(b.) By St Cyprian,[4] who, when brought before the consul and questioned, said "our discipline forbiddeth that any should offer themselves of their own accord;" and in his last letter he says: "Let none of you offer himself to the pagans, it is sufficient if he speak when apprehended:"
(c.) By Clement of Alexandria: "We also blame those who rush to death, for there are some, not of us, but only bearing the same name, who give themselves up:"[5]
(d.) Implicitly by the synod of Elvira, or Illiberis (circa 305), one of the canons of which forbade him to be ranked as a martyr, who was killed on the spot for breaking idols:
(e.) By Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, who, when consulted on the question of reducing the immense lists of acknowledged martyrs, gave it as his opinion that those should be first excluded who had courted martyrdom.[6] One bishop alone, and he a late one, Benedict XIV. of Rome,[7] has ventured to approve what the Church has condemned. Nor is this the only instance in which the Roman Church has set aside the decisions of an earlier Christendom.
[1] Eul., "Mem. Sanct.," i., sec. 18, "Quos nulla praesidalis violentia fidem suam negare compulit, nec a cultu sanctae piaeque religionis amovit:" sec. 23, "Quos liberalitas regis suum incolere iusserat Christianismum."
[2] Quoting such texts as Matt. v. 44, "Bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you:" Pet. ii. 23, "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake."
[3] Eusebius iv. 15. See Neander, i. p. 150. (A.D. 167.)
[4] Martyred 258.
[5] See Long's "M. Aurelius Antoninus," Introd., p. 21.
[6] Burton's "History of the Christian Church," p. 336.