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

...the faith of Christ, he ministered most generously. original: "fidem Christi, largissimè ministravit." Thus, Lucius, King of Britain, sent a letter to Eleutherius, the Bishop of Rome, and obtained his request to be made a Christian, if we are to believe Freculphus, Chronicles, Vol. 2, bk. 2, ch. 21, p. 484; Bede, in Ecclesiastical History of the English, bk. 1, ch. 4, and On the Six Ages, p. 185; Ado of Vienne in Chronicle, Sixth Age, p. 122; Sigebert of Gembloux, Chronography, p. 479; Hermannus Contractus, for the year of our Lord 180, p. 105, etc. The aforementioned Eleutherius held the seat of the Roman Pontiff as early as 179 AD. Julius Africanus reveals, in his Chronicles, p. 70, that another Abgar, Prince of the Edessenes, was a Christian; he records the same in his Chronological Canons, p. 204, for the year of Christ 220, the first year of the Emperor Macrinus. Tertullian writes in his Apology, ch. 1, p. 1, concerning his own times: "They cry out that the state is besieged; that in the fields, in the fortresses, and in the islands, Christians of every sex, age, and condition, even of high rank, are passing over to this name; they grieve over it as if it were a loss." And ch. 37, p. 33: "We are of yesterday, and we have filled everything you have: cities, islands, fortresses, municipalities, meeting places, the very camps, tribes, decuries, the palace, the senate, the forum; we leave only the temples to you." Add this from his book To Scapula, ch. 4: "How many honorable men (for we do not speak of the common people) have been cured from demons or infirmities!" Severus himself, the father of Antoninus, was mindful of the Christians. For he sought out Proculus the Christian, who was surnamed Torpacion, the procurator of Euhodia, who had once cured him with oil, and kept him in his palace until his death; whom Antoninus also knew well, having been reared on Christian milk. Moreover, Severus, knowing that noble women and noble men were of this sect, not only did not harm them, but honored them with his testimony and openly resisted the raging populace to their faces. Marcus Aurelius, in his Germanic expedition, obtained rain during that great drought through the prayers to God made by Christian soldiers. And following, ch. 5: "If it pleases you (i.e., to persecute Christians relentlessly), what will you do about so many thousands of people, so many men and women, of every sex, every age, every rank, who offer themselves to you? How many fires, how many swords will be needed? What will Carthage herself suffer when she sees there perhaps men of your own order and matrons, and all the principal persons, and either the relatives or friends of your own friends? Spare yourself, therefore, if not us, etc." These things he said to Scapula, the Governor of Africa, a man of prime dignity. Freculphus, in Chronicles, Vol. 2, bk. 2, ch. 22.