The Closing Years of St. Paul’s Life in Rome

THE CLOSING YEARS OF ST. PAUL'S LIFE IN ROME. BY COL. R. M. BRYCE THOMAS, AUTHOR OF MY REASONS FOR LEAV- ING THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND." V. The school in which the great apostle taught, and over which the small church of St. Paolo alia Regola now stands, was doubt- less the place where he gathered around him the nucleus of the Christian church in Rome. It was here that he taught the un- searchable riches of Christ, turning to the Gentiles when rejected of the Jews (Acts xviii: 28), preaching, as the Scripture tells us, with all confidence, no man forbidding him (verse 31), the sound of his voice mingling with the clanking of his chain as he raised his fettered hand in declaiming on some of the great and import- ant truths of the everlasting gospel of his Master. The fact that the apostle was chained day and night to a sol- dier, cannot but have suggested to his mind, as Mr. Russell-Forbes supposes, the idea of his beautiful allegory of the Christian's armor: "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, "etc. (Ephesians vi: 13 to 27) ; while the races which took place in the great Roman circus may equally have suggested to him the Christian race to which he not infrequently made reference in his writings. The Epistles of his first Romm captivity, unlike the gloomy one of later date, written not long before his martyrdom to his son in the

800 IMPROVEMENT ERA. faith, Timothy, breathe of hope in anticipation of a speedy release, and in the happy prospect of again seeing some of the churches of his foundation, toward which his heart was ever turning in anxiety and affection. In writing to Philemon regarding the latter's run- away slave, Onesimus, whom the apostle had begotten in his bonds, Paul says, in verse 22, "But withal prepare me a lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be gken unto you." To the Philippians the great apostle wrote: "Forme to live is Christ, and to die is gain;" and again, "For I ?m in a strait oetwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far bet- ter;" yet in his confidence of release he could add, "Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you, and having this con- fidence, I know that I shall abide arid continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith" (Philip, i: 21 to 25); and a little later on in the same epistle he added these words, "But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly." (Ch. ii: 24). A. D. 64 has been shown in the Bible as the date of the epis- tles of the captivity; namely, those written to the Philippians, the Ephesians, and the Colossians, as well as the letter to Philemon, but this would not seem to be quite correct inasmuch as Paul was acquitted and released, after his two year's imprisonment in Rome, in A. D. 63. For this reason, therefore, an earlier date, either A. D. 62 or the first part of A. D. 63, should more properly be as- signed to them. At the time when Paul penned these epistles he had been teaching the great truths of the gospel in Rome for cer- tainly over a year, and was, therefore, doubtless in a position to realize some of the results of his labors; and it must have been with a considerable degree of satisfaction that he was able to write, "So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places." (Philip. 1: 13). "All the Saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Ccesar's household." (Philip, iv: 22). And thus while the great preacher was himself fettered and cir- cumscribed in his movements, the word of God was not bound, but circulated freely, accomplishing the purposes of the Almighty, and penetrating into the very threshold of the Csesar. Thus passed the days of Paul's captivity. At length his two years' residence in his own hired house came to a close, his appeal before the Emperor was heard, and he was acquitted, as none of

ST. PAUL'S LIFE IN ROME. 801 the charges brought against him had been established, but his sub- sequent movements appear to be shrouded in some degree of un- certainty. Mr. Russell-Forbes seems to think that he was put to death in the circus of Nero at Mons Vaticanus, on June 29, A. D. 64, on the institution of the great persecution against all Chris- tians, after Nero had accused them of setting fire to Rome, but I believe that writer is alone or nearly so in such a conclusion. The generally accepted view seems to be, that after his release Paul went to Spain, for we know that he had purposed to visit that country. (Rom. xv: 24 and 28). Clement, bishop of Rome, (possibly the Clement mentioned by the apostle in Philip, i: 3), has recorded that Paul journeyed into the land of the west, and to those living in his days the "west" would certainly mean Spain, and then again there is no portion of Paul's history where such a journey could well be placed except after his release from his first Roman imprisonment. It is further evident from his epistles to Titus and Timothy, written in A. D. 65 and 66 respectively, that Paul must have visited many places after his liberation in A. D. 63, for he tells Timothy in Chap, iv: 20, of his second epistle, that Erastus, who apparently had been with him, abode in Corinth, and also that he had left Trophimus sick at Miletum. In the previous year (A. D. 65) he had written to Titus from Macedonia, and in- formed him that when he (Paul) srould send Artemas or Tychicus to him, he should be diligent to go to Nicopolis (a city on the west coast of Epirus), as it was there that the apostle had determined to winter. (Titus iii: 12). Writers of the first and second centuries, including Clement, speak of his movements. Later on St. Cbrysostom states decid- edly that he went to Spain, and St. Jerome records that Paul preached the gospel in the west. Eusebius, the historian of the fcurth century, further bears out this theory. Paul, then, after his visit to Spain, must have traveled in Asia Minor, Thrace and Mace- donia from where he wrote his epistle to Titus, whom he had left as bishop of Crete, telling him to meet him at Nicopolis. Thither, then, the apostle must have gone after visiting Philippi, Ephesus, Colosse, and other parts of Asia Minor, and some time afterwards he appears to have been arrested for the second time, probably in Troas, in A. D. 66 or 67. Ever since the great fire in Rome, the

802 IMPROVEMENT ERA. opposition to Christians had very considerably increased, and the hatred exhibited towards them had become so intensified as to cause their general persecution in nearly all the countries which were at that time subject to the imperial sway. The work of the apostle Paul had, as we know, always had an exasperating effect on the Jews, not only in Judea, but also at Ephesus and other parts of Asia Minor, so that, since Christianity had come to be looked upon under Roman law as an offense, and all Christians considered guilty odium generis humani, complaints to the of authorities against Paul, followed by his arrest and prosecution, could only have been, of course, a mere matter of time. The great fire of Rome broke out in A. D. 64, (some writers fix the time as the month of May, and others July), and it lasted seven days. Ancient writers such as Tacitus, Eutropius, Sue- tonius, and Dion Cassius mention this fire, and practically if not directly charge the Emperor Nero with its connivance. He was away at Antium, a few miles from Rome, when the conflagration burst out, and only came back to the city when a portion of his own palace was threatened by the flames. The story of Nero as- cending a tower of his house while the great city was burning, dressed as a harper and singing a poem on the destruction of Troy, is one of historic notoriety. In order to escape from the odium of originating such a con- flagration, Nero brought the charge of incendiarism against the innocent Christians, resulting not only in their having to undergo an undeserved persecution, hut also in many of them having to suffer the most cruel martyrdoms imaginable. The Emperor, too, not content with bringing this false charge against them, pun- ished them himself with the most exquisite tortures. In the circus of Caligula he represented scenes of legend and mythology. Norwood Young in his book, Rome, tells us that Christians were at that time made to represent Ixion fastened to a whale; Icarus, clad in gauze wings, lifted to the awning above, and then dropped and killed; Mucious Scsevola, having his hand burnt off; Actseon, torn to pieces by dogs; and Orphseus, eaten by a bear; while defenseless women had to appear as Danaides, or as Dirce, bound to the horns of a bull. As soon as darkness set in Nero lit up the circus by using oiled and burning bodies of living men, wo-

ST. PAUL'S LIFE IN ROME. 803 men and children, and then, by such illumination, started chariot racing in which he himself joined. The younger Seneca, writing to a friend afflicted by a painful illness, thus refers to such tor- tures: "What are your sufferings compared with the flame and the rack? and yet in the midst of suffering of that sort, I have seen men not only not groan— that is little, not only not complain — that is little, not only not reply— that, too, is little, but I have seen them smile, and smile with a good heart." When Paul was brought to Rome in A. D. 67, he could not but have noticed the effects of the great fire of A. D. 64, for which so many innocent persons had had to endure untold suffer- ings, and in many instances to give up their very lives. Although Paul was not in Rome at the time of the fire, it seems to have been sufficient that he was a Christian, and a leader of that sect, to charge him with incendiarism. It appears that he was arraigned on two charges: 1, incendiarism, and 2, high treason by promoting a new and unlawful religion. Offenses such as these were looked upon as of so serious a nature, that the great apostle'a treatment was of a very different sort to that meted out to him in A. D. 61, on the occasion of his first Roman captivity. He was now cast, heavily manacled, into the dreadful Mamertine dungeon, there to await his trial before the capricious and cruel tyrant who then njled over the great Roman empire. This prison is of very great antiquity, belonging to the kingly period of Rome, and is built in the most massive style of Etruscan architecture. It was commenced by Ancus Martius, and enlarged by Serirus Tullius, from whom it received the name of Tullianum. At present there are two chambers one above the other, built of huge blocks of tufa stone without cement, and fastened together with iron rivets. One side is excavated in the solid rock. There is a hole in the roof of the upper chamber through which prisoners were let down into it, and another in the floor through which they were let down into the lower dungeon. It wac this lower cell that was known as the "Tullianum, "and it was used as a place of execu- tion for state prisoners. Here it was that Jugurtha, the unfortunate king of Muritania was left to die of starvation, and this was the place where Lentulus and the Cataline conspirators were executed, as described by Sallust. In the. upper chamber or cell is a dent in

804 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the stone wall, now protected by a small iron grating, which Roman tradition says was caused by St. Peter's head, when on one occasion it was knocked against the wall by his brutal jailor. In the lower cell, also protected by an iron grating, stands a stone pillar, to which it is claimed that Paul and Peter were bound for the space of nine months. Close by the said pillar is a small circular well, alleged by the church of Rome to be a fountain or spring which miraculously burst forth in order to supply the water required for the baptism of the two converted jailors, Processus and Martainus, and forty-seven other converted captives. In Dr. Macduff's book, St. Paul in Rome, from which I have culled the above particulars, is a foot note to the effect that this spring is, on the authority of Plutarch, as old as the days of Jugartha, so that on this ground alone the traditions handed down by the church of Rome must be considered as groundless, and unworthy of credence. Late discoveries show that the present wine vaults in the ad- joining narrow street, then called Clivus now Argentarius, but known as Via Marporis, constitute portions of the old dungeons of this great prison, of which the two cells referred to above proba- bly form only a portion, because some years ago there was dis- covered a small passage leading from the lower Mamertine (or Tullianum) towards those same wine vaults. There is, I believe, no doubt that some one of these underground vaults or cells was the phce where the Apostle Paul was imprisoned, awaiting death. An altar to the martyred Apostles Peter and Paul has been set up on the Mamertine dungeon, surmounted by a handsome bas-relief in brass, representing the baptism of the two jailors and other converts by the two apostles. Stone steps have now been built by which visitors can enter the lower dungeon, which connects by an iron door with the Cloaca Maxima, or huge vaulted drains con- structed by the elder Tarquin, or by Superbus, in order to carry off the water from the swamps, which in those days extended all over the lower grounds at the bases of the seven hills. These drains are formed of peperino stone, the blocks being five and a half feet long and three feet thick, fitted together with the great- est accuracy without any cement whatever. So skillfully and solidly was the work done, that it has undergone no change, and shows no trace anywhere of delapidation or decay. It is still be-

ST. PAUL'S LIFE IN ROME. 805 ing used for drainage purples, and is one of the sights of modern Rome. It is said that the dead bodies of those executed in the Tullianum were cast into the Cloaca, and were carried down into the river Tiber at theplace where the waters of the drain found their exit. In front of the Mamertine prison gate are the Scalce gemonia, or steps of tears, on which, according to the historian Livy, the bodies of criminals who had been put to death, were al- ways exposed. Such was the place of confinement in which the great apostle is said to have passed the closing days of his earthly existence; and Dr. Macduff tells us that, in commemoration of the imprison- ment of Paul and his brother apostle, Peter, therein, deputies from all thechurches in Rome assemble by torch light on the night of the 4th of July, and in solemn silence kneel in front of the tradi- tional pillar in the lower dungeon of the Mamertine. Calais, France. [to be concluded in next number.]