h might be healed with the least possible delay. He then turned to
the thought of his own correspondence then in progress with the Holy Roman
Church, which had lately lost its bishop by martyrdom. This indeed was no
unusual event with the see of Peter, in which the successors of Peter
followed Peter's steps, as Peter had been bidden to follow the King and
Exemplar of Martyrs. But the special trouble was, that months had passed,
full five, since the vacancy occurred, and it had not yet been supplied.
Then he thought of Fabian, who made the vacancy, and who had already
passed through that trial which was to bring to so many Christians life or
condemnation, and he commended himself to his prayers against the hour of
his own combat. He thought of Fabian's work, and went on to intercede for
the remnant of the seven apostles whom that Pope had sent into Gaul, and
some of whom had already obtained the martyr's crown. He prayed that the
day might come, when not the cities only of that fair country, but its
rich champaigns and sunny slopes should hear the voice of the missionary.
He prayed in like manner for Britain, that the successful work of another
Pope, St. Eleutherius, might be extended even to its four seas. And then
he prayed for the neighbouring island on the west, still in heathen
darkness, and for the endless expanse of Germany on the east, that there
too the one saving name and glorious Faith might be known and accepted.

His thoughts then travelled back to Rome and Italy, and to the martyrdoms
which had followed that of St. Fabian. Two Persians had already suffered
in the imperial city; Maximus had lost his life, and Felix had been
imprisoned, at Nola. Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt had already afforded
victims to the persecution, and cried aloud to all Christians for their
most earnest prayers and for repeated Masses in behalf of those who
remained under the trial. Babylas, Bishop of Antioch, the third see in
Christendom, was already martyred in that city. Here again Caecilius had a
strong call on him for intercession, for a subtle form of freethinking was
there manifesting itself, the issue of which was as uncertain as it might
be frightful. The Bishop of Alexandria, that second of the large divisions
or patriarchates of the Church, the great Dionysius, the pupil of Origen,
was an exile from his see, like himself. The messenger who brought this
news to Carthage had heard at Alexandria a report from Neocaesarea, that
G