Then immediately they departed from him who should have examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
The same law which forbad a Roman citizen to be scourged, forbad him also to be bound. (St. Augustine, lib. i. de Serm. Dni. chap. 29.)
It was under Claudius that the abuse of buying the freedom of Rome was introduced. At first the name of a Roman was esteemed much, and bought at a great price. Now (such is the emptiness and vanity of titles) it is refused, and despised; nay, it is fled from, and reckoned disgraceful. (Salvian. De Gubern. Dei, lib. v.)
If St. Paul, on this occasion, makes use of his privilege, it is not that he was unprepared, or afraid to die for Christ; but because it was lawful to use ordinary means to extricate himself from difficulties, and preserve himself for future services to religion. (Denis the Carthusian) _
But I, he says, was free born. So then his father also was a Roman. What then comes of this? He bound him, and brought him down to the Jews. On the morrow, because he would have known the certainty whereof he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from his bands, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down, and set him before them.
