pil 1174

THE

CHRISTIAN MARTYROLOGY.

PERSECUTIONS IN THE FIRST AGES OF THE WORLD.

MONG primitive persecu- { all respectively saved by the Almighty,
and their persecutors punished for their
perfidy.

tions of an individual na-
ture, we may reckon that
of ABEL, who was per- The Jews were persecuted by the neigh-
secuted and slain by his boring idolaters during the time of their
brother CAIN; the perse-building and fortifying Jerusalem, till that
great work was finished by the care of
Nehemiah; but after its completion they
were frequently disturbed by the Persians,
and the successors of Alexander the Great,
though that monarch himself had granted
the most unlimited favors.

cution of the righteous NOAH by the ac-
cursed HAM, his son; the persecution of
LOT at SODOM, and that of JOSEPH by his
brethren.

In these early ages, the first general persecutions may be deemed that of the children of Israel by Pharaoh. This tyrant not only afflicted both sexes of all ages, by means of the most cruel task-masters, but even ordered the new born infants of the Hebrew women to be murdered. He was, however, punished for his persecutions; first by ten dreadful plagues, and afterward by being swallowed up in the Red sea, with all his host.

The children of Israel, after being freed from bondage, were successively persecuted by the Philistines, Ammonites, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Arabians, and Assyrians; and many of the prophets and chosen of God were persecuted by several of the kings of Judah and Israel.

The three righteous children were thrown into the fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar; Daniel was cast into the lion's den by order of Darius; and Mordecai was persecuted by the malicious Haman: but these were

But a little more than a century and a half before the birth of Christ, Antiochus seized upon and sacked the city of Jerusalem, plundered the temple, and murdered many of the Jews who refused to conform to his idolatry, by scourging, strangling, crucifying, and stifling them, and by closing up the mouths of the caves to which they fled for shelter.

Antiochus and his idolatrous tormentors were, however, at length bravely opposed by Matthias, a priest, and his valiant sons, the principal of whom was Judas Maccabeus. This able commander, Judas, with his brave brothers, inspired the dispirited Jews with new courage, defeated the generals of Antiochus, freed their country from bondage, and afterward turned their arms against the Edomites and Ammonites, over whom they were equally successful.

At length Antiochus died a terrible death,

his flesh having been for some time before { cast to a leopard, but the beast refusing to quite putrid, and producing maggots, so touch him, he was suffered to languish till that he became loathsome to himself, and he expired with the excruciating pain and nauseous to all about him. His succes-loss of blood.

sors, however, continued their enmity to the Jews; but they were opposed, with various success, by the Maccabees.

The Jews now entered into a treaty offensive and defensive with the Romans; but soon after lost their worthy champion, Judas Maccabeus, who was slain in a bloody battle fought with the Greeks, under the command of their general, Bacchides.

Antiochus Epiphanes, now reigning in Syria, and having some success against the Jews, went to Jerusalem, where he ordered Eleazer the priest to be put to death in the most cruel manner, for refusing to eat swine's flesh. Then seizing on a family of Maccabees, consisting of a matron named Salamona, and her seven sons, he carried them all to Antioch. Here he would fain have persuaded them to embrace his idolatry, which they nobly and unanimously refusing, he ordered them all to be put to death.

Machir, the third son, was bound to a globe till his bones were all dislocated; his head and face were then flayed, his tongue cut out, and being cast into a pan he was fried to death.

Judas, the fourth son, after having his tongue cut out, was beat with ropes, and then racked upon a wheel.

Achas, the fifth son, was pounded in a large brazen mortar.

Areth, the sixth son, was fastened to a pillar with his head downward, slowly roasted by a fire kindled at some distance; his tongue was then cut out, and he was lastly fried in a pan.

Jacob, the seventh and youngest son, had his arms cut off, his tongue plucked out, and was then fried to death.

They all bore their fate with the same intrepidity as their elder brother, and called upon the Almighty to receive them into heaven.

Salamona, the mother, after having in a manner died seven deaths in beholding the martyrdom of her children, was, by the tyrant's order, stripped naked, severely scourged, her breasts cut off, and her body

Maccabeus, the eldest, was accordingly stripped, stretched on the rack, and severely beaten. He was next fastened to a wheel, and weights hung to his feet till his sinews cracked. Afterward his tormenters threw him into a fire till he was dreadfully scorch-fried till she expired. ed; then they drew him out, cut out his tongue, and put him into a frying-pan, with a slow fire under it, till he died. As long

The tyrant who inflicted these cruelties was afterward struck with madness; and then his flesh became corrupted, and his as he had life, and power of expression, bowels mortified, which put an end to his under these exquisite torments, he fervently {wicked life. called upon God, and exhorted his brothers

to a similar perseverance.

After the second son had his hands fastened with chains, with which he was hung up, his skin was flayed off from the crown of his head to his knees. He was then

"Thus the afflicted innocent expire,

Calm in their sufferings, cheerful in the fire;
Expecting, for a momentary pain,
Eternal joys, and everlasting gain.
While the the tyrannic and the wicked find,
A tortured body, and tormented mind;
And when their vile atrocious lives they close,
A hell of horrors, and eternal woes."

THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST, WITH HIS SUFFERINGS AND MARTYRDOM.

he at last sunk under the oppression of his afflictions, and expired in the most miserable manner.

her.

AVING briefly brought down accounts of the earliest persecutions, from the remotest pe- Herod the Less having married the riods to the time of our daughter of the king of Arabia, repudiated Savior's birth, we shall her, and espoused Herodias, his brother now enter into the most important point of Philip's wife; for which marriage, full of human and divine history. But it is neces- incest and adultery, John the Baptist boldly sary, ere we engage in delineating the and severely reproved him. This freedom birth, actions, sufferings and death of the greatly incensed Herodias, for we are inREDEEMER OF THE WORLD, to mention formed by St. Matthew, in the xivth chapsome circumstances, which are either in-ter of his gospel, that "When Herod's troductory to our subject, or should be pre-birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias liminary to it, in order not to break in upon danced before them, and pleased Herod : the uniformity of the narrative. whereupon he promised, with an oath, to give Herod the Great being informed that a her whatsoever she would ask. And she, king of the Jews should be born in Bethle- being before instructed of her mother, said, hem, sent a number of troops to destroy all Give me here John Baptist's head in a charthe children under two years of age, inger. And the king was sorry; nevertheless, that place, and throughout the neighboring for the oath's sake, and them which sat with coast. By this cruel order he hoped to him at meat, he commanded it to be given have destroyed the child Jesus; but in this And he sent and beheaded John in the he was not only disappointed, but punished with such a spirit of lunacy, that he slew his own wife, children, relations, friends, &c. He was afterward visited by the most grievous maladies, particularly an inward burning, slow, but unremitting; an uncommon appetite, continually craving, but ever unsatisfied; a cramp that racked him with pain; a flux that reduced him to weakness; worms that bred in him and gnawed him; vermin that engendered about him and devoured him; a general putrefaction that consumed him; and in fine, all those complicated disorders which could possibly render him hateful to himself, and odious to others. His torments at length became so intolerable, that not having either the comforts of religion or the support of a good conscience to sustain his sinking spirits, he attempted to lay violent hands upon himself. Being prevented in this attempt by those about him,

prison. And his head was brought in a charger and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother." The authors of this cruelty were, however, all severely punished; for the daughter of Herodias being afterward dancing upon the ice, it broke, and she falling in, had her head severed from her body by its again closing; and Herod, and the incestuous adulteress Herodias, falling under the displeasure of the Roman emperor, were banished, and died miserably in exile. This martyr's nativity happened on the 24th of June.

But to proceed to the history of our blessed Redeemer. In the reign of Herod the Great already mentioned, the angel Gabriel was sent by the Almighty to a holy virgin, called Mary. This maiden was betrothed to a carpenter, named Joseph, who resided at Nazareth, a city of Galilee, but the consummation had not then taken place; for it was the custom of

the eastern nations to contract persons of and the walking on the surface of the each sex from their childhood.

water.

At the time of the passover Jesus supped with his disciples; informed them that one of them would betray him and another deny him, and preached his farewell sermon. Soon after, a multitude of armed men surrounded him, and Judas kissed him, in order to point him out to the soldiers who did not know him personally. In the scuffle occasioned by the apprehending of Jesus, Peter cut off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the high-priest, for which Jesus reproved him, and healed the wound by touching it. Peter and John followed Jesus to the house of Annas, who, refusing to judge him, sent him bound

The angel informed Mary how highly she was favored of God, and that she should conceive a son by the Holy Spirit, which happened accordingly; for travelling to Bethlehem to pay the capitation-tax then levied, the town was so crowded that they could only get lodgings in a stable, where the holy virgin brought forth our blessed Redeemer, which was announced to the world by a star and an angel: the wise men of the east saw the first, and the shepherds the latter. After Jesus had been { circumcised, he was presented in the temple by the holy virgin; upon which occasion Simeon broke out into the celebrated words: " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant { to Caiaphas, where Peter denied Christ, as depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."-Luke ii. 29, 30.

the latter had predicted; but on Christ's reminding him of his perfidy, Peter went out and wept bitterly.

When the council assembled in the morning, the Jews mocked Jesus, and the

Jesus, in his youth, disputed with the most learned doctors in the temple, and soon after was baptized at the river Jordan { elders suborned false witnesses against by John, when the Holy Ghost descended him; the principal accusation against him upon him in the form of a dove, and a being, that he had said, "I will destroy voice was heard audibly to pronounce these this temple that is made with hands, and words: "This is my beloved son, in whom within three days I will build another, made I am well pleased." without hands."-Mark xiv. 58. Caiaphas then asked him if he was Christ, the son of God, or no; being answered in the affirmative, he was accused of blasphemy, and condemned to death by Pontius Pilate,

Christ afterward fasted forty days and nights in the wilderness, when he was tempted by the devil, but resisted all his allurements. He then performed his first miracle at Cana, in Galilee; he likewise the Roman governor, who, though conconversed with the good Samaritan, and restored to life a nobleman's dead child. Travelling through Galilee he restored the blind to sight, cured the lame, the lepers,

&c

{scious of his innocence, yielded to the solicitation of the Jews, and condemned him to be crucified.

Previous to the crucifixion, the Jews, by way of derision, clothed Christ in a Among other benevolent actions, at the {regal robe, put a crown of thorns upon his pool of Bethesda he cured a paralytic man head, and a reed, for a sceptre, in his who had been lame thirty-eight years, bid-hand; they then mocked him, with ironiding him take up his bed and walk; and he cal compliments, spit in his face, slapped afterward cured a man whose right hand was shrunk up and withered. Having chosen his twelve apostles, he preached the celebrated sermon upon the Mount; after which he performed several miracles, particularly the feeding of the multitude,

his cheeks, and taking the reed out of his hand, they struck him with it upon the head. Pilate would fain have released him, but the general cry was Crucify him! crucify him!" which occasioned the governor to call for a basin of water, and