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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38749	The history of the church from our Lords incarnation, to the twelth year of the Emperour Maricius Tiberius, or the Year of Christ 594 / as it was written in Greek, by Eusebius Pamphilius ..., Socrates Scholasticus, and Evagrius Scholasticus ... ; made English from that edition of these historians, which Valesius published at Paris in the years 1659, 1668, and 1673 ; also, The life of Constantine in four books, written by Eusibius Pamphilus, with Constantine's Oration to the convention of the saints, and Eusebius's Speech in praise of Constantine, spoken at his tricennalia ; Valesius's annotations on these authors, are done into English, and set at their proper places in the margin, as likewise a translation of his account of their lives and writings ; with two index's, the one, of the principal matters that occur in the text, the other, of those contained in the notes.; Ecclesiastical history. English	Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, ca. 260-ca. 340.; Socrates, Scholasticus, ca. 379-ca. 440. Ecclesiastical history. English.; Evagrius, Scholasticus, b. 536? Ecclesiastical history. English.; Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, ca. 260-ca. 340. Life of Constantine. English.	1683 (1683)	Wing E3423; ESTC R6591	2,940,401	764

East were united to them in the West and the whole Body of the Empire was adorned with one universall Monarch as with one Head the Dominion and Authority of one person comprehending all men whatever And the bright Rays of the Light of Piety bestowed joyfull days on them who before sate in darkness and the shadow of death Nor did there remain any remembrance of the past Evills in regard all persons every where adorned the Conquerour with praises and profest they acknowledged the only God his preserver Thus Our Emperour embellisht with all the virtues of Religion Constantinus Victor for he procured himself this most agreeable and proper Surname and Title on account of those Victories granted him by God over all his Enemies and Opposers received the East and reduced under a Subjection to himself the entire Roman Empire conjoyned as heretofore it had been He was the first Emperour who publisht to all men the Dominion of one God and he himself possest of the sole Dominion over the Roman world governed the whole Body of Mankind All fear of those mischiefs wherewith all men had been heretofore opprest was now taken away And they who in times past had been dejected and sorrowfull then lookt one upon another with smiling countenances and chearfull eyes In Dances also and Songs they first of all glorified God the King of Kings for thus they were instructed to do and in the next place The Victor Augustus and his most Modest and Pious Sons The Caesars with uninterrupted Acclamations There was an oblivion of past Afflictions no remembrance of impiety but an enjoyment of the present Blessings and an expectation of more in future CHAP. XX. How Constantine made Laws in favour of the Confessours MOreover the Emperour's Constitutions full of Clemency were then published amongst us also as they had been before amongst those who inhabited the other part of the world and Laws breathing forth Piety towards God gave various promises of all manner of Goods in regard they bestowed on the Provincials throughout each Province what was usefull and of advantage to them and assigned to the Churches of God those things that were congruous and convenient And first of all they recalled home those persons who because they would not sacrifice to Idolls had been banished by the Governours of Provinces and compelled to remove out of their own Country Then they freed from publick Functions those who for the same reason had been adjudged to the Curiae and ordered that such as had been deprived of their Goods should have them restored to them again Besides they who during the time of Persecution having been strengthened by God had given a signall proof of their fortitude and constancy of mind and were either condemned to the Mines there to be tortured with daily Labour or adjudged to a Deportation into the Islands or had been forced to a slavery in the Publick Works these persons freed on a sudden from all these disquietudes and troubles enjoyed their Liberty Further such as by reason of their egregious resoluteness in retaining their Religion had been despoyled of the honour of the Militia were recalled from this ignominy by the Emperour's Munificence who gave them a free Liberty of choice either of recovering their proper Offices and of flourishing in their Pristine dignities or if they were in love with a quiet and retired Life of continuing in future exempt from the troubles of all publick Functions Lastly whatever persons in order to their being reproacht and disgrac't had been condemned to a slavery in the Gynaecia them the Emperour set at Liberty as well as the rest CHAP. XXI How he made Laws concerning the Martyrs and concerning the Estates of the Churches ANd these were the Establishments which the Emperour made in written Laws concerning such persons as had undergone those sufferings But in relation to their goods a most full and ample provision was made by a Law of the Emperour 's For he commanded that the Goods and Estates of God's holy Martyrs who had ended their lives in their Confession should be enjoyed by their nearest Relatives But if no Relation of their's could be found then the Churches were to have their Estates And the Imperial Letter of Indulgence ordered that the Goods which had been heretofore transferred to others out of the Treasury either by a Sale or by donation and which remained still in the Treasury should be returned back to their Owners Such were the favours which the Emperour's benignity conferred upon the Church of God by his Laws transmitted into all the Provinces CHAP. XXII In what manner he refreshed and cherish't the People also BUt his Imperial Munificence bestowed more and far greater Favours than these upon the people that were strangers to our Religion and upon all the Provinces Wherefore all the Inhabitants of our Eastern Countries who having before this received an account of what had been done in the other part of the Roman Empire had styled them happy because they were possest of such Blessings and who fervently prayed that they themselves might at length enjoy the like beholding these things with their own eyes doubted not of terming themselves blessed now and confest that some new Miracle and such a one as no Age under the Rays of the Sun had ever beheld before so great and gracious an Emperour namely had appeared to mankind And these were their Sentiments CHAP. XXIII That he publickly Proclaimed God the Authour of Good and concerning the Copies of his Laws BUt when the Emperour by the power of God his Saviour had reduced all places under a Subjection to himself he himself made known to all men that God who had bestowed these Blessings upon him and attested that He not himself was to be accounted the Authour of his Victories And this he declared by his Letters written as well in the Latine as Greek Tongue and sent throughout every Province Further the powerfullness of his Language will easily be perceived by him who shall apply himself to the perusall of his Letters They were two the one directed to the Churches of God the other to the people in every City that were Strangers to our Religion Which Latter in regard 't is accommodate to our present Subject I think fit to insert here both that the Copy of this Letter may be recorded in the Monuments of History and consigned to posterity and also that the truth of our Relation may receive confirmation It was transcribed from an Authentick Copy of the Imperial Law which is in our Custody A subscription whereto in the Emperour 's own hand does like some Seal ‡ assert the verity of our Narrative CHAP. XXIV Constantine's Law concerning Piety towards God and concerning the Christian Religion VICTOR CONSTANTINUS MAXIMUS AUGUSTUS To the Provincials of Palestine AMongst those whose Sentiments concerning the Deity are right

Episcopate You may determine such things as may be agreeable to the Tradition of the Apostles For such matters as these having been well prepared and ordered Your Prudence will be able so to direct this Election according to the Canon of the Church and Apostolick Tradition as the Rule of Ecclesiastick discipline does require God keep you Beloved Brethren CHAP. LXIII In what manner He endeavoured to destroy Heresies SUch were the admonitions which the Emperour gave to the Prelates of the Churches advising them to do all things in order to the glory and commendation of the divine Religion But after he had made a riddance of all dissentions and had reduced the Church of God to an agreement and Harmony of doctrine He past from thence and was of opinion that another sort of impious persons were to be supprest and destroyed in regard they were the poyson of Mankind These were a sort of pernicious men who under the specious disguise of Modesty and Gravity ruined the Cities Whom Our Saviour somewhere terms false Prophets or ravenous Wolves in these words Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheeps clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves Ye shall know them by their fruits By the transmission of a precept therefore to the Presidents of Provinces He put to flight the whole Tribe of these sort of persons But besides this Law the Emperour composed an enlivening Exhortation directed to them by name wherein he incited those men to hasten their repentance For he told them that the Church of God would be to them a Port of safety But hear in what manner He discoursed even to these persons in his Letter to them CHAP. LXIV Constantine's Constitution against the Hereticks VICTOR CONSTANTINUS MAXIMUS AUGUSTUS To the Hereticks ACknowledge now by the benefit of this Law O ye Novatianists Valentinians Marcionists Pauliani and you who are termed Cataphrygae in a word all of you who by your private Meetings breed and compleat Heresies in how many Lyes the vanity of your Opinions is wrapt up and in what manner your Doctrine is compounded of certain pernicious poysons in so much that by you the healthy are reduced to weakness and the living to a perpetual death Ye Enemies of Truth ye Adversaries of Life and ye Councellours of destruction All things amongst you are contrary to Truth agreeable to filthy impieties stuft with absurdities and fictions whereby you compose Lyes afflict the Innocent and deny Believers the light And sinning continually under a Mask of Divinity you defile all things Ye wound the innocent and pure consciences of men with blows that are mortal and deadly and ye ravish even the day it self I had almost said from the eyes of men But what necessity is there of recounting every particular Especially since neither the shortness of the time nor the urgency of Our Affairs will suffer Us to speak concerning your Crimes according as they deserve For your impieties are so large and immense so filthy and full of all manner of outragiousness that a whole day would not be sufficient for a description of them And besides 't is fit we should remove our ears and turn away our eyes from things of this nature least by a particular declaration of them the pure and sincere alacrity of Our Faith s●ould be defiled What reason is there then that We should any longer tolerate such Mischiefs Especially since Our long forbearance is the cause that even those who are sound become infected with this pestilential distemper as ' t were Why therefore do we not immediately cut off the roots as we may so term them of such a mischief by a publick animadversion CHAP. LXV Concerning the taking away the Meeting-places of hereticks WHerefore in as much as this perniciousness of your improbity is not any longer to be born with We declare by this Law that no one of you shall in future dare to hold Assemblies And therefore We have given order that all those your houses wherein you hold such Assemblies shall be taken away and this Care of Our Majesty does extend so far as that the congregations of your superstitious madness shall not meet together not only in publick but neither in a private house nor in any places whereto the Right or Title is peculiar Therefore what ever persons amongst you are studious of the true and pure Religion which is a thing far more commendable and better let them come over to the Catholick Church and hold communion with its sanctity by the assistance whereof they may arrive at the Truth But let the Errour of your perverted mindes I mean the execrable and pernicious dissent of Hereticks and Schismaticks be wholly separated from the felicity of Our Times For it becomes Our Blessedness which by God's assistance We enjoy that they who lead their lives buoy'd up with good hopes should be reduced from all manner of Extravagant Errour to the right way from darkness to the light from Vanity to the Truth Lastly from Death to Salvation And to the end that the force and power of this Remedy may be effectual and prevalent We have given order that all the Conventicles of your Superstition as We have said above I mean the Oratories of all sorts of Hereticks if it be fit to term them Oratories shall without any contradiction be taken away and without any delay delivered to the Catholick Church but that the rest of the places shall be adjudged to the publick and that no Licence shall be left to you of holding Meetings there in future So that from this present day your illegal Congregations shall not dare to meet either in any publick or private place Let it be published CHAP. LXVI That impious and prohibited Books having been found amongst the Hereticks very many of them returned to the Catholick Church IN this manner therefore the Dens of the Heterodox were by the Imperial Order laid open and the wild Beasts themselves that is the Ring-leaders of their impiety were put to flight Now some of those persons who had been deceived by them being put into a fear by the Emperour's Menaces crept into the Church with a mind and meaning that was false and counterfeit and for a time play'd the Hypocrites And because the Law commanded that a search should be made after the Books of those men they who made evill and forbidden Arts their business were apprehended On which account they practised dissimulation and did all things to the end they might purchase themselves safety But others of them betook themselves to a better hope with a purpose of mind that was hearty true and sincere Further the Prelates of the Churches made an accurate inspection into both these sorts of persons and such as they found coming over to the Church under a disguise who were hid under the skins of Sheep them they drove away

light upon them CHAP. VI. Of the famine that oppressed the Jews COme on therefore Let us again take the fifth Book of Josephus his History into our hands and rehearse the Tragedy of those things then and there done Moreover says he for those that were rich to stay it was equally destructive For they were slain for their wealth under a pretence of their revolting to the enemy Together also with the famine the insolent rage of the seditious increased and both those mischiefs daily grew more extreamly sharp and violent Besides there was no food any where openly to be seen but they rushed violently into houses and made a strict Search and when they had found any they beat the masters of the houses after a most cruel manner because they denied they had any but if they found none they tortured them as if they had most carefully hid it Moreover the bodies of the wretches were a certain sign whether they had any food or no for those who were yet strong and lusty they supposed had plenty of provision but such as were already lean and macerated they medled not with For it seemed irrational to kill those that were ready to die for want of sustenance Many also privately exchanged their estates the richer sort for one measure of wheat the poorer for one of barley Then locking themselves up in the inmost recesses of their houses some of them by reason of their excessive want of food eat the unground corn others made bread of it after such a manner as necessity and fear advised them Indeed there was no where any table furnished but they snatched the meat while it was raw from the fire and tore it from one another The food was miserable and the spectacle truly worthy of Lamentation in that the stronger sort got all whilest the weaker bewailed their own condition Famine doubtless is superiour to all the affections of the mind but nothing is so utterly destroyed by it as is a dutifull and observant behaviour For that which otherwise is worthy of a reverent regard in this case to wit in the necessity of famine is contemned Therefore the wives tore the meat from their husbands the children from their parents and which was most exceedingly lamentable the mothers snatcht it out of the very mouthes of their infants yea they spared not to deprive them of those very drops of milk which were their onely sustenance to keep them alive whilest their most beloved babes languished in their arms And whilest they eat such food as this they notwithstanding could not secure themselves from being discovered because the Seditious were every where at hand preying upon them for when they at any time saw a house shut that was a sign that those within were eating victuals and immediately breaking open the doors they rushed in and squeezing the bits of meat even out of their very jaws they took them away The old men who would not part with their food were beaten and the women which hid what they had in their hands were drawn about by the hair of the head No compassion was shown to the hoary-head or to infants but lifting up the little children on high hanging at their morsels of meat they dashed them against the pavement Now to those who prevented their incursion and before-hand devoured what they would by force have taken away they were more inhumane as if such had done them an injury Moreover they invented cruel ways of torments for the searching out of provision for they stopped up the passage of the privities of those miserable men with the pulse called Orobos and thrust sharp rods up their fundaments and to force any person to confess he had but one loa● of bread or to extort from him a discovery of his having but one handfull of meal hidden he underwent such torments as are most horrible to be heard Now the tormentours themselves were not oppressed with hunger for it would have seemed less cruel for them to have done all this out of necessity but they did it to exercise their outragious insolence and to procure themselves provision for the following days Those also who by night crept out as far as the Roman watch to gather wild herbs and grass they met and when they supposed they had now escaped the enemy these men by force took from them what they had gotten And when they often intreated and by the most Sacred Name of God beseeched them to communicate some part of that to them which they had brought off with the hazard of their lives they imparted nothing thereof to them yea they were to look upon it to be a kindness that they were not also killed as well as robbed of what they had gotten To this after some other words he adds saying The Jews after they were hindred from going out of the City were deprived of all hope of relief And the famine encreasing extreamly consumed the people throughout every house and family The houses were filled with women and infants destroyed by the famine and the narrow streets with dead old men The children and young men as pale as ghosts wandred up and down the market places and fell down whereever the distemper seized any of them neither were the sick able to bury their relations and those who were strong were loath to undertake it both upon account of the vast numbers of the dead and also because of the uncertainty of their own condition For very many dropt down dead upon those whom they were interring Many also betook themselves to their Coffins or Sepulchres before death seized them Neither was there mourning or lamentation in these calamities but the famine had suppressed every ones affection And they who struggled with the very pangs of death with dry eyes beheld those who went to rest before them A profound silence and darkness loaden with death encompassed the City But the theeves were more pernicious than all this For they digged through into houses now turned into burial places and robbed the dead and taking away the coverings from off the Corps went out laughing They also tried the edges of their swords upon the dead bodies and some of those that lay along and yet alive they ran through to make trial of the sharpness of their weapons But those that beseeched them to make use of their hand and sword upon them by way of scorn they let alone to be destroyed by the famine And every one of them that died leaving the Seditious yet surviving fixed their eyes stedfastly upon the Temple At first they gave command that the dead should be buried at the charge of the publick Treasury not being able to endure the stench of the dead bodies but afterwards being insufficient to continue so doing they cast them from the walls into deep pits which Titus having viewed round when he beheld them filled full with the dead and a thick gore issuing from the putrified bodies he sighed and

continued virgins to the end of their lives Also his other daughter who having lived by the guidance of the Holy Ghost died at Ephesus And moreover John who leaned on the breast of the Lord and was a Priest and wore a plate of gold and was a Martyr and a Doctor this John I say died at Ephesus And thus much concerning their deaths And also in the Dialogue of Caius of which we a little before made mention Proculus against whom he instituted the dispute agreeing with what we have inforced concerning the death of Philip and his daughters says thus After that also the four Prophetesses the daughters of Philip were at Hierapolis a City of Asia their Sepulchre is there and also their fathers Thus he L●k● likewise in the Acts of the Apostles makes mention of the daughters of Philip that lived then at Caesarea of Judea with their father who were endowed with the gift of Prophecy saying word for word thus We came unto Caesarea and we entred into the house of Philip the Evangelist which was one of the seven and abode with him And the same man had four daughters virgins which did Prophecie Having thus far therefore treated of those things which came to our knowledge both concerning the Apostles and the Apostolick times and the Sacred Writings they left us both those that are questioned as doubtfull which yet are publickly read by many in most Churches and those also that are altogether Spurious and Repugnant to Apostolical sound Doctrine we now proceed to the subsequent part of our History CHAP. XXXII How Simeon the Bishop of Jerusalem suffered Martyrdom AFter the persecution of Nero and Domitian Report goes that under this Emperour whose times we now recount there was a persecution raised against us by piece-meal throughout every City which proceeded from a popular insurrection In which we have by tradition received that Simeon the son of Cleophas who we declared was constituted the second Bishop of the Church at Jerusalem finished his life by Martyrdom And this the same Writer attesteth several words of whose we have before quoted that is Hegesippus Who giving a relation of certain Hereticks adds that this Simeon being at that time by them accused and tormented divers ways and for the space of many days because he was a Christian struck with a great amazement both the Judge and those about him and at length died by the same kind of suffering that the Lord did Nothing hinders but that we may hear the Writer relating these things word for word thus Some of those Hereticks accused Simeon the son of Cleophas as being a descendant from David and a Christian and so he suffered Martyrdom when he was an hundred and twenty years old under Trajan the Emperour and Atticus of the Consular order then President of Syria And the same Authour says that those his accusers such as were of the Royal family of the Jews being at that time sought for happened to be convicted as belonging to that family Now should any one say that this Simeon was one of those who both saw and heard the Lord he would speak what is in no wise absurd having as an undoubted evidence thereof the great length of his Life and the mention made in the Gospels of Mary the wife of Cleophas whose son that he was our former words have manifested Also the same writer says that others related to one of those called the brethren of our Saviour whose name was Judas lived untill this Emperour's Reign after their profession of the Faith of Christ under Domitian before which we mentioned For thus he writeth They come therefore and preside over the whole Church as being Martyrs and of the Kindred of our Lord. And a profound Peace ensuing over the whole Church they continued alive till the times of Trajan the Emperour untill the foresaid Simeon the son of Cleophas who was Unckle to our Lord being accused by the Hereticks was in like manner also impeach● for the same thing before Atticus the president And being cruelly tortured for many days he with constancie professed the Faith of Christ in so much that the President and all those about him wondred greatly how a man of an hundred and twenty years old as he was could have endured such torments And in fine it was ordered he should be crucified Moreover the same man relating what was done in those times adds that untill then the Church continued a pure and undefiled Virgin those who endeavoured to corrupt the sound Rule of wholesom Doctrine if any such persons there were absconding themselves hitherto in obscure darkness But after the sacred company of the Apostles was by various kinds of death become extinct and that generation of those men who were accounted worthy to hear with their own ears the divine wisdom was gone then the conspiracy of impious errour took its rise from the deceit of false Teachers who in as much as not one of the Apostles was then surviving did now at length with a bare face attempt to Preach up the knowledge falsely so called in opposition to the doctrine of the Truth And thus much this Authour treating of these things has after this manner said But we will proceed to what in order follows of our History CHAP. XXXIII How Trajan forbad that the Christians should be sought after MOreover so great a persecution raged against us at that time in many places that Plinius Secundus the most eminent amongst the Governours of Provinces being moved at the multitude of Martyrs gave the Emperour an account of the great numbers of those that were destroyed because of their faith and together therewith certified him that he found they did nothing of impiety nor acted any thing contrary to the Laws onely that they rose at break of day and sung Hymns to Christ as unto God but that they abhor'd the commission of Adultery and Murder and such like horrid crimes and that they did all things consonant to the Laws Upon account of which Trajan made this Edict That the Christians should not be sought out but if by accident they were lighted on they should be punished Which being done the most vehement heat of the persecution that lay heavy upon us was in some measure quenched But to those who had a mind to doe us mischief there remained pretexts no whit less fair and specious in some places the people in others the Rulers of the Provinces f●●ming treacheries against us in so much that even when there was no open and general persecution yet there were particular ones throughout the Provinces and very many of the Faithfull underwent various sorts of Martyrdomes We have taken this account out of Tertullians Apology written in Latine of which we before made mention the translation whereof is thus But we have found that the inquisition after us has been prohibited For Plinius Secundus when he was Governour of the