CHAPTER LII

THE MANIFOLD FORMS OF TORTURE AND PUNISHMENT OPENLY PRACTISED AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS

“THEN indeed one might see with what perfect impunity those venerable worshippers of God were daily exposed, with continued and relentless cruelty, to outrages of the most grievous kind, and how that modesty of character which no enemy had ever treated with disrespect, became the mere sport of their infuriated fellow-citizens. Is there any punishment by fire, are there any instruments or modes of torture, which were not applied to all, without distinction of age or sex? Then, it may be truly said, the earth shed tears; the all encircling compass of heaven mourned because of the pollution of blood; and the very light of day itself was darkened, as it were, in grief and wonder at these scenes of horror.