"offered to the devil, he ate of them, and gave some to his uncle. The respect and fear with which the "Count was seized, permitted him not to eat much. "He then retired to his own house, vexed that he "had done an odious action, and had also displeased "the emperor, so that he would not take any nou

"rishment.

"Yet the little that he had eaten would not digest, " and in the evening he had a disorder in his bowels "which gave him violent pain. He fell into a grievous and unknown disease, and his inward parts

being corrupted, he cast out his liver and his excre"ments, not from the ordinary passages, but from "his miserable mouth, which had uttered so many blasphemies. His secret parts, and all the flesh "round about them, corrupted also, and bred worms; and to shew that it was a divine punishment, all the art of the physicians could give him "no relief, though, on account of his high rank, and "his near relation to the emperor, they employed al "kind of remedies. They killed a great number of "the choicest and fattest birds, and applied them to "the rotten places, to draw out the worms; but the worms, instead of coming forth, entered deeper in"to his flesh, devouring all that was corrupted, and penetrating to the quick. They got into his sto

mach, and from time to time came out of his "mouth, whilst to encrease his affliction, the very

pagans made a jest of it. Philostorgius says that he "remained forty days without speech or sense. He "then came to himself a little, and his wife, who, as "it was reported, was illustrious for her faith, and "who had warned him to spare at least the lives of "the Christians, represented to him that he ought to " acknowledge

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" acknowledge and bless the mercy of Jesus Christ; "who in chastizing him shewed him his pow"er; whereas if he had left him unpunished, and

used his ordinary forbearance, he would never have "known whom he had set at defiance. This miser"able man, pressed by these remonstrances of his wife, and by the sense of his pain, acknowledged, "that this was the true cause of his sufferings; he de"tested the crime which was thus severely punished, "and bare testimony of his own impiety. He called upon the God of the Christians, and intreated him "to have pity on him, or at least to take him soon "out of the world and he pressed his wife to go and

pray for him at church, and to desire the prayers "of the Christians. But for all this, he appeared to "have been no more converted than Antiochus; "and he is said to have put to death several Christians

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only three days before he ended his life. His wife "also declared to him that she dared not to pray for "his recovery, lest she should draw down divine "wrath upon herself.

"Yet he intreated the emperor to restore to the "Christians the churches which he had taken from "them, and to cause them to be opened: but he "could not obtain from him even that favour, and "received only this answer, It was not I who shut them

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up, [except the principal church] but I will give no "orders to have them set open. At another time the "Count sent him word, that it was because of him, "and of having quitted Christianity for his sake, that he suffered such grievous pain, and perished miserably; to which Julian, without fearing the hand of "God, or shewing at least some compassion for a person so nearly related, sent him this reply; You

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"have not been faithful to the gods, and it is for that you suffer such torments.

"At length the impostumes all over his body, and the worms which gnawed him continually, reduced "him to the utmost extremity. He threw them up, "without ceasing, the last three days of his life, with "a stench which he himself could not bear. Thus "he ended his life by a shameful and miserable. "death, passing from a punishment of many days to "a punishment of eternal duration. He died, if we may believe Philostorgius, whilst they were read"ing to him divers responses lately made by oracles, "all of them promising that he should not die of any distemper. His nephew Julian lamented him as little dead as living; and resolving not to give glory to Christ, he continued to declare that his calainity befel him for not being faithful to the gods. "In one of his writings, he says of him, that he had governed the city of Antioch with much justice, "but he immediately adds, not with sufficient pru"dence. He there speaks of his death without adventuring to touch upon any of its circumstances. "The disease with which God visited Felix the superintendant, was not so long; for it carried him. off in the space of a day, if not more speedily: St Chrysostom says that he burst suddenly in the mid"dle of his body, by which perhaps he meant what Philostorgius relates, that one of his larger veins bursting, without any straining, the blood flowed "from his mouth all the night, or all the day, according to Theodoret so that in the evening his "blood being all gone, he lost his life, as well as "Count Julian, and fell into everlasting death., Ammianus

"mianus entirely agrees with this, saying that he "died suddenly, of a loss of blood.

peo:

"There was, it seems, a public place, where were "written the names of those who died, and the ple reading there the names of Felix, (a title usually given to emperors,) and of Julian, added that of "Augustus, as if it had been the emperor himself who was deceased; and this was looked upon as a presage that he would soon be amongst the dead.

Elpidius the treasurer, who with Julian and Felix "went to pillage the church, was also punished as "well as they, though a little later: for being con"victed of having favoured the revolt of Procopius

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against Valens, A. D. 366. he was stripped of his "effects, and shut up in prison, where after having "continued for some time, he died without reputa "tion and honour, cursed of all the world, and sur"named Elpidius the Sacrificer, or the Apostate.

"A fourth, who, according to Philostorgius, had "a share in the same sacrilege, and had shamefully profaned the holy altar, was instantly punished like "Count Julian; for those parts of his body which "had been abused in committing his crime were ulcerated, and the worms which bred in them destroyed him miserably.

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"The justice of God was also made manifest by "many punishments of the same kind inflicted on "other apostates; and it may not be amiss to collect "what history hath said concerning it.

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"One who was called Hero, a native of Thebes in Egypt, and bishop of that place, as the Alexandrian Chronicle seems to say, having voluntarily renoun "ced the Faith at Antioch, was instantly seized with

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" a disease which corrupted all his body and made "him an hideous spectacle, and a dreadful example "of divine justice. He was seen lying in the streets "and public places, deprived of all assistance, and "even of the pity and compassion of the beholders. "The Christians abhorred his perfidy, and the Pagans, after they had seduced him, shewed him no regard. Thus he expired miserably in the sight of "all the world.

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Theotecnus, a presbyter of Antioch, fell voluntarily into the same crime, deluded by fair promises, "and was punished as instantly and as severely as "Hero. His flesh in a short time was corrupted and over-run with worms, and he lost his sight. At "last he went mad, and bit and devoured his own tongue, and from these torments passed to others "far more terrible.

"We must not omit the punishment which befel one Thalassius, a man famous for his impurities and debauchery, who is said even to have prostituted his own daughter. He died buried under the "ruins of his house which fell upon him. Theophanus assures us that his wife and all his household "who professed Christianity, were preserved from this disaster, and a child of seven years old being "asked how he had escaped, answered that he was "carried out by an angel.-The Alexandrian Chro"nicle places the death of Theotecnus, Hero, and "Thalassius in the year 363.

"St Gregory Nazianzen marks out in general the stories which we have related, and adds divers 'particularities, but without naming the persons. "Who, says he, could describe the tragical accidents, "the diseases, the different plagues and punishments, "" with

VOL. II.