_ 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 he
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 Caesar'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 Caesar 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 aell 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 Caesar, 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 f or
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 Caesar 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, go, 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!" _