Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/128

 n6 THE ROMAN DOMINION cution of a religious body, and the Christians were always subjected to a severe social persecution. But they began also to be charged by their enemies with the commission of foul crimes in the performance of their religious rites, and rumours were spread abroad that their doctrines were subversive of all social and political order. When a great part of the city of Rome was destroyed by a terrific fire in the reign of the emperor Nero, it was easy to lay the guilt upon the obscure followers of the unpopular sect. The state tolerated all religion, but it had introduced a new religion of its own by deifying the emperors and the state itself. Reasons for This worship was purely formal. It meant no more Persecution. tnan taking an oath of allegiance means to-day. The Jews had obtained exemption, the authorities having grasped the fact that to them it was a religious act absolutely irreconcil- able with the Jewish faith, while that faith could be held without disloyalty to the empire. But readiness to offer sacrifices to the deities officially recognised by the state was an easy test of loyalty; when Christians were charged with disloyalty the test was applied, and when the Christians rejected it, a conviction was soon established that Christianity implied disloyalty. Gov- ernors who realised that the Christian attitude was precisely the same as that of the Jews, and that the Christians were not a danger to the state, resisted the pressure which was brought upon them to act with severity ; but there were periodical panics when the government became possessed with the idea that the Christians were a secret society of anarchists, and when this happened severe persecutions were let loose. It is melancholy to report that the first persecution set on foot by direct authority of the emperor took place under Marcus Aurelius himself, whose writings are treasured by Christians to this day. In spite of the constant social persecution and the occasional persecution by the state, the followers of the Christian faith Continued increased and multiplied steadily. There was a Progress of leaven of Christian morality in the midst of the Christianity. g enera i corruption. Owing to a misconception Christianity was beginning to be feared as a political force ; but more than a century was still to elapse before it actually became