Domitian, the younger brother of Titus, governed the empire fifteen years and five months. He commenced the second persecution of the Christians, Nero's being the first, and shortly afterwards received his reward for thus fighting against God, being slain in the senate-house.1

Nerva held the imperial sceptre one year, four months, and eight days. His first edict recalled all those who were banished. The apostle St. John regained his liberty by this general amnesty, and took advantage of it to return to Ephesus.2

Trajan filled the throne nineteen years, six months, and fifteen days. He began the third persecution of the Christians, and ordered the most eminent servants of God to be tortured to death. Pliny the younger, born at Como, lived during this reign; he is regarded as a great orator and historian: many of his works, proofs of his remarkable talent, are still extant. The Pantheon at Rome, built by Domitian, was destroyed by lightning; it was so named, because it was consecrated as the temple of all the gods. The Jews, who excited seditions in every part of the world, were slaughtered in great numbers, a punishment they deserved. This emperor extended far and wide the bounds of the Roman empire, which, since the time of Augustus, had been rather defended than added to by any remarkable conquest.

Hadrian, cousin of Trajan, reigned twenty-one years. Being enlightened by the books written on the Christian religion by Quadratus, a disciple of the apostles and bishop of Athens, Aristides, an Athenian full of faith and wisdom, The Flavian Amphitheatre, afterwards called the Colosseum, was completed and dedicated by Titus in the year 80. Not nine thousand, but (according to Dion. Cassius) five thousand animals were killed during the festival, which lasted a hundred days.

Domitian persecuted the church A.D. 95, the year before his death.

2 The persecution appears to have ceased before the death of Domitian. Nevertheless St. John did not return from banishment before Nerva recalled the exiles.

3 The third persecution took place A.D. 117. The measures taken to punish the Jews were begun the year before.-The first burning of the Pantheon happened A.D. 80, and the second A.D. 110.-Pliny the Younger (Caius Cæcilius Plinius Secundus) was born at Como about A.D. 52, and died about the year 102. The passage relating to him is borrowed from St. Jerome, who, as well as our author, appears to have confounded him with Pliny the Elder, his uncle.

and Serenus Granianus, proconsul [of Asia], he wrote a letter commanding that the Christians should not be condemned unless accusations were preferred against them. This emperor subdued a second time and finally, with great slaughter, the Jews who had again rebelled; he even deprived them of the permission to enter Jerusalem, which he carefully rebuilt, and surrounded with walls; commanding that it should be called Ælia, after his own name. Being perfect master both of Greek and Latin, he founded at Athens a library of admirable architecture. Mark was the first gentile bishop of Jerusalem; those who preceded him having been all Jews. Their names were: James the brother of our Lord, Simeon the son of Cleophas, Justus, Zaccheus, Tobias, Sixtus (Benjamin), John, Matthias, Philip, Seneca, another Justus, Levi, Effrem, Joseph, and Judas. These bishops, fifteen in number, who were of the circumcision, governed the Christian church at Jerusalem, from the time of our Lord's passion until the reign of Elius Hadrian, a space of nearly one hundred and seven years; rendering themselves illustrious by their sanctity, their faith, and their learning. Their successors of gentile origin, were Mark, Cassianus, Publius, Maximus, Julian, Caius, another Julian, Capiton, Valens, Dolician, Narcissus, Alexander, Mazabanes, Hymenæas, Zabdas, Hermon, Macharius, another Maximus, Cyrill, and John.1

Antoninus, surnamed Pius, with his two sons, by adoption, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius (Verus), reigned twenty-two years and three months. Justin the philosopher presented to Antoninus a book he wrote in favour of the Christian religion, which induced the emperor to treat the Christians

1 The initiation of the Emperor Hadrian into the mysteries of Eleusis in 126 had excited the persecution which induced St. Quadratus, bishop of Athens, St. Aristides, and Serenus Granianus, proconsul of Asia, to present. to the emperor apologies for the Christian religion, which induced him to put an end to the persecution. Jerusalem was retaken, and reduced to ashes by Julius Severus in the month of August, 135. Its conversion into a Roman colony, under the name of Colonia Ælia Capitolina, was already effected in 138, the period of the ordination of the patriarch Mark. Seven names are missing in the list which Ordericus gives of the successors of this bishop, to the commencement of the sixth century. The foundation of the library of Alexandria belongs to the early part of the year 135.

with kindness. Not long after, however, he lost his life for Christ's sake, during the persecution excited by Crescens the Cynic, in the time of Pope Pius I. Hermes wrote a book entitled, "The Pastor," which contains the precept of an angel, that Easter should be kept on the Lord's day. Polycarp, on his arrival at Rome, reclaimed from their heresy many who had been recently corrupted by the doctrines of Valentine and Cerdo.1

Marcus Antoninus Verus, and his brother [by adoption] Lucius Aurelius Commodus, reigned nineteen years and two months. The government was now for the first time administered by them jointly, hitherto there having been sole emperors. They afterwards made war against the Parthians with distinguished courage and success. During the persecution of the Christians in Asia, Polycarp and Pionius suffered martyrdom. In Gaul, also, Pothinus, bishop of Lyons, and several other Christians gloriously shed their blood for Christ. Not long after, the plague, that avenger of crime, depopulated many provinces of the Roman empire, above all Italy, and Rome itself. On the demise of his brother Commodus, Antoninus took his own son Commodus as his colleague in the government. Melito, bishop of Sardis, in Asia, wrote an apology for the Christians, addressed to the emperor Antoninus. Lucius, king of Britain, sent a letter to Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, soliciting

1 Justin Martyr, born A.D. 103, at Neapolis (Sicham), drew up his first Apology about the year 140. Crescens, a philosopher, caused him to be apprehended with six of his companions, when they were all beheaded in 167, in the pontificate of Anicetus, and not during that of Pius I., who died ten years before (July 11, 157); consequently he does not belong to this reign, but to that of Marcus Aurelius. St. Hermas, and not Hermes, the father of Pius I., wrote the book called "The Pastor," translated into English by Archbishop Wake in 1710. Many are of opinion that he was the disciple of St. Paul, of whom mention is made in Romans xvi. 14. The book does not contain anything relative to the time of celebrating Easter. Polycarp, a disciple of St. John, who is supposed to be the "angel of the church of Smyrna" (Rev. ii. 8), undertook a journey to Rome in 158, to confer with Pope Anicetus on this subject. He was burnt at the stake, A.D. 167. The heretical opinions of Valentine and Cerdon had been condemned several years before.

This passage, like most of those which precede and follow it, is borrowed literally from Bede.

admission into the Christian church. Apollinaris of Hierapolis in Asia, and Dionysius of Corinth, are ranked amongst the most illustrious bishops of this age.1

After the death of his father, Lucius Antoninus Commodus reigned thirteen years. He was successful in his war with the Germans. In all other respects he did not inherit his father's virtues, being addicted to every species of debauchery. Irenæus, bishop of Lyons at this time, had gained great celebrity. The emperor Commodus having ordered the head of the Colossus to be taken off, replaced it by one taken from his own statue.2

Helvius Pertinax reigned only six months; he was assassinated by Didius Julian, who, after a reign of only seven months, was vanquished and killed, during the civil war, by Severus, near the Milvian bridge. Victor, bishop of Rome, by a decree which was widely dispersed, ordered the feast of Easter to be celebrated, as his predecessor Eleutherius had done, on the Sunday between the 14th and the 21st day of March, which was then reckoned the first month of the year. Theophilus, bishop of Cæsarea, in Palestine, adopted this decree, and in conjunction with other bishops, present at a council, wrote a synodical and valuable epistle, against those who persisted in cele

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1 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, born at Rome, A.D. 121, married Faustina, daughter of Antoninus Pius, and died of a pestilential disease in the fifty-ninth year of his age. By consulting the dates given before, it will be apparent that his reign lasted only nineteen years and ten days; Bede having reckoned nineteen years and one month. The war against the Parthians, begun in 161, was brought to a successful issue in 165. Verus, in the year 166, on his return from the East, carried the plague to Rome. Polycarp and Justin both suffered martyrdom in the same year (167), and Pothinus in 177. Our historian is in error as to Pionius, who was burnt in the persecution of Decius, A.D. 250. Commodus was raised to the dignity of Cæsar in the year 177. Melito, bishop of Sardis in Lydia, addressed his Apology for Christianity to Marcus Aurelius in the year 175; it was followed in 177 by another from the pen of Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis, whose writings are all lost.-The demand of the British king, Lucius, to Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, for a Christian missionary, must have been between the years 177 and 193, when that pope filled the see. Only a few fragments of the letters of Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, have been preserved.

2 The expedition against the Germans took place in September, 177. Irenæus was, indeed, contemporary with Commodus, but he did not suffer martyrdom before the year 202.

brating this festival like the Jews, on the fourteenth day of the March moon.1

Severus Pertinax held the reins of government for seventeen years, firmly, but not without difficulty. He ordered a cruel persecution of the Christians. Clemens, a priest of the church of Alexandria, and Pantænus, a stoic philosopher, distinguished themselves by their theological discussions. Narcissus, bishop of Jerusalem, Theophilus of Cæsarea, Polycarp and Bacchiolus, Asiatic bishops, were also illustrious. In different parts of the empire, a great number of Christians received the crown of martyrdom. Clodius Albinus, who had assumed the title of Cæsar in Gaul, having been slain near Lyons, Severus transferred the war into Britain. In order to secure the conquered provinces from the incursions of the barbarians, he ordered a wide ditch to be dug, and a very strong wall to be raised; which was additionally fortified, at unequal distances, by a number of towers; these works very nearly extended from sea to sea, being about one hundred and thirty-two thousand paces long. This emperor died at York.2

1 Our author seems, in imitation of Aurelius Victor, to have confounded Didius Julianus with his grandfather, the famous jurisconsult, Salvius Julianus. However, Eutropius affirms that Didius also was well versed in jurisprudence. It was not Didius who was defeated by Septimius Severus near the Milvian Bridge, but Maxentius by Constantine, a century and a half afterwards. The truth is that Didius was beheaded, by order of the senate on receiving the news of the election of Septimius Severus, after a short reign of sixty-six days.-The Council of Cæsarea in Palestine, convoked for the discussion of the great question of those times, the proper day for the celebration of Easter, which so long disturbed the church, was held in the year 196, and consequently in the reign of Septimius Severus,

2 The surname of Pertinax was given to Severus by the soldiers at the moment when they proclaimed him emperor. Bede asserts that he reigned eighteen years: this comes nearer to the truth than our author's number. The fifth persecution of the Christians began in 201 or 202, and continued until the death of this prince.-Clemens of Alexandria [Titus Flavius Clemens], one of the doctors of the church, was obliged to seek refuge in Cappadocia during the whole time it lasted. He died in 217, one year after Pantænus, whose disciple and successor he was, and who, as early as 179, was master of the famous school of Alexandria.-Narcissus, bishop or patriarch of Jerusalem, presided at the Council of Cæsarea, convoked by Bishop Theophilus in 196.-Instead of Polycarp, read Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus. Bacchyolus was not bishop of a see in Asia, but of Corinth. It appears that there is here an omission in the passage of St. Jerome