Of Different Other Persons Who Were Slain For The Name Of Christ About A. D. 100
According to ancient history there were also slain for the testimony of the Son of God; In France, Lucianus, bishop of the church of Bellovaco; Maximianus and Julianus, elders; Nicasius, bishop of the church of Rouen; Quirinus, an elder; Scubiculus, a deacon; Pascientia, a virgin. In Italy, Romulus, bishop of the church of Fesula, and others . . .
Vitalus, Buried Alive At Ravenna For The Name Of Jesus Christ; And His Wife Beaten To Death With Sticks, At Milan, About A.D. 99
Urticinus, A Pious Christian, Beheaded With The Ax, At Ravenna, A.D. 99
Next to Timothy is placed Urticinus or Ursinius, a physician at Ravenna in Italy. Having been reported to the Judge Paulinus, as being a Christian, he was tortured in manifold ways for the name of Christ. Having borne all with constancy, and still refusing to sacrifice to the gods of the heathen, he was finally sentenced by the judge, to be beheaded with the ax.
When Urticinus received this sentence of death . . .
Timothy, The Spiritual Son Of The Apostle Apul, Stoned To Death By The Heathen Idolaters At Ephesus, About A. D. 98
Timothy was a native of Lystra in Lycaonia. His father was a Greek, but his mother and grandmother, though of Jewish descent, were Christian believers, the one named Eunice, the other Lois; by whom he was instructed from his youth in the holy Scriptures. Acts 16:1; 2 Tim. 1:5.
Timothy was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium; wherefore Paul received him as his companion in the ministry of the holy Gospel among the Gentiles. Acts 16:2, 3.
John, The Holy Evangelist, Banished To The Isle of Pathos, By Emperor Domitian, A.D. 97
Antipas, The Faithful Witness Of Jesus Christ, Burned At Pergamos In A Red-Hot Brazen Ox, A.D. 95
Some Of The Seventy Disciples Of Christ, And Several Followers Of The Apostles, Slain, Towards The Close Of The Persecution By Nero, About A.D. 70
Prochorus, one of the first seven deacons at Jerusalem, a nephew of the pious martyr Stephen, and companion of the apostle John, but afterwards bishop of the church at Bithynia, in Macedonia, suffered and died at Antioch. Nicanor, also one of the first seven deacons . . .
Matthias, The Holy Apostle Of Christ, Tied On A Cross Upon A Rock, Stoned, And Then Beheaded, A. D. 70
Simon Zelotes And His Brother Judas Thaddeus, Both Slain For The Truth Of Christ; The One Crucified, And The Other Beaten To Death With Sticks, About A.D. 70
Matthew, The Holy Evangelist, Nailed To The Ground, And Beheaded At Nad-Davar, Under King Hytacus, About A.D. 70
Matthew, also called Levi, the son of Alpheus, was a publican in Capernaum. The publicans were detested by the Jews, because the latter did not consider themselves justly bound to pay toll or tribute to any foreign prince. Matt. 9:9; Mark 3:18; Luke 5:29. As touching the condition of publicans at that time, it was such that they generally exacted more from the people than was just; on which account they were shunned by the pious, so that open sinners . . .
Thomas, The Holy Apostle Of Christ, Tormented With Red-Hot Plates, Cast Into A Furnace, And His Side Pierced With Spears By The Savages, At Calamina, About A. D. 70
Bartholomew, The Holy Apostle Of Christ, First Greatly Tortured, Then Flayed Alive, And Finally Beheaded, In Armenia, By King Astyages, About A.D. 70.
Bartholomew, which signifies, the son of Tholomaeus, was a Galilean, like all the other apostles; and also a fisherman, according to the opinion of Theodoretus; some, however, hold, that he was of royal descent, and the nephew of the king of Syria.
Little is said of him in Holy Scriptures aside from what relates to . . .
Onesiphorus, A Friend Of Paul, And Porphyrius, His Companion, Tied To Wild Horses, And Dragged, Or Torn, To Death, At Hellespontus, Through The Edict of Nero, About A. D. 70
Onesiphorus was an Asian, a citizen of Ephesus, in Asia Minor, and very virtuous and godly in life, so that he frequently came to visit, converse with, and comfort, the apostle Paul in his bonds at Rome; on account of which Paul rejoiced with all his heart, and prayed to God to reward him for this kindness in the great day of recompense. Concerning this . . .
Silas, Or Silvanus, Scourged at Philippi, In Macedonia, And Died A Martyr, About A.D. 70
Silas, also called Silvanus, together with Judas, surnamed Barsabas, was added to the apostles Paul and Barnabas. These men were leaders among the brethren, and were to bear testimony to those matters which had been considered and decided upon by the apostles at Jerusalem, for the welfare of the church of God. Acts 15:27,34.
Four Fellow Labourers And Relatives Of Paul, Namely, Prisca, Aquila, Andronicus, And Junia, Martyred At Rome, Under Nero, About A.D. 70
The apostle Paul, at the conclusion of his epistle to the church of God at Rome, very lovingly saluting different saints residing there, mentions, among others, two persons who had laid down their own necks for his life; also two others whom he calls his fellow prisoners, doubtless, because they were subject, with him, to like persecution and suffering on account of the name of Christ. All these he mentions by name, and salutes them in apostolic manner.
Epaphras, A Fellow Prisoner Of Paul, Slain Under Nero, About A.D. 70
Epaphras was a faithful minister of Jesus Christ for the church at Colosse, which, while in bonds at Rome, he saluted by the hand of Paul, as appears from the epistle Paul wrote from his prison at Rome to the Colossians, in which, among other things, he says: “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you. and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis”; (Col. 4:12,13).
Aristarchus, a Traveling Companion of Paul, Slain at Rome, Under Nero, About A.D. 70
Aristarchus, a native of Thessalonica, was, with Gaius, Paul’s companion in his journey from Macedonia to Asia; with which Gaius he was apprehended at a certain time, in an uproar at Ephesus, but for that time made his escape. Afterwards, however, he was brought to Rome a prisoner, just at the time that Paul also was apprehended for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Paul, the Apostle of Christ, Sorely Persecuted, and Finally Beheaded, at Rome, Under the Emperor Nero, A.D. 69
Simon Peter, the Holy Apostles, Crucified with His Head Downward, Under Emperor Nero, A.D. 69
Of the Unheard of Cruelties Nero Practiced in Slaying the Pious Christians
Touching the manner in which the Christians were tortured and killed at the time of Nero, A. Mellinus gives the following account from Tacitus and other Roman writers: namely, that four extremely cruel and unnatural kinds of torture were employed against the Christians:
Firstly, that they dressed them in the skins of tame and wild beasts, that they might be torn to pieces by dogs or other wild animals.
Of the Ten Bloody Persecutions which the Christians Suffered under the Heathen Emperors of Rome; the First of which Began in the Reign of Nero, A. D. 66
When the Jews were deprived of their power, by the heathen, and their time was past, in which they had persecuted and slain the saints of God, the Lord God nevertheless suffered His church to be visited by the refining fire of persecution, namely, through the power of the heathen; of whom the Emperor Nero was the first tyrant. Introduction to the Mirror of the Anabaptist Martyrs, printed Anno 1631. p. 35. col 2.
Mark the Evangelist dies on the way while being dragged to the site of his burning, Alexandria, A. D. 64
The Holy Apostle Philip, Bound with His Head to a Pillar, and Stoned, at Hierapolis, in Phrygia, A.D. 54
James, the Son of Zebedee, Put to Death with the Sword, by Herod Agrippa, in Jerusalem, A.D. 45
John the Baptist, Son of Zacharias and Elisabeth, Beheaded in the Castle of Machaerus, at the Command of Herod Antipas, A.D. 32
This John, surnamed the Baptist, because he was ordained of God to baptize the penitent, was the son of the priest Zacharias, and his wife Elizabeth; whose name was made known to his parents through the angel of God, before he was born. Luke 1:5, 13.
When he was about thirty years old (about six months before the Lord Jesus Christ began to preach), in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar. . .