42 MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION 



hardship to the followers of Christ ; and then there 

 ■was a seeond kind, when, with the aid of the civil 

 power, and often without it, with the fury of the 

 mob, the believers were tortured, driven from theii 

 homes, and exposed to most cruel deaths. 



The anger of the Jews against their brethren 

 who became Christians arose from their consider- 

 ing them as having deserted the religion of their 

 forefathers, and as having proclaimed one as the 

 Son of God, the Messiah, whom many of the 

 Jews regarded as an impostor. 



Roman hatred arose from various causes. They 

 too considered the Christians as being neglectful 

 of the old religions, and stigmatized them as im- 

 pious, because they refused to worship their gods. 

 But there were many other elements in their 

 hatred, some of them being of a political character 

 and some- social. So long as they considered 

 Christianity simply as one more ■ new sect, they 

 were willing to tolerate it, for the ancient Romans 

 believed there might be as many religions as there 

 were tribes of men ; but when it was perceived 

 that Christianity aimed at a supremacy over all 

 other kinds of belief, and that its followers con- 

 sidered its mission was to supersede existing be- 

 liefs, they regarded its progress as dangerous to the 

 welfare of the state, which then was bound up with 

 paganism. Then, too, the code of morals in- 

 troduced by the Church brought its members into 



