教會史卷 1–9（拉丁譯本） 第 8 章

In this eighth volume I have judged it worthy to leave also to the memory of posterity those things which have been done in our own times; and to relate from this point how greatly and how magnificently throughout the whole world the word of Christ and the doctrine of piety had advanced, and to what height of sublimity it had ascended, surpasses our powers. Yet even from this it is possible to know it: that several of the Roman princes even permitted certain men both the office of governing provinces and of administering justice, and not only allowed them to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, but even to act in the faith with all confidence and liberty; so that they held those men faithful and close to themselves, concerning whom they were assured that they held nothing treacherous with regard to the faith of Christ.

Such was that most renowned man Dorotheus, held in high esteem, whence too he deserved to be preferred above all in honour and in love. With him were Gorgonius and the rest faithful in the Lord along with them, or those who, within the palace, by the emperor's regard deserved to be preferred above the other faithful. But now, who could worthily explain the multitudes of the peoples gathering within the churches, and especially on feast days the innumerable throngs flocking together in each several place? For not even the ancient buildings sufficed, but daily the houses of prayer were enlarged, so that their spaciousness could not contain them; and the Church, by the more prosperous state of men's minds, was increased, and its glory, exceeding the earth and towering above all things, seemed to hasten toward heaven.

For no envy arose, no malice of the most wicked demon opposed, since indeed the people, still then well-disposed toward God, was upheld by the aid of the heavenly right hand. But when, from much liberty and much indulgence, morals were corrupted and discipline was ruined — while we envy one another and disparage one another, and while we bite and accuse one another and stir up internal wars against our own selves, while with the javelins of words we rouse discords and contests against our neighbours, while dissimulation is in the countenance, guile in the heart, falsehood is uttered in words, and the heap of evils swells up one by one — the divine providence, perceiving the ruin of discipline brought upon its own people out of so great peace and its own too great gentleness, sets about first to restrain it gradually, and for a while permits those only who were in the army to be assailed by the persecution of the heathen. But when no perception of His clemency was rendered back by the peoples, but rather, as if ignorant of God, they judged that affairs were conducted without divine providence, and through this the more persisted in their evils; having become forgetful and being inflamed with contentions, envy, malice, pride, enmities and hatreds against one another, so that they believed themselves to hold rather a tyranny than a priesthood, and, forgetful of Christian humility and sincerity, celebrated the sacred mysteries with profane minds — then at last He cast down the daughters of Zion and cast down from heaven the glory of Israel, nor did He remember His footstool; and again He says, the Lord has submerged all the beauty of Israel and destroyed all its walls; and again, as He says in the Psalms, He has destroyed the covenant of His servant, He has profaned to the ground its sanctification, namely by the overthrow of the churches, and He has destroyed all its walls, He has made its fortifications a terror; all who passed by the way plundered His people; for all which things we have become a reproach to our neighbours.

For He has exalted the right hand of our enemies and turned away the help of His sword, and did not aid us in the battle; but He has even destroyed him from his cleansing and cast his throne down to the ground. He has made our days few, and above all things has poured out confusion upon us. For the sum of all evils was upon us then, when the houses of prayer and the churches of the living God were levelled to the ground and overthrown from their very foundations, and the divine Scriptures were burned with fire in the midst of the streets. O the wickedness! We ourselves saw these things with our own eyes: the priests of the Lord and pastors of the churches publicly stripped, shamelessly and dishonourably dragged hither and thither by the impious, so that that prophetic word was fulfilled which says:

Contempt has been poured out upon princes, and He has led them astray in a trackless place and not in the way. But it is not for us to describe how many kinds of injuries were heaped upon the priests of God, just as we have not deemed it ours to set forth one by one how great a madness of dissension had first blazed up among our own people. This alone has it been permitted to hand over to history: that by the just judgment of God and by a necessary chastisement we felt the divine hand. For it is not fitting to bring into the open on whose account the whirlwind of persecution was brought in, or whom, and how many, the storm of unbelief submerged; but I shall commemorate those things alone which may edify either ourselves who speak or others who hear.

Wherefore now, from this point, we shall unfold briefly, as far as we can, the divine contests of the most blessed martyrs. The nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian was in course, the month of March, and the solemn day of Pascha was drawing near, when edicts of the prince were set forth throughout all the earth: that all the churches which are anywhere should be levelled to the ground, the sacred Scriptures burned with fire; that if any among our people were fortified with the prerogative of some honour, this being taken away he should remain infamous; and if any of the slaves should have remained a Christian, they were, by the edicts, denied the attaining of liberty. But after no long time others too are added.

It is commanded that all who preside over the churches in each several place should first be cast into chains, and then thereafter be compelled by every torture to sacrifice to the images. Here truly the priests of God were made a great spectacle to this world, and to angels and to men, when by the cruelty of the persecutors they were dragged to torments and, before all, sweated out wondrous contests. But those — who were also far more numerous — whom fear oppressed and whom terror alone dashed down before the encounter, I think it better to pass over. But the rest, whose mind was more ready and faith stronger, endured torments. Some were torn apart with scourges, others gouged with claws, others burned with heated plates. Of whom—!

Some indeed, wearied, gave way, but others preserved their patience unto the end. And some of the persecutors themselves, as if moved by compassion, brought forward certain of our people to the impure sacrifices, and, as though they had sacrificed, cried it aloud, when they had not sacrificed. Of others, when they had not even drawn near to the unclean victims, they themselves proclaimed that they had already offered, and let them go — culpable in this alone, that they suffered in silence the crime laid against them. Others, half-alive, were carried off and reckoned as if they had sacrificed. Some indeed cried out with a mighty voice and testified that they had not sacrificed, but that they were Christians, rejoicing to be adorned with such a confession.

Some also, with greater boldness, testified that they had neither sacrificed nor would ever sacrifice; yet even these were gently pushed away by the bystanders, as though they had complied — so great was the zeal of the impious. But it was not permitted to do these things against the blessed martyrs with impunity; of whose patience and virtue of magnanimity, though no one can worthily [tell]... A small spark had first been kindled among the soldiers alone, when it was decreed that if there were any Christians among the soldiers, they should either know that they must sacrifice, or lay down alike their military service and their life; and very many of them laid down the military service for the faith of Christ, and a few even laid down their lives.

But when from thence the flame, taking its beginning, [spread] throughout the peoples and the priests... how many, almost daily, throughout each several city and province became martyrs! A man illustrious in the honour and dignity of the world, as soon as he saw the cruel edicts posted in the forum against the worshippers of God, kindled with the exceeding heat of faith, publicly tore them apart bit by bit — an Augustus being established in that same city together with the Caesar. When the deed of the religious and illustrious man was reported to them, immediately, raging against him with every kind of cruelty, they could not even accomplish this one thing, that anyone should see him sorrowful amid his punishments; but he rejoiced rather with a joyful countenance.

Whence his torturers were the more grievously tormented, because they exhausted all kinds of tortures upon one whom they could not even make sorrowful. After him the madness of their intent is transferred to one of the companions of Dorotheus, who were in the king's chamber and who had always been held in the affection due to children. For when he more freely protested against the immense torments of the aforesaid martyr, he too is ordered to be led into the midst and is compelled to sacrifice; refusing, he is commanded to be hung up and lacerated over his whole body with scourges — evidently that by the compulsion of pain he might do unwilling what was ordered. But when he remained unmoved, his flesh now stripped bare of its skin, he is ordered to be drenched with vinegar and salt.

And when he had steadfastly and bravely borne even this kind of torment, a gridiron with coals strewn beneath is ordered to be set in the midst, and there whatever remained of his body, wasted by the beatings, to be laid upon it, and to be kindled not all at once, but gradually and little by little, that the punishment might, of course, be prolonged. And when the ministers of crime, turning the body now this way, now that, began the tortures on each single limb and renewed the punishments, hoping that they could wring consent from him, he, firm in faith and exulting in hope, his flesh now consumed and dissolved by the fire, joyfully breathed out his last breath in faith. Adorned with such a martyrdom — Peter, for this is his name — he truly showed himself heir both of the faith and of the name of Peter.

The instructor of this man in discipline, and his master in the offices which were performed within the palace, was Dorotheus, the provost of the royal chamber, having with him... almost all the ministers of the chamber persisted vigilantly and freely in the faith of God. Dorotheus therefore and Gorgonius, when they saw Peter tortured with such cruel and monstrous torments, constantly and freely said: 'Why, O emperor, do you punish in Peter the sentence of the mind which flourishes in all of us? Why is that reckoned a crime in him, which is confessed by us all? This is our faith, this our worship, and one and the same conviction.'

Whom, having nonetheless ordered to come into the midst, after they had been afflicted with almost the same torments as the former ones, he at last ordered to be killed, hung by a noose. Then also Anthimus, the bishop of that same city, persevering in the confession of the Lord Jesus Christ, received the glory of martyrdom by the beheading of his head. And this man, as a truly good shepherd going before on the way of martyrdom, almost the whole multitude of his flock followed. For it happened at Nicomedia in those very days that some part of the palace burned down in a fire. Kindled with immeasurable fury, he orders all our people, gathered together in a heap, some indeed to be beheaded with the sword, others to be burned in the fires. But in them, through divine grace, a greater fire of faith was burning.

In short, when the attendant ministers questioned each one, whether perhaps, being about to sacrifice, they wished to be dismissed, they vied to rush into the flames, or to offer their necks to the striking swords. And when now the very excess of cruelty made even those very spectators shudder, the ministers of crime, having cast a part of the people into little boats, led them out into the midst of the sea, and there, while they persisted in the resolve of the faith, cast them headlong into the deep. And to such a degree did the madness of cruelty blaze up among them, that the royal youths who had been made martyrs, after they had, according to the custom of humanity, been consigned to burial, they dug up again, and threw their bodies into the sea, saying this:

'Lest perchance these too be made gods of the Christians, and those who refuse to adore the gods begin to adore our slaves.' For they suppose that among us divine honour is paid to the martyrs. While these things were being done at Nicomedia, where the bloody and ferocious author himself of the cruelty gaped after the flesh of the pious, no less busily also throughout the province of Melitene and Syria all the leaders of the churches were, by the imperial edicts, pressed to be thrust into prisons and cast into chains; and together with these there were seized, from the common people, men and women, noble and ignoble; and everywhere there came to be a spectacle miserable and foul.

For suddenly there was found in the city a silence, in the prisons a throng; in the city, through the streets, not a single man; in the prisons, no empty place — so that not so much did the accused seem to be led off to the dungeon, as the whole city seemed to have migrated to the prison. The chains which had been forged for murderers, adulterers, poisoners, and violators of tombs, now bind fast the necks of bishops and presbyters and deacons and lectors and of all religious men, so that neither did chains remain over for the criminals, nor was there any place of the dungeon left.

But when it had come to the prince that the prisons were seething and that, through the punishments of the innocent, there was no place left for the criminals, new decrees are again sent forth: that of those who had been shut up, whoever wished to sacrifice should depart free, but whoever refused should perish by various kinds of punishments. Then, how great multitudes of martyrs arose throughout the several provinces, and especially in the regions of Africa and Mauretania, of the Thebaid also and Egypt — it surpasses our power to comprehend by number. Nor indeed are we sufficient, as is worthy, even to record those whose contests at Palestine, or at Tyre, which is the greatest city of Phoenicia, we inspected as present eyewitnesses.

For with such great virtue of perseverance did they contend against the tortures inflicted for the sake of piety, that, unless a man first believe our Lord and Saviour, who says, 'Behold, I am with you all the days, even unto the consummation of the age,' and know His power to be present to the martyrs, he would withhold his faith from the deeds done. But we, as I have said, narrate not things heard, but things inspected with our own eyes. Diverse kinds of torments, succeeding one another in turn, were sought out. First with scourges the martyrs of God were plucked over the whole body. After these they were handed over to beasts; lions, bears, leopards and every kind of wild beast were brought forth, boars too, and even bulls, to whose ferocity iron and fire were added.

All these things were prepared against the worshippers of God, and every cruelty of men, of beasts, and of the elements was armed against them. To this end the worshippers of God, stripped, are set in the middle of the arena; fury is moreover added by art to the beasts within their cages, and thus, made more savage than their own nature, they rush forth from the barriers, suddenly fill the stadium, surround the church of the martyrs set in the midst, go round about again and again and reconnoitre; and, perceiving the guard of divine power to be present with them, they withdraw far from their bodies. But at once the fury which was being restrained in the beasts passes over into men.

No one perceives the present power of God, no one perceives the divine aid present with the pious; but those whose art this is are sent to goad the beasts against those whom the divine right hand was defending. Yet those beasts — that it might be shown to all that ferocity was not lacking to the beasts, but that the divine guard was present with the worshippers of God — with incredible speed tear apart the very men who are sent to goad them. And when now no one of such handlers dared to approach, the holy martyrs themselves are ordered, with moving hands and as if provoking, to incite the beasts against themselves. But not even thus could they suffer any harm; but even if perhaps any beast had been stirred up, when it had come near to them, at once, turned back upon itself, it retreated.

[Astonishment] had seized them, seeing naked men — among whom very many were still of the earliest age — set in the midst of so many and so great beasts, all intrepid and undaunted, with palms stretched out to heaven and with eyes and mind wholly with God, not only caring nothing for earthly things, but not even greatly regarding their own flesh, to stand fast in the midst of the beasts. But O hard and impious minds of mortals! The ferocity of the beasts grows tame by the power of God, yet human madness neither is softened by the examples of the beasts, but God is still tempted by men. Others, truly criminal, are ordered to be exposed to the beasts; who nonetheless, as soon as they appeared, one was seized... and thus all perish within a moment of time.

But not even thus did the goaded beasts cause any harm to the worshippers of God, the divine Spirit encompassing them as with the strongest walls. For truthful is He who had said: 'Where there are of you two or three, there will I be in the midst of them.' Since therefore not even thus had human savagery accomplished anything, the beasts are ordered to be changed, and, the former ones being taken away, others again are let loose. When these too, like the former, had brought nothing grievous upon the worshippers of God, these also being removed, they send against the martyrs men more savage than the beasts, who — that they might show themselves worse than the beasts — even forbade the corpses to be committed to the earth, but ordered them to be given to the waves.

These things [happened] at Tyre to the venerable martyrs who had come to that city from the parts of Egypt. But in their own province, at Egypt, innumerable others of no inferior glory — both men and women, and also boys and old men — for the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, esteeming lightly the present life, sought the blessedness of future glory.

Some of them, after blows, after claws, after scourges and other horrible torments of diverse kinds, were handed over to the flames; others were cast headlong into the sea; some too were beheaded, so that they gave their necks to the axes of their own accord; some were consumed by starvation; others were fixed to gibbets, on which certain ones, in a perverse manner, with the head pressed downward, [were left to die]. But at the Thebaid the cruelty practised surpasses all narration. In place of claws the torturers employed the potsherds of earthen vessels, with which they lacerated the whole body up to this point: until they drew off the whole skin of the flesh.

Women too, naked, so that not even their private parts were covered, suspended by one foot on high by machines contrived with a certain art, and with the head plunged toward the ground, exposed to a most shameful spectacle, they suffered to hang for a whole continuous day. Others: wherever two trees near one another were found, by a certain force bending the branches of each against one another, and binding to each single branch one single foot of the martyr, suddenly they released the branches which they had bent by force. And these, when they were carried back to their position by their natural momentum, tore off and carried away with them the limbs plucked away, the inward parts being rent asunder and cast in contempt.

And this was done not for a few days, or for a short time, but throughout several years, daily — when at the very least little children were slaughtered by the aforesaid kinds of punishments. We ourselves too, during that same time, when we were journeying in the parts of Egypt, inspected with our own eyes how innumerable peoples of the faithful were brought before the most savage governor as he sat for the tribunals; whom he, each one in order having confessed himself a Christian, ordered to be beheaded. And when these of their own accord and in rivalry submitted themselves to the sword, the confession having gone before, that inhuman and cruel man, moved neither by the sight of the multitude nor by the magnanimity of their virtue, nonetheless ordered them all to be led away and beheaded.

They all go out together to the field adjoining the walls, drawn not by the fetters of executioners, but bound by the chains of faith. No one was lacking, though no one guarded them; of their own accord all — nay, even anticipating one another — offered their necks to those who struck. The hands of the executioners failed, and, succeeding one another, they grew weary; the edge of the sword was blunted. I saw the wearied executioners sit down, regain their strength, restore their spirits, change their swords, and the very day itself not suffice for the punishment. Yet no one of them all, not even a tiny infant, could be frightened away from death; but this alone each one dreaded: lest perhaps, while the hastening sun, sinking, closed the day, he should be left, separated from the fellowship of the martyrs.

Thus, with the confidence of faith, constantly and bravely, with gladness and exultation, they seized upon present death as the beginnings of eternal life. Indeed, when the foremost were being slaughtered, the rest did not indulge their spirits in sloth or torpor, but singing psalms and chanting hymns to God, each awaited the place of his martyrdom, so that, while doing these things, they might breathe out even their last breaths in the praises of God. O truly wonderful flock, worthy of all veneration, that flock of the blessed, that band of brave men, that crown of the splendour of the glory of Christ! This crown, indeed, a stone more precious than all and a nobler gem adorned; this band a more illustrious leader went before; this flock a nobler shepherd graced.

Phileas is the name of this man, who was bishop of that very city which is called Thmuis. He drew the nobility of his first origin, according to the virtue of the soul, from things heavenly; but of things earthly, as far as pertains to the world, he was among the first in the Roman commonwealth. Being most excellently trained in all the exercises which pertain to the virtue of the soul, he so took up this newest philosophy — which is the first of all — the philosophy according to God, that he went before all who had preceded him.

And although he had very many kinsmen and blood-relations, noble men, in the same city, he was frequently brought before the governor; and, so many and such great kinsmen entreating him, he was urged to acquiesce to the governor's admonitions, to have regard for his wife and to take up consideration for his children, and not to persist in the presumption he had begun. But he, just as if a wave were dashed against an immovable rock, spurned the sayings of the babblers, stretched his mind toward heaven, kept God before his eyes, and reckoned as his parents and kinsmen the holy martyrs and apostles. There was present then a certain man commanding a troop of Roman soldiers, Philoromus by name.

When he saw Phileas surrounded by the tears of his kinsmen and wearied by the cunning of the governor, yet in no way able to be bent or broken, he exclaimed: 'Why do you tempt the constancy of the man in vain and to no purpose? Why do you wish to make unfaithful him who keeps faith with God? Why do you compel him to deny God, that he may comply with men? Do you not see that his ears do not hear your words? that his eyes do not see your tears? How can he be bent by earthly tears, whose eyes behold the heavenly glory?' After these words, the anger of all, turned upon Philoromus, demands that he undergo one and the same sentence with Phileas. Willingly assenting to them, the judge orders both to be beheaded.

But since we have made mention of Phileas and have extolled the zeal of his genius and erudition, it does not seem out of place if we insert into this history, from among his little works — in which he records concerning the sufferings of the martyrs — some things which evidently pertain to the matter. Writing therefore to the people of Thmuis, this same Phileas, after some other things, reports these: 'The blessed martyrs furnished us examples of these good things, who, enduring in the contests together with us, according to what they had been taught from the divine Scriptures, holding the eye of their mind fixed on God, took death for the sake of piety without trembling.'

'For Scripture has taught us unceasingly that this must be done: that we should struggle against sin even unto death; since He Himself did not deem it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself... Following Him, all the blessed martyrs took up all tortures and punishments, lest they should stain the conscience of their faith, since indeed perfect charity in them was casting out fear. And of these, if I should now wish to enumerate the virtues of their endurance and to set forth the strength of their constancy, there is not for me so great an abundance of speech... [nor would such things] seem credible.'

'For they were exposed to all who wished, at their own pleasure, to inflict tortures; and if anyone, devising at leisure some new kind of torment, brought it forward, it was permitted to inflict it. Some therefore were beaten with cudgels, others with rods, others too with scourges; some, stretched out with thongs or ropes, were bound fast. Others, with their hands bound behind their back, were hung up and, distended by pulleys, were torn apart limb by limb. And now to be furrowed with claws was reckoned old and slight. And if perhaps that kind of torment had been applied to anyone... but both the belly and the thighs and the shins, and even to the toes the claw reached. Nor indeed did even the face and countenance and forehead remain immune from the torments.'

'And above all this was added: that, after the human bodies had been stripped not only of clothing but even of skin, they became a cruel spectacle to all who passed by. Some, stretched out on columns and bound behind their back with their arms wrenched round, they left thus. And now those who were suspended before the governor suffered not only during that time in which they were either being examined or tortured by him... if perhaps any of these, by the continuation of the unremitting punishment, should fall away from the firmness of his purpose.'

'But so great was the cruelty in these things, and to such a degree had every feeling of humanity utterly fled from them, that, after the whole body had been consumed either by torments or by beatings, they were dragged naked by the feet again... and their backs, still raw with wounds, were thrown down again onto the ground strewn beneath with fragments of potsherds. Meanwhile very many, constantly and bravely enduring even unto death, brought no small shame of vainly-attempted cruelty upon the inventors of crimes. But others, having recovered the health of their bodies, of their own accord provoked the dispensers of punishments to renew the contests; whom those men, blushing, feared to recall again to the torments, and, terrified by their very audacity, ordered them to be beheaded.'

These are the words of the truly-in-God philosopher, the blessed martyr Phileas, by which he would make those men, together with himself, companions and partners of the martyrs. But what should we say of those elsewhere? For herein both the common rights of humanity and the proper laws of the Roman realm [were trampled], when the whole people, and honoured men, and the curator and the magistrate, confessed themselves to be Christians and refused to acquiesce to sacrificing; whereupon they order them to be surrounded by soldiers, and all together — men with their women, old men with little children, the whole citizenry with its citizens — to be consumed by fire cast upon them; so that there was utterly perpetrated a thing which, had it been done against enemies, would have borne the mark of cruelty.

Now the leader and captain of this blessed and numerous band of martyrs, welcomed together by the whole city, was a man renowned for piety and religion and for every kind of kindness, Adauctus by name, an Italian by native country and by descent, who had passed through the honours of the palace by each successive grade up to the mastership of the offices, and who at that time also administered the accounts of the imperial treasury while residing in the aforesaid city. The whole people, following his steadfastness in the confession of Christ after the example of that good captain, was truly of the highest rank. But whence shall we find strength to enumerate one by one the sufferings proper to each single martyr? For who could even recount those torments by which the holy martyrs in Arabia were cut down with axes?

Or how could anyone unfold what was done in Cappadocia, where the worshippers of God were ordered to have their legs broken? Who could relate the tortures in Mesopotamia, where they slew Christians with most cruel torments, hanging them one by one by their hands and feet in the manner of swine's carcasses, while a most bitter smoke was thrust up beneath them? And others they consumed with lingering torments, bringing a slow fire close to them. And how could I recount those things done at Alexandria, which even surpass the fables of the ancient poets? There, when the ears had been cut off and the nostrils mutilated with a shameful wound, and the tips of the hands and of the other limbs amputated, they let the maimed victim go away to be mocked.

And how at Antioch shall I recall the gridirons set upon burning coals, on which Christians were laid and roasted? But amid these things I do not think it right to keep silent about a memorable deed of two noble young men. When they had been arrested and were being forced to sacrifice to the images, they said: 'Lead us to the altars.' And when they had been brought there, laying their hands upon the burning fire, they said: 'If we draw them back, believe that we have sacrificed.' And they remained unmoved until all the flesh flowed away into the fire. Others, when they were sought for sacrifice, avoiding the sacrilegious defilement, ended their lives by casting themselves down—with less confidence of endurance, indeed, but with greater caution in preserving the faith.

Among these there was a certain admirable and venerable woman, comely alike in beauty and in chastity, noble by descent and abundant in possessions. She had two virgin daughters, honourable enough and reared according to the rule of their mother's modesty, rivalling each other in probity, alike in appearance and in character; whom their religious mother had brought up in the fear of the Lord according to the divine precept. But because of these good things which we have mentioned above, whether of nature or of upbringing, much strife was stirred up among wicked men concerning the virgins and their mother, and they were sought out with the utmost zeal and the utmost force. And when, in order to escape the whirlwind, they had contrived their own absence, every effort was made to bring about their presence.

Soldiers sent for this very purpose, having found them, compelled them to come to Antioch. But as the soldiers pressed them, and they journeyed placed in a vehicle, the religious and modest mother used such words as these to her daughters: 'You know, my sweetest daughters, how I have brought you up in the discipline of God; you know that from your infancy God has been to you a father, God a nourisher, God an instructor, and that you have loved together with me the good of modesty and chastity so greatly that not even your eye, as I am aware, was ever stained by a wanton look.' [The enemy] strives either to separate us from God or from chastity. Shall those members then be prostituted in public brothels, which almost the very public air itself has held unknown?

Do not, I beseech you, my daughters—for neither is our faith in God so small that we should dread death, nor is our chastity so despised that we should desire to live even in dishonour. Rather, if it please you, in this too follow your mother's example, as you hold to it in all things. Let us anticipate the impure hands of the executioners, and forestall the assaults of the unchaste, and let us condemn this world, which drives and drags us to an impure and unchaste life, by a pure and modest death.

And when she saw her daughters kindled by such exhortations to a like resolve, they came to a certain river situated along the way; and there, when they had pretended to have gone down on account of human necessity, and the guards, compelled by natural respect, had withdrawn a little, drawing their garments more carefully together on this side and that, they cast themselves into the swift currents of the threatening river. And two other virgins also, sisters distinguished in all respects, noble by descent, admirable in life, still in earliest youth, fair enough in appearance but fairer in soul, adorned with morals rather than with jewels, exceedingly praiseworthy in their pursuits, not enduring to have their chastity violated by public edicts and laws, plunged themselves into the sea waves. These things happened at Antioch.

But in the regions of Pontus things yet more cruel were being done. Sharp reeds were driven under the nails of the fingers of some. Upon others, lead melted by fire and poured over the back down to the shameful parts, by which the natural excretion is wont to be effected, was infused. Upon women too, glowing spits and burning stakes, without any regard for humanity or mercy, were thrust through the private parts of the entrails and the secret places of the natural members. But what shall I do, since the very names fail me for the crimes committed, and for the wicked deeds done no words can be found by which they might be enumerated?

Yet the bravest and most pious martyrs endured all things, while the excellent and illustrious judges reckoned that their wisdom would be a marvel to all in this one thing alone: if they should devise some torment of new cruelty and of a new kind.

But when at length, sated not by reason or humanity but by the very excess of their cruelty, they began to look back upon the enormity of their own crime—cities bereft of citizens, and of the best citizens, and the countryside laid waste—they turned to a semblance of humanity and set forth an imperial edict: that since it was not right to deliver to death so many citizens, in whom there was an obstinate conviction of their faith, it was resolved henceforth that this kind of men should indeed by no means undergo destruction, but that all who displayed this kind of confession, having the hollow of the knee likewise disabled by cauterizing, should be deported through each and every province into the mines of copper and iron, whether for labour or for punishment. This was the imperial clemency by which the best citizens were provided for.

But they indeed acted, as it seemed, according to their own manners or vices, while our just Savior through these things either tested the faith of those who believed in Him, or requited their merits.

But just as to enumerate one by one all who at that time in the sufferings of their flesh gave glory to God is not only difficult but even impossible, so also to omit them all utterly and not to make even a brief memorial of a few would not be fitting; and so we will delay especially over the leaders of the churches, each in his own place a martyr. Let there be recorded Anthimus, bishop of Nicomedia, beheaded; after him, ever a martyr in life and in pursuits, Lucian the presbyter of Antioch, who then at Nicomedia was proclaiming the kingdom of Christ by words and by deeds; at Tyre indeed the most noble among the martyrs, and from his earliest age [devoted] to Christ; [there was also] the presbyter of Sidon, and Silvanus bishop of the church of the Emesenes, who in his own city, consumed by the bites of wild beasts, was joined to the choirs of the martyrs; in Palestine indeed first Silvanus, bishop at Gaza, together with very many of the clergy; and in the Phaeno mine forty at once beheaded, among whose number is reckoned also the most noble flower of the church of Caesarea and the fruit of a heavenly gift, Pamphilus.

But at Alexandria and throughout all Egypt or the Thebaid, first, like some morning star rising among the constellations, was Peter, bishop of that city, foremost in doctrine, in morals and in life; and [others] not unequal in their teaching nor in their martyrdom; Phileas too, and Hesychius and Pachomius and Theodorus, bishops from the cities of Egypt, and the rest with them, countless, endured most noble martyrdoms.

To describe the contests of each of these individually—lest we prolong our work beyond what is just—I leave to their own fellow-citizens, who are well able to speak and were then present. Meanwhile, when our estate had been thrown into confusion and by cruel punishment everywhere the Lord had delivered up His household to be chastened by a few, but the ministers of bloody savagery raged against many, forthwith there is present the avenging right hand of God; and those who at first, while they kept the peace of the church, had governed the empire with all prosperity, He brings into so great a reversal of affairs that Augustus himself came to such a pitch of vanity and madness that, having laid aside the insignia of sovereignty together with his colleague Augustus, they lived as private men and commoners after their reign; while that other, who was second to him in honour, and afterward also his successor among the foremost—he who had been both the instigator and standard-bearer of our persecution—was afflicted with so many and various diseases and with a wasting of the body and a madness of mind, that after long and inextricable languors, driven by the furies of his own crimes, he of his own will gave up his nefarious life.

But these things happened afterward. At that time, in the western parts, Constantius was ruling the empire, which Maximian, who is also called Herculius, had laid down. For the Roman realm had been divided into two administrations. But he used much clemency toward men, and toward God indeed the greatest reverence. Nor had he, out of the fury of his partnership, stained his reign with the blood of the pious, nor had he, imitating the madness of Maximian, destroyed with hostile devastation the houses of prayer and the assemblies of our people; but rather he held the worshippers of God in veneration and honour. Whence also deservedly, a religious father, he left as heir a still more religious son, Constantine, to a kingdom well acquired.

But Constantine, as soon as he received the summit of the Roman realm by paternal inheritance, was by a certain marvellous grace of God dear to the citizens, welcome to the army, worthy of imitation by brave men, but terrible to the criminal and the cowardly. In reverence for religion he strove to surpass even his father by far. But Licinius too, by the common judgment of all, was received into the empire and even proclaimed Augustus—a matter which had grievously offended Maximinus, because he was then still held to be only Caesar in the eastern parts; and not enduring this any longer, he seized by force and assumed for himself the name of Augustus.

But Maximian, who is also called Herculius, whom we mentioned a little earlier to have been the colleague of Diocletian and to have laid down with him the insignia of empire, when he had been expelled by his son Maxentius, who held tyranny in the city of Rome, fled for pity's sake to Constantine as to a son-in-law, and contrived a plot against the very man by whom he had been religiously received. In which, being basely detected, he perished still more basely, so that after his death his statues and images were removed, and in public buildings the titles of his name were changed.

This man's son, then, Maxentius, who had seized tyranny in the city of Rome, at first, as though to court the favor of the populace toward himself, pretended to be a venerator of our faith, and on this account was pleased that the persecutions should be checked and all injuries against Christians warded off. But in the rest of his acts, in his life or morals, he showed nothing that might seem near to Christians. For in so great a dregs of outrages and crimes, in so great a mire of impurity was he immersed, that nothing whatever of the worst wicked deeds was foreign to the acts—I will not say of his life, but even of a single day.

In short, he commanded that the matrons of the senators, and especially of the nobles, be publicly dragged off and led to his lust, and after their defilement ordered them returned to their husbands—his adulterous lust not so much sated as altered. So great a fear had oppressed the fathers and the plebs, that they did not dare openly to show even this very thing, that they were in fear, but bore their unaccustomed servitude with groaning, and were held back by fear from contriving anything for liberty; while he, driven now not by anger but by the lust of slaughter, [ordered] the whole city and all who might be met, of whatever age and of whatever sex, to be cut down with swords, and countless multitudes of the Roman people were laid low not by the weapons of enemies but of fellow-citizens.

And the senators, especially those who appeared more illustrious in the curia either by honors or by wealth, were punished and proscribed on fabricated charges as though guilty. He added even this crowning point to his crimes, and cultivated the practice of the magic art with the utmost zeal; for the performance of which services noble pregnant women were sought out and, being applied to deadly rites, were split open through the middle. Little infants too were snatched away, and their entrails, torn from their bowels, were scrutinized.

Lions too were slaughtered, and by certain abominable devices and incantations composed by the demonic art, wars were said to be warded off through these things, and it was believed that the right and lawfulness of the realm could be preserved through wickedness. But to all these evils this too is added: that all who throughout the other cities or fields had been terrified by tyrannical cruelty, while they thought nothing safe for their life—and with all commerce ceasing—so great a famine had invaded the city and every place that nothing was left for the sustaining of life. But in the parts of the East and of Egypt, Maximinus was conducting his tyranny with a cruelty and madness like in every respect, so that the one seemed to imitate the other, as a partner in tyranny, even in crimes.

[so that one] seemed to imitate the other, and you could not tell to which above all you ought to award the palm of outrages. In this indeed Maximinus seemed to outstrip his partner in crime, that he even decreed public honors and the highest magistracies to the teachers of the magic and evil arts. He was also given up to the cult of images too superstitiously, so that he would not acquiesce even in the smallest movement without auguries and divinations and omens. Whence he was a more vehement persecutor against us, and more grievous than his predecessors.

He ordered too that the ancient shrines, long since abandoned even by their zealous worshippers, should all be renovated, and appointed priests and pontiffs for these throughout each province—all the nobles and those who had already discharged other honors—with military attendants and stipends added. Nor is it a marvel that he promoted even manifest sorcerers to be either governors of provinces or commanders of soldiers. But for the ministry of vanity of this sort, very great supplies of gold and silver were sought.

Whence it came about that all the provinces everywhere were stripped bare by various means and occasions—by burdening the census, by multiplying tributes, by condemning all the wealthier by contrived or even fabricated injuries, and by proscribing yet others—he was despoiling all alike of their paternal and ancestral family estates. Whence, mountains of gold, so to speak, gathered together, he lavished upon his intimates and satellites. But at banquets he was so lavish and so drunken that he was thought insane and out of his mind with the frenzy of wine; and awash in these and every kind of dissoluteness, he offered most shameful examples to his soldiers.

In short, whatever had been done wantonly, whatever insolently, whatever luxuriously, by the governors either of the soldiers or of the provinces, went unpunished because of the emperor's example. Among the rest, he had also this singular zeal: that he would pass by no—I do not say city, but even small town—without the adultery of noble matrons, whoever might be found in the various places, or the corruption of virgins. Such and so great a man, who was a public enemy of modesty, of honesty, of justice, and of all equity—why should he not also exist as an enemy and persecutor of Christians? Against whom he exercised so great a cruelty that he hastened to surpass his predecessors in crime.

He was eager to inflict fires, whips, crosses, wild beasts, the depth of the sea, the truncation of limbs, the gouging out of eyes, and special torments upon each single member—while yet those others were found more steadfast and brave in enduring than he was ingenious and cunning in devising. For he was often overcome not only by men, but even by women, who, kindled by the word of God and by the warmth of faith, were arrested indeed as women, but as brave men were crowned in the contest, preferring to undergo death more readily—nay rather even to seek it of their own accord—than to receive a stain upon the body.

Now while he was driven headlong by two most grievous masters, lust and cruelty, there was at Alexandria a certain Dorothea, sprung of a family noble enough, powerful in vast riches and in noble kinsmen. But in her the good of talent and of industry, and the pursuits of the other honorable arts, flourished more than these. Yet the glory of her form and beauty was so great that a marvellous and special fashioning of God was believed to be in her. But she, who strove to be fairer in the religion of her soul and the honesty of her life than in the countenance of her body, by a most equitable judgment of mind resolved rather to consecrate to God that which seemed beautiful and comely among men, than to indulge it to human use, so that she might remain a virgin consecrated to God.

But he, who defiled both divine and human things by lust together with cruelty, having learned only of the good of her form, and not also of the good of her talent and resolve, set his mind to violate the virgin and to pollute her chastity.

But having learned that she was a Christian, who according to his own edicts seemed more fit to be subjected to punishment than to lust, being placed in doubt he began to seethe, and toward whichever part [he inclined] he prevailed; and the virgin, awaiting martyrdom, he ordered snatched to punishment, and through secret messengers he solicited her concerning defilement. She replied that it was likewise a wickedness for her to pollute the temple of her body, which she had once consecrated to God, by the cult of idols or by the contagion of lust; that she was indeed prepared for death, but that it was not fitting for a cruel tyrant to offer anything flattering or soft, nor was it worthy that those fierce spirits should be softened toward her, which the profuse blood of Christians, shed wave upon wave daily, only hardened.

To which answers, when he, inflamed by lust, grew more keenly heated, and resolved to act by force unless she yielded to words, the most modest virgin, having abandoned all her possessions and her house and household, departed by night secretly with a few most faithful servants and with chastity as her dearest companion, and left the tyrant baffled, empty, and mad. But having assailed very many other noble women and virgins after her example, yet by that same example finding them likewise more ready for death than for the servitude of lust, he ordered them afflicted with cruel torments.

These underwent death much more readily and joyfully than all the rest, because they believed that double crowns were being prepared for them by the Lord, not only for piety but also for chastity. But among these accounts, I do not think it right to keep silent about the marvellous deed of a most noble woman in the city of Rome, Sophronia, whose husband held the prefecture of the city of Rome under the tyrant Maxentius. When he had learned of the beauty of the aforesaid woman, as was his custom, sending the ministers of debauchery, he ordered the woman led to him. She reported the matter to her husband. And he, when he had learned of it, revolving many things within himself, at last, groaning more deeply, said: 'And what shall we do, we for whom either these things must be endured or the soul must be laid down?'

Then she, when she saw that her husband, terrified by the fear of death, had betrayed her chastity, said to those who had been sent: 'Wait a little while, until, being composed as is fitting and adorned, I come forth.' Thereupon, having entered her chamber, when she had first prayed with knees fixed to the ground, as though about to immolate her chastity to God, seizing a dagger she pierced through her breast and vitals, sending final messengers of this kind to the tyrant through the servants standing by: 'Such women,' she said, 'may better please a tyrant as Christian women.'

In this manner in the East as well as in the West the tyrants raged, as though armed by one spirit of the demon and kindled by equal and the same vices; while yet through these things the Christians' virtue of soul and constancy of faith [were made] more approved and greater. And when the cruelty of the emperor Maximian too had raged against the Christians, and had delivered to slaughter countless thousands of men who worshipped the true God, and when drunkenness ceaselessly supplied strength to his cruelty and his lust—yet by divine providence [God cared] for His worshippers, and those whom He had tested through fire He leads forth again to refreshment. For divine vengeance seized the very author of the crime. And he who used to walk proud with fat and pampered flesh was suddenly distended, his entrails swollen and festering.

Then a wound, arising in the deeper parts of the breast, devoured all the inward recesses of the entrails within, with a creeping decay. Afterward, when certain fistulas were opened up to the surface with purulent passages, the stench from the inner parts of the putrefied wound was so intolerable that no one at all, not even of the physicians, could come near, because the flesh, quite fat and nourished in every luxury, exhaled from its corruption a grosser reek of putrefaction. Finally he ordered most of the physicians killed, because they could neither remedy the disease in any way nor endure the force of the stench. Among whom, when a certain man stood by rather to have his throat cut than to heal, inspired by God, he said:

'Why,' said he, 'O emperor, do you err, and think that what God inflicts can be revoked by men? This disease is not human, nor is it cured by physicians. But recall how many things you have done against the servants of God, and how impious and profane you have been toward divine religion, and you will understand whence you must seek remedies. For I indeed shall be able to die with the rest, but you will not be cured by physicians.'

Then for the first time Maximian understood that he was a man, and recalling the enormity of his crimes, he first of all confesses that he had erred and acted impiously, and begins as it were to make satisfaction to God; then next, having summoned those who obeyed him in public office, he orders a law to be written and immediately promulgated, whereby not only should persecution against the Christians cease and every injury be warded off, but also that they should be permitted to rebuild their churches, so that, being free for their accustomed worship and supplications, they might also entreat the most high God for his own welfare. When these things had been provided more quickly than said, forthwith edicts were sent throughout each and every city containing this tenor:

'The Emperor Caesar Galerius Maximianus, unconquered Augustus, pontifex maximus, Germanicus, Aegyptiacus, Thebaicus, Sarmaticus five times, Persicus twice, Carpicus six times, Armenicus, victor over the Medes and Adiabeni, holding tribunician power twenty times, imperator nineteen times, consul eight times, father of his country, proconsul; and the Emperor Caesar Flavius Valerius Constantinus, pious, fortunate, unconquered Augustus, pontifex maximus, holding tribunician power, imperator five times, consul, father of his country, proconsul.'

'Among the other things which we ordain for the benefit of the commonwealth, we indeed at first had wished to regulate all things according to the ancient laws and the public discipline of Roman observance, and among these to add this also: that the Christians, who had forsaken the religion of their fathers, should return again to it.'

'But since by a certain judgment of their own mind so great an obstinacy [held] them—[not following the discipline] which had been instituted by their forefathers, but rather each one, according to his own will, established a law for himself, and in diverse places diverse peoples flocked together; and when an edict had been set forth by us concerning these matters, [they chose] rather to subject themselves and to endure innumerable deaths than to obey such precepts; and since we perceive that many still persist in the same judgment of mind, so that they neither rendered due honor to the heavenly gods nor seemed to satisfy their own religion—having regard [to our clemency, which is wont] to give pardon to all men, we have gladly believed that our indulgence should be extended toward these also: that they should again be Christians, and build and rebuild the meeting-places in which they were accustomed to pray, provided nevertheless that they do nothing against the public discipline.'

'And by other letters we shall indicate to the judges what they ought to observe. Wherefore, in accordance with this our indulgence, they ought to entreat their God for our welfare and for the estate of the commonwealth, so that on every side, the commonwealth continuing unharmed, they too may be able to live secure in their homes.' [Chapter headings:] Concerning the image which had lately been consecrated at Antioch. Concerning those who at that time became martyrs. Concerning those things which were inscribed against us on tablets of bronze. Concerning those things which happened afterward—wars, plagues, famine. Concerning the victory of the emperor Constantine. Concerning the final destruction of our enemies.

Sending edicts through the several cities and setting forth a law that all should be released, they command that all who were held in prison, and all who were kept in the mines or in bonds of any kind, should go free and depart. When this had been done, it was as if, after an excessive storm, the splendour of the sun had been restored to heaven and to earth; and the leaders of our people, through each and every city, thronged the assemblies, held councils, restored the priesthoods, and set in order each several church wherever anything seemed to be lacking. And while these things were thus being carried on, a great amazement seized the unbelievers among the heathen at so great and so sudden a turning of affairs, so that by that very wonder they were compelled to confess that great and alone truly God is he whom the Christians worship.

But of our own people, those who in the contests had endured faithfully and manfully conducted themselves with all confidence and gladness. Those, however, who had acted more feebly and cravenly hastened, with all humility and supplication, to seek healing from those who had stood firm unscathed, and through them besought that the almighty God might be made propitious to them again.

And now those who had been released from the mines, coming through the several cities, went forward high-hearted and exalted, and displayed to the churches of God an unspeakable joy and exultation, all along the way passing through the streets and quarters of the cities with psalms and hymns; so that those who a little before had seen them dragged bound and chained into the mines were amazed and glorified God when they now beheld them joyful and exulting, returning to their own homes. From which even those very men who before had seemed hostile and adverse to us now rejoiced with us at the miracle of so sudden a conversion, and accounted our gladness a joy common to themselves.

But while these things were thus being done in the fields and villages and cities, and the peoples of the Christians rejoiced with modest exultation over the peace restored to them, the enemy of all good, the tyrant who, as we said above, held the tyranny over the parts of Egypt through the wickedness bred in him, could not bear it, and suffered our people to remain in peace for not more than six months, and straightway set to work at whatever he could get hold of to disturb it. And so first he attempts to hinder our people under certain pretexts, that they should not gather at the cemeteries. Then next he incites certain most wicked men of the city of Antioch to send an embassy against us, demanding that it should not be permitted for Christians to dwell in their own native land. This was the beginning of that embassy.

He does this through a certain frenzied Theotecnus. About the same time also Peter, of whom we made mention above, bishop of the city of Alexandria, in all things distinguished and adorned with every virtue, and in the divine Scriptures and in the word of God inferior to none of the ancients, of singular prudence too and perfect in all things, truly both a priest and a victim of God, is suddenly seized and, as if by command of Maximinus, is beheaded. And together with him also several other bishops from Egypt are slaughtered. Lucian too, a man pre-eminent in character, self-control, and learning, a presbyter of Antioch, when he had been brought before the tribunal of the judge:

"Why," said the governor to him, "do you, a reasonable and prudent man, follow a sect for which you can render no account? Or if there is any, let us hear it." Then he, being granted the opportunity of speaking, delivered an address of this sort concerning our faith: "It is not hidden that we Christians worship one who is the one God, announced to us through Christ and breathed into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. For we are not, as you suppose, bound fast by the error of any human persuasion, nor, as others are, deceived by the unexamined tradition of our fathers. Our authority concerning God is God himself.

For that sublime majesty could not glide into the perceptions of the human mind unless either conveyed by the power of his own Spirit or made known by the interpretations of his Word and Wisdom. I confess, we too once erred, and thought the images which we ourselves had fashioned to be gods, authors of heaven and earth; but the consecration we bestowed upon them convicted them of their fragile substance. In them there was only as much of veneration as the hand of the craftsmen had conferred of comeliness.

But that almighty God, who was not fashioned by our hands, but whose handiwork it was fitting that we should be, having pity on human errors, sent his Wisdom into this world clothed in flesh, that it might teach us of God, who had made heaven and earth, and that he was to be sought not in things made with hands, but in things eternal and invisible. He also established for us laws of life and precepts of discipline: to keep frugality, to rejoice in poverty, to cultivate gentleness, to be zealous for peace, to embrace purity of heart, to guard patience. But he also foretold that all these things which you now carry out against us would come upon us: that we should be led before kings and set before the tribunals of judges and slaughtered like a victim.

Hence it comes, in fine, that he himself also, though he was immortal, being the Word and Wisdom of God, offered himself to death, that being placed in the body he might furnish us an example of patience. Yet neither did he deceive us by his death, for us he rose again after the third day, not as those things which are now falsely written down, contained in the 'Acts of Pilate,' but innocent, spotless, and pure, he undertook death for this alone, that he might conquer it by rising again. The things I speak were not done in an obscure place, nor do they need witnesses. Already by now the greater part almost of the world attests this truth; whole cities do so, or, if in these anything seems suspect, the country folk too, ignorant of any fiction, bear witness concerning these things.

If it is still less believed, I will bring to you also the testimony of the very place in which the deed was done. This is attested by the place itself in Jerusalem, and the rock of Golgotha rent asunder beneath the burden of the gibbet, and that cave too, which, when the gates of hell were torn away, gave back the body once more restored to life, that thence it might be borne more purely to heaven. Or if even yet these things which have their substance on earth seem to you less worthy, receive also from heaven a faithful attestor. I bring forward the sun itself as witness of these things, which, when it saw these deeds done on earth by the impious, hid its light at midday in the sky. Search in your own annals: you will find that in the times of Pilate, when Christ suffered, the day was broken off by darkness, the sun having been put to flight.

But if you give no credence to the earth, to the heaven, to the blood of those from whom you seek out the truth by torments... And when now by these words he had almost begun to persuade his hearers, he is ordered to be hurried off into prison, and there, as it were without a tumult of the people, to be put to death. But throughout other places likewise the most cruel tyrant stirred up in a short time such things against us, that far more savage and more dreadful things than the former were perpetrated.

For when embassies of provinces or of cities had come against us, when so many and so great imperial edicts had come, so that the laws which had been issued against us were even ordered to be engraved on tablets of bronze; when a school-exercise about Pilate and Jesus was ordered to be held by schoolboys, for the sake of our reproach, and to be chanted the whole day long, filled with fabricated blasphemies. And in these laws, which he had set up engraved in bronze against us in each and every city, as though to abide for ever, boastfully enough and...