Chap. XVI.

Thus was all the earth afflicted; and from east to west, except in the territories of Gaul, three ravenous wild beasts continued to rage.  

or recount the punishments inflicted by the rulers in every province on religious and innocent men.  

But what need of a particular recital of those things, especially to you, my best beloved Donatus,18    [See p. 301, supra.]   who above all others was exposed to the storm of that violent persecution? For when you had fallen into the hands of the prefect Flaccinian, no puny murderer, and afterwards of Hierocles, who from a deputy became president of Bithynia, the author and adviser of the persecution, and last of all into the hands of his successor Priscillian, you displayed to mankind a pattern of invincible magnanimity. Having been nine times exposed to racks and diversified torments, nine times by a glorious profession of your faith you foiled the adversary; in nine combats you subdued the devil and his chosen soldiers; and by nine victories you triumphed over this world and its terrors. How pleasing the spectacle to God, when He beheld you a conqueror, yoking in your chariot not white horses, nor enormous elephants, but those very men who had led captive the nations! After this sort to lord it over the lords of the earth is triumph indeed! Now, by your valour were they conquered, when you set at defiance their flagitious edicts, and, through stedfast faith and the fortitude of your soul, you routed all the vain terrors of tyrannical authority. Against you neither scourges, nor iron claws, nor fire, nor sword, nor various kinds of torture, availed aught; and no violence could bereave you of your fidelity and persevering resolution. This it is to be a disciple of God, and this it is to be a soldier of Christ; a soldier whom no enemy can dislodge, or wolf snatch, from the heavenly camp; no artifice ensnare, or pain of body subdue, or torments overthrow. At length, after those nine glorious combats, in which the devil was vanquished by you, he dared not to enter the lists again with one whom, by repeated trials, he had found unconquerable; and he abstained from challenging you any more, lest you should have laid hold on the garland of victory already stretched out to you; an unfading garland, which, although you have not at present received it, is laid up in the kingdom of the Lord for your virtue and deserts. But let us now return to the course of our narrative.  

XVI. Vexabatur ergo universa terra, et praeter Gallias, ab Oriente usque ad occasum tres acerbissimae bestiae saeviebant. Non mihi si linguae centum sint oraque centum, Ferrea vox, omnes scelernm comprendere formas, Omnia poenarum percurrere nomina possim,0217B quas judices per provincias justis atque innocentibus intulerunt. Verum quid opus est illa narrare, praecipue tibi, Donate carissime, qui praeter caeteros tempestatem turbidae persecutionis expertus es? Nam 0218A cum incidisses in Flaccinum praefectum, non pusillum homicidam, deinde in Hieroclem ex Vicario Praesidem, qui autor et consiliarius ad faciendam persecutionem fuit, postremo in Priscillianum successorem ejus, documentum omnibus invictae fortitudinis praebuisti. Novies enim tormentis cruciatibusque variis subjectus, novies adversarium gloriosa confessione vicisti. Novem praeliis zabulum cum satellitibus suis debellasti: novem victoriis seculum cum suis terroribus triumphasti.

Quam jocundum illud spectaculum Deo fuit, cum victorem te cerneret, non candidos equos, aut immanes elephantos, sed ipsos potissimum triumphatores currui tuo subjugantem? Hic est verus triumphus, cum dominatores dominantur. Victi enim tua virtute 0218B ac subjugati sunt; quandoquidem nefanda jussione contempta, omnes apparatus ac terriculas tyrannicae potestatis fide stabili et robore animi profligasti. Nihil adversus te verbera, nihil ungulae, nihil ignis, 0219A nihil ferrum, nihil varia tormentorum genera valuerunt. Adimere tibi fidem ac devotionem nulla vis potuit. Hoc est esse discipulum Dei: hoc est militem Christi, quem nullus hostis expugnet, nullus lupus de castris coelestibus rapiat, nullus laqueus inducat, nullus dolor vincat, nullus cruciatus affligat. Denique post illas novem gloriosissimas pugnas, quibus a te zabulus victus est, non est ausus ulterius congredi tecum, quem tot praeliis expertus est non posse superari. Et cum tibi parata esset victrix corona, desiit amplias provocare, ne jam sumeres. Quam licet non acceperis in praesenti, tamen integra tibi pro virtutibus tuis et meritis in regno Domini reservatur. Sed redeamus ad ordinem rerum.