Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE FIRST AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.193the whole fabric of polytheism on which the RomanState rested. And the act of Nero had its greatimportance in that it formally distinguished theChristian from the Jewish religion, and took awayfrom it by a legal decision of the State's highestr ty the claim to be considered " licitNero then bestows the crown of martyrdomS. Peter and S. Paul, / and on what Tacitus calls, /even within Rome alone, a vast multitude. Buthe does more than this. On the first appearanceof Christians before the supreme authority he soapplies an existing law to their case as to establishtheir liability under it to capital punishment, andthis liability rests upon them henceforth down tothe time of Constantine. It is by no means alwayscarried out; it is often suspended, sometimes formany years together, according to the character ofthe ruling prince, or the maxims of his government,or the state itself of the empire. But it ishenceforth the legal position of Christians. It isa danger which besets their condition, and may becalled into action at any moment, inwany city of theempire, from any motive of private enmity, cupidity,or passion. It is the legal Roman equivalentand interpretation of their Master's words," You shall be hated of all men for my name'ssake."13"How often, and in how manv instances, it wasd out in this period of seventy yII.13 Matt. x. 22 ; xxiv. 9.O