Philip Schaff

“ What advice then, brethren, do you give us as regards these? What should we do? Are we to stand forth and act with the decision and judgment which those (martyrs) formed, and to observe the same graciousness with them, and to deal so kindly with those toward whom they showed such compassion? ”

“ Eusebius, bishop of the same seat, subscribed the Council of Ephesus.—Reading.↑ τὸ ̓Αράβιον ὄρος. There is a Mons Arabicusmentioned by Herodotus (ii. 8) , which Ptolemy and others call Mons Troïcus.—Vales.↑ This passage is notable from the fact that it makes mention of the Saracens. For of the writers whose works have come down to us there is none more ancient than Dionysius of Alexandria that has named the Saracens. Ammianus Marcellinus, however, writes in his fourteenth book that he has made mention of the Saracens in the Acts of Marcus. ”

“ And these facts I have related, brother, not without a purpose, but in order that you may know how many and how terrible are the ills that have befallen us; which troubles also will be best understood by those who have had most experience of them.
10. Those sainted martyrs, accordingly, who were once with us, and who now are seated with Christ, [30] and are sharers in His kingdom, and partakers with Him in His judgment [31] and who act as His judicial assessors, [32] received there certain of the brethren who had fallen away, and who had become chargeable with sacrificing to the idols. ”

“ And sometimes the bishop himself asked the people to allow absolution to be given to the suppliant, as we see in Cyprian’s Epistle 53, to Cornelius [vol. v. p. 336, this series] , and in Tertullian On Modesty, ch. xiii. [vol. iv. p. 86, this series] . Oftener, however, the people themselves made intercession with the bishop for the admission of penitents; of which we have a notable instance in the Epistle of Cornelius to Fabius of Antioch about that bishop who had ordained Novatianus. ”

“ The others were the most venerable and aged Mercuria, and Dionysia, who had been the mother of many children, and yet did not love her offspring better than her Lord. [21] These, when the governor was ashamed to subject them any further to profitless torments, and thus to see himself beaten by women, died by the sword, without more experience of tortures. For truly their champion Ammonarium had received tortures for them all.
7. Heron also, and Ater, [22] and Isidorus [23] who were Egyptians, and along with them Dioscorus, a boy of about fifteen years of age, were delivered up. ”

“ He also intimates, however, that although some have reported that Pierius ended his career by martyrdom, others say that he spent the closing period of his life in Rome after the persecution abated.—Ruinart.↑ σύνταγμα στρατιωτικόν. Rufinus and Christophorsonus make it turmam militum. Valesius prefers manipulum or contubernium. These may have been the apparitors or officers of the præfectus Augustalis. Valesius thinks rather that they were legionaries, from the legion which had to guard the city of Alexandria, and which was under the authority of the præfectus Augustalis. ”

“ W. Lowth renders, “dum non vacaret ipsis furorem suum in nos exercere.”↑ This refers to the death of the Emperor Philip, who showed a very righteous and kindly disposition toward the Christians. Accordingly the matters here recounted by Dionysius took place in the last year of the Emperor Philip. This is also indicated by Dionysius in the beginning of this epistle, where he says that the persecution began at Alexandria a whole year before the edict of the Emperor Decius. ”

“ See a noble passage in Bossuet, Préface sur l’Apocal , § 28.↑ Ezek. xxxiii. 11.↑ Dionysius is dealing here not with public communion, such as was the bishop’s prerogative to confer anew on the penitent, but with private fellowship among Christian people.—Vales.↑ ἄδικον ποιησώμεθα is the reading of Codices Maz., Med., Fuk., and Savil., and also of Georgius Syncellus. Others read ἄδεκτον ποιησόμεθα, “we shall treat it as inadmissible.”↑ The words καὶ τὸν Θεὸν παροξύνομεν, “and provoke God,” are sometimes added here ”

“ In Georgius Syncellus it is given as ἠ παρὰ βραχύ. But the reading in the text, ἀποφαῖνον, “setting forth,” is found in the Codices Maz., Med., Fuk., and Savilii; and it seems the best, the idea being that this edict of Decius was so terrible as in a certain measure to represent the most fearful of all times, viz., those of Antichrist.—Vales.↑ ἀπήντων δεδιότες.↑ οἱ δὲ δημοσιεύοντες ὑπὸ τῶν πράξεων ἤγοντο. ”

“ Compare Robertson, Researches, on the conquest of Jerusalem.] ↑ As to the martyrs’ immediate departure to the Lord, and their abode with Him, see Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, ch. xliii., and On the Soul, v. 55. [Vol. iii. p. 576; Ib., p. 231.] ↑ That the martyrs were to be Christ’s assessors, judging the world with Him, was a common opinion among the fathers. So, after Dionysius, Eulogius, bishop of Alexandria, in his fifth book, Against the Novatians. ”

“ For at that time the præfectus Augustalis had charge of military affairs as well as civil.↑ βάθρον. Valesius supposes that what is intended is the seat on which the accused sat when under interrogation by the judge.↑ θριαμβεύοντος αὐτούς. Rufinus makes it, “God thus triumphing in them;” ”