For interesting reading & discussion...

[zooplankton77]

I collect old literature. A lot of it having to do with Christianity of any persuasion. I found this in one of my recently acquired books titled- "The World's Great Letters". I thought you all might like to read an exerpt out of this old book or possibly discuss it. It just illustrates the miracle of Christianity surviving & growing as it has. So I type it out for you. Enjoy! :)

The Younger Pliny Asks The Emperor Trajan How To Arrest And Punish "The Depraved And Excessive Superstition" Of The Early Christians.

Sholom Asch, author of The Nazarene, says this letter marks a milestone in the history of the world. It shows us graphically how the power of the Roman Empire was challenged by the rise of the Christian faith at the end of the first century.

The younger Pliny, adopted at the age of seventeen by his uncle, the elder Pliny, was governor of Bithynia, a province in Asia Minor, about A.D. 104, when he sent this communication to one of the greatest of the Roman Emperors, asking for advice on the treatment of the first Christian sects.

Until after the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) these Christians had been regarded as members of the Jewish faith. They were thus tolerated by Rome. Toward the end of the century, however, they were first deemed to be a menace- small but insideous- to the imperial sovereignty. Most provincial governors wanted to deal strictly with this "contagious superstition," but the younger Pliny, trained for a legal career in Rome, proceeded with caution and sought imperial sanction. The Biblical record of the clash between the first Christian missionaries and the authorities of Rome is found in the book of Revelation. Pliny's historic letter to the Emperor is given in the following pages, together with a summery of the Emperor's reply.

To be continued later-

[zooplankton77]

"....if they still persevered, I ordered them to be executed..."

It is a rule, Sire, which I inviolably observe, to refer myself to you in all my doubts; for who is more capable of removing my scruples, or of guiding my uncertainty? Having never been present at any trials of the Christians, I am unaccquainted as to the method and limits to be observed in examining and punishing them. Whether, therefore, any difference is to be made with respect to age, or no distinction is to be observed between the young and adult; whether repentance admits to pardon; or if a man has once been a Christian, it avails him nothing to recant; whether the mere profession of Christianity, albeit without any criminal act, or only the crimes associated therewith are punishable; in all these points I am greatly doubtful.

In the meanwhile the method I have observed towards those who have been denounced to me as Christians, is this: I interrogated them whether they were Christians; if they confessed I repeated the question twice again, adding a threat of capital punishment; if they still persevered, I ordered them to be executed; for I was persuaded, that whatever the nature of their creed, a contumacious and inflexible obstinacy certainly deserved chastisement. There were others also brought before me possessed with the same infatuation: but being citizens of Rome, I directed them to be carried thither.

These accusations, from the mere fact that the matter was being investigated, began to spread, and several forms of the mischief came to light. A placard was posted up without signature, accusing a number of people by name. Those who denied that they were Christians, or had ever been so, who repeated after me an invocation to the gods, and offered religious rites with wine and frankincense to your statue (which I had ordered to be brought for the purpose, together with those of the gods), and finally cursed the name of Christ (none of which, it is said, those who are really Christians can be forced into performing), I thought proper to discharge. Others who were named by the informer at first confessed themselves Christians, and then denied it; true, they had been of that persuasion formerly, but had now quitted it (some three years, others many years, and a few as much as twenty-five years ago). They all worshipped your statue, and the images of the gods, and cursed the name of Christ.

To be continued-

[zooplankton77]

They affirmed, however, that the whole of their guilt or their error was, that they met on a certain fixed day before it was light and sang an antiphonal chant to Christ, as to a god, binding themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to seperate, and then reassemble to partake of food-food of an ordinary innocent kind.* Even this practice, however, they had abandoned after the publication of my edict, by which, according to your orders, I has forbidden political associations. I judged it so much the more necessary to extract the real truth, with the assistance of torture, from two female slaves, called deaconesses. But I would discover nothing but depraved and excessive superstition.

*Jews in the Middle Ages were accused of eating children.

To be continued-

[zooplankton77]

I therefore thought it proper to adjourn all further proceedings in this affair, in order to consult with you. For the matter is well worth referring to you, especially considering the numbers endangered: persons of all ranks and ages, and of both sexes, are and will be involved in the prosecution. For this contagious superstition is not confined to the cities only, but has spread through the villages and the countryside. Nevetheless it seems still possible to check and cure it. The temples, at least, which were once almost deserted, begin now to be frequented, and the sacred solemnities, after a long intermission, are again revived; while there is a general demand for sacrificial animals which for some time past have met with but few purchasers. From hence it is easy to imagine, what numbers might be reclaimed from this error, if the door is left open to repentance.

Continued-

[zooplankton77]

The Emperor's reply characterized Pliny's proceedings "as extremely proper." Pointing out that no general rule would be applied to all cases, Trajan said, "No search is to be made for these people. When they are denounced, and found guilty, they must be punished, with the restriction, however, that where the party denies himself to be a Christian, and shall give proof that he is not, by invoking our gods, let him (notwithstanding any former suspision) be pardoned upon his repentance."

Historians of Christianity have laid great stress on the importance of this correspondence. Allusions to it our found in the works of Tertullian, Saint Jerome, and Eusebius. A particularly dramatic passage is found in the writings of the firstnamed, who lived from 155 to 222. In a long manifesto addressed to the persecutors of the first Christians Tertullian indicated how the hand of history was writing its own answer to the younger Pliny's letter of inquiry, and why it was becoming increasingly difficult "to check and cure" the new faith:

"And now, O worshipful judges, go on with your show of justice, and believe me, you will be juster and juster still in the opinion of the people oftener you make them a sacrifice of Christians: Crucify, torture, condemn, grind us all to powder if you can; your injustice is an illustrious proof of our innocence, for the proof of this is that God permits us to suffer; and by your late condemnation of a Christian woman to the lust of a pander, rather than the rage of a lion, you notoriously confess that such a pollution is more abhorred by a Christian than all the torments and deaths you can heap upon her. But do your worst, and rack your invention for tortures for Christians; it is all to no purpose. You do but attract the world and make it fall more in love with our religion; the more you mow us down the quicker we rise; the Christian blood you shed is the seed you sow; it springs from the earth again and fructifies all the more."

End. :):

[zooplankton77]

Didn't anyone else find this interesting or edifying? I loved Tertullian's statement from an excerpt of his manifesto.

Or am I just the most boring person in the universe? :lol :wave

[antsinmypants]

If you enjoyed that book, then you need to read this one:
The Hibbert Lectures 1888 by Edwin Hatch; A. M. Fairbain

:wave