94 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF 



During the period which intervened, between the 

 death of Christ and the ruin of Jerusalem by Titus : 

 the Christian sect had continued widely, but silently 

 increasing. The general tranquility of this interval 

 is however broken by the short but cruel persecution 

 exercised under Nero. The occasion of it is well 

 known : the capital of the empire had suffered from a 

 conflagration of unexampled fury, and all the empe- 

 ror's largesses on the occasion could not avert the 

 suspicion, of himself having been the incendiary. 

 Nero attached the odium on the Christians, and per- 

 secuted them with the most exquisite torments ; 

 " some'' says Tacitus, " were nailed on crosses, 

 others wrapped in the skins of wild beasts and 

 worried by dogs, others again were publicly burnt in 

 the emperor's gardens," but this persecution ceased 

 with the occasion that gave rise to it, and the Chris- 

 tian faith again relapsed into security and peace, 

 which lasted to the time of Domitian. 



The tradition that a competitor for the throne of 

 the world should arise out of Judea, had excited 

 the jealousy of this prince. The hne of David 

 became a natural object of suspicion, and all who 

 claimed affinity to it were cited before his tribunal. 

 Among these appeared two persons, of truly noble 

 extraction, no other than the grand-sons of St. Jude 

 the apostle, who himself was the brother of our Lord. 

 The meanness of their garb, and their almost servile 

 condition soon allayed the emperor's fears ; and they 

 were dismissed with compassion for their poverty 

 and contempt for their claims. To those of his own 

 family, Domitian was less lenient ; and a vague 

 accusation of proselytism to the new sect, backed 

 by the suspicions of a tyrant, was sufficient to place 

 Flavins Clemens his cousin-german, who had just 

 filled the office of consul, on the list of the first mar- 

 tyrs. Domitiea, his wife, who had been banishod 

 on the same charge, was soon after recalled un'ler 

 the administration of his successor Nerva. 



