Another technical regtilation must have restricted for a time the number of Christians in the legions. Although the ancient practice of admitting only Koman citizens to the army had been relaxed, no slaves were allowed into the ranks ; the penally of death was inllicted upon any who managetl to
• Probably, as A. C. McGiflert observes (on Ens. UK v. 5. 1), 'the whole Icijion prayed for deliverance to their respective deities, and thus qmtc naturally each party claimed the victorj- for its particular ^,'ods.' E.{i. an P.cyptian soothsayer was supposed to have brought about the mirnclc by his incantations to Hermes. Cf . Renan, Marc- A urilt, Paris, 1882, p. 273 f.
make their way into the coveted service. Mililary service was still, in one sense, a privilege; thi're were obvious reasons, as .Juvenal's sixteenlh satire shows, why not only otlicers hut men were ghid to embrace the army as a profession, for it held out to .some a life of adventure and economic imlepcnil- ence and it ojiened u[> to others an avenue leading to considerable social and political inlluence. Tin- exclusion of the slave,* except in dire cases of emergency, and even of the freedman, naturally ruled out a considerable percentage of Christians. This ought not to be forgotten in any attemjit to estimate the possible numbers of Christians in the legions. The majority of Christians were by no means all Koman citizens; that is, they were not qualified to serve. Besides, the recruiting system did not sweep in even the non-slave classes of Christians autonuitically. The conscription only required a certain number, as a rule, in order to keep the legions up to their full strength ; the legions were not large, in pro]iorlion to the popula- tion of the empire. t and any one whose name \\:is <lrawn could (from Traj.an's reign onw.-uds) provide a substitute, if he chose and could allord it. The voluntarj' principle was in force under the empin- (' plerumque volnntario milite numeri supplentiir,' Dtfj. XLIX. xvi. 5). It is only in a modilied sense that we can speak of conscription being the means of recruiting for the Roman army. Consequent Iv, if a Christian was in the army, lie was usually there of his own free choice — unless, of course, he had been in the service before he became a Chris- tian at all. Kven under the emjiire the Romans were not a nation under arms. Military service still retained its associations of privilege : nodoubt, the possession of a cert.ain income involved liability to serve in the legions, and this was irksome to a certain number, but they could sometimes gain exemption — indeed they wereevenlually allowed to buy exemption ; and on the other hand there were many freedmen an<l others whose anxiety to join the army enabled the State to enrol them even although, on the strict principles of the older law, they were disqualilieil. Furlberinore, the sons of legionaries tended to .adopt their father's profession, and Ibis w.as particularly true of the period after Septimins Severus, when regular marriage was per- mitted in the army.
This two-fold fact, that no Christian slaves could enter .an army which was primarily reserved for Roman citizens (cf. DAC i. 93), and that even other Christians were not regularly pressed into the .service, helps partly to explain why, during the first century and a half of the Church, the problem of war never became a serious matter for Christians. But, when their number increased, when converts were made in praclicnlly all ranks .and vocations of life throughout the Roman world, the dilliculties of military service began at last to be realized. Primarily, they met men who were in the army when thej' became Christians. A private or oliicer had then to consider his position, once the scruple had been voiced. Ought he to remain? Should he not withdraw from .so com- promising a profession? The rigorist party in the Church seems to have considered it his duty to leave the legions without anj' hesitation. But the conditions of military service prevented any Church-discipline from being enforced as easily as on civilians at home ; not all the Christian sohliers were rigorists, and for various reasons it was dilli-
• Dujesta, XLIX. xvi. 11; ' ab omni militia servi prohihentur.* There is an intereslintr illustration of the strictness with which the authorities excluded slaved, in Tmjan's letter to Pliny (i>. X. .■i2).
t Ilanlly more than about 320,000 men, as a nilc (cf. W. T, Arnold, The Unman System of Procinciat Atlmiuistralion^, Oxford, 1914, p. 1 13). Eventually barbarian serfs were allowed as t'lcarii, or sul)stitute8.
664
WAE
WAR
cult to ngree with this cut-tind-dry principle. Had not St. Paul told Christians to remain in the eall- inf? and position in which they were converted (1 Co 7^)? Did not that apply to soldiers as well as to slaves! The question nii^ht be asked soph- istically, but it wa.s al.so asked quite seriously. Clement of Alexandria, e.g., assumes this position without the least hesitation. His argument is (Prutrcpt. X. 100): 'Practise farming, we say, if you are a farmer, but know God as you till your fields ; sail away, if you are fond of sea-faring, but call upon the heavenly Pilot ; if the knowledge [i.e. of the gospel] has come upon you in the army, listen to the General who gives orders that are righteous.' The implication is that the soldier is to be pious where he is, like the sailor and the farmer. What makes this remark all the more significant is that Clement feels no need of arguing the point ; he was stating the normal Christian principle. Besides, what were Christian soldiers to do if they left the ranks, perhaps after years of service, when they were more or less incapable of taking up a new profession ? Were they to forgo the valuable retiring allowances which they would earn at their discharge? And, even if they wished to leave the army, was that feasible? The law recognized only two exits — disease which incapaci- tated a man from active duty, and an honourable discharge at the end of his sixteen, twenty, or twenty-tive years of service. Desertion was the ugly and ominous name for the conduct of those who forsook the eagles upon any other jdea.