Early Church History 19

Of Blood and Ink:  The Martyrologies

Nero's brief and brutal persecution

Domitian's persecution: a family affair

Flavius Clemens, Acilius Glabrio

Trajan's letter to Pliny the Younger

"cognitio extra ordinem"

Arrius Antonius: If you want to die so bad, go jump off a cliff!

Trajan, Hadrian (117 - 138), Anoninus Pius (138 - 161)

Ptolemaueus in Rome; City Prefect Lollius Urbicus

Justin's Second Apology

Marcus Aurelius and Junius Rusticus

Martyrologies:

1. Court records copied out

2. Eyewitness accounts, "passiones"

3. Legends from Stories and sermons

Tertullian: We are but of yesterday, and we have filled all your world: cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market places, the camp itself, tribes, companies, the palace, the senate, the forum. We have left you nothing but your temples only.

Acts of the martyrs of Scilli

The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity Carthage, March 7, 202

Vibia Perpetua, Saturus

"Washed and Saved! Washed and Saved!

"Such a woman could not have been slain unless she had willed it herself, since she was feared by the impure spirit."

Pergamon, 160's, and Acts of Apollonius

Legends and Pious Stories: Saints Agnes, Cecilia, Felicitas and her Seven Sons, Hippolytus, Lawrence, Sixtus, Sebastian, John and Paul, Cosmos and Damian, "Martyrium Sainti Clementis"

Pope Xystus II

1849.  Father Guiseppi Marchi and Giovanni Baptista de Rossi

NELIUS MARTYR + COR

Cemetery of Callistus, the chapel of Pope Zephyrinus

CORNELIUS MARTYR EPISCOPUS

Papyrus of Monza, Queen of Lombardy, Pope Gregory I

1883 W. Ramsay, Sultan Abdul Hamid

Burial Stone of Bishop Abercius of Hieropolis, Phrygia

Esmeralda Crucitti, Rome Pagan and Christian

Ludwig Hertling and Engelbert Kirschbaum,  The Roman Catacombs and Their Martyrs

"The Roman catacombs, scientifically considered, are simply sites of excavation, exactly life Pompeii, etc... enough has been said to prove the original proposition, namely, that the CREDO of the primitive Christians was the same as the CREDO in which we Christians believe today.  Jesus Christus heri et hodie, ipse et in saecula!"