unhappy
victims of their justice some reason to hope, that a prosperous event,
the accession, the marriage, or the triumph of an emperor, might
speedily restore them, by a general pardon, to their former state. The
martyrs, devoted to immediate execution by the Roman magistrates, appear
to have been selected from the most opposite extremes. They were either
bishops and presbyters, the persons the most distinguished among the
Christians by their rank and influence, and whose example might strike
terror into the whole sect; [70] or else they were the meanest and most
abject among them, particularly those of the servile condition, whose
lives were esteemed of little value, and whose sufferings were viewed by
the ancients with too careless an indifference. [71] The learned Origen,
who, from his experience as well as reading, was intimately acquainted
with the history of the Christians, declares, in the most express terms,
that the number of martyrs was very inconsiderable. [72] His authority
would alone be sufficient to annihilate that formidable army of martyrs,
whose relics, drawn for the most part from the catacombs of Rome, have
replenished so many churches, [73] and whose marvellous achievements
have been the subject of so many volumes of Holy Romance. [74] But
the general assertion of Origen may be explained and confirmed by the
particular testimony of his friend Dionysius, who, in the immense city
of Alexandria, and under the rigorous persecution of Decius, reckons
only ten men and seven women who suffered for the profession of the
Christian name. [75]

[Footnote 66: The conversion of his wife provoked Claudius Herminianus,
governor of Cappadocia, to treat the Christians with uncommon severity.
Tertullian ad Scapulam, c. 3.]

[Footnote 67: Tertullian, in his epistle to the governor of Africa,
mentions several remarkable instances of lenity and forbearance, which
had happened within his knowledge.]

[Footnote 68: Neque enim in universum aliquid quod quasi certam formam
habeat, constitui potest; an expression of Trajan, which gave a very
great latitude to the governors of provinces. * Note: Gibbon altogether
forgets that Trajan fully approved of the course pursued by Pliny. That
course was, to order all who persevered in their faith to be led to
execution: perseverantes duci jussi.--M.]

[Footnote 69: In Metalla damnamur, in insulas relegamur. Tertullian,
Apolog. c. 12. The mines of Numidia contained nine bishops,