for the wicked, whereof you know
not; the fire of a judgment to come and of punishment everlasting."
These answers put an end to all hope of pardon; a pile of faggots was
speedily collected; and Polycarp was burned alive.

Towards the end of the reign of Marcus Aurelius, or about A.D. 177, the
Churches of Lyons and Vienne [294:1] in France endured one of the most
horrible persecutions recorded in the annals of Christian martyrdom. A
dreadful pestilence, some years before, had desolated the Empire; and
the pagans seem to have been impressed with the conviction that the new
religion had provoked the visitation. The mob in various cities became,
in consequence, exasperated; and demanded, with loud cries, the
extirpation of the hated sectaries. In the south of France a
considerable time appears to have elapsed before the ill-will of the
multitude broke out into open violence. At first the disciples in Lyons
and Vienne were insulted in places of public concourse; they were then
pelted with stones and forced to shut themselves up in their own houses;
they were subsequently seized and thrown into prison; and afterwards
their slaves were put to the torture, and compelled to accuse them of
crimes of which they were innocent. Pothinus, the pastor of Lyons, now
upwards of ninety years of age, was brought before the governor, and so
roughly handled by the populace that he died two days after he was
thrown into confinement. The other prisoners were plied with hunger and
thirst, and then put to death with wanton and studied cruelty. Two of
the sufferers, Blandina, a female, and Ponticus, a lad of fifteen,
displayed singular calmness and intrepidity. For several days they were
obliged to witness the tortures inflicted on their fellow-disciples,
that they might, if possible, be intimidated by the appalling spectacle.
After passing through this ordeal, the torture was applied to
themselves. Ponticus soon sunk under his sufferings; but Blandina still
survived. When she had sustained the agony of the heated iron chair, she
was put into a net and thrown to a wild bull that she might be trampled
and torn by him; and she continued to breathe long after she had been
sadly mangled by the infuriated animal. While subjected to these
terrible inflictions, she exhibited the utmost patience; no boasts
escaped her lips; no murmurs were uttered by her; and even in the
paroxysms of her anguish she was seen to be full of faith and courage.
But such to