Of Various Severe Persecutions Instituted in and About This Time

From Abraham Mellinus alone, besides from many ancient writers he refers to, who have recorded the martyrdom of this time more fully, we have counted fifteen persecutions in this century, which were raised most vehemently against the Christians in various countries.

In order to condense this as much as possible, so as not to weary the reader, we shall not present the account of the aforementioned author word for word, but take from it the pith and import of it, and present it as clearly as we are able to do. In the second book of the History of the Persecutions, and so on, under the heading: "Exposition of Satan bound a thousand years," folio 293, columns 1 to 4, the aforementioned persecutions are described, in consecutive order, among other things, within the bounds of the sixth century, namely, from the year 518 to the close of the century; which we have briefly summed up as follows.

First of all, mention is made of many oppressions by the Jews, heathen, and others, by which all Christendom was kept in turmoil, from the reign of the Emperor Constantine the Great to that of Justin the Great (folio 293, column 2); however, since these oppressions took place before the time of Justin the Great, that is, before the year 518, we will leave them out, as not belonging to the number we have mentioned.