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until the present times, has ever been held in veneration by the brethren that have followed in the succession there, in which they have sufficiently shown what reverence both the ancients and those of our own times exhibited, and still exhibit, towards holy men on account of their piety. But enough of this.

CHAPTER XX.

THE EPISTLES OF DIONYSIUS, ON FESTIVALS, IN WHICH HE GIVES THE CANON ON THE PASSOVER.

BESIDES these epistles, the same Dionysius, about this time, also composed others, called his Festival Epistles, in which he discourses much in praise of the festival of the Passover. One of these he addressed to Flavius, another to Domitius and Didymus, in which also he gives the canon for eight years, showing that it is not proper to observe the paschal festival before the vernal equinox was past. Beside these, he composed another epistle, addressed to his compresbyters at Alexandria. Also to several others, and these during the prevalence of the persecution.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE EVENTS THAT OCCURRED AT ALEXANDRIA.

PEACE having been scarcely established, he returned, indeed, to Alexandria; but as sedition and war again broke out, so that it was impossible for him to superintend all the brethren then divided into different parties, he again addressed them by letter at the passover, as if he were still an exile from Alexandria. He also wrote, after this, another paschal letter to Hierax, a bishop of Egypt, in which he makes mention of the sedition then prevailing at Alexandria, as follows: "But what cause of wonder is there, if it be difficult for me also to address epistles to those that are so very remote, when I am at a loss to consult for my own life, or to reason with myself. For, indeed, I have great need to send epistolary addresses to those who are as my own bowels, my associates and dearest

brethren and members of the same church. But how I shall send these I cannot devise. For it would be more easy for any one, I would not say to go beyond the limits. of the province, but even to travel from east to west, than to go from Alexandria to Alexandria itself. For the very heart of the city is more desolate and impassable than that vast and trackless desert which the Israelites traversed in two generations, and our smooth and tranquil harbours have become like that sea which opened and arose like walls on both sides, enabling them to drive through, and in whose highway the Egyptians were overwhelmed. For often they appear like the Red Sea, from the frequent slaughters committed in them; but the river which washes the city, has sometimes appeared more dry than the parched desert, and more exhausting than that in which Israel was so overcome with thirst on their journey that they exclaimed against Moses, and the water flowed for them from the broken rock, by the power of Him who alone doeth wondrous works. Sometimes, also, it has so overflowed, that it has inundated all the country round; the roads and the fields, seeming to threaten that flood of waters which happened in the days of Noah. It also flows always polluted with blood and slaughter, and the constant drowning of men, such as it formerly was, when, before Pharaoh, it was changed by Moses into blood and putrid matter. And what other purification could be applied to water, which itself purifies all? Could that vast and impassable ocean ever wash away this bitter sea? or could that great river itself, which flowed from Eden, though it poured the four heads into which it was divided, into one Gihon, wash away this filth? When will this air, corrupted as it is by the noxious exhalations every where rising, become pure and serene? For there are such vapours from the earth, and such storms from the sea-breezes, from the rivers and mists coming from the harbours, that make it appear as if we should have for dew, the gore of those dead bodies that are putrefying in all the elements around

us.

"Then, and notwithstanding all this, men wonder, and are at a loss to know whence come the constant plagues;

whence these malignant diseases; whence those varied infections; whence all that immense destruction of human lives; and wherefore it is, that this mighty city no longer cherishes within it such a number of inhabitants, from speechless children, to the aged and decrepid, as it formerly had of those whom it could pronounce firm and vigorous in years. Those of forty years and up to seventy, were so much the more numerous once, that their number cannot now be made up, if even those from fourteen to eighty were inserted and enrolled among the receivers of the public grain. And those who in appearance are but the youngest, are now as of an age with those formerly the oldest. And yet, though they constantly see the human race diminishing, and constantly wasting away, in the very midst of this increasing destruction, and this annihilation, they are not alarmed."

CHAPTER XXII.

THE PESTILENCE WHICH THEN PREVAILED.

THE pestilence, after these things, succeeding the war, and the festival being at hand, he again addresses the brethren in epistles; in which he shows the great calamities attending this affliction, as follows: "To other men, indeed, the present would not appear a fit season for a festival. Neither is this, nor any other time a festival for them*. not to speak of sorrowful times, but even of those which a cheerful person might deem joyous. Now all things are filled with tears, all are mourning, and by reason of the multitudes already dead, and still dying, groans are daily resounding throughout the city. For as it is written respecting the firstborn of Egypt, thus now, also, a great lamentation has arisen, for there is not a house in which there is not one dead. And I wish this were all. Many and horrible calamities have preceded this. First they expelled us from the city, but we, in exile and persecuted, still celebrated the festival; and every place, marked by some particular affliction, was still a spot distinguished by our solemnities; the open field, the desert, the ship, the *The idea is, that the wicked can never be happy.

inn, the prison. But the most joyous festival of all was celebrated by those perfect martyrs who are now feasting in the heavens.

"After this, war and famine succeeded, which indeed we endured with the heathen, but beside bearing alone those miseries with which they afflicted us, we also experienced the effects of those which they inflicted on themselves. Again we rejoiced in the peace of Christ, which He gave to us alone, and when both we and they obtained a very short respite, then we were assailed by this pestilence, a calamity more terrific to them than any other terror, and more afflictive than any other affliction, and which, as one of their own historians has said, was of itself alone beyond all hope. To us, however, it did not wear this character, but no less than other events was a school for discipline and probation. It did not keep aloof from us, although it chiefly assailed the heathen." To this he afterwards adds: "Many of our brethren, through their exceeding great love and brotherly affection, neglecting themselves, and befriending one another, constantly superintending the sick, ministering to their wants without fear and without cessation, and healing them in Christ, have died most willingly with them. Filled with disease from others, catching disorders from their neighbours, they expressed the pain from them and infused it into themselves. Many also, who had healed and strengthened others, themselves died, thus transferring death, and so exemplifying in the fact, that common phrase, which seemed before an idle one, 'the offscouring of all' (πeрimμa πAVтWV). The best of our brethen, indeed, have departed life in this way, some presbyters, some deacons, and of the people those that were exceedingly commended. So that this very form of death, with the piety and ardent faith which attended it, appeared to be but little inferior to martyrdom itself. They took up the bodies of the saints with their open hands and on their bosoms, cleaned their eyes and closed their mouths, carried them on their shoulders, and composed their limbs, embraced, clung to them, and prepared them decently, washing and wrapping them up, and ere long they themselves shared in receiving the same offices;

those that survived always following those before them. Among the heathen it was the direct reverse. They repelled those who began to be sick, and avoided their dearest friends. They would cast them out into the roads half dead, or throw them when dead without burial, striving to shun any communication and participation in death, which it was impossible to avoid by every precaution and care." After this epistle, when the city was at peace, he addressed another paschal epistle to the brethren in Egypt, and wrote many others besides. There is one of his extant, On the Sabbath, another On Exercise. He also addressed one to Hermammon, and to the brethren in Egypt. Many other facts, after describing the wickedness of Decius and his successors, he states, and also mentions the peace of Gallienus.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE REIGN OF GALLIENUS.

It is best to hear his own words, as follows: "He indeed, viz., Macrianus, having betrayed the one, and waged war with the other emperor, suddenly perished with his whole family. Gallienus was proclaimed and universally acknowledged emperor, and emperor at once new and old, having been before them, and now surviving them. For as it is said by the prophet Isaiah, "Those things that were from the first, lo they have come, and those are new which shall now arise." As the cloud rising before the sun, obscuring it by its shadow and appearing in its place, afterwards passes away and is dissipated, and the sun which had arisen before, seems to rise again, so Macrianus, who had aspired to the very power of Gallienus, is now no more, indeed never was; but the latter, as he was previously, is now again, and his government, as if it had lost the feebleness of age, and had become purified of its former baseness, now arose and assumed a more flourishing aspect; and is seen and heard and diffuses itself every where. After this he also indicates the time when he wrote this. "And it occurs to me again, to survey the days of our emperor's reign. For I see, that those most impious men, once honoured and famous, ere long became obscure. But the more holy

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