The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-12-02
BY Piiny the Younger.


| GPi1ny the Younger was a TYPICAL,
cultivated Roman of the first and sec
ond centuries, Ammo Domini Overed
| ucated. self-conscious. and very firm
~ convinced of his own Importance h.
was none the less an amiable and Well
| meaning man. Whenever he wrote q
letter, he wrote il with the intention
of publishing it at some future time;
so that the collection which We now
have of his epistles is an amusing ex-
ample OF literary pose Nevertheless
the letters are full of interesting side
lights upon the times in which Plins
lived. As a boy, he witnessed from q
distance the destruction of Pompeii, il,
which his uncle persisted. He beheld
the awful excuses OF some of the Ro-
man emperors. He observed much OF
human life. and he tells many an inter-
esting tale, ranging from ghost-stories
to narratives Of historical value
The Emperor Trajan gave Pliny an
official appointment as governor of the
province of Bithynia. In that office
Pliny first heard of the new sect call
ed Christians. He was told that the
Christians in reality formed political
organiza ton, masking treason 10 the
emperor under the guise of religion.
This was, in fact, the prevalent belief
in official circles; and the meetings OF
the Christians We're viewed very much
as a Russian bureaucrat views any pri-
vate gathering of men. and women for
an unknown purpose. Having made an
investigation, however, Pliny discover
ed nothing to justify this feeling; and
he wrote a letter to the emperor ask
ing how the Christians should be treat
ed This letter, which is given here, is
interesting because it is the first con-
nected account of the Christians which
we now possess from a pagan source
1t is my habit, your majesty, to refer
to you all matters concerning which
am in doubt. For who can better direct
my hesitation or inform my igno-
rance? I have never been present at
any trials of Christians; therefore 1 dc
not know in what way and to what eX-
tent it is customary to question or
punish them. And / have felt no little
hesitation as to whether some allow
ance should be made for age wheth-
er the weak and delicate should be
treated exactly like the more robust
whether pardon should follow retrac'
ton, or whether the remuneration OF
Christianity should be of no avail to
him who has once professed it; and
whether the name of Christian itself.
without any violation of the law, should
be punished or whether violation of the
law is considered as inherlng In the
name. Meanwhile, in the case of those
who have been accused to me as Chr1s-
tians I have pursued the following
plan 1 have asked them personally
whether they were Christians. If they
confessed it, I asked them second and
a third time, with the threat of PUNISH
ment. If they still persisted, l ordered
them to suffer the penalty, since l am
yerv sure that whatever it was that
they were confessing, stubbornness and
unyielding obstinacy ought to be pun
ished There were some afflicted oy
this madness who, because they were
Roman citizens, 1 remanded to Rome.
Presently under this treatment, as is
generally the case the charge began to
snread and they were led into more
overt acts ANONYMOUS accusations
containing many names were sent me-
As for those who denied they either
were or had been Christians, wnen
at my instigation they called upon the
names of the gods and offered wine and
frankincense to your statue &Wnlch'
anticipating this emergency, 1 had
caused to be set up with the images OF
the deities) and in addition to that had
abjured Christ-none of which things,
thew say, those who are really Chris
tians can be made to dol thought
that they ought to be let off.
Some. whose names had been gwen
TO me by informers, said that they were
christians and then denied it; that
they had once been, but had ceased TO
be. Certain of them said that they had
ceased to be Christians three years be-
fore, others more than that, few
even as long as twenty years ago. All
these. too. worshiped both your statue
and the ina ges of the gods, and ab-
jured Christ.
They declared moreover that this was
the sum of their fault or error; that
thew had been accustomed to meet on
a stated day before dawn, and to sing
responsibility a hymn to Christ as to
god. and to bind themselves by SOL
emn sacrament-not to any crime, but
that they should commit no theft, nor
adultery, that they should not bear
false witness or refuse to give up a
trust when it was demanded when
this ceremony was over they said that
it had been their custom to depart and
to assemble again for the breaking OF
bread a common and harmless prac-
tise among them.
They further said that they had ceas-
ed to do even this after my edict, by
which, following your commands, had
forbidden all formal assemblies Where
fore I considered it the more necessary
to try to get at the truth by torture