Part 10

LESSON XXV.

THE PERSECUTIONS.

"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven."--Matt v. 10

It had been revealed to St. John that the Church should have tribulation for ten days; and accordingly, in her first three hundred years, ten emperors tried to put out her light. Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Antoninus, and Aurelius, have been mentioned; and the next persecutor was Severus, an emperor who went to Britain, firmly established the Roman power over England, and built the great wall to keep the Scots from injuring the northern settlers.

In his time died the glorious band of martyrs of Carthage--five young converts, two men, named Satur and Saturninus, a noble young married lady, called Perpetua, who had a young infant, and two slaves, Revocatus and Felicitas, the last of whom gave birth to a daughter in the prison. But not even love to their babes could lead these faithful women to dissemble their belief; Perpetua left her child with her family; Felicitas gave hers to a Christian woman to bring up; and the lady and the slave went out singing, hand in hand, to the amphitheatre, where they were to be torn by beasts. A wild cow was let loose on them, and threw down the two women; but Perpetua at once sat up again, covered herself with her garments, and helped up Felicitas, but as if in a dream, for she did not remember that the cow had been loosed on her. Satur had an especial horror of a bear, which was intended to be the means of his death, and a good soldier named Pudens put meat in front of the den, that the beast might not come out. A leopard then flew at him, and tore him; Satur asked the soldier for his ring, dipped it in his own blood, and gave it back as a memorial, just before he died under the teeth and claws of the animal. The others were all killed by soldiers in the middle of the amphitheatre, Perpetua guiding the sword to her own throat.

The persecution of the Emperor Decius was one of the worst of all, for the heathen grew more ingenious by practice in inventing horrible deaths.

Under the Emperor Valerian died St. Lawrence, a young deacon at Rome, whom the judge commanded to produce the treasures of the Church. He called together all the aged widows and poor cripples who were maintained by the alms of the faithful, "These," he said, "are the treasures of the Church." In the rage of the persecutors, he was roasted to death on bars of iron over a fire. St. Cyprian, the great Bishop of Carthage, was beheaded; and one hundred and fifty martyrs at Utica were thrown alive into a pit of quick-lime. At Antioch one man failed; Sapricius, a priest, was being led out to die, when a Christian named Nicephorus, with whom he had a quarrel, came to beg his forgiveness ere his death. Sapricius would not pardon, and Nicephorus went on humbly entreating, amid the mockery of the guards, until the spot of execution was reached, and the prisoner was bidden to kneel down to have his bead cut off. Then it appeared that he who had not the heart to forgive, had not the heart to die; Sapricius's courage failed him, and he promised to sacrifice to the idols; and Nicephorus was put to death, receiving the crown of martyrdom in his stead. The persecuting Valerian himself came to a miserable end, for he was made prisoner in a battle, in 258, with the Persians, and their king for many years forced the unhappy captive to bow down on his hands and knees so as to be a step by which to climb on his elephant, and when he died, his skin was taken off, dyed red, and hung up in a temple. After his captivity, the Church enjoyed greater tranquillity; many more persons ventured to avow themselves Christians, and their worship was carried on without so much concealment as formerly.

But the troublous times were not yet over, and the rage of the prince of this world moved the Romans to make a yet more violent effort than any before to put down the kingdom of the Prince of Peace. Two emperors began to reign together, named Diocletian and Maximian, dividing the whole empire between them into two parts, the East and the West. After a few years' rule, they both of them fell savagely upon the Christians. In Switzerland, a whole division of the army, called the Theban Legion, 6,000 in number, with the leader, St. Maurice, all were cut to pieces together rather than deny their faith. In Egypt the Christians were mangled with potsherds, and every torture was invented that could shake their constancy. Each tribunal was provided with a little altar to some idol, and if the Christians would but scatter a few grains of incense upon it, they were free; but this was a denying of their Lord, and the few who yielded in the fear of them who could kill the body, grieved all their lives afterwards for the act, and were not restored to their place in the Church until after long years of penance, or until they had atoned for their fall by witnessing a good confession. Sometimes they were not allowed to receive the Holy Communion again till they were on their dying beds. But these were the exceptions; in general, God's strength was made perfect in weakness, and not only grown men, but timid women, tender maidens, and little children, would bear the utmost torture with glad faith, and trust that it was working for them an exceeding 'weight of glory. St. Margaret of Antioch was but fifteen years old, St. Agnes of Rome only twelve, and at Merida, in Spain, Eulalia, at the same age, went out in search of martyrdom, insulting the idols, until she was seized and put to death full of joy; but in general, the Christians were advised not needlessly to run into the way of danger.

This was the first persecution that reached to Britain, There a kind-hearted Roman soldier, named Alban, received into his house a priest who was fleeing from his persecutors, and while he was there, learnt from him the true faith. When search was made for his guest, Alban threw on the dress of the priest, and was taken in his stead; he was carried to the tribunal, and there declaring himself a Christian, was sentenced to be beheaded. The city where he suffered is called after him St. Alban's, and a beautiful church was afterwards built in memory of him. These cruelties did not long continue in Britain, for the governor, Constantius, had married a Christian British lady, named Helena; and as soon as he ventured to interfere, he stopped the persecution.

Diocletian became tired of reigning, and persuaded his comrade, Maximian, to resign their thrones to Constantius and to another prince named Galerius. Constantius forbade all persecution in the West, but Galerius and his son-in-law, Maximin, were very violent in the East; and Maximin is counted as the last of the ten persecuting emperors. Under him a great many Christians were blinded, scarred with hot iron, or had their fingers and ears cut off. Some were sent to the deserts to keep the emperor's cattle; some were driven in chains to work in the mines. These, who suffered bravely everything except death, were called confessors instead of martyrs. Galerius died in great misery in 311, of the same horrible disease as the persecutor of the Jews, Antiochus Epiphanes; and like him, he at last owned too late the God whom he had rejected, and sent entreaties that prayers might be offered up for him.

LESSON XXVI.

THE CONVERSION OF CONSTANTINE.

"The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ."--Rev. xi, 15.

The son of Constantius, Constantine, became emperor in 307. He was in doubt between the two religions; he saw that Christianity made people good, and yet he could not quite leave off believing in the heathen gods, and was afraid of neglecting them. As he was passing the Alps to put down a very powerful and cruel tyrant, who had made himself master of Italy, he and all his army suddenly beheld in the sky, at mid-day, a bright light shaped like a cross, and in glorious letters round it, the Latin words meaning, "In this sign thou shalt conquer." This wonderful sight made Constantine believe that the cross was truly the sign of salvation, and that He who could show such marvels in heaven, must be the true God. He set the cross on his standards instead of the Roman Eagle; and such great victories were vouchsafed to him, that by-and-by he became the only emperor, and put down all his enemies.

He was not as yet baptized, but he was a hearty believer, and he tried in everything to make the Church prosperous, and to govern by Christian rules. From that time all the chief powers of this world have professed to be Christian, and the Church has been owned as the great means appointed by God of leading His people to Himself. Constantine's mother, Helena, though in her eightieth year, set off to the ruins of Jerusalem to try to trace out the places hallowed by our Saviour's suffering. All was waste and desolate, and no one lived there save a few very poor Jews and Christians in wretched huts. The latter had never lost the memory of the places where the holy events of the Passion had taken place; and the empress set men to dig among the ruins on Mount Calvary, till she found the Holy Sepulchre, and not far from it, three crosses, and the nails belonging to them. She built a most beautiful church, so large as to cover the whole of Golgotha. The sepulchre itself formed a round vault within, crusted over with marble, and lighted with silver lamps. The true Cross was kept in the church, but the nails she brought home as the most precious gift she could carry to her son. She also beautified and made into a church the cave of the Nativity at Bethlehem, and she built another church on Mount Carmel in memory of Elijah. From her time it became a habit with devout persons to go on pilgrimage, to worship at the holy tomb and in the Cave of Bethlehem; and a new city of Jerusalem rose upon the ruins of the old one, though, of course, without a Temple. Rome was so fall of the tokens of heathenism, that Constantine feared that his court would never be heartily Christian till he took it to a fresh place; so he resolved to build a new capital city for his empire. This was the city called after him, Constantinople, the city of Constantine, on the banks of the Bosphorus, just where Europe and Asia nearly meet. The chief building there was a most beautiful church, dedicated to the holy Wisdom of God, and named in Greek St. Sophia. The Bishop there was termed the Patriarch of Constantinople. There were already five patriarchs, or great Father Bishops, to rule over divisions of the Church at Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. The Patriarch of Rome was called the Pope. All was peace and prosperity, and the Christians were so much at their ease, that some finding that they missed the life of hardness, which they used to think a great blessing, went apart from men, and lived in caves, quite alone, working hard for very scanty food, and praying constantly. These were called hermits. But there soon were troubles enough rising up within the Church herself, for a man named Arius, a priest at Alexandria, began wickedly to teach that our blessed Lord was not from all eternity, nor equal with God the Father. So many persons were led away by this blasphemous heresy, (which means a denial of the faith,) that it was resolved to call together as many Bishops as possible from the entire Church, to hold a General Council, and declare the truth.

The emperor came to Nicea, in Asia Minor, in the year 325, and there met three hundred and eighteen bishops from every quarter, many of them still scarred by the injuries they had received in the persecutions, and many learned priests and deacons, among whom the most noted was Athanasius of Alexandria. Together, they drew up the two first paragraphs of the confession of faith called the Nicene Creed, and three hundred of the bishops set their sign and seal to it, declaring it was the truth, as they had been charged to hold and teach it fast, the Catholic or universal faith. Arius was put out of the Communion of the Church, and all his followers with him. But they were many and powerful; and in after times, Constantine became confused by their representations. He ought to have seen that he who was not even baptized ought not to interfere in Church matters; but instead of this, he wrote to Athanasius, who had just been made Patriarch of Alexandria, telling him to preserve peace by receiving Arius back to Communion. Athanasius refused to do what would have tainted the whole Church, so Constantine banished him, and allowed Arius to come to Constantinople. There the heretic deceived him so completely, that he desired that he should be received back on the next Sunday. While the faithful clergy wept and prayed that the Church might be kept clear from the man who denied honour to the Lord who bought him, Arius went through the streets in triumph; but in the midst he was smitten by a sudden disease, and died in a few moments. This judgment convinced Constantine, and he held to the Catholic faith for the rest of his life. He was baptized, and received his first Communion on his death-bed, when sixty-four years old, and is remembered as the first believing monarch.

After him came worse times, for his son, Constantius, was an Arian, and persecuted the Catholics, though not to the death. St. Athanasius was driven to hide among the hermits in Egypt, and a great part of the Eastern Church fell into the heresy. Then, in 361, reigned his cousin, Julian the Apostate, who, from being a Christian, had turned back to be a heathen, and wanted to have the old gods worshipped. In hopes to show that the prophecies were untrue, he tried to build up the Temple at Jerusalem, and the foundations were being dug out, when balls of fire came bursting out of the ground; and thus God's will and power were made known, so that the workmen were forced to leave off. Julian was very severe towards the Catholics, and it seemed as though the old times of persecution were coming back; but after three years he was killed in battle, and the next emperor brought back better days. St. Athanasius finished this life in peace, and left behind him writings, whence was taken the glorious Creed that bears his name.

LESSON XXVI.

THEODOSIUS.

"The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee the City of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel"--Isa. lx. 14.

The empire was again divided into two parts, which were held by two brothers. Valentinian, who had the eastern half, was an Arian; and Valens, who ruled at Rome, was a Catholic. Though all the empire was Christian, still there were sad disputes; for many had fallen away into the heresy, and there was so great a love of arguing in a light careless manner in market-places, baths, feasts, and places of common resort, that it was a great distress to the truly devout to hear the most sacred mysteries discoursed of so freely.

The great and learned Saint Jerome hid himself away from this strife of tongues, to pray and study in a hermitage at Bethlehem. By the desire of the Pope, he did the same work for the New Testament as Simon the Great had done for the Old Testament: he examined into the history of all the writings that professed to have come down from the Apostles' time, and proved clearly which had been really written under the inspiration of God, and had been always held as Holy Scriptures by the Church. Then he translated the whole Bible into Latin, and wrote an account of each book, setting apart those old writings of the Jews that are called the Apocrypha, and are read as wise instruction, though they be not certainly known to be the Word of God, in the same manner as the Holy Scriptures themselves. St. Jerome is counted as one of the chief Fathers or doctors of the Church.

Another great Father of the Church who lived at the same time, was Ambrose. He was the Governor of the Italian city of Milan; and though a devout believer, was still unbaptized, when the clergy and the people, as was then the custom, met to choose their Bishop. A little child in the crowd cried out, "Ambrose Bishop!" and everyone took up the cry with one voice, and thought that the choice was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Ambrose was very unwilling to accept the office, but at last he submitted; he was baptized, and a week after was first confirmed, and then ordained priest, and consecrated Bishop. He was one of the most kind and gentle of men, but he had a hard struggle to fight for the truth. The Emperor, Valens, died, and his widow, Justina, who ruled for her little son, was an Arian. She wanted a church for her friends, but Ambrose would allow none to be profaned by a service where the blessed Saviour would be robbed of His honour. He knew his duty as a subject too well to lift a hand against the empress, but he filled up the Church with his faithful flock, and there they prayed, and sang psalms and hymns without ceasing; and when Justina sent soldiers to turn them out, they were so firm, that only one woman ran away. Instead of offering violence, the soldiers joined and prayed with them, and thus Justina was obliged to give up her attempt in despair.

A very good emperor named Theodosius had begun to reign in the east, and assisted Justina's young son to govern the west. He was a thorough Catholic, and loved the Church with all his heart. Some fresh heretics had risen up, who taught falsehoods respecting the Third Person of the most Holy Trinity; and to put them down, Theodosius called another General Council to meet at Constantinople, and there the following addition was made to the Nicene Creed: "I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified--" and so on to the end. Thus each heresy was made the occasion of giving the faithful a beautiful watchword.

Though good and religious, Theodosius was hasty and violent by nature, and could be very severe. He had laid a tax on the people of Antioch, which made them so angry that they rose up in a rage, knocked down the statues of the emperor and his wife which adorned their public places, and dragged them about the streets; but as soon as they came to their senses, they were dreadfully alarmed, knowing that this was an act of high treason. They, therefore, sent off messengers to entreat the emperor's pardon; and in the meantime they met constantly in the churches, fasting and praying that his wrath might be turned away. John, called Chrysostom, or Golden Mouth, from his beautiful language, was a Deacon of Antioch, and he preached to the people every day during this time of suspense, telling them of the sins that had moved God to give them up to their foolish passion, so as to put them in fear, and lead them to repentance. One of these sins was vanity, and love of finery and pleasure; and another was their irreverent behaviour at church. They did repent heartily; and before the emperor's men had time to do more than begin to try some of the ringleaders, there came other messengers at full speed, bringing his promise of pardon.

Love of the sight of chariot races was a great snare to the Greeks. At Thessalonica, one of the favourite drivers behaved ill, and was imprisoned by the governor, upon which the people flew out in a fury, and actually stoned the magistrate to death. In his passion at their crime, Theodosius sent off soldiers with orders to put them all to death; and when he grew cool, and despatched orders to stop the execution of his terrible command, they came too late--the city was in flames, and the unhappy people, innocent and guilty alike, all lay slain in the streets. Theodosius was at Milan; and St. Ambrose thought it right to shut him out from the congregation while he was so deeply stained with blood. The emperor came to the church door and begged to be admitted; but the Bishop met him sternly, and turned him back. Theodosius pleaded that David had sinned, and had been forgiven. "If you have been like him in sin, be like him in repentance!" said the Bishop; and this great prince turned humbly away, and went weeping home. Easter was the regular time for reconciling penitents; and at Christmas the emperor stayed praying and weeping in his palace till a courtier advised him to try whether the Bishop would relent. He came to the church, but Ambrose told him that he could not transgress the laws in his behalf. At last, however, when he saw the emperor so truly contrite and broken-hearted, he gave him leave to come in again; and there the first thing Theodosius did was to fall down on his face, weeping bitterly, and crying out in David's words, "My soul cleaveth to the dust, quicken Thou me according to Thy word!" He lay thus humbly through all the service; nor did he once wear his crown and purple robes till after several months of patient penitence he was admitted to the blessed Feast of Pardon. He made a decree that no sentence of death should be executed till thirty days after it was spoken, so that no more deeds of hasty passion might be done.

One great happiness of St. Ambrose's life was the conversion of Augustine. This youth was the son of a good and holy mother, St. Monica; but he had not been baptized, and he grew up wise in his own conceit, and loving idle follies and vicious pleasures. For many years he was led astray by heretical and heathenish fancies; but his faithful mother prayed for him all the time, and at last had the joy of seeing him repent with all his heart. He was baptized at Milan; and it is said that the glorious hymn Te Deum was written by St. Ambrose, and first sung at his baptism. The hymn, "Veni Creator," which is sung in the Ordination Service, is also said to be by St. Ambrose. Monica and her son spent a short and peaceful space together; and then she died in great thankfulness that he had been given to her prayers. He spent many years as Bishop of Hippo, in Africa, and wrote numerous books, which have come down to our day. One is called the City of God, so as exactly to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah, that the Church should so be called by the descendants of those who had afflicted her. St. Martin, a soldier, who once gave half his cloak to a beggar, and afterwards became a Bishop, completed the conversion of Gaul at this time, and was buried at Tours. St. Chrysostom likewise left many sermons and comments on the Holy Scripture. He was made Patriarch of Constantinople, but he suffered many things there, for the wife of the Emperor Arcadius, son of the good Theodosius, hated him for rebuking her love of finery, and her passion for racing shows, and persuaded her husband to send him into exile in his old age, to a climate so cold, that he died in consequence. The beautiful collect called by his name comes from the Liturgy which was used in his time in his Church at Constantinople; but it is not certain whether he actually was the author thereof.

LESSON XXVIII.