The Jews had recently, in consequence of some disturbance, been all driven out of Rome.[130] They were generally hated and despised. It was also a principle in Roman law, that any religious innovations which threatened to unsettle the minds of the people, or to create tumult, were to be rigorously suppressed. Under these circumstances, it was not difficult to rouse the violence of the mob. The magistrates, apparently without listening to any defence, ordered them to be led to the whipping-post and scourged. The scourging upon the bare back by the brawny arms of a Roman lictor was indeed a terrible ordeal for any one to pass through. Bruised with the lash, and fainting from pain and the loss of blood, they were thrust into a dark, pestilential dungeon in the inner prison; and their feet were made fast in the stocks. The jailer had special charge to keep them safely. The scene which ensued cannot be better narrated than in the language of Luke:―― “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God; and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison-doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm; for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.” The morning dawned. The magistrates, probably somewhat alarmed in view of the violent measures which they had pursued, sent officers to the jailer with the order, that he should “let those men go.” Paul and Silas were both Roman citizens, and Paul was a lawyer. The Roman law did not allow any one entitled to the dignity of Roman citizenship to be exposed to the ignominy of scourging.[131] These Roman citizens, without any form of trial, without any legal condemnation, had been openly scourged in the market-place. Paul therefore replied to the message from the magistrates ordering them to be liberated,―― “They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? Nay, verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.”