we must honour
him for going through so bravely with what he took to be his duty.

He soon grew so famous as a teacher, that even Jews, heathens, and
heretics went to hear him; and many of them were so led on by him that
they were converted to the Gospel. He travelled a great deal: some of
his journeys were taken because he had been invited into foreign
countries that he might teach the Gospel to people who were desirous of
instruction in it, or that he might settle disputes about religion. And
he was invited to go on a visit to the mother of the Emperor Alexander
Severus, who was himself friendly to Christianity, although not a
Christian. Origen, too, wrote a great number of books in explanation of
the Bible, and on other religious subjects; and he worked for no less
than eight-and-twenty years at a great book, called the _Hexapla_, which
was meant to show how the Old Testament ought to be read in Hebrew and
in Greek.

But, although he was a very good, as well as a very learned man, Origen
fell into some strange opinions, from wishing to clear away some of
those difficulties which, as St. Paul says, made the Gospel seem
"foolishness" to the heathen philosophers (1 _Cor._ i. 23). Besides
this, Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria, although he had been his
friend, had some reasons for not wishing to ordain him to be one of the
clergy; and when Origen had been ordained a presbyter (or priest) in the
Holy Land, where he was on a visit, Demetrius was very angry. He said
that no man ought to be ordained in any church but that of his own home;
and he brought up stories about some rash things which Origen had done
in his youth, and questions about the strange doctrines which he held.
Origen, finding that he could not hope for peace at Alexandria, went
back to his friend the bishop of Caesarea, by whom he had been ordained,
and he spent many years at Caesarea, where he was more sought after as a
teacher than ever. At one time he was driven into Cappadocia, by the
persecution of a savage emperor named Maximin, who had murdered the
gentle Alexander Severus; but he returned to Caesarea, and lived there
until another persecution began under the Emperor Decius.

This was by far the worst persecution that had yet been known. It was
the first which was carried on throughout the whole empire, and no
regard was now paid to the old laws which Trajan and other emperors had
made for the protection of the Christians. They were sought out,