hast Thou come to torment us before the time?' And, whereas the
Jews heard this, yet they were the very men to deny the Son of God.
And now ye have heard the evil spirits crying out, and confessing
to the martyrs, that they cannot bear their pains, and saying, 'Why
are ye come to torment us so heavily?' And the Arians say, 'They
are not martyrs, nor can they torment the devil, nor dispossess any
one;' while the torments of the evil spirits are evidenced by their
own voice, and the benefits of the martyrs by the recovery of the
healed, and the tokens of the dispossessed.

"The Arians say, 'These are not real torments of evil spirits, but
they are pretended and counterfeit.' I have heard of many things
pretended, but no one ever could succeed in feigning himself a
devil. How is it we see them in such distress when the hand is laid
on them? What room is here for fraud? what suspicion of imposture?

"They deny that the blind received sight; but he does not deny that
he was cured. He says, 'I see, who afore saw not.' He says, 'I
ceased to be blind,' and he evidences it by the fact. They deny the
benefit, who cannot deny the fact. The man is well known; employed
as he was, before his affliction, in a public trade, Severus his
name, a butcher his business: he had given it up when this
misfortune befell him. He refers to the testimony of men whose
charities were supporting him; he summons them as evidence of his
present visitation, who were witnesses and judges of his blindness.
He cries out that, on his touching the hem of the martyrs' garment,
which covered the relics, his sight was restored to him. We read in
the Gospel, that when the Jews saw the cure of the blind man, they
sought the testimony of the parents. Ask others, if you distrust
me; ask persons unconnected with him, if you think that his parents
would take a side. The obstinacy of these Arians is more hateful
than that of the Jews. When the latter doubted, at least they
inquired of the parents; these inquire secretly, deny openly, as
giving credit to the fact, but denying the author."--_Ibid._

3. We may corroborate the evidence of those two Fathers with that of
Paulinus, who was secretary to St. Ambrose, and wrote his life, about
A.D. 411.

"About the same time," he says, "the holy martyrs Protasius a