Paradise—the garden of God. They would be welcomed there with words of triumph and even admiration. The Master would Himself receive His redeemed servants who had fought the good fight and won. His kiss of welcome, the touch of His hand, would at once fill their souls with a joy indescribable. The "Vision of Perpetua," circa A.D. 200, or a little earlier, one of the early Passions of Martyrs, the absolute authenticity of which is undisputed,—for it has never been added to or re-edited,—is a good example of the "Visions" seen by the martyrs before their supreme trial.
But far more than the public recital of these well-loved acts and passions was required for the training and preparation work, so a number of short treatises or tracts were specially composed and put out for the instruction of the earnest and devoted men and women as "Manuals," so to speak, of preparation for the great trial. Most of these have disappeared; they were composed by fervid teachers for a special season, for the years when the Church was exposed to bitter trial; and when the trial time was over they were no longer required, and as a rule were not preserved. A very few remain to us, such as the "Exhortatio ad Martyrium" of Origen, such tractates of Tertullian as "ad Martyres" and the "Scorpiace"; the letter "Ad Thibaritanos" of S. Cyprian, and the anonymous work quoted at the beginning of this chapter, De Laude Martyrii. These are fair specimens of what was once a considerable literature. In very many of the "Passions of the Martyrs" which have been preserved we meet with an oft-repeated answer made by the Christian to the judge when asked about his rank in life, country, family, and the like. "I am a Christian" was the almost invariable answer to these questions; often nothing more. This seems to have been the "formula" taught in the schools of martyrdom,—very few traces, however, of this "formula" appear in the treatises which have come down to us; it must, however, have been constantly repeated in the "lost" treatises or tracts placed in the hands of those under training, lost treatises to which reference has been made. The Epistle of S. Ignatius to the Romans was no doubt used as one of these treatises or manuals.
