apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

lO EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
opposed to the hypothesis in question; not 'the common people calls^
but 'the common people called them Christians.' He lived sufficiently
near to the time of the events related to obtain accurate information.
he was only eight or ten years old when the Neronian persecution broke
out\ he must at all events have grown up among those who were eyewitnesses
of the terrible scenes. Again when Domitian raised his hand
against the Church, he was a Roman magistrate of some standing",
having held several important offices of state. It is therefore a highly
improbable hypothesis that his account of the persecution of the Christians
under Nero is a violent anachronism— a hypothesis which would
only then deserve serious consideration, if it were supported by some
really substantial evidence.
But no such evidence is forthcoming. On the contrary all the
authentic notices of this first persecution point in the same direction.
The testimony of Tacitus is confirmed by the testimony of Suetonius.
Suetonius was a contemporary younger probably by a few years; but he
was grown or growing up at the time when Domitian stretched out his
hand to vex the Church. It is an important fact that both these writers
regard Christianity as a neiv religion. Tacitus relates that its founder
Christ sufifered capital punishment at the hands of the procurator Pontius
Pilate in the reign of Tiberius {Ann. xv. 44). Suetonius describes
it as 'a novel and malignant superstition' {Nero 16). These representations
are supplemented by the statements of a later writer, Sulpicius
Severus.
After describing the tortures and executions of the Christians,
on the
he proceeds; 'In this way commenced the savage onslaught
Christians. Afterwards also laws were promulgated and the religion
was forbidden. Then Paul and Peter were condemned to death : the
former was beheaded, and Peter crucified ^' No great stress can be laid
on the statements of an author who wrote at the close of the fourth
century. But Sulpicius commonly follows good authorities for these
times; and his account of the sequence of events here is at least consistent
and probable in itself. The edict would not be the first, but the
second stage in the persecution. If, as is quite possible, a certain
number of Jews, from malice or ignorance on the part of the officers who
conducted the persecution, suffered in its earlier stages*, this confusion
If
^
Teuffel Gesch. d. Rom. Liter. § 315, edictis propositis
Christianum esse non
p. 671 sq.
licebat. Turn Paulus ac Petrus capitis
^ lb. p. 672. damnati; quorum uni cei-vix gladio de-
3
Chron. ii.
iq
'
Hoc initio in secta, Petrus in crucem sublatus est.'
Christianos saeviri coeptum ; post etiam * See Philippians pp. 24, 331 sq.
datis legibus religio vetabatur, palamque