CAP. XXII.
Of Apphianus the Martyr.
MAximinus Caesar who by maine force intruded him selfe into the Empire, laynge wyde open vnto the whole worlde manifest proofes of his deadly hatred and impietie towards God, as it were naturally growing in his fleshe and graffed in his bones: persecuted vs more vehemently and more generally then the other his superior emperours. wherfore when as trouble & tumult & no small confusion hanged ouer our heads, & some were here & there scattered, endeuoring by all meanes possible to auoide yt perill ensuing, & that a greuous cōmotion had now ouerrunne the contrie: no tōgue can worthely declare, no speache sufficiently expresse, the deuine* 1.1 loue & liberty of faith wherewith Apphianus y• blessed martyr of God yelded an accōpt of his pro∣fession. Who shewed vnto y• citizens of Caesarea, assēbled at their spectacle or sacrifice in y• porche of the tēple, a liuely signe or tokē of the singular zeale he bare godwards, when he was not at that time, no not xx. yeare old. he cōtinewed a long time at Berytos in Phaenicia, applying his minde to the study of prophane literature, for he came of such parents as flowed in worldly wealth. It is in maner incredible how he ouercame all youthly affectiōs & drowned all his wild otes in so vicious & so corrupt a citie: & how yt neither by reason of his youthly floure, lately florishing in his greene body: neither by reason of his cōpanie and acquaintance with youthly mates: he sucked the iuyce neither swallowed the sopps of lewde and wanton conuersation: but embracing temperancie, led a reuerent life, peculier to christian religion in modesty, sobrietie & godlines. If in case we be cō∣strained to mention his contrey, and to honor the same for bringing forth so valiant a champiō to wrastle in the cāpe of this world vnder the bāner of Christ, truely we will performe the same, nei∣ther without good consideration. for who so euer knoweth Pagas, no obscure citie of Lycia, it was* 1.2 there, that this yong man was borne. he after his returne from schoole, and the study of prophane literature applied at Berytos, not pleased with the conuersation of his father (who then gouerned that whole contrey) neither with the conuersation of his kinsfolks with whome he liued, because they framed not their liues after the rule of piety: being pricked with the instinct & motion of the spirite of God, & inflamed with a certaine naturall, nay rather celestiall & true loue of sincere wis∣dome, cast in his mind to consider of weyghtyer matters, then this fayned & counterfeite glory of the world beares vs in hande. laying aside therfore all the sweete baites of fleshly pleasure, he for∣sooke & fled away priuely from his friends and families, not weying at all the want of necessary prouision, but casting his whole care & confidence vp•••• God, was ledd no doubt by the deuine spi∣rite as it were by a stryng into the city of Caesarea, where the crowne of martyrdome, beynge the reward of godlines, was prepared for him. for whilest that he liued among vs, he profited in holy scripture, during that short terme of his life, more then any man coulde thinke, and practised such discipline as tended to godly life, preparing a perfect way to dye well. But toutching the ende he made, who is it that beholdinge the same with single eye wyll not be astonyed? and howe so euer