the just, because he is offensive to us; wherefore they shall eat the fruit of their doings.' Isaiah iii. Going up therefore, they cast down the just man, saying to one another,Let us stone James the Just.' And they began to stone him, as he did not die immediately when cast down; but turning round, he knelt down saying, ‘I entreat thee, O Lord God and Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' Thus they were stoning him, when one of the priests of the sons of Rechab, a son of the Rechabites, spoken of by Jeremiah the prophet, cried out saying, 'Cease, what are you doing? Justus is praying for you.' And one of them, a fuller, beat out the brains of Justus with the club that he used to beat out clothes. Thus he suffered martyrdom, and they buried him on the spot, where his tombstone is still remaining by the temple. He became a faithful witness, both to Jews and Greeks, that Jesus is Christ. Immediately after this, Vespasian invaded and took Judea." Such is the more ample testimony of Hegesippus, in which he fully coincides with Clement. So admirable a man indeed was James, and so celebrated among all for his justice, that even the wiser part of the Jews were of opinion that this was the cause of the immediate siege of Jerusalem, which happened to them for no other reason than the crime against him. Josephus also has not hesitated to superadd this testimony in his works. "These things," says he, "happened to the Jews to avenge James the Just, who was the brother of him that is called Christ, and whom the Jews had slain, notwithstanding his preeminent justice." The same writer also relates his death, in the twentieth book of his Antiquities, in the following words: "But Cesar having learned the death of Festus, sends Albinus as governor of Judea. But the younger Ananus, whom we mentioned before as obtaining the priesthood, was particularly rash and daring in his disposition. He was also of the sect of the Sadducees, which are the most unmerciful of all the Jews in the execution of judgment, as we have already shown. Ananus, there

fore, being of this character, and supposing that he had a suitable opportunity, in consequence of the death of Festus, and Albinus being yet on the way, calls an assembly of the judges; and bringing thither the brother of Jesus who is called Christ, whose name was James, with some others, he presented an accusation against them, as if they had violated the law, and committed them to be stoned as criminals. But those of the city that seemed most moderate and most accurate in observing the law, were greatly offended at this, and secretly sent to the king, entreating him to send to Ananus with the request not to do these things, saying that he had not acted legally even before. Some also went out to meet him as he came from Alexandria, and inform him that it was not lawful for Ananus to summon the Sanhedrim without his knowledge. Albinus, induced by this account, writes to Ananus in a rage, and threatening that he would call him to an account. But king Agrippa, for the same reason, took from him the priesthood, after he had held it three months, and appointed Jesus the son of Dammæus his successor." These accounts are given respecting James, who is said to have written the first of the epistles general, (catholic;) but it is to be observed that it is considered spurious. Not many indeed of the ancients have mentioned it, and not even that called the epistle of Jude, which is also one of the seven called catholic epistles. Nevertheless we know, that these, with the rest, are publicly used in most of the churches.

CHAPTER XXIV.

ANNIANUS WAS APPOINTED THE FIRST BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA AFTER MARK.

NERO was now in the eighth year of his reign, when Annianus succeeded the apostle and evangelist Mark in the administration of the church at Alexandria. He was a man distinguished for his piety, and admirable in every respect.

CHAPTER XXV.

PETER

THE PERSECUTION UNDER NERO, IN WHICH PAUL AND
WERE HONOURED WITH MARTYRDOM IN THE CAUSE OF RE-
LIGION AT ROME.

NERO now having the government firmly established under him, and henceforth plunging into nefarious projects, began to take up arms against that very religion which acknowledges the one Supreme God. To describe, indeed, the greatness of this man's wickedness, is not compatible with our present object; and as there are many that have given his history in the most accurate narratives, every one may, at his pleasure, in these contemplate the grossness of his extraordinary madness. Under the influence of this, he did not proceed to destroy so many thousands with any calculation, but with such indiscriminate murder as not even to refrain from his nearest and dearest friends. His own mother and wife, with many others that were his near relatives, he killed like strangers and enemies, with various kinds of deaths. And, indeed, in addition to all his other crimes, this too was yet wanting to complete the catalogue, that he was the first of the emperors that displayed himself an enemy of piety towards the Deity. This fact is recorded by the Roman Tertullian, in language like the following: "Examine your records. There you will find that Nero was the first that persecuted this doctrine, particularly then when after subduing all the east, he exercised his cruelty against all at Rome. Such is the man of whom we boast, as the leader in our punishment. For he that knows who he was, may know also that there could scarcely be any thing but what was great and good, condemned by Nero." Thus Nero publicly announcing himself as the chief enemy of God, was led on in his fury to slaughter the apostles. Paul is therefore said to have been beheaded at Rome, and Peter to have been crucified under him. And this account is confirmed by the fact, that the names of Peter and Paul still remain

in the cemeteries of that city even to this day. But likewise, a certain ecclesiastical writer, Caius by name, who was born about the time of Zephyrinus bishop of Rome, disputing with Proclus the leader of the Phrygian sect, gives the following statement respecting the places where the earthly tabernacles of the aforesaid apostles are laid. "But I can show," says he, "the trophies of the apostles for if you will go to the Vatican, or to the Ostian road, you will find the trophies of those who have laid the foundation of this church, and that both suffered martyrdom about the same time. Dionysius bishop of Corinth bears the following testimony, in his discourse addressed to the Romans. Thus, likewise you, by means of this admonition, have mingled the flourishing seed that had been planted by Peter and Paul at Rome and Corinth. For both of these having planted us at Corinth, likewise instructed us; and having in like manner taught in Italy, they suffered martyrdom about the same time.' This testimony I have superadded, in order that the truth of the history might be still more confirmed.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE JEWS WERE AFFLICTED WITH INNUMERABLE EVILS, AND FINALLY COMMENCED A WAR WITH THE ROMANS.

JOSEPHUS, in his account of the great distresses that seized the Jewish nation, relates also, in his writings, that beside many others, vast numbers also of those that were of the first rank among the Jews, were scourged with rods, and nailed upon the cross at Jerusalem, by Florus. For he happened to be procurator of Judea at the commencement of the war, in the twelfth year of Nero's reign. Then," says he, says he, "throughout all Syria a tremendous commotion seized upon the inhabitants, in consequence of the revolt of the Jews. Every where

66

In this passage from Dionysius, Valesius has followed the text of Syncellus, contrary to that commonly received. We give the passage according

to the latter.

did the inhabitants of the cities destroy the Jews without mercy. So that you could see the cities filled with unburied corpses, and the dead bodies of the aged mixed with those of children, and women not even having the necessary covering of their bodies. The whole province, indeed, was filled with indescribable distresses. But greater still than the crimes already endured, was the anticipation of those that threatened." Such is the statement of Josephus, and such was the condition of the Jews at this time.

BOOK III.--CHAPTER I.

THE PARTS OF THE WORLD WHERE CHRIST WAS PREACHED BY

THE APOSTLES.

SUCH, then, was the state of the Jews at this time. But the holy apostles and disciples of our Saviour, being scattered over the whole world, Thomas, according to tradition, received Parthia as his allotted region; Andrew received Scythia, and John, Asia; where, after continuing for some time, he died at Ephesus. Peter appears to have preached through Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia and Asia, to the Jews that were scattered abroad; who also, finally coming to Rome, was crucified with his head downward, having requested of himself to suffer in this way. Why should we speak of Paul, spreading the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and finally suffering martyrdom at Rome, under Nero? This account is given by Origen, in the third book of his exposition of Genesis.

CHAPTER II.

THE FIRST THAT PRESIDED OVER THE CHURCH AT ROME.

AFTER the martyrdom of Paul and Peter, Linus was the first that received the episcopate at Rome. Paul makes mention of him in his epistle from Rome to