By princely commands it was prescribed to the governors of provinces that they should not permit social clubs and that soldiers should not have societies in the camp. But it is permitted to the poor to collect a monthly contribution, so long as they gather together only once in a month, lest under a pretext of this sort an unlawful society meet. And that this should be allowed not only in the city, but also in Italy and the provinces, the divine Severus ordered. But for the sake of religion they are not forbidden to come together so long as they do nothing contrary to the Senatus-consultum, by which unlawful societies are restrained. It is furthermore not lawful to belong to more than one lawful society, as this was determined by the divine brothers [Caracalla and Geta]; and if any one is in two, it is ordered that it be necessary for him to choose in which he prefers to be, and he shall receive from the society from which he resigns that which belongs to him proportionately of what there is of a common fund. 2. Justinian, _Digest_, I, 12:14. From Ulpian’s treatise, _De officio Præfecti Urbi_. The divine Severus ordered that those who were accused of meeting in forbidden societies should be accused before the prefect of the city. (_c_) Persecutions under Severus. 1. Eusebius, _Hist. Ec._, VI, 1. (MSG, 20:522.) The following extract is important not only as a witness to the fact of the execution of the laws against Christians in Alexandria, but also to the extension of Christianity in the more southern provinces of Egypt. When Severus began to persecute the churches, glorious testimonies were given everywhere by the athletes of religion. Especially numerous were they in Alexandria, for thither, as to a more prominent theatre, athletes of God were sent from Egypt and all Thebais, according to their merit, and they won crowns from God through their great patience under many tortures and every mode of death. Among these was Leonidas, said to be the father of Origen, who was beheaded while his son was still young. 2. Spartianus, _Vita Severi_, XVII. 1. (_Scriptores Historiæ Augustæ_. Ed. Peter, 1884; Preuschen, _Analecta_, I, 32.) The date of the following is A. D. 202. He forbade, under heavy penalties, any to become Jews. He made the same regulation in regard to Christians. (_d_) Tertullian. _Apol._, 39. (MSL, 1:534.) In the following, Christian assemblies, or churches, are represented as being a sort of friendly society, similar but superior to those existing all over the Empire, common and tolerated among the poorer members of society. The date of the _Apology_ is 197.