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Vita Pauli

2.

Sub Decio et Valeriano persecutoribus, quo tempore Cornelius Romae Cyprianus Carthagine felici cruore damnati sunt, multas apud Aegyptum et Thebaidem Ecclesias tempestas saeua populata est. Voti tunc Christianis erat pro eo nomine gladio percuti. Verum hostis callidus tarda ad mortem supplicia conquirens animas cupiebat iugulare, non corpora. Et ut ipse qui ab ipso passus est Cyprianus ait: 'Volentibus mori non permittebatur occidi.'

Cuius ut crudelitas notior fiat, duo memoriae causa exempla subiecimus.

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The Life of Paulus the First Hermit

2.

During the persecutions of Decius and Valerian, ¹ when Cornelius at Rome and Cyprian at Carthage shed their blood in blessed martyrdom, many churches in Egypt and the Thebaid were laid waste by the fury of the storm. At that time the Christians would often pray that they might be smitten with the sword for the name of Christ. But the desire of the crafty foe was to slay the soul, not the body; and this he did by searching diligently for slow but deadly tortures. In the words of Cyprian himself who suffered at his hands: they who wished to die were not suffered to be slain. We give two illustrations, both as specially noteworthy and to make the cruelty of the enemy better known.