The fact that St. Paul, a native of Tarsus, was a Roman citizen is treated as a matter of import- ance in Acts. It was the Roman Emperors who gave the people of the provinces power to enjoy the rights of citizenship. Tliere is a dramatic turning of tables in Ac 22-^ when St. Paul is able to say quite simply (yet with a touch of pride), ' But I am a Roman born,' and Claudius, the cap- tain, turns out to be but a parvenu who had had to spend a lot of money, somehow or other, to ac- quire the citizenship. The same status is claimed for Silas as well as St. Paul in Ac 16^^.
Not a few of those who are mentioned by name in St. Paul's Epistles {e.g. Philemon, Gains, Erastus, Aquila, Phoebe, etc.) must have been of the citizen class. The number of such increased as time went on. In the Ignatian Epistles {e.g. Smyrn. xii. and Polyc. viii.) we find similar refei'- ences to devoted Christians (Tavias, Alee, Dapli- nus, ' the wife of Epitropus ' [or ' of the governor '], Attains, etc.) of the same rank. But Christianity had gained access to the palaces of the aristocracy before tlie 1st cent, was out, and had won adherents there who suttered for their faith — witness the well-known cases of T. Flavins Clemens, the con- sul, and his wife, Domitilla. And for the same period we have the evidence of an outsider in Pliny's famous Epistle to Trajan (x. 97), wliere- in lie tells us that he found in his province large numbers of Christians 'of all classes' {omnis or- dinis). What was true of Bithynia was most pro- bably true of otlier parts of the Empire.
Citizenship and wealth, of course, did not neces- sarily go together. In tlie class of freemen were included people of all ranks, from artisans and labourers up to the wealthiest aristocrats. Un- fortunately many citizens were but idle loafers, deiiending on the Imperial largesse. The existence of the huge, overgrown system of slavery had a sinister effect on the great mass of citizens, inasmuch as 'paid labour was thought unworthy
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of any fieeborn man' (C. Bigg, The Church's Task under the Roman Empire, Oxford, 1905, p. 114). The poor, hired labourers, however, of Ja b* were not technically 5ov\oi. The same Epistle shows us how soon the Apostolic Church experienced the evils too possibly attendant upon the appearance of the rich man within the circle of the Christian societj' (chs. 2 and 5).
Though civic freedom is quite evidently valued, we lind little or nothing in the apostolic ^ATitings bearing on political questions. Lofty moral teach- ing and profound theologj" abound, but there is no feeling manifest that political freedom was a thing worth seeking for its own sake. It may indeed be said that in the 1st cent. ' the prevailing notions of freedom were imperfect, and the endeavours to realise them were wide of the mark ' (Lord Acton, The History of Freedom, London, 1907, p. 16). See, furtlier, art. Slave, Slavery.
2. In the sense of freedom of conscience. — 'Liberty' is used in the NT to denote a man's freedom to decide what is right or wrong for himself, especially in relation to matters enjoined upon him by some form of external authority. The development of such a notion naturally followed upon the development of the notion of conscience itself, which in turn was bound up with the grow- ing sense of human individuality and personal responsibility. In pre-Ciiristian lines of philosophi- cal and religious teaching (as e.g. in Stoicism) we mark in this respect a pros/jara^io evangelica. As the ancient conception of man as merely a component unit in tribe or nation faded and gave way to the sense of his value for himself as well as for the community, and of his responsibility for himself, such consecjuences were bound to follow. So far from moralitj' consisting simply in com- pliance with commands embodying the will of the community of which the man is a part (which commands may also be conceived as Divinely origi- nated), when man realizes his individual responsi- bility to God, conscience emerges, and, criticizing those very commands, may disapprove as well as approve, whilst it may also find a whole area of moral interests which the injunctions of external authority do not touch and. in which it must decide for itself.
To the rise of Christianity we very specially owe an advanced conception of conscience and its corollarj-, the claim to freedom to act in accord with the behests of conscience. ' Am I not free ? ' cries St. Paul (1 Co 9') ; whilst 'Peter and the apostles ' (Ac 5'^") are heard declaring ' We must obej' God rather than men.' These sayings might serve as watchwords of the new era as viewed from this standpoint (Judaism itself, it sliould be noted in passing, exhibited in course of time a similar development in its ethical teaching). And the clash between the new order and the old neces- sarily brought with it abundant scope for the outcrop of cases of conscience such as St. Paul handles in 1 Co 8tf. and Ro 14 f.
Freedom of this kind can be properly claimed and used only by the conscientious man — the man who is above all else concerned for harmony between the laws and customs he is called to observe and the inward regulative principle, and who departs from such laws only when an en- lightened conscience imperatively demands it. For another important pre-requisite is that the exercise of this freedom shall be based on intelli- gent judgment. ' Let each man be fully assured in his own mind ' (Ro 14^) is a Pauline dictum of the first importance. Cf. the deeply significant legion ascribed to our Lord in Cod. D (Lk 6^) wherein He says to a man found working on the Sabbath, ' If thou knowest what thou art doing, blessed art thou ; but if thou knowest not, thou