with sinners, and with those who work iniquity, do not destroy me along with them; and if there is anything like these.” It is reasonable, having begun with a doxology, to conclude the prayer with a doxology, hymning and glorifying the Father of all through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit, to whom be glory forever. A These things, in accordance with my ability, have been discussed by us regarding the problem of prayer, and the prayer in the Gospels, and those things said by Matthew before it, most learned brothers, and true brothers in piety, Ambrose and Tatiana. But I do not despair that, as you always stretch yourselves toward the things ahead and forget those behind, and meanwhile pray for us, you might be able to receive even more and more divine things from God, the giver of all these things, to work through; and having received them, I might again discuss the same things more grandly, more loftily, and more clearly. In the meantime, however, you will receive these things in good part. B
ADMONITION TO THE EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM
There is absolutely no controversy among the learned regarding the sincerity of this golden little work, which is celebrated everywhere among the ancients. Eusebius not only commemorates the book *On Martyrdom*, but also narrates the occasion on which Origen was moved to write it, in his *Ecclesiastical History*, book VI. Meanwhile, after the death of the Emperor Alexander, who had reigned for thirteen years, Maximinus Caesar succeeds him, who, inflamed with a great hatred against the household of Alexander, in which there were many Christians, having stirred up a persecution, ordered only the leaders of the Churches to be put to death, as being the authors of the teaching according to the Gospel. At that time, Origen composed the book *On Martyrdom*, dedicating the writing to Ambrose and Protoctetus, a presbyter of the parish in Caesarea, because both had been caught in a trial that was by no means ordinary during that persecution, in which it is said that they both distinguished themselves in the confession [of Christ], with Maximinus having survived for no more than three years’ time. Rufinus paraphrases the later words thus: "At that time, therefore, Origen writes the book *On Martyrdom* to Ambrose, who, having reached the most advanced stage, strengthened as if by certain very strong nerves, freely offered himself to the confession of the name of Christ." Pamphilus the martyr, in his *Apology for Origen*, mentions the same book with these words: "Finally, among so many and so diverse books of his, there is never found one book written by him specifically *On the Soul*, as he has *On Martyrdom*, or *On Prayer*, or *On the Resurrection*." Jerome, in *On Ecclesiastical Writers*, under *Ambrose*, says: "Ambrose, he says, was first a Marcionite, then corrected by Origen, a deacon of the Church, and distinguished for the glory of the confession of the Lord, to whom the book of Origen *On Martyrdom* is written *pro* (for) the presbyter Theoctistus." From Origen's own booklet, and from the place of Eusebius cited above, as well as from another soon to be cited from Nicephorus Callistus, it is clear that a serious error of the copyists crept into this text of Jerome, who confused Theoctistus, the Bishop of Caesarea, with Protoctetus, a presbyter of Caesarea; and although the corruption of the copies is very ancient, as is evident from the Greek version of Sophronius, Halloixius rightly observes in his notes to *Origen's Defense*, p. 23, that it should be read entirely: "Cui et Protocteto" (To whom and to Protoctetus), or if one prefers the reading of Freculfus, "cui cum Protocteto" (to whom with Protoctetus), we shall read. Nicephorus Callistus, in his *Ecclesiastical History*, book V, ch. 19, speaks thus about our booklet: Joannes Langus translated it thus: "And so at that time he composed that celebrated oration by which he exhorts to martyrdom, and inscribed it to Ambrose and Protoctetus, presbyters of Caesarea: for great solicitude and anxiety had come upon them on account of the vehemence of that persecution. In which oration both of them had explanations of the reasons why they should bravely sustain and endure the struggle for Christ in the stadium of martyrdom." There is a double fault, if I am not mistaken, in the translator's version of this passage: first, when he renders the words: "and inscribed it to Ambrose and Protoctetus, presbyters of Caesarea." For Ambrose was only a deacon of the Church, as we heard above from Jerome. Therefore Langus should have translated: "to Ambrose and Protoctetus, a presbyter of the Church of Caesarea." The second, when these later words: [alt-version omitted]