Perpetua. A Tale of Nimes in A.D. 213

“Come now,” said Lucius Petronius to the young lawyer, “to this I limit thy interference. Stand by the girl and induce her to yield. By the Bow-bearer! young men do not often fail in winning the consent of girls when they use their best blandishments. It will be a scene for the stage. You have plenty of spectators.”

“Suffer me also to stand beside her,” said the slave-woman Blanda, who had not left Perpetua.

“By all means. And if you two succeed, none will be better content than myself. I am not one who would wish a fair virgin a worse fate than to live and be merry and grow old. Ah me! old age!”

Again the multitude shouted and rattled pumpkins.

“We are detaining the people in the cold,” said the presiding magistrate; “the sports move sluggishly as does our blood.” Then, aside to Fuscianus, “My bricks are becoming sensibly chilled. I require a fresh supply.” Then to the maiden: “Hear me, Perpetua, daughter of Harpinius Læto that was – we and the gods, or the gods and we, are indisposed to deal harshly. Throw a few crumbs of incense on the altar, and you shall pass at once up those steps to the row of seats where sit the white-robed priestesses with their crowns. I shall be well content.”

“That is a thing I cannot do,” said Perpetua firmly.

“Then we shall have to make you,” said the magistrate in hard tones. He was angry, vexed. “You will prove more compliant when you have been extended on the rack. Let her be disrobed and tortured.”

Then descended into the arena two young men, who bowed to the magistrate, solicited leave, and drew forth styles or iron pens and tablets covered with wax. These were the scribes of the Church employed everywhere to take down a record of the last interrogatory of a martyr. Such records were called the “Acts.” Of them great numbers have been preserved, but unhappily rarely unfalsified. The simplicity of the acts, the stiffness of style, the absence of all miraculous incident, did not suit the taste of mediæval compilers, and they systematically interpolated the earlier acts with harrowing details and records of marvels. Nevertheless, a certain number of these acts remain uncorrupted, and with regard to the rest it is not difficult to separate in them that which is fictitious from that which is genuine. Such notaries were admitted to the trials and executions with as much indifference as would be newspaper reporters nowadays.

Again, with the sweat of anguish breaking out on his brow, Æmilius interposed.

“I pray your mercy,” he said; “let the sentence be still further modified. Suffer the damsel to be relieved of becoming a priestess. Let her become my wife, and I swear that I will make over my estate of Ad Fines to the temple of the god Nemausus, with the villa upon it, and statues and works of art.”

“That is an offer to be entertained by the priesthood and not by me. Boy – hot bricks! and be quick about removing those which have become almost cold.”

A pause ensued whilst the proposal of Æmilius was discussed between the chief priestess of the fountain and the Augustal flamen and the other pontiffs.

The populace became restless, impatient, noisy. They shouted, hooted; called out that they were tired of seeing nothing.

“Come,” said Petronius, “I cannot further delay proceedings.”

“We consent,” said the chief pontiff.

“That is well.”

Then Æmilius approached Perpetua, and entreated her to give way. To cast a few grains on the charcoal meant nothing; it was a mere movement of the hand, a hardly conscious muscular act, altogether out of comparison with the results. Such compliance would give her life, happiness, and would place her in a position to do vast good, and he assured her that his whole life would be devoted to her service.

“I cannot,” she said, looking Æmilius full in the face. “Do not think me ungrateful; my heart overflows for what you have done for me, but I cannot deny my Christ.”

Again he urged her. Let her consent and he – even he would become a Christian.

“No,” said she, “not at that price. You would be in heart for ever estranged from the faith.”

“To the rack! Lift her on to the little horse. Domitius Afer left his bequest to the city in order that we should be amused, not befooled,” howled the spectators.

“Executioners, do your duty,” said the magistrate. “But if she cry out, let her off. She will sacrifice. Only to the first hole – mind you. If that does not succeed, well, then, we shall try sharper means.”

And now the little horse was set up in the midst of the arena, and braziers of glowing charcoal were planted beside it; in the fire rested crooks and pincers to get red hot.

The “little horse” was a structure of timber. Two planks were set edgeways with a wheel between them at each end. The structure stood on four legs, two at each extremity, spreading at the base. Halfway down, between these legs, at the ends, was a roller, furnished with levers that passed through them. A rope was attached to the ankles, another to the wrists of the person extended on the back of the “horse,” and this rope was strained over the pulleys by means of the windlasses. The levers could be turned to any extent, so as, if required, to wrench arms and legs from their sockets.

And now ensued a scene that refuses description. “We are made a spectacle unto men and angels,” said the apostle, and none could realize how true were the words better than those who lived in times of persecution. Before that vast concourse the modest Christian maiden was despoiled of her raiment and was stretched upon the rack – swung between the planks.

Æmilius felt his head swim and his heart contract. What could he do? Again he entreated, but she shook her head, yet turned at his voice and smiled.

Then the executioners threw themselves on the levers, and a hush as of death fell on the multitude. Twenty thousand spectators looked on, twice that number of eyes were riveted on the frail girl undergoing this agony. Bets had been made on her constancy, bandied about, taken, and booked. Castor stood up, with face turned to heaven, and extended arms, praying.

The creaking of the windlass was audible; then rang out a sharp cry of pain.

Immediately the cords were relaxed and the victim lowered to the ground. Blanda threw a mantle over her.

“She will sacrifice,” said Æmilius; “take off the cords.”

The executioners looked to the magistrate. He nodded, and they obeyed. The bonds were rapidly removed from her hands and feet.

“Blanda, sustain her!” commanded Æmilius, and he on one side, with his arm round the sinking, quivering form, and the slave-woman on the other, supported Perpetua. Her feet dragged and traced a furrow in the sand; they were numbed and powerless through the tension of the cords that had been knotted about the ankles. Æmilius and Blanda drew her towards the altar.

“I cannot! I will not sacrifice! I am a Christian. I believe in Christ! I love Christ!”

“Perpetua,” said Æmilius in agitated tones, “your happiness and mine depend on compliance. For all I have done for you, if you will not for your own sake – consent to this. Here! I will hold your hand. Nay, it is I who will strew the incense, and make it appear as though it were done by you. Priest! The shell with the grains.”

“Spare me! I cannot!” gasped the girl, struggling in his arms. “I cannot be false to my Christ – for all that He has done for me.”

“You shall. I must constrain you.” He set his teeth, knitted his brow. All his muscles were set in desperation. He strove to force her hand to the altar.

“Shame on thee!” sobbed she. “Thou art more cruel than the torturer, more unjust than the judge.”

It was so. Æmilius felt that she was right. They did but insult and rack a frail body, and he did violence to the soul within.

The people hooted and roared, and brandished their arms threateningly. “We will not be balked! We are being treated to child’s play.”

“Take her back to the rack. Apply the fire,” ordered the Quatuorvir.

The executioners reclaimed her. She offered no resistance. Æmilius staggered to the podium and grasped the marble top with one hand.

She was again suspended on the little horse. Again the windlass creaked. The crowd listened, held its breath, men looked in each other’s eyes, then back to the scene of suffering. Not a sound; not a cry; no, not even a sigh. She bore all.

“Try fire!” ordered the magistrate.

Æmilius had covered his face. He trembled. He would have shut his ears as he did his eyes, could he have done so. Verily, the agony of his soul was as great as the torture of her body. But there was naught to be heard – an ominous stillness, only the groaning of the windlass, and now and then a word from one executioner to his fellow.

At every creak of the wheel a quiver went through the frame of Æmilius. He listened with anguish of mind for a cry. The populace held its breath; it waited. There was none. Into her face he dared not look. But the twenty thousand spectators stared – and saw naught save lips moving in prayer.

And now a mighty wonder occurred.

The dense cloud that filled the heavens began softly, soundlessly, to discharge its burden. First came, scarce noticed, sailing down, a few large white flakes like fleeces of wool. Then they came fast, faster, ever faster. And now it was as though a white bridal veil had been let down out of heaven to hide from the eyes of the ravening multitude the spectacle of the agony of Christ’s martyr. None could see across the arena; soon none could see obscurely into it. The snowflakes fell thick and dense, they massed as a white cornice on the parapet, they dropped on every head, they whitened the bloodstained, trampled sand. And all fled before the snow. First went a few in twos or threes; then whole rows stood up, and through the vomitories the multitude poured – freedmen, slaves, knights, ladies, flamines, magistrates; none could stand against the descending snow.

“Cast her down!” This was the last command issued by Petronius as he rose from his seat. The executioners were glad to escape. They relaxed the ropes, and threw their victim on the already white ground.

Still thick and fast fell the fleeces. Blanda had cast a mantle of wool over the prostrate girl, but out of heaven descended a pall, whiter than fuller on earth can bleach, and buried the woolen cloak and the extended quivering limbs. Beside her, in the snow, knelt Æmilius. He held her hand in one of his. She looked him in the face and smiled. Then she said: “Give to Blanda her liberty.”

He could not speak. He signed that it should be so.

Then she said: “I have prayed for thee – on the rack, in the fire – that the light may shine into thy heart.”

She closed her eyes.

Still he held her hand, and with the other gently brushed away the snowflakes as they fell on her pure face. Oh wondrous face! Face above the dream of the highest Greek artist!

Thus passed an hour – thus a second.

Then suddenly the clouds parted, and the sun poured down a flood of glory over the dazzling white oval field, in the midst of which lay a heap of whiteness, and on a face as of alabaster, inanimate, and on a kneeling, weeping man, still with reverent finger sweeping away the last snowflakes from eyelash, cheek and hair, and who felt as if he could thus look, and kneel, and weep for ever.12

CHAPTER XXIV

CREDO

Many days had passed. All was calm in Nemausus. The games were over.

The day succeeding that we have described was warm and spring-like. The sun shone brilliantly. Every trace of the snow had disappeared, and the water-fight in the amphitheater had surpassed the expectations of the people. They had enjoyed themselves heartily.

All had returned to its old order. The wool merchant took fresh commands, and sent his travelers into the Cebennæ to secure the winter fleeces. The woman who had the flower-shop sold garlands as fast as she could weave them. The potter spread out a fresh collection of his wares and did a good business with them.

The disturbances that had taken place were no more spoken about. The deaths of Marcianus, Baudillas and Perpetua hardly occupied any thoughts, save only those of their relatives and the Christians.

The general public had seen a show, and the show over, they had other concerns to occupy them.

Now both Pedo and Blanda were free, and the long tarrying was over. They had loved when young, they came together in the autumn of their lives.

In the heart of the Church of Nemausus there was not forgetfulness of its heroes.

If the visitor at the present day to Nîmes will look about him, he will find two churches, both recently rebuilt, in place of, and on the site of, very ancient places of worship, and the one bears the name of St. Baudille. If he inquire of the sacristan, “Mais qui, donc, était-il, ce saint?” then the answer given him will be: “Baudillas was a native of Nîmes, a deacon, and a martyr.”

If he ask further, “But when?” Then the sacristan will probably reply with a shrug: “Mais, monsieur; qui sait?”

In another part of the town is a second church, glowing internally with color from its richly painted windows, and this bears the name of Ste. Perpetue.

Does the visitor desire to be told whether it has been erected in honor and in commemoration of the celebrated African martyrs Felicitas and Perpetua, or of some local virgin saint who shed her blood for Christ, then let him again inquire of the sacristan.

What his answer will be I cannot say.

The Bishop Castor remained much in his house. He grieved that he had not been called to witness to the faith that was in him. But he was a humble man, and he said to himself: “Such was the will of God, and that sufficeth me.”

One evening he was informed that a man, who would not give his name, desired to speak with him.

He ordered that he should be introduced.

When the visitor entered, Castor recognized Æmilius, but the man was changed. Lines of thought and of sorrow marked his face, that bore other impress as well of the travail of his soul within him. He seemed older, his face more refined than before, there was less of carnal beauty, and something spiritual that shone out of his eyes.

The bishop warmly welcomed him.

Then said Æmilius in a low tone, “I am come to thee for instruction. I know but little, yet what I know of Christ I believe. He is not dead, He liveth; He is a power; mighty is faith, and mighty is the love that He inspires. Credo.”

1

So represented in paintings in the Catacombs. There were two distinct types: the table in the Church and the tomb at the Sepulcher of the Martyr.

2

St. Clement of Alexandria complained of the dainties provided for the Agape: “The sauces, cakes, sugar-plums, the drink, the delicacies, the games, the sweetmeats, the honey.” The hour of supper with the Romans was about 2 P.M.; that, therefore, was the time for the love-feast to begin.

3

In the recently-exhumed house of Saints John and Paul, in the Cœlian Hill at Rome, such bottles were discovered in the cellar.

4

Now Ambroix.

5

Certain Christians bought substitutes to sacrifice in their room and receive a ticket (libellus) certifying that they had sacrificed. The Church was a little perplexed how to deal with these timorous members, who were termed libellatics.

6

I employ the term Duumvir for convenience. As already stated, there were four chief magistrates, but two only had criminal jurisdiction.

7

“Erat et robur, locus in carcere, quo præcipitabatur maleficorum genus, quod ante arcis robustis includebatur.” – Liv. 38, 39.

8

The prayer is given in the “Apostolic Constitutions,” viii. 37.

9

The casting into the lowest pit of the robur– sometimes termed the barathrum– was not a rare act of barbarity. Jugurtha perished in that of the Tullianum in Rome. “By Hercules!” said he as he was being lowered into it, “your bath is cold!” S. Ferreolus, of Vienne, was plunged into this horrible place in A.D. 304. He was young, and by diving or by working at the grating he managed to escape much in the manner described above. Thus through the sewer he reached the Rhône, and swam across it. He was, however, recaptured and taken back to Vienne, where he was decapitated. He is commemorated in the diocese of Vienne on September 18th, and is mentioned by Sidonius Apollinaris in the fifth century, and by Venantius Fortunatus in the sixth. S. Gregory, the illuminator, was cast into the barathrum by Tiridates. Theodoret describes martyrs devoured by rats and mice in Persia (“Hist. Eccl.,” v. 39).

10

This sign is now in the museum.

11

Fairies, adored at Nemausus.

12

The incident of the fall of snow occurring at the martyrdom of a virgin saint is no picture of the author’s imagination. It occurred at the passion of S. Eulalia of Merida, in A.D. 303, and is commemorated in the hymn on her by Prudentius.The incident of the fall of snow occurring at the martyrdom of a virgin saint is no picture of the author’s imagination. It occurred at the passion of S. Eulalia of Merida, in A.D. 303, and is commemorated in the hymn on her by Prudentius.