Therefore God visibly blessed their efforts; and thirty years had scarcely elapsed after the Descent of the Holy Ghost, when there were already Christian communities in all parts of the world. Over these Churches the Apostles placed bishops, to whom they communicated their powers by special forms of prayer and the imposition of hands, and whom they appointed their substitutes and successors. All these communities were most closely united together, and formed, under their common Head, St. Peter, the One, Universal — that is. Catholic — Church. St. Peter was first Bishop of Antioch, and afterwards Bishop of Rome, where he suffered martyrdom under Nero a.d. 67; and then the supreme authority over the whole Church devolved on his successors, the Bishops of Rome, or the Popes.
32. [1]The pagans were greatly alarmed at the rapid spreading of the Christian religion, which openly condemned their vicious lives and their monstrous idolatry, and they resolved to exterminate it. The Christians had either to abjure their faith or to die under the most cruel torments. They were scourged and lacerated, and were cast before wild beasts; their sides were torn with iron hooks or burnt with torches. They were thrown into caldrons of boiling oil, mutilated, sawn in pieces, and crucified. They were covered with pitch and set fire to, that they might serve to light the nocturnal games of the pagans. Everywhere the Christians suffered tortures beyond all description. Many countries were drenched with their blood, and hundreds of thousands of every age, sex, and condition died under the most dreadful torments. Rome especially, the capital of paganism, and
- ↑ What impression did the spreading of Christianity make on the pagans? How did they expect to exterminate if? What torments did they inflict upon the Christians? Were there many thus tortured and killed? Where did the persecution of the Christians chiefly rage? Have we any evidence of this nowadays?
