CHAPTER XX.
THE PLOT THICKENS.
Isidorus reluctantly accompanied Calphurnius to the tribunal of thePrefect; and there, partly through intimidation, partly throughcajolery, he gave such information as to his expedition to Ravenna andMilan as the Prefect chose to ask. This was tortured, by thatunscrupulous officer, into an accusation against the Empress Valeria ofconspiracy with the Chancellor, Adauctus, and others of the Christiansect, against the worship of the gods of Rome, and so, constructively,of treason against the State. This indictment--_accusatio_, as it wastechnically called was duly formulated, and attested under the seal ofthe Prefect's Court. Naso, the Prefect, and Furca, the priest, found acongenial task in submitting the document to the Emperor Galerius, andasking his authority to proceed against the accused. They visited thepalace at an hour when it had been arranged that the Emperor's evilgenius, the cruel Fausta, should be with him, to exert her maligninfluence in procuring the downfall of the object of her malice--theEmpress Valeria--and the destruction of the Christian sect. "Theinsulted gods appeal to your Divine Majesty for protection, and for thepunishment of the atheists who despise their worship and defy theirpower," began the high-priest of Cybele, seeking to work upon thesuperstition of the Illyrian herdsman, raised to the Imperial purple.
"Well, my worthy friend," replied the Emperor in a bantering tone, "whatis the matter now. Has any one been poaching on your preserves?"
"This is not a matter of private concern, Your Majesty," remarked thePrefect gravely. "It touches the welfare of the State and the stabilityof your throne."
"Yes, and your personal and domestic honour, too," whispered Fausta inhis ear.
"It must be something pretty comprehensive to do all that. Come, outwith it at once," laughed the Emperor.
Thus adjured, Furca began to recount the insults offered to the gods bythe Christians, and, especially, that the Empress no longer attendedtheir public festivals.
"Oh yes, I understand," said the Emperor, with a yawn, "your craft is indanger. The offerings at your altars are falling off; and we all knowwhere _they_ went. The gods are all alike to me; I believe in none ofthem."
"But they are necessary, to keep the mob in subjection," said Naso."Some are amused with their pageants, and others are awed by menaces oftheir wrath."
"Yes, I grant you, they are of some use for that; and that is all theyare good for," replied this ancient Agnostic.
"But the Christians are traitors to the State," continued the Prefect;"rank sedition-mongers. They are secretly sworn to serve another Lordthan the C[ae]sars, and they are ceaselessly striving to undermine yourImperial Majesty's authority."
"You do well," continued the cruel Galerius, a fire of deadly hateburning in his eyes, "to exterminate that accursed vermin, whereverfound. Burn, crucify, torture, as you will."
"And the estates of the rebels, they escheat to the temples of theinsulted gods?" asked the priest, with hungry eyes.
"Nay, to the State, I think," laughed the Emperor. "Is it not so, goodNaso?"
"Half to the State and half to the _delator_, or accuser," answered thatworthy, learned in the law of pillage.
"Let not the wolves fall out about the prey," said the Emperor, with asneer; "only make sure work."
"Be so good then, Your Majesty, as to affix your seal to these decreesof death. With such high officers as Adauctus and Aurelius my authorityas Prefect is not sufficient."
"And the Empress Valeria; she, too, as traitor to your person and crown,is included in the decree," insinuated, in a wheedling tone, the craftypriest.
"Base hound," roared the Emperor, laying his hand upon his sword;"breathe but the name of the Empress again, and I will pluck thy viletongue from thy throat."
"Nay, Your Majesty," said the crafty Fausta, while the abject priestcowered like a whipped cur; "'tis but his excess of zeal for YourMajesty's honour, which I fear the Empress betrays."
"Madam," said Galerius, sternly, "I am the guardian of my own honour.What the Christians are, I neither know nor care. What the Empress is, Iknow--the noblest soul that breathes in Rome. Who wags his tongueagainst her shall be given to the crows and kites. _Dixi Fiat_--I havespoken--so let it be," and his terrible frown, as he stalked from theroom, showed that he meant what he said.
The three conspirators, for a moment, stared at each other inconsternation. Then the wily Fausta faltered out, "Said I not, he woulddefy both gods and men? We must do by stealth what we cannot do byforce. Juba must ply her most secret and most deadly arts. I havecertain subtle spells myself; and if mortal hate can give them power, Iwill make her beauty waste away like a fading flower, and her strengthwane like a dying lamp."
"'Tis a dangerous game," replied Naso. "Be wary how you play it. As forme, armed with this edict, I will strike at mine ancient foe, for whom Ilong have nursed a bitter spite. Curse him! I am tired of hearing himcalled Adauctus the Just. He held me to such a strict account that I hadto make a full return of all the fines and mulcts paid in, withouttaking the toll which is my right." And he departed to gratify hisdouble passion of revenge and greed.
It may seem strange that such a truculent monster as Galerius, of whom,in his later days, his Christian subjects were wont to say that "henever supped without human blood--_Nec unquam sine cruore humanocoenabat,_"[35]--should be so under the spell of his Christian wife. Butthe statement is corroborated by the records of history, and by thephilosophy of the human mind. There is a power in moral goodness thatcan awe the rudest natures, a winsome spell that can subdue the hardesthearts. It was the story of Una and the Lion, of Beauty and the Beastover again; and one of the severest trials for a Christian wife in thosedays of the struggle between Christianity and Paganism for the masteryof the world, was that of being allied to a pagan husband. Tertullian,in the third century, thus describes the difficulties which a Christianwoman married to an idolater must encounter in her religious life:
"At the time for worship the husband will appoint the use of the bath;when a fast is to be observed he will invite company to a feast When shewould bestow alms, both safe and cellar are closed against her. Whatheathen will suffer his wife to attend the nightly meetings of theChurch, the slandered Supper of the Lord, to visit the sick even in thepoorest hovels, to kiss the martyrs' chains in prison, to rise in thenight for prayer, to show hospitality to stranger brethren?"[36]
In time of persecution, or in the case of persons of such exalted rankas that of Valeria, the difficulty of adorning a Christian life, amidtheir pagan surroundings, was all the greater. Yet not a word of scandalhas been breathed upon the character of the wife of the arch persecutorof the Christians; and even the sneering pen of Gibbon has only words ofcommendation for the Christian Empress who herself under subsequentpersecution, remained steadfast even unto death.
The beauty and dignity of Christian wedlock in an age of persecutionand strife are nobly expressed by Tertullian in the following passage,addressed to his own wife: "How can I paint the happiness," he exclaims,"of a marriage which the Church ratines, the Sacrament confirms, thebenediction seals, angels announce, and our heavenly Father declaresvalid! What a union of two believers--one hope, one vow, one discipline,one worship! They are brother and sister, two fellow-servants, onespirit and one flesh. They pray together, fast together, exhort andsupport one another. They go together to the house of God, and to thetable of the Lord. They share each other's trials, persecutions, andjoys. Neither avoids, nor hides anything from the other. They delight tovisit the sick, succour the needy, and daily to lay their offeringsbefore the altar without scruple, and without constraint. They do notneed to keep the sign of the cross hidden, nor to express secretly theirChristian joy, nor to receive by stealth the eucharist. They join inpsalms and hymns, and strive who best can praise God. Christ rejoices atthe sight, and sends His peace upon them. Where two are in His name Healso is; and where He is, there evil cannot come."
FOOTNOTES:
[35] Lactantius, _De Mortibus Persecutorum._
; [36] Tertull, _Ad Uzorem_, ii. 8.
Valeria, the Martyr of the Catacombs: A Tale of Early Christian Life in Rome Page 22
