DISCLAIMER: There are some fairly graphic descriptions of torture below so don't read on if that will be an issue for you.
I am almost finished reading Eusebius' The History of the Church and although it has been hard going in some ways (off-hand references to all sorts of people, no dates from which to get a point of reference, and jarring context switches) it has still been very educational. One of the most notable things about the book has been the history as it regards the persecutions of the church during its first three centuries of existence. It is difficult for me to read about the martyrs and what they faced because I find it makes me feel so deficient. These people who preceded us went through unimaginable horrors and the worst thing that happens in my life is when I botch some home improvement project. This sense of inferiority I get is very strong because when you are reading Eusebius you realize that you are interacting with a culture for whom torture is a way of life. Consider, for example, this passage which is an excerpt from a letter written during the persecution of Diocletian in the early 300s:
Some, with their hands tied behind them, were hung from the gibbet and all their limbs were pulled apart by machines; then the torturers were ordered to get to work on every part of their helpless bodies, not as with murderers applying their instruments of correction to sides alone, but even to belly, legs and cheeks.The worst thing about this statement is what is assumed in it. Torture was state sanctioned for murderers, but the torturers were limited by only being able to apply their "instruments of correction" (it seems that political spin by renaming things has always been common) to the "sides alone." In the case of the Christians, however, they could apply it to "every part of their helpless bodies." And what was it that they were being tortured for? Well, according to the edicts issued by the Romans they were supposed to offer incense to the Emperors. As it turns out, this wasn't a huge deal. You weren't expected to like the Emperors, you just had to offer your incense and be done with it. For most in the pagan Roman world the Christian response to this seemed unpatriotic and rebellious. Consider what the recantation prompted by Emperor Galerius at the end of the main period of persecution says:
Among the other steps that we are taking for the advantage and benefit of the nation, we have desired hitherto that every deficiency should be made good, in accordance with the established law and public order of Rome; and we made provision for this - that the Christians who had abandoned the convictions of their own forefathers should return to sound ideas. For through some perverse reasoning such arrogance and folly had seized and possessed them that they refused to follow the path trodden by earlier generations (and perhaps blazed long ago by their own ancestors), and made their own laws to suit their own ideas and individual tastes and observed these; and held meetings in various places.So when you read the following understand that the Romans are asking for a censer of incense to be offered to a statue of the Emperor and in that particular culture it was quite an insignificant thing and certainly not something that any normal pagan would even bat an eye at, and then ask yourself if you could also do the right thing in face of something like this:
In the city [of Nicomedia], the rulers in question brought a certain man into a public place and commanded him to sacrifice. When he refused, he was ordered to be stripped, hoisted up naked, and his whole body torn with loaded whips till he gave in and carried out the command, however unwillingly. When in spite of these torments he remained as obstinate as ever, they next mixed vinegar with salt and poured it over the lacerated parts of his body, where the bones were already exposed. When he treated these agonies too with scorn a lighted brazier was then brought forward, and as if it were edible meat for the table, what was left of his body was consumed by the fire, not all at once, for fear his release should come too soon, but a little at a time; and those who placed him on the pyre were not permitted to stop till after such treatment he should signify his readiness to obey. But he stuck immovably to his determination, and victorious in the midst of his tortures, breathed his last. Such was the martyrdom of one of the imperial servants, a martyrdom worthy of the name he bore - it was Peter.I have to confess that this makes my troubles seem so insignificant. I hear a lot of whining all around me all the time. We are a great society of whiners and this is so strongly contrasted to me in Eusebius where there is very little whining although there is a lot of torture and death and "fulfillment" (which is what the early church called it if you were martyred). We'd have a hard time dying for our Lord in America so maybe we should just do what we can and stop whining about anything in our life that falls short of the previous quote.
