interposed, and spread over them the shield of toleration; and though
Nero and Domitian were their persecutors, the treatment they experienced
from two princes so generally abhorred for cruelty elicited a measure of
public sympathy. [288:1] At length, however, the Roman government, even
when administered by sovereigns noted for their political virtues, began
to assume an attitude of decided opposition; and, for many generations,
the disciples were constantly exposed to the hostility of their pagan
rulers.

The Romans acted so far upon the principle of toleration as to permit
the various nations reduced under their dominion to adhere to whatever
religion they had previously professed. They were, no doubt, led to
pursue this policy by the combined dictates of expediency and
superstition; for whilst they were aware that they could more easily
preserve their conquests by granting indulgence to the vanquished, they
believed that each country had its own tutelary guardians. But they
looked with the utmost suspicion upon all new systems of religion. Such
novelties, they conceived, might be connected with designs against the
state; and should, therefore, be sternly discountenanced. Hence it was
that Christianity so soon met with opposition from the imperial
government. For a time it was confounded with Judaism, and, as such, was
regarded as entitled to the protection of the laws; but when its true
character was ascertained, the disciples were involved in all the
penalties attached to the adherents of an unlicensed worship.

Very early in the second century the power of the State was turned
against the gospel. About A.D. 107, the far-famed Ignatius, the pastor
of Antioch, is said to have suffered martyrdom. Soon afterwards our
attention is directed to the unhappy condition of the Church by a
correspondence between the celebrated Pliny, and the Emperor Trajan. It
would seem that in Bithynia, of which Pliny was governor, the new faith
was rapidly spreading; and that those who derived their subsistence from
the maintenance of superstition, had taken the alarm. The proconsul had,
therefore, been importuned to commence a persecution; and as existing
statutes supplied him with no very definite instructions respecting the
method of procedure, he deemed it necessary to seek directions from his
Imperial master. He stated, at the same time, the course which he had
hitherto pursued. If individuals arraigned before his judgment-seat, and