in 64 and in England in 1679. The number of executions sated the people, and a reaction occurred. To understand the development of Nero’s action, it is necessary to conceive clearly and precisely what is meant by the hatred of the world with which the Christians were charged (odium humani generis). It was not the mere abstract emotion of which they were accused, but the actions in which that emotion manifested itself. To the Romans genus humanum meant, not mankind in general, but the Roman world—