. Eusebius. See
Tillemont, t. 2, p. 191. Cave, t. 1, p. 100. Dom Ceillier. Dom Marechal
Concordance des Peres Grecs et Latins, t. 1, p. 58.

A.D. 107.

ST. IGNATIUS, surnamed Theophorus,[1] a word implying a divine or
heavenly person, was a zealous convert and an intimate disciple of St.
John the Evangelist, as his acts assure us; also the apostles SS. Peter
and Paul, who united their labors in planting the faith at Antioch.[2]
It was by their direction that he succeeded Evodius in the government of
that important see, as we are told by St. Chrysostom,[3] who represents
him as a perfect model of virtue in that station, in which he continued
upwards of forty years. During the persecution of Domitian, St. Ignatius
defended his flock by prayer, fasting, and daily preaching the word of
God. He rejoiced to see peace restored to the church on the death of
that emperor, so far as this calm might be beneficial to those committed
to his charge: but was apprehensive that he had not attained to the
perfect love of Christ, nor the dignity of a true disciple, because he
had not as yet been called to seal the truth of his religion with his
blood, an honor he somewhat impatiently longed for. The peaceable reign
of Nerva lasted only fifteen months. The governors of several provinces
renewed the persecution under Trajan his successor: and it appears from
Trajan's letter to Pliny the younger, governor of Bithynia, that the
Christians were ordered to be put to death, if accused; but it was
forbid to make any inquiry after them. That emperor sullied his clemency
and bounty, and his other pagan virtues, by incest with his sister, by
an excessive vanity, which procured him the surname of Parietmus, (or
dauber of every wall with the inscriptions of his name and actions,) and
by blind superstition, which rendered him a persecutor of the true
followers of virtue, out of a notion of gratitude to his imaginary
deities, especially after his victories over the Daci and Scythians in
101 and 105. In the year 106, which was the ninth of his reign, he set
out for the East on an expedition {326} against the Parthians, and made
his entry into Antioch on the 7th of January, 107, with the pomp of a
triumph. His first concern was about the affair of religion and worship
of the gods, and for this reason he resolved to compel the Christians
either to acknowledge their divinity and sacrifice to them, or suffer
death in case of refusal.

Ignatius, as a coura