[Rank]
Ss. Maurice and companions, Martyrs;;Simplex;;1.1;;vide C3

[Lectio93]
When the Emperor Maximian led his army into Gaul, he stopped at the frontiers of the Seduni to offer a sacrifice. The Theban legion, that they might not be defiled by any share in the unhallowed rites, withdrew themselves from the rest of his army. Therefore the Emperor sent soldiers unto them to bid them in his name, if they valued their lives, come back into the camp to the sacrifice. They answered that the Christian religion did not allow them. This answer enkindled in him greater wrath than before. He therefore despatched a part of his army to the Thebans. with orders to begin by killing one man in every ten of them. By their own will, and at the urgent exhortation of Maurice, they chose rather to endure this martyrdom than to do the commandment of the unrighteous Emperor. At the last, the Emperor, upon the 22nd day of September, bade his whole army fall upon them and slay them all. They confessed Christ bravely even to the end.
&teDeum