Of the Tenth General Persecution of the Christians, in the Year 302

Various eminent writers have mentioned this awful and lamentable deed of the Emperor Diocletian, and they cannot wonder enough at two things: In the first place, that anyone who is at all a human being could commit such great cruelties on his fellow men as Diocletian inflicted upon the Christians. In the second place, that the Christians, frail men as they were, could endure all this, and not only this, but that many of them, out of love to Jesus Christ, and because of the certain hope of their reward, showed great joy in their sufferings. We shall speak first of the former, and then of the latter, as follows.