A. D. 402.-About this time, the very old and excellent orator Victorinus was baptized on confession of his faith; of which we find the following in the 2d chapter of the 8th book of Augustine's Confessions, "O Lord God, who hast bowed
the heavens under Thy feet; Thou hast come down and touched the mountains, and smoke has issued from them; how wonderfully hast Thou long since come into the heart of this Victorinus!", "He read the holy Scriptures, as Simplician told me, and most diligently examined and investigated whatever he found written concerning the Christian religion. He then said to Simplician, not openly, but secretly, as friend speaks to friend: 'Know that I am now a. Christian.' Simplician answered: 'I shall not believe it, I shall not count thee among the Christians, unless I see thee in the Christian church.' (A little further on:) But suddenly and quite unexpectedly he said to Simplician, as the latter told me: 'Come, let us go to the church; I will become a Christian.' Simplician, not knowing where he was, for joy accompanied him there., "Having been instructed in the principles of the faith, Victorinus soon after had his name registered that he might be regenerated through the sacrament of baptism., "Finally, when the hour had come for him to make his confession (for which confession, at Rome, a customary formula was learned, and then delivered from an elevated place, in the presence of all the Christians, by those who prepared themselves for baptism), the overseers, as Simplician told me, offered to let him make it privately, as was the custom to propose to those who it was feared might, through diffidence, be unable to proceed. But he said that he would rather profess his salvation in the hearing of all the Christians, than otherwise., "When he had ascended the elevated place to make his confession, all who knew him pronounced his name with secret joy. But who was there that did not know him? For, from the mouths of all that were assembled, in mutual rejoicing with him, there arose the glad shout: Victorinus! Victorinus!";
