tival on the 24th of January, the day on which he was maytyred, so that Timothy was not a Protestant saint and martyr.

We must here mention that, by Domitian's orders, St. John the apostle and evangelist, was put into a cauldron of boiling oil, without the Latin gate at Rome, but came out uninjured. After this miracle he was banished to Patmos, a small barren island of the Sparades, only five miles in circumference, where he wrote the Apocalypse or Book of Revelations. In the early part of Christianity, as at the present day, there were persons who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. These were Jewish converts, the chief of whom were Ebion, Cerinthus, and Nicholas of Antioch. To confute and silence these heretical declaimers, St. John wrote his gospel, at the request of the bishops of Asia. In this undertaking he did not write that every individual might put what construction he pleased upon his words, but to declare what was the true faith which had already been delivered, and to give a circumstantial account of some facts in the life of our Saviour, which the other evangelists had omitted, thereby to prove that none but God could have performed such extraordinary things. St. John also wrote three epistles, one to all the Catholics in general, the second to a certain lady, whom he styles "the lady elect," and the third to one Gaius. The effect of all these is, to shew the certainty of the Catholic faith, and to exhort them to continue stedfast to the things which they had heard taught by him and the other apostles. "That which you have heard

" from the beginning (he says) let it abide in you." (1st epist. ii. 24.) "This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning you walk in the same, because many seducers are gone out into the "world." (2d. epist. 6, 7.) The heathens admired the sublimity of St. John's diction, and a Platonist, speaking of what was written in his gospel of the majesty of the divine Word, that is of Jesus Christ, said it ought to be engraved in letters of gold, and placed in all the churches.

It is also worthy of note, that Josephus the historian, about this period finished his two books against Appion, in which he defends, with much erudition, his Jewish Antiquities. He divides this work into 20 tomes, in the 18th of which, chapter 4th, is the following striking testimony of the miracles of Christ: "There was about that time one Jesus, a wise man; if at least a man he may be called. He was a great worker of miracles, and teacher of such men, as would readily embrace the truth, and had many followers, both Jews and "Gentiles. This was the famous Christ, who upon the accusation of "the princes and great men of our nation was crucified by Pontius "Pilate and yet those that first loved him did not forsake him; for he " appeared to them the third day alive again, as had been foretold by "several prophets, with other wonders that he wrought, and the race " of Christians, who are so called from him, remain to this day."

Josephus was born in the first year of Caius Caligula, and was a great commander for the Jews against Vespasian, to whom he afterwards submitted and became a great favourite.

OF

For's Book of Martyrs,

No. 3.

CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL.

Printed and Published by W. E. ANDREWS, 3, Chapter- Price 3d. house-court, St. Paul's Churchyard, London.

THE THIRD PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS.

Such is the head given by Fox to his account of the third persecution which the Christian church had to suffer. He says, "Between "the second and the third Roman persecution was but ONE YEAR. "Upon Nerva succeeding Domitian, he gave a respite to the Christians; "but reigning only thirteen months, his successor Trajan, in the tenth year of his reign, and in A. D. 108, began the third persecution against them." Before we proceed any further, let us examine this short account here given. The Christians, we are told, had only one year of peace; and then it is directly stated that the persecution did not begin till the tenth year of Trajan, and that he might convey some air of

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authority, he mentions the year, namely 108. But if the persecution did not begin till the tenth year of Trajan's reign, and Nerva reigned thirteen months, have we not, according to Fox's account, a period of eleven years instead of one of peace? However he is not to be relied upon, as we have made clear, and it would have been better for him to have avoided dates here, as he did in his account of the two for mer persecutions; for one of the martyrs he has named, that is St. Ignatius, was condemned by Trajan himself, and suffered in 107, which is a year before the time fixed for the commencement of the persecu tion by Fox. He then goes on- "Plinius Secundus, a heathen philoso pher, wrote to the emperor, in favour of the Christians, stating that "he found nothing objectionable in their conduct; and that the whole sum of their error consisted in this, that they were wont at certain "times appointed, to meet before day, and to sing certain hymns to one Christ their God and to confederate among themselves, to ab"stain from all theft, murder, and adultery; to keep their faith, and "to defraud no man: which done, then to depart for that time, and "afterwards to resort again to take meat in companies together, both "men and women, one with another, and yet without any act of evil. "To this epistle Trajan returned this indecisive answer: That Chris"tians ought not to be sought after, but when brought before the ma"gistracy they should be punished.' Provoked by this reply, Tertul+ lian exclaimed, 'O confused sentence! he would not have them "sought for as innocent men, and yet would have them punished as "guilty. The emperor's incoherent answer, however, occasioned the " persecution in some measure to abate, as his officers were uncertain, "if they carried it on with severity, how he might choose to wrest his own meaning.-Trajan, however, soon after wrote to Jerusalem, and gave orders to exterminate the stock of David; in consequence of "which, all that could be found of that race were put to death. About "this period (he adds) the emperor Trajan was succeeded by Adrian; "who continued the persecution with the greatest rigour."

How men, who consider themselves so superior, in point of wisdom and knowledge, to those who believe in the Catholic faith, should be so easily imposed upon by such a random relation as this, is truly a matter of astonishment. And yet this work of John Fox has been, for more than these two centuries, looked upon with nearly the same degree of credit as the gospel itself. We are told by the martyrologist, that" about this period the emperor Trajan was succeeded by Adrian." Now what are we to understand by the two words "this period?"The only time stated in the passages quoted is the year 108, but Trajan reigned nine years and a half after that date; and Adrian twenty-two years all but one month. The most authentic historians relate that Trajan relented his cruelties before his death, and Adrian did not issue any fresh edicts, nor did the church suffer grievously until the latter emperor had filled the imperial throne eight years. The occasion of the revival of the persecution by Adrian, is stated by Echard to have been occasioned by the infamous lives of the Gnostics and other heretics, who bearing also the name of Christians, brought odium and scandal on the professors of the true faith. But we must return to the mar tyrologist's account of Trajan's duplicity. He says, that "while the

persecution raged Plinius Secundus, a heathen philosopher, wrote to "the emperor in favour of the Christians." Now John Fox must be a very ignorant or a very impudent writer, for this Plinius Secundus, the heathen philosopher, was no less a personage than Pliny the younger, the governor of the Roman provinces of Pontus and Bythinia, so called to distinguish him from his uncle, Pliny the naturalist. Thus we see Fox confounding the nephew with the uncle, as we proved him, in our second number, p. 27, making two martyrs out of one person. In these provinces, it appears, the Christian religion had spread with astonishing rapidity, and its professors were so eager to lay down their lives in support of the Divine Truths, that Pliny was at a loss how to act towards them. He therefore consulted Trajan by letter, and besides the honourable testimony given by this heathen governor to Christian morality, to the progress of Christianity, and the undaunted courage of its proselytes, he also gives an account of the apostasy of others, who were base enough to blaspheme the Saviour of the world, and sacrifice to idols, to escape a little transitory pain.-" While these things went on in this manner," writes this governor of Trajan, "the error, as is usual, spreading farther, several cases occurred. A libel was put into my hands with a list of several persons by name ac"cused of Christianism; who when they denied, that they either were, or had been Christians, and in my presence invoked the gods, and 66 offered up wine and incense to your statue, which for that purpose I "had commanded to be brought with the images of the gods; and moreover had cursed Christ, which they say, one can never force a good Christian to do, I dismissed them. Others accused, said they "had been Christians, but had left off being such, some of them these "three years, some a great many years ago, and one no less than twenty-five years. All these adored your image, the statues of the gods, and also cursed Christ." But though these unhappy persons forsook the truth, through fear or interest, or some other worldly motive, yet Pliny says, they bore witness to the purity of the rites and ceremonies of the true religion.

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Fox and his editors blame the duplicity shewn by Trajan in his answer above, but his conduct is not more blameable than that pursued by Protestant ascendency-men. Indeed the situation of the Catholics under "Protestant ascendency" in this country, forms a striking similarity to that of the primitive Christians under Pagan ascendency. In the reign of Elizabeth, such was the terror excited by the penal laws against Catholics, that many were induced to practice occasional conformity to the new church service to save their lives and estates. When taken up before the magistrates they had only to forswear their conscience, by taking the oath of supremacy, and, like the apostate Christians before Pliny, they were dismissed. Even at this day let a Catholic, ever so immoral and wicked in his life, but renounce what are called the errors of popery, and he instantly becomes a good Protestant, whilst his apostasy is trumpeted forth in all the public prints as a circumstance worthy of praise. When the Catholics petition to be placed upon the same civil equality as their neighbours, being now in a state of debasement, exclusively on account of their religious doctrines, are they not answered by "Protestant ascendency,"

that they have perfect freedom of conscience and perfect toleration, though they are punished with the loss of their civil immunities for exercising the freedom of conscience? What can we say to this system of duplicity, but in words similar to those used by Tertullian— "O confused and unjust sentence! you make the crime to punish the 66 person; and when he solicits to be relieved from this punishment, you tell him he is not in a state of infliction !" Oh! admirable "Protestant ascendency."

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But let us now look to the martyrs recorded by John Fox under this persecution. The first is thus stated:" Phocas, bishop of Pontus, refusing to sacrifice to Neptune, was by the immediate order of Trajan, cast first into a hot lime-kiln, and being drawn from thence, was "thrown into a scalding bath, till he expired." We might suppose that the hot lime-kiln was sufficient to cause death to the martyr, without the scalding bath, unless indeed he was preserved in the first instance by the hand of Omnipotence. We have seen that St. John the evangelist was preserved without injury in the cauldron of boiling oil, not that he might immediately undergo death by a different mode, but that he might live to bear testimony to the divine Truths he was commissioned by God to teach. The account is absurd on the face of it, for certainly some reason should have been given for the martyr's escape from the first torture said to have been inflicted. But what will the reader say, when he is informed that John Fox has fallen into a gross error, and that the person here described as a bishop aud suffering under Trajan by being scalded alive, was a gardener of Sinope, in the province of Pontus, who suffered about the year 303, in the tenth persecution under Dioclesian, by being beheaded. He has, according to his usual custom, confined himself to bare assertion; we, on the contrary, have examined authorities; and we find in the Rev. Mr. Butler's Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, &c. an account of St. Phocas, collected from his panegyric, written by St. Asterius, and another written by St. Chrysostom, 1. ii. ed. Ben. p. 704, Ruinart. p. 627. This account says, "St. Phocas dwelt near the gate of Sinope, a city of Pontus, and "lived by cultivating a garden, which yielded him a handsome subsistence and wherewith plentifully to relieve the indigent. . . . His house was open to all strangers and travellers who had no lodging in the place; and after having for many years most liberally bestowed the "fruit of his labour on the poor, he was found worthy also to give his "life for Christ. Though his profession was obscure, he was well known "over the whole country by the reputation of his charity and virtue." It then goes on to say, that when a cruel persecution was suddenly raised in the church, probably that of Dioclesian in 303, Phocas was immediately impeached as a Christian, and such was the notoriety of his pretended crime, that he was ordered to be put to death without the formality of a trial. This was executed, by striking off his head, under circumstances wherein his hospitality and courage were peculiarly displayed towards the executioners who were sent to dispatch him. The memory of this martyr, we are assured, was held in the highest i veneration by the Catholics in the Euxine, Ægean, and Adriatic seas, and particularly by the sailors, who sung hymns to his honour. It is related by St. Asterius, bishop of Amasea, about the year 400, in a

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