Chap. III.

After an interval of some years from the death of Nero, there arose another tyrant no less wicked (Domitian), who, although his government was exceedingly odious, for a very long time oppressed his subjects, and reigned in security, until at length he stretched forth his impious hands against the Lord. Having been instigated by evil demons to persecute the righteous people, he was then delivered into the power of his enemies, and suffered due punishment. To be murdered in his own palace was not vengeance ample enough: the very memory of his name was erased. For although he had erected many admirable edifices, and rebuilt the Capitol, and left other distinguished marks of his magnificence, yet the senate did so persecute his name, as to leave no remains of his statues, or traces of the inscriptions put up in honour of him; and by most solemn and severe decrees it branded him, even after death, with perpetual infamy. Thus, the commands of the tyrant having been rescinded, the Church was not only restored to her former state, but she shone forth with additional splendour, and became more and more flourishing. And in the times that followed, while many well-deserving princes guided the helm of the Roman empire, the Church suffered no violent assaults from her enemies, and she extended her hands unto the east and unto the west, insomuch that now there was not any the most remote corner of the earth to which the divine religion had not penetrated, or any nation of manners so barbarous that did not, by being converted to the worship of God, become mild and gentle.7    [See especially vol. iv. p. 141 for the intermediary pauses of persecutions, while yet in many places Christians “died daily.”]    

III. Post hunc, interjectis aliquot annis, alter non minor tyrannus ortus est, qui cum exerceret injustam 0199A dominationem, subjectorum tamen cervicibus incubavit quam diutissime, tutusque regnavit, donec impias manus adversus Dominum tenderet. Postquam vero ad persequendum justum populum instinctu daemonum incitatus est, tunc traditus in manus inimicorum luit poenas. Nec satis ad ultionem fuit, quod est interfectus: domi etiam memoria nominis ejus erasa est. Nam cum multa mirabilia opera fabricasset, cum Capitolium aliaque nobilia monumenta fecisset, Senatus ita nomen ejus persecutus est, ut neque imaginum, neque titulorum ejus relinqueret ulla vestigia, gravissimis decretis etiam mortuo notam inureret ad ignominiam sempiternam. Rescissis igitur actis tyranni, non tantum in statum pristinum Ecclesia 0200A restituta est, sed etiam multo clarius ac floridius enituit; secutisque temporibus, quibus multi ac boni principes Romani imperii clavum regimenque tenuerunt, nullos inimicorum impetus passa, manus suas in orientem occidentemque porrexit; ut jam nullus esset terrarum angulus tam remotus, quo non religio penetrasset; nulla denique natio tam feris moribus vivens, ut non suscepto Dei cultu, ad justitiae opera mitescereret. Sed enim postea longa pax rupta est.