They lived in different countries, they did not
make their statements within twenty years of the same time, and by
making such statements they rendered themselves liable to be punished
with death.... The same remark applies to the disclosures made, about
150 years after, by certain females in Damascus, far remote from either
Lyons or Rome. These make precisely the same statement--that they had
once been Christians, that they were privy to criminal acts among them,
and that these Christians, in their very churches, committed licentious
deeds. The Romans would never have so relentlessly persecuted the
Christians had they not been guilty of some such atrocities as were laid
to their charge. There are on record abundant proofs that the Romans,
from the earliest account we have of them, tolerated all harmless
religions--all such as were not directly calculated to endanger the
public peace, or vitiate public morals, or render life and property
unsafe.... So well known were those horrid vices to be carried on by all
Christians in their nocturnal and secret assemblies, and so certain it
was thought that every one who was a Christian participated in them,
that for a person to be known to be a Christian was thought a strong
presumptive proof that he was guilty of these offences.
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