apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

526 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARR
see above, p. 498 sq). There were indeed outbreaks from time to time at the commencement
of this reign, while the emperor was still
guided by the friends and counsellors
of his father^, but as soon as Marcia's influence over him was established, the Church
was free from molestation. The relations of the Church and the Empire in this reign
are considered in two good articles by Gorres, Jahrb.f. Protest. Theol. 1884, p. 228
sq. P- 395 sq.
But not only are the sufferings of the Christians during the reign of Marcus learnt
from notices of martyrdoms. The same inference is drawn from the language of the
Apologists'. Justin Martyr, Melito, Athenagoras, and Theophilus, all tell the
same tale. The first indeed wrote before Marcus had actually ascended the throne;
but he was already supreme in the counsels of Antoninus Pius, and among the
chief malioners and persecutors
of the Christians were his most intimate and trusted
friends, such as Fronto and Rusticus.
Again, the last may
have written some months
after his death, but the retrospect which he gives must refer especially
to the period
comprised by his reign.
The two remaining writers, Melito and Athenagoras,
addressed their apologies to him in his mid career as a sovereign— the one probably
about A.D. 170, the other almost certainly in A.D. 177. To this list should be added
Minucius Felix, if indeed we may with confidence accept the earlier date which
many recent critics have agreed to assign to him 3.
The facts which have been elicited in the previous investigation make up a serious
bill of indictment against the administration of M. AureHus. Whether the Romans
owed more to Hadrian who left them Antoninus, or to M. Aurelius who left them
Commodus, I shall not stay to discuss; but there can be no question that the Christians
received far fairer treatment under the former emperor than under the latter.
The persecutions
under M. Aurelius extend throughout his reign. They were fierce
and deliberate. They were aggravated, at least in some cases, by cruel tortures. They had
the emperor's direct personal sanction. They break out in all parts of the empire, in
Rome^, in Asia Minor, in Gaul, in Africa, possibly also in Byzantium^. Yet unquestion-
1 Herodian. i. 6. i 6X1701' fxkv ovv Tiybs Christiani gaudete, exclamavit,' Epiphan.
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Xpbvov fJL^y ovv Tivbs dXlywv €tu>v rifXT^v diwyfxov evaravTOS, ovk otda eiTretv ev tQ
waaav dw^ve/J-e Toh Trarpi^oL^