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knew, all their fearless and undaunted courage was founded. For so
the same heathen in Minucius endeavours to expose at once both their
resolution and their belief: "O strange folly, and incredible madness! "
says he; "they despise all present torments, and yet fear those that are
future and uncertain: they are afraid of dying after death, but in the
mean time do not fear to die. So vainly do they flatter themselves,
and allay their fears, with the hopes of some reviving comforts after
death. " For one of these reasons then they gave them the name of
_Biothanati_,

which word expressly occurs in some of the acts of the ancient martyrs.
Baronius observes* out of Bede's Martyrology, that when the seven sons
of Symphorosa were martyred under Hadrian, their bodies were all cast
into one pit together, which the temple-priests named from them, _Ad
Septem Biothanatos_, 'The grave of the seven Biothanati. '

For the same reasons they gave them the names of _Parabolarii and
Desperati_, 'The bold and desperate men. ' The Parabolarii, or Parabolani
among the Romans were those bold adventurous men, who hired out
themselves to fight with wild beasts upon the stage or amphitheatre,
whence they had also the name of _Bestiarii, and Confectores_. Now
because the

* Baron, an. 138. n. 5.

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Christians were put to fight for their lives in the same manner, and
they rather chose to do it than deny their religion, they therefore got
the name of _Paraboli and Parabolani_: which, though it was intended as
a name of reproach and mockery, yet the Christians were not unwilling to
take to themselves, being one of the truest characters that the heathens
ever gave them. And therefore they sometimes gave themselves this name
by way of allusion to the Roman Paraboli. As in the Passion of Abdo
and Senne* in the time of Valerian, the martyrs who were exposed to be
devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheatre, are said to enter, '_ut
audacissimi Parabolani_,' as most resolute champions, that despised
their own lives for their religion's sake.
But the other name of
_Desperati_ they rejected as a calumny, retorting it back upon their
adversaries, who more justly deserved it. "Those," says Lactantius***,
"who set a value upon their faith, and will not deny their God, they
first torment and butcher with all their might, and then call them
desperados, because they will not spare their bodies: as if any thing
could be more desperate, than to torture and tear in pieces those whom
you cannot but know to be innocent. "

* Acta Abdon. et Sennes ap. Suicer.

** Lact. Instil, lib. 5. c. 9. Desperates vocant, quia
corpori suo minime parcunt, &c.

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Tertullian mentions another name, which was likewise occasioned by their
sufferings. The martyrs which were burnt alive, were usually tied to
a board or stake of about six foot long, which the Romans called
_semaxis_; and then they were surrounded or covered with faggots of
small wood, which they called _sarmenia_. From this their punishment,
the heathens, who turned every thing into mockery, gave all Christians
the despiteful name of _Sarmentitii_ and _Semaxii_*.

The heathen in Minucius*** takes occasion also to reproach them under
the name of the sculking generation, or the men that loved to prate in
corners and the dark. The ground of which scurrilous reflection was only
this, that they were forced to hold their religious assemblies in the
night to avoid the fury of the persecutions.