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 allowance might be made for any one who recanted. There was also the question whether any one should be punished simply for bearing the name of Christian or only if he was found guilty of "crimes associated with that name." Hitherto, in the case of those who were brought before him, he had asked them three distinct times whether they were Christians, and, if they persisted in the admission, had ordered them to be taken to execution. Whatever might be the real character of their profession, he held that such obstinate persistence ought to be punished. There were others no less "demented," who, being Roman citizens, would be sent to Rome for trial. Soon, as the natural consequence of these proceedings, a variety of cases had come under his notice. He had received an anonymous statement giving a list of accused persons. Some of them, who denied that they had ever been Christians, had consented to pray to the gods, to adore the image of the emperor, and to blaspheme Christ; these he had dismissed. Others admitted that they were Christians, but presently denied it, adding that they had ceased to be Christians for some years. All of these worshipped images of the gods and of the emperor, and blasphemed Christ. They averred that the sum and substance of their "fault" was that they had been accustomed to meet on a fixed day before daylight to sing in turns a hymn to Christ as God, and to bind themselves by a solemn oath (sacramento) to abstain from theft or robbery, and from adultery, perjury and dishonesty; after which they were wont to separate and to meet again for a common meal. This, however, they had ceased to do as soon as Pliny had published a decree against collegia, in accordance with the emperor's edict. To ascertain the truth, he had also put to the torture two maid-servants described as deaconesses, but had discovered nothing beyond a perverse and extravagant superstition. He had accordingly put off the formal trial with a view to consulting the emperor. The question appeared to be worthy of such a consultation, especially in view of the number of persons of all ages and ranks, and of both sexes, who were imperilled. The contagion had spread through towns and villages and the open country, but it might still be stayed. Temples that had been well nigh deserted were already beginning to be frequented, rites long intermitted were being renewed, and the trade in fodder for sacrificial victims was reviving. It might be inferred from this how large a number might be reclaimed, if only room were granted for repentance.

Trajan in his reply (Epp. 97) expresses approval of Pliny's course of action in the case of the Christians brought before him. It was impossible (he adds) to lay down any uniform or definite rule. The persons in question were not to be hunted out, but if they were reported and were found guilty, they were to be punished. If, however, any one denied that he was a Christian, and ratified his denial by worshipping the gods of Rome, he was to receive pardon. But no attention was to be paid to anonymous charges. It would be a bad precedent and unworthy of the spirit of the age.

The view that the Christians were punished for being members of a collegium or sodalitas (once held by E. G. Hardy, and still maintained by Professor Merrill) is hard to reconcile with Pliny's own statement that the Christians had promptly obeyed the emperor's decree against collegia (§ 7). Further reasons against this view have been urged by Ramsay, who sums up his main results as follows: (1) There was no express law or formal edict against the Christians. (2) They were not prosecuted or punished for contravening any formal law of a wider character. (3) They were judged and condemned by Pliny (with Trajan's full approval) by virtue of the imperium delegated to him, and in accordance with the instructions issued to governors of provinces to search out and punish sacrilegious persons. (4) They had already been classed as outlaws, and the name of Christian in itself entailed condemnation. (5) This treatment was a settled principle of imperial policy, not established by the capricious action of a single emperor. (6) While Trajan felt bound to carry out the established principle his personal view was to some extent opposed to it. (7) A definite form of procedure had been established. (8) This procedure was followed by Pliny (W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, p. 223).

It has been well observed by E. G. Hardy that the "double aspect of Trajan's rescript, which, while it theoretically condemned the Christians, practically gave them a certain security," explains "the different views which have since been taken of it, but by most of the church writers, and perhaps on the whole with justice, it has been regarded as favourable and as rather discouraging persecution than legalizing it" (Pliny's Correspondence with Trajan, 63, 210–2I7).

PLIOCENE (from the Gr., more, and , recent), in geology, the name given by Sir C. Lyell to the formations above the Miocene and below the Pleistocene (Newer Pliocene) strata. During this period the great land masses of the earth were rapidly approaching to the configuration which they exhibit at the present day. The marine Pliocene deposits are limited to comparatively few areas; in Europe, in the beginning of the period, the sea. washed the shores of East Anglia and parts of the south coast of England; it extended well into Belgium and Holland and just touched here and there on the northern and north-western coasts of France; it sent an arm some distance up the valley of the Guadalquivir and formed small bays on several points of the southern coast of France; and up the Rhone basin a considerable gulf reached as far as Lyons. Early in the period the sea covered much of Italy and Sicily; but the eastward extension of the ancient Mediterranean in south-east Europe, through the Danube basin, the Aral, north Caucasian and Caspian regions, continued to suffer the process of conversion to lagoons and large lakes which had begun in the Miocene.