Chapter II.—The wonderful constancy of the martyrs.
All the martyrdoms, then, were blessed and noble which took place according to the
will of God. For it becomes us who profess86 greater piety than others, to ascribe the authority
over all things to God. And truly,87 who can fail to admire their nobleness of mind, and
their patience, with that love towards their Lord which they displayed?—who, when they
were so torn with scourges, that the frame of their bodies, even to the very inward veins and
arteries, was laid open, still patiently endured, while even those that stood by pitied and
bewailed them. But they reached such a pitch of magnanimity, that not one of them let a
sigh or a groan escape them; thus proving to us all that those holy martyrs of Christ, at the
very time when they suffered such torments, were absent from the body, or rather, that the
Lord then stood by them, and communed with them. And, looking to the grace of Christ,
they despised all the torments of this world, redeeming themselves from eternal punishment
by [the suffering of] a single hour. For this reason the fire of their savage executioners ap-
peared cool to them. For they kept before their view escape from that fire which is eternal
and never shall be quenched, and looked forward with the eyes of their heart to those good
things which are laid up for such as endure; things “which ear hath not heard, nor eye seen,
neither have entered into the heart of man,”88 but were revealed by the Lord to them, inas-
much as they were no longer men, but had already become angels. And, in like manner,
those who were condemned to the wild beasts endured dreadful tortures, being stretched
out upon beds full of spikes, and subjected to various other kinds of torments, in order that,
if it were possible, the tyrant might, by their lingering tortures, lead them to a denial [of
Christ].
86 Literally, “who are more pious.”
87 The account now returns to the illustration of the statement made in the first sentence.
88 1 Cor. ii. 9.
Chapter II.—The wonderful constancy of the martyrs.
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Chapter II.—The wonderful constancy of the martyrs.