of provinces were weary with slaughter, and glutted, as it were, with the blood of the Christians, an affectation of clemency and humanity was ostentatiously displayed by some of them. WE have not alluded to the vast numbers of prelates, bishops, and clergy, who suffered in this persecution, far too many to be distinctly named. But they afterwards contented themselves with discouraging the Christians, and making them miserable in life by "setting marks of infamy upon them. Accordingly some had their ears, noses, or hands cut off, others their eyes put out, and one of their legs disabled." The noted ecclesiastical historian of that period says, "It is impossible to reckon up the innumerable multitudes of the Christians, who had their right eyes put out, and seared with a hot iron, and of those who had their left legs made useless by torturing instruments; after which they were condemned to the mines, not so much for the service they could do, as for the miseries they should endure.—All kinds of arts were made use of to eradicate Christianity, and the greatest care was taken, but in vain, to destroy the holy scriptures. But the Christians thronged to the tribunals of their judges, freely declaring their opinions and religion, despising the barbarity of their enemies, and receiving their last sentences with a smile. Yet as some pressed too forwards to death and torments, so others leaped from the tops of houses to avoid the malice of their enemies. Some ladies of Antioch drowned themselves to escape ravishment by the soldiers. Yet some from fear, culpably delivered up their bibles; and too many, to avoid torments, apostatized. But far the greatest part behaved themselves so manfully, that neither fears nor charms" had any influence to prevent them from giving undeniable evidence of their fortitude. Donatus, in particular, must be mentioned by name, who endured torments nine several times from three different governors. Maximian, also, willingly joined with Dioclesian and Galerius in these cruelties; and these three wild beasts exercised their barbarities on all the provinces from east to west, Gaul alone escaping, where the mild Constantius governed, being one of the Caesars, whose mother Claudia was niece to the renowned emperor Claudius II. who signalized himself in the wars against the Goths.—To satisfy his superiors, he made a shew of pulling down some of the Christian churches, without farther damage; and he once politely pretended to persecute the Christians, commanding those of his household to do sacrifice, or quit their situation. But those who did so were discharged in the greatest disgrace, declaring generously, that "men, who were false to their God, would never be true to their prince."

To pass over the celebration of the emperor Dioclesian's Vicennalia, or twentieth year of his reign, and his triumphs for his victories, which are foreign from our purpose, we need only mention that in the first year of the persecution we meet as martyrs with the names of Procopius, Alphaeus, and Zaccheus in Caesarea, and of Romanus in Antioch, who gloriously withstood the malice of their persecutors; and the second year was memorable not only for the triumphant death of Timolaus, Dionysius, Romulus, Agapius, and several others also at Caesarea, but of Timotheus at Gaza. Marcellinus, bishop of Rome, also suffered towards the latter end of this year.—The emperor was now so much reduced by sickness, on his arrival at Nicomedia, where Galerius visited him, after being a little recovered, to compel him to resign the empire; which was effected, notwithstanding many objections, when the old emperor declared this determination to his soldiers with tears in his eyes, and named two of the creatures of Galerius, Severus, and Maximinus, who were as wicked and barbarous as himself. He had before compelled Maximian to resign the government of the East, as the only means of preventing a civil war; after which the empire devolved upon Constantius and Galerius. Their opposite tempers and dispositions did not prevent them from agreeing to a division of it; by which Constantius, in addition to Britain and Gaul, which he before possessed, had Spain and Germany, with Italy, Sicily, and the greatest part of Africa; and Galerius had Illyricum, Pannonia, Macedonia, Thrace, with the provinces of Greece, the lesser Asia, with Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and all the East. Though the share of Constantius was least, he gave up Africa and Italy to Galerius; and Galerius also surrendered these to Severus, one of his Caesars, and gave up Egypt, Palestine, and the East, to Maximin.

Whilst Constantius reigned in the hearts of his subjects, and every one was happy, Galerius treated even his Pagan subjects with the utmost tyranny and oppression, exacting his extortions by the most violent means; but the Christians were condemned to tortures, and in slow fires most inhumanly consumed. "They were first chained to a post, then a gentle fire set to the soles of their feet, which contracted the foot so that it separated from the bones; then flambeaux just extinguished were applied to all parts of their bodies, that they might be tortured all over; and cruel care was taken to keep them alive, by throwing cold water in their faces, and giving them some to wash their mouths, lest the extremity of the anguish should dry up their throats and choke them. Thus their miseries were lengthened out whole days, until their skin was quite consumed, and they were just ready to expire, when they were thrown into a great fire, that their bones might be burned to ashes; after which the remains were ground to powder, and thrown into some river.—With fresh rage and cruelty also was the persecution carried on in the East by the bloody Maximin, who had issued out edicts to the governors of provinces to put in execution the laws against those who refused to comply with the public ceremonies of the empire. At Caesarea, during the proclamation and summons from a public roll of names, Apphianus, a young gentle-man of Lycia, then a scholar of Eusebius, pressed through the crowd, and caught hold of the hand of Urbanus the governor, so that he dropped his sacrifice, gravely reproving him at the same time for these impieties." He was immediately apprehended, and put to the severest tortures, and thrown half dead into the sea. His brother Aedesius, for a similar fact, "suffered the same kind of martyrdom at Alexandria, and almost at the same time; not to mention innumerable others who gloriously ended their lives."

Yet the resignation of Maximian occasioned a cessation of the persecution in Italy, Spain, Africa, and their vicinity; after two years continuance.—This encouraged the bishops and clergy to assemble to consider the measures most advisable to be adopted for receiving those who had shrunk from their profession in the day of trial, and those who had surrendered their bibles and the consecrated or appropriated vessels of the church. But the persecution continued to rage in Egypt, and Peter, bishop of Alexandria, published an excellent canonical epistle, containing many temperate and charitable rules for penance on the one hand, and indulgence on the other, as relating to the various classes of those who had lapsed. How the young Constantine, the son of Constantius, escaped from the court of Galerius, where he was kept as a hostage for his father's fidelity, is foreign to our history; he happily arrived at York, in the island of Britain, where his father lay in a weak and feeble condition, beyond all recovery. Debilitated as he was, he received the young Constantine with raptures, to which his weakness little corresponded, and declared him emperor, particularly recommending the poor Christians to his pity and compassion. His first public act, after being joyfully received as emperor of the West, was to give the free liberty of religion to the Christians. Maximian, who had been forced to abdicate the government under Dioclesian, to avoid a civil war, availed himself of the usurpation of Maxentius, at Rome, who had caused himself to be declared emperor, in apposition to Constantine; an act, which was not less hostile to the disposition of Galerius. He soon reduced Maxentius, but still had reason to dread Galerius, especially if he should +++++ with Maximin. Having fortified Rome, he visited Gaul, and, to strengthen his interest gave his youngest daughter Fausta in marriage to Constantine. Galerius came against them, as Maximian had foreseen; but his soldiers, disliking this unnatural war, as they approached Rome, began to desert, and to convince him of his danger. He was, therefore, compelled to retreat; and Maxentius, who had before manifested some signs of compassion for the Christians, upon this success became insolent both to them and his other subjects, which soon increased to an Intolerable tyranny. Severus raised an army against Maximian also, but was soon defeated and reduced to submission, though he was afterwards bled to death; but Maxintius maintained his usurpation in Rome and Italy, by means of his army, for six years, though he soon lost Africa to another usurper of the name of Alexander.

Though Maximian had a share of the empire with Maxentius, that did not satisfy his restless mind. By his manoeuvres [manoeuvers] he caused great mischiefs among the Praetorian soldiers, and he was ignominiously compelled to leave Rome. The artifices of his visit to Galerius, the appointment of a new Caesar in the place of Severus, and the resolute opposition of Maximin in the East against the appointment of Licinius, are somewhat beside our purpose; but the result was, that Galerius first abolished the title of Caesar, and declared himself and Licinius the proper emperors, that Maxentius and Constantine had first the title of sons of the emperors, that Maximin boldly assumed the title of Augustus, and that Constantine and Maxentius soon after received the same title.

Maximin speedily discovered his tyranny, after this manifestation of his ambition, following the steps of Maxentius, at Rome, but surpassing him in impieties. From his excessive superstition, he more severely persecuted, than even his predecessors. In the celebration of his birthday at Caesarea, the Christians were made to share in the triumphs of the day: and therefore, "Agapias, who had before been sentenced to the wild beasts, was brought into the ampitheatre, and, being invincible to all persuasions, was delivered to the mercy of a she bear, which only left him so much life, as to be able to survive till the next day, when, with stones tied to his feet, he was thrown into the sea. Not long after, Eusebius' dear friend, Pamphilus, was apprehended & brought before Urbanus, the pres't who endeavored to turn him by all the arts of insinuation and terror, but in vain; for the martyr was immovable, and resolutely despised his threatenings. This so enraged the governor that he commanded him to be put to the acutest tortures: and when they had more than once raked his sides, and torn off his flesh with iron pincers, he was sent to keep company with the other confessors in prison, the governor himself being immediately after disgracefully displaced, and condemned to death by the emperor." During an imprisonment of two years, he was constantly visited by his friend Eusebius, and they employed their time to the most useful purposes. They had before published the Greek translation of the Septuagint, from Origen's Hexapias, for the use of the Palestine churches; and they now composed an elaborate apology, to vindicate Origen from those rude censures and reflections, which the indiscreet zeal of some had cast upon his memory.

The persecution still continued in the East, where Maximin issued new edicts in every province, ordering the idol temples to be repaired, compelling all persons to do sacrifice, and forcing them to eat part of the flesh which was offered. It was likewise directed, that all provisions exposed for sale in the markets should be defiled with things which had been sacrificed: and by these means the miseries of the Christians became so prodigious, that many of the Pagans, themselves condemned the emperor's barbarities, and the cruelties of his officers. Eusebius has given a particular account of the intolerable cruelties practiced in Palestine by Firlnilian, the successor of Urbanus, and of the martyrdom of two virgins and many others; for which the stones and senseless matter miraculously wept, to reprove the barbarous disposition of men. In the following year Pamphilius, over two years' imprisonment, was brought forward, and, still persevering, was condemned, together with his companions. His servant Porphyrius requested that the bodies might be decently buried; but the tormentors were directed to torture him by every device.—They raked off his flesh, until they had laid open the inward recesses of his body, which he bore with invincible patience, though no more than eighteen years of age, being a youth of good parts and learning. He was afterwards "ordered to be burnt in a slow fire, and sucked in the flames at a distance, entertaining his friends in the midst of his torments with a most serene undisturbed mind," till his soul departed from his body: and such was the rage and malice of their persecutors, that their dead bodies were exposed as a prey to wild beasts, under a military guard. Yet neither birds nor beasts would come near them; and their friends were at length permitted decently to inter them.

It was no longer advisable for Eusebius to remain, and therefore he prudently retired from Caesarea into Egypt. Yet the persecution there, especially about Thebais, raged with increased violence. The most deplorable spectacles were there daily exhibited: the numbers executed blunted the very edges of the Pagan swords. The tormentors were tired out, though they relived one another. The constancy of the martyrs, however, was unshaken; and the sentence of one only had the effect of the advance of others to confess themselves Christians at the tribunal. He was at length cast into prison; but how long he remained there, or by what means he was delivered is no where related. Even Rome was not exempt from persecution, though the western parts were generally peaceable. The tyrant Maxentius not only oppressed the Christians, but condemned Marcellus, bishop of that city, to keep beasts in a stable, and then banished him. Eusebius, son of a Grecian physician, was appointed about seven months after, and in about four or five months also suffered under this tyrant. Soon after this the persecution abated in the middle parts of the empire, as well as in the west: and Providence at length began to manifest vengeance on the persecutor. Maximian endeavored to corrupt his daughter Fausta to murder Constantine her husband: which she discovered, and Constantine forced him to choose his own death, when he preferred the ignominious death of hanging, after being an emperor near twenty years.

Galerius was visited by an incurable and intolerable disease, which began with an ulcer in his secret parts and a fistula in ano, that spread progressively to his inmost bowels, and baffled all the skill of physicians and surgeons. Untried medicines of some daring professors drove the evil through his bones to the very marrow, and worms began to breed in his entrails; and the stench was so preponderant as to be perceived in the city, all the passages separating the passages of the urine and excrements being corroded and destroyed. The whole mass of his body was turned into universal rottenness; and, though living creatures, and boiled animals, were applied with the design of drawing out the vermin by the heat, by which a vast hive was opened, a second imposthum discovered a most prodigious swarm, as if his whole body was resolved into worms. By a dropsy also his body was grossly disfigured: for although his upper parts were exhausted, and dried to a skeleton, covered only with dead skin, the lower parts were swelled up like bladders, and the shape of his feet could scarcely be perceived. Torments and pains insupportable, greater than those he had inflicted upon the Christians, accompanied these visitations, and he bellowed out like a wounded bull, often endeavoring to kill himself, and destroying several physicians for the inefficiency of their medicines. These torments kept him in a languishing state a full year; and his conscience was awakened, at length, so that he was compelled to acknowledge the God of the Christians, and to promise, in the intervals of his paroxysms, that he would rebuild the churches, and repair the mischiefs done to them. An edict, in his last agonies, was published in his name, and the joint names of Constantine and Licinius, to permit the Christians to have the free use of their religion, and to supplicate their God for his health and the good of the empire on which many prisoners in Nicomedia were liberated, and amongst others Donatus. He soon after committed his wife and son to the care of Licinius; and at his death appointed Constantine emperor of Gaul, Spain, Britain, and Germany; Licinius his successor in Illyricum, Greece, and Asia Minor; Maximin had been named Caesar, and since that emperor of Egypt and the East: and Maxentius, though an usurper, but since called emperor of Italy and Africa, notwithstanding the pos-session of the latter by Alexander, another usurper.