for their own and the public
safety. But we are still assured by monuments of brass and marble, by
the Imperial medals, and by the Antonine column, that neither the prince
nor the people entertained any sense of this signal obligation, since
they unanimously attribute their deliverance to the providence of
Jupiter, and to the interposition of Mercury. During the whole course of
his reign, Marcus despised the Christians as a philosopher, and punished
them as a sovereign. *

By a singular fatality, the hardships which they had endured under the
government of a virtuous prince, immediately ceased on the accession of
a tyrant; and as none except themselves had experienced the injustice
of Marcus, so they alone were protected by the lenity of Commodus. The
celebrated Marcia, the most favored of his concubines, and who at length
contrived the murder of her Imperial lover, entertained a singular
affection for the oppressed church; and though it was impossible that
she could reconcile the practice of vice with the precepts of the
gospel, she might hope to atone for the frailties of her sex and
profession by declaring herself the patroness of the Christians. Under
the gracious protection of Marcia, they passed in safety the thirteen
years of a cruel tyranny; and when the empire was established in the
house of Severus, they formed a domestic but more honorable connection
with the new court. The emperor was persuaded, that in a dangerous
sickness, he had derived some benefit, either spiritual or physical,
from the holy oil, with which one of his slaves had anointed him. He
always treated with peculiar distinction several persons of both sexes
who had embraced the new religion. The nurse as well as the preceptor
of Caracalla were Christians; * and if that young prince ever betrayed a
sentiment of humanity, it was occasioned by an incident, which, however
trifling, bore some relation to the cause of Christianity. Under the
reign of Severus, the fury of the populace was checked; the rigor of
ancient laws was for some time suspended; and the provincial governors
were satisfied with receiving an annual present from the churches within
their jurisdiction, as the price, or as the reward, of their moderation.
The controversy concerning the precise time of the celebration of
Easter, armed the bishops of Asia and Italy against each other, and was
considered as the most important business of this period of leisure
and tranquillity. Nor was t