I was referring to Christian martyrs that would rather face death than to submit to Roman authority and sacrifice to their Roman gods.
Just like the modern Vatican has chosen death rather than offend their Chinese overlords ...
Chinese Christians face a new wave of persecutions under Xi, and it does not look to abate anytime soon.
I really think what "Vatican diplomacy" has imposed on the Church in China is a historically unprecedented evil: actually forcing people into a Communist organization as a condition of being Catholic.
Like many Catholics, I have not been much interested in End Times thinking --- until quite recently.
In certain periods, the Church struggled against the various national laws and customs which involved secular princes in the internal life of the Church (e.g. the centuries-long Investiture Controversy.) Resisting an actual government take-over, a monarch's rule over the Church (like Henry XII and Elizabeth I in England) led to open resistance and the imprisonment of whole parishes, warfare in Norfolk and the martyrdom of Ss. Thomas More and Bp. John Fisher and the 40 English Martyrs.
This treacherous, cruel Bergoglio-Parolin policy is not just letting wolves into the sheepfold: it's feeding the lambs to the wolves. I don't think that's ever happened in the history of the Church.
It does make me wonder if we're nearing The End.
Now is not the time to leave the Church. Now is the time to defend the Bride and resist unto death.