n THE ARREST OF ENQUIRY 45 



mon talk, by imputing the fire to others, visiting, 

 with a refinement of punishment, those detestable 

 criminals who went by the name of Christians. The 

 author of that denomination was Christus, who had 

 been executed in the time of Tiberius, by the pro- 

 curator, Pontius Pilate.' Tacitus goes on to describe 

 Christianity as 'a pestilent superstition/ and its 

 adherents as guilty of ' hatred to the human race.' 

 The indictment, on the face of it, seems strange; 

 but it has an explanation, although the Christians 

 were brutally murdered on the charge of arson, and 

 not of superstition. So far as religious persecution 

 went, they suffered this first at the hands of Jews, 

 the Empire intervening to protect them. Broadly 

 speaking, the Roman note was toleration. Through- 

 out the Empire religion was a national affair, 

 because it began and ended with the preservation of 

 the State. Thereupon it was the binding duty 

 religio of every citizen to pay due honour to the 

 protecting gods on whose favour the safety of the 

 State depended. That done, a man might believe 

 what he chose. Polytheism is, from its nature, 

 easy-going and tolerant ; so long as there was no 

 open opposition to the authorised public worship, 

 the worshipper could explain it any way he liked. 

 In Greece a man * might believe or disbelieve that 

 the ..Mysteries taught the doctrine of immortality ; 

 the essential thing was that he should duly sacrifice 

 his pig.' In Rome, that vast Cosmopolis, 'the 

 ordinary pagan did not care two straws whether his 

 neighbour worshipped twenty gods or twenty -one.' 

 Why should he care ? 



Now, against all this, the Christians set their 



