yet disposed to obey, and yet received only the same answer, the last confession of every one in martyrdom, he inflicted upon them the same punishment with the former. These things done, a young man, who had belonged to the family of Pamphilus, as one who had dwelt with and enjoyed the excellent education and instruction of such a man, as soon as he learned the sentence passed upon his master, cried out from the midst of the people, requesting that the body at least should be interred. But the judge, more brute than man, and if any thing worse than brute, making no allowance for the young man's age, only inquired this one thing, and heard him confess himself a Christian. On this, as if he were wounded by a dart, swelling with rage, he orders the tormentors to exercise all their force against him. When he saw him refusing to sacrifice according to his orders, he commanded that they should scrape and mutilate him, not as the flesh of a human being, but as stones and wood, or any other lifeless object, to the very bones, and the inmost parts and recesses of the bowels. This being continued for a long time, he at length perceived that he was labouring in vain, as he continued without uttering a sound or evincing any feeling, and almost totally lifeless, although his body was so dreadfully mangled with tortures. But as the judge was of an inflexible cruelty and inhumanity, he condemned him in this condition to be committed to a slow fire; and thus this youth, although he had entered upon the combat last, yet he received his dismission from this life before the decease of his master in the flesh, and whilst those that rivalled the first were yet lingering on the way. One could then see Porphyry, for this was his name, with the courage of one who had already triumphed in every species of combat, his body covered with dust, but yet his countenance bright and cheerful, and after this, with a courageous and exulting mind advancing on his way to death. Truly filled with the divine Spirit, and covered only with his philosophical garb thrown around him like a cloak, and with a calm and composed mind giving exhortations and beckoning to his acquaintance and friends, he preserved a cheerful countenance at the very stake. When the fire was kindled which was at some distance around him, he attracted and inhaled the flame in his mouth, and then most nobly persevering in silence, until his last breath, he uttered not another word after that which he uttered as soon as the flame reached him, calling upon Christ the Son of God, his helper. Such a wrestler then was Porphyry. But Seleucus, one of the confessors of the army, brought the intelligence of his martyrdom to Pamphilus; and he, as the bearer of such intelligence, was immediately honoured with the same lot. For as soon as he had announced the end of Porphyry, and had saluted one of the martyrs with a kiss, some of the soldiers seized him and led him to the governor, who, as if to urge him to attach himself to the former, as his companion on the way to heaven, commands him immediately to be put to death. He was from Cappadocia, but among the chosen band of Roman soldiers, and one who had obtained no small share of honours. In the vigour of age, strength, size, and firmness of body, he was greatly superior to his fellow-soldiers, so that he was noted among all for his very appearance, and admired for the grandeur and the comeliness of his whole form. At the very beginning of the persecution, indeed, he was prominent in the trials of the confessors, by his patient endurance of the scourge, and after his renunciation of military life, he exhibited himself a zealous follower of those who led a life devoted to the exercises of piety, in which, like a provident father, he proved himself a kind of overseer (εлσXOлtos,) and protector of destitute orphans and helpless widows, and of all those that were prostrated in poverty and sickness. Hence, also, he was honoured by that God who is better pleased with such charities than the fume and blood of sacrifices, to receive an extraordinary call to martyrdom. He was the tenth after those wrestlers mentioned that were perfected in one and the same day, on which, as is probable, the mighty portals of eternal life were opened to Pamphilus, in a manner worthy of the man, and presented to him and to others a ready entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Immediately after Seleu cus, came the aged Theodulus, a grave and pious man, who was of the governor's family, and who on account of his age had been treated with more regard by Firmilianus than any of his domestics, as also, because he was now a father of the third generation, and had always evinced great fidelity and attachment to himself and family. He, however, pursuing the same course as Seleucus, when arraigned before his master, incensed him yet more than the former, and was condemned to endure the same martyrdom as our Saviour on the cross. One now remaining of those who constituted the number twelve, already mentioned; after all the rest came Julianus, to complete it. He had just come from abroad, and not yet even entered the city, when learning the death of the martyrs on the road, just as he was, he immediately hastened to the sight. There, when he saw the earthly tabernacles of the holy men lying on the ground, filled with joy, he embraced every one, and kissed them all. Upon this he was immediately seized by the ministers of death, and conducted to Firmilianus, who consistently with his character, also consigned him to a slow and lingering fire. Then Julianus, also, leaping and exulting with joy, gave thanks to God with a loud voice, who had honoured him with a martyrdom such as these endured, and was crowned with the martyr's death. He also was a native of Cappadocia, but in his manner he was most religious, and eminent for the sincerity and soundness of his faith. He was also a devoted man in other respects, and animated by the Holy Spirit himself. Such was the band and the company that met with Pamphilus, and were honoured to encounter martyrdom with him. The sacred and holy bodies of these men, by the order of the cruel and impious governor, were kept and guarded for four days and nights to feed the wild beasts. But, as contrary to expectation, nothing would approach them, neither beast nor bird of prey, nor dog, by a divine providence they were again taken up uninjured, and obtaining a decent burial, were interred according to the accustomed mode. But when the cruelty exercised against these was noised abroad among all, Adrianus, and Eubulus, from the region called Manganæa, came to the other confessors as far as Cesarea, and were also asked the cause of their coming at the gate of the city. They confessed the truth, and were brought before Firmilianus. He, as usual, without delay, after many tortures which * he inflicted, by scourging and lacerating their sides, then condemned them to be devoured by the beasts. After the lapse of two days, on the fifth of the month Dystrus, the third of the nones of March, the day that was considered the birthday of the tutelary divinity of Cesarea, he was cast before a lion, and afterwards slain with the sword. As to Eubulus, after another day and a half, on the very nones of March, which would be the seventh of Dystrus, when the judge had urged him much to enjoy that which was considered liberty among them, by offering the sacrifice, he preferred a glorious death in the cause of religion, and after being cast to the beasts like the former, was the last to close the list of the martyrs that wrestled for the faith at Cesarea. It is also worth while here to state, how at length the providence of God overtook the wicked governors themselves, together with the tyrants. For the same Firmilianus that raged with such violence against the martyrs of Christ, after receiving with the others the most signal punishment inflicted on him, at length ended his life by the sword. And such, then, were the martyrdoms endured at Cesarea, during the whole period of the persecution. CHAPTER XII. The prelates of the church. BUT the events that occurred in the intermediate time, besides those already related, I have thought proper to pass by; I mean particularly the circumstances of the different heads of the churches, who from being shepherds of the reasonable flocks of Christ that did not govern in a lawful and becoming manner, were condemned, by divine justice, as unworthy of such a charge, to be the keepers of the unreasonable camel, an animal deformed in the very structure of its body, and condemned further to be * Every city was supposed by the heathen to have its tutelary divinity, who presided over its destinies, and hence called гx", fortune, by our author. The temples dedicated to these were hence called Tychea. the keepers of the imperial horses; also, the number and severity of the burdens and oppressions they bore for the sake of the sacred vessels and property of the churches, from the imperial rulers and governors at the time in the midst of insult, injury, and torment; moreover, the ambitious aspirings of many to office, and the injudicious and unlawful ordinations, that took place, the divisions among the confessors themselves, the great schisms and difficulties industriously fomented by the factious among the new members, against the relics of the church, devising one innovation after another, and unmercifully thrusting them into the midst of all these calamities, heaping up affliction upon affliction; all this, I say, I have resolved to pass by, judging it foreign to my purpose, wishing, as I said in the beginning, to shun and avoid giving an account of them. But whatsoever things are serious and commendable according to the Scriptures-" if there be any virtue, if there be any praise," deeming it most proper to tell and to describe these, and present them to the attention of the faithful, in a history of the admirable martyrs, as also, most consistent with that peace which has recently shone upon us from heaven, I shall consider myself as most likely to decorate the close of my work, if I present to the attention of the faithful an account of these. CHAPTER XIII. Silvanus and John, and thirty more other martyrs. THE seventh year of the conflict against us was verging to its close, and the measures against us had gently and imperceptibly received a less afflictive aspect, and had now continued until the eighth year, when there was no small number of confessors collected in the copper mines of Palestine, and these were enjoying considerable freedom, so far as even to build houses for assembling together, then the governor of the province, a savage and wicked man, such indeed, as his acts against the martyrs proved him to be, came thither, and ascertaining the state of |