merciful corrective to set the Jews back on the right path. While God had revoked his protection of the Temple in anger at the impious High Priests, his wrath turns to mercy upon seeing the suffering of the martyrs. The work also takes pains to ensure that when setbacks occur, some sort of sin or error was at fault. For those truly blameless, such as the martyrs, the author invokes life after death: that post-mortem rewards and punishments would accomplish what might have been lacking in the mortal world. These references to the resurrection of the dead despite suffering and torture were part of a new current in Judaism also seen in the Book of Daniel, a work the authors of 2 Maccabees were likely familiar with. This would prove especially influential among Roman-era Jews who converted to Christianity. Christianity in the era of the Roman Empire In the early Christian tradition, the Septuagint was used as the basis for the Christian Old Testament. The inclusion of 2 Maccabees in some copies of the Septuagint saw it a part of various early canon lists and manuscripts, albeit sometimes as part of an appendix. Pope Damasus I's Council of Rome in 382, if the 6th century Gelasian Decree is a correct guide to its decision, issued a biblical canon which included both 1 and 2 Maccabees, but neither 3 nor 4. Pope Innocent I (405 AD), the Synod of Hippo (393 AD), the Council of Carthage (397 AD), the Council of Carthage (419 AD), and the Apostolic Canons all seemed to think that 2 Maccabees was canonical, either by explicitly saying so or citing it as scripture. Jerome and Augustine of Hippo (c. 397 AD) had seemingly inconsistent positions: they directly excluded 2 Maccabees from canon, but did say that the book was useful; yet in other works, both cited 2 Maccabees as if it was scripture, or lists it among scriptural works. Theologically, the major aspects of 2 Maccabees that resonated with Roman-era Christians and medieval Christians were its stories of martyrology and the resurrection of the dead in its stories of Eleazar and the woman with seven sons. Christians made sermons and comparisons of Christian martyrs to the Maccabean martyrs, along with the hope of an eventual salvation; Eusebius compared the persecuted Christians of Lyon to the Maccabean martyrs, for example. Several churches were dedicated to the "Maccabean martyrs",