* Note: The words that follow should be quoted.

"God not permitting that all his class of men should be exterminated:" which appears to indicate that Origen thought the number put to death inconsiderable only when compared to the numbers who had survived.
Besides this, he is speaking of the state of the religion under Caracalla, Elagabalus, Alexander Severus, and Philip, who had not persecuted the Christians.

It was during the reign of the latter that Origen wrote his books against Celsus .-- G.] [Footnote 73: If we recollect that all the Plebeians of Rome were not Christians, and that all the Christians were not saints and martyrs, we may judge with how much safety religious honors can be ascribed to bones or urns, indiscriminately taken from the public burial-place.

After ten centuries of a very free and open trade, some suspicions have arisen among the more learned Catholics.

They now require as a proof of sanctity and martyrdom, the letters B.M., a vial full of red liquor supposed to be blood, or the figure of a palm-tree.