uching exhibitions of the spirit of the gospel failed to
repress the fury of the excited populace. Their hatred of the gospel was
so intense that they resolved to deprive the disciples who survived this
reign of terror of the melancholy satisfaction of paying the last
tribute of respect to the remains of their martyred brethren. They,
accordingly, burned the dead bodies, and then cast the ashes into the
Rhone. "Now," said they, "we will see whether they will rise again, and
whether God can help them, and deliver them out of our hands." [296:1]

Under the brutal and bloody Commodus, the son and heir of Marcus
Aurelius, the Christians had some repose. Marcia, his favourite
concubine, was a member of the Church; [296:2] and her influence was
successfully exerted in protecting her co-religionists. But the penal
statutes were still in force, and they were not everywhere permitted to
remain a dead letter. In this reign [296:3] we meet with some of the
earliest indications of that zeal for martyrdom which was properly the
spawn of the fanaticism of the Montanists. In a certain district of
Asia, a multitude of persons, actuated by this absurd passion, presented
themselves in a body before the proconsul Arrius Antoninus; and
proclaimed themselves Christians. The sight of such a crowd of victims
appalled the magistrate; and, after passing judgment on a few, he is
said to have driven the remainder from his tribunal, exclaiming--
"Miserable men, if you wish to kill yourselves, you have ropes or
precipices."

The reigns of Pertinax and Julian, the Emperors next in succession after
Commodus, amounted together only to a few months; and the faithful had
meanwhile to struggle with many discouragements; [296:4] but these
short-lived sovereigns were so much occupied with other matters, that
they could not afford time for legislation on the subject of religion.
Septimius Severus, who now obtained the Imperial dignity, was at first
not unfriendly to the Church; and a cure performed on him by Proculus, a
Christian slave, [297:1] has been assigned as the cause of his
forbearance; but, as his reign advanced, he assumed an offensive
attitude; and it cannot be denied that the disciples suffered
considerably under his administration. As the Christians were still
obliged to meet at night to celebrate their worship, they were accused
of committing unnatural crimes in their nocturnal assemblies; and though
these heartless calumnies had been triumph