s to
death, he made a law which must have been a great relief to the
Christians. Until then, they were liable to be sought out, and any one
might inform against them; but Trajan ordered that they should not be
sought out, although, if they were discovered, and refused to give up
their faith, they were to be punished. The next emperor, too, whose name
was Hadrian (A.D. 117 to 138), did something to make their condition
better; but it was still one of great hardship and danger.
Notwithstanding the new laws, any governor of a country, who disliked
the Christians, had the power to persecute and vex them cruelly. And the
common people among the heathens still believed the horrid stories of
their killing children and eating human flesh. If there was a famine or
a plague,--if the river Tiber, which runs through Rome, rose above its
usual height and did mischief to the neighbouring buildings,--or if the
emperor's armies were defeated in war, the blame of all was laid on the
Christians. It was said that all these things were judgments from the
gods, who were angry because the Christians were allowed to live. And
then at the public games, such as those at which St. Ignatius was put to
death, the people used to cry out, "Throw the Christians to the lions!
away with the godless wretches!" For, as the Christians were obliged to
hold their worship secretly, and had no images like those of the heathen
gods, and did not offer any sacrifices of beasts, as the heathens did,
it was thought that they had no God at all; since the heathens could not
raise their minds to the thought of that God who is a spirit, and who is
not to be worshipped under any bodily shape. It was, therefore, a great
relief when the Emperor Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138 to 161), who was a
mild and gentle old man, ordered that governors and magistrates should
not give way to such outcries, and that the Christians should no longer
be punished for their religion only, unless they were found to have done
wrong in some other way.

There were now many learned men in the Church, and some of these began
to write books in defence of their faith. One of them, Athenagoras, had
undertaken, while he was a heathen, to show that the Gospel was all a
deceit; but when he looked further into the matter, he found that it was
very different from what he had fancied; and then he was converted, and,
instead of writing against the Gospel, he wrote in favour of it.

Another of these learned men