M A R 
nlons of any part of their fubjefts. From thefe reflec¬ 
tions, or even from their own feelings, a Charles V. or a 
Louis XIV. might have acquired a ju 11 knowledge of the 
rights of confeience, of the obligations of faith, and of the 
innocence of error. But the princes and magiltrates of 
ancient Rome were ffrangers to thofe principles which 
infpired and authorifed the inflexible obflinacy of the 
Chriftians in the caufe of truth ; nor could they themfelves 
difcover in their own breads any motive which would 
have prompted them to refufe a legal, and, as it were, 
a natural fubmiffion to the facred inftitutions of their 
country. The fame reafon which contributes to alleviate 
the guilt, tnuft have tended to abate the rigour, of their 
perfections. As they were aftuated, not by the funous 
zeal of bigots, but by the temperate policy of legiflators, 
contempt mud often have relaxed, and humanity mud 
frequently have fufpended, the execution of thofe laws 
which they enafted againd the humble and obfcure fol¬ 
lowers of Chrid.” 
After this general apology for the ancient perfecutors 
of the Chridians, our author proceeds to deduce, from a 
general view of their charafter and motives, the following 
conclufions in their favour: “ i. That a confiderable 
time elapfed before they confidered the new feftaries as 
an objeft deferving the attention of government. 2. That, 
in the conviftion of any of their fubjefts who were ac- 
cufed of fo very Angular a crime, they proceeded with 
caution and reluctance. 3. That they were moderate in 
the ufe of punifhments 5 and, 4. That the affiifted church 
enjoyed many intervals of peace and tranquillity.” To the 
humanity of the Roman magiflrates heaicribes the incon- 
flderable number of Chrifcian martyrs : “ The martyrs,” 
he fays, “ devoted to immediate execution by the Roman 
magiltrates, appear to-have been felefted from the molt 
oppoflte extremes. They were either biflrops and prelby- 
ters, the perfons the molt diltinguiflred among the Chrif- 
tians by their rank and influence, and whole example 
might ftrike a terror into their whole left j or elle they 
were the meanelt and molt abjeft among them, particu¬ 
larly thofe of the fervile condition, whofe lives were 
efteemed of little value, and whofe fulferings were viewed 
by the ancients with too carelefs an indifference. The 
learned Origen, who, from his experience as well as read¬ 
ing, was intimately acquainted with the hiltory of the 
Chriftians, declares, in the molt exprefs terms, that the 
number of martyrs was very inconfiderable. His autho¬ 
rity alone would be fufficient to annihilate that formida¬ 
ble army of martyrs, whofe relics, drawn for the moft 
part from the catacombs of Rome, have replenifhed fo 
many churches, a'hd whole marvellous achievements have 
been the fubjeft of fo many volumes of holy romance.” 
Our author adds, “ that the general affertion of Origen 
may be explained and confirmed by the particular teiti- 
inony of his friend Dionyflus, who, in the immenfe city of 
Alexandria, and under the rigorous perfecution of Decius, 
reckons only ten men and feven women, who fuffered-for 
the profeflion of the Chriflian name.” The number of 
martyrs, according to our author, was owing in a great 
degree to the diltinftions that were conferred on their re¬ 
mains and on their memory by furvivors. “ The fober 
difcretion of the prefent age, will more readily cenfure than 
admire, but can more readily admire than imitate, the fer¬ 
vour of the firft Chriftians, who, according to the lively 
expreftion of Sulpicius Severus, demanded martyrdom with 
more eagernefs than his own contemporaries folicited a 
bifhopric.” “ The Chriftians fornetimes fupplied by their 
voluntary- declaration the want of an accufer, rudely dif- 
turbed the public fief-vice of Paganifm, and, ruffling in 
crowds round the tribunal of the magiltrates, called upon 
them to pronounce and to inflict the lenience of the law.” 
And it is added, that “ the more prudent rulers of the 
church found themfelves obliged to reftrain the indecent 
ardour of their followers,and to diftruft a ronltancy which 
too often abandoned them in the hour of trial.” In 
forming an eftimate of thofe who fuffered death in confe- 
TYR. 4M 
quence of the edicts publifiicd by Diodefian, his afioci-* 
ates, and fucceffors, our author, deriving his data from 
the hiftory of Eufebius, who enumerates the martyrs of 
Paleltine at 92, confiders Paleftine as the fixteenth part of 
the ealtern empire; and, fuppoling that the country which 
had given birth to Chriltianity produced at leaifc the fix- 
teenih part of the martyrs who fuffered death within the 
dominions of Galerius and Maximin, he infers, that the 
whole might confequently amount to about 1500 ; a num¬ 
ber which, if it be equally divided between the ten years 
of the perfecution, will allow an annual conlumption of 
150 martyrs. “ Allotting the fame proportion to the pro¬ 
vinces of Italy, Africa, and perhaps Spain, where, at the 
end of two or three years, the rigour of the penal laws 
was either fufpended or abolished, the multitude of Chrif¬ 
tians in the Roman empire, on whom a capital punilhment 
was inflifted by a judicial fentence, will be reduced to 
fomewhat lefs than 2000 perfons, fince it cannot be 
doubted that the Chriftians were more numerous, and 
their enemies more exafperated, in the time of Dioclefian, 
than they had ever been in any former perfecution. This 
probable and moderate computation may teach us to efti¬ 
mate the number of primitive faints and martyrs, who 
facrificed their lives for the important purpofe of intro¬ 
ducing Christianity into the world.” 
Whiilt foine have thus diminiftied the number of Chrif- 
tian martyrs far below tire Standard of truth, others hava 
probably erred as much in the other extreme. F. Ruinart 
(in the preface to his Selects et Sincere Martyrum Acta, 
Amlt. 1713.) endeavours to prove, that the catalogue of 
martyrs is not at all i’welled; that the carnage was im¬ 
menfe under the firft emperors, and efpecially in the time 
of Dioclefian. F. Papebroch, in his Afta Sanftorum, 
alfo makes the number of martyrs immenfe. The truth 
lies probably between the extremes. The martyrs were 
lefs in number than feveral of the ancient and modem 
writers have fuppoled them to be, but more numerous 
than Dodwell and Gibbon are willing to believe; and 
this medium will be ealily admitted by fuch as have learned 
from the ancient writers, that, in the darkeft and moll 
calamitous times of the church, all Chriftians were not 
equally or promifcuoufly dilturbed, or called before the 
public tribunals. Thofe who were ot the lowed rank of 
the people efcaped the beft; their obfcurity, in fame inea- 
fure, fcreened them from the fury of perfecution. The 
learned and eloquent, the doftors and minilters, and 
chiefly the rich, for the confifcation of whofe fortunes the 
rapacious magiltrates were perpetually gaping, were the 
perfons moft expofed to the dangers of the times. 
We ufually reckon ten of thefe perfecutions: Nero fet 
on foot the firft, A. D. 65; the fecond happened under 
Domitian, A.D. 90; the third began under Trajan, A.D* 
100; the fourth under Adrian, A.D. 126; which was con¬ 
tinued under Antoninus Pius, A.D. 140 ; the fifth under 
Marcus Aurelius, A.D. 162 ; the fixth under Severus, 
A.D. 203; the feventh under Maximinus, A.D. 236; 
the eighth under Decius, A.D. 251 5 the ninth under Va¬ 
lerian, A.D. 258 ; and the tenth unc|er Dioclefian, A.D. 
303. But Mofheim obferves, “ If you fpeak of heavy 
perfecutions that prevailed every-where, there were not 
fo many ; if of leffer troubles, there were more than ten. 
The number of ten general perfecutions is no more than 
a popular error, which arofe in the fifth century, deftitute 
of good foundation in hiftory, and founded on a fanciful- 
interpretation of fome texts of the Old Teftament, where 
the Chriflian perfecutions have been thought to be fore¬ 
told. Laftantius, in his book Of the Deaths of Perfecu¬ 
tors, makes but fix perfecutions; Eufebius, in his Eccle- 
fiaftical Hiftory, does not dumber the perfecutions, though 
nine perfecutions may be made out from it. Upon the 
whole, the notion of ten heathen perfecutions had its rife 
in the fifth century.” The ingenious parallels of the ten. 
plagues of Egypt, and of the ten horns of the Apocalypfe, 
fays Gibbon, after Orofius, Mofheim, and others, firft fug- 
gefted the calculation of ten perfecutions to their minds > 
at 
