Books: Quo Vadis A Narrative of the Time of Nero

H >> Henryk Sienkiewicz >> Quo Vadis A Narrative of the Time of Nero

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The Apostle Peter did not venture for a long time to appear in the
house of Petronius, but at last on a certain evening Nazarius
announced his arrival. Lygia, who was able to walk alone now, and
Vinicius ran out to meet him, and fell to embracing his feet. He
greeted them with emotion all the greater that not many sheep in
that flock over which Christ had given him authority, and over the
fate of which his great heart was weeping, remained to him. So
when Vinicius said, "Lord, because of thee the Redeemer returned
her to me," he answered: "He returned her because of thy faith, and
so that not all the lips which profess His name should grow silent."
And evidently he was thinking then of those thousands of his
children torn by wild beasts, of those crosses with which the arena
had been filled, and those fiery pillars in the gardens of the
"Beast"; for he spoke with great sadness. Vinicius and Lygia
noticed also that his hair had grown entirely white, that his whole
form was bent, and that in his face there was as much sadness and
suffering as if he had passed through all those pains and torments
which the victims of Nero's rage and madness had endured. But
both understood that since Christ had given Himself to torture and
to death, no one was permitted to avoid it. Still their hearts were
cut at sight of the Apostle, bent by years, toil, and pain. So
Vinicius, who intended to take Lygia soon to Naples, where they
would meet Pomponia and go to Sicily, implored him to leave
Rome in their company.

But the Apostle placed his hand on the tribune's head and
answered, --

"In my soul I hear these words of the Lord, which He spoke to me
on the Lake of Tiberias: 'When thou wert young, thou didst gird
thyself, and walk whither thou wouldst; but when thou shalt he
old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee,
and carry thee whither thou wouldst not.' Therefore it is proper that
I follow my flock."

And when they were silent, not knowing the sense of his speech,
he added,--

"My toil is nearing its end; I shall find entertainment and rest only
in the house of the Lord."

Then he turned to them saying: "Remember me, for I have loved
you as a father loves his children; and whatever ye do in life, do it
for the glory of God."

Thus speaking, he raised his aged, trembling hands and blessed
them; they nestled up to him, feeling that to be the last blessing,
perhaps, which they should receive from him.

It was destined them, however, to see him once more. A few days
later Petronius brought terrible news from the Palatine. It had been
discovered there that one of Caesar's freedmen was a Christian;
and on this man were found letters of the Apostles Peter and Paul,
with letters of James, John, and Judas. Peter's presence in Rome
was known formerly to Tigellinus, but he thought that the Apostle
had perished with thousands of other confessors. Now it transpired
that the two leaders of the new faith were alive and in the capital.
It was determined, therefore, to seize them at all costs, for it was
hoped that with their death the last root of the hated sect would be
plucked out. Petronius heard from Vestinius that Caesar himself
had issued an order to put Peter and Paul in the Mamertine prison
within three days, and that whole detachments of pretorians had
been sent to search every house in the Trans-Tiber.

When he heard this, Vinicius resolved to warn the Apostle. In the
evening he and Ursus put on Gallic mantles and went to the house
of Miriam, where Peter was living. The house was at the very edge
of the Trans-Tiber division of the city, at the foot of the Janiculum.
On the road they saw houses surrounded by soldiers, who were
guided by certain unknown persons. This division of the city was
alarmed, and in places crowds of curious people had assembled.
Here and there centurions interrogated prisoners touching Simon
Peter and Paul of Tarsus.

Ursus and Vinicius were in advance of the soldiers, and went
safely to Miriam's house, in which they found Peter surrounded by
a handful of the faithful. Timothy, Paul's assistant, and Linus were
at the side of the Apostle.

At news of the approaching danger, Nazarius led all by a hidden
passage to the garden gate, and then to deserted stone quarries, a
few hundred yards distant from the Janiculum Gate. Ursus had to
carry Linus, whose bones, broken by torture, had not grown
together yet. But once in the quarry, they felt safe; and by the light
of a torch ignited by Nazarius they began to consult, in a low
voice, how to save the life of the Apostle who was so dear to them.

"Lord," said Vinicius, "let Nazarius guide thee at daybreak to the
Alban Hills. There I will find thee, and we will take thee to
Antium, where a ship is ready to take us to Naples and Sicily.
Blessed will the day and the hour be in which thou shalt enter my
house, and thou wilt bless my hearth."

The others heard this with delight, and pressed the Apostle,
saying,--

"Hide thyself, sacred leader; remain not in Rome. Preserve the
living truth, so that it perish not with us and thee. Hear us, who
entreat thee as a father."

"Do this in Christ's name!" cried others, grasping at his robes.

"My children," answered Peter, "who knows the time when the
Lord will mark the end of his life?"

But he did not say that he would not leave Rome, and he hesitated
what to do; for uncertainty, and even fear, had been creeping into
his soul for some time. His flock was scattered; the work was
wrecked; that church, which before the burning of the city had
been flourishing like a splendid tree, was turned into dust by the
power of the "Beast." Nothing remained save tears, nothing save
memories of torture and death. The sowing had yielded rich fruit,
but Satan had trampled it into the earth. Legions of angels had not
come to aid the perishing, -- and Nero was extending in glory over
the earth, terrible, mightier than ever, the lord of aell Seas and all
lands. More than once had that fisherman of the Lord stretched his
hands heavenward in loneliness and asked: "Lord, what must I do?
How must I act? And how am I, a feeble old man, to fight with this
invincible power of Evil, which Thou hart permitted to rule, and
have victory?"

And he called out thus in the depth of his immense pain, repeating
in spirit: "Those sheep which Thou didst command me to feed are
no more, Thy church is no more; loneliness and mourning are in
Thy capital; what dost Thou command me to do now? Am I to stay
here, or lead forth the remnant of the flock to glorify Thy name in
secret somewhere beyond the sea?"

And he hesitated, He believed that the living truth would not
perish, that it must conquer; but at moments he thought that the
hour had not come yet, that it would come only when the Lord
should descend to the earth in the day of judgment in glory and
power a hundred times greater than the might of Nero.

Frequently it seemed to him that if he left Rome, the faithful
would follow; that he would lead them then far away to the shady
groves of Galilee, to the quiet surface of the Lake of Tiberias, to
shepherds as peaceful as doves, or as sheep, who feed there among
thyme and pepperwort. And an increasing desire for peace and
rest, an increasing yearning for the lake and Galilee, seized the
heart of the fisherman; tears came more frequently to the old man's
eyes.

But at the moment when he made the choice, sudden alarm and
fear came on him. How was he to leave that city, in which so much
martyrs' blood had sunk into the earth, and where so many lips had
given the true testimony of the dying? Was he alone to yield? And
what would he answer the Lord on hearing the words, "These have
died for the faith, but thou didst flee"?

Nights and days passed for him in anxiety and suffering. Others,
who had been torn by lions, who had been fastened to crosses, who
had been burnt in the gardens of Caesar, had fallen asleep in the
Lord after moments of torture; but he could not sleep, and he felt
greater tortures than any of those invented by executioners f or
victims. Often was the dawn whitening the roofs of houses while
he was still crying from the depth of his mourning heart: "Lord,
why didst Thou command me to come hither and found Thy
capital in the den of the 'Beast'?"

For thirty-three years after the death of his Master he knew no rest.
Staff in hand, he had gone through the world and declared the
"good tidings." His strength had been exhausted in journeys and
toil, till at last, when in that city, which was the head of the world,
he had established the work of his Master, one bloody breath of
wrath had burned it, and he saw that there was need to take up the
struggle anew. And what a struggle! On one side Caecsar, the
Senate, the people, the legions holding the world with a circle of
iron, countless cities, countless lands, .-- power such as the eye of
man had not seen; on the other side he, so bent with age and toil
that his trembling hand was hardly able to carry his staff.

At times, therefore, he said to himself that it was not for him to
measure with the Caesar of Rome, -- that Christ alone could do
that.

All these thoughts were passing through his care-filled head, when
he heard the prayers of the last handful of the faithful. They,
surrounding him in an ever narrowing circle, repeated with voices
of entreaty, --

"Hide thyself, Rabbi, and lead us away from the power of the
'Beast.'"

Finally Linus also bowed his tortured head before him.

"O lord," said he, "the Redeemer commanded thee to feed His
sheep, but they are here no longer, go, to-morrow they will not be
here; go, therefore, where thou mayst find them yet. The word of
God is living still in Jerusalem, in Antioch, in Ephesus, and in
other cities. What wilt thou do by remaining in Rome? If thou fall,
thou wilt merely swell the triumph of the 'Beast.' The Lord has not
designated the limit of John's life; Paul is a Roman citizen, they
cannot condemn him without trial; but if the power of hell rise up
against thee, O teacher, those whose hearts are dejected will ask,
'Who is above Nero?' Thou art the rock on which the church of
God is founded. Let us die, but permit not the victory of Antichrist
over the vicegerent of God, and return not hither till the Lord has
crushed him who shed innocent blood."

"Look at our tears!" repeated all who were present.

Tears flowed over Peter's face too. After a while he rose, and,
stretching his hands over the kneeling figures, said, --

"May the name of the Lord be magnified, and may His will be
done!"

Chapter LXIX

About dawn of the following day two dark figures were moving
along the Appian Way toward the Campania.

One of them was Nazarius; the other the Apostle Peter, who was
leaving Rome and his martyred co-religionists.

The sky in the east was assuming a light tinge of green, bordered
gradually and more distinctly on the lower edge with saffron color.
Silver-leafed trees, the white marble of villas, and the arches of
aqueducts, stretching through the plain toward the city, were
emerging from shade. The greenness of the sky was clearing
gradually, and becoming permeated with gold. Then the east began
to grow rosy and illuminate the Adban Hills, which seemed
marvellously beautiful, lily-colored, as if formed of rays of light
alone.

The light was reflected in trembling leaves of trees, in the
dew-drops. The haze grew thinner, opening wider and wider views
on the plain, on the houses dotting it, on the cemeteries, on the
towns, and on grorps of trees, among which stood white columns
of temples.

The road was empty. The villagers who took vegtables to the city
had not succeeded yet, evidently, in harnessing beasts to their
vehicles. From the stone blocks with which the road was paved as
far as the mountains, there came a low sound from the bark shoes
on the feet of the two travellers.

Then the sun appeared over the line of hills; but at once a
wonderful vision struck the Apostle's eyes. It seemed to him that
the golden circle, instead of rising in the sky, moved down from
the heights and was advancing on the road. Peter stopped, and
asked, --

"Seest thou that brightness approaching us?"

"I see nothing," replied Nazarius.

But Peter shaded his eyes with his hand, and said after a while,

"Some figure is coming in the gleam of the sun." But not the
slightest sound of steps reached their ears. It was perfectly still all
around. Nazarius saw only that the trees were quivering in the
distance, as if some one were shaking them, and the light was
spreading more broadly over the aeilain. He looked with wonder at
the Apostle.

"Rabbi! what ails thee?" cried he, with alarm.

The pilgrim's staff fell from Peter's hands to the earth; his eyes
were looking forward, motionless; his mouth was open; on his face
were depicted astonishment, delight, rapture.

Then he threw himself on his knees, his arms stretched forward;
and this cry left his lips, --

"O Christ! O Christ!"

He fell with his face to the earth, as if kissing some one's feet.

The silence continued long; then were heard the words of the aged
man, broken by sobs, --

"Quo vadis, Domine?"

Nazarius did not hear the answer; but to Peter's ears came a sad
and sweet voice, which said, --

"If thou desert my people, I am going to Rome to be crucified a
second time."

The Apostle lay on the ground, his face in the dust, without motion
or speech. It seemed to Nazarius that he had fainted or was dead;
but he rose at last, seized the staff with trembling hands, and
turned without a word toward the seven hills of the city.

The boy, seeing this, repeated as an echo, --

"Quo vadis, Domine?"

"To Rome," said the Apostle, in a low voice.

And he returned.

Paul, John, Linus, and all the faithful received him with
amazement; and the alarm was the greater, since at daybreak, just
after his departure, pretorians had surrounded Miriam's house and
searched it for the Apostle. But to every question he answered only
with delight and peace, --

"I have seen the Lord!"

And that same evening he went to the Ostian cemetery to teach
and baptize those who wished to bathe in the water of life.

And thenceforward he went there daily, and after him went
increasing numbers. It seemed that out of every tear of a martyr
new confessors were born, and that every groan on the arena found
an echo in thousands of breasts. Caesar was swimming in blood,
Rome and the whole pagan world was mad. But those who had had
enough of transgression and madness, those who were trampled
upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the
weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the
wonderful tidings of God, who out of love for men had given
Himself to be crucified and redeem their sins.

When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that
which the society of the time could not give any one, -- happiness
and love.

And Peter understood that neither Caesar nor all his legions could
overcome the living truth, -- that they could not overwhelm it with
tears or blood, and that now its victory was beginning. He
understood with equal force why the Lord had turned him back on
the road. That city of pride, crime, wickedness, and power was
beginning to be His city, and the double capital, from which would
flow out upon the world government of souls and bodies.

Chapter LXX

AT last the hour was accomplished for both Apostles. But, as if to
complete his service, it was given to the fisherman of the Lord to
win two souls even in confinement. The soldiers, Processus and
Martinianus, who guarded him in the Mamertine prison, received
baptism. Then came the hour of torture. Nero was not in Rome at
that time. Sentence was passed by Helius and Polythetes, two
freedmen to whom Caesar had confided the government of Rome
during his absence.

On the aged Apostle had been inflicted the stripes prescribed by
law; and next day he was led forth beyond the walls of the city,
toward the Vatican Hill, where he was to suffer the punishment of
the cross assigned to him. Soldiers were astonished by the crowd
which had gathered before the prison, for in their minds the death
of a common man, and besides a foreigner, should not rouse such
interest; they did not understand that that retinue was composed
not of sightseers, but confessors, anxious to escort the great
Apostle to the place of execution, In the afternoon the gates of the
prison were thrown open at last, and Peter appeared in the midst of
a detachment of pretorians. The sun had inclined somewhat toward
Ostia already; the day was clear and calm. Because of his
advanced age, Peter was not required to carry the cross; it was
supposed that he could not carry it; they had not put the fork on his
neck, either, so as not to retard his pace. He walked without
hindrance, and the faithful could see him perfectly.

At moments when his white head showed itself among the iron
helmets of the soldiers, weeping was heard in the crowd; but it was
restrained immediately, for the face of the old man had in it so
much calmness, and was so bright with joy, that all understood
him to be not a victim going to destruction, but a victor celebrating
his triumph.

And thus it was really. The fisherman, usually humble and
stooping, walked now erect, taller than the soldiers, full of dignity.
Never had men seen such majesty in his bearing. It might have
seemed that he was a monarch attended by people and military.
From every side voices were raised, --

"There is Peter going to the Lord!"

All forgot, as it were, that torture and death were waiting for him.
He walked with solemn attention, but with calmness, feeling that
since the death on Golgotha nothing equally important had
happened, and that as the first death had redeemed the whole
world, this was to redeem the city.

Along the road people halted from wonder at sight of that old man;
but believers, laying hands on their shoulders, said with calm
voices,

"See how a just man goes to death, -- one who knew Christ and
proclaimed love to the world,"

These became thoughtful, and walked away, saying to themselves,
"He cannot, indeed, be unjust!"

Along the road noise was hushed, and the cries of the street. The
retinue moved on before houses newly reared, before white
columns of temples, over whose summits hung the deep sky, calm
and blue. They went in quiet; only at times the weapons of the
soldiers clattered, or the murmur of prayer rose. Peter heard the
last, and his face grew bright with increasing joy, for his glance
could hardly take in those thousands of confessors. He felt that he
had done his work, and he knew now that that truth which he had
been declaring all his life would overwhelm everything, like a sea,
and that nothing would have power to restrain it. And thus
thinking, he raised his eyes, and said: "O Lord, Thou didst
command me to conquer this world-ruling city; hence I have
conquered it. Thou hast commanded me to found here Thy capital;
hence I have founded it. This is Thy city now, O Lord, and I go to
Thee, for I have toiled greatly."

As he passed before temples, he said to them, "Ye will be temples
of Christ." Looking at throngs of people moving before his eyes, he
said to them, "Your children will be servants of Christ"; and he
advanced with the feeling that he had conquered, conscious of his
service, conscious of his strength, solaced, -- great. The soldiers
conducted him over the Pons Triumphalis, as if giving involuntary
testimony to his triumph, and they led him farther toward the
Naumachia and the Circus. The faithful from beyond the Tiber
joined the procession; and such a throng of people was formed that
the centurion commanding the pretonians understood at last that
he was leading a high-priest surrounded by believers, and grew
alarmed because of the small number of soldiers. But no cry of
indignation or rage was given out in the throng. Men's faces were
penetrated with the greatness of the moment, solemn and full of
expectation. Some believers, remembering that when the Lord died
the earth opened from fright and the dead rose from their graves,
thought that now some evident signs would appear, after which the
death of the Apostle would not be forgotten for ages. Others said
to themselves, "Perhaps the Lord will select the hour of Peter's
death to come from heaven as He promised, and judge the world."
With this idea they recommended recommended themselves to the
mercy of the Redeemer.

But round about there was calm. The hills seemed to be warming
themselves, and resting in the sun. The procession stopped at last
between the Circus and the Vatican Hill. Soldiers began now to
dig a hole; others placed on the ground the cross, hammers, and
nails, waiting till all preparations were finished. The crowd,
continuing quiet and attentive, knelt round about.

The Apostle, with his head in the sun-rays and golden light, turned
for the last time toward the city. At a distance lower down was
seen the gleaming Tiber; beyond was the Campus Martins; higher
up, the Mausoleum of Augustus; below that, the gigantic baths just
begun by Nero; still lower, Pompey's theatre; and beyond them
were visible in places, and in places hidden by other buildings, the
Septa Julia, a multitude of porticos, temples, columns, great
edifices; and, finally, far in the distance, hills covered with houses,
a gigantic resort of people, the borders of which vanished in the
blue haze, -- an abode of crime, but of power; of madness, but of
order, -- which had become the head of the world, its oppressor,
but its law and its peace, almighty, invincible, eternal, But Peter,
surrounded by soldiers, looked at the city as a ruler and king looks
at his inheritance. And he said to it, "Thou art redeemed and
mine!" And no one, not merely among the soldiers digging the
hole in which to plant the cross, but even among believers, could
divine that standing there among them was the true ruler of that
moving life; that Caesars would pass away, waves of barbarians go
by, and ages vanish, but that old man would be lord there
unbrokenly.

The sun had sunk still more toward Ostia, and had become large
and red. The whole western side of the sky had begun to glow with
immense brightness. The soldiers approached Peter to strip him.

But he, while praying, straightened himself all at once, and
stretched his right hand high. The executioners stopped, as if made
timid by his posture; the faithful held the breath in their breasts,
thinking that he wished to say something, and silence unbroken
followed.

But he, standing on the height, with his extended right hand made
the sign of the cross, blessing in the hour of death,--

Urbi et orbi! (the city and the world).

In that same wonderful evening another detachment of soldiers
conducted along the Ostian Way Paul of Tarsus toward a place
called Aquae Salviae. And behind him also advanced a crowd of
the faithful whom he had converted; but when he recognized near
acquaintances, he halted and conversed with them, f or, being a
Roman citizen, the guard showed more respect to him. Beyond the
gate called Tergemina he met Plautilla, the daughter of the prefect
Flavius Sabinus, and, seeing her youthful face covered with tears,
he said: "Plautilla, daughter of Eternal Salvation, depart in peace.
Only give me a veil with which to bind my eyes when I am going
to the Lord." And taking it, he advanced with a face as full of
delight as that of a laborer who wbaen he has toiled the whole day
successfully is returning home. His thoughts, like those of Peter,
were as calm and quiet as that evening sky. His eyes gazed with
thoughtfulness upon the plain which stretched out before him, and
to the Alban Hills, immersed in light. He remembered his
journeys, his toils, his labor, the struggles in which he had
conquered, the churches which he had founded in all lands and
beyond all seas; and he thought that he had earned his rest
honestly, that he had finished his work. He felt now that the seed
which he had planted would not be blown away by the wind of
malice. He was leaving this life with the certainty that in the battle
which his truth had declared against the world it would conquer;
and a mighty peace settled down on his soul.

The road to the place of execution was long, and evening was
coming. The mountains became purple, and the bases of them
went gradually into the shade. Flocks were returning home. Here
and there groups of slaves were walking with the tools of labor on
their shoulders. Children, playing on the road before houses,
looked with curiosity at the passing soldiers. But in that evening,
in that transparent golden air, there were not only peace and
lovingness, but a certain harmony, which seemed to lift from earth
to heaven. Paul felt this; and his heart was filled with delight at the
thought that to that harmony of the world he had added one note
which had not been in it hitherto, but without which the whole
earth was like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.