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De la mort des persécuteurs de l'église

III.

Quelque temps après, on vit s'élever un autre tyran[^4] aussi cruel que Néron. Mais quoique son règne fût odieux, il ne laissa pas toutes fois d'opprimer longtemps et impunément ses sujets. Enfin, ayant eu l'audace de se prendre à Dieu même, et de suivre le conseil du démon qui l'animait contre les justes, il tomba entre les mains de ses ennemis, qui le punirent de tous ses crimes. Mais leur vengeance ne finit point à sa mort ; elle s'étendit jusqu'à sa mémoire que l'on tâcha d'anéantir. Car quoiqu'il eût fait construire plusieurs édifices merveilleux, qu'il eût rétabli le Capitole et beaucoup d'autres monuments de la magnificence romaine, le sénat jura la perte de son nom, fit briser ses statues, effacer toutes ses inscriptions, et par de sévères décrets couvrit sa mémoire d'une ignominie éternelle. Tous les actes de ce détestable empereur ayant été abolis, l'église non seulement recouvra son ancienne splendeur, mais encore elle brilla d'un nouveau lustre ; et durant le règne des excellents princes qui gouvernèrent l'empire romain, elle se répandit dans les provinces de l'Orient et de l'Occident, et il n'y eut point de pays où la véritable religion ne pénétrât, point de nation si farouche qui ne s'adoucit par la prédication de l'Évangile. Mais cette longue paix fut enfin troublée.

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Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died

Chap. III.

After an interval of some years from the death of Nero, there arose another tyrant no less wicked (Domitian), who, although his government was exceedingly odious, for a very long time oppressed his subjects, and reigned in security, until at length he stretched forth his impious hands against the Lord. Having been instigated by evil demons to persecute the righteous people, he was then delivered into the power of his enemies, and suffered due punishment. To be murdered in his own palace was not vengeance ample enough: the very memory of his name was erased. For although he had erected many admirable edifices, and rebuilt the Capitol, and left other distinguished marks of his magnificence, yet the senate did so persecute his name, as to leave no remains of his statues, or traces of the inscriptions put up in honour of him; and by most solemn and severe decrees it branded him, even after death, with perpetual infamy. Thus, the commands of the tyrant having been rescinded, the Church was not only restored to her former state, but she shone forth with additional splendour, and became more and more flourishing. And in the times that followed, while many well-deserving princes guided the helm of the Roman empire, the Church suffered no violent assaults from her enemies, and she extended her hands unto the east and unto the west, insomuch that now there was not any the most remote corner of the earth to which the divine religion had not penetrated, or any nation of manners so barbarous that did not, by being converted to the worship of God, become mild and gentle. ¹