The Three Martyrs Examined on the Rack the Third Time

The President said: "Call the ungodly Christians in." Demetrius, the centurion, answered

"Here I am."

Tharacus brought forth first. When he had brought forth Tharacus, the Proconsul said: "Do you still despise imprisonment, chains, punishments, and tortures? Follow my advice, O Tharacus, and give up this confession, which profits you nothing. Rather sacrifice to the gods, by whom all things exist."

Tharacus answered: "Woe will come upon them. You think that the world is governed by them; but they are destined for eternal fire; and not they only, but all those also who serve them."

The President said: "And do you still not stop, you impious blasphemer! Or do you not think that for your rash words I could have you beheaded at once?"

Tharacus replied: "Then I would not die a lingering death, but a short one. But let me have a long conflict, so that in the meantime my faith in the Lord may grow and increase."

The President said: "You and your fellow prisoners must die according to the laws."

Tharacus answered: "What you say is evidence of your ignorance; for those who do evil die justly. But we, who know of no evil, that is, who have committed nothing worthy of death before men, but suffer for the Lord, wait with confident hope for the heavenly reward from the Lord."

The Proconsul said: "You accursed miscreant! What reward do you have to expect, seeing that you die for your wickedness?"

Tharacus replied: "It is not lawful for you to inquire into, or to ask, what reward the Lord has laid up for us in heaven; and therefore we patiently suffer the wrath of your madness."

The President said: "Do you dare to address me this way, you accursed [one], as though you were my equal?"

Tharacus answered: "I am not your equal; but it is lawful for me to speak, and no one can silence me, for the sake of Him who strengthens me, namely, the Lord."

The Proconsul said: "You miscreant, I will deprive you of the power."

Tharacus answered: "No one can take away the power from me, neither you, nor your princes, nor Satan, the father of you all."

Tharacus put to the rack. The President said: "Now, seeing that you are bound and hung up, in order that you may be tortured, sacrifice in time, before I have you punished as you deserve."

Tharacus replied: "That you may do; but since I was formerly a soldier, you may not torment me with every kind of punishment. Yet, so that you do not think I might yield to your perverseness, go on and devise and inflict on me all sorts of punishment."

The President said: "Do not think that I will sentence you at once. I will have you put to death by degrees."

Tharacus answered: "Whatever you intend to do, do at once, and do not threaten."

The President said: "If you think that some women will come and embalm your body, you are greatly mistaken, for it is my intention that nothing shall remain of you."

Tharacus replied: "Do with my body as it pleases you, now as well as after my death."

"Maximian," said the Proconsul, "break his jaws, and tear his lips."

Tharacus answered: "True, you have crushed and marred my face; but you have made my soul alive."

The President said: "You wretched man! Give up your vain thoughts, and sacrifice, so that you may be delivered from these pangs."

Tharacus replied: "Do you think I am a fool or a madman, and that I, who trust in the Lord, will not live in heaven? You may deprive me of this temporal life for a little while; but you will thereby cast your own soul into eternal damnation."

The President said to the executioners: "Put the branding irons into the fire, and brand him on his cheeks or shoulders."

Tharacus answered: "Though you inflict many more torments than these upon me, you will still not turn the servant of God to the shameful idolatry of devils, to worship them."

The President said: "Bring a razor; cut off his skin; shave his head bald, and put burning coals on it."

Tharacus replied: "And though you have my whole body flayed, I will still not depart from my God, who strengthens me to endure all the weapons of your torturing."

The President said: "Get the branding irons; let them get still hotter, and apply them to all his limbs and joints."

Tharacus, as he suffered this, cried out. "May the Lord look down from heaven, and judge!"

The President said: "What lord are you calling on, you accursed fellow?"

Tharacus answered: "The Lord whom you do not know, and who repays everyone according to his works."

The President said: "And will I not exterminate you, as I have told you? Yes, even your remains I will burn, and scatter your ashes to the wind, so that the women may not come and wind your dead body in cloth to embalm it with precious ointments and spices."

Tharacus replied: "I have said it, and say so still: do what you will; you have full power over my body in this world."

The President said: "Put him back into prison, and keep him until the next time for the wild beasts. Let another be brought before the tribunal."

Probus brought forward. Demetrius, the captain, said to the Proconsul: "Sir, here he is already, namely, Probus."

The President said to Probus: "Consider well, Probus, so that you may not fall again into the same punishment; for others, who because of you have persisted in their obstinacy, have regretted it. Sacrifice now, therefore, so that you may be honored by us and by the gods."

Probus answered: "We are all of one mind, serving God with one heart and soul. Do not think, therefore, that you will hear anything different from us; for you have already heard and seen enough to convince you that you cannot turn us. Here I stand before you the third time, and still do not regard your threats. What are you waiting for, then?"

The President said: "You have conspired together to deny the gods. Bind him, and hang him up by his heels."

Probus replied: "Do you still not stop fighting for Satan?"

Maximus said: "Believe me, before you are tortured; have compassion on your own body. See what dreadful torments are being prepared for you."

Probus answered: "All that you may do to me will serve for the comfort of my soul; therefore, do what you will."

The President said: "Heat the branding irons red hot, and apply them to his sides, so that he may give up his folly."

Probus replied: "The more foolish I appear to you, the wiser I will be in the law of the Lord."

The President said: "Press the branding irons on his back."

Probus answered as he was suffering: "My body is subject to your power; but God will see from heaven my humility and patience."

In the meantime the President commanded that meat and wine should be brought, which had been sacrificed to the idols, saying to the executioners

"Pour wine down his throat, and take meat, and force it into his mouth."

While they were busy doing this, Probus said: "May the Lord behold from His high throne the violence you do to me, and judge my cause."

The President said: "You wretched man! You have suffered so much, and, behold, you have yourself received the sacrifice."

Probus replied: "You have not accomplished much by doing me violence. The Lord knows my intentions."

The President said: "You have eaten and drunk what was sacrificed to the gods."

Probus answered: "The Lord knows it, and has seen the violence I have suffered."

The President said to the executioners: "Apply the branding irons to the calves of his legs."

Probus replied: "Neither the fire, nor the torments, nor your father, Satan, can turn the servant of God from his confession."

The President said to his servants: "Let sharp nails be heated, and put them into his hands."

Probus answered as he suffered this: "I thank You, O Lord, that You have made my hands worthy to suffer for Your name."

The President said: "The many torments have deprived you of your mind."

Probus replied: "The great power that you have has not only made you a fool, but blind as well; for you do not know what you are doing."

The President said: "You who have been tormented over your whole body except the eyes, do you dare to speak to me this way?" "Pinch his eyes," he said to the executioners, "so that he may gradually become blind."

When this had been done, Probus said: "See, you have also deprived me of my bodily eyes, but you will never be permitted to destroy the eyes of my faith."

The President said: "Do you think you will survive all these torments, or that in this way you will die happy?"

Probus answered: "Fighting in this way, I gradually approach the end, so that I may finish my good and perfect confession, and be put to death by you without mercy."

The President said: "Take him away, bind him, put him in prison, and let none of his companions come near him, to praise him for having continued so steadfast in his wickedness. He, too, shall be cast before the wild beasts at the next show."

Andronicus put to the rack. Then the President said: "Let Andronicus come forth."

Demetrius, the captain, said: "He is already here."

The President said to Andronicus: "Have compassion at least on your youth. If you have wisely taken counsel with yourself to reverence the gods, consent and sacrifice to the gods, so that you may be released."

Andronicus answered: "May God never permit you, O tyrant, to make me do anything against the law of God. You shall never shake my good confession, which I have founded upon my Lord. Here I stand ready, for you to make your hardness manifest on me."

The President said: "It seems to me that you are raving, and possessed by the devil."

Andronicus replied: "If I had the devil in me, I would obey you; but because I confess the Lord, I do not submit to the commands of the devil. But do you not have the devil in you? For, being deceived by the devil, you do the works of the devil."

The President said to the executioners: "Make bundles of paper, and put fire upon his body."

When this was done, Andronicus said: "Though I burn from head to foot, the spirit is nevertheless alive in me. You shall not conquer me; for the Lord, whom I serve, is with me."

The President said: "You madman! How long will you remain this obstinate? Seek at least to die in your bed."

Andronicus answered: "As long as I live, I will overcome your wickedness."

The President said: "Heat the branding irons red hot again, and put them between his fingers."

Andronicus replied: "O foolish despiser of God! You are full of the wicked thoughts of Satan. Do you not see that my body is almost consumed by the many torments you have inflicted upon me? Do you think that now at the last I shall begin to fear your devices? I have Christ dwelling in my heart, and I despise your torments."

The President said: "You miscreant! Do you not know that this Christ, whom you worship, became man, and was punished under the judge Pontius Pilate?"

Andronicus answered: "Be silent, for it is not lawful for you to speak evil of Him."

The President said: "What do you gain by your faith and hope in this man whom you call Christ?"

Andronicus replied: "By it I have a great reward and gain in expectation; and so I endure all this so patiently."

The President said: "Break open his mouth, and take meat that has been sacrificed, from the altar, and force it into his mouth, and pour in wine also."

Andronicus called God to witness, saying: "O Lord! Lord! see what violence I suffer!"

The President said: "How long will you endure the punishment so obstinately? See, you have certainly eaten of what has been sacrificed to the gods."

Andronicus answered: "Cursed be all who honor the idols, you and your princes."

The President said: "You miscreant, do you curse the princes, who have obtained for us such lasting and tranquil peace?"

Andronicus replied: "They are cursed, who, like the pestilence and like bloodhounds, turn the whole world upside down; whom the Lord by His mighty arm shall confound and destroy."

The President commanded the executioners: "Put an iron into his mouth, and with it break out all his teeth, and cut out his blasphemous tongue, so that he may learn to blaspheme the princes no more. Take away his teeth, and burn his tongue to ashes, and scatter the ashes all about, so that his fellow Christians, or some women, may not gather his remains and keep them as precious relics. Take him away from here, and put him into prison, so that at the next show he, together with his companions, Tharacus and Probus, may be thrown before the wild beasts." Acta Procons. per Metaph. and alios. [n227-1]

It is declared that the account above concerning the examination of the three Christians named above was written entirely by the heathen themselves, who put them to death; only a few words having been altered, to make the sense clearer. A certain celebrated author, mentioning this, writes as follows: "Here ends the third examination or inquisition on the rack, and up to this point these proceedings with the martyrs have been recorded by the heathen clerk of the criminal court himself, and were doubtless afterwards bought for money by the Christians."

Beloved reader! I could not keep from translating these records just as they were, for the most part word for word; not only because I have found them to be true and genuine in every respect, but also because we can see very clearly from them what form of inquisition or examination the heathen used against the Christians, as well as with what manifold torments the obdurate heathen sought to compel the Christians to apostatize from the faith, and how remarkably God preserved His own against the devices and wiles of the devil.

It need not seem strange to the reader that the proconsul or the criminal judges so often put the same Christians to the rack, to make them apostatize from the faith; for Lactantius tells us of a president in Bithynia who for two years tried by all manner of torments to compel a Christian to apostatize, and who, when this Christian finally seemed to yield, boasted of it just as though he had conquered a whole province of a barbarian country.

As for the rest of the matter, that is, how and when the sentence of the Proconsul was carried out, the heathen have not recorded it; but some Christian brothers, namely, Macarius, Felix, and Verus, probably bought those records from the clerk of the criminal court, and added from their own observation what was missing, since they had been eyewitnesses of it at the theatrical drama the following day.