History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325

Dr. Thomas Arnold, who had no leaning to superstitious and idolatrous saint-worship, in

speaking of a visit to the church of San Stefano at Rome, remarks: "No doubt many of the particular

stories thus painted will bear no critical examination; it is likely enough, too, that Gibbon has truly

accused the general statements of exaggeration. But this is a thankless labor. Divide the sum total

of the reported martyrs by twenty—by fifty, if you will; after all you have a number of persons of

all ages and sexes suffering cruel torment and death for conscience’ sake, and for Christ’s; and by

their sufferings manifestly with God’s blessing ensuring the triumph of Christ’s gospel. Neither do

I think that we consider the excellence of this martyr spirit half enough. I do not think that pleasure

is a sin; but though pleasure is not a sin, yet surely the contemplation of suffering for Christ’s sake

is a thing most needful for us in our days, from whom in our daily life suffering seems so far

removed. And as God’s grace enabled rich and delicate persons, women and even children, to

endure all extremities of pain and reproach, in times past; so there is the same grace no less mighty

now; and if we do not close ourselves against it, it might be in us no less glorious in a time of trial."

Lecky, a very able and impartial historian, justly censures the unfeeling chapter of Gibbon

on persecution. "The complete absence," he says (History of European Morals, I. 494 sqq.), "of all

sympathy with the heroic courage manifested by the martyrs, and the frigid, and in truth most

unphilosophical severity with which the historian has weighed the words and actions of men engaged

in the agonies of a deadly, struggle, must repel every generous nature, while the persistence with

which he estimates persecutions by the number of deaths rather than the amount of suffering, diverts

the mind from the really distinctive atrocities of the Pagan persecutions .... It is true that in one

Catholic country they introduced the atrocious custom of making the spectacle of men burnt alive

for their religious opinions an element in the public festivities. It is true, too, that the immense

majority of the acts of the martyrs are the transparent forgeries of lying monks; but it is also true

that among the authentic records of Pagan persecutions there are histories, which display, perhaps

more vividly than any other, both the depth of cruelty to which human nature may sink, and the

heroism of resistance it may attain. There was a time when it was the just boast of the Romans, that

no refinement of cruelty, no prolongations of torture, were admitted in their stern but simple penal

code. But all this was changed. Those hateful games, which made the spectacle of human suffering

and death the delight of all classes, had spread their brutalising influence wherever the Roman

name was known, had rendered millions absolutely indifferent to the sight of human suffering, had

produced in many, in the very centre of an advanced civilisation, a relish and a passion for torture,

a rapture and an exultation in watching the spasms of extreme agony, such as an African or an

American savage alone can equal. The most horrible recorded instances of torture were usually

inflicted, either by the populace, or in their presence, in the arena. We read of Christians bound in

chains of red-hot iron, while the stench of their half-consumed flesh rose in a suffocating cloud to

heaven; of others who were torn to the very bone by, shells or hooks of iron; of holy virgins given

over to the lust of the gladiator or to the mercies of the pander; of two hundred and twenty-seven

converts sent on one occasion to the mines, each with the sinews of one leg severed by a red-hot

iron, and with an eye scooped from its socket; of fires so slow that the victims writhed for hours

in their agonies; of bodies torn limb from limb, or sprinkled with burning lead; of mingled salt and

vinegar poured over the flesh that was bleeding from the rack; of tortures prolonged and varied

through entire days. For the love of their Divine Master, for the cause they believed to be true, men,

and even weak girls, endured these things without flinching, when one word would have freed them

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Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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from their sufferings, No opinion we may form of the proceedings of priests in a later age should

impair the reverence with which we bend before the martyr’s tomb.

§ 27. Rise of the Worship of Martyrs and Relics.

I. Sources.

In addition to the works quoted in §§ 12 and 26, comp. Euseb. H. E. IV. 15; De Mart. Palaest. c.

7. Clem. Alex.: Strom. IV. p. 596. Orig.: Exhort. ad mart. c. 30 and 50. In Num. Kom. X. 2.

Tertull.: De cor. mil. c. 3; De Resurr. carn. c. 43. Cypr.: De lapsis, c. 17; Epist. 34 and 57.

Const. Apost.: l. 8.

II. Works.

C. Sagittarius: De natalitiis mart. Jen. 1696.

Schwabe: De insigni veneratione, quae obtinuit erga martyres in primit. eccl. Altd. 1748.

In thankful remembrance of the fidelity of this "noble army of martyrs," in recognition of the

unbroken communion of saints, and in prospect of the resurrection of the body, the church paid to

the martyrs, and even to their mortal remains, a veneration, which was in itself well-deserved and

altogether natural, but which early exceeded the scriptural limit, and afterwards degenerated into

the worship of saints and relics. The heathen hero-worship silently continued in the church and was

baptized with Christian names.

In the church of Smyrna, according to its letter of the year 155, we find this veneration still

in its innocent, childlike form: "They [the Jews] know not, that we can neither ever forsake Christ,

who has suffered for the salvation of the whole world of the redeemed, nor worship another. Him

indeed we adore (

         μ  

) as the Son of God; but the martyrs we love as they deserve (

     μ        

) for

their surpassing love to their King and Master, as we wish also to be their companions and

fellow-disciples."

68

7 The day of the death of a martyr was called his heavenly birth-day,

69

8 and was

celebrated annually at his grave (mostly in a cave or catacomb), by prayer, reading of a history of

his suffering and victory, oblations, and celebration of the holy supper.

But the early church did not stop with this. Martyrdom was taken, after the end of the second

century, not only as a higher grade of Christian virtue, but at the same time as a baptism of fire and

blood,

70

9

 an ample substitution for the baptism of water, as purifying from sin, and as securing an

entrance into heaven. Origen even went so far as to ascribe to the sufferings of the martyrs an

atoning virtue for others, an efficacy like that of the sufferings of Christ, on the authority of such

passages as 2 Cor. 12:15; Col. 1:24; 2 Tim. 4:6. According to Tertullian, the martyrs entered

immediately into the blessedness of heaven, and were not required, like ordinary Christians, to pass

through the intermediate state. Thus was applied the benediction on those who are persecuted for

righteousness’ sake, Matt. 5:10–12. Hence, according to Origen and Cyprian, their prayers before

the throne of God came to be thought peculiarly efficacious for the church militant on earth, and,

according to an example related by Eusebius, their future intercessions were bespoken shortly

before their death.

68

Martyrium Polycarpi, cap. 17; Comp. Eusebius, H. E. IV. 15.

69

Ἡμέρα γενέθλιος, γενέθλια, natales, natalitia martyrum.

70

Lavacrum sanguinis, 

βάπτισμα διὰ πυρός, comp. Matt. 20:22; Luke 12:50; Mark 10:39.

55

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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