The answer
These testify to the martyrs’ refusal to join the army or bear the marks of a soldier. In Numidia in the year 295 A. D., Maximilian said to the Proconsul Dion, “I shall not serve … You may cut off my head, I will not serve this world, but only my God … I will not accept the seal of this world; and, if you give it to me, I shall break it, for it is worthless. I am a Christian. I cannot wear a piece of lead around my neck after I have received the saving sign of Jesus Christ my Lord, the son of the living God. You do not know him; yet he suffered for our salvation; God delivered him up for our sins (cf. Acts 2:22–24; Rom. 8:32).”964
Clearly, Maximilian believed, like Tertullian, that the seal of the army and the seal of baptism were incompatible with each other,965 because serving in the army was connected to pagan worship. Their refusal was not about avoiding battle, as is clear from the dialogue of the martyr Julius the Veteran.966
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
964 H. Musurillo, The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (Clarendon Press, 1972) 17.2: pp. 245–247.
965 Tertullian, On Idolatry 19 (ANF 3:73).
966 H. Musurillo, The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (Clarendon Press, 1972): pp. 261–265.