The Secret Vault presents: The Christian and Pagan Creeds Collated. Rev. Robert Taylor, A. B. & M. R. C. S.
Christian Religion.
By the Rev. Robert Taylor, A. B. & M. R. C. S.
PLINY, AD. 110.
(LN. Part 5 concerns Pliny the youngers supposed letter to Trajan about his unsureness of how to deal with the troublesome Christians and Rev. Taylors misgivings over its authenticity?)
[LN. Main characters mentioned in this text include. Pliny the younger, 61 to 113, served as an imperial magistrate under Trajan, and was also an author. Tacitus.]
Pliny the younger, was born 61AD. He held important civil and religions offices under the Roman Government, was the personal friend of Tacitus, and was in the year 106 sent by the emperor Trajan as proconsul into the province of Bithynia, from whence he wrote the annexed letter:
"Pliny to the emperor Trajan wishes health and happiness. - It is my constant custom, sir, to refer myself to you in all matters concerning which I have any doubt: for who can better direct me when I hesitate or instruct me when I am ignorant. I have never been present at any trials of Christians; so that I knew not well what is the subject, matter of punishment or of enquiry, or what strictness ought to be used in either. Nor have I been a little perplexed to determine whether any difference ought to be made on account of age, or whether the young and- tender, and the full grown and robust, ought to be treated all alike; whether repentance should entitle to pardon, or whether all who have once been Christians ought to be punished, though they are now no longer so; whether the name itself, although no crimes be detected, or crimes only belonging to the name, ought to be punished. Concerning all these things I am in doubt.
"In the meantime, I have taken this course with all who have been brought before me and have been accused as Christians. I have put the question to them, whether they were Christians? Upon their confessing to me that they were, I repeated the question a second and a third time, threatening also to punish them with death. Such as still persisted, I ordered away to be punished; for it was no doubt with me, whatever might be the nature of their opinions, that contumacy and inflexible obstinacy ought to be punished. There were others of the same infatuation, whom, because they are Roman citizens, I have noted down to be sent to the city. In a short time, the crime spreading itself, even whilst under persecution, as is usual in such cases, diverse sorts of people came in my way. An information was presented to me, without mentioning the author, containing the names of many persons, who, upon examination, denied that they were Christians, or had ever been so; who repeated after me an invocation of the gods, and, with wine and frankincense, made supplication to your image, which for that purpose I had caused to be brought and set before them, together with the statues of the deities. Moreover, they reviled the name of Christ. None of which things, as is said, they who are really Christians can by any means be compelled to do. These, therefore, I thought proper to discharge.
"Others were named by an informer, who at first confessed that they were Christians, but afterwards denied it: and some, acknowledging that they had been, declared that they had relinquished the profession, some above three years ago, some a longer time, and several more than twenty years. All these paid the accustomed divine honours both to your statue and to the images of the gods; and they also reviled Christ. They moreover declared that the whole of what was laid to their charge, whether it was a crime or a mere error, consisted in this: that they made it a practice, on a stated day, to meet together before day-light, [a] to sing hymns with responses to Christ as a god, and to bind themselves by a solemn institution^ not to any wrong act, but that they would not commit any thefts or robberies or acts of un chastity, that they would never break their word, that they would never violate a trust; that, when these observances were finished, they separated, and afterwards came together again to a common and innocent repast; but that they had given over this last practice after my edict, in which, according to your orders, I forbad social meetings. Upon these declarations, I thought it requisite to get at the entire truth by putting to the torture two women who were called deaconesses: but I discovered nothing beyond an austere, an excessive superstition. Upon the whole, therefore, I determined to adjourn the trials, in order to consult you: for the case appears to me to demand my so doing, particularly on account of the great number of the persons who are in danger of suffering. For many of all ages and every rank, of both sexes likewise, are accused, and will be accused. Nor has the contagion of this superstition seized cities only, but the villages and the country. It however, still seems to me, that this evil may easily be restrained. For it is assuredly, sufficiently obvious, that it is upon the decline. The temples which were a little while ago almost deserted, begin to be resorted to, as usual: and victims, which hitherto hardly found a purchaser, are now in full request: whence you may naturally suppose, that a multitude of men might be reclaimed, if allowance were granted to their repentance." - Pliny's Epistle, book 10, letter 97.
[a] If this letter be genuine, these nocturnal meetings were what no prudent government could allow; they fully justify the charges of Caecilius in Minutiua Felix, of Caelsus in Origen, and of Lucian, that the primitive Christians were a skulking, light-shunning, secret, mystical, freemasonry sort of confederation, against the general welfare and peace of society.] [note. LN., Josephus reports that the Essenes carried out the same service, singing praises to encourage the Sun to rise each morning.]
[Latin text of Pliny's letter. Solenne est mihi, Domine, omnia de quibus dubito, ad te referre: quis enim potest meiius vel cunctationem meara regere, vel ignorantiam raeara instruere. Cogriitionibu3 de Christianis interful nunquam: ideo vel quid vel quatenus aut puniri soleat aut quseri, nescio. Nee etiam haesitavi mediocriter, sitne aliquod discrimen cetatum, an quamlibet teneri nihil a robustioribus differant: deturne poenitentiae venia, an ei qui prorsus Christianus fuit, desisse non prosit: nomen ipsura, etiamsi ilagitiis careat, an flagitla cohaereotia nomini puniantur. Interim in iis qui ad me tanquamChristiani deferebantur, hunc sum sequutus modum. Interrogavi ipsos, an essent Christiani: confitentes iterum ac tertio interrogavi, supplicio minatus; perseverantes duci jussi. Neque enim dubitabam, qualecunque esset quod faterentur, pervicaciam certe, et inflexibilem obstinationem debere puniri. Fuerunt alii similis amentiae: quos, quia cives Romani erant, annotavi in urbem remittendoa. Mox ipso tractu, ut fieri solet, diffundente se crimine, plures species inciderunt. Pro' positus est libellus, sine auctore, multorum nomina continens, qui negarent se esse Christianos, aut fuisse; quum, prseeunte me, deos appellarent, et imaginitufe, quam propter hoc jusseram cum simulacris numinum afFerri, thure ac vino supplicareut; prseterea maledicerent Christo: quorum nihil cogi posse dicuntur, qui sunt revera Christiani. Ergo dimittendos putavi. Alii ab indice nominati, esse se Christinaos dixemnt, et mox negaverunt: fuisse quidem, sed desisse, quidam ante triennium, quidam ante plures annos, non nemo etiam ante viginti quoque. Omnes et imaginem tuam, deorumque simulacra venerati sunt; ii et Christo maledixerunt. Affirmabant autem, hanc fuisse summam vel culpae suae, vel erroris, quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem con venire; carmenque Christo. quasi Deo, dicere secum invicem; seque sacramento non in scelus aliquod obstringere, sed ne furta, ne latrocinia, ne adulteria committerent, ne fidern fallerent, ne depositum appellati abnegarent: quibus peractis rnorem sibi discedendi fuisse, rursusque coeundi ad capiendum cibum, promiscuum tamen, et innoxium: quod ipsum facere desjsse post edictum meum, quo secundum mandata tua hetserias esse vetueram. Quo magis necessarium credidi, ex duabus ancillis quae ministry, dicebantur, quid esset veri et per torrnenta quaerere. Sed nihil aliud inveni, quam superstitionem pravam et immodicam. Ideoque, dilata cognitione, ad consulendum te decurri. Visa est enit: mihi res digna consultatione, maxime propter periclitantium numerum. Multi enirn omnis aetatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque sexus etiam, vocanturin perieulum, et vocabuntur. Neque enim civitates tantum, sed vicos etiam atque agros superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est: quae videtur sisti et corrigi posse. Certe satis constat, prope jamdesolata templa coepisse celebrari, et sacra solennia diu intermissa repeti: passimque vaenire victimas, quarum adhuc rarissimus emptor inveniebatur. Ex quo facile est opinari, quae turba hotninum emendari possit, si sit poenitentiae locus. - Plinii Epistolar. lib. 70, Epist. 97. -
However little room for doubt of the genuineness and authenticity of this letter there may seem to be, we ought not to have known that the name of Christians was common to the worshippers of the god Serapis: and the name of Christ common to the whole rabble-ment of gods, kings, and priests; that the practices described in this letter, are none other than were common to innumerable sects of cracked-brained pagan visionaries; and that the observers of these practices were generally found to be such desperately wicked characters as are ever prompt to turn faith into faction, and religion into rebellion; so that no vigilant and prudent magistrate could be indifferent to their machinations, or not feel himself bound to use all the powers with which the laws invested him, to sift the principles and grounds of their combination, and to make himself thoroughly acquainted not only with all that they professed, but with their arcana interiora, the more interior secrets, policy, and purpose of their institution. We cannot imagine, that so wise and good a man, so just and candid a magistrate, who evidently wished to make the best of the case for the accused party, would conceal from his friend and master, Trajan, anything in their favour that had come to his knowledge.
Did they tell him, then, that they were the followers of a religion which had "God for its author, happiness for its end, and truth without any mixture of error for its matter?"
Did they tell him that they were the disciples of one, who then, and as yet within the memory of man, had a real existence, had taught a purer morality, had wrought miracles, had died, and risen again to life?
Did they lay down the important distinction between the "teacher sent from God;" and the innumerable Christs, Messiahs, Emmanuels, Logoses, Words, and Messengers of the heathen mythology, in that he was the object of history; they the figments of romance, that "he was real, they an empty name."
Did they so much as mention the name of Jesus of Nazareth? Did they refer to one single circumstance of his life as a man, or drop an enigma that could set the mind to guess at the Galilean rather than the Stagyrite [LN. A word connected to the learning of Aristotle] or make it more probable, that they meant the man of Nazareth rather than the Cacodemon of the Forest? No! No! nothing of the sort! not a text, not an iota, not a vestige of Christianity in her. We have the name of Christ, and nothing else but the name, where the name of Apollo or Bacchus would have filled up the sense quite as well.
It is not to be concealed, however, that the literati of Germany have maintained that this celebrated letter is another instance to be added to the long list of Christian forgeries; and that the more learned German divines and critics have pretty generally given it up. The learned Dr Sender, of Leipsic, adduces nine arguments against its authenticity, [a] is supported by Corrode, [b] and was replied to by Haveisaas [c] and Gierig. [d]
My room will not admit my entering on the merits of this controversy; and as, after all I have heard of it, I am not disposed to admit the passage to be fairly conquered, there is the less occasion for my doing so. I still think it may be genuine, and that mainly upon the strength of its amounting to so very little or nothing in weight of evidence, even if its genuineness were unquestionable.
I leave the reader to give what consideration he may to the objections to the claims of this Epistle, which I subjoin without the advantage of the lights Dr Semler may have cast on the subject.
1. The undeniable fact that the first Christians were the greatest liars and forgers that had ever been in the whole world, and that they actually stopped at nothing.
2. The undeniable fact that it was not the ignorant and vulgar among them, but their best scholars, the shrewdest, cleverest, and highest in rank and talent, who were the practitioners of these forgeries. [e]
3. The flagrant atropism of Christians, being found in the remote province of Bithynia, before they had acquired any notoriety in Rome. [f] [LN. Atropism, poisoning by Atropine, gained from Belladonna, or other of deadly nightshade family of plants.]
4. The inconsistency of religious persecution, with the just and philosophic character of the Roman government.
5. The inconsistency of the supposition that so just and moral a people as the primitive Christians are assumed to have been, should have been the first to provoke the Roman government to depart from its universal maxims of toleration, liberality, and indifference.
1. [notes. [a] Neue Versuche die Kirchen historie der ersten Jahrunderte inehr aufzuklaren: by Jo. Salom. Semler, Leipsic, 1788, Fesc. L, pp. 119 - 246.
2. [b] Beytragi zur Beforderung des versmuftigew Denkens in der Religion.
3. [c] Vertheidigung der Plinischen Brife uber die Arristen gegen die Eiuwendurigen der H. D. Sender, Gottingen, 1788.
4. [d] Gierig, in his edition of the Letters of C. Plinius Secund. Leipsic, 1802. - Gierig acknowledges the meritorious diligence and fidelity of Semler, in examining the credibility of the monuments of Antiquity. The German divines have almost the exclusive merit of the faculty, of being just and civil to their theological opponents; but their orthodoxy is proportionably suspicious.
5. [e] "Origen actually embodied fraud into a system, practised it with the approbation of his fellows, and gave it the technical name of Economu, by which it has gone ever since." - Higgins's Celtic Druids. [LN., Higgins, Godfrey, 1772 to 1833, He was an English magistrate and landowner, historian and Antiquarian.]
6. [f] "Quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebranturque!"]
6. The inconsistency of such conduct with the humane and dignified character of Pliny.
7. The use of the torture to extort confession - torturing! and tormenting being peculiarly and characteristically Christian.
8. The choice of women to be the subjects of this torture; when the ill-usage of women was, in like manner, abhorrent to the Roman character, and peculiarly and characteristically Christian.
9. The repetition of this letter in the one ascribed to Tiberianus, being precisely such a repetition as we find of the famous forgery of Josephus, [g]in the Persic History of Christ, by Jeremy Xavier. [g] A forgery having once been successful, it should seem the Christians, must needs ply it again. So here is a second throw at the same game.
[g] Extat etiam in Historia Christi, Persice scripta ab Hieronymo Xaverio, Epistola Pilati ad Imp. Tiberium, quam confinxisse videtur Xaverius e loco celebri qui de Christo legitur, lib. 18. Antiquitatum Josephi, c. 4. Nullius est epistola haec vel fidei vel autoritatis. - Fabricii Codex Apocryphus, tom. 1. p. 301. a. d. 1703, Hamburgi.]
"Tiberianus, Governor of Syria, to the Emperor Trajan.
"I am quite tired with punishing and destroying the Galilseans, or those of the sect, called Christians, according to your orders; yet they never cease to profess voluntarily what they are, and to offer themselves to death. Wherefore, I have laboured, by exhortations and threats to discourage them from daring to confess to me that they are of that sect. Yet in spite of all persecution, they continue still to do it. Be pleased therefore, to let me know what your highness thinks proper to be done with them." Cotelr. Patr. Apostol. vol. 2, p. 181; Middleton citante, p. 201.
No rational man will doubt the forgery of this pretended epistle, which though thrown earlier in time, is a palpable repetition of the good hit that had been made in the epistle, ascribed to Pliny.
I have no doubt at all of the forgery of the passage of Tacitus. But if the objections which I have stated, or any other, be really fatal to this of Pliny, I would recommend my reverend opponents and all other assertors that the historical evidences of Christianity are unassailable, to curse and swear, and storm, and plunge, and persecute; to revile, defame, and injure their opponents as much as they possibly can, to represent them as miserably ignorant, as desperately wicked, as fools, liars, madmen, and idiots; but above all, to treat both them and their writings, with the most sovereign contempt. - it is the best they can make of their bad bargain.
-o0o-
Next part 6. Chapter XLV
[LN. Content. Epictetus. Plutarch, AD. 140. Juvenal, AD. 110. The Emperor Adrian, AD. 134. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, The Philosopher, AD. I8O. Lucius Apuleius, AD. 164, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician, also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis, 124 to 170, especially remembered for his novel the Metamorphoses, better known to us as the Golden Ass. M. Valerius Martialis, [LN. M. Valerii Martialis] AD. 110.
[LN. Content. Epictetus. Plutarch, AD. 140. Juvenal, AD. 110. The Emperor Adrian, AD. 134. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, The Philosopher, AD. I8O. Lucius Apuleius, AD. 164, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician, also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis, 124 to 170, especially remembered for his novel the Metamorphoses, better known to us as the Golden Ass. M. Valerius Martialis, [LN. M. Valerii Martialis] AD. 110.]