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THE CORRESPONDENCE OF PLINY AND
TRAJAN RESPECTING THE CHRISTIANS.
(Plin. Epist. x. 96, 97.)
THIS celebrated correspondence
belongs to the year A.D. 112. The province of Bithynia, of which the younger
Pliny (a namesake of his uncle, the famous writer on 'Natural History') had been
made propraetor in the previous year, was a district of the empire in which the
Christians were particularly numerous. It will be observed that Pliny writes of
them as belonging to a well-known society whose name did not need explanation;
though it is probable that both he and Trajan regarded the Christian body more
in the light of a political gild or club than as a new religious sect 131.
I.
EPISTLE OF CAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS TO
THE EMPEROR TRAJAN.
IT is my constant practice, my lord,
to refer to you all matters about which I feel any uncertainty. For who is
better able either to guide my hesitation, or to inform my ignorance? I have
never taken part in the judicial trials of the Christians, and I am therefore
ignorant how [149] and to what extent it is usual for them to be
punished or sought out. And I am in considerable doubt whether any distinction
of ages is recognized, or whether no difference is made between any one of
tender years and adults : whether pardon may be granted to penitence, or
whether it is no advantage to any one, who has been a Christian at all, that he
has ceased to be one : whether the name itself apart from any actual
criminality, or the criminality attached to the name, is to be punished.
In the meantime, this is the method
I have adopted in the case of those who were accused to me of being Christians.
I asked them whether they were Christians : if they confessed it, I put the
question a second and a third time, threatening punishment; and if they still
persevered, I ordered them to be led away to execution. For I had no doubt,
whatever their confession might imply, that stubbornness and immoveable
obstinacy certainly ought to be punished.
Others there were of a similar
madness, whom, as they were Roman citizens, I set aside for removal to Rome.
But soon, under this very treatment, the crime, as often happens, spread, and
several instances occurred. An anonymous accusation was presented to me,
containing the names of many persons who denied that they either were, or had
been, Christians. When at my dictation they invoked the gods, and offered
incense and wine before your statue, which I had ordered to be brought for this
purpose along with the images of the gods, and in addition reviled Christ,—none
of which acts, according to report, can they who are in real verity Christians
be forced to perform,—I thought that they ought to be discharged. Others, named
by an informer, said that they were Christians, but presently denied it; others
said they had been Christians, but had ceased now to be so, some for three,
others for several, and [150] a few for so long as twenty years
132. All
worshipped your statue, and the images of the gods : they also reviled Christ.
They affirmed that this was the sum of their guilt or error:—that 'they had
been accustomed on an appointed day 133 to assemble before dawn to sing
anti-phonally 134 to Christ
as to a god; and to bind themselves by an oath135, not for a criminal purpose, but
never to commit theft, or robbery, or adultery, nor to break their word, nor to
refuse a deposit, when called upon to restore it; and, this accomplished, that
it had been their habit to separate and meet together again, to partake in
common of a harmless meal, but that they had ceased to do this after my edict
by which, in accordance with your mandate136, I had prohibited clubs. And from
this I judged it to be the more necessary to enquire what truth there was in
this account from two female slaves, who were called deaconesses 137, and whom I even put to the [151] rack for the purpose. But I
discovered nothing more than a perverse and excessive superstition, and
therefore I postponed a legal investigation of it, and hastened to consult you
138.
For the matter seems to me worthy of
consideration, especially on account of the number of those involved in the
risk. For many of all ages, of every rank, and even of both sexes, are being
drawn into danger and are likely to be drawn. Nor has the contagion of this
superstition overrun the towns only, but even the villages and rural districts;
although it still seems possible to check and correct it. It is certainly a
fact that the temples, which had been nearly deserted, are now beginning to be
frequented; and the sacred festivals, so long disregarded, to be observed anew;
and victims are everywhere on sale 139, for which a purchaser could till
lately only very rarely be found. And from this it may easily be gathered what
a large number of men might be reclaimed if an opportunity of penitence were
given them.
II.
REPLY OF THE EMPEROR TRAJAN TO CAIUS
PLINIUS SECUNDUS.
You have followed the right course,
my dear Secundus, in investigating the cases of those who have been accused [152] to you of being Christians. No
universal rule, however, can be laid down, which shall have an unvarying
application. They are not to be sought out; but if they are accused and
impeached, they must be punished; provided, however, that any one, who shall deny
that he is a Christian, and clearly demonstrate the fact by worshipping our
gods, may obtain pardon in consequence of his penitence, although there may be
strong ground for suspicion that he has been a Christian in time past. But
anonymously written accusations brought to your notice ought not to be received
in the case of any crime. For they form the worst precedents, and are not in
keeping with our age.
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