antly refuted fifty or sixty
years before, they were now revived and circulated with fresh industry.
[297:2] About this period, Leonides, the father of the learned Origen,
was put to death. By a law, promulgated probably in A.D. 202, the
Emperor interdicted conversions to Christianity; and at a time when the
Church was making vigorous encroachments on heathenism, this enactment
created much embarrassment and anxiety. Some of the governors of
provinces, as soon as they ascertained the disposition of the Imperial
court, commenced forthwith a persecution; and there were magistrates who
proceeded to enforce the laws for the base purpose of extorting money
from the parties obnoxious to their severity. Sometimes individuals, and
sometimes whole congregations purchased immunity from suffering by
entering into pecuniary contracts with corrupt and avaricious rulers;
and by the payment of a certain sum obtained certificates [297:3] which
protected them from all farther inquisition. [297:4] The purport of
these documents has been the subject of much discussion. According to
some they contained a distinct statement to the effect that those named
in them had sacrificed to the gods, and had thus satisfied the law;
whilst others allege that, though they guaranteed protection, they
neither directly stated an untruth, nor compromised the religious
consistency of their possessors. But it is beyond all controversy that
the more scrupulous and zealous Christians uniformly condemned the use
of such certificates. Their owners were known by the suspicious
designation of "Libellatici," or "the Certified;" and were considered
only less criminal than the "Thurificati," or those who had actually
apostatised by offering incense on the altars of paganism. [298:1]

About this time the enforcement of the penal laws in a part of North
Africa, probably in Carthage, led to a most impressive display of some
of the noblest features of the Christian character. Five catechumens, or
candidates for baptism, among whom were Perpetua and Felicitas, [298:2]
had been put under arrest. Perpetua, who was only two and twenty years
of age, was a lady of rank and of singularly prepossessing appearance.
Accustomed to all the comforts which wealth could procure, she was ill
fitted, with a child at the breast, to sustain the rigours of
confinement--more especially as she was thrown into a crowded dungeon
during the oppressive heat of an African summer. But, with her infan