Editing Origen (section)

===Later life===

Sometime between 238 and 244, Origen visited Athens, where he completed his ''Commentary on the [[Book of Ezekiel]]'' and began writing his ''Commentary on the [[Song of Songs]]''.{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=20}} After visiting Athens, he visited Ambrose in Nicomedia.{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=20}} According to Porphyry, Origen also travelled to Rome or Antioch, where he met [[Plotinus]], the founder of Neoplatonism.{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|pp=20–21}} The Christians of the eastern Mediterranean continued to revere Origen as the most orthodox of all theologians,{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=21}} and when the Palestinian hierarchs learned that [[Beryllus of Bostra|Beryllus]], the bishop of Bostra and one of the most energetic Christian leaders of the time, had been preaching [[adoptionism]] (the belief that Jesus was born human and only became divine after [[Baptism of Jesus|his baptism]]),{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=21}} they sent Origen to convert him to orthodoxy.{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=21}} Origen engaged Beryllus in a public disputation, which went so successfully that Beryllus promised only to teach Origen's theology from then on.{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=21}} On another occasion, a Christian leader in Arabia named Heracleides began teaching that the [[Christian mortalism|soul was mortal and that it perished with the body]].{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=22}} Origen refuted these teachings, arguing that the soul is immortal and can never die.{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=22}}

In {{circa}} 249, the [[Plague of Cyprian]] broke out.{{sfn|MacMullen|1992}} In 250, Emperor [[Decius]], believing that the plague was caused by Christians' failure to recognise him as divine,{{sfn|MacMullen|1992}} [[Decian persecution|issued a decree for Christians to be persecuted]].{{sfn|MacMullen|1992}}{{sfn|Olson|1999|p=102}}{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=22}} This time Origen did not escape.{{sfn|Olson|1999|p=102}}{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=22}} Eusebius recounts how Origen suffered "bodily tortures and torments under the iron collar and in the dungeon; and how for many days with his feet stretched four spaces in the stocks".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://christianbookshelf.org/pamphilius/church_history/chapter_xxxix_the_persecution_under_decius.htm |title=Eusebius, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book 6, chapter 39 |publisher=Christianbookshelf.org |access-date=2014-04-24 |archive-date=2013-05-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511071929/http://christianbookshelf.org/pamphilius/church_history/chapter_xxxix_the_persecution_under_decius.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Timothy David Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', page 351, footnote 96 (Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, 1981) {{ISBN|0-674-16530-6}}</ref>{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=22}} The governor of Caesarea gave very specific orders that Origen was not to be killed until he had publicly renounced his faith in Christ.{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=22}} Origen endured two years of imprisonment and torture,{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=22}} but obstinately refused to renounce his faith.{{sfn|Olson|1999|p=102}}{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|pp=3, 22}} In June 251, Decius was killed fighting the Goths in the [[Battle of Abritus]], and Origen was released from prison.{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=22}} Nonetheless, Origen's health was broken by the physical tortures enacted on him,{{sfn|Olson|1999|p=102}}{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|pp=3, 23}} and he died less than a year later at the age of sixty-nine.{{sfn|Olson|1999|p=102}}{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|pp=3, 23}} A later legend, recounted by Jerome and numerous itineraries, places his death and burial at [[Tyre (Lebanon)|Tyre]], but little value can be attached to this.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Jerome |title=De viris illustribus (On Illustrious Men) |chapter=[[s:De Viris Illustribus#Chapter 54 (Origen, surnamed Adamantius)|Chapter 54 (Origen, surnamed Adamantius)]] |author-link=Jerome|title-link=De Viris Illustribus (Jerome) }}</ref>