They also declared that the sum totalof their guilt or error amounted to no morethan this: they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately among themselves in honor of Christ as if to a godÉ This made me decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they call deaconesses. I found nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths. I have therefore postponed any further examination and hastened to consult you.
Pliny theYounger, Letters 10.96