The Sixth Persecution Under Maximinus A D 235


A. D. 235, was in the time of Maximinus. In Cappadocia, the president,

Seremianus, did all he could to exterminate the christians from that

province.



The principal persons who perished under this reign were Pontianus,

bishop of Rome; Anteros, a Grecian, his successor, who gave offence to

the government, by collecting the acts of the martyrs, Pammachius and

Quiritus, Roman senators, with all their families
and many other

christians; Simplicius, senator; Calepodius, a christian minister,

thrown into the Tyber; Martina, a noble and beautiful virgin; and

Hippolitus, a christian prelate, tied to a wild horse, and dragged till

he expired.



During this persecution, raised by Maximinus, numberless christians were

slain without trial, and buried indiscriminately in heaps, sometimes

fifty or sixty being cast into a pit together, without the least

decency.



The tyrant Maximinus dying, A. D. 238, was succeeded by Gordian, during

whose reign, and that of his successor Philip, the church was free from

persecution for the space of more than ten years; but A. D. 249, a

violent persecution broke out in Alexandria, at the instigation of a

pagan priest, without the knowledge of the emperor.



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