These, therefore, I thought proper to discharge.
"Others were named by an informer, who at first confessed themselves Christians, and afterward denied it.

The rest said they had been Christians, but had left them; some three years ago, some longer, and one or more above twenty years.

They all worshiped your image, and the statues of the gods; these also reviled Christ.

They affirmed that the whole of their fault or error lay in this: that they were wont to meet together, on a stated day, before it was light, and sing among themselves alternately, a hymn to Christ as a God, and bind themselves by a sacrament, not to the commission of any wickedness, but not to be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery; never to falsify their word, nor to deny a pledge committed to them, when called upon to return it.

When these things were performed, it was their custom to separate, and then to come together again to a meal, which they ate in common, without any disorder; but this they had forborne since the publication of my edict, by which, according to your command, I prohibited assemblies.