Section 352
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 32, he had sacrificed, although this was not the case. There another, though he had not in the least approached the altar, not even touched the unholy thing, yet when others said that he had sacri ficed, went away, bearing the calumny in silence. Here one, again taken up when half dead, was thrown out as if he were already dead ; there another, again lying upon the ground, was dragged a long distance by the feet, and numbered among those that had sacrificed. One, however, would cry out, and with a loud voice declared his abhorrence of the sacrifice. Another ex claimed that he was a Christian, furnishing, by confession, an illustrious example of this salutary name. Another asserted that he neither had sacrificed nor intended to sacrifice; but these were forced to silence by numerous bands of soldiers, prepared for this purpose, by whom they were struck on the face and cheeks, and violently driven away, Thus the enemies of reli gion, upon the whole, deemed it a great matter even to appear to have gained some advantage. But these things did not avail them much against the saints, to give an exact account of whom no description could suffice. CHAPTER IV, The illustrious martyrs of God, who filled every place with the celebrity of their name, and obtained various crowns of mar tyrdom for their piety, MANY instances might be related of those who exhibited noble alacrity in the cause of that religion which acknowledges only the one Supreme God, and that not only from the time that the general persecution was raised, but also long before, when all was yet in a state of peace. Already then, when he who had received such power, was first roused as from a deep slumber, he had secretly and unobserved, been plotting after the times of Decius and Valerian, how to assault the churches ; but he did not all at once, nor in a mass, wage an open war against us, but as yet only made trial of those that were in the armies. For in 28