A description of the X. first persecutions in the Primitiue Church.
* 1.1THese thinges being thus declared for the Martyrdome of the Apostles, and the persecutiō of the Iewes. Now let vs (by ye grace of Christ our Lord) comprehend with like breuitie, the persecutions raised by the Romaines, against the Christians in the Primitiue age of the Church, during the space of 300. yeares, till the comming of godly Constantine, which persecutions are reckoned of Eu∣sebius, and by the most part of writers, to the number of x. most speciall.
Wherin meruailous it is, to see and read the numbers incredible of Christian innocents that were slaine and tor∣mented, some one way, some an other. As Rabanus saith, & saith truly.* 1.2 Alij ferro perempti. Alij flammis exusti. Alij flagris verberati. Alij vectibus perforati. Alij cruciati patibulo. Alij de∣mersi pelagi periculo. Alij viui decoriati. Alij vinculis mancipati. Alij linguis priuati. Alij lapidibus obruti. Alij frigore afflicti. Alij fame cruciati. Alij truncatis manibus, aliísue caesis membris spe∣ctaculum contumeliae, nudi propter nomen Domini portantes, &c. That is, Some slaine with sword. Some burnt with fire. Some with whips scourged. Some stabbed in with forkes of iron. Some fastned to the crosse or gibbet. Some drowned in the sea. Some their skinnes pluckt of. Some their tongues cut off. Some stoned to death. Some killed with cold. Some starued with hunger. Some their hands cut off or otherwise dismembred, haue bene so left naked to the open shame of the world, &c. Whereof Augustine also in his booke De Ciuit. 22. cap. 6. thus saith:* 1.3 Ligabantur, include∣bantur, caedebantur, torquebantur, vrebantur, laniabantur, truci∣dabantur, multiplicabantur, non pugnantes pro salute, sed salu∣tem contemnentes pro seruatore. Whose kindes of punish∣ments although they were diuers, yet the maner of con∣stancie in all these Martyrs was one. And yet notwithstā∣ding the sharpenes of these so many and sundry tormēts, and like cruelnes of the tormentors: yet such was the nū∣ber of these constant Saintes that suffered, or rather such was the power of the Lord in his Saints, that as Hierome in his Epistle to Chromatius,* 1.4 and Heliodorus saith: Nullus esset dies qui non vltra quin{que} millium numerum Martyrum re∣periri posset ascriptus excepto die Kalendarum Ianuarij. That is, There is no day in the whole yeare, vnto which the nū∣ber of fine thousand Martyrs cannot be ascribed, except onely the first day of Ianuary.
*The first Persecution.
THe first of these x. persecutions, was stirred vp by Nero Domitius,1 1.5 the vj. Emperour before mentioned, about the yeare of our Lord, 67. The tyrannous rage of which Emperour, was so fierce against the Christians (as Euse∣bius recordeth) Vs{que} adeò vt videres repletas humanis corpori∣bus ciuitates,* 1.6 iacentes mortuos simul cum paruulis senes: foemi. narúm{que} abs{que} vlla sexus reuerentia nudata in publico,* 1.7 reiectá{que} starent cadauera. That is, In so much that a man might then see cities lye full of mens bodies, the old there lying toge∣ther with the yong, and the dead bodies of women cast out naked,* 1.8 without all reuerence of that sexe in the opē streets. &c. Likewise Orosius writing of the said Nero, saith, that he was the first which in Rome did raise vp persecution a∣gainst the Christians, and not onely in Rome, but also through all the prouinces therof, thinking to abolish and to destroy the whole name of Christians in all places, &c. Whereunto accordeth moreouer the testimonie of Hierome vpon Daniel, saying: thàt many there were of the Christi∣ans in those dayes, which seyng the filthy abominations, and intollerable crueltie of Nero, thought that he should be Antichrist, &c.
In this persecution,* 1.9 among many other Saintes the blessed Apostle Peter was condemned to death, and cru∣cified as some doe write, at Rome, albeit othersome, and not without cause doe doubt thereof, concerning whose lyfe and hystory, because it is sufficiently described in the text of the Gospell, and in the Actes of S. Luke. chap. 4.5. 12. I neede not heere to make any great repetytion therof. As touching the cause and maner of hys death, diuers ther be,* 1.10 which make relation, as Hierome, Egesippus, Eusebius, Abdias, and other: although they doe not all precisely agree in the tyme. The wordes of Hierome be these: Simon Pe∣ter the sonne of Iona, of the prouince of Galile, and of the Towne of Bethsaida, the brother of Andrew. &c. After hee had bene Byshop of the Church of Antioch, and had prea∣ched to the dispersion of them that beleued, of the Circum∣cision in Pontus, Galacia, Capadocia, Asia, and Bithinia in the second yeare of Claudius, the Emperour, (whiche was about the yeare of our Lord. 44.) came to Rome, to withstand Simon Magus, and there kept the priestly chayre, the space of * 1.11 25. yeares, vntill the last yeare of the foresayd Nero, which was the 14. yeare of hys raygne, of whome he was crucified, hys head being downe, and his feete vp∣ward, himselfe so requiring, because he was (he sayd) vn∣worthy to be crucified after the same forme and maner, as the Lord was. &c. Egesippus, prosecuting this matter some∣thing more at large, and Abdias, also, (if any authoritie is to be geuen to hys booke, who following not onely the sense, but also the very forme of wordes of Egesippus in this Hystory, seemeth to be extracted out of him, and of other authors) sayth, that Simon Magus being then a great man with Nero, and his president and keeper, of hys life, was required vppon a tyme to be present at the raysing vp of a certayne noble young man in Rome,* 1.12 of Neros kindred, lately departed. Wheras Peter also was desired to come to the reuiuing of the sayd personage. But when Magus in the presence of Peter could not doe it: Then Peter calling vp∣on the name of the Lord Iesus, dyd rayse him vp, and re∣stored him to hys mother, wherby the estimation of Simon Magus, began greatly to decay, and to be detested in Rome. Not long after the sayd Magus threatned the Romaynes, that he would leaue the Citie and in their light flye away from them into heauen. So the day being appoynted Ma∣gus taking hys winges in the Mounte Capitolinus, began to flye in the ayre. But Peter by the power of the Lord Iesus brought him downe with his winges headlong to the ground, by the whiche fall hys legges and ioyntes were broken, and he thereupon dyed. Then Nero sorrowing for the death of him, sought matter agaynst Peter to put hym to death. Which when the people perceiued, they entreated Peter with much a doe, that he would flye the Citie. Peter through their importunitie at length perswaded, prepared himselfe to auoyd. But comming to the gate he sawe the Lord Christ come to meete him, to whom he worshipping sayd: Lord whether doest thou goe? To whome he aun∣swered and sayd, I come agayne to be crucified. By this Peter perceauing hys suffering to be vnderstanded, retur∣ned backe into the Citty agayne. And so was he crucified, in maner as is before declared. And this out of Egesippus.
Eusebius moreouer, writing of the death not onely of Peter,* 1.13 but also of his wife, affirmeth, that Peter seeing his wife goyng to her Martyrdom (belike as he was yet han∣ging vpon the crosse) was greatly ioyous and glad there∣of, who crying vnto her with a loud voyce,* 1.14 and calling her by her name, bade her remember the Lord Iesus. Such was then (saith Eusebius) the blessed bonde of Mariage a∣mong the Saintes of God. And thus much of Peter.
Paule the Apostle, which before was called Saule, af∣ter his great trauail and vnspeakable labours in promoo∣ting the Gospell of Christ, suffred also in this first persecu∣tion vnder Nero, and was beheaded. Of whom thus wri∣teth Hierome in his Booke De viris illustr. Paule, otherwise called Saule, one of the Apostles, yet out of the number of xij. was of the tribe of Beniamin, and of a towne of Iew∣rie called Gisealis:* 1.15 which towne beyng taken of the Ro∣mains, he with his parents fled to Tharsus a town of Ci∣licia. Afterward was sent vp by his parents to Hierusalē,