It may not be out of place, as an indication of the results
of impartial examination, to point out that Neander's inability to
accept the Ignatian Epistles largely rests on his disbelief of the whole
tradition of this sentence and martyr-journey. "We do not recognise the
Emperor Trajan in this narrative" (the martyrology), he says, "therefore
cannot but doubt everything which is related by this document, as well
as that, during this reign, Christians can have been cast to the wild
beasts." [106:2]
If, for a moment, we suppose that, instead of being condemned by Trajan
himself, Ignatius received his sentence from a provincial governor,
the story does not gain greater probability. It is not credible that
such an official would have ventured to act so much in opposition
to the spirit of the Emperor's government. Besides, if such a governor
did pronounce so severe a sentence, why did he not execute it in
Antioch? Why send the prisoner to Rome? By doing so he made all the
more conspicuous a severity which was not likely to be pleasing to the
clement Trajan. The cruelty which dictated a condemnation _ad bestias_
would have been more gratified by execution on the spot, and there is
besides no instance known, even during the following general persecution,
of Christians being sent for execution in Rome.
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