Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/225

 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 207 vernment, of the christians, it was thought necessary CHAP. to subject to the most intolerable hardsliips the con- '^^^• dition of those perverse individuals who should still reject the religion of nature, of Rome, and of their ancestors. Persons of a liberal birth were declared incapable of holding any honours or employments ; slaves were for ever deprived of the hopes of freedom, and the whole body of the people were put out of the protection of the law. The judges were authorised to hear and to determine every action that was brought against a christian. But the christians were not per- mitted to complain of any injury which they themselves had suffered ; and thus those unfortunate sectaries were exposed to the severity, while they were excluded from the benefits, of public justice. This new species of martyrdom, so painful and lingering, so obscure and ignominious, was, perhaps, the most proper to weary the constancy of the faithful : nor can it be doubted that the passions and interest of mankind were disposed on this occasion to second the designs of the emperors. But the policy of a well ordered government must sometimes have interposed in behalf of the oppressed christians; nor was it possible for the Roman princes entirely to remove the apprehension of punishment, or to connive at every act of fraud and violence, without exposing their own authority and the rest of their sub- jects to the most alarming dangers p. This edict was scarcely exhibited to the public view, Zeal and in the most conspicuous place of Nicomedia, before it pu°'shment was torn down by the hands of a christian, who ex- tian. pressed, at the same time, by the bitterest invectives, his contempt as well as abhorrence for such impious ami tyrannical governors. His offence, according to the mildest laws, amounted to ti-eason, and deserved death. And if it be true that he was a person of rank and education, those circumstances could serve only to P Manv ages afterwards, Fdward the first practised, with great success, the same mode of persecution against the clergy of England. See Hume's History of England, vol. ii. p. 300, last quarto edition.