Perpetua. A Tale of Nimes in A.D. 213

CHAPTER XI
PALANQUINS

With the exception of the bishop, Marcianus, and a few others, all assembled at the Agape were struck with the liveliest terror. They entertained no doubt but that the sound that shook the walls was provoked by the outrage on the image of the tutelary god, following on the rescue of the victim allotted to him.

The pagan inhabitants of Nemausus were roused to exasperation. The priesthood would employ every available means to work this resentment to a paroxysm, and the result would be riot and murder, perhaps an organized persecution.

It must be understood that although the Roman State recognized other religions than the established paganism, as that of the Jews, and allowed the votaries freedom of worship, yet Christianity was not of this number. It was in itself illegal, and any magistrate, at his option, in any place and at any time, might put the laws in force against the members of the Church. Not only so, but any envious, bigoted, or resentful person might compel a magistrate to take cognizance of the presence of Christians in the district under his jurisdiction, and require him to capitally convict those brought before him.

The system in the Roman Commonwealth for the maintenance of order was that every man was empowered to act as spy upon and delate another. Any man might accuse his neighbor, his brother, before the court; and if he could prove his charge, the magistrate had no option – he must sentence. Consequently the Christians depended for their safety on the favor of their fellow-citizens, on their own abstention from giving offence.

The sole protection against false accusations in the Roman Commonwealth lay in the penalties to which an accuser was subject should he fail to establish his charge. But as on conviction a portion of the estate of the guilty person was handed over to the accuser, there was an inducement to delation.

Under the Julian and Claudian Cæsars the system had worked terribly. An entire class of men made denunciation their trade. They grew rich on the spoils of their victims, they spared none, and the judges themselves lived in fear of them. The evil became so intolerable that measures were taken to accentuate the risk to the accusers. If the Christians were not oftener denounced, the reason was that in the event of one lapsing, and through terror or pain abjuring Christ, then immediately the tables were turned, and the accuser was placed in danger of his life.

When an Emperor issued an edict against the Christians he enacted no new law; he merely required that the existing laws should be put in force against them, and all risk to delators was removed in that no delation was exacted. On such an occasion every citizen and householder was required to appear before the court and offer a few grains of incense on an altar to the genius of the empire or of the prince. Should any one refuse to do this, then he was convicted of high treason and delivered over to the executioner to be either tortured or put to death off-hand. When the magistrate deemed it important to obtain a recantation, then he had recourse to the rack, iron hooks, torches, thumbscrews as means of forcing the prisoner through pain to abjure Christ.

The Christians in Nemausus had lived in complete tranquillity. There had been no persecution. They had multiplied.

The peace enjoyed by the Church had been to it of a mixed advantage. Many had been included whose conversion was due to questionable motives. Some had joined through sincere conviction; more from conviction seasoned with expectation of advantage. The poor had soon learned that a very rich and abundant stream of charity flowed in the Church, that in it the sick and feeble were cared for and their necessities were supplied, whereas in the established paganism no regard was paid to the needy and suffering. Among the higher classes there were adherents who attached themselves to the Church rather because they disbelieved in heathenism than that they held to the Gospel. Some accepted the truth with the head, but their hearts remained untouched.

None had given freer expression to his conviction that there were weak-kneed and unworthy members than Marcianus the deacon. He had remonstrated with the bishop, he had scolded, repelled, but without effect. And now he had taken a daring step, the consequence of which would be that the members of the community would indeed be put to the test whether they were for Christ or Mammon. The conviction that a time of trial was come broke on the community like a thundercloud, and produced a panic. Many doubted their constancy, all shrank from being brought to a trial of their faith. The congregation in the house of Baudillas, when it had recovered from the first shock, resolved itself into groups agitated by various passions. Some launched into recrimination against Marcianus, who had brought them into jeopardy; some consulted in whispers how to escape the danger; a few fell into complete stupefaction of mind, unable to decide on any course. Others, again, abandoned themselves to despair and shrieked forth hysterical lamentations. Some crowded around Castor, clung to his garments and entreated him to save them. Others endeavored to escape from a place and association that would compromise them, by the back entrance to the servants’ portion of the house.

A few, a very few maintained their composure, and extending their arms fell to prayer.

Baudillas hurried from one party to another uttering words of reassurance, but his face was blanched, his voice quivered, and he was obviously employing formal expressions that conveyed no strength to his own heart. Marcianus, with folded arms, looked at him scornfully, and as he passed, said, “The bishop should not have ordained such an unstable and quaking being as thyself to serve in the sacred ministry.”

“Ah, brother,” sighed Baudillas, “it is with me as with Peter. The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

“That was spoken of him,” answered Marcianus, “before Pentecost and the outpouring of the spirit of strength. Such timidity, such feebleness are unworthy of a Christian.”

“Pray for me that my faith fail not,” said Baudillas, and passed on. By action he deadened his fears. Now came in Pedo, the old servant of the house, who had been sent forth to reconnoiter. His report was not reassuring. The mob was sweeping through the streets, and insisting on every household producing an image at its doors and placing a light before it. There were fuglemen who directed the crowd, which had been divided into bands to perambulate every division of the town and make inquisition of every house. The mob had begun by breaking into such dwellings as were not protected by an image, and wrecking them. But after one or two of such acts of violence, the magistrates had interfered, and although they suffered the people to assemble before the houses and to clamor for the production of an image and a light, yet they sent vigiles (i. e., the watch) to guard such dwellings as remained undecorated. When the master of the house refused obedience to the mandate of the mob, then an officer ordered him to open the door, and he summoned him to appear next day in court and there do sacrifice. By this means the mob was satisfied and passed on without violence.

But as the crowd marched down the streets it arrested every man and woman that was encountered, and insisted on their swearing by the gods and blaspheming Christ.

Castor ordered the congregation to depart by twos and by threes, to take side alleys, and to avoid the main thoroughfares. This was possible, as the posticum, a back door, communicated with a mean street that had the city wall for one side.

“My sons and daughters in Christ,” said the bishop with composure, “remember that greater is He that is with us than those that be against us. When the servant of Elisha feared, then the Lord opened his eyes that he might behold the angels with chariots and horses of fire prepared to defend His servant. Avoid danger, but if it cannot be avoided stand firm. Remember His words, ‘He that confesseth me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven.’ ”

As soon as all had departed, but not till then, did Castor leave. Marcianus turned with a sneer to his fellow-deacon and said, “Fly! you have full license from the bishop; and he sets the example himself.”

“I must tarry in my own house,” answered Baudillas. “I have the ladies Quincta and Perpetua under my protection. They cannot return to their home until they be fetched.”

“So! they lean on a broken reed such as thee!”

“Alack! they have none other to trust to.”

“The mob is descending our street,” cried the slave, Pedo, limping in.

“What are we to do?” asked Quincta trembling. “If they discover me and my daughter here we are undone. They will tear her from my arms.”

The deacon Baudillas clasped his hands to his head. Then his slave said: “Master, Tarsius is at the door with litters and bearers. He saith he hath been sent for the lady Perpetua.”

“And for me?” asked Quincta eagerly.

“And for thee also, lady. It is said that guards are observing thy house and that, therefore, thy slaves cannot venture hither. Therefore, so says Tarsius, his master, the wool-merchant, Julius Largus, hath sent his litters and porters.”

“But his house will be visited!”

“The bearers have instructions as to what shall be done.”

“This is strange,” said Quincta. “I did not suppose that Largus Litomarus would have shown such consideration. We are not acquainted – indeed we belong to different classes – ”

“Yet are ye one in Christ,” said the deacon. “Call in Tarsius, he shall explain the matter. But let him be speedy or the rabble will be on us.”

“They are at the head of the street,” said the slave, “and visit the door of Terentius Cominius.”

“He believes.”

“And he has set out a figure of the Good Shepherd before his door with a lamp. The crowd regards it as a Mercury and has cheered and gone on to the next door.”

Tarsius, thoroughly recovered from his intoxication, was now admitted. He looked none in the face, and stumbled through his tale. Julius Largus Litomarus had bidden him offer his litters; there were curtains closing them, and his servants would convey the ladies to a place of security.

Quincta was too frightened, too impatient to be off, to question the man, nor was the deacon more nice in inquiry, for he also was in a condition of nervous unrest.

The shouts of the mob could be heard.

“I do not wholly trust this man,” said Baudillas. “He was expelled for misconduct. Yet, what can we do? Time presses! Hark! – in a brief space the rabble will be here. Next house is a common lodging and will not detain them. Would that Marcianus had remained. He could have advised us. Madam, act as you think best.”

“The mob is on the move,” said Pedo. “They have been satisfied at the house of Dulcius Liber, and now Septimus Philadelphus is bringing out half-a-dozen gods. Master – there is not a moment to be lost.”

“Let us fly – quick!” gasped Quincta.

She plucked her daughter’s arm, and fairly dragged her along the passage out of the house.

In the street they saw a flare. The rabble, held in control by some directing spirit, was furnished with torches. It was roaring outside a house, impatient because no statue was produced, and proceeded to throw stones and batter the door.

“That house is empty,” whispered Pedo. “The master was bankrupt and everything sold. There is not a person in it.”

Quincta mounted the lectica or palanquin that was offered, without looking whether her daughter were safe, and allowed the bearers, nay urged them, to start at a trot.

Tarsius remained behind. He handed Perpetua into the second closed litter, then gave the word, and ran beside it, holding the curtains together with one hand.

Baudillas trembling for himself was now left alone.

CHAPTER XII
REUS

“Master!” said the old slave, moving uneasily on his stiff joint, before the even more nervously agitated master, “Master, there is the freedwoman Glyceria below, who comes in charing. She has brought an idol of Tarranus under her cloak, and offers to set that with a lamp before the door. She is not a believer, she worships devils, but is a good soul and would save us. She awaits your permission.”

The deacon was profoundly moved.

“It must not be! It may not be! I – I am a deacon of the Church. This is known to be a Christian household. The Church is in my house, and here the divine mysteries are celebrated. If she had not asked my leave, and had – if – but no, I cannot sanction this. God strengthen me, I am distracted and weak.” The slave remained. He expected that his master in the end would yield.

“And yet,” stammered Baudillas, “He hath compassion on the infirm and feeble. He forgave Peter. May He not pardon me if – ? Glyceria is a heathen woman. She does not belong to my family. I did not propose this. I am not responsible for her acts. But no – it would be a betrayal of the truth, a dishonor to the Church. He that confesseth me before men – no, no, Pedo, it may not be.”

“And now it is too late,” said the slave. “They are at the door.”

Blows resounded through the house, and the roar of voices from the street surged up over the roof, and poured in through the opening over the impluvium. It was as though a mighty sea were thundering against the house and the waves curled over it and plunged in through the gap above the court.

“You must open, Pedo. I will run upstairs for a moment and compose myself. Then – if it must be – but do not suffer the rabble to enter. If a prefect be there, or his underling and soldiers, let them keep the door. Say I shall be down directly. Yet stay – is the posticum available for escape?”

“Sir – the mob have detailed a party to go to the backs of the houses and watch every way of exit.”

“Then it is God’s will that I be taken. I cannot help myself. I am glad I said No to the offer of Glyceria.”

The deacon ascended a flight of limestone steps to the upper story. The slabs were worn and cracked, and had not been repaired owing to his poverty. He entered a room that looked out on the street, and went to the window.

The street above his doorway was dense with people, below it was completely empty. Torches threw up a glare illumining the white façades of the houses. He saw a sea of heads below. He heard the growl of voices breaking into a foam of coarse laughter. Curses uttered against the Christians, blasphemies against Christ, words of foulness, threats, brutal jests, formed the matter of the hubbub below. A man bearing a white wand with a sprig of artificial mistletoe at the end, gave directions to the people where to go, where to stop, what to do. He was the head of the branch of the guild of the Cultores Nemausi for that portion of the town.

Someone in the mob lifting his face, looked up and saw the deacon at the window, and at once shouted, “There! there he is! Baudillas Macer, come down, sacrilegious one! That is he who carried the maiden away.”

Then rose hoots and yells, and a boy putting his hands together and blowing produced an unearthly scream.

“He is one of them! He is a ringleader! He has an ass’s head in the house to which he sacrifices our little ones. He it was who stuck needles into the child of the potter Fusius, and then gnawed off the cheeks and fingers. He can inform where is the daughter of Aulus Harpinius who was snatched from the basin of the god. Let us avenge on him the great sacrilege that has been committed. It was he who struck off the head of the god.”

Then one flung a stone that crashed into the room, and had not Baudillas drawn back, it would have struck and thrown him down stunned.

“Let the house be ransacked!” yelled the mob. “We will seek in it for the bones of the murdered children. Break open the door if he will not unfasten. Bring a ladder, we will enter by the windows. Someone ascend to the roof and drop into the atrium.”

Then ensued a rush against the valves, but they were too solid to yield; and the bars held them firm, run as they were into their sockets in the solid wall.

The slave Pedo now knocked on the inside. This was the signal that he was about to open.

The soldiers drew up across the entrance, and when the door was opened, suffered none to enter the house save the deputy of the prefect with four of his police, and some of the leaders of the Cultores Nemausi. And now a strange calm fell on the hitherto troubled spirit of Baudillas. He was aware that no effort he could make would enable him to escape. His knees, indeed, shook under him as he went to the stairs to descend, and forgetting that the tenth step was broken, he stumbled at it and was nearly precipitated to the bottom. Yet all wavering, all hesitation in his mind was at an end.

He saw the men in the court running about, calling to each other, peering into every room, cubicle, and closet; one called that the cellar was the place in which the infamous rites of the Christians were performed and that there would be found amphoræ filled with human blood. Then one shouted that in the tablinum there was naught save a small table. Immediately after a howl rose from those who had penetrated to the triclinium, and next moment they came rushing forth in such excitement that they dragged down the curtain that hung before the door and entangled their feet in it. One, not staying to disengage himself, held up his hands and exhibited the broken head of the statue, that had been brought there by Marcianus, and by him left on the floor.

“It is he who has done it! The sacrilegious one! The defacer of the holy image!” howled the men, and fell upon the deacon with their fists. Some plucked at his hair; one spat in his face. Others kicked him, and tripping him up, cast him his length on the ground, where they would have beaten and trampled the life out of him, had not the deputy of the ædile interfered, rescued him from the hands of his assailants and thrust him into a chamber at the side of the hall, saying: “He shall be brought before the magistrate. It is not for you to take into your hands the execution of criminals untried and uncondemned.”

Then one of the officers of the club ran to the doorway of the house, and cried: “Citizens of Nemausus, hearken. The author of the egregious impiety has been discovered. It is Cneius Baudillas Macer, who belongs to an ancient, though decayed, family of this town. He who should have been the last to dishonor the divine founder has raised his parricidal hand against him. He stands convicted. The head of the god has been found in the house; it is that recently broken off from the statue by the baths. Eheu! Eheu! Woe be to the city, unless this indignity be purged away.”

A yell of indignation rose as an answer.

The slave Pedo was suffered to enter the bedroom, on the floor of which lay his master bruised and with his face bleeding; for some of his front teeth had been broken and his lips were cut.

“Oh master! dear master! What is to be done?” asked the faithful creature, sobbing in his distress.

“I wonder greatly, Pedo, how I have endured so much. My fear is lest in the end I fall away. I enjoin you – there is naught else you can do for me – seek the bishop, and ask that the prayers of the Church may go up to the Throne of Grace for me. I am feeble and frail. I was a frightened shy lad in old times. If I were to fall, it would be a shame to the Church of God in this town, this Church that has so many more worthy than myself in it.”

“Can I bring thee aught, master? Water and a towel?”

“Nay, nothing, Pedo! Do as I bid. It is all that I now desire.”

The soldiers entered, raised the deacon, and made him walk between them. A man was placed in front, another behind to protect him against the people. As Baudillas was conveyed down the ostium, the passage to the door, he could see faces glowering in at him; he heard angry voices howling at him; an involuntary shrinking came over him, but he was irresistibly drawn forward by the soldiers. On being thrust through the doorway before all, then a great roar broke forth, fists and sticks were shaken at him, but none ventured to cast stones lest the soldiers should be struck.

One portion of the mob now detached itself from the main body, so as to follow and surround the deacon and assure itself that he did not escape before he was consigned to the prison.

The city of Nemausus, capital of the Volcæ Arecomici, though included geographically in the province of Narbonese Gaul, was in fact an independent republic, not subject to the proconsul, but under Roman suzerainty. With twenty-four comæ or townships under it, it governed itself by popular election, and enjoyed the lex Italica. This little republic was free from land tax, and it was governed by four functionaries, the Quatuor-viri, two of whom looked after the finances, and two, like the duum-viri elsewhere, were for the purpose of maintaining order, and the criminal jurisdiction was in their hands. Their title in full was duum viri juri dicendo, and they were annually elected by the senate. Their function was much that in small of the Roman consuls, and they were sometimes in joke entitled consuls. They presided over the senate and had the government of the town and state in their hands during their tenure of office. On leaving their office they petitioned for and received the right to ride horses, and were accounted knights. They wore the dignified præ texta, and were attended by two lictors.

Baudillas walked between his escort. He was in a dazed condition. The noise, the execrations cast at him, the flashing of the torches on the helmets and breastplates of the guard, the glittering eyes and teeth of the faces peering at him, the pain from the contusions he had received combined to bewilder him. In the darkness and confusion of his brain, but one thought remained permanent and burnt like a brilliant light, his belief in Christ, and one desire occupied his soul, to be true to his faith. He was too distracted to pray. He could not rally his senses nor fix his ideas, but the yearning of his humble soul rose up, like the steam from a new turned glebe in the sun of a spring morning.

In times of persecution certain strong spirits had rushed to confession and martyrdom in an intoxication of zeal, such as Baudillas could not understand. He did not think of winning the crown of martyrdom, but he trembled lest he should prove a castaway.

Thrust forward, dragged along, now stumbling, then righted by the soldiers sustaining him, Baudillas was conveyed to the forum and to the basilica where the magistrate was seated.

On account of the disturbance, the Duum-vir – we will so term him though he was actually one of the Quatuor-viri – he whose turn it was to maintain order and administer justice, had taken his place in the court, so as to be able to consign to custody such as were brought in by the guard on suspicion of being implicated in the outrage; he was there as well for the purpose of being ready to take measures promptly should the mob become unmanageable. So long as it was under control, he did not object to its action, but he had no thought of letting it get the upper hand. Rioters, like children, have a liking for fire, and if they were suffered to apply their torches to the houses of Christians might produce a general conflagration.

Although the magistrates were chosen by popular election, it was not those who constituted the rabble who had votes, and had to be humored, but the citizen householders, who viewed the upheaval of the masses with jealous suspicion.

That the proceedings should be conducted in an orderly manner, instructions had been issued that no arrest was to be made without there being someone forthcoming to act as accuser, and the soldiers were enjoined to protect whosoever was menaced against whom no one was prepared to formulate a charge which he would sustain in court.

In the case of Baudillas there would be no difficulty. The man – he was the treasurer of the guild – who had found the mutilated head was ready to appear against him.

The court into which the deacon was brought rapidly filled with a crowd, directly he had been placed in what we should now call the dock. Then the accuser stood up and gave his name. The magistrate accepted the accusation. Whereupon the accuser made oath that he acted from no private motive of hostility to the accused, and that he was not bribed by a third person to delate him. This done, he proceeded to narrate how he had entered the house of Baudillas, surnamed Macer, who was generally believed to be a minister of the sect of the Christians; how that in searching the house he had lighted on a mutilated head on the pavement of the triclinium. He further stated that he well knew the statue of the god Nemausus that stood by the fountain which supplied the lower town, and that he was firmly convinced that the head which he now produced had belonged to the statue, which statue had that very night been wantonly and impiously defaced. He therefore concluded that the owner of the house, Baudillas Macer, was either directly or indirectly guilty of the act of sacrilege, and he demanded his punishment in accordance with the law.

This sufficed as preliminary.

Baudillas was now reus, and as such was ordered to be conveyed to prison, there to be confined until the morning, when the interrogation would take place.