also of the works of others who then flourished are come to our knowledge INdeed very many Monuments of the virtuous and laudable diligence of those antient and Ecclesiastick men which then flourisht are to this day preserved amongst many But the works of those whom we our selves could discern to be such are Heraclitus's Comments upon the Apostle and the Book of Maximus concerning that question so much talk't of amongst Hereticks whence evill proceeds and concerning this that matter is made Also Candidus's piece on the six days work and that of Apion upon the same Subject In like manner Sâ—xtus's book Concerning the Resurrection and another piece of Arabianus's and of very many more whose times wherein they lived because we want assistances from the proof thereof we can neither commit to writing nor yet declare any memorable passages of their's in this our History There are also come to our hands the books of many others whose very names we are unable to recite all which were indeed Orthodox and Ecclesiastick persons as the interpretations of the Sacred Scripture produced by every one of them doth demonstrate but yet they are unknown to us because what they have written has not their name prefixt to it CHAP. XXVIII Concerning those who from the beginning were defenders of Artemon's Heresie what manner of persons they were as to their moralls and how that they were so audacious as to corrupt the Sacred Scriptures IN an Elaborate piece of one of those Authours composed against the Heresie of Artemon which Heresie Paulus Samosatensis has again attempted to revive in our age there is extant a certain Relation very accommodate to the History we now have in hand For the Book now cited evincing that the foresaid Hereste which asserts our Saviour to be a meer man was an innovation of a late date because the indroducers of it had boasted it was very ancient after many arguments brought to confute their blasphemous lie has this Relation word for word For they affirm that all the Ancients and the very Apostles received and taught the same things which they now assert and that the Preaching of the truth was preserved till the times of Victor who from Peter was the thirteenth Bishop of Rome but from the times of his successour Zephyrinus the truth has been adulterated Peradventure this saying of theirs might seem probable did not in the first place the Sacred Scriptures contradict them and then the writings of some brethren antienter than the times of Victor which books they wrote in defence of the truth against the Gentiles and against the Heresies of their own times I mean the writings of Justin Miltiades Tatianus and Clemens and of many others in all which books the Divinity of Christ is maintained For who is he that is ignorant of the books of Irenaeus Melito and the rest which declare Christ to be God and man The Psalms also and Hymns of the brethren written at the beginning by the faithfull doe set forth the praises of Christ the Word of God and attribute Divinity to him Seeing therefore this Ecclesiastical opinion has been manifestly declared for so many years since how can it be that the Antients should have preacht that doctrine which these men assert untill the times of Victor How can they choose but be ashamed of framing such lies of Victor when as they know for certain that Victor excommunicated Theodotus the Tanner the Founder and Father of this Apostacy which denies God who first asserted Christ to be a meer man For if Victor were as they say of the same opinion with that which their blasphemie does maintain why did he proscribe Theodotus the Inventour of this Heresie And such was the face of affairs in the times of Victor to whom having presided in his publick charge ten years Zephyrinus was made successour about the ninth year of Severus's Empire Further the Person that compiled the foresaid book concerning the Authour of the now-mentioned Heresie relates another thing which was done in the times of Zephyrinus in these very words I will therefore advertize many of the brethren of a thing done in our Age which had it happened in Sodom would I suppose have put those inhabitants in mind of Repentance There was one Natalis a confessour who lived not a long time a goe but even in our times this man had been seduced by Asclepiodotus and another Theodotus a Banker both which Persons were disciples of Theodotus the Tanner who before had been excommunicated as I said by Victor then Bishop for this doctrine or rather madness Natalis was perswaded by them to be Elected a Bishop of this Heresie upon the consideration of a Salary whereby he was to receive of them monthly an hundred and fifty pence Being therefore become one of their associates he was by visions in his sleep frequently admonished by the Lord For our compassionate God and Lord Jesus Christ was unwilling that he who had been a witness of his own sufferings should perish whilest he was under excommunication But after he was regardless of the visions in his sleep being beguiled with the bait of primacy among those of that Sect and of filthy lucre which is the destruction of many men at last he was scourged by the holy Angels and sorely beaten all night long In so much that he arose very early and having put on sackcloth and besprinkled himself with ashes in great hast and with tears in his eyes he cast himself down before Zephyrinus the Bishop falling down not onely before the feet of the Clergy but of the Laity also and with his tears moved the compassionate Church of the Mercifull Christ and after he had used much intreaty and shown the prints of the stripes he had received with much difficulty he was admitted into the communion of the Church Hereunto we will also annex some other words of the same Writers concerning these Hereticks they are these They have impudently adulterated the Sacred Scriptures they have rejected the Canon of the Primitive faith and have been ignorant of Christ they are not inquisitive after that which the holy Scriptures say but bestow much labour and industry in finding out such a Scheme of a Syllogism as may confirm the System of their impiety And if any one proposes to them a Text of the divine Scriptures they examine whether a connex or disjunctive form of a Syllogism may be made of it leaving the holy Scriptures of God they studie Geometry being of the earth they speak of things terrestrial and are ignorant of him who comes from above therefore amongst some of them Euclids Geometry is with great diligence studied Aristotle and Theophrastus are admired and in like manner Galen is by others of them even adored what need I say that these persons who make use of the Arts of Infidels for the confirmation of their Heretical opinion and by the craft of Atheists adulterate
very wisely did not prefix his name at the beginning least he should cause an aversion in them to his Epistle But a little after he continues saying Now as a blessed Presbyter said because the Lord being the Apostle of the Almighty was sent to the Hebrews Paul through modesty in that he was sent to the Gentiles does not entitle himself the Apostle of the Hebrews both in reverence to the Lord and also because 't was over and above his duty that he writ to the Hebrews being the Preacher and Apostle of the Gentiles Again Clemens in the same books writes a tradition concerning the order of the Gospels which he receiv'd from the Elders before him and it is this Those Gospels he said which contain the Genealogies were written first And this was the occasion of writing Marks Gospel when Peter Preach'd the word publickly in Rome and declared the Gospel by the Spirit many who were there present entreated Mark who had been his follower a long time and remembred what he had said that he would write down the things which had been spoken When he had compos'd the Gospel he imparted it to those who had intreated it of him Peter having understood this used no perswasives either to hinder him or to incite him to it But John being the last of all when he saw how those things which appertain'd to Christs humanity were already manifested in the Gospels was mov'd to the enterprise by his acquaintance and being inspir'd by the Spirit he wrote a Gospel concerning Christ's Divinity Thus much Clemens But again the said Alexander in an Epistle of his to Origen mentions Clemens and Pantaenus also as men who were his familiars he writes thus For this as you know was the will of God that the friendship which was begun betwixt us from our Ancestours should not onely remain inviolable but also become more fervent and firm For we know those blessed Fathers who went before us with whom we after a short time shall be joyn'd I mean the truely blessed Pantaenus my Master and the holy Clemens my Master who also profited me much and if there be any others like them by whom I came to the knowledge of you my most excellent Lord and Brother And after this manner were these things Moreover Adamantius for that also was Origen's name in these times when Zephyrinus Presided over the Church of Rome travell'd to Rome as he himself some where says having a desire to see the most antient Church of the Romans where he made no long stay but return'd to Alexandria And with all diligence there perform'd his customary duty of Catechist Demetrius the then Bishop of those Churches exciting him to it and little less then beseeching him to labour earnestly for the utility of the Brethren CHAP. XV. Concerning Heraclas BUt when he perceived himself not supplied with sufficient strength both for the more profound study of Divinity for his researches into and interpretation of the holy Scriptures and moreover for the Catechizing of them who came to him having scarce time to breathe so many flocking together to him One company after another coming from morning to evening to his School he divided the multitudes and electing Heraclas one of his familiars made him his assistant in Catechizing a man who was very studious in Divinity most eminently skilfull in other Learning and one who was not unexperienced in Philosophy He commits the instruction of the New-beginners to him but reserves to himself the hearing of those who had made some proficiency CHAP. XVI What Pains and Study Origen bestowed about the Holy Scriptures ORigen now intended to make such accurate researches into the Holy Scriptures that he learn't the Hebrew tongue And bought the Authentick Scriptures written in Hebrew letters which were extant among the Jews And he search'd after other Editions of Translatours of the Sacred Scriptures besides the Seventy And he sought out some other Versions besides those Common ones of Aquilas Symmachus and Theodotion different from them which he having searcht out first brought to light from I know not whence nor out of what Corners having been forgotten for a long time concerning which because he was uncertain who were the Authours of them by reason of their obscurity he onely Noted this that one of them was by him found at Nicopolis near Actium and another at some other place Moreover in his Hexapla of the Psalms after those four excellent Editions he adds not onely a fifth and sixth but also a seventh Version and upon one of them again he has Noted that it was found at Jericho in an Hogs-head in the times of Antoninus the son of Severus When he had thus Collected all these Versions into one body and divided them into Verses having placed them directly one against the other together with the Hebrew Text he left us those Copies which are call'd Hexapla He afterwards prepared apart by themselves Aquila's Symmachus's and Theodotion's Edition together with the Septuagint and put them out in his Tetrapla CHAP. XVII Concerning Symmachus the Translatour MOreover We must understand that this Symmachus one of the Translatours was an Ebionite For there is an Heresie called the Heresie of the Ebionites who say that Christ was born of Joseph and Mary and suppose him to have been meer Man who also stiffly affirm that the Law ought to be strictly observ'd according as the Jews kept it as we have before made known somewhere in our History Symmachus's Commentaries are even yet extant in which he seems to confirm the foresaid Heresie disputing strongly against Matthew's Gospel Origen tells us that he receiv'd these together with other interpretations of Symmachus's of the Scriptures from one Juliana upon whom he saies these books of Symmachus's devolved by right of succession CHAP. XVIII Concerning Ambrosius AT this time Ambrosius who favour'd the Valentinian Heresie being convinc'd by the truth Preach'd by Origen and having his mind cleared as it were with light assents to the doctrine of the Orthodox faith of the Church And Origen's fame being nois'd abroad every where several men of great learning flock'd to him intending to make tryal of this man's sufficiency in the Scriptures Also infinite multitudes of Hereticks and not a few Philosophers and them most famous gave diligent attention to him almost like Schollars learning from him besides Divinity those things which appertain to External Philosophy For he initiated those whom he perceived to have acute parts into Philosophical Learning Teaching them Geometry and Arithmetick and the other previous Sciences Also guiding them into the knowledge of the various Sects among Philosophers explaining the writings that are amongst them and Commenting on and searching into all things So that even amongst the Gentiles this man was openly declared to be a great Philosopher He also incited many of meaner capacities to the study of the Liberal
them whether they would agree to the Nicene faith They having readily given their assent the Emperour commanded them to deliver in a Libel containing the Articles of their faith CHAP. XXVI How Arius being recalled from exile and having given up a Libell of Repentance to the Emperour did therein hypocritically pretend himself an assertour of the Nicene Creed HAving therefore composed a Libell they present it to the Emperour the contents whereof are as followeth Arius and Euzoïus to our most Religious and most pious Lord Constantine the Emperour According to the order of your piety most acceptable to God our Lord the Emperour we do declare our Faith and in writing profess in the presence of God that we and all our adherents do believe as followeth We believe in one God the Father Almighty and in the Lord Jesus Christ his Son who was made by him before all worlds God the Word by whom all things were made that are in heaven and that are in earth who came down from heaven and was incarnate and suffered and rose again and ascended into the heavens who also shall come again to judge the quick and the dead We also believe in the Holy Ghost and in the Resurrection of the flesh and in the life of the world to come and in the kingdom of heaven and in one Catholick Church of God which is spred from one end of the world to the other This faith we have received from the holy Gospels the Lord saying to his disciples Go ye and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost If we do not thus believe these things and if we do not truly admit of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost in such manner as the whole Catholick Church and the Scriptures which we believe in all things do teach God is our Judge both now and in the Judgment to come We therefore beseech your piety O Emperour most acceptable to God! that we being Ecclesiastical persons and holding the Faith and sence of the Church and the holy Scriptures may by your pacifick and religious piety be united to our mother to wit the Church all questions and superfluous disputations being wholly taken away and suppressed that so both we and the Church enjoying a mutual peace and union may joyntly offer up our usual prayers for the peaceable Reign of your Imperial Majesty and for your whole Family CHAP. XXVII How Arius returned to Alexandria by the Emperours order and upon Athanasius's refusal to admit him Eusebius's faction framed divers accusations against Athanasius before the Emperour ARius having thus perswaded the Emperour returned to Alexandria But this specious covert was not prevalent enough to suppress the silenced and hidden truth For when Athanasius denied him reception upon his arival at Alexandria in regard he detested the man as an abomination he attempted to stir up new commotions in Alexandria by disseminating his heresie Moreover at that time Eusebius did both himself write Letters and also induced the Emperour to write that Arius and his complices might be received into the Church But Athanasius did wholly refuse to grant them reception And he acquainted the Emperour by his Letters that it was impossible for those who had once rejected the faith and were anathematized to be entirely readmitted again to their degrees in the Church at their return But the Emperour highly incensed at this return thus threatned Athanasius in a Letter Part of the Emperours Letter Having therefore received the knowledge of our will doe you afford a free ingress to all such as are desirous of entring into the Church For if we shall receive information that you have prohibited any of those that are desirous to be united to the Church or have hindred their admission We will immediately send one who shall be impowred by Our order to depose you and banish you your Countrey Thus wrote the Emperour having a regard to the good of the publick and being unwilling that the members of the Church should be rent asunder For he laboured to reduce them all to a perfect union At that time therefore the Eusebians who were deadly haters of Athanasius supposing they had gotten a fair opportunity made use of the Emperours indignation as instrumental for the execution of their own design Upon which account they made great disturbances labouring by that meanes to effect Athanasius's deposition from his Bishoprick for they hoped that the Arian opinion would become absolutely prevalent by these means only to wit by a removal of Athanasius There was therefore by a joynt consent an attack made against him by Eusebius of Nicomedia Theognis of Nice Maris of Chalcedon Ursacius of Singidunum a City of the Upper Maesia and Valens of Mursa in the Upper Pannonia These persons hire some of the Melitian Hereticks who bring in several accusations against Athanasius And first they frame a complaint against him by Ision Eudaemon and Callinicus who were Melitians as if Athanasius had ordered the Aegyptians to pay a linnen garment under the notion of tribute to the Church of Alexandria But Alypius and Macarius Presbyters of the Church of Alexandria who were then accidentally at Nicomedia extinguished this accusation having informed the Emperour that what they reported against Athanasius was false Wherefore the Emperour by his Letters sharply reproved those that informed against him but he advised Athanasius in a Letter to repair to him But the Eusebian faction before his arival and in order to their preventing of it tack another accusation to the first far worse than the former as if Athanasius entring into a conspiracy against the Emperours affaires had sent a little chest full of gold to one Philumenus But the Emperour having taken cognizance hereof at Psamathia which is the Suburbs of the City Nicomedia and finding Athanasius innocent dismissed him with honour and wrote to the Church of Alexandria that their Bishop Athanasius had been falsly accused It would indeed have been comely and decent to have passed over in silence those calumnies which the Eusebians afterwards framed against Athanasius lest Christs Church should be condemned by those that do not embrace his doctrine But in regard they have been committed to writing and exposed to the view of all men I therefore judged it necessary to treat of these matters as compendiously as may be which if particularized would require a peculiar volume Wherefore I will give a short account whence both the subject of the calumny it self and also the contrivers of the false accusation had their original Mareotes is a region of Alexandria There are in it a great many and those very populous villages and in them many and stately Churches All these Churches are under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Alexandria and subject to his City like Parishes In this Country of Mareotes there was a man by name Ischyras who had committed a fact
raised by the different opinion of the Emperour For his Letter was produced in one passage whereof he gave order for the debating of this matter in the first place in another for that A disagreement therefore hapning concerning this matter a Schism was made amongst the persons present And this was the original cause of the Seleucian-Synods being divided into two parties The one faction was headed by Acacius Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine Georgius of Alexandria Uranius of Tyre and Eudoxius of Antioch of the same mind with whom there were only two and thirty other Bishops The principal persons of the other faction were Georgius of Laodicea in Syria Sophronius of Pompeiopolis in Paphlagonia and Eleusius of Cyzicum who were followed by the major part When therefore that side prevailed which was for debating in the first place concerning the Faith Acacius's party manifestly rejected the Nicene Creed and intimated the publication of another But those of the other faction who were superiour in number approved of all other matters determined in the Nicene Synod excepting only the term Homoöusios which they found fault with Therefore after a very sharp contest amongst one another untill Evening at length Silvanus who presided over the Church at Tarsus spake a loud saying there was no necessity of publishing a new Draught of the Creed but that they ought rather to confirm that set forth at Antioch at the consecration of the Church When he had said this Acacius's party secretly withdrew out of the Council but the other faction produced the Creed composed at Antioch after the reading whereof the Council broke up for that day On the next day they met in a Church in Seleucia and having shut the doors they read that Creed and confirmed it by their subscriptions Instead of some Bishops who were absent the Readers and Deacons there present subscribed by whom the absent persons had professed that they would acquiess in that Draught of the Creed CHAP. XL. That Acacius Bishop of Caesarea dictated another Draught of the Creed in the Synod at Seleucia BUt Acacius and those of his party found fault with what was done because they had subscribed covertly when the Church-doors were shut For matters said he transacted in secret were naught and to be suspected He made these objections because he was desirous of publishing another Draught of the Creed instead of that subscribed by them which form he had about him ready drawn up and had before recited it to Lauricius and Leonas the Governours and he made it his whole business to get that Draught only established and confirmed These were the transactions of the second day when nothing else was done On the third day Leonas was again very earnest to procuâ—e a meeting of both parties At which time neither Macedonius of Constantinople nor Basilius of Ancyra were absent When therefore both these persons had joyned themselves to one and the same faction the Acacians were again unwilling to meet saying that as well those who had before been deposed as them at present accused ought in the first place to be put out of the assembly After a great contest on both sides at length this opinion was prevalent the persons charged with an accusation went out and the Acacians came in Then Leonas said that Acacius had delivered a Libell to him Leonas not discovering it to be a Draught of the Creed which in some passages secretly in others openly contradicted the former When silence was made amongst those that were present they supposing the Libel to contain any thing else rather than a form of the Creed Acacius's composure of the Creed with a Preface thereto was then recited the Contents whereof are these We having met together at Seleucia a City of Isauria according to the Emperours Command yesterday which was before the fifth of the Calends of October used our utmost endeavour with all modesly to preserve the peace of the Church stedfastly to determine concerning the Faith as our Emperour Constantius most dear to God hath ordered according to the Prophetick and Evangelick expressions and to introduce nothing into the Ecclesiastick Faith contrary to the Divine Scriptures But in regard certain persons in the Synod have injured some of us have stopt the mouths of others not permitting them to speak have excluded othersome against their wills have brought along with them out of divers Provinces persons deposed and have in their company such as have been ordained contrary to the Canon of the Church in so much that the Synod is on all sides filled with tumult of which the most eminent Lauricius president of the Province and the most Illustrious Leonas the Comes have been eye-witnesses upon this account we interpose these things Not that we forsake the Authentick Faith published at the Consecration at Antioch but we give that the preference especially in regard our Fathers concurred about the proposition at that time in controversie But whereas the terms Homoöusion and Homoiöusion have in times past disturbed very many and do still disquiet them and moreover whereas 't is said that there is an innovation lately coyned by some who assert a dissimilitude of the Son to the Father Upon this account we reject Homoöusion and Homoiöusion as being terms not to be met with in the Scriptures but we anathematize the term Anomoion and do look upon all such as are assertours thereof to be persons alienated from the Church But we do manifestly profess the likeness of the Son to the Father agreeable to the Apostle that hath said concerning the Son Who is the image of the invisible God We acknowledge therefore and believe in one God the Father Almighty the maker of heaven and earth of things visible and invisible Moreover We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ his Son begotten of him without any passion before all ages God the Word the only begotten of God the Light the Life the Truth the Wisedom by whom all things were made which are in the heavens and which are on the earth whether visible or invisible We believe him to have assumed flesh from the holy Virgin Mary at the consummation of ages in order to the abolition of sin and that he was made man that he suffered for our sins and rose again and was taken up into the Heavens and sitteth at the right hand of the Father and that he shall come again in Glory to judge the quick and dead We believe also in the holy Ghost whom our Lord and Saviour hath termed The Paraclete having promised after his departure to send him to his disciples and he sent him By whom also he sanctifies all Believers in the Church who are Baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost But those who Preach any thing contrary to this Creed we look upon to be alienated from the Catholick Church This is the Draught of the Creed published by Acacius The persons who subscribed it
commendation of Johannes on account of his Letter WHen Paulus Bishop of Emisa was arrived at Alexandria and had made a discourse which is still extant in the Church concerning this matter At which time also Cyrillus having highly commended Johannes's Letter wrote word for word thus Let the heavens rejoyce and the earth be glad For the partition wall is demolished that which caused grief and sadness is ceased and the occasion of all manner of dissention is taken away in regard Christ the Saviour of us all has restored peace to his own Churches and the most Religious Emperours and most dear to God have invited us thereto Who having been the most incomparable Emulators of their Ancestours piety do preserve the true Faith firm and unshaken in their own minds and they take an exquisite care of the Holy Churches to the end they may obtain both a far-spread and immortall Glory and also render their Empire most highly renowned To whom even the Lord of Hosts himself distributes good things with a plentifull hand gives them power to vanquish their adversaries and freely bestows Victory on them For he cannot lie who has said As I live saith the Lord I will glorifie them who Glorifie me When therefore My Lord and most Religious Brother and Fellow-Minister Paulus was come to Alexandria we were filled with joy and that most deservedly in regard so great a person was come to be an Intercessour and was willing to undergo Labours above humane strength that he might vanquish the Envy of the Devil unite divisions and by removing offences on both sides crown both Our and Your Churches with Concord and Peace And after the interposition of some words he Adds Moreover that this dissention of the Church was altogether frivolous and inexcusable we have been now fully satisfied since my Lord the most Religious Bishop Paulus has brought a paper which containes an irreprehensible confession of Faith and has affirmed that it was written by Your Sanctity and by the most Religious Bishops there Now the confession runs thus and 't is inserted in the very same words into this our Epistle But concerning Theotocos and so forth When We had read these Your sacred words and perceived that We Our Selves embraced the same Sentiments For there is one Lord one Faith one Baptism We glorified the Saviour of all men rejoycing mutually because as well your as our Churches do profess a Faith which is agreeable both to the divinely inspired Scriptures and also to the Tradition of our Holy Fathers These things may be known by him who is desirous of having an accurate account of those affairs transacted at that time CHAP. VII What the impious Nestorius writes concerning his own sufferings and how his tongue having at last been eaten out with worms he ended his life at Oasis BUt after what manner Nestorius was banished or what befell him after that or in what manner he departed out of this life and what rewards he received on account of his Blasphemy these particulars have not been related by the Writers of History All which had been forgotten and had been wholly lost and swallowed by length of time nor had been so much as heard of had not I accidentally met with a book of Nestorius's which contains a Narrative of these things This Father of Blasphemy therefore Nestorius who has not raised his building on that foundation which was laid but hath built his house on the sand and therefore it has soon faln down according to our Lord's parable making an Apology which was his desire in defence of his own Blasphemy against those who had accused him because he had introduced some innovation contrary to what was fitting and had not rightly requested that a Synod should be convened at Ephesus amongst other things writes to this effect that he wholly compelled thereto by necessity had betaken himself to the defence of this part in regard the holy Church was divided some affirming that Mary was to be termed Anthropotocos others Theotocos That therefore as he says he might not offend in one of these two viz. least he should either joyn things mortall with those that are immortall or else least by betaking himself to the other side he might be deprived of that other party who defended the term Theotocos he invented the word Christotocos He intimates further that at first the Emperour Theodosius out of that affection he bore towards him confirmed not the sentence of deposition pronounc't against him but afterwards that when some Bishops of both parties had been sent from the City Ephesus to Theodosius and when he also himself requested it he was permitted to return to his own Monastery which is scituate before the Gates of that City now called Theopolis and is not expressly named there by Nestorius But they say it is now termed Euprepius's Monastery which as we assuredly know stands before the City Theopolis distant from thence not more than two furlongs Moreover the same Nestorius says that having resided there during the space of four years he had all imaginable honour conferred upon him and enjoyed all manner of reverence and respect but that afterwards by the Edict of the Emperour Theodosius he was banished into that place called Oäsis But he has concealed that which is the principall thing For during his Residence there he in no wise desisted from his own Blasphemy In so much that Johannes Bishop of Antioch gave the Emperour an account thereof and Nestorius was condemned to perpetuall Banishment He wrote also another Book composed in the manner of a Dialogue to a certain Egyptian as it were concerning his banishment into Oäsis wherein he speaks more at large concerning these things But what punishments he underwent on account of the Blasphemies coyned by him not being able to lie concealed from God's all-seeing eye may be known from other Letters sent by him to the Governour of Thebäis For in those Letters you may find after what manner in regard he had not yet undergone condign punishment the judgment of God seized him and involved him in Captivity a calamity of all afflictions the most miserable But in as much as he was to endure greater punishments he was let go by the Blemmyae amongst whom he had been a Captive And removing from place to place about the utmost borders of Thebäis by the Edicts of Theodosius who had determined that he should return and being dash't against the earth he ended his days agreeable to his own forepast life like a second Arius declaring and foreshewing by his calamitous death what rewards are appointed for those who utter Blasphemy against Christ. For both those persons blasphemed Christ in a like manner Arius by terming him a Creature and Nestorius by thinking him to be a man To whom because he complains that The Acts at Ephesus were not
rather that the Divinity and Humanity have perfected to us one Lord and Christ and Son by an ineffable mysticall and secret concourse to an Unity And after some few words But in regard having personally united the humanity to himself on our account and for our salvation he proceeded from a woman for this reason he is said to have been born according to the Flesh. For he was not at first born a common and ordinary man of the Holy Virgin and after that The Word descended upon him but having been united from the very womb he is said to have undergone a Carnall Nativity that he might procure to himself the Nativity of his own Flesh. After the same manner we say he suffered and rose again not as if God The Word as to his own Nature suffered either the Stripes or the Transfixions of the Nails or any other of the wounds for the Deity is Impassible because 't is also Incorporeall But in regard that which had been made his own Body suffered on this account he is again said to have suffered for us For there was the Impassible Deity in a passible Body Most part of Cyrillus ' s other Letter hath been recorded in our foregoing Book But there is a passage in it which Johannes Bishop of the Antiochians had written in his Letter to which passage Cyrillus hath fully agreed this passage runs thus We confess the Holy Virgin to be Theotocos because God The Word took Flesh from Her and was made man and from that very Conception united to himself a Temple taken from Her But we know that those divine men do take the Evangelick and Apostolick Expressions uttered concerning the Lord sometimes in a common sense as spoken of one person at othâ—r whiles they divide them as uttered concerning two Natures And that they have delivered these Expressions as becoming God according to the divinity of Christ but those other as humble and mean agreeable to the same persons humanity To which words Cyrillus has subjoyned these Having read these your sacred Expressions We find that We our selves embrace the same Sentiments For there is one Lord one Faith one Baptism We have therefore glorified God the Saviour of all men rejoycing mutually that as well the Churches amongst us as those with you do profess a Faith that is agreeable both to the divinely inspired Scriptures and also to the Tradition of our Holy Fathers After the Reading hereof those of this Synod cried out in these words We do all believe thus Pope Leo believes thus Anathema to him that divides and to him who confounds This is the Faith of Leo the Arch-Bishop Leo believes thus Leo and Anatolius believe thus We all believe thus As Cyrillus so we believe The eternall memory of Cyrillus As Cyrillus's Letters are so are our Sentiments Thus we have believed thus we do believe Leo the Arch-Bishop thinks thus thus he believes thus he hath written Then an Interlocution having been made that Leo's Letter might also be read being rendred into Greek it was recited which Letter is extant in the Acts of the Councill After therefore the reading thereof the Bishops exclaimed This is the Faith of the Fathers This is the Faith of the Apostles We all believe thus we that are Orthodox do believe thus Anathema to him who believes not thus Peter by Leo hath uttered these words The Apostles have taught thus Leo hath taught piously and truly Cyrillus has taught thus Leo and Cyrillus have taught alike Anathema to him who believes not thus This is the true Faith the Orthodox think thus this is the Faith of the Fathers Why were not these words read at Ephesus Dioscorus hath concealed these Expressions It is recorded in the same Acts that when part of the fore-mentioned Letter of Leo was read the Contents whereof were these And in order to the paying that due debt of our Nature the divine Nature was united to a Nature passible to the end that for this was agreeable to our Remedies He being one and the same Mediatour of God and Men the Man Christ Jesus might be able to die by one and might not be able to die by the other the Illyrician and Palestine Bishops being in doubt as to this Expression Aetius Arch-deacon of the most Holy Church of Constantinople produced a passage of Cyrillus ' s the Contents whereof are these Again in regard his own Body by the grace of God according as the Apostle Paul saith hath tasted death for every man he himself is therefore said to have suffered death for us not as if he had experienced death as to what belongs to his own Nature For 't is stupidity and extream madness either to affirm or think this but because as I have even now said his Flesh tasted death And again as to an expression of Leo's Letter which runs thus For each Form acts with a communion of the other that which is proper to wit The Word operates that which is The Word ' s and the Flesh performs that which is of the Flesh and the one of these shines with Miracles but the other hath lain under injuries the Illyrician and Palestine Bishops being in doubt the same Aetius read a Chapter of Cyrillus the Contents whereof were these Of the expressions used concerning Christ some are most especially agreeable to God again others are agreeable to man But a third sort possess a certain middle place evidencing the Son of God to be God and also at the same time Man After this when the foresaid Bishops doubted at another place of Leo's Epistle which runs thus For although in our Lord Jesus Christ there is one person of God and of man nevertheless that is one thing whence there is in both a Community of Contumely and that is another whence there is a Community of Glory For from us he has humanity which is less than the Father But from the Father he has the divinity which is equall with his Father Theodoret after he had well considered this matter said that the Blessed Cyrillus had expresly spoken thus in these words And being made man and loosing nothing that was his own he continued what he was and the one dwelt in the other that is the divine Nature in man After this when the Illustrious Judges enquired whether there were any person who as yet doubted all answered that no person made any further doubt After whom Atticus Bishop of Nicopolis requested that a Truce of some few days might be allowed them to the end that with a sedate mind and undisturbed understanding such things might be decreed as were pleasing to God and to the Holy Fathers He desired also that Cyrillus's Letter written to Nestorius might be delivered to them in which Cyrillus intreats Nestorius that he would give his assent to his twelve Heads whereto all agreed And when the Judges by
whilst opportunity does permit to the end that to so many and such large Provinces you may restore a befitting Concord which oh absurd the arrogancy of a few men hath destroyed Further that this thing is highly acceptable to God the supream Lord and more earnestly wish't for by Us than any desire whatever Lastly that to your selves if you shall restore peace it will be an occasion of no small honour I suppose all men do acknowledge Delay not therefore but henceforward raise your alacrity to the highest pitch and make it your business to put an end to the present differences by a befitting determination meeting together namely with all Sincerity and Faith which that Saviour whom we worship who lifts up his Uoice every where in a manner does chiefly require of us But as to what appertains to Our Piety nothing shall be wanting to you All things have been done by Me which by your Letter you gave notice of I have written to those Bishops whom you desired that they should come and be partakers with you in the Common Care and Solicitude I have sent Dionysius the Ex-Consularis who may both put in mind those Bishops that ought to come with you to the Synod and may also be an Inspector of what is transacted but most especially of regularity and good order But if any person which I don 't in the least suspect presuming at this juncture to violate our precept shall refuse to be present One shall be forthwith dispatch't from Us who by an Imperial Order shall drive that person into Exile and shall teach him that 't is in no wise fit to resist the determinations of an Emperour when published in defence of the truth As to what remains it shall be the business of Your Sanctity neither with hatred nor favour but in a manner agreeable to the Ecclesiastick and Apostolick Rules to find out a befitting remedy whether for Crimes or such things as have hapned by mistake to the end you may free the Church from all reproach may lighten Our Cares and having restored the pleasantness of Peace to those Churches now disturbed may procure the eminentest Glory to your Selves God preserve You Beloved Brethren CHAP. XLIII That at the Feast of Dedication of the Church at Jerusalem there were Bishops present out of all the Provinces AFter these Orders had been effectually put in execution another Messenger from the Emperour arrived who having brought an Imperial Letter moved the Synod that without any delay they would forthwith hasten their journey to Jerusalem All of them therefore left the Province of the Phoenicians and by the assistance of the Cursus Publicus went whither they had received orders to go At which time that whole place was filled with a numerous divine assembly the eminent Bishops out of every Province having met together at Jerusalem For the Macedonians had sent the Bishop of the Metropolis amongst them and the Pannonii and Moesi had directed thither the choycest flower of God's youth in their Country There was likewise present the Ornament of the Persian Bishops an holy person and one that was incomparably well verst in the divine Oracles The Bithynians also and Thracians by their own presence adorned the Convention Nor were the most eminent of the Bishops amongst the Cilicians absent Those of Cappadocia likewise who excelled for Learning and Eloquence shined in the midst of this Congress Moreover all Syria and Mesopotamia Phoenice and Arabia together with Palestine it self Egypt also and Libya and those who inhabit the Country of Thebaïs all met together and filled up that great Quire of God Who were followed by an innumerable company of people out of all the Provinces There was present together with all these persons an Imperial Attendance and from the Imperial Palace it self approved men were sent who with Expences furnished by the Emperour might illustrate the Festivity CHAP. XLIV Concerning their Reception by Marianus the Notary and concerning the money distributed amongst the poor and the sacred Gifts of the Church BUt over all these there was appointed as chief a person highly acceptable and usefull to the Emperour one that was eminent for his Faith Religion and Skill in the Sacred Scriptures Who having been famous for his confessions in defence of piety during the times of the Tyrants was deservedly entrusted with the ordering of these matters This person therefore with all imaginable sincerity paid obedience to the Emperours Commands and honoured the Synod with a most Courteous Reception entertaining them with splendid Feasts and Banquets But amongst the indigent and naked and amongst infinite multitudes of poor of both Sexes who stood in great need of food and other necessaries he distributed vast quantities of money and a great number of Garments Lastly he variously adorned the whole Church with magnificent and royal sacred Gifts CHAP. XLV Various Discourses of the Bishops in the Sacred Assemblies as also of Eusebius himself the Authour of this Work SUch was the Service performed by this person But the Ministers of God adorned the Festival partly with their prayers and partly by their Discourses For some of them with praises celebrated the Benignity of the Religious Emperour towards the Universal Saviour and in their Orations set forth the Magnificence of the Martyrium Others entertained their hearers with Theologick discourses upon the divine Dogmata fitted to the present solemnity as with some splendid banquet of rational food Others interpreted the Lessons of the divine Volumns and disclosed the Mystick meanings But such as were unable to arrive at these things appeased the Deity with unbloudy Sacrifices and mystick Immolations humbly offering up their prayers to God for the common Peace for the Church of God â—or the Emperour himself who was the Occasioner of such great Blessings and for his pious Children At which place we our selves also who were vouchsased Blessings much above our deserts honoured the solemnity with various discourses uttered in publick sometimes making descriptions in writing of the stateliness and magnificence of the Royal Fabrick at others explaining the meanings of the prophetick Visions in a manner befitting the present Symbols and Figures Thus was the Feast of Dedication celebrated with the greatest joy imaginable on the very Tricennalia of the Emperour CHAP. XLVI That He afterwards recited his Description of our Saviour's Martyrium and his Oration upon Constantine's Tricennalia before the Emperour Himself BUt what the Form of our Saviour's Church is what the fashion is of the Salutary Cave how great the Beauty and Elegancy of the Structure and Lastly how many the Donaria made partly of Gold and Silver and partly of pretious Stones we have as well as we could comprized in a peculiar Treatise and have dedicated it to the Emperour Himself Which Book we shall make a seasonable publication of
Alba is here put instead of Millaine For Millaine not Alba was the Metropolis of Italy And Dionysius who then opposed Constantius and the Arians was not Bishop of Alba but of Millaine as Athanasius attests in his Epistle aâ— Solitar Vales. * That is Paulinus Dionysius and Eusebius a These words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. â— The Emperour issued out these orders with a designe to unite them in opinion are wanting in Robert Stephens's Edition we have inserted them upon the authority of the Florentine and Sfortian M. SS Vales. b The death of Leontius Bishop of Antioch hapned in the year of Christ 356 Constantius residing then at Rome as Baronius has truly remarked Vales. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undermined or burrowed into the Bishoprick of Antioch c Leontius Bishop of Antioch had at first preferred Aëtius to a diaconate but being afterwards reproved by Diodorus and Flavianus because he had advanced a person to sacred orders who had been bred up in ill studies and was an assertour of impious Tenets he divested him of his Deaconship as Theodoret relates Eccles. Hist. book 2. chap. 24. Eudoxius therefore as soon as he had gotten the Bishoprick of Antioch attempted to restore Aëtius to his former preferment Vales. †Deaconship * Book 2. chap. 12. * Chap. 30. d We remark't before book 2. chap. 30. note b. that this third Exposition of Faith was not translated out of Latine but was at first dictated in Greek by Marcus Arethusius Athanasius who has recorded this Creed in his book de Synodis does not say it was translated out of Latine and yet where-ever he produceth any monument rendred into Greek out of the Latine tongue his continual usage is to give the Reader warning of it Further these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. This Creed was translated out of Latine into Greek the contents thereof are these are wanting in Robert Stephens's Edition nor are they in Epiphanius Scholasticus's Version Vales. e In Athanasius's book de Synodis pag. 875 the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before every comprehensible substance Vales. * Substance f The latter part of this Sirmian Creed is set down by Germinius in his Epistle to â—ufianus Palladius and others in these words Nam sub bonae memoriae Constantio Imperatore c. For under the Emperour Constantius of good memory when there began to be a dissention amongst some concerning the Faith in the presence of the said Emperour there being also present Georgius Bishop of the Alexandrian Church Pancratius of Pelusium Basilius at that time Bishop of Anquiritum Valens Ursacius and our slenderness after a dispute had concerning the Faith untill night when it was reduced to a certain Rule Marcus was chosen by us all to dictate it in which Creed it is thus written The Son is in all things like the Father as the divine Scriptures do affirm and teach To which entire prosession of Faith we all gave our consent and subscribed it with our hands Their subscriptions are extant in Epiphanius in Haeres Semiarian cap. 22. which ought to be annexed to this draught of the Creed The same form of the Sirmian Creed is mentioned in the Exposition of the Faith at Seleucia which Epiphanius hath recorded in the foresaid Heresie chap. 25 in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. Moreover that that Draught of the Creed heretosore published at Sirmium in the presence of the piety of our Emperour Constantius does exactly agree with this form of the Creed is very well known by them who have read that Creed which was subscribed by them â—hat were then present to wit Basilius Marcus Geoâ—gius Bishop of Alexandria Pancratius Hypatianus and most of the Western Bishops Vales. g The passage in Athanasius here quoted by Socrates occurs at the beginning of his Epistle de Synodâ— Arimini Seleuciae Vales. h We read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things as it is in Athanasius See the forequoted passage Vales. i For this is the title prefixt before the exposition of Faith at Sirmium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This Chatholick Creed was expounded and published in the presence of our Lord the most pious and Victorious Emperour Constantius Augustus Eternal Augustus c. as it is extant in Athanasius at the fore-quoted place Which words I therefore annext here because our Socrates in his recitation of that Draught of the Creed has omitted these titles Indeed Constantius did so readily give credence to such flatteries as these that speaking of himself in his Edicts and Letters he would sometimes assert his own eternity This is attested by Amm. Marcellinus not far from the beginning of his fifteenth book in these words Quo ille speaking of Constantius studio blandiâ—iarum exquisito sublatus immunemque se deinde fore ab omni mortalitatis incommodo fidenter existimans confestim à justitia declinavit ita intemperanter uâ— AETERNITATEM MEAM aliquoties subsereret ipse dictando c. Vales. * See Isai. 1. 1. and Hosea 1. 1. †Jeremiah 1. 2. * Addition †He speaks â—ronically * Writing * See Luk. 2. 1. k In Athanasius the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the madness which is the better reading for he means the Montanists to whom madness is deservedly attributed The term here in Socrates is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impious opinion Vales. †See Eusebius Eccles. Hist. book 4. chap. 27. note c. and book 5. chap. 18. l This Letter of the Ariminum Synod is extant in Latine in Hilarius amongst the Fragments of his book de Synodis pag. 451. Edit Paris 1631 out of whom we have transcâ—ibed it and placed it here instead of a Version It ought not to seem strange to any person to see so great a disagreement between the Greek Version and the original Latine Copy of this Epistle For this is an usual thing with Greek Translatours as often as they render Latine into Greek which may be easily perceived from the Emperours Rescripts which occur in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History But we need not fetch examples hereof from any other place than from this Letter in which do occur almost as many mistakes in the Greek translation of it as there are periods in the Letter But the beginning of this Letter is commonly thus worded in Hilarius Lubente Deo ex praecepto pietatis Tuae credimus fâ—isse disposâ—tum c. By Gods pleasure we believe it hath been ordered by the Command of your Piety c. But in the M. S. Copy made use of by Jacobus Sirmondus the reading is thus Jubente Deo c. By Gods will c. So the Greek Translatour reads it whom we have followed in this place Any one may with good reason conjecture that Jubente Deo By Gods will is written instead of Juvante Deo By Gods assistance Vales. * Or place of the Ariminensians †Salvation * Or Consult m These words have no
Socrates does attest But in regard this Book together with very many others is lost by the carelesness of Antiquity we by gathering together from this place and t'other the Testimonies of Ancient Writers who have spoken concerning Eusebius to the utmost of our ability will endeavour to repair that Loss Eusebius therefore was born in Palestine about the Close as 't is likely of Gallienus ' s Reign That he was a Native of Palestine is hence prov'd because by the Ancients he is commonly call'd a Palestinian So 't is certain Basilius Theodoret and others do term him And although he might have been thus Sur-nam'd from his being Bishop of the City Caesarea yet it seems to me truer that he drew that Sur-name from his Country Indeed he himself does attest in his First Book concerning the Life of Constantine that during his being a youth he was educated and conversant in Palestine and that Constantine was first seen by him there whilst he made a journey thorow Palestine in the Court of Diocletianus Augustus Besides in the Second Book of the same work where he records a Law of Constantine's which he wrote to the Palestinians in favour of the Christians he does plainly shew himself to have been a Palestinian For after he has recited the Contents of that Law transmitted to the Palestinians he adds these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These were the Constitutions contained in the Emperour's first Edict sent to Us. But whereas I have plac'd his Birth upon the Latter end of Gallienus ' s Reign of this thing I have Eusebius himself for my Authour For speaking in his Books of Ecclesiastick History concerning Dionysius Bishop of the Alexandrians he does attest that He had lived in his own age as may be seen in Book 3 Chap. 28. Wherefore in regard 't is manifest that Dionysius Alexandrinus departed this life on the twelfth year of Gallienus ' s Empire Eusebius must of necessity have been born then if his age fell on those times wherein Dionysius lived The same may likewise be gathered from the Fifth Book of his Ecclesiastick History about the end of it where speaking concerning Artemon's Heresie he writes that Paul of Samosata had revived that Heresie in his age Lastly relating in his Seventh Book those things which hapned during the Reign of Gallienus before he begins his Discourse concerning the Errour and Condemnation of Paul of Samosata he has these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But now after an historical relation of these things we will deliver to the knowledge of posterity an account of our own age Whom he had for his Parents is unknown to us excepting that Nicephorus Callistus following I know not what Authours does tell us that he was begotten of the Sister of Pamphilus the Martyr But in Arius's Letter to Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia he is termed the Brother of Eusebius Nicomediensis And although by reason of his friendship he might be called the Brother yet it seems truer to me that he was either the near Kinsman or Cousin-germane of Eusebius Nicomediensis especially in regard Arius although many other persons are there mentioned yet terms onely Eusebius of Caesarea Brother to him of Nicomedia Besides Eusebius of Nicomedia was a Native of Syria For he was at first Bishop of Berytus Nor was it the usage then that strangers and persons unknown should be preferred to govern Churches What Masters he had in secular Learning is in like manner unknown to us But in sacred Literature he had Dorotheus the Eunuch a Presbyter of the Antiochian Church for his Master of whom also he makes an honourable mention in his Seventh Book Although Eusebius at that place says onely that he had heard Dorotheus whilst he expounded the Holy Scriptures in the Church not unfitly Nevertheless if any one has a mind with Trithemius to conclude from those words of Eusebius that Eusebius was Dorotheus ' s disciple truly I shall not very much oppose him Theotecnus being at that time dead the Bishoprick of the Church of Caesarea was administred by Agapius a person of eminent piety and large bounty towards the poor By him Eusebius was admitted into the Clergy and entred into the strictest and most intimate friendship with Pamphilus who at that time was eminent amongst the Presbyters of the Church of Caesarea Pamphilus was by Nation a Phoenician born at Berytus Scholar to Pierius a Presbyter of the Alexandrian Church as Photius relates Who in regard he was inflamed with a singular Love of sacred Learning and with the greatest diligence imaginable made a Collection of all the Books of Ecclesiastick Writers and especially of Origen's founded a most famous School and Library at Caesarea Of which School Eusebius seems to have been the first Master Indeed Eusebius in his Book concerning the Martyrs of Palestine writes in express words that Apphianus who compleated his Martyrdom on the third year of the Persecution had been instructed in the Sacred Scriptures by him in the City Caesarea From that time Eusebius always lived with Pamphilus in the closâ—st intimacy and continued his inseparable companion till his death so dear to him that from his friendship he got the surname of Pamphilus Nor did Eusebius love him whilst he liv'd but had a singular affection for him when dead also in so much that after Pamphilus ' s death he always made a most honourable and likewise a most loving mention of him This is attested by those Three Books which he wrote concerning the Life of Pamphilus the Martyr which Books S t Jerome terms most elegant ones The same is likewise gathered from many passages which occur in his Ecclesiastick History and in his Book concerning the Martyrs of Palestine Lastly in his Second Book against Sabellius which was written by Eusebius after the Nicene Council he frequently commends Pamphilus the Martyr although he suppresses his name For even in the very beginning of his Discourse he says thus Puto adhuc aures obstrepi meas à memoria beati illius viri c. I think my Ears are as yet struck by the memory of that Blessed man who frequently made use of that devout word For even your ears do as yet retain the sound of that word For I think I hear him saying The onely-begotten Son of God For this Religious word was always uttered by his mouth For it was the remembrance of the Onely-Begotten to the Glory of the unborn Father Now we have heard the Apostle commanding that Presbyters ought to be honoured with a double honour those especially who labour in the Word and Doctrine And at pag. 29 he speaks of him again in this manner Haec non nos extollunt c. These things do not puff us up remembring that Blessed man Now I wish I could so speak as together with you I did always hear from him But these words which are now said seem to have been pleasing to him For 't
heard concerning Jesus by his disciple and Apostle Thaddaeus who without the help of Herbs or Medicines restored him to his former soundness And not onely him but one Abdus also the son of Abdus who had the Gout he coming and falling down at Thaddaeus's feet received a blessing by prayer and the laying on of his hands and was healed Many others also of the same City with them were cured by the Apostle who wrought wonderfull Miracles and Preached the Word of God After all this Agbarus spake thus We believe Thaddaeus whatever thou dost thou performest by the power of God and therefore we greatly admire thee But We pray thee moreover give us some farther account of the Advent of Jesus How and after what manner it was of his power also and by what virtue he wrought those mighty Works we have heard I shall now be silent replied Thaddaeus because I am sent to publish the Word of God But assemble all the men of thy City together to me to morrow and I will Preach the Word of God to them and will disperse the Word of life among them and expound the Advent of Jesus after what manner it was his Commission and for what reason his Father sent him the power of his Works the Mysteries he declared to the world by what power he wrought so great Miracles his new Preaching the slender and mean reputation he made himself of the despicableness of his outward man how he humbled himself even unto death how he lessened his Divinity how many and great things he suffered of the Jews how he was Crucified how he descended into Hell and rent asunder that Inclosure never before severed how he rose again and together with himself raised those from the dead who had layn buried many ages how he descended from heaven alone but ascended to his Father accompanied with a great multitude how with glory he is set down at the right hand of God his Father in Heaven and how he will come again with power and glory to judge both quick and dead Agbarus therefore commanded the men of his City to come together very early and hear Thaddaeus Preach After this he commanded that Gold and Silver should be given to Thaddaeus But he refused it saying how shall we who have left all that was our own take any thing that is anothers These things were done in the Three hundredth and fortieth year All this being translated word for word out of the Syriack Tongue and not unprofitable to be read we have thought good to set down opportunely in this place THE SECOND BOOK Of the Ecclesiastical History OF EUSEBIUS PAMPHILUS The PREFACE WHatsoever was necessary to be premised by way of Preface to Our Ecclesiastical History both concerning the Divinity of the comfortable Word the Antiquity of the points of our doctrine and Evangelical Politie and also moreover concerning the Manifestation our Saviour lately made of himself his Passion and the Election of the Apostles we have Treated of in the foregoing Book and briefly summed up the proofs thereof Now therefore in this we will diligently look into what followed upon his Ascension partly from what we find noted in Holy Writt and partly from other Records which we will mention in due place CHAP. I. Of those things which were instituted by the Apostles after the Ascension of Christ. FIRST of all therefore Matthias who as before hath been manifested was one of the Lords disciples by lot was elected into the Apostleship of the Traitour Judas Then seven approved men were by prayer and imposition of the Apostles hands Ordained Deacons for the publick Administration of the Churches affairs of which number Stephen was one who immediately after his Ordination as if he had been made Deacon onely for this was the first that after the Lord was slain by those very Jews that had been the Lords murtherers who stoned him to death And thus he being the first of the worthily victorious Martyrs of Christ gained a Crown answerable to his Name Then James also who was termed the brother of the Lord because he also was called the Son of Joseph for Joseph was the father of Christ to whom Mary being Espoused before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost as the Sacred History of the Gospel doth declare This same James I say who for his eminent virtue the Antients surnamed the Just was as they relate the first that had the Episcopal seat of the Church at Jerusalem delivered to him So Clemens affirms in the sixth Book of his Institutions For he says That after our Saviours Ascension Peter James and John although our Lord had preferred them before the rest did not contend for the Dignity but chose James the Just Bishop of Jerusalem The same Author in the seventh Book of the same work says this farther of him The Lord after his Resurrection conferred the gift of Knowledge upon James the Just John and Peter which they delivered to the rest of the Apostles and those to the Seventy Disciples one of whom was Barnabas But there were two James's the one surnamed the Just who was cast head-long from the Battlement of the Temple and beaten to death with a Fullers Club the other was beheaded Paul makes mention of this James the Just writing thus Other of the Apostles saw I none save James the Lords brother At this time also all that our Saviour had promised to the King of the Osdroënians was fulfilled For Thomas moved thereto by Divine impulse sent Thaddaeus to Edessa to be a Preacher and Evangelist of the Doctrine of Christ as from a Record there found we have a little before manifested He when he was come thither did in the Name of Christ both cure Agbarus and also astonished all the Inhabitants of the country with the wonderfulness of his Miracles And when he had sufficiently prepared them with such Works and brought them to an adoration of Christs power he made them disciples of his wholesome Doctrine From that very time untill now the whole City of the Edessens has continued to be Consecrated to Christs Name enjoying no trivial evidences of our Saviour's graciousness towards them And these things are said as from the History of the old Records We will now return again to Holy Writ After the Martyrdom of Stephen when the first and sorest persecution of the Church at Jerusalem by the Jews arose all the disciples of Christ except the Twelve onely being scattered throughout Judea and Samaria some of them travelling as far as Phoenice and Cyprus and Antioch as Holy Scripture testifieth were not able to be so bold as to communicate the Word of Faith to the Gentiles but Preach't to the Jews onely At that time Paul also untill then made havock of the Church entring into every house of the faithfull haling men and women and committing them to prison Moreover Philip one of those who was ordained
find that Nero was the first who with the Imperial sword raged against this Sect then greatly flourishing at Rome But we even boast of such a beginner of our persecution For he that knows him may understand that nothing but some great Good was condemned by Nero. Thus therefore this man being proclaimed the first and chiefest enemie of God set upon slaughtering the Apostles Wherefore they relate that in his time Paul was beheaded at Rome and also Peter crucified And the name of Peter and Paul unto this present time remaining upon the Burial-places there doth confirm the story In like manner even an Ecclesiastical man by name Caius who flourisht in the time of Zephyrinus Bishop of Rome and wrote against Proclus a great defender of the opinion of the Cataphrygians says these very words concerning the places where the sacred bodies of the aforesaid Apostles were deposited I am able to shew the Trophies of the Apostles For if you would go to the Vatican or to the way Ostia you will find the Trophies of those who founded this Church And that they both suffered Martyrdome at the same time Dionysius Bishop of Corinth writing to the Romans doth thus affirm So also you by this your so great an admonition have joyned together the plantation both of the Romans and also of the Corinthians made by Peter and Paul For both of them coming also to our City of Corinth and having planted us did in like manner instruct us Likewise they went both together into Italy and having taught there suffered Martyrdome at the same time And thus much I have related that the History hereof might be yet farther confirmed CHAP. XXVI How the Jews were vexed with innumerable mischiefs and how at last they entred upon a war against the Romans MOreover Josephus discoursing at large about the calamities that happened to the whole Jewish nation makes it manifest in express words amongst many other things that a great number of the most eminent personages amongst the Jews having been cruelly beaten with scourges were crucified even in Jerusalem by the command of Florus For it happened that he was Procuratour of Judea when the war at first broke out in the twelfth year of Nero's Reign Afterwards he says that after the revolt of the Jews there followed great and grievous disturbances throughout all Syria those of the Jewish nation being by the inhabitants of every City every where destroyed as enemies without all commiseration In so much that a man might see the Cities filled with dead bodies that lay unburied and the aged together with the infants cast forth dead and women not having so much as any covering upon those parts which nature commands to be concealed and the whole Province was full of unspeakable calamities But the dread of what was threatned was greater and more grievous than the mischiefs every where perpetrated Thus much Josephus relates word for word And such was the posture of the Jews affairs at that time THE THIRD BOOK OF THE Ecclesiastical History OF EUSEBIUS PAMPHILUS CHAP. I. In what parts of the world the Apostles Preached Christ. NOW the affairs of the Jews being in this posture the holy Apostles and disciples of our Saviour being dispersed over the whole world Preached the Gospel And Thomas as Tradition hath it had Parthia allotted to him Andreas had Scythia John Asia where after he had spent much time he died at Ephesus Peter 't is probable Preached to the Jews scattered throughout Pontus and Galatia and Bithynia Cappadocia and Asia Who at last coming to Rome was crucified with his head downwards for so he desired to suffer It is needless to say any thing of Paul who having fully Preached the Gospel of Christ from Jerusalem unto Illyricum at last suffered Martyrdome at Rome in the time of Nero. Thus much Origen declares word for word in the Third Tome of his Expositions on Genesis CHAP. II. Who First Presided over the Roman Church AFter the Martyrdome of Paul and Peter Linus was the First that was elected to the Bishoprick of the Roman Church Paul writing from Rome to Timothy makes mention of him in the salutation at the end of the Epistle saying Eubulus grâ—â—teth thee and Pudens and Linus and Claudia CHAP. III. Concerning the Epistles of the Apostles INdeed one Epistle of Peter's called his First hath by general consent been received as genuine For that the worthy Antients in former ages quoted in their writings as being unquestionable and undoubted But as for that called his Second Epistle we have been informed by the tradition of our Predecessours that it was not acknowledged as part of the New Testament Yet because to many it seemed usefull 't was diligently read together with the other Scriptures But the Book called his Acts and the Gospel that goes under his Name and that Book termed his Preaching and that stiled his Revelution we know these have in no wise been accounted genuine writings because no Ecclesiastical Writer either antient or modern hath quoted any authorities or proofs taken out of them But in the procedure of our History we will make it our chief business to shew together with the successions what Ecclesiastical writers in every Age have used the authority of such writings as are questioned as spurious likewise what they say of those Scriptures that are Canonical and by general consent acknowledged as genuine and also what concerning those that are not such And thus many are the writings ascribed to Peter of which I have known onely one Epistle accounted to be genuine and universally acknowledged as such by the Antients But of Pauls there are fourteen Epistles manifestly known and undoubted Yet it is not fit we should be ignorant that some have rejected that to the Hebrews saying it is by the Roman Church denied to be Pauls Now what the Antients have said concerning this Epistle I will in due place propose But as for those Acts that are called his we have been informed from our Predecessours that they are not accounted as unquestionable and undoubted And whereas the same Apostle in his Salutations at the end of his Epistle to the Romans makes mention among others of one Hermas who they saâ—â— is Authour of that Book entitled Pastor you must know that that Treatise also has been questioned by some upon whose account it must not be placed amongst those which by general consent are acknowledged as genuine But by others it has been judged a most usefull Book especially for such as are to be instructed in the first rudiments of Religion Whereupon we know it is at this time publickly read in Churches and I do find that some of the most Antient writers doe quote it Let thus much be spoken in order to a representation of the Holy Scriptures to discriminate those Books whose authority is in no wise contradicted from those that by general consent are not acknowledged as genuine
hand The Apostle promising him and solemnly swearing that he had obtained remission for him of our Saviour praying kneeling and kissing the young mans right hand as being now cleansed by repentance brought him into the Church again And partly by abundant prayers making supplication for him partly with continual fastings striving together with him and also comforting his mind with divers sentences out of holy Scripture he departed not as they say untill he had restored him to the Church having hereby shown a great example of true repentance an illustrious instance of regeneration and a Trophie of a conspicuous Resurrection CHAP. XXIV Concerning the Order of the Gospels THese words of Clemens's we have here inserted upon account both of the story its self and also of the profit it may yield to the Readers But we will now declare and recount the unquestionable writings of this Apostle And indeed the Gospel according to him well known to all the Churches throughout the world must in the first place be without controversie acknowledg'd and received as undoubted and genuine Now that it was truely and upon a good account put in the fourth place after the other three Gospels by the antients may after this manner be made apparent Those heavenly and truely divine persons I speak of the Apostles of Christ having been as to their lives and conversations perfectly purified and as to their souls adorned with all manner of virtue were indeed rude of speech and uneloquent but they put their confidence in that divine and wonderfull power of working miracles besâ—â—wed on them by our Saviour and neither attempted nor knew how to be Ambassadours of their Masters precepts in wittiness of words and artificiousness of language But they solely made use of the demonstration of the divine spirit cooperating together with them and the power of Christ with which they were fully endowed and which by them performed miracles and so they published the knowledge of the kingdome of heaven to the whole world making it the least of their care to be diligent about writing books And this they did because they were emploied about a more excellent and more than humane work Indeed Paul who was the most powerfull of them all in the furniture of words and the most able in weighty expressions hath left in writing nothing more than some very short Epistles although he could have disclosed innumerable secrets because he attained unto a contemplation of those things that are in the third heaven and being caught up into the divine paradise was voutsafed to hear there unspeakable words Moreover the rest of our Saviours Preachers both the Twelve Apostles and also the Seventy disciples together with innumerable others besides them were not unexperienced in these things And yet of all the disciples of the Lord onely Matthew and John have left us written records who also as report says were necessitated to write For Matthew having Preached first to the Hebrews and being about going to other Nations did in his own Countrey language pen the Gospel according to him supplying by writing the want of his presence and converse among those whom he was now to leave Now when soon after Mark and Luke had set forth the Gospels according to them John they say spent all that time onely in preaching and at length came to write for this reason The three first written Gospels having been now delivered into the hands of all and of John himself they say that he approved of them and confirmed the truth thereof by his own testimonie onely there was wanting in writing an account of those things done by Christ at the first beginning of his Preaching And the thing is true For it s evidently perspicuous that the other three Evangelists have committed to writing onely those things which were done by our Saviour in one years space after John the Baptists being shut up in Prison and that they have expresly evidenced the same at the beginning of their History For after the forty days fast and the Temptation that followed thereupon Matthew does plainly set forth the time of his own writing saying When he had heard that John was cast into prison he departed out of Judea into Galilee And in like manner Mark Now ofter that John says he was put in prison Jesus came into Galilee And Luke also before he begins the relation of the Acts of Jesus does in like manner make this remark saying that Herod adding yet this to all the evills he had done shut up John in prison Therefore they say that the Apostle John being for these causes thereto requested has declared in a Gospel according to him the time passed over in silence by the former Evangelists and what was done by our Saviour therein and they were the things that he did before the imprisonment of the Baptist and that he manifests the same thing partly when he says thus This beginning of miracles did Jesus and partly when he makes mention of the Baptist whilest He is speaking of the Acts of Jesus as being at that time Baptizing in Aâ—non neer to Salem and this he evidently declares by saying thus For John says he was not yet cast into prison Therefore John indeed in the penning of the Gospel according to him declares those things that were done by Christ the Baptist being as yet not cast into prison but the other three Evangelists give an account of those things Christ did after the Baptists confinement to prison And to him that shall attentively consider these things it will not appear that the Gospels disagree one with the other seeing the Gospel according to John contains the first part of the Acts of Christ but the remaining three give a relation of what was done by him at the latter end of the time With good reason therefore has John passed over in silence the Genealogie of our Saviour after the flesh as having been before written of by Matthew and Luke and has begun with his Divinity reserved as it were by the divine Spirit for him as being the more excellent person Let thus much therefore be spoken by us concerning the writing of the Gospel according to John Now what was the occasion of writing the Gospel according to Mark hath been manifested by us in what we said before And Luke also himself in the beginning of his Gospel hath shewed the cause for which he compiled that History for he makes it manifest that because many had rashly taken in hand to make a declaration of those things which he himself most certainly knew he judged it necessary to disengage us from the uncertain conjectures made by others and therefore hath in his own Gospel delivered a most firm and true account of those things the evidence whereof himself had sufficiently obtained having been assisted therein both by the company and converse of Paul and also by his familiarity with the rest of the Apostles
Province having condemned some Christians and deprived other some being at length troubled at their great number asked advice of Trajan then the Emperour what he should doe with the Residue saying that besides their obstinacy in not sacrificing he found nothing of impiety in their religious mysteries onely that they held early assemblies in singing Hymns to Christ as unto God and that they had a certain summary of their polity that they forbad Murder Adultery Fraud Perfidiousness and such like crimes Then Trajan returned answer that those sort of men should not indeed be diligently sought out but if by chance they were lighted on and brought before the Governours they should be punished And this was then the posture of affairs CHAP. XXXIV That Evarestus was the Fourth that Governed the Roman Church CLemens one of the Roman Bishops having left his Episcopal Office to Evarestus finished his life in the third year of the foresaid Emperours Reign when he had had the charge of the doctrine of the Divine word for full nine years space CHAP. XXXV That Justus was the Third that Governed the Church at Jerusalem BUt moreover Simeon having finished his life after the foresaid manner a certain Jew by name Justus succeeded in the Episcopal Seat at Jerusalem there being then an innumerable company of the Circumcision of which he was one that believed in Christ. CHAP. XXXVI Concerning Ignatius and his Epistles MOreover at this time Polycarpe a disciple of the Apostles flourished in Asia to whom was committed the Bishoprick of the Church at Smyrna by those that saw and ministred to the Lord. At the same time Papias was famous who also was Bishop of the Church at Hierapolis a man most eminently learned and eloquent and knowing in the Scriptures Ignatius also renowned amongst mâ—â—y even to this day who was chosen Bishop of Antioch being the second in succession there after Peter Report goes that this man was sent from Syria to Rome to be made food for wild beasts upon account of the profession of his faith in Christ. And being led through Asia under the custody of a most watchfull guard he confirmed the Churches in every City through which he passed by discourses and exhortations warning them most especially to take heed of the Heresies which then first sprung up and increased And he exhorted them firmly to keep the traditions of the Apostles which he thought necessary for the more certain knowledge of posterity to be put in writing having confirmed them by his own testimony Coming therefore at length to Smyrna where Polycarpe then was he wrote one Epistle to the Church at Ephesus mentioning Onesimus the Pastour there and another to the Church at Magnesia standing on the River Meander wherein again he makes mention of Damas the Bishop And another to the Church at Trallis the Governour whereof at that time he declares was Polybius Besides these Epistles he wrote also to the Church at Rome wherein he earnestly beseeches them that they would not intreat him to avoid Martyrdom least they should defraud him of his desired Hope Out of which Epistle 't is worth our quoting some short passages for the confirmation of what we have said Thus therefore he writes word for word From Syria to Rome I fight with beasts by sea and land day and night bound to ten Leopards that is to a file of Souldiers who being kindly treated by me become worse But by their injuries I am the more instructed but for all that I am not justified Oh! that I might enjoy the wild beasts that are provided for me which I even heartily wish may be found to be fierce which I will allure to devour me immediately that they spare me not as out of fear they have left some untoucht But if they be unwilling to doe it I will compell them by force Pardon me I know what is good for me Now I begin to be a disciple Let nothing visible or invisible divert me from or envy my happiness of attaining Christ Jesus Let Fire and the Cross the assaults of the wild beasts the pulling asunder of bones the cutting off of members the stamping in pieces of the whole body the punishment of the Devil come upon me so I may obtain Christ Jesus And thus much he wrote from the foresaid City to the Churches before named Being now gone beyond Smyrna he from Troas again sent Letters to those at Philadelphia also to the Church at Smyrna and privately to Polycarpe the Prelate thereof to whom because he well knew him to be an Apostolical man he entrusted his flock at Antioch being a very true and good Pastour requesting him that he would have a diligent care thereof The same person writing to those of Smyrna borrows some words which whence he had I know not speaking thus much concerning Christ But I both know and believe that after the Resurrection he was in the Flesh and that coming to Peter and those who were about him he said unto them take hold of me handle me and see for I am not an incorporeal Spirit And straightway they touched him and believed Irenaeus also speaks of his Martyrdom and mentions his Epistles saying thus As one of our men condemned to the wild beasts for his faith in God said I am the bread-corn of God and I must be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found to be pure bread And Polycarpe mentions the same Epistles in that of his to the Philippians in these very words I therefore beseech you all to obey those that are over you and to exercise all manner of patience which you have evidently seen not onely in those blessed men Ignatius Rufus and Zosimus but also in others of us likewise in Paul himself and in the other Apostles being fully perswaded that all these ran not in vain but proceeded in Faith and Righteousness and that they are in that place due to them from the Lord together with whom they suffered For they loved not this present world but him who died for us and was by God raised for us again And a little after he adds Both you and Ignatius wrote to me that if any one went into Syria he should carry your Letters thither Which I will doe if I can get a fit opportunity either I my self or some other whom I will send as a messenger on purpose for you Those Epistles of Ignatius sent by him to us and all the other we had here with us we have sent to you according as you enjoyned us they are made up with this Letter from which Epistles you may profit very much for they contain Faith Patience and what ever is conducible to our Edification in the Lord. And thus much concerning Ignatius After whom succeeded Heros in the Bishoprick of Antioch CHAP. XXXVII Concerning those Preachers of the Gospel who at that time were eminent AMong those who were illustrious in those times Quadratus was one
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
who first followed the Heresie of Marcion called Marcionists say they have very many Martyrs of Christ and yet they doe not in truth acknowledge Christ himself And after some few words he subjoyns hereunto saying Wherefore also as often as those of the Church being called to undergoe Martyrdom for the true Faith have by accident happened into company with some of those of the Phrygian Heresie who are called Martyrs they dissent from them and having avoided all communion with them are perfected by a glorious Martyrdom for they are unwilling to give their assent to the spirit of Montanus and his women and that this is true 't is manifest from what has been done in our times in the City Apamea scituate on the River Meander by Caius and Alexander of Eumonia who suffered Martyrdom CHAP. XVII Concerning Miltiades and the books he compiled IN the same book he makes mention of one Miltiades a writer who also wrote a book against the foresaid Heresie having therefore cited some words of those Hereticks he proceeds saying Having found all this in a certain book which they wrote in answer to a book of our brother Alcibiades's wherein he proves that a Prophet ought not to speak in an extasie of mind I epitomized them A little after this in the same book he enumerates the Prophets of the New Testament amongst whom he recounts one Ammias and Quadratus he says thus but a false Prophet in a false extasie whose concomitants are licentiousness and audaciousness takes his beginning indeed from a voluntary ignorance but ends as I have said in an involuntary madness of mind they shall not be able to show any of the Prophets either under the Old or New Testament who was inspired after this manner by such a spirit They shall not boast of Agabus nor of Judas nor of Silas nor of the daughters of Philip nor of Ammias in Philadelphia nor of Quadratus nor of many others which do not at all belong to them Again after some few words he says thus For if as they say Montanus's women succeeded in the gift of Prophecy after Quadratus and Ammias in Philadelphia let them show us who among them have been the successours of Montanus and his women For the Apostle is of opinion that the gift of Prophecy ought to continue in every Church untill the last Advent of our Lord. But they are unable to shew any Prophet although this is now the fourteenth year since the death of Maximilla Thus far he Now that Miltiades whom he mentions has left us other monuments of his diligence about the divine Scriptures both in the books he composed against the Gentiles and also in those against the Jews having prosecuted each subject particularly in two Volumes Moreover also he made an Apology for the Christian Philosophy which he profest and dedicated it to the Presidents of the Provinces in that Age. CHAP XVIII How Apollonius also confuted the Cataphrygians and whom he has made mention of APollonius also an Ecclesiastick writer imploying himself about a confutation of that called the Cataphrygian Heresie which in his time was prevalent in Phrygia composed a peculiar Volume against them wherein he does both word by word disprove the false Prophecies vented by them and also laies open the life and manners of the Founders of that Heresie shewing how they behaved themselves Hear what he says in these very words concerning Montanus But who is this new Doctor His works and doctrine doe demonstrate this is he who has taught a dissolution of marriages who has imposed Laws of fasting who has named Pepuza and Tymium little Cities of Phrygia Jerusalem being desirous to gather together their men from all parts who has constituted exactours of money who under the name of oblations has subtilly mask't his taking of gifts who gives stipends to those that Preach up his doctrine that so by stuffing of the paunch the doctrine he professes may thrive and prevail Thus much he says concerning Montanus Concerning his Prophetesses a little after these words he writes thus We have demonstrated therefore that these principal Prophetesses for the time they were filled with the Spirit forsook their husbands how falsly then doe they speak who term Prisca a virgin Then he goes on saying Does not the whole Scripture seem to you to prohibit a Prophet to receive gifts money When therefore I see a Prophetess receive Gold and silver and rich garments how can I choose but abhor her Again after some words he says this concerning one of those whom they call Confessours Moreover Themison who has covered himself with a specious pretext of avarice he who would not bear the sign of confession but rid himself of his bonds by a great sum of money when as upon that account he should in future have behaved himself submissively does notwithstanding boast himself to be a Martyr and has been so audacious as in imitation of the Apostle to write a general Epistle for the instruction of those who have behaved themselves more like true believers than he but does therein defend the Tenets of his own vain Doctrine and speaks impiously of the Lord his Apostles and holy Church Again he writes thus concerning others who amongst them have been honoured as Martyrs But that we may speak of no more let the Prophetess answer us concerning Alexander who terms himself a Martyr with whom she feasts whom many of them pay a reverence to Whose robberies and his other audacious facts for which he has been punished we need not speak of since they may be seen in that place where the publick Registers are kept Which therefore of these two forgives the others sins Does the Prophet pardon the Martyrs robberies or does the Martyr forgive the Prophets avarice For when as the Lord has said Provide neither gold nor silver neither two coats these persons wholly on the contrary have committed heinous sins in possessing themselves of things that are forbidden For we will evidence that those which they call Prophets and Martyrs have extorted money not onely from the rich but also from the indigent from Orphans and Widdows And if they are confident of their innocency herein let them stay and decide the matter with us concerning these things that so if they shall be convinced for the future they may leave their viciousness For the fruits that is the deeds of a Prophet must be approved For a tree is known by its fruit That therefore those who are desirous may know the truth concerning Alexander judgment was past upon him at Ephesus by Aemilius Frontinus the Proconsul of Asia not for the name of Christ but the robberies he had audaciously committed being at that time an Apostate from Christ. Then after he had counterfeited a profession of the name of the Lord and deceived the faithfull brethren there he was dismist but his own Church where he was born admitted him not because he was
of those parts intreated him although he was not yet Ordain'd Priest to discourse and to expound the holy Scriptures publickly in the Church This will be evidene't by what Alexander Bishop of Jerusalem and Theoctistus Bishop of Caesarea wrote concerning him to Demetrius who thus excuse him Your Holiness has added in your Letters that this thing was never heard of nor done till this time to wit that Laicks should Preach in the presence of Bishops I know not how you came so apparently to misrepresent the truth For they are invited to Preach to the people when they are found fit to profit the brethren by the holy Bishops For example Euelpis was invited to Preach by Neon at Laranda and so was Paulinus by Celsus at Iconium And Theodorus by Atticus at Synnada who were our blessed Brethren And 't is not incredible that the like was done in other places though we never knew it On this manner was the above nam'd Origen honour'd though he was yet young not onely by his familiars but also by forreign Bishops But Demetrius again recalling him by Letters and urging his return to Alexandria by persons that were Deacons of that Church he return'd thither and there executed his accustomed Office CHAP. XX. What Books are now extant of such as Wrote in these times AT this time flourish'd many Learned Ecclesiastick persons whose Epistles which they wrote to one another 't is an easie thing to meet with being preserv'd till this present For they have been kept even in our Age in the Library of the City Aelia which was built by Alexander who presided over the Church which is there Out of this Library we our selves have gather'd together matter for this subject now in hand Beryllus Bishop of Bosira in Arabia being one of them left together with his Epistles and Commentaries Several other monuments of his Polite Ingenie In like manner did Hippollitus who presided over another Church somewhere there came also to our hands a disputation attempted by one Caius a most eloquent man at Rome in the times of Zephyrinus against Proclus who was a defender of the Cataphrygian Heresie In which dispute he silencing the adversaries rashness and boldness in composing new Scriptures mentions onely thirteen Epistles of the divine Apostle Paul not accounting that to the Hebrews amongst the rest Indeed even till this present 't is thought by some of the Romans that that Epistle was not written by this Apostle CHAP. XXI What Bishops were eminent in those times BUt now Macrinus succeeded Antoninus after he had Reign'd seven years and six moneths who having continued Emperour about a year another Antoninus again assumes the Roman Empire In the first year of his Reign Zephyrinus Bishop of Rome departed this life having held that Episcopal charge eighteen years compleat After him Callistus presides in the Bishoprick He having survived five years leaves the care of the Church to Urbanus After this Alexander the Emperour succeeds in the Roman Empire Antoninus having Reigned onely four years At this time Philetus succeeded Asclepiades in the Church of Antioch Now Alexander the Emperour's mother whose name was Mamaea being a most pious woman and Religious in her conversation Origen's same being now every where so spread abroad that it came even to her eares was mightily desirous to see the man and to make tryal of his knowledge in Divine matters which was so admir'd by all men She therefore making her abode at Antioch sends a military guard for him when he had spent some time with her and had demonstrated to her most things which tend to the glory of God and the power of the divine Doctrine he hastned to his wonted charge CHAP. XXII How many of Hippolytus's works are come to our hands AT this time also Hippolytus amongst many other works of his compil'd a book also concerning Easter In which having explain'd the Series of Times and set forth a Cannon of sixteen years concerning Easter he determines his computation at the first year of Alexander the Emperour Now the rest of his works which came to our hands are these Upon the six daies Work Upon those things which followed upon the six daies Work Against Marcion Upon the Canticles Upon some Chapters of Ezekiel Concerning Easter Against all Heresies And many more which you may find preserv'd amongst many men CHAP. XXIII Concerning Origen's Studiousness and how he was honour'd with the dignity of Priesthood ABout this time was the beginning of Origen's writing Commentaries upon the holy Scriptures Ambrosius chiefly inciting him to it by innumerable instigations not with supplications and bare words onely but also with most plentifull supplies of all things necessary For there were alwaies by him when he dictated more in number then seven Notaries which at set times chang'd courses with one another Neither was there a less number of them which wrote books fair together with Girls who had been instructed to write nearly and handsomely To all these Ambrosius liberally afforded a sufficient supply of all things necessary And indeed he conveigh'd into Origen an unspeakable alacrity in his study and labour about the divine Oracles By which means chiefly he induced him to write Commentaries whilest these things were in this posture Ponâ—ianus succeeds Urbanus who had been Bishop of Rome eight years And Zebinus succeeds Philetus in the Bishoprick of Antioch At which time the necessitie of the Churches Affaires constraining him Origen made a journey through Palestine into Greece And received the Order of Priesthood at Caesarea by the imposition of the hands of the Bishops there But what combustions were hereupon rais'd concerning him and what Decrees were made by the Prelates of the Churches upon these commotions And what ever else he continuing to be of great esteem contributed to the Preaching of the divine Word these things requiring a distinct Volume we have in some measure declared in the second book of our Apologie which we wrote in defence of him CHAP. XXIV Concerning the Expositions he made at Alexandria BUt 't was necessary for us to have annex'd these to the things afore-mention'd for in his sixth book of his Expositions upon John's Gospel he declares he compos'd those five first books while he yet liv'd at Alexandria But onely twenty two books of his works upon that Gospel are come to our hands In his ninth book also upon Genesis for there are twelve in all he manifests that he did not onely write those first eight books at Alexandria but also those Comments upon the twenty five first Psalms And moreover those Comments upon the Lamentations five books of which came to our hands In which books there is some mention of his books upon the Resurrection those also are two Volumes Indeed he also wrote his books De Principiis before his removal from Alexandria He also compos'd those books intitl'd
which was written by me and Pamphilus the holy Martyr of our times which we fellow-labourers carefully and joyntly compos'd upon the account of some of his quarrelsome Accusers CHAP. XXXIV Concerning Philip the Emperour WHen Gordianus had held the Roman Empire six complete years Philip together with his son Philip succeeded him The report is that he being a Christian upon the day which is the last of the Vigils of Easter was desirous to be a partaker together with the congregation of the prayers of the Church but could in no wise be permitted to enter into the Church by him who was then Bishop before he had made a general confession of his fins and recounted himself amongst their number who were reckon'd the Lapsed and stood in the place of penitents for had he not done this he would not have been admitted by the Bishop because of his many offences and 't is reported that he willingly obey'd and demonstrated in his deeds the sincerity and devoutness of his affection towards the fear of God CHAP. XXXV How Dionysius succeeded Heraclas in his Bishoprick IT was the third of Philip's Reign in which Heraclas dyed after he had Govern'd the Church sixteen years and Dionysius succeeded him in the Bishoprick of Alexandria CHAP. XXXVI What other books were written by Origen AT this time therefore the faith as it was meet daily encreasing and our doctrine being boldly preach'd amongst all men Origen 't is said was now above sixty years old and because he had now gotten a most excellent habit of speaking through long use and exercise he permitted the Notaries to write his discourses which he delivered in publick but never before this time would he suffer that to be done About this time he wrote eight books against a book of Celsus the Epicurean intitled The word of Truth He also wrote twenty five Volumes upon Matthew's Gospel and those upon the Twelve Prophets of which books we have found onely twenty five There is also extant an Epistle of his to Philip the Emperour another to his wife Severa and several others to divers other persons which being scattered here and there in several mens hands as many of them as we could find preserved being above an hundred in number we have collected and digested into proper books by themselves that they may not hereafter be again dispers'd He wrote also to Fabian Bishop of Rome and to several other Prelates of Churches concerning his own Orthodoxie you have also the declarations of these things in the sixth book of the Apology we wrote in defence of him CHAP. XXXVII Concerning the dissention of the Arabians AGain about the same time there sprang up in Arabia Introducers of another Opinion alienating from the Truth These affirm'd that mens souls even in this present life expired together with their bodies and were turn'd to corruption together with them but that they should again revive together with the bodies at the time of the Resurrection No small Synod being call'd together upon this account Origen is again sent for thither and having disputed publickly concerning this question he managed the cause so well that those who before were fallen into errour changed their sentiments CHAP. XXXVIII Concerning the Heresie of the Helcesaïts AT that time also sprang up another perverse Errour call'd the Heresie of the Helcesaïts which was stifled in its birth Origen mentions it in his Homily to the people upon the eighty second Psalm in these words Lately there came one highly conceited of himself for his ability to defend that Atheistical and most wicked Opinion call'd the Opinion of the Helcesaïts which lately was raised in opposition to the Church I will explain to you what evil things that Opinion asserts that ye be not drawn away by it It reject's somethings of every part of the Scripture but makes use of some Texts both out of the Old and also out of the Evangelical Scripture it rejects the Apostle Paul wholly It says 't is an indifferrent thing to deny the Faith It â—olds also that upon necessity a wise man would deny Christianity with his mouth but not with his heart also at the same time They also carry about with them a book which they say fell down from heaven and every one that hears it and believes it shall obtain Remission of sins a Remission different from that which Jesus Christ bestowed But let thus much suffice concerning these things CHAP. XXXIX Concerning what happened in the times of Decius BUt in the mean while Decius succeeds Philip after he had Reigned seven years who because of his hatred towards Philip rais'd a Persecution against the Churches In which Fabian being Martyr'd at Rome Cornelius succeeds in that Bishoprick And Alexander the Bishop of Jerusalem in Palestine is again brought before the Governour 's Tribunal for Christ's sake And was very famous for his second confession at Caesarea where he was imprisoned being now adorned with a venerable old Age and reverend gray haires After his noble and famous testimony before the Governour 's Tribunal he expired in Prison and Mazabanes was pronounced his successour in the Bishoprick of Jerusalem Also Babylas Bishop of Antiochia died in like manner as did Alexander in prison after his confession and Fabius is preferred to be Bishop of that Church Moreover how many and how great afflictions happened to Origen in this Persecution and what was the end of these things the Devil with all his forces enviously setting himself in opposition to this man and fighting against him with all subtilty and power assailing him particularly above all those who were set upon at that time how many and how great things he also suffered for the Doctrine of Christ as bonds and bodily torments the punishment of the Iron Chain in the inmost recesses of the Prison how he was put upon the Rack his feet for several days being stretch'd so wide as to the distance of four holes how valiantly he sustain'd the menaces of fire and all other Tortures inflicted by his Enemies what also was the exit of these things the Judge with his utmost power earnestly endeavouring that he might not be slain Lastly what expressions he left behind him and how comfortable to the comfortless All these particulars many of his Epistles do both truly and accurately comprehend CHAP. XL. Concerning what things happened to Dionysius I Will also Record some things concerning Dionysius out of his Epistle to Germanus Where speaking concerning himself he makes this relation I speak in the presence of God and he knows that I lie not I never made my escape of my self nor without the Divine appointment But before to wit at the same time when the Decree for the Persecution came out from Decius Sabinus sent out his Deputy to make inquisition for me and I stay'd at home four days expecting the arrival of the Deputy But he went about
works to the people Neither are we ignorant that by introducing women into their society some have wholly fell away from goodness and others have been suspected Although therefore it be granted he committed nothing that was unchast yet the very suspicion which arises from such a thing ought carefully to be avoided least it should be offensive to any one and induce others to imitate it for how can he reprove or admonish another not to frequent the company of women and to take heed least he fall as it is written who has now indeed sent away one but keeps two that are young and beautiful with him and where-ever he goes he carries them along with him and therefore indulges and stuffs himself with delicacies These are the reasons that all people sigh and lament privately but they so dread his Tyrany and Authority that they dare not accuse him now as we have before said any one would call a man who professes the Catholick Doctrine and is reckoned of our Communion to an account for these things But from one who has abjured the Mystery of our Religion and has boasted in that cursed Heresie of Artemas for why may we not manifest to you his father we judge it needless to require an account of these things Afterwards in the close of the Epistle they adjoyn these words Having therefore excommunicated this contumacious Enemie of God we were necessitated to ordain another Bishop in his stead over the Catholick Church as we are perswaded not without the providence of God to wit Domnus the son of Demetrianus of blessed Memory who before him was the eminent Governour of that See a man adorned with all accomplishments requisite to a Bishop Which we have therefore signified to you that you may write to him and receive from him Communicatory â—etters but as for this Paul let him write to Artemas if he pleases and let the followers of Artemas hold Communion with him And let these things be here by us inserted * Paul therefore having been devested of his Bishoprick and being also fallen from the orthodox Faith Domnus as is aforesaid succeeded in the Government of the Church of Antioch But Paul being by no means willing to quit the Possession of the Church an address was made to Aurelianus the Emperour who most justly determined concerning this business giving command that the Pallace should be resigned to whom the Bishops of the Christian Religion in Italy and Rome should assign it by their Letters Thus therefore the aforementioned Paul was with the greatest disgrace thrust out of the Church by the secular power Thus indeed was Aurelian affected towards us at that time But in the following part of his Empire his mind towards us being altered he was induced by the advice of some men to raise a Persecution against us Much discourse there was every where concerning it but the divine vengeance assaulted him being now ready and as I may say almost subscribing the Edicts against us repressing his design and binding him as it were by the armes making it evidently apparent to all men that the readiness of the Princes of this world to persecute us can never prevail against the Churches of Christ unless the invincible hand of God in his divine and celestial judgment permits it to be done for our chastisement and amendment at those times in which he judgeth it most seasonable Moreover Probus succeeds Aurelian having Reigned six years And after he had held the Empire the like number of years Carus together with his Sons Carinus and Numerianus succeed him Again these having not lived three full yeares the Empire falls to Diocletian and those who were adopted with him In whose times the Persecution against us was accomplished and at the same time with it was the demolishing of the Churches but a little before this died Dionysius after he had governed the See of Rome nine years and Felix succeeded him CHAP. XXXI Concerning the heterodox and corrupt opinion of the Manichees which sprang up at this time AT the same time that mad-man truly called Manes who gave denomination to that furious Heresie was armed with madness Satan himself that Adversary of God having produced him for the destruction of many men This person was barbarous in his whole course of life in his very discourse and manners he was as to his disposition devilish and mad he undertook what was agreeable hereto and attempted to feign himself to be Christ. Sometimes he declared himself to be the Paraclete and the very holy Spirit being also besides his madness puft up with pride at other times as if he were Christ he elected twelve disciples to be Colleagues of his new-formed opinion Moreover when he had patched up a Collection of false and Atheistical opinions gathered out of various Heresies which were long since extinct he poured them like some deadly poison out of Persia into our Countrey Hence came that impious name of the Manichees which at this time abounds in many places such therefore was the original of this forged doctrine which sprang up in the times before mentioned CHAP. XXXII Concerning those Ecclesiastick men who were famous even in our Age and which of them lived till the demolishing of the Churches AT this time Eutychianus succeeded Felix who had been Bishop of the Church of Rome five years And he having not lived full ten months leaves the dignity to Caius who lived in our Age when he had presided there about fifteen years Marcellinus was ordained his successour whom the Persecution overtook At this time Timaeus succeeded Domnus in the Government of the Church of Antioch After him Cyril succeeded in our memory In his time we knew one Dorotheus who then had the dignity of Presbyter in the Church of Antioch a very learned man he was very studious in the sacred Scriptures and used so great sedulity in attaining the Hebrew tongue that he could read the Scriptures in Hebrew with great skillfullness he was a person that had been excellently well educated and was not unexperienced in the Grecian Literature but he was by nature an Eunuch having been so from his very birth The Emperour for this reason it being for example a thing which was wonderful took him into his favour and advanced him to the Office of overseeing the Purple Dy-house at Tyre we have heard this person expound the holy Scriptures in the Church indifferently well But after Cyrillus Tyrannus succeeded in the Bishoprick of the Church of Antioch in whose time the destroying of the Churches was very violent After Socrates Eusebius Governed the See of Laodicea who was born at the City of Alexandria the cause of his removal out of his own Countrey was the controversie about Paul Upon which account coming into Syria he was detained from returning home by those persons who in that place diligently busied themselves about celestial matters he was in our memory
most certain demonstrations by which they endeavour to make it evident that the feast of the Passover and that of unleavened bread must always be celebrated after the Aequinox But I omit the requiring such abundance of demonstrations from them off whom the Veil of the Mosaisck Law is taken and by whom the face being now uncovered may be seen as in a glass for the future both Christ himself Christ's doctrines and his sufferings Now that the first moneth amongst the Hebrews does begin about the Aequinox the precepts in the Book of Enoch are sufficient evidences The same Anatolius has left us Institutions of Arithmetick in ten entire books as also several other evidences of his diligence about and great experience in the holy Scriptures Theotecnus Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine first ordained him Bishop by imposition of hands providing him to be his successour in his own Church And indeed for some small time they both presided over that Church together But the Synod against Paul being convened at Antioch he going through the City of Laodicea towards that Synod was there detained by the brethren Eusebius being then dead After the death of Anatolius Stephen is ordained Bishop of that Church being the last before the Persecution He was indeed admired by many for his eloquence Philosophy and his other Grecian learning but he was not so well affected towards the true faith of Christ as the time of the following Persecution afterwards demonstrated which manifestly declared him to be a dissembler fearful and cowardous rather then a true Philosopher but after this the affairs of that Church did not forthwith run to decay For Theodotus Ordained Bishop of that Church by God himself the preserver of all things immediately restored all things to their former splendour He was a person who in deeds verified his own name and made a true representation of the Episcopal Office he was of all men the most eminent for his skill in Physick and in curing of the body And there was no man his equal for healing of souls for humanity sincerity of mind commiseration and diligence in helping those who wanted his assistance he was also incomparably well exercised in divine learning Such a person was this Theodotus Agapius succeedeth Theotecnus who had governed the Bishoprick of Caesarea in Palestine with great care Who we know was very laborious and most sincerely sollicitous for the good of the people over whom he presided and with a liberal hand relieved all most especially the indigent In this man's times we knew Pamphilus a most Eloquent man and a true Philosopher in the practises of his life honoured with a Presbytership of that Church To declare what a person this man was and whence descended would be a copious subject But all things relating to his life the School he founded the conflicts which during the time of Persecution he underwent in several confessions and lastly the crown of Martyrdom with which he was encircled we have fully declared in a peculiar work Indeed this Pamphilus was the most admirable person of all that lived here Amongst those men who lived nearest to our times we knew these to be most eminent Pierius one of the Presbyters of Alexandria And Meletius Bishop of the Churches in Pontus Pierius was egregiously esteemed for his voluntary poverty and his Philosophick literature he was also a man singularly exercised in Contemplations upon the Scriptures expositions and publick discourses in the Church and Meletius whom the learned called the Honey of Attica was such a man as one would describe to be most accomplished with all sorts of learning The powerfulness of his eloquence cannot worthily be admired But should any one say that he had this faculty by nature we answer who could excell him in his knowledge in many other Arts and Sciences and in his various sorts of literature Certainly should any person have made tryal of him he would have affirmed that he was a man most acute in all Sciences which have a dependence on reason and also most eloquent The virtue and piety of his life was also correspondent to these his accomplishments In the time of the persecution we knew this man when he absconded for the space of seven years compleat in the regions of Palestine After Hymenaeus Bishop of Jerusalem a little before mentioned Zambdas entred upon the Government of that Church who dying not long after Hermon the last of the Bishops before the Persecution in our Age succeeded in the Apostolick Chair which is preserved there even to this day Theonas succeedeth Maximus in the Bishoprick of Alexandria who had been Bishop there eighteen years since Dionysius's death In his days Achillas who at the same time with Pierius was honoured with a Presbytership was very famous at Alexandria who was entrusted with the care of the Catechetick School He in his actions exhibited a most excellent example inferiour to none of a more sublime Philosophy and a genuine pattern of an Evangelick converse After Theonas had born the Episcopal Office nineteen years Peter succeeded in the Episcopate of Alexandria He also was esteemed a person very eminent in his function which he bore twelve years compleat Having presided over the Church almost three of those twelve years before the Persecution he past the rest of his time in a more strict and ascetick course of life but continued to be apparently solicitous for the publick utility of the Churches Upon which account being beheaded in the ninth year of the Persecution he was adorned with a crown of Martyrdom But having here terminated the History of the succession of Bishops from our Saviour's Nativity to the demolishing of the Churches which History comprehendeth the space of three hundred and five years in the subsequent Books we will record the conflicts of those who in our Age couragiously fought for Religion how many and how great they were and leave them for the information of succeeding Ages THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE Ecclesiastical History OF EUSEBIUS PAMPHILUS The PREFACE HAving comprized the successions of the Apostles in Seven entire Books in this Eighth we have thought it requisite to set forth the Affaires of our own Age which deserve no trivial description being a matter most necessary to be derived down to the knowledge of posterity And our relation shall take its beginning from hence CHAP. I. Concerning those things which preceded the Persecution in our days HOW great and what manner of glory and freedom the doctrine concerning the adoration of the supream God declared unto mankind by Christ was dignified with amongst all men Graecians as well as Barbarians before the persecution in our times 't is beyond our abilities deservedly to declare but the favours of the Emperours towards those of our Religion may be an evidence hereof whom they entrusted with the Governments of Provinces freeing them from their fears of sacrificing out
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
have before manifested And having spent the remaining part of their time in a private and retired condition they concluded their lives after this manner The one who in respect of his Age and Honour took place of all the rest was consumed by a lasting and most painfull distemper of body the other who was the next to him in honour put an end to his life by hanging of himself undergoing this punishment which was agreeable to a certain Diabolical Prediction concerning him upon account of those many villanies he had most audaciously perpetrated Of the remaining two the last who as we have said was the Authour of the whole Persecution underwent those miseries which we have related before But he who in dignity preceded this man I mean that most favourable and mercifull Emperour Constantius who during the whole time of his Government behaved himself in such sort as befitted an Emperour who both in other matters represented himself to be most courteous and beneficent and also was unconcerned in the persecution raised against us who preserved the worshippers of God living under his Government from all manner of injuries and molestations who neither demolished the edifices of the Churches nor attempted any other new design against us this Emperour Constantius I say obtained a fortunate and truly thrice happy conclusion of his life being the onely person that ended his life peaceably and gloriously during his swaying the Imperial Scepter and left his own Son in all respects a most sober and pious Prince his successour in the Empire He being from the very beginning forthwith proclaimed supream Emperour and Augustus by the Souldiers declared himself to be an emulatour of his Fathers reverend regard towards our Religion Such was the conclusion of their lives which happened to the forementioned four Emperours at different times Moreover of them he onely whom we mentioned a little before made the foresaid confession and together with those who were afterwards taken in to be Colleagues with him in the Empire made it publickly known to all men by an Edict proposed in writing EUSEBIUS PAMPHILUS'S BOOK Concerning the MARTYRS of PALESTINE In one Copy we also found these following Chapters at the End of the Eighth Book IT was the Ninteenth year of Diocletians Empire the moneth Xanthicus which the Romans call April Flavianus being Governour of the Province of Palestine in which year to wit when the Feast of the Salutary Passion was near at hand the Edicts on a sudden were every where set forth commanding the Churches to be pulled down to the ground and the Scriptures to be consumed with fire and ordering that such as were promoted to honours should be degraded and that the ordinary sort of people if they persisted in a resolution of retaining the profession of Christianity should be deprived of their liberty Such was the vehemency of the first Edict against us But not long after other Rescripts were brought wherein order was given that all Prelates of the Churches every where should first be put in bonds and afterwards compelled by all ways imaginable to offer sacrifice CHAP. I. Concerning Procopius Alphaeus and Zacchaeus Martyrs PRocopius therefore the first of the Martyrs of Palestine before he had experienced a confinement in prison was immediately upon his very first Arrival brought before the Presidents Seat of Judicature and being commanded to offer sacrifice to those by the Gentiles stiled Gods he said that he knew but one onely God to whom sacrifice was to be offered according to that manner which he himself had appointed But when he was bidden to sacrifice to the four Emperours having uttered a sentence which was in no wise pleasing to them that which he said was these words of the Poet Homer It is not good to have many Lords let there be one Lord one King he was forthwith beheaded on the eighth day of the moneth Desius that is as the Romans stile it before the seventh of the Ides of June on the fourth day of the week This was the first Martyrdom that was consummated at Caesarea in Palestine but after him very many Prelates of Churches in that Province having at the same City chearfully undergone most grievous tortures exhibited to the Spectatours a relation of illustrious Combats But others dis-spirited by reason of their fear were immediately discouraged at the very first attaque made against them Every one of the rest underwent various and interchangeable sorts of tortures one was scourged with innumerable stripes another was racked had the flesh of his sides scraped off with iron nails and was loaded with an insupportable burthen of bonds by reason of which some happened to have the sinews of their hands weakened and made feeble Nevertheless they all endured whatever befell them agreeable to the secret judgment of God For one being taken by the hand by some others who led him to the Altar and thrust the impure and detestable sacrifice into his right hand was dismissed as if he had sacrificed Another who had not in any wise touched the sacrifice yet when others affirmed that he had sacrificed went silently away A third taken up half dead was cast forth as if he had been so really and being loosed from his bonds was computed amongst their number who had offered sacrifice A fourth crying out and making protestation that he would not perform what he was enjoyned by them to do was stricken on the mouth and being silenced by a great company of persons purposely appointed upon that account was forcibly thrust out although he had not sacrificed So highly did they every way esteem their being thought to have perfected what they desired Of all these therefore who were so numerous onely Alphaeus and Zacchaeus obtained the crown of holy Martyrdom Who after they were scourged and had had their flesh scraped off with torturing irons when they had endured most grievous bonds and cruciating pains therein after various other tortures they were put into the stocks where for four and twenty hours space their feet were distended to the fourth hole and having confest that there was but one only God and one King Jesus Christ as if they had uttered something that was blasphemous and impious they underwent the same sort of punishment with the first Martyr Procopius and were beheaded on the seventeenth day of the month Dius which day amongst the Romans is before the fifteenth of the Calends of December CHAP. II. Concerning Romanus the Martyr MOreover what was done about Romanus on the very same day at Antioch does worthily deserve to be commemorated for he being born in Palestine was a Deacon and Exorcist in the Church of Caesarea coming to Antioch at that very time when the Churches were demolished and having seen many men women and children flocking in crouds to the Temples of the Idolls and offering
published in every City and in all other places CHAP. VI. Concerning them that suffered Martyrdom in those Times BUt not long after this Captain was his own Executioner suffering a condign punishment for his malicious wickedness And now banishments and most horrid Persecutions were a fresh raised against us the Presidents in every Province renewing their cruel insurrections against us in so much that some of the most eminent asserters of the divine faith were apprehended and without any commiseration had the sentence of death pronounc't against them Three of them having professed themselves Christians were cast to the wild beasts and devoured by them at Emesa a City of Phoenicia amongst them there was a Bishop one Silvanus a very old man who had born that Office forty years compleat At the same time also Peter that most eminent Prelate of the Alexandrian Church the chiefest ornament and glory of the Bishops both for his virtuous life and his study and knowledge in the sacred Scriptures being apprehended for no crime at all was beheaded contrary to every bodies expectation by Maximins order on a sudden and without any specious pretence Likewise many other Aegyptian Bishops suffered the same death that he did Lucianus also Presbyter of the Church at Antioch a very pious man much famed for his continency and his knowledge in the sacred Scriptures was brought to the City of Nicomedia where the Emperour then kept his Court and after he had made his Apology in defence of that Doctrine which he asserted before the President he was committed to prison and murthered In fine Maximin that professed Enemy of all virtue did in a short time load us with such burthens of afflictions that this latter storm of Persecution raised by him seemed to us far more grievous then the former CHAP. VII Concerning the Edict against us which was ingraven on Brazen plates and hung up on the Pillars MOreover in the midst of every City which was never seen before the Decrees of Cities and also the Imperial Edicts against us were ingraven on Brazen plates and proposed to open view And the boyes in the Schooles had nothing in their mouths all day long but Jesus and Pilate and the Acts which were forged to disgrace us I judge it pertinent to insert here this very Rescript of Maximin's which was ingraven on plates of Brass both that the proud and arrogant insolency of this mans hatred towards God may be manifested and also that it may hence be made apparent that divine justice which hates the impious and keeps a continual watch against them did within a very short time pursue and overtake him by which Divine justice he was inforced to alter his sentiments soon after concerning us and to confirm them by his Edicts in writing But these are the Contents of his Rescript A COPY OF THE TRANSLATION OF MAXIMIN'S RESCRIPT IN ANSWER TO THE DECREES OF THE CITIES AGAINST US TRANSCRIBED FROM A BRAZEN PLATE AT TYRE Now at length the infirm Confidence of mans mind having shaken off and dispersed the cloud and mist of errour which heretofore invested the senses of men not so much wicked as wretched being involved in the fatal night of ignorance may discern that it is undoubtedly governed and strengthened by the indulgent providence of the immortal Gods It is incredible to express how gratefull how pleasing and acceptable a thing it was to us that you gave such a proof of your Pious resolution towards the Gods Indeed before this time no person was insensible of the observancy and religious worship you shewed towards the immortal Gods for your faith is made known to them not in bare and empty words but by uninterrupted and miraculous eminent Acts upon which account your City may deservedly be stiled the Seat and Mansion of the immortal Gods For it is manifestly evident by many instances that She flourisheth by the Arrival and presence of the celestial Deities in Her But lo Now your City careless of all its own particular concerns and having no regard to the Petitions which in times past it did usually make to us for the welfare of its affairs when it was sensible that the Promoters of that accursed vanity did begin to creep again and perceived that like fire which is carelessely left and raked up it brake forth into violent flames the brands thereof being rekindled immediately without the least delay made its address to our piety as to the Metropolis of all Religion petitioning for a redress and an assistance 'T is evident that the Gods have instilled into your minds this wholesome advice upon account of your constant and faithful perseverance in your Religion For the most High and Mighty Jupiter who presides over your most famous City and preserveth your Country Gods your wives and children your families and houses from all manner of destruction and ruine hath breathed into your minds this salutary resolution whence he hath evidenced and plainly demonstrated what an excellent noble and comfortable thing it is to adore him and to approach the sacred Ceremonies of the immortal Gods with a due observancy and veneration For what man can there be found so foolish and so void of all reason who perceives not that it comes to pass by the favourable care of the Gods towards us that neither the Earth does deny to restore the seeds committed to it frustrating the hopes of the husbandmen with vain expectations or that the aspect of impious War is not immoveably fixed on the earth or that mens bodies are not hurried away to the grave being tainted by an infection in the temperature of the Air or that the Sea tossed with the blasts of tempestuous winds does not swell and overflow or that storms breaking forth on a sudden and unexpectedly do not raise a destructive tempest or lastly that the Earth the nurse and mother of all things shaken by an horrid trembling arising from its own internal caverns does not raise vast hills out of its own bowels or that the mountains which lie upon it are not swallowed up by its unexpected scissures and rents There is no man but knowes that all these calamities yea far more horrid than these have happened heretofore And all these evills fell upon us because of that pernitious errour and most vain folly of those wicked men at such time as it abounded in their souls and burthened the whole earth almost with shame and confusion After the interposition of some words he continues Let men now look into the open fields and see the flourishing corn waving its weighty ears let them view the Medows gloriously bedecked with flowers and grass caused by the seasonable springing showers Let them consider the constitution of the aire how temperate and calm it is again become In future let all men rejoyce for that by your Piety by your sacrifices and Religious worship the fury of that most Potent and strong God Mars
Crown of beauty let us hear her Herself relate how she is taught to dance by Esaias and with pleasant expressions to shout forth thanksgivings to her God and King Let my soul rejoyce in the Lord. For he hath cloathed me with the Garment of salvation and the coat of gladness He hath encircled my head with a diadem like a bridegroom and hath bedecked me like a bride with ornaments And as the earth which multiplieth its flowers and as a garden that causeth its seeds to spring forth so the Lord hath caused righteousness to rise up and joy in the sight of all the Heathen Thus doth she sing and dance But in what expressions the Bridegroom the celestial Word Jesus Christ Himself answereth her hear the Lord speaking Fear not because thou hast been ignominiously treated neither be thou ashamed because thou hast suffered reproach For thou shalt forget thine everlasting shame and thou shalt no longer remember the reproach of thy widowhood the Lord hath called thee not as a woman forsaken and dejected in spirit nor as a woman hated from thy youth thy God hath said For a little while I have forsaken thee but with great compassion I will have pitty upon thee I turned my face from thee when I was a little angry but with everlasting mercy I will have mercy upon thee saith the Lord who hath redeemed thee Arise arise thou who hast drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath For thou hast drunk of and emptied the cup of Destruction the cup of my â—ury and there was none of all thy sons whom thou hast born to comfort thee neither was there any to take thee by the hand Behold I have taken out of thy hand the cup of destruction the cup of my wrath and thou shalt no longer drink it And I will put it into the hands of them who have injured thee and debased thee Arise arise put on strength put on thy glory Shake off the dust and arise sit down loose the chain of thy neck Lift up thine eyes round about and view thy children gathered together Behold they are gathered together and come to thee As I live saith the Lord thou shalt put them all on as an ornament and thou shalt put them about thee as a bride doth her bravery For thy desolate places and those that were wasted and ruinous shall now be too narrow for thy inhabitants And they shall be removed far from thee that devoured thee for thy sons which thou hadst lost shall say in thine ears The place is too straight for me make a place for me that I may dwell And thou shalt say in thine heart who hath begotten me these I am childless and a widow Who hath nourished these for me I was left desolate these where had they been All this Esaias hath predicted These things were in times past recorded in the holy Scriptures concerning us And it was requisite that we should now at length receive the truth of these words really and actually fullfilled In regard therefore the bridegroom the Word hath spoken in this manner to his spouse the sacred and holy Church agreeably hereto hath this Dresser of the Bride with the prayers of you all in common reaching out to her your helping hands by the appointment of God the supream King and by the appearance and presence of Jesus Christ's power raised and erected this desolate Church lying like a dead carcass on the ground and despaired of by all men And having lifted her up after this manner hath made her such an one as he was instructed to do by the delineation of the sacred Scriptures This Fabrick is indeed a stupendious miracle and doth surpass all the degrees of admiration especially to them who are only intent upon the outward appearance of things But the original Examples and Primitive forms hereof the spiritual and truely divine patterns are more admirable then all miracles I mean the reparations of that divine and rational building in our souls Which Structure when the Son of God himself had framed according to his own Image and had freely granted that in all parts it should bear the resemblance of God he bestowed upon it a nature incorruptible incorporeal rational different from all terrene matter and gave it a substance originally and of its self intelligent after he had once thus created it at the beginning out of nothing He made it an holy Spouse and framed it into a most sacred Temple for Himself and his Father This he himself in express words acknowledgeth saying I will dwell in them and walk amongst them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Such indeed is the perfect and purified soul which was so framed at the beginning that it bore the perfect Image of the celestial Word But when through the envie and emulation of the malitious Devil by its own voluntary choice it began to be a follower of its own passions and was inamored with vice God having withdrawn himself out of it being left destitute as it were of a Defender it was easily captivated and remained exposed to their treacheries who for a long time had been enviers of its glory and being now utterly battered down by the Engines and Machines of its invisible Adversaries and spiritual enemies it sunk down into such a total ruine that not one stone of vertue was left standing upon another all the parts of it lay prostrate on the ground as dead utterly deprived of all those notions concerning God which were naturally imprinted on it But this ruinated building which was framed after the Image of God was not laid waste by that wild bore out of the wood which is visible 〈…〉 eyes but by some destructive Devil and by â—â—telligent and spiritual wild beasts Who having put it into a flame by wicked passions as it were with the fiery darts of their malice have burnt with fire the truely divine sanctuary of God and destroyed the tabernacle of his name even to the ground Afterwards they buried it miserable wretch under a vast hoap of earth which they cast up and reduced it to an utter despaire of all manner of safety But its Patron the Divine and salutary Word obeying the love of his most gracious Father shown towards mankind restored it again after it had suffered condign punishment for its sins In the first place therefore having united to himself the minds of the Emperours by means of those most pious Princes he cleansed the whole world from all impious and pernicious men and also from those cruel and barbarous Tyrants hated of God Afterwards he brought to light men very well known to him persons that heretofore had been consecrated Priests to him for ever and were secretly concealed and secur'd by his defence during the storm of Persecution whom agreeable to their deserts he honoured with the magnificent gifts of the spirit by these
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
God begotten not made of the same substance with the Father by whom all things were made that are in heaven and that are in earth Who for us men and for our salvation descended and was incarnate was made man suffered and rose again the third day he ascended into heaven He shall come to judge the quick and the dead We also believe in the Holy Ghost But those who hold that there was a time when he was not or that he was not before he was begotten or that he was made of nothing and those that affirm he is of any other substance or essence or that the Son of God is created or convertible or obnoxious to change all such God's Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church doth anathematize When this form of Faith was appointed by the Bishops we did not inconsiderately omit making an enquiry what their meaning was of those terms of the substance of the Father and of the same substance with the Father Hence therefore arose several Questions and Answers and the true import of those words was with great accuracy examined And it was acknowledged by them that these words To be of the substance did only signifie thus much that the Son is of the Father but not as a part of the Father It seem'd to us altogether reasonable and safe to give our assent to this meaning of this sacred Doctrine which asserteth that the Son is of the Father but is not a part of his substance Wherefore we our selves also gave our assent to this import of those words nor do we reject the terme Homoöusios having peace before our eyes as the marke at which we aime and being cautious lest we should fall from a right apprehension of the Faith For the same reasons also we have admitted of these words begotten not made For made said they is a common term attributed to all other creatures which were made by the Son of whom the Son hath no resemblance Wherefore he is no creature like to those which were created by him but he is of a far more excellent substance then any creature which substance as the sacred Oracles do instruct us is begotten of the Father but by such a manner of Generation as is ineffable and inexpressible by any created Being Thus also this proposition that the Son is of the same substance with the Father was discussed to wit that this is not to be understood according to the manner of bodies nor in a sense agreeable to mortal Creatures For this Consubstantiality cannot be either by Division of the Substance or by Abscision or Mutation of the Paternal Essence and Power For all these things are inconsistent with the uncreated nature of the Father But this proposition to be of the same substance with the Father doth expresly represent to us no more than this viz. that the Son of God hath no community with or resemblance to created Beings but that in every respect he is like to the Father onely who hath begotten him and that he does exist of no other substance or essence but of the Father To this Opinion therefore thus explain'd we thought good to give our assent more especially because we also knew that some of the Ancient Learned and eminent Bishops and Writers have made use of this term Homoöusios in their explications of the Divinity of the Father and of the Son Thus much therefore we have said concerning the Creed published at Nice to which we all agreed not inconsiderately and without examination but according to the senses given which were discussed in the presence of our most pious Emperour and for the forementioned reasons received with an unanimous consent Moreover as concerning the Anathematism published by the Fathers after the Creed we judged it not in the least troublesome in regard it does prohibit the use of terms that occur not in the Scriptures from the use of which terms came almost all the confusion and disturbance that hath been raised in the Church Since therefore no part of the Scripture given by divine inspiration hath made use of these terms to wit of things which exist not and there was a time when he was not it seem'd disagreeable to reason that these assertions should be either mentioned or taught To this good and sound Opinion we also have assented in as much as in former times we have never made use of such expressions These things beloved we thought requisite to send to you that we might most apparently evidence to you the considerateness as well of our examination and researches into all points as of our assent and that you might also know with what good reason we did at first make a resistance even to the last houre as long as some things written in a manner different from what they should have been offended us but at length without further contention we embraced those points which were not offensive when after a candid enquiry into the import of the terms we found them to be agreeable with what we our selves had made confession of in that form of the Creed we at first proposed Thus wrote Eusebius Pamphilus to Cesarea in Palestine Also by the common consent and approbation of the Council this following Synodicall Epistle was written to the Church of Alexandria and to the inhabitants of Aegypt Libya and Pentapolis CHAP. IX The Epistle of the Synod concerning those matters determined by it and how Arius was degraded together with them that embraced his sentiments TO the Holy by the Grace of God and great Church of the Alexandrians and to our beloved brethren the inhabitants of Aegypt Libya and Pentapolis The Bishops Assembled at Nice who fill up that great and holy Synod send Greeting in the Lord. For as much as by the Grace of God and the Summons of the most pious Emperour Constantine who hath call'd us together out of diverse Cities and Provinces a great and holy Synod has been convened at Nice it seem'd altogether necessary that a Letter should be written to you in the name of the sacred Synod whence you might understand what things were there propos'd and what taken into examination as also what were Decreed and established First of all therefore the impiety and iniquity of Arius and his complices was inquired into in the presence of the most pious Emperour Constantine and the Councils determination which was confirmed by the suffrages of all was that his impious Opinion and execrable terms and names should be anathematized which terms and names he blasphemously used affirming that the Son of God had his Being of nothing and that there was a time when he was not as also saying that the Son of God had à freedom of will whereby he was capable either of vertue or vice and calls him a Credture and a Work All these Tenets the holy Synod hath anathematized not enduring so much as patiently to hear this impious opinion or rather madness and these blasphemous expressions But what
consciousness For it is really most absurd for them to make their bragges that we are not capable of our selves without their instruction to observe these things But of what are they able to pass a right judgment who after that parricide of theirs the murther of our Lord were struck with madness and are led not by the conduct of reason but by an ungovernable impetus whithersoever their innate rage shall drive them Hence therefore it is that even in this particular they discern not the Truth but always wandring at the greatest distance from a decent and agreeable amendment they celebrate Easter twice within the space of one and the same year What reason have we therefore to follow these men who it is acknowledged are distempered with an abominable Errour We must never endure the keeping of two Easters in one year But although what we have said were not sufficient yet nevertheless it behooves your prudence to make it your greatest care and the matter of your constant prayers that the purity of your souls should not in the likeness of any thing seem to be joyned or mixed with the usages of most wicked men Besides this is to be considered that it is a most impious thing that there should be any disagreement in a matter of so great concern and in such a solemnity of Religion For our Saviour left us but one day to be celebrated in commemoration of our Redemption that is the day of his most sacred Passion and he also desired that his Catholick Church should be one The members of which Church although they are much dispersed in divers places yet nevertheless are cherished by one spirit that is by the will of God Let the prudence of your sanctity consider how grievous and undecent a thing it is that on the self same daies some should keep strict Fasts and others celebrate Feasts and that on the days after Easter some should be conversant in feastings and a vacantness from labours and others devote themselves to set Fasts Wherefore it pleased divine Providence that these things should be seasonably redressed and reduced to one and the same form as we suppose you are all sensible Since therefore it was expedient to make such an emendation in this point as that we might not seem to hold the least Communion with those Parricides and Murderers of of our Lord the Jews and since this is the most decent and becoming order which all the Churches of the Western Southern and Northern parts of the world and also some in the Eastern parts do observe for these reasons all persons have at present judged it good and expedient and we our selves also promised that it would not be ungratefull to your wisdom that that which with such an universal unanimity is observed in the City of Rome and all over Italy and Africa throughout all Aegypt Spain France Brittain Libya over all Greece and the Provinces of Asia and Pontus and throughout Cilicia would also be most willingly received and embraced by you Let this also be seriously considered that not only the number of the Churches in the forementioned places is far the greater but also that it is most just and equal that all mens wills should universally concur in that which strict reason seems to require and which has no Communion with the perjury of the Jews But that we may speak more summarily and briefly it was by a general consent agreed that the most sacred Festival of Easter should be solemniz'd upon one and the same day For it is undecent that there should be any diversity in so great and holy a solemnity and it is far better to adhere to that Opinion in which there is no mixture of strange and absurd errour and impiety Since therefore these things are thus ordered do you with joy receive this celestial and truly divine Commandment For whatsoever is transacted and determined in the sacred assemblies of the Bishops must be attributed to the Divine will Wherefore when you have imparted to all our beloved brethren what has been prescribed it is your duty to embrace and establish the forementioned rule and observation of the most holy day that when we shall come into the presence of your love which we were long since desirous of we may celebrate the sacred Festival with you on one and the same day and that we may rejoyce together with you for all things beholding the cruelty of the Devil totally removed by the divine power and our endeavours whilst your Faith Peace and Concord does every where flourish God preserve you Beloved Brethren Another Letter to Eusebius VICTOR CONSTANTINUS MAXIMUS AUGUSTUS to Eusebius We really believe and are absolutely perswaded Dearest Brother that in regard an impious desire and tyrannick violence hath persecuted the servants of God our Saviour even to this present time the edifices of all Churches have either by neglect gone to ruine or through fear of the imminent dangerousness of the times have been adorned with less of stateliness But now since Liberty is restored and that Serpent that Persecutor Licinius is by Almighty God's Providence and our instrumental endeavours forced out of the Administration of publick Affairs we suppose that the divine power hath been sufficiently manifested to all men and that all who either through fear or unbelief have fallen into any sins having now acknowledged the only true God will in future return to the true and right course of life Do you therefore remind as well all persons belonging to the Churches over which you preside as also all other Bishops presiding in other places together with the Presbyters and Deacons whom you know that they use their utmost diligence about the structures of the Churches either about repairing those that are still standing or about inlarging others or in building new ones wheresoever it shall be found requisite And you your self and the rest by your mediation may ask necessaries for that work both from our Presidents of the Provinces and also from the Office of the Praetorian Prefecture For they are already impowred by our Rescripts to be diligently observant about all your Holinesses Orders God preserve you Beloved Brother Thus wrote the Emperour to the Bishops throughout every particular Province concerning the building of the Churches But what he wrote to Eusebius of Palestine about providing some Copies of the sacred Scriptures we may easily collect from these his Letters VICTOR CONSTANTINUS MAXIMUS AUGUSTUS to Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea By the assistance of God our Saviours Providence so great a multitude of men have joyned themselves to the most Holy Church in that City which bears our Name that Christianity seems to have made its greatest progress and increase there It seems therefore very requisite that there should be more Churches erected in that City Wherefore do you with the greatest alacrity admit of what we have Decreed We thought fit to signifie this to your prudence
that you should order fifty Copies of the sacred Scriptures the provision and use whereof you know to be most necessary for the instruction of the Church to be written on well prepared parchment by artificial Transcribers of Books most skilfull in the Art of accurate and fair Writing which Copies must be very legible and easily portable in order to their being used Moreover Letters are dispatch't away from our clemency to the Rationalist of the Dioecesis to take care for provision of all things necessary towards the preparing of the said Copies Let it therefore be the imployment of your care to see that the foresaid Copies be provided as soon as may be You are also impowr'd by this our letter to make use of two publick carriages for their conveyance For by this meanes those which are fairest Transcribed may be easiest convey'd even to our sight to wit if one of the Deacons of your Church be imployed in the performances hereof Who when he comes to us shall experience our liberality God preserve you Dear Brother Another Letter to Macarius VICTOR CONSTANTINUS MAXIMUS AUGUSTUS to Macarius Bishop of Jerusalem So great is our Saviours love and favour that no Rhetorick seems sufficient to set forth a declaration of the present miracle For that the Monument of his most holy passion long since hid underneath the earth should lie conceal'd for so many years space till such time as by the slaughter of the common Enemy it should gloriously appear to his servants now set at liberty is a matter which does really surmount all admiration For if all those persons that throughout the whole world are accounted wise should be convened in one and the same place with a design to speak something according to the worthiness of this matter they would not be able after their utmost endeavours to attain to an explication of the least part thereof For the authority and greatness of this miracle doth as far transcend every nature capable of humane reason as things that are celestial do exceed those that are humane Wherefore this is always our chief and only aim that as the authority of the truth doth daily demonstrate it self by new miracles so the minds of us all should with all modesty and unanimous alacrity become more careful and diligent about an observation of the divine Law Which in regard we judge to be manifestly apparent to all men our desire is you should most especially be perswaded of this that it is altogether our chiefest care that that sacred place which by Gods command we have unburthened of that most detestable accession of the Idol as it were of a ponderous and heavy weight which place was by Gods determination made holy from the beginning but was afterwards demonstrated to be more holy out of which he hath brought to light the certainty of our Saviour's passion should be beautified and adorned with magnificent and stately structures Wherefore it does well become your prudence so to order the matter and to make such a provision of materials necessary for this work that not only the Temple it self may in stateliness excel all others in what place soever but also that the other parts of it be made such as that all the beautifullest structures in every City may be acknowledged far inferiour to this fabrick And as concerning the workmanship and exquisite beauty of the walls we would have you know that we have committed the care thereof to our friend Dracilianus Deputy to the most excellent the Prefects of the Praetorium and to the President of the Province For our piety has taken order that artificers and workmen and whatever else they may be informed from your Prudence to be necessary for the structure shall by their care be forthwith sent But concerning the Pillars or Marbles and whatever you your self on sight of the Model of the building shall judge to be more rich and useful make it your business to inform us by writing that when we shall understand from your Letter how many and what manner of materials you stand in need of they may be convey'd to you from all parts For it is but reasonable that that most admirable place of the whole world should be beautifi'd according to its dignity and worth We desire to know of you whether you think good to have the inner roof of the Church arched or made of any other sort of work For if it be arched it may also be guilded with gold It remains therefore that your holiness inform as soon as may be the forementioned Judges how many Workmen and Artificers and what money for expences you shall want And be you careful to return Us a speedy account not only concerning the Marbles and Pillars but also concerning the arched roof if you shall judge that to be the more beautiful work Dearest Brother God preserve you The Emperour wrote several other Epistles in a more florid stile like Orations against Arius and those that embraced his Opinion and caused them to be published in every City in which Epistles he represents Arius to be an infamous person and rebukes him sharply in an Ironical manner Moreover He wrote to the Nicomedians against Eusebius and Theognis wherein he severely reprehends Eusebius's wickedness not only for his Arianism but also because having formerly been a favourer of the Tyrants party he had been a Traitor against Him and his affairs He therefore advises them to elect another Bishop in his stead But I thought it superfluous to insert his Letters concerning these matters here because they are long They that are desirous to inspect them may easily find them out and read them over Thus much concerning these things CHAP. X. That the Emperour summoned to the Synod Acesius also a Bishop of the Novatian Heresie THis great diligence and industry of the Emperour moves me to make mention of another thing wherein his mind is declared and how careful and solicitous he was to procure Peace For consulting the concord and agreement of the Churches He summoned Acesius a Bishop of the Novatian Heresie to appear at the Council When the Synod had drawn up a form of the Creed and subscribed it the Emperour enquir'd of Acesius whether he would also give his assent to these Articles of the Creed and also to the determination about the Festival of Easter He replied O Emperour the Synod has determined no new thing for anciently even from the Churches original and the Apostolick times I have in this same manner received by tradition both this form of Faith and also this time for the observation of the Feast of Easter When therefore the Emperour demanded of him again what then should induce you to be a separatist from the communion of the Church he related what was done under Decius in the time of the Persecution and recited the strictness of that severe Canon 'to wit that those who after Baptism
which is erected upon a vast Pillar of Porphyrie in Constantinople in the Forum call'd from him Constantin's Forum This story I have recorded as it has been related to me but almost all the inhabitants of Constantinople do affirm it to be true Constantine having also received the Nailes with which Christs hands were fastned to the Cross for his mother having found them also in the Sepulchre sent them to him he ordered Bridles and a Helmet to be made of them which he made use of in his Military expeditions Moreover the Emperour gave large supplies of all manner of materials towards the building of the Churches and wrote to Macarius the Bishop to hasten the work The Emperours Mother having finished the New Jerusalem built another Church in no wise inferiour in splendour to the former in the Cave at Bethlehem which was the place of Christs Birth according to the flesh Besides she erected another Church upon the mount from whence he was taken up into heaven And she was so religiously and piously affected towards these things that she would pray in the womens company together with others she also invited those Virgins that were enroll'd in the catalogue of the Churches to an entertainment Where she her self waited and brought the meat to the Tables Besides she was very liberal both to the Churches and also to the indigent In fine having spent her life very piously she dyed about the eightieth year of her age and her body was conveyed to the Imperial City New Rome and deposited amongst the Imperial Monuments CHAP. XVIII How the Emperour Constantine abolished Gentilism and erected many Churches in several places AFter this the Emperour becoming more solicitous about the propagation of Christianity abhorred the superstitions of the Gentiles and first He abolished the combats of the Gladiators afterwards he placed his own Statues in the Temples The Heathens affirming that it was Serapis that caused the inundations of Nile whereby the fields of Egypt were watered because there was a Cubit usually carried into his Temple the Emperour ordered Alexander to remove the Cubit into the Church of the Alexandrians hereupon 't was generally reported that because Serapis was disgusted the Nile would not overflow nevertheless there hapned an inundation on the ensuing year and afterwards which also does continue to this day And thus it was really demonstrated that the inundation of the Nile hapned not by the meanes of their superstition but by the decree of Providence About the same time those barbarous nations the Sarmatae and the Goths made inroades into the Roman territories and yet the Emperours forwardness in building of Churches was not in the least interrupted thereby but he made a commodious provision for both those affairs For having put his confidence in the Christian Banner he totally subdued those his enemies in so much that he took off the tribute of Gold which had been customarily paid to the Barbarians by those Emperours who were his predecessours and that was the first time that they being astonished at their prodigious overthrow were perswaded to embrace the Christian Religion by which Constantine had been every where preserv'd Again he erected other Churches one he built at that place called the Oak of Mambre under which the sacred Scriptures tell us that the Angels were entertained by Abraham For the Emperour being inform'd that altars were erected under that Oak and that Pagan sacrifices were there perform'd by his Letter he severely reproved Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea and gave command that the altar should be demolished and an house of prayer erected neer that Oak He also gave order for the building of another Church in Heliopolis a City of Phaenicia for this reason What manner of Law-maker the Citizens of Heliopolis originally had or what person he was as to his morals I cannot certainly tell But his disposition is sufficiently demonstrated from that City For the Law of their country has commanded that the women should be common among them upon which account the children amongst them could not be known whose they were For there was no distinction betwixt the parents and the children Their Virgins they delivered to strangers that arrived amongst them that they might deflower them The Emperour made it his business to abolish this custom which had so long prevailed amongst them For having abrogated the flagitiousness of those unclean usages by a discreet and chast Law he brought them to know and distinguish betwixt families And when he had built Churches he took care that a Bishop should be ordained over them and a sacred Clergy Thus he reform'd the impious usages of the Heliopolites and made them more modest and civil After the like manner also he demolisht the Temple of Venus at Aphaca neer the mount Libanus and abrogated those impudent and obscene Mysteries there celebrated What need I relate how he expelled that Devil who pretended to utter Prophecies out of Cilicia commanding the house in which he lurked to be demolished even to its very foundations Moreover so ardent was the Emperours love for the Christian Religion that being about to ingage in a war with the Persians he provided a tabernacle made of linen painted with divers colours much resembling a Church even as Moses did in the wilderness and this he would have carried about with him that so in the most desert regions he might have an Oratory ready But this war went no further at that time for it hapned to be immediately extinguished through the fear which the Persians had conceiv'd of the Emperour But I think it unseasonable to relate here how diligent the Emperour Constantine was in repairing Cities and how he turned many Villages into Cities as for instance Drepane which bore his mothers name and Constantia in Palestine so called from his Sisters name Constantia For our design is not to recount all the Emperours actions but them only which belong to the Christian Religion and those more particularly which were done about the Churches Wherefore the Emperours famous exploits in regard they are of a subject different from mine and require a peculiar treatise I leave to others that are able to commit to writing such matters Indeed I my self had the Church continued undisturbed by factions and discord had been wholly silent For where the subject affords not matter proper for a narrative the relators words are superfluous and useless But in regard a subtile vain and insignificant craftiness in disputing hath disturbed and at the same time also dissipated and distracted the Apostolick faith of Christianity I supposed it requisite to commit these things to writing that so those affaires which have been transacted in the Churches might not be buried in silence For the knowledge of these things does both procure great praise and commendation amongst most men and also renders him that is well versed therein much more solid and cautious teaching him not to fluctuate or stagger in his sentiments when any vain babblings
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
Light By whom all things in the heavens and in earth visible and invisible were made Who is the Word the Wisedom the Power the Life and the true Light Who in the last daies was for our sakes made man and was born of the holy Virgin He was crucified and died and was buried and rose again from the dead on the third day and ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father He shall come at the end of the world to judge the quick and the dead and shall render to every man according to his works Whose Kingdom being perpetual shall continue unto infinite ages For he sitteth at the right hand of the Father not only in this present world but in that also which is 〈◊〉 come We believe likewise in the holy Ghost that is in the Paraclete Whom Christ having promised to the Apostles after his ascent into heaven he sent him That he might teach them and bring all things to their remembrance By whom also those souls that sincerely believe in him are sanctified But those who assert that the Son existed of things which are not or of another substance and not of God and that there was a time or age when he was not the holy Catholick Church hath determined to be aliens from it In like manner also those that affirm there are three Gods or that Christ is not God before all ages or that he is not Christ or the Son of God or that the same Person is the Father Son and holy Ghost or that the Son is not begotten or that the Father begat not the Son of his own will and pleasure these persons the Holy and Catholick Church Anathematizes For neither is it safe to assert that the Son existed of things which are not in regard this is no where declared concerning him in the divinely inspired Scriptures Nor have we learned that he had his essence from any other pre-existing substance besides the Father but that he was truly and genuinely begotten of the Father only For the divine Word teacheth that there is one unbegotten principle which is without beginning to wit the Father of Christ. Nor must they who without authority of Scripture doe dangerously assert this proposition there was a time when he was not preconceive in their minds then any foregoing interval of time but God only who begat him without time For both times and ages were made by him Nor must it be thought that the Son is without an original or unbegotten as the Father is For no Father or Son can properly be said to be co-inoriginate and counbegotten But we have determined that the Father being alone without an original and incomprehensible hath incomprehensibly and in a manner to all men imperceptible begotten but that the Son was begotten before ages and that he is not unbegotten like the Father but hath a beginning to wit the Father who begat him For the head of Christ is God Nor although we acknowledge three things and persons to wit of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost according to the Scriptures do we therefore make three Gods For we know that there is one only God perfect of himself unbegotten inoriginate and invisible that is the God and Father of the only begotten who of himself only hath his own existence and who only does abundantly and freely give existence to all other things But although we do assert that there is one God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who only is unbegotten we do not therefore deny Christ to be God before ages as the Followers of Paul of Samosata do who affirm that after his incarnation he was by a promotion deified whereas by nature he was a meer man For we know that he although he hath been made subject unto the Father and unto God yet nevertheless was begotten of God and is by nature true and perfect God and was not afterwards made God of man but was for our sakes made man of God and that he hath never ceased to be God Moreover we abominate and anathematize those who falsely stile him the bare and meer word of God and affirm that he has no real existence but hath his Essence in another one while terming him as it were that word called by some The Word outwardly uttered by the mouth at another as it were the mental or internal Word being of opinion that before ages he was not Christ nor the Son of God nor the Mediatour nor the Image of God but that he was made Christ and the Son of God from such time as he took our flesh from the Virgin four hundred years agoe For from that time they assert Christ to have had the beginning of his Kingdom and that it shall have an end after the consummation and the judgment Such manner of persons as these are the followers of Marcellus and Photinus the Ancyro-Galatians who reject the eternal existence and deity of Christ and his endless Kingdom in like manner as do the Jews upon a pretence of seeming to constitute a monarchy For we understand him to be not barely The word of God outwardly uttered by the mouth or his mental or internal Word but the Living God the Word and subsisting of himself and the Son of God and Christ who existed with his Father and was conversant with him before ages not by fore-knowledge only and ministred unto him at the Creation of all things whether visible or invisible but is the Word of God really subsisting and is God of God For it is he to whom the Father said Let us make man in our image after our likeness who in his own Person appeared to the Fathers gave the Law and spake by the Prophets and being at last made man he manifested his Father to all men and reigns unto perpetual ages For Christ hath attained no new dignity but we believe him to have been perfect from the beginning and in all things like unto his Father We also deservedly expel out of the Church those who affirm that the Father Son and holy Ghost are the same Person impiously supposing the three names to mean one and the same Thing and Person because by an incarnation they make the incomprehensible and impassible Father subject to be comprehended and to suffer Of which sort of Hereticks are those termed amongst the Romans Patropassians but amongst us they are called Sabellians For we know that the Father who sent continued in the proper nature of his own immutable Deity but the Son who was sent fulfilled the Oeconomie of his incarnation In like manner we determine those to be persons most impious and strangers to truth who irreligiously assert that Christ was begotten not by the will and pleasure of the Father to wit attributing to God an unwilling and involuntary necessity as if he had begotten the Son by constraint because they have
the Son but shall assert that God himself spake to himself let him be Anathema If any one shall say that it was not the Son who appeared to Abraham but the unbegotten God or part of him let him be Anathema If any one shall say that it was not the Son who as a man wrestled with Jacob but the unbegotten God or part of him let him be Anathema If any one shall understand these words The Lord rained from the Lord not of the Father and of the Son but shall say that God rained from himself let him be Anathema For the Lord the Son rained from the Lord the Father If any one hearing these words The Lord the Father and The Lord the Son shall term both the Father Lord and the Son also Lord and saying The Lord from the Lord shall assert that there are two Gods let him be Anathema For we place not the Son in the same degree with the Father but understand him to be inferiour to the Father For neither did he come down to Sodom without his Fathers will Nor did he rain from himself but from the Lord that is from the Father who hath the supream authority Nor does he sit at his Fathers right hand of himself but he hears the Father saying Sit thou at my right hand let him be Anathema If any one shall affirm that the Father Son and holy Ghost are one Person let him be Anathema If any terming the holy Ghost the Paraclete shall call him the unbegotten God let him be Anathema If any one does say that the Paraclete is no other Person than the Son as the Son himself hath taught us for he has said The Father whom I will ask shall send you another Comforter let him be Anathema If any one shall say that the Spirit is part of the Father and of the Son let him be Anathema If any one shall affirm that the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are three Gods let him be Anathema If any one shall say that the Son of God was made like one of the Creatures by the will of God let him be Anathema If any one shall affirm that the Son was begotten against the will of the Father let him be Anathema For the Father was not forced by a physical necessity nor did he beget the Son as if he were unwilling but as soon as he was willing he has declared that he begat him of himself without time and without passion let him be Anathema If any one shall say that the Son is unborn and without a beginning affirming as it were that there are two Principles without a beginning and unborn and so making two Gods let him be Anathema For the Son is the Head and Beginning of all things But the Head of Christ is God For thus we piously refer all things by the Son to One who is without a beginning the beginning of all things Furthermore we making an accurate explanation of their sentiments who profest the Christian Religion do assert that if any one shall not affirm Christ Jesus to have been the Son of God before ages and to have ministred to the Father at the framing of all things but shall say that he was called the Son and Christ from such time only as he was born of Mary and that he then received the beginning of his Deity let him be Anathema like Paul of Samosata Another Draught of the Creed published at Sirmium in the Latine tongue and rendred into Greek In regard there seemeth to have been some difference concerning the Faith all things were diligently inquired into and discussed at Sirmium in the presence of Valens Ursacius Germinius and the rest It is manifest that there is one God the Father Almighty according as it is declared over the whole world and his one only begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord and God and Saviour begotten of his Father before ages But it must not be asserted that there are two Gods because the Lord himself hath said I go unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Therefore he is God even of all as the Apostle also hath taught Is he the God of the Jews only Is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also Seeing it is one God who shall justifie the Circumcision by Faith Moreover all other things agree nor have they any ambiguity But whereas very many are disturbed about that term which in Latine is called Substantia and in Greek Ousia that is that it may be more accurately understood the word Homoöusion or Homoiöusion these termes ought in no wise to be mentioned nor discoursed of publickly in the Church for this reason and upon this account because there is nothing Recorded concerning them in the Divine Scriptures and in regard these things are above the reach of humane knowledge and mind of man nor can any one declare the Son's Generation according as it is written And who shall declare his Generation For 't is manifest that only the Father knows how he begat the Son and again that the Son only knows how he was begotten of the Father It cannot be doubtful to any man that the Father is greater in honour dignity and divinity and that he is greater in that very name of a Father the Son himself attesting The Father who sent me is greater than I. No man is ignorant that this is Catholick Doctrine that there are two Persons of the Father and of the Son and that the Father is the greater but that the Son is made subject together with all other things which the Father hath subjected to himself That the Father hath no beginning and is invisible immortal and impassible but that the Son was born of the Father God of God Light of Light And that no man knows his Generation as was said before but only the Father That the Son himself our Lord and God took flesh or a body that is was made man according as the Angel Evangelized And according as all the Scriptures do teach and especially the Apostle himself the Teacher of the Gentiles Christ received humanity of the Virgin Mary by which he suffered This is the Principal Head of the whole Faith and its confirmation that the Trinity must be always preserved according as we read in the Gospel Go ye and disciple all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost The number of the Trinity is entire and perfect But the Paraclete the holy Ghost was sent by the Son and he came according to promise that he might Sanctifie and Teach the Apostles and all Believers They attempted to perswade Photinus to give his consent to and subscribe these things even after his deposition promising that they would restore him his Bishoprick in case by altering his mind he would Anathematize
following therefore wherein Taurus and Florentius were Consuls they met at Antioch in Syria over which Church Euzöius presided in which City the Emperour also resided at that time when some few of them resumed a debate of those points which they had determined before saying that the term Homoïos ought to be expunged out of the Creed which had been published both at Ariminum and at Constantinople Nor did they any longer keep their Vizours on but affirmed bare fac'd that the Son was in all respects unlike the Father not only as to his Essence but in relation to his Will also And they openly asserted according as Arius had affirmed that he was made of nothing To this opinion those who at that time were followers of Aëtius's Heresie at Antioch gave their assent Wherefore besides their having the appellation of Arians they were also called Anomoei and Exucontii by those at Antioch who embraced the Homoöusian opinion who notwithstanding were at that time divided amongst themselves upon Meletius's account as has been said before When therefore they were asked by the Homoöusians why they were so audacious as to term the Son to be unlike the Father and to affirm that he exists of nothing whenas in the Creed published by them they had said he was God of God they attempted to elude this objection by such fallacious artifices as these the phrase God of God said they has the same import with those words of the Apostle but all things of God Wherefore the Son is of God he being one of those all things And upon this account in the Editions of the Creed these words According to the Scriptures are added Georgius Bishop of Laodicea was the Authour of this Sophism Who being a person unskilled in such expressions was ignorant after what manner Origen had in former times discussed and interpreted such peculiar phrases of the Apostle But notwithstanding their attempt to cavil after this manner yet in regard of their inability to bear the reproaches and contempt thrown upon them they recited the same Creed which they had before published at Constantinople and so departed every one to his own City Georgius therefore returning to Alexandria continued his Presidency over the Churches there Athanasius as yet absconding and persecuted those in Alexandria who embraced not his Sentiments He was also cruel and severe towards the Populace of that City to most of whom he was very odious At Jerusalem Harrenius was Ordained in Cyrillus his room You must also know that after him Heraclius was Constituted Bishop there who was succeeded by Hilarius But at length Cyrillus returned to Jerusalem and recovered the Presidency over the Church there Moreover at the same time there sprang up another Heresie upon this account CHAP. XLVI Concerning the Apollinaristae and their Heresie AT Laodicea in Syria there were two men of the same name the Father and the Son For each of their names was Apollinaris The father was dignified with a Presbyterate in that Church the son had a Readers place They were both Teachers of Grecian Literature the father taught Grammar the son Rhetorick The father was by birth an Alexandrian and having at first taught at Beryâ—us he removed afterwards to Laodioea where he married and begaâ— his son Apollinaris They both flourished at the same time with Epiphanius the Sophista and being very intimate friends they conversed together with him But Theodotus Bishop of Laodicea fearing that by their continual converse with that person they should be perverted to Gentilism forbad their going to him They regarding the Bishops prohibition very little continued their intimacy with Epiphanius After this Georgius successour to Theodotus endeavoured to reform and wean them from conversing with Epiphanius but being unable to perswade them by any means he punished them both with Excommunication Apollinaris the son lookt upon what was done to be an injury and confiding in the fluentness of his Sophistick faculty of speaking he also framed a new Heresie which flourisheth at this present and bears the name of its Inventour But some do report that they dissented from Georgius not so much upon account of the forementioned reason but because they saw he maintained absurdities sometimes professing the son to be like the father according as it had been determined in the Synod at Seleucia at others inclining to the Arian opinion Laying hold therefore of this specious pretext they made a separation from him But when they saw no body adhered to them they introduce a new Scheme of Religion And at first asserted that humanity was assumed by God the Word in the Oeconomy of his incarnation without the soul. But afterward rectifying their former errour by repentance as it were they added that the soul was indeed assumed but that it had not a mind but that God the Word was in the place of a mind in his assumption of Humanity As to this point only these Hereticks do affirm that they dissent from Catholicks who from them are now called Apollinaristae For they assert that the Trinity is Consubstantial But we shall mention the two Appollinaris's again in due place CHAP. XLVII Concerning the death of the Emperour Constantius MOreover whilst the Emperour Constantius resided at Antioch Julianus Caesar engages with a numerous army of Barbarians in the Gallia's And having obtained a Victory was for that reason greatly beloved by all the Souldiers by whom he is proclaimed Emperour This being told to the Emperour Constantius put him into an agony He was therefore baptized by Euzoïus and undertakes an expedition against Julianus But arriving between Cappadocia and Cilicia he ended his life at Mopsucrenae being seized with an Apoplexy by reason of his too great solicitude in the Consulate of Taurus and Florentius on the third of November This was the first year of the two hundred eighty fifth Olympiad Constantius lived fourty five years and reigned thirty eight He was his Fathers Colleague in the Empire thirteen years after whose death he Governed twenty five which space of years this Book doth contain THE THIRD BOOK OF THE Ecclesiastical History OF SOCRATES SCHOLASTICUS CHAP. I. Concerning Julianus his Extract and Education And how upon his being made Emperour he revolted to Gentilism THE Emperour Constantius ended his life on the confines of Cilicia about the third of November in the Consulate of Taurus and Florentius During the same persons Consulate Julianus arriving from the Western parts about the eleventh of December next ensuing made his entry into Constantinople where he was proclaimed Emperour Now whereas 't is our design to say something concerning the Emperour Julianus a person fam'd for his eloquence let none of those who were his Intimado's expect we should do it in a pompous and majestick stile as if it were necessary that a caracter of so eminent a person should in every particular correspond with his greatness of whom 't is given But the composure of
small time afterwards Johannes was deposed from his Bishoprick as we shall manifest in the procedure of our History CHAP. XV. How after Epiphanius's departure Johannes made an Oration against women and upon that account by the care of the Emperour and Empress a Synod was convened against him at Chalcedon and he is ejected out of his Church FOr after Epiphanius's departure Johannes received information from some persons that the Empress Eudoxia had animated Epiphanius against him And being a person of an hot disposition and of a ready expression without delay he made an Oration in the presence of the people the contents whereof were the discommendation of all women in generall The multitude understands that Oration so as if it had been Aenigmatically spoken against the Empress This Speech is taken in writing by malevolent persons and brought to the knowledge of the Emperours The Empress informed hereof complains to the Emperour of the injury done to herself and tells him that her injury was his She takes care therefore that Theophilus should forthwith convene a Synod against Johannes which was in like manner urged by Severianus for he still retained his grudge against Johannes Within a small intervall of time Theophilus arrived accompanied with many Bishops of severall Cities whom he had summoned together by his Letters For the Emperour had given him this order by his Rescript They flock't together most especially who were displeased with Johannes some upon one account others on another They came also whom Johannes had turned out of their Bishopricks For Johannes had deposed many Bishops in Asia when he went to Ephesus upon account of ordaining Heraclides All of them therefore by agreement met together at Chalcedon a City of Bithynia One Cyrinus was at that time Bishop of Chalcedon by country an Egyptian he prated against Johannes before the Bishops terming him an Impious arrogant and inexorable person With which words the Bishops were mightily pleased But Maruthas Bishop of Mesopotamia against his will trod upon Cyrinus's foot By reason of which bruise he was in very great pain and could not accompany the rest of the Bishops in their passage to Constantinople He therefore continued at Chalcedon but the rest failed over to Constantinople None of the Ecclesiasticks went out to meet Theophilus nor shewed him the usuall respect and honour for he was known to be Johannes's open enemy The Alexandrian Mariners whose Corn-fleet hapned to be there at that time went forth to meet him and received him with acclamations of joy Theophilus refused to go into the Church but took up his lodgings in one of the Emperours houses named Placidiana Thence-forward many accusations were raised against Johannes Nor was there the least mention now made concerning Origen's Books but they betook themselves to other absurd criminations Provision being made before hand after this manner the Bishops met at a place near the City Chalcedon termed the Oake whither they cited Johannes immediately that he might make his defence in reference to the Crimes he stood charged with Together with him they summoned in Serapion his Deacon Tygris the Eunuch a Presbyter and Paulus a Reader For these persons were accused together with Johannes But in regard Johannes made use of an Exception and refused those that summoned him in as being his enemies and appealed to a generall Councill without any delays they cited him in four times And when he refused to appear but gave them always the same answer they condemned and deposed him laying no other crime to his charge but this only that upon his being summoned he would not appear This business being divulged about Evening put the multitude into the greatest tumult immaginable wherefore they watched all night long and would in no wise suffer him to be taken out of the Church but cryed out that cognizance ought to be taken of his case in a greater Synod But the Emperour issued out an Order that he should be forthwith ejected and carried into banishment Johannes understanding this surrendred himself about Noon on the third day after his deposition the people not knowing of it For he was afraid least a disturbance might have been raised upon his account So he was conveyed away and banished CHAP. XVI That the people being tumultuous because of Johannes's banishment Briso the Empresse's Eunuch was sent to bring him back again to Constantinople BUt the people were intollerably tumultuous And as it usually happens in such cases those who had conceived an hatred against him changed it into a compassion and affirmed him to be calumniated whom a little before they desired to see deposed Upon this account therefore they were the most numerous who exclaimed both against the Emperour and the Synod of Bishops But in a more especiall manner they fix't the occasion of this calumny upon Theophilus For his frauds could no longer continue concealed but were discovered both by many other indications and also because he communicated with Dioscorus and those termed the Long Monks soon after Johannes's deposition Moreover at that time Severianus also in a Sermon he Preach't in the Church supposing he had a fair opportunity of reproaching Johannes spake these words Although Johannes had been condemned for nothing else yet his proud and arrogant disposition was crime sufficient justly to have occasioned his deposition For men are forgiven all other sins but God resisteth the proud as the Sacred Scriptures inform us These words provoked the populace to an higher degree of obstinacy and contention Upon which account the Emperour gave order he should be recalled immediately Briso therefore the Empresse's Eunuch being sent found him at Praenetum which is a Mart-Town scituate over against Nicomedia and ordered him to return to Constantinople But in regard Johannes after he was recalled from Exile refused to enter the City before he had been declared innocent by a greater Judicature in the interim therefore he abode in a Village at some distance from the City termed Marianae Upon his making delays and refusing to enter the City the multitude was incensed and forthwith began to cast forth opprobious words against the Emperours For which reason Johannes was forced to return The populace therefore went forth to meet him with expressions of the greatest veneration and honour and bring him directly to the Church entreating him to place himself in the Episcopall Chair and according to his former usage pray for peace upon the people Upon his refusing to do that and saying that that ought to be done by a determination of the Judges and that it was necessary his condemners should acquit him the multitude grew more inflamed they being extreamly desirous to see him sitting in the Episcopall Chair and to hear him Preach again At length the people prevailed to have these things done And Johannes after he had seated himself in the Episcopall Throne according to his usage prayed for peace upon the people and
Lessons he instructed them And truly he himself trusting in the sincerity of his own Faith not only declared but had his thoughts taken up with such matters as these But they were unapt to learn and deaf to all good Documents applauding indeed his sayings with their tongues and Acclamations but in their practises they disregarded them by reason of their unsatiableness CHAP. XXX That He shewed a certain Covetous person the measure of a Grave to the end he might shame him WHerefore one time He took one of those persons about him by the hand and spake these words to him How far Hark ye Do we stretch our Covetous desires Then marking out on the ground the length of a man with a spear which he hapned to have in his hand Although said he you were possest of all the Riches of this world and of the whole Element of the Earth yet you shall carry away nothing more than this space of ground which I have mark't out if even that be allowed you Notwithstanding this Blessed Prince said and did these things yet he reclaimed no person But 't was manifestly evidenced by the very event of affairs that the Emperours Admonitions were rather like Divine Oracles than bare words CHAP. XXXI That he was laught at because of his too great Clemency FUrther whereas there was no fear of any Capital punishment which might restrain ill men from wickedness the Emperour himself being wholly inclined to Clemency and the Governours in each Province wholly neglecting the prosecution and punishment of Crimes this thing exposed the publick Administration of Affairs to no ordinary blame and reprehension whether justly or otherwise every one may judge according as he shall think good Let me be permitted to record the Truth CHAP. XXXII Concerning Constantine's Oration which He wrote to The Convention of the Saints MOreover the Emperour wrote his Orations in the Latine tongue But they were rendred into Greek by the Interpreters whose imployment it was to do this One of these orations done into Greek I will for an instance annex after the close of this present Work to which Speech he himself gave this Title To the Convention of the Saints dedicating that His Discourse to the Church of God which Oration I will subjoyn for this reason least any one should account our Testimony in reference to these matters to be nothing more than Ostentation and Noise CHAP. XXXIII How He heard Eusebius's Panegyrick concerning the Sepulchre of our Saviour in a standing posture BUt that in my judgment is in no wise to be silently overpast which this admirable Prince did even in Our own presence For when we had one time besought him being confident of his singular piety towards God that he would be an Auditor of a Speech of Ours concerning the Sepulchre of our Saviour He gave us Audience with all imaginable willingness And a great company of Hearers standing round within the Imperial Palace it self He himself stood also and together with the rest gave Audience But when We entreated him to rest himself upon his Imperial Throne which was placed hard by he would by no means be perswaded to Sit But with an intent mind weighed what was spoken and by his own Testimony approved the truth of the Theologick Dogmata But when much time had been spent and our Oration was continued to a great length We were desirous to break off But he would not suffer that but entreated us to go on till we had ended our Discourse And when we again Sollicited Him to sit down He on the contrary was urgent in His Refusal sometimes affirming That it was unfit to hearken to Discourses which treated concerning God with ease and remisness at other times saying that this was usefull and advantagious to Him For it was He told us a thing consonant to Piety and Religion to hear Discourses about Divine matters in a standing posture After these things were finished we returned home and betook our selves to our usual Studies and exercises CHAP. XXXIV That He wrote to Eusebius concerning Easter and about the Divine Books BUt He always Sollicitously consulting the good of God's Churches wrote a Letter to us about providing some Copies of the Divinely inspired Oracles as also another Letter concerning the most Holy Feast of Easter For whereas we had dedicated a Book to Him wherein the Mystick account of that Festival was explained in what manner He rewarded and honoured us by His answer any one may perceive by perusing this Letter of His. CHAP. XXXV Constantine's Letter to Eusebius wherein He commends His Oration concerning Easter VICTOR CONSTANTINUS MAXIMUS AUGUSTUS To Eusebius IT is indeed a mighty Attempt and a work superiour to all the power of Oratory to declare the mysteries of Christ agreeably to their dignity and in a due manner to unfold the Reason and Ground of Easter and its Institution and its advantagious and laborious consummation For 't is impossible even to men that are able to understand things Divine to declare those matters according to their dignity Nevertheless I do highly admire your excellent Learning and your Extraordinary diligence and have my self most willingly perused your Book and according to your desire have given order that it should be put into the hands of many persons who sincerely adhere to the observance of the Divine Religion Whereas therefore you understand with how great a delight of mind we receive such Presents as these from Your Prudence take care to please us in future with more frequent Discourses whereto you confess your self to have been by education accustomed But as the saying is we incite you who run to your usuall Studies In as much as this so great an opinion does sufficiently demonstrate that you have not found an unworthy Translatour of Your Writings who can render Your Labours into Latine although 't is impossible that such a Version should express the dignity of Works that are so egregiously eminent God keep You Beloved Brother Such was his Letter in reference to this matter But that which he wrote about providing some Copies of the Scriptures to be read in Churches runs thus CHAP. XXXVI Constantine's Letter to Eusebius concerning the providing some Copies of the Divine Scriptures VICTOR CONSTANTINUS MAXIMUS AUGUSTUS To Eusebius IN That City which bears Our Name by the assistance of God Our Saviour's Providence a vast multitude of men have joyned themselves to the most Holy Church Whereas therefore all things do there receive a very great increase it seems highly requisite that there should be more Churches erected in that City Wherefore do you most willingly receive that which I have determined to do For it seemed fit to signifie to Your Prudence that you should order fifty Copies of the Divine Scriptures the provision and use whereof you know to be chiefly necessary for the instruction of the Church to be
1. His draught of the Creed 279. 1. He is deposed in the Synod of Seleucia 282. 2. He wrote Eusebius Pamphilus's Life 247. 1. Acacius after Gennadius is ordain'd Bishop of Constantinople 433. 1. He is termed Patriarch and Arch Bishop in the Emperour Basiliscus's Constitution 452. 2. Also in the Penitentiary-Libell of the Bishops of Asia 453. 2. what was transacted in his condemnation and deposition 459. 1 2. Acacius Bishop of Melitina declares Nestorius's Blasphemy in the Ephesine Synod 404. 2. Acacius Bishop of Ariarathia 438. 1. Acacius and Strategius Comites 607. 2. Acesius Bishop of the Novatianists 215. 1. Achillas Bishop of Alexandria 211. 1. Achior the Ammonite 10. 1. Acoemeti Monks so called 459. 2. Acts of Pilate See Pilate Adaarmanes General of the Persians is by Chosröes sent with an Army 505. 1. besieges Antioch 505. 2. burns Heraclea and Apamia ibid. is vanquished by Mauricius 512. 1. Adamantius a Jewish Physician 375. 2. Adauctus a Martyr 146. 1. Addaeus and Aetherius Senators punished with death 500. 2. Adrian See Hadrian Adrianus and Eubulus Martyrs at Caesarea in Palestine 169. 1. Aedesius Brother to Appbianus a Martyr at Alexandria 161. 2. Aedesius a Tyrian 231. 2. Aelia that City heretofore term'd Jerusalem 21. 1. 52. 1. Aelius Publius Julius Bishop of Develtum 84. 1. Aemilianus Praefect of Egypt 122. 1 2. Aemllius Frontinus Proconsul of Asia 83. 2. Aesculapius's Temple at Aegae in Cilicia 597. 2. Aëtius an Heretick surnam'd Atheus 270. 2. He is made Deacon by Leontius ibid. Aëtius Arch-Deacon of the Constantinopolitan Church 446. 2. Primicerius of the Notaries 439. 2. Aevum has neither beginning nor end 671. 1. whence so called ibid. Africanus's Opinion concerning the disagreement of the Gospels in reckoning up our Saviour's Genealogy 9. 1 2. concerning the History of Susanna 106. 2. His Books of Chronography or Annals ibid. A most learned man 271. 1. Agabus a Prophet 17. 2. His prediction concerning the famine was compleated under Claudius 19. 2. Agapius Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine 138. 1. Agapius and Thecla Martyrs of Palestine 159. 1 2. Agapius and Dionysius Martyrs at Caesarea in Palestine 159. 2. Agathias the Rhetorician His History 487. 1. Agathobulus two of that name surnam'd the Masters 137. 1 2. Agbarus See Abgarus Agellus Bishop of the Novatianists 279. 1. 309. 1. 334. 2. 335. 1. Agrippa made King of the Jews by Caius 17. 2. He was also called Herod ibid. and 19. 2. He kills James the Brother of our Lord. 19. 2. His death 20. 1 2. Agrippa Son of King Agrippa made King of Judaea by Claudian 25. 2. Agrippa Castor wrote against Basilides 52. 2. Agrippinus Bishop of Alexandria 62. 2. Alamundarus Governour of the Saracens 378. 1. Alamundarus King of the Saracens 483. 2. Refuses to give assistance to the Romans though confederates 512. 1. Is banished by Mauricius into the Island Sioilie 516. 1. Alarichus King of the Goths takes Rome 373. 2. makes Attalus Emperour ibid. Albinus Procurator of Judaea 28. 2. Alcibiades a Martyr of Lyons 75. 1. Alexander the fifth Bishop of Rome after the Apostles 50. 1. Alexander a Native of Phrygia a Martyr at Lyons 73. 1. Alexander a Montanist condemn'd for Robberies 83. 1. Alexander was Coadjutor to Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem 95. 2. and 96. 2. He founded an Ecclesiastick Library 102. 2. He is crown'd with Martyrdom 108. 2. 116. 2. Alexander Bishop of Alexandria 211. 2. Having convened a Synod at Alexandria condemns Arius and his followers 211. 2. sends his Synodick Letter to all the Bishops ibid. His Elogie 220. 2. Alexander Bishop of Antioch 373. 1. Alexander Bishop of Constantinople 242. 2. Alexander a Native of Paphlagonia a Novatianist 276. 1 2. Alexandrian Church its Custome 347. 1. Alexandrians their humour Seditious and heady 429. 2. Allegorical Expositions of Sacred Scripture 24. 1. Alphaeus and Zacchaeus Martyrs of Palestine 154 c. Amachius President of the Province of Phrygia 296. 1. Ambrosius converted to the true faith by Origen 100. 1. invites Origen to write and supplies him with Notaries 103. 1. was a Confessour under the Emperour Maximinus 105. 2. Ambrosius is ordained Bishop of Millain 324. 2. Amida a City of Mesopotamia taken by the Persians 470. 1. Ammia a Prophetess 82. 2. Ammon Zeno Ptolemaeus Ingenuus and Theophilus Martyrs at Alexandria 111. 2. Ammon Father of the Monks of Egypt 316. 2. Ammonarium two women of that name Martyrs at Alexandria 111. 1. Ammonius was a Christian Philosopher 101. 2. His Book concerning the agreement of Moses and Christ. ibid. Ammonius Bishop of Laâ—dicâ—a in Piâ—idiâ— 365. 2. Ammonius Dioscorus Eusebius and Euthymius Monks commonly called The Long Monks 357. 2. they come to Constantinople 359. 2. Ammonius a Monk 319. 1. Ammonius a Poet. 357. 1. He recited his Poem before the Emperour ibid. Amphilochius Bishop of Iconium 334. 1. Anastasian and Garosian Baths at Constantinople whence so termed 309. 1. Anastasius Bishop of Rome 373. 2. Anastasius a presbyter Nestorius's Companion and Confident 402. 2. Anastasius Bishop of Jerusalem after Juvenalis subscribes to Basiliscus's Circular Letters 450. 2. Anastasius is chosen Emperour from being a Silentiarius 464. 2. would suffer no innovation to be made in reference to the constitution of the Church 465. 1. Ejects Euphemius and Macedonius Bishops of Constantinople 465. 2. His name after his death was rased out of the sacred Diptychs or Tables 469. 2. whilst alive he was Anathematized at Jerusalem ibid. He ordered these words to be added to the Hymn termed The Trisagium Who hast been crucified on our account 476. 1. Anastasius succeeds Domninus in the Bishoprick of Antioch 497. 2. His Character 498. 1. His answer to the Emperour Justinian 498. 2. Also his Letter to the Monks of both the Syria's concerning the faith ibid. His Fare-well-Speech to the Antiochians ibid. He is ejected out of his See 502. 2. He is restored 526. 1. Avathematize what it is 387. 2. Anatolius Bishop of Laodicea 136. 1. His Book concerning Easter 137. 1. He is first made Coadjutor by Theotecnus Bishop of Caesarea 137. 2. Anatolius Bishop of Beroea 304. 2. Anatolius Master of the Milice throughout the East builds Anatolius's Porticus at Antioch 415. 2. Anatolius Senator a wicked man is convicted to have sacrificed to Daemons 510. 1. He is cast to the wild Beasts in the Amphitheatre at Constaminople 510. 2. Anazarbus the Metropolis of the Second Cilicia is ruined by an Earthquake 481. 1. Being rebuilt by Justinus Senior it is named Justinopoliâ— ibid. Andreas the Apostle Preaches the Gospel in Scythia 30. 1. Androgyni the Priests of the Nile destroyed by Constantine 614. 2. Anâ—ncletus Bishop of the Roman Church 38. 2. Anicetus Bishop of Rome 54. 2. How highly he honoured Polycarp 89. 1. Annianus the first Bishop of Alexandria 38. 2. Annianus is ordained Bishop of Antioch by the Synod of Seleucia 280. 2. Anniversary or Nativity of the Publick Genius of the City Caesarea 169. 1. Anomoei
passion i. e. Good-friday The Authour of the Alexandrian Chronicle says it came forth on Easter-day which was on the 25 of March but Easter-day could not fall on the 25 of March in the 19 year of Diocletian as Scaliger and Petavius have observed Eusebius in his Chronicon says it came forth in March diebus pasch◠The Greek phrase here imports onely that Easter was near at hand when the Edicts were proposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rufinus renders it dies solennis pascha imminebat the solemn day of Easter was at hand In the year of Christ 303 according to the Dionysian Aera Easter fell on the 18 day of April amongst the Eastern Churches Vales. f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rufinus and Nicephorus supposed the servants of the Christians were hereby meant But that cannot be the meaning of this place For then the Imperial Edict would have been imperfect providing onely for the apprehension of those who were honoured with any degree of preferment and of servants and leaving out the rusticks and ordinary sort of people Besides how can servants be said to be deprived of their liberty Christophorson translates it privatos private persons I think he means the Actores and procuratores who were servants to the richer sort of men Zonaras expounds this place very well thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persons of a private condition Vales. a I suppose he means the plumbatae i. e. instruments of torture made with lead with which they beat the Martyrs on the face and cheek There is frequent mention of this sort of torture in the sufferings of the Martyrs Our Authour had said before that the Martyrs were beaten with the fists of the Souldiers Here therefore he must mean these Plumbatae otherwise what he says is a tautology Vales. a He means the Devil who is said in the Gospel to be the Princo of this world Vales. b His name was Veturius he was Magister Militum the Master of the Camp or Lieutenant-General of the Army Concerning whom Eusebius in his Chronicon at the 17 year of Diocletian says thus Veturius Master of the Camp persecutes the Christian Souldiers the persecution against us being from that time begun by degrees Vales. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It Imports his doing of the Office of a Judge amongst his Souldiers examining the place and order of each of them The same term occurs book 10. chap. 4. where see note ◠* He means the Devil not the Roman General as Christophorson supposed Vales. a This person is called John in the Martyrology of Usuardus Ado Notker and in the old Roman Martyrology at September 7. Vales. b The Edicts and Rescripts of the Emperours were written in paper Therefore Nilus in his 264 Epistle says it was barely called Charta but after it had been subscribed by the Emperour it was called Sacra which appears also from the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon and from Justinians Novells Vales. a Concerning this Peter Dorotheus Gorgonius and the others that were martyred see the Acts of the suffering of Indes and Domna at the 26. of December Vales. b There is an illustrious evidence of this fire which happened at Nicomedia in the first year of the persecution in the 25 chap. of the Emperour Constantine's Oration ad Caetum Sanctorum Vales. c See B. 5. chap. 5. note b. concerning Melitina There was a City and a country called by this name in Armenia the less But I never met with any thing concerning this tyrant who seized the Empire in that region Vales. d He means Eugenius who for some little time tyrannized in Syria Libanius in his Oration to Theodosius pag. 411 and in his Antioch pag. 363. tells the whole story Whereto may be annext a passage of the same Libanius's out of his Oration to Theodosius concerning the Sedition at Antioch pag. 399. There was a Tribune of Seleucia by name Eugenius who had the command of 500 Souldiers These Souldiers were ordered to open the mouth and passage of the Haven When they had laboured day and night without any intermission being much displeased at their task they force their commander Eugenius to take the Empire upon him threatning him with death unless he would give his assent The Tribune being after this manner compelled took the purple off the image of one of the gods and was saluted Emperour He goes forthwith to Antioch which then had no garrison in it supposing that if he could possess himself of that City it would much advance his designs he makes himself master of that place about Sun-setting But his Souldiers agreeable to their usual irregularities destroyed the Country as they marched and stuft themselves with wine and good cheer Which being perceived by the Antiochians they despising the paucity and drunkenness of the Souldiers killed them all with stones and weapons of all sorts the very women giving their assistance and their Leader also as he was going towards the palace so that about the first watch none of them were left alive But the Emperour who ought to have exprest his thankfulness to the Antiochians ordered the princes of the Antiochensian and Seleucensian Order should be slain when as neither of them deserved any punishment Amongst them the Grandfather of Libanius a proper comely old man was killed All this I met with pag. 411 363. Moreover Libanus in Orat. ad Theodosium de seditione tells us the name of this Tribune of the Seleucensian Souldiers was Eugenius and the name of the Emperour was Diocletian whom he calls by his true name Diocles. Thus I have given you the name and History of the Tyrant and the time when this Eugenius made his attempts on the Empire Eusebius here declares to wit when Diocletian was the eighth and Maximian the seventh time Coss. Vales. e This was the third Edict of the Emperours against the Christians By the first it was ordered the Churches should be ruined and the Scriptures burnt and those who were honoured with any preserment if they refused to sacrifice should be deprived of their dignity the meaner sort were to loose their liberty see chap. 2. Another Edict soon followed this that Bishops Priests and Deacons should be imprisoned and by all ways compelled to sacrifice The third Edict comprehended all sorts of Christians as well those of the Laity as the Clergy which Edict was proposed says Eusebius in the chap. 3. of his book concerning the Martyrs of Palestine in the second year of the persecution But this seems rather to have been the fourth Edict for the second and third concerned the Presbyters onely by the second 't was ordered they should be imprisoned and by the third it was enjoyned they should by tortures be compelled to sacrifice Vales. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the reading of the Maz. and Med. M. SS accordingly we have rendered it of those truly admirable champions c. Those champions were termed paradoxi who had gained many victories See
possession of the Churches should be delivered to such persons only as would acknowledge and profess one and the same Deity of the Father Son and Holy Spirit in a subsistency of three persons equal in honour and power In order to a more clear manifestation of those persons that owned this acknowledgment and profession such of them as were in Constantinople and Thracia were by this Imperial Law obliged to hold communion with Nectarius Prelate of the Constantinopolitan See those in the Pontick Dioecesis with Helladius Gregorius and Otreïus c. For these Prelates says Sozomen the Emperour himself approved of after he had seen and spoken with them and also they had an eminent repute for their pious Government of their Churches And the Emperour orders further in his Edict that whosoever dissented from a communion of faith with these Prelates in their several districts he should be expelled out of the Church as a manifest Heretick You see then that the power given to these Prelates here was not properly Patriarchichal but only this that their faith was to be the standard as it were to measure that of others by and a communion with them the Test for admitting persons to or expelling them from Ecclesiastick preferments But though we affirm that the Prelates here mentioned by Socrates were not constituted Patriarchs properly so called yet we see no reason of making an inference from hence as Valesius in his note here does that Patriarchs were not constituted by the Constantinopolitan Fathers For this is plainly repugnant to our Socrates's fore-mentioned words in this chap. viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they constituted Patriarchs having made a distribution or division of the Provinces On which distribution of the Provinces the entire constitution of Patriarchs has its sole dependence For from it arose Dioecesis's over which Patriarchs were set See the Learned D r Beveredge's notes on the 6 th Canon of the Nicene Council pag. 52 and on the second Canon of the Constant. Synod pag. 94. * See Socrates book 2. chap. 26. book 2. chap. 16. note a. a This Funeral Oration in praise of Melitius Bishop of Antioch is now extant amongst the Works of Gregorius Nyssenus Vales. a Athanarichus King of the Goths entred Constantinople in the Consulate of Eucherius and Evagrius on the eleventh of January and died on the twenty fifth of the same month as 't is recorded in Idatius's Fasti and in Marcellinus's Chronicon On the year following which was the year of Christ 382 when Antonius and Syagrius were Consuls the whole Gothick Nation surrendred it self to Theodosius on the 3 d of Octob. as says the same Idatius Vales. * In the Greek he is called Merogaudus here and hereafter †His name in the Greek is Satornilus b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christophorson renders these word thus the forms of the Creed delivered by the Ancients Epiphanius Scholasticus thus the traditions of the Ancients I like neither Version For Socrates means the Books of the Ancient Doctors of the Church and more especially the interpretations of Sacred Scripture put forth by them 'T is certain what he terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expositions here he does a little after call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Books of the Ancients Wherefore I have here chosen to render it Expositions as Musculus does For what Socrates here calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little lower he terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Exposition of the Ancients Vales. c Instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accommodated it must undoubtedly be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flourished Which emendation is confirmed by Epiphanius Scholasticus for thus he renders it De Antiquis Ecclesiae Doctoribus qui ante divisionem floruissent concerning the Ancient Doctors of the Church who flourished before the division Vales. * Insist or rely upon †Or Dispersion d Instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make known their Draught of the Creed I had rather read as Nicephorus does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set forth and deliver in to him in writing a Draught c Vales. c This Draught of the Creed which Eunomius then presented to the Emperour Theodosius I have by me in Manuscript for which I am oblieged to the most famous and Learned Emericus Bigotius In the Bavarian Manuscript and in Livineius's Copy this Draught of the Creed was placed at the latter end of Gregorius Nyssenus's Books against Eunomius as Gretser attests But in the Florentine Copy from which Bigotius transcribed this Creed it was placed before those Books Nor will it be unusefull to insert it here For though it contains Eunomius's whole impiety yet some things occur in it in no wise despicable EUNOMIUS's Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereas God and our Saviour Jesus Christ according to a most just sentence has said that he will confess before God and the Father those which should confess Him before men and that he will deny such as should deny Him and whereas the Apostolick Doctrine does exhort us to be always ready to give an account to every one that asketh it Whereas lastly the Imperial commands do require this Confession with all readiness We confess what our Sentiments are and that We Believe in one only true God according to his own Doctrine not honouring Him with a false voice For He cannot lye But is by nature and Glory truly one God without beginning always and eternally alone Not parted or divided into many as to his Substance according to which he is one nor existing sometimes one at others another no◠receding from what he is nor formed from one Substance into three Persons For he is altogether and wholly one continuing always alone in one and the same manner Having no companion of his Divinity no partaker of his Glory no Consort of his power no Assessour of his Kingdom For he is one and the only Omnipotent God God of Gods King of Kings and Lord of Lords The Highest over all the earth the Highest in the heavens the Highest in the Highest the Heavenly things true in being what he is and always continuing so True in his Works true in his Words The beginning of all Subjection Power Empire Above Conversion and free from change as being incorrupt Not dividing his own Substance in begetting nor being the same begetting and begotten or existing the same Father and Son For he is incorrupt In working in no wise wanting matter or members or natural instruments For he stands in need of nothing WE BELIEVE also in the Son of God the only Begotten God the First begotten of every Creature Christ the true God not unbegotten not before he was named the Son without Generation begotten before every Creature Not uncreated The Beginning of the Waies of God in order to his Works and being the Word in the beginning not without a beginning The living Wisdom the operating Truth the subsisting Power the begotten Life as being the Son of God
than when the Christians were put to flight and murdered in all Cities not by an incursion of Enemies and Barbarians but of their own Fellow-Citizens Vales. †Or The Oracles of the Tripods were made false a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or if you will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which reading we have followed in our Version Portesius also and Morinus understood these words concerning the Pythia or Priestess of Apollo But in the excellent Fuketian Manuscript this whole place is written thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For this reason he Apollo suffered his mournfull long hair to hang down neglected c whereto agrees S r Henry Savils Copy Presently in the same Copies the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in what manner of end these things terminated Vales. †Or Call upon a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Greek Title of this chapter 't is truer written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a youth For Constantine was not then a child when as an Hostage he resided at Diocletian's Court. For he was delivered by his Father Constantius to Diocletian on the year of Christ 291 after Constantius had been made Caesar by Diocletian At which time Constantine was about 15 years old For he dyed on the year of Christ 337 in the 62 year of his age Vales. * Or Deceived in mind by errour b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Fuk. and Savil. Manascripts the reading is truer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 't is the same in the King's Copy Vales. * Or Invented c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He alludes to the point of an instrument to write with Constantine expresses himself with much of Eloquence in saying that those Laws concerning the Persecution of the Christians were written with the bloudy points of Swords So some of the Ancients tell us that Drâ—co's Laws were written with bloud not with ink Vales. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to produce I had rather say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stretch which is an usual expression with Eusebius Vales. * Or That gravity of piety a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So above at book 1. chap. 27 Eusebius speaking of Severus Caesar says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 became a cheap and easie sacrifice of death where see what we have noted concerning that expression For the Translatours perceived nothing here Vales. In the Greek Text of Valesius's Edition the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is left out but it occurs in Robert Stephens b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Fuketian Copy the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A little after in the same Copy and in the Kings Sheets 't is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vales. The reading in Robert Stephens is the same also * Kept or Preserved †Or The rites of their Sanctimony * Or Mixt together * Or Greatest †Or Reach forth ‖ Or Power a He means The Catholick Church which in the next chapter he terms the House of Truth In the sacred Scriptures 't is called The Pillar and Ground of Truth A little after from the Fuketian and Savil. Manuscripts and from the King's Sheets write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which those detestable c. Vales. * Or By a wickedness of demolishment a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Fuketian Copy the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But that is the true reading which I found in the Kings Sheets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which indeed is far more elegant and we have rendred it accordingly Vales. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meaning is Let every one follow what religion he has a mind to By which words Constantine leaves His Subjects an entire Liberty of worshipping the Deity according as every one shall have a mind For the Most Religious Prince earnestly desired indeed that all Mortalls should come to the Faith of Christ but he never compelled any one to that He wish't that the Heathens were freed from their Pristine Errour notwithstanding he prohibited not the Ceremonies and sacrifices of the Temples as he himself attests hereafter at chap. 60. Vales. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Valesius renders it quam nascentibus nobis donasti which thou gavest us when born I understand neither the Emperour's nor Valesius's meaning a Concerning the Originall and Antiquity of the Christian Religion Eusebius writes the same in the beginning of his Ecclesiastick History and in his books de Evangelicâ Demonstratione Vales. * Or Concerning Thy Self * Charge or Administration †Or Way ‖ Or Circuit * Or Station a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to a set time as Christophorson seems to have read And so the reading is in the Fuketian and Savilian Manuscripts Vales. †Or Slides by ‖ Or Usefull advantages b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is so manifold a divinity to wit of the Sun Moon Stars and Elements concerning which he hath spoken above For all these unless they were governed by the Beck and Power of one God would likewise be Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore imports a power subject to no dominion which we commonly term an Independency which is proper to God only Vales. c He means the Gods of the Heathens as I have said above to wit the Sun Moon and the rest of the Elements of the world which Antiquity worshipped for Gods Presently from the Fuketian Copy write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the reading also is in the Kings Sheets Vales. * Or Studies †Or The Discipline is confirmed c. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Fuketian and S r Henry Savils Copy the reading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. who are sincerely studious of Virtue Vales. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is whosoever suffers not himself to be cured or freed from the disease of Idolatry let him impute it to himself in regard the Medicine is ready Christophorson has rendred this place ill thus alteri qui sanari vult non vitio vertat let him not blame another who has a mind to be cured I say nothing concerning Portesius who wanders from the true sense almost every where But Musculus has rendred these words not unhappily Vales. †Or Presides over the Cure ‖ Or The common Inheritance of that good given us Valesius renders it The fellowship a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Kings Copy 't is over written in the same hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 received Both readings may be born with Vales. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the faith of the Truth That is The true Faith For 't is the same as if he should have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Truth of the Faith He expresses himself so again hereafter Vales. c These words are taken out of S t Paul's Epist. to the Colos. chap. 1. v. 13. Further as he here terms Gentilism the power of darkness
had committed any such sin as the sacred Scriptures terms a mortal sin ought not to be admitted to a participation of the sacred Mysteries they were indeed to be exhorted to repentance but ought not to entertain any hopes of remission from the Priests but from God who only is able and has power to forgive sins When Acesius had spoken thus the Emperour repli'd O Acesius set a Ladder and do you alone climb up to heaven This story neither Eusebius Pamphilus nor any other Author has mentioned But I had it from a person that was in no wise a lier one who was very aged and related what he had seen transacted in the Council Whence I conjecture that the same accident besell those who have omitted the mention hereof which happens to many other Writers of History For they usually pass over many things either because they are ill affected towards some or have a desire to gratifie others Thus much concerning Acesius CHAP. XI Concerning Paphnutius the Bishop NOw because we have promised before to make mention of Paphnutius and Spyridon it will be seasonable to speak of them here Paphnutius therefore was Bishop of one of the Cities in the upper Thebaïs he was a person so pious that wonderful miracles were wrought by him In the time of the Persecution one of his eyes had been cut out The Emperour had an high esteem for the man and frequently sent for him to the Pallace and kissed the place of that eye which had been dug out So great a piety and reverence was there in the Emperour Constantine Let this therefore be one thing said by us concerning Paphnutius This other which was done by his advice for the utility and advantage of the Church and the grace and ornament of the Clergy I will now relate The Bishops had a design to introduce a new Law into the Church to wit that those who were in holy Orders I mean the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons should abstain from lying with those wives which they had married during the time they were Laïcks And when a proposition was made to consult hereof Paphnutius rose up in the midst of the assembly of Bishops and cried out with a great deal of earnestness that such an heavy yoak ought not to be imposed upon those persons that were in sacred Orders saying that marriage was honourable and the bed undefil'd so that they ought to be careful least they should rather incommode the Church by their overmuch severity For all men said he cannot bear the practise of so strict and severe a continencie nor is it likely that the chastity of every one of their wives should be preserved The husbands keeping company with his lawful wife he termed chastity It was sufficient said he that they who had entred themselves into the function of the Clergy before they were married should afterwards according to the ancient tradition of the Church abstain from entring into a state of Matrimony but that no person ought to be separated from his wife whom he had heretofore married to wit whilst he was a Laick Thus he spake though he was a man who had not experienced what marriage was and as I may truly aver never knew a woman for from his childhood he had been educated in a place where the strictest exercises of virtue and abstinence were constantly practised and was eminently famous above all men for his singular continencie All the whole assembly of the Clergy were perswaded to yield their assent to what Paphnutius said wherefore they silenc'd all further debate concerning this point and left it to every mans arbitrement whether he would or would not abstain from keeping company with his wife And thus much concerning Paphnutius CHAP. XII Concerning Spyridon Bishop of the Cyprians NOw we come to speak of Spyridon so great a sanctity was in this person whilest yet a Shepherd that he was thought worthy to be made a Pastor of men He had obtained the Bishoprick of a City in Cyprus call'd Trimithuntis but by reason of his singular humility he fed sheep during his being a Bishop There are many things related of this man but I will only record one or two that I may not seem to wander from my subject One time about midnight theeves entred his sheepfold privately and attempted to take away the sheep But God who protected the shepherd preserv'd his sheep also for the theeves were by an invisible power fast bound to the â—oulds The morning being now come he went to his sheep where finding the men bound with their hands behind them he perceiv'd what had happened And after he had prayed he loosed the theeves admonishing and exhorting them earnestly to endeavour the procuring of a livelyhood by honest Labours and not by such unjust rapine He also gave them a Ram and dismist them with this facetious saying least says he you might seem to have watched all night in vain This is one of Spyridons Miracles Another was of this sort He had a daughter a Virgin indued with her fathers piety her name Irene A person well known to her entrusted her with the keeping of an ornament that was of great value The maid that she might with greater safety keep what was deposited with her hid it in the earth and within a short time died Soon after that he who had committed this thing to her care came to demand it Not finding the Virgin he involves her Father in that concern sometimes accusing another while entreating him The old man looking upon the persons loss who had entrusted his daughter as his own misfortune went to his daughters grave and did there begg of God that he would shew him the promised resurrection before the time And his hope was not frustrated For the Virgin immediately revives and appears to her father and having shew'd him the place where she had hid the ornament immediately departed Such persons as these were during the reign of Constantine the Emperour eminent in the Church These things I both heard from several Cyprians and also read them in a book of Rufinus a Presbyter written in Latine out of which I have not only collected what has here been said but also some other things which shall a little after this be declared CHAP. XIII Concerning Eutychianus the Monk I Have also heard of Eutychianus a pious man who flourished at the same time who although he was one of the Novatian Church yet was admired for works of the same nature with those we have mentioned I will sincerely confess who it was that gave me this account of him nor will I conceal it though I am sensible some will be offended with me for it One Auxanon a Presbyter of the Novatian Church was a person of a very great age this man when he was very young went to the Council of Nice with Acesius from him I receiv'd what I have said before concerning Acesius He liv'd from those times to