Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

372 THE THIRD AGE OF THE MAKTYR CHURCH.it is said that "he suffered the Christians to be;"Philip also favoured them ; so again Valerian atfirst; Gallienus gave back their churches ; Diocle-rusted them and filled his Dalace with them:but no one of these emperors ventured tothe Christian religion to be according to the lawsof Rome a " licit" religion, < and no one thereforeenabled Christians to avow it without danger of suffering.The most favourable suspended the actionof the laws either by positive edict, or by lettingit be understood that they did not wish Christiansto be disturbed. A change either of theruler, or of the ruler's inclination, as was seen inthe cases of Valerian. / Aurelian, / and Diocletian, 'induced at once that full state of penality underwhich Christianity was as much forbidden as homicideor treason, and in virtue of which Romanmagistrates could as little refuse to judge thecrime of being a Christian as those other crimes.Thus it is that we find martyrdoms assigned totimes at which there is not known to have beenany general persecution: and in unnumbered casesChristians won their crown through private enmityor local tumults, p when any one of the thousandmotives which awaken ill-will was sufficient tocause an appeal to that great and unchangedenemy, the Law of Rome, which proscribed them.To Constantine belongs the glory of having removedthis enemy. He made the profession ofChristianity no longer a crime. He accomplished