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Galerius’ Edict of Toleration and the End of the Persecutions – Probable Account of the Sufferings of the Martyrs and Confessors (311 – 323 AD)
The sanguinary temper of Galerius, the first and principal
author of the persecution, was formidable to those Christians
whom their misfortunes had placed within the limits of his
dominions; and it may fairly be presumed that many persons of a
middle rank, who were not confined by the chains either of wealth
or of poverty, very frequently deserted their native country, and
sought a refuge in the milder climate of the West. ! As long as
he commanded only the armies and provinces of Illyricum, he could
with difficulty either find or make a considerable number of
martyrs, in a warlike country, which had entertained the
missionaries of the gospel with more coldness and reluctance than
any other part of the empire. 172 But when Galerius had obtained
the supreme power, and the government of the East, he indulged in
their fullest extent his zeal and cruelty, not only in the
provinces of Thrace and Asia, which acknowledged his immediate
jurisdiction, but in those of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, where
Maximin gratified his own inclination, by yielding a rigorous
obedience to the stern commands of his benefactor. 173 The
frequent disappointments of his ambitious views, the experience
of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflections which a
lingering and painful distemper suggested to the mind of
Galerius, at length convinced him that the most violent efforts
of despotism are insufficient to extirpate a whole people, or to
subdue their religious prejudices. Desirous of repairing the
mischief that he had occasioned, he published in his own name,
and in those of Licinius and Constantine, a general edict, which,
after a pompous recital of the Imperial titles, proceeded in the
following manner: -
Footnote !: A little after this, Christianity was propagated to
the north of the Roman provinces, among the tribes of Germany: a
multitude of Christians, forced by the persecutions of the
Emperors to take refuge among the Barbarians, were received with
kindness. Euseb. de Vit. Constant. ii. 53. Semler Select. cap.
H. E. p. 115. The Goths owed their first knowledge of
Christianity to a young girl, a prisoner of war; she continued in
the midst of them her exercises of piety; she fasted, prayed, and
praised God day and night. When she was asked what good would
come of so much painful trouble she answered, "It is thus that
Christ, the Son of God, is to be honored." Sozomen, ii. c. 6. -
G.
Footnote 172: During the four first centuries, there exist few
traces of either bishops or bishoprics in the western Illyricum.
It has been thought probable that the primate of Milan extended
his jurisdiction over Sirmium, the capital of that great
province. See the Geographia Sacra of Charles de St. Paul, p.
68-76, with the observations of Lucas Holstenius.
Footnote 173: The viiith book of Eusebius, as well as the
supplement concerning the martyrs of Palestine, principally
relate to the persecution of Galerius and Maximin. The general
lamentations with which Lactantius opens the vth book of his
Divine Institutions allude to their cruelty.
"Among the important cares which have occupied our mind for
the utility and preservation of the empire, it was our intention
to correct and reestablish all things according to the ancient
laws and public discipline of the Romans. We were particularly
desirous of reclaiming into the way of reason and nature, the
deluded Christians who had renounced the religion and ceremonies
instituted by their fathers; and presumptuously despising the
practice of antiquity, had invented extravagant laws and
opinions, according to the dictates of their fancy, and had
collected a various society from the different provinces of our
empire. The edicts, which we have published to enforce the
worship of the gods, having exposed many of the Christians to
danger and distress, many having suffered death, and many more,
who still persist in their impious folly, being left destitute of
any public exercise of religion, we are disposed to extend to
those unhappy men the effects of our wonted clemency. We permit
them therefore freely to profess their private opinions, and to
assemble in their conventicles without fear or molestation,
provided always that they preserve a due respect to the
established laws and government. By another rescript we shall
signify our intentions to the judges and magistrates; and we hope
that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer up their
prayers to the Deity whom they adore, for our safety and
prosperity for their own, and for that of the republic." 174 It
is not usually in the language of edicts and manifestos that we
should search for the real character or the secret motives of
princes; but as these were the words of a dying emperor, his
situation, perhaps, may be admitted as a pledge of his sincerity.
Footnote 174: Eusebius (l. viii. c. 17) has given us a Greek
version, and Lactantius (de M. P. c. 34) the Latin original, of
this memorable edict. Neither of these writers seems to recollect
how directly it contradicts whatever they have just affirmed of
the remorse and repentance of Galerius.
When Galerius subscribed this edict of toleration, he was
well assured that Licinius would readily comply with the
inclinations of his friend and benefactor, and that any measures
in favor of the Christians would obtain the approbation of
Constantine. But the emperor would not venture to insert in the
preamble the name of Maximin, whose consent was of the greatest
importance, and who succeeded a few days afterwards to the
provinces of Asia. In the first six months, however, of his new
reign, Maximin affected to adopt the prudent counsels of his
predecessor; and though he never condescended to secure the
tranquillity of the church by a public edict, Sabinus, his
Praetorian praefect, addressed a circular letter to all the
governors and magistrates of the provinces, expatiating on the
Imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincible obstinacy of the
Christians, and directing the officers of justice to cease their
ineffectual prosecutions, and to connive at the secret assemblies
of those enthusiasts. In consequence of these orders, great
numbers of Christians were released from prison, or delivered
from the mines. The confessors, singing hymns of triumph,
returned into their own countries; and those who had yielded to
the violence of the tempest, solicited with tears of repentance
their readmission into the bosom of the church. 175
Footnote 175: Eusebius, l. ix. c. 1. He inserts the epistle of
the praefect.
But this treacherous calm was of short duration; nor could
the Christians of the East place any confidence in the character
of their sovereign. Cruelty and superstition were the ruling
passions of the soul of Maximin. The former suggested the means,
the latter pointed out the objects of persecution. The emperor
was devoted to the worship of the gods, to the study of magic,
and to the belief of oracles. The prophets or philosophers, whom
he revered as the favorites of Heaven, were frequently raised to
the government of provinces, and admitted into his most secret
councils. They easily convinced him that the Christians had been
indebted for their victories to their regular discipline, and
that the weakness of Polytheism had principally flowed from a
want of union and subordination among the ministers of religion.
A system of government was therefore instituted, which was
evidently copied from the policy of the church. In all the great
cities of the empire, the temples were repaired and beautified by
the order of Maximin, and the officiating priests of the various
deities were subjected to the authority of a superior pontiff
destined to oppose the bishop, and to promote the cause of
Paganism. These pontiffs acknowledged, in their turn, the
supreme jurisdiction of the metropolitans or high priests of the
province, who acted as the immediate vicegerents of the emperor
himself. A white robe was the ensign of their dignity; and these
new prelates were carefully selected from the most noble and
opulent families. By the influence of the magistrates, and of
the sacerdotal order, a great number of dutiful addresses were
obtained, particularly from the cities of Nicomedia, Antioch, and
Tyre, which artfully represented the well-known intentions of the
court as the general sense of the people; solicited the emperor
to consult the laws of justice rather than the dictates of his
clemency; expressed their abhorrence of the Christians, and
humbly prayed that those impious sectaries might at least be
excluded from the limits of their respective territories. The
answer of Maximin to the address which he obtained from the
citizens of Tyre is still extant. He praises their zeal and
devotion in terms of the highest satisfaction, descants on the
obstinate impiety of the Christians, and betrays, by the
readiness with which he consents to their banishment, that he
considered himself as receiving, rather than as conferring, an
obligation. The priests as well as the magistrates were
empowered to enforce the execution of his edicts, which were
engraved on tables of brass; and though it was recommended to
them to avoid the effusion of blood, the most cruel and
ignominious punishments were inflicted on the refractory
Christians. 176
Footnote 176: See Eusebius, l. viii. c. 14, l. ix. c. 2 - 8.
Lactantius de M. P. c. 36. These writers agree in representing
the arts of Maximin; but the former relates the execution of
several martyrs, while the latter expressly affirms, occidi
servos Dei vetuit.
Note: It is easy to reconcile them; it is sufficient to
quote the entire text of Lactantius: Nam cum clementiam specie
tenus profiteretur, occidi servos Dei vetuit, debilitari jussit.
Itaque confessoribus effodiebantur oculi, amputabantur manus,
nares vel auriculae desecabantur. Haec ille moliens Constantini
litteris deterretur. Dissimulavit ergo, et tamen, si quis
inciderit. mari occulte mergebatur. This detail of torments
inflicted on the Christians easily reconciles Lactantius and
Eusebius. Those who died in consequence of their tortures, those
who were plunged into the sea, might well pass for martyrs. The
mutilation of the words of Lactantius has alone given rise to the
apparent contradiction. - G.
The Asiatic Christians had every thing to dread from the
severity of a bigoted monarch who prepared his measures of
violence with such deliberate policy. But a few months had
scarcely elapsed before the edicts published by the two Western
emperors obliged Maximin to suspend the prosecution of his
designs: the civil war which he so rashly undertook against
Licinius employed all his attention; and the defeat and death of
Maximin soon delivered the church from the last and most
implacable of her enemies. 177
Footnote 177: A few days before his death, he published a very
ample edict of toleration, in which he imputes all the severities
which the Christians suffered to the judges and governors, who
had misunderstood his intentions.See the edict of Eusebius, l.
ix. c. 10.
In this general view of the persecution, which was first
authorized by the edicts of Diocletian, I have purposely
refrained from describing the particular sufferings and deaths of
the Christian martyrs. It would have been an easy task, from the
history of Eusebius, from the declamations of Lactantius, and
from the most ancient acts, to collect a long series of horrid
and disgustful pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and
scourges, with iron hooks and red-hot beds, and with all the
variety of tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts, and more
savage executioners, could inflict upon the human body. These
melancholy scenes might be enlivened by a crowd of visions and
miracles destined either to delay the death, to celebrate the
triumph, or to discover the relics of those canonized saints who
suffered for the name of Christ. But I cannot determine what I
ought to transcribe, till I am satisfied how much I ought to
believe. The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius
himself, indirectly confesses, that he has related whatever might
redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could
tend to the disgrace, of religion. 178 Such an acknowledgment
will naturally excite a suspicion that a writer who has so openly
violated one of the fundamental laws of history, has not paid a
very strict regard to the observance of the other; and the
suspicion will derive additional credit from the character of
Eusebius, * which was less tinctured with credulity, and more
practised in the arts of courts, than that of almost any of his
contemporaries. On some particular occasions, when the
magistrates were exasperated by some personal motives of interest
or resentment, the rules of prudence, and perhaps of decency, to
overturn the altars, to pour out imprecations against the
emperors, or to strike the judge as he sat on his tribunal, it
may be presumed, that every mode of torture which cruelty could
invent, or constancy could endure, was exhausted on those devoted
victims. 179 Two circumstances, however, have been unwarily
mentioned, which insinuate that the general treatment of the
Christians, who had been apprehended by the officers of justice,
was less intolerable than it is usually imagined to have been.
1. The confessors who were condemned to work in the mines were
permitted by the humanity or the negligence of their keepers to
build chapels, and freely to profess their religion in the midst
of those dreary habitations. 180
2. The bishops were obliged to
check and to censure the forward zeal of the Christians, who
voluntarily threw themselves into the hands of the magistrates.
Some of these were persons oppressed by poverty and debts, who
blindly sought to terminate a miserable existence by a glorious
death. Others were allured by the hope that a short confinement
would expiate the sins of a whole life; and others again were
actuated by the less honorable motive of deriving a plentiful
subsistence, and perhaps a considerable profit, from the alms
which the charity of the faithful bestowed on the prisoners. 181
After the church had triumphed over all her enemies, the interest
as well as vanity of the captives prompted them to magnify the
merit of their respective sufferings. A convenient distance of
time or place gave an ample scope to the progress of fiction; and
the frequent instances which might be alleged of holy martyrs,
whose wounds had been instantly healed, whose strength had been
renewed, and whose lost members had miraculously been restored,
were extremely convenient for the purpose of removing every
difficulty, and of silencing every objection. The most
extravagant legends, as they conduced to the honor of the church,
were applauded by the credulous multitude, countenanced by the
power of the clergy, and attested by the suspicious evidence of
ecclesiastical history.
Footnote 178: Such is the fair deduction from two remarkable
passages in Eusebius, l. viii. c. 2, and de Martyr. Palestin. c.
12. The prudence of the historian has exposed his own character
to censure and suspicion. It was well known that he himself had
been thrown into prison; and it was suggested that he had
purchased his deliverance by some dishonorable compliance. The
reproach was urged in his lifetime, and even in his presence, at
the council of Tyre. See Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques,
tom. viii. part i. p. 67.
Footnote *: This sentence of Gibbon has given rise to several
learned dissertation: Moller, de Fide Eusebii Caesar, &c.,
Havniae, 1813. Danzius, de Eusebio Caes. Hist. Eccl. Scriptore,
ejusque tide historica recte aestimanda, &c., Jenae, 1815.
Kestner Commentatio de Eusebii Hist. Eccles. conditoris
auctoritate et fide, &c. See also Reuterdahl, de Fontibus
Historiae Eccles. Eusebianae, Lond. Goth., 1826. Gibbon's
inference may appear stronger than the text will warrant, yet it
is difficult, after reading the passages, to dismiss all
suspicion of partiality from the mind. - M.
Footnote 179: The ancient, and perhaps authentic, account of the
sufferings of Tarachus and his companions, (Acta Sincera Ruinart,
p. 419 - 448,) is filled with strong expressions of resentment
and contempt, which could not fail of irritating the magistrate.
The behavior of Aedesius to Hierocles, praefect of Egypt, was
still more extraordinary. Euseb. de Martyr. Palestin. c. 5.
Note: M. Guizot states, that the acts of Tarachus and his
companion contain nothing that appears dictated by violent
feelings, (sentiment outre.) Nothing can be more painful than the
constant attempt of Gibbon throughout this discussion, to find
some flaw in the virtue and heroism of the martyrs, some
extenuation for the cruelty of the persecutors. But truth must
not be sacrificed even to well-grounded moral indignation.
Though the language of these martyrs is in great part that of
calm de fiance, of noble firmness, yet there are many expressions
which betray "resentment and contempt." "Children of Satan,
worshippers of Devils," is their common appellation of the
Heathen. One of them calls the judge another, one curses, and
declares that he will curse the Emperors, as pestilential and
bloodthirsty tyrants, whom God will soon visit in his wrath. On
the other hand, though at first they speak the milder language of
persuasion, the cold barbarity of the judges and officers might
surely have called forth one sentence of abhorrence from Gibbon.
On the first unsatisfactory answer, "Break his jaw," is the order
of the judge. They direct and witness the most excruciating
tortures; the people, as M. Guizot observers, were so much
revolted by the cruelty of Maximus that when the martyrs appeared
in the amphitheatre, fear seized on all hearts, and general
murmurs against the unjust judge rank through the assembly. It
is singular, at least, that Gibbon should have quoted "as
probably authentic," acts so much embellished with miracle as
these of Tarachus are, particularly towards the end. - M.
Footnote 180: Euseb. de Martyr. Palestin. c. 13.
Footnote 181: Augustin. Collat. Carthagin. Dei, iii. c. 13, ap.
Tillanant, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. v. part i. p. 46. The
controversy with the Donatists, has reflected some, though
perhaps a partial, light on the history of the African church.
The vague descriptions of exile and imprisonment, of pain
and torture, are so easily exaggerated or softened by the pencil
of an artful orator, * that we are naturally induced to inquire
into a fact of a more distinct and stubborn kind; the number of
persons who suffered death in consequence of the edicts published
by Diocletian, his associates, and his successors. The recent
legendaries record whole armies and cities, which were at once
swept away by the undistinguishing rage of persecution. The more
ancient writers content themselves with pouring out a liberal
effusion of loose and tragical invectives, without condescending
to ascertain the precise number of those persons who were
permitted to seal with their blood their belief of the gospel.
From the history of Eusebius, it may, however, be collected, that
only nine bishops were punished with death; and we are assured,
by his particular enumeration of the martyrs of Palestine, that
no more than ninety-two Christians were entitled to that
honorable appellation. 182 ! As we are unacquainted with the
degree of episcopal zeal and courage which prevailed at that
time, it is not in our power to draw any useful inferences from
the former of these facts: but the latter may serve to justify a
very important and probable conclusion. According to the
distribution of Roman provinces, Palestine may be considered as
the sixteenth part of the Eastern empire: 183 and since there
were some governors, who from a real or affected clemency had
preserved their hands unstained with the blood of the faithful,
184 it is reasonable to believe, that the country which had
given birth to Christianity, produced at least the sixteenth part
of the martyrs who suffered death within the dominions of
Galerius and Maximin; the whole might consequently amount to
about fifteen hundred, a number which, if it is equally divided
between the ten years of the persecution, will allow an annual
consumption of one hundred and fifty martyrs. Allotting the same
proportion to the provinces of Italy, Africa, and perhaps Spain,
where, at the end of two or three years, the rigor of the penal
laws was either suspended or abolished, the multitude of
Christians in the Roman empire, on whom a capital punishment was
inflicted by a judicia, sentence, will be reduced to somewhat
less than two thousand persons. Since it cannot be doubted that
the Christians were more numerous, and their enemies more
exasperated, in the time of Diocletian, than they had ever been
in any former persecution, this probable and moderate computation
may teach us to estimate the number of primitive saints and
martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the important purpose of
introducing Christianity into the world.
Footnote 182: Eusebius de Martyr. Palestin. c. 13. He closes
his narration by assuring us that these were the martyrdoms
inflicted in Palestine, during the whole course of the
persecution. The 9th chapter of his viiith book, which relates
to the province of Thebais in Egypt, may seem to contradict our
moderate computation; but it will only lead us to admire the
artful management of the historian. Choosing for the scene of
the most exquisite cruelty the most remote and sequestered
country of the Roman empire, he relates that in Thebais from ten
to one hundred persons had frequently suffered martyrdom in the
same day. But when he proceeds to mention his own journey into
Egypt, his language insensibly becomes more cautious and
moderate. Instead of a large, but definite number, he speaks of
many Christians, and most artfully selects two ambiguous words,
which may signify either what he had seen, or what he had heard;
either the expectation, or the execution of the punishment.
Having thus provided a secure evasion, he commits the equivocal
passage to his readers and translators; justly conceiving that
their piety would induce them to prefer the most favorable sense.
There was perhaps some malice in the remark of Theodorus
Metochita, that all who, like Eusebius, had been conversant with
the Egyptians, delighted in an obscure and intricate style. (See
Valesius ad loc.)
Footnote 183: When Palestine was divided into three, the
praefecture of the East contained forty-eight provinces. As the
ancient distinctions of nations were long since abolished, the
Romans distributed the provinces according to a general
proportion of their extent and opulence.
Footnote 184: Ut gloriari possint nullam se innocentium
poremisse, nam et ipse audivi aloquos gloriantes, quia
administratio sua, in hac paris merit incruenta. Lactant.
Institur. Divin v. 11.
We shall conclude this chapter by a melancholy truth, which
obtrudes itself on the reluctant mind; that even admitting,
without hesitation or inquiry, all that history has recorded, or
devotion has feigned, on the subject of martyrdoms, it must still
be acknowledged, that the Christians, in the course of their
intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater severities on
each other, than they had experienced from the zeal of infidels.
During the ages of ignorance which followed the subversion of the
Roman empire in the West, the bishops of the Imperial city
extended their dominion over the laity as well as clergy of the
Latin church. The fabric of superstition which they had erected,
and which might long have defied the feeble efforts of reason,
was at length assaulted by a crowd of daring fanatics, who from
the twelfth to the sixteenth century assumed the popular
character of reformers. The church of Rome defended by violence
the empire which she had acquired by fraud; a system of peace and
benevolence was soon disgraced by proscriptions, war, massacres,
and the institution of the holy office. And as the reformers
were animated by the love of civil as well as of religious
freedom, the Catholic princes connected their own interest with
that of the clergy, and enforced by fire and the sword the
terrors of spiritual censures. In the Netherlands alone, more
than one hundred thousand of the subjects of Charles V. are said
to have suffered by the hand of the executioner; and this
extraordinary number is attested by Grotius, 185 a man of genius
and learning, who preserved his moderation amidst the fury of
contending sects, and who composed the annals of his own age and
country, at a time when the invention of printing had facilitated
the means of intelligence, and increased the danger of detection.
If we are obliged to submit our belief to the authority of
Grotius, it must be allowed, that the number of Protestants, who
were executed in a single province and a single reign, far
exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three
centuries, and of the Roman empire. But if the improbability of
the fact itself should prevail over the weight of evidence; if
Grotius should be convicted of exaggerating the merit and
sufferings of the Reformers; 186 we shall be naturally led to
inquire what confidence can be placed in the doubtful and
imperfect monuments of ancient credulity; what degree of credit
can be assigned to a courtly bishop, and a passionate declaimer,
* who, under the protection of Constantine, enjoyed the
exclusive privilege of recording the persecutions inflicted on
the Christians by the vanquished rivals or disregarded
predecessors of their gracious sovereign.
Footnote 185: Grot. Annal. de Rebus Belgicis, l. i. p. 12, edit.
fol.
Footnote 186: Fra Paola (Istoria del Concilio Tridentino, l.
iii.) reduces the number of the Belgic martyrs to 50,000. In
learning and moderation Fra Paola was not inferior to Grotius.
The priority of time gives some advantage to the evidence of the
former, which he loses, on the other hand, by the distance of
Venice from the Netherlands.
Footnote *: Eusebius and the author of the Treatise de Mortibus
Persecutorum. It is deeply to be regretted that the history of
this period rest so much on the loose and, it must be admitted,
by no means scrupulous authority of Eusebius. ecclesiastical
history is a solemn and melancholy lesson that the best, even the
most sacred, cause will eventually the least departure from
truth! - M.
End of Chapter XVI.
To cite original text:
Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. (NY : Knopf, 1993), v. 2, pp. 71 - 79.
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