Chapter XIV
.—
The
Martyrdom of Bishop Milles and his Conduct. Sixteen Thousand
Distinguished Men in Persia suffer Martyrdom under Sapor, besides
Obscure Individuals
.
About
this period Milles
suffered martyrdom. He originally served the Persians in a military
capacity, but afterwards abandoned that vocation, in order to embrace
the apostolical mode of life. It is related that he was ordained bishop
over a Persian city, and he underwent a variety of sufferings, and
endured wounds and drawings; and that, failing in his efforts to
convert the inhabitants to Christianity, he uttered imprecations
against the city, and departed. Not long after, some of the principal
citizens offended the king, and an army with three hundred elephants
was sent against them; the city was utterly demolished and its land was
ploughed and sown. Milles, taking with him only his wallet, in which
was the holy Book of the Gospels, repaired to Jerusalem in prayer;
thence he proceeded to Egypt in order to see the monks. The
extraordinary and admirable works which we have heard that he
accomplished, are attested by the Syrians, who have written an account
of his actions and life. For my own part, I think that I have said
enough of him and of the other martyrs who suffered in Persia during
the reign of Sapor; for it would be difficult to relate in detail every
circumstance respecting them, such as their names, their country, the
mode of completing their martyrdom, and the species of torture to which
they were subjected; for they are innumerable, since such methods are
jealously affected by the Persians, even to the extreme of cruelty. I
shall briefly state that the number of men and women whose names have
been ascertained, and who were martyred at this period, have been
computed to be sixteen thousand; while the multitude outside of these
is beyond enumeration, and
on this
account to reckon off their names appeared difficult to the Persians
and Syrians and to the inhabitants of Edessa, who have devoted much
care to this matter.