ore
these dreadful trials gave courage to some of their brethren, who at
first had agreed to sacrifice, so that these now again declared
themselves Christians, and joined the others in suffering. As all the
tortures were of no effect, the prisoners were at length put to death.
Some were thrown to wild beasts; but those who were citizens of Rome
were beheaded; for it was not lawful to give a Roman citizen up to wild
beasts, just as we know from St. Paul's case at Philippi that it was not
lawful to scourge a citizen (_Acts_ xvi. 37).

Among the martyrs was a boy from Asia, only fifteen years old, who was
taken every day to see the tortures of the rest, in the hope that he
might be frightened into denying his Saviour; but he was not shaken by
the terrible sights, and for his constancy he was cruelly put to death
on the last day. The greatest cruelties of all, however, were borne by a
young woman named Blandina. She was slave to a Christian lady; and,
although the Christians regarded their slaves with a kindness very
unlike the usual feeling of heathen masters towards them, this lady
seems yet to have thought that a slave was not likely to endure
tortures so courageously as a free person; and she was the more afraid
because Blandina was not strong in body. But the poor slave's faith was
not to be overcome. Day after day she bravely bore every cruelty that
the persecutors could think of; and all that they could wring out from
her was, "I am a Christian, and nothing wrong is done among us!"

The heathen were not content with putting the martyrs to death with
tortures, or allowing them to die in prison. They cast their dead bodies
to the dogs, and caused them to be watched day and night, lest the other
Christians should give them burial; and after this, they burnt the
bones, and threw the ashes of them into the river Rhone, by way of
mocking at the notion of a resurrection. For, as St. Paul had found at
Athens (_Acts_ xvii. 32), and elsewhere, there was no part of the Gospel
which the heathen in general thought so hard to believe as the doctrine
that that which is "sown in corruption" shall hereafter be "raised in
incorruption;" that that which "is sown a natural body" will one day be
"raised a spiritual body" (1 _Cor._ xv. 42-44).

CHAPTER VI.

TERTULLIAN--PERPETUA AND HER COMPANIONS.

A.D. 181-206.

The Emperor Marcus Aurelius died in 181, and the Church was little
troubled by persecution for the following twe