EXTRACTS FROM BINGHAM'S ANTIQUITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH*,
OF THE NAMES OF REPROACH WHICH THE JEWS, INFIDELS, AND HERETICS CAST UPON THE CHRISTIANS.
"Besides the names already spoken of, there were some other reproachful names cast upon them by their adversaries, which it will not be improper here to mention. The first of these was Nazarens, a
     * The edition from which these Extracts are taken it in one
     vol. 8vo, London, 1708, and begins at p. 13.
[97]
name of reproach given them first by the Jews, by whom they are styled the sect of the Nazarens, Acts xxiv. 5. There was indeed a particular heresy, who called themselves [—Greek—]: and Epiphanius* thinks the Jews had a more especial spite at them, because they were a sort of Jewish apostates, who kept circumcision and the Mosaical rites together with the Christian religion: and therefore, he says, they were used to curse and anathematize them three times a day, morning, noon, and evening, when they met in their synagogues to pray, in this direful form of execration,' [—Greek—], 'Send thy curse, O God, upon the Nazarens.' But St. Jerome** says this was levelled at Christians in general, whom they thus anathematized under the name of Nazarens. And this seems most probable, because both as St. Jerome*** and Epiphanius himself**** observe, the Jews termed all Christians by way of reproach, Nazarens. And the Gentiles took it from the Jews, as appears from that of
     * Epiphan. Haer. 29. n. 9.
 
     ** Hieron. Com. in Esa. xlix. t 5. p. 178. Ter per tingulos
     dies sub nomine Nazaienorum maledicunt in synagogis suis.
 
     *** Id. de loc. Hebr. t. 3. p. 289. Nos apnd veterei? quasi
     opprobrio Nazaraei dicebamur, quos nunc Christianos vocant.
 
     **** Epiphan. ibid.
[98]
Datianus the praetor in Prudentius*, where speaking to the Christians he gives them the name of Nazarens. Some** think the Christians at first were very free to own this name, and esteemed it no reproach, till such time as the heresy of the Nazarens broke out, and then in detestation of that heresy they forsook that name, and called themselves Christians. Acts xi. 26. But whether this be said according to the exact rules of chronology, I leave those that are better skilled to determine.
Another name of reproach was that of Galil?ans, which was Julian's ordinary style, whenever he spake of Christ or Christians. Thus in his Dialogue with old Maris a blind Christian bishop, mentioned by Sozomen***, he told him by way of scoff, "Thy Galil?an God will not cure thee." And again, in his epistle**** to Arsacius high-priest of Galatia, "The Galil?ans maintain their own poor and ours also." The like may be observed in Socrates(v), Theodoret (vi),
     * Prudent. ————-].    Carm. 5. de S. Vincent.
         Vos Nazareni assistite,
         Rudemque ritum spernite.
 
         Id. Hymno 9. de Rom. Mart.
 
     ** Junius, Parallel, lib. 1. c. 8. Godwyn, Jew.
     Rites, lib. 1. c. 8.
 
     *** Sozom. lib. 5. c. 4.
 
     **** A p. Sozom. lib. 5. c. 16.
 
     (v) Socrat. lib. 3. c. 12.
 
     (vi) Theodor. lib. 3. c 7. & 31.
[99]
Chrysostom*, and Gregory Nazianzen**, who adds, that he not only called them Galil?ans himself, but made a law that no one should call them by any other name; thinking thereby to abolish the name of Christians.
They also called them Atheists, and their religion the Atheism or Impiety, because they derided the worship of the heathen gods. Dio*** says, Acilius
Glabrio was put to death for atheism, meaning the Christian religion. And the Christian apologists, Athenagoras**** Justin Martyr(v), Arnobius(vi), and others, reckon this among the crimes which the heathens usually lay to their charge. Eusebius says(vii) the name was become so common, that when the persecuting magistrates would oblige a Christian to renounce his religion, they bade him abjure it in this form, by saying among other things, [—Greek—] 'Confusion to the atheists, Away with the impious,' meaning the Christians.
To this they added the name of Greeks and Impostors. Which is noted by St. Jerome(viii) who says
     * Chrys. Horn. 63. torn. 5.
 
     ** Naz. i. Invectiv.
 
     *** Dio in Domitian.
 
     **** Athen. Legat. pro Christ.
 
     (v) Just. Apol. i. p. 47.
 
     (vi) Arnob. lib. i.
 
     (vii) Euseb. lib. iv. c. 15.
 
     (viii) Hieron. Ep. 10. ad Furiara. Ubicunque viderint
[100]
wheresoever they saw a Christian, they would presently cry out, '[—Greek—], 'Behold a Grecian impostor.' This was the character which the Jews gave our Saviour, [—Greek—]' that deceiver*, Matt, xxvii. 63. And Justin Martyr** says, they endeavoured to propagate it to posterity, sending their apostles or emissaries from Jerusalem to all the synagogues in the world, to bid them beware of a certain impious, lawless sect, lately risen up under one Jesus, a Galil?an impostor. Hence Lucian*** took occasion in his blasphemous raillery to style him The crucified sophister. And Celsus**** commonly gives him and his followers the name of [—Greek—] 'deceivers.' So Asclepiades the judge in Prudentius**** compliments them with the appellation of sophisters; and Ulpian(v) proscribes them in a law by the name of impostors.
The reason why they added the name of Greeks
     * Christianum, statim illud de Trivio, [—Greek—] vocant
     Impostorem.
 
     ** Justin. Dial. c. Tryph. p. 335.
 
     ***  Lucian. Peregrin.
 
     **** Cels. ap. Orig. lib. i. et lib. 6.
 
     (v) Prudent. [—Greek—]. Carm. 9. de Romano Marty. Quis hos
     Sophistas error invexit novus, &c.
 
     (vi) Digest, lib. 50. tit. 13. c 1. Si incantavit, si in-
     precatus est, si (ut vulgari verbo Impostoruxn utar) si
     exorcisavit
[101]
to that of impostors, was (as learned men* conjecture) because many of the Christian philosophers took upon them the Grecian or philosophic habit, which was the [—Greek—] or pallium: whence the Greeks were called Pallitati, as the Romans were called Togati, or Gens togata, from their proper habit, which was the toga. Now it being some offence to the Romans to see the Christians quit the Roman gown, to wear the Grecian cloak; they thence took occasion, to mock and deride them with the scurrilous names of Greeks, and Grecian impostors. Tertullian s book de Pallio was written to show the spiteful malice of this foolish objection.
But the heathens went one step further in their malice; and because our Saviour and his followers did many miracles, which they imputed to evil arts and the power of magic, they therefore generally declaimed against them as magicians, and under that character exposed them to the fury of the vulgar. Celsus** and others pretended that our Saviour studied magic in Egypt: and St. Austin*** says, it was generally believed among the heathens, that he
     * Kortholt de Morib. Christian, c. 3. p. 23.    Baron an.
     56. n. 11.
 
     ** Origen. cont. Cels. lib. 2. Arrobius, lib. 1. p. 36.
 
     *** Aug. de Consensu Evang. lib. 1. c. 9.
[102]
wrote some books about magic too, which he delivered to Peter and Paul for the use of his disciples. Hence it was that Suetonius* speaking in the language of his party, calls the Christians Genus hominum superstionis maleficae, 'the men of the magical superstition.' As Asclepiades the judge in Prudentius** styles St. Romanus the martyr, Arch-magician.
And St. Ambrose observes in the Passion of St. Agnes*** how the people cried out against her, 'Away with the sorceress! Away with the enchanter! 'Nothing being more common than to term all Christians, especially such as wrought miracles, by the odious name of sorcerers and magicians.'
The New Superstition was another name of reproach for the Christian religion. Suetonius gives it that title****, and Pliny and Tacitus add to it(v) the opprobrious terms of wicked and unreasonable
     * Sueton. Neron. c. 16.
 
     ** Prudent. Hymn. 9. de S. Romano. Quousque tandem
     su m m us hic nobis Magus illudit.
 
     *** Ambr. Serm. 90. in S. Agnen. Tolle Magam! Tolle
     Maleticam!
 
     ****  See Kortholt de Morib. Christ, c. 4.
 
     (v) Sueton. Nero. c. 16.
 
     (vi) Plin. lib. 10. ep. 97. Nihil aliud inveni, quam
     superstitionem pravam et immodicara. Tacit. Annal. 15. c.
     44.   Exitiabilis superstitio.
[103]
superstition. By which name also Nero triumphed over it in his trophies which he set up at Rome, when he had harassed the Christians with a most severe persecution. He gloried that he had purged the country of robbers, and those that obtruded and inculcated the new superstition* upon mankind. By this, there can be no doubt he meant the Christians, whose religion is called the superstition in other inscriptions of the like nature. See that of Diocletian cited in Baronius, Ann. 304. from Occo. "Superstitione Christianorum ubique deleta," &c.
Not much unlike this was that other name which Porphyry** and some others give it, when they call it the barbarous, new, and strange religion. In the acts of the famous martyrs of Lyons, who suffered under Antoninus Pius, the heathens scornfully insult it with this character. For having burnt the martyrs to ashes, and scattered their remains into the river Rhone, they said, they did it 'to cut off their hopes of a resurrection, upon the
     * Inscript. Antiq. ad Calcem Sueton. Oxon. NERONI. CLAUD.
     CAIS. AUG. PONT. MAX. OB. PROVING. LATRONIB. ET. HIS. QUI.
     NOVAM. GENERI. HUM.   SUPERSTITION. INCULCAB. PURGAT.
 
     ** Ap. Euseb. Hist Eccl, lib* 6, c 19,  [—Greek—]
[104]
strength of which they sought to obtrude* the new and strange religion upon mankind. But now let us see whether they will rise again, and whether their God can help and deliver them out of our hands.'
Celsus gives them the name of Sibyllists**, because the Christians in their disputes with the heathens sometimes made use of the authority of Sibylla their own prophetess against them; whose writing they urged with so much advantage to the Christian cause, and prejudice to the heathen, that Justin Martyr*** says, the Roman governors made it death for any one to read them, or Hystaspes, or the writings of the prophets.
They also reproached them with the appellation of [—Greek—], 'self-murderers,' because they readily offered themselves up to martyrdom, and cheerfully underwent any violent death, which the heathens could inflict upon them. With what eagerness they courted death, we learn not only from the Christian writers**** themselves, but from the testimonies
     * Act. Mart. Lugd. ap. Euseb. lib. 5. c. 1. [—Greek—]
 
     ** Origen. c. Cels. lib. 5. p. 272.
 
     ***  Just Apol. 2. p. 82.
 
     **** See these collected in Pearson, Vind. Ignat. Par. 2. c.
     9. p. 384.
[105]
of the heathens* concerning them. Lucian** says they not only despised death, but many of them voluntarily offered themselves to it, out of a persuasion that they should be made immortal and live forever. This he reckons folly, and therefore gives them the name of [—Greek—], 'The miserable wretches, that threw away their lives,' In which sense Porphyry*** also styles, the Christian religion, [—Greek—] the barbarous boldness.' As Arrjus Antoninus**** terms the professors of it, [—Greek—], The stupid wretches, that had such a mind to die; and the heathen in Minucius(v), homines deploratae ac desperate factionis, 'the men of the forlorn and desperate faction.' All which agrees with the name Biothanati, or Biaeothanati, as Baronius(vi) understands it* Though it may signify not only self-murderers, but (as a learned critic(xii) notes) men that expect to live after death. In which sense the heathens probably might use it likewise to ridicule the Christian doctrine of the resurrection; on which, they
     *  Arrius Antonin. ap. Tertul. ad Scap. c. 4.    Tiberias, in
     Joh. Malela Chronic.
 
     ** Lucian. de Mort Peregrin.
 
     *** Porphyr. ap. Euseb. Hist Eccl. 1. 6. c 19.
 
     **** Tertul. ibid.
 
     (v) Minuc. Octav. p. 25.
 
     (vi) Baron, an. 138. n. 5.
 
     (vii) Suicer. Thesaur. Ecclesiast 1.1. p. 690.
[106]
knew, all their fearless and undaunted courage was founded. For so the same heathen in Minucius endeavours to expose at once both their resolution and their belief: "O strange folly, and incredible madness!" says he; "they despise all present torments, and yet fear those that are future and uncertain: they are afraid of dying after death, but in the mean time do not fear to die. So vainly do they flatter themselves, and allay their fears, with the hopes o............