[297:1] Tertullian, “Ad Scapulam,” c. 4.

[297:2] Compare Justin Martyr, “Apol.” ii. pp. 70, 71, and “Dial, cum Tryphone,” p. 227, with Tertullian, “Apol.” c. 7.

[297:3] Called libellos.

[297:4] These parties sometimes appealed to Acts xvii. 9, in justification of their conduct.

[298:1] The sacrificati, or those who had sacrificed, as well as offered incense, were considered still more guilty.

[298:2] “Acta Perpetuae et Felicitatis.”  The martyrs appear to have been Montanists.  See Gieseler, by Cunningham, i. 125, note.  Tertullian mentions Perpetua, and his language countenances the supposition that she was a Montanist.  “De Anima,” c. 55.

[300:1] See the “Chronicon” of Eusebius, par. ii., adnot. p. 197.  Edit.  Venet, 1818.

[301:1] The Roman clergy speak of “the remnants and ruined heaps of the fallen lying on all sides.”  Cyp.  “Epist.” xxxi. p. 99.  Cyprian complains of "thousands of letters given daily” in behalf of the lapsed by misguided confessors and martyrs.  “Epist.” xiv. p. 59.  The writer here probably speaks somewhat rhetorically, and evidently does not mean, as some have thought, that all these letters were written at Carthage.  He speaks of what was done “everywhere,” including Italy, as well as the cities of Africa.  “Epist.” xiv., xxii., xxvi.

[301:2] Dionysius of Alexandria, quoted by Euseb., vi. 41.

[302:1] Euseb. vi. 39.

[302:2] A.D. 249 to A.D. 251.

[302:3] Cyprian, Epist. 82, ad Successum.

[302:4] Cyprian, who seems to have been much respected personally by the high officers of government at Carthage, was, when taken prisoner, granted as great indulgence as his circumstances would permit; but Gibbon, who describes his case with special minuteness, most uncandidly represents it as affording an average specimen of the style in which condemned Christians were treated.  As an evidence of the social position of the bishop of Carthage we may refer to the testimony of Pontius his deacon, who states that “numbers of eminent and illustrious persons, men of rank and family and secular distinction, for the sake of their old friendship with him, urged him many times to retire.”  “Life,” Sec. 14.

[303:1] Euseb. vii. 13.

[303:2] See Bingham, ii. p. 451.

[304:1] “De Mortibus Persec.” c. 10.

[304:2] Euseb. viii. 2; “De Mort.  Persec.” c. 13.  See also “Neander,” by Torrey, i. 202, note.

[305:1] Eusebius, “Martyrs of Palestine,” c. 4.

[305:2] Eusebius, “Martyrs of Palestine,” c. 9.

[305:3] The Vatican Manuscript, the oldest in existence, was probably written shortly after this persecution.  It possesses internal evidences that its date is anterior to the middle of the fourth century.  See Horne, iv. 161, 10th edition.

[306:1] Eusebius, viii. 6, 9, 10, 12.

[307:1] Firmilian refers to a noted persecution which “did not extend to the whole world, but was local.”  Cyprian, “Epist.” lxxv. p. 305.