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Cf. clavarium, H. 3, 50, note. But after Augustus, official pay, salary. Ne emisse. Proprium humani, etc. Mark the sentiment. Irrevocabilior. More implacable. Found in this sense only in T. Cf. Boet. Lex. Tac. Illicita. Unlawful, i.e. forbidden by the powers that be. Explained by contumacia and inani jactatione libertatis above.

Of this letter much has been said, but we think that Pliny has not always been rightly judged about it. He was too conservative a man to be a persecutor, but was not much above or beyond his own time. And he wrote of the Christians as being a religio illicita an illegal assembly of heretics as regarded the state religion, which it was his duty to defend.

Doth not Pareus likewise show out of Augustine, that such things as are not expedient but scandalous, and do not edify but hurt our brother, Fiunt ex accidenti illicita et peccata, proinde vitanda? 7.

Sect. 6. Fourthly, Sacred significant ceremonies devised by man are to be reckoned among those images forbidden in the second commandment. Polanus saith, that omnis figura illicita is forbidden in the second commandment. The Professors of Leyden call it imaginem quamlibet, sive mente conceptam, sive manu effictam.

The witness of the early Christian writers is unanimous that the conception of a visible Church was a prominent feature in the Christianity of the sub-apostolic age, and it is plain that the civil power suspected the Christians just because they were so well organised. The Roman Empire was accustomed to tolerate superstitions, but it was part of her policy to repress collegia illicita.

Hence Christianity was branded as a malignant superstition, and Christians spoken of as the enemies of the human race.... From the letter of Pliny to Trajan, it was evidently recorded as an religio illicita, and the mere fact of being a Christian was counted of itself a crime.... The exclusiveness of Christianity seemed also to place its disciples in a position of direct disloyalty to the emperors and the State.

And Caesar was the symbol of the Roman world-dominion. Therefore, one Caesar after the other did their best to exterminate this dangerous Christian sect. Therefore, among hundreds of religions only Christianity practically was prohibited in the Roman Empire, as a religio illicita. No wonder!