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A39819 An historical account of the manners and behaviour of the Christians and the practices of Christianity throughout the several ages of the church written originally in French by Msr. Cl. Fleury ...; Moeurs des Chrétiens. English Fleury, Claude, 1640-1723. 1698 (1698) Wing F1363; ESTC R15813 173,937 370

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as you are if you are so fond of dying can you not find Ropes to hang your selves or Praecipices from whence you may break your Necks Thus all the World were set against the Christians the People and the Magistrates the Ignorant and the Wise By the one they were abhorred as Impostors and abominable Impious Wretches by the other they were dispised as a company of Man haters Visionary Foolish and Melancholick People Intoxicated with an unaccountable Frenzy of throwing away their Lives for nothing So Odious and Despicable were they in the sight of the World that scarce any one would vouchsafe somuch as to change a Word with them such was the Prejudice all Men had conceived against the Christians that the very Name of Christians was sufficient for their Condemnation and destroyed BonusV● C. Seius tantum qùod Christianus Tertul. Ap. c. iii. whatsoever else of good was found to be in them Such a one was their common saying is an Honest Man were it not for the misfortune of his being a Christian THAT the Christians being so universally XVI The Persecutions the maner of proceeding against them Their Punishments hated should be Persecuted is not strange but this one may justly wonder at That the Romans who in their Laws and Government and in their other Conduct gave such Proofs of their Wisdom and Equity should practice against their fellow Romans or indeed against any human Creatures such cruelties as we read of in the History of the Martyrs That the Judges should cause the Person accused to be put to the Torment in their own Presence in open Court in the view of the whole World that they should employ such different sorts of Tortures upon them and that as for all that appears meerly Arbitrary It may be worth our while therefore to observe in all this what was owing to the standing Customs and Constitutions of their Government and what was supperadded thereto by a false Zeal for Religion and Reasons of State The Romans tried all Causes in open Court all their Processes as well Criminal as Civil the Charge as well as the Sentence was given in some publick place where under a covered Gallery the Magistrate Cic. iv Ver. i. l. c. xl seated himself in his Tribunal raised on high above the rest of the People and surrounded with the Officers of the Court the Lictors with Axes and Bundles of Rods in their Hands attending him and the Soldiers standing by always in a readiness to execute his Orders For the Roman Magistrates had in their own Hands the Power of the Sword as well as the Administration of Justice The Penalties for every Crime where fixed by ● 6. § 2. F●de Paen. l. 9 §. 11. l. x. l. xxviii c. ibid. the Laws but so as to vary according to the Quality of the Offenders and always more rigorous against Slaves than against Freemen against Foreigners than against the Roman Citizens Therefore St Paul was Beheaded as being a Denizen of Rome and St. Peter Crucified as a Jew The Cross was the most infamous of all their Punishments and they that suffered that Death were generally first beaten with Rods and had their sides burned with red hot Irons or flaming Torches before they were nailed to the Cross their putting to the Rack was done in Publick and the manner of it was extreamly Cruel but it was seldom exercised Cic. ver ult n. lxiii upon any save Slaves or Persons of the lowest consideration The Martyrology Martyrol Rom. xii Janu. observes it as a thing Extraordinary that St. Marinus being one of the Senatc●ian Order was put upon the Eouleus and Tormented with the Vngulae Ferreae or Iron Pincers with which they pinched or burnt the sides of Malefactors upon the Rack And yet 't was after this way of Proceeding that most of the Martyrs were Tormented The Roman Laws as well as ours of France permitted none to be put to the Rack save only for Examination sake But they used the same means to make Christians deny their pretended Crimes as they did to make others confess their real ones The same manner of trying Criminals by putting them to the Rack of stretching out their Limbs with Pullies whipping them tearing and Searing their Flesh continued in use under Christian Emperors as appears by the Examples of St. Eutropius and St. Tigrius who were thus Tortured under other Sozom. viii Hist c. xxiv pretences but really out of spight to St. Chrysostom It was an ordinary thing to condemn l. viii §. iv v c. §. xi F. de paen the meaner and more infamous sort of People to the Mines as now to the Gallies or to expose them to be torn to peices by wild Beasts in the Amphitheatre for the diversion of the People 'T is not unlikely but that there were several other kinds of Punishments used in the Provinces nor can it be denied but that the Magistrates invented several new ones against the Christians especially in the latter Persecutions when their vexation to see the number of Christians still multiplying upon them doubled their Fury and when the Devil Suggested to them the means of destroying rather their Souls than Martyr Rom. xxviii Jul. their Bodies I believe the being Condemned to Prostitution is a kind of Punishment never thought of in the World but against the Christian Virgins The extraordinary Admiration which they saw the Christians had for Chastity put them upon that lewd of Persecution And of the like nature was that which St. Jerome Hier. init vitae S Paul relates of a young Martyr whom they gently tied to a Bed of Roses and under the most delightsome Circumstances with an Immodest Harlot placed by his side but so far was he from being overcome with the Temptation that he bit of his Tongue and spit in her Face in short there were a multitude of Martyrs Massacred or put to Torments without any form of Justice either by the Fury of the enraged Populace or by the revenge of their particular Enemies The Persecution generally opened with some Edict forbidding the Assemblies of the Christians and condeming to certain Penalties all those who refused to Sacrifice to the Gods The Bishops presently gave Cypr. Ep. xv c. notice thereof Exhorting each other both to redouble their Prayers to God and to Encourage their People Many of the Christians hereupon took the advice given by Jesus Chrst to his Disciples and fled Mat. x. 23. for it The Pastors and Priests divided themselves the one part withdrew the other part remained with the People they kept themselves concealed with great care for they were the Persons the most sought after as being those upon whose loss the Flock would be scattered Some of them Acta S. Pion. Bar. an 254. n. x. Can. xii Petri Alex. to i. Concil the better to keep themselves unknown changed their Names others were content to purchase their quiet and