accused of Christianity, refused to repudiate the obnoxious creed, they
were condemned to death; but if they abjured the gospel, they were
permitted to escape unscathed. Trajan approved of this policy, and it
now became the law of the Empire.

In his letter to his sovereign [289:1] Pliny has given a very favourable
account of the Christian morality, and has virtually admitted that the
new religion was admirably fitted to promote the good of the community,
he mentions that the members of the Church were bound by solemn
obligations to abstain from theft, robbery, and adultery; to keep their
promises, and to avoid every form of wickedness. When such was their
acknowledged character, it may appear extraordinary that a sagacious
prince and a magistrate of highly cultivated mind concurred in thinking
that they should be treated with extreme rigour. We have here, however,
a striking example of the military spirit of Roman legislation. The laws
of the Empire made no proper provision for the rights of conscience; and
they were based throughout upon the principle that implicit obedience is
the first duty of a subject. Neither Pliny nor Trajan could understand
why a Christian should not renounce his creed at the bidding of the
civil governor. In their estimation, "inflexible obstinacy" in
confessing the Saviour was a crime which deserved no less a penalty than
death.

Though the rescript of Trajan awarded capital punishment to the man who
persisted in acknowledging himself a Christian, it also required that
the disciples should not be inquisitively sought after. The zeal of many
of the enemies of the Church was, no doubt, checked by this provision;
as those who attempted to hunt down the faithful expressly violated the
spirit of the imperial enactment. But still, some Christians now
suffered the penalty of a good confession. Pliny himself admits that
individuals who were brought before his own tribunal, and who could not
be induced to recant, were capitally punished; and elsewhere the law was
not permitted to remain in abeyance. About the close of the reign of
Trajan, Simeon, the senior minister of Jerusalem, now in the hundred and
twentieth year of his age, fell a victim to its severity. This martyr
was, probably, the second son of Mary, the mother of our Lord. He is,
perhaps, the same who is enumerated in the Gospels [290:1] among the
brethren of Christ; and the chronology accords with the supposition that
he was a year younger