57.  Consider another struggle between our champion and his persecutor.  His ragged pallium having been ordered to be torn away, “I will also, if you wish it, strip off my coat,” said he.  His fleshless form was threatened with blows, and he offered to submit to be torn with combs, and he said, “By such laceration you will cure my liver, which, as you see, is wearing me away.”  Such was their argument.  But when the city perceived the outrage and the common danger of all—for each one considered this insolence a danger to himself, it became all on fire with rage; and, like a hive roused by smoke, one after another was stirred and arose, every race and every age, but especially the men from the small-arms factory and from the imperial weaving-sheds.  For men at work in these trades are specially hot-tempered and daring, because of the liberty allowed them.  Each man was armed with the tool he was using, or with whatever else came to hand at the moment.  Torch in hand, amid showers of stones, with cudgel’s ready, all ran and shouted together in their united zeal.  Anger makes a terrible soldier or general.  Nor were the women weaponless, when roused by such an occasion.  Their pins were their spears, and no longer remaining women, they were by the strength of their eagerness endowed with masculine courage.  It is a short story.  They thought that they would share among themselves the piety of destroying him, and held him to be most pious who first laid hands on one who had dared such deeds.  What then was the conduct of this haughty and daring judge?  He begged for mercy in a pitiable state of distress, cringing before them to an unparalleled extent, until the arrival of the martyr without bloodshed, who had won his crown without blows, and now restrained the people by the force of his personal influence, and delivered the man who had insulted him and now sought his protection.  This was the doing of the God of Saints, Who worketh and changeth all things for the best, who resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.103    S. James iv. 6.  And why should not He, Who divided the sea and stayed the river, and ruled the elements, and by stretching out set up a trophy, to save His exiled people, why should not He have also rescued this man from his perils?

Ἄθρει δὴ πάλην ἑτέραν ἀγωνιστοῦ καὶ διώκτου. Τὸ περιαυχένιον ῥάκος σφενδονᾶσθαι προσέταττεν. Ὁ δέ, »Προσαποδύσομαί σοι, φησίν, εἰ βούλει, καὶ τὸ χιτώνιον«. Τύπτειν ἠπείλει τὸν ἄσαρκον: ὁ δὲ ὑπέκυπτε. Ξέειν τοῖς ὄνυξιν: ὁ δέ: »Ἰατρεύεις, φησί, τὸ ἧπαρ, ὁρᾷς ὅπως με κατατρύχον, τοῖς τοιούτοις θεραπεύων σπαράγμασιν«. Οἱ μὲν οὖν ἐν τούτοις ἦσαν. Ἡ δὲ πόλις, ὡς ᾔσθετο τοῦ κακοῦ καὶ τοῦ κοινοῦ πάντων κινδύνου, κίνδυνον γὰρ ἕκαστος ἑαυτοῦ τὴν ὕβριν ταύτην ἐνόμιζεν, ἐκμαίνεται πᾶσα καὶ ἀνάπτεται: καὶ ὡς καπνοῦ σμῆνος κινήσαντος, ἄλλος ἐπ' ἄλλῳ διεγείρεται καὶ ἀνίσταται, γένος ἅπαν καὶ ἡλικία πᾶσα, οἳ περὶ τὴν ὁπλοποιητικὴν καὶ βασίλειον ἱστουργικὴν μάλιστα. Καὶ γάρ εἰσι περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα θερμότεροι, καὶ τὸ τολμᾶν ἐκ τῆς παρρησίας ἔχοντες. Καὶ πᾶν ἦν ὅπλον ἑκάστῳ, τὸ παρὸν ἐκ τῆς τέχνης, εἴ τέ τι ἄλλο τῷ καιρῷ τύχοι σχεδιασθέν. Αἱ δᾷδες ἐν χερσίν, οἱ λίθοι προβεβλημένοι, τὰ ῥόπαλα εὐτρεπῆ, δρόμος ἁπάντων εἷς, βοὴ μία, προθυμία κοινή. Θυμός, ὁ δεινὸς ὁπλίτης ἢ στρατηγός. Οὐδὲ γυναῖκες ἄοπλοι τηνικαῦτα, τοῦ καιροῦ θήγοντος: μελίαι δ' ἦσαν αὐταῖς αἱ κερκίδες: αἳ οὐδὲ γυναῖκες ἔμενον ἔτι, τῷ ζήλῳ ῥωσθεῖσαι, καὶ εἰς ἀνδρῶν θάρσος μεταλλαττόμεναι. Βραχὺς ὁ λόγος: μερίζεσθαι τὴν εὐσέβειαν ᾤοντο, εἰ τοῦτον διέλοιντο: καὶ οὗτος αὐτοῖς εὐσεβέστερος ἦν, ὃς πρῶτος ἐπιβαλεῖ χεῖρα τῷ τολμητῇ τῶν τοιούτων. Τί οὖν ὁ σοβαρὸς ἐκεῖνος καὶ θρασὺς δικαστής; Ἱκέτης ἦν, ἐλεεινός, ἄθλιος, τίνος οὐ ταπεινότερος, ἕως ἐπιφανεὶς ὁ χωρὶς αἵματος μάρτυς καὶ χωρὶς πληγῶν στεφανίτης, καὶ βίᾳ τὸν λαὸν κατασχὼν αἰδοῖ κρατηθέντα, τὸν ἱκέτην ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ὑβριστὴν διεσώσατο. Ταῦτα ὁ τῶν ἁγίων Θεός, ὁ ποιῶν πάντα καὶ μετασκευάζων ἐπὶ τὸ βέλτιον, ὁ τοῖς ὑπερηφάνοις ἀντιτασσόμενος, ταπεινοῖς δὲ χάριν ἐπιμετρῶν. Τί δὲ οὐκ ἔμελλεν ὁ τεμὼν θάλασσαν καὶ ποταμὸν ἀνακόψας καὶ στοιχεῖα τυραννήσας καὶ χειρῶν ἐκτάσει τρόπαια στήσας, ἵνα διασώσῃ λαὸν φυγάδα, καὶ τοῦτον ἐξαιρήσεσθαι τῶν κινδύνων;