Where two views are possible, the Church will do well to allow for both. This does not mean that she must necessarily allow divorce for adultery and recognize re-marriage by pronouncing her benedic- tion on it ; but only that she should keep an open mind on the subject, and that different parts of the Church may legitimately agree to differ in the regulations they make with regard to it.
LiTERATtiBE.— A. Edersheim, LT", 2 vols., London, 1897; R. C. Trench^ Notes on the Parables of ouT'Lord'^^^ do,, 1877, chs. xii., xiii. ; artt. ' Marriajje,' * Divorce,' * Bride,' ' Bridegroom,' etc., in EDB, SDB, DCG, and in EBi; artt. 'Chastity (Chris- tian)' and 'Celibacy (Christian)' in ERE. For Christian marriage in the East at the present day as illustrating NT customs see A. J. Maclean and W. H. Browne, The CathuKcos of the East and his People, London. 1892. For marriage gener- ally see H. M. Luckock, History of Marriage, do., 1894 ; O. D. Watkins, Iloly Matriirumy, do., 1S95 ; W. J. Knox-Little, Holy Matrimony, in ' Oxford Library of Practical Theology,' do., 1901. For divorce see E. Lyttelton, Studies in the Sermon on the ilmmt, London, 1905 ; E. Schiirer, UJP u. ii. (Edinburgh, 1SS5J 123 ; Edersheim (as above) ; S. R. Driver, Deutero- ■iinmrfl, London, 1902; C. Gore, The Sermon on the Mount, do,, 1S97; C. W. Votaw, in HDB v., art. 'Sermon on the
Mount.' A. J. Maclean.
MARS' HILL.— See Areopagite, Aeeopagus.
MARTYR.— 1. The name.— 'Martyr' is given as the rendering of ndprvt in the RV only in Rev 17°. The word is used in practically the same sense in Kev 2" (Antipas) and Ac 22=" (Stephen), but is in both passages translated ' witness.' As Jesus is VOL. II. — 2
said to have ' witnessed ' by accepting death (Hcv 1° ; cf. 1 Ti 6"), the expression was apjiropriately transferred to His followers who suffered for Him. The absolute use of /iaprvpia and ixaprvfieiv to signify this did not become tixcd until the middle of the 2nd cent, (see J. B. Lightfoot on Clem, ad Cor. v. in Apustulic Fathcr.i, l. ii. [ISDO] 26).
2. The position of Christians. — Our Lord warned His disciples that active hostility would be the normal attitude of the world toward the Church (Mt 5"). The Apostolic Age provided a continu- ous commentary on this saying. It is customary to distinguish one or two epoclis in that period as moments of great persecution. But this must not obscure the truth that persecution seldom ceased altogether. In the first days of the Church this was exclusively the work of Jews. Besides the attacks mentioned in the Acts there were others to which we have only pas.sing allusions {e.g. 1 Th 2", Ja 2« 5'», He 10'^). These prove that the Jews, not only of Palestine, but also of the Dispersion, were active in compelling Christians to pay for tlieir faith by enduring legal and social opjiression. The Romans did not at fiist discriminate between Jews and Christians, and extended to the latter the privileged toleration accorded to the former. This confusion of thought appears in the state- ment of Suetonius (Clmid. 25) that Jewish dis- orders were provoked by ' Chrestus,' and in the notion of Lysias that St. Paul was one of the Zealots (Ac 21^). But under Nero the Imperial policy changed. The mere profession of Christi- anity now became matter for a capital charge" (see this maintained in Hardy, Studies in lionum History, ch. iv., as against Ramsay, in Church in the Moman Empire^, eh. xi. sect. 7). Bj' both people and rulers it was held to involve ' odium humani generis.' It incurred popular hatred be- cause of the divisions which it introduced into family and social life. It became a political crime through its incompatibility with Cajsar-worship, its refusal to ' worship the image of the beast ' (Rev 13'^), which led the Roman authorities to regard it as anarchy. No special laws were passed against it, but there were standing police orders that it should be suppressed. This policy was steadily maintained, and such a reference as that made by Pliny in his letter to Trajan {Epp. x. 97) concerning an unknown persecution in IJithynia twenty years before shows that there must have been much official activity against Christians of which no record survives. The NT reflects the conscious- ness of the change in the attitude of the govern- ment. In Acts Rome is the power which protects Christians against Jewish assault (Ac 25'") ; in the Apocalypse Rome is drunk with the blood of the saints (Rev 17'').
3. The number of the martyrs. — Later ages naturally tended to exaggerate this in order to add glory to the Church. It was held that the truest following of Christ was found among those who had been put to death for His name. Legends grew up which in time invested every member of the apostolic college with the martyr's halo (a collection of these stories may be seen in the Ante- Nicene Christian Libranj, vol. xvi. [1S73]). It is instructive to note that Clem. Alex. {Strom, iv. 9) quotes an early protest against supjiosing that salvation belonged to martyrs only, which is justi- fied by citing the instances of some of the apostles who had died a natural death. But it remains true that the Biblical and other records leave the impression that great numbers of believers were slain in the 1st century. In the Jewish persecution Saul is .said to have entered into every house (Ac S^), and to have searched every synagogue for Christians. The number of converts was alreadj- considerable in Jerusalem (cf. Ac 2"- *' 6'), so that.