Section 351
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320 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. were sunk into the depths of the watery gulph. But we_shall only, upon the_wliole,-introduce those aventsjn jaiirJiistQEy... jthat may be profitable first to us of the present day, and hereafter to posterity. Now let us proceed to describe, in a condensed ac count, the holy conflicts of the witnesses of divine truth. It was the nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian, and the month of Dystrus, called by the Romans March, in which the festival of our Saviour's passion was at hand, when the imperial edicts were every wnere published, to tear down the churches to the foundation, and to destroy the sacred Scriptures by fire, and which commanded, also, that those who were in honourable stations, should be degraded, but those who were freedmen should be deprived of their liberty, if they persevered in their adherence to Christianity. The first edict against us was of this nature ; but it was not long before other edicts were also issued, in which it was ordered that all the prelates in §yery place, should first be committed to prison, and then, by every artifice constrained to offer sacrifice to the gods. CHAPTER III. The nature of the conflicts endured by the martyrs, in the pet secution. THEN, indeed, vast numbers of the prelates of the church en dured with a noble resolution the most appalling trials, and ex hibited instances of illustrious conflicts for the faith. Vast num bers, however, of others, broken and relaxed in spirit, by timidity before the contest, voluntarily yielded at the first onset. But of the rest, each encountered various kinds of torments. Here was one that was scourged with rods, there another tormented with the rack and excruciating scrapings, in which some at the time endured the most terrible death; others again passed through other torments in the struggle. Here one, whilst some forced him to the impure and detestable sacrifices, was again dismissed, as if