red of one thing only, namely godliness,
thirsting to lay down their lives for Christ his sake, and yearning for
the happiness beyond. Wherefore they preached, not with fear and
trembling, but rather even with excess of boldness, the saving Name of
God, and naught but Christ was on their lips, as they plainly
proclaimed to all men the transitory and fading nature of this present
time, and the fixedness and incorruptibility of the life to come, and
sowed in men the first seeds, as it were, towards their becoming of the
household of God, and winning that life which is hid in Christ.
Wherefore many, profiting by this most pleasant teaching, turned away
from the bitter darkness of error, and approached the sweet light of
Truth; insomuch that certain of their noblemen and senators laid aside
all the burthens of life, and thenceforth became monks.

But when the king heard thereof, he was filled with wrath, and, boiling
over with indignation, passed a decree forthwith, compelling all
Christians to renounce their religion. Thereupon he planned and
practised new kinds of torture against them, and threatened new forms
of death. So throughout all his dominions he sent letters to his
rulers and governors ordering penalties against the righteous, and
unlawful massacres. But chiefly was his displeasure turned against the
ranks of the monastic orders, and against them he waged a truceless and
unrelenting warfare. Hence, of a truth, many of the Faithful were
shaken in spirit, and others, unable to endure torture, yielded to his
ungodly decrees. But of the chiefs and rulers of the monastic order
some in rebuking his wickedness ended their lives by suffering
martyrdom, and thus attained to everlasting felicity; while others hid
themselves in deserts and mountains, not from dread of the threatened
tortures, but by a more divine dispensation.

II.

Now while the land of the Indians lay under the shroud of this moonless
night, and while the Faithful were harried on every side, and the
champions of ungodliness prospered, the very air reeking with the smell
of bloody sacrifices, a certain mall of the royal household, chief
satrap in rank, in courage, stature, comeliness, and in all those
qualities which mark beauty of body and nobility of soul, far above all
his Fellows, hearing of this iniquitous decree, bade farewell to all
the grovelling pomps and vanities of the world, joined the ranks of the
monks, and retired across the borde