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All men, then, were freed from the oppression of the tyrants, and
being released from the former ills, one in one way and another in
another acknowledged the defender of the pious to be the only true
God. And we especially who placed our hopes in the Christ of God
had unspeakable gladness, and a certain inspired joy bloomed for all of
us, when we saw every place which shortly before had been desolated by
the impieties of the tyrants reviving as if from a long and
death-fraught pestilence, and temples again rising from their
foundations to an immense height, and receiving a splendor far greater
than that of the old ones which had been destroyed. But the supreme
rulers also confirmed to us still more extensively the munificence of
God by repeated ordinances in behalf of the Christians; and personal
letters of the emperor were sent to the bishops, with honors and gifts
of money. It may not be unfitting to insert these documents,
translated from the Roman into the Greek tongue, at the proper place
in this book, as in a sacred tablet, that they may remain as a
memorial to all who shall come after us.
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