CHAPTER XVII

OTHER CONFESSORS OF THE FAITH

AFTER this destructive distribution of money, some of those who had accepted it met together at table. One of them, taking up a goblet, made on it the sign of the cross before he drank. He was reproved for doing so by one of the others, who told him, that this act was quite inconsistent with what he had so recently done. He asked, what act of inconsistency he had committed. He was told, that he had offered incense upon the altar of idols, and had denied the faith, and that this was contrary to the Christian religion. On hearing this, many of those who were at table uttered exclamations of grief and distress, tore their hair, and ran out into the market-place, loudly proclaiming that they were Christians, and that they had been deceived and inveigled by the artifices of the emperor, and that they desired to retract the error into which they had been led through ignorance. They ran shouting these words till they reached the palace, and there they inveighed against the deception of the tyrant, and demanded to be burnt alive; because, as they had been defiled by means of fire, they also desired to be cleansed by fire. These, and similar declarations, excited the fury of the emperor. He immediately ordered their heads to be struck off. As they were being led out of the city, the people followed in crowds, admiring their fortitude and boldness in defending religion. When they had arrived at the place where executions generally took place, the eldest of the company requested the executioner to behead the youngest person present first, in order that his courage might not be shaken by witnessing the slaughter of the others. The youngest man had already knelt upon the ground, and the executioner had unsheathed his sword, when an act of pardon was brought, and shouts proceeding from afar prohibited the massacre. The young man was angry at having escaped the sentence of death, and exclaimed, “Romanus (for that was his name) is not worthy of being called the martyr of Christ.” The emperor, in prohibiting this massacre, was actuated by the most malign jealousy; for he envied them the glory of martyrdom. He would not, however, permit these soldiers to continue to dwell in any of the cities, but banished them to the furthest extremities of the Roman empire.