this melancholy occasion that we should apply a very
remarkable story, which is related with so many circumstances of variety
and improbability, that it serves rather to excite than to satisfy
our curiosity. In a small town in Phrygia, of whose names as well as
situation we are left ignorant, it should seem that the magistrates and
the body of the people had embraced the Christian faith; and as some
resistance might be apprehended to the execution of the edict, the
governor of the province was supported by a numerous detachment of
legionaries. On their approach the citizens threw themselves into the
church, with the resolution either of defending by arms that sacred
edifice, or of perishing in its ruins. They indignantly rejected the
notice and permission which was given them to retire, till the soldiers,
provoked by their obstinate refusal, set fire to the building on all
sides, and consumed, by this extraordinary kind of martyrdom, a great
number of Phrygians, with their wives and children. [161]

[Footnote 160: The ancient monuments, published at the end of Optatus,
p. 261, &c. describe, in a very circumstantial manner, the proceedings
of the governors in the destruction of churches. They made a minute
inventory of the plate, &c., which they found in them. That of the
church of Cirta, in Numidia, is still extant. It consisted of two
chalices of gold, and six of silver; six urns, one kettle, seven lamps,
all likewise of silver; besides a large quantity of brass utensils, and
wearing apparel.]

[Footnote 161: Lactantius (Institut. Divin. v. 11) confines the calamity
to the conventiculum, with its congregation. Eusebius (viii. 11) extends
it to a whole city, and introduces something very like a regular siege.
His ancient Latin translator, Rufinus, adds the important circumstance
of the permission given to the inhabitants of retiring from thence.
As Phrygia reached to the confines of Isauria, it is possible that the
restless temper of those independent barbarians may have contributed to
this misfortune. Note: Universum populum. Lact. Inst. Div. v. 11.--G.]

Some slight disturbances, though they were suppressed almost as soon as
excited, in Syria and the frontiers of Armenia, afforded the enemies of
the church a very plausible occasion to insinuate, that those troubles
had been secretly fomented by the intrigues of the bishops, who
had already forgotten their ostentatious professions of passive and
unlimited obedience.