came to Golgotha to relieve guard, he kept order
on all sides, and forced everybody to behave at least with common
decency, down to the moment when truth triumphed over him, and he
rendered public testimony to the Divinity of Jesus. Being a rich man,
and a volunteer, he had no difficulty in resigning his post at once. He
assisted at the descent from the Cross and the burial of our Lord,
which put him into familiar connection with the friends of Jesus, and
after the day of Pentecost he was one of the first to receive baptism
in the Pool of Bethsaida, where he took the name of Ctesiphon. He had a
brother living in Arabia, to whom he related the miracles he had
beheld, and who was thus called to the path of salvation, came to
Jerusalem, was baptised by the name of Cecilius, and was charged,
together with Ctesiphon, to assist the deacons in the newly-formed
Christian community.

Ctesiphon accompanied the Apostle St. James the Greater into Spain,
and also returned with him. After a time, he was again sent into Spain
by the Apostles, and carried there the body of St. James, who had been
martyred at Jerusalem. He was made a bishop, and resided chiefly in a
sort of island or peninsula at no great distance from France, which he
also visited, and where he made some disciples. The name of the place
where he lived was rather like Vergui, and it was afterwards laid waste
by an inundation. I do not remember that Ctesiphon was ever martyred.
He wrote several books containing details concerning the Passion of
Christ; but there have been some books falsely attributed to him, and
others, which were really from his pen, ascribed to different writers.
Rome has since rejected these books, the greatest part of which were
apocryphal, but which nevertheless did contain some few things really
from his pen. One of the guards of our Lord's sepulchre, who would not
let himself be bribed by the Jews, was his fellow countryman and
friend. His name was something like Sulei or Suleii. After being
detained some time in prison, he retired into a cavern of Mount Sinai,
where he lived seven years. God bestowed many special graces upon this
man, and he wrote some very learned books in the style of Denis the
Areopagite. Another writer made use of his works, and in this manner
some extracts from them have come down to us. Everything concerning
these facts was made known to me, as well as the name of the book, but
I have forgotten it. This countryman of Ctes