The original account
RUTILIUS, AFTER MANY ESCAPES, TORN ASUNDER, AND THEN BURNT, FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST, ABOUT THE YEAR 210.
First Part. · AN ACCOUNT OF THE PIOUS MARTYRS AND WITNESSES OF JESUS CHRIST WHO SUFFERED IN THE THIRD CENTURY.
“Rutilius, the holy martyr,” says Tertullian, “after having so often escaped persecution by fleeing from one place to another, and having purchased his freedom, as he supposed, from the danger of death, and after having provided himself with all safe-conduct, and, feeling easy, and free 123 from anxiety, was nevertheless unexpectedly apprehended, and brought before the President, yea, torn asunder with manifold torments, and then committed to the fire; and thus, thanking the mercy of God for it, he endured the suffering which he had sought to escape.” “This Rutilius was martyred somewhere in Africa,” writes A. Mellinus, 1st book of the Hist., fol. 55, col. 1, from Tertullian. de Fuga, in Persecutione, cap. 5, at the end.
