been persecuted and put to death.[1] Let us set before our eyes the illustrious[2] apostles. Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not one or two, but numerous labours; and when he had at length suffered martyrdom, departed to the place of glory due to him. Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity,[3] compelled[4] to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the east and west, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west,[5] and suffered martyrdom under the prefects.[6] Thus was he removed from the world, and went into the holy place, having proved himself a striking example of patience.
Chap. vi.—Continuation, Several other martyrs.
To these men who spent their lives in the practice of holiness, there is to be added a great multitude of the elect, who, having through envy endured many indignities and tortures, furnished us with a most excellent example. Through envy, those women, the Danaids[7] and Dircæ, being persecuted, after they had suffered terrible and unspeakable torments, finished the course of their faith with stedfastness,[8] and though weak in body, received a noble reward. Envy has
- ↑ Some fill up the lacuna here found in the MS. so as to read, "have come to a grievous death."
- ↑ Literally "good."
- ↑ Seven imprisonments of St Paul are not referred to in Scripture.
- ↑ Archbishop Wake here reads "scourged." We have followed the most recent critics in filling up the numerous lacunæ in this chapter.
- ↑ Some think Rome, others Spain, and others even Britain, to be here referred to.
- ↑ That is, under Tigellinus and Sabinus, in the last year of the Emperor Nero; but some think Helius and Polycletus referred to; and others, both here and in the preceding sentence, regard the words as denoting simply the witness borne by Peter and Paul to the truth of the gospel before the rulers of the earth.
- ↑ Some suppose these to have been the names of two eminent female martyrs under Nero; others regard the clause as an interpolation.
- ↑ Literally, "have reached to the stedfast course of faith."
