Dialogue Against the Marcionites, Exhortation to Martyrdom (Wettstein 1674)

Bede, On the Six Ages, p. 186; Marianus Scotus, bk. 2, age 6, to the year of Christ 235, p. 385; Urspergens, in Chronicles, p. 71; Otto of Freising, Chronicle, bk. 3, c. 31, p. 71; Herman the Lame, in Chronicle, p. 107. Zonaras adds to these statements: Ὅθεν οὐ μόνον ὁ κατὰ Χριστιανῶν ἠρέμισε διωγμὸς τότε, ἀλλὰ καὶ τιμῆς ἠξιοῦντο μάλιστα οἱ σεβόμενοι τὸν Χριστόν. Hence, not only did the persecution against the Christians cease at that time, but those who revered Christ were especially considered worthy of honor. And on p. [x] regarding Maximinus: λέγεται δὲ καὶ μῆνιν τὴν πρὸς Ἀλέξανδρον κινῆσαι τὸν διωγμὸν, ὡς ἐκείνου τιμῶντος τοὺς σεβομένους Χριστόν. It is said, moreover, that he incited the persecution out of anger toward Alexander, as the latter held the worshippers of Christ in honor. Gregory Abulpharagius, History of Dynasties 7, p. 80, from the translation of Edward Pococke, a man truly distinguished for his skill in Oriental languages and singular humanity, and one experienced by me: Emperor Alexander reigned for thirteen years. His mother's name was Mammaea; since she believed in Christ, she was of great assistance to the believers.

To Mammaea, I add Philip, the successor and killer of Gordian. Philip, I say; even though the princes of the literary republic, Jos[eph] Scaliger in his Eusebian Annotations to the year 2260, and Isaac Casaubon in his Notes on Julius Capitolinus, p. 201, deny that he was a Christian. And I would most readily yield to the authority of such great men, if only I knew what response should be made to the arguments of the ancients. For, in the first place, the consensus of almost all Christian historians on this matter is unanimous. See Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 6, c. 34; the Epitome of Times added to the Eusebian Chronicle by Scaliger, p. 398; Cedrenus, History, p. 211; Georgius Syncellus, Chronography, p. 362; Nicephorus Callistus, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 5, c. 25; Jerome On Ecclesiastical Writers, in the entry for Origen, and in the Eusebian Chronicle to the year 2260; Cassiodorus in his Chronicle; Orosius, History, bk. 7, c. 28, p. 563; Ado of Vienne, in his Chronicle, age 6, p. 129; Freculphus, in Chronicle, vol. 2, bk. 3, c. 2, p. 503; Bede, On the Six Ages, p. 168, and On Times, c. 22, p. 212; Vincent of Lérins, On Heresies, c. 23; Regino, in Chronicle, bk. 1, p. 5; Marianus Scotus, bk. 2, age 6, to the year of Christ 247; Otto of Freising, Chronicle, bk. 3, c. 34, p. 71; Lambert of Hersfeld, On the Affairs of Germany, p. 151; Herman the Lame, Chronicle, p. 107; Greg[ory] Abulpharagius, in History of Dynasties 7, p. 80, and others. These are in no way contradicted by Sulpicius Severus, Sacred History, bk. 2, and Lactantius in the Preface to the Divine Institutes, because they praise Constantine the Great as the first of the Roman princes who, having rejected errors, gave his name to Christ. For those authors must be limited by Orosius, bk. [x], and Freculfus, vol. 2, bk. 3, c. 16, p. 535; whose...