[A] Conyers Middleton, An Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers, &c. p. 126.  Middleton says that Eusebius omitted to mention the dove, which flew out of Polycarp’s body, and Dodwell and Archbishop Wake have done the same.  Wake says, “I am so little a friend to such miracles that I thought it better with Eusebius to omit that circumstance than to mention it from Bp.  Usher’s Manuscript,” which manuscript however, says Middleton, he afterwards declares to be so well attested that we need not any further assurance of the truth of it.

In order to form a proper notion of the condition of the Christians under M. Antoninus we must go back to Trajan’s time.  When the younger Pliny was governor of Bithynia, the Christians were numerous in those parts, and the worshipers of the old religion were falling off.  The temples were deserted, the festivals neglected, and there were no purchasers of victims for sacrifice.  Those who were interested in the maintenance of the old religion thus found that their profits were in danger.  Christians of both sexes and all ages were brought before the governor who did not know what to do with them.  He could come to no other conclusion than this, that those who confessed to be Christians and persevered in their religion ought to be punished; if for nothing else, for their invincible obstinancy.  He found no crimes proved against the Christians, and he could only characterize their religion as a depraved and extravagant superstition, which might be stopped if the people were allowed the opportunity of recanting.  Pliny wrote this in a letter to Trajan (Plinius, Ep. x. 97).  He asked for the emperor’s directions, because he did not know what to do.  He remarks that he had never been engaged in judicial inquiries about the Christians, and that accordingly he did not know what to inquire about, or how far to inquire and punish.  This proves that it was not a new thing to examine into a man’s profession of Christianity and to punish him for it.[A]

[A] Orosius (vii. 12) speaks of Trajan’s persecution of the Christians, and of Pliny’s application to him having led the emperor to mitigate his severity.  The punishment by the Mosaic law for those who attempted to seduce the Jews to follow new gods was death.  If a man was secretly enticed to such new worship, he must kill the seducer, even if the seducer were brother, son, daughter, wife, or friend. (Deut. xiii.)

Trajan’s rescript is extant.  He approved of the governor’s judgment in the matter, but he said that no search must be made after the Christians; if a man was charged with the new religion and convicted, he must not be punished if he affirmed that he was not a Christian, and confirmed his denial by showing his reverence to the heathen gods.  He added that no notice must be taken of anonymous informations, for such things were of bad example.  Trajan was a mild and sensible man; and both motives of mercy and policy probably also induced him to take as little notice of the Christians as he could, to let them live in quiet if it were possible.  Trajan’s rescript is the first legislative act of the head of the Roman state with reference to Christianity, which is known to us.  It does not appear that the Christians were further disturbed under his reign.  The martyrdom of Ignatius by the order of Trajan himself is not universally admitted to be an historical fact.[A]