
They continued thus to write often one to the other, till the Emperors took in bad part these exchanges of Christian love, and sent for Cornelius to Rome. There they commanded him to be lashed with scourges loaded with lead as though he were a traitor, and then to be carried to offer sacrifice before the image of Mars. He firmly refused to commit this great wickedness, and was forthwith beheaded, upon the 14th day of September. The blessed Lucina, with the help of the clergy, buried his body in the sand-pit on her own farm, near the Cemetery of Callistus. He lived as Pope about two years.