abeyance. Force was the only possible protection against force. Where a tyrant is absolute, assassination is the one argument that can be used. Tyrannies have, by means of the dagger, been tempered into a semblance of decency. To repel wolves with moral suasion is not christianity. Let the reader remember that one half of the early christians were slaves. Let him remember further that their white skins constituted an aggravation of their misery over what African slaves suffered in antebellum days. A slave youth or maiden who took the fancy of the Roman owner had no power to retain virtue. The slave was a chattel, absolutely without rights. He could not marry. Under Roman law he was not regarded as a human being; he was an "articulate instrument.” A married slave was given no redress if the master took his wife. His children, born for servitude, belonged first to the master whose riches they thus increased, or who got rid of them if he did not wish to support them. Said Prudentius of St. Agnes:

This maiden to the public brothel they consign,
Unless she bow before the heathen shrine.

And Tertullian confirms the well-nigh unbelievable charge: "Recently, too, by condemning the christian maiden to the brothel (ad lenonem), instead of the lions (ad leonem), you acknowledge that to us the violation of chastity is more dreadful than any other form of punishment." And from another: "They order the maiden either to sacrifice or to be taken to the lupanar." Says a historian of the empire: "The sum of all negro slavery is but a drop compared with the sufferings of the Roman slaves." Rome was the poisonous centre of a poisonous

empire. If, therefore, the torch in the hands of the christians was the only resource left whereby to strike fear into the breast of a Nero and to mitigate the lot of the sixty million chattels who were "oppressed of the devil," that torch is bereaved of its awfulness, and even becomes a lamp shining in a dark place.

The writings of Tacitus constitute in the present case the documentary evidence. Examining that evidence, we find him expressly stating that christians "confessed the charge." True, it seems to have been Nero who brought the charge against these followers of The Carpenter, for there was a rumour that he himself had caused the conflagration. Nero's testimony, never notable for its veracity, would in itself have no weight in the present case. A motive for the act, however, is evidence that tells strongly with modern courts of inquiry. And in the matter of motive, Nero stands acquitted and the christians convicted. For the emperor had nothing to gain by the destruction of his own city, and actually put himself to considerable pains and expense to care for the thousands left homeless by the fire. Whereas the christians had a motive. Rome was the arrogant capital of an empire that was crushing half of the world's population into moral and spiritual degradation. Until she was out of the way, or had been taught by terror to respect the rights of the proletariat, no betterment of the lot of the masses could be looked for; rather, there was an accelerating course into ever deeper deeps.

This then is what Tacitus states: "Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called christians by the

populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate: and a most dangerous superstition, thus checked for a moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city as of hatred toward civilized (sic) society. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burned, to serve as a nightly illumination when daylight had expired." Concerning which, it may be remarked parenthetically that if Rome was the pattern and form of "civilized society," it is necessary to infer that her "civilized" condition had not reached alteringly to her modes of inflicting capital punishment.

Besides these words of Tacitus, there is New Testament evidence also connecting the conflagration with the christians; so that those who see in that event nothing but abhorrence will have to revise their canon of Scripture. For it is admitted by modern scholars that the "Book of Revelation" is an outburst of joy when the news arrived of the burning of the city. However, so desperate a remedy as revision of the canon is not neces

sary.

sane

Men can be found to-day who are quite cool and constructive members of society who are pre

pared to validate and even to applaud a deed of violence, when necessary to prevent further violence. Rome's empire, based on terrorism, could be held in check only by terrorism. If therefore it should become necessary to rewrite our histories at this point and lay the burning of Rome directly at the door of the christians, it would scandalize no one except those who count the sheep-like quality the paragon of manly character.

CHAPTER XIII

BATTLE PICTURES

IT IS fortunate that the light of Rome's conflagration reached as far as Patmos. For that blaze lighted up the heavens for John, and revealed to him things in those heavens until then hidden.

Since the time we saw John, during the trial of Jesus, obtaining admission into the court room through his friendship with the high priest, a change has come over him. He has been living under the same roof with Mary the Mother, as her adopted son. A change in him set in almost immediately, because in The Acts he steps boldly to the forefront. And now at last, in "The Revelation of St. John," the influence of Mary upon him, and the teachings of the uncompromising Carpenter, have wrought their perfect work. For in this book we behold him as a stirrer-up of the populace, an economic come-outer. Lowell calls the Bible, "The most inflammatory book that could be circulated among a servile population." If so, "Revelation" is a fitting close to it, a cap stone entirely harmonious with the rest of the column. In the books preceding it, the overthrow of the oppressor and the coming of the toiling masses into their own, are either urged or threatened or planned. Here, in John's book, that consummation is announced as having arrived; and announced, further