The heathen knew nothing of what happened in
these meetings, and fancied that a great deal that was shocking was done
there; and Trajan ordered that Christians should be put to the torture,
if they would not confess what were their ceremonies. Very few would
betray anything, and what they said, the heathen could not understand;
but the emperor imagining that these rites would destroy the old Roman
spirit, forbade them, and persecuted the Christians, because they
obeyed God rather than man. The Bishop of Antioch was an old man named
Ignatius, who is believed to have been the little child whom our blessed
Lord had set in the midst of His disciples as an example of lowliness.
He had been St. John's pupil, and always walked in his steps, and he is
the first Father of the Church, that is, the first of the great wise men
in those early days, whose writings have come down to us. As Trajan was
going through Antioch, he saw this holy man, and sentenced him to be
carried to Rome, there to be thrown to the lions for the amusement
of the bloody-minded Romans. As has been said, from early days the
favourite sport of this nation had been to sit round on galleries,
built up within a round building called an amphitheatre, to watch the
gladiators fight with each other, or with savage beasts.
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