Section 398
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 367 wet : so that it was immediately spread abroad among all, that in an unaccountable manner the earth wept, not being able to endure the extreme impiety of these deeds, and to address a re proof to men of a relentless and callous nature, the very stones a*nd senseless matter could bewail these facts. I well know that this account may, perhaps, appear an idle tale and fable to pos terity, but it wras not so to those who had its truth confirmed by their presence at the time.* CHAPTER X. Petrus Ascetes, Asckpius the Marcionite, and other martyrs. ON the fourteenth of, the following month Apellaeus, i. e. the nineteenth of the calends of January, there were some from Egypt again seized by the spies appointed to observe those going out at the gates. They had been sent for the purpose of ministering to the necessities of the confessors in Cilicia. These experienced the same lot with those they came to serve, and were thus muti lated in their eyes and feet. Three of them, however, exhibited a wonderful fortitude at Ascalon, where they were imprisoned, and bore away different prizes of martyrdom. One of them, named Arcs, was committed to the flames, the others, Promus and Elias, were beheaded. But on the eleventh of the month Audynseus, i. e. on the third of the ides of January, in the same city of Cesarea, Petrus Ascetes,f also called Apselamus, from the village of Anea, on the borders of Eleutheropolis, like the purest gold, with a noble resolution, gave the proof of his faith in the Christ of God. Disregarding both the judge, and those * Perhaps some might smile at the supposed credulity of our author, but the miracle in this account was not greater than the malignity, and if man can per form miracles of vice, we can scarcely wonder if Providence should present, at least, miracles of admonition. •j-Peter, called the Ascetic, probably from the extraordinary severity of life and self-denial that he exhibited so young.