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respect which may be due to his pious and good intentions, but not altogether with that opinion of his discernment, to which perhaps he may think himself entitled. In the justice, however, of our animadversions, his own good sense, when he quietly reconsiders the subject, will, we are assured, gradually coincide.

ART. V. The History of that inimitable Monarch Tiberius; who, in the 14th Year of his Reign, requested the Senate to permit the Worship of Jesus Christ; and who in the 16th and three following Years, or before the Conversion of Cornelius by Peter, suppressed all Opposition to it. By the Rev. John Rendle, M.A. lately Mathematical Lecturer of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and since Fellow of that Society, but now Vicar of Widecomb in the Moor, Devon. 8vo. pp. 432. 11. 1s. Longman.

IT has been frequently suggested as a consolation to merit, when pining under neglect, or assailed by obloquy, that impartial posterity will unanimously bestow those commendations which prejudiced contemporaries have denied; that posthumous fame will be a compensation for present censure, and that calumny is deprived both of her inclination and of her power to hurt, when her victim is no longer capable of feeling her sting. The suggestion if verified by experience, would be unavailing, yet it is more unavailing than fallacious. Posterity instead of rendering justice to those characters whose worth was not duly appreciated in the times in which they lived, are often eager to revive a long forgotte slander, and to fabricate a groundless imputation. The extinctus amabitur idem of Horace, is ap plicable only to literary reputation, and that in a qualified sense; of all other reputation we must be compelled to acknowledge that it is vulnerable long after its possessor has departed" to those unseen abodes, where the din of controversy and the din of war are equally unheard."

With whatever unwillingness we may admit the assertion, yet none is more indisputable than that the characters of antiquity must rest, on the testimony of their contemporaries, especially if that testimony be not contradicted by other writers of the same age, and above all when that testimony is unfavour able. The language of panegyric is generally vague, and is interpreted with some abatement; the language of censure is commonly conveyed in the form of specific charges, which it is impossible for distant generations to repel even though false.

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The writer who is bold enough to combat them, will often fail to gain a patient hearing, and rarely will he command a reluctant assent. We believe that the masterly vindication of the Scottish Mary by Whitaker, has had little influence in turning the current of popular opinion, though the prejudices of Buchanan against that unfortunate princess, and the motives which inspired his antipathy, are palpable. When we ascend higher, the task of vindicating calumniated innocence becomes hopeless, because our materials are scanty, and if we be not contented to use them as they are, we are left to the uncertainty of conjecture. Nothing is more illusive, than to impugn the authority of historical facts by arguments drawn from abstract reasoning, and that improbabilities should be recorded in historical writings, is a consequence from an undeniable truth that man is made up of contradictions. We must therefore submit to receive the narratives of persons and actions as they have been transmitted to us, because if we destroy their credit, we have nothing but hypothesis to substitute in their room.

The character of Tiberius the Roman Emperor has often been the subject of attention, but has never been till now, the subject of dispute. Its peculiarities and eminent features have been marked by Tacitus, whose sententious brevity is singularly adapted to impress the memory. The odia in longum jaciens qua reconderet auctaque promeret, has become proverbial. What Tacitus has said of his dissimulation and cruelty is abun-. dantly confirmed by other writers: what he has said of his debaucheries is confirmed not only by other writers, but by the medals now to be found in the island of Capreæ, the residence of his latter days. But in the work before us, we are told that the character of Tiberius has been hitherto misunderstood. Its author has undertaken to establish these two peints; first, that Tiberius was a Christian; and secondly, that because he was a Christian, he was maligned by the favourers of Paganism, particularly by the Pagan historians.

To decide the first question, whether Tiberius was a convert to Christianity, there is no occasion to resort to presumptive arguments, if we can find any direct evidence produced by the friends or by the enemies of the Christian faith. The evidence of the Christian apologists as to this matter is clear, uniform, and consistent. Clemens of Rome, Tertullian, Jerome, and Eusebius, have stated with little variation of phrase, that soon after the crucifixion of Christ, Pontius Pilate transmitted an account of the transaction to Tiberius, that Tiberius on reading this account, requested the senate to admit Christ among the number of the gods; and that on the refusal of the senate to comply with this request, he issued an edict threatening death N

VOL. IV. AUGUST, 1815,

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to all who should molest Christians. The words of Jeronte we quote, as being the most concise. "Pilato de Christianorum dogmate referente Tiberius detulit ad Senatum ut inter cætera Sacra reciperetur." These quotations from the Ecclesiastical historians have been frequently adduced, and for that reason we forbear to dwell on them. Their testimony is corroborated

in the work before us, by that of Moses the Choronensian, a Jew, who wrote the history of Armenia in the language of that country. A copy of this curious history is said to be preserved in the Library of Exeter College, Oxford, and it has been translated into Latin by William and George Whiston, the sons of the ingenious philosopher of that name. In this history is contained a letter of Tiberius in answer to an epistle which he had received from Agbarus king of Edessa, concerning the miracles of Christ, and the wonders which happened at his death, and which concluded with this sentence. "Jam itaque 'novit majestas tua, quid de Judæorum populo imperandum sit, qui hæc perpetrarunt, statuendumque per totum orbem ut Christum colant tanquam verum Deum, The answer of Tiberius is expressed in the following terms:

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"Tiberius Romanorum Cæsar, Agbaro regi salutem. Lecta fuit coram me epistola amicitiæ tuæ, ob quam gratia a nobis tibi habenda est, quanquam et a multis hoc ipsum prius audiveramus. Miracula ejus luculenter exposuit Pilatus, eumque postquam e mortuis surrexit a multos pro Deo fuisse habitum. Ac propterea volui ipse idem facere quod tu cogitasti, sed cum Romanorum consuetudo sit ut Imperatoris modo auctoritate neminem in Deorum numero reponant dum a Senatu tentatus fuerit probatusque, ideo rem ad Senatum retuli: respuit autem Senatus, quod ab ipso primum quæstio de eo non fuerat habita. Nos autem unicuique qui volet permisimus, ut Jesum in Deos recipiat, mortemque illis ninati sumus, qui Christianos criminari pergant. De Judæorum autem populo, qui eum temere ausi sunt cruci suffigere, quem ego non cruce sed honore et veneratione dignum fuisse audio, ubi a bello, cum Hispanis qui à me defecêre, otium nactus fuero, re explorata üs pro meritis tribuam.”

"Hæc

Moses has subscribed the following memorandum. scripsit Agbarus, atque epistolæ ejus, ut et cæterarum, exemplum in Tabellario Edesseno reposuit.'

We pretend not to decide in this place, how far this history of Moses the Jew may be worthy of credit, or whether this let er of Tiberius may be authentic; we only say that this testimony goes as far but no farther, than that of the ecclesiastial writers, and that the testimony of both amounts simply to this

at Tiberius was favourably inclined to the Christian faith, and that he prohibited all persecutions against the professors of Christianity. If Tiberius had been a real convert, would

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he have been satisfied with desiring that Christ might be worshipped in common with the other Pagan divinities, that the rites of Christianity might be incorporated with the other religious constitutions of Rome? The honors of deification, we well know, were decreed by a false and a dangerous appreciation of worth. To have classed Jesus Christ with the monsters who found a place in the Pantheon, was a proposal utterly inconsistent with a rational belief in his divine mission. The prohibition which he afterwards issued against the enemies of Christianity is no proof of his conversion: such a conduct is reconcileable with a disbelief in any religion. Those princes who have equally despised all modes of faith, have been forward to proclaim universal toleration, and to inculcate religious moderation. Nor have there been wanting instances of men who have professed to respect the Christian faith, but who have never joined any communion of Christians. The motives which prompted Tiberius might be those of policy; yet if we cannot satisfactorily explain them, we have no right to interpret his conduct in any other light than it was viewed by the early fathers. If he had been sincerely and publicly a Christian, these first defenders of our religion would have been induced by every consideration to declare the important truth without equivocation and reserve.

If this be the case, with respect to the friends of Christianity, we must also affirm that its enemies would have been equally impelled to proclaim the fact. They would have been eager to add to the other vices of Tiberius that of his being a follower of the "new and mischievous superstition" which first appeared in his reign. When Tacitus sperks of the Christian Religion, he uses no ambiguous phrases, but plainly and without ceremony reprobates it as a grievous pest. He could have no motive of a sinister kind to conceal or disguise the conversion of Tiberius: on the contrary, the circumstance would have furnished him with an opportunity to add another shade to his sombre portraiture of that monarch. Yet as Mr. R. imagines that he has discovered many proofs of the Christianity of Tiberius in Pagan writers, it would be injustice to pass them over without comment. We must previously however express our opinion, that the passages most to his purpose are barely a confirmation of the favourable sentiments which the Roman Emperor entertained of the Christian faith, and of the protection which he afforded to its followers against the malice of the Jews and Heathens. In this point of view they are valuable, and we cheerfully bestow our commendations on the industry and acuteness which the author generally displays in the arrangement and concentration of his evidence,

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The first passage which we shall mention is the well known citation from Tacitus, in the 15th Book of his Annals. "Repressaque in præsens exitiabilis superstitio rursus erumpebat non modo per Judæam originem ejus mali sed per urbem etiam." The historian here confessedly describes Christianity as a destructive superstition; he states, that soon after its promulgation, it was for a time repressed; but that afterwards it again broke out; and spread itself not only over Judea, but in Rome. In the first Book of his Annals, he has this remarkable paragraph.

"Haud pigebit referre in Falanio et Rubrio prætentata crimina, ut quibus initiis, quanta arte Tiberii, gravissimum exitium irrepserit, dein repressa fuit, postremo arserit, cunctaque corri puerit, noscatur.”

We think with Mr. R. that the similarity in the diction of these two passages, furnishes a strong presumption that the historian alludes to Christianity by the expression gravissimumi exitium. The supposition is strengthened, when we advert to the crimes of which Falanius and Rubrius were accused. They were charged with impiety or with disrespect to the religion of their country; consequently, the gravissimum exitium subsequently introduced, must be of a religious nature. The Emperor instead of punishing the impieties of these two knights, dismissed the delinquents and their accusers by observing, that offences against the gods were to be punished by the gods. The indifference of Tiberius to the religious institutions of his country, his refusal to avenge their violation under the plea of moderation, may fairly be reckoned as the beginnings which led the way to the introduction of this grievous pest. A Pagan might naturally call it destructive, as its establishment subverted the whole edifice of Pagan superstition. We have placed the argument in a different point of view from the author, but it leads to the same conclusion.

Another proof of the favourable disposition of Tiberius towards Christians, is his abolition of all the asyla in the empire. Mr. Rendle proves satisfactorily, that this privilege was not taken away till after the crucifixion of our Lord, and he assigns a probable reason why it was at length revoked.

"As Tiberius appears in the year 775, to have permitted the Senate to enquire into the privileges of the asyla, in most of the eastern countries, and to correct the abuses to which they were perverted (of which the chief was, as Tacitus says, the protection of state delinquents)-and to continue the exercise of their ancient right, till the year 781-why should he, who, as Tacitus says, was for nothing so anxious, as to let every thing remain as it was; and who, as Josephus says, would hardly take the trouble

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