obstinate despair, of stupid insensibility, or of superstitious frenzy.
[95] "Unhappy men!" exclaimed the proconsul Antoninus to the Christians
of Asia; "unhappy men! if you are thus weary of your lives, is it so
difficult for you to find ropes and precipices?" [96] He was extremely
cautious (as it is observed by a learned and picus historian) of
punishing men who had found no accusers but themselves, the Imperial
laws not having made any provision for so unexpected a case: condemning
therefore a few as a warning to their brethren, he dismissed the
multitude with indignation and contempt. [97] Notwithstanding this
real or affected disdain, the intrepid constancy of the faithful was
productive of more salutary effects on those minds which nature or
grace had disposed for the easy reception of religious truth. On these
melancholy occasions, there were many among the Gentiles who pitied,
who admired, and who were converted. The generous enthusiasm was
communicated from the sufferer to the spectators; and the blood of
martyrs, according to a well-known observation, became the seed of the
church.

[Footnote 92: Certatim gloriosa in certamina ruebatur; multique avidius
tum martyria gloriosis mortibus quaerebantur, quam nunc Episcopatus
pravis ambitionibus appetuntur. Sulpicius Severus, l. ii. He might have
omitted the word nunc.]

[Footnote 93: See Epist. ad Roman. c. 4, 5, ap. Patres Apostol. tom.
ii. p. 27. It suited the purpose of Bishop Pearson (see Vindiciae
Ignatianae, part ii. c. 9) to justify, by a profusion of examples and
authorities, the sentiments of Ignatius.]

[Footnote 94: The story of Polyeuctes, on which Corneille has founded
a very beautiful tragedy, is one of the most celebrated, though not
perhaps the most authentic, instances of this excessive zeal. We should
observe, that the 60th canon of the council of Illiberis refuses the
title of martyrs to those who exposed themselves to death, by publicly
destroying the idols.]

[Footnote 95: See Epictetus, l. iv. c. 7, (though there is some doubt
whether he alludes to the Christians.) Marcus Antoninus de Rebus suis,
l. xi. c. 3 Lucian in Peregrin.]

[Footnote 96: Tertullian ad Scapul. c. 5. The learned are divided
between three persons of the same name, who were all proconsuls of
Asia. I am inclined to ascribe this story to Antoninus Pius, who was
afterwards emperor; and who may have governed Asia under the reign of
Trajan.]

[Footnote 97: Mosheim, de Re