forth together (for the Gouernour grauntyng Attalus vnto the people, was baited again of the beastes.) Whē these men were brought to the scaffold, and had taken a taste of al the instrumentes that ther were prepared for their execution, and had suffred the greatest agony they coulde put them to, were also at the length slayne: Of whom Alexāder neuer gaue so much as a sigh, nor held his peace, but from the bottome of hys hart praised and prayed to the Lord. MarginaliaThe woorthye pacience & constancy ofAttalus.But Attalus when he was set in the yron chaire, and began to frie, and the frieng sauour of hys burning body began to smell, he spake to the multitude in the Romane language: Behold (sayth he) thys is to eate mans flesh which you doo, for we neither eate men, nor yet commit any other wickednes. And beyng demaunded what was the name of their God: our God (sayth he) hath no such name as men haue. Then sayde they, nowe let vs see whether your God can helpe you, and take you out of our handes or not.

MarginaliaBlandina & Pōticus agayne brought forth.After this, being the last day of the spectacle, Blandine againe, and one Ponticus a childe of. xv. yeare old, was brought foorth: and this was euery day, to the entent they seyng the punishmēt of their fellowes, might be compelled therby to sweare by their Idoles. But because they constantly abode in their purpose, and defied their Idoles, the whole multitude was in a rage with them, neyther sparing the age of the childe, nor fauoring the sexe of the woman, but put them to all the punishment and paine they could deuise, and often times inforced them to sweare, and yet were not able to compell them therunto. MarginaliaPonticus martyred.For Ponticus so being animated of hys sister, as the Heathnicks standing by dyd see, after he had suffered all tormentes and paynes, gaue vp the ghost. This blessed Blandina therefore being the last that suffered, after she had lyke a worthy mother geuen exhortacions vnto her childrē, had had sent them before as conquerours to their heauenly king, and had called to her remembraunce al their battels and conflictes: so much reioyced of her childrens death, & so hastened hyr owne, as though she had bene bydden to a bridall, & not in case to be throwne to the wilde beastes. MarginaliaBlandina martyred.After thys her pitiful whipping, her deliuerye to the beastes, & her tormentes vpon the gridyron, at the length she was put in a net, and throwne to the wilde Bull, and when she had bene sufficientlye gored and wounded wyth the hornes of the same beast, and felte nothing of all that chaunced to her, for the great hope and consolacion she had in Christ and heauenlye thinges, was thus slayne, in so much that the very Heathen men them selues confessed that ther was neuer woman put to death of them þ^t suffred so much as this woman did. Neither yet was their furious cruelty thus asswaged againste the Christians. For the cruel barbarous people, like wyld beasts when they be moued, knewe not when the time was to make an ende, but inuented new and sundry torments euery day agaynst our bodies. Neither yet did it contēt them whē they had put the Christians to death, for that they wanted the sence of men: for which cause both the Magistrate and people were vexed at the verye hartes, that the scripture might be fulfylled, which saith, he that is wicked, let him be wicked styll, and he that is iust, let him be more iust. MarginaliaApoca. 22.For those which in their prysons they strangled, they threw after to the dogs, setting keepers both daye and night to watche them, that they shoulde not be buryed, and bringing forth the remnant of their bones & bodies, some halfe burnt, some left of the wilde beastes, & some all to be mangled, also bringing forth þ^e heades of other which were cut of, and in like manner committed by them to the charge of the keepers to see them remayne vnburied.

The Gentiles grind and gnasht at the Christians with theyr teeth, seeking which way they might amplify their punishment. Some other flouted and mockedmocked them, extolling their Idoles, attributing vnto them the cause of thys cruelty and vengeaunce shewed to vs. Such which were of the meeker sorte, and seemed to be moued with some pity, did hyt vs in the teeth, saying: where is your God, that you so much boast of? and what healpeth thys your religion, for which you geue your liues? These were the sundry passions and affects of the Gentiles, but the Christians in the meane whyle were in great heauines, that they might not burye the the bodies & reliques of the holy martyrs. Neither could the darke night serue them to that purpose, nor any intreaty, nor waging them with money, which were appointed for watchmen: but they so narowly looked vnto the matter, as though they should haue gotten great benefit and proft therby.

Thus were the bodies of the Martyrs made a wondering stocke, and lay sixe daies in the open streetes, at the length they burned them, and threwe their ashes into the riuer of Rodes, so that ther might appere no remnaunt of them vpon the earth. And thys did they as though they had ben able to haue pulled God out of his seate, and to haue let the regeneration of the sayntes, and taken from them the hope of the resurrection, wherof they being perswaded (sayd they) bring in thys newe and straunge religion, and set thus light by death and punishment. Hæc ex epostola Viennensium. &c.

MarginaliaIustinus.Amongest other that suffered vnder Antoninuns, mēcion was made also of Iustinus, who as it is sayde before, exhibited two Apologies, concerning the defence of Christian doctrine, the one to the Senate of Rome, and the other to Antoninuns Pius the Emperour, cōcerning whose suffering, and the causes thereof is partlye before declared. This Iustine was borne in Neapoli, in the country of Palestine, MarginaliaIustines fatherwhose father was Priscus Bachius, as he himselfe doth testifye. By whom in hys youth he was set to schole to learne, wher in processe of tyme he became a famous and worthy Philosopher, of whose excellency many learned and notable men do recorde. For first, he being altogether inflamed and rauished with desire of knowledge, woulde in no wise be satisifed in his minde, before he had gotten instructors singularly sene in al kinde of Philosophye, whereupon he writeth of him selfe in the beginning of his Dialogue Cum Triphone, thus declaring, MarginaliaIustine desirous of philosophythat in the beginning he being desirous of that sect and societye, applyed hym selfe to be the scholer to a certayne Stoicke, and remaining with him a time, when he nothing profited in deuine knowledge (wherof the Stoicke had no skyll, and affirmed the knowledge thereof not to be necessarye) he forsooke him, and went to an other of the sect of the Peripatetike, a sharpe wytted man, as he thought: wyth whom after he had bene a while, he demaunded of hym a stipend for his teaching, for the better confirmacion of their familiarity. MarginaliaIustine proueth al sectes of Philosophy.Whereupon Iustine accomptyng him as no Philosopher left hym, and departed. And yet not satisfied in minde, but desirous to heare of further learning in Philosophy, adioyned him selfe to one that professed the Pythagorian sect, a man of great fame, & one who made no small acompt of him selfe. Whom after he had followed a time, hys maister demaunded of him whether he had any sight in Musicke, Astronomye, and Geometry, without the sight of which sciences hee sayd he coulde not be apte to receiue the knowledge of vertue and felicity, vnles before he had vsed to applye hys minde from sensible matters, to the contemplation of things intelligible. And speaking much in the commendacions of these sciences, how profitable and necessary they wer: but after þ^t Iustine had declared himself not to be sene therin, the Philosopher gaue him ouer, which greued Iustine not a litle, and so muche the more because he thought his master to haue some knowledge in those sciences. After this Iustine considering wyth