Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/191

 1A OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 17:i had, or if the Nil.^ had not, risen beyond its banks; if CHAP, the eai'th had shaken, or if the temperate order of the seasons had been interrupted ; the superstitious pagans were convinced, that the crimes and the impiety of the christians, who were spared by the excessive lenity of the government, had at length provoked the divine justice. It was not among a licentious and exasperated populace, that the forms of legal proceedings could be observed ; it was not in an amphitheatre stained with the blood of wild beasts and gladiators, that the voice of compassion could be heard. The impatient cla- mours of the multitude denounced the christians as the enemies of gods and men, doomed them to the severest tortures, and venturing to accuse by name some of the most distinguished of the new sectaries, required with irresistible vehemence that they should be instantly ap- prehended and cast to the lions p. The provincial go- vernors and magistrates, who presided in the public spectacles, were usually inclined to gratify the inclina- tions, and to appease the rage, of the people, by the sacrifice of a few obnoxious victims. But the wisdom of the emperors protected the church from the danger of these tumultuous clamours and irregular accusations, which they justly censured as repugnant both to the firmness and to the equity of their administration. The edicts of Hadrian and of iVntoninus Pius expressly de- clared, that the voice of the multitude should never be admitted as legal evidence to convict or to punish those unfortunate persons who had embraced the enthusiasm of the christians "'. III. Punishment was not the inevitable consequence Trials of the of conviction ; and the christians, whose guilt was the ^ '■'*''^"^' most clearly proved by the testimony of witnesses, or even by their voluntary confession, still retained in their own power the alternative of life or death. It P See Tertullian, Apolog. c. 40. The acts of the martyrdom of Polycarp exhibit a lively picture of these tumults, which were usually fomented by the malice of the jews. "1 These regulations are inserted in the above-meritioned edicts of Ha- drian and Pius. See the apology of Melito, apud Euseh. 1. iv. c. 26.