CHRISTIANS, those who profess the religion of Jesus Christ. The name Christians, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, was first given at Antioch, in the year 42, to those who believed in Jesus Christ. Till that time they were called disciples.

The first Christians distinguished themselves in the most remarkable manner by their conduct and their virtues. The faithful, whom the preaching of St Peter had converted, hearkened attentively to the exhortations of the apostles, who'failed not carefully to instruct them, as persons who were entering upon an entirely new course of life. They went every day to the temple with one heart and one mind, and continued in prayers; doing nothing different from the other Jews, because the time had not yet come to separate from them. But they made a still greater progress in virtue; for they sold all that they possessed, and distributed their goods in proportion to the wants of their brethren. They “ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people.”

The Jews were the first and the most inveterate enemies of the Christians, whom they put to death as often as they had it in their power; and when they revolted against the Romans in the time of the emperor Adrian, Barcochebas, the head of that revolt, employed against the Christians the most barbarous punishments, in order to compel them to blaspheme and renounce Jesus Christ. We find indeed that, even in the third century, they endeavoured to get into their hands Christian women, in order to scourge and stone them in their synagogues. They cursed the Christians solemnly three times a day in their synagogues, and their rabbin would not suffer them to converse with Christians upon any occasion. Nor were they contented merely to hate and detest them. They dispatched emissaries all over the world in order to defame the Christians, and to spread all sorts of calumnies against them; they accused them of many things absurd or detestable, and, among these, of worshipping the sun and the head of an ass; they reproached them with idleness, and with being a useless unprofitable race; they charged them with treason, and with endeavouring to erect a new monarchy in opposition to that of Rome; they affirmed, that, in celebrating their mysteries, they used to kill a child and eat its flesh; and they accused them of the most shocking incests, and of beastly intemperance in their feasts of charity. But the lives and behaviour of the first Christians were sufficient to refute all that was said against them, and evidently demonstrated that these accusations were mere calumnies and the effect of inveterate malice.

Pliny the Younger, who was governor of Pontus and Bithynia between the years 103 and 105, gives a particular account of the Christians of that province, in a letter which he wrote to the emperor Trajan, of which the following is an extract t “I take the liberty to give you an account of every difficulty which arises to me. 1 have never been present at the examination of the Christians; for which reason 1 know not what questions have been put to them, nor in what manner they have been punished. My behaviour towards those who have been accused to me has been this. 1 have interrogated them in order to know whether they were really Christians. When they have confessed it, 1 have repeated the same question two or three times, threatening them with death if they did not renounce this religion. Those who have persisted in their confession, have been, by my order, led to punishment. I have even met with some Roman citizens guilty of this phrenzy, whom, in regard to their quality, 1 have set apart from the rest, in order to send them to Rome. These persons declare, that their whole crime, if they are guilty, consists in this, that, on certain days, they assemble before sunrise, to sing alternately the praises of Christ, as of a God, and to oblige themselves, by the performance of their religious rites, not to be guilty of theft or adultery, to observe inviolably their word, and to be true to their trust. This· deposition has obliged me to endeavour to inform[7:6:630] myself still further of this matter, by putting to the torture two of their women servants, whom they call deaconesses ; but I could learn nothing more from them than that the superstition of these people is as ridiculous as their attachment to it is astonishing.”

There is still extant a justification, or rather panegyric, of the Christians, pronounced by the mouth of a heathen prince. It is a letter of the emperor Antoninus, written in the year 152, in answer to a charge by the states of Asia, which had accused the Christians of being the cause of some earthquakes which had happened in that part of the world. The emperor advises them to “take care, lest, in torturing and punishing those whom they accused of Atheism (meaning the Christians), they should render them more obstinate, instead of prevailing upon them to change their opinion; since their religion taught them to suffer with pleasure for the sake of God.” As to the earthquakes which had happened, he put them in mind, that “they themselves are always discouraged, and sink under such misfortunes; whereas the Christians never discovered more cheerfulness and confidence in God than upon such occasions.” He tells them, that “they pay no regard to religion, and neglect the worship of the Eternal; and, because the Christians honour and adore Him, therefore they are jealous of them, and persecute them even to death.” He concludes with these words: “Many of the governors of provinces have formerly written to my father concerning them; and his answer always was, that they should not be molested or disturbed, provided they quietly submitted to the authority of the government. Many persons have likewise consulted me upon this affair, and I have returned the same answer to them all; namely, that if any one accuses a Christian merely on account of his religion, the accused person shall be acquitted, and the accuser himself punished.” This ordinance, according to Eusebius, was publicly displayed at Ephesus, in an assembly of the states.

It is not a difficult matter to discover the causes of the many persecutions to which the Christians were exposed during the first three centuries. The purity of the Christian morality, being in direct contrast with the corruption of the heathens, was doubtless one of the most powerful motives of the public aversion; and to this may be added the many calumnies unjustly spread abroad concerning them by their enemies, particularly the Jews; a circumstance which occasioned so strong a prejudice against them, that the Pagans condemned them without inquiring into their doctrine, or permitting them to defend themselves. Besides, their worshipping Jesus Christ as God was contrary to one of the most ancient laws of the Roman empire, which expressly forbade the acknowledging of any God who had not been approved as such by the senate.

But notwithstanding the violent opposition made to the establishment of the Christian religion, it gained ground daily, and very soon made a surprising progress in the Roman empire. In the third century, there were Christians in the camp, in the senate, in the palace, in short, everywhere but in the temples and the theatres; they filled the towns, the country, the islands; men and women of all ages and conditions, and even those of the first dignities, embraced the faith; insomuch that the Pagans complained that the revenues of their temples were ruined. They were in so great numbers in the empire, that, as Tertullian expresses it, were they to have retired into another country, they would have left the Romans only a frightful solitude.