apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

HADRIAN, PIUS, AND MARCUS. 509
accused her of being a Christian. She petitioned the emperor to defer the trial until
she had settled some private affairs, and her petition was granted. The husband,
thus baffled, turned upon PtoleniKus, who had been her instructor in the faith. He
persuaded a centurion who was a friend to put Ptolemoeus in chains, and examine him
on this single point, whether he was a Christian (dvepuTrjcrai. avrb touto iwvov el
XpicrTiauos icTTi). Ptolemaeus avowed his faith. Accordingly he was detained in prison
and ultimately brought up before Urbicus the prefect. The prefect again asked him
this same question and this only, whether he was a Christian (6/j.oiws avro tovto fiovov
e^-qraffOT], el ei'77 xP^aTiavos). Again he confessed, and this time he was sentenced to
death. As he was led away to execution, another Christian, Lucius, remonstrated with
Urbicus for sentencing an innocent man, simply because he called himself a Christian.
Lucius in turn was asked whether he was not himself a Christian. He confessed and
was sentenced to be executed. This happened likewise with a third. Justin adds
that he himself expects to be treated in the same way. It has been shown that
Lollius Urbicus was Prefect of the City in the later years of Antoninus Pius, about
A.D. I-;-;—
160; see Aube Sainf yustin p. 68 sq, following Borghesi (Cavedoni
Nitovi Cenni Cronologici, Modena 1858, p. 7 sq; Borghesi (Etivresww. p. 545).
This notice is especially valuable, first because it shows what might happen at any
moment, even when no regular persecution was raging, and secondly because it
exhibits the form of procedure, showing that there is no divergence from the principle
formulated by Trajan, and that the mere confession of Christianity was regarded as a
capital offence independently of any alleged crimes charged on the Christians.
(y) Polycarp and his Companions.
These martyrdoms will be shown hereafter to have taken place in all probability
in A.D. 155.
Once again criticism obliges us to reverse the verdict of tradition. Hadrian, who
is represented as a ruthless assailant of the Christians and to whose reign the fourth
general persecution is assigned, has come out from our investigation with comparatively
clean hands. On the other hand the reign of Antoninus Pius, which has been
regarded as a period of unbroken peace for the Church, is found to be stained with
the blood of not a few martyrs, and the instances known are such as to suggest that
sufferings of the same kind were by no means infrequent.
It has been pointed out (p. 508) that the gloomy forebodings of a coming persecution
in the Shepherd of Hermas may not improbably refer to the commencement of
Antoninus' reign ;
and again in the First Apology of Justin, which was written in the
earlier years of this same emperor, martyrdom is more than once spoken of, as a very
present danger (i. 2, 4, 11, 24, 25, 39, 45, 57, 68). The mere name of Christian was a
sufficient ground for condemnation (i. 4 rh ovajJ-a ds ^eyxov Xa/x^dveTe).
(iii)
Marcus Aurelius [a.d. i6i— i8o].
(a) 'jfustin and his Conpanions [c. a.d. 163].
The Acts are printed in Otto's Justin Martyr, Op.u. p. 266 sq, ed. 3. Their bald
simplicity is the best guarantee of their genuineness,
of which indeed there can be no
reasonable doubt. It seems plain also that the Justin here intended is none other