The Persecution Raised by His Colleagues

By order of the supreme rulers of the empire, the governors of the various provinces had set on foot a general persecution of the godly. In fact, it was from the imperial courts themselves that the very first of the godly martyrs came. They went through those contests for the faith and most readily endured fire and sword and the depths of the sea, in short every form of death, so that in a short time all the royal palaces were stripped of godly men. The result was that the authors of this wickedness were left entirely without the protecting care of God, for by persecuting his worshipers they at the same time silenced the prayers that used to be offered on their own behalf. [a]