Letters (Epistulae)

...what they are accustomed to do before these laws themselves, do not wonder at their deaths, but remember their character. Especially when the worship of idols still existed, they used to come to the most celebrated festivals of the pagans in huge crowds, not to break idols, but to be killed by the idolaters. For if they had wanted to do that having received lawful authority, if anything had happened to them, they could have possessed some sort of shadow of the name of martyr. But they came for this purpose alone, so that, with the idols remaining intact, they themselves might be killed; for individual, very strong young men who were idolaters were accustomed to vow to the very idols how many they would kill. Some even threw themselves to be slaughtered by armed travelers, fearfully threatening that they would strike them if they were not killed by them. Sometimes they also violently extorted from passing judges that they should be struck by the executioners or the officers. Hence, one judge is said to have tricked them by ordering them to be bound and released as if they were about to be struck, and thus he escaped their assault, unbloodied and unharmed. And indeed, to kill themselves by jumping off cliffs, through water, and through fire was their daily game. For the devil taught them these three kinds of death so that, wishing to die and not finding anyone to terrify so that they might be struck by his sword, they might cast themselves over rocks or give themselves to the fires and whirlpools. But who is to be believed to have taught them these things, possessing their hearts, if not he who suggested to our Savior, as if from the Law, that He should throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple? His suggestion they would certainly prohibit from themselves if they carried Christ the Master in their hearts.

Scriptural references: Eccli 51:28; Matt 4:5-7; Luke 4:9-13; Matt 23:10.