CHAPTER I

THE PERSECUTION UNDER SEVERUS

WHEN Severus raised a persecution against the churches, there were illustrious testimonies given by the combatants of religion in all the churches every where. They particularly abounded in Alexandria, whilst the heroic wrestlers from Egypt and Thebais were escorted thither as to a mighty theatre of God, where, by their invincible patience under various tortures and modes of death, they were adorned with crowns from heaven. Among these was Leonides, said to be the father of Origen, who was beheaded, and left his son very young. His early predilection for the divine word, as instructed by his father, it is not out of place here briefly to state, so much the more especially as his fame is celebrated by many.