 | The Martyr |  |
NOTE TO THE DRAMA.
For the better understanding of different allusions in the
foregoing drama. I beg to transcribe a few passages from Fox's
History of Martyrs, taken from Book I., which contains an
account of the ten persecutions of the primitive church.
He says, on the authority of Justin Martyr,—“And whether
earthquake, pestilence, or whatever public calamity
befell, it was attributed to the Christians;” (then is added)
“over and beside all these, a great occasion that stirred up
the emperors against the Christians came by one Publius
Tarquinius, the chief prelate of the idolatrous sacrifices, and
Mamertinus, the chief governor of the city, in the time of
Trajanus, who, partly with money, partly with sinister, pestilent
counsaile, partly with infamous accusations, (as witnesseth
Nauclerus,) incensed the mind of the emperor so
much against God's people.”
In the account of the third persecution (AN. 100, Eustasius,
a great and victorious captain, is mentioned as suffering
martyrdom, by order of the Emperor Adrian, who went to
meet him on his return from conquest over the barbarians,
but, upon Eustasius's refusing on the way to do sacrifice to
Apollo for his victory, brought him to Rome and had him put
to death.
In the fourth persecution (AN. 162), it is mentioned that
many Christian soldiers were found in the army of Marcus
Aurelius:—
“As these aforesaid were going to their execution, there
was a certain souldiour who in their defence took part against
those who rayled upon them, for the which cause the people
crying out against him, he was apprehended, and being constant
in his profession, was forthwith beheaded.”
In the persecutions of Decius, several soldiers are mentioned
as martyrs, some of whom had before concealed their
faith: and in the tenth persecution, Mauritius, the captain of
the Theban band, with his soldiers, to the number of 6666
(a number probably greatly exaggerated), are recorded as
having been slain as martyrs by the order of Maximinian.
Tertullian, in his Apology for the Christians, mentions the
slanderous accusations against them, of putting to death
children and worshipping an ass's head. And when we consider
how fond the ignorant are of excitement, arising from
cruel, absurd, and wonderful stories, and how easily a misap-prehended
and detached expression may be shaped by conjecture
into a detailed transaction, such accusations were very
probable and might be naturally expected; particularly when
the unoffending meekness of their behaviour made supposed
hidden atrocities more necessary for the justification of their
persecutors.
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