CAP. VI.
The confusion of the captaine of Damascus: the commendation of certaine martys and the places where they florished.
BUt this captaine in a while after procured his owne death with his proper hād & suffred pu∣nishment due for his malicious deserte. Then againe banishment & greuous persecutiō was raised against the christians, & againe the presidents of seuerall prouinces beganne vtterly* 1.1 to rebell against vs, so y• diuerse of them which excelled in ye doctrine of Christ Iesu, bare away the ineuitable sentence of death. of which number were three christians in Emisa a city of Phoenicia, who of there owne accord professed christianity & were deliuered to be deuoured of rauening bea∣stes. Among these also was Siluanus a byshop, farre stroken in years, hauing executed y• functiō of the ecclesiasticall ministery y• space of forty years full. About y• time Petrus who notably gouerned y• churches of Alexandria, excelling all other godly bishops, for his vertous lif & godly exercise of preaching; for no other cause thē you heare without hope of any reward, sodainly & vnaduisedly by y• commaundement of Maximinus was beheaded: & together wt him after y• same maner, many Ae∣gyptian bishops were executed. Againe Lucianus a notable man, for his continency of lif, & for his skill in holy Scripture highly cōmended, being an elder of y• church of Antioch was brought to Nicomedia in which city y• emperour thē abode. & after he had exhibited vnto the emperour (ene∣my to all goodnes) an Apollogie in defence of y• doctrine which he taught & where with he bare rule, was cast into prison and shortly after executed. This Maximinus in shorte space exercised so great a tyranny & crueltye towards vs, that the later persecutiō seemed farre more greuous vnto vs then the former.