the seat of all the abominations of idolatry, overflowed, as it were, with the blood of the Christians. The number of those who suffered martyrdom in that city surpasses all belief; and their bones, which are still to be seen in the subterraneous caverns or Catacombs, where they were entombed by their fellow-Christians, are witnesses of it to this day.
33. [1]These terrible persecutions lasted, with few interruptions, for three hundred years. Had Christianity been the work of man, it would certainly have been extirpated by the blind fury of its enemies; but being the work of Jesus, the Son of God, it took deeper and deeper root, and spread more and more over the world. The signs and wonders which the confessors of Christ did, but, above all, the imperturbable serenity of mind and cheerfulness of heart with which they suffered the most cruel torments and the most painful deaths, convinced the pagans that only the God of the Christians could be the true God. It even often happened that, whilst the Christians were suffering these most horrible tortures, many of the pagan spectators were heard to cry out: 'We also are Christians; kill us together with them! ' and thus the blood of the martyrs was the fruitful seed from which new Christians continually sprang up.
34. [2]By permitting all this. God had sufficiently shown to the world that the establishment of the Church was His work, and that all the powers of the earth could not prevail against her. He now bestowed peace on her
- ↑ How long did these persecutions last? Was the Christian religion extirpated by them? Why not? What convinced the pagans of the Divine origin of Christianity? What occurred oftentimes while the Christians were tortured? With what, then, may the blood of the martyrs justly be compared?
- ↑ Why did God permit these persecutions? Whom did He call to put an end to them? Who was Constantine. and what can you relate concerning his victory? In what year did Constantine gain the battle and become the protector of Christianity?
