The Martyrdom of Polycarp

Blessed then and noble are all the martyrdoms[*](The sufferings of the Martyrs) which took place according to the will of God, for we must be very careful to assign the power over all to God.

For who would not admire their nobility and patience and love of their Master? For some were torn by scourging until the mechanism of their flesh was seen even to the lower veins and arteries, and they endured so that even the bystanders pitied them and mourned. And some even reached such a pitch of nobility that none of them groaned or wailed, showing to all of us that at that hour of their torture the noble martyrs of Christ were absent from the flesh, or rather that the Lord was standing by and talking with them.

And paying heed to the grace of Christ they despised worldly tortures, by a single hour purchasing everlasting life. And the fire of their cruel torturers had no heat for them, for they set before their eyes an escape from the fire which is everlasting and is never quenched, and with the eyes of their heart they looked up to the good things which are preserved for those who have endured, fwhich neither ear hath heard nor hath eye seen, nor hath it entered into the heart of man/ but it was shown by the Lord to them who were no longer men but already angels.[*](This passage, combined with Hermas Vis. II. ii. 7 and Sim. IX. xxv. 2, shows that the identification of the dead with angels existed in the second century in Christian circles.)

And in the same way also those who were condemned to the beasts endured terrible torment, being stretched on sharp shells and buffeted with other kinds of various torments, that if it were possible the tyrant might bring them to a denial by continuous torture. For the devil used many wiles against them.