Here beginneth the Life of S. Gordian.
Gordian, that was vicar unto Julian the emperor, constrained
a christian man named January for to do sacrifice, but by the grace of God he
was converted by the preaching of the same January unto the christian faith,
with his wife and fifty-three men. And when this came to the knowledge of the
emperor, he commanded that January should be put and sent in exile; and if so
were that Gordian would not do sacrifice to the gods he should be beheaded, and
so his head was smitten off and the body cast unto the hounds, which lay so by
the space of seven days untouched. And at the last his servants took and stole
it away, and with it the body of the blessed Epimachus, whom the said Julian
had slain a little tofore. They buried it not far from the city of Rome, about
a mile, and this was done about the year of our Lord three hundred and sixty.