Diocletian There was a heathen emperor named Diocletian, who was chosen to be emperor over all the earth, though he was a destroyer of men, two hundred and eighty-six years after Christ's incarnation; and he reigned twenty years, a cruel murderer, so that he killed, and bade kill, all the Christians whom he could find out, and burned churches, and robbed the innocent; and this impious persecution spread unceasingly over all the earth fully ten years, until it came also even to England, and there killed many who believed in Christ. One of these was Alban, the noble martyr, who was likewise killed in that persecution for Christ's