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It is said that in this persecution the apostle and evangelist John,
who was still alive, was condemned to dwell on the island of Patmos in
consequence of his testimony to the divine word. Irenaeus, in the
fifth book of his work Against Heresies, where he discusses the
number of the name of Antichrist which is given in the so-called
Apocalypse of John, speaks as follows concerning him: a "If it
were necessary for his name to be proclaimed openly at the present
time, it would have been declared by him who saw the revelation. For
it was seen not long ago, but almost in our own generation, at the end
of the reign of Domitian."
To such a degree, indeed, did the teaching of our faith flourish at
that time that even those writers who were far from our religion did not
hesitate to mention in their histories the persecution and the
martyrdoms which took place during it. And they, indeed, accurately
indicated the time. For they recorded that in the fifteenth year of
Domitian Flavia Domitilla, daughter of a sister of Flavius
Clement, who at that time was one of the consuls of Rome, was exiled
with many others to the island of Pontia in consequence of testimony
borne to Christ.
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