to us through the surviving accounts of bishops and priests who were martyred. So we should remember that we are mostly looking at remarkable cases, mainly bishops, such as Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna and Cyprian of Carthage. More systematic and ordinary evidence is largely lacking, in good part for the obvious reason that Christian communities who were liable to be persecuted did not want to leave around incriminating evidence. Fortunately the fourth century, as the Church emerged from