This new species of martyrdom, so painful and lingering, so obscure and ignominious, was, perhaps, the most proper to weary the constancy of the faithful: nor can it be doubted that the passions and interest of mankind were disposed on this occasion to second the designs of the emperors.

But the policy of a well-ordered government must sometimes have interposed in behalf of the oppressed Christians; [152a] nor was it possible for the Roman princes entirely to remove the apprehension of punishment, or to connive at every act of fraud and violence, without exposing their own authority and the rest of their subjects to the most alarming dangers.

[153] [Footnote 152: Mosheim, (p.

922--926,) from man scattered passages of Lactantius and Eusebius, has collected a very just and accurate notion of this edict though he sometimes deviates into conjecture and refinement.] [Footnote 152a: This wants proof.

The edict of Diocletian was executed in all its right during the rest of his reign.Euseb.Hist.Eccl.