Page 200government, and submits himself to, and serves another lord?" The King answered, "Such a man deserves punishment on body and property, yea, the severest penalty of death, " Benjamin asked again saying, "What punishment does the man deserve who forsakes his God, the Creator of all things in order to exalt one of his servants as God, and to give to a creature the worship due to God alone?"; These words so incensed the King, that he commanded his guards to sharpen twenty reeds and to thrust them between the flesh and the nails of his fingers and toes. But when the King saw that the pious martyr endured all this with steadfastness, yea, regarded it but very little, he, after other torments, ordered the executioners to prepare a knotty stick, which by cutting away the branches, was made as sharp as a stick of thorns. This he caused to be thrust into the nether part of his body, and then pulled backwards and forwards, until the faithful servant and professor of Christ ended his life under the hands of the executioners, like a defenseless lamb that is led to the slaughter and opens not its mouth. Compare the account of Abr. Mellinus, 2d book, fol. 260, col. 1, 2, taken from Theod., lib. 5, pag. 38, and Merul, Graec., with the annotation of P. J. Twisck, Chron., 5th book, page 191, col. 1, from Hist. Eccl. Tripart, 2d part, lib. 11, cap. 33, Hist. Andr. Hondorff, fol. 20. THE CRUELTY OF THE ARIAN KING, HONORICUS, ALSO CALLED HUNNERICUS, THE SECOND KING OF THE VANDALS, TOWARD SOME BISHOPS AND ELDERS WHO WOULD NOT SWEAR, AND OTHER CRUELTIES, A. D. 477 A. D. 477, Honoricus, King of the Vandals, an adherent of the Arian sect, arose with great violence against those who would not assent to his views, cruelly persecuting, and lamentably maltreating them. He had honorable women and maidens suspended naked; their bodies burned with torches; their breasts and arms cut off; hot pitch applied to their back, breasts and sides; he also caused them to be drawn up, and heavy stones tied to their feet, etc.
|
