y tied to the stake with
cords, and as he stood thus bound, he uttered a thanksgiving for being
allowed to suffer after the pattern of his Lord and Saviour. When his
prayer was ended, the wood was set on fire, but we are told that the
flames swept round him, looking like the sail of a ship swollen by the
wind, while he remained unhurt in the midst of them. One of the
executioners, seeing this, plunged a sword into the martyr's breast, and
the blood rushed forth in such a stream that it put out the fire. But
the persecutors, who were resolved that the Christians should not have
their bishop's body, lighted the wood again, and burnt the corpse, so
that only a few of the bones remained; and these the Christians gathered
out, and gave them an honourable burial. It was on Easter eve that St.
Polycarp suffered, in the year of our Lord 166.

CHAPTER V.

THE MARTYRS OF LYONS AND VIENNE.

A.D. 177.

Many other martyrs suffered in various parts of the empire under the
reign of Marcus Aurelius. Among the most famous of these are the martyrs
of Lyons and Vienne, in the south of France (or _Gaul_, as it was then
called), where a company of missionaries from Asia Minor had settled
with a bishop named Pothinus at their head. The persecution at Lyons and
Vienne was begun by the mob of those towns, who insulted the Christians
in the streets, broke into their houses, and committed other such
outrages against them. Then a great number of Christians were seized,
and imprisoned in horrid dungeons, where many died from want of food, or
from the bad and unwholesome air. The bishop, Pothinus, who was ninety
years of age, and had long been very ill, was carried before the
governor, and was asked, "Who is the God of Christians?" Pothinus saw
that the governor did not put this question from any good feeling; so he
answered, "If thou be worthy, thou shalt know." The bishop, old and
feeble as he was, was then dragged about by soldiers, and such of the
mob as could reach him gave him blows and kicks, while others, who were
further off, threw anything which came to hand at him; and, after this
cruel usage, he was put into prison, where he died within two days.

The other prisoners were tortured for six days together in a variety of
horrible ways. Their limbs were stretched on the rack; they were cruelly
scourged; some had hot plates of iron applied to them, and some were
made to sit in a red-hot iron chair. The firmness with which they b