e, he said to his father, "Give the executioner the soldier's
coat thou hast gotten for me, and when I shall receive thee in the
company of the blessed martyrs, we may also rejoice together with the
Lord."

After this he suffered. His mother Pompeiana obtained his body of the
judge, and conveyed it to Carthage, and buried it near the place where
the body of Cyprian the Martyr lay. And thirteen days after this his
mother died, and was buried in the came place. And Victor, his father,
returned to his habitation, rejoicing and praising God, that he had sent
before such a gift to the Lord, himself expecting to follow after.

I shall only observe, upon this instance, that it is nearly pure and
unmixed, or that it is but little connected with idolatrous
circumstances, or rather, that the unlawfulness of fighting was
principally urged by Maximilian as a reason against entering upon a
military life. Let us now find a case, where, when a person was
converted in the army, he left it, pleading this principle, as one among
others, for his dereliction of it.

Marcellus was a centurion in the legion called "Trajana." On a festival,
given in honour of the birth-day of Galerius, he threw down his military
belt at the head of the legion, and in the face of the standards,
declared with a loud voice, that he would no longer serve in the army,
for that he had become a Christian. "I hold in detestation, said he,
addressing himself to all the soldiers, the worship of your gods: gods,
which are made of wood and stone, gods which are deaf and dumb." So far
Marcellus, it appears, seems to have been influenced in his desertion of
a military life by the idolatry connected with it. But let us hear him
farther on this subject. "It is not lawful, says he, for a Christian,
who is the servant of Christ the Lord, to bear arms for any earthly
consideration." After a delay of more than three months in prison after
this transaction, which delay was allowed for the purpose of sparing
him, he was brought before the prefect. There he had an opportunity of
correcting his former expressions. But as he persisted in the same
sentiments, he suffered. It is remarkable, that, almost immediately
after his execution, Cassian, who, was the notary to the same legion,
refused to serve any longer, by publicly throwing his pen and
accompt-book upon the ground, and declaring, at the same time, that the
sentence of Marcellus was unjust. When taken up by the order of
Aure