Section 311
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280 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, CHAPTER XL The sufferings of Dionysius, and those in Egypt. BUT as to the persecutions that raged so violently under him> and what sufferings he with others endured for their piety to wards the Supreme God, his own words shall declare, which he addressed to Germanus, one of the contemporary bishops that attempted to slander him. His words are as follows: "But," says he, " I apprehend that as I am forced to relate the wonder ful providence of God respecting us, I shall be liable to much folly and insensibility. But, as it is said, it is honourable to conceal the secrets of the king, and glorious to make manifest the works of God, I will face the violence of Germanus. I came to ^Emilianus not alone, but in company with my fellow-presbyter Maximus, and the deacons Faustus, Eusebius, and Chseremon, to gether with a certain one of the brethren who had come from Rome. JSmilianus, however, did not at first say to me, hold no assemblies, as this was superfluous, and was the last to one who was aiming at what was the first in importance ;* for he was not concerned about my collecting others, but that we should not be Christians, and from this he commanded me to desist, thinking, m doubt, that if I changed, others would follow my example. But 1 answered him not without good reason, and without many words, We must obey God rather than man.' But I directly bore wit ness, that I could neither change worshipping the only true God and none other, nor ever cease to be a Christian. Upon this he commanded us to go away to a neighbouring village of the desert, called Cephro. " But hear the words that were uttered by both of us, as they were recorded. Dionysius and Faustus, Maximus, Marcellus, The great question with the judge was, not whether those arraigned held meet ings, but whether they were Christians. To have commenced with the former, when the latter was the great object, would have been a kind of u,-Tc-poi/ ^pa-repo^ that abandoned the primary for the secondary. Hostility to Christianity as a religion, was the great incentive here, to which all other acts were referred, as their head and fountain.