hour of the day when a light sleep overcame him. He looked up and saw the sky split open, and a tray of food descending from heaven until it touched the earth; on it were every four-footed creature that walks the ground—beasts of prey, livestock, and the birds of the sky(1). He heard a voice saying, “Peter, rise, slaughter, and eat.”

Peter answered, “Lord, I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” Then a second voice declared, “Whatever God has purified is not impure.” In another version it says, “What God has purified, do not you declare unclean,” and the voice addressed him with this command three times(2).

After that the tray was taken back up to heaven, and Peter was left astonished and perplexed within himself(3).

The emperor therefore ordered that pigs be slaughtered, their meat cooked and cut into small pieces, and that these be placed at the doors of every church in his realm on Easter Sunday. Everyone coming out of church was to be made to swallow a morsel of pork; whoever refused was to be put to death. A great many people were killed on that account.

Constantine then died, and after him his eldest son, whose name was also Constantine, came to power(4). During his reign the followers of Arius and those who espoused his doctrine gathered around him, made their religion and their teaching seem fair to him, and said, “The three hundred and eighteen bishops who met at Nicaea were in error and departed from the truth when they said that the Son is in accord with(5)…"