One of the more despicable sycophants who persecuted the Church of God in post-Apostolic times was the Roman Governor, Pliny the Younger. His Letter to Emperor Trajan is a classic example of a flattering boot-licker with a gift for oratory and prose. His cruelty was dark and satanic. A friend he was of the demonic gods to whom he feigned worship.
Crisis Magazine has a poignant, and certainly timely, article by Rev. George Rutler wherein he compares New York’s current and publicly-fornicating governor, who dares to usurp the name Catholic, with this dastardly second-century tyrant that killed Christians while oozing pieties to his worshipful master (one of the worst major persecutors of Christians) Emperor Trajan. In this Letter, Pliny pretends to be concerned about the growing effect this “superstitious” lot was having in Bithynia (part of ancient Turkey, i.e., Asia Minor). Later he would extol Trajan’s successor Domitian (who slaughtered thousands of Christians in a two-year killing-spree), and then lambast him after his death when it was politically convenient to do so. Cuomo isn’t threatening the lives of Christians, but, by suggesting (prelude to mandating, one wonders?) that anyone actively opposed to abortion and same-sex ‘marriage’ get out of New York. “You’re not welcome here!” the little caesar said. And the NYC mayor, De Blasio, once a big and active supporter of the Sandanistas, said he agrees with the governor “100%”.
Crisis: Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus was governor of Bithynia–Pontus in present day Turkey from 111 to 113 AD. That capped a long career during which he served as judge, staff officer, knight, senator, quaestor, tribune, praetor, prefect, consul, propraetor and augur. He was popularly known as Pliny the Younger because his uncle, the naturalist and military commander, adopted him. He had been with his uncle when he died at the eruption of Vesuvius, rescuing some of the people fleeing Pompeii. Given his acrobatic balance in dancing to the tune of very different emperors: Vespasian, Titus, Domitian Nerva, and Trajan, he reminds one of Talleyrand whom he actually surpassed in erudition as a writer of Greek verse and orator in the line of Cicero. Talleyrand would have admired his cynicism, as when he decried Domitian as soon as he died, having long extolled him. It is curious, but not atypical of the Italian Renaissance, that this torturer of Christians should be honored with a statue on the façade of the cathedral in his native town of Como. Read full article here.
