the spectators with particular respect; and Felicitas rejoiced that, being delivered of her child, she should accompany her friends to this glorious combat. On reaching the gate of the amphitheatre, the officers, according to custom, began to clothe the men in the dresses of the priests of Saturn, and the women in those of the priestesses of Ceres. But when they remonstrated against the injustice of being compelled by force to do that, for refusing which they were willing to lay down their lives, the tribune granted them the privilege of dying in their own habits.

They then entered the amphitheatre; when Perpetua advanced singing hymns, and her three male companions solemnly exhorted the people as they went along. Coming in view of the Proprætor, they said, "You judge us, but God will judge you." This so enraged the populace that, at their request, all the three were scourged; but in this they rejoiced, as having the honour to share in one part of the sufferings of their Saviour.

When the wild beasts were let loose, Saturninus, according to a wish which he had previously expressed, died by the attack of several of them rushing upon him at the same time; and Revocatus was killed by a leopard and a bear. Saturus was first exposed to a wild bear; but while the attending officer was gored by the animal so that he died on the following day, he himself was only dragged about and not materially hurt. A bear too, to which he was next exposed, would not go out of its den to meddle with him. He was, however, thrown in the way of a leopard, towards the end of the exhibition, and so much blood gushed out at one of his bites, that the spectators ridiculed him, as being baptized with blood. Not being quite killed, he, when the animal was withdrawn, addressed Pudeus, the jailor, exhorting him to steadfastness in the faith, and not to be disheartened by

his sufferings. He even took a ring from his finger, and dipping it in one of his wounds, gave it to him as a pledge.

Perpetua and Felicitas were first enclosed in a net, and then exposed to a wild cow. But this sight struck the spectators with horror, as the former was a delicate woman, and the breasts of the latter were streaming with milk after her delivery. They were therefore recalled, and exposed in a common loose dress. Perpetua was first tossed by the beast; and, being thrown down, she had the presence of mind to compose her dress as she lay on the ground. Then rising, and seeing Felicitas much more torn than herself, she gave her her hand, and assisted her to rise; and for some time they both stood together, near the gate of the amphitheatre. Thither Perpetua sent for her brother, and exhorted him to continue firm in the faith, to love his fellow Christians, and not to be discouraged by her sufferings.

Being all in a mangled condition, they were now taken to the usual place of execution, to be despatched with a sword; but the populace requesting that they should be removed to another place, where the execution might be seen to more advantage, they got up of their own accord to go thither. Then, having given each other the kiss of charity, they quietly resigned themselves to their fate. In walking, Saturus had supported Perpetua, and he expired the first. She was observed to direct a young and ignorant soldier, who was appointed to be her executioner, in what manner he should perform his office.*

Opuscula tria ceterum auctorum, FASTIDII EPISCOPI Passio S. S. Martyrum PERPETUÆ et FELICITATIS, &c. a Luca Holstenio, 8vo. Rom. 1663. The editor of this publication, Lucas Holstenius, was Keeper of the Vatican Library, at Rome, a person of great learning, and the friend of our poet Milton. He studied three years at Oxford, and had a great esteem and affection for Milton, who visited him at Rome, and received many civilities from him there. See Bp. Newton's Life of Milton, prefixed to his edition of Paradise Lost. 8vo. p. 15.

In the year 211, the tyrant Severus died, after a reign of eighteen years, and the churches found repose and tranquillity under his son and successor Caracalla, though, in other respects, a monster of wickedness, whose life, says Gibbon, disgraced human nature. Yet he neither oppressed the Christians himself, nor permitted any others to treat them with cruelty or injustice. And though few men have ever exceeded him in the ferocious vices, nevertheless, during the six years and two months that he reigned, the disciples found in him friendship and protection.

Macrinus, who from an obscure extraction had been raised to an elevated rank in the Roman army, and who had been accessary to the death of Caracalla, was elected by the army to fill the imperial throne; but he had reigned only one year and two months, when he was succeeded by Heliogabalus, a youth of fifteen, whose follies and vices were infamous; and, although, as Mosheim says, perhaps the most odious of all mortals, yet he shewed no marks of bitterness or aversion to the disciples of Christ. He was slain at the age of eighteen, having reigned three years and nine months, and was succeeded, in the year 222, by his cousin, Alexander Severus, who was then only in the sixteenth year of his age; a prince distinguished by a noble assemblage of illustrious virtues, and esteemed one of the best characters in profane history. He did not indeed abrogate the existing laws against the Christians, which accounts for the mention of a few martyrdoms under his administration. He nevertheless shewed them, in various ways, and on many occasions, unequivocal testimonies of kindness and regard. Some attribute this to the instructions and counsels of his mother Julia Mammaa, for whom he had a high degree of love and veneration; and who was herself favourably disposed towards the Christians. Being

at Antioch with her son, A. D. 229, she sent for the renowned Origen, who resided at Alexandria, to come to her, that she might enjoy the pleasure and advantages of his conversation. It does not appear that either the emperor or his mother, so far understood and believed the Christian doctrine as to make an open profession of it, though their favourable sentiments induced them to tolerate the sect, during their lives, which were prolonged to the year 235, when they were both put to death in a conspiracy raised by Maximin, a man who had risen from the humblest ranks of life to a dignified station in the army, and who now was made emperor.

From the death of Severus, which happened in 211, to the commencement of the reign of Maximin, A.D. 235, a period of about five and twenty years, the condition of the Christians was, in some places prosperous, and in all, tolerable. But with Maximin the aspect of affairs changed. The character of this latter monarch formed a striking contrast to that of his predecessor. The former tyrants, says Gibbon, viz. Caligula and Nero, Commodus and Caracalla, were all dissolute and inexperienced youths, educated in the purple, and corrupted by the pride of empire, the luxury of Rome, and the perfidious voice of flattery. The cruelty of Maximin was derived from a different source-the fear of contempt. Though he depended on the attachment of the soldiers, who loved him for virtues like their own, he was conscious that his mean and barbarous origin, his savage appearance, and his total ignorance of the arts and institutions of civil life, formed a very unfavourable contrast with the amiable manners of Alexander Severus. He remembered, that, in his humbler fortune, he had often waited before the door of the haughty nobles of Rome, and had been denied admittance by the insolence of their slaves. He recollected also, the friendship of a

few who had relieved his poverty and assisted his rising hopes. But those who had spurned, and those who had protected him, were guilty of the same crime, the knowledge of his original obscurity. For this crime many were put to death; and by the execution of several of his benefactors, Maximin published, in characters of blood, the indelible history of his baseness and ingratitude.

The sanguinary soul of the tyrant was open to every suspicion against those among his subjects, who were the most distinguished by their birth or merit. Whenever he was alarmed by the sound of treason, his cruelty was unbounded and unrelenting. A conspiracy against his life was either discovered or imagined, and Magnus, a consular senator, named as the principal author of it. Without a witness, without a trial, and without an opportunity of defence, Magnus, with four thousand of his supposed accomplices, were put to death. Confiscation, exile, or simple death, were, however, esteemed uncommon instances of his lenity. Some of the unfortunate sufferers, he ordered to be sewed up in the hides of slaughtered animals, others to be exposed to wild beasts, others again to be beaten to death with clubs. Throughout the Roman world, a general cry of indignation was heard, imploring vengeance against the common enemy of human kind, and, at length, by an act of private oppression, a peaceful and unarmed province was driven into rebellion against him.*

The malice of Maximin, against the house of the late emperor, by whom the Christians had been so peculiarly favoured, stimulated him to persecute them bitterly, and he gave orders to put to death the pastors of the churches, whom he knew Alexander had treated as his

• Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. i. ch. 7.