In those days was then a cruel captain,
named Datianus, a very fierce persecutor
in a head-borough in the aforesaid land;
who obtained of the emperor, that he might kill
the holy Christian men with various torments.
To him the emperor granted, as books inform us,
that the cruel persecutor might have the power
that he might kill the Christians with torments,
because that they both were filled with mischief,
to strive against Christ with mad severity.
So Datianus, the devilish murderer,
by the power that he had received,
manifested his madness against Christian men,
and began to oppress with a daring attempt
the holy bishops and the ordained priests.
He wished, first of all, to prevail over with torments
the chief-men of the holy belief, that he afterwards might
overcome the lesser ones, and turn them from their belief.
Then hastened the bishop and the holy
Vincentius to the noble martyrdom;
they thought that they would be verily blessed,
if they with devotion eagerly received
the glorious diadem of their martyrdom,
through the confession of belief in the Saviour.
Datianus then, the devilish persecutor,
commanded (men) to bring the saints, bound with chains,
into a city, and to lock them both
in a light-less prison. He let them lie so
in extreme famine, heavily loaded
with the hard iron; he hoped that he should
through these torments turn them away from faith in God.
After a long period he commanded (men) to bring them to him;
he thought that they were wasted with the torments,
and through the famine made strengthless.
