Anabaptist Church History
Language: English

The original account

BASILEUS, BISHOP AT PONTUS; AMMON, A DEACON; ABOUT FORTY WOMEN; AND OTHERS, PUT TO DEATH BY FIRE, WATER, AND ICE, A. D. 316.

Original wording, with book contents, page navigation, and linked notes. Explicit year in source heading. “About” describes a number of people, or “towards” names the object of an action; neither qualifies the year.

When it was thought that the previous persecutions, especially that under Diocletian and Maximian, should have quenched the blood-thirstiness of the great, Lucinius, who occupied the imperial throne in the east, was still not content therewith. For when the winds of blood, fanned on by Satan, blew through his head, he caused to be put to death without mercy, various pious Christians, namely: Basileus, bishop of the church of Christ at Amasen, in Pontus; Ammon, a deacon; and about forty women, whom he had killed, some by fire, and some by water; as well as various other pious martyrs, whom he had put in the cold ice, thus causing their death. This happened about the tenth year of the reign of Lucianius, which agrees with A. D. 316. Introd., fol. 44, col. 1, 2.