this it may be concluded that the account of the whole year and of the months was not of one and the same form amongst the Syrians For those of Gaza computed them after one way those of Tyre after another and those of Caesarea after a third manner But I am fully perswaded that the Caesareans used months wholly composed according to the Julian form For in all places of this book of Eusebius's concerning the Martyres of Palestine wherever mention is made of the Macedonian months amongst the Caesarians the mention whereof does frequently occur in it the days of those months do always agree with the days of the Roman months excepting this only place in this first Chapter Therefore I think that the reading in the Text of Eusebius here should be thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the seventh day of the month Desius Vales. f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is on the fourth feria or to render it word for word on the fourth day of the Sabbath or of the week For the ancient Christians having received a set account of the seven days of the week from the Jews named them as they did Therefore they called them the first of the Sabbath the second of the Sabbath c. See Tertullian in his Book De jejuniis Sometimes they called them feriae Feria is the same with Sabbath Therefore as the Jews termed the week-days the first the second the third of the Sabbath and so on to the Seventh-day which they called the Sabbath so the antient Christians termed them the first second and third feria c. making an alteration only in this that they did not keep the sabbath-Sabbath-day holy as did the Jews but observed their Sabbath 〈…〉 the first day of the Sabbath which they also called Sunday or The Lord's Day So Isidorus in his Book De Natura Rerum Chap. 3. Bede in his Book De Ratione Temporum says the week-days were called feriae because the Clergy-men by the decree of Pope Sylvester were ordered to keep every day holy But this opinion cannot be true for the days of the week were called feriae long before Pope Sylvester's time as Tertullian informs us Moreover not only the Christians but the Gentiles also received the computation of the week from the Jews as Josephus informs us in the close of his second book against Apion But the Gentiles called the days of the week by the names of the seven Planets which names continue still in use amongst most Nations being as it were certain reliques of the ancient errour of the Gentiles See Tertullian in his Book Ad Nationes Vales. The Ecclesiastical year of old began at Easter the first week whereof was all Holyday the days being distinguished by prima secunda tertia c. added unto feria From thence the days of any other week began to be called feria prima secunda c. See M r Jo. Gregory of Oxford in his Tract De Aeris Epochis Chap. 5. The original of the names which we in England give to the days of the week may be seen in Verstegan's Antiquities pag. 68 c. Edit Antwerp 1605. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we render primum Martyrium the first Martyrdom so the Latine Acts render it whence it appears the Translator thereof did read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vales. * See B. 8. Chap. 3. He was a Deacon of the Church of Gadara Concerning whom we have this passage in the Mâ—â—ologiâ— at the 18 th of November The commemoration of the holy Martyrs Michaeus Zacchaeus Deacon of Gadara and Alphaeus The blessed Zacchaeus was led before the tribunal having an heavy iron-chain about his neck Vales. a The Greeks in their Menaeum make mention of two Romanus's both Martyrs the one they say was condemned by Asclepiades the Praefect at Antioch in the Reign of Galerius the other was a Deacon of Caesarea concerning whom Eusebius here speaks who as they affirm suffered under Diocletian But in as much as they confess that both of them suffered on one and the same day for they affirm that both of them had their tongues cut out that they both spoke after they were cut out and that both of them were afterwards strangled in prison 't is plain that the Greeks mistake in their making of them two distinct Martyrs I wonder that this opinion of theirs should please Baronius in his notes on the Martyrologie If there were two Martyrs called by the same name to wit Romanus and if they both suffered Martyrdom on the same day at Antioch why does Eusebius mention but one here It will perhaps be answered that Eusebius was resolved to speak of the Martyrs of Palestine onely in this book and therefore that he onely mentioned Romanus the Deacon because he was a Palestinian But Eusebius has made mention of this Martyr in another place to wit in his second Book concerning the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ where he acknowledges but one Romanus who was Martyred at Antioch Vales. b Amongst the Primitive Christians especially in the smaller Towns because the Clergy were few in number one and the same Clergy-man performed two or three Offices Hence 't is that in the Acts of Procopius the Martyr which we related before Procopius is said to have born three Offices at the same time in the Church of Scythopolis to wit the Office of a Reader of an Interpreter and of an Exorcist After the same manner therefore Romanus was both a Deacon and also an â—xorcist in the Church of Caesarea See Vetus Author Question Veter Novi Testament ch 101. Vales. c There was in former times a twofold use of the Exorcists in the Church For their business was to cleanse both those possessed with devils and also the Catechumens who were exorcized more than once For after every examination in their Catechism they were brought to the Exorcist ungirt and with their Shoes off that they might be purged by him See Cyril Hierosolymit in procatechesi ad Illuminandos and Chrysostom in his first Homily ad Illuminandos in his first Tome Vales. d Many of these persons had renounced Christ as Eusebius declares in his second Sermon concerning the Resurrection where he speaks of the tortures inflicted on Romanus which he mentions not here Vales. e I suppose he means Galcrius Caesar for Diocletian made his abode then at Nicomedia The Caesars like Apparitours and Officers went all over the bounds of their own district Indeed in that year when the persecution begun Diocletian lived together with Galerius at Nicomedia in April as Eusebius attests in his eighth book Also a little after the persecution began when the Imperial Palace aâ— Nicomedia was burnt by Lightning Diocletian was at that City as Constantine informs us in his Oration Ad Caetum Sanctorum Wherefore he could not be at Antioch when Romanus was condemned to be burnt which happened about the beginning of the Persecution For Romanus was strangled on the 15 th
of the Syriack and particularly out of the Hebrew tongue whereby he plainly intimates himself to have been converted from being a Jew to the faith of Christ. He makes mention also of other things as contained in the unwritten traditions of the Jews Now not onely he but also Irenaeus and all the Antients doe call the Proverbs of Solomon the book of Wisdom that contains the Precepts of all Virtue and treating of those books which are termed The Apocrypha he relates that some of them were forged by certain Hereticks in his times But we must now proceed to another Writer CHAP. XXIII Concerning Dionysius Bishop of the Corinthians and the Epistles he wrote ANd first we are to speak of Dionysius who had the Episcopal Chair of the Corinthian Church and liberally and copiously communicated his divine labours not onely to those committed to his charge but also to such as inhabited Countreys remote and at a great distance rendring himself most serviceable and usefull to all persons by those general Epistles he wrote to divers Churches Of which number one is that to the Lacedaemonians containing the first rudiments of and institutions in the true Faith and moreover an exhortation to Peace and Unity Another of them is that to the Athenians which is excitatory to Faith and to lead a life answerable to the Precepts of the Gospel in which point he reproves the negligence of the Athenians who had in a manner apostatized from the Faith since the time that Publius their Bishop suffered Martyrdom during the persecutions which then happened he makes mention also of Quadratus who was constituted their Bishop after the Martyrdom of Publius and attests that by his labour and industry the congregations of the Christians were re-assembled and the ardour of their faith revived and re-kindled He relates moreover that Dionysius the Areopagite who was converted to the Faith by the Apostle Paul according to the account given in the Acts of the Apostles was made the first Bishop of the Athenian Church There is also extant another Epistle of his to the Nicomedians wherein he impugneth the Heresie of Marcion and strenuously asserts and defends the exact Rule of Truth He wrote likewise to the Church at Gortyna and to the rest of the Churches in Creet and commends Philip their Bishop because the Church under his charge was renowned for many signal acts of fortitude and admonishes them to use caution against the deceit and perversness of Hereticks And in the Epistle he wrote to the Church of Amastris together with the other Churches throughout Pontus he mentions Bacchylides and Elpistus as being the persons that incited him to write he annexes likewise several expositions of holy Scripture and by name mentions Palma their Bishop He recommends to them many things concerning marriage and chastity and commands those that recover from any lapse whatsoever whether vitiousness or Heretical errour to be affectionately received In the same Volume is contained another Epistle to the Gnossians wherein he admonishes Pinytus the Bishop of that Church not to impose the heavy yoak of continency upon the brethren as if 't were necessary but to have a regard to the infirmity of most men To which Pinytus returning an answer does greatly admire and extol Dionysius but withall exhorts him that in future he would impart stronger food and nourish up the people under his charge by sending again to them some letters that contain more perfect and solid doctrine least being continually accustomed to such milky expressions they should grow old in a childish discipline In which Epistle both the Orthodox Faith of Pinytus and his sollicitude for the proficiency of those under his care his eloquence also and understanding in divine matters is most accurately and to the life represented Moreover there is extant an Epistle of Dionysius's to the Romans superscribed to Soter at that time the Bishop there out of which it 's not amiss here to insert some words wherein he much commends the usage and custome of the Romans observed by them even untill the times of the persecution raised in our own age he writes thus For this hath been your custome even from the beginning of your conversion to Christianity to be divers ways beneficial to all the brethren and to send relief to most Churches throughout every City sometimes supplying the wants of such as are in necessity at others furnishing those brethren with necessaries that are condemned to work in the mines By such charitable gifts which from the beginning you have been accustomed to transmit to others being Romans you retain the custom received from your Roman fore-fathers Which usage your blessed Bishop Soter has not onely diligently observed but greatly improved being both instrumental and ready in the conveyance of your bounty designed for the Saints and also comforting with blessed words as a tender and affectionate father does his children those brethren that come as strangers to you In the same Epistle also he makes mention of the Epistle of Clemens to the Corinthians and manifests that 't was very antiently customary to recite it publickly in the presence of the Church for he says This day therefore being the holy day of the Lord we have now passed over wherein we read over your Epistle which as also the former Epistle of Clemens's written to us we continuing to read henceforward shall abound with most excellent Precepts and instructions Further the same Writer speaking of his own Epistles which by some forgers were corrupted says thus For I wrote some Epistles being thereto requested by the brethren but the emissaries of the devil have filled them with darnell expunging some passages out of them and adding other some for whom a Woe is reserved It s no wonder therefore that some attempt to adulterate the holy writings of the Lord since they have basely falsified such as are of an inferiour authority Besides these there is extant another Epistle of Dionysius's written to Chrysophora a most faithfull Sister to whom he writes what is agreeable and imparts to her such Spiritual food as is convenient for her Thus much concerning the writings of Dionysius CHAP. XXIV Concerning Theophilus Bishop of the Antiochians THere are extant of this Theophilus's whom we declared to have been Bishop of the Antiochian Church three books written to Autolycus containing the first rudiments of the Faith He has another Tract also extant entitled Against the Heresie of Hermogenes wherein he quotes authorities out of the Revelation of St John there are besides some other books of his wherein are delivered the first principles of our Faith Moreover whenas in that age the Hereticks like darnell did nevertheless corrupt the pure seed of the Apostolick doctrine the Pastours of Churches were every where very earnest and industrious to chase them away being as it were savage and wild beasts from the sheep of Christ partly by admonishing and exhorting the brethren and partly by encountring
he was either sitting or standing should he have heard such words as these And this may be manifested from those Epistles of his which he wrote either to the neighbouring Churches to confirm them or to some brethren to admonish and exhort them Thus far Irenaeus CHAP. XXI How Apollonius suffered Martyrdom at Rome AT the same time of Commodus's Empire our affairs were converted into a quiet and sedate posture peace by the divine grace encompassing the Churches throughout the whole world In which interim the saving Word of God allured very many of all sorts of men to the religious worship of the universal God So that now many of those at Rome who were very eminent both for riches and descent did together with their whole housholds and families betake themselves to the attaining of salvation But this could not be born with by the envious devil that hater of good being by nature malicious Therefore he arms himself again inventing various Stratagems against us At the City Rome therefore he brings before the judgement seat Apollonius a man who was at that time one of the faithfull and very eminent for his Learning and Philosophy having stirred up one of his ministers who was fit for such a wicked enterprize to accuse this person Now this wretch having undertaken this accusation in an unseasonable time for according to the Imperial Edict the informers against those that were Christians were to be put to death had his legs forthwith broken and was put to death Perennis the Judge having pronounc't this sentence against him but the Martyr most beloved by God after the Judge had earnestly beseeched him by many entreaties and requested him to render an account of his Faith before the Senate having made a most elegant defence before them all for the faith he profest was as it were by a decree of the Senate condemn'd to undergoe a capital punishment For by an ancient Law 't was establisht amongst them that those Christians who were once accused before the judgment-seat should in no wise be dismist unless they receded from their opinion Moreover he that is desirous to know Apollonius's speeches before the Judge and the answers he made to the interrogatories of Perennis the oration also which he spoke before the Senate in defence of our faith may see them in our collection of the sufferings of the antient Martyrs CHAP. XXII What Bishops flourisht at that time MOreover in the tenth year of Commodus's Reign Eleutherus having executed the Episcopal office thirteen years was succeeded by Victor In the same year also Julianus having compleated his tenth year Demetrius undertook the Government of the Churches at Alexandria At the same time likewise Serapion whom we spake of a little before flourisht being the eighth Bishop from the Apostles of the Antiochian Church At Caesarea in Palestine presided Theophilus and in like manner Narcissus whom we made mention of before at that time had the publick charge over the Church at Jerusalem At Corinth in Achaia Bacchyllus was then the Bishop and at the Church of Ephesus Polycrates Many others 't is likely besides these were eminent at that time but we at it was meet have onely recounted their names by whose writings the doctrine of the true faith has been derived down to us CHAP. XXIII Concerning the Question then moved about Easter AT the same time no small controversie being raised because the Churches of all Asia supposed as from a more antient tradition that the fourteenth day of the Moon ought to be observed as the salutary feast of Easter to wit the same day whereon the Jews were commanded to kill the Lamb and that they ought always on that day whatever day of the week it should happen to be to put an end to their fastings when as notwithstanding 't was not the usage of the Churches over the rest of the world to doe after this manner which usage being received from Apostolick tradition and still prevalent they observed to wit that they ought not to put an end to their fastings on any other day save that of the resurrection of our Saviour upon this account Synods and assemblies of Bishops were convened And all of them with one consent did by their letters inform the Brethren every where of the Ecclesiastick decree to wit that the Mystery of our Lords resurrection should never be celebrated on any other day but Sunday and that on that day onely we should observe to conclude the Fasts before Easter There is at this time extant the Epistle of those who then were assembled in Palestine over whom Theophilus Bishop of the Church in Caesarea and Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem presided In like manner another Epistle of those Assembled at Rome concerning the same question having Victor the Bishops name prefixt to it also another of those Bishops in Pontus over whom Palmas as being the most antient presided Also an Epistle of the Churches in Gallia which Irenaeus had the oversight of Moreover of those in Osdroëna and the Cities there and a private Letter of Bacchyllus's Bishop of the Corinthian Church of many others also all which having uttered one and the same opinion and sentiment proposed the same judgment and this we have mentioned was their onely definitive determination CHAP. XXIV Concerning the disagreement of the Churches throughout Asia OVer those Bishops in Asia who stifly maintained they ought to observe the antient usage heretofore delivered to them presided Polycrates Who in the Epistle he wrote to Victor and the Roman Church declares the tradition derived down to his own times in these words We therefore observe the true and genuine easter- day having neither added any thing to nor taken any thing from the uninterrupted usage delivered to us For in Asia the great lights are dead who shall be raised again in the day of the Lords Advent wherein he shall come with glory from heaven and raise up all his Saints I mean Philip one of the 12 Apostles who died at Hierapolis and his two daughters who continued Virgins to the end of their lives also his other daughter having whilest she lived been inspired by the holy Ghost died at Ephesus And moreover John who leaned on the Lords breast and was a Priest wearing a plate of Gold and was a Martyr and a Doctor this John I say died at Ephesus Moreover also Polycarp Bishop at Smyrna and Martyr and Thraseas of Eusmema Bishop and Martyr who died at Smyrna What need we mention Sagaris Bishop and Martyr who died at Laodicea And moreover Papirius of Blessed memory and Melito the Eunuch who in all things was directed by the suggestion of the holy Spirit who lies at Sardis expecting the Lords coming to visit him from heaven when he shall be raised from the dead All these kept the day of Easter on the
preludiums directing his words as in the following passages he has declared against those who denyed that Christ came in the flesh Wherefore on set purpose he subjoyneth this And what we have seen we bear witness to and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you He is constant to himself and does not in the least wander from his subject proposed but in the same Periods and words he does prosecute all points some of which expressions we will briefly recount He who does carefully read them will both in his Gospel and Epistle very frequently meet with life very often with light an avoiding of darkness very frequently with truth grace joy the flesh and bloud of our Lord judgment forgiveness of sins the love of God towards us the commandment of mutual love one towards another and that we ought to keep all the Commandments There is also contained in them the condemnation of the World of the Devil and of Antichrist the promise of the Holy Ghost the Adoption of the sons of God a faith Universally required of us mention of the Father and the Son in every place In summe they who note the phrase in all things throughly may easily discern that the Genius and Stile both in the Gospel and the Epistle appears to be one and the same But the Revelation is altogether different from and unlike to these it has no alliance to nor as I may so say familiarity with either of these nor has the Revelation so much as one syllable in it which is common to these Neither does the Epistle for I omit the Gospel make the least mention of the Revelation nor the Revelation of the Epistle And yet Paul in his Epistles mentions something concerning his Revelations which he did not digest into a volume by themselves Furthermore by the phrase the difference betwixt the Epistle and Gospel and the Revelation may be easily conjectured for those are not onely written most correctly and agreeable to the purity of the Greek tongue but they are also composed with great elegancy in the words in the Argumentations and whole contexture of the discourse So impossible it is for any one to find any Barbarism or Soloecism or lastly any Idiotism in them For the Evangelist 't is apparent had both faculties the Lord had endewed him with both that is the gift of knowledge and the gift of speaking As touching this other John I doe not indeed deny that he saw the Revelation and that he received the gift of knowledge and of prophesie But I take notice that his dialect and stile is not pure Greek but he makes use of some Barbarous words yea and in some places he has Soloecismes which it is not now necessary to give a Catalogue of For I would have no one suppose that I have said these things in a way of derision but onely on this account that I might explain the dissimilitude of these books CHAP. XXVI Concerning Dionysius's Epistles THere are extant many more of Dionysius's Epistles besides these As for example his Epistles to Ammon Bishop of Berenice against Sabellius and an Epistle to Telephorus also one to Euphranor and again another to Ammon and Euporus He also wrote four more Books upon the same subject and dedicated them to his namesake Dionysius Bishop of Rome There are also more of his Epistles besides these extant amongst us and moreover some Books of his which are something verbose and prolixe and are written in an Epistolary form As for example his Books concerning Nature which are dedicated to Timotheus a child concerning Temptations which he dedicated to Euphranor Besides these Books in his Epistle to Basilides Bishop of Pentapolis he says he wrote a comment upon the beginning of Ecclesiastes He has also left us several Epistles which he wrote to this Basilides Thus many are Dionysius's works But now after an Historical relation of those things we will deliver to the knowledge of Posterity an account of our own Age. CHAP. XXVII Concerning Paul of Samosata and the Heresie founded by him at Antioch DIonysius namesake to Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria succeeds Xystus after he had presided over the Church of Rome Eleven years About the same time also died Demetrianus Bishop of Antioch whom Paul of Samosata succeeded in his Bishoprick This Paul had an abject and low opinion of Christ contrary to the Doctrine of the Church as if he had been by nature no more then a meer man Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria was intreated to come to the Synod He having complained of his Age and also of his infirmity of body deferred his coming But he openly declared by letter what was his sense and opinion concerning the matter in debate But the rest of the Pastors of the Churches from all parts hastned to Antioch and were convened there as against the corrupter of Christ's flock CHAP. XXVIII Concerning the Eminent Bishops of those times THe most eminent of these assembled were Firmilianus Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia Gregory and Athenodorus both brothers Bishops of the Churches of Pontus Besides these there were Helenus Bishop of Tarsus and Nichomas Bishop of Iconium Also Hymenaeus Bishop of Jerusalem and Theotecnus Bishop of Caesarea upon the Confines of Jerusalem Besides these Maximus who with great commendation governed the Brethren of Bostra And a great many more may be reckoned who together with Presbyters and Deacons were convened in the aforesaid City at the time aforesaid and upon the same account But these were the most eminent of them All these therefore being assembled in the same place together divers times and often disputations and Questions were raised in every Synod On the one side Paul of Samosata endeavoured to conceale and hide his Heterodox Opinions on the other these persons striving with all diligence to denudate and make apparent his Heresie and Blasphemie against Christ. In the interim Dionysius dies in the twelfth year of Gallienus's Empire after he had presided in the Bishoprick of Alexandria seventeen years Maximus succeedeth him But Gallienus having held the Empire fifteen years compleat Claudius was constituted his successour He having Reigned two years left the Government to Aurelianus CHAP. XXIX How Paul being confuted by Malchion a Presbyter who formerly had been one of the Sophistae was deposed IN this Emperours time was the last Synod convened which consisted of a very great number of Bishops The Authour of that Heresie at Antioch being now convicted and by all manifestly condemn'd of false Doctrine was excommunicated out of the Catholick Church which is under heaven But one Malchion most especially confuted and convinced him being desirous to keep himself conceal'd He was a most eloquent man and Master of the Grecian Philosophy School at Antioch And moreover for his surpassing sincerity in the faith
he effected divers ways and by his means Christianity enjoyed a profound and secure Peace But an intestine War amongst the Christians themselves succeeded this so firm a Peace What manner of War this was and how it began in the sequel according to my ability I will relate CHAP. V. Concerning Arius's Contest with Alexander the Bishop AFter Peter Bishop of Alexandria who suffer'd Martyrdom in the Reign of Diocletian Achillas succeeded in that See After Achillas succeeded Alexander in the time of the forementioned Peace He living in times that were more calm and secure adorned and set his Church in order Discoursing one day in the presence of his Presbyters and the rest of his Clergy too curiously concerning the mystery of the holy Trinity he asserted this point of divinity that there was an Unity in the Trinity But Arius one of the presbyters placed under Alexander a man of no mean skill in the faculty of reasoning supposing that the Bishop design'd to introduce the opinion of Sabellius the Libyan desirous to be perverse and contentious deflected to an opinion that was diametrically opposite to that of Subellius and as he thought sharply and nimbly opposed the Bishop's assertions arguing thus If the Father begot the Son he that was begotten hath a beginning of his existence And from hence it is apparent that there was a time when the Son was not Whence this is a necessary consequence that he derives his existence from nothing CHAP. VI. How from this contention there arose a division in the Church and how Alexander Bishop of Alexandria deposed Arius and his Complices ARius having drawn this Conclusion from these new assertions excited many to that question and from this small spark was kindled a great fire For the mischief having been begun in the Church of Alexandria overran all Aegypt Libya and the upper Thebaïs and at length consumed the rest of the Cities and provinces Many there were that did patronize Arius's opinion but more especially Eusebius was a maintainer of it not that Eusebius who was Bishop of Caesarea but another who formerly had been Bishop of the Church of Berytus but was then surreptitiously crept into the Bishoprick of Nicomedia in Bithynia Alexander hearing and seeing what was done became highly enraged and having convened a Council of many Bishops he degraded Arius and those that embraced his Opinion and wrote to the Bishops of every City as followeth The Letter of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria To Our well Beloved and Dearest Fellow-Ministers of the Catholick Church in all places Alexander wisheth health in the Lord. Whereas there is one body of the Catholick Church and 't is commanded in the holy Scriptures that we keep the bond of Peace and Concord it is requisite that we should Write and inform one another of what things are done amongst us to the end that if one member suffer or rejoyce we may either joyntly rejoyce or suffer together In our Diocess therefore there are lately started up men that are impious and enemies of Christ who teach such Apostacy as any one may judge and justly term the fore-runner of Antichrist And this I would most gladly have buried in silence that the mischief might have been consumed by being included amongst the Apostates only least haply by its further progress into other places it should have infected the ears of the simple But because Eusebius now Bishop of Nicomedia supposing that the affairs of the Church are wholly at his dispose in regard having deserted the Church of Berytus he has sordidly coveted that of Nicomedia and has not been prosecuted by any does Patronize even these Apostates and has boldly attempted to write Letters up and down in commendation of them that thereby he might seduce some ignorant persons into this worst and most displeasing Heresie to Christ I thought it therefore necessary being sensible of what is written in the Law to be no longer silent but to give you all notice that you might know those that are the Apostates and likewise the detestable expressions of their heresie and that if Eusebius write to you you should give no heed to him For he at this time desirous to renew his Pristine Malevolence which seemed to have been silenced and forgot by length of time pretends indeed to write Letters on their behalf but in reality he declares that he uses his utmost diligence to do this upon his own account Now these are the names of those which are turn'd Apostates Arius Achillas Aithales Carpones another Arius Sarmates Euzoïus Lucius Julianus Menas Helladius and Gaius Secundus also and Theönas who were sometimes stiled Bishops And these are their Tenets which they have invented and do assert contrary to the authority of Scripture God they say was not always a Father but there was a time when God was not a Father The word of God was not from everlasting but had his beginning from nothing For God who is made him who was not of nothing Therefore there was a time when he was not for the Son is a Creature and a Work neither is he like to the Father as to his Essence nor is he by nature the genuine Word of the Father nor his true Wisdom But he is one of his Works and one of his Creatures and is only improperly stiled the Word and the Wisedom for he himself exists by the proper Word of God and by the Wisedom that is in God by which God made all things and him also Wherefore he is by nature mutable and subject to change as well as all other rational beings So that the Word is different disagreeable and separate from the Essence of God and the Father cannot be declared or set forth by the Son and is invisible to him For the Son does not perfectly and accurately know the Father neither can he perfectly behold him for the Son knows not his own Essence what it is For our sakes he was made that God might make use of him as an instrument in order to our Creation nor had he ever existed had it not pleas'd God to Create us And when one asked them if the Word of God could be changed as the Devil was they were not afraid to answer yes certainly he may for he is of a Nature subject to change in that he is begotten and created We therefore with the Bishops of Aegypt and Libya neer a hundred in number being met together have anathematized Arius for these his Principles and for his impudent assertion of them together with all his adherents But Eusebius has given them entertainment endeavouring to mix falshood with truth and impiety with piety but he shall not prevail For truth getteth the victory and light has no communion with darkness nor hath Christ any agreement with â—elial For who ever heard the like or what man if he should now hear them would not be amazed thereat and stop his ears least the filth of this
the great Council of Nice was this We believe in one God the Father Almighty Maker of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God begotten of the Father the only begotten that is of the substance of the Father God of God and Light of Light very God of very God begotten not made of the same substance with the Father by whom all things were made that are in heaven and in earth who for the sake of us men and for our salvation descended and was incarnate and was made man and he suffered and arose again the third day ascended into the Heavens he shall come to Judge the quick and the dead We also believe in the Holy Ghost But the holy Catholick and Apostolick Church doth anathematize those that aver that there was a time when the Son of God was not and that he was not before he was begotten and that he was made of nothing Or that say he was made of another substance or essence or that he is either created or convertible or mutable This Creed three hundred and eighteen Bishops approved of and embraced and as Eusebius testifies being unanimous in their suffrages and sentiments they subscribed it There were only five that refused to allow of it who misliked the word Homoousios these were Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia Theognis Bishop of Nice Maris of Chalcedon Theonas of Marmarica and Secundus of Ptolemais For in regard they asserted that that is Consubstantial which is from another either by Partition or by Derivation or by Eruption by Eruption as the Branch from the Root by Derivation as Children from their Parents by Partition as two or three pieces of Gold from the whole Mass but that the Son of God is from the Father by none of these three ways Therefore they said they could not give their assent to this draught of the Creed Therefore after a tedious cavil about the term Homoöusios they deny'd to subscribe the degradation of Arius Upon which account the Synod anathematized Arius and all those that were of his opinion adding this besides that he should be prohibited from entring into Alexandria The Emperour also did by his Edict banish Arius Eusebius and Theognis Eusebius and Theognis soon after their banishment exhibited their penetentiary Libells and assented to the belief of Homoöusios as we shall declare in the procedure of our History At the same time Eusebius sirnam'd Pamphilus Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine having made some small Hesitancy in the Synod and considered with himself whether he might securely admit of this form of Faith at length together with all the rest gave his assent and subscrib'd he also sent a Copy of the form of Faith to the people within his Diocess and explain'd to them the term Homoöusios lest any one should have an ill opinion of him because of his Hesitancy Thus therefore he wrote word for word It is very probable beloved that you may have heard what hath been done concerning the Ecclesiastick Faith in the great Council convened at Nice in regard report doth usually outrun an accurate Narrative of the matters Transacted But fearing lest by such a bare report the matter might be represented to you otherwise then really it is we thought it requisite to send to you first that form of Faith which we our selves proposed to the Council and likewise that other published by the Bishops who made some additions to ours That form of Faith drawn up by us which was read in the presence of our most pious Emperour and appeared to all to be sound and Orthodox runn's thus As we have receiv'd by tradition from our Predecessours the Bishops then when we were instructed in the first principles of the Faith and received Baptism as we have learnt from the divine Scriptures and as during our continuance in the Presbytership and also since we have been intrusted with a Bishoprick we have believed and taught so we also now believe and do make a publick declaration to you of our Faith which is this We believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the Word of God God of God Light of Light Life of Life the only begotten Son the first born of every creature begotten of God the Father before all worlds by whom also all things were made who for our salvation was incarnate and conversed amongst men who suffer'd and rose again the third day he ascended unto the Father and shall come again in Glory to Judge the quick and the dead We also believe in one Holy Ghost We believe that each of these Persons is and doth subsist that the Father is truely the Father the Son really the Son and the Holy Ghost really the Holy Ghost as our Lord also when he sent his Disciples out to Preach said Go ye and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Concerning which Articles we do aver that we thus maintain and hold them that these are our sentiments of them that this was our Opinion formerly that this Opinion we will till death retain that we will persevere in this belief and anathematize every impious Heresie We call God Almighty and Jesus Christ our Lord to witness that these were sincerely and heartily our sentiments ever since we were capable of knowing our selves and that we do now think and speak what is most true and we are ready to demonstrate to you by most infallible proofs and to perswade you that both in times past we thus believ'd and likewise thus Preached When this Creed was propos'd by us there was no body that could oppose it Moreover our most pious Emperour did himself first attest its truth he protested that he himself was of the same Opinion and exhorted all to assent to and subscribe these very Articles and unanimously to agree in the profession of them this one only word Homoöusios being inserted which term the Emperour himself thus explained saying he suppos'd that the word Homoöusios was not to be taken in such a sense as is agreeable to the affections of the body and therefore that the Son had not his subsistance from the Father either by Division or Abscission For it is impossible said he that an immaterial intellectual and incorporeal nature should be subject to any corporeal affection but our sentiments of such things must be expressed in divine and mysterious terms Thus did our most wise and pious Emperour Philosophize But the Bishops upon the occasion of adding this word Homoöusios drew up this form of the Creed The Creed We believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God the only begotten of the Father that is of the substance of the Father God of God Light of Light very God of very
Laodicaea one that was present at this Synod informs us For he says in the Book he wrote concerning his Life that this Eusebius was descended from noble personages of Edessa in Mesopotamia and that from his childhood he Learned the sacred Scriptures that he was afterwards instructed in the Grecian literature by a Master who then lived at Edessa and in fine that he had the sacred Scriptures interpreted to him by Patrophilus and Eusebius the latter of which persons presided over the Church in Caesarea and the former over that in Scythopolis After this when he came to Antioch it hapned that Eustathius being accused by Cyrus of Beroea was deposed as being an assertor of Sabellius's opinion Wherefore Eusebius afterwards lived with Euphronius Eustathius's successour Afterwards that he might avoid being made a Bishop he betook himself to Alexandria and there studied Philosophy Returning from thence to Antioch he conversed with Flaccillus Euphronius's successour and was at length promoted to the See of Alexandria by Eusebius Bishop of Constantinople But he went thither no more because Athanasius was so much beloved by the people of Alexandria He was therefore sent to Emisa But when the Inhabitants of that City raised a Sedition at his Ordination for he was reproacht as being a person studious of and exercised in the Mathematicks he fled from thence and went to Laodicaea to Georgius who hath related so many passages concerning him When this Georgius had brought him to Antioch he procured him to be sent back again to Emisa by Flaccillus and Narcissus But he afterwards underwent another accusation for being an adherent to Sabellius's principles Georgius writes at large concerning his Ordination And in fine adds that the Emperour in his expedition against the Barbarians took him along with him and that miracles were wrought by him But hitherto we have recorded what Georgius hath related concerning Eusebius Emisenus CHAP. X. That the Bishops convened at Antioch upon Eusebius Emisenus's refusal of the Bishoprick of Alexandria Ordained Gregorius and altered the expressions of the Nicene Faith BUt when Eusebius who had been chosen Bishop of Alexandria at Antioch was afraid to go thither they then proposed Gregorius to be Ordained Bishop of Alexandria And having done this they altered the Creed finding fault indeed with nothing that had been determined at Nice but in reality their design was to subvert and destroy the Homoöusian Faith by their continual assembling of Synods and by their publishing sometimes one sometimes another form of the Creed that so by degrees all persons might be perverted to the Arian opinion Moreover how these things were done by them we will manifest in the procedure of our History But the Epistle they published concerning the Faith runs thus We have neither been Arius ' s followers for how should we that are Bishops be the Followers of a Presbyter Nor have we embraced any other Faith than what was from the beginning set forth But being made inquirers into and examiners of his Faith we have admitted and entertained rather than followed him And this you will understand from what shall be said For we have learned from the beginning to believe in one supream God the maker and preserver of all things as well intelligible as sensible And in one only begotten Son of God subsisting before all ages existing together with the Father that begat him by whom all things visible and invisible were made who in the last days according to the Fathers good pleasure descended and assumed flesh from the holy Virgin and when he had compleatly fulfilled all his Fathers will he suffered and arose and ascended into the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father and he shall come to judge the quick and dead and continues a King and God for ever We believe also in the holy Ghost And if it be requisite to add this we also believe the Resurrection of the flesh and the life everlasting Having written these things in their first Epistle they sent them to the Bishops throughout every City But when they had continued sometime at Antioch condemning as it were this their former Epistle they again publish another in these very words Another Exposition of Faith Agreeable to Evangelick and Apostolick tradition We believe in one God the Father Almighty the Framer and Maker of all things And in one Lord Jesus Christ his only begotten Son God by whom all things were made begotten of the Father before all worlds God of God Whole of Whole Only of Only Perfect of Perfect King of King Lord of Lord the living Word the Wisedom the Life the true Light the way of Truth the Resurrection the Shepherd the Gate immutable and inconvertible the most express image of the Father's Deity Substance Power Council and Glory the First begotten of every Creature Who was in the beginning with God God the Word according as 't is said in the Gospel and the word was God by whom all things were made and in whom all things have subsisted Who in the last days came down from heaven and was born of the Virgin according to the Scriptures And was made man the mediatour of God and men the Apostle of our Faith and the Prince of life as he himself says * For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me Who suffered for us and rose again for us the third day and ascended into the heavens and sitteth at the right hand of the Father And he shall come again with Glory and Power to judge the quick and dead And we believe in the holy Ghost who is given to believers in order to their Consolation Sanctification and Perfection according as our Lord Jesus Christ commanded his disciples saying Go ye and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost to wit of the Father being truly the Father and of the Son being truly the Son and of the holy Ghost being truly the holy Ghost which terms are not simply or insignificantly made use of but they do accurately manifest the proper and peculiar Person Glory and Order of each of those that are named So that they are three in Person but in consent One We therefore holding this Faith in the presence of God and of Christ do anathematize all manner of Heretical and ill opinions And if any one shall teach contrary to the â—ound and true Faith of the Scriptures saying that there is or was a time or an age before the Son of God was begotten let him be Anathema And if any one says that the Son is a Creature as one of the Creatures or that he is a Branch as one of the Branches and shall not hold every one of the foresaid points according as the sacred Scriptures have set them forth or if any one Teaches or Preaches
City of Constantinople and firmed the Ariminum Creed making some additions to it FOr the Emperour being returned from the Western parts resided in that City at which time also he made a person whole name was Honoratus the first Praefect of Constantinople having abolished the Proconsul's Office But the Acacians prevented and calumniated them before-hand to the Emperour having informed him that the Creed which they had set forth was not admitted by them Whereupon the Emperour was highly incensed and resolved to disperse them having commanded by an Edict which he published that such of them as were subject to publick Offices should be reduced to their former condition For several of them were liable to publick Offices some were subject to the bearing of those Offices belonging to the City Magistracy others to them appertaining to the Sodalities of Officialls or Apparitours in several Provinces These persons being after this manner disturbed the Acacians abode for some time at Constantinople and assembled another Synod to which they sent for the Bishops of Bithynia When therefore they were all met together being fifty in number amongst whom was Maris of Chalcedon they confirmed the Creed published at Ariminum which had the Consuls names prefixt Which Creed it would have been superfluous to have inserted here had they made no additions to it But in regard they added some words thereto we thought it necessary to set it down at this place again The contents of it are these We Believe in one only God the Father Almighty of whom are all things And in the only begotten Son of God begotten of God before all ages and before every beginning by whom all things visible and invisible were made Who is the only begotten born of the Father the only of the only God of God like to the Father who begat him according to the Scriptures Whose generation no person knoweth but the Father only who begat him We know this Person to be the only begotten Son of God who upon his Father's sending of him came down from the heavens according as 't is written upon account of the destruction of Sin and Death and was born of the holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary according to the flesh as it is written and conversed with the disciples and having fulfilled every dispensation according to his Fathers Will he was crucified and died and was buryed and descended into the parts beneath the earth At whom hell it self trembled Who arose from the dead on the third day and was conversant with the disciples and after the completion of fourty days he was taken up into the Heavens and sitteth on the right hand of the Father he shall come in the last day of the Resurrection in his Fathers Glory that he may render to every man according to his works And we believe in the holy Ghost whom he himself the only begotten of God Christ our Lord and God promised to send as an Advocate to mankind according as 't is written the Spirit of truth whom he sent unto them after he was assumed into the Heavens But we thought good to remove the term Ousia which was used by the Fathers in a more plain and ordinary sense and being not understood by the people has given offence in regard 't is not contained in the sacred Scriptures and that in future not the least mention should be made thereof for as much as the sacred Scriptures have no where mentioned the substance of the Father and of the Son Nor ought the subsistence of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost to be so much as named But we assert the Son to be like the Father in such a manner as the sacred Scriptures do affirm and teach Moreover let all the Heresies which have been heretofore condemned and which may have risen of late being opposite to this Creed published by us be Anathema This Creed was at that time recited at Constantinople Having now at length passed through the labyrinth of the Expositions of Faith we will reckon up their number After the Creed published at Nice they set forth two Expositions of the Faith at Antioch at the Dedication A third was that delivered to the Emperour Constans in the Gallia's by Narcissus and those that accompanied him The fourth was that sent by Eudoxius into Italy Three Draughts of the Creed were published at Sirmium one whereof was recited at Ariminum which had the names of the Consuls prefixt The eighth was that which the Acacians promulged at Seleucia The last was set forth at the City Constantinople with an addition For hereto was annexed that neither substance nor subsistence ought to be mentioned in relation to God Moreover Ulfila Bishop of the Goths did at that time first agree to this Creed For before this he had embraced the Nicene Creed being Theophilus's follower who was Bishop of the Goths and had been present at and subscribed the Nicene Synod Thus far concerning these things CHAP. XLII That upon Macedonius's being deposed Eudoxius obtained the Bishoprick of Constantinople BUt Acacius Eudoxius and those that were with them at Constantinople made it wholly their business that they also might on the other side depose some persons of the contrary party Now you must know that neither of the factions decreed these depositions upon account of Religion but for other pretences For though they dissented about the Faith yet they found not fault with one anothers Faith in their mutual depositions of one another Those therefore of Acacius's party making use of the Emperours indignation which he had kept concealed in his mind and earnestly indeavoured to wreak it against others but most especially against Macedonius do in the first place depose Macedonius both because he had been the occasion of many murders and also in regard he had admitted a Deacon taken in Fornication to Communion Then they depose Eleusius Bishop of Cyzicum because he had baptized one Heraclius Hercules's Priest at Tyre a person known to be a Conjurer and ordained him Deacon In the next place they depose Basilius or Basilas for so he was also called who had been constituted Bishop of Ancyra in the room of Marcellus as having unjustly tortured a certain person bound him with Iron chains and confined him to Prison also because he had fastned calumnies upon some persons and moreover in regard by his Letters he had disturbed the Churches in Africa Dracontius was deposed by them because he had removed from Galatia to Pergamus Moreover they deposed Neonas Bishop of Seleucia in which City the Synod had been convened as also Sophronius of Pompeiopolis in Paphlagonia Elpidius of Satala in Macedonia and Cyrillus of Jerusalem and others were ejected by them for other reasons CHAP. XLIII Concerning Eustathius Bishop of Sebastia BUT Eustathius Bishop of Sebastia in Armenia was not so much as admitted to make his defence because he had been long before deposed by Eulalius his
Military affairs and for those other dignities which he had born he at that time made his residence about the Danube and hindred the Abari from passing that River The Abari are a Scythick Nation who live in Waggons and inhabit the Regions scituate beyond Caucasus Which people in regard they had been sorely afflicted by the Turks their Neighbours left their habitation and with their whole Families fled from them and came to the Bosphorus Then leaving the Shore of that termed the Euxine Sea where many barbarous Nations who had left their own dwellings inhabited moreover Cities Castra and some Stations had been built there by the Romans when either Veterane Souldiers or Colonies had been sent thither by the Emperours they continued on their journey engaging all the Barbarians they met with till such time as they were arrived at the Banks of the Danube and had sent Embassadours to Justinian From thence therefore Justinus was sent for on pretence as if he were to enjoy the advantage of that Compact which had been made betwixt him and the Emperour Justinus For in regard both of them were equall as to their Secular Grandeur and Power and whereas the Empire hung as it were betwixt them after many debates they had come to this agreement that he who was arrived at the Empire should give the other the Second place that so by being Second in the Empire he might be First in respect of all other persons CHAP. II. Concerning the Murder of Justinus Kinsman to the Emperour Justinus THe Emperour Justinus therefore received Justinus with great appearances of kindness and friendship but soon after he framed various causes and pretences and by degrees deprived him of his Satellites his Domesticks and the Protectors of his Body and forbids him Access to himself for he sate at home At length by Justinus's order he is removed to the Great City Alexandria where he is most inhumanely murdered in the dead of the night whilst he lay in his bed this being the reward he received for his kindness to the Republick and for those eminent Services he had performed in the Wars Nor would the Emperour Justinus and his wise Sophia abate of their rage or could they satiate their burning sury conceived against Justinus till such time as they had seen his head after 't was cut off and had trampled it under their feet CHAP. III. Concerning those Miscreants Addaeus and Aetherius MOreover not long after the Emperour delivered up Aetherius and Addaeus persons of the Senatorian Order who had been great Favourites of the Emperour Justinian's to a judiciary process they being charged with an accusation of High-Treason Of these two Aetherius confessed that he designed to kill the Emperour by Poyson and said that he had Addaeus his Accomplice in this attempt and his Assistant in all his other designes But Addaeus with horrid Oaths affirmed that he was wholly ignorant of these Treasons Nevertheless both of them were beheaded Addaeus at such time as his head was cut off affirmed that in this matter he had been falsely accused but that he was deservedly punished by divine Justice which inspects all affairs where-ever transacted for he said that by Magick he had murdered Theodotus the Praefectus Praetorio But I cannot positively affirm whither or no these things were so however they were both most flagitious wretches Addaeus was a Notorious Sodomite And Aetherius omitted no sort of Calumny but preyed upon the Estates as well of the living as of the dead in the name of that Imperial House of which he was Curator or Governour during the Empire of Justinian And such was the conclusion of these matters CHAP. IV. Concerning the Edict of our Faith which Justinus wrote to the Christians in all places MOreover the same Justinus wrote an Edict to the Christians in all places the Contents whereof ran in these express words IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST OUR GOD EMPEROUR CAESAR FLAVIUS JUSTINUS FAITHFULL IN CHRIST MILD THE GREATEST BENEFICENT ALEMANICUS GOTTHICUS GERMANICUS ANTICUS FRANCICUS ERULICUS GEPAEDICUS PIOUS HAPPY GLORIOUS VICTOR TRIUMPHATOR ALWAYS ADORABLE AUGUSTUS My peace I give unto you says the Lord Christ our true God My peace I leave with you declares the same Christ to all men The purport of which expressions is nothing else but that those who believe in him should unite in one and the same Church being of the same mind in relation to the true Faith of the Christians and having an aversion for them who affirm or think the contrary For the Primary safety which has been appointed to all men is the Confession of the true Faith Wherefore We also following the Evangelick Admonitions and the Holy Symboll or Creed of the Holy Fathers do exhort all men to betake themselves to one and the same Church and Opinion believing in the Father in the Son and in the Holy Spirit in the Consubstantiall Trinity in the One Deity or Nature and Essence both in word and deed and asserting One Might and Power and Operation in the three Hypostasis's or Persons into which we have been baptized in which we have believed and to which we have been conjoyned For we adore the Unity in the Trinity and the Trinity in the Unity which hath an admirable both Division and Unition an Unity in respect of the Essence or Deity but a Trinity in respect of the proprieties or Hypostasis's or Persons For that we may so speak it is indivisibly divided and divisibly conjoyned For there is One in Three to wit the Deity and Three are One in whom namely is the Deity or to speak more accurately which are the Deity it self God the Father God the Son God the Holy Ghost when as each Person is considered by himself the mind to wit dividing those things which are inseperable the Three Persons being one God understood together on account of the same Motion and the same Nature For we ought both to confess one God and also to assert Three Hypostasis's or Proprieties But we Confess him the only Begotten Son of God God the Word who was begotten of the Father before Ages and without time not made in the last days to have descended from Heaven on our account and for our Salvation and to have been incarnate by the Holy Ghost and of our Lady the Holy Glorious Theotocos and Ever-Virgin Mary and to have been born of her who is our Lord Jesus Christ one of the Holy Trinity Glorified together with the Father and the Holy Spirit For the holy Trinity hath not received an addition of a Fourth Person although one of the holy Trinity God the Word hath been incarnate but he is One and the same our Lord Jesus Christ Consubstantiall to God and the Father according to the Deity and the same Person is of the same substance with us in
ipsum Athanasium hoc Canone utentes deponere nor thinking that by using of this Canon they deposed not only Johannes but even Athanasius himself Vales. f Christophorson thought these words were spoken concerning John who after this was withheld from entring the Church But I had rather they should be understood of the Emperour himself in which sense Epiphanius and Musculus takes them Our sentiment is confirmed by that passage in Socrates which occurs a little before in this chapter where he relates that Arcadius at the approach of Christmas gave John notice that he could not come into the Church unless John who had been condemned by the sentence of a Synod should first clear himself After the same manner therefore at the approach of Easter Arcadius gives John notice that he could not go to the Church as long as John condemned now by two Synods resided therein Vales. g This Edifice was called the Senate-house The Author of the Alexandrian Chronicle at the sixth Consulate of Honorius which he bore with Aristaenetus has these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And on a sudden the Great Church was burns together with the Senate-house fired by those who held it termed the Xylocercetae on the second day at the sixth hour See Chronic. Alexandr pag. 714. Edit Monach. 1615. Zosimus describes this Structure about the middle of his fifth book It was in the Second Ward of the City Constantinople as we are informed from the Old description of that City published before the Notitia Imperii Romani Vales. h This if I mistake not is the Manichaean and Semipagan Praefect of the City who at the dedication of Eudoxia's Statue had mocked the Christians as we have related before see note a. in this chapter from Theophanes Palladius in the Life of Chrysostome speaks concerning the same Optatus that when he was Praefect of the City he compelled the Noble Matrons either to communicate with Arsacius who had been put into John Chrysostome's Bishoprick or else to pay two hundred pounds of Gold into the Exchequer Vales. * See chap. 15. †Or the destemper * Chap. 15. †See the close of the foregoing chapter a Instead of November it must be September as it is in the Sfortian M. S. and in Epiphanius Scholasticus's Version Nor did Nicephorus read otherwise who adds that the day whereon John Chrysostome died was dedicated to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. For so it was agreeable that he who had passed his whole life under the Cross and had gloried in nothing but in the Cross of his Lord should be loosed from the Frame of his body on that Festivall as the same Nicephorus does elegantly write Vales. * chap. 3. b In what Homily this was said by Chrysostome I cannot find And yet we have little reason to question Socrates's authority because he lived in the same times and could have heard the Sermons as well of Chrysostome as of Sisinnius Bishop of the Novatians Moreover it may be more certainly concluded from this passage than from any other that Socrates was a Novatianist For he does both put an ill interpretation upon Chrysostome's saying and also openly favours Sisinrius Bishop of the Novatian party against John Chrysostome You must know further that this saying was objected to Chrysostome by Bishop Isaacius in the Synod ad Quercum because he gave sinners a liberty in regard he taught if you have sinned again repent again And as often as you sin come to me and I will heal you Vales. * Eccles. 9. 8. †Luke 9. 29. a In Suidas at the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this whole passage in Socrates is transcribed where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—e answered is wanting Which word must either be expunged here as superfluous which we have done in our Version or else the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subjoyned which went before must be blotted out Vales. * Or he hunts after words c. * That is a nutt-tree †Or the Space * This Appendix is part of the eleventh chapter of this book worded in a different manner only Musculus Grynaeus and D r Hanmer have omitted it in their Versions Christophorson Curterius and Valesius have inserted it in their translations The Greek Text of it occurs in Stephens's Edition and in Valesius's from which latter we have rendred it into English * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a narrowness of mind †Or gave not a He means the oath mentioned before at the 11 th chapter to wit if Serapion dies a Christian Christ hath not been incarnate Further these words condemns and excommunicates denote Severianus's menaces rather than the thing it self For Severianus Bishop of Gabali had no power of condemning or deposing a Deacon of another Diocess but he only threatned to do this and committed his complaint to the judgment of the Bishops Vales. * Or the honour †Or was not obedient to what c. ‖ See chap. 11 at the latter end of it * That is Arcadius's Son * See Socrates book 2. chap. 1â— a Nicephorus book 14. chap. 1. relates that this Anthemius enlarged the Pomoerium that is a space about the walls of a City or Town as well within as without which was not to be built upon of the City Constantinople demolished the old walls and built new onâ—â— towards the Continent which says he are now standing and that he finished the work with an incredible swiftness to wit within the space of two months For so I render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is walls to the Landward and not as Langus does Brick-walls But Nicephorus seems to be mistaken who attributes that to Anthemius which was done long after by Cyrus Praefect of Constantinople as Cedrenus relates in his Chronicon on the 26 th year of Theodosius Junior Further I would very willingly expunge this whole clause in our Socrates For it disturbs the sense and seems to have crept from the Margin into the Text. Vales. b This Troïlus the Sophista was one of Anthemius's chiefest friends as besides Socrates Synesius informs us in his Epistle to Troïlus Socrates mentions the same Troïlus at chap. 6. book 6. where he speaks concerning Eusebius Scholasticus who wrote Gaina's war in verse Suidas has mentioned the same person in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he affirms that he wrote Politick Orations and Books of Epistles Vales. c Instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 friendship the reading in the Florentine M. S. is truer thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wisdom Which emendation is confirmed by Nicephorus Vales. Valesius in his account of the Life and Writings of Socrates and Sozomen reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophy which alteration in the reading he makes in his Appendix to his Notes on Socrates and Sozomen * Book 6. chap. 20. * 1 Cor. 9. 22. †Or without prâ—meditation a It would be more truly written Synnada with a double n. For so the
the Typicon of S t Saba and by Balsamon in his Collection of Canons To whom add Isidorus and Beda in the Book de Divinis Officiis where they treat concerning Sunday Stephanus Gobarus writes the same in his 29 th Chapter To this custom it is perhaps to be referred that the Greeks most commonly reckon the days of the week not to the Sunday which precedes but to that which follows For after the Sunday of the Prodigal Son which is the ninth Sunday before Easter those dayes which followed immediately namely the second third and fourth Feria and so on were by the Greeks termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untill the following Sunday which was termed Dominica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this week was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Meursius's Glossary in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But after the Dominica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second Feria which followed next was termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the other days of that whole week unto the following Sunday which was called by the same name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same may be observed in the other Sundays untill Easter-day For after the Dominica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second Feria was termed the second Feria of the Holy Fasts and the whole week was called so untill the following Sunday which had the same name Lastly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Great week or Passion-week which we call the Holy Week is reckoned to the following Sunday namely Easter Day as it appears from the Typicon of Saint Saâ—â— Chap. 31. Cyrillus also in his 〈◊〉 Sermons always begins the week of Easter which we now term The Holy Week from the second Feria and closes it with the following Sunday namely easter-Easter-Day Nor does Theophilus do otherwise in his â—aschâ—l Epistles Vales. h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the most ancient name of Sunday whorâ—by it was â—alled even from the Apostles times 'T is certain in the Revelation of Saint John mention is made of the Lord's day See Chap. 1. verse 10. But what Enseâ—ius says here and in the Life of Constantine namely that Sunday was consecrated and set apart for prayers and Ecclesiastick assemblies this in my judgment was instituted something later For the first Christians who had embraced the faith immediately after our Lords Ascent met every day always applying themselves to prayers and all manner of Offices of Piety as S r Luâ—e writes in the Acts of the Apostles But afterwards when the Heathens betook themselves in great numbers to the faith of Christ and the Faithfull could not meet every day it was appointed by the Apostles and their Successours that at least on the Lord's Day the Faithfull should meet together in the Church Concerning which there is an eminent passage in Justin the Martyr's Second Apology about the close of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the day termed Sunday all persons as well those who dwell in the Country as them in the City â—eet together c. He has termed it Sunday not the Lord's Day because he sâ—oke to the Roman Emperours who were well acquainted with Sunday but knew not the Lord's Day which was an appellation proper to Christians Justin repeats the same thing a little after in the same Apology Hereto likewise Pliny agrees in his Epistle to Trajan 〈◊〉 says he hanc fuisse summâ—m vel câ—lpa suâ— vel erroris c. They affirmed that this was the â—otall either of their fault or errour that on a stated day they were want to meet together before it was light and sing an Hymn to Christ aâ— to God Where by a stated day he means The Lord's Day Therefore from this place of Pliny it may be gathered that the Christians who then lived in Bithynia met together on the Lord's Day only Otherwise Pliny would have said that they were wont to meet on stated days not on a stated day Although this is not so much the Testimony of Pliny himself as the Christians own who conâ—eâ—t that before Pliny as he himself atteâ—â—s Besides the Lord's Day Epiphanius in the Epilogue to his Books against Heresies affirms that an Assemblie on the fourth and sixth â—â—riâ— and 〈◊〉 iâ— his Constitutions says that a meeting together on the Sabbath Day was instituted by the Apostles But as to what belongs to the Stations of the fourth and sixth Feria we are informed from Tertullian in â—is Book de Jejuniâ—â— that they were meerly arbitrary and at will not determined by any positive Law or Command And although it was the Easternâ— usage to meet together on the Sabbath yet 't is manifest from Epiphanius Socrates and others that in most Churches Assemblies were not then held There is an eminent passage of S t Jerom's on the Epist to the Galatians Chap. 4. Eâ— nâ—inord 〈…〉 gregatio popâ—â—â—â—idem minueret in Christo c. And least a disordered â—ongregation of the people might lessen the faith in Christ Wordâ—â—â—ome days â—re appointed that we might all come together Not that that day whereâ—â— we â—â—et is â—ore solemn but that on whatever day there is an assembly a greater joy may arise from the â—ight of one another Vales. i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He says that the Lord's Day has its name from light not because it was by the Heatâ—ens termed the day of the Sâ—â— but because 't is the day of the Lord that namely whereon the Lord rose and conferred on us Life and Light and because on that day we received the Holy Spirit the Enlightner of our minds See Clemenâ— Alexandrinus's Strom Book 6. where speaking concerning the Sabbath there occurs a most elegant passage which for brevities â—ake I here omit The Lord's Day therefore is the day of Light both because on that day the Light was first â—reated and also in regard we on that day received the knowledge of the truth by the Holy Spirit who fell upon the Faithfull under the form of â—ire and without division was divided as Clemens words it in the forementioned place Vales. k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is not satisfied in his instructing others he himself practises those things which he teacheth according to the command of the Gospel Vales. * Or Keepers l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The reading must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we have rendred it accordingly Indeed in the Fuketian Copy 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vales. m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Church is understood as 't is apparent from His third Book concerning the Life of Constantine Chap. 50. From whence it must be also here corrected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chiefest Cities as the reading likewise is in the Fuketian Copy Vales. n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the third Book of his Life of Constantine Chap. 50 instead of the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is made use of Indeed
having reigned something more than a year Trajan succeeded him It was his first year wherein Cerdo succeeded Avilius who had governed the Alexandrian Church thirteen years This Cerdo was the third from Annianus who first presided there At this time also Clemens yet governed the Roman Church he being also the third that after Paul and Peter had the Episcopal dignity there Linus being the first and after him Anencletus CHAP. XXII That Ignatius was the Second that presided over the Alexandrian Church MOreover Euodius having been constituted the first Bishop at Antioch the second was Ignatius a man famous in those times Simeon likewise was the second who after our Saviours brother at the same time entred upon the publick charge over the Church at Jerusalem CHAP. XXIII A Relation concerning John the Apostle AT the same time the Apostle and also Evangelist John the same whom Jesus loved remaining yet alive in Asia governed the Churches there being returned from his Exile in the Island after the death of Domitian For that he was hitherto alive it is sufficiently confirmed by two who evidence the matter and they are very worthy of credit having been constant assertours of Catholick sound Doctrine I mean these persons Irenaeus and Clemens Alexandrinus The former of whom in his second book against Heresie writes thus word for word And all the Elders that were conversant in Asia with John the disciple of our Lord do testifie that John delivered it to them for he continued among them untill Trajans time And in the third book of that work he manifests the same thing in these words Moreover the Church at Ephesus was founded indeed by Paul but John continuing among them untill Trajans time is a most faithfull witness of the Apostolick Tradition And Clemens likewise having evidently shown the time adds withall a Relation very necessary for those who delight to hear good and profitable things in that work of his which he entitled who that rich man is that shall be saved Let us therefore take his book and read the story which is thus Hear a Relation which is not a feigned story but a real truth delivered concerning John the Apostle and kept in remembrance For after the death of the Tyrant he returned from the Island Patmos to Ephesus and being thereto requested he went to the neighbouring Provinces in some places constituting Bishops in others setting in order whole Churches and other where electing into the Clergy some one or other of those who were made known to him by the Spirit Coming therefore to one of the Cities not far distant the name whereof some mention and moreover having refreshed the brethren at length casting his eyes upon a youth of a goodly stature of body comely countenance and lively disposition he lookt upon him whom he had Ordained Bishop and said This youth I doe with all imaginable care commit to thy charge in the presence of the Church and of Christ as a witness And when he had undertaken this charge and promised his utmost care thereof John declared and desired the same again And afterwards returned to Ephesus But the Presbyter taking home the youth committed to his custody educated him kept him within compass and cherished him and at length baptized him but after that he abated something of his great care and caution over him because he had fortified him with that most absolute defence to wit the Seal of the Lord. But having obtained his freedom a little too early some idle dissolute young men that were inured to all manner of vice keep him company and first of all they entice him with sumptuous Banquets then going out by night to rob and strip those they could meet with they carry him a long with them afterwards they desire him to be their complice in greater rogueries So by little and little he was accustomed to lewdness and because he was high spirited having once left the right way like a strong hard mouthed horse holding the bitt between his teeth he was so much the more fiercely hurried into destruction In fine despairing of the salvation of God he spent not his thoughts now upon any trifling designe but attempted some enormous wickedness in as much as he was wholly past all hope he scorned to run the hazard of so mean a punishment as other theeves did Taking therefore those his accomplices and having formed them into a Troop of theeves he was readily made their commander in chief being the fiercest the most bloudy and cruelest person of them all Sometime after and there happening some necessity for it they send again for John who after he had set in order those things upon account whereof he came said Come on Bishop restore us that which was committed to thy custody which I and Christ delivered to thee to take care of in the presence of the Church as witness over which thou dost preside But he at first was astonished supposing himself to be falsely accused about money which he had not received neither could he give credit to John concerning his demand of what he had not nor yet durst he disbelieve him But when John had said I demand the young man and the soul of our brother the old man fetching a deep sigh and also weeping said he is dead How and what kind of death To God said he he is dead for he proved wicked and extreamly naught and in conclusion a thief And now instead of continuing in the Church he hath taken possession of the mountain with a troop of associates like himself The Apostle therefore having rent his garment and with a great outâ—ry smiting his head I left said he an excellent keeper of our brothers soul But let an horse be presently brought me and let me have a guide to direct me in the way He rode as he was forthwith from the Church and coming to the place is taken by the watch which the Theeves had set he flyes not nor makes entreaty but calls out For this purpose I came bring me to your captain he in the mean time armed as he was stood still but as soon as he knew John approaching being ashamed he fled But he forgetfull of his Age with all possible speed pursued him crying out Son why doest thou flee from thy Father unarmed and aged Have compassion on me my son fear not as yet there is hopes of thy salvation I will intercede with Christ for thee if need require I will willingly undergoe death for thee as the Lord underwent it for us I will by way of recompence give my soul for thine stand still believe me Christ hath sent me He having heard this first stood still looking downward then he threw away his armour afterwards trembling he wept bitterly and embraced the approaching old man craving pardon as well as he could for crying and being as it were baptized the second time with tears onely he hid his right
Hebrews the rest they made small account of They observed also the Sabbath and all other Judaical rites in like manner as the Jews doe but on Sundays they performed the same things with us in remembrance of the Lords Resurrection From whence because of such opinionâ— by them held they got this name to wit the appellation of Ebionites a name that betokens the poverty of their understanding For by this name a begger is called amongst the Hebrews CHAP. XXVIII Of the Arch-Heretick Cerinthus WE have heard that at the same time there was one Cerinthus a Founder of another Heresie Caius whose words I before quoted in that disputation of his now extant writes thus concerning him But Cerinthus also who by Revelations written by himself as it were by some great A postle hath feigned monstrous narrations as if they had been shewed him by Angels and sets them abroach amongst us saying that after the Resurrection the Kingdom of Christ will be terrestriall and that men living again in the flesh at Jerusalem shall be subject to desires and pleasures He also being an enemy to divine Scripture and desirous to induce men into errour says that there shall be the number of a thousand years spent in a nuptial feast And Dionysius also who in our time was chosen Bishop of the Church of Alexandria in his second book concerning promises speaking something of the Revelation of John as from antient tradition mentions this man in these words But Cerinthus the Founder of the Heresie called from him the Cerinthian Heresie was they say the authour of that book being desirous to put a creditable name upon his own Forgery For this was one of the tenets of his doctrine that the Kingdom of Christ should be terrestrial and those things which he being a lover of his body and altogether carnally minded earnestly lusted after in them he dreamt the Kingdome of Christ consisted to wit in the satiety of the belly and of those parts beneath the belly that is in meats drinks and marriages and in those things whereby he thought these might with a greater pretence and shew of piety be procured that is in feasts sacrifices and in the â—laying of offerings Thus far Dionysius But Ireneus in his first book against Heresies does recite some more secret false opinions of this mans and in his third book he delivers in writing a certain story unworthy to be forgotten as from the tradition of Polycarpe saying that John the Apostle going on a time to the Bath to bathe himself and understanding that Cerinthus was within retired in great hast from that place and fled out at the door not enduring to goe under the same roof with him and that he perswaded those who were with him to doe so also saying Let us be gone least the Bath fall Cerinthus that enemy of the truth being within it CHAP. XXIX Of Nicholas and those Hereticks who bear his name AT this time the Heresie called the Heresie of the Nicholaites continued for a very short time of which also the Revelation of John makes mention These boasted of Nicholas one of the Deacons who together with Stephen were Ordained by the Apostles to minister to the poor as the Authour of their Sect. Now Clemens Alexandrinus in the third of his StromatwÌ„n relates thus much of him word for word He they say having a beautifull wife being after our Saviours ascension blamed by the Apostles for his jealousie brought his wife forth and permitted her to marry whom she had a mind to For this deed they report is agreeable to that saying of his to wiâ— That we ought to abuse the flesh Those therefore who follow his Heresie simply and rashly assenting to this saying and imitating this deed doe most impudently give themselves over to fornication But I am given to understand that Nicholas made use of no other woman besides her he married and that those of his children which were daughters remained virgins when they were old and his son continued undefiled by women Which things being thus his bringing of his wife over whom he was said to be jealous forth before the Apostles was a sign of his rejecting and bridling his passion and by those words of his that we ought to abuse the flesh he taught continence and an abstaining from those pleasures which are with so much earnestness desired by men For I suppose he would not according to our Saviours commandment serve two masters pleasure and the Lord. Moreover they say that Matthias taught the same doctrine that we should war against the flesh and abuse it allowing it nothing of pleasure but that we should inrich the soul by Faith and Knowledge Let thus much therefore be spoken concerning those who endeavoured about that time to deprave the truth but on a sudden were wholly extinct CHAP. XXX Concerning those Apostles that are found to have been married BUt Clemens whose words we even now recited after that passage of his before quoted does reckon up those Apostles that are found to have been married upon account of such as despise marriage saying what will they reprehend even the Apostles also For Peter and Philip begat children and Philip matcht his daughters to husbands Paul also in one of his Epistles fears not to name his wife whom he carried not about with him that he might with more expedition perform his Ministration But because we have mentioned these things it will not be troublesome to produce also another story of his worthily memorable which he hath set forth in the seventh of his StromatwÌ„n after this manner Now they say that S t Peter seeing his wife led to be put to death rejoyced because she was called by God and because she was returning home and that calling her by her name he exhorted and comforted her saying O woman Remember the Lord. Such was the wedlock of the Saints and such the entire affection of most dear friends And thus much being pertinent to the subject now in hand we have here seasonably placed CHAP. XXXI Of the Death of John and Philip. INdeed both the time and manner of the death of Paul and Peter and moreover the place where after their departure out of this life their bodies were deposited we have before manifested concerning the time of John's death we have already also in some sort spoken but the place of Sepulchre is demonstrated by the Epistle of Polycrates who was Bishop of the Ephesian Church which he wrote to Victor Bishop of Rome wherein he mentions both him and also Philip the Apostle and his daughters after this manner For also in Asia the great Lights are dead which shall be raised again at the last day the day of the Lord 's coming wherein he shall come with glory from heaven and shall find out all his Saints I mean Philip one of the twelve Apostles who died at Hierapolos and two of his daughters who
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 Lâ—kâ— 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 impeachâ— 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 fâ—â—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
Germanicus was most signally couragious who being corroborated by divine grace overcame that fear of bodily death implanted by nature on the mind of man For when the Proconsul desirous by perswasion to prevail upon him proposed to him his youthfullness and earnestly entreated him that being young and in the prime of his years he would have some compassion on himself he made no delay but readily and couragiously enticed the wild beast to devour himself and almost forced and stimulated it that he might the sooner be dismist out of this unrighteous and wicked life Immediately upon his glorious death the whole multitude greatly admiring the couragiousness of the divine Martyr and the fortitude of all the other Christians on a sudden began to cry out destroy the impious Let Polycarp be sought after Moreover there following a great tumult upon these clamours a man by name Quintus by extract a Phrygian lately come out thence seeing the wild beasts and the other tortures they threatned to make use of was daunted and disspirited and at length gave way to a desire of saving his life The contents of the foresaid Epistle doe manifest that this Quintus together with some others ran with too much rashness and without any religious consideration to the place of judicature but being forthwith apprehended he gave all men a signal example that none should be so audacious as to precipitate themselves into such dangers without a considerate and pious circumspection But thus far concerning these men Now the most admirable Polycarp when he first heard these things was not at all disturbed but continued to keep himself in a steadfast serene and unmoved temper of mind and resolved with himself to continue in the City But his friends and those who were about him beseeching and entreating him that he would withdraw himself he was prevailed with and went out of the City to a countrey-house not far distant therefrom where he abode with a small company spending the time day and night being intent upon nothing else in continued prayers to the Lord wherein he craved and made humble supplications and requests for the peace of all the Churches throughout the world For that was his constant and continual usage Moreover three days before his apprehension being at prayer in the night time and falling into a sleep he thought he saw the pillow whereon his head lay on a sudden consumed by a flame of fire Whereupon being awaked out of his sleep he forthwith expounded the vision to those who were then present and having little less than predicted what was in future to be he expresly declared to those that were about him that he should be burnt to death for the testimony of Christ. Further when those that sought for him used their utmost care and diligence to find him out he was again constrained through the love and affection of the brethren to remove as they say to another countrey house Whither his pursuers soon after came and catcht up two boys that were there by the one of which after they had scourged him they were conducted to the house where Polycarp lodged and coming in the evening they found him reposing himself in an upper room Whence he might easily have removed into another house but he would not saying The will of the Lord be done Moreover when he understood they were come as that Epistle relates he went down and with a very chearfull and most milde countenance talked with the men insomuch that they to whom Polycarp was before unknown thought they saw a wonder when they beheld his exceeding great age and his venerable and grave behaviour and they admired so much diligence should be used to apprehend such an old man But he making no delay presently ordered the table to be spread for them then he invites them to a sumptuous feast and requested of them one hours space which he might without disturbance spend in prayer when they permitted him that he arose and prayed being so full of the grace of the Lord that those who were present and heard him pray were struck with admiration and many of them altered their minds and were now very sorry that so venerable and divine an old man was forthwith to be put to death Afterwards the foresaid Epistle contains word for word this subsequent relation concerning him But after he had ended his prayer wherein he made mention of all persons who at any time had been conversant with him both small and great noble and obscure and also of the whole Catholick Church throughout the world the hour of his departure being now come they set him upon an Asse and brought him to the â—ity on the day of the great Sabbath Herod the Eirenarch and his father Nicetes met him who taking him up into their Chariot as they sate together endeavoured to perswade him and said For what harm is it to say these words Lord Caesar and to sacrifice and so to evade punishment He at first made them no answer but they continuing to be importunate with him he said I will never doe what you endeavour to induce me to They despairing of perswading him gave him opprobrious language and thrust him out of their Chariot so hastily that in his going down be very much bruised the fore part of his leg But he no more concerned than if he had suffered no harm went on chearfully and made hast being brought by a guard to the Stadium but there being so great a noise made in the Stadium that few could perfectly hear this voice came from heaven to Polycarp as he entred the Stadium Be couragious Polycarp and behave thy self valiantly no person indeed saw him that spoke but many of us Christians heard the voice When therefore he was brought before the Tribunal a great shout was made because the multitude heard Polycarp whas apprehended After that when he was come near him the Proconsul asked him whether he were Polycarp and when he had confessed he was the Proconsul endeavoured to perswade him to renounce Christ saying have a reverent regard to thine age and some other words agreeable hereto which 't is usual for them to speak swear by the fortune of Caesar change thy mind say destroy the impious But Polycarp beholding with a grave and severe countenance the multitude that was in the Stadium stretched forth his hand towards them and sighed and looking up towards heaven said destroy the impious When the Governour was urgent with him and said swear and I will release thee speak reproachfully of Christ Polycarp made answer I have served him these eighty and six years during all which time he never did me injury how then can I blaspheme my King who is my Saviour But when the Proconsul was again instant with him and said swear by the fortune of Caesar Polycarp said because you are so vain glorious as to be urgent with me to swear by the fortune of Caesar as
Episcopal Office to Linus of whom Paul has made mention in his Epistles to Timotheus Anencletus succeeded him after whom in the third place from the Apostles Clemens had the Bishoprick allotted to him who had seen the blessed Apostles and was conversant with them and as yet he had the preaching of the Apostles sounding in his ears and their tradition before his eyes and not he alone for at that time there were many yet remaining alive who had been taught by the Apostles In the times of this Clemens when no small dissension rose among the brethren at Corinth the Church of Rome sent a most compleat and agreeable Epistle to the Corinthians joyning them together in peace and renewing their faith and the tradition they had lately received from the Apostles And after some few words he says Evarestus succeeded this Clemens and Alexander Evarestus then Xystus was constituted the sixth from the Apostles after him Telesphorus who suffered a glorious Martyrdom after him Hyginus then Pius after Pius Anicetus Soter having succeeded Anicetus Eleutherus is now in possession of the Episcopal Office in the twelfth place from the Apostles In this same order and succession both the tradition of the Apostles in the Church and also the promulgation of the truth is descended unto us CHAP. VII That even to those times miracles were wrought by the faithfull ALl this being agreeable to what we have delivered in the foregoing Books of our History Irenaeus has given his assent to in those five books of his which he entitled The Confutation and Overthrow of Knowledge falsly so called in the second book of which Subject he does in these words manifest that even in his days there remained in some Churches examples of the divine and wonderfull power of God in working miracles saying So far are they from raising the dead as the Lord and the Apostles did by prayer And frequently amongst the brotherhood the whole Church of one place having with much fasting and prayer requested the soul of the defunct has returned into his body and the man has had the benefit of life conferred upon him by the prayers of the Saints And again after the interposition of some words he says But if they say that the Lord wrought such miracles as these in appearance only not really we will bring them to the oracles of the Prophets and from thence demonstrate that all things were thus predicted concerning him and most undoubtedly done by him and that he onely is the Son of God Therefore they which are his true disciples receiving grace from him doe in his name perform all things for the benefit of the rest of mankind according as every one of them hath received the gift from him For some of them do certainly and truely cast out devils in so much that those very persons who were cleansed from evil spirits frequently become believers and continue in the Church Others have the fore-knowledge of things future and visions and utter prophetick predictions Others by the imposition of their hands heal the sick and restore them to their former soundness and moreover as we said the dead also have been raised who continued with us many years after What shall we say more We cannot declare the number of the gifts which the Church throughout the whole world having received from God in the name of Jesus Christ who was crucified under Pontius Pilate does daily perform for the benefit of the Nations She uses no deceit towards any person neither does she sell her gifts for as she has freely received them from God so she freely ministers them to others And in another place the same Authour writes thus In like manner as we have heard many brethren in the Church who had prophetick gifts and by the Spirit spoke all sorts of languages who also revealed the secrets of men in such cases as 't was profitable and necessary and explained the mysteries of God And thus much concerning this matter to wit that diversities of gifts continued with such as were worthy untill those times before manifested CHAP. VIII After what manner Irenaeus makes mention of the divine Scriptures BUt because in the beginning of this work of ours we promised that we would produce in due place the words of the ancient Ecclesiastick Presbyters and Writers wherein they have delivered in writing the traditions concerning the books of the Old and New Testament which came to their hands of which number Irenaeus was one Come on we will here adjoyn his words and first what he has said of the sacred Gospels after this manner Matthew published his Gospel among the Hebrews written in their own Language whilest Peter and Paul were Preaching the Gospel at Rome and founding the Church After their death Mark the disciple and interpreter of Peter delivered to us in writing what Peter had Preached Luke also the follower of Paul compiled in a book the Gospel Preach't by him Afterwards John the disciple of the Lord he that leaned on his breast publisht a Gospel when he lived at Ephesus a City of Asia Thus much the forementioned Authour has said in the third book of the foresaid work And in his fifth book he discourses thus concerning the Revelation of John and the number of Antichrist's name These things being thus and this number being extant in all accurate and antient copies and those very persons who saw John face to face attesting the truth of these things even reason doth teach us that the number of the beasts name according to the computation of the Grecians is made apparent by the letters contained in it And after some other passages he speaks thus concerning the same John We therefore will not run the hazard of affirming any thing too positively concerning the name of Antichrist for if his name were to have been openly declared in this age it would have been express't by him who saw the Revelation For it was not seen long since but almost in our age about the end of Domitian's Reign Thus much is related by the foresaid Authour concerning the Revelation He mentions also the first Epistle of John and produces many authorites out of it as also out of the second Epistle of Peter He not onely knew but also approved of the book called Pastor saying Truly therefore hath that book said which contains this Before all things believe that there is one God who created and set in order all things and so forth He quotes some words out of the Wisedom of Solomon saying in a manner thus The vision of God procures incorruption and incorruption makes us neer unto God He makes mention also of the sayings of an Apostolick Presbyter whose name he has concealed and annexes his expositions of the divine Scriptures Moreover he makes mention of Justin Martyr and Ignatius quoting also authorities out of their writings The same person has promised to confute Marcion in a separate Volume by arguments pickt out
fourteenth day of the Moon according to the Gospel in no wise violating but exactly following the rule of faith And moreover I Polycrates the meanest of you all according to the tradition of my kinsmen some of whom also I have followed for seven of my relations were Bishops and I am the eighth all which kinsmen of mine did alwaies celebrate the day of Easter when the people of the Jews removed the Leaven I therefore brethren who am Sixty five years old in the Lord and have been conversant with the brethren disperst over the world and have read the whole Scripture through am not at all terrified at what I am threatned with For those who were greater than I have said We ought to obey God rather than men To these words speaking of all the Bishops who were present with him when he wrote and were of the same opinion with him he adjoyns thus much saying I could make mention of the Bishops who are present with me whom you requested me to convene and I have called them together whose names should I annex to this Epistle they would be very numerous all which persons having visited me who am a mean man did by their consent approve of this Epistle well knowing that I have not born these hoary hairs in vain but have alwaies lead my life agreeable to the precepts of the Lord Jesus After this Victor the Bishop of Rome did immediately attempt to cut off from the common unity the Churches of all Asia together with the adjoyning Churches as having given their assent to heterodox opinions and by his letters he publickly declares and pronounces all the brethren there to be wholly excommunicate but this pleased not all the Bishops therefore they perswade him to the contrary advising him to entertain thoughts of Peace of Unity and love of Christians among one another Moreover their Epistles are now extant wherein they have sharply reproved Victor Among whom Irenaeus having written a Letter in the name of those brethren in Gallia whom he presided over does indeed maintain that the mystery of our Lords Resurrection ought to be celebrated onely on a Sunday but does in many other words seasonably advise him not to cut off whole Churches of God for observing an antient custom derived down to them by tradition to which words he adjoyns thus much For the controversie is not onely concerning the day but also concerning the very form of the Fast for some suppose they ought to Fast one day others two others more others computing forty continued hours of the day and night make that space their day of Fasting and this variety in observing the Fast has not been begun in our age but a long while since in the times of our Ancestours who being as 't is probable not so diligent in their Presidencies proposed that as a custom to their successours which was introduced by simplicity and unskilfulness And yet nevertheless all these maintained mutual peace towards one another which also we retain Thus the variety of the Fast commends the consent of the faith Hereto he adjoins a relation which I will sutably insert in this place it is thus And the Presbyters who before Soter Presided over that Church which You now govern I mean Anicetus and Pius Hyginus Telesphorus and Xystus these persons I say neither observed it themselves nor did they permit those with them to observe it Nevertheless although they themselves observed it not yet they maintained peace with those that came to them from those Churches wherein it was observed But the observation of it amongst those who kept it not seemed to have much more of contrariety in it Neither were any persons ever excommunicated upon account of this form of the Fast but the Presbyters your predecessours who observed it not sent the Eucharist to the Presbyters of those Churches which observed it not and when Polycarp of blessed memory came to Rome in the times of Anicetus and there had been a small controversie between them concerning some other things they did straightway mutually embrace each other having not desired to be contentious with one another about this head For neither could Anicetus perswade Polycarp not to observe it because he had always kept it with John the disciple of our Lord and the other Apostles with whom he had been conversant nor did Polycarp induce Anicetus to observe it who said he ought to retain the usage of the Presbyters that were his predecessours These things being thus they received the communion together And Anicetus permitted Polycarp to wit out of an honourable respect to him to consecrate the Sacrament in his own Church and they parted peaceably one from another as well those who observed it as those who observed it not retaining the Peace and Communion of the whole Church Indeed Irenaeus being truly answerable to his own name was after this manner a Peace-maker and advised and asserted these things upon the account of the Peace of the Churches The same person Wrote not onely to Victor but sent Letters also agreeable hereunto to several other Governours of Churches concerning the said controversie which was then raised CHAP. XXV How all with one consent unanimously agreed about Easter MOreover those Bishops of Palestine whom we mentioned a little before to wit Narcissus and Theophilus and with them Cassius Bishop of the Church at Tyre and Clarus Bishop of that at Ptolemais together with those assembled with them having treated at large concerning the tradition about Easter derived down to them by succession from the Apostles at the end of their Epistle they adjoyn thus much in these very words Make it your business to send Copies of this our Epistle throughout the whole Church that so we may not be blamed by those who do easily seduce their own souls we also declare to you that they celebrate Easter at Alexandria on the same day that we doe for Letters are conveyed from us to them and from them to us so that we observe the holy day with one consent and together CHAP. XXVI How many Monuments of Irenaeus's Polite Ingenie have come to our hands BUt besides the fore-mentioned works and Epistles of Irenaeus's there is extant a most concise and most necessary book of his against the Gentiles entituled concerning Knowledge And another which he dedicated to a brother by name Marcianus containing a Demonstration of the Apostolick Preaching And a Book of Various Tracts wherein he makes mention of the Epistle to the Hebrews and that called The wisdom of Solomon and quotes some sentences out of them And thus many are the writings of Irenaeus which came to our knowledge But Commodus having ended his Government after he had reigned thirteen years Severus obtained the Empire Pertinax having not Governed full out six months after the death of Commodus CHAP. XXVII How many
those who had been instructed by him became Martyrs THe first of them was the aforementioned Plutarchus whom when he was led to Execution he of whom the discourse is accompanied to the last hour of his life and again wanted little of being kill'd by the men of his own City as seeming the cause of Plutarchus's death But then also the providence of God preserv'd him Next to Plutarch the second of Origen's disciples that was a Martyr was Serenus Who by fire gave a triall of the faith which he had receiv'd Heraclides was made the third Martyr of the same School The fourth after him was Heron. Both which persons were beheaded the former of them while he was yet learning the Principles of Christianity the latter when he was newly Baptiz'd Besides these another Serenus different from the former is declared the fifth Champion of Piety who came out of this School Who 't is reported was punish'd with the loss of his head after a most patient sufferance of many Torments And of women Heraïs who as yet was learning the Principles of Christianity did as he himself somewhere says depart this life having received Baptism by fire CHAP. V. Concerning Potamiaena LEt Basilides be reckoned the seventh among these who lead the most renown'd Potamiaena to Execution concerning which woman even yet there is a famous report amongst the inhabitants of those Countries for that she combated many times with her lovers in defence of the chastity and virginity of her body for which she was famous for besides the vigour of her mind there flourisht in her a comliness of body who having suffer'd many things for her faith in Christ at last after grievous Torments and horrible to be related was together with her mother Marcella consumed by fire Moreover they say that the Judge whose name was Aquila after he had inflicted grievous stripes upon every part of her body threatned at last he would deliver her to the Gladiatours to abuse her body But she having considered of the matter some short time being asked what her determination was return'd they say such an answer as thereby she seem'd to speak some thing which was accounted impious amongst them Forthwith therefore she receiv'd the definitive sentence of the Judge and Basilides one of the Military Apparitors took and lead her to Execution but when the multitude endeavour'd to molest and reproach her with obscene words he prohibited them thrusting away them who reproach'd her shewing much commiseration and humanity towards her She taking in good part the mans commiseration shown towards her exhorts him to be of good courage for when she was gone hence she would entreat her Lord for him and within a little while she would make him a requital for what he had done for her When she had spoken these things they say she valiantly underwent death hot scalding pitch being leisurely and by little and little poured upon all the several members of her body from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head such was the combat fought by this famous virgin But not long after Basilides upon some occasion being desir'd by his fellow-soldiers to swear avouch'd t was not lawfull for him to swear at all for he was a Christian and he openly confess'd it at first they thought he onely spake in jest but when he constantly maintain'd it he is brought before the Judge and after he had made profession of his stedfastness before him he was put into bonds And when some of the brethren in the Lord came to him asking him what was the cause of this sudden and unexpected change he is reported to have said that Potamiaena three days after her Martyrdom stood by him in the night put a crown about his head and said she had entreated the Lord for him and had obtain'd her request And within a little while the Lord would take him upto himself After these things the brethren imparted to him the Seal of the Lord and the day after being famous for his testimony of the Lord he was beheaded they relate that many more throughout Alexandria came thick at that time to the doctrine of Christ to wit such as Potamiaena had appear'd to in their sleep and invited them to be converted to the Gospel But for these things let thus much suffice CHAP. VI. Concerning Clemens Alexandrinus CLemens who succeeded Pantaenus was Master of the Catechetick School at Alexandria till this time So that Origen when he was a boy was one of his Scholars Moreover this Clemens committing to writing the subject of that work of his entitled Stromateis in his first Volume explains the series of times and determines his computation at the death of Commodus So that it is plain those books were elaborated by him in the Reign of Severus the History of whose times this book of ours contains CHAP. VII Concerning Judas the Writer AT this time also liv'd Judas another Writer who commented upon the Seventy Weeks in Daniel and puts an end to his computation of the times at the tenth year of Severus's Reign His Opinion was that even at that time the coming of Antichrist which was so much talk'd of drew nigh So great a disturbance did the raising of the Persecution then against us cause in many mens minds CHAP. VIII Concerning the bold Act of Origen AT this time while Origen perform'd the Office of Chatechizing at Alexandria an act of an unripe and youthfull mind was committed by him but which withall contain'd a most manifest token of Continence and true faith for he taking these words some Eunuchs there are which have made themselves Eumuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake in the more simple meaning unadvisedly like one of his juvenile years thinking it both his duty to fulfill our Saviours words and also considering that during his youthfull years he was to converse not onely with men but women about the things which appertain to God that he might exclude the Infidels from all suspition of obscene slanders his mind was full bent to perform really our Saviour's words taking great care that it might escape the knowledge of many of his familiars but 't was impossible for him although he was desirous to conceal such a fact But when Demetrius understood it as being then Governour of the Church there he both greatly admires him for his boldness and also having commended his alacrity of mind and sincerity of faith forthwith encourages and excites him to a more diligent imployment about the duty of Catechizing for such at this time was Demetrius's opinion of this act but no long time after when he saw Origen doe well and that he was famous and well reported of by all men being affected with the frailties of Mankind he endeavoured by letters sent to all the Bishops in the world to describe what was done as a most absurd action For the Bishops of Caesarea
Affairs were forc'd through the necessity of their offices they held and they induced others of their acquaintance who being summon'd by name repaired to their impure and profane sacrifices Some looked pale and trembled as if they themselves were about to have been sacrifices and victimes not sacrificers to their Idols So that they rendred themselves the subject of laughter to the multitude that stood round about them because they demonstrated themselves to all to be fearfull both of death and of sacrificing But others of them ran to the Altars more willingly protesting very confidently that they never were Christians before Concerning whom the Lords prediction is most true that they shall hardly be saved As for the rest some of them adhered to the one or the other of those parties we have mentioned some fled away others were apprehended And of these though some proceeded so far as till they came to bonds and imprisonment and others of them had been imprisoned several days yet before they were brought to the tribunal they renounc'd the Faith Some of them after they had persisted some time in suffering torments yet for fear of what might follow renounc'd their Religion But the stedfast and blessed Pillars of the Lord being strengthened by him and having received power and patience equal and answerable to their strong faith became admirable witnesses of his kingdom The first of which was Julianus a Gouty man who could neither goe nor stand he together with two other men who carried him was brought before the Judge one of those persons straightway deny'd Christ. But the other whose name was Cronion but was sirnamed Eunus together with the old man Julianus having confessed the Lord rode upon Camels through the whole City which you know is very large and were scourged as they sate on high and at last in the presence of all the multitude standing round they were consum'd by an exceeding hot fire A Souldier who attended on them as they were lead to the stake thrust away all those who abused them and when the people exclaim'd against him this most valiant champion of God by name Besas was call'd in question and after he had behav'd himself nobly in a great combat in defence of Piety he was beheaded Also another man a Libyan born both according to his name and also agreeable to the divine benediction truly stil'd Macar after much exhortation of the Judge to a renunciation being nothing subdu'd therewith was burned alive After these Epimachus and Alexander after a tedious imprisonment which they endur'd having suffered infinite sorts of tortures as iron scratchers scourges were also burned to death with unslaked lime with them also four women Ammonarium an holy Virgin whom the Judge for a long time and with much earnestness tortured because she had before hand said she would utter nothing he should enjoyn her when she had verified her promise she was led to execution Now the rest were these Mercuria a most virtuous and venerable Matron and Dionysia the mother of a numerous issue but did not love her children more then the Lord also another Ammonarium The Judge being now ashamed that he tortured them yet in vain and that he was thus overcome by women slew them with the sword before they underwent the tryall of tortures For Ammonarium their leader had suffered torments for them all Heron also and Ater and Isidorus Aegyptians and with them Dioscorus a lad of about fifteen years of age were set before the Judge Who first of all endeavoured to deceive the youth with words as thinking him flexible and easie to be perswaded he endeavoured also to force him by torments supposing him to be remiss and inclineable to yield but Dioscorus was neither mov'd with perswasions nor yielded he to torments When the Judge had most barbarously torn the rest with stripes and they persisted he delivered them also to the fire but he dismiss'd Dioscorus because he was lovely in the eyes of the people and he also himself admired him for his most prudent answers to his questions Saying he allow'd him space for repentance because of his tender age And now the most excellent Dioscorus continues with us reserved for a greater and more lasting combat Also one Nemesion another Aegyptian was falsly accused as a companion of theeves but having before the Centurion cleared himself of this accusation brought against him as being most absurd he was impeach'd as being a Christian and brought bound before the Governour who most unjust man having inflicted upon him double as many torments and stripes as upon the theeves commanded him to be burnt amongst theeves Blessed man Who was honoured after Christ's example Moreover a whole file of Souldiers to wit Ammon and Zeno and Ptolomy and Ingenuus and with them the old man Theophilus stood together before the place of judicature And when a certain man was accused for being a Christian and inclined to a renunciation of his Religion they standing by gnashed upon him with their teeth made grimaces at him with their countenances stretched out their hands and shewed mimick and antick gestures with their bodies in so much that all mens eyes were turned towards them before any one came to lay hands on them they ran to the place where the accused usually sate confessing themselves to be Christians Upon which the Governour and the Assessours were surprized with a great fear The accused seem'd most couragious at what they were about to suffer but the Judges trembled So they went out of the place of judicature in a kind of Pomp and State and rejoyced at the testimony they were to give to the Faith God making them to triumph gloriously CHAP. XLII Concerning some other things which Dionysius relates SEveral others were torn in pieces by the Heathens both in the Cities and in the Countrey Villages one of them I will hear speak of for examples sake Ischyrion was a Mercenary Officer under one of the Magistrates He whom he served injoyned him to sacrifice but when he obeyed him not he was injurious to him when he still persisted to be disobedient he basely reproacht him After he had patiently sustained all this he took a great stake and having run it through his guts and bowels murdered him What need I to reckon up the multitudes which wandered in deserts and mountains and dyed by Pestilence thirst and cold and by diseases thieves and savage beasts such of them as survived are witnesses of their choice and victory but I will adde one fact for a manifestation of the truth hereof There was one Chaeremon a very aged man Bishop of the City called Nile he together with his wife fled unto the mountain Arabius but never returned neither could they or any thing of their bodies ever be found although the Brethren searched all places carefully Also many about this mountain Arabicus were taken captives and inslaved by the barbarous Saracens some
of Christ he was honoured with a Presbytership of the Church there Now this man having undertaken to dispute against Paul the Notaries having written down all the passages of that disputation which is at this day extant was the onely person that was able to detect and convince that crafty and deceitfull fellow CHAP. XXX Concerning the Epistle of the Bishops against Paul THe Prelates therefore being assembled together by common consent writ an Epistle to Dionysius Bishop of Rome and Maximus Bishop of Alexandria and then sent it over all the Provinces both manifesting their diligence to all men the perverse Heterodoxy of Paul the Confutations and Disputes which were held against them and also giving in a Narration of the whole Life and Morals of the man whose words in which Epistle that Posterity may remember them it will be convenient here to relate THE EPISTLE To Dionysius and Maximus and to all our fellow-Ministers over the whole world Bishops Presbyters and Deacons and to the whole Catholick Church under heaven Helenus Hymenaeus Theophilus Theotecnus Maximus Proclus Nicomas Aelianus Paul Bolanus Protogenes Hierax Eutychius Theodorus Malchion and Lucius And all the rest of the Bishops of the Neighbouring Cities and Provinces which are with us the Presbyters and Deacons and the Churches of God To the beloved Brethren in the Lord health After some words interpos'd they adde these following We have written to and intreated many of the Bishops far Remote that they would come and assist in the Curing of this Pestiferous Doctrine for we wrote to Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria and to Firmilianus Bishop of Cappadocia men of blessed Memory The first of them wrote to Antioch but did not so much as vouchsafe the Authour of the Heresie a salutation neither did he write to him by name but to the whole Church a Copy of which Letter we have here inserted The other Firmilianus came twice and condemned Paul's novelties as we who were then present do attest and many others do also know as well as we But when he promised to recant Firmilianus believing him and hoping that the business might be composed without any reproach to our Religion deferred his sentence being deceived by him who denyed his God and Lord and who kept not the faith which he formerly professed But Firmilianus was now about coming to Antioch and he came as far as Tarsus For he had had experience of his malicious wickedness who denyed his God But in the interim of our assembling and whilest we were sending for him and expecting his coming he died After some other passages they describe his Morals and what course of Life he lead in these words But since he turn'd to forged and spurions Opinions departing from the true Rule it is not our concern to examine the Actions of one who is out of the Church Neither how he who was formerly poor and indigent having had no Estate from his Parents nor got any thing by any Trade or Profession is now become incredibly rich by his unlawful and sacrilegious dealings by extortion and vexatiousness used towards the Brethren and by taking bribes from those that were injured promising to help them to their right for a reward but he deceiv'd them too getting money for doing nothing through their willingness who were entangled in Suits to give any thing for a delivery from those troubles He supposed godliness to be gain Neither need we declare how proud and insolent he was being invested with secular Dignities and desiring to be stiled a Ducenarius rather then a Bishop and how he walk't in state through the Forum reading and dictating Letters as he walked in publick with a numerous Guard about him some going before and some following him in so much that there was an ill opinion and an odium brought upon the faith through his pride and haughtiness Neither does it concern us to examine his vain glorious ambition in the Ecclesiastick conventions which he greedily pursues being desirous of glory and affected with an imaginary pomp with such devices as these terrifying the minds of the faithful and ignorant Besides he errected for himself a Tribunal and a lofty throne not like one of Christ's disciples but had a place called his Secretum like as the secular Magistrates have He also used to clap his hand upon his thigh and stamp't upon the Throne with his feet And such as did not commend him and shake their oraria as they usually did in the Theaters and did not make loud exclamations nor leapt up and down in the same manner as his favourites which were a company of silly men and women that during their hearkning to him used such indecencies did but were attentive to him with such a seemly reverence and decencie as befits the house of God those persons he rebuked and reproach't In his publick discourses he reflected upon those Doctours of our Religion that were dead with all imaginable scorn and petulancy but he magnified himself not as became a Bishop but rather like a counterfeit and an Impostour He abolished the Psalms which were usually sung in honour of our Lord Jesus Christ as Novel and the composures of modern men On the great feast of Easter he appointed women to sing Psalms in his commendation in the body of the Church which whosoever heard might justly tremble at He also privately sent the Bishops of the Neighbouring Villages and Towns and the Presbyters who were his flatterers to make discourses to the people in commendation of him For he will not joyn in a confession with us that the Son of God came down from heaven that we may now premise some things of what we shall hereafter more at large declare in writing Neither shall this be affirmed on our bare word but it is evident in many places up and down his Acts which we have sent you and most especially there where he says that Jesus Christ is of the earth But those who chaunt out his praises and sing his Encomium's amongst the people do say that this their impious master is an angel come down from heaven nor does that haughty fellow prohibit these expressions but is himself present when they are spoken What need we here mention his and his Presbyters and Deacons Subintroduced women as the Antiochians term them in whom he conceals not onely this but many other damnable crimes which he is conscious of and of which he has been convict they are guilty that by this means he may keep them so obnoxious as not to adventure through a fear of their own guilt to accuse him for his impious words and practises Moreover he has enriched them And this is the reason he is beloved and admired by them who covet such things But why do we write these things We know beloved that it is the duty of a Bishop and of the whole Clergy to be examples of good
of the abudant kindness they reserved for our Religion What need we mention those who were conversant in the Imperial palaces Or the Emperours themselves Who permitted their domesticks together with their wives children and servants freely and openly to make profession of their Religion by their words and practises even before their own faces and in a manner suffered them to boast of their fearlesness and freedom in professing their faith Whom also they had an high esteem for and accounted them more acceptable than the rest of their attendants Such a one was that Dorotheus a person who of all men declar'd the heartiest affection too and fidelity in their service upon which account he was more highly valued by them than the Magistrates and most honourable Governours of the Provinces to whom we will adde the most renowned Gorgonius and as many others as arrived to the same degree of honour with them upon account of the word of God The same affection observancy and eminent favour you might see voutsafed to the Prelates of every Church as well by all private persons as Governours of Provinces But now how should any one be able to describe those numerous congregations their multitudes who throughout every City flock't to embrace the faith of Christ and those famous assemblies of the people in the Churches For which reason they were no longer contented with the old Edifices but erected spatious Churches from the very foundations throughout all the Cities These prosperous successes increasing in process of time and being daily augmented with a growth and greatness no envy could put a stop to neither was any evil spirit able to bewitch them nor could the treacheries of men prohibit them as long as the divine and celestial hand of God covered and guarded his people continuing to be worthy of its protection But after the affairs of our age were through too much liberty changed into looseness and sloth when some began to envy and revile others and we were in a manner at wars amongst our selves wounding one another with words as it were with arms and spears when Prelates dashed against Prelates and the people raised factions against the people and when unspeakable hypocrifie and dissimulation had arrived to the height of mischief then did the divine vengeance as it takes delight to do gently begin to visit us the multitudes of the faithful as yet meeting in their assemblies by degrees and with moderation the persecution being first begun with those brethren who bore arms But when we became insensible and entertained not the least thought of propitiating and appeasing the Deity but like some Atheistical persons supposing our affairs to be managed regardlesly and without any inspection we added impieties to impieties when they who seemed our pastours rejecting the sanctions of Religion were inflamed with mutual contentions studying nothing else but the augmenting of strifes menaces emulation envy and mutual hatred and greedily challenging to themselves the preeminence as if it were a dominion then forthwith according to the expression uttered by Jeremiah the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel and remembred not his footstool in the day of his anger The Lord hath drowned all the beauty of Israel and thrown down all his strong holds And as it is predicted in the Psalms He hath made void the covenant of his servant and profaned his sanctity in the earth to wit by the destruction of the Churches He hath broken down all his hedges he hath made his strong holds fear All the multitudes of the people that pass by the way spoil him and further he is a reproach to his neighbours For he hath exalted the right hand of his enemies and hath turned away the edge of his sword and hath not assisted him in the war But he hath put an end to his purification and hath broken his throne by casting it to the ground The days of his life hath he shortned and lastly covered him with ignominy CHAP. II. Concerning the Ruine of the Churches ALL these predictions were fully compleated in our times when with our own eyes we saw both the houses of prayer thrown down to the ground even to their very foundations and also the divine and sacred Scriptures committed to the fire in the midst of the Forum When we beheld some pastours of the Churches basely hiding themselves some in one place some in another others of them ignominiously apprehended and exposed to the scorn of their enemies When also according to another prophetick expression contempt was poured upon Princes and he caused them to wander in the wilderness where there was no way But 't is not our design to describe those sad calamities which in conclusion befell them for it is unfit for us to record their mutual dissentions and folly before the persecution Wherefore we will relate no more concerning them than whereby we may justifie the divine vengeance We will not proceed therefore to mention those who were tryed by the persecution nor those who wholly made shipwrack of their salvation and were voluntarily precipitated into the gulfs of the deep but we will in general insert such passages onely into this our History as may in the first place be profitable to our own selves and in the next to posterity From hence then we will begin briefly to describe the sacred combars of those who were Martyrs for the divine Religion It was the nineteenth year of Diocletians Empire in the moneth Dystrus which the Romans call March when the festival of the salutiferous passion approaching the Imperial Edicts were proposed in all places giving command that the Churches should be totally destroyed and the Scriptures consumed by fire and declaring that those who were elevated to any degree of honour should be rendred infamous and those that were private persons if they persisted in a resolution of retaining the profession of Christianity should be deprived of their liberty such was the first Edict against us But not long after other Rescripts arrived by which command was given that all the Prelates of the Churches every where should first be put into bonds and afterwards compelled to sacrifice by all ways imaginable CHAP. III. Concerning the various sorts of combats which the Martyrs underwent in the time of the Persecution FOrthwith therefore many Prelates of Churches having eudured most severe torments with great alacrity of mind exhibited spectacles of most illustrious combats Many others being prepossessed with a faintness of mind by reason of their fear were immediately discouraged at the first attack made against them Every one of the residue had their courses in various kinds of tortures One was scourged all over his body with whips another was rack't with tortures and had his flesh scraped off with tormenting irons that were intolerable Under which torments some
shaking which made the Sea and Air about the earth tremble in such a manner that the very Earth and City were shaken by that motion And at that very moment wherein this wonderfull and sudden Earth-quake happened the dead body of the divine Martyr was cast up by the Sea as being unable to containe it before the gates of the City Such was the Exit which the admirable Apphianus made on Friday the second day of the month Xanthicus which is before the fourth of the Nones of April CHAP. V. Concerning Ulpianus and Aedesius Martyrs AT the same time and almost on the same days a young man in the City of Tyre by name Ulpianus after he had been cruelly scourged and endured most grievous stripes was sown up in the raw hide of an Oxe together with a Dog and a venemous Serpent and cast into the Sea Wherefore we thought it agreeable to make mention of this person at this place wherein we have related the Martyrdom of Apphianus Some small time after this Aedesius brother not only in respect of God but by a bodily affinity also by the fathers side to Apphianus after he had made very many confessions and for a long time had been cruciated in bonds after he had been condemned to the mines in Palestine by the Presidents Sentence and after he had under all these tortures led a life continually like a Philosopher in a Philosophick habit for he had acquired far more learning than his brother in that he had applied his mind wholly to Philosophick literature at length when at the City of Alexandria he saw the Judge who was then examining the Christians most extravagantly insulting over and enraged against them one while putting various and most reproachful abuses upon grave men at another delivering women most eminent for their chastity and ◠Virgins that had devoted 〈…〉 mselves to God to Pan 〈…〉 rs that they might be defiled with all sorts of obscenity he attempted the same fact that his brother had done For because what was thus performed seemed to him intolerable with a valiant boldness he approach't the Judge and having by his words and deeds surrounded him with shame and ignominy and after that most couragiously endured various sorts of tortures he was thrown into the Sea and ended his life after the same manner that his brother did These things happened thus to Aedesius although as I said before some small time after CHAP. VI. Concerning the Martyr Agapius MOreover in the fourth year of the Persecution against us on the twentieth day of the month Dius which is before the twelfth of the Calends of December being Friday such a Martyrdom was performed in the same City of Caesarea as worthily deserves to be recorded in writing Maximinus the Tyrant being himself present and exhibiting publick shews to the people because of his Birth-day Whereas it was an ancient custom that if at any time in the presence of the Emperours splendid shews and such as were more pleasing to the mind should be exhibited to the spectatours new and strange spectacles such as were different from the usuall sights being at such a time procured which consisted partly of beasts brought out of India Aethiopia or some other place and partly of men who having before accustomed themselves to certain Artificial exercises of their bodies entertained the spectatours with sights that created in them a wonderfull delight and pleasure then also because the Emperour himself was at the charge of exhibiting those shews something that was magnificent and more wonderfull than usual must necessarily be made use of in those sights What therefore was this A Martyr of our Religion was brought forth to combat for the only true worship of God His name was Agapius the Second of that name the first as we manifested a little before was together with Thecla condemned to be devoured 〈◊〉 the wild-beasts He therefore having before that time been thrice brought out of Prison wherein he had been confined now three years and often times led in pomp about the Stadium with those that were Malefactours the Judge after various menaces putting him off to other combats either out of compassion to him or because he had hopes that he would alter his resolution was then produced the Emperour himself being there present being reserved as it were on set purpose for that opportunity that that saying of our Saviour's which by his divine knowledge he foretold his disciples might be accomplished in him that they should be brought before Kings for their testimony of him He is therefore brought into the midst of the Stadium together with a certain criminal who was said to be guilty of murthering his master After this he who had killed his master being exposed to the wild-beasts obtained mercy and compassion from the Emperour almost after the same manner that Barabbas did in our Saviour's time At this the whole Amphitheatre resounded with Shouts and Acclamations of joy because the Emperour had out of his compassion saved a bloudy murtherer and vouchsafed him honour and liberty But this champion of Religion is first called for by the Tyrant after which having with the promise of liberty desired him to renounce the profession of Christianity he professed with a loud voice that not for any crime but upon account of the worship of the framer of all things with alacrity and pleasure he would couragiously undergoe what punishments soever should be inflicted on him And having said thus he annexed deeds to his words ran to meet a Bear which was let loose against him and most willingly offered himself to be devoured by that beast After the beast had torn him having some breath left in him he was carried back to Prison where after he had lived one day on that following stones were hanged at his feet and he was drowned in the midst of the Sea Such was the Martyrdom of Agapius CHAP. VII Concerning the Virgin Theodosia and concerning Domninus and Auxentius Martyrs MOreover the fifth year of the persecution being now current on the second day of the month Xanthicus which is before the fourth of the Nones of April on the very Lords day the day of our Saviour's Resurrection and also at Caesarea Theodosia a Virgin born at Tyre one that was a believer and a most modest maid not eighteen years old compleat approach't some prisoners who were Confessours of the Kingdom of Christ and sate before the Praetorium both to salute them amicably and also as 't is probable to request them that they would be mindfull of her when they came to the Lord. Having done this as if she had committed some nefarious and impious fact the Souldiers lay hold of her and carry her before the President He in regard he was a furious person and one of a most cruel temper of mind ordered that she should be cruciated with sharp and most horrid tortures and that her
men he hath again purified and cleansed by their poinant and reprehensive Preaching of the divine Precepts as it were with shovels and spades those souls which â— little before were defiled and totally covered over with all manner of filthiness and heaps of impious Injunctions And when he had made the place of all your minds bright and clear he delivered it up to this most prudent Prelate most acceptable to God Who being a man endowed with great judgment and reason in other things and also most acute in discerning and distinguishing the disposition of the souls allotted to his care from the very first day as I may say even to this present he hath not ceased to build cementing together in you all one while glistering gold at other times purified and tryed silver and precious and rich stones So that by his workes towards you he hath again compleated that sacred and mystical Prophesie the words whereof are these Behold I prepare Carbuncle for thy stone and Saphire for thy foundations and for thy Bulwarks Jasper and for thy gates stones of Christal and for thy wall choice stones and all thy children shall be taught of God and great shall be the peace of thy children and thou shalt be built in righteousness He therefore building in righteousness hath aptly and fitly differenced the strength of all the people Some he hath inclosed with the outward wall onely that is he hath fortified them round with an unerring and strong faith of this sort there is a great multitude who cannot bear a more excellent structure To others he committeth the custody of the entrances into the Temple giving them in command to watch at the Gates and to conduct those in that come thither these may fitly be compared to the Porches of the Temple Other some he hath set to support the chief Pillars which are without about the Court quadrangular-wise Bringing them within the first Bolts of the literal sense of the four Gospels Some he hath also placed about the sanctuary on both sides these are such as are Catechumens as yet and do make a good progress and increase in the faith but yet they are not far from inspecting those most secret Mysteries which priviledge only the perfect believers do enjoy Out of this number he hath taken those whose immaculate souls have been purified like gold in the sacred Laver some of whom he hath set to support Pillars far more noble then those outward ones even the most intricate and Mysterious sentences of sacred Scripture others of them he illuminateth to be as it were windows to transmit light into the Temple He hath also beautified the whole Temple with one most spacious Portico that is with the glorious worship of the one and only God the supream King He hath represented Christ and the Holy Ghost on each side of the Fathers preeminence and authority as the second rays of light And he demonstrateth throughout the whole Cathedral a most copious and excellent light and evidence of the truth particularly coucht in the remaining Articles of our faith Moreover when he had from all parts selected living firm and strong stones of souls of all them he framed a stately and Royal sanctuary full of light and splendour both within and without in as much as not only in their souls and minds but their bodie 's also they are beautified with the glorious ornaments of Chastity and Modesty There are also within this Temple Thrones a great many Benches and Seats which are in all those souls whereon reside such gifts of the Holy Ghost as were heretofore seen by the holy Apostles To whom appeared cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them But on him that presides over all these Christ himself 't is likely does entirely and wholly reside and upon those who are next to him in dignity on every one of them proportionably according as he is capable of receiving the distributions of the power of Christ and of the Holy Ghost The Benches also are the souls of certain Angels the instruction and custody of every one whereof is committed to them But the August Great and only Altar what can it be else but the most pure soul and holy of Holies of the Common Priest of all On his right hand standeth the great High Priest of all Jesus himself the only begotten Son of God who with a chearful countenance and stretcht-forth hands receiveth from all that sweet smelling incense and those unbloudy and immaterial sacrifices of prayers and transmits them to his heavenly Father the supream God whom in the first place he himself worshippeth and he only exhibiteth due veneration to the Father afterwards he beseecheth him for ever to continue favourable and propitious towards all us Such is that August Temple which the great Creatour of all things the Word of God hath built throughout all that world under the sun he himself hath again framed upon earth this intellectual representation of those things beyond the Arches of Heaven that by every creature and by rational souls upon the earth his Father might be duely honoured and adored But that Region above the Heavens and the things there which are the originalls of what we here behold that Jerusalem which is above that Celestial mount Sion and that City of the living God far above the world in which are innumerable companies of Angels and the Church of the first born which are written in heaven who with praises unutterable which we cannot understand laud their Creatour and supream Prince the Blessedness of this Region I say and of its inhabitants no mortal is able deservedly to set forth For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him Of which things since we are now vouchsafed to be partakers in part let us both men women and children small and great all together with one spirit and one soul never cease to give thanks and praise to the Authour of these our so great good things Who hath mercy on all our iniquities and healeth all our infirmities Who redeemeth our life from destruction and crowneth us with mercy and loving kindness who filleth our desire with good things For he hath not dealt with us according to our sins neither hath he rewarded us according to our iniquities For as far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our sins from us As a father pittieth his own children even so is the Lord merciful to them that fear him Keeping these things fresh in our memories both now and throughout all succeeding times and moreover setting before the eyes of our mindes God the cause of this present days joyful solemnity and the Master of this feast both day and night every hour and as I may say every moment wherein we
Doctrine should penetrate and infect them What man is he that when he hears these words of Saint John In the beginning was the Word will not condemn those that affirm there was a time when the Word was not Or who is he that when he hears these words of the Gospel The only begotten Son and by him all things were made will not abominate these men that say the Son is one of the Creatures But how can he be one of those things that were made by him Or how can he be termed the Only begotten who according to their sentiments of him is reckon'd amongst all the other creatures How can he be made of nothing whenas the Father himself saith My heart hath indited a good matter and Before the morning I have begotten thee in the womb Or how can he be unlike the Father in Essence whenas he is the perfect Image and the brightness of the Father and whenas he himself testifieth He that hath seen me hath seen the Father Now if the Son be the Word and the Wisedom of the Father How can there be a time when he was not For 't is the same absurdity as if they should say there was a time when God was both without his Word and his Wisedom How can he be mutable and subject to change who says concerning himself I am in the Father and the Father in me and I and the Father are one He spake also by the Prophet Behold me for I am the Lord and am not changed And though some one may say that this was spoken in reference to the Father yet it will be more accommodate to understand it now to be spoken in relation to the Word because although he became man yet was he not changed but as the Apostle says Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever But what motive could they have to say that he was made for us whenas Paul saith For him are all things and by him are all things But concerning their Blasphemy in affirming that the Son doth not perfectly know the Father it ought not to be wondred at For having once resolved to fight against Christ they despise even the Words of the Lord himself who says As the Father knoweth me even so know I the Father If therefore the Father knoweth the Son only in part it is manifest that the Son also knoweth the Father in part But if it be impious to assert this and if the Father knoweth the Son perfectly it is perspicuous that as the Father knoweth his own Word so doth the Word know his own Father whose Word he is By asserting of these things and explaining the sacred Scriptures we have frequently confuted them but they like Chamaeleons have again been changed pertinaciously contending to appropriate to themselves this that is written When the impious is arrived at the very extreams of wickedness he despiseth There have indeed been many Heresies before these persons which by their too much audaciousness have fallen into imprudence and folly But these men who by all their discourses attempt nothing less than the subversion of the Divinity of the Word have to the utmost of their power made those preceding Heresies to be accounted just in regard they approach neerer to Antichrist Wherefore they are expelled out of the Church and Anathematized We are really troubled at the destruction of these men and the rather because they were heretofore instructed in the Doctrine of the Church but have now renounced it Yet we do not look upon this as so strange a thing For the same thing befell Hymenaeus and Philetus and before them Judas who though he had been our Saviour's Disciple yet was afterwards his betrayer and an Apostate Neither have we continued unadvis'd of these very persons for our Lord hath predicted Take heed that no man deceive you For many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and the time draweth neer and they shall deceive many Go ye not therefore after them And Paul having learned these things from our Saviour wrote thus That in the latter days some shall depart from the sound faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils who detest the truth Since therefore our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ hath himself commanded this and also by his Apostle hath given us intimation concerning these men we being ear-witnesses of their impiety have deservedly anathematized these men as we said before and openly declar'd them estranged from the Catholick Church and Faith Moreover we have signified thus much to your Piety beloved and dearest Fellow-Ministers that if any of them should have the confidence to come to you you might not entertain them and that you should not be perswaded to believe Eusebius or any one else that shall write to you concerning them For it is our Duty as we are Christians to detest all those that speak or devise any thing against Christ as the Enemies of God and the corrupters of Souls and not to say to such men so much as God speed lest we become partakers of their iniquities as Saint John hath commanded us Salute the Brethren that are with you they that are with us salute you Alexander having Written such Letters as this to all the Bishops in every City the mischief grew worse those to whom the Contents thereof were communicated being hereby inflamed with a pertinacious contention Some were of the same Opinion with and subscrib'd to the Contents of these Letters but others did the contrary But Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia was in the highest degree incited to dissent because Alexander had in his Letters made a reproachfull mention of him in particular At that time Eusebius was a man of great interest because the Emperour did then keep his Court at Nicomedia for Diocletian had not long before built a Pallace there For this reason therefore many Bishops were very obsequious to Eusebius And he himself wrote frequently sometimes to Alexander advising him to suppress the controversie raised amongst them and to readmit Arius and his Adherents into the Church at other times he wrote to the Bishops of every particular City perswading them that they should not consent to Alexander Hence it came to pass that all places were filled with tumult and disturbances For now a man might have seen not only the Prelates of the Churches in words contending with one another but the populace also divided some inclining to one party some to another And this matter grew to that height of indignity and insolency that the Christian Religion became a Ridicule even in the publick Theaters Those that were at Alexandria did pertinaciously contend about the chiefest points of the Faith they also sent Embassies to the Bishops of every particular Province Likewise those that were of the other party were authours of the like stirs and discords There were mixed amongst the
enemies of Truth attempt to reject and abrogate the Preaching thereof by their own Heresies and have coyned vain and new Terms some daring to corrupt the Mystery of our Lords Dispensation which was made upon our account and denying the Term Theotocos which is attributed to the Virgin and others introducing a confusion and mixture foolishly imagining the nature of the flesh and of the Deity to be one and monstrously feigning the Divine Nature of the only begotten to be by confusion passible therefore this present Holy Great and Oecumenicall Synod being desirous to preclude all their ways of fraud invented against the Truth and to vindicate that Doctrine which from the beginning has continued unshaken hath determined that in the first place the Faith of the three hundred and eighteen Holy Fathers ought to remain and be preserved unattempted and inviolate and upon their account who impugne the Holy Spirit this Synod confirms that Doctrine concerning the substance of the Holy Spirit which was afterwards delivered by the hundred and fifty Fathers convened in the Imperiall City Constantinople which Doctrine they promulged to all persons not as if they added any thing which had been wanting before but that they might declare their own Sentiment concerning the Holy Spirit against those who attempted to abrogate and abolish his dominion and power but upon their account who dare corrupt the mysterie of the Oeconomy and do rave so impudently as to assert him who was born of the Holy Virgin Mary to be a meer man this Synod has admitted and approved of the Synodicall Letters of the Blessed Cyrillus who was Pastour of the Church of the Alexandrians which Letters Cyrillus sent to Nestorius and to the Eastern Bishops and they are sufficient both to confute Nestorius's madness and also to explain the salutary Creed in favour to such persons as out of a pious zeal are desirous of attaining a true notion thereof To which Letters in confirmation of such Sentiments as are right and true this Synod has deservedly annext the Epistle of the most Blessed and most Holy Arch-Bishop Leo President of the Great and Elder Rome which he wrote to Arch-Bishop Flavianus of Holy Memory in order to the subversion of Eutyches's madness which Letter agrees with the Confession of Great Peter and is a certain common pillar against those who embrace ill Sentiments For it makes a resistance against them who attempt to divide the Mystery of the Oeconomy into two Sons and it likewise expells those from the convention of sacred persons who audaciously assert the Deity of the Only Begotten to be passible it confutes them also who maintain a Mixture or Confusion in the two Natures of Christ and it expells those who foolishly assert that the form of a servant which Christ took from us men is of a Celestial or of some other substance Lastly it Anathematizes such persons as fabulously prate of two Natures of our Lord before the Union but after the union feign them to have been one Following therefore the steps of the Holy Fathers We confess our Lord Jesus Christ to be one and the same Son and with one consent We do all teach and declare that the same person is perfect in the Deity and that the same person is perfect in the Humanity truly God and truly man that the same person subsists of a rational soul and body that he is Consubstantial to the Father as touching his Deity and that he is of the same substance with us according to his Humanity in all things like unto us sin only excepted that according to his Deity he was begotten of the Father before Ages but that in the last days the same person on our account and for our salvation according to his Humanity was born of Mary the Virgin and Theotocos that one and the same Jesus Christ the Son the Lord the Only Begotten is inconfusedly immutably indivisibly and inseparably manifested in two Natures that the difference of the Natures is in no wise extinguished by the Union but rather that the propriety of each Nature is preserved and meets in one person and in one Hypostasis not as if he were parted and divided into two persons but he is one and the same Only Begotten Son God the Word the Lord Jesus Christ according as the Prophets of old and Christ himself hath taught us concerning himself and according as the Creed of the Fathers hath delivered it to us These things therefore having with all imaginable accuracy and concinnity been constituted by us the Holy and Oecumenical Synod has determined that it shall not be lawfull for any person to produce or write or compose or think or teach others another Faith But whoever shall dare either to compose or to produce or to teach any other Faith or to deliver another Creed to those who have a mind to turn from Gentilism or Judaism or from any other Heresie whatever to the knowledge of the Truth those persons if they be Bishops shall be divested of the Episcopall Dignity if Clergymen they shall be degraded But if they be Monks or Laïcks they shall be Anathematized When therefore this determination had been read the Emperour Marcianus also came to Chalcedon and was present at the Synod and having made a speech to the Bishops he returned Juvenalis also and Maximus on certain conditions determined those differences which were between them about some Provinces and Theodoret and Ibas were restored and some other matters were agitated which as I have said the Reader will find recorded at the end of this Book Lastly it was decreed that the Chair of New Rome in regard it was the next See to the Elder Rome should have precedency before all other Sees CHAP. V. Concerning the Sedition which hapned at Alexandria on account of Proterius's Ordination likewise concerning what hapned at Jerusalem AFter these things Dioscorus was banished to Gangra a City in Paphlagonia and by the common Vote of the Synod Proterius obtaines the Bishoprick of Alexandria After he had taken possession of his own See a great and most insufferable Tumult arose the populace fluctuating and being divided into different opinions For some demanded Dioscorus as it usually happens in such cases Others adhered pertinaciously to Proterius So that thence arose many and those deplorable calamities 'T is certain Priscus the Rhetorician does relate in his History that at that time he came out of the Province of Thebaïs to Alexandria and saw the people making an Attack against the Magistrates And that when the Souldiers would have put a stop to the Tumult the people threw stones at them and made them run that after this the Souldiers took refuge in that which heretofore had been Serapis's Temple where the people besieged them and burnt them alive That the Emperour having notice hereof sent two thousand new raised Souldiers thither who having the
living and remote from matter Of which number was Symeones the first Inventer of the Station in a pillar whom we have mentioned in the First Book of our History amongst whom also were Baradatus and Jacobus the Syrians CHAP. X. Concerning those things which the Bishops and Symeones the Stylite wrote in answer to the Emperour Leo's Circular Letters IN the first place therefore Leo Bishop of the Elder Rome wrote in defence of the Chalcedon Synod and disallowed of Timotheus's Ordination as having been illegally performed Which Letter of Leo's the Emperour Leo sent to Timotheus Prelate of the Alexandrian Church by Diomedes the Silentiarius who was imployed in carrying the Imperiall Mandates To whom Timotheus returned answer wherein he blamed the Chalcedon Synod and found fault with Leo's Letter The Copies of these Epistles are extant in that Collection of Letters termed the Encyclicae But I have designedly omitted the inserting them because I would not have this present Work swell to a Greatness of bulk The Bishops of other Cities likewise stedfastly adhered to the Sanctions of the Synod at Chalcedon and unanimously condemned Timotheus's Ordination Excepting only Amphilochius Bishop of Side who wrote a Letter to the Emperour wherein he cryed out indeed against Timotheus's Ordination but admitted not of the Synod at Chalcedon Zacharias the Rhetorician has written concerning these very affairs and has inserted this very Letter of Amphilochius's into his History Moreover Symeones of Holy Memory wrote two Letters concerning these matters one to the Emperour Leo another to Basilius Bishop of Antioch Of which two Letters I will insert into this my History that which he wrote to Basilius in regard 't is very short the Contents whereof are these To my most Pious and most Holy Lord the Religious Basilius Arch-Bishop the Sinner and mean Symeones wisheth health in the Lord. It is now My Lord opportune to say Blessed be God who hath not turned away our Prayer nor removed his mercy from us sinners For on receipt of the Letters of Your Dignity I admired the Zeal and Piety of our Emperour most dear to God which he hath shown and now does demonstrate towards the Holy Fathers and their most firm Faith Nor is this Gift from us according as the Holy Apostle saith but from God who through our Prayers hath given Him this propensity and singular earnestness of mind And after some few words Wherefore I my self a mean person and of slender account the untimely birth of the Monks have made known my Sentiment to his Imperial Majesty concerning the Faith of the six hundred and thirty Holy Fathers convened at Chalcedon who do persist in and am grounded upon that Faith which has been revealed by the Holy Spirit For if our Saviour is present amongst two or three who are gathered together in his Name how could it possibly be amongst so many so great and such Holy Fathers that the Holy Spirit should not have been with them from the beginning And after the interposition of some words Wherefore be strong and behave your self valiantly in the defence of true plety in such manner as Jesus the Son of Nave the Servant of the Lord behaved himself in defence of the Israelitish people Give I beseech you my Salutes to all the Pious Clergy under Your Sanctity and to the blessed and most faithfull Laïty CHAP. XI Concerning the Banishment of Timotheus Aelurus and the Ordination of Timotheus Salophaciolus and concerning Gennadius and Acacius Bishops of Constantinople AFter these things Timotheus is condemned to be banished he also as well as Dioscorus being ordered to dwell at Gangra The Alexandrians therefore elect another Timotheus to succeed Proterius in that Bishoprick this Timotheus some persons termed Basilicus others called him Salophaciolus Anatolius dying in this interim Gennadius succeeds in the Chair of the Imperial City Constantinople And after him Acacius who had presided over The Orphans Hospital at the Imperial City CHAP. XII Concerning the Earthquake which hapned at Antioch Three hundred fourty and seven years after that which had hapned in the times of Trajane FUrther on the second year of Leo's Empire there hapned a great and vehement motion and shaking of the earth at Antioch some Facts perpetrated with the utmost rage and fury imaginable and which far exceeded the most superlative Ferity of Beasts having before-hand been committed by the populacy of that City which facts were the prelude as 't were to such mischiefs as these Now this most calamitous accident hapned on the five hundredth and sixth year of Antioch's being entitled to all the priviledges and immunities of a free City about the fourth hour of the night that preceded the fourteenth day of the month Gorpiaeus which month the Romans term September the Lords day approaching on the eleventh partition of the Cycle this is related to have been the sixth Earthquake which shaked Anioch three hundred fourty and seven years having passed from the time that that Earthquake had hapned which came to pass in Trajan's Empire For that Earthquake in Trajan's time hapned on the hundredth fifty ninth year of Antioch's being entitled to the priviledges and Immunities of a free City But this Earthquake in the times of Leo hapned on the five hundredth and sixth year as 't is declared by the most accurate and diligent Writers Further this Earthquake ruined almost all the houses of the New City the Inhabitants whereof were very numerous nor was there any part of it empty or wholly neglected but 't was extraordinary beautified and adorned by the preceding Emperours magnificence who strove to out-doe one another in that thing Likewise the first and second fabrick of the Pallace fell down but the other buildings continued standing together with the adjoyning Bath which having been useless before at such time as this calamitous accident hapned was of necessity made use of for the bathing of the Citizens the other Baths having been ruined Moreover the Porticus's before the Pallace fell down and the Tetrapylum which stood behind them Besides the Towers of the Hippodrome which were near the Gates and some of the Porticus's which led to these Towers fell In the old City the Porticus's and houses were wholly untouch't by the Ruine but some small part of Trajan's Severus's and Adrianus's Baths was shaken and overturned This Earthquake also ruined some parts of the Geitonia of that Region termed the Ostracine together with the Porticus's as likewise that termed the Nymphaeum Every of which particulars Johannes the Rhetorician has related with a singular accuracy This Writer therefore affirms that a thousand Talents of Gold were by the Emperour remitted to the City out of the Tributary Function and that to the Citizens were abated the yearly Tolls paid to the publick Treasury for those houses which had been destroyed by that calamity and moreover
Fall of the Persecutors and does now rejoyce because of the Peace of the Christians INdeed this thing has succeeded well namely that in Our age also the punishment of such persons hath most evidently been demonstrated For even I my self have been a spectator of their disastrous End who lately disquieted the people dedicated to God by their most impious Edicts Therefore I give God great thanks because by his signall Providence all mankind who are observant of the divine Law having Peace and Repose restored to them are exceeding joyfull and glad From whence I do perswade my self that all affairs are in an excellent and most safe posture in regard God vouchsafes to gather all persons to himself by their pure and approved Religion and by their unanimous Sentiment in reference to the Deity CHAP. XIII An Exhortation that he should love the Christians who live in his Country HOw great a pleasure and delight was it to Me think you when I heard what is my most earnest desire that even the richest and best places of Persia were plentifully adorned with a multitude of these men I mean Christians for my whole discourse at present is concerning them I wish therefore both that your affairs may continue in a most flourishing posture and in like manner that their affairs maybe so too that is the affairs of both of you equally For by this means you will have God the supream Lord and Father mercifull and propitious towards you These persons therefore because you are so great a Prince I commit to Your Care these very persons in regard You are eminent for piety I deliver into your hands Love these men in a manner befitting Your own benignity and good nature For by this Your Faith You will do an immense kindness both to Your Self and Us. CHAP. XIV How by the earnestness of Constantine's Prayers Peace was bestowed on the Christians ALL Nations in all parts of the world being like some Ship in this manner steered and directed by one Commander and willingly embracing the Religion and Government of this Servant of God and there being no person who might give any further disturbance to the Roman Empire all men in future lead peaceable and undisturbed lives But because the Emperour judg'd the Prayers of pious persons to be highly usefull and advantagious in order to the safety and preservation of the State 't was his Sentiment that these were necessarily to be procured Therefore both he himself humbly implored Gods assistance and also commanded the Prelates of Churches to put up their prayers to God for him CHAP. XV. That both on his money and in his Pictures he ordered himself to be stamp't and drawn in a praying posture BUt how transcendent a liveliness of divine Faith was fixt in his soul may easily be conjectured from this very one thing that on his Golden money he ordered his own Image to be stamp't in such a manner as that he might seem to look up to God with his Hands expanded in the posture of one praying And this sort of money was current over the whole Roman World But in the Imperial Palaces which were in some Cities his Pictures were plac't on high at the very entrance of the Porch wherein he was drawn standing upright looking up to heaven but his hands were expanded in the fashion of one praying CHAP. XVI That He issued forth a Law forbidding his own Statues to be placed in Idol-Temples IN this manner therefore he represented himself praying even in his Pictures drawn in Colours But by a Law he forbad that his own Statues should be dedicated in Idol-Temples least they should be polluted even as far as the outward Form only with the errour of prohibited Superstition CHAP. XVII His praying in the Palace and his reading of the Divine Scriptures BUt whosoever has a mind to give attention will perceive far nobler instances of his piety than these how he constituted a Church of God as 't were within the Imperial Palace and with diligence and chearfulness lead the way himself to those who assembled within that Church Moreover he took the Bible into his hands and with an attentive mind meditated upon those divinely-inspired Oracles After which he recited the usual prayers together with the whole assemblie of his Courtiers CHAP. XVIII That by a Law He commanded Sunday and Friday to be honoured BUt He ordained that a day should be esteemed of as convenient and fit for prayers that day namely which really is the Chief and First of the other days and which is truly the Lord's and the Salutary day Moreover he appointed Deacons and Ministers consecrated to God who were grac't with integrity of Life and all other virtues to be the Keepers of His whole house Lastly the Protectors and trusty Guards furnished with the arms of good affection and faith acknowledged the Emperour himself as their Instructer in the practise of piety and they themselves in the same manner honoured the Salutary and the Lord's day whereon they poured forth to God prayers that were gratefull to the Emperour And this Blessed Emperour incited all other men to practise the same thing in regard this was his chiefest desire that by degrees he might make all persons worshippers of God And for this reason he issued out a Precept to all those who lived under the Roman Empire that they should keep Holy-day on those days which had their denomination from our Saviour as likewise that they should honour the day before the Sabbath in memory as I think of those things said to have been performed on those days by the common Saviour Further whereas he instructed his whole Army diligently to honour the Salutary day which happens to derive its name from the light and from the Sun to those who had embraced the divinely-inspired Faith he allowed time and leisure for a free exercise of themselves according to the usage and order of God's Church to the end they might without any impediment be present at the performance of the prayers CHAP. XIX How He ordered the Ethnick-Souldiers to pray on Sundays BUt to them who as yet had not embraced the Doctrine of the divine Faith He issued out a Precept in a Second Law that on Sundays they should go out into a pure field in the Suburbs where after a Signal given they should all together power forth a prayer to God which they had learnt before For that they ought not to place their confidence in their Spears nor in their Armour nor in their strength of Body but were to acknowledge the supream God the giver of every good thing and of Victory it self and that to him the solemn prayers were to be performed lifting up their hands on high towards Heaven but raising the eyes of their mind higher as far as the celestial King himself and that in their
hindrance which danger hung over their heads who would go about to confute those Rites instituted by their Ancestours As warily therefore and as safely as 't was possible He has represented the Truth to those who are able to understand it whilst he lays the blame upon Towers and Wars which at this very present are really visible in the Life of men and describes our Saviour going to the Trojan War Now by Troy He means the whole world For Christ waged a War against the opposed Forces of wickedness His Mission into the world being occasioned partly from the good will and pleasure of his own providence and partly from the Order of the Supream Father But what says the Poet after these words Here when full years shall make Thee perfect man That is when after Thou art arrived at Man's Estate Thou shalt have pluckt up by the roots those Mischiefs which infest the Life of men and shalt have adorned the whole world with Peaâ—e The Saylor shall forsake the Ocean Nor navigable pines shall traffick Ware But each part of the world shall all things bear Nor earth feel harrows nor the vine the hook Nor wool with various colours shall deceive But in the meadows Rams shall scarlet have And changing sometimes golden fleeces wear And feeding Lambs shall native purple bear Attempt great honours for the time draws near Dear Race of Gods Great Stock of Jupiter Behold The world shakes on its ponderous axe See Earth and Heavens immense and th' Ocean's tracts How all things at th' approaching Age rejoyce â— Oh that my Life would last so long and voyce As would suffice Thy Actions to rehearse Not Orpheus then should vanquish me in Verse Nor Linus though their Parents present be Should Pan strive with me by Arcadia's doom Although a God Pan should be overcome Behold says he the Joy of the tottering World and of all the Elements CHAP. XXI That 't is impossible for these things to be spoken concerning a meer Man and that unbelievers by reason of their ignorance of the Divine worship know not even whence they have their being SOme one of their number whose Sentiments have less of prudence in them will perhaps suppose that these things are spoken concerning the Birth of a man But what reason can there be assigned that upon the Birth of a Son of Man the earth should be unsown and unplowed and that the Vine should not need the edge of the Hook nor any other care or cultivation How can these things be thought to be spoken concerning the Off-spring of a Man For Nature is the Handmaid of the Divine Will and does not execute humane Commands Besides the Joy of all the Elements denotes the Advent of God not the Birth of any Man And this namely the Poets praying that the term of his Life might be prolonged is a certain Evidence of Divine Invocation For 't is our usage to ask life and safety of God not of men Thus therefore Sibylla Erythraea speaks to God Why O Lord says She dost Thou lay upon Me a necessity of Prophesying and not rather keep Me raised on high from the Earth until the day of Thy Most Blessed Coming But Maro adds these Verses also to those we have quoted above Begin Sweet Child with smiles Thy Mother know Who ten long Months did with thy burthen go Sweet Child begin cheer'd by no parents look To 's Board no God t' Her Bed no Goddess took For how should his Parents have smiled on him For God who is His Father is a Power void of Quality And He Himself wants all figure but exists in the circumscription of others nor is he endued with an humane Body Who likewise is ignorant that the Spirit of God is unconcern'd in a Marriage Bed For what desire what Appetite can there be in the affection of the chiefest Good whereof all other things are desirous What can be wholly common to Wisedom and Pleasure But it may be permitted them to speak these things who feign to themselves a certain humane Generation of Christ and who make it not their business to cleanse their mind from every ill fact and word I here appeaal to Thee O Piety I implore Thy Assistance in reference to those things which are spoken Thou who art nothing else but the Law of Chastity and Holiness the most desirable of all Goods the School-mistris of a most Holy Hope the most certain and unfeigned Promise of immortality Thee I adore O Piety and Clemency To Thee we owe eternal thanks for the benefit of thy Cure which we stood in need of But the Generality of Men void of Thy assistance by reason of their innate hatred towards Thee have an Aversion for God also Nor do they understand that the very Cause as well of their Life and Being as of all other persons who are impious depends upon that service and worship which is paid to the Deity For the whole world and whatever is contained therein is His Possession CHAP. XXII The Emperour's Thanksgiving wherein He ascribes His Victories and all His other Blessings to Christ also a Reproof of Maximinus the Tyrant of those times who by the severity of his Persecution had increased the Glory of the Christian Religion INdeed I my self do ascribe mine own Felicity and all that I am possest of to Piety as to the Cause thereof Whereto the Event of all things which have been answerable to My desires and wishes does bear witness My Battels My Victories over mine Enemies and My Trophies are an Evidence hereof The Great City knows these things and celebrates them with praises The same likewise is the Sentiment of the Inhabitants of My most beloved City although deceived by false hopes She hath chosen a Prince unworthy of Herself who forthwith underwent a Condigne punishment and such as was agreeable to his own audacious impieties But I look upon these things as unfit to be mentioned now by Me especially who am directing My Discourse to Thee O Piety and who do make it my whole Care how I may address my selfe to Thee in discourses that are pure and seemly Nevertheless I will say something which shall neither appear foul nor indecent A fierce and implacable War abounding with instances of Madness and Cruelty was by the Tyrants waged both against Thee O Piety and against all Thy most Holy Churches Nor were there some persons wanting in the City Rome who rejoyced in such great and publick Mischiefs A Field was likewise pitcht in order to an Engagement But Thou camest forth and didst voluntarily deliver up Thyself being supported by a Faith in God Then the Cruelty of the impious having like some furious fire without intermission preyed upon all things which it met with procured for Thee an admirable and ever-to-becelebrated Glory For on this account it
ten Unites make up one Denarie But a Denarie or Decade is the Limit the Meta and the fixt and stated Boundary of Unites the Meta of the infinity of Numbers but the End that is the perfection of Unites Moreover the Ternarie joyned together with the Denarie and having performed the third period of ten Circuits produces that most natural Number the Number Thirty For that which in Unites is the Ternarie the same in Denaries is the Tricenarie or Thirtieth Number And this is the firm and certain Limit of that great Luminary which is the second from the Sun For the Course of the Moon from one conjunction with the Sun to the next compleats the Circle of a Month after which She again receives a Beginning of Birth as 't were and does again begin new Light and new Days being grac't with thirty Unites honoured with three Decades and beautified with ten Ternaries With the very same Graces is the Empire of Our Victor Augustus and Lord of the whole world adorned by the Bestower of all things that are good and enters upon a beginning of new blessings having hitherto accomplished the Tricennalian Festivities only but now from hence forward entring upon longer intervals of Times and espousing the hopes of future Blessings in the Celestial Kingdom Where not one only Sun but troops of innumerable Lights daunce about the Supream Emperour every one of which is far more Glorious than the Sun it self and do shine and glister with the splendour of those Rayes shot from that Eternal Fountaine of Light Where there is a life of the mind in the incorruptible Beauties of Goods where there is a life void of all grief and trouble where there is an enjoyment of temperate and most holy pleasure Time without Time a long and endless Aevum enlarged to Spaces bounded by no Term not any more distinguished by the intervals of dayes and months nor measured by the Circles of Years and the periods of Seasons and Times but sufficient for one life continued to an immensity Which is not enlightned by the Sun nor illustrated by the multitude of the Stars or Splendour of the Moon but has that Luminary it self God the Word the only-begotten Son of the Supream Emperour On which account the Divine Discourses of Mystick Theology do declare Him to be that Sun of Righteousness and a Light which far transcends all Lights We do firmly believe that the very same person does illustrate those most blessed Powers with the Rayes of Justice and the beams of Wisedom and that He does take the Souls of men adorned with true Piety not into the Circumference of Heaven but into His own Bosom and that he does really confirm and fulfill His own promises But the eye of Mortals hath not seen nor hath any ear heard neither can a mind cloathed with flesh be able to discern and look into those things which are prepared for them who have been adorned with Pâ—ety as likewise for You also Most Religious Emperour To whom alone of all persons that ever were God Himself the Supream Emperour of this Universe has granted this that You should cleanse and reform the Life of men To whom also He hath shown His own Salutary Sign by the power whereof having conquered Death He celebrated a Triumph over His Enemies Which Trophy of Victory and Amulet of Daemons when You had opposed against the Images of Errour You gained the Victory over all impious Enemies and Barbarians as also over the Daemons themselves who are another sort of Barbarians FOR Whereas there are in us two Substances conjoyned namely Soul and Body whereof the Latter is exposed to view but the other remaines invisible against both these two sorts of Enemies and Barbarians the one covertly the other openly have set themselves in array And the one of them opposes Bodies against Bodies but the other assaults man's naked Soul it self with all sorts of incorporeal Engines Farther those visible Barbarians like some savage Nomades in nothing different from wild-beasts make an attack upon the meek and gentle Flocks of Men ruine and depopulate Countries enslave Cities rush out of the Desert like fierce and furious Wolves and fall upon the inhabitants of Cities after which they destroy as many as they can But the invisible Enemies I mean the Soul-destroying Daemons who are far more fierce and cruel than all Barbarians flye about the Regions of this Air and by the Engines of mischievous Polytheisme had reduced all mankind under their power in so much that the true God was not by them any longer look't upon as God but they wandred up and down in manifold errour without any worship of the Deity For having procured for themselves Gods from I know not whence who have not any Being or Existence in any place whatever they wholly neglected and undervalued Him who is the only and the true God as if He were not Hence it was that the Generation of Bodies was by them reputed and worshipt as a God as also a contrary Deity hereto to wit the destruction and dissolution of Bodies And the former of these Gods in regard He was the Authour of Generation was honoured with the Rites of Venus But the Latter because He abounded with Riches and in Strength excelled Mankind was named Pluto and Orâ—â—â—â— For whereas the Men of that Age acknowledged no other life save that which takes its beginning from Generation therefore they asserted the Cause and Origine of that Life to be a God And whereas they believed Men not to exist any more after death they declared Death to be the Vanquisher of all and a Great God Then concluding that on account of that dissolution by death they were in no wiâ—e accountable hereafter for what was performed here they resolved upon living such a life as in effect was 〈◊〉 life perpetrating such facts as deserved to be punished with ten thousand deaths For they had not their minds taken up with the thoughts of God they expected not the Tribunals of the Divine judgment nor call'd to remembrance the Nature of their own Souls but acknowledging a subjection to one Cruel Patron Death and fully perswading themselves that the destruction of bodies effected by it was the dissolution and annihilation of the whole man they declared Death to be a great and a rich God and for that reason gave him the name of Pluto or Dis. Death therefore was to them a God and not he alone but whatever else they accounted valuable in comparison of Death namely those things which were conducive in order to the rendring their Lives pleasant and delicate For the pleasure of the Body was by them accounted a God nourishment was a God the growth of those things that produce nutriment a God the fruit of Trees a God Drunkenness and Luxury a God the desire of things Carnal a God the Pleasure of those
Seditions wherewith they were sorely disquieted during the whole Course of their Lives and filled their own Countries with bloud and intestine slaughters Moreover the Gods worshipt by them with much flattery did indeed promise the then Emperours Prophesies and Oracles and predictions of things future But those very Gods could not foresee their own Ruine and were altogether unable to foretell it to their own selves Which is a most convincing Argument in order to the manifestation of their cheat and imposture 'T is certain none of those heretofore admired for their Oracles ever foretold the Glorious Coming of the Common Saviour amongst men or the new Preaching of that divine knowledge which was first delivered by him Neither Pythius himself nor any other of the Great Daemons was ever apprehensive of their own desolation nor did he presage or prophesie who should vanquish and destroy them What Diviner or Soothsayer hath foretold that the worship of the Gods should be extinguished by the Coming of a Certain New Person into the world and that the knowledge and worship of the supream Mediator of all things should be diffused amongst all men Who hath foreseen this Holy and Religious Principality and this Our Victor and the Trophies which he has in all places of the earth erected against Daemons and the Ruine of the High places Which of the Hero's hath ever declared in express words that the lifeless Statues should be melted and from an useless Form be changed into necessary uses Which of the Gods hath ever made any mention concerning their own Statues which are melted down and with disgrace and laughter cut into thinn plates Where I beseech you were the Defenders of those Gods that could not give assistance to the Monuments consecrated to them which were ruined by Men What is become of them who heretofore raised Wars and who now behold their own vanquishers living in a most calm and secure Peace Where are those who put their trust in them as in Gods and elevated their own minds by a vain and fruitless confidence who when they had raised the Errour of their own superstition to the highest pitch and had commenc't an implacable War against the Defenders of Truth Wretches as they were perished in a most miserable manner Where are those Troops of Gyants fighting against God Himself And the hissings of Dragons Who have whet their Tongues and have uttered impious Expressions against the supream King Those persons profest Enemies to the supream Emperour confiding in a multitude of Gods fell on with vast numbers of men in Arms carrying before them as their defence Resemblances of dead persons in Statues void of life But Our Emperour cloathed with the Coat of Mail of Piety having opposed against the multitude of his Enemies the salutary and vivifick Standard as some affrightning spectacle and potent Preservative against mischiefs obtained the Victory both over his Enemies and over the Daemons After which with a gratefull mind he rendred a Thanksgiving-prayer to God the Authour of his Victory and with a loud voice and by the Monuments of Statues raised he made known to all men the Triumphant Standard erecting this Great Trophy against all his Enemies in the midst of the Imperial City and issuing out an Express Command to all men that they should acknowledge this salutary Standard which no Age can deface as the Preservative of the Roman Government that is the Empire of the whole world And herewith â—e acquainted all persons but more especially the Milice To whom he gave this in charge that they ought not to place their hopes in their Spears and Armour nor in the strength of their Bodies but should acknowledge God to be the Giver of all Good and particularly of Victory it self Thus the Emperour himself strange and almost incredible was his own Armie's Instructer in their devotions and delivered to them pious prayers which were agreeable to the Divine Laws and Institutions that they should lift up their hands on high towards Heaven but should fix the eyes of their minds on the highest object namely on the Celestial King and in their prayers should invoke him as The Giver of Victory The Saviour The Preserver and The Assistant Moreover that they should esteem of a day as convenient and fit for prayers to wit that day which really is the Chief and First of other days and which is truly the Lord's and the Salutary Day and which has its name from Light Life Immortality and from every thing that is good Moreover He himself becoming his own Teacher of such good things pays an adoration to his Saviour in the most private Apartments of his Imperial Palace and sometimes by praying fulfills the Divine Laws at others by hearing the sacred Scriptures read he cultivates and instructs his own mind Farther persons consecrated to God and who are adorned with holiness of Life and the other virtues are his Servants and Ministers and them he has appointed to be the Controllers of his whole House Lastly his Protectors and trusty Guards armed with the weapons of good affection do acknowledge the Emperour as their Instructer in a pious Life But the Emperour himself pays an honour to this Victorious Banner having experimentally found a Divine Efficacy inherent in it For by this Standard vast multitudes of the adverse Army have been put to â—light by it the Forces of invisible Daemons have been subdued By it their insolence who opposed God Himself was represt by it the tongues of flanderers and impious persons were silenced By it the Barbarous Nations were vanquished By it the frauds and mockery of Superstitious Errour were exposed and detected Lastly to it which is the sum and perfection of all Goods the Emperour paying a due debt as 't were has erected Triumphal Arches in all places of the Earth And with a bountifull and Royal hand hath founded Temples and Churches in honour of it and has issued forth an Order to all persons that sacred Oratories should be built In the very midst therefore of the Provinces and Cities eximious Monuments of his Imperial magnificence were forthwith raised and in a short time they shined gloriously in every Country and manifestly confuted and exposed the impiety of Tyrannick Government For those Tyrants having by a madness of mind been a little before hurried on to wage a War against God like mad dogs vented their rage against the lifeless Structures in regard they were unable to effect any thing against God Himself and when they had thrown down the Oratories from their vast height to the very ground and had dug up their very Foundations they made them look like a City taken by the Enemy Such was the Tragedy of wickednesses acted by them wherein they attempted as 't were to assault the Deity it self but were soon made sensible of their own madness For a short space of time had scarce intervened
435. 1. Honoratus Praefect of Constantinople 281. 1. Honorius is proclaimed Augustus 350. 2. Hormisda Son to Chosroes succeeds his Father in the Kingdom 509. 1. The Persians headed by Varamus conspire against him 522. 2. Hosius Bishop of Corduba 195. 1. 214. 1. 266. 1. 269. â— 2. was present at the Nicene Council 578. 1. Hunericus or Onorichus King of the Vandals persecutes the Catholicks in Africk 460. 1. 483. 2. Hunni destroy Armenia 352. 1. Hunni heretofore called Massagetae 449. 1. Hyginus Bishop of Rome 54. 1. the ninth successour of the Apostles ibid. Hymenaeus Bishop of Jerusalem 125. 1. 133. 1. Hypatia a Philosopheress 376. 1. She is barbarously murdered 376. 2. Hypatianus Bishop of Heraclea 266. 1. Hyperechius a Bishop 311. 2. Hypostasis and Ousia how they may be spoken concerning God 390. 2 c. Hyrcanus Prince of the Jews taken by the Parthians 8. 2. I. JAmes the Brother of Our Lord one of the 70 disciples 13. 2. 16. 1. is created Bishop of Jerusalem 16. 1. surnamed James the Just. ibid. also surnamed Oblias 27. 2. His Martyrdom ibid. His Catholick Epistle 29. 1. His Chair kept with great care 126. 2. Iberians converted to the Christian faith when and how 232. 2. Jerusalem-Church was termed a Virgin 63. 2. Jerusalem its last Siege and Famine described 32 c. Jews first under Judges after that under Kings after the Captivity they were an Aristocracy with an Oligarchy at length became Tributaries to Rome 8. 2. They had the names of their Ancestours written out in ancient Rolls 10. 1. They had a sacred Treasury called Corban 19. 1. Their Seaven Sects 63. 2. the destruction of the Jews under Vespasian 35. 1. They endeavour to rebuild their Temple 298. 2. Hadrian forbids them to enter Jerusalem 52. 1. Ignatius the second Bishop of Antioch after Saint Peter 40 1. 47. 1. His Epistles are reckoned up 47. 2. He suffered Martyrdom at Rome ibid. By Theodosius Junior's order his Reliques are removed into the City Antioch 413. 2. Illus and Leontius rebell against Zeno. 464. 1. Index of the Books of the Old Testament 66. 2. 164. 1 2. Indians converted to the faith of Christ when and how 231. 2. Immestar a place in Syria 377. 1. Innocentius Bishop of Rome 373. 2. Johannes or John two of them lived at the same time in Asia 49. 1 2. John the Apostle Preach'd in Asia 30. 1. dyed at Ephesus ibid. was banished into the Island Patmos 39. 1. returned from thence after Domitian's death and governed the Churches of Asia 40. 1 2. for what reason he wrote his Gospel 42. 1 2. 105. 1. He wore a plate of Gold 87. 1. Johannes a Reader is beheaded for the faith of Christ. 170. 1. His wonderful memory ibid. Johannes a Presbyter of the Church of Antioch 352. 1. is ordained Bishop of Constantinople 353. 1. His descent and education ibid. and 353. 2. His course of Life and disposition 354. 2. He was wont to Preach sitting in the Pulpit 355. 2. His death 367. 1. Johannes is ordained Bishop of Jerusalem 338. 2. Johannes Bishop of Proconnesus 389. 1. Johannes the Chief of the Notaries sets up for a Tyrant 381. â— John the Apostle's Church seaven miles from Constantinople 356. 2. John Chrysostoms Opinion concerning the Admission of Penitents 367. 2. Johannitae so they were called who took John Chrysostom's part 366. 2. at length they were re-united to the Church by Proclus 393. 1. Johannes Bishop of Antioch 387. 1. 403. 2. coming to the Council the fifth day after Nestorius's Condemnation assembles a Synod and deposes Cyrillus 404. 2. is reconciled to Cyrillus 405. 1. Johannes the Rhetorician an Historian 413. 2. 434. 1. 464. 2. closed his History under Justinus Senior 479. 2. Johannes from being Steward is ordained Bishop of Alexandria 455. 1. is ejected by Zeno Augustus's order ibid. flyes to Rome to Pope Simplicius 456. 2. Johannes after Athanasius is ordained Bishop of Alexandria 462. 2. Johannes Bishop of Paltum a Defender of the Chalcedon Synod is banished 467. 1. Johannes Scytha aud Johannes Gibbus Masters of the Milice vanquish the Isauri 469. 2. Johannes the Chuzibite a Monk in Palestine 480. 2. Johannes Scholasticus Eutychius being ejected is ordained Bishop of Constantinople 497. 2. Johannes Bishop of Jerusalem 526. 1. Johannes called Catelinus successour to Vigilius in the Bishoprick of Rome 497. 2. Johannes ordained Apollinaris's successour in the See of Alexandria 509. 2. Johannes succeeds Macarius in the See of Jerusalem ibid. Josephus the Historiographer 36. 2. His Books 37. 1 2. Joseph Bishop of Jerusalem 51. 2. Jovianus is chosen Emperour 299. 2. makes a peace with the Persians 300. 1. dyes 304. 2. Irenaeus a Presbyter of Lyons 75. 1. is made a Bishop 76. 1. His Books 84. 2. 89. 1. when a youth he was an Hearer of Polycarp at Smyrna 85. 1. He writes to Pope Victor 87. 2. 345. 1. Irenaeus a Grammarian Wrote a Lexicon 291. 2. Irenaeus of Tyre and Aquilinus of Biblus Bishops are deposed in the second Ephesine Synod 409. 1. Irenaeus Comes of the East under Justinus Senior 479. 1. Irenius Bishop of Gaza 304. 2. Isacoces Bishop of Armenia the Great 304. 1. Isaurica Donatives which the Emperour gave yearly to the Isaurians 470. 1. Ischyras assumes to himself the Office of a Presbyter 238. 2. is made a Bishop by the Arians 257. 1. Ischyrion is killed for the faith of Christ. 111. 2. Isdigerdes King of the Persians 373. 1. Father to Vararanes 415. 2. Isidorus a Presbyter of Alexandria 353. 1. hated by Theophilus and why 359. 2. Isidorus Pelusiota 413. 1. Ision a Meletian â—38 1. Judas of Galile or Gaulanites 8. 1. Jude one of the Brethren of Christ. 39. 2. Judas Bishop of Jerusalem 51. 2. Judas an Ecclesiastick Writer 94. 2. Julianus Bishop of Alexandria 78. 2. Julianus Bishop of Apamia 82. 1. Julianus a Martyr at Alexandria under Decius 110. 2. Julianus a Martyr with Pamphilus 168. 2. Julianus created Caesar. 270. 1. He is Saluted Augustus 286. 2. 284. 2. His Education 286. 1. He recites his Orations in the Court 287. 2. wrote against the Christians ibid. His Book entitled The Caesars ibid. persecutes the Christians 295. 1. His Misopogon or Antiochicus 298. 1. His Book concerning the Cynick Philosophy 301. 2. He is slain 299. 2. Julianus Bishop of Lebedus 438. 1. Julianus Bishop of Bostri refuses subscribing to Severus's Synodick Letters 469. 1. Julius Caesar takes five hundred Cities 473. 1. Julius Bishop of Rome wrote a Letter to the Easterns 253. 2. His Letter to the Alexandrians 260. 2. c. Sate Bishop fifteen years 270. 2. Justina Augusta Mother to Valentinian Junior favours the Arians 337. 1. Justinianus Sister's son to Justinus is by him proclaimed Augustus 481. 2. a defender of the Chalcedon Synod ibid. His wife Theodora is an Enemy to that Synod ibid. His Constitution wherein he Anathematizes Anthimus and Severus and their Associates 483. 1. destroys the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Nauses as Eusebius does thrice in his Demonstrat Evangel B. 5. Chap. 17. in Hebrew he is Named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Joshua Numb 11. v. 28. Vales. * Lament 4. 20. * Psal. 2. 1 2 7 8. * Hep. 7. 14. It is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning Priesthood c Or by the Spirit But all the M. SS Copies agree with our translation of it Vales. * Isai. 61. 1. * Psal. 45. 6 7. †Psal. 110. 1 2 3. †Gen. 14. 18. Heb. 7. 1. d Or Chief-Priest For so the Maz. Med. Fuk. and Savil. M. SS read it Vales. e Or Anâ—inting for some copies have it written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vales. f That is From all eternity Vales. a At these words the Maz. and Fuk. M. SS and the Kings M. S. and the Old sheets begin the 4 th Chapter * Isai. 66. 8. * Isai. 62. 2 b Some Translatours as Musculus and D r Hanmer as appears by his Version and marginal Note thereat supposed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. atar which is the word here used in the Original and is a Greek adverb was a proper name and a corruption of Terah the name of the father of Abraham of whom mention is made Gen. 11. But this is a great mistake For Terah the father of Abraham was not one of those whom God loved as it may be plainly collected from Sacred Scripture neither did our Eusebius think so as appears by his own words when he says a little after this in this Chapter concerning Abraham that he left the superstition of his fathers We have therefore translated these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And moreover Vales. * Psal. 105. 15. †Christs that is anointed * Gen. 15. 6. Rom. 4. 3. * Gen. 11. 3. Gen. 18. 18. 22. 18. a The first year of Augustus according to Eusebius's computation is that wherein Hirtius and Pansa were Consuls Therefore the fourty second year of Augustus falâ— on his thirteenth Consulship Thus much concerning the year wherein Christ was born Eusebius does no where expresly mention the day It was the common opinion of the Western Church that he was born on the 7. Kalend. January but the Eastern Church thought otherwise that he was born on the 8. Id. January i. e. on the 6 th day Jan. Vales. The learned have found so great difficulty in assigning the day of our Saviours Birth that Scaliger said Uniâ—â— Dei est non hominis deâ—inire i. e. God onely not man was able expressely to declare it It had been much better for these men to content themselves with the tradition of the Church rather than by such an elaborate unfruitful search to entangle the truth For the celebration of this festival many testimonies may be produced out of Origen Cyprian and Chrysostom each of these fathers deducing it from the practise of the first antiquity and S t Augustine makes it a Character of a son of the Church to solemnize the Festivals of it and this principally and by name of the Nativity To which may be added that of the Author of the Constitutions Constit. B. 5. c. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Keep the days of the feasts and first the day of Christs Birth So that the Religion of this day non est nupera neque novitia is not modern nor newly begun though Scaliger said so And for the particular day the 25 th of December whereon this Festival is by us solemnized not to mention other testimonies which might be produced to this purpose In Joseph the Egyptian's Arabick Codex of the Counsels a M. S. in the Archives of the publick Library of Oxford of the gift of S t Thomas Roe this day as well as this Feast is affirmed to stand by Apostolical Canon The words of which as it is Transcribed by M r Gregory are in English these Also that you constitute an anniversary Feast at the Nativity of the Lord Christ on the Day on which he was Born and that was the five and twentieth of the first Canon i. e. of December For this is the principal of all the Feasts c. See M r Gregories Works Chap. 34. D r Hammond on the Festivals of the Church and the Learned Seldens Tract of Christmas-Day for further satisfaction b It is by learned men affirmed particularly by Js. Casaubon in Bar. p. 105. and is most probable that this decree of Taxing or inrolling every Person according to their Families and Estates was an effect of Augustus his curiosity and neither of his desire to enrich his Treasure nor to reform the excesses of those before him and this over-ruled by Gods special providence that this Emperour might serve to be instrumental to the conserving the record of the Birth of Christ whose Name and his mothers as well as Josephs were now inrolled And this is an evidence of the nature of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was not a Tax for that would not have belonged to women and infants but to the possessours onely See D r Hammond on Luk. 2. v. 1. c There is a great disagreement amongst the Learned about this enrolment and valuation of mens Persons and Estates whether it was done once or twice Some say there were two both made by the same Cyrenius or Quirinius and both mentioned by St Luke the first he speaks of Chap. 2. 2. of his Gospel which was made a little before our Saviours Birth about the latter end of the Reign of Herod the great Sentius Saturninus being then president of Syria this say these men St Luke calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Taxing to difference it from that other mentioned by him Acts 5. 37. And whereas St Luke says Cyrenius at that time had the rule over Syria these words are to be taken in a loofer not stricter sense not that Cyrenius was then the standing Governour there 〈◊〉 the Romans but was sent by the Emperour particularly on this â—â—â—â—sion to take an Inventory of this part of the Empire forâ—iss confest that Sentius Saturninus was then the president of Syria The other Taxing mentioned in the Acts was made ten years after this after the banishment of Archelaus and about the insurrection of Judas of Galilee or Gaulanites This is the opinion of Scaliger Petavius Casaubon and Hammond On the other hand Valâ—â—iuâ— and with him as he thinks agrees our Eusebius in this Chapt. says there was but one Taxing which may be supposed to have been begun at the latter end of Herod the great his Reign about the time of Christs Birth and was not perhaps finished till ten years after when Cyrenius was president of Syria after the banishment of Archelaus his reasons are these Josephus mentions but one after this Enrolment once made why should it be repeated and that by the same person For if he had done it equally and exactly
Med. M. SS retain the true reading of this place which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of sacrificing the same reading Gruter found in his copies The Governours of Provinces were oblieged to sacrifice to the Gods and to the Emperours and to be present at sacrifices Upon which account the Christians abstained from the Magistracy and refused the Government of Provinces offered them by the Emperours Vales. The reading in Robert Stephens Edit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Our Authour means not the Empresses as Christophorson supposed but the wives of the Emperours domesticks Vales. d This Dorotheus was of the Bed-chamber to the Emperour Diocletian or Galcrius Casar so Metaphrastes affirms in the Acts of the Martyrs Indes and Domna Chap. 23. Vales. e In the Med. Fuâ— Savil. and Maz. M. SS the reading here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. amongst the procuratours c. which M. SS have not these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 observancy and eminent favour But in the Kings M. S. and R. Stephens Edit the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by all private men in which copies also we have those words which we said were wanting in the other M. SS Vales. f The term in the original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word S t Paul uses 2 Thessal 2. 1. where our translatours render it our gathering together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does properly signifie to collect persons disperst in divers places into one place In this sense Dionys. Alexandrin uses it B. 4. Chap. 23. of this history where he speaks of Quadratus Bishop of the Athenians Vales. g That is whilst the Bishops were at variance amongst themselves concerning preeminence or about the bounds of their Diocesses Vales. * Lament 2. 1 2. †Psal. 89. 39 c. The words of Eusebius in the original here do not agree with that Copy of the Septuagint printed according to the Vatican M. S. at Rome which is the common Septuagint we now use nor with the original Hebrew the Learned reader upon comparing the Texts will see the difference we translated out Authours words as we found them in the Greek copy a In the Maz. M. S. the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnino wholly or fully In the Kings M. S. and Robert Stephens's Edit 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The former is the better reading At these words Chap. 2. begins in all our M. SS and in Rufinus's old copy Vales. * Psal. 107. 40. this quotation seems impertinent Vales. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tryed experienced for this term is used instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S t Paul uses the word Heb. 4. 15. where our translation renders it tempted 'T is a metaphor taken from ships set upon by Pirates at Sea as the following words declare these marine thieves are called Pirates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vales. c So says our Eusebius in his Chronicon and so also the Alexandrian Chronicle with whom agrees Idatius in fastis whose words are these Diocletiano VIII Maximiano VII his Coss. persecutio Christianorum i. e. when Diocletian was the eighth time Consul and Maximianus the seventh the persecution of the Christians began The same may be concluded from the Acts of Munatius Felix in Gest. apud Zenophilum Consularem Numidiae According to Eusebius's account this was the 305 year from our Blessed Saviours nativity but according to the Dionysian Aera which we now make use of it was the 303. But Baronius in Annal. and Petavius in the second part of his Rationar Tempor affirms that the beginning of this persecution must be placed on the 302 year of Christ when Constantius IV. and Maximianus IV. Coss. Their opinion is grounded on one onely argument to wit the Acts of the Council of Cirta a City in Numidia afterwards called Constantina which Council Augustine in Breviculo Collat. affirms was convened the year after the persecution began and after the passion of the Martyrs Now the Acts of that Council which Augustine relates in the B. 3. against Cresconius doe shew that it was convened Diocletian VIII and Maximianus VII Coss. But this argument is easily answered For there is a mistake in those Acts of the Council of Cirta the true reading is P. C. Diocletiani IX and Maximiani VIII This appears evidently ex Breviculo Collat Diei 3. cap. 17. where we meet with these words Nam Gesta Martyrum quibus ostendebatur tempus persecutionis Coss. gesta sunt Diocletiano IX Maximiano VIII pridie Idus Februarias Gesta autem Episcopalia decreti Cirtensis post eorundem consulatum 3. Nonâ—â— Martias c. This passage cannot be supposed to be false For Augustine adds there that the Officers being commanded by the Judge to see what distance of time there was between the passion of the Martyrs and the Council of Cirta were deceived and through their ignorance told him what was false For whereas the Acts of the Martyrs were thus inscribed Diocletiano IX and Maximiano VIII pridie Idus Febr. and the Acts of the Council of Cirta thus post consulatum Diocletiani novies Maximiani octies 3. Nonas Martias the Officers taking post consulatus for consulatus made answer that there was onely one moneth between the Acts both of the Martyrs and of the Council But there really was 13 moneths space between them as Augustinus truly affirms There is another argument to evince that the Council of Cirta was not convened in the eighth Consolate of Diocletian For whereas that Council was assembled to Ordain a Bishop over the Church of Cirta as Augustinus affirms I desire to know who was Ordained Bishop of that Church by those Bishops convened in that Council Silvanus was not For he in this very year was still Sub-deacon to Paul Bishop of Cirta as 't is apparent from the Acts of Munatius Felix Answer perhaps will be made aâ— Baronius does that Paul was made Bishop of Cirta But this cannot be true for the persecution began under Paul as 't is evident from the Acts apud Zenophilum Consularem Numidiae which are related in Augustine's third book against Cresconius See the place and also Augustine's 165 Epistle Thus much I have said and could have said a great deal more to evince that the Council of Cirta was convened 13 moneths after those Acts of the Martyrs of Africa and therefore it could not be assembled in the eighth Consulate of Diocletian and the seventh of Maximian in which year the persecution began Vales. d The Alexandrian Chronicle places the beginning of this persecution in the same moneth But our Eusebius in his B. concerning the Martyrs of Patestine which is put as an Appendix to this 8 th book of his Ecclesiastick History says it began in the moneth Xanthicus which the Romans call April Vales. e Theodoret in book 5. chap. 38. of his Ecclesiastick History affirms that the Edict for the demolishing of the Churches was proposed on the day of our Lords
Vâ—les k Constantine the Great l ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Rob. Stephens Valesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Galerius m Chap. 17. Book 8. n Who were Constantinus and Licinius or Licinianus See chap. 17. book â— a Before I had lookt into any of the M. SS I thought these words were added by Rob. Stephens who in some copies had found these two Supplements of the 8 th Book But when I had perceived that the same words occurred in all the M. SS I was easily induced to believe that all those M. SS were transcribed from one and the same Copy Moreover this 2 d Supplement is nothing else but Eusebius's Book concerning the Martyrs of Palestine which appears from the words at the end of this Supplement For in the Maz and Med. M. SS these words occur there ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the End of Eusebius Pamphilus's book concerning tho Martyrs of Palestine Vales. a The same Relation is in the Acts of the passion of Procopius the Martyr which begin thus The first of the Martyrs that appeared in Palestine was Procopius c. From whence 't is evident that those Acts were translated out of the Greek Copy of Eusebius into Latine To make this more manifestly apparent it will in no wise be unusefull to insert here the entire Acts. For many things worth our knowledge are contained in them which neither Baronius nor Molanus happened to have a sight of We have transcribed them from a most ancient M. S. belonging to the Musciacensian Monastery which is now in the hands of that learned person Claudius Joly Canon of the Church at Paris Their Contents are these The Passion of S. Procopius the Martyr who suffered under Fabianus the President on the fourth of the Nones of August The first of the Martyrs that appeared in Palestine was Procopius a person full of celestial grace who before his Martyrdom ordered his life so as that from his very childhood he applied his mind to chastity and a virtuous converse He so macerated his body that 't was judged to be almost dead But he comforted his mind with such divine words that he infused strength and courage into his body by this refection of his mind Bread and water was his food and drink he fed onely on these which he would forsake for two or three sometimes for seven days together and then return to that his food again Also a meditation on divine expressions had bound up his mind so fast that he continued indefatigable in it night and day He made himself an high example of courtesie and meekness looking on himself to be inferiour to others so great was his studiousness in divine matters he had also attained to a competency in external accomplishments His original extract he had at Aelia i. e. Jerusalem but by converse and habitation he was a Scythopolitan He served in three Offices in that Church one was that of a Reader another consisted in his interpretation of the Syrian Tongue and the third was an imposition of hands to cast out devils And when he together with his companions was sent from Scythopolis to Caesarea he was led from the very Gates to the President and before he had experienced the miseries of imprisonment and bonds he was upon his very first Arrival commanded by Flavianus the President to offer sacrifice to the Gods But with a loud voice he attested that there was not a multiplicity of Gods but one Maker and Framer of all things The President smitten with that expression of his and being wounded in his own conscience assented to what he said And betaking himself to other arguments perswaded him to sacrifice at least but to the Emperours But the holy Martyr of God despising what he said repeated that passage of Homer It is not good to have many Lords let there be one Lord one King Which words being heard it being supposed that he spoke something that was of ill consequence to the Emperours by the Presidents command he was led to execution and being beheaded had an entrance into a celestial life or found a compendious way into heaven on the seventh day of Desius that is the moneth July which amongst the Romans is called the Nones of July in the first year of the Persecution against us This was the first Martyrdom that was consummated in Caesarea our Lord Jesus Christ Reigning to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen These Acts are also extant in two M. SS belonging to the Library of Saint Germans Vales. b The foregoing Acts of the passion of Saint Procopius render this passage almost word for word thus Priusquam carceris vel vinculorum experiretur angustias before he had experienced the miseries of imprisonment and bonds By which words the cruelty of the Judge is signified For the Roman Presidents were wont first to imprison those offenders that were apprehended and brought before them and to interrogate them afterwards at their leisure Vales. c The foregoing Acts word this passage thus in ipso ingressu suo â— Judice Flaviano ut Diis sacrificaret impellitur i. e. he was upon his very first arrival commanded by Flavianus the President to offer sacrifice to the Gods Many things are here omitted in the Greek Text of Eusebius which must be made prefect by those Acts in Latine the translation whereof we have before inserted For when Eusebius had here said expresly that Procopius upon his first arrival was brought before the Judge he adds nothing concerning the place from whence he came where he was apprehended or to what place he was brought nothing of which ought to have been omitted Besides Eusebius does accurately relate the descent and country of other Martyrs mentioned in this book and if any of them had attained any degree of Ecclesiastick honour he does usually take notice of that also But of this person who was the chief and Leader of all the Palestine Martyrs we see no such remarks made This 't is probable was not the fault of Eusebius but of his Excribers For in the Latine Acts which as we before evidenced were translated out of Eusebius all these circumstances are manifestly declared See the translation of the Latine Acts in note a. in this chapter Vales. d The Latine Copies of these Acts doe vary a little here in Claudius Joly's Copy the translation of which you have in note a. in this chapter the words are Defii Septima Julii mensiâ— quae nonas Julias dicitur apud Latinos i. e. on the seventh day of Desius that is the moneth July which amongst the Romans is called the Nones of July in the two M. S. Copies belonging to the Library of S. Germans the reading is thus Dies erat Septima Julii mensis quae 7. Idus Julii dicitur apud Latinos i. e. it was the seventh day of the Month July which amongst the Romans is called the seventh of the Ides of July In the greek Text of
our Eusebius here the words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the eighth day of the moneth Desius that is as the Romans stile it before the seventh of the Ides of June By these words in the Latine Copies of the M. SS in Saint Germans Library the title before Claudius Joly's Copy of these Acts is to be amended where 't is said Procopius suffered on the fourth of the Nones of August Notwithstanding in all the Martyrologies the Martyrdom of Procopius is set on the eighth of the Ides of July The Greeks also celebrate the memory of the great Martyr Procopius on the same day as may be seen in their Menaeum But that Procopius is a different person from ours although he was born at Jerusalem and suffered at the same time almost and in the same City that our Procopius did For our Procopius was a Reader and an Exorcist as Eusebius attests But the other was a Captain of Egypt The first Procopius was a Christian from his Childhood the second was at first a worshipper of Daemons Our Procopius was beheaded having suffered no tortures and so obtained the Crown of Martyrdom by a most compendious and easie kind of death The other Procopius suffered a tedious and most cruel Martyrdom having undergone most horrid tortures under two Presidents of Palestine Justus and Flavianus Upon which account he is reckoned by the Greeks amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great Martyrs See book 6. chap. 32. note b. Lastly our Procopius was taken at Scythopolis brought to Caesarea in Palestine and there beheaded The other was apprehended in Egypt and Martyred in Caesarea a City of Phoenicia which was also called Paneas if we may believe Simcon Metaphrastes Vales. e It is I perceive taken for granted amongst all men that the months of the Syro-Macedonians were wholly the same with the Julian months from that time when Julius Caesar publisht his year For Scaliger and our Petavius do in many places affirm this and the only difference as they say was that the Syro-Macedonians began their year from October But there are many things which make me dissent from their opinion For first Bede in his Ephemeris and in his book De ratione Temporum says that the months of the Greeks began from Apellaeus which answers to December But Marcus in his Life of Porphyrius Bishop of Gaza attests that those of Gaza began their year from the month Dius For these are his words at pag 1090. Primo mense qui ab eis vocatur Dios deinde etiam secundo qui dicitur Apellaeos i. e. in the first month which they call Dius then also in the second which is termed Apellaeus The Emperour Julianus in Antiochico confirms this where he expresly says that Lous was the tenth month amongst the Syrians Now if they began their year from October then Lous which answers to August would not have been the tenth but the eleventh month The same is manifested by Julianus in Misopogone pag. 70. in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The Calends of the Syrians were come and Caesar goes to the Temple of Jupiter Philius again Then came the Calends of January For in my notes on book 23. of Ammian Marcellinus pag. 252 I have shown that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the same with the Calends of January and Caesar goes to the Temple of the God Genius Concerning the Temple of this God Genius at Antioch See Evagrius's Hist. book 1. chap. 16. Then passing by the ominous day he renews his vows in the Temple of Jupiter Philius according to the custome of his Ancestours Seeing therefore Julianus attests that the New Moon of the Syrians year did a little precede the Calends of January it is manifest that the beginning of the Roman and Syrian year was not the same But it may be plainly collected from the same place of Julian that Dius was the first month of the year amongst the Antiochians For Julian says that on the Calends of the first month of the Syrians he went to the Temple of Jupiter to sacrifice because their first month was sacred to Jupiter and received its name from him For it was called Dius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Jupiter and the first month was rightly called after his name who was thought to be the principal cause and origine of all things Now if October were the first month of the Syrian year that passage in Julian would have been impertinent For when the Antiochians would deride Julian for his assiduity in worshiping the Gods they produce this example thereof The Calends of the Syrians were come and Caesar goes to the Temple of Jupiter Philius again then came the Calends of January and Caesar goes to the Temple of the God Genius There must therefore necessarily be some little space of time between the Calends of the Syrians and the Romans that so Julian might deservedly be derided by the Antiochians for his too frequent offering of sacrifice It is therefore necessary that either Apellaeus must have been the first month amongst the Syrians which is Bede's opinion or else Dius Thus far concerning the beginning of the Syro-Macedonian year which we have demonstrated to be different from the beginning of the Julian year We will now inquire into the Syro-Macedonian months and see whether they began and ended at the same time that the Roman months did Indeed this place in Eusebius does plainly shew that the beginning of the months amongst the Syrians and Romans was not the same for it makes the eighth day of the month Desius to be the same with the seventh of the month June Therefore the Syrian month Desius began one day before the Roman month June Moreover Marcus in the life of Porphyrius affirms that the months of the inhabitants of Gaza preceded the Roman months five days His words are these Pluit autem Dominus c. Our Lord sent a continued rain from the eighth day of the month Audynaeus to the tenth Now Audynaeus amongst the Romans is January For their months precede the Roman months five days But on the eleventh day we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany praising God From which words 't is apparent that the beginning of the months amongst those of Gaza was almost the same with the beginning of them amongst the Egyptians Further Epiphanius in his book De Ponderib chap. 20. makes the sixteenth day of May the same with the twenty third of the Grecian month Artemisius The form of the months amongst the Tyrians was different from this they made use of the Macedonian account of the months For in the Acts at Tyre which are related in the ninth Action of the Council of Chalcedon the tenth day of the month Peritius is confounded with the twenty fifth of February and in the fifth Action Concil Constantinop sub Mena the twenty eighth day of the Tyrian month Lous is said to have been the sixteenth day of the Roman month September From all
10. Eccles. History says the same that Socrates does here Vales. * That is Athanasius Paulus * That is Paulus and Athanasius's sufferings a The reading here and in Robert Stephens Edition is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I suppose it should be thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understanding their sufferings sympathized with them for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has the same import with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer with But the reading may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was very much troubled at which emendation is the best Vales. b Some few months after the Synod at Antioch which was held at the Dedication the Eastern Bishops made another form of the Creed and sent it to Constans Augustus and to the Western Bishops by Narcissus Theodorus Maris and Marcus as if it had been dictated by the Synod at Antioch So Athanasius attests in his book de Synod Arimin and Seleuc. This therefore hapned in the year of Christ 342. Socrates does evidently agree with Athanasius For he says that those messengers sent by the Eastern Bishops suppressed that form of the Creed composed by the Antiochian Synod and instead thereof produced another which themselves had made Vales. * Ephes. 3. 15. †Or Comforter ‖ See John 14. 26. * See Socrates book 1. chap. 36. a Athanasius in his book de Synodis says the same his words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. Afterwards repenting as it were of what they had done they again assemble a Synod of their own party three years after And they send Eudoxius Martyrius and Macedonius of Cilicia and some other persons with them into the parts of Italy who carried along with them a prolixe form of saith c. Baronius in his Annals says that this second Council of Antioch wherein that prolixe form of faith was promulged was convened in the year of Christ 344. And he thinks that he proves this from Athanasius and Socrates But in my judgment he is much mistaken For first this expression of Athanasius's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after three years signifies the fourth year not the third For it denotes that three years were now past In this sense also Socrates understood the passage in Athanasius in regard he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the space of three years being compleatly passed after these things Since therefore that Synod of Antioch which had been convened at the Consecration was held in the year of Christ 341 this second Antiochian Synod ought more truly to be placed on the year of Christ 345. Secondly Athanasius does not say that the second Antiochian Synod wherein the large form of Faith was composed was assembled three years after that Synod at the consecration had been convened there but he says it was assembled three years after Narcissus Theodorus Maris and Marcus had brought that new form of Faith to Constans Augustus pretending it to have been composed at Antioch Now he says that this was done some few months after the Antiochian Synod held at the Consecration From whence that which I have said is made apparent to wit that that Council in which the large form of Faith had been composed was convened in the year of Christ 345 not in the year 344 as Baronius would have it Vales. * Ephes. 3. 15. * Or Comforter †See John 14. 26. b This was the opinion of the Arians The Easterns explain this sentiment of theirs better hereafter to wit that the Father may be understood to have begotten the Son willingly without compulsion Vales. c In Robert Stephens's Edition of Socrates Fol. 197. Edit Paris 1594. these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Nor must it be thought that the Son is without an original or unbegotten as the Father is are wanting The said Robert Stephens's Edition does in the following words also differ something from this Copy of the Creed here Athanasius has inserted this whole Creed in his book de Synod Arimin Seleuc. pag. 896 c. Edit paris 1627. Athanasius's copy and this in Valesius's Edition of Socrates do agree whom we have followed in our Version * 1 Cor. 11. 3. * See Euseb Eccles. Hist. book 7 chap. 27. c. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of men but Valesius renders it ex hominc of man d Instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Allat M. S. and in Athanasius in his book de Synodis By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophers mean That word which is uttered by the mouth Hilarius calls it Verbum prolativum To which is opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which modern Philosophers do term the word of the mind Vales. e By these words the Eastern Bishops mean the Heresie of Marcellus Ancyranus who asserted that Christs Kingdom began from his nativity about four hundred years before that time making use of a certain number for an uncertain The Synodick Epistle of the Eastern Bishops at Serdica informs us hereof which Epistle Hilarius has inserted in his fragments For these are their words in that Letter Extiti◠namque temporibus nostris Marcellus c. i. e. For there hath risen up in our days one Marcellus of Galatia the most execrable post of all Hereticks who with a sacrilegious mind and impious mouth and a wicked argument will needs set bounds to the perpetual eternal and timeless Kingdom of our Lord Christ saying that he began his reign 400 years since and shall end it at the dissolution of this present world Vales. f We made good this place by adding the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Jews which is not in Robert Stephens's Edit but it occurs in Athanasius and in the Allat M. S. Vales. * Gen. 1. 26. g The Heresie of the Patropassians or Patripassians was very ancient and far diffused Tertullian Adv. Prax. cap. 1 and 2. chargeth this Heresie upon Praxeas The same was maintained by Hermogenes whence they were termed Hermogeniani After whom Noëtus maintained the same who says Epiphanius lived 130 years before his time See Epiphan Heres 57. From Noëtus they had the name of Noëtiani and from Sabellius Noëtus's disciple they were called Sabelliani After whom succeeded Priscillianus in the same Heresie from him they had the name of Priscillianistae The sum and substance of this Heresie thus propagated by these succeeding assertours of it was this they affirmed there was but one Person in the Deity to wit the Father that he only subsisted and was the Maker of all things that he came not only into the world but was incarnate and did all things which we say were done by the Son In order to the Exclusion of these Hereticks the Aquileian Church added these two terms invisible and impassible to the first Article of the Creed shewing by the first that the Father was not incarnate and by the second that he was not crucified
been put into his See 'T is certain Photius presided at the Berytian Synod which had been convened on the year before the second Ephesine Synod But because Irenaeus had been ejected by the Emperours Order not by the determination of a Synod therefore he was deposed in the second Ephesine Synod Vales. h 'T is strange how much Translatours have erred in the Version of this place For Langus Nicephorus's Translatour renders it thus Decrevit haec Synodus quoque de Sophronio quaedam c. This Synod also Decreed some things concerning Sophronius who had come at that time to Constantinople on account of seeing that City Christophorson translates it in this manner Nonnulla ibidem acta â—uere contra Sophronium Episcopum Constantinopolitanum some things were acted there against Sophronius Bishop of Constantinople But he ought to have said Bishop of Constantina For Sophronius was Bishop of Constantina as 't is apparent from the second Antiochian Synod under Domnus which is inserted in the 14 th Action of the Chalcedon Synod The same Sophronius was afterwards present at the Chalcedon Synod as 't is recorded in the Acts of that Synod Now Constantina is a City of Phaenice Vales. * This was he who wrote the five books of Ecclesiastick History i In the place of Domnus Bishop of Antioch Maximus was subrogated as Liberatus informs us in his Breviarium Who was afterwards confirmed in his Bishoprick by Pope Leo as we read in the Tenth Action of the Chalcedon Council Notwithstanding the same Maximus appointed Domnus as long as he lived a certain allowance out of the Reyenue of his Church that being content with his maintenance he might in future be quiet which thing was approved of by the other Patriarchs in the Chalcedon Council as may be seen in the forecited Action Vales. * Or none of those who are mad upon Idolls †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 originally or primarily * Or him who went before him a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Nicephorus book 14. chap. 48. where he transcribes this passage of Evagrius the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and opportune which reading is not so good as I judge Yet I found it expressly â—o written in the Tellerian M. S. Vales. * Or To the creature †Or Câ—private ‖ Or May meet in one exact c. * 1 Cor. 11. 19. †2 Cor. 12. 9. ‖ Doctrines or points b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He means I suppose that Story which we are told concerning Ganymed Son of Tros King of Troas which was one part of Phrygia This Boy Jupiter having turned himself into an Eagle snatch't up and admitted him his Cup-bearer in the room of Hebe whom he had displaced and makes him his Catamite * A person that is both male and female c The story is this Semele 't is said being great with child by Jupiter to whom that god had sworn to give whatever she should ask of him was by Juno's craft put upon making this request to him viz. that he would lie one â—â—â—ht with her in the same manner be used to lie with Juno The God-Lover granted her desire and Semele is burnt up with Thunder but the Boy was taken out of her womb and put upon Jove's thigh of whom he was delivered in such manner as women are at the due time On which account Bacchus who was the child thus brought forth had the name of Bimater one that had two mothers d 'T is an Epithâ—te given to Jupiter either 1 because he wore the sacred â—â—gis that is Brest-plate or 2 because he was the raiser of Storms or rather 3 in regard he wore the skin of the Goat Amâ—â—thaea which had been his Nurse See Servius upon Virgil's 8 th Aeneid Col. 1320 Edit Basil. 1586. e In stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some brave c. I doubt not but it should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some brave c. For in these books of Evagrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is frequently used instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vales. * Or has had divinity attributed to it or has been deified * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Mark or Goal * Nestorius †Or has surrounded him with an Anathenia ‖ Or imitate * Or who dwelt in or upon a pillar a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S r Henry Savil in his Copy makes it one word thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I had rather write it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For so Grecians do usually speak as when they say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most eminently laudable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most Holy and the like Our Evagrius speaking hereafter concerning Gregorius Bishop of Antioch gives him this Elogy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most celebrated Gregorius Vales. * Or conspicuous b Heretofore the Presbyters celebrated the Church-Service together with the Bishop and received the Eucharist from his hand So in the tenth Action of the Chalcedon Councill Bassianus Bishop of Ephesus in his Supplicatory Libell to Marsianus the Emperour amongst other things says these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Having on the day after all of us performed the Publick-Service together c. And at a great distance from that place the same Bassianus says pag. 303 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Stephanus my Presbyter was with me four years he performed the Publick-Service with me communicated with me and received the Communion from me as from his Bishop The same usage also was heretofore practised in the Roman Church to wit that the Presbyters should every day celebrate the Publick-Service together with the Bishop of Rome and receive the Communion from his hand But on Sundays when the Presbyters were necessitated to perform the Publick-Service apart in their own Titles Parishes or Cures on account of the people committed to their charge they received the Lords Body sent by the Acolythi from the Bishop of Rome that they might not seem to be separated from the communion of their own Bishop especially on that day as Pope Innocent informs us in his Epistle to Decentius Vales. * Or Predictions †See Theodoret's works Tom. 3. pag. 876 c. Edit Paris 1642. c This place has been severall ways corrected by Learned men to wit by Christophorson and Curterius or rather by those from whose Copies they transcribed these emendations For some after the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 add the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Others read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and understand that concerning Theodoret only But I suppose this place is to be restored thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so I have rendred it nor do I doubt but Evagrius wrote it thus Vales. d In the incomparable Florentine M. S. I found these words written at the margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The judgment of the Fathers concerning the Great Symeon was truly spirituall in Christ. Vales. e These seem to be the words of the
emendation For what shall become of these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I embrace therefore the reading in the Florent aud Tellerian M. SS viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and render the whole passage thus 'T is therefore for certain reported that any one there who makes complaint of the breaking any thing of small value to wit a glass vessel pot or any such like thing which he carries may incite the City to a popular Tumult Pollio in Emilianus confirms the same where he speaks thus concerning the Egyptians in general Et hoc familiare est populo Aegyptiorum c. And this is usual with the Egyptians that like furious and madmen upon any triviall occasions they may be induced to involve the Publick in the greatest dangers On account of their being past by unsaluted by reason of their not having a place allowed them in the Baths because their flesh and pot-herbs may have been taken from them on account of their servile shooes and other such like occasions as these they have by Sedition often arrived at the highest peril of the Republick Vales. g The passage in Herodotus which Evagrius points at here occurs in B. 2. of his History pag. 157 Edit Paul Stephens 1618. Vales. h The Great Church of the City Alexandria was termed Caesaria as Epiphanius informs us in Hares Arian and Liberatus in his Breviarium cap. 18. But Socrates Book 7. chap. 15. says the name of that Church was Caesarium Athanasius declares the reason of this Appellation in his Epist. ad Solitar to wit because that Church had been built in a place which heretofore was called the Caesarium that is the Temple of the Caesars There had been a School in the same place also and a pallace of the Emperour Adrian's which in succeeding times was termed Licinius's Pallace as Epiphanius attests Vales. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they mean Eutyches and so Valesius renders it †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with exile ‖ Or having observed the time * Or rest ‖ Or fellows that may be bought †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true import of which words is if our English tongue would bear such an expression has swell'd himself into i I have mended this place from the Florentine M. S. in which Copy instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and moreover receiving ordination from two the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as if he could have received ordination from two Bishops In the fourth Canon of the Nicene Councill 't is in express words established that a Bishop is to be ordained by at least three Bishops of his own Province The old Translatour of this Letter read as we do whose version is extant in The third part of the Chalcedon Synod Where his Rendition is this tanquam manus impositionem suscepturus a duobus as if about to receive imposition of hands from two Vales. * Rom. 12. 19. †Viz. the Baptistery * Wherewith the Baptistery was encompassed †Or reverence k Liberatus in his Breviarium chap. 15. relates that Proterius was not murdered on the Festival of Easter but three days before For these are his words Et ante triduum Paschae c. And on the third day before Easter whereon the Lords Supper is celebrated Proterius of holy memory is by the multitudes themselves shut up in the Church whither out of fear he had be taken himself And there on the same day in the Baptistery he is slain torn in pieces cast out and his Corps is burnt and his ashes are strewed into the winds All which Liberatus has almost word for word written out of the Gesta de nomine Acacii which we owe to Jacobus Sirmondus Vales. l Instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must undoubtedly be written thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cutting it in pieces or limb from limb Instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reading in the Florent M. S. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a very small difference Nicephorus confirms our Emendation at book 15. chap. 17 who has it expresly written as I had conjectured Further this Supplicatory-Libell of the Bishops of the Egyptick Dioecesis to the Emperour Leo if any one has a mind to read it entire occurs in Latine in the third part of the Chalcedon Synod chap. 11. Vales. * Or under the Government of the Romans a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who thâ—se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and who were termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have already shown inmy Notes on Amm. Marcellinus pag. 14. and pag. 22â— the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom we render the Honorati were those persons who bore the Civill dignities us well in the Cities as in the Provinces the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were the Decuriones Gregorius Nazianzenus joyns them both together in his 49 th Epistle to Olympius where his words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is all the Citizens the Decuriones and the Honorati The same Gregorius in his 22 d Epistle to the Casarienses joyns the same persons both together in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is all those who are of the Order of the Honorati and of the Decuriones The old Translatour therefore of this Letter renders this passage truly thus Honorati Curiales Naucleri the Honorati the Curiales and the Naucleri The Naucleri were the Masters of the Vessells in the River Nyle who conveyed the Corn and publick Provisions from Egypt to Constantinople Aurelianus seems to have instituted their Body as he himself shews in his Epistle to Arabianus which is cited by Vopiscus These Naucleri or Navicularii were a society of Sea-faring men ordained for Transportation of Corn and publick Provisions in severall quarters of the Empire for there was a Body of them in the East another in Africk and a third at Alexandria they were a set number and transported the said provisions at their own expence succeeding by turns in the charge and burthen to which their sons and heirs were lyable as were also those who possest their estates after them according to that proportion which they possessed To this Function they were always obnoxious so that scarcely could they be excused by any great honour obtained They were forced to build Ships and Vessells of certain burthens but the materialls for them were supplied by the Country Their charge was great and so were their priviledges as may be seen by Various laws extant concerning them in the Theodofian Code Vales. b I am of the same opinion with S r Henry Savill who at the margin of his Copy had remarkt that in his judgment the reading should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contained so Christophorson read and 't is so in Nicephorus book 15. chap. 18. Vales. In Robert Stephens the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given or exhibited * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a speciall Greek term * Or give a fit form * Or lead an unfurnish's and immateriall
remarkt above at book 1. chap. 21. note b. yet Moschus chap. 24. calls it The Monastery Chuziba Vales. c This Johannes was first Abbot and Presbyter of the Monastery Chuziba whence he had the surname of Chuzibite But afterwards he was made Bishop of Caesarea as besides Evagrius Johannes Moschus informs us chap. 24. Vales. * Or Followed †Or Rollers * Or House †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cooled his hand In Robert Stephens the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Musculus omitted these words in his Version But Christophorson has rendred them thus quippe cùm annis plurimis onustus â—im in regard I am loaden with many years Which rendition is not to be born with for his following words are aetate admodùm provectus and very aged By this Version therefore Evagrius would be made to say the same thing in both places The Greeks term Gross thick and fat men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which sort of persons are tender and delicate and unfit to carry a burden See Suidas in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nicephorus also understood not this word For instead thereof he has substituted these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by reason of my want of necessaries am macerated or melted Vales. e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doubtless it must be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ran to In Nicephorus the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ran under But our Emendation seems better Vales. * Or Roared out * That is he gave each of them the name of Justinopolis a The Authour of the Alexandrian Chronicle instead of three days has made it five For he writes that Justinianus was made Augustus by Justinus after eight years nine months and five days of Justinus's Empire on the Calends of Aprill in the Consulate of Mavortius which was the year of Christ 527. But the Authour of that Chronicle disagrees from himself for he relates that Justinus entred on the Empire on the ninth day of the month July in the year of our Lords Nativity 518. From which time to the Calends of Aprill in the year 527 there are eight years and as many months together with one and twenty days But if we follow Cedrenus who relates that Justinianus was made Augustus by Justinus on the fourteenth of Aprill then the Computation of the Alexandrian Chronicle will be most certain Vales. * Or Having undergone his perfect day b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Tellerian Manuscript I found it written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had held the Imperiall Government or the Empire which reading pleases me best Vales. c From Evagrius's own Computation 't is apparent that these words one month must be added here For in regard he has said a little before this that on the Calends of Aprill of this year the eighth year of Justinus's Reign was compleated and that he had reigned over and above nine months and three days the Consequence is that on the Calends of August of the same year nine years were passed together with one month and three days Whence 't is Collected that Justinus's Reign is to be begun from the twenty eighth day of June according to Evagrius's Sentiment Vales. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I think it should be worded thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether it were because they themselves really thought so For the sense requires this reading Nicephorus in no wise understood the meaning of this passage But Musculus has explained it excellently well in this manner Sive autem sic verè sentiebant sive sic dispensatione quâdam inter ipsos convenerat But whether they really thought so or whether it had been so agreed amongst themselves by a certain dispensation Christophorson has followed Musculus and began a new period from these words in this manner Sive igitur ita râ—verâ— sentiebant c. Whether therefore they really thought so c. But we have joyned them with the foregoing words Vales. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Musculus renders it dispensatione quâdam by a certain dispensation Which Version I do not approve off Johannes Langus translates it ex composito by agreement or appointment Christophorson deditâ operâ on set purpose I would rather render it per simulationem through pretence or out of a politick design For 't is opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to truth Some therefore were of opinion that by fraud and under a Colour it had been agreed on between Justinian and Theodora that the one should adhere to the Catholicks the other to the Acephali In French we should term it Par Politique Vales. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this word Christophorson understood The Accphali For he has explained this place thus Et ejus epinionis Homines si Nostrates essent benevolè amicè complexa est Sin externi praemiis benigne remunerata And the men of that opinion if they were our Country-men she entertained kindly and friendly but if Forreigners she rewarded them liberally with gifts But Nicephorus renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Catholicks and the Orthodox which I can by no means approve of For by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Evagrius means The Orientalls But by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forreigners he means The Westerns Vales. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I agree with the Learned who have already mended this place thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within this present book Vales. * To wit Anthimus and Theodosius b In the place of Theodosius Bishop of Alexandria Paulus was substituted Who being soon ejected Zoilus was put into his See as Liberatus informs us in his Breviary chap. 23 and likewise Victor Thunonensis in his Chronicon and Theophanes pag. 188. Liberatus attests that this Paulus was Orthodox But Victor Thunonensis and Theophanes affirm him to have been an Heretick and to have celebrated Dioscorus's name in the Sacred Diptycks For Victor's words are these Basilio V. C. Cos. Alexandrinae Ecclesiae in the Consulate of the most famous Basilius Theodosius and Gaianus being banished from the Alexandrian Church instead of them Paulus the first of the Tabennesiotae is made Bishop who celebrating the deposition of his predecessour the Heretick Dioscorus is deposed by the Palestine Councill and Zoilus is ordained Bishop in his room But Theophanes writes thus concerning Paulus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This person having celebrated the memory of the profane Severus was ejected out of his Bishoprick by the Emperours displeasure He had better have said of the profane Dioscorus for Severus if I mistake not was as yet living at such time as Paulus was ejected out of his Bishoprick that is on the year of Christ 537. I have made these remarkes for this reason because Baronius in his Annalls says nothing else concerning this Paulus save what had been related by Liberatus Vales. c Evagrius mistakes and puts Epiphanius instead of Menas For Anthimus had succeeded Epiphanius After Anthimus was ejected in his place
the memory by statley c. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some thing seems to be wanting here or at least the words are transposed Therefore I would have the place restored thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erecting a sacred c. But Christophorson understood these words so as if Eusebius should say that Helena built two Churches in the Mount of Olives one on the top the other in the Cave which nevertheless I do not think to be true For the Authour of the Jerusalem Itinerarie tells us that one Church was built there by Constantine And Eusebius in his Panegyrick chap. 9. towards the end speaking of that Martyrium which Constantine built at Jerusalem expresses himself in the same manner as he does here viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Where you see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are joyned and used concerning one and the same Church And he terms the Basilica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because people came thither to pray but the whole Sacred House which being inclosed within one circuit contains within it self the Atrium Porticus's Secrelaric Baptistcrie and the Church it self he terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Eusebius does most plainly declare below at chap. 50 of this book where he speaks concerning the Dominicum Aureum which Constantine built at Antioch And thus the passage of Eusebius in the close of his Panegyrick concerning Constantine's Tricennaliae is to be explained as likewise a passage in his tenth book and another in chap. 45. of this book where he joyns together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is something otherwise in the fifth Law Cod. Theod. de his qui ad Ecclesias consugiunt For there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is called the Basilica or Oratory where the Altar is But the Church is termed that whole Building within the circumference whereof are contained the Atrium Porticus's Cells Baths and lastly the Oratory it self Vales. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Author of the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum has these words Inde ascendis in montem Oliveti ubi dominus discipulos docuit ante passionem Thence you go up to Mount Olivet where our Lord taught his Disciples before his Passion Bede in his book de Locis Sanctis chap. 7. has this passage Tertia quoque ejusdem montis ad australem Bethaniae partem Ecclesia est There is a third Church aâ—so of the same Mount at the South part of Bethanie where the Lord before his Passion spoke to his Disciples concerning the day of Judgment He means the place in Saint Mathew chap. 24. This Sermon therefore Eusebius here terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secret Mysteries because the Lord then spake concerning secret things viz. about the end of the world concerning Christ's coming and the last judgment For even the Apostles came then to the Lord secretly as Saint Matthew says in regard they were desirous to know Mysteries and the Revelation of things future as Jerome on Mathew writes But that which Eusebius says viz. that our Loâ—d delivered these Mysteries to the Apostles in the Cave is not expresly recorded in the Gospel Yea the contrary seems possible to be made out from the Gospel For 't is related therein that the City Jerusalem was in sight to the Disciples when our Lord Preach't these things They were not therefore in the Cave but in an open place Yet it may be answered that that Cave had several holes of which sort there were many Caves in Palestine as the Itineraries inform us Indeed whereas Saint Matthew affirms that the Disciples came to our Lord secretly 't is probable that that discourse in the Cave was made by Our Lord whilst he stayed there Vales. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first word is to be expunged as being superfluous Eusebius seems to allude to the usage of the Gentiles who performed their Mithriaca Sacra Sacrisices in honour of the Sun in a Cave as Porphyry in his book de Abstinentia Jerome and others inform us The Fuketian Manuscript confirms our conjecture in which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is wanting Vales. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 companions †Or The fruit * Or Magnificence of Imperial power †Or Right hand * Or She gave her self to be seen coming c. †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Valesius renders it Sacella Chappell 's ‖ Or Grave and mean or frugal * Or Emperour Monarch and Lord c. †Or So Great ‖ Or Cherishing her with all c. * Or Undergoe a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Her soul therefore was reformed or new-framed These words seem to favour of Origen's doctrine to which our Eusebius was too much addicted For the souls of the Blessed are not reformed into an Angelick substance Indeed Origen believed that in the Resurrection Bodies would be turned into souls and Souls would be changed into Angels as Saint Jerome says some where Vales. a He means Rome For thither the dead Body of Helena Augusta was carried and after two years was conveyed to Constantinople as Nicephorus tells us book 8. chap. 30. But Socrates book 1. chap. 17. transcribing Eusebius's words interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 New-Rome Which errour of Socrates Baronius does deservedly reprove in regard by the name of the Imperial City Eusebius is always wont to mean Rome Besides Constantinople was not yet dedicated and therefore could not be called the Imperial City whenas then it was only old Byzantium Nevertheless Cedrenus has followed Socrates who also adds this that Helena died twelve years before Constantine By this computation Helena must have died on the year of Christ 325 or 326. On which year nevertheless she is said by Eusebius and Rufinus to have gone to Jerusalem Besides after the death of Crispus Caesar and Fausta Augusta Helena was for some time alive as Zosimus attests book 2. Further Crispus was slain in the seventh Consulate of Constantinus Augustus which he bore with Constantius Caesar on the year of Christ 326 as 't is recorded in Idatius's Fasti. The death of Helena therefore may rightly be assigned to the year of our Lord 327 as Sigonius thinks book 3. de Imperio Occidentali Vales. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 't is referred to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we have rendred it And so I found it mended in Moraeus's Book at the margin Nor is it otherwise written in the Fuk. and Savil. Copies and in the Kings Sheets Vales. * Or These things †Or Worthy of Emulation * Churches a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I had rather make it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is far more elegant So indeed it occurs written in the Fuketian Copy and in the Kings Sheets Vales. †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the gore of bloud * Image †Or Fountains †Or Symbols a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Fuketian Copy 't is written
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. do sufficiently shew the very same thing For who would say concerning care and solicitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foresaid care and solicitude That would have been altogether trifling and foolish But in our Version all things are plain and clear For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred our foresaid mother in law who by reason of her Piety and Religion could not hide so great an impiety but by Letter declared it to her Son-in-law Constantine that at length he might remedie this mischief Eutropia therefore was a Christian as we learn from this place Her daughter Fausta also profest the Christian Faith and together with her husband Constantine was buried in the Church of The Apostles Further I must not omit what I found noted at the margin of the Kings Copy For there over against the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of a Scholion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mother was written as if Constantine meant his own mother Helena which explication I don't approve of 'T is certain Sozomen says it was the Emperour Constantine's Mother-in-law who when She was come to the Oak Mamre and had found there the detestable impieties of the Heathens gave Constantine an account of that affair See Sozomen Book 2. chap. 4. Vales. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 favour towards us I had rather write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards you although the common reading may be born with Further by a small transposition of the words I would have the beginning of this Letter read thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This was one and the greatest favour c. The other reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Vales. a This place was likewise called Terebinthus distant from the City Jerusalem about thirty miles as we are told by the Authour of the Jerusalem Itinerarie who lived in the times of Constantine the great His words are these Inde Terebintho millia 9. ubi Abraham habitavit c. Thence to Terebinthus nine miles where Abraham dwelt and dug a well under a Turpentine tree and spake with the Angels and took food There a Church is built by Constantine's order of a wonderfull beauty Then from Terebinthus to Chebron two miles where there is a Monument or Memory built four-square or by a four-square-figure of Stones of a wonderfull beauty wherein are laid Abraham Isaac Jacob c. Sozomen also book 2. chap. 4 relates that that place was termed Terebinthus Now this place was so called from a Turpentine-tree which was said to be the oldest Tree there and to have stood from the very beginning of the world as Josephus attests in his fifth Book of the Jewish Wars Although others said it was the Staff of one of the Angels which appeared to Abraham from which Staff thrust into the ground sprang up a Turpentine-tree So Georgius Syncellus tells us in his Chronicon But 't is strange whereas there was an Oak there under which Abraham had pitcht his Tent as we read Gen. 18. why that place should have taken its name from a Turpentine-tree rather than from an Oak Vales. In our English Bibles at Genesis 18 there is not the least mention of an Oak but of a Tree only at verse 8. Nor does Saint Jerom in his Translation term it an Oak Indeed in the Version of the 72 at Gen. 18. 1. we have these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Oak Mambre but the expression in the original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Plaines of Mamre The Seventy Two were belike of opinion that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had the same import with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the determination whereof is left to the Learned b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Kings Copy the Fuk. Manuscript and in the Kings Sheets 't is truer written thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is She says defiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mother-in-law is understood Vales. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You must again understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mother-in-law Our Mother-in-law says Constantine has related to us that there is an Altar there whereon impure sacrifices are offered Vales. d I suppose that the Pictures of the Angels are meant which had appeared there to Abraham For the Heathens worshipped these Pictures Moreover the Heathens worshipped the Turpentine-tree it self as Eusebius informs us in his fifth book Demonstr Evangel chap. 9. Which place Scaliger in his Animadversions on Eusebius pag. 192. took in a wrong sense For he thought that that Turpentine-tree had had the highest honour imaginable paid to it by the Christians and he cites Eusebius as the Relatour of that thing But Eusebius speaks of the Heathens there not concerning the Christians For after he had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherefore to this present time this place is adored as being Divine by those that dwell near it and the Turpentine-tree is visible which as yet stands He adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Angells which were entertained by Abraham are painted in a Table there on each side one but he in the middle is made better and exceeds in honour He is our forementioned Lord himself our Saviour whom they ignorantly worship You see Eusebius does here plainly speak of the Heathens who were ignorant of Christ. For this cannot be spoken of the Christians Our opinion is confirmed by Sozomen book 2. chap 4 where he discourses at large concerning that Market kept at the Terebinthus For he writes that every year in Summer time Jews Christians and Pagans came thither out of Palestine Phoenice and Arabia partly on account of Trade and partly for Religion and that all these celebrated a Festival after their own way For the Heathens he says adored the Angells offering to them Sacrifices and meat and drink-offerings The Pictures therefore of the Angells were there to which the Pagans offered Victims Saint Jerom de Locis Hebraicis where he treats concerning Arboch writes in this manner Quercus Abraham quae Mambre The Oak of Abraham which is also called Mambre was to be seen there untill the times of the Emperour Constantine and his Sepulchre is at present visible And in regard a Church is now built there by us Terebinthus the Turpentine-tree is superstitiously worshipped by all the Nations round because under that Abraham heretofore entertained the Angells Saint Jerom has added many things here of his own head For Eusebius himself in his book de Locis Hebraicis has only these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Arbo This is Chebrom now a great Village heretofore a Metropolis the ancient Habitation of the strange Nations or Philistines and Gyants and after that the Royal City of David It was in the alotment of the Tribe Judah and was one of the Cities set out to the Levites one of the Cities of Refuge also distant from Aelia at the North two and twenty miles The Oak of Abraham and his Sepulchre are to be seen there and the
Terebinthus Turpentine-tree is manifestly worshipped by our Enemies as likewise the Angells entertained by Abraham Heretofore its name was Arbo afterwards 't was called Chebrom from Chebrom one of the sons of Caleb as 't is in the Chronicles A famous passage this which totally overthrows Scaliger's opinion and does egregiously confirm our explication For Eusebius says that the Terebinthus and the Angells were superstitiously worshipped there by our Enemies which is the appellation he gives to the Heathens and Jews This passage of Eusebius is also cited by Damascenus Book 3. De Imag. Vales. e Concerning this Altar Eustathius speaks in his Hexameron which he says was standing in his time as also the Terebinthus it self Whence it appears that this work of Eustathius's was written before Constantine had given order for the demolishment of that Altar In Sozomen's age neither the Altar nor the Terebinthus was standing Nevertheless the superstition of the Heathens continued in that place as Jerom attests So difficult a matter it is wholly to pluck up the roots of Superstition We must not omit what Antoninus the Martyr hath written concerning this place in His Itinerarie De Bethleem says he usque ad radicam Mambre sunt millia viginti quatuor c. From Bethlehem unto the root of Mambre there are twenty four miles in which place rest the bones of Abraham Jsaac Jacob Sarah and Joseph There is a Church built per quadrum in a four-square-figure and in the middle an uncovered Atrium and thorow the midst of the Rails on one side the Christians enter on the other the Jews carrying in much incense For the interment of Jacob and David in that Ground is most devoutly celebrated on the first day after our Lord's Nativity in so much that a multitude meets together from all parts of the Land of the Jews carrying Incense and Lights And they bestow Gifts and worship there See Jerom in Epitaphio Paulae Vales. * Or Performed f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disagreeable to our times to our Empire Christophorson expunged the four first Greek words and they are wanting in the Kings Fuketian and Savil. Manuscripts But if the matter were to be determined by me I would rather blot out the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to our Empire which in my judgment are added instead of a Scholion in order to the explaining of the former words Graecians do elegantly term the time of any one's Empire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Further the Emperours were mightily ambitious of this that the felicky and clemency of their own times might be celebrated Nothing occurs more frequently in the Latine Historians and in the Laws of the Emperours In Philostratus book 2. de Vitis Sophistarum where he speaks of Heliodorus this word is corrupted For when Heliodorus had begun his Oration in the Emperour's presence Philostratus says that the Emperour arose on a sudden and cryed out such a man the like to whom I have not yet seon The Glory and Ornament of my Times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the reading should be Constantine makes use of this very term in his Letter to the Hereticks which occurs at the end of this book Wherefore I am of opinion that the common reading is to be retained and that these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are transpos'd and must be placed after the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus Wherefore in regard in this our Empire this thing c. Vales. g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Fuketian Manuscript and the Kings Sheets the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our friend Vales. h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is it shall be capitall for all those c. Wherefore there is no need of Christophorson's emendation here viz 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we judge him worthy of punishment who c. Nevertheless there is another reading in the Fuk. Savil. and Turneb Copies which 't is better to follow here A little after from the Fuk. Copy make it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Which place moreover c. Vales. Though Valesius preferres the reading in the Fuk. Savil and Turneb Copies here yet he has not shown us what it is i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is fit as Christophorson seems to have read In the Kings Sheets I found it written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according as I had conjectured Vales. * Or Statues †Vanquish or overthrow * Or Made naked †Or Images a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sozomen book 2. chap. 5 where he has in a manner transcribed this whole passage of Eusebius words it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Streets and in the Cirque and in the Pallace Vales. b Themistius in his fifth Oration to Theodosius is a witness that the Statues of the Muses were in the Curia of Constantinople The same Authour in his Oration to the Senate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says that these Statues were placed on this and that side in a double number so that they were not now nine but eighteen Vales. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constantine ordered the brazen Statues of the Gods to be brought to Byzantium that he might beautifie that City with these sort of Spoyles But whatever Statues were made of Gold or Silver them he ordered to be melted down and coyned into money as Sozomen relates book 2. chap. 5. who explains this passage of Eusebius excellently well Concerning this demolishment of the Temples and destruction of the Statues our Eusebius has a passage in his second Sermon de Resurrectione Vales. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things made up so as to affright the beholders d After these words opened to all men those which follow as far as Moreover this admirable Emperour c. are wanting in the Kings Copy and in Robert Stephens's Edition But they are added by Gruter Portesius Christophorson and others from Eusebius's Panegyrick and from Manuscript Copies Indeed we found them in the Fuketian Copy and S r Henry Savil hath given us notice that the same words are extant in his Copy Vales. e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Panegyrick chap. 8. whence these words are taken the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made a discovery of which reading in my judgment is truer Vales. †Or Tried it in the furnace and in the fire f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. In Eusebius's Panegyrick chap. 8. the reading of this place is fuller in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moreover this admirable Emperour performed another thing like hereto In Moraus's Copy I found it written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c moreover at that time c. In the Fuketian Copy the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So also 't is in S r Henry Savils Copy but without the Apocope Vales. g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Johannes Portesius renders it ad alia perrouit
confuted and represt it in regard it had been long before vanquished by God Himself But I have taken away the distinction and rendred it thus rebus ipsis convincens jam pridem à Deo fuisse superatum He does really c. The Reader may make choice of which rendition he pleases For there is but little difference How Constantine actually demonstrated that the Daemons were vanquished Eusebius does presently declare when he says that their Temples were râ—â—â—ed by Constantine and bestowed on the Christians Vales. n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vales. †Namely the Daemons whose Temples Constantine destroyed and melted down their Images CHAP. VIII a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all men from the Fuketian Copy and from his Third Book concerning the Life of Constantine Chap. 54 where this passage occurs word for word Vales. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doubtless it is to be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fully discovered and thus it is to be mended in the Third Book of his Life of Constantine Chap. 54 where the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 totally destroyed In the Fuketian Copy 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vales. * Or tried it in the furnace and in the fire c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be expunged the Fuketian Copy acknowledges not that word Vales. * Or Set upon the other Images made of Brass †Walk't up and down in or was conversant in ‖ Or Copulations of women d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I can't approve of the Translatour's Version who has rendred this place thus Ad bunc modum igitur Imperator tum spectra illa improbitatis nequitiae quae hominum animi oâ—caecaâ—i fuerant palam sub omnium oculis subjecit In this manner therefore the Emperour both exposed to publick view those Spectres of improbity and wickedness wherewith the minds of men had been blinded c. But I had rather render it thus Cùm flagitiorum larvas quae in Daemonis illius populorum seductoris temple visebantur detraxisset c. When therefore the Emperour had in this manner pull'd off c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the Accentuation is to be restored are the integumenta vitiorum the masks of vices wherewith the Heathens covered their own uncleanness So above Eusebius speaking of the Images of the Daemons says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Then they divested those Gods of their outward dress and exposed their inward deformity which lay concealed under a painted shape to the eyes of all men Farther this place is thus to be mended from the Fuketian Copy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vales. e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Questionless it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus therefore in a moment Presently I read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the best Educatrix or Breeder of Youth without the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Eusebius alludes to that Verse of Heâ—iod in his Opera 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vales. CHAP. IX a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You must understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Daemons or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Heathens for both may be meant write also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were elaborately founded or exquisitely prepared In the Fuketian Copy the beginning of this chapter and the close of the foregoing one iâ— omitted by the carelessness of the Transcriber Vales. * Or Crown'd b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This expression seems to me uncouth For it can't well be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor can the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be well joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore I would more willingly reade this whole place in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Nations also and people c. Vales. †Worn out c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could not foresee or foreknow Vales. * Foreknow †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be rendred of a certain new-born child * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is a term which occurs in sacred Scripture see 1 Kings chap. 12 and 13. The Images of Dâ—mons were so termed because they were commonly worshipped in high places Vales. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doubtless the reading must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cut which Christophorson perceived not Vales. e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As far as this place there was a Chasme in the Fuketian Copy which Manuscript gives us this reading of this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am of opinion that the first word is to be blotted out Vales. f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the reading is in his Life of Constantine Book 2. Chap. 16 where this passage occurs A little after write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is in his Life of Constantine and in the Fuketian Copy Vales. * Or Hang their hopes on c. †See his Life of Constantine Book 4. Chap. 20. ‖ Or Transmit the eyes to the c. g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He terms the Lord's day the first not only because 't is the first day of the week but also in regard it was the first day of the world Whence it may deservedly be termed the Birth-day of the world Farther the Lord's Day is not only termed the first day but the eighth also S t Austin's words Book 1. Concerning the Lord's Sermon on thâ— Mount Chap. 11. are these Haecoctava Sententia quae ad Caput redit c This eighth Sentence which returns to the Head and declareâ— the perfect man is perhaps signified by Circumcision also on the eighth day in the Old Testament and by the Resurrection of the Lord after the Sabbath which as 't is she eighth so 't is also the first day Before S t Austin Hilarius had said the same in his Prologue to his Comments on the Psalms where discoursing concerning the seventh Number his words are these Quem tamen ogdoas quia dies eadem prima quae octava c which nevertheless the number eight because the first day is the same with the eighth being added in the last Sabbath according to the Evangelick fulness doth compleat See also his following words in that Prologue Moreover Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria in his discourse when the day of the Theophania had fal'n on a Sunday speaks concerning the Lord's day in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Both Custome and also duty doth require us to honour every Sunday and to observe that day as a Festival in regard thereon our Lord Jesus Christ procured for uâ— a Resurrection from the dead Wherefore in the sacred Scriptures this day is both termed The first as being the beginning of life to us and also The eighth in regard it surpasses the Sabbath of the Jews These words of Theophilus are cited in