Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/162

 rors CHAPTER XVI. THE CONDUCT OF THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT TOWARDS THE CHRISTIANS, FROM THE REIGN OF NERO TO THAT OF CONSTANTINE. Christianity XF we seriously consider the purity of the christian b> the Ro- religion, the sanctity of its moral precepts, and the in- man einpe- nocent as well as austere lives of the greater number of those who during the first ages embraced the faith of the gospel, we should naturally suppose, that so bene- volent a doctrine would have been received with due reverence, even by the unbelieving world ; that the learned and the polite, however they might deride the miracles, would have esteemed the virtues of the new sect ; and that the magistrates, instead of persecuting, would have protected an order of men who yielded the most passive obedience to the laws, though they de- cHned the active cares of war and government. If on the other hand we recollect the universal toleration of polytheism, as it was invariably maintained by the faith of the people, the incredulity of philosophers, and the policy of the Roman senate and emperors, we are at a loss to discover what new offence the christians had committed, what new provocation could exasperate the mild indifference of antiquity, and what new motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld without concern a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their gentle sway, to inflict a severe punishment on any part of their subjects, who had chosen for them- selves a singular but an inoffensive mode of faith and worship. The religious policy of the ancient world seems to have assumed a more stern and intolerant character, to oppose the progress of Christianity. About fourscore years after the death of Christ, his innocent disciples were punislied with death l)y the sentence of a pro-