Acta Sancti Sebastiani Martyris [Incertus]

ACTS OF SAINT SEBASTIAN, MARTYR.

CHAPTER ONE.

St. Sebastian encourages the martyrs.

1. Sebastian, a most Christian man, a citizen of Milan on his father's side but of Narbonne by birth, was so dear to the emperors Diocletian and Maximian that they entrusted to him the command of the first cohort and ordered him always to stand in their presence. For he was a man of complete prudence, truthful in speech, just in judgment, provident in counsel, faithful in what was entrusted to him, vigorous in intercession, conspicuous in goodness, and distinguished in every honesty of conduct. The soldiers revered him as a father; all who were in charge of the palace honored him with the most devoted affection. For he was a true worshiper of God, and it was necessary that he whom God's grace had suffused should be loved by all.

Therefore he daily rendered diligent service to Christ, but he acted in such a way that this remained hidden from the sacrilegious kings—not terrified by fear of suffering, nor constrained by love of his own patrimony, but only so that, beneath the cloak of earthly empire, he might serve as a hidden soldier of Christ, to strengthen the souls of Christians whom he saw failing amid torments, and to restore to God the souls which the devil was attempting to snatch away.

Finally, after he had snatched many minds of the martyrs from the fear of suffering and stirred them to the crown of everlasting glory, it became clear who he himself was, because he could not lie hidden in the darkness. Therefore, to the most distinguished men Marcellianus and Marcus, twin brothers, who had been placed in chains for the name of Christ, he showed consolation daily; and to them as well as to their servants, with whom they had been held, he ministered salutary counsels of faith: that they should spurn the fleeting enticements of the world and not fear the momentary kinds of torments.

CHAPTER II.

The constancy of Marcellianus and Marcus gravely assailed.

4. When they had yielded to these most blessed consolations and were passing through the lashes of the executioners with a persevering spirit, they were ordered to undergo the sentence of death: namely, on this condition, that if at the very moment when they were to be beheaded they consented to the sacrifices, they would be restored to their parents and wives and children and possessions. For they were not only, as we have said, men most distinguished by birth, but also enlarged in their possessions; their father was named Tranquillinus, and their mother was called Marcia; these followed them together with their wives and children; for they were led by an excessive affection for their grandchildren. Whence it came about that from Agrestius Chromatius, prefect of the city of Rome, they obtained a truce of thirty days, during which it might be negotiated with them, to the end that they consent to offer incense to the idols.

So their friends came to them and began to say: "Why do you have such a hard mind and such an iron heart, that you endure to cast off your father in his white hairs, and to bring new pains of childbirth to your mother, now decrepit? For she used to overcome the pains of her childbirth by consolations, when in one pain she bore two sons and poured out a twin affection of sons for their father; but now there is an incurable pain, an inconsolable punishment, an irremediable torment, an incomparable childbirth, by which hope and joy are taken away, life is despised, glory is rejected, and, with all affections of piety despised, the atrocity of death is sought after rather than feared. We beseech you, O dearest friends, at last put an end to these disasters, and, being admonished, remember that you are fathers of sweet sons."

While the friends were saying these things and things similar to these, their mother came crying out that she was miserable, and with her head uncovered she showed the white hairs of her old age, and in their sight she tore the garment with which she covered her breast; and while all were weeping, she showed them with loose skin the breasts they had sucked, and weeping with wailing she recalled the caresses which she had shown to their infancy. She said therefore to both: "You, my son, always flattered me more; and you were more reverent. In this one I bore my own image, in you I poured out the faces of your father; you are more useful to your father, this one is more like him. Alas, miserable me! Incomparable griefs surround me from every side, unheard-of misery and a twin bereavement, to be compared with no tribulations at all.

I pass over sons hastening of their own accord to death, whom, if enemies were taking them from me, I would follow through the midst of the ranks of soldiers; if violent judgments were shutting them in, I would break into the prison together, ready to die. This is a new kind of perishing, in which the executioner is asked to strike, life is desired in order that one may perish, death is invited in order that it may come. This is a new mourning, a new misery, in which the youth of children is lost of their own will, and the pitiable old age of parents is compelled to live.

As their mother kept pursuing these things and others like them, the weak father, already heavy with age, is led by the hands of servants, and scattering dust from the earth on his white head, he sent up cries of this sort to heaven: I have come to say farewell to the lilies departing of their own accord to death, so that I, wretched man, about to bury my sons, may spend on their burial all that I had prepared to be furnished for my own burial. O sons, staff of my old age, and twin light of my inmost being, born auspiciously and prosperously raised, of most excellent memory and singular talent, imbued with knowledge of all liberal letters—what is this sudden madness, begotten by your own will, that has made you lovers of death? Never has this pleased the living; never has it drawn its love into those about to die; but into whomever it has been able to reach, it has been violently admitted, and it has not been received by the will of any living person. If a naked debtor suffers this at the hands of a greedy moneylender, by no reasoning can he love it; nor is he known only not to love it, but to fear it.

By what reasoning does he seek it, who both abounds in all good things and owes absolutely nothing to anyone? Come here, old men, and lament with me over your sons, you who feel that you have the hearts of fathers. Come here, young men, and weep over young men perishing of their own will. Draw near here, fathers, and forbid such things, lest you suffer such things. Fail from weeping, my eyes, and draw a darkness over yourselves, pouring out rivers of tears; lest I see those cut down by the sword, whom I trembled for when a light rod touched them; when I saw them mildly saddened, I was terrified.

Therefore, while the elder was continuing these and other things, behold, the wives of both men come with their own children, and offering their little infants to their sight, they pour out these voices wailing: To whom do you leave us as servants? To whom do you hand over the love of our marriage? Who do you think will be the masters of these infants, and the most greedy usurpers of your houses? Who will be the occupiers of your household? Or who will divide among themselves the home-born slaves whom you have raised? Alas, with how iron, alas with how impious a groan of cruelty do you despise parents, reject friends, cast off wives, disown sons, and present yourselves as volunteers to the executioner!

CHAPTER III.

St. Sebastian strengthens the wavering.

Meanwhile, while those things are said and these things reported, amid the tears of wives and the sighs of husbands, the soldiers of Christ began to grow soft and to bend their minds toward grief. At this spectacle, as we said above, St. Sebastian was present, a man most Christian in all things, whom the military habit concealed and the appearance of his cloak overshadowed. But when he saw the athletes of God wearied by the immense weight of the contest, throwing himself into their midst, he said: Most valiant soldiers of Christ, O most well-instructed warriors of the divine battle, through the excessive virtue of your spirit you have bravely reached the palm, and now through wretched enticements do you lay down the eternal crown? Let the courage of Christ's soldiers now learn through you to be armed with faith rather than with steel. Do not cast away the insignia of your victories through the enticements of women, and do not, conquered, loosen your necks to the victorious and revived wars of the enemy whom you have placed beneath your feet; for although his hostility against you has been savage and utterly iniquitous, his anger, once renewed, becomes yet more savage. Raise up therefore from earthly affections the glorious trophy of your contest, and do not lose it through the weeping of little children.

These people whom you watch weeping would rejoice today if they could know what you know; for they think that this life is the only one, and that if it has reached its end, no portion of the living soul can remain once the body has failed. For if they knew that there is another life, unacquainted with death, ignorant of sorrow, in which immortality reigns and perpetual joys abide, they would surely hasten with you to attain to it, and counting that life as nothing, they would seek after that life which both remains in exultation and has not known how to be ended at all. For this life is fleeting and so untrustworthy that it has not been able to keep faith even with its own lovers. For from the beginning of the world it has deceived those who believed in it, it has cheated all who waited for it, it has mocked all who presumed upon it, and it has rendered no one at all certain, so that it is proven to have lied to everyone. And would that it were liable to the guilt of lying alone, and did not compel its lovers to run through all crimes. It gives gluttony to the greedy, it brings drunkenness to the drunkards, it brings shipwreck of chastity to adulterers, it hands over execrable perversity to the incestuous; it prompts the thief to steal, the wrathful man to rage, the liar to deceive. It sows divorces between spouses, discord between friends, quarrels between peacemakers, injustice between the just, scandals between brothers. It takes away justice from judges, chastity from the pure, skill from craftsmen, it takes away discipline from morals.

And to recall the more serious crimes that this love of life instills in its lovers: if at some time a brother has killed his own brother, if a son has murdered his father, if a friend has been slain by a friend—by whose prompting were these crimes committed, by whose gaze, by whose hope, by whose confidence were these abominations perpetrated? Is it not that, seduced by the love of the present life, they commit these things, and while they love it more than is right, they pursue men with unjust hatred? For why does the pirate cut the throat of the sailor, why does the robber destroy the traveler, the rich man oppress the poor, the proud man the humble, and every wrongdoer burden whomever he can—even the innocent? But they do these evils because they desire to serve this life, and they think that in their love for it they will endure for longer spans of time. Therefore crimes are committed for no other reason than that these most wretched people may serve this fleshly life in a fleshly way.

In short, it is this life that gives them their crimes; it commands, it orders their misdeeds, it persuades them to unjust acts; and after it has been fattened with every cruelty and every filth, it hands over those who serve it to its own daughter, that is, to perpetual death. For from it and from its womb eternal death was born, at the time when the first humans served their own belly and lust and the desires of the eyes; and therefore those who had been made for eternal life were cast down here into this region of death; from here in turn they have been plunged down to the underworld, carrying nothing with them except their sins.

This, then, is the life that deceives you, O dearest friends, so that by unjust counsel you call back your friends as they go to eternal life.

CHAPTER IV.

The pains of hell and the joys of heaven, and the spirit of the martyrs, are impressed upon them.

This life stirs you up, O most holy parents, so that you call back your sons as they set out for the company of heaven, for incorruptible honor, for the friendships of the eternal Emperor, with most foolish lamentations. This is the life that, O most chaste wives of the blessed, under the color of piety, persuades you to deliver impiety to the minds of the martyrs and to bring death in place of liberation. For if they had consented to your recall, they could indeed have been with you for a short time; but afterward they would have been separated, and they would have been separated from you in such a way that you would never see them except amid perpetual torments; where a devouring flame consumes the souls of the unbelieving, where dragons eat the lips of the blaspheming, where serpents feed upon the hearts of the unbelieving with their bites. There wailing and groaning resound, and a confused clamor, which the violence of the torments stirs up and the burning of the fire extorts. But this very tribulation, which will receive the faithless there, is softened by no limit, is concluded by no end, nor is it even consumed after the burning of fierce flames, but whoever has been burned is restored again for renewed conflagrations.

Allow them, then, to escape this punishment, and think how to rescue yourselves. For the present, allow them to reach the crown appointed for them. Do not fear; for they will not be separated from you, but will go to prepare for you starry mansions in heaven, in which you may remain with them and with your children in perpetual joy. But if houses made of stones delight you, how much more should the beauty of those houses invite you, where the dining halls gleam with pure gold, and have couches adorned with gems and pearls? There the purple of the roses never withers; there the flowering groves flourish with everlasting green; there the meadows flow forever with honeyed streams; there the grasses are fragrant with saffron flowers, and the breathing fields abound with most pleasant odors. There the breezes, to those who possess eternal life, waft a nectar-like fragrance to their nostrils. There a light shines without the ray of the sun, a serenity without cloud, and without the darkness of night the eyes enjoy the day.

There no pleasures are hindered by any occupation, there security is disturbed by no anxiety at all; no bellowing, no wailing, no groaning, no lamentation and no mourning have ever there been heard or even named. Nothing foul and misshapen, hideous, black, dreadful, or sordid have the eyes of those who dwell there ever seen at all; but on the beauty in the pleasantness of the groves, on the splendor in the air, joyful and comely, and on the fairness and every elegance, their eyes, ever open, feast without ceasing; and nothing at all that might disturb the mind is given to the ears. For there the instruments of hymns resound continually, which are sung by angels and archangels to the praise of the King. Bitterness and anything harsher than gall have no place there: thunders have never there been heard, lightnings and flashes have never appeared. There cinnamon shrubs bring forth their growth, and balsam trees put forth their shoots. The fragrance of the air diffuses delight through all the members, and no food there is turned into dung. For just as the ears are fed by good news, the nostrils by a good odor, and the eyes by a good sight, and that refreshment cannot break forth into digestion, so there the refreshment that the mouth has received, honey-sweet in taste, savors to each one according to what he has delighted in. And immediately, whatever the soul has desired, all things serve her desire, and the effect, most ready, attends upon all her pleasures.

For whoever in this mortal life has fought against his own desires and against his pleasures, and has not squandered them here, receives them whole from his Creator there. For he so created man that he might live; and he placed death near the entrance of pleasure, so that those who wish to escape the fear of death may seek eternal life; and when they have learned that there is another life beyond this one, let them inquire whether that life itself can be cut short by old age or ended by death; and when they have recognized it to be immortal, let them inquire whether that eternity itself can either bestow honor upon the just or bring punishment upon the unjust.

CHAPTER V.

The use of wealth and pleasures.

And when they have proved that this is specifically so, it remains for them to ask why wealth was made by the Creator, if by his law it is to be despised, or why the variety of four-footed beasts and birds and creeping things was made by the Creator, since each of these must be renounced: why, moreover, genuine delight was implanted from the marrow by the Creator himself in bodies as an incitement to desire, if its use not only makes the user guilty before the Author but also delivers him to perpetual fires. It is asked, therefore: Why were riches given by the Creator, if they are to be despised? We answer: These riches, made by the Creator, address their lovers in a manner, saying: Love us in such a way that we may never be separated from you. We cannot follow you when you die; but we can go before you while you live; only if you yourselves command it.

The greedy moneylender and the avaricious farmer—the one entrusts his gold to a man so that he may receive it back doubled, the other commits various seeds to the earth, so that, if he can, he may seek to receive back a hundredfold what he handed over as single: to him the debtor returns the gold to the creditor doubled, and the earth returns the seed a hundredfold. What a monstrous thing! A debtor can bring himself to return interest to the moneylender, and the earth can restore to its farmer the seeds a hundredfold; and God, if he has received his riches from you, cannot return them to you increased?

You ask now: Why did he give me riches, if they are to be returned to him? He handed them over to you so that you might know how great is the rest in them, how great the pleasure, how great the sport, and how great the delights can be, so that through these things, holding charity together with your riches, you yourself might hand them over to our Lord Jesus Christ to be kept. But if you are unwilling to entrust them to him, either the gluttony of the gullet will seize them, or luxury, the mother of lusts, will snatch them from you, or without doubt—as you know very well—death, coming unexpectedly, will so wrest them from you that you may no longer foresee or see them at all.

If you were passing through the midst of the ranks of the barbarians and found a strong man who had always loved you, who had even given you a purse full of money, saying to you: "Give me the money I gave you to guard, because these barbarians are lying in wait to take it from you; and when they have taken it from you, they will tear you apart with their swords"—would you not fall at his feet and beg him to take it himself, since you were certain that he would return more than he had received and would also free you from the enemy? It remains now that you can have Christ as the guardian of your riches.

Let us come to delights. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear them saying to him: If you are truly our lovers, commend us to him who will restore us to you whole and undefiled in that region where we can remain with you continually; for in this life, if we wish to occupy our service for you, as if strangers here, there we will deny you entirely the office of our service. Send us, then, to serve those who are dying, because the days of mortals have been shortened for this reason, that we may serve the immortal ones continually. For so it is written (Matt. 24:22): For the sake of the elect the days shall be shortened, so that our service may not be long. We serve the unjust indeed—I hasten from my course—we serve the impious, the wicked, and the shameful, not willingly, but because of him who subjected us. Yet we shall be freed from the slavery of corruption and recalled to the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Every delight, therefore, kept for the future life, is not lost; for treasures that have been stored up are not thought by the one who hid them in the earth to be of no concern to him; but rather he trusts that he holds them all the more securely the more secretly and safely he has laid them away. Let there be stored up, then, an abundance of all delights, so that they are not touched in this life which passes away; because if these things have been in use, in that life which never passes away they will be lost. Suppose that this life is stretched out over the spans of a hundred years: when the last day is shut off, will it not immediately seem as though it had not been, and as though it had left behind the traces of a guest staying with us for a single day? But that life remains continually and endures steadfastly; even as the years slip by it grows young and is strong, and it takes the beginning of its renewal from that point where its end is received. Truly that man is degenerate and devoid of all good things who is not captivated by love of this life, so beautiful! who fears to hand over this life that is going to perish, and to receive that one which knows not how to perish utterly, in which delights and pleasures, and riches, and joys so begin that they know no end; they take their beginning in such a way that they can in no wise come to an end.

For whoever has refused to be a lover of this life, already so glorious, not only loses that life and fails to reach the other, but also, as I have already said, is seized and held by perpetual death; in which there is unceasing flame, unremitting tribulation, and everlasting punishment; in which dwell savage angels, whose arms are the heads of dragons, whose eyes shoot fiery arrows from themselves; whose teeth jut out like those of elephants and goad to torment like the tails of scorpions, whose voices resound like the roaring of lions, whose sight strikes alike trembling and pain and death. And would that death could meet those placed in these straits! But what is more bitter, they live for this, that they may be governed by torments; for this they are made whole again, that limbs eaten away by the bites of serpents may be touched again and again by bites repeated over and over.

CHAPTER VI.

The felicity and glory of the martyrs.

This is the whole cause of the contest, which teaches that the punishments of martyrdom ought to be endured with patience. Therefore do not, O friends, do not, O parents, do not, O venerable wives of the saints, do not call back from life to death those whom you love, do not lead them from joy to mourning, do not drag them from light into darkness, and do not summon them from eternal rest to everlasting punishments. This is, as it were, to stretch out a hook to the devil as to fish, and to invite them to a brief sweetness, within which lies hidden the torment of the entrails, and the death of the inner parts wrung out by tortures. Is this not to prefer fleeting joys in exchange for eternal delights; and, so that they may laugh for a very little while, to consign them to eternal weeping? In the case of gladiators, who offer themselves of their own accord, we all condemn this—those who consider the delights of a single year, and do not consider what ruin arises from those very delights. And they are tortured by the blows of swords, or by the mutual slaughter of their inner organs, with the covering of the belly cut open, they are brought forth in the sight of the peoples, so that the fatness, which ill-advised feeding had gathered, may be offered to the devil to devour. By that counsel of the enemy, by which these men do these things, by that very counsel the Martyrs of God, going to eternal life, are called back—they who, in order to live the life of a few days, are persuaded to run into perpetual torments, and not to fear perpetual death, which is especially to be feared.

To this place you perhaps object: Why does the Christian not fear torments, and is not terrified by the punishment of the present torturer? Therefore he is not broken by fear, therefore he is not led away by pain, because he knows that at the price of one pain he buys for himself the joy of perpetual health, and through momentary tribulation to arrive at everlasting felicity and eternal gladness. But if this pain is to be feared, the executioner is to be feared, and also the new and exquisite cruelty of the torturer is to be feared; which is more to be feared, which is horrible, which is more to be fled and guarded against—is it that which seethes today and vanishes tomorrow? that which blazes up today and grows cold tomorrow? that which is brought in within an hour and shut out within an hour? or that which is concluded by no end, extinguished by no time, consumed by no antiquity whatsoever? For this pain is either light, and can be borne tolerably; or it is heavy, and through a glorious contest offers a swift end; but that pain of punishments and the torment of fire, which is given to the lovers of this life, although it be more violent than every kind of torment, yet it comes upon them never to be ended, and rages more sharply thereafter than it began, and there is no limit of raging, no end at all occurs, but having with it every kind of punishment, it is renewed thereafter that it may rage, it is increased that it may torture, it is inflamed that it may burn more sharply.

Hence, therefore, let us exhort those whom we love to escape from this destruction; and let us prepare ourselves bravely to escape it. Let us not fear to endure pain in the body for one hour, we who long to rejoice forever with Christ, sending forth our soul from this body with the palm of martyrdom, so that we may be able to escape eternal punishments and come to the starry possessions full of delights. Let us turn our tears into joy, because we ought not to mourn as about to die those whom we believe to be reigning with Christ. Let us congratulate the victors over their enemies, with their neck trodden underfoot; let us rejoice together with those clothed in the pretext of martyrdom, and let us glory that they have been made consuls of heaven. Behold the day on which the tyrant thought he was conquering, he who, while he captured, was captured; while he held, was bound; while he tortured, was tortured; while he insulted, was mocked; while he slaughtered, was slain. Now, therefore, in the love of martyrdom let us also stir up our own affections, so that we may bravely capture him who wished to take victory from our captivity, and, as if awakened from a heavy sleep, let us open the eyes of our souls, so that, seeing the pits which the enemy had prepared for our destruction, we may indeed escape with God's help, and, with the devil himself falling with his companions into the very pit he had prepared, we may say with the prophet: They dug a pit before my face, and they themselves fell into it.

CHAPTER VII.

Through Sebastian's speech and miracles, Zoe and Nicostratus are gathered in.

So when the most blessed Sebastian, clad in a mantle, girded with a belt, was uttering these things from his own mouth, suddenly, for nearly one hour, he was illuminated by an exceedingly great splendor coming from heaven, and beneath that very splendor he was clothed by seven most radiant angels in a pure white pallium, and a youth appeared beside him giving him peace and saying: You will always be with me.

Now these things were happening near the house of the chief secretary, by name Nicostratus, with whom Marcellianus and Marcus were being held. This Nicostratus had a wife named Zoe; six years before, from the excessive severity of an illness she had been made mute, yet she had not only not lost the ability to hear and understand, but even possessed the function of her ears better than before. So when she had understood all the things that the blessed Sebastian had said, and had seen so great a light around him, and when all were held trembling with astonishment at the miracle, she signaled with her hand to everyone, as if reproaching those who would not believe such clear evidence, and falling at his knees she began to entreat him with gestures of her hands. But when Saint Sebastian saw that she could not declare the secrets of her heart by the expression of her tongue, he inquired into the causes of this silence and learned that the power of speech had been taken from her by the excessive force of her illness. Then the blessed...

Sebastian said: If I am a true servant of Christ, and if all these things are true which this woman heard from my mouth and believed, let my Lord Jesus Christ command that the function of her tongue return to her, and open her mouth who opened the mouth of Zachariah his prophet; and he made the sign of the cross on her mouth. And at this word of St. Sebastian, the woman cried out in a loud voice, saying: Blessed are you, and blessed is the speech of your mouth; and blessed are those who through you believe in Christ, the Son of the living God. For I have seen with my own eyes an angel coming to you from heaven, and holding a book before your eyes, from the reading of which the whole discourse of your speech flowed. Blessed are those who believe in all the things you have spoken, and accursed are those who have doubted even in one word of all these things which they have heard; for just as the dawn coming upon us shuts out all the darkness of night and restores to the eyes of all the light which blind night had denied, so the light of your words has wiped away all gloom and all the blindness of ignorance, and to the eyes of those who rightly believe has restored the serene day after the darkness of night; but from me it has not only shut out the darkness of unbelief, but has also opened the door of my speech, which for six years had been closed.

But Nicostratus, her husband, seeing that such great power of Christ had been manifested in his wife, began to fall at their feet and to beg pardon for having held the saints of God in chains by imperial and prefectural order; and taking the iron fetters from their hands and embracing their knees, he began to ask them that they would deign to depart, saying: How blessed would I be if I could deserve to be bound for your salvation! Perhaps I might be washed by the shedding of my blood, so that I might escape that death of eternal punishments and attain to that life which God has deigned to reveal to us through the mouth of my lord Sebastian.

CHAPTER VII.

The constancy of Marcellian and Mark, and their address to the neophytes.

And when he asked Marcellian and Mark to depart, they said to him: If you have received the glory of faith, which you never had before, how can we, abandoning the faith which we have always had from infancy, give you the cup of our passion, which we can pour out for you but not bestow? For Christ is rich unto all, and by the lavish abundance of his bounty he bestows on all who come better things than are asked. For if, when you were unbelievers, it was granted you to know the light of truth, how much more, when you believe, will all things whatsoever you now ask be given to you? For the divine mercy is always ready freely to bestow all things upon you; and it multiplies the gift of its grace in each one to the extent that his mind has received the rule of a deeper faith.

Your faith therefore took its beginning from instruction, and in the space of a single hour you have grasped all that long years of learning scarcely confer. No memory of ancestors hinders you from believing. No affection, nourished from tender age toward your children and your own, calls you back. You suddenly despise what you always loved, and you seek what you never knew. Entering by unknown paths, you have suddenly arrived at Christ, and in spirit you have already entered heaven, because on earth you sought no consolation. What an incomparable proclamation you have become! O how imitable an example of virtue! The wave of holy baptism has not yet led you to Christ, you have not yet, through the beginnings of your novitiate, taken up even the military standards; and already you seize arms for the true King, and as his soldiers, loosing others from the bond of iron, you desire to be slain yourselves undaunted for the slaying of others.

When all, hearing these things, alike showed repentance for their former persuasion by weeping, Mark said: Learn, dearest parents, and let the conjugal affection of you also learn, O spouses, to oppose the shield of virtues against the battle of the devil, and against all the arrows of the affections of carnal desire, and amid the ranks of the tyrannical army not to yield to the enemy, to strive more sharply, to hold their ground, and bravely to reach the King. Let the satellites of demons rise up as much as they will, and rage, and tear our bodies with whatever punishments they will; they can kill the body, but they cannot conquer the soul fighting for the truth of the faith.

Wounds received for the Emperor make soldiers more glorious; for in this the devil now rages with the fury of his tyranny, in that he foresees that by the trophy of your perseverance he can be tormented; and therefore he brings on torments, lest his hope perish; he threatens death, to terrify; he promises life, to snatch it away; he pledges security, to take it away. This is the whole cunning of war, this the counsel of fraud: to snatch the body from punishments and to subject the soul to vices. Let us, by contrast, strive not to yield to the enemy, to despise the body, to come to the aid of the soul. For why should the bravest leaders turn their backs on the most wretched soldiers, and fail in that war in which they can be victors? Or by what reasoning should they fear to die, who know that this is the nature of man, not a punishment? Why, I say, should they fear to die, who believe that this life is false, and that the true life cannot be found except by one who has cast away from his soul this false life, and this fleeting one, which commands nothing to its lovers but sins, persuades them to crimes, thrusts upon them criminal deeds; and demands nothing else from its lovers than that they not think at all of eternal life, and despair that the kingdom of God is to come?

For now let us see to what falls she is subject, and to what dangers the handmaid is enslaved, so that when we have proven that she cannot even govern herself, removing our service from her dominion, we may seek another whom we ought rightly to serve. For how many of her lovers has sudden grievous ruin oppressed, the crash of heaven struck, lightning set aflame, shipwrecks destroyed, chaos covered, Charybdis swallowed, the sword slain! And wretched men, losing this life with sorrows, cannot find that life at all. For torture does not lead to that life, but the cause. In short, by one and the same kind of punishments, eternal salvation is conferred on the innocent, and punishment is inflicted on the guilty.

CHAPTER IX.

The rest are converted by Sebastian together with the captives.

Therefore, when Marcus was continuing these things and others like them, all who were present began to give thanks to God, and all weeping did penance, because they had preferred the love of the flesh to the charity of God; and because they had dared to call back the minds of the saints from the contest of martyrdom. And when all who had come to deceive the saints unanimously believed in Christ, Nicostratus with his wife pressed him, saying: I will take neither food nor drink unless the mystery of the Christian religion has been delivered to me. To whom St. Sebastian said: Change your rank, and begin rather to be the chief secretary of Christ than of the prefect.

Hear therefore my counsel, and gather into one all whom the prison has enclosed, whom chains hold, whom the workhouses wear out. When you have done this, I will bring in the high priest of the sacred law, so that together with all who wish to believe you may receive the sacrament of the mystery. For if the devil has attempted, and still attempts, to carry off Christ's holy ones, how much more ought we, by the argument of piety, to heal those whom the devil has unjustly gained, and restore them to their Creator? And Nicostratus replied to these words, saying: How can holy things be entrusted to the wicked and the criminal? Saint Sebastian said: Our Savior deigned to show us his presence for sinners and revealed the mystery through which all sins and crimes are taken away from man, and all the virtues of the Lord are conferred. At the beginning of your conversion, therefore, if you first offer this gift to Christ, the reward of his recompense will be present upon you, the crown of martyrdom, having with it the unfading flowers of all virtues, destined to profit the joys of eternal life. Hearing this, Nicostratus the chief clerk went to Claudius the Commentariensis and ordered all persons to be brought to his house, saying: Since at the next session all are to be examined, I wish that they be present together with those Christians who are with me, so that no person may be lacking for the prefect's inquiry.

Therefore, when all had been led to the house of the primiscrinius and stood bound in the bonds of chains, the man of God, Sebastian, addressed them in this manner: If diabolical crimes yield to divine powers, your guilt is shut out from death, and is recalled from fleeting joys. For the unjust enemy had wrought through his satellites to overthrow the minds of the soldiers of Christ, raised up to the summit of virtues, and, placed on the very height of perfection, he endeavored to plunge them into the mire of the underworld. For this reason the spirit of the enemies grew hot, provoked by the conflict, so that we, taking you away from his captivity—you whom the enemy had already gained—may restore you to your Creator. For the devil is recognized as neither your lord, nor creator, nor father; but God is proved to be both Father and Lord and Creator. And if, forsaking this one, you went away to that one who has been so great an enemy to you as to lead you to the punishments of perpetual death and make you come to this deadly end, how much more must one return to him who handed over his only Son to suffering and death, so that he might free us from eternal sufferings and from perpetual death! While St. Sebastian was continuing these and similar words, they all prostrated themselves with tears, and on bended knees began to give forth the groaning of their heart, and to cry out with words of penitence that they had sinned and acted impiously. They poured forth bitter tears, then, and with unanimous voices resounded that they wished to believe in Christ. Then B.

Sebastian orders all to be loosed from the bonds of their chains.

CHAPTER X.

He prepares all to be baptized by Polycarp.

After these things, Saint Sebastian went to Polycarp the presbyter, where he was hidden because of the persecution, and told him everything that had been done. When he heard these things, Saint Polycarp gave thanks to God, and went with him to the house of Nicostratus the primiscrinius, and seeing the crowds of believers, greeting them with all joy, he said: Blessed are you all, who have heard the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ saying: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is sweet, and my burden light (Matt. 11 ff.). You therefore, our brothers, whom the wave of baptism has not yet washed, and has not yet made most dear sons by consecrating you to God almighty, because you have attempted to call back from their holy purpose the most blessed soldiers of Christ, you had need of repentance, that through it you might come to forgiveness. But now, because you have attained to such great glory that you even desire gladly to run to the very passion from which you wished sorrowfully to call others back, and to embrace it willingly, know that you have both come to forgiveness and reached the palm. This is the craft of Christ.

For the very man whom he deigned and willed to give as a teacher to the nations, chosen by his own election—who not only recalled the minds of the faithful from the purpose of piety, but even stoned those unwilling to depart from Christ—this man the Lord himself forgave as an apostle, and granted to us: from Saul he made Paul, from an apostate he made an apostle, and gave to his Church a teacher from a persecutor. He who had been the author of persecution became a lover of suffering; and he who previously rejoiced in the afflictions of others afterward exulted in his own persecutions. Therefore he who then exercised this power in his apostle, he also now from that inner chamber and from the very jaws of the dragons snatched away the captivity of your souls, and has opened for you now, returning from darkness to light, the gates of eternal life. Since, therefore, all the demons, who are sons of darkness, are grieved, and hence all the holy angels, who are sons of light, rejoice, let each one of you come forward and give his name, so that with the fast of today running on until evening, the saving sacrament of baptism may find a fitting time. For it is just that the light, departing from the mortal world, should come to our immortal minds, so that we who have been rolled about in this age in the mud of darkness, washed and cleansed by the water of sanctification and clothed in sincerity, may press on joyfully to Christ. As Saint Sebastian continued with these and similar words.

All rejoiced over Polycarp, and each one hastened to offer his own name before he was questioned.

CHAPTER XI.

The catechumens were baptized, and Claudius together with his sons.

31. While these things were being done, Claudius the registrar came to the house of Nicostratus the chief secretary, where these things were being done, and he says to Nicostratus: The prefecture has been violently stirred up, because you ordered the persons of the accused to be handed over to the custody of your house. For this reason the prefect ordered you to be presented before his sight. See to it that, as one who must be questioned, you give an answer. So Nicostratus entered to the prefect, and when he had been asked why he had wished those persons whom the bars of the prison were holding to be taken up into the custody of his own house, he answered: By the order of your greatness I undertook to shut up Christian persons within my house; and to strike terror of suffering into them, I made them be joined with the persons of the accused, so that by your command and our persuasion, if not by their own consent, at least by another's experience, they might consent, and fear lest a similar punishment enclose them. Therefore the prefect, hearing these things most gladly, dismissed him, saying: I will have you rewarded with a great sum by their parents, when through you their sons have been restored to them unharmed.

Accordingly Nicostratus the primiscrinius, returning to his house with Claudius the commentariensis, began to relate everything: how Saint Sebastian, though he is a friend of the emperors, is most Christian and perfect in divine learning; how by his exhortation he had recalled the souls of Christians; and how with sufficiently fitting reasoning he had taught that this life is fleeting and imaginary, and thus, while it is thought to be held, is taken away. He also recounted how a light from heaven, coming suddenly, had shone all around him, and how he had made his wife speak, who had been mute for six years.

When Nicostratus had told these things to Claudius, Claudius fell at Nicostratus's feet, saying: From my lost wife I have two sons, of whom one is afflicted with the disease of dropsy, and the other is oppressed by various wounds; I ask that you order them to be visited. For I do not doubt that he who was able to make your wife speak after six years will, if he wills, make health return to my sons. And saying this, he hurried away to his own house, and had his two sons brought before him, and leading them into the house where the saints of God were, he cast them before their feet, saying: No signs of doubt at all have remained in my heart; but believing with my whole heart that Christ, whom you worship, is himself the true God, I have brought here to you my two children, believing that through you they could be freed from the peril of death.

All the saints of God say to him at once: All those whom illness holds here today, as soon as they have become Christians, will be healed.

And when Claudius cried out that he believed and desired to become a Christian, Saint Polycarp ordered that each should give his name. First of all, Tranquillinus, the father of Marcellianus and Marcus, gave his name. After him, their six friends, that is, Ariston, Crescentianus, Eutychianus, Urbanus, Vitalis, and Justus; after these, Nicostratus the primiscrinius, and Castorius his brother, and Claudius the commentariensis. After these, the sons of Claudius, Felicissimus and Felix. After these, Marcia, the mother of Marcellianus and Marcus, together with their wives and children; and likewise Symphorosa, the wife of Claudius, and Zoe, the wife of Nicostratus. After these, the entire household that was in the house of Nicostratus, thirty-three souls of mixed sex and age; then all those who had been bound and brought from the filth of the prison, sixteen souls.

Therefore all these eighteen were baptized by the presbyter Saint Polycarp and received by Saint Sebastian; and the mothers of the women are Beatrix and Lucina. First, then, when he dipped Claudius's sons in the name of the Holy Trinity, the one dropsical and the other full of wounds, they were lifted from the font so sound that not a trace of any past illness remained in them. After these infants, moreover, came Tranquillinus, father of the saints Marcellian and Mark, who had been so bound by the pain of gout in the feet and hands that, as was said above, he could scarcely be carried in men's hands. While they were stripping off his garments, and he said that he was tormented by unbearable pain, the presbyter Polycarp questioned him, saying: Tranquillinus, if you believe with your whole heart that the only-begotten Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, can confer salvation upon you and grant pardon for all your sins, declare it with your own mouth. Tranquillinus answered: That pardon alone be given to my sins I both desire and believe. Moreover, even if after the sanctification of this baptism I should remain in pains, I shall not be able to doubt the faith of Christ. For I have tested it and, believing with my whole heart, I have consented in my mind that the Son of God is the Lord Jesus Christ, who can grant salvation to both souls and bodies and recall from eternal death to everlasting life.

When he had said these things with a loud voice, all the saints were shedding tears for joy and beseeching the Lord that the fruit of his faith might be shown. Therefore Saint Polycarp the confessor and presbyter, as soon as he had anointed him with the ointment of chrism, asked him again whether he believed in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; as soon as he answered, I believe, his hands, which were knotted, were loosened, and his knees and the soles of his feet were so restored to health that, as if a little boy with renewed feet, he went down into the font crying out and saying: You are the one true God, whom this wretched world does not know.

And so when he had been baptized in his order, all were baptized, as was fitting, and for ten days those who remained over from the delay they had deserved, persevering in the praises of God, spent days and nights in hymns and songs, and like faithful soldiers prepared their minds to fight for the name of Christ, to do battle in martyrdom, so that even in the women and the infants the love of martyrdom burned, and they prepared one another for the confession of the holy name against the ranks of the devil.

CHAPTER XII.

The Errors of the Gentiles Confuted by Tranquillinus Before Chromatius, Prefect of the City

When the days of the granted delay had therefore been completed, Agrestius Chromatius, prefect of the city of Rome, orders Tranquillinus, the father of Marcellianus and Marcus, to come to him. And when he inquired of him concerning the will of his sons, Tranquillinus answered: No speech of my mouth suffices to give thanks for your benefits. For unless the reins of your moderation had held back the rushing judgments, I would both have lost my sons, and my sons would not have had me as a father. All who are held by fatherly affection and pricked by the goad of love congratulate me; and I believe that your highness also rejoices with me, since life has been restored to the dead and joy has been given back to the anxious, and you have restored security to those who were troubled.

Then the prefect, thinking that his sons wished to bow their necks to idols, said: On the coming day, therefore, let the due incense be offered by your sons to the gods; through which you may both remain safe in your sons, and your sons may be granted to you. Hearing these things, Tranquillinus said: Most illustrious of men, if you wish to weigh the balance of your examination with an equal scale toward me and my sons, you will be able to recognize that this name of Christian is of great power. The prefect said: You are mad, Tranquillinus. Tranquillinus answered: I have suffered madness of soul and body; but as soon as I believed in Christ, I recovered both the health of my soul and of my body.

The prefect said: I see that I am known to have granted a delay to your wicked sons for this purpose, that you might not only fail to draw them away from error, but that they might entangle you in their own errors. Tranquillinus said: By your honor, examine the very name of error, and see what works are called by the name of error. The prefect said: You say what works receive the name of error. Tranquillinus said: The first error is to abandon the way of life and to walk gladly along the way of death. The prefect said: And what is the way of death? Tranquillinus said: Does it not seem to you to be the way of death to impose the name of divinity on dead men, and to adore their images through wood and stone?

The prefect said: Therefore are those whom we worship not gods? Tranquillinus said: They are so far from being gods that it is read in the public records both how basely they were born, and how unjust, cruel, and wicked were the parents they had; and how unjustly, deceitfully, and fraudulently they lived; and how miserably they died. Was there no God in the heavens before Saturnus ruled over the Cretans and ate the flesh of his sons, or did the island of Crete have a king while the heavens had no God? He greatly errs who thinks that Jove, his son, rules the thunderbolts—a little man in whom malice and lust reigned. Whom did he not persecute, who did not spare his own father? Or what filth did he not practice, who took his own sister as wife? In the forum.

in the streets, in the houses, and in every place we read daily that the most filthy Juno glories in having been both sister and wife; and the most shameful and most incestuous honor of the snatched Ganymede is not denied by those very men by whom Jupiter is worshiped. You are not mistaken, then, most exalted man, in worshiping such beings as the Roman laws command to be condemned according to the quality of their milk, and, having abandoned the almighty God who reigns in the heavens, you say to a stone, You are my God; and you say to wood, Help me?

The prefect said: From the time you began to blaspheme the gods and to withdraw from their worship, from that time the Roman world has been oppressed by various disasters. Tranquillinus answered: It is not true. For if you review the decades digested by the pen of Livy, you will find there that, while they were placing thrones for Jupiter, twenty-three thousand young men of the Roman army fell in one day. But neither are you unmindful of this, that the Senonian Gauls even occupied the Capitol and subdued every Roman force to their mockeries. Various famines, and unspeakable plagues, various captivities, various outpourings of blood, the Roman world suffered before men worshiped the one God. But now, from the time the invisible and true God began to be worshiped by believers, the Roman empire exults, increased in peace. But what is worse, God, who grants this here, is not acknowledged; but to his creatures is ascribed whatever is granted by the Creator.

The prefect said: If he is to be worshipped who provides something for human convenience, no one will be held to be god except the sun alone, who by his aspect quickens the inner parts of the earth, so that the seeds it has received may bring forth, and may restore the grains of its native offspring in the stalk, and to all the utilities of our health alike grants both light and renewal and vigor. Tranquillinus answered: And in this there is boundless error. For if through his servant someone should grant to his clients what is asked, it is infinite folly that, when he who provided is neglected, the servant through whom he provided should be honored. And that I may offer some comparison of this saying: surely when ships bring provisions to the Romans, thanks are given to the ships rather than to the kings? If therefore men ascribe what is supplied not to those who sail but to those who command, how much more ought thanks to be given to God alone, by whose nod both these elements serve all our uses, and the sun itself daily is alike closed in at the end of the day for earth and sea, and is opened again in the renewal of the day?

CHAPTER XIII.

The Incarnation of the Word Explained to a Pagan.

The prefect said: If, then, the one whom you worship is invisible, do you not worship Christ, whom the Jews crucified? Tranquillinus said: You would rightly inquire into these matters if you intended to believe. For to the unbelieving, everything they do not want seems worthless. For once the will of mortals has turned headlong, everything it censures it wishes to be censured, and it wants everything it praises to be praised by all. But the wise man, according to his desert, strives to bestow either his censure or his praise upon each thing. The prefect said: I am asking you about your Christ. For if you worship that which is not seen by these eyes, do you not worship Christ, who both was seen, and heard, and questioned, and all things that befit human frailty are read to have been fulfilled in his passion?

Tranquillinus said: Hear a comparison and understand the truth: For example, if today you were to see your ring, which has a precious gem, in a sewer or rolling about in a dung heap, and you were to send your servants to pull it out, but they could not free it, and in trying to rescue it they defiled themselves in something; afterward, however, you yourself, taking off these silk garments you have put on, would put on a slave's tunic and, descending into the sewer, put your hands into the filth, and with your own hands recover the gold ring together with the gem, and out of joy invite all your friends to a banquet and rejoice over the ring and the gem, because they have been freed from such great filth. The prefect said: To whose likeness have you brought this comparison? Tranquillinus answered: To show you that we worship one invisible God. The prefect said: And what is the gold? Or what is the gem that was rolling about in the dung heap? Tranquillinus answered: The gold is the human body, but the gem is the soul, which is enclosed in the body itself. But the body and the soul make one man, just as the gold and the gem are proved to make one ring. But however precious the ring may be to you, far more precious is man a hundredfold, and dear to Christ. You sent your servants to rescue the ring from the filth, and in no way could they pull it out.

God sent his prophets from heaven, speaking to them, to snatch the human race from the filth of this world; and by no means, even with all their urging, could they do this. You took off your golden garments, and, clothed in a slave's garment, you descended into the sewer, and you put your hands into the filth, to free the ring from the filth. The majesty of his Divinity also stripped itself of the splendor of its glory—yet not leaving the things above—and put on the garment of our servile body, and descending from heaven here into the sewer of this world, he put his hands into the filth of our passions; and taking upon himself the passion that was owed to our merits, he restored us to the glory of his fingers. For we who by unbelief were rolling in the squalor of the world, washed by faith from its filth, have been restored by divine hands, like that ring of yours. Could not your servants, who denied you their master, when they looked upon you in servile garb, have been put to death as rebels? So too those who deny Christ their Lord, because he emptied himself of his majesty and took the form of a servant, will in no way be able to escape the punishments of eternal fire. Therefore, finally, for us who believe in him, the wave of the eternal fountain has come to our aid, so that eternal fire may be conquered by the eternal fountain, and unbelief overcome by faithfulness.

The prefect said: As I see it, you are shown to have asked for a delay not so that you might take your sons away from this purpose, but so that you might bring these old wives' tales, having rehearsed them, to our tribunals. Tranquillinus said: The disciples of Christ do not rehearse what they are to set forth in the sight of judges. For thus he forewarned them, saying: When they deliver you up to the powers of this world for my name's sake, do not think how or what you shall speak; for it shall be given you from heaven in that hour what you shall speak. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of God who speaks in you. Therefore I found my Creator not by rehearsing but by believing; and I, who was contracted and shattered by the pain of gout in my feet and hands, as soon as I believed in Christ, received health in all my members like a little child. It is settled, then, in my mind that he himself created me who deigned to renew me; and just as he gave restoration to my body, so too he promised to give it to my soul after this life, provided that I am not broken by the terrors of men through doubt or fear, but, persevering in the confession of his name, I keep whole the faith which God made me find.

The prefect said: You do not know, Tranquillinus, how great is the fury of the most invincible princes raging against the Christians, and therefore, as though secure, you pursue without fear whatever seems right to you. Tranquillinus said: It is the height of folly to fear human indignation more than divine. For if we were to come into the midst of barking dogs, and they should begin in their empty rage to assail us with their bites, can they take from our mind this fact, that we are rational human beings, when they are dogs, both irrational and mad? So those who are angry with us who believe rightly can indeed rage and inflict unjust punishments; yet they can never take from our heart this fact, that we believe the Lord Jesus Christ to be both Creator and our Redeemer, and we rejoice that he is our Restorer. Then the prefect ordered him to be taken back by the registrars, saying: I shall hear you at the next session.

CHAPTER XIV.

Chromatius, prefect of the city, is catechized.

After this he sent and ordered that he be brought to him secretly by night, and offering him an infinite weight of gold he said: Show me the medicine by which you recovered your health. To whom Tranquillinus said: Know that those will suffer the great anger and fury of God who think that his grace is either to be sold or bought. Therefore, if you wish to be freed from the pain of gout, believe in Christ the Son of God, and you will be freed, and just as you see me today, so will you be saved. Indeed, I was scarcely being carried by hands, and for eleven years throughout all the joints of the nerves in my body I was bound by the knots of pains, and bread was scarcely delivered to my mouth by the hands of others; as soon as I believed that Christ is the true God, I received the joys of my salvation, and I am whole, because I have acknowledged the true God as my Savior.

Then the prefect dismissed him, saying: Bring to me the one who made you a Christian, so that if he has promised health to me, I too may be able to become a Christian. But immediately Tranquillinus, coming to Saint Polycarp the presbyter, told him all things that were done or said; and leading him secretly into the house, he presented him to the sight of the prefect. To whom the prefect said: Although the grave punishment of the princes is hostile to Christians, nevertheless in the hope of recovering health I will bring you whatever it is, even up to half of the patrimony of my estate, if the members of my body have been released from this knotting of the swellings. Then Saint

Polycarp, smiling, said: The Lord Jesus Christ is able to open the doors of your ignorance and to show you that he himself is the restorer of your body. For money, whether brought by those who offer it or received by those to whom it is offered, not only confers no medicine on the suffering, but even those who do so take upon themselves an incurable disease. The prefect said to him: Tell me, then, what I should do, so that I may obtain what I hope for. Polycarp said to him: If you believe with your whole heart, as Tranquillinus believed, you will be saved. The prefect said to him: Tell me, in what order ought I to believe? Then Saint Polycarp catechized him and instructed him to fast for three days. And calling Saint Sebastian to him, he fasted with him for three days and three nights; and with tears they prayed together, that the Lord would make clear the faith of his name for the salvation of the one willing to believe.

CHAPTER XV.

The Idols of Chromatius Broken.

Therefore, when the third day, which had been appointed, had arrived, they came together hastening to the house of the waiting prefect. Upon entering, they said: Peace to your faith. But he greeted them most courteously in return; and he urged them to sit beside him, and said: From the mouth of Tranquillinus the account has come forth, made clear by the testimony of my own eyes. For you see this man, perfectly healthy, whom I had seen contracted by the pain of gout and chiragra. Inquiring of him from what kind of remedy he had been saved, I received such a reply from him: While I placed my trust in idols, I was weak and contracted by excessive infirmity; but when I learned of the one God in the heavens through the revelation of Christians, I renounced all the things which I had worshipped without cause, and I entrusted the faith of my soul to Christ. And as soon as I confessed that the one and true God reigns in the heavens, immediately all the health which I had lost for twelve years returned to me, and all infirmity was straightway separated from me. These things I heard with my ears, I proved with my eyes, I believed with my heart; it remains that you do for Tranquillinus and for me what you have done, so that I may be able to receive the health of my body.

Polycarp the presbyter said: If a man's soul does not endure the sorrows that pass, what will it do with those sorrows for which no end ever comes, no succession at all is granted? For these teachers bear the image of those sorrows, and as far as living fire differs from its picture, so far do the sorrows that the body now suffers differ from those that the soul will suffer, if, ignorant of its Creator, it has fulfilled the office of this present life. Come then with us first to those sorrows, and be anxious about that tun which has fire ever burning and a worm ever eating.

Then Chromatius, prefect of the city of Rome, with his only son Tiburtius, gave his name, saying: In this matter it is fitting that you be certain concerning my faith, in which I also desire that my son become a Christian with me. Saint Sebastian said: See that you do not hope to become a Christian led only by the recovery of your body, but rather, by the hope of eternal life, make your mind pure to see the reason of truth. For unless you have acknowledged who your Creator is, you will not be able to find the salvation you seek. Chromatius said: Do we not then see that rustics and the simplest of men are Christians, so that among a thousand men you will scarcely find one who can attain even the discipline of words? Could all these attain to this inquiry when they became Christians? Saint Sebastian said: This answer of yours confirms the assertion of our side.

For from the beginning of the world God had dealings with tillers of the soil and shepherds of sheep, and coming near the end of the world he chose not grammarians and orators but fishermen and simple men, and to them he handed over his knowledge.

Chromatius said: Why then do you tell me that I ought first to acknowledge who my creator is, whom unless I acknowledge I cannot find salvation? Saint Sebastian said: Because you have worshipped many gods and many goddesses. Unless therefore you have shut these out from your heart, and broken their images, and come to know the one and true God, you will not be able to find life and salvation. Chromatius said: Tell me then who is the one and true God. Saint Sebastian answered: If you send your servant to draw water, when he comes to the fountain he first looks to see that no filth lies hidden within the vessel, and he does not dare to put water into the vessel unless he sees it cleansed of filth; how then shall we be able to hand over to you the fountain of truth, unless you first make yourself a stranger to all the filth and squalor of idols? Chromatius said: And in what order shall I be able to become a stranger to these? Saint Sebastian said: Give us leave to break in pieces all the idols that we find in your house—the stone ones, to burn the wooden ones, to melt down the gold and silver and bronze ones, and to distribute their value to the needy. Chromatius said: And when you have done these things, what fruit will come to me? S.

Sebastian said: At once you will obtain healing from all the knots of your sinews, by whose knottedness you are bound; and as if you had never been in pain, so you will begin to run on your feet, and you will acknowledge that you have loved the gods who are enemies of your salvation; but that this one is your father, who, as soon as you have come to know and worship him, restores and saves you.

Chromatius said: Do not subject yourselves to this injury; but I will give orders to my servants, and they themselves will break all these things in pieces. Saint Sebastian said: If doubtful and one-eyed and faithless men break them, the devil will find through whatever negligence of theirs an occasion to harm them, and as soon as they have been harmed, the faithless will say that they were harmed for this reason, because they broke the idols. For unless a man has a breastplate, he is not saved from the blows of arrows. For the trained hand uses helmet and shield and spear in battle, so that from the protection of arms it may take boldness for the charge and not turn its back. Likewise also the soldiers of God, who are fortified by the shield of faith and protected by the breastplate of Christ's covering, having the helmet of faith and salvation, for them it is safe to enter the contest. For they fight most fiercely and conquer bravely, because against an invisible enemy they strive day and night without weariness; and they are covered in all their members, armed with faith rather than with iron. Chromatius said: Let the will of God and yours be done. Then Saint Polycarp the presbyter, and B.

Sebastian and those girding themselves prayed; and after the prayer, breaking more than two hundred images of idols, they began to give thanks to their God.

CHAPTER XVI.

When the instruments of judicial astrology are broken, Chromatius is healed.

5. After these things they came to Chromatius, saying to him: When we broke the idols, you ought to have received healing, unless perhaps some signs of unbelief are left behind in your mind. For we hold this as certain among us, that either there is something which has not yet been broken; or if all things have been broken, make clear to us more evidently what you are harboring in your mind. Then he said: I have a chamber of transparent glass, in which all the discipline of the stars and the mathesis has been constructed by me with mechanical skill, in the making of which my father Tarquinius is known to have spent more than two hundred pounds of gold. To him Saint Sebastian said: If you wish to have this intact, you will break yourself. Chromatius said: Why then? Are the mathesis or the ephemerides worshiped by any use of sacrifices, when only the course of months and years is distinguished by them in a fixed number through the spaces of hours? And is the fullness or waning of the lunar orb foreseen by the movement of the fingers, under the guidance of reason, and by the computation of calculation? Sebastian said:

Polycarp the presbyter said: There are the signs of Leo and Capricorn and Sagittarius, and of Scorpio, and of Taurus; there the moon is in Aries, the hour in Cancer; the star in Jupiter, the tropical [point] in Mercury, Mars in Venus; and in all these monstrous demons the art hostile to God is recognized. Do Christians so refuse these things that not only do they not have them, not worship them, not believe them, not hold to them, but they do not even have the minds of those who occupy their breast with trifles of this kind? For all these things are ministers of falsehood and deception; in them is a likeness of truth, not truth itself.

Chromatius said to him: What of the fact that sometimes they foretell future things? St. Sebastian said: We have known, with Christ revealing it, that all these things are utterly vain and utterly false; these we shall now disclose to you more plainly. Order the teacher of mathematics to come to you today, and tell him that at that time you were laboring under harsh misfortunes, and inquire by which stars this happened to you; his answers will without doubt be of this sort: that your time was received by malicious Mars, or that Saturn was apocatastic, or that your year was taken diametrically, or that climacteric [points] were born in your center, or that there was a syndelus with the evil [star], or that it was invisible, or in the schema, or that the course in the stars stood immobile about you. When he has said these things and the like, he strives to assign and prove to you something plausible of reason.

Come now, question the astrologer of your ancestors, and tell him that the very hours and the very time abounded for you in good fortunes; you will immediately see him bring you countless reasonable schemes by which he may prove that good things ought to have befallen you at those very times. For he holds a circle gathered from every part, in which he receives diverse and varied causes, and from which he takes occasion to say what he wishes.

For since they cannot thoroughly foresee future things, they call them climacteric, that is, the uncertain foreknowledge of the nature of a thing. For those born at different times perished in one shipwreck, and those born at one hour of the day or night—one is brought down to beggary, another rises to a kingdom; and in one battle an innumerable multitude is laid low, and on one day, nay, at one point, in one house, two women—the one most chaste, the other shameless—are mocked: if the merit of each one's star were compared, neither is the harlot to be blamed nor the chaste woman to be praised. Certainly the lawgivers and princes punish their sacred rites when violated, and for this reason there is a forum, for this reason a judge, for this reason laws, so that the just may be rightly praised and the unjust deservedly punished. And I do not want you to think this idle, that you observe yourself not yet saved. For if you cast away from yourself wholly the ceremonies of the enemy of the human race, you would have learned in yourself what is true.

Hearing these things, Chromatius said: That is the true God who is proved to have such worshippers as you. For all your speech so abounds in reasons that it inclines minds to the true reason—and, as it seems, even to a reckoning. Therefore even this very thing, which I seemed to have received for the adornment of my house, lest the safety of my soul be hindered by it, let it be destroyed. For I believe, and this is my faith, that if I separate myself entirely from all these things which the law of Christianity abominates and prohibits, I may deserve to obtain both present and future salvation.

Hearing these things, his son Tiburtius said: By no reasoning will I suffer this precious and excellent and incomparable work to be cast down. But lest I seem to come as an opponent to my father's salvation, let two things be brought and prepared, lit, before the door of the chamber, so that when it has been destroyed by them and my father has recovered his health, both may be plunged into separate burning furnaces. Hearing these things, his father forbade it to be done. But the saints not only did not fear the promised destruction, but even steadfastly urged that the furnaces be prepared.

Then they came to all the idols of crystal and of glass, and all that mechanical work; and suddenly, while they were being broken by the hands of the saints, there appeared before the eyes of Chromatius a young man whose face shone with a fiery aspect, and he said to him: My Lord Jesus Christ, in whom you have believed, has sent me, that you may receive the health of all your members. At this voice, restored to perfect health, he began to run after the young man, to kiss his feet. But he said to him: See that you do not touch me, for the sanctification of baptism has not yet washed you from the filth of idols. Seeing these things, Tiburtius his son threw himself at the feet of St. Polycarp. But Chromatius the prefect himself clung to the soles of St. Sebastian, and both cried out with one voice: Christ is the true God, the true and almighty only-begotten Son of God, whom you, his good servants, preach.

CHAPTER XVII.

The baptism of Chromatius and Tiburtius.

Then Blessed Sebastian said to Chromatius: As you yourself know, I hold the rank of first cohort, but whether it belongs to a man's military service, I have determined that I do not wish to know, nor would I wish to. For this alone I wished to lie hidden beneath the military cloak, that I might instruct the minds of the wavering and make the doubtful steadfast, lest they yield to the pains of suffering, whom faith had made soldiers. But you, bearing the summit of the most ample power, cannot remove yourself from public spectacles, nor absent yourself from judging affairs. Feigning illness, therefore, ask for a successor for yourself, so that, free from the occupations of the world, you may receive the rudiments of the life to come, so that, born again by a second birth, you may be made a child to eternal parents. And so on that same day he sends to his friends stationed in the palace, through whom, receiving testimonial letters, he received the novitiate of divine service before he was baptized.

What should I mention greater than how full of faith he was, and how sharply he stood with his intellect against the assertions of the faithless? The following reading makes it manifest. For at the beginning, how he was bathed by the wave of the sacred font, his faith shone forth evidently. Asked if he believed, he said: I believe. Asked again whether he renounced all idols, he answered: I renounce them. The priest's questioning followed, whether he renounced all sins; and he said: You ought first to have inquired into these things before I entered these halls of the King of heaven.

But now I will be reinvested—I who am not baptized—so that I may first pardon all those with whom I am angry; that I may restore their bonds to all my debtors; if I have violently taken anything from anyone, I will order it returned intact. Two concubines are mine after my wife's death, and I will give them a dowry and husbands. From every bond of servitude—freeborn, private, or public—I will release my acts. And so at last I will promise that I will renounce all diabolical sins and the pleasures of the world. The presbyter Polycarp said to him: A heavenly wave will pour over you more blessedly when you fulfill with all haste the things you say you will do by your own will. For the period of forty days is therefore imposed on those to be baptized, so that in all those days they may learn that they will renounce all the arts of the enemy and the commerce of the world, if they truly wish to be made Christians.

Then Tiburtius, a most wise young man, said: Father, if you demand time for renouncing business, I, who was still to take up the business of the forum, renounce the mere will to take it up; and I, who was to be an advocate for pleading the causes of mortals, will take up Christianity, to plead angelic actions, once I begin to be one of their number who receive eternal life and are made advocates of holiness. Then Blessed Sebastian embraced him; and when Saint Polycarp had baptized him, he himself became his father of adoption.

Therefore, when only a very few days had passed, after Chromatius had duly renounced all the business of the world, he received the newness of sacred baptism; and with him, from his household, one thousand four hundred souls of either sex, all of whom he first freed from the knot of slavery by the grace of manumission and furnished with the best gifts, saying this: "Those who begin to have God as father ought not to be servants of man."

CHAPTER XVIII.

Chromatius, having abdicated the prefecture of the City, feeds Christians in the time of persecution.

Now there was a bishop of the city of Rome named Caius, a man of great prudence and great virtue, while Carinus, Diocletian, and Maximian were ruling. But Diocletian was in the City with Maximian; Carinus, however, was stationed with his whole army in the regions of the Gauls; and in consideration of him the persecution of Diocletian against the Christians had begun to be slow; because Carinus had certain friends whom the profession of this title adorned.

Therefore, after Carinus had been killed in the city of Mainz by the consuls Maximian and Aquilinus, such a persecution arose that no one could buy or sell anything unless, after placing small idols in the place where he had come for the purpose of buying, he had offered incense of frankincense. Around the islands, around the villages, and around the shrines of the nymphs as well, enforcers were stationed, who would grant neither the means of buying nor even the ability to draw water itself, unless one had first made a libation to the idols.

Then, after holding counsel with Saint Caius the bishop, Chromatius, an illustrious man, received all the Christians into his house, and he cherished them all so that no one at all would succumb to the necessity of sacrificing. But because such force of persecution had arisen that the very report of his Christianity could not be concealed, Chromatius obtained by sacred rescript that, for the sake of healing, he might linger on the Campanian shore, where he was lord of a broad estate, and he granted the opportunity to every Christian wishing to go with him to avoid the fury of the persecutor. Then a dispute arose between Saint Polycarp and the blessed Sebastian: which of these two should remain in the City, and which should go with Chromatius, who had received so great a Christian people. As they were arguing, the venerable pope Caius said: While you both seek the crown of martyrdom, you leave desolate the people acquired for the Lord.

Hence it seems good to me that you, brother Polycarp, since you both hold the straight path of the priesthood and are filled with the knowledge of God, should go together to strengthen the minds of the believers and to build up doubting souls. And he, having heard these things, fell silent and bore the kindly command of the pope with equanimity. And so the Lord's day came, on which Caius the bishop, doing the things of God within the house of Chromatius, addressed them all with this voice: Our Lord Jesus Christ, foreknowing the frailty of man, established two degrees for those who believe in him, namely of confession and of martyrdom, so that those who despair of being able to bear the weight of martyrdom may hold the grace of confession, and offering their side to those who fight, may take thought for the soldiers of Christ who are to fight for his name. Therefore let those who wish go together with our sons Chromatius and Tiburtius, and let those who wish remain with me in this city. For the spaces of lands will not divide us, whom the love of Christ binds together, nor do our eyes feel your absence, because we behold you with the sight of the inner man.

When father Caius was saying these and similar things, Tiburtius, a most illustrious man, exclaimed, saying: I beg you, father and bishop of bishops, do not allow me to turn my back to the pursuers. For it is very pleasant and desirable to me, if I could be killed a thousand times for the true God, only that I may find the dignity of that life, which no successor of mine can snatch away, to which no ages can impose an end. Then Saint Caius, rejoicing together in his faith, shed tears, praying that all who remained might prove victorious in the contest, receiving the triumph of martyrdom.

CHAPTER XIX.

The illustrious deeds of Saints Sebastian, Tiburtius, and others in the City.

There remained, moreover, with the venerable father Caius, Marcellianus and Marcus, and together with them their father, the most illustrious man Tranquillinus, likewise the blessed Sebastian, and a most beautiful youth, but more beautiful in mind, Saint Tiburtius, and Nicostratus, formerly of the chief secretariat, with his brother Castorius, and with his wife, by name Zoe; likewise Claudius with his brother Victorinus and with his son Symphorianus, who had been freed from the disease of dropsy. These alone, while all the rest set out with Chromatius, remained with bishop Caius; he sanctified Marcus and Marcellianus with the honor of the diaconate, but their father Tranquillinus he made a presbyter. Saint Sebastian, however, who under the appearance of military service lay hidden for the profit of many, he appointed defender of the Church, and the rest he made subdeacons.

But because no shore could be found, no place for fostering concealment, they all stayed with a certain Castulus, a Christian and a zealous servant of the palace, who dwelt there in the palace, in an upper room and a very high one. And for this reason this dwelling was judged suitable, because Castulus himself with his household was most Christian, and the law concerning sacrifices, raging everywhere with its own fury, was hidden from those who clung to the palace, since not even suspicion could arise concerning them. Therefore, as we said, all these were staying with the holy father Caius at Castulus the zealous servant, in those upper parts of the palace, and day and night, occupied with groans and tears, fastings and prayers, they entreated the Lord that they might be deemed worthy of the endurance of his confession, to be joined to the number of the holy martyrs.

But religious men and religious women secretly went up to them, and obtained for themselves various graces of healings from the saints. For, strengthened by the firmness of the true faith and founded upon a solid foundation of virtues, the grace of healings followed them. For the eyes of the blind were enlightened by their prayers, and the sick were healed, and demons were driven out from possessed bodies.

71. Meanwhile, while these things were being done, the blessed Tiburtius, passing by, met a man who had fallen from a height and had shattered his head and all his limbs, so that those who were recognized as his son were already arranging for his burial alone. Then he said to them as they wept: Allow me to pray over him; perhaps he will recover his health. When they all had given him room, he approached close to him, and saying slowly over his wounds the Lord's Prayer and the creed, his bones and his head and all his inner parts were so restored that, just as if nothing had happened to him, he became whole.

And when he had done these things, he began to go on his way. But his parents held him back, saying: Come and take him as your servant, and we hand over to you with him all our goods, because you have now restored to us alive our only son, whom we had as dead. He says to them: If you do what I have told you, I will count this healing a great reward. His parents say to him: Deign to have us as your servants; we cannot refuse—indeed we even desire it, if you yourself judge us worthy. Then taking them by the hand, he separated them from the crowds and declared to them the power of the name of Christ. And seeing their mind firmly fixed in the fear of the Lord, he led them to Pope Caius and said: Venerable pope and bishop of the divine law, behold those whom Christ has gained today through me, in whom my faith, like a new little tree, has first burst forth into fruit. Then S.

Caius the bishop baptized them, that is, the young man with his parents, giving thanks to God.

CHAPTER XX.

The Slayings of Zoe, Tranquillinus, and Others.

But since it is a great task if we wish to set forth all the things, and how great they were, that Christ did through them, let us only explain how each one came to the palm of martyrdom. The most blessed Zoe, on the birthday of the Apostles, while she was praying at the Confession of the apostle Peter, was pressed upon by plotting pagans, and was led to the patron of the region of Naumachia, and was compelled to burn grains of frankincense to the little statue of Mars, which stood there. Then she answered: You compel a woman of Mars to sacrifice, so that you may show that your Mars takes delight in women. But he who was able to take away the modesty of the most shameless Venus will not be able to prevail against me, who bear the trophy of faith on my forehead. For I do not struggle against him with my own strength; but trusting in the power of my Lord Jesus Christ, I despise both you and him alike with laughter. Then the patron of the region sent her into a very dark prison, and for five days he caused her neither to see light nor to receive food or drink. Only the voice of the one who had shut her in there was heard saying: There you will die of hunger, and thirst, and blindness, unless you promise to offer sacrifice to the gods.

But when six days had passed, they reported this to the raging prefect, who ordered her to be hung by the neck and hair from a tall tree and smoke from a dung heap to be applied beneath her. But as soon as she was hung up, in confession of the Lord she gave up her spirit. But those who took away her body bound it to a stone and submerged it in the channel of the Tiber, saying: Let not the Christians take away her body and make her a goddess for themselves.

Therefore, after her martyrdom had been celebrated, she came in dreams to the blessed Sebastian and told him how she had undergone martyrdom for the Lord. When Saint Sebastian had told this, Saint Tranquillinus rushed forth, saying: Women go before us to the crown; why do we live? He himself also, teaching on the eighth day of the apostles' natalitia, approached the Confession of the blessed Paul; nevertheless he too, having suffered plots, was seized and stoned to death by the people, and his body was handed over to the Tiber.

Likewise Nicostratus and Claudius, together with Castorius and Victorinus and Symphorianus, while they were seeking the bodies of the saints along the banks of the Tiber, were seized by the persecutors and led to the prefect of the city. The judge was Fabianus, who urged them to sacrifice, and for ten days, employing threats and flattery, he was wholly unable to move them in any respect. Then he made a report concerning them to the emperors, who ordered them to be tortured up to three times. And when by no means, compelled by torments, would they yield, he ordered them to be thrown headlong into the middle of the sea. Pressed therefore by immense weights, they were given over to the waves of the sea, and in a clean place among the waters they celebrated the crown of martyrdom. And so the faithless lay in wait for the faithful, and, vexed with wicked fury, they could not even hear the name of Christian.

CHAPTER XXI.

The martyrdom of Saint Tiburtius.

Meanwhile, while a certain man had joined himself to Saint Caius the bishop under a feigned faith, saying that he was a Christian—yet this man had become an apostate and was deceitful in every speech, and cunning in every deed. What need of many words? While he was frequently rebuked by the blessed Tiburtius, a most learned and noble and holy man, because he arranged his hair over the top of his forehead by the barber's art, and because he continually feasted and dined in play, and because he gave himself too freely to the glances of women, and because he withdrew himself from fasts and prayers, because, given to sleep, he was not watchful in the hymns of God that lead the nights—while for these things, as we have said, by the blessed

When Tiburtius was being more sharply reproached, he pretended to accept the warning with equanimity, and he acted by cunning so that the unbelievers would seize the praying Saint Tiburtius. In that seizure he caused himself to be held as well, and at the same time to be led to the secretarium of the raging judge. But when they had been brought in, Fabianus the prefect said to him who had handed himself over by cunning: What is your name? And he answered: Torquatus. Fabianus said: What do you profess? Torquatus said: I am a Christian. Fabianus said: Do you not know that the most invincible princes have ordered that those who refuse to sacrifice to the gods be tortured with various punishments? Torquatus said: This is my teacher, and he has always taught me this: that whatever I see him do, I must do.

Fabianus, turning to Saint Tiburtius, said: Have you heard what Torquatus asserts? What do you answer to these things? Saint Tiburtius said: Torquatus has long been falsely claiming to be a Christian; for the power of that holy name bears it grievously and with annoyance that its name is usurped by those not worthy of its merits. For in truth, most illustrious man, this name Christian is a name of divine power, of the followers, that is, of Christ, who have truly philosophized, who have truly been called Christians, who have fought bravely to trample down lusts.

Do you believe, most illustrious man, that this man is a Christian—he who by pandering to himself in the soliciting of his head commits effeminacies, who loves the barber, who carries his shoulders softly, who strains at a gross flux with shameless effort, who treats men carelessly and gazes at women more diligently? Christ never deigned to have such servants. But since this man has asserted that he would imitate me, you will prove here in your sight that he has lied. For here he will now evidently show what he has always been.

Fabianus said: You will act more wisely if you consult your own salvation and do not despise the decrees of the princes. Saint Tiburtius said: I do not consult my salvation better than by despising gods and goddesses and confessing that the one Lord Jesus Christ is my God. Torquatus said: Not only is he himself a cruel Christian, but he also persuades and deceives many, and teaches that all the gods are demons; while he himself with his companions, with whom he practices magical arts, is occupied day and night with incantations. Saint Tiburtius said: A false witness will not go unpunished. And he said to the judge: This man whom you see, most illustrious sir, seething with the cares of his own malice, has joined himself to Christians for no other purpose than to consider how he might show himself to us as a Christian, how he might lie to others that he is most faithful. Yet I used to reprove in him his Cyclopean gluttony, his shame drowned in wine, and the holiness of the divine name buried.

Drunk, he endured thirst, and vomiting hunger: that fellow guest did not eat, drink, and vomit as a Christian, but as an Antonian; and now he accuses Christians, he charges Christians, he stirs up the gentle judge against us, he hands the sword to the unwilling judge, and he urges us to bow our necks to demons. We see your will, we see your bloody counsels; and with the wicked art of words we behold the poisons of your breast. Gird yourself now, most cruel one: exercise the office of executioner: claim for yourself even the judge's voice; apply the goads, hang Christians, condemn, strike, burn, bring on every torment—you have treated us well. If you threaten exile, the whole world is this for those who philosophize; if punishment, we escape the prison of the world; if fires, we conquer greater things than these in our desires. Decree whatever you please; every punishment is worthless to us where a pure conscience is our companion.

Fabianus the prefect said: Restore yourself to your own kind, and be what nature dictated to you. For though born noble, you have sunk to such filth that you wish to undergo both punishment and infamy and death. Saint Tiburtius said: Most prudent of men, and judge appointed for the Romans! Because I refuse to worship the harlot Venus, and incestuous Jove, and deceitful Mercury, and Saturn the killer of his sons, I incur the infamy of my nobility: and because I adore and venerate the one and true God, who reigns in the heavens, you rage that I am to be worn down by tortures.

We do not assent to your persuasion, nor do we deny it: we confess that Christ the Son of God descended from heaven to earth for this purpose, that man might be able to ascend from earth to heaven; therefore all these vain images, which you worship without cause, I trample under my feet and have subjected myself to God almighty.

Then Fabianus ordered burning coals to be poured out before his feet, and said to him: Choose for yourself one of two things, either add incense to these coals, or walk over them with bare feet. Then the blessed Tiburtius, making the sign of the cross, steadfastly stepped barefoot upon them, and began to say to the prefect: Put aside your unbelief and learn that this is the only God whom we confess to be Lord over all creatures. You, if you can, put your hands into hot water in the name of Jupiter your god; and if your Jupiter can, let him make you not feel the heat of the burning. For to me, in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, it seems that I am walking upon rose-colored flowers, because the creature serves the command of its Creator.

Fabianus said: Who does not know that your Christ taught you magic? Saint Tiburtius said: Be silent, wretched man, and do not do this injury to my ears, that I should hear you barking with rabid mouth and naming his sweet and holy name. Then Fabianus, angered, dictated the sentence, saying: This blasphemer of the gods, and guilty of atrocious injuries, let him be punished by the sword. He was led, moreover, by the Lavican Way at the third milestone from the City, and pouring out a prayer to the Lord, struck by a single blow of the sword, he departed. And in the same place he was buried by a certain Christian relative; in which place Christ always bestowed many benefits to the praise of his name, even to the present day.

CHAPTER XXII.

The Slaughter of Saints Castulus, Marcellianus, and Marcus.

After these things, moreover, Torquatus brought it about that Castulus, the chamberlain of the palace, a host of the saints, should be arrested; when he had been pressed hard, and here hung up a third time, heard a third time, persevering in the confession of the Lord, he was sent into a pit and a mass of sand was thrown over him, and he himself with the palm of martyrdom departed to the Lord.

After this Marcellianus and Marcus are seized; and both, bound to a stake, received sharp nails in their feet; to whom the most insane Fabianus said: You will stand with your feet fixed for as long as it takes you to render the due service to the gods. Then both brothers, nailed to one piece of wood, sang psalms, saying: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. Fabianus says to them: Unhappy and wretched men, put away your madness, and free yourselves from the torments that hang over you. Both answering him said: Never have we feasted so well: only now have we begun to be fixed in the love of Christ. Would that you might allow us to remain as we are for as long as we are covered by the garment of this body. And when one day and one night had passed, and they persevered in psalms and hymns, he ordered both of them to be struck in the sides with spears where they stood; and so through the glory of martyrdom they passed over to the starry kingdoms. Likewise they were buried on the Appian Way, at the second milestone from the City, in the place called Ad Arenas, because there were sand pits there, from which the walls of the City were built.

CHAPTER XXIII.

The glorious contest of St. Sebastian.

When these things had been done, blessed Sebastian was assembled by those lying in wait for him; and because, as we said, he seemed to lie hidden beneath a soldier's cloak, since he was a most worthy soldier of Christ, the prefect suggested him to the emperor Diocletian. Diocletian, summoning him to himself, said: I have always held you among the foremost of my palace. And yet you have against my safety, to the injury of the gods, lain hidden until now. St. Sebastian said: For your safety I have always worshiped Christ, and for the standing of the Roman world I have always adored him who is in the heavens, considering it to be the part of a madman and a fool to seek help from stones. Then Diocletian, enraged, ordered him to be led into the middle of the field and bound like a target for arrows, and ordered the archers to shoot him. Then the soldiers placed him in the middle of the field and shot him with arrows from every side, so that he was as bristling with the blows of arrows as a hedgehog.

But they, thinking him dead, went away. Then Irene, the widow of the martyr Castulus the chamberlain, went by night to take up his body and bury it. And finding him alive, she brought him to her own house in the high upper room where she lived near the palace, and there within a few days he recovered the most complete health in all his limbs.

And when all the Christians came together to him, they urged him to withdraw. But he, after prayer, went down and, standing upon the steps of Heliogabalus, as the emperors were coming, said: By iniquitous stealth the priests of the temples besiege the minds of your imperial majesty, suggesting false fabrications concerning the Christians, saying that they are adversaries of the state; yet by their prayers the state itself is made better and grows; for they cease not to pray for your empire and for the safety of the Roman army. When he said these things and the like, Diocletian said: Are you Sebastian, whom we long ago ordered to be put to death by the guards? St. Sebastian said: For this my Lord Jesus Christ deigned to raise me up, that I might confront and testify to you before all the people, that by an unjust judgment your persecution has boiled over against the servants of Christ.

Then he ordered him to be led into the hippodrome of the palace and to be beaten with clubs for as long as until he breathed out his spirit. Then they carried off his body by night and threw it into the Great sewer, saying: lest perhaps the Christians make him a martyr for themselves. Then the blessed Sebastian appeared in a dream to a certain matron, Saint Lucina, a most religious woman, saying: In that sewer which is next to the circus, you will find my body hanging in a gomphus.

When you have lifted it up, you shall lead it to the catacombs and bury it at the entrance of the crypt next to the footsteps of the Apostles.

Then the blessed Lucina herself went in person with her servants in the middle of the night, and lifting him up she placed him in her pavonus, and led him to the place where he himself had commanded, and buried him with all diligence. But the holy Lucina herself did not depart from that holy place for thirty days. Baronius wishes this to be the one by which the martyr's body had been dragged to the sewer, as he proves by the testimonies of many of the ancients to be the custom. Lampridius in Commodus: Let the executioner drag him with a hook. The executioner of the senate, according to the custom of the ancients, are dragged with a hook. And in Heliogabalus: He was dragged through the streets most foully, led through the sewers, and thrown into the Tiber. But when the hook had been struck into the body, what was it that hung from the hook? Or was it a multiple hook in one, such as is the custom to draw out with from deeper wells whatever has fallen in; and thus perhaps one tooth fixed in the wall? Certain manuscripts show a truer reading, if we are not mistaken, in which it is written gumpho and gonpho. It should be read in gompho.

There is, a nail, or a joint. Thus Satius, IV Silv. on the road of Domitian: 90. But after some years the peace of the Church was restored: which, as soon as the Church received the glory of peace, made her own house a church. Leaving all her wealth to the rest of the Christians, she made that Church herself the heir in Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, equal, lives and reigns in the unity of power for ever and ever. Amen. Then with bosses pressed together on this side and on that, and with frequent stones bound together, namely connected, lest they be twisted and torn apart from one another. Tertullian in the Apology: We bow our necks before the beam, and the glue, and the clamps. Franciscus Zephyrus the Paraphrast renders it as larger nails. The same word appears below in the martyrdom of St Thyrsus. Here, therefore, a nail standing out somewhere from the wall, or another iron implement used for securing stones, seems to be what must be understood.