IN CHURCH HISTORY. 43 



direct conflict with the whole social and individual 

 life of the times. Cruelty, impurity, falsehood, 

 and violence, but imperfectly describe the state of 

 society as it then was. By the very nature of the 

 better life the Christian sought to lead, he was com- 

 pelled to turn away from much that was so gene- 

 rally tolerated, and to condemn the iniquity of the 

 times. It was some little while after the planting 

 of the Church before the first formal edicts against 

 the Christians were published. Opposition to the 

 disciples was made from the beginning, but it re- 

 mained for the cruel Nero, in A. D. 64, to let loose 

 the power of the state and the fury of the people 

 upon them. 



A dreadful fire having consumed a great part of 

 the city of Rome, Nero, who it is believed was 

 himself the incendiary, cast the blame upon the 

 Christians, accusing them of the crime. The 

 Emperor's permission was enough to inaugurate 

 the most awful sufferings, but he himself became a 

 leader in inflicting them. The details are almost 

 too horrid to recount. Crucifixion, casting to 

 dogs and wild beasts, covering with pitch and then 

 burning them, became the means of torture and 

 death to the unresisting disciples. Such multi- 

 tudes were destroyed at this time that the taste for 

 blood seemed utterly satiated, and for a time, in 

 very weariness, the persecutors ceased. In a. d. 

 93. under Domitian, the second general persecution 



