Chapter LXVIII

NEWS of the miraculous rescue of Lygia was circulated quickly among
those scattered Christians who had escaped destruction. Confessors came
to look at her to whom Christ's favor had been shown clearly. First
came Nazarius and Miriam, with whom Peter the Apostle was hiding thus
far; after them came others. All, as well as Vinicius, Lygia, and the
Christian slaves of Petronius, listened with attention to the narrative
of Ursus about the voice which he had heard in his soul, and which
commanded him to struggle with the wild bull. All went away consoled,
hoping that Christ would not let His followers be exterminated on earth
before His coming at the day of judgment. And hope sustained their
hearts, for persecution had not ceased yet. Whoever was declared a
Christian by public report was thrown into prison at once by the city
watches. It is true that the victims were fewer, for the majority of
confessors had been seized and tortured to death. The Christians who
remained had either left Rome to wait out the storm in distant
provinces, or had hidden most carefully, not daring to assemble in
common prayer, unless in sand-pits outside the city. They were
persecuted yet, however, and though the games were at an end, the newly
arrested were reserved for future games or punished specially. Though
it was believed in Rome no longer that Christians had caused the
conflagration, they were declared enemies of humanity and the State, and
the edict against them remained in former force.

The Apostle Peter did not venture for a long time to appear in the house
of Petronius, but at last on a certain evening Nazarius announced his
arrival. Lygia, who was able to walk alone now, and Vinicius ran out to
meet him, and fell to embracing his feet. He greeted them with emotion
all the greater that not many sheep in that flock over which Christ had
given him authority, and over the fate of which his great heart was
weeping, remained to him. So when Vinicius said, "Lord, because of thee
the Redeemer returned her to me," he answered: "He returned her because
of thy faith, and so that not all the lips which profess His name should
grow silent." And evidently he was thinking then of those thousands of
his children torn by wild beasts, of those crosses with which the arena
had been filled, and those fiery pillars in the gardens of the "Beast";
for he spoke with great sadness. Vinicius and Lygia noticed also that
his hair had grown entirely white, that his whole form was bent, and
that in his face there was as much sadness and suffering as if he had
passed through all those pains and torments which the victims of Nero's
rage and madness had endured. But both understood that since Christ had
given Himself to torture and to death, no one was permitted to avoid it.
Still their hearts were cut at sight of the Apostle, bent by years,
toil, and pain. So Vinicius, who intended to take Lygia soon to Naples,
where they would meet Pomponia and go to Sicily, implored him to leave
Rome in their company.

But the Apostle placed his hand on the tribune's head and answered,--

"In my soul I hear these words of the Lord, which He spoke to me on the
Lake of Tiberias: 'When thou wert young, thou didst gird thyself, and
walk whither thou wouldst; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt
stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee
whither thou wouldst not.' Therefore it is proper that I follow my
flock."

And when they were silent, not knowing the sense of his speech, he
added,-

"My toil is nearing its end; I shall find entertainment and rest only in
the house of the Lord."

Then he turned to them saying: "Remember me, for I have loved you as a
father loves his children; and whatever ye do in life, do it for the
glory of God."

Thus speaking, he raised his aged, trembling hands and blessed them;
they nestled up to him, feeling that to be the last blessing, perhaps,
which they should receive from him.

It was destined them, however, to see him once more. A few days later
Petronius brought terrible news from the Palatine. It had been
discovered there that one of Cæsar's freedmen was a Christian; and on
this man were found letters of the Apostles Peter and Paul, with letters
of James, John, and Judas. Peter's presence in Rome was known formerly
to Tigellinus, but he thought that the Apostle had perished with
thousands of other confessors. Now it transpired that the two leaders
of the new faith were alive and in the capital. It was determined,
therefore, to seize them at all costs, for it was hoped that with their
death the last root of the hated sect would be plucked out. Petronius
heard from Vestinius that Cæsar himself had issued an order to put Peter
and Paul in the Mamertine prison within three days, and that whole
detachments of pretorians had been sent to search every house in the
Trans-Tiber.

When he heard this, Vinicius resolved to warn the Apostle. In the
evening he and Ursus put on Gallic mantles and went to the house of
Miriam, where Peter was living. The house was at the very edge of the
Trans-Tiber division of the city, at the foot of the Janiculum. On the
road they saw houses surrounded by soldiers, who were guided by certain
unknown persons. This division of the city was alarmed, and in places
crowds of curious people had assembled. Here and there centurions
interrogated prisoners touching Simon Peter and Paul of Tarsus.

Ursus and Vinicius were in advance of the soldiers, and went safely to
Miriam's house, in which they found Peter surrounded by a handful of the
faithful. Timothy, Paul's assistant, and Linus were at the side of the
Apostle.

At news of the approaching danger, Nazarius led all by a hidden passage
to the garden gate, and then to deserted stone quarries, a few hundred
yards distant from the Janiculum Gate. Ursus had to carry Linus, whose
bones, broken by torture, had not grown together yet. But once in the
quarry, they felt safe; and by the light of a torch ignited by Nazarius
they began to consult, in a low voice, how to save the life of the
Apostle who was so dear to them.

"Lord," said Vinicius, "let Nazarius guide thee at daybreak to the Alban
Hills. There I will find thee, and we will take thee to Antium, where a
ship is ready to take us to Naples and Sicily. Blessed will the day and
the hour be in which thou shalt enter my house, and thou wilt bless my
hearth."

The others heard this with delight, and pressed the Apostle, saying,-

"Hide thyself, sacred leader; remain not in Rome. Preserve the living
truth, so that it perish not with us and thee. Hear us, who entreat
thee as a father."

"Do this in Christ's name!" cried others, grasping at his robes.

"My children," answered Peter, "who knows the time when the Lord will
mark the end of his life?"

But he did not say that he would not leave Rome, and he hesitated what
to do; for uncertainty, and even fear, had been creeping into his soul
for some time. His flock was scattered; the work was wrecked; that
church, which before the burning of the city had been flourishing like a
splendid tree, was turned into dust by the power of the "Beast."
Nothing remained save tears, nothing save memories of torture and death.
The sowing had yielded rich fruit, but Satan had trampled it into the
earth. Legions of angels had not come to aid the perishing,--and Nero
was extending in glory over the earth, terrible, mightier than ever, the
lord of all seas and all lands. More than once had that fisherman of
the Lord stretched his hands heavenward in loneliness and asked: "Lord,
what must I do? How must I act? And how am I, a feeble old man, to
fight with this invincible power of Evil, which Thou hart permitted to
rule, and have victory?"

And he called out thus in the depth of his immense pain, repeating in
spirit: "Those sheep which Thou didst command me to feed are no more,
Thy church is no more; loneliness and mourning are in Thy capital; what
dost Thou command me to do now? Am I to stay here, or lead forth the
remnant of the flock to glorify Thy name in secret somewhere beyond the
sea?"

And he hesitated, He believed that the living truth would not perish,
that it must conquer; but at moments he thought that the hour had not
come yet, that it would come only when the Lord should descend to the
earth in the day of judgment in glory and power a hundred times greater
than the might of Nero.

Frequently it seemed to him that if he left Rome, the faithful would
follow; that he would lead them then far away to the shady groves of
Galilee, to the quiet surface of the Lake of Tiberias, to shepherds as
peaceful as doves, or as sheep, who feed there among thyme and
pepperwort. And an increasing desire for peace and rest, an increasing
yearning for the lake and Galilee, seized the heart of the fisherman;
tears came more frequently to the old man's eyes.

But at the moment when he made the choice, sudden alarm and fear came on
him. How was he to leave that city, in which so much martyrs' blood had
sunk into the earth, and where so many lips had given the true testimony
of the dying? Was he alone to yield? And what would he answer the Lord
on hearing the words, "These have died for the faith, but thou didst
flee"?

Nights and days passed for him in anxiety and suffering. Others, who
had been torn by lions, who had been fastened to crosses, who had been
burnt in the gardens of Cæsar, had fallen asleep in the Lord after
moments of torture; but he could not sleep, and he felt greater tortures
than any of those invented by executioners for victims. Often was the
dawn whitening the roofs of houses while he was still crying from the
depth of his mourning heart: "Lord, why didst Thou command me to come
hither and found Thy capital in the den of the 'Beast'?"

For thirty-three years after the death of his Master he knew no rest.
Staff in hand, he had gone through the world and declared the "good
tidings." His strength had been exhausted in journeys and toil, till at
last, when in that city, which was the head of the world, he had
established the work of his Master, one bloody breath of wrath had
burned it, and he saw that there was need to take up the struggle anew.
And what a struggle! On one side Caecsar, the Senate, the people, the
legions holding the world with a circle of iron, countless cities,
countless lands,--power such as the eye of man had not seen; on the
other side he, so bent with age and toil that his trembling hand was
hardly able to carry his staff.

At times, therefore, he said to himself that it was not for him to
measure with the Cæsar of Rome,--that Christ alone could do that.

All these thoughts were passing through his care-filled head, when he
heard the prayers of the last handful of the faithful. They,
surrounding him in an ever narrowing circle, repeated with voices of
entreaty,--

"Hide thyself, Rabbi, and lead us away from the power of the 'Beast.'"

Finally Linus also bowed his tortured head before him.

"O lord," said he, "the Redeemer commanded thee to feed His sheep, but
they are here no longer or to-morrow they will not be here; go,
therefore, where thou mayst find them yet. The word of God is living
still in Jerusalem, in Antioch, in Ephesus, and in other cities. What
wilt thou do by remaining in Rome? If thou fall, thou wilt merely swell
the triumph of the 'Beast.' The Lord has not designated the limit of
John's life; Paul is a Roman citizen, they cannot condemn him without
trial; but if the power of hell rise up against thee, O teacher, those
whose hearts are dejected will ask, 'Who is above Nero?' Thou art the
rock on which the church of God is founded. Let us die, but permit not
the victory of Antichrist over the vicegerent of God, and return not
hither till the Lord has crushed him who shed innocent blood."

"Look at our tears!" repeated all who were present.

Tears flowed over Peter's face too. After a while he rose, and,
stretching his hands over the kneeling figures, said,--

"May the name of the Lord be magnified, and may His will be done!"