Perpetua. A Tale of Nimes in A.D. 213

by S. Baring-Gould

  CHAPTER XII

  REUS

  "Master!" said the old slave, moving uneasily on his stiff joint, beforethe even more nervously agitated master, "Master, there is the freedwomanGlyceria below, who comes in charing. She has brought an idol of Tarranusunder her cloak, and offers to set that with a lamp before the door. Sheis not a believer, she worships devils, but is a good soul and would saveus. She awaits your permission."

  The deacon was profoundly moved.

  "It must not be! It may not be! I--I am a deacon of the Church. This isknown to be a Christian household. The Church is in my house, and here thedivine mysteries are celebrated. If she had not asked my leave, andhad--if--but no, I cannot sanction this. God strengthen me, I am distractedand weak." The slave remained. He expected that his master in the endwould yield.

  "And yet," stammered Baudillas, "He hath compassion on the infirm andfeeble. He forgave Peter. May He not pardon me if--? Glyceria is a heathenwoman. She does not belong to my family. I did not propose this. I am notresponsible for her acts. But no--it would be a betrayal of the truth, adishonor to the Church. He that confesseth me before men--no, no, Pedo, itmay not be."

  "And now it is too late," said the slave. "They are at the door."

  Blows resounded through the house, and the roar of voices from the streetsurged up over the roof, and poured in through the opening over the_impluvium_. It was as though a mighty sea were thundering against thehouse and the waves curled over it and plunged in through the gap abovethe court.

  "You must open, Pedo. I will run upstairs for a moment and compose myself.Then--if it must be--but do not suffer the rabble to enter. If a prefect bethere, or his underling and soldiers, let them keep the door. Say I shallbe down directly. Yet stay--is the _posticum_ available for escape?"

  "Sir--the mob have detailed a party to go to the backs of the houses andwatch every way of exit."

  "Then it is God's will that I be taken. I cannot help myself. I am glad Isaid No to the offer of Glyceria."

  The deacon ascended a flight of limestone steps to the upper story. Theslabs were worn and cracked, and had not been repaired owing to hispoverty. He entered a room that looked out on the street, and went to thewindow.

  The street above his doorway was dense with people, below it wascompletely empty. Torches threw up a glare illumining the white facades ofthe houses. He saw a sea of heads below. He heard the growl of voicesbreaking into a foam of coarse laughter. Curses uttered against theChristians, blasphemies against Christ, words of foulness, threats, brutaljests, formed the matter of the hubbub below. A man bearing a white wandwith a sprig of artificial mistletoe at the end, gave directions to thepeople where to go, where to stop, what to do. He was the head of thebranch of the guild of the Cultores Nemausi for that portion of the town.

  Someone in the mob lifting his face, looked up and saw the deacon at thewindow, and at once shouted, "There! there he is! Baudillas Macer, comedown, sacrilegious one! That is he who carried the maiden away."

  Then rose hoots and yells, and a boy putting his hands together andblowing produced an unearthly scream.

  "He is one of them! He is a ringleader! He has an ass's head in the houseto which he sacrifices our little ones. He it was who stuck needles intothe child of the potter Fusius, and then gnawed off the cheeks andfingers. He can inform where is the daughter of Aulus Harpinius who wassnatched from the basin of the god. Let us avenge on him the greatsacrilege that has been committed. It was he who struck off the head ofthe god."

  Then one flung a stone that crashed into the room, and had not Baudillasdrawn back, it would have struck and thrown him down stunned.

  "Let the house be ransacked!" yelled the mob. "We will seek in it for thebones of the murdered children. Break open the door if he will notunfasten. Bring a ladder, we will enter by the windows. Someone ascend tothe roof and drop into the _atrium_."

  Then ensued a rush against the valves, but they were too solid to yield;and the bars held them firm, run as they were into their sockets in thesolid wall.

  The slave Pedo now knocked on the inside. This was the signal that he wasabout to open.

  The soldiers drew up across the entrance, and when the door was opened,suffered none to enter the house save the deputy of the prefect with fourof his police, and some of the leaders of the Cultores Nemausi. And now astrange calm fell on the hitherto troubled spirit of Baudillas. He wasaware that no effort he could make would enable him to escape. His knees,indeed, shook under him as he went to the stairs to descend, andforgetting that the tenth step was broken, he stumbled at it and wasnearly precipitated to the bottom. Yet all wavering, all hesitation in hismind was at an end.

  He saw the men in the court running about, calling to each other, peeringinto every room, cubicle, and closet; one called that the cellar was theplace in which the infamous rites of the Christians were performed andthat there would be found amphorae filled with human blood. Then oneshouted that in the _tablinum_ there was naught save a small table.Immediately after a howl rose from those who had penetrated to the_triclinium_, and next moment they came rushing forth in such excitementthat they dragged down the curtain that hung before the door and entangledtheir feet in it. One, not staying to disengage himself, held up his handsand exhibited the broken head of the statue, that had been brought thereby Marcianus, and by him left on the floor.

  "It is he who has done it! The sacrilegious one! The defacer of the holyimage!" howled the men, and fell upon the deacon with their fists. Someplucked at his hair; one spat in his face. Others kicked him, and trippinghim up, cast him his length on the ground, where they would have beatenand trampled the life out of him, had not the deputy of the aedileinterfered, rescued him from the hands of his assailants and thrust himinto a chamber at the side of the hall, saying: "He shall be broughtbefore the magistrate. It is not for you to take into your hands theexecution of criminals untried and uncondemned."

  Then one of the officers of the club ran to the doorway of the house, andcried: "Citizens of Nemausus, hearken. The author of the egregious impietyhas been discovered. It is Cneius Baudillas Macer, who belongs to anancient, though decayed, family of this town. He who should have been thelast to dishonor the divine founder has raised his parricidal hand againsthim. He stands convicted. The head of the god has been found in the house;it is that recently broken off from the statue by the baths. Eheu! Eheu!Woe be to the city, unless this indignity be purged away."

  A yell of indignation rose as an answer.

  The slave Pedo was suffered to enter the bedroom, on the floor of whichlay his master bruised and with his face bleeding; for some of his frontteeth had been broken and his lips were cut.

  "Oh master! dear master! What is to be done?" asked the faithful creature,sobbing in his distress.

  "I wonder greatly, Pedo, how I have endured so much. My fear is lest inthe end I fall away. I enjoin you--there is naught else you can do forme--seek the bishop, and ask that the prayers of the Church may go up tothe Throne of Grace for me. I am feeble and frail. I was a frightened shylad in old times. If I were to fall, it would be a shame to the Church ofGod in this town, this Church that has so many more worthy than myself init."

  "Can I bring thee aught, master? Water and a towel?"

  "Nay, nothing, Pedo! Do as I bid. It is all that I now desire."

  The soldiers entered, raised the deacon, and made him walk between them. Aman was placed in front, another behind to protect him against the people.As Baudillas was conveyed down the _ostium_, the passage to the door, hecould see faces glowering in at him; he heard angry voices howling at him;an involuntary shrinking came over him, but he was irresistibly drawnforward by the soldiers. On being thrust through the doorway before all,then a great roar broke forth, fists and sticks were shaken at him, butnone ventured to cast stones lest the soldiers should be struck.

  One portion of the mob now detached itself from the main body, so as tofollow and surround
the deacon and assure itself that he did not escapebefore he was consigned to the prison.

  The city of Nemausus, capital of the Volcae Arecomici, though includedgeographically in the province of Narbonese Gaul, was in fact anindependent republic, not subject to the proconsul, but under Romansuzerainty. With twenty-four _comae_ or townships under it, it governeditself by popular election, and enjoyed the _lex Italica_. This littlerepublic was free from land tax, and it was governed by fourfunctionaries, the Quatuor-viri, two of whom looked after the finances,and two, like the _duum-viri_ elsewhere, were for the purpose ofmaintaining order, and the criminal jurisdiction was in their hands. Theirtitle in full was _duum viri juri dicendo_, and they were annually electedby the senate. Their function was much that in small of the Roman consuls,and they were sometimes in joke entitled consuls. They presided over thesenate and had the government of the town and state in their hands duringtheir tenure of office. On leaving their office they petitioned for andreceived the right to ride horses, and were accounted knights. They worethe dignified _prae texta_, and were attended by two lictors.

  Baudillas walked between his escort. He was in a dazed condition. Thenoise, the execrations cast at him, the flashing of the torches on thehelmets and breastplates of the guard, the glittering eyes and teeth ofthe faces peering at him, the pain from the contusions he had receivedcombined to bewilder him. In the darkness and confusion of his brain, butone thought remained permanent and burnt like a brilliant light, hisbelief in Christ, and one desire occupied his soul, to be true to hisfaith. He was too distracted to pray. He could not rally his senses norfix his ideas, but the yearning of his humble soul rose up, like the steamfrom a new turned glebe in the sun of a spring morning.

  In times of persecution certain strong spirits had rushed to confessionand martyrdom in an intoxication of zeal, such as Baudillas could notunderstand. He did not think of winning the crown of martyrdom, but hetrembled lest he should prove a castaway.

  Thrust forward, dragged along, now stumbling, then righted by the soldierssustaining him, Baudillas was conveyed to the forum and to the basilicawhere the magistrate was seated.

  On account of the disturbance, the Duum-vir--we will so term him though hewas actually one of the Quatuor-viri--he whose turn it was to maintainorder and administer justice, had taken his place in the court, so as tobe able to consign to custody such as were brought in by the guard onsuspicion of being implicated in the outrage; he was there as well for thepurpose of being ready to take measures promptly should the mob becomeunmanageable. So long as it was under control, he did not object to itsaction, but he had no thought of letting it get the upper hand. Rioters,like children, have a liking for fire, and if they were suffered to applytheir torches to the houses of Christians might produce a generalconflagration.

  Although the magistrates were chosen by popular election, it was not thosewho constituted the rabble who had votes, and had to be humored, but thecitizen householders, who viewed the upheaval of the masses with jealoussuspicion.

  That the proceedings should be conducted in an orderly manner,instructions had been issued that no arrest was to be made without therebeing someone forthcoming to act as accuser, and the soldiers wereenjoined to protect whosoever was menaced against whom no one was preparedto formulate a charge which he would sustain in court.

  In the case of Baudillas there would be no difficulty. The man--he was thetreasurer of the guild--who had found the mutilated head was ready toappear against him.

  The court into which the deacon was brought rapidly filled with a crowd,directly he had been placed in what we should now call the dock. Then theaccuser stood up and gave his name. The magistrate accepted theaccusation. Whereupon the accuser made oath that he acted from no privatemotive of hostility to the accused, and that he was not bribed by a thirdperson to delate him. This done, he proceeded to narrate how he hadentered the house of Baudillas, surnamed Macer, who was generally believedto be a minister of the sect of the Christians; how that in searching thehouse he had lighted on a mutilated head on the pavement of the_triclinium_. He further stated that he well knew the statue of the godNemausus that stood by the fountain which supplied the lower town, andthat he was firmly convinced that the head which he now produced hadbelonged to the statue, which statue had that very night been wantonly andimpiously defaced. He therefore concluded that the owner of the house,Baudillas Macer, was either directly or indirectly guilty of the act ofsacrilege, and he demanded his punishment in accordance with the law.

  This sufficed as preliminary.

  Baudillas was now _reus_, and as such was ordered to be conveyed toprison, there to be confined until the morning, when the interrogationwould take place.