Paul

PAUL. Sometimes they were only expos’d to the Beasts, to be devour’d by them, as St. Ignatius the Martyr was to the Lions; either to serve as Sport to them, as Saint Perpetua, who was exposed to a wild Cow, being enclosed within Nets, that she could not make her Escape; or, lastly, to fight with the Beasts, as was the Case of St. Paul at Ephesus.

Sometimes they demolished the Houses of Offenders, and reduced them to a common Place for Filth and Dung. Thus was treated the Temple of Baal by King Jehu. Destruxerunt ædem Baal, & fecerunt pro ea¹ Dan. ii. 27. Dan. iii. 29. Ezr. vi. 11.latrinas. Nebuchadnezzar threatened the Diviners of Chaldea, to make them undergo this Punishment and Disgrace, if they did not declare his Dream to him. Domus vestræ publicabuntur. He afterwards decreed the same Penalty to all such, as should not worship the God of Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego. And King Darius in the same manner threatned those, who should any how withstand the Jews. Domus ejus publicetur. However, there are good Interpreters, who explain these Passages only as Confiscations to the King’s Use.

Ibid.Some are of Opinion, that the Punishment of Impaling was not unknown to the Persians, and that it is intimated by Ezra. Tollatur lignum de domo illius, & erigatur, Var. Grot.& configatur in eo. Others will have it, that the guilty Person was to be hanged on a Post that should stand upright, after the Demolition of his House. Others understand Shindler & Lud. de Dieu, in 1 Esdr.it, that they were to be fixed to a Piece of Wood belonging to the House, and there to undergo the Punishment of Whipping.

Read this article in its place on the printed pages