Text in Otto’s Justinus i. 246 ff, Lightfoot AF II i. 485, f, Blunt 133 f; ET in ANCL ii. 68 f.

Bigelmair 186 n 1.

Lightfoot AF II i. 490; Blunt 131 f.

Harnack C i. 702.

.

Eus HE V v. 1–4.

Dio Cassius lxxi. 9.

So Stokes in DCB iv. 1024b.

So Harnack ME ii. 55 (“Neither then nor subsequently did any Christian censure these soldiers for their profession”), MC 57; Bigelmair 189.

See above, p. 104.

Gelzer, Sextus Fulius Africanus und die bysanlisnische Chronographie , i. 8.

See above, p. 207.

See pp. 71 f, 78.

Clem Protr x. 100.

Clem Paed II xi. 117.

Clem Paed II xii. 121.

Clem Paed III xii. 91.

Clem Strom II xviii. 82, 88.

Clem Strom IV xiv. 96. Ramsay ( Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia , ii. 718) is mistaken in including Clemens among those who “absolutely forbade that Christians should be soldiers or bear arms.”

See above, pp. 226 f. Harnack says ( MC 75): “That the soldier who accompanied a Christian to death, in particular the (soldier who acted as) informer, himself became a Christian, gradually became a stereotyped feature in the stories of martyrs, but is not always legendary.” For instances in more or less fictitious martyr-acts, see Neumann 288–290.

Eus HE VI iii. 13, v.

See above, pp. 226 f.

DCB iv. 520b.

Tert Nat i. 1 (i. 559): similar words in Apol i (i. 262). The word translated ‘fortified towns’—castellis—may mean simply ‘villages’.

Tert Apol 37 (i. 462 f). The statement is of course an exaggeration, and must be taken with a grain of salt. Tertullianus makes a reference in Apol 32 (i. 447) to Christians taking the military oath.

Tert Apol 42 (i. 491).

See p. 230 n 5.

Tert Idol 19 (i. 690 f): see above, p. 109.

Tert Marc v. 7 (ii. 487). I do not know any passage in Paul’s letters justifying this statement about soldiers.

Tert Cor 1 (ii. 76 f). He astutely points out the similarity between the Christian and the pagan criticisms: exinde sentential super illo, nescio an Christianorum, non enim aliae ethnicorum, ut de abrupto, etc., etc. Harnack has suggested ( ME i. 418 n, ii. 56, MC 68) that this soldier’s object was to secure for his Christian comrades in the army the same exemption from the semi-idolatrous garland that was enjoyed by the worshippers of Mithras.

It is therefore a gross exaggeration to say that the fact that the soldier was condemned “is conclusive proof that the Christian society of the time found no cause of complaint in the fact of its members serving in the legions, and that they did not regard such service as incompatible with their religion” (B.-Baker ICW 25).

Tert Idol 19 (i. 690): see pp. 108 f.

Tert Cor 11 (ii. 92): see above, p. 111.

Ib.: see above, p. 112.

The inscription runs: Prosenes receptus ad Deum V non [apr]ilis Sa[uro in Camp]ania, Praesente et Extricato II (sc. consulibus). Regrediens in Urbe(m) ab expeditionibus scripsit Ampelius lib(ertus) (De Rossi, Inscriptiones Urbis Romae , I 9; Marucchi, Christian Epigraphy , 225: Neumann (84 n) gives a slightly different interpretation).

Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia , ii. 717.

See above, p. 147 n 2.

Dion Alex in Eus HE VII xi. 20: the letter of Dionusios here quoted refers to the Decian persecution, though Eusebios erroneously connects it with that of Valerianus (Feltoe 65).

Dion Alex in Eus HE VI xli. 16.

Dion Alex in Eus HE VI xli. 22 f. Their conversion seems to have been due to a sudden rush of feeling under the affecting circumstances of the hour. Harnack, I think, overlooks the fact that only five men were concerned, assumes that before their public confession they were already virtually Christians (“Christen order. . . christlich Gesinnten”), and infers that Christianity must have been very widespread in the army in Egypt, as there could have been no idea of picking out Christian soldiers for this particular task (Harnack ME ii. 58, MC 76 f). This seems to me to be making too much out of the passage. Sudden conversions were not uncommon at scenes of persecution; and there is no reason to suppose that these five men were in any way definitely Christian before this incident. They may have known about Christianity and been sympathetic towards it, but that does not warrant Harnack’s conclusion that Christianity was widespread in the army in Egypt. I pass by the untrustworthy ‘Acts of Polueuktes,’ the soldier who is said to have been beheaded for refusing to sacrifice in compliance with an edict of ‘Decius and Valerian’! (Conybeare 123–146; Harnack ME ii. 61, MC 83).

See above, pp. 151 f.

Harnack ME ii. 54: cf MC 81 f.

See above, pp. 149 f. Fabius Victor, the martyr’s father, seems to have been a Christian before the trial, and may have been a soldier (see p. 150 n 2): anyhow, he had bought his son a new military coat in anticipation of his joining up.

Harnack MC 79 n 2 (80).

Eus HE VIII appendix, 1.

Eus HE VIII iv (with McGiffert’s note); Hieron Chron ad ann 2317; Harnack ME 59 n, MC 80.

See above, p. 152.

See above, p. 153.

DCB iii. 641b–644b; Bigelmair 194–201; Harnack ME ii. 61 n 1, MC 83; De Jong 17 f.

Lact Mort Pers x. 4.

Lact Mort Pers xi. 3.

Eus HE VIII i. 8; Epiphanios Haeres lxviii. 2 (Migne PG xlii. 185) (some of them, like some of the clergy, gave way and sacrificed).

See the Acta Fulii in Anal Bolland x. 50 ff. reprinted by Harnack in MC 119–121. An older edition is given by Ruinart (569 f). Another Christian soldier had been martyred just before Julius, and when he went to his death, a third was awaiting sentence.

Ruinart 571–573; cf Harnack ME ii. 62 n 4.

DCB i. 789b; Harnack ME ii. 62 n 5, MC 83 n 5; Bigelmair 192f.

See above, pp. 153 f.

Ruinart 451 ff; Harnack C ii. 479 f; DCB iv. 781: see above, p. 153.

Ruinart 489 ff; DCB ii. 506b.

Ruinart 506–511; DCB iv. 956 f.

Eus Mart xi. 20 ff (see above, p. 153). I pass by the doubtful story of the ‘quattuor coronati,’ four soldiers who are said to have been flogged to death at Rome for refusing to sacrifice ( DCA i. 461 f; DCB iv. 702 f; Bigelmair 328–330, Harnack C ii. 478 n 2). It is just possible that Getulius and Amantius, the husband and brother-in-law of Symphorose, who are said to have been military tribunes under Hadrianus and to have suffered martyrdom for refusing to sacrifice, were really among the soldier-martyrs of the great persecution under Diocletianus (see above, pp. 100 f). It is also barely possible that Albanus, the proto-martyr of Britain; was martyred about this time and was a soldier (Workman, Persecution in the Early Church , p. 271; DCB i. 69 f). Other soldier-martyrs of minor importance and questionable historicity are mentioned by Bigelmair (192–194) and Harnack ( MC 84 n 3).

Eus HE VIII vi. 8.

Eus HE IX viii. 2, 4.

DCB iv. 170b; Harnack ME ii. 63 n 1, MC 85.

Eus HE IX ix. 1–12, Vit Const i. 26–31, 37–41, iv. 19–21; Lact Mort Pers xliv.

Lact Mort Pers xlvi. Harnack regards this act of Licinius as showing how widespread Christianity must have been in his army ( MC 89 f).

Eus HE IX x. 3.

Eus HE IX x. 4 (destruction of Daza’s army), xi. 3 (all his favoured partizans slain), 4 (a few examples out of many given), 5 f (torture and death of Theoteknos and others at Antioch, cf PE 135cd), 7 f (Daza’s children and relatives slain); Lact Mort Pers xlvii. 2–4 (immense slaughter of Daza’s troops), l. 2 f (death of Candidianus, son of Galerius, who had put himself unsuspectingly in Licinius’ hands), 4 (Licinius slays Severianus, son of the late Emperor Severus), 6 (he slays Maximus, the eight-year-old son, and the seven-year-old daughter, of Daza, after throwing their mother into the river Orontes), li (Valeria, widow of Galerius, and her mother Prisca, caught at Thessalonica, beheaded, and their bodies cast into the sea). To the commission of such acts as these did those believers who took up arms under this Christian Emperor render themselves liable!

Eus HE X viii. 10, Vit Const i. 54. It is to this period (320 a.d. ) that the legend of the forty soldiers martyred at Sebaste in Armenia belongs (cf DCB ii. 556 f; De Jong 33 f).

Eus Vit Const ii. 16 f.

Harnack is on the whole cautious, but is a little inclined to over-estimate the evidence (see his remarks quoted above, p. 237 n 5 and 242 n 1, and cf. MC 83, 87). Cf Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas , i. 346 (“the number of Christians enrolled in the army seems not to have been very considerable before the era of Constantine”); De Jong 26 (“this is certain, that the Christians in the army were as yet only a small minority”).

The words of Athanasios are quoted below, p. 257 n 1. His statement is perfectly general, and doubtless was meant to apply to Christians as well as pagans. It cannot therefore be put on the same level as Origenes’ phrase “those who are righteously serving as soldiers” (see above, p. 135), which obviously applied only to the pagan soldiers of the Emperor.

Troeltsch represents the advocates of compromise in the third century as wiser than they really were, in speaking of “compromises and compositions, which recognize the necessity of these callings” (i.e. magistrates and soldiers) “for the social system, and therefore enjoin here too continuance in the calling” (Troeltsch 124: see above, p. 144 n 1).

See above, pp. 109, 174 f. Hence Harnack’s ( MC 61) criticism of Tertullianus for refusing to treat his opponents’ appeal to Scripture seriously, is only partially justified. Bigg says in another connection: “It was this. . . inability to grasp the idea of progress which led to the wholesale importation of ideas and practices from the Old Testament into the Christian Church” ( The Church’s Task under the Roman Empire , p. 27).

De Jong 26: “the increasing worldliness of Christendom had naturally resulted in an increased number of Christian soldiers.”

Harnack ME ii. 53; Troeltsch 111 n.

Harnack ME ii. 52, MC 49 f.

Bigelmair 177–179.

Harnack ME ii. 53 n 1, MC 54 f.

Harnack ME ii. 53 n 2.

“In the rapid expansion of relations and the haste of human affairs practices slide insensibly into existence and get a footing as usages, before any conscience has time to estimate them; and when they have won the sanction of prescription, they soon shape consciences to suit them, and laugh at the moral critic as a simpleton, and hurry on to the crash or social retribution” (Jas. Martineau, Essays, Reviews, and Addresses , v. 502).

B.Baker ICW 16–18.

Bigelmair 164–166.

Cf Shakespeare, King Henry IV , Part I, I ii. 115:

Bestmann ii. 295.

B.Baker ICW 25.

Bigelmair 180.

Harnack ME ii. 53, 57.

Harnack MC 73.

Cunningham 252.

Bigelmair 201; Harnack MC 44 f, 87 ff, 91 f; De Jong 28.

Sokrates, Eccles Hist i. 17.

Can Arel 3: De his qui arma projiciunt in pace, placuit abstineri eos a communione. Possible meanings are (1) the obvious one, excommunicating those who lay down their arms in time of peace, those who do so in time of war being punished by the military and so not coming under the Church’s jurisdiction at all (Dale 238 f, 281); (2) similar, but referring the peace to that now existing between Empire and Church (Harnack MC 87 ff); (3) taking arma projicere as = arma conjicere in alium, and referring the Canon to the gladiatorial games, as Can 4 deals with charioteers and Can 5 with actors (so Hefele 186; Bigelmair 182; and—fully and strongly—De Jong 28 ff). Even on the last interpretation, the Canon implicitly permits Christians to use weapons in war-time. How far the decisions of this Synod were regarded as generally binding seems doubtful (Hefele 182; De Jong 28 n).

Letter to Ammonios or Amun (Migne PG xxvi. 1173): “We shall find in other things that happen in life differences of a certain kind existing. For instance, it is not lawful to kill ( ); but to destroy opponents in war is lawful and worthy of praise. Thus those who distinguish themselves in war are counted worthy of great honours, and pillars are erected proclaiming their achievements. So that the same (act) in one respect and when unseasonable is not lawful, in another respect and when seasonable is permitted and allowed.”

Exposition of S. Luke , ii. 77 (Migne PL xv. 1580): John the Baptist tells “soldiers not to make a false accusation, not to demand booty, teaching that pay has been assigned to the military for this purpose, lest, while subsistence is being sought for, a plunderer should be going about. But these and others are the precepts peculiar to the several duties (of life),” but all are required to be merciful. De Officiis Ministrorum , I xxvii. 129 (Migne PL xvi. 61): “It will be clear that these and other virtues are related to one another. Thus for instance the bravery which guards the fatherland in war from the barbarians or defends the weak at home or (one’s) allies from robbers, is full of justice,” etc.

Migne PL xxxiii. 186 f, 531 f, 854 f, xlii. 444 ff. I owe these quotations (notes 1–3) to De Jong (50–54): cf also, for Augustinus, Gibb in British Quarterly Review , lxxiii. 83; Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas , i. 347.

Codex Theodosianus XVI x. 21.

H. H. Milman, History of Christianity , ii. 287.

op cit 288.

Lecky ii. 250.

Bigelmair 8.

Cooper and Maclean 41–45.

See above, p. 120. Even if the Egyptian Church-Order be the work of Hippolutos himself, it was clearly regarded as authoritative long after his date.

Maclean 146, 149.

Bigelmair says, à propos of the relaxation: “Time and circumstances demanded their rights” (172); “No generally binding force belonged to Church-Orders of this kind; but they clearly exhibit the dispositions which prevailed in wide circles” (173): cf De Jong 39.

The Acta Archelai are in Routh v. 36 ff (esp. pp. 37 f); ET in ANCL xx. 272 ff. For the date, cf Harnack C ii. 163 f: we need not imagine that the story is necessarily true, but, as Harnack says, it is “yet not without value” ( MC 84 n, ME ii. 63 n 1).

His Acta are quoted at length by De Jong 34–38. Baronius ( Martyrologium Romanorum , Jan 2, note e, p. 8) records the martyrdom of Marcellinus, a youth executed by Licinius, as Baronius says, “non odio militiae. . . sed quod. . . Licinius suos milites litare praecepisset.” Whether that was the only reason in this case we do not know. Licinius did persecute his Christian soldiers. Those who left his service permanently were treated with indulgence by Constantinus (Eus Vit Const ii. 33); those who had left and then rejoined were penalized by the Council of Nicaea as ‘lapsi’ (Hefele 417 ff; Harnack MC 91).

DCB iii. 839b; De Jong 40–42. De Jong also draws attention (48 f) to the fact that the popularity of the Emperor Julianus (361–363 a.d. ) with the army and the support it gave him in his reversion to paganism presuppose a comparatively small proportion of Christians in it.

DCB iv. 1140b (“He. . . quitted military service for conscience’ sake, a desertion which entailed such maltreatment as nearly lost him his life”); De Jong 42–46 (Victricius’ motive, in part at least, was ‘the aversion to bloodshed’—arma sanguinis abiecisti).

Migne PL lxi. 300 ff; De Jong 47 f.

Migne PG xxxv. 608 f, lviii. 590 f.

Migne PG xxxii. 681.