While the two Apostles were thus employed, there arrived at Antioch, A.D. 42, certain prophets[836] from Jerusalem, one of whom named Agabus stood up and announced that a great famine was at hand, which in fact came to pass during the reign of Claudius Cæsar (Acts xi. 28), a reign distinguished for earthquakes, bad harvests, and general scarcity[837]. Having full faith in his prophetic words the Christians in the Syrian metropolis[838] determined to send relief, every man according to his ability, to their poorer brethren at Jerusalem, and Saul and Barnabas were selected to convey their contributions to the Holy City (Acts xi. 29, 30)[839]. CHAPTER V. _MARTYRDOM OF ST JAMES――DEATH OF HEROD._ A.D. 44. ABOUT the time when these delegates from the church at Antioch arrived on their errand of Christian love at Jerusalem, a severe calamity befell the Church there. On the accession of Claudius, A.D. 41, Herod Agrippa, who had taken an active part in securing his succession[840], was rewarded by the addition of Judæa and Samaria to the tetrarchies of Philip and Antipas which he had already received, and ruled as king over a territory as widely extended as that governed by his grandfather[841]. Arriving at Jerusalem, A.D. 42, he dedicated in the Temple, as a memorial of the Divine protection, the golden chain with which he had been presented by Caligula, and which was of equal weight with the iron one he had worn when imprisoned by Tiberius[842], and endeavoured to ingratiate himself with his subjects by the strictest profession of Judaism. He offered sacrifice every day; paid the expenses of certain Nazarites on completing their vows[843]; abstained from every legal impurity; remitted the house-tax of the inhabitants of Jerusalem[844]; encircled the new suburb of Bezetha with a wall; and prepared to strengthen the entire fortifications of the city[845]. Thus determined to ingratiate himself with the Jews, and doubtless at the suggestions of their chiefs, he resolved to take measures for the suppression of Christianity. Accordingly, in A.D. 44, he seized the Apostle James, the brother of St John, and without any apparent process of Jewish law[846] summarily slew him with the sword (Acts xii. 2), thus early admitting him to his Master’s baptism[847] (Mtt. xx. 23). Perceiving that this atrocity rendered him exceedingly popular with his subjects[848], he arrested Peter also at the feast of the Passover, and committed him to the custody of four quaternions of soldiers[849] (Acts xii. 4), intending at the close of the festival to bring him forth before the people and gratify them with his death.