e, upright and
immovable, persisted in his profession of faith, as if living waters
from the bosom of Christ flowed over him and refreshed him. Some days
after, these infidels began again to torture him, believing that if they
inflicted upon his blistering wounds the same agonies, they would
triumph over him, who seemed unable to bear the mere touch of their
hands; and they hoped, also, that the sight of his torturing alive would
terrify his comrades. But, contrary to general expectation, the body of
Sanctus, rising suddenly up, stood erect and firm amid these repeated
torments, and recovered its old appearance and the use of its members,
as if, by divine grace, this second laceration of his flesh had caused
healing rather than suffering.

"When the tyrants had thus expended and exhausted their tortures against
the firmness of the martyrs sustained by Christ, the devil devised other
contrivances. They were cast into the darkest and most unendurable place
in their prison; their feet were dragged out and compressed to the
utmost tension of the muscles; the jailers, as if instigated by a demon,
tried every sort of torture, insomuch that several of them, for whom God
willed such an end, died of suffocation in prison. Others, who had been
tortured in such a manner that it was thought impossible they should
long survive, deprived as they were of every remedy and aid from men,
but supported nevertheless by the grace of God, remained sound and
strong in body as in soul, and comforted and reanimated their brethren.

"The blessed Pothinus, who held at that time the bishopric of Lyons,
being upward of ninety, and so weak in body that he could hardly
breathe, was himself brought before the tribunal, so worn with old age
and sickness that he seemed nigh to extinction; but he still possessed
his soul, wherewith to subserve the triumph of Christ. Being brought by
the soldiers before the tribunal, whither he was accompanied by all the
magistrates of the city and the whole populace, that pursued him with
hootings, he offered, as if he had been the very Christ, the most
glorious testimony. At a question from the governor, who asked what the
God of the Christians was, he answered, 'If thou be worthy, thou shalt
know.' He was immediately raised up, without any respect or humanity,
and blows were showered upon him; those who happened to be nearest to
him assaulted him grievously with foot and fist, without the slightest
regard for his age;