Church History

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1.1–1.3.20 · 1.4.1–1.9.4 · 1.10.1–2.4.3 · 2.5.1–2.16.2 · 2.17.1–2.24.1 · 2.25.1–3.7.9 · 3.8.1–3.24.18 · 3.25.1–3.38.5 · 3.39.1–4.12.1 · 4.13.1–4.17.13 · 4.18.1–5.0.4 · 5.1.1–5.2.8 · 5.3.1–5.15.1 · 5.16.1–5.23.4 · 5.24.1–6.4.3 · 6.5.1–6.18.4 · 6.19.1–6.38.1 · 6.39.1–6.46.5 · 7.0.1–7.17.1 · 7.18.1–7.29.2 · 7.30.1–8.1.9 · 8.2.1–8.12.11 · 8.13.1–9.6.4 · 9.7.1–9.9.25 · 9.10.1–10.4.24 · 10.4.25–10.4.72 · 10.5.1–10.9.9

1. 1.1.1Eusebius begins to set out the plan of his history: the apostolic successions, the church's leaders and writers, and the heretics who ravaged the flock.
2. 1.1.2He will also record the fate of the Jewish nation, the persecutions and martyrdoms down to his own day, and will begin with Christ himself.
3. 1.1.3Eusebius asks indulgence: he is the first to attempt such a history and has only scattered earlier accounts to guide him.
4. 1.1.4He will gather excerpts from earlier writers and weave them into a narrative, preserving at least the successions of the chief apostles in the notable churches.
5. 1.1.5No church writer has yet written such a history, and he hopes it will be useful.
6. 1.1.6He had summarized these matters in his Chronicle and now gives a full account.
7. 1.1.7The history begins with Christ's divine nature and saving plan.
8. 1.1.8A church history must begin with Christ, from whom Christians take their name.
9. 1.2.1Christ is both God (the head) and man (the feet); beginning with his divinity will show that Christianity is not a novelty.
10. 1.2.2Christ's divine nature is beyond description; only the Father fully knows the Son.
11. 1.2.3Only the Father truly knows the pre-existent Word, the Father's Wisdom, agent of creation and Lord of all, as John 1 proclaims.
12. 1.2.4Moses shows the Father creating through his Word, speaking with him at man's creation: “Let us make man.”
13. 1.2.5The psalmist likewise shows the Father commanding and the Word carrying out creation.
14. 1.2.6The righteous of old, from Abraham to the prophets, recognized and worshipped the Son of God.
15. 1.2.7The Word appeared as a man to Abraham at Mamre, who worshipped him as God and Judge of all the earth.
16. 1.2.8The one who appeared to Abraham cannot be the unchangeable Father, and so must be the pre-existent Word.
17. 1.2.9Moses calls the Word a second Lord at Sodom, and Jacob saw him as God face to face.
18. 1.2.10These appearances were not of angels, for Scripture names angels as angels.
19. 1.2.11Joshua saw the Word as the commander of the Lord's army, leader of angels and the Father's viceroy.
20. 1.2.12Scripture tells how the commander of the Lord's army appeared to Joshua at Jericho.
21. 1.2.13The same words were spoken to Moses at the burning bush, showing it was the same divine Word.
22. 1.2.14Wisdom herself, speaking through Solomon, testifies that she existed before the world and served in creation.
23. 1.2.15Wisdom continues: the Lord created her before the earth and she was with him, rejoicing, as he made the world.
24. 1.2.16So the Word existed before and appeared to some of the ancients.
25. 1.2.17The gospel was not preached to all nations earlier because ancient humanity was not ready for it.
26. 1.2.18After Adam's fall, his descendants, with few exceptions, sank into a savage way of life.
27. 1.2.19Early humanity had no cities, laws, or virtue, but lived savagely, killing one another and even warring against God.
28. 1.2.20God punished them with floods, fires, famines, plagues, and wars to check the sickness of their souls.
29. 1.2.21When wickedness had overwhelmed nearly all, the Word in his love appeared to a few godly men, in human form.
30. 1.2.22Through Moses the Word gave the Hebrew nation symbols such as the sabbath and circumcision, not yet the full mysteries.
31. 1.2.23Once the nations had been tamed, the Word appeared as a man at the start of the Roman Empire, fulfilling the prophecies of his birth, works, death, resurrection, and ascension.
32. 1.2.24Daniel foresaw the Ancient of Days enthroned in judgment.
33. 1.2.25Daniel saw one like a son of man receive an everlasting kingdom.
34. 1.2.26Daniel's vision refers to Christ, the Word, called Son of Man because he became man.
35. 1.2.27He refers readers to his other works for a fuller collection of prophecies about Christ.
36. 1.3.1Next he shows that the names “Jesus” and “Christ” were honoured by the ancient prophets.
37. 1.3.2Moses first gave the title “Christ” (anointed) to the high priest, showing the name's divine honour.
38. 1.3.3Moses also first gave the name “Jesus” (Joshua) to his successor, as a type of Christ.
39. 1.3.4Moses renamed Hoshea “Jesus” (Joshua), because he bore the image of the Saviour who would succeed the Mosaic worship.
40. 1.3.5Moses gave the names “Christ” and “Jesus” to the two greatest men of his day.
41. 1.3.6Later prophets named Christ, foretelling both the plot against him and the calling of the nations.
42. 1.3.7Kings, too, were anointed and so were “christs” in figure of the true Christ.
43. 1.3.8Some prophets were also anointed, so priests, kings, and prophets all point to Christ, the true high priest, king, and prophet.
44. 1.3.9None of the ancient anointed ones had the divine power that Jesus, the true Christ, has shown.
45. 1.3.10No anointed king or priest ever gave his followers his name, received worship, or moved all nations as Christ has.
46. 1.3.11Jesus had no priestly, royal, or prophetic office among the Jews, yet the Father gave him all of these in reality.
47. 1.3.12Jesus, the true Christ, has filled the world with Christians who bear his name and live by his teaching.
48. 1.3.13Christ's anointing was with the divine Spirit, as Isaiah foretold.
49. 1.3.14David's psalm calls Christ God and King, anointed with the oil of gladness.
50. 1.3.15The psalm shows Christ anointed with divine, not material, oil, surpassing all earlier anointed ones.
51. 1.3.16Psalm 110 shows Christ seated at God's right hand, begotten before the morning star, a priest for ever like Melchizedek.
52. 1.3.17Like Melchizedek, whose priesthood came neither by anointing nor descent, Christ is priest by God's oath.
53. 1.3.18Christ was not anointed bodily nor of a priestly tribe, but existed from God before the world and is an eternal priest.
54. 1.3.19That the whole world calls him Christ and worships him as king, prophet, priest, and God proves his divine anointing.
55. 1.3.20Christians honour Christ with their whole souls, even preferring martyrdom to life.
56. 1.4.1Having shown Christ is not new, Eusebius will now show that Christian teaching is not new either.
57. 1.4.2Christians form a new nation, vast and devout, that suddenly appeared and cannot be destroyed.
58. 1.4.3Isaiah foresaw a nation born in one day and a new name for God's servants.
59. 1.4.4Though the name is new, the Christian way of life goes back to the godly men of the earliest times.
60. 1.4.5The ancient Hebrew writings record godly men before and after the flood, and Abraham their forefather.
61. 1.4.6The righteous from Adam to Abraham may rightly be called Christians in fact if not in name.
62. 1.4.7They practised the virtues and faith in one God that the name Christian signifies.
63. 1.4.8The patriarchs, like Christians, did not keep circumcision, sabbath, or food laws, but knew Christ, who appeared to them.
64. 1.4.9Scripture even calls the patriarchs God's “christs” (anointed ones).
65. 1.4.10Christianity is therefore the oldest religion, that of Abraham and the godly men of his time.
66. 1.4.11Abraham was declared righteous by faith before he was circumcised.
67. 1.4.12Christ promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed in him, speaking of those later justified by faith like him.
68. 1.4.13Abraham, justified by faith and serving God by virtue rather than the later law, was the one in whom the nations would be blessed; this is fulfilled in Christians.
69. 1.4.14Only Christians now practise Abraham's kind of religion throughout the world.
70. 1.4.15Christian piety is therefore not new but the first and only true religion.
71. 1.5.1Eusebius now starts the history proper with the incarnation, praying for God's help.
72. 1.5.2Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Augustus's forty-second year, at the time of Quirinius's census.
73. 1.5.3Josephus mentions the census and the revolt of Judas the Galilean, which Luke also records in Acts.
74. 1.5.4Josephus (quoted) reports Quirinius's arrival in Syria to assess property.
75. 1.5.5Josephus (quoted) tells how Judas and Saddok stirred revolt against the census.
76. 1.5.6In the Jewish War Josephus (quoted) says Judas urged the Jews not to pay tribute to Rome.
77. 1.6.1When Herod, a foreigner, became king of the Jews, Jacob's prophecy that the ruler would not depart from Judah until the Christ came was fulfilled.
78. 1.6.2Herod was the first foreigner to rule the Jews; Josephus calls him Idumaean and Arabian, while Africanus reports a humbler origin at Ascalon.
79. 1.6.3Antipater, captured as a boy by Idumaeans, later befriended Hyrcanus; his son was Herod.
80. 1.6.4With Herod, the native succession of rulers ceased, and the one expected by the nations was at hand.
81. 1.6.5Before the exile the Jews had kings, and before the kings, judges.
82. 1.6.6After the exile the high priests ruled until Pompey captured Jerusalem, sent Aristobulus to Rome, and made the Jews tributary.
83. 1.6.7When Hyrcanus was captured by the Parthians, Rome gave the Jewish nation to Herod.
84. 1.6.8Christ came when native rule failed, and the hereditary high priesthood also fell into confusion.
85. 1.6.9Josephus shows that Herod, Archelaus, and the Romans appointed obscure men as high priest.
86. 1.6.10Herod first put the high priest's vestments under his own seal, and his successors did the same.
87. 1.6.11Daniel's seventy weeks foretold the end of the Jewish anointing, fulfilled at Christ's coming.
88. 1.7.1To resolve the apparent conflict between Matthew's and Luke's genealogies, Eusebius cites Africanus's Letter to Aristides.
89. 1.7.2Africanus (quoted) explains that Jewish lineages were reckoned either by nature or by law, as in levirate marriage.
90. 1.7.3Africanus (quoted): the genealogies mention both natural and legal fathers.
91. 1.7.4Africanus (quoted): both Gospels are true, because the lines of Solomon and Nathan were intertwined by levirate and second marriages.
92. 1.7.5Africanus (quoted): Matthew traces Joseph through Matthan and Jacob, Luke through Melchi and Heli.
93. 1.7.6Africanus (quoted) sets out to show how Jacob and Heli could both be Joseph's father.
94. 1.7.7Africanus (quoted): Matthan and Melchi married the same woman in turn, since the law allowed a widowed or divorced woman to remarry.
95. 1.7.8Africanus (quoted): Estha bore Jacob to Matthan and, after his death, Heli to Melchi.
96. 1.7.9Africanus (quoted): Jacob married his dead half-brother Heli's widow; Joseph was Jacob's son by nature and Heli's by law.
97. 1.7.10Africanus (quoted): Matthew gives natural descent (“begot”), Luke legal descent (“son, as was supposed”).
98. 1.7.11Africanus (quoted): the Saviour's relatives report that Antipater, Herod's father, was carried off from Ascalon by Idumaean brigands.
99. 1.7.12Africanus (quoted): Antipater rose to govern Palestine; his son Herod was made king of the Jews by the Roman senate.
100. 1.7.13Africanus (quoted): Herod, ashamed of his birth, burned the Jewish genealogical records.
101. 1.7.14Africanus (quoted): a few families, including the Lord's relatives (the desposyni) from Nazareth and Cochaba, kept private genealogies.
102. 1.7.15Africanus (quoted) concludes that his explanation is the best available and that the Gospel is true.
103. 1.7.16Africanus (quoted) summarizes: Joseph was Jacob's son by nature and Heli's by law.
104. 1.7.17Since the law required marriage within one's tribe, Mary too was of Joseph's tribe.
105. 1.8.1When the magi sought the newborn king, Herod ordered the infants of Bethlehem killed, hoping to kill Jesus.
106. 1.8.2Warned by an angel, Jesus' parents fled with him to Egypt.
107. 1.8.3Divine justice struck Herod at once for his crime against Christ and the infants.
108. 1.8.4Herod's murders of his wife, children, and kin, recorded by Josephus, overshadowed any tragedy.
109. 1.8.5Josephus (quoted) describes how God-sent disease seized Herod.
110. 1.8.6Josephus (quoted) lists Herod's fever, craving, ulcers, and swollen feet.
111. 1.8.7Josephus (quoted) describes Herod's gangrene, worms, gasping, and convulsions.
112. 1.8.8Josephus (quoted): diviners said God was punishing Herod's impiety.
113. 1.8.9In the Jewish War, Josephus (quoted) describes Herod's diseases, which diviners called punishment.
114. 1.8.10Josephus (quoted): Herod still hoped to recover and tried the hot springs at Callirrhoe.
115. 1.8.11Josephus (quoted): nearly dying in a bath of oil, Herod despaired and distributed money to his soldiers and friends.
116. 1.8.12Josephus (quoted): at Jericho Herod had the leading men of Judea locked in the hippodrome.
117. 1.8.13Josephus (quoted): Herod ordered the prisoners killed at his death so that Judea would mourn.
118. 1.8.14Josephus (quoted): in agony, Herod tried to stab himself.
119. 1.8.15Just before his death, Herod had a third son executed, then died in great pain.
120. 1.8.16Herod's death was just punishment; afterwards an angel sent Joseph back, and he settled in Galilee to avoid Archelaus.
121. 1.9.1Josephus confirms Archelaus's succession and deposition after ten years, and the tetrarchies of Philip, Herod, and Lysanias.
122. 1.9.2Josephus says Pilate governed Judea from Tiberius's twelfth year for about ten years.
123. 1.9.3This chronology exposes the recent forged “Memoirs” of Pilate against Christ.
124. 1.9.4The forgeries date the Passion before Pilate had even arrived in Judea.
125. 1.10.1In Tiberius's fifteenth year Jesus, about thirty, was baptized by John and began to preach.
126. 1.10.2Jesus' ministry fell between the high priesthoods of Annas and Caiaphas, less than four years.
127. 1.10.3At that time Roman governors changed the high priest yearly instead of by hereditary succession.
128. 1.10.4Josephus (quoted): Gratus replaced Annas with Ishmael, then Eleazar son of Annas.
129. 1.10.5Josephus (quoted): then Simon, and after him Joseph Caiaphas, each after about a year.
130. 1.10.6So Jesus' ministry lasted less than four years, and John rightly calls Caiaphas high priest “that year.”
131. 1.10.7Early in his ministry Jesus chose the Twelve, whom he called apostles, and sent out seventy others two by two.
132. 1.11.1The Gospels and Josephus record that Herod Antipas married his brother's living wife Herodias, discarding his own wife, killed John, and fought Aretas.
133. 1.11.2Josephus reports that Herod's army was destroyed as punishment for killing John.
134. 1.11.3Josephus confirms John's righteousness and says Herod lost his kingdom because of Herodias and was exiled to Vienne.
135. 1.11.4Josephus (quoted): some Jews thought God destroyed Herod's army to avenge John the Baptist.
136. 1.11.5Josephus (quoted): John was a good man who called the Jews to virtue and to a baptism that purified the body after the soul was cleansed by righteousness.
137. 1.11.6Josephus (quoted): fearing John's influence might spark revolt, Herod imprisoned him at Machaerus and killed him.
138. 1.11.7Josephus (quoted) describes Jesus as a wise man and wonder-worker who won many Jews and Greeks.
139. 1.11.8Josephus (quoted): Jesus was crucified under Pilate, appeared alive on the third day, and the Christians named after him still exist.
140. 1.11.9Josephus's testimony exposes the shamelessness of the forged anti-Christian Memoirs.
141. 1.12.1No list of the Seventy survives, but Barnabas and Sosthenes are said to have been among them.
142. 1.12.2Clement's Outlines claim the Cephas whom Paul opposed at Antioch was one of the Seventy, not the apostle Peter.
143. 1.12.3Matthias, Joseph Barsabbas, and Thaddaeus are also said to have been among the Seventy.
144. 1.12.4Paul's list of resurrection appearances shows the disciples were more than seventy.
145. 1.12.5He appeared also to James, the Lord's brother, and to all the apostles, a wider group than the Twelve.
146. 1.13.1Christ's fame as a healer drew sufferers from far beyond Judea.
147. 1.13.2Abgar, king of Edessa, gravely ill, sent a letter to Jesus asking to be healed.
148. 1.13.3Jesus answered by letter, promising to send a disciple to heal him.
149. 1.13.4After the ascension Thomas sent Thaddaeus to Edessa, fulfilling Jesus' promise.
150. 1.13.5Eusebius presents the letters, which he says were taken from the Edessa archives and translated from Syriac.
151. 1.13.6Abgar's letter (quoted): he has heard that Jesus heals without medicine and raises the dead.
152. 1.13.7Abgar (quoted) concludes that Jesus is either God or the Son of God.
153. 1.13.8Abgar (quoted) begs Jesus to come and heal him, offering refuge from the Jews' hostility.
154. 1.13.9Eusebius introduces Jesus' reply to Abgar.
155. 1.13.10Jesus' reply (quoted): Abgar is blessed for believing without seeing; after his ascension a disciple will come to heal him.
156. 1.13.11The Syriac account (quoted): Thomas sent Thaddaeus, who lodged with Tobias; Abgar heard of his arrival.
157. 1.13.12The Syriac account (quoted): Thaddaeus healed many, and Abgar guessed he was the promised disciple.
158. 1.13.13The Syriac account (quoted): Abgar summoned Thaddaeus through Tobias.
159. 1.13.14The Syriac account (quoted): when Thaddaeus entered, Abgar alone saw a vision in his face and bowed before him.
160. 1.13.15The Syriac account (quoted): Thaddaeus confirmed he was sent because of Abgar's faith.
161. 1.13.16The Syriac account (quoted): Abgar would have attacked the Jews who crucified Jesus but for Rome; Thaddaeus replied that Christ fulfilled the Father's will.
162. 1.13.17The Syriac account (quoted): Thaddaeus laid his hand on Abgar, who was healed at once.
163. 1.13.18The Syriac account (quoted): Thaddaeus healed Abgar, Abdus, and many others while preaching.
164. 1.13.19The Syriac account (quoted): Abgar asked Thaddaeus to tell him about Jesus' coming and power.
165. 1.13.20The Syriac account (quoted): Thaddaeus promised to preach Christ's coming, works, humiliation, death, descent to Hades, and ascension.
166. 1.13.21The Syriac account (quoted): the city heard Thaddaeus, who refused Abgar's gifts of gold and silver.
167. 1.13.22The events are dated to the year 340 of the Edessene (Seleucid) era, and Eusebius explains why he included them.
168. 2.0.1Book 2 begins by recalling that Book 1 covered Christ's divinity, the antiquity of Christian teaching, and his life.
169. 2.0.2Book 2 will treat events after the ascension from Scripture and other records.
170. 2.1.1Matthias replaced Judas; seven deacons, including Stephen, were ordained; Stephen became the first martyr, winning the crown his name signifies.
171. 2.1.2James the Just, called the Lord's brother as a son of Joseph, was the first bishop of Jerusalem.
172. 2.1.3Clement (quoted): Peter, James, and John did not seek honour but chose James the Just as bishop of Jerusalem.
173. 2.1.4Clement (quoted): after the resurrection the Lord gave the knowledge to James, John, and Peter, who passed it on to the apostles and the Seventy.
174. 2.1.5Clement (quoted) distinguishes James the Just, killed at the temple, from James beheaded by Herod; Paul also mentions James the Lord's brother.
175. 2.1.6At this time Thomas sent Thaddaeus to Edessa, fulfilling Christ's promise to Abgar.
176. 2.1.7Thaddaeus healed Abgar and converted Edessa, which has been Christian ever since.
177. 2.1.8After Stephen's death the Jerusalem church was scattered, and some preached as far as Antioch, but only to Jews.
178. 2.1.9Paul was then still persecuting the church.
179. 2.1.10Philip the deacon preached in Samaria with such power that even Simon the magician was won over.
180. 2.1.11Simon, revered as “the great power of God,” was amazed at Philip's miracles and was baptized in pretended faith.
181. 2.1.12Simon's heretical followers still creep into the church like a disease, though many have been exposed and expelled, as Simon was by Peter.
182. 2.1.13The Ethiopian officer baptized by Philip, the first Gentile convert, is said to have taken the gospel home, fulfilling the psalm.
183. 2.1.14Paul, the chosen vessel, was made an apostle by a revelation from Christ, not by men.
184. 2.2.1Following custom, Pilate reported the resurrection of Jesus to the emperor Tiberius.
185. 2.2.2Tiberius is said to have referred the matter to the senate, which rejected it; in truth the gospel needed no human approval.
186. 2.2.3Tiberius, despite the senate, took no action against Christ's teaching.
187. 2.2.4Tertullian's Apology (quoted) records the old law that no god could be consecrated without the senate's approval.
188. 2.2.5Tertullian (quoted) mocks the idea that a god needs human approval.
189. 2.2.6Tertullian (quoted): Tiberius favoured the doctrine and threatened accusers of Christians with death; providence thus let the gospel spread unhindered.
190. 2.3.1The gospel spread across the world like sunlight, as the psalm foretold.
191. 2.3.2Great churches arose everywhere as people, freed from idolatry, confessed the one Creator God.
192. 2.3.3After Cornelius and many Greeks at Antioch believed, the name “Christians” first arose at Antioch.
193. 2.3.4Agabus foretold a famine, and Paul and Barnabas were sent with relief.
194. 2.4.1Gaius made Agrippa king over the tetrarchies and exiled Herod Antipas and Herodias.
195. 2.4.2In Gaius's reign Philo, a distinguished Jew of Alexandria, became famous.
196. 2.4.3Philo excelled in Jewish learning and in Greek philosophy, especially Platonic and Pythagorean.
197. 2.5.1Philo described Gaius's madness, the Jews' sufferings, and his own embassy to Rome, where he was mocked and endangered.
198. 2.5.2Josephus (quoted): after riots in Alexandria, envoys of Jews and Greeks went to Gaius.
199. 2.5.3Josephus (quoted): Apion accused the Jews of refusing the emperor divine honours.
200. 2.5.4Josephus (quoted): Philo, leading the Jewish embassy, was ready to answer Apion.
201. 2.5.5Josephus (quoted): Gaius drove Philo away in anger; Philo told the Jews that Gaius was now fighting against God.
202. 2.5.6Eusebius will cite from Philo's Embassy only what shows the Jews' calamities after the crucifixion.
203. 2.5.7Philo reports Sejanus's plan to destroy the Jews and Pilate's provocations in the Jerusalem temple.
204. 2.6.1Gaius especially harmed the Jews, as Philo describes.
205. 2.6.2Philo (quoted): Gaius filled the synagogues with his images and tried to turn the Jerusalem temple into his own shrine.
206. 2.6.3Philo's On the Virtues and Josephus both show the Jews' calamities beginning under Pilate.
207. 2.6.4Josephus (quoted): Pilate brought Caesar's images into Jerusalem by night, causing a great uproar.
208. 2.6.5This came soon after they had cried before Pilate that they had no king but Caesar.
209. 2.6.6Josephus (quoted): Pilate used the temple treasury to build an aqueduct, angering the people.
210. 2.6.7Josephus (quoted): Pilate had disguised soldiers club the protesters; many died and the crowd was silenced.
211. 2.6.8Josephus shows constant revolts until Vespasian's siege, which Eusebius sees as divine punishment for the crime against Christ.
212. 2.7.1Tradition says Pilate, under Gaius, fell into such misfortunes that he killed himself.
213. 2.8.1Under Claudius the famine foretold by Agabus came to pass, as pagan historians also record.
214. 2.8.2Luke records the relief sent from Antioch and continues his account.
215. 2.9.1Acts records that Herod Agrippa killed James the brother of John.
216. 2.9.2Clement's Outlines tell how James's accuser, moved by his witness, confessed himself a Christian.
217. 2.9.3Clement (quoted): the accuser asked James's forgiveness; James blessed him, and both were beheaded.
218. 2.9.4Herod then imprisoned Peter, but an angel freed him by night.
219. 2.10.1Herod, acclaimed as a god at Caesarea, was struck by an angel and died, eaten by worms.
220. 2.10.2Josephus's account of Agrippa's death agrees remarkably with Acts.
221. 2.10.3Josephus (quoted): in his third year Agrippa held games at Caesarea in the emperor's honour.
222. 2.10.4Josephus (quoted): Agrippa appeared at dawn in a robe of silver that blazed in the sunlight.
223. 2.10.5Josephus (quoted): flatterers hailed Agrippa as a god.
224. 2.10.6Josephus (quoted): Agrippa did not reject the flattery, and then saw an angel above his head.
225. 2.10.7Josephus (quoted): seized by violent pain, Agrippa acknowledged that the “god” was about to die.
226. 2.10.8Josephus (quoted): the people prayed in sackcloth for the dying king, who wept at the sight.
227. 2.10.9Josephus (quoted): Agrippa died after five days, aged fifty-four, in the seventh year of his reign.
228. 2.10.10Though Acts calls him Herod and Josephus Agrippa, the time and events show they are the same king.
229. 2.11.1Luke mentions Theudas through Gamaliel; Eusebius now gives Josephus's account of him.
230. 2.11.2Josephus (quoted): under Fadus, Theudas claimed he would part the Jordan and deceived many.
231. 2.11.3Josephus (quoted): Fadus's cavalry crushed Theudas's followers and beheaded him; Josephus then mentions the famine.
232. 2.12.1Josephus (quoted): during the great famine Queen Helena bought grain from Egypt for the poor.
233. 2.12.2This agrees with Acts, where Antioch sent famine relief to the presbyters in Judea by Barnabas and Paul.
234. 2.12.3Helena's monuments still stand outside Jerusalem (Aelia); she was queen of Adiabene.
235. 2.13.1The devil brought Simon Magus to Rome, where his sorceries led many astray.
236. 2.13.2Justin's First Apology bears witness to Simon's activity in Rome.
237. 2.13.3Justin (quoted): Simon of Gitta, by demonic magic, was honoured as a god in Rome with a statue inscribed “To Simon the holy god.”
238. 2.13.4Justin (quoted): the Samaritans worship Simon as the first god, and call his companion Helena, a former prostitute, his first Thought.
239. 2.13.5Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1, also describes Simon and the later heresiarchs in detail.
240. 2.13.6Simon was the first author of all heresy; his followers, feigning Christianity, worship images of Simon and Helena.
241. 2.13.7Their secret rites are said to be too shameful to be written or spoken.
242. 2.13.8Eusebius charges the Simonians with the utmost depravity toward women.
243. 2.14.1The evil power set up Simon as the great opponent of the apostles.
244. 2.14.2God's grace through the apostles quickly quenched the fire of evil.
245. 2.14.3No heretical group survived in the apostles' own time, for the light of truth prevailed.
246. 2.14.4Exposed by Peter in Judea, Simon fled westward over the sea.
247. 2.14.5In Rome Simon soon won such success that a statue was set up to him as a god.
248. 2.14.6Providence brought Peter to Rome under Claudius to oppose Simon and preach the kingdom.
249. 2.15.1Peter's hearers in Rome begged Mark, his follower, to write down Peter's teaching, which became the Gospel of Mark.
250. 2.15.2Peter approved Mark's Gospel for the churches, as Clement and Papias attest; 1 Peter, written in Rome (“Babylon”), mentions Mark.
251. 2.16.1Mark is said to have first preached in Egypt and founded the church of Alexandria.
252. 2.16.2The Alexandrian believers lived so ascetically that Philo wrote about their way of life.
253. 2.17.1Philo is said to have met Peter in Rome under Claudius; his treatise seems to describe church customs still kept.
254. 2.17.2Philo seems to describe and praise the apostolic ascetics, who were Hebrews keeping many Jewish customs.
255. 2.17.3Philo calls these ascetics Therapeutae, either as healers of souls or as pure worshippers of God.
256. 2.17.4Whether Philo coined the name or they used it before “Christian” was common does not matter.
257. 2.17.5Philo says they gave up their property and withdrew outside the cities to live apart.
258. 2.17.6Acts likewise records that believers sold their property and shared it according to need.
259. 2.17.7Philo (quoted): such people are found in many lands, especially in Egypt around Alexandria.
260. 2.17.8Philo (quoted): the best of them settle on a hill above Lake Mareotis.
261. 2.17.9Philo (quoted): each house has a sacred room, a “monastery,” where they study only the law, the prophets, and hymns.
262. 2.17.10Philo (quoted): from dawn to dusk they study Scripture, interpreting it allegorically.
263. 2.17.11Philo (quoted): they use the writings of their founders as models of allegory.
264. 2.17.12Eusebius guesses the “ancient writings” were the Gospels, apostolic letters, and interpretations such as Hebrews.
265. 2.17.13Philo (quoted): they also compose hymns to God in various metres.
266. 2.17.14Eusebius selects only the features that match church life.
267. 2.17.15For doubters, Eusebius offers further passages from Philo.
268. 2.17.16Philo (quoted): founded on self-control, they eat and drink only after sunset.
269. 2.17.17Philo (quoted): some fast three or even six days, feasting on wisdom; Eusebius takes this to describe Christians.
270. 2.17.18Further proof points to features found only among Christians.
271. 2.17.19Philo describes elderly virgins among them, chaste by choice out of love for wisdom.
272. 2.17.20Philo (quoted): they read the law allegorically, as a body (the letter) with a soul (the hidden sense).
273. 2.17.21Their assemblies, separate quarters for men and women, and Easter fasts and vigils match Christian practice.
274. 2.17.22Philo describes night vigils, responsive hymns, sleeping on straw, and a diet of bread, water, salt, and hyssop, which Eusebius equates with the Christian Easter vigil.
275. 2.17.23Eusebius claims Philo describes deacons and a presiding bishop among them.
276. 2.17.24Eusebius concludes that Philo was describing the first Christians and the apostles' customs.
277. 2.18.1Philo wrote much on Scripture, including the Allegories of the Sacred Laws and Questions and Solutions on Genesis and Exodus.
278. 2.18.2Eusebius lists more of Philo's treatises, such as On Agriculture, On Drunkenness, and On the Confusion of Tongues.
279. 2.18.3Also On the Change of Names, and On Covenants in two books.
280. 2.18.4Other works on Genesis: On Migration, On Abraham, On Giants, On the Unchangeableness of God, and five books On Dreams.
281. 2.18.5Eusebius lists Philo's works on Exodus and the law.
282. 2.18.6Further single-volume works of Philo are listed.
283. 2.18.7Philo also wrote On the Contemplative Life and, reportedly, a glossary of Hebrew names.
284. 2.18.8Philo is said to have read his work against Gaius to the senate under Claudius, and his books were placed in libraries.
285. 2.18.9Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome; Aquila and Priscilla joined Paul in Asia.
286. 2.19.1Under Claudius a Passover riot in Jerusalem killed thirty thousand Jews in a crush at the temple gates.
287. 2.19.2Claudius made Agrippa II king and Felix procurator, and died after thirteen years, succeeded by Nero.
288. 2.20.1Josephus describes strife among the priests under Felix.
289. 2.20.2Josephus (quoted): the high priests and the priests formed rival gangs and fought in the streets.
290. 2.20.3Josephus (quoted): the high priests seized the priests' tithes, so that poor priests starved.
291. 2.20.4Josephus (quoted): brigands murdered people in broad daylight in Jerusalem.
292. 2.20.5Josephus (quoted): these assassins stabbed victims in festival crowds with hidden daggers and then joined in the outcry.
293. 2.20.6Josephus (quoted): they killed the high priest Jonathan and many others, and everyone lived in fear.
294. 2.21.1Josephus (quoted): an Egyptian false prophet led thousands to the Mount of Olives, planning to seize Jerusalem.
295. 2.21.2Josephus (quoted): Felix routed the Egyptian, who fled while most of his followers were killed or captured.
296. 2.21.3Acts mentions the same Egyptian when the tribune questions Paul.
297. 2.22.1Under Festus, Paul was taken to Rome with Aristarchus; Acts ends with his two years of free preaching there.
298. 2.22.2Tradition says Paul was released, preached again, and on a second visit to Rome was martyred under Nero, writing 2 Timothy in prison.
299. 2.22.3Paul (2 Tim 4:16–17) says the Lord stood by him at his first defence and rescued him from the lion's mouth.
300. 2.22.4The “lion” is probably Nero; Paul does not say he will be rescued again, foreseeing his death.
301. 2.22.5Paul's words about being saved for the heavenly kingdom and being poured out point to his coming martyrdom.
302. 2.22.6Luke was with Paul when he wrote 2 Timothy but not at the first defence, which is why Acts ends where it does.
303. 2.22.7Paul was not martyred during the Roman stay that Acts records.
304. 2.22.8Nero was at first mild, but later turned to crimes, including attacks on the apostles.
305. 2.23.1Foiled with Paul, the Jewish leaders turned against James, bishop of Jerusalem.
306. 2.23.2Commanded to deny Christ, James boldly confessed him as Son of God, and was killed in the interval after Festus's death.
307. 2.23.3Clement had already said James was thrown from the temple pinnacle and clubbed to death.
308. 2.23.4Hegesippus (quoted): James the Lord's brother, called the Just, took charge of the church with the apostles.
309. 2.23.5Hegesippus (quoted): James lived as a lifelong Nazirite, abstaining from wine, meat, oil, and baths.
310. 2.23.6Hegesippus (quoted): James, dressed in linen, prayed in the sanctuary for the people until his knees were like a camel's.
311. 2.23.7Hegesippus (quoted): James was called “the Just” and “Oblias,” meaning bulwark of the people.
312. 2.23.8Hegesippus (quoted): members of the Jewish sects asked James what the “door of Jesus” was, and he said Jesus was the Saviour.
313. 2.23.9Hegesippus (quoted): some believed through James; the sects denied the resurrection and the coming judge.
314. 2.23.10Hegesippus (quoted): alarmed that many believed, the scribes and Pharisees asked James to dissuade the Passover crowds about Jesus.
315. 2.23.11Hegesippus (quoted): they asked James to speak from the pinnacle of the temple to the Passover crowds.
316. 2.23.12Hegesippus (quoted): from the pinnacle they asked James about Jesus.
317. 2.23.13Hegesippus (quoted): James proclaimed that Jesus, the Son of Man, sits at God's right hand and will come on the clouds.
318. 2.23.14Hegesippus (quoted): the crowd hailed Jesus, and the scribes and Pharisees resolved to throw James down.
319. 2.23.15Hegesippus (quoted): they cried that James had gone astray, fulfilling Isaiah's words about removing the righteous man.
320. 2.23.16Hegesippus (quoted): James survived the fall and, as they stoned him, knelt and prayed for their forgiveness.
321. 2.23.17Hegesippus (quoted): a Rechabite priest cried out that James was praying for them.
322. 2.23.18Hegesippus (quoted): a fuller clubbed James to death; he was buried by the temple, and soon Vespasian besieged Jerusalem.
323. 2.23.19James was so renowned that even thoughtful Jews thought the siege of Jerusalem was punishment for his murder.
324. 2.23.20Josephus (quoted) is said to have written that Jerusalem's fall avenged James the Just.
325. 2.23.21Josephus (quoted): after Festus died, the bold Sadducee high priest Ananus acted before Albinus arrived.
326. 2.23.22Josephus (quoted): Ananus convened the Sanhedrin and had James, the brother of Jesus called Christ, stoned.
327. 2.23.23Josephus (quoted): fair-minded citizens protested secretly to King Agrippa.
328. 2.23.24Josephus (quoted): Albinus threatened Ananus, and Agrippa deposed him; James is said to have written the first catholic letter.
329. 2.23.25James and Jude are disputed letters, seldom cited by the ancients, yet read publicly in most churches.
330. 2.24.1In Nero's eighth year Annianus succeeded Mark as leader of the Alexandrian church.
331. 2.25.1Once secure in power, Nero turned to impiety and against the worship of God.
332. 2.25.2Nero's murderous madness spared not even his mother, brothers, and wife.
333. 2.25.3Nero was the first emperor to persecute the worship of God.
334. 2.25.4Tertullian (quoted): Nero first persecuted the Christians, and his condemnation is a mark of their goodness.
335. 2.25.5Under Nero, Paul was beheaded and Peter crucified in Rome, as the cemeteries named after them confirm.
336. 2.25.6Gaius, a Roman churchman, in his dialogue with the Montanist Proclus, says he can show the apostles' monuments.
337. 2.25.7Gaius (quoted): the apostles' monuments stand on the Vatican and the Ostian Way.
338. 2.25.8Dionysius of Corinth (quoted) says Peter and Paul both taught in Corinth and Italy and were martyred at the same time.
339. 2.26.1Josephus records that Florus scourged and crucified many leading Jews at the start of the war in Nero's twelfth year.
340. 2.26.2Josephus describes the massacres of Jews throughout Syria after the revolt.
341. 3.1.1Tradition says the apostles divided the world: Thomas to Parthia, Andrew to Scythia, John to Asia.
342. 3.1.2Peter preached in Asia Minor and at last was crucified head downward in Rome at his own request.
343. 3.1.3Paul preached from Jerusalem to Illyricum and was martyred in Rome under Nero, as Origen says.
344. 3.2.1Linus, mentioned in 2 Timothy, was the first bishop of Rome after Peter and Paul.
345. 3.3.11 Peter is acknowledged by all; 2 Peter was received as not canonical but has been valued with the other Scriptures.
346. 3.3.2The Acts, Gospel, Preaching, and Apocalypse of Peter were not handed down as catholic writings.
347. 3.3.3Eusebius will note which writers used disputed books and what they said about the canonical ones.
348. 3.3.4Only one of the Petrine writings is genuine and acknowledged.
349. 3.3.5Paul's fourteen letters are clear, though some reject Hebrews; the Acts of Paul are not undisputed.
350. 3.3.6The Shepherd of Hermas is disputed but valued for beginners, read in churches, and used by early writers.
351. 3.3.7So much on the undisputed and disputed books.
352. 3.4.1Paul founded churches from Jerusalem to Illyricum, as his letters and Acts show.
353. 3.4.21 Peter shows the provinces where Peter preached to Jewish believers.
354. 3.4.3It is hard to know which of their followers became pastors, except those named by Paul.
355. 3.4.4Paul's letters and Acts name many of his co-workers.
356. 3.4.5Timothy is said to have been the first bishop of Ephesus, and Titus of Crete.
357. 3.4.6Luke of Antioch, a physician and Paul's companion, wrote the Gospel from eyewitness tradition and Acts from his own observation.
358. 3.4.7Some say Paul's phrase “my gospel” refers to Luke's Gospel.
359. 3.4.8Crescens went to Gaul; Linus, with Paul in Rome, was the first bishop of Rome after Peter.
360. 3.4.9Clement, third bishop of Rome, is identified with Paul's co-worker.
361. 3.4.10Dionysius of Corinth says Dionysius the Areopagite was the first bishop of Athens.
362. 3.4.11The apostolic successions will be told in due course.
363. 3.5.1After Nero, Galba, and Otho, Vespasian was proclaimed emperor in Judea and left the war to Titus.
364. 3.5.2After the Jewish leaders killed Stephen and the two Jameses and drove out the apostles, the apostles went to all nations as Christ had commanded.
365. 3.5.3Warned by an oracle, the Jerusalem Christians fled to Pella before the war; then divine judgment fell on the city.
366. 3.5.4Josephus records the war's horrors in detail, ending with the abomination of desolation and the burning of the temple.
367. 3.5.5Josephus says about three million people were trapped in Jerusalem at Passover.
368. 3.5.6Eusebius sees the Passover siege as fitting judgment for the crucifixion at Passover.
369. 3.5.7Eusebius will quote Josephus only on the famine in the siege.
370. 3.6.1Josephus (quoted): the wealthy were killed for their property as the rebels' madness grew with the famine.
371. 3.6.2Josephus (quoted): the rebels searched houses for grain and tortured the owners, judging by their bodies who had food.
372. 3.6.3Josephus (quoted): people traded everything for a measure of grain and ate it in hiding, even unground.
373. 3.6.4Josephus (quoted): food was snatched half-raw, the strong seizing it from the weak.
374. 3.6.5Josephus (quoted): famine destroyed all shame, so that mothers snatched food from their infants' mouths.
375. 3.6.6Josephus (quoted): the rebels broke into locked houses and forced food from people's throats.
376. 3.6.7Josephus (quoted): old men, women, and infants were brutally robbed of food.
377. 3.6.8Josephus (quoted): the rebels tortured people horribly to make them reveal hidden bread.
378. 3.6.9Josephus (quoted): the torturers were not even hungry but hoarding for themselves.
379. 3.6.10Josephus (quoted): people who risked their lives to gather herbs were robbed on their return, glad not to be killed.
380. 3.6.11Josephus (quoted): with escape cut off, famine consumed whole families; roofs and alleys were full of the dead.
381. 3.6.12Josephus (quoted): the starving young collapsed in the streets; many died while burying others or went to their graves before death.
382. 3.6.13Josephus (quoted): no one wept; the dying stared dry-eyed at the dead, and silence filled the city, but the brigands were worse still.
383. 3.6.14Josephus (quoted): the rebels robbed the dead, tested their swords on the dying, and refused the mercy of a quick death.
384. 3.6.15Josephus (quoted): corpses were thrown into the ravines, and Titus, seeing them, called God to witness that it was not his doing.
385. 3.6.16Josephus (quoted): the city's generation was so godless that, had Rome delayed, it would have perished like Sodom.
386. 3.6.17Josephus (quoted): countless died of famine, and families fought each other for any trace of food.
387. 3.6.18Josephus (quoted): brigands searched even the dying; the starving staggered like mad dogs from house to house.
388. 3.6.19Josephus (quoted): they ate belts, shoes, shield leather, and old hay.
389. 3.6.20Josephus (quoted) prepares to tell an unheard-of deed, which he reports only because it had many witnesses.
390. 3.6.21Josephus (quoted): Mary daughter of Eleazar, a wealthy woman from beyond the Jordan, was trapped in the siege.
391. 3.6.22Josephus (quoted): the rebels plundered her goods and food until she cursed them in rage.
392. 3.6.23Josephus (quoted): driven by hunger and rage, she seized her nursing son.
393. 3.6.24Josephus (quoted): she told her baby there was no future for him and resolved to eat him.
394. 3.6.25Josephus (quoted): she killed, roasted, and half ate her son, then showed the rest to the rebels.
395. 3.6.26Josephus (quoted): she told the horrified rebels to eat as she had.
396. 3.6.27Josephus (quoted): the rebels left trembling, and the whole city shuddered at the deed.
397. 3.6.28Josephus (quoted): the starving longed for death; Eusebius calls this the reward of the crime against Christ.
398. 3.7.1Christ foretold the siege's woes for pregnant and nursing women and an unmatched tribulation.
399. 3.7.2Josephus counts 1,100,000 dead, with the survivors executed, kept for triumph, sent to Egyptian mines, killed in arenas, or sold, ninety thousand in all.
400. 3.7.3These events in Vespasian's second year fulfilled Christ's tearful predictions.
401. 3.7.4Christ's lament over Jerusalem (Luke 19) foretold the siege.
402. 3.7.5Christ also foretold the sword, captivity, and Jerusalem trodden down by the nations.
403. 3.7.6Comparing Christ's words with Josephus shows his foreknowledge to be truly divine.
404. 3.7.7The histories suffice on what befell the nation after it chose the murderer and rejected the author of life.
405. 3.7.8Providence delayed the destruction forty years while apostles and James still lived in Jerusalem as its bulwark.
406. 3.7.9God patiently waited for repentance and sent portents of what would come, recorded by Josephus.
407. 3.8.1Josephus (quoted): the people trusted impostors but ignored the portents of coming ruin.
408. 3.8.2Josephus (quoted): a sword-like star, a comet, and a midnight light at the temple were portents.
409. 3.8.3Josephus (quoted): a sacrificial cow gave birth to a lamb in the temple.
410. 3.8.4Josephus (quoted): the massive eastern gate of the inner temple opened by itself at night.
411. 3.8.5Josephus (quoted): chariots and armies were seen in the clouds over the land.
412. 3.8.6Josephus (quoted): at Pentecost the priests heard a voice in the temple say, “We are departing hence.”
413. 3.8.7Josephus (quoted): Jesus son of Ananias cried out woes against Jerusalem day and night, four years before the war.
414. 3.8.8Josephus (quoted): beaten by leading citizens, he said nothing but kept crying the same words.
415. 3.8.9Josephus (quoted): scourged to the bone by the Roman governor, he answered each blow with “Woe to Jerusalem!”
416. 3.8.10Josephus reports an oracle that a ruler of the world would come from Judea, which he applied to Vespasian.
417. 3.8.11The oracle fits Christ better than Vespasian, since Christ's apostles were then reaching the whole world.
418. 3.9.1Josephus (quoted) describes himself as son of Matthias, a priest of Jerusalem who fought the Romans and later was with them.
419. 3.9.2Josephus was honoured by Jews and Romans alike, with a statue in Rome and his books in its library.
420. 3.9.3Josephus wrote the Antiquities in twenty books and the Jewish War in seven, the latter also in his native language.
421. 3.9.4Josephus also wrote Against Apion in two books, defending Jewish customs.
422. 3.9.5In Against Apion Josephus lists the undisputed Hebrew Scriptures.
423. 3.10.1Josephus (quoted): the Jews have only twenty-two books, rightly held divine.
424. 3.10.2Josephus (quoted): five books of Moses contain the laws and history to Moses' death.
425. 3.10.3Josephus (quoted): thirteen books of the prophets cover Moses to Artaxerxes, and four contain hymns and precepts.
426. 3.10.4Josephus (quoted): later writings are not equally trusted, since the succession of prophets ceased.
427. 3.10.5Josephus (quoted): no Jew has dared to change the Scriptures; all regard them as God's decrees and would die for them.
428. 3.10.6Josephus is also credited with On the Sovereignty of Reason, called 4 Maccabees.
429. 3.10.7Josephus planned a four-book work on God and the reasons for the Jewish laws.
430. 3.10.8Eusebius introduces Josephus's words against Justus of Tiberias.
431. 3.10.9Josephus (quoted): unlike Justus, he gave his books to the emperors themselves, confident of their truth.
432. 3.10.10Josephus (quoted): he also gave it to participants such as King Agrippa.
433. 3.10.11Josephus (quoted): Titus signed and published his books, and Agrippa wrote sixty-two letters confirming them.
434. 3.11.1After James's death and Jerusalem's fall, the surviving apostles and the Lord's relatives chose Simeon son of Clopas, the Lord's cousin, as bishop of Jerusalem.
435. 3.12.1Vespasian ordered a search for all descendants of David, bringing new persecution on the Jews.
436. 3.13.1Titus succeeded Vespasian; Linus of Rome was succeeded by Anencletus; Domitian followed Titus.
437. 3.14.1Annianus of Alexandria died and was succeeded by Abilius.
438. 3.15.1Clement, whom Paul names as a co-worker, succeeded Anencletus as bishop of Rome.
439. 3.16.1Clement's acknowledged letter to Corinth, written during a sedition there, is read publicly in many churches.
440. 3.17.1Domitian, cruel to many Romans, became the second emperor to persecute Christians.
441. 3.18.1Under Domitian, John was exiled to Patmos for his witness.
442. 3.18.2Irenaeus, discussing the number of the Antichrist in Revelation, speaks of John.
443. 3.18.3Irenaeus (quoted): the Revelation was seen near the end of Domitian's reign.
444. 3.18.4Pagan historians record that under Domitian Flavia Domitilla, niece of the consul Flavius Clemens, was banished for her witness to Christ.
445. 3.19.1When Domitian sought David's descendants, heretics denounced the grandsons of Jude, the Lord's brother; Hegesippus tells the story.
446. 3.20.1Hegesippus (quoted): the grandsons of Jude were brought before Domitian, who feared the coming of Christ.
447. 3.20.2Hegesippus (quoted): they owned only a small farm, which they worked themselves.
448. 3.20.3Hegesippus (quoted): they showed their calloused hands as proof.
449. 3.20.4Hegesippus (quoted): they said Christ's kingdom is heavenly and will come at the end, when he judges the living and the dead.
450. 3.20.5Hegesippus (quoted): Domitian despised them as harmless, freed them, and stopped the persecution.
451. 3.20.6Hegesippus (quoted): once released, they led the churches as confessors and relatives of the Lord until Trajan's time.
452. 3.20.7Tertullian (quoted): Domitian briefly imitated Nero's persecution, then stopped and recalled the exiles.
453. 3.20.8Under Nerva the senate annulled Domitian's honours and restored the exiles.
454. 3.20.9Tradition says John then returned from Patmos to Ephesus.
455. 3.21.1Under Trajan, Cerdo became bishop of Alexandria; Clement, third after Linus and Anencletus, still led Rome.
456. 3.22.1At Antioch Ignatius was second bishop after Evodius; Simeon was second at Jerusalem after James.
457. 3.23.1John, the beloved disciple, still lived in Asia, governing its churches after returning from exile.
458. 3.23.2Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria confirm that John lived until Trajan's time.
459. 3.23.3Irenaeus (quoted): the presbyters of Asia testify that John remained with them until Trajan.
460. 3.23.4Irenaeus (quoted): the church of Ephesus, founded by Paul and home of John, witnesses to apostolic tradition.
461. 3.23.5Clement tells a profitable story about John in Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved?
462. 3.23.6Clement (quoted): after Patmos, John visited nearby cities to appoint bishops and order churches.
463. 3.23.7Clement (quoted): John entrusted a promising young man to a local bishop before the church and Christ.
464. 3.23.8Clement (quoted): the presbyter raised and baptized the youth, then relaxed his care, trusting the seal of baptism.
465. 3.23.9Clement (quoted): dissolute companions led the youth into feasting, theft, and worse.
466. 3.23.10Clement (quoted): like a runaway horse he plunged ever deeper into evil.
467. 3.23.11Clement (quoted): despairing of salvation, he became the violent chief of a robber band.
468. 3.23.12Clement (quoted): John returned and asked the bishop to give back the deposit entrusted to him.
469. 3.23.13Clement (quoted): the bishop wept that the youth was “dead to God,” now a brigand in the mountains.
470. 3.23.14Clement (quoted): John lamented and rode off at once to find the youth.
471. 3.23.15Clement (quoted): captured by the robbers, John asked to be taken to their chief.
472. 3.23.16Clement (quoted): the young chief fled in shame, and the old apostle ran after him.
473. 3.23.17Clement (quoted): John begged the youth to stop, promising to answer for him to Christ and even to die for him.
474. 3.23.18Clement (quoted): the youth threw down his weapons, wept, and embraced John, “baptized again” in tears, hiding his right hand.
475. 3.23.19Clement (quoted): John assured him of forgiveness, brought him back to the church with prayer and fasting, and restored him, an example of true repentance.
476. 3.24.1Eusebius now turns to John's undisputed writings.
477. 3.24.2John's Gospel is universally acknowledged; Eusebius explains why it is placed fourth.
478. 3.24.3The apostles, unskilled in speech, preached by the Spirit's power and gave little thought to writing books.
479. 3.24.4Even Paul, though most eloquent and granted visions of the third heaven, wrote only short letters.
480. 3.24.5Of all the disciples, only Matthew and John wrote Gospels, and that out of necessity.
481. 3.24.6Matthew wrote his Gospel in his native language for the Hebrews before leaving them.
482. 3.24.7John, having preached orally, wrote last, approving the other three but supplying Christ's early deeds.
483. 3.24.8The first three Gospels record only the year after the Baptist's imprisonment.
484. 3.24.9Matthew begins Jesus' ministry after John's arrest.
485. 3.24.10Mark and Luke also begin after John's imprisonment.
486. 3.24.11John deliberately recorded the period before the Baptist's imprisonment, as his wording shows.
487. 3.24.12John covers the time before the Baptist's arrest, the others the time after.
488. 3.24.13So the Gospels do not conflict; John omitted the genealogy and began with Christ's divinity.
489. 3.24.14So much for John's Gospel; Mark's origin was told earlier.
490. 3.24.15Luke wrote to give a sure account, learned from Paul and the other apostles, in place of rash earlier attempts.
491. 3.24.16Eusebius will later quote the ancients on the Gospels.
492. 3.24.171 John is undisputed; 2 and 3 John are disputed.
493. 3.24.18Opinion on Revelation is still divided.
494. 3.25.1Eusebius summarizes the New Testament: first the four Gospels and Acts.
495. 3.25.2Then Paul's letters, 1 John, 1 Peter, and, if it seems right, Revelation.
496. 3.25.3Disputed but widely known: James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John.
497. 3.25.4Spurious: Acts of Paul, Shepherd, Apocalypse of Peter, Barnabas, the Teachings (Didache), and perhaps Revelation.
498. 3.25.5Some add the Gospel of the Hebrews; all these are disputed.
499. 3.25.6The list distinguishes acknowledged, disputed, and heretical writings such as the Gospels of Peter, Thomas, and Matthias and various apocryphal Acts.
500. 3.25.7Heretical books differ in style and teaching from the apostles and must be rejected outright.
501. 3.26.1Menander, Simon's Samaritan successor, claimed to be a saviour sent from invisible aeons.
502. 3.26.2Menander taught that his magic and baptism gave immortality even in this life.
503. 3.26.3Justin (quoted): Menander, Simon's disciple, deceived many at Antioch, promising they would not die.
504. 3.26.4The devil used such sorcerers to discredit Christian teaching on immortality and resurrection.
505. 3.27.1Others, the Ebionites, were named for their “poor” opinions of Christ.
506. 3.27.2Some Ebionites held Jesus a mere man born of Joseph and Mary, and required the law for salvation.
507. 3.27.3Other Ebionites accepted the virgin birth but denied Christ's pre-existence as the Word, and kept the law.
508. 3.27.4They rejected Paul's letters as an apostate's and used only the Gospel of the Hebrews.
509. 3.27.5They kept the sabbath and Jewish customs, but also Sunday rites in memory of the resurrection.
510. 3.27.6The name Ebionite comes from the Hebrew word for “poor.”
511. 3.28.1Cerinthus founded another heresy, as Gaius reports.
512. 3.28.2Gaius (quoted): Cerinthus forged revelations teaching an earthly thousand-year kingdom of fleshly pleasures.
513. 3.28.3Dionysius of Alexandria also mentions Cerinthus in On the Promises.
514. 3.28.4Dionysius (quoted): Cerinthus gave his fiction a trustworthy name and taught an earthly kingdom of Christ.
515. 3.28.5Dionysius (quoted): Cerinthus's kingdom was a dream of food, drink, marriage, and sacrifices.
516. 3.28.6Irenaeus, from Polycarp's tradition, tells how John fled a bath-house because Cerinthus was inside.
517. 3.29.1The short-lived Nicolaitans, mentioned in Revelation, claimed descent from the deacon Nicolaus; Clement tells his story.
518. 3.29.2Clement (quoted): accused of jealousy, Nicolaus offered his wife to others; his followers misread his saying “abuse the flesh” as licence for immorality.
519. 3.29.3Clement (quoted): Nicolaus himself lived chastely with his one wife; his act renounced passion, not chastity.
520. 3.29.4Clement (quoted): Matthias likewise taught to fight the flesh and nourish the soul by faith and knowledge; these heresies soon died out.
521. 3.30.1Clement (quoted), against those who reject marriage, notes that Peter and Philip had children, and that Paul addresses his own wife.
522. 3.30.2Clement (quoted): Peter, seeing his wife led to martyrdom, rejoiced and urged her, “Remember the Lord”; such was the marriage of the saints.
523. 3.31.1The deaths and burial places of Peter and Paul have been described.
524. 3.31.2Polycrates of Ephesus (quoted) names the great saints buried in Asia: Philip at Hierapolis with his daughters.
525. 3.31.3Polycrates (quoted): John, who leaned on the Lord's breast and wore the priestly plate, is buried at Ephesus.
526. 3.31.4Proclus (quoted in Gaius's dialogue): Philip's four prophetess daughters and their father are buried at Hierapolis.
527. 3.31.5Acts mentions Philip the evangelist's four prophesying daughters at Caesarea.
528. 3.31.6Having covered the apostles and the writings, Eusebius moves on.
529. 3.32.1Under Trajan local persecutions broke out, and Simeon son of Clopas, bishop of Jerusalem, was martyred.
530. 3.32.2Hegesippus reports that heretics accused Simeon, who after many days of torture died like the Lord.
531. 3.32.3Hegesippus (quoted): heretics accused Simeon of being a Davidid and a Christian; he was martyred at 120 under Trajan.
532. 3.32.4Simeon's accusers were themselves arrested as Davidids; Simeon, son of Clopas and Mary, was probably an eyewitness of the Lord.
533. 3.32.5Jude's descendants, confessors under Domitian, lived into Trajan's reign.
534. 3.32.6Hegesippus (quoted): the Lord's relatives led the churches until Simeon, denounced by heretics, was tortured and crucified at 120.
535. 3.32.7Hegesippus says the church remained a pure virgin until then, with would-be corrupters still hidden.
536. 3.32.8Once the apostles and their hearers had died, false teachers openly proclaimed “knowledge falsely so called.”
537. 3.33.1Pliny, alarmed by the number of martyrs, told Trajan that Christians only sang to Christ at dawn and forbade adultery and murder.
538. 3.33.2Trajan ruled that Christians should not be hunted but punished if accused; local persecutions and martyrdoms continued.
539. 3.33.3Tertullian (quoted) reports Pliny's letter and Trajan's reply forbidding a search for Christians.
540. 3.34.1In Trajan's third year Clement of Rome died and Evarestus succeeded him.
541. 3.35.1After Simeon's martyrdom a Jewish Christian named Justus became bishop of Jerusalem.
542. 3.36.1Polycarp, companion of the apostles, was bishop of Smyrna.
543. 3.36.2Papias of Hierapolis and Ignatius of Antioch were then known.
544. 3.36.3Ignatius was taken from Syria to Rome and thrown to the beasts for Christ.
545. 3.36.4On his way through Asia, Ignatius warned the churches against heresies and urged them to hold to apostolic tradition, also in writing.
546. 3.36.5From Smyrna Ignatius wrote to Ephesus, Magnesia, and Tralles, naming their bishops.
547. 3.36.6He also wrote to Rome, begging them not to prevent his martyrdom.
548. 3.36.7Ignatius (quoted): chained to ten “leopards,” he fights beasts all the way to Rome.
549. 3.36.8Ignatius (quoted): he longs for the beasts and will even force them to devour him.
550. 3.36.9Ignatius (quoted): let any torment come, if only he may attain Jesus Christ.
551. 3.36.10From Troas Ignatius wrote to Philadelphia, Smyrna, and Polycarp, entrusting Antioch's flock to him.
552. 3.36.11Ignatius (quoted) says that the risen Christ told Peter's company to touch him, for he was not a bodiless spirit.
553. 3.36.12Irenaeus (quoted) cites Ignatius's words: “I am God's wheat, ground by the teeth of beasts.”
554. 3.36.13Polycarp (quoted) urges the Philippians to endure like Ignatius, Rufus, Zosimus, and the apostles, now with the Lord.
555. 3.36.14Polycarp (quoted) promises to forward the Philippians' letter to Syria.
556. 3.36.15Polycarp (quoted) sends the Philippians a collection of Ignatius's letters; Heros succeeded Ignatius at Antioch.
557. 3.37.1Quadratus, a prophet, and many others of the first generation after the apostles built on their foundations and spread the gospel.
558. 3.37.2Many disciples gave their goods to the poor and went out as evangelists, carrying the written Gospels.
559. 3.37.3They founded churches, appointed pastors, and moved on, aided by miracles through which whole crowds believed.
560. 3.37.4Eusebius names only those whose writings still hand down the apostolic teaching.
561. 3.38.1Clement's letter, acknowledged by all, draws heavily on Hebrews, proving Hebrews is early.
562. 3.38.2Hebrews is counted with Paul's letters; some say Luke or Clement translated it from Paul's Hebrew.
563. 3.38.3Clement is the likelier translator, given the similar style and thought.
564. 3.38.4A second letter of Clement exists, but was not used by the ancients.
565. 3.38.5Later lengthy works with dialogues of Peter and Apion are wrongly ascribed to Clement.
566. 3.39.1Papias wrote five books of Expositions of the Lord's Oracles; Irenaeus (quoted) calls him a hearer of John and companion of Polycarp.
567. 3.39.2Papias himself says he learned from the apostles' acquaintances, not from the apostles.
568. 3.39.3Papias (quoted): he records what he learned from the presbyters, valuing those who taught the Lord's commandments.
569. 3.39.4Papias (quoted): he questioned the presbyters' followers about what the apostles said and what Aristion and John the presbyter still say, preferring the living voice to books.
570. 3.39.5Papias names two Johns: the apostle among the apostles, and John the presbyter with Aristion.
571. 3.39.6This confirms two Johns and two tombs at Ephesus; the second John probably saw the Revelation.
572. 3.39.7Papias heard Aristion and John the presbyter himself and records their traditions.
573. 3.39.8Eusebius will add other marvels Papias reports from tradition.
574. 3.39.9Papias heard from Philip's daughters of a man raised from the dead, and of Justus Barsabbas surviving poison.
575. 3.39.10Acts names Justus Barsabbas as the other candidate with Matthias.
576. 3.39.11Papias also records strange parables, teachings, and legends from oral tradition.
577. 3.39.12Papias taught an earthly thousand-year kingdom after the resurrection, which Eusebius thinks misreads the apostles' figurative language.
578. 3.39.13Eusebius thinks Papias unintelligent but influential, leading Irenaeus and others into the same view.
579. 3.39.14Papias also records Aristion's and John the presbyter's traditions, including one about Mark.
580. 3.39.15Papias (quoted), from the presbyter: Mark, Peter's interpreter, wrote accurately but not in order what Peter taught.
581. 3.39.16Papias (quoted): Matthew compiled the oracles in Hebrew, and each translated them as he could.
582. 3.39.17Papias quotes 1 John and 1 Peter and tells a story of a sinful woman also found in the Gospel of the Hebrews.
583. 4.1.1Around Trajan's twelfth year Primus became bishop of Alexandria and Alexander bishop of Rome.
584. 4.2.1While the church flourished, a new Jewish revolt in Trajan's eighteenth year brought great destruction.
585. 4.2.2Jews in Egypt and Cyrene rose against the Greeks and made war under the governor Lupus.
586. 4.2.3The Greeks killed Alexandria's Jews; the Cyrenean Jews under Lucuas ravaged Egypt until Trajan sent Marcius Turbo.
587. 4.2.4Turbo killed many thousands of Jews from Cyrene and Egypt.
588. 4.2.5Lusius Quietus massacred Mesopotamian Jews and was made governor of Judea, as Greek historians record.
589. 4.3.1Quadratus presented an apology for the Christians to Hadrian, still extant in Eusebius's time.
590. 4.3.2Quadratus (quoted): people healed or raised by Jesus lived on, some even into his own time.
591. 4.3.3Aristides also addressed an apology to Hadrian, still widely preserved.
592. 4.4.1Xystus succeeded Alexander at Rome, and Justus succeeded Primus at Alexandria.
593. 4.5.1No dates survive for the early bishops of Jerusalem, who were said to be short-lived.
594. 4.5.2Until Hadrian's siege Jerusalem had fifteen bishops, all Hebrew Christians, leading a church of Jewish believers.
595. 4.5.3Eusebius lists the fifteen Jewish-Christian bishops of Jerusalem from James to Judas.
596. 4.5.4All of Jerusalem's bishops to that time were of the circumcision.
597. 4.5.5Telesphorus succeeded Xystus at Rome, and Eumenes succeeded at Alexandria.
598. 4.6.1When the Jews revolted again under Hadrian, the governor Rufus crushed them mercilessly.
599. 4.6.2The revolt was led by Bar Kokhba (“son of the star”), who claimed to be a heavenly light for his people.
600. 4.6.3After the fall of Beththera, Hadrian banned Jews even from approaching Jerusalem, as Ariston of Pella relates.
601. 4.6.4Jerusalem, refounded as Aelia, had a Gentile church whose first bishop was Mark.
602. 4.7.1As the church flourished, the devil, who had first used persecution, turned to new schemes.
603. 4.7.2He used heretics bearing the Christian name to destroy believers and repel outsiders.
604. 4.7.3From Menander came Saturninus in Syria and Basilides in Egypt, founders of two heresies.
605. 4.7.4Irenaeus says Saturninus repeated Menander's teaching, while Basilides spun endless fables.
606. 4.7.5Many churchmen defended the truth, and some wrote works against these heresies.
607. 4.7.6Agrippa Castor's refutation of Basilides has survived.
608. 4.7.7Agrippa Castor reports that Basilides wrote 24 books on the gospel, invented prophets, allowed eating idol food and denying the faith under persecution, and imposed five years' silence.
609. 4.7.8Agrippa Castor thoroughly exposed Basilides' error.
610. 4.7.9Irenaeus reports that Carpocrates' Gnostics practised magic openly and taught that shameful deeds were needed to escape the cosmic rulers.
611. 4.7.10Through them the devil ruined their followers and gave pagans material to slander all Christians.
612. 4.7.11Pagans came to accuse Christians of incest and cannibal feasts.
613. 4.7.12But the truth soon prevailed.
614. 4.7.13Heresies came and went, but the one true universal church grew, unchanged and shining on all peoples.
615. 4.7.14In time the slanders died away, and Christian teaching was acknowledged for its dignity and purity.
616. 4.7.15The truth raised up champions who refuted the heresies in writing too.
617. 4.8.1Hegesippus, often cited already, was one of these writers.
618. 4.8.2Hegesippus (quoted) dates himself by mentioning the recent deification of Hadrian's favourite Antinous.
619. 4.8.3Justin (quoted) also mentions the recent cult of Antinous.
620. 4.8.4Justin (quoted): Bar Kokhba punished Christians who would not deny Christ.
621. 4.8.5Justin (quoted): seeing Christians fearless of death convinced him, as a Platonist, that the slanders against them were false.
622. 4.8.6Justin reports that Hadrian, prompted by Granianus, ordered Fundanus to execute no Christian without a proper charge.
623. 4.8.7Justin (quoted) introduces the copy of Hadrian's letter, asking for just trials.
624. 4.8.8Eusebius translates Hadrian's Latin rescript into Greek.
625. 4.9.1Hadrian's rescript (quoted): the matter of the Christians must be investigated so that informers cannot exploit it.
626. 4.9.2Hadrian (quoted): accusers must bring formal charges in court, not petitions or popular outcry.
627. 4.9.3Hadrian (quoted): punish proven crimes, but punish false accusers too.
628. 4.10.1Under Antoninus Pius, Telesphorus of Rome died a martyr and Hyginus succeeded; Valentinus and Cerdo were then active in Rome.
629. 4.11.1Irenaeus (quoted): Valentinus was in Rome from Hyginus to Anicetus; Cerdo repeatedly confessed, taught secretly, and was expelled.
630. 4.11.2Irenaeus (quoted): Cerdo taught that the just God of the law is not the good, unknown Father of Christ; Marcion developed his school.
631. 4.11.3Irenaeus exposes the hidden wickedness of Valentinus's system.
632. 4.11.4Irenaeus describes Marcus, a magician of the same period, and his rites.
633. 4.11.5Irenaeus (quoted): the Marcosians perform a “bridal chamber” rite and a baptism in the name of the unknown Father, Truth, and the one who descended on Jesus.
634. 4.11.6Pius succeeded Hyginus at Rome; at Alexandria Mark and then Celadion succeeded Eumenes.
635. 4.11.7Anicetus succeeded Pius at Rome; Hegesippus stayed in Rome from his time until Eleutherus.
636. 4.11.8Justin, a philosopher-apologist, also wrote against Marcion while Marcion was still alive.
637. 4.11.9Justin (quoted): Marcion teaches that a god greater than the Creator is Christ's Father; his followers are still called Christians.
638. 4.11.10Justin (quoted) mentions his treatise against all heresies.
639. 4.11.11Justin, living in Rome, addressed an apology to Antoninus Pius and the senate, identifying himself in it.
640. 4.12.1Justin (quoted) addresses his apology to the emperor and his sons as a native of Flavia Neapolis; the emperor also issued an ordinance to the Council of Asia.
641. 4.13.1The imperial ordinance (quoted) to the Council of Asia begins.
642. 4.13.2The ordinance (quoted): the gods themselves will punish those who refuse to worship them.
643. 4.13.3The ordinance (quoted): persecution only strengthens Christians, who prefer death to obeying.
644. 4.13.4The ordinance (quoted) urges the Asians to compare their own conduct during earthquakes with the Christians'.
645. 4.13.5The ordinance (quoted): the Christians grow bolder toward God while the Asians neglect worship and persecute them.
646. 4.13.6The ordinance (quoted): as the emperor's father ruled, Christians are not to be troubled unless they plot against Rome.
647. 4.13.7The ordinance (quoted): accused Christians are to be acquitted and their accusers punished.
648. 4.13.8Melito of Sardis's apology to the emperor confirms these events.
649. 4.14.1Irenaeus reports that Polycarp visited Anicetus in Rome to discuss the date of Easter.
650. 4.14.2Eusebius introduces Irenaeus's account of Polycarp.
651. 4.14.3Irenaeus (quoted): Polycarp, taught by apostles and appointed by them bishop of Smyrna, was seen by Irenaeus in his youth.
652. 4.14.4Irenaeus (quoted): Polycarp lived long, died a glorious martyr, and always taught the apostles' doctrine.
653. 4.14.5Irenaeus (quoted): the Asian churches confirm Polycarp's teaching; in Rome he won many heretics back to the church.
654. 4.14.6Irenaeus (quoted): Polycarp told how John fled a bath-house because Cerinthus was inside.
655. 4.14.7Irenaeus (quoted): Polycarp called Marcion “the firstborn of Satan”; the apostles avoided all contact with heretics, as Paul teaches.
656. 4.14.8Irenaeus (quoted) commends Polycarp's letter to the Philippians.
657. 4.14.9Polycarp's letter uses testimonies from 1 Peter.
658. 4.14.10Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus succeeded Antoninus Pius.
659. 4.15.1During great persecutions in Asia Polycarp was martyred; Eusebius will record the account.
660. 4.15.2The account is a letter from Polycarp's church to other churches.
661. 4.15.3The Martyrdom of Polycarp (quoted) opens with Smyrna's greeting and says Polycarp's martyrdom ended the persecution.
662. 4.15.4The letter first describes other martyrs, scourged to the bone, laid on shells and spikes, and thrown to beasts.
663. 4.15.5Germanicus, though young, refused the proconsul's pleas and provoked the beast to kill him quickly.
664. 4.15.6Amazed at Germanicus's courage, the crowd cried, “Away with the atheists! Find Polycarp!”
665. 4.15.7Quintus, a Phrygian newcomer, lost courage at the sight of the beasts and fell away.
666. 4.15.8Quintus had rashly volunteered for martyrdom; his fall warns against seeking it recklessly.
667. 4.15.9Polycarp, calm, was persuaded to withdraw to a farm, where he prayed night and day for the churches.
668. 4.15.10Three days before his arrest Polycarp dreamed his pillow burned and foretold that he would die by fire.
669. 4.15.11Moving to another farm, Polycarp was found when a tortured slave betrayed him.
670. 4.15.12They found him late in an upper room; he declined to flee, saying, “God's will be done.”
671. 4.15.13Polycarp came down to his captors so serene that they marvelled at the effort spent to arrest such an old man.
672. 4.15.14He fed his captors, prayed for an hour full of grace, and many regretted arresting him.
673. 4.15.15The Martyrdom (quoted): after his prayer he was taken to the city on a great sabbath, and Herod and Nicetes urged him to call Caesar lord and sacrifice.
674. 4.15.16The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp refused; they threw him from the carriage, and he walked on unmoved to the stadium.
675. 4.15.17The Martyrdom (quoted): as he entered the stadium a heavenly voice said, “Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man.”
676. 4.15.18The Martyrdom (quoted): the proconsul urged Polycarp to respect his age, swear by Caesar's fortune, and say “Away with the atheists.”
677. 4.15.19The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp, gesturing at the pagan crowd, said, “Away with the atheists!”
678. 4.15.20The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp refused to revile Christ, whom he had served eighty-six years.
679. 4.15.21The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp declared, “I am a Christian,” and offered to explain the faith.
680. 4.15.22The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp would reason with the proconsul, as Christians honour authorities, but not with the mob.
681. 4.15.23The Martyrdom (quoted): threatened with beasts, Polycarp said Christians cannot “repent” from better to worse.
682. 4.15.24The Martyrdom (quoted): threatened with fire, Polycarp pointed to the eternal fire of judgment and told the proconsul to do as he wished.
683. 4.15.25The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp, radiant with joy, amazed the proconsul, who had the herald announce his confession three times.
684. 4.15.26The Martyrdom (quoted): the crowd raged against Polycarp as the teacher of Asia and destroyer of their gods.
685. 4.15.27The Martyrdom (quoted): the games being over, the crowd demanded that Polycarp be burned alive.
686. 4.15.28The Martyrdom (quoted): this fulfilled his vision of the burning pillow.
687. 4.15.29The Martyrdom (quoted): the crowd, especially the Jews, quickly gathered wood for the pyre.
688. 4.15.30The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp undressed himself, though the faithful had always vied to serve him.
689. 4.15.31The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp asked not to be nailed, trusting God to keep him still; they tied him instead.
690. 4.15.32The Martyrdom (quoted): bound like a ram chosen for sacrifice, Polycarp prayed.
691. 4.15.33The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp blessed God for counting him worthy to share Christ's cup among the martyrs.
692. 4.15.34The Martyrdom (quoted): he prayed to be received as an acceptable sacrifice.
693. 4.15.35The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp ended with praise to the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit.
694. 4.15.36The Martyrdom (quoted): the fire was lit, and the witnesses saw a marvel.
695. 4.15.37The Martyrdom (quoted): the fire formed a vault around him; he looked like refined gold, and a fragrance arose.
696. 4.15.38The Martyrdom (quoted): since the fire did not consume him, an executioner stabbed him.
697. 4.15.39The Martyrdom (quoted): his blood quenched the fire; Polycarp, apostolic and prophetic teacher, bishop of Smyrna, was one of the elect.
698. 4.15.40The Martyrdom (quoted): the devil tried to keep the Christians from recovering Polycarp's body.
699. 4.15.41The Martyrdom (quoted): Nicetes, urged by the Jews, asked that the body not be released lest Christians worship Polycarp; but Christians worship Christ alone.
700. 4.15.42The Martyrdom (quoted): Christians worship Christ the Son of God, but love the martyrs as his disciples and imitators.
701. 4.15.43The Martyrdom (quoted): the centurion burned the body; the Christians gathered the precious bones and laid them to rest.
702. 4.15.44The Martyrdom (quoted): the church will gather there yearly to celebrate the “birthday” of his martyrdom.
703. 4.15.45The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp was the twelfth martyr at Smyrna, yet above all remembered everywhere.
704. 4.15.46The same letter also recorded other Smyrnaean martyrs, including the Marcionite presbyter Metrodorus, burned alive.
705. 4.15.47The martyrdom of Pionius, with his confessions and endurance, is recorded in Eusebius's collection of early martyrdoms.
706. 4.15.48Records survive of the martyrs Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonice at Pergamum.
707. 4.16.1Justin, after presenting his second apology, was martyred through the plotting of the Cynic Crescens, whom he had often refuted.
708. 4.16.2Justin foretold this in his apology.
709. 4.16.3Justin (quoted) expects to be plotted against by Crescens, no philosopher but a slanderer courting popularity.
710. 4.16.4Justin (quoted): whether Crescens is ignorant of Christ's teaching or hides his understanding out of fear, he is wicked.
711. 4.16.5Justin (quoted): he questioned Crescens and proved his ignorance, and would repeat it before the emperors.
712. 4.16.6Justin (quoted): Crescens is ignorant or cowardly, a lover of glory rather than of wisdom.
713. 4.16.7Tatian (quoted) confirms that Justin was killed through Crescens.
714. 4.16.8Tatian (quoted): Crescens in Rome was notorious for pederasty and greed.
715. 4.16.9Tatian (quoted): Crescens, who preached contempt of death, feared it and plotted Justin's death for exposing the philosophers.
716. 4.17.1Justin records earlier martyrs in his apology.
717. 4.17.2Justin (quoted): a formerly dissolute woman, converted, urged her licentious husband to reform, warning of eternal punishment.
718. 4.17.3Justin (quoted): because her husband persisted in unnatural vice, she wished to separate from him.
719. 4.17.4Justin (quoted): urged by her family, she stayed, hoping he would change.
720. 4.17.5Justin (quoted): when her husband behaved even worse in Alexandria, she served him a bill of divorce (repudium) so as not to share his sins.
721. 4.17.6Justin (quoted): the husband, instead of rejoicing at her reform, denounced her as a Christian.
722. 4.17.7Justin (quoted): she petitioned the emperor for time to settle her affairs before answering, and it was granted.
723. 4.17.8Justin (quoted): the husband then turned on Ptolemaeus, her Christian teacher.
724. 4.17.9Justin (quoted): Ptolemaeus confessed he was a Christian and was long imprisoned.
725. 4.17.10Justin (quoted): before Urbicius Ptolemaeus again confessed Christ.
726. 4.17.11Justin (quoted): a true Christian has no reason to deny his faith.
727. 4.17.12Justin (quoted): Lucius protested that Ptolemaeus was condemned for no crime but the name of Christian.
728. 4.17.13Justin (quoted): Lucius confessed and was condemned too, thanking God; a third followed; Justin then foresees his own fate.
729. 4.18.1Eusebius lists Justin's many useful writings.
730. 4.18.2Justin wrote a first apology to Antoninus Pius and a second to his successor.
731. 4.18.3Justin also wrote a discourse Against the Greeks discussing the nature of demons.
732. 4.18.4Justin's Refutation and On the Sovereignty of God, proved from Scripture and Greek books, also survive.
733. 4.18.5Justin also wrote The Psalmist and a school treatise On the Soul.
734. 4.18.6Justin's Dialogue with Trypho, set at Ephesus, tells of his philosophical search and conversion.
735. 4.18.7Justin (quoted) accuses the Jewish leaders of sending envoys everywhere to slander Christians.
736. 4.18.8Justin says prophetic gifts still flourished, ascribes Revelation to the apostle John, and accuses the Jews of cutting passages from Scripture.
737. 4.18.9Irenaeus (quoted) twice cites Justin: he would not believe even the Lord if he preached another God, and Satan blasphemed God only after Christ's coming.
738. 4.18.10Eusebius commends Justin's works to readers.
739. 4.19.1Soter succeeded Anicetus at Rome, and Agrippinus succeeded Celadion at Alexandria.
740. 4.20.1Theophilus was sixth bishop of Antioch after Heros, Cornelius, and Eros.
741. 4.21.1Eusebius lists the orthodox writers of this period, from Hegesippus to Irenaeus.
742. 4.22.1Hegesippus met many bishops on his way to Rome and found the same teaching among all.
743. 4.22.2Hegesippus (quoted): the Corinthian church held the right doctrine under Primus, with whom he stayed on his way to Rome.
744. 4.22.3Hegesippus (quoted): in Rome he compiled the succession of bishops; in every succession and city the teaching agrees with the law, prophets, and Lord.
745. 4.22.4Hegesippus (quoted): after James's martyrdom Simeon, the Lord's cousin, became bishop; the church was then called a virgin, uncorrupted.
746. 4.22.5Hegesippus (quoted): Thebuthis, disappointed of the bishopric, began the corruption; from the Jewish sects came Simon and others, and from them the later heresies.
747. 4.22.6Hegesippus (quoted): from them came false Christs, prophets, and apostles who divided the church.
748. 4.22.7Hegesippus (quoted) lists seven Jewish sects: Essenes, Galileans, Hemerobaptists, Masbothei, Samaritans, Sadducees, and Pharisees.
749. 4.22.8Hegesippus used the Gospel of the Hebrews and the Syriac and Hebrew, suggesting he was a Jewish Christian.
750. 4.22.9Hegesippus and the ancients called Proverbs “All-virtuous Wisdom”; he says some apocrypha were forged by heretics of his day.
751. 4.23.1Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, wrote useful catholic letters to many churches.
752. 4.23.2Dionysius wrote to Sparta on orthodoxy and peace, and to Athens, which had nearly fallen away after its bishop Publius was martyred.
753. 4.23.3Quadratus restored the Athenian church after Publius; Dionysius the Areopagite was its first bishop.
754. 4.23.4Dionysius's letter to Nicomedia attacks Marcion's heresy.
755. 4.23.5Dionysius praised Bishop Philip of Gortyna's church and warned the Cretans against heretics.
756. 4.23.6Dionysius wrote to Amastris and Pontus with scriptural exposition, much counsel on marriage and chastity, and a command to receive back all who repent of sin or heresy.
757. 4.23.7Dionysius urged Pinytus of Cnossus not to impose celibacy on the brothers as a necessity, but to consider the weakness of the many.
758. 4.23.8Pinytus replied, asking Dionysius for more solid teaching rather than milk; his letter shows his orthodoxy and learning.
759. 4.23.9Dionysius's letter to Soter of Rome praises a long-standing Roman custom.
760. 4.23.10Dionysius (quoted): Rome has always sent aid to churches and to Christians in the mines, a custom Soter has increased.
761. 4.23.11Dionysius (quoted): Corinth reads Soter's letter on the Lord's day, as it always reads Clement's earlier letter.
762. 4.23.12Dionysius (quoted): heretics have altered his letters, so it is no wonder they tamper with the Lord's Scriptures.
763. 4.23.13Dionysius also wrote a letter of spiritual counsel to Chrysophora, a faithful Christian woman.
764. 4.24.1Theophilus of Antioch wrote To Autolycus, works against Hermogenes and Marcion, and catechetical books, as pastors everywhere fought the heretics; Maximinus succeeded him.
765. 4.25.1Philip of Gortyna, Irenaeus, Modestus, and others wrote against Marcion.
766. 4.26.1Melito of Sardis and Apolinarius of Hierapolis each addressed an apology to the emperor.
767. 4.26.2Eusebius lists Melito's many works, from On the Passover to his apology to Antoninus.
768. 4.26.3Melito (quoted) dates his On the Passover to a dispute at Laodicea under the proconsul Servilius Paulus, when Sagaris was martyred.
769. 4.26.4Clement of Alexandria wrote his own On the Passover in response to Melito's.
770. 4.26.5Melito (quoted): new decrees in Asia let informers plunder innocent Christians day and night.
771. 4.26.6Melito (quoted) asks the emperor to judge the case himself, and not to abandon Christians to plunder under a decree unfit even for enemies.
772. 4.26.7Melito (quoted): Christianity, arising with Augustus, has brought blessing to the empire, which the emperor should protect.
773. 4.26.8Melito (quoted): since Augustus the empire has prospered, proving Christianity's good influence.
774. 4.26.9Melito (quoted): only Nero and Domitian, misled by the malicious, slandered the faith.
775. 4.26.10Melito (quoted): Hadrian and Antoninus wrote to governors and cities forbidding action against Christians.
776. 4.26.11Melito (quoted) trusts the philosopher-emperor to grant his request.
777. 4.26.12Melito's Extracts begins with a list of the Old Testament books.
778. 4.26.13Melito (quoted) writes to Onesimus, who asked for extracts about the Saviour and for the number and order of the Old Testament books.
779. 4.26.14Melito (quoted), after a journey to Palestine, lists the Old Testament books, which match the Hebrew canon but for Esther's absence.
780. 4.27.1Apolinarius wrote an apology, books against Greeks and Jews, On Truth, and works against the newly rising Montanist heresy.
781. 4.28.1Musanus wrote to recall brothers drawn to the new Encratite heresy, said to have been founded by Tatian.
782. 4.29.1Tatian, Justin's disciple, is described by Irenaeus.
783. 4.29.2Irenaeus (quoted): the Encratites rejected marriage, implicitly accusing the Creator of male and female, abstained from meat, and denied Adam's salvation.
784. 4.29.3Irenaeus (quoted): Tatian, after Justin's martyrdom, left the church, taught Valentinian-like Aeons, called marriage corruption and immorality, and denied Adam's salvation.
785. 4.29.4Later one Severus strengthened the heresy, and its followers were called Severians.
786. 4.29.5The Severians use the Law, Prophets, and Gospels, but reject Paul and Acts.
787. 4.29.6Tatian compiled the Diatessaron, a harmony of the four Gospels, and is said to have rephrased some of Paul's words.
788. 4.29.7Tatian's best work is his Oration to the Greeks, which shows Moses and the prophets older than all Greek sages.
789. 4.30.1In Mesopotamia Bardesanes wrote Syriac dialogues against Marcion and others, later translated into Greek.
790. 4.30.2His works include a dialogue On Fate addressed to Antoninus.
791. 4.30.3Bardesanes left the Valentinians but never fully shed their errors; Soter of Rome died at this time.
792. 5.0.1Eusebius dates Book 5 by the succession of Eleutherus at Rome and the renewed popular persecution under Marcus Aurelius, which produced countless martyrs.
793. 5.0.2Eusebius refers readers to his fuller collection of martyr accounts and promises to select what belongs here.
794. 5.0.3Ordinary historians record wars, victories, and bloodshed for country and property.
795. 5.0.4Eusebius's history instead celebrates the spiritual warfare of the martyrs and their victories over demons.
796. 5.1.1The martyrdoms of AD 177 took place in Gaul, at Lyons and Vienne on the Rhône.
797. 5.1.2The churches of Gaul sent an account of their martyrs to the churches of Asia and Phrygia.
798. 5.1.3The letter of the churches of Vienne and Lyons opens with a greeting to the brothers in Asia and Phrygia.
799. 5.1.4The letter says that the persecution in Gaul was too great to describe fully.
800. 5.1.5Satan's attack began with Christians being barred from homes, baths, the market, and every public place.
801. 5.1.6God's grace raised up steadfast believers who endured every abuse and hurried to Christ.
802. 5.1.7The Christians first suffered mob violence of every kind.
803. 5.1.8After public examination and confession, they were imprisoned to await the governor.
804. 5.1.9Vettius Epagathus, a young man of exemplary life, demanded to be heard in defence of the accused Christians.
805. 5.1.10When Vettius confessed he was a Christian he was numbered among the martyrs, a true disciple who had the Spirit as his advocate.
806. 5.1.11Some were ready for martyrdom, but about ten fell away, grieving the church and discouraging others.
807. 5.1.12The church feared not the tortures but that more would fall away.
808. 5.1.13Daily arrests brought in the leading members of both churches.
809. 5.1.14Pagan slaves, under pressure, falsely accused the Christians of cannibalism and incest.
810. 5.1.15The slanders turned everyone against the Christians, fulfilling Christ's prediction in John 16:2.
811. 5.1.16The martyrs endured indescribable tortures as Satan tried to make them blaspheme.
812. 5.1.17The persecutors' fury fell especially on Sanctus, Maturus, Attalus, and the slave Blandina.
813. 5.1.18Blandina, though a frail slave, endured a whole day of torture until her torturers admitted defeat.
814. 5.1.19Blandina found strength by repeating, “I am a Christian, and nothing vile is done among us.”
815. 5.1.20Sanctus answered every question, even about his name, only with “I am a Christian.”
816. 5.1.21In frustration the torturers applied red-hot plates to Sanctus's body.
817. 5.1.22Sanctus stood firm, refreshed by the living water that flows from Christ.
818. 5.1.23Christ suffered in the mangled Sanctus, showing that where God's love is nothing is to be feared.
819. 5.1.24When Sanctus was tortured again, his body was unexpectedly restored, so that the torture became a healing.
820. 5.1.25Biblis, who had denied Christ, was tortured to make her slander the Christians.
821. 5.1.26Under torture Biblis repented, denied the slander of cannibalism, confessed Christ, and joined the martyrs.
822. 5.1.27The devil next used dark, cruel imprisonment, and many died of suffocation in prison.
823. 5.1.28Some badly tortured prisoners survived by God's strength, while newly arrested ones died in the prison.
824. 5.1.29Pothinus, the more than ninety-year-old bishop of Lyons, was dragged to the tribunal despite his frailty.
825. 5.1.30Amid the shouts of the crowd, Pothinus bore good witness before the tribunal.
826. 5.1.31Pothinus answered the governor boldly, was beaten by the mob, and died in prison two days later.
827. 5.1.32God then showed remarkable mercy in the church.
828. 5.1.33Those who had denied Christ gained nothing: they were held as murderers and suffered more than the confessors.
829. 5.1.34The confessors were upheld by joy and the Spirit; the deniers were tormented by conscience.
830. 5.1.35The confessors went out radiant like a bride, the deniers in disgrace, and this sight strengthened others to confess.
831. 5.1.36The martyrs' various deaths were like a crown of many flowers offered to the Father.
832. 5.1.37Maturus, Sanctus, Blandina, and Attalus were brought to the beasts in the amphitheatre.
833. 5.1.38Maturus and Sanctus endured scourging, the beasts, and the red-hot iron chair.
834. 5.1.39The crowd raged on, but Sanctus said nothing but his confession.
835. 5.1.40Maturus and Sanctus were finally killed, made a spectacle to the world.
836. 5.1.41Blandina, hung as on a cross, inspired the others, who saw Christ crucified in her.
837. 5.1.42Untouched by the beasts, Blandina was kept for a later contest, a weak woman clothed with Christ the invincible athlete.
838. 5.1.43The well-known Attalus was demanded by the crowd and entered the arena ready.
839. 5.1.44Attalus was paraded with a placard, but as a Roman citizen he was returned to prison pending the emperor's decision.
840. 5.1.45Meanwhile the confessors restored those who had denied, and the church, the virgin mother, rejoiced to receive them back alive.
841. 5.1.46Most of those who had denied were restored and came back to confess before the governor.
842. 5.1.47Following the emperor's rescript, the governor re-examined the prisoners at the great festival, beheading citizens and sending the rest to the beasts.
843. 5.1.48Most former deniers now confessed and were martyred; only those without any real faith stayed outside.
844. 5.1.49Alexander, a Phrygian physician, urged the accused by signs to confess, as though in labour for them.
845. 5.1.50Alexander was blamed by the crowd, confessed, and was condemned to the beasts with Attalus.
846. 5.1.51Alexander and Attalus died after every torture, Alexander silently praying.
847. 5.1.52Roasting on the iron chair, Attalus told the crowd that they, not the Christians, were eating people, and that God has no name like a man.
848. 5.1.53On the last day Blandina and the fifteen-year-old Ponticus, who had refused to swear by the idols, were brought in.
849. 5.1.54Encouraged by Blandina, Ponticus endured every torture and died.
850. 5.1.55Blandina, like a noble mother who had sent her children ahead, went joyfully to her death as to a wedding feast.
851. 5.1.56After scourging, beasts, and the hot chair, Blandina was tossed by a bull and killed; even the pagans admired her endurance.
852. 5.1.57Even then the persecutors' rage turned against the martyrs' bodies.
853. 5.1.58Defeat only enraged the persecutors, fulfilling Rev 22:11.
854. 5.1.59The martyrs' remains were left unburied and guarded so that the Christians could not bury them.
855. 5.1.60Onlookers raged, mocked, or asked where the Christians' God was.
856. 5.1.61The Christians grieved that neither bribes nor pleas allowed them to bury the martyrs.
857. 5.1.62After six days the martyrs' bodies were burned and their ashes thrown into the Rhône.
858. 5.1.63The pagans destroyed the bodies to mock the Christian hope of resurrection.
859. 5.2.1Eusebius adds further extracts from the letter on the martyrs' gentleness.
860. 5.2.2The confessors, imitating Christ's humility, refused to be called martyrs.
861. 5.2.3They gave the title “martyr” to Christ and the dead, calling themselves mere confessors and asking for prayer.
862. 5.2.4They showed a martyr's courage but in the fear of God refused the title.
863. 5.2.5The confessors humbly defended and forgave everyone and prayed for their persecutors, like Stephen.
864. 5.2.6Out of love the confessors fought to rescue the lapsed from the devil, weeping for them before the Father.
865. 5.2.7The martyrs obtained life for others and departed in peace, leaving the church concord and love.
866. 5.2.8Eusebius cites this example of mercy to the lapsed as a rebuke to the harshness of later rigorists.
867. 5.3.1Eusebius introduces another story from the letter of the martyrs of Gaul.
868. 5.3.2Attalus received a revelation that Alcibiades's strict diet of bread and water was wrong and a stumbling block.
869. 5.3.3Alcibiades obeyed, ate freely, and gave thanks; the Holy Spirit guided the martyrs.
870. 5.3.4When the Montanist prophecy in Phrygia caused dispute, the Gallic confessors sent letters on it to Asia and to Eleutherus of Rome, seeking the churches' peace.
871. 5.4.1The martyrs recommended the presbyter Irenaeus to Eleutherus of Rome.
872. 5.4.2The martyrs' letter to Eleutherus commends Irenaeus as zealous for Christ's covenant.
873. 5.4.3Eusebius refers readers to his martyr collection for the full list of those who died.
874. 5.5.1In a campaign against the Germans, Christian soldiers of the Melitene legion knelt and prayed while Marcus Aurelius's army suffered from thirst.
875. 5.5.2Lightning routed the enemy and rain saved the Roman army.
876. 5.5.3Pagan historians record the miracle but do not credit Christian prayer; Christian writers do.
877. 5.5.4Apolinarius says the legion was afterwards called “the Thundering Legion.”
878. 5.5.5Tertullian's Apology also confirms the story.
879. 5.5.6According to Tertullian, a letter of Marcus Aurelius credited the Christians' prayers and threatened their accusers.
880. 5.5.7Tertullian protests that the laws against Christians were not enforced by earlier emperors.
881. 5.5.8Irenaeus succeeded Pothinus as bishop of Lyons; in youth he had heard Polycarp.
882. 5.5.9In Against Heresies Book 3, Irenaeus lists the bishops of Rome down to Eleutherus.
883. 5.6.1Irenaeus: the apostles entrusted the church of Rome to Linus, followed by Anencletus.
884. 5.6.2Clement, third bishop of Rome, had known the apostles and their teaching.
885. 5.6.3Under Clement the Roman church wrote to Corinth to restore peace and faith.
886. 5.6.4Irenaeus continues the Roman list to Eleutherus, the twelfth bishop after the apostles.
887. 5.6.5Through this succession the apostolic tradition and truth have reached Irenaeus's day.
888. 5.7.1Irenaeus also testifies that miracles still occurred in the churches of his day.
889. 5.7.2Irenaeus: the heretics cannot raise the dead, but in the church the dead have been restored through fasting and prayer.
890. 5.7.3Irenaeus: Christ's miracles were real and foretold, and his true disciples still work wonders in his name.
891. 5.7.4Irenaeus lists exorcisms, prophecy, healings, and even resurrections in the church of his day.
892. 5.7.5Irenaeus: the church's gifts are countless and are used freely for the good of all.
893. 5.7.6Irenaeus also reports prophecy, tongues, and other spiritual gifts in his day.
894. 5.8.1Eusebius will now quote Irenaeus on the books of Scripture.
895. 5.8.2Irenaeus: Matthew wrote his Gospel in the Hebrews' language while Peter and Paul preached in Rome.
896. 5.8.3Irenaeus: Mark recorded Peter's preaching and Luke Paul's.
897. 5.8.4Irenaeus: John, the beloved disciple, published his Gospel at Ephesus.
898. 5.8.5Irenaeus defends the number 666 in the Apocalypse as found in the best copies and attested by John's hearers.
899. 5.8.6Irenaeus refuses to name the Antichrist and dates John's vision to the end of Domitian's reign.
900. 5.8.7Irenaeus uses 1 John and 1 Peter and quotes the Shepherd of Hermas as Scripture.
901. 5.8.8Irenaeus also uses Wisdom of Solomon and the expositions of an unnamed apostolic presbyter.
902. 5.8.9Irenaeus cites Justin and Ignatius and promised a separate work against Marcion.
903. 5.8.10Irenaeus defends the Septuagint's “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 against the “young woman” of Theodotion and Aquila, whom the Ebionites follow.
904. 5.8.11Irenaeus: Ptolemy son of Lagus asked the Jews for a Greek translation of their Scriptures for his library.
905. 5.8.12The Jews sent seventy elders skilled in both languages.
906. 5.8.13Ptolemy had each translator work separately on every book.
907. 5.8.14All the translations agreed word for word, showing that the Greek Scriptures were translated by divine inspiration.
908. 5.8.15Irenaeus: God had earlier inspired Ezra to restore the lost Scriptures after the exile.
909. 5.9.1Commodus became emperor, and Julian succeeded Agrippinus as bishop of Alexandria.
910. 5.10.1Pantaenus, a former Stoic, headed the Christian school at Alexandria.
911. 5.10.2Pantaenus went as a missionary as far as India, one of many evangelists of that time.
912. 5.10.3In India Pantaenus reportedly found Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew, left there by the apostle Bartholomew.
913. 5.10.4Pantaenus finally headed the Alexandrian school, teaching by voice and pen.
914. 5.11.1Clement of Alexandria, trained with Pantaenus, became known at this time.
915. 5.11.2Clement names Pantaenus as his teacher in the Outlines and alludes to him in the Miscellanies.
916. 5.11.3Clement: his Miscellanies are notes preserving what he heard from remarkable teachers.
917. 5.11.4Clement lists teachers from many lands and says he found rest with the last and greatest, in Egypt.
918. 5.11.5Clement: these teachers preserved the apostles' tradition and passed it on to him.
919. 5.12.1Narcissus was bishop of Jerusalem, fifteenth after the first Gentile bishop Mark.
920. 5.12.2Eusebius lists the bishops of Jerusalem from Mark to Narcissus, the thirtieth after the apostles.
921. 5.13.1Rhodon, a pupil of Tatian, wrote against Marcion's heresy and its divisions.
922. 5.13.2Rhodon: the Marcionites disagree; Apelles holds one first principle but ascribes the prophecies to a hostile spirit, following the prophetess Philumene.
923. 5.13.3Rhodon: others, like Marcion, hold two first principles.
924. 5.13.4Rhodon: some Marcionites assert two principles without proof, and Syneros's followers assert three.
925. 5.13.5Rhodon reports a debate with Apelles, who said doctrine need not be examined and that those who hope in the Crucified and do good works will be saved.
926. 5.13.6Apelles told Rhodon that the prophecies refute themselves and that he could not prove his belief in one principle.
927. 5.13.7Apelles admitted he believed in one unbegotten God without knowing how to prove it, and Rhodon mocked him.
928. 5.13.8Rhodon, once Tatian's pupil, promised to answer Tatian's Problems and wrote on the six days of creation.
929. 5.13.9Apelles wrote much against the law of Moses.
930. 5.14.1The devil raised new heresies; in Asia and Phrygia Montanus was hailed as the Paraclete, with Priscilla and Maximilla as his prophetesses.
931. 5.15.1At Rome the deposed presbyter Florinus and Blastus led others into their own innovations.
932. 5.16.1Apolinarius of Hierapolis and other learned men wrote against the Montanists.
933. 5.16.2An anonymous writer against the Montanists had first refuted them orally.
934. 5.16.3The anonymous writer hesitated to write against the Montanists lest he seem to add to the New Testament.
935. 5.16.4At Ancyra the writer debated the Montanists for many days, strengthening the church.
936. 5.16.5The local presbyters asked for a written record, which he promised to send.
937. 5.16.6The anonymous writer turns to the origin of Montanism.
938. 5.16.7Montanus, a recent convert at Ardabau, began to prophesy in ecstatic frenzy contrary to the church's tradition.
939. 5.16.8Some hearers rebuked Montanus as possessed; others, deceived, encouraged him.
940. 5.16.9Two women were also filled with this spirit, which flattered its followers and taught them to revile the whole church for rejecting it.
941. 5.16.10Repeated meetings of the Asian faithful condemned the new prophecy and excommunicated its followers.
942. 5.16.11The writer's second book tells of the Montanist leaders' deaths.
943. 5.16.12The writer answers the charge of killing prophets: none of the Montanist prophets suffered as the true prophets did.
944. 5.16.13Rumour said Montanus and Maximilla hanged themselves like Judas.
945. 5.16.14Theodotus, an early Montanist leader, reportedly fell to his death during an ecstatic ascent.
946. 5.16.15The writer admits he cannot confirm these reports.
947. 5.16.16Bishops who tried to examine Maximilla's spirit were prevented by her supporters.
948. 5.16.17The writer challenges Maximilla's spirit, which claimed to be “word and spirit and power,” to prove itself before the bishops her followers silenced.
949. 5.16.18The writer dates his work and refutes Maximilla's predictions of war.
950. 5.16.19Thirteen years after Maximilla's death, no war had come, but peace for Christians.
951. 5.16.20When refuted, the Montanists appeal to their many martyrs as proof.
952. 5.16.21Martyrs prove nothing: the Marcionites have many martyrs but do not truly confess Christ.
953. 5.16.22Catholic martyrs refused communion with Montanist martyrs even when dying together.
954. 5.17.1The anonymous writer cites Miltiades, who argued that a true prophet does not speak in ecstasy.
955. 5.17.2The false prophet speaks in an ecstasy that begins in wilful ignorance and ends in madness.
956. 5.17.3No biblical or later prophet — Agabus, Judas, Silas, Philip's daughters, Ammia, Quadratus — prophesied in such ecstasy.
957. 5.17.4If the Montanist women inherited prophecy, who inherited it from them? None has appeared in fourteen years since Maximilla's death.
958. 5.17.5Miltiades also wrote against Greeks and Jews and an apology to the rulers; all are lost.
959. 5.18.1Apollonius wrote against the Montanists, exposing their prophecies and their leaders' lives.
960. 5.18.2Apollonius: Montanus dissolved marriages, imposed fasts, called Pepuza “Jerusalem,” and raised money to pay his preachers.
961. 5.18.3Apollonius: the prophetesses left their husbands, yet Prisca was falsely called a virgin.
962. 5.18.4Apollonius: a prophetess who takes gold, silver, and fine clothes must be rejected.
963. 5.18.5Apollonius: Themiso bribed his way out of prison, yet posed as a martyr and wrote a “catholic letter” in imitation of the apostle.
964. 5.18.6Apollonius: the prophetess feasts with Alexander, a so-called martyr who was really a convicted robber.
965. 5.18.7Apollonius: contrary to Christ's command, the Montanist prophets and martyrs extort money even from the poor, orphans, and widows.
966. 5.18.8A prophet must be tested by his fruits.
967. 5.18.9Alexander was tried at Ephesus for robbery, not for the faith, and his own church would not receive him.
968. 5.18.10A prophet who failed to see through Alexander is himself exposed.
969. 5.18.11Apollonius: true prophets do not dye their hair, use make-up, gamble, or lend at interest, as the Montanist prophets do.
970. 5.18.12Apollonius wrote forty years after Montanus began to prophesy.
971. 5.18.13Apollonius confirms that Zoticus was prevented from examining Maximilla's spirit, and mentions the martyr Thraseas.
972. 5.18.14Apollonius records a tradition that the apostles stayed twelve years in Jerusalem, uses the Apocalypse, and tells of John raising a dead man at Ephesus.
973. 5.19.1Serapion, bishop of Antioch, refers to Apolinarius's writings against the Montanists in a letter to Caricus and Pontius.
974. 5.19.2Serapion sends Apolinarius's writings to show that the whole church abhors the “New Prophecy.”
975. 5.19.3Bishops signed Serapion's letter; one testifies that Sotas of Anchialus tried to exorcize Priscilla's demon but was prevented.
976. 5.19.4Many other bishops signed in agreement.
977. 5.20.1Irenaeus wrote letters against Blastus and Florinus and a treatise On the Ogdoad against Florinus's drift into Valentinianism.
978. 5.20.2Irenaeus adjures future copyists to check their copies carefully and to copy his oath too.
979. 5.20.3Eusebius commends Irenaeus's care for accurate copying.
980. 5.20.4Irenaeus tells Florinus that his doctrines are foreign to the church and to the presbyters who knew the apostles.
981. 5.20.5Irenaeus recalls seeing Florinus, then a courtier, with Polycarp when Irenaeus was a boy.
982. 5.20.6Irenaeus vividly remembers Polycarp recounting what he had heard from John and other eyewitnesses of the Lord.
983. 5.20.7Irenaeus is sure that Polycarp would have stopped his ears and fled on hearing Florinus's teaching.
984. 5.20.8Polycarp's letters confirm this.
985. 5.21.1Under Commodus the church enjoyed peace and grew, even among the Roman nobility.
986. 5.21.2The devil had Apollonius, a learned Roman Christian, accused before a court.
987. 5.21.3The informer was himself punished by having his legs broken.
988. 5.21.4Apollonius defended the faith before the senate and was beheaded.
989. 5.21.5Apollonius's trial is recorded in Eusebius's martyr collection.
990. 5.22.1Eusebius lists the bishops of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Caesarea, Jerusalem, Corinth, and Ephesus around 189.
991. 5.23.1The Easter controversy: the Asian churches ended the paschal fast on the fourteenth of the month whatever the weekday; the rest of the church ended it only on the Sunday of the resurrection.
992. 5.23.2Synods decreed that Easter be celebrated and the fast ended only on a Sunday.
993. 5.23.3Letters survive from synods in Palestine, Rome, Pontus, and Gaul.
994. 5.23.4Osrhoene, Corinth, and many others agreed in the same decision.
995. 5.24.1The Asian bishops, led by Polycrates of Ephesus, defended their older custom in a letter to Victor.
996. 5.24.2Polycrates: Asia's great dead, including the apostle Philip and his daughters, await the resurrection.
997. 5.24.3Polycrates: John, who leaned on the Lord's breast, is buried at Ephesus.
998. 5.24.4Polycrates: Polycarp and Thraseas also rest at Smyrna.
999. 5.24.5Polycrates adds Sagaris, Papirius, and Melito of Sardis.
1000. 5.24.6Polycrates: all these, and his seven bishop relatives, kept the fourteenth day, as he does.
1001. 5.24.7Polycrates, sixty-five years in the Lord, will not be intimidated: one must obey God rather than men.
1002. 5.24.8Polycrates says many bishops assembled with him and approved his letter.
1003. 5.24.9Victor of Rome tried to excommunicate all the churches of Asia.
1004. 5.24.10Other bishops sharply urged Victor to keep peace.
1005. 5.24.11Irenaeus agreed with Sunday observance but urged Victor not to cut off churches keeping an ancient custom.
1006. 5.24.12Irenaeus: practice varies also in the length of the paschal fast.
1007. 5.24.13Irenaeus: such differences are old and did not break the peace; diversity in fasting confirms unity in faith.
1008. 5.24.14Irenaeus: earlier Roman bishops did not keep the fourteenth day, yet remained at peace with those who did.
1009. 5.24.15Irenaeus: earlier Roman bishops sent the eucharist to visitors from communities who kept the fourteenth day.
1010. 5.24.16Polycarp and Anicetus of Rome each kept his own custom, having failed to persuade one another.
1011. 5.24.17Anicetus let Polycarp celebrate the eucharist in Rome, and they parted in peace.
1012. 5.24.18Irenaeus, a peacemaker as his name implies, wrote to many church leaders about the controversy.
1013. 5.25.1The Palestinian bishops asked that their letter be circulated and noted that Alexandria kept the same day as they did.
1014. 5.26.1Eusebius lists Irenaeus's other works, including the Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, and records the accession of Severus.
1015. 5.27.1Eusebius lists other writers of the period — Heraclitus, Maximus, Candidus, Apion, Sextus, Arabianus — and many anonymous orthodox works.
1016. 5.28.1Eusebius introduces an anonymous work against the heresy of Artemon.
1017. 5.28.2The anonymous author refutes the claim that the “mere man” Christology was ancient.
1018. 5.28.3The Artemonites claimed their view was apostolic and held in Rome until Victor, and corrupted under Zephyrinus.
1019. 5.28.4Scripture and earlier writers — Justin, Miltiades, Tatian, Clement — contradict them, calling Christ God.
1020. 5.28.5Irenaeus, Melito, and the church's early hymns all proclaim Christ as God.
1021. 5.28.6Victor himself excommunicated Theodotus the cobbler, the first to call Christ a mere man.
1022. 5.28.7Zephyrinus succeeded Victor about 199; the anonymous author tells of an event in his time.
1023. 5.28.8The author tells the story of Natalius, a confessor of his own day.
1024. 5.28.9Natalius was misled by two disciples of Theodotus the cobbler.
1025. 5.28.10They made Natalius their bishop for a monthly salary.
1026. 5.28.11Christ warned Natalius in visions, not wanting a confessor to perish outside the church.
1027. 5.28.12Scourged by angels in the night, Natalius repented in sackcloth and was with difficulty readmitted by Zephyrinus.
1028. 5.28.13The Artemonites tamper with Scripture and treat it as material for logical syllogisms.
1029. 5.28.14They neglect Scripture for Euclid, Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Galen.
1030. 5.28.15They corrupt the faith with pagan learning and have altered the Scriptures, claiming to correct them.
1031. 5.28.16Their copies of Scripture disagree with one another.
1032. 5.28.17Each Artemonite teacher's “corrected” text differs, and some even from their own earlier versions.
1033. 5.28.18To alter Scripture is either unbelief in the Spirit's inspiration or a claim to be wiser than the Spirit.
1034. 5.28.19Some rejected the law and prophets altogether, under the pretext of grace.
1035. 6.1.1Under Severus many were martyred at Alexandria, among them Leonides, father of the young Origen.
1036. 6.2.1Eusebius will give a brief account of Origen's life from letters and eyewitnesses.
1037. 6.2.2The setting: the tenth year of Severus (202), Laetus prefect of Egypt, Demetrius bishop of Alexandria.
1038. 6.2.3The boy Origen was seized with a passion for martyrdom.
1039. 6.2.4Only his mother, by God's providence, kept him from martyrdom.
1040. 6.2.5When his father was arrested, his mother hid Origen's clothes to keep him at home.
1041. 6.2.6Origen wrote to his imprisoned father urging him not to waver for his family's sake.
1042. 6.2.7Origen was trained in the Scriptures from boyhood by his father.
1043. 6.2.8His father made him memorize and recite Scripture daily.
1044. 6.2.9Not content with the plain sense, the boy Origen pressed his father about Scripture's deeper meaning.
1045. 6.2.10His father outwardly rebuked him but privately thanked God for such a son.
1046. 6.2.11His father would kiss the sleeping boy's breast as a dwelling of the Spirit.
1047. 6.2.12After his father's martyrdom, Origen, not yet seventeen, was left with his mother and six brothers.
1048. 6.2.13Impoverished, Origen was taken in by a rich woman who also supported a heretic.
1049. 6.2.14Origen refused ever to pray with the heretic Paul, keeping the church's rule.
1050. 6.2.15Origen supported himself by teaching grammar.
1051. 6.3.1With the catechists driven out by persecution, pagans came to Origen for instruction.
1052. 6.3.2His first pupils were Plutarch, later a martyr, and Heraclas, later bishop of Alexandria.
1053. 6.3.3At eighteen Origen headed the catechetical school and became famous for supporting the martyrs.
1054. 6.3.4Origen boldly accompanied and kissed the martyrs on their way to death, narrowly escaping stoning.
1055. 6.3.5God protected Origen from repeated plots; soldiers were even posted around his house.
1056. 6.3.6Hunted from house to house, Origen still drew many by his teaching and his holy life.
1057. 6.3.7Origen's life matched his teaching, and many imitated him.
1058. 6.3.8Put in sole charge of catechesis, Origen gave up teaching grammar.
1059. 6.3.9Origen sold his books for a small daily income and lived an austere life of study, fasting, and little sleep.
1060. 6.3.10He literally kept Christ's commands about one coat, no shoes, and no anxiety for tomorrow.
1061. 6.3.11He refused others' offers of help and lived in extreme poverty.
1062. 6.3.12He went barefoot for years and abstained from wine and all but necessary food, endangering his health.
1063. 6.3.13His example drew educated pagans, some of whom became martyrs.
1064. 6.4.1Plutarch was the first of Origen's pupils martyred; Origen nearly died with him.
1065. 6.4.2Serenus was burned for the faith.
1066. 6.4.3Heraclides, Hero, another Serenus, and the catechumen Herais, “baptized by fire,” were also martyred.
1067. 6.5.1Basilides led to death the famous virgin Potamiaena, who was burned with her mother Marcella.
1068. 6.5.2Threatened with rape by gladiators, Potamiaena gave an answer the judge took as impious.
1069. 6.5.3Basilides protected her from the crowd, and she promised to pray for him after her death.
1070. 6.5.4She died as boiling pitch was poured slowly over her.
1071. 6.5.5Basilides refused to take an oath, confessed he was a Christian, and was imprisoned.
1072. 6.5.6Potamiaena appeared to Basilides and crowned him; he was baptized and beheaded the next day.
1073. 6.5.7Many others at Alexandria converted after dreams of Potamiaena.
1074. 6.6.1Clement, successor of Pantaenus and teacher of Origen, wrote the Miscellanies under Severus.
1075. 6.7.1A writer named Jude, commenting on Daniel's seventy weeks, thought the Antichrist was near.
1076. 6.8.1Eusebius introduces a rash but devout act of the young Origen.
1077. 6.8.2Taking Matt 19:12 literally, and to avoid scandal in teaching women, Origen castrated himself.
1078. 6.8.3Demetrius at first admired Origen's zeal and encouraged him to continue teaching.
1079. 6.8.4Later, jealous of Origen's fame, Demetrius denounced the deed when bishops in Palestine ordained Origen presbyter.
1080. 6.8.5Having no other charge, Demetrius accused Origen and those who ordained him.
1081. 6.8.6Meanwhile Origen taught day and night at Alexandria.
1082. 6.8.7Caracalla succeeded Severus; the confessor Alexander became bishop of Jerusalem while Narcissus still lived.
1083. 6.9.1Jerusalem preserved traditions of Narcissus's miracles.
1084. 6.9.2At an Easter vigil when the lamp oil ran out, Narcissus had water brought to him.
1085. 6.9.3At his prayer the water became oil, and some of it was kept as a relic.
1086. 6.9.4Wicked men, fearing exposure, slandered Narcissus.
1087. 6.9.5The accusers swore self-curses, but no believer credited them.
1088. 6.9.6Narcissus withdrew into the desert for many years.
1089. 6.9.7Divine justice fulfilled the first two perjurers' curses: one burned, one was diseased.
1090. 6.9.8The third confessed and wept until he went blind.
1091. 6.10.1In his absence Dius, Germanion, and Gordius succeeded as bishop, until Narcissus returned and resumed office.
1092. 6.11.1When Narcissus grew too old, God called Alexander to share his office.
1093. 6.11.2Alexander came on pilgrimage from Cappadocia, and a revelation led Jerusalem to keep him as bishop.
1094. 6.11.3Alexander writes that Narcissus, aged 116, shared his episcopate.
1095. 6.11.4Asclepiades, a confessor, succeeded Serapion at Antioch.
1096. 6.11.5From prison Alexander rejoiced to hear of Asclepiades's appointment at Antioch.
1097. 6.11.6The letter was carried by the presbyter Clement, who had strengthened the church in Jerusalem.
1098. 6.12.1Serapion's surviving works include letters to Domninus, who lapsed into Judaism, and to Pontius and Caricus.
1099. 6.12.2Serapion wrote against the Gospel of Peter because it had misled some at Rhossus.
1100. 6.12.3Serapion: we receive the apostles as Christ but reject writings forged in their names.
1101. 6.12.4Serapion had allowed the Gospel of Peter to be read without examining it, but now, hearing of heresy, will return.
1102. 6.12.5Serapion explains the heresy of Marcianus in his letter.
1103. 6.12.6Serapion found the Gospel of Peter mostly orthodox but with Docetic additions.
1104. 6.13.1Eusebius has all eight books of Clement's Miscellanies.
1105. 6.13.2Clement's eight books of Outlines name Pantaenus as his teacher.
1106. 6.13.3Eusebius lists Clement's other works, including the Exhortation, the Instructor, and Who Is the Rich Man.
1107. 6.13.4The Miscellanies combine Scripture with useful sayings of Greek and other writers.
1108. 6.13.5Clement refutes heretics and mixes history and philosophy, as the title suggests.
1109. 6.13.6Clement cites disputed books: Wisdom, Sirach, Hebrews, Barnabas, 1 Clement, and Jude.
1110. 6.13.7Clement also cites Tatian, Cassian, and Jewish writers who proved Moses older than the Greeks.
1111. 6.13.8Clement says he stood close to the apostolic succession and promised a commentary on Genesis.
1112. 6.13.9In On the Pascha Clement recorded traditions of the ancient presbyters and cited Melito and Irenaeus.
1113. 6.14.1Clement's Outlines commented on all Scripture, including disputed books such as Jude, Barnabas, and the Apocalypse of Peter.
1114. 6.14.2Clement held that Hebrews was Paul's, written in Hebrew and translated by Luke.
1115. 6.14.3Paul omitted his name so as not to repel Hebrews prejudiced against him.
1116. 6.14.4Clement cites a presbyter: Paul did not call himself apostle of the Hebrews, since the Lord himself was their apostle.
1117. 6.14.5Clement records the presbyters' tradition that the Gospels with genealogies were written first.
1118. 6.14.6Mark wrote his Gospel at Rome at the request of Peter's hearers.
1119. 6.14.7Peter neither forbade nor encouraged Mark's work; John last wrote a “spiritual Gospel.”
1120. 6.14.8Alexander of Jerusalem, writing to Origen, recalls their shared friendship with earlier teachers.
1121. 6.14.9Alexander names Pantaenus and Clement as his teachers, through whom he came to know Origen.
1122. 6.14.10Origen, also called Adamantius, visited Rome under Zephyrinus to see its ancient church.
1123. 6.14.11Back in Alexandria he resumed catechesis at Demetrius's urging.
1124. 6.15.1Overwhelmed by students, Origen gave the beginners to Heraclas and kept the advanced.
1125. 6.16.1Origen learned Hebrew and collected the Hebrew text and the Greek versions of Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and others.
1126. 6.16.2Of two anonymous versions, Origen noted only where he found them.
1127. 6.16.3In the Psalms the Hexapla had fifth, sixth, and seventh versions, one found in a jar at Jericho.
1128. 6.16.4Origen arranged the Hebrew and Greek versions in parallel columns in the Hexapla, and four Greek versions in the Tetrapla.
1129. 6.17.1Symmachus the translator was an Ebionite; Origen received his writings from a woman named Juliana.
1130. 6.18.1Origen won Ambrose from Valentinianism to orthodoxy.
1131. 6.18.2Scholars, heretics, and philosophers flocked to Origen.
1132. 6.18.3He taught gifted students the full course of philosophy, winning fame even among pagans.
1133. 6.18.4Origen held general learning to be useful preparation for studying Scripture.
1134. 6.19.1Pagan philosophers dedicated works to Origen and sought his judgment.
1135. 6.19.2Even Porphyry, attacking Scripture, could only slander its interpreters, especially Origen.
1136. 6.19.3Porphyry, who knew Origen in youth, unwittingly commends him while mixing truth and lies.
1137. 6.19.4Porphyry: Christians rescue the Jewish Scriptures by turning their plain sense into allegorical mysteries.
1138. 6.19.5Porphyry takes Origen, whom he met as a youth, as his example.
1139. 6.19.6Porphyry: Origen studied with the philosopher Ammonius but chose the opposite way of life.
1140. 6.19.7Porphyry claims Ammonius left Christianity for philosophy while Origen, a Greek, turned Christian but thought like a Greek.
1141. 6.19.8Porphyry: Origen read Plato and the Pythagoreans and borrowed Stoic allegory for the Jewish Scriptures.
1142. 6.19.9Eusebius: Porphyry is right about Origen's learning but lies about his and Ammonius's religion.
1143. 6.19.10Eusebius: Origen was Christian from birth, and Ammonius remained Christian, as his writings show.
1144. 6.19.11Eusebius introduces Origen's own defence of his Greek studies.
1145. 6.19.12Origen: because heretics and philosophers came to him, he studied their teachings.
1146. 6.19.13He followed the example of Pantaenus and Heraclas, who had also studied philosophy.
1147. 6.19.14Heraclas even wore the philosopher's cloak and read Greek books.
1148. 6.19.15The governor of Arabia summoned Origen to confer with him, and he returned soon after.
1149. 6.19.16Fleeing trouble in Alexandria, Origen went to Caesarea, where the bishops had him preach though he was a layman.
1150. 6.19.17The bishops answered Demetrius's protest that laymen never preached before bishops.
1151. 6.19.18They cited other laymen invited to preach, showing how Origen was honoured by bishops abroad.
1152. 6.19.19Demetrius recalled Origen, who returned to his work.
1153. 6.20.1Letters of learned churchmen were preserved in Alexander's library at Jerusalem, a source for Eusebius.
1154. 6.20.2Beryllus of Bostra and Hippolytus, a bishop, left writings.
1155. 6.20.3Gaius of Rome, arguing against a Montanist, counted only thirteen letters of Paul, excluding Hebrews.
1156. 6.21.1After Caracalla and Macrinus came Elagabalus; Zephyrinus of Rome died after eighteen years.
1157. 6.21.2Callistus and then Urban were bishops of Rome; Alexander Severus became emperor; Philetus became bishop of Antioch.
1158. 6.21.3The emperor's devout mother Mamaea wished to meet Origen.
1159. 6.21.4Mamaea summoned Origen to Antioch, where he taught her before returning.
1160. 6.22.1Eusebius lists Hippolytus's works, including an Easter cycle and Against All the Heresies.
1161. 6.23.1With Ambrose's encouragement and money, Origen began his commentaries on Scripture.
1162. 6.23.2Ambrose paid for teams of stenographers, copyists, and women calligraphers to produce Origen's works.
1163. 6.23.3Pontianus succeeded Urban at Rome, and Zebinus succeeded Philetus at Antioch.
1164. 6.23.4On a journey to Greece, Origen was ordained presbyter at Caesarea, which caused a dispute recorded in Eusebius's Defence of Origen.
1165. 6.24.1Origen wrote the first five books on John at Alexandria; twenty-two books survived to Eusebius's time.
1166. 6.24.2Origen's works written at Alexandria also included commentaries on Genesis 1–8, Psalms 1–25, Lamentations, and On the Resurrection.
1167. 6.24.3Origen wrote On First Principles and ten books of Miscellanies at Alexandria.
1168. 6.25.1Origen: the Hebrews count twenty-two canonical books, matching their alphabet.
1169. 6.25.2Origen lists the twenty-two Hebrew books with their Hebrew names, placing Maccabees outside them.
1170. 6.25.3In his Commentary on Matthew, Origen acknowledges only four Gospels.
1171. 6.25.4Origen: by tradition, Matthew, once a tax collector, wrote first, in Hebrew, for Jewish believers.
1172. 6.25.5Mark wrote second under Peter's guidance, as 1 Pet 5:13 calls him Peter's son.
1173. 6.25.6Luke wrote third for Gentiles, and John last.
1174. 6.25.7Origen: Paul did not write to all his churches, and only briefly to some.
1175. 6.25.8Origen: Peter left one acknowledged letter and a disputed second.
1176. 6.25.9Origen: John wrote one Gospel and the Apocalypse.
1177. 6.25.10Origen: John left one short letter; the second and third are disputed.
1178. 6.25.11Origen: the style of Hebrews is more polished Greek than Paul's.
1179. 6.25.12Yet its thoughts are worthy of the apostle.
1180. 6.25.13Origen: the thoughts of Hebrews are Paul's, the wording a disciple's; churches that hold it as Paul's are not to be blamed.
1181. 6.25.14Origen: only God knows who wrote Hebrews; some say Clement of Rome, some Luke.
1182. 6.26.1In 231/2 Origen moved to Caesarea; Heraclas succeeded Demetrius as bishop of Alexandria.
1183. 6.27.1Firmilian, Alexander, and Theoctistus honoured Origen as their teacher.
1184. 6.28.1Maximin persecuted church leaders; Origen wrote his Exhortation to Martyrdom for Ambrose and Protoctetus.
1185. 6.29.1At Rome Anteros succeeded Pontianus and, a month later, Fabian succeeded Anteros.
1186. 6.29.2Fabian, a visitor from the country, was chosen bishop wonderfully.
1187. 6.29.3At the election a dove settled on Fabian's head, recalling the Spirit's descent on Christ.
1188. 6.29.4The people acclaimed Fabian bishop; Babylas became bishop of Antioch, and Dionysius head of the Alexandrian school.
1189. 6.30.1Origen's pupils at Caesarea included Gregory Thaumaturgus and Athenodorus, both later bishops in Pontus.
1190. 6.31.1Julius Africanus wrote to Origen doubting the story of Susanna; Origen replied at length.
1191. 6.31.2Africanus's Chronography mentions his journey to Alexandria to see Heraclas.
1192. 6.31.3Africanus's letter to Aristides reconciled the genealogies of Christ; Eusebius quoted it in Book 1.
1193. 6.32.1Origen wrote thirty books on Isaiah (to ch. 30) and twenty-five on Ezekiel.
1194. 6.32.2At Athens he finished Ezekiel and began the Song of Songs, completing ten books at Caesarea.
1195. 6.32.3A full list of Origen's works is in Eusebius's Life of Pamphilus, with the catalogue of Pamphilus's library.
1196. 6.33.1Beryllus of Bostra denied that Christ pre-existed with his own divinity before the incarnation.
1197. 6.33.2Origen persuaded Beryllus by argument and restored him to orthodoxy.
1198. 6.33.3The records of the synod on Beryllus survive.
1199. 6.33.4More about Origen is in the Defence written by Eusebius and Pamphilus.
1200. 6.34.1Report has it that the emperor Philip, a Christian, was made to do public penance before joining the Easter vigil.
1201. 6.35.1Dionysius succeeded Heraclas as bishop of Alexandria in 247/8.
1202. 6.36.1Past sixty, Origen at last let stenographers record his public sermons.
1203. 6.36.2Origen also wrote Against Celsus, twenty-five books on Matthew, and commentaries on the twelve prophets.
1204. 6.36.3Origen wrote to the emperor Philip and his wife; Eusebius collected over a hundred of his letters.
1205. 6.36.4Origen wrote to Fabian of Rome and others defending his orthodoxy.
1206. 6.37.1In Arabia some taught that the soul dies with the body until the resurrection; Origen persuaded them otherwise at a synod.
1207. 6.38.1Origen warned against the Elkesaites, who rejected Paul, allowed outward denial under persecution, and offered forgiveness through a heavenly book.
1208. 6.39.1Decius began a persecution (250); Fabian of Rome was martyred and succeeded by Cornelius.
1209. 6.39.2Alexander of Jerusalem, now very old, confessed again and was imprisoned.
1210. 6.39.3Alexander died in prison and was succeeded by Mazabanes.
1211. 6.39.4Babylas of Antioch also died in prison and was succeeded by Fabius.
1212. 6.39.5Origen endured chains, the iron collar, and the stocks under Decius, the judge deliberately keeping him alive; his letters record it.
1213. 6.40.1Dionysius of Alexandria: his flight in the persecution was by God's direction.
1214. 6.40.2The prefect's agent searched everywhere for Dionysius except his own house.
1215. 6.40.3On the fourth day God led Dionysius and his companions out safely.
1216. 6.40.4Dionysius was captured and taken to Taposiris; Timothy escaped.
1217. 6.40.5A countryman met the fleeing Timothy and asked why he hurried.
1218. 6.40.6The wedding guests rushed to the place, the guards fled, and the villagers stood over the prisoners.
1219. 6.40.7Thinking them robbers, Dionysius offered them his clothes, but they told him to leave quickly.
1220. 6.40.8Dionysius begged to be left to die, but they carried him off by force.
1221. 6.40.9His companions carried him out of the town on a donkey.
1222. 6.41.1Dionysius: at Alexandria persecution began a year before Decius's edict, stirred up by a pagan prophet.
1223. 6.41.2The mob made murdering Christians their form of worship.
1224. 6.41.3The old man Metras was tortured and stoned for refusing to blaspheme.
1225. 6.41.4Quinta refused to worship an idol and was dragged through the city and stoned.
1226. 6.41.5Mobs looted Christian homes and burned their goods like a sacked city.
1227. 6.41.6The Christians accepted the loss of their goods with joy, and scarcely any denied the Lord.
1228. 6.41.7The aged virgin Apollonia had her teeth knocked out and leapt into the fire rather than blaspheme.
1229. 6.41.8Serapion was tortured and thrown from his roof; the streets were unsafe for Christians.
1230. 6.41.9Civil strife gave a brief respite, until news of a new, hostile reign arrived.
1231. 6.41.10The edict arrived, terrible enough to make even the elect stumble.
1232. 6.41.11Many prominent Christians came forward to sacrifice, some trembling as if they were the victims.
1233. 6.41.12Others eagerly sacrificed, denying they had ever been Christians; the rest fled or were arrested.
1234. 6.41.13Some arrested Christians denied after imprisonment or partial torture.
1235. 6.41.14But the steadfast became wonderful martyrs of Christ's kingdom.
1236. 6.41.15The gouty Julian and Cronion Eunus confessed, were paraded on camels, scourged, and burned in quicklime.
1237. 6.41.16The soldier Besas, who defended them, was beheaded.
1238. 6.41.17Macar was burned alive; Epimachus and Alexander, after long imprisonment and torture, were burned too.
1239. 6.41.18Four women were martyred: Ammonarium after long torture, and Mercuria, Dionysia, and another by the sword.
1240. 6.41.19Hero, Ater, Isidore, and the fifteen-year-old Dioscorus were tried; Dioscorus resisted both persuasion and force.
1241. 6.41.20The others were burned; Dioscorus was released because of his youth and remained with Dionysius.
1242. 6.41.21Nemesion, cleared of robbery but denounced as a Christian, was burned between robbers, like Christ.
1243. 6.41.22Christian soldiers at the tribunal signalled to a wavering defendant to stand firm.
1244. 6.41.23The soldiers declared themselves Christians, alarming the court, and went joyfully to martyrdom.
1245. 6.42.1Many were killed in towns and villages, such as Ischyrion, impaled by his employer.
1246. 6.42.2Many fugitives died in deserts and mountains from hunger, exposure, robbers, and beasts.
1247. 6.42.3The aged bishop Chaeremon fled with his wife to the Arabian mountains and was never found.
1248. 6.42.4Others were enslaved by Saracens; Dionysius tells this so the extent of the sufferings may be known.
1249. 6.42.5The martyrs, now judging with Christ, had received back repentant lapsed Christians into communion.
1250. 6.42.6Dionysius asks whether the church should uphold the martyrs' mercy to the lapsed or overturn it.
1251. 6.43.1Novatian, a Roman presbyter, denied the lapsed any hope and founded the sect of the “Pure.”
1252. 6.43.2A Roman synod of sixty bishops excommunicated Novatian and ruled that the lapsed be restored through penance.
1253. 6.43.3Letters of Cornelius and of Cyprian confirm that the lapsed should be helped and Novatian excommunicated.
1254. 6.43.4Eusebius will quote Cornelius's letter about Novatian.
1255. 6.43.5Cornelius: Novatian long coveted the episcopate, hiding his ambition behind the confessors' support.
1256. 6.43.6Confessors who had joined Novatian returned to the church and exposed his deceit.
1257. 6.43.7Cornelius: Novatian, who swore he did not want to be bishop, suddenly appeared as one.
1258. 6.43.8Novatian lured three simple rural bishops to Rome on a false pretext.
1259. 6.43.9Novatian had the drunken bishops ordain him by force in a sham ceremony.
1260. 6.43.10One of the bishops repented and was received as a layman; the others were replaced.
1261. 6.43.11Cornelius: there can be only one bishop in a catholic church, and Rome's has 46 presbyters, 7 deacons, and over 1,500 widows and needy.
1262. 6.43.12Not even this great church could recall Novatian from his course.
1263. 6.43.13Cornelius asks what merit Novatian had to claim the episcopate: none of long service or suffering.
1264. 6.43.14Cornelius: Novatian came to faith through exorcism and was baptized by pouring on his sickbed, a doubtful baptism.
1265. 6.43.15Novatian never received the bishop's sealing, and so, Cornelius argues, not the Spirit.
1266. 6.43.16Cornelius: in the persecution Novatian refused to help the brethren, saying he no longer wished to be a presbyter.
1267. 6.43.17Novatian was ordained presbyter only by the bishop's special favour, over objections to his clinical baptism.
1268. 6.43.18Cornelius: at communion Novatian made people swear by Christ's body and blood never to return to Cornelius.
1269. 6.43.19Instead of “Amen” at communion, the recipient had to say, “I will not go back to Cornelius.”
1270. 6.43.20Novatian's followers were leaving him; the martyr Moses had excommunicated him and five presbyters.
1271. 6.43.21Cornelius lists the bishops who condemned Novatian at Rome.
1272. 6.43.22He also names bishops who agreed by letter.
1273. 6.44.1Dionysius wrote to Fabius, who leaned toward Novatian, and told a wonderful story.
1274. 6.44.2Dionysius: Serapion, an old believer who had sacrificed, often asked for pardon in vain and then fell gravely ill.
1275. 6.44.3On the fourth day Serapion asked for a presbyter to release him.
1276. 6.44.4The sick presbyter sent a portion of the eucharist, to be moistened and given to Serapion, following Dionysius's instruction to absolve the dying.
1277. 6.44.5Serapion received the eucharist and died at once.
1278. 6.44.6Dionysius: God evidently kept Serapion alive until he was absolved.
1279. 6.45.1Dionysius urged Novatian to end the schism: dying to avoid schism is a greater martyrdom than dying to avoid idolatry.
1280. 6.46.1Dionysius wrote to the Egyptians on repentance, distinguishing degrees of lapse.
1281. 6.46.2Other letters of Dionysius: to Conon, to Alexandria, to Origen on martyrdom, to Laodicea, and to Armenia.
1282. 6.46.3Dionysius told Cornelius he had been invited to a synod at Antioch on the Novatianist schism.
1283. 6.46.4Dionysius reports Fabius's death, Demetrianus's succession at Antioch, and Alexander's death in prison.
1284. 6.46.5Dionysius wrote several letters to Rome, including to the Novatianist confessors before and after their return.
1285. 7.0.1Book 7 will rely largely on the letters of Dionysius of Alexandria.
1286. 7.1.1Decius died and Gallus succeeded; Origen died at sixty-nine; Dionysius says Gallus repeated Decius's error by persecuting those who prayed for him.
1287. 7.2.1Stephen became bishop of Rome; Dionysius wrote to him on whether converts from heresy should be rebaptized, against the old custom of laying on hands.
1288. 7.3.1Cyprian required rebaptism of converts from heresy; Stephen angrily defended the older tradition.
1289. 7.4.1Dionysius told Stephen that the churches had rejected Novatian and were at peace.
1290. 7.5.1Dionysius: the churches of the East, once divided, are united under their bishops.
1291. 7.5.2All the eastern regions rejoice in the restored concord.
1292. 7.5.3Xystus II succeeded Stephen; Dionysius wrote him a second letter on baptism.
1293. 7.5.4Dionysius: Stephen had threatened to break communion with the eastern bishops who rebaptized heretics.
1294. 7.5.5Dionysius: great synods had decreed that converts from heresy be instructed and baptized; he pleaded with Stephen.
1295. 7.5.6Dionysius also wrote to the Roman presbyters Dionysius and Philemon about the question.
1296. 7.6.1Dionysius reports the Sabellian teaching in the Pentapolis and his letters against it.
1297. 7.7.1Dionysius had read the heretics' books, gaining the power to refute them.
1298. 7.7.2When a presbyter warned him against reading heresy, a vision from God encouraged him.
1299. 7.7.3A voice told Dionysius to read everything and test it, as the saying “Be approved money-changers” urges.
1300. 7.7.4Heraclas readmitted converts from heresy after public confession, without rebaptism, since they had already been baptized in the church.
1301. 7.7.5Dionysius: rebaptism was long decided in Asia Minor as well, and he will not overturn their ancestral decisions.
1302. 7.7.6The fourth letter on baptism went to Dionysius of Rome, later its bishop.
1303. 7.8.1Dionysius condemns Novatian for schism, for making Christ unmerciful, and for rejecting the church's baptism.
1304. 7.9.1In his fifth letter Dionysius asks Xystus's advice about a difficult case.
1305. 7.9.2An old church member, hearing the baptismal questions, realized his heretical baptism had been nothing like the church's.
1306. 7.9.3Stricken in conscience, he asked to be baptized properly.
1307. 7.9.4Dionysius would not rebaptize a man who had long shared in the eucharist, and told him to take courage.
1308. 7.9.5The man still mourns and fears to approach the table.
1309. 7.9.6Dionysius wrote further letters on baptism and one about Lucian.
1310. 7.10.1Gallus fell after two years, and Valerian and his son took power.
1311. 7.10.2Dionysius applies the beast of Revelation 13 to Valerian.
1312. 7.10.3At first Valerian was exceptionally friendly to Christians, and his household was full of believers.
1313. 7.10.4An Egyptian chief magician turned Valerian against the Christians and toward human sacrifice.
1314. 7.10.5Dionysius mocks Macrianus, the finance minister who hoped to be emperor, as one who did not see the “catholic” good.
1315. 7.10.6Macrianus made himself an enemy of the catholic church and fled far from salvation, as his name suggests.
1316. 7.10.7Valerian was given over to disgrace, as Isaiah foretold.
1317. 7.10.8Macrianus, crippled, made his two sons emperors, and they inherited his sins.
1318. 7.10.9Macrianus passed his wickedness on to his sons.
1319. 7.11.1Dionysius describes his own sufferings under Valerian in reply to the slanders of Bishop Germanus.
1320. 7.11.2Dionysius reluctantly tells of God's care for him, to answer Germanus.
1321. 7.11.3Dionysius appeared before the prefect Aemilianus with presbyters and deacons.
1322. 7.11.4Aemilianus demanded that Dionysius himself cease being a Christian, hoping others would follow.
1323. 7.11.5Dionysius refused, quoting Acts 5:29, and was banished to Cephro.
1324. 7.11.6The court record: Aemilianus reminds Dionysius and his clergy of the emperors' kindness.
1325. 7.11.7Aemilianus offers safety if they will worship the gods who protect the empire.
1326. 7.11.8Dionysius: Christians worship the one Creator God, who gave the emperors their rule, and pray for their empire.
1327. 7.11.9Asked to worship their God alongside the others, Dionysius refuses.
1328. 7.11.10Aemilianus banishes them to Cephro and forbids assemblies and visits to the cemeteries.
1329. 7.11.11Anyone disobeying would be punished; Dionysius was sent off at once though ill.
1330. 7.11.12Dionysius kept gathering the church, in spirit at Alexandria and in person at Cephro.
1331. 7.11.13At Cephro many pagans converted after first stoning them.
1332. 7.11.14Aemilianus then moved them to the Mareotis, placing Dionysius where he could be seized first.
1333. 7.11.15Dionysius went calmly to Cephro but was dismayed at the move to Colluthion.
1334. 7.11.16He resented the new place, said to lack Christians and to be troubled by travellers and robbers.
1335. 7.11.17He was consoled that the new place was nearer Alexandria, so friends could visit and assemble.
1336. 7.11.18Dionysius lists his many sufferings, mocking Germanus's boasts of confession.
1337. 7.11.19Dionysius asks what Germanus ever suffered, then stops his boasting.
1338. 7.11.20Dionysius: Christians of every age and condition won the martyr's crown under Valerian.
1339. 7.11.21God has kept Dionysius alive for his own chosen time.
1340. 7.11.22Dionysius and his companions were snatched from their guards by people of the Mareotis.
1341. 7.11.23Dionysius, Gaius, and Peter are now confined in the Libyan desert.
1342. 7.11.24Hidden presbyters and deacons secretly served the church; the deacon Eusebius cared for prisoners and buried martyrs.
1343. 7.11.25The governor still kills, tortures, and imprisons Christians, but the brethren relieve them.
1344. 7.11.26Eusebius later became bishop of Laodicea, Maximus succeeded Dionysius, and Faustus was martyred in Eusebius's own day.
1345. 7.12.1Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander volunteered for martyrdom at Caesarea and were thrown to beasts; a Marcionite woman also died.
1346. 7.13.1Gallienus ended the persecution and by rescript restored the churches' places of worship and cemeteries.
1347. 7.14.1Eusebius lists the bishops of Rome, Antioch, Cappadocia, Pontus, Caesarea, and Jerusalem at this time.
1348. 7.15.1In peacetime, the officer Marinus was beheaded at Caesarea.
1349. 7.15.2When Marinus was due for promotion to centurion, a rival accused him of being a Christian.
1350. 7.15.3The judge gave Marinus three hours to reconsider.
1351. 7.15.4Bishop Theotecnus made Marinus choose between his sword and the Gospels; he chose the Gospels.
1352. 7.15.5Marinus returned, confessed with greater zeal, and was executed.
1353. 7.16.1The senator Astyrius carried off Marinus's body on his own rich garment and buried it.
1354. 7.17.1At the Jordan springs at Paneas, Astyrius's prayer ended a pagan "miracle" in which sacrifices vanished.
1355. 7.18.1Paneas was said to be the home of the woman with the flow of blood healed by Jesus.
1356. 7.18.2A bronze statue group showed a kneeling woman and a man reaching out to her; a healing herb grew at its base.
1357. 7.18.3The statue was said to depict Jesus, and Eusebius saw it himself.
1358. 7.18.4Eusebius notes that painted portraits of Paul, Peter, and Christ existed, a custom from pagan practice.
1359. 7.19.1The episcopal throne of James, the Lord's brother, was still preserved at Jerusalem.
1360. 7.20.1Dionysius wrote festal letters, one setting an eight-year Easter cycle placing Easter after the spring equinox.
1361. 7.21.1Back in Alexandria during civil strife, Dionysius could reach his own flock only by letter.
1362. 7.21.2Dionysius to Hierax: in the strife he can hardly communicate even with himself.
1363. 7.21.3It is easier to travel from east to west than across Alexandria.
1364. 7.21.4Alexandria's streets are harder to cross than the wilderness, and its harbours red with blood like the Red Sea.
1365. 7.21.5The Nile at times ran drier than the desert where Israel thirsted.
1366. 7.21.6At other times it flooded like Noah's deluge, and it ran with blood like the Nile under Moses.
1367. 7.21.7No water could cleanse such pollution, not even the river of Eden.
1368. 7.21.8The air itself is poisoned by the stench of the dead.
1369. 7.21.9The city's population has so fallen that the grain rolls from ages 14 to 80 do not equal the former number aged 40 to 70.
1370. 7.21.10Yet people do not tremble at humanity's decline.
1371. 7.22.1Plague followed the war, and Dionysius wrote an Easter letter about it.
1372. 7.22.2Dionysius: to others this is no time for a feast, with the city full of mourning.
1373. 7.22.3As at the death of Egypt's firstborn, every house has its dead.
1374. 7.22.4Even in persecution Christians kept the feast everywhere, and the martyrs kept the brightest feast in heaven.
1375. 7.22.5Christians shared war and famine with the pagans, yet had Christ's peace.
1376. 7.22.6The plague terrified the pagans but was a test for Christians, though it struck them too.
1377. 7.22.7Many Christians nursed the sick at the cost of their own lives, dying in their place.
1378. 7.22.8Presbyters, deacons, and laity died this way, a death Dionysius ranks with martyrdom.
1379. 7.22.9Christians washed and buried the dead lovingly, and soon died themselves.
1380. 7.22.10Pagans abandoned their sick and dead, yet could not escape the plague.
1381. 7.22.11Dionysius wrote more festal letters, and letters on the sabbath and on exercise.
1382. 7.22.12In his letter to Hermammon Dionysius describes the peace under Gallienus.
1383. 7.23.1Dionysius: Macrianus and his house perished, and Gallienus was acknowledged as emperor by all.
1384. 7.23.2Dionysius compares Macrianus to a passing cloud and Gallienus to the sun shining again.
1385. 7.23.3The empire under Gallienus seems renewed.
1386. 7.23.4Dionysius dates his letter to the ninth year of Gallienus.
1387. 7.24.1Dionysius wrote On Promises against Bishop Nepos, who taught a literal thousand-year earthly kingdom.
1388. 7.24.2Nepos based his view on the Apocalypse and wrote a Refutation of the Allegorists.
1389. 7.24.3Dionysius's first book states his view; the second deals with the Apocalypse.
1390. 7.24.4Dionysius respects Nepos's faith and hymns but puts truth first and will correct his errors.
1391. 7.24.5Because Nepos's book leads simple believers to hope only for earthly pleasures, Dionysius must answer it in writing.
1392. 7.24.6In Arsinoe, where the doctrine had split churches, Dionysius called a public examination.
1393. 7.24.7For three full days he examined Nepos's book with them.
1394. 7.24.8The discussion was patient, honest, and open to persuasion by Scripture.
1395. 7.24.9The leader Coracion renounced the doctrine, and all rejoiced at the agreement.
1396. 7.25.1Dionysius: some earlier writers rejected the Apocalypse outright as unintelligible and falsely titled.
1397. 7.25.2They ascribed it to the heretic Cerinthus, not to John.
1398. 7.25.3Cerinthus reportedly imagined Christ's kingdom as one of bodily pleasures.
1399. 7.25.4Dionysius will not reject the Apocalypse, believing it has a deeper meaning beyond him.
1400. 7.25.5He defers to faith and wonders rather than rejects what he cannot understand.
1401. 7.25.6At the end of his prophecy the author blesses those who keep it and names himself John.
1402. 7.25.7Dionysius accepts that the author was a holy, inspired John, but doubts he was the apostle who wrote the Gospel and letter.
1403. 7.25.8Character, style, and structure show different authors; the evangelist never names himself.
1404. 7.25.9The author of the Apocalypse names himself at the very beginning.
1405. 7.25.10The Apocalypse opens with a named greeting, but 1 John begins with the mystery itself, unnamed.
1406. 7.25.11Even 2 and 3 John are anonymous, while the Apocalypse names John repeatedly.
1407. 7.25.12The author is John, but which John is unclear; he never uses the Gospel's self-descriptions.
1408. 7.25.13He calls himself only brother, companion, and witness.
1409. 7.25.14Many Christians took the name John, as they did Paul and Peter.
1410. 7.25.15John Mark is unlikely to be the author, since he left Paul before Asia.
1411. 7.25.16The author was probably another John of Asia; two tombs of John are shown at Ephesus.
1412. 7.25.17Thought, vocabulary, and syntax also distinguish the two authors.
1413. 7.25.18The Gospel of John and 1 John open with closely parallel words.
1414. 7.25.191 John begins by opposing those who deny Christ came in the flesh.
1415. 7.25.20The Gospel and letter keep consistently to the same themes and terms.
1416. 7.25.21The Gospel and 1 John share distinctive vocabulary: life, light, truth, love, the world, antichrist, Father and Son.
1417. 7.25.22The Apocalypse shares almost nothing with them.
1418. 7.25.23Neither mentions the other, while Paul at least alludes to his revelations.
1419. 7.25.24Style too distinguishes the Gospel and letter from the Apocalypse.
1420. 7.25.25The Gospel and letter are written in correct and elegant Greek.
1421. 7.25.26The Apocalypse's author truly received revelation but writes ungrammatical, barbarous Greek.
1422. 7.25.27Dionysius disclaims mockery; he only wishes to show the writings differ.
1423. 7.26.1Dionysius wrote letters and four treatises against Sabellianism, the latter to Dionysius of Rome.
1424. 7.26.2Other works include On Nature and On Temptations.
1425. 7.26.3Dionysius also commented on Ecclesiastes; Eusebius now turns to his own generation.
1426. 7.27.1Dionysius succeeded Xystus at Rome; Paul of Samosata became bishop of Antioch.
1427. 7.27.2Paul taught that Christ was a mere man; bishops gathered at Antioch, and the aged Dionysius sent his view by letter.
1428. 7.28.1Eusebius names the leading bishops at the synods of Antioch.
1429. 7.28.2Repeated synods debated, Paul's party concealing his views and the others exposing them.
1430. 7.28.3Dionysius died in 264/5 and was succeeded by Maximus.
1431. 7.28.4Claudius succeeded Gallienus and was followed by Aurelian.
1432. 7.29.1A final synod condemned and excommunicated Paul of Samosata (ca. 268).
1433. 7.29.2The presbyter and rhetorician Malchion exposed Paul in a recorded debate.
1434. 7.30.1The synod sent a circular letter to Rome, Alexandria, and all provinces about Paul.
1435. 7.30.2The greeting of the synodal letter names its senders.
1436. 7.30.3The synod had invited Dionysius, who wrote to the Antiochene church without addressing Paul.
1437. 7.30.4Firmilian twice condemned Paul but was deceived by his promise to change.
1438. 7.30.5Firmilian died at Tarsus on his way to the final synod.
1439. 7.30.6The synod: since Paul has left the rule of faith, his conduct as an outsider need not be judged — yet they describe it.
1440. 7.30.7The synod charges Paul with enriching himself by extortion and bribery.
1441. 7.30.8They accuse him of preferring a civil title and parading with a retinue.
1442. 7.30.9They charge him with theatrical conduct in church: a throne, demands for applause, and contempt for earlier teachers.
1443. 7.30.10They say he banned hymns to Christ and had women sing hymns in his own honour at Easter.
1444. 7.30.11Paul denies that the Son came down from heaven, yet lets his followers call him an angel from heaven.
1445. 7.30.12The synod accuses Paul and his clergy of keeping women companions, and of buying their silence.
1446. 7.30.13Even if innocent, a bishop should avoid the scandal of living with women.
1447. 7.30.14How can Paul warn others when he keeps two young, beautiful women with him?
1448. 7.30.15Everyone laments but fears to accuse him.
1449. 7.30.16Since Paul follows the heresy of Artemas, the synod need not judge his morals.
1450. 7.30.17The synod deposed Paul, appointed Domnus, and asked the churches to be in communion with him.
1451. 7.30.18Domnus succeeded Paul at Antioch.
1452. 7.30.19When Paul refused to leave the church building, Aurelian ruled it belonged to those in communion with the bishops of Italy and Rome.
1453. 7.30.20Later Aurelian planned a persecution.
1454. 7.30.21Aurelian died before signing his edicts, showing that persecution comes only by God's permission.
1455. 7.30.22Emperors from Probus to Diocletian, under whom the Great Persecution took place.
1456. 7.30.23Felix succeeded Dionysius at Rome.
1457. 7.31.1Mani arose, claiming to be the Paraclete and choosing twelve disciples like Christ.
1458. 7.31.2Mani's doctrines spread from Persia, and the Manichaeans still flourish.
1459. 7.32.1At Rome Eutychian, Gaius, and Marcellinus succeeded Felix.
1460. 7.32.2Under Cyril of Antioch, Eusebius knew the learned presbyter Dorotheus, who read Scripture in Hebrew.
1461. 7.32.3Dorotheus, a eunuch from birth, was made head of the imperial purple dye-works at Tyre.
1462. 7.32.4Eusebius heard Dorotheus preach; Tyrannus succeeded Cyril at the height of the persecution.
1463. 7.32.5Eusebius of Alexandria, who came to Syria about Paul of Samosata, was kept as bishop of Laodicea.
1464. 7.32.6Anatolius, a brilliant Alexandrian scholar, succeeded Eusebius at Laodicea.
1465. 7.32.7Anatolius was a leader during the siege of the Bruchium at Alexandria.
1466. 7.32.8Anatolius, inside the besieged quarter, told Eusebius, outside, about the starving.
1467. 7.32.9Eusebius obtained safe conduct for deserters; Anatolius persuaded the council to release the old, the young, and the infirm.
1468. 7.32.10The council voted to release all who could not fight.
1469. 7.32.11Anatolius smuggled out almost all the besieged, and Eusebius nursed them like a father and physician.
1470. 7.32.12Laodicea thus received two excellent bishops from Alexandria.
1471. 7.32.13Eusebius introduces Anatolius's work on the date of Easter.
1472. 7.32.14Anatolius: the nineteen-year cycle begins with a new moon on 22 March.
1473. 7.32.15Anatolius: by that date the sun has passed the equinox; placing the first month before it is a serious error.
1474. 7.32.16Anatolius: Jewish writers before Christ — Philo, Josephus, Aristobulus and others — held the same rule.
1475. 7.32.17They held that the Passover must follow the spring equinox; Aristobulus adds a rule about the moon.
1476. 7.32.18At the paschal full moon the sun is in the spring equinox and the moon opposite it.
1477. 7.32.19Christians, with the veil removed, need no such proofs; the Book of Enoch also places the first month at the equinox.
1478. 7.32.20Anatolius also wrote ten books on arithmetic.
1479. 7.32.21Anatolius was first ordained coadjutor at Caesarea, but was kept by Laodicea on the death of Eusebius.
1480. 7.32.22Stephen, a learned but faithless bishop, proved a coward in the persecution.
1481. 7.32.23Theodotus, a physician of bodies and souls, replaced Stephen at Laodicea.
1482. 7.32.24Agapius succeeded Theotecnus at Caesarea and cared especially for the poor.
1483. 7.32.25Eusebius knew the presbyter Pamphilus, whose life and martyrdom he recorded in a separate work.
1484. 7.32.26Other remarkable men were the presbyter Pierius of Alexandria and Bishop Meletius of Pontus.
1485. 7.32.27Pierius was poor, learned, and a fine preacher; Meletius, “the honey of Attica,” was outstanding in eloquence and learning.
1486. 7.32.28Meletius was a fugitive in Palestine for seven years of the persecution.
1487. 7.32.29At Jerusalem Zabdas and then Hermon succeeded Hymenaeus.
1488. 7.32.30Theonas succeeded Maximus at Alexandria; the presbyter Achillas headed the catechetical school.
1489. 7.32.31Peter of Alexandria, bishop for twelve years, was beheaded in the ninth year of the persecution (311).
1490. 7.32.32Eusebius closes the successions (305 years to the destruction of the churches) and turns to the martyrs of his own day.
1491. 8.0.1Eusebius introduces Book 8, which turns from the succession of the apostles to the events of his own lifetime.
1492. 8.1.1Before the persecution of his day, Eusebius says, the Christian message enjoyed great honor and freedom everywhere.
1493. 8.1.2The emperors showed Christians favor, even appointing them provincial governors and excusing them from sacrifice.
1494. 8.1.3Even in the imperial palaces, Christian wives, children, and servants were allowed to practice their faith openly and were esteemed.
1495. 8.1.4Dorotheus and Gorgonius, Christians of the imperial household, were highly honored by the emperors.
1496. 8.1.5Church leaders were respected by officials, and congregations grew so large that new, spacious churches were built in every city.
1497. 8.1.6As long as God's hand protected his people, no envy or demon could stop the church's growth.
1498. 8.1.7When freedom bred pride, envy, and quarrels among Christians and their leaders, God's judgment began gently, with persecution of Christian soldiers.
1499. 8.1.8Because Christians and their pastors did not repent but quarreled and sought power, God brought on them the judgment described in Lamentations.
1500. 8.1.9Eusebius applies a lament from the Psalms to the destruction of the churches in the persecution.
1501. 8.2.1Eusebius saw churches demolished, Scriptures burned in public, and church leaders hiding or captured, as the psalm foretold.
1502. 8.2.2Eusebius declines to describe the failures and quarrels of church leaders beyond what shows that God's judgment was just.
1503. 8.2.3Eusebius will pass over those who fell away and record only what is useful: the contests of the martyrs.
1504. 8.2.4In March 303, near Easter, Diocletian's first edict ordered churches razed, Scriptures burned, and Christians stripped of rank and freedom.
1505. 8.2.5A second edict ordered all church leaders imprisoned and then forced to sacrifice.
1506. 8.3.1Many church leaders endured torture bravely, many others gave way at once, and some died under the rack and scourge.
1507. 8.3.2Some were dragged to sacrifice and released as if they had sacrificed; others were falsely reported to have done so; others were thrown out half dead.
1508. 8.3.3Some were counted as having sacrificed against their will, while others loudly refused and confessed themselves Christians.
1509. 8.3.4Those who confessed were beaten and driven out, for the persecutors cared only to seem successful; but the true martyrs could not be overcome.
1510. 8.4.1Countless Christians showed their devotion to God even before the general persecution began.
1511. 8.4.2When persecution began quietly in the army, many Christian soldiers gladly left the service rather than deny God.
1512. 8.4.3Offered the choice between their rank and their faith, many Christian soldiers chose to confess Christ.
1513. 8.4.4A few soldiers were even put to death, though the persecutor, fearing the number of believers, did not yet dare a general attack.
1514. 8.4.5When the persecution became open, the martyrs were beyond counting.
1515. 8.5.1At Nicomedia a prominent Christian tore down the posted edict in the presence of two emperors and died for it calmly.
1516. 8.6.1Dorotheus and the Christian servants of the palace preferred suffering for God to honor and luxury; Eusebius tells one of their deaths as an example.
1517. 8.6.2One palace servant who refused to sacrifice was hung up naked and scourged.
1518. 8.6.3Salt and vinegar were poured into his wounds, and he was slowly roasted on a gridiron to force him to yield.
1519. 8.6.4The servant, named Peter (“rock”), died unshaken under torture.
1520. 8.6.5Dorotheus, Gorgonius, and many others of the imperial household were strangled after many tortures.
1521. 8.6.6Bishop Anthimus of Nicomedia was beheaded, and after a palace fire was falsely blamed on Christians, many were killed by sword, fire, and drowning.
1522. 8.6.7The emperors had the buried palace martyrs dug up and thrown into the sea so that no one would venerate their graves.
1523. 8.6.8After uprisings in Melitene and Syria, an imperial order had church leaders everywhere imprisoned.
1524. 8.6.9The prisons filled with bishops, presbyters, deacons, readers, and exorcists until there was no room for criminals.
1525. 8.6.10A further edict freed prisoners who sacrificed and tortured those who refused; the martyrs of Africa, Mauretania, and Egypt were countless.
1526. 8.7.1Eusebius knew the Egyptian martyrs in Palestine and Tyre, who endured scourging and were exposed to leopards, bears, boars, and bulls.
1527. 8.7.2Eusebius himself saw the beasts refuse to touch the martyrs, turning instead on those who goaded them.
1528. 8.7.3Because the first beast would not attack, a second and third were sent against the same martyr.
1529. 8.7.4A youth under twenty stood with arms outstretched in the form of a cross, praying calmly, while bears and leopards were held back from him.
1530. 8.7.5A maddened bull gored the attendants but could not approach five martyrs, so other beasts were loosed on them.
1531. 8.7.6In the end the martyrs were killed with the sword and their bodies thrown into the sea.
1532. 8.8.1In Egypt itself countless men, women, and children died by fire, drowning, beheading, torture, starvation, and crucifixion, some head downward.
1533. 8.9.1In the Thebaid martyrs were torn with potsherds, and women were hung naked, head downward, in public view.
1534. 8.9.2Some were tied between bent branches and torn apart when the branches sprang back.
1535. 8.9.3The killings went on for years, sometimes ten, twenty, thirty, sixty, or even a hundred in a day.
1536. 8.9.4Eusebius himself saw so many executed in a day that the swords grew blunt and the executioners took turns.
1537. 8.9.5As some were condemned, others rushed forward to confess Christ and went to death singing psalms and hymns.
1538. 8.9.6Even more admirable were martyrs of wealth, rank, and learning who put faith in Christ above everything.
1539. 8.9.7Examples were Philoromus, a high imperial official at Alexandria, and Phileas, bishop of Thmuis, a learned philosopher.
1540. 8.9.8Despite the pleas of family, officials, and the judge, Philoromus and Phileas refused to deny Christ and were beheaded.
1541. 8.10.1Eusebius introduces a letter of Phileas describing the martyrdoms at Alexandria.
1542. 8.10.2Phileas writes that the martyrs, following the examples of Scripture and the Christ who humbled himself to death, held fast to their calling.
1543. 8.10.3The martyrs endured repeated tortures and threats without yielding, because perfect love casts out fear.
1544. 8.10.4Anyone who wished could abuse the martyrs, beating them with clubs, rods, whips, and ropes.
1545. 8.10.5Phileas describes martyrs stretched on the rack, torn all over, hung by one hand, or tied to pillars with their feet off the ground.
1546. 8.10.6The governor kept the martyrs under torture all day, ordering them dragged away when near death.
1547. 8.10.7The persecutors treated the Christians as though they no longer existed.
1548. 8.10.8Some martyrs lay in the stocks with their legs stretched apart; others lay on the ground covered with wounds.
1549. 8.10.9Some died under torture, some died later in prison, and the survivors grew bolder.
1550. 8.10.10Offered freedom if they sacrificed or death if they refused, the martyrs gladly chose death, obeying the Scriptures that forbid worshiping other gods.
1551. 8.10.11Phileas wrote this letter from prison to his church before his execution, urging them to hold fast.
1552. 8.10.12Eusebius turns to martyrs who were attacked not by legal process but as in war.
1553. 8.11.1In Phrygia soldiers burned a whole Christian town with its people because all of them, officials included, refused to worship idols.
1554. 8.11.2Adauctus, a high Roman official of Italian family, was martyred while serving as imperial finance minister.
1555. 8.12.1Eusebius lists tortures in Arabia, Cappadocia, Mesopotamia, and Alexandria: axes, broken legs, suffocation by smoke, and mutilation.
1556. 8.12.2At Antioch Christians were roasted on gridirons; some put their hands in the fire rather than sacrifice, and some leapt to their deaths to escape capture.
1557. 8.12.3A noble Christian woman of Antioch and her two virgin daughters, arrested and threatened with forced prostitution, resolved to escape by death rather than be defiled or deny God.
1558. 8.12.4On the road the mother and daughters asked the guards for privacy and threw themselves into a river.
1559. 8.12.5Two virgin sisters of Antioch, noble and devout, were thrown into the sea.
1560. 8.12.6In Pontus martyrs had reeds driven under their nails and molten lead poured over them.
1561. 8.12.7Judges competed to invent new and unspeakable tortures of the private parts.
1562. 8.12.8At last, tired of killing, the persecutors turned to what they called kindness.
1563. 8.12.9The authorities announced that, out of imperial humanity, Christians would no longer be put to death.
1564. 8.12.10The “humane” penalty was to put out an eye, cripple a foot, and send Christians to the copper mines.
1565. 8.12.11The martyrs' courage amazed onlookers everywhere and showed the divine power of Christ; to name them all is impossible.
1566. 8.13.1Among martyred bishops of the great cities, the first is Anthimus of Nicomedia, who was beheaded.
1567. 8.13.2Lucian, presbyter of Antioch, made a defense before the emperor at Nicomedia and died a martyr.
1568. 8.13.3The most famous martyrs of Phoenicia were Bishop Tyrannion of Tyre, the presbyter Zenobius of Sidon, and Bishop Silvanus of Emesa.
1569. 8.13.4Silvanus was thrown to beasts at Emesa; at Antioch Tyrannion was drowned and the physician Zenobius died under torture.
1570. 8.13.5In Palestine Bishop Silvanus of Gaza was beheaded with thirty-nine others at the Phaeno mines, and the Egyptian bishops Peleus and Nilus were burned.
1571. 8.13.6Eusebius remembers his teacher Pamphilus, presbyter of Caesarea, whose deeds he recorded elsewhere.
1572. 8.13.7Eusebius names Peter of Alexandria and other Egyptian martyrs, leaves the full record to eyewitnesses, and promises a separate work on the martyrs he saw himself.
1573. 8.13.8Eusebius announces that he will next tell of the rulers' recantation and the course of the persecution.
1574. 8.13.9Before the persecution the empire prospered in peace, and the emperors celebrated their ten- and twenty-year jubilees in festivity.
1575. 8.13.10At the height of their power the emperors suddenly made war on the Christians, and within two years the government itself was overturned.
1576. 8.13.11Diocletian fell ill, lost his reason, and abdicated with Maximian, after which the empire was divided in two.
1577. 8.13.12Constantius, a gentle ruler friendly to Christians, died and left his son Constantine as emperor, and was deified by the pagans.
1578. 8.13.13Constantius alone ruled worthily, did not persecute or tear down churches, and died honored with his son succeeding him.
1579. 8.13.14Constantine, proclaimed by the army and by God, followed his father's piety, and Licinius was then made emperor by common vote.
1580. 8.13.15Maximin made himself Augustus, and Maximian, caught plotting against Constantine, died shamefully and his statues were destroyed.
1581. 8.14.1Maxentius, tyrant at Rome, at first pretended favor to the Christian faith and halted persecution to win popularity.
1582. 8.14.2Maxentius turned to every vice, taking senators' wives from their husbands, abusing them, and sending them back.
1583. 8.14.3Maxentius terrorized Rome and once had his guards massacre great numbers of Roman citizens in the city.
1584. 8.14.4He killed innumerable senators on false charges to seize their wealth.
1585. 8.14.5Maxentius practiced cruel magic, including the murder of pregnant women and infants, hoping to win victory by it.
1586. 8.14.6His tyranny brought Rome to an unprecedented famine.
1587. 8.14.7Maximin in the East secretly allied himself with Maxentius and was later punished for it.
1588. 8.14.8Maximin outdid Maxentius in wickedness, honoring magicians and doing nothing without oracles.
1589. 8.14.9Maximin persecuted more harshly, rebuilt temples, organized a pagan priesthood with provincial high priests, and rewarded sorcerers.
1590. 8.14.10He crushed the provinces with exactions and confiscations and gave the proceeds to his flatterers.
1591. 8.14.11Maximin's drunkenness and debauchery corrupted his army and officials, whom he encouraged to plunder their subjects.
1592. 8.14.12Maximin seduced women and carried off virgins in every city he passed through.
1593. 8.14.13Only the Christians resisted Maximin: the men endured every torture rather than trade God's worship for idols.
1594. 8.14.14Christian women, strengthened by God's word, endured the same trials as men, and some chose death over rape.
1595. 8.14.15A noble Christian woman of Alexandria resisted Maximin's advances; unwilling to kill her, he exiled her and seized her property.
1596. 8.14.16Many women endured torture rather than be violated, but the most admirable was a noble woman at Rome whom Maxentius tried to abuse.
1597. 8.14.17The Roman woman, whose husband the prefect let the tyrant's agents take her, killed herself with a sword rather than submit.
1598. 8.14.18Eusebius traces the evils of the two tyrants to the persecution, which ended only when the Christians regained their freedom.
1599. 8.15.1During the ten years of persecution the rulers fought each other; seafarers were tortured as suspected spies and killed.
1600. 8.15.2Everywhere arms were being prepared for war, and later famine and plague struck as well.
1601. 8.16.1The persecution eased after eight years and ended in the tenth, when the rulers reversed themselves by kindly edicts.
1602. 8.16.2Not the rulers' mercy but divine providence ended the persecution, reconciled to God's people and angry at its chief author.
1603. 8.16.3Though persecution came by God's judgment, woe fell on its author: divine punishment seized Galerius in body and soul.
1604. 8.16.4Galerius was struck with a rotting, worm-filled ulcer in his genitals that made his obese body horrible to see.
1605. 8.16.5Physicians who could not bear the stench or could not cure him were put to death.
1606. 8.17.1In his agony Galerius confessed to God and ordered the persecution stopped and the Christians allowed to rebuild churches and pray for the emperor.
1607. 8.17.2Imperial edicts reversing the persecution were published in the cities, as follows.
1608. 8.17.3The edict opens with the titles of the emperor Galerius.
1609. 8.17.4The edict continues with the titles of Constantine.
1610. 8.17.5The edict continues with the titles of Licinius and greets the provincials.
1611. 8.17.6The edict explains that the emperors had wished to restore the ancient Roman order and bring the Christians back to their ancestors' ways.
1612. 8.17.7The Christians, the edict says, had willfully abandoned ancestral institutions and made their own laws and assemblies.
1613. 8.17.8When ordered back to the old religion, many Christians were endangered and suffered death.
1614. 8.17.9Since the Christians still would not worship the gods, the emperors pardon them, allowing them to be Christians and rebuild their meeting houses, provided they keep order.
1615. 8.17.10The edict ends by asking the Christians to pray to their God for the emperors, the state, and themselves.
1616. 8.17.11Eusebius notes that he has translated the edict from Latin and turns to what followed.
1617. 9.1.1Maximin suppressed Galerius's edict in his territories but orally ordered his governors to ease the persecution.
1618. 9.1.2The prefect Sabinus conveyed the emperor's will to the governors in a letter, translated as follows.
1619. 9.1.3Sabinus's letter says the emperors had sought to lead all, including those of foreign custom, to worship the gods.
1620. 9.1.4Some, the letter says, would neither be persuaded nor frightened from their purpose.
1621. 9.1.5The emperors now order that Christians practicing their religion are not to be harassed or punished, since they cannot be persuaded.
1622. 9.1.6The governors are to tell local officials to take no further action against Christians.
1623. 9.1.7The governors, believing the order sincere, freed imprisoned confessors and those condemned to the mines.
1624. 9.1.8Churches reassembled everywhere, and astonished pagans hailed the Christians' God as great and alone true.
1625. 9.1.9Faithful confessors regained their freedom, while those who had lapsed sought healing, begging the steadfast for help and God for mercy.
1626. 9.1.10Freed confessors returned home from the mines through the cities with great joy.
1627. 9.1.11Crowds sang psalms in the streets, exiles returned joyfully, and even former persecutors rejoiced with them.
1628. 9.2.1Within six months Maximin undermined the peace, banning meetings in cemeteries and prompting Antioch, led by Theotecnus, to petition for the Christians' expulsion.
1629. 9.3.1Theotecnus set up a cult image of Zeus Philios at Antioch and claimed its oracle ordered the Christians expelled.
1630. 9.4.1Other cities, prompted by the governors, followed Antioch in petitioning against the Christians.
1631. 9.4.2Maximin approved the petitions, renewed persecution, and appointed prominent men as pagan priests and high priests.
1632. 9.4.3To win Maximin's favor, officials and subjects vied in cruelty toward the Christians.
1633. 9.5.1Forged, blasphemous Acts of Pilate were published everywhere and made required memorization in schools.
1634. 9.5.2At Damascus a military commander forced prostitutes to testify falsely to Christian immorality, and the testimony was published everywhere.
1635. 9.6.1The commander killed himself, but persecution resumed; at Emesa the aged bishop Silvanus and two others were thrown to beasts.
1636. 9.6.2Bishop Peter of Alexandria was suddenly seized and beheaded, with many other Egyptian bishops.
1637. 9.6.3Lucian, a learned presbyter of Antioch, defended the faith at Nicomedia and was killed in prison.
1638. 9.6.4Maximin's renewed persecution seemed worse than the first.
1639. 9.7.1Petitions and imperial replies against Christians were engraved on bronze in the cities; Eusebius copies Maximin's rescript from the tablet at Tyre.
1640. 9.7.2Maximin's rescript praises Tyre for recognizing, after long error, that the world is governed by the immortal gods.
1641. 9.7.3The emperor is delighted by this proof of the city's piety.
1642. 9.7.4Tyre's devotion to the gods was already well known from its deeds.
1643. 9.7.5Tyre deserves to be called a dwelling of the gods.
1644. 9.7.6Tyre, seeing the Christians spreading again like a rekindled fire, turned at once to the emperor for help.
1645. 9.7.7The emperor says Zeus, Tyre's protector, inspired the city's request and showed the value of worshiping the gods.
1646. 9.7.8The rescript credits the gods with good harvests and protection from war, plague, storm, and earthquake, which it says often struck before.
1647. 9.7.9The rescript blames these disasters on the Christians' error.
1648. 9.7.10The rescript points to flourishing crops and mild weather as signs of the gods' favor.
1649. 9.7.11All are to rejoice in the peace secured by honoring Ares, and converts from Christianity most of all, as men rescued from a storm.
1650. 9.7.12Christians who persist are to be expelled from Tyre and its territory, as the city asked.
1651. 9.7.13The emperor invites Tyre to ask any gift it wants as a reward.
1652. 9.7.14The gift, granted at once, will testify forever to Tyre's piety and the emperor's generosity.
1653. 9.7.15These decrees, posted everywhere, cut off all human hope, so that even the elect might have fallen away.
1654. 9.7.16Just as hope was failing, God intervened to silence the tyrant's boasts.
1655. 9.8.1Drought, famine, plague, and a blinding disease called the carbuncle struck Maximin's realm.
1656. 9.8.2Maximin also provoked war with the Christian Armenians, old Roman allies, by trying to force them to sacrifice.
1657. 9.8.3These disasters exposed Maximin's boast that his idolatry had spared his reign from famine, plague, and war, and foreshadowed his fall.
1658. 9.8.4While Maximin fought the Armenians, famine and plague drove the price of a measure of wheat to 2,500 drachmas.
1659. 9.8.5Countless died in cities and even more in the countryside, nearly emptying the rural census rolls.
1660. 9.8.6People sold their children for food, sold all they had, or ate grass and poisonous plants and died.
1661. 9.8.7Even noblewomen were forced to beg in the marketplaces, still showing their breeding.
1662. 9.8.8The starving collapsed in the streets, begging for a crumb of bread with their last breath.
1663. 9.8.9The rich, fearing the same fate, stopped giving, and naked corpses lay unburied in the streets for days.
1664. 9.8.10Dogs ate the dead, so people killed the dogs for fear they would attack the living.
1665. 9.8.11The plague killed the wealthy whom famine had spared, and the whole city was filled with mourning.
1666. 9.8.12Famine and plague wiped out whole families, and two or three bodies were carried out together.
1667. 9.8.13These disasters repaid Maximin's boasts, and the Christians' goodness became evident to all.
1668. 9.8.14Only the Christians cared for the sick, buried the dead, and fed the hungry, so that pagans praised their God.
1669. 9.8.15Having shown his anger at the persecutors, God again gave the Christians peace, showing that he disciplines his people and then shows mercy.
1670. 9.9.1God raised up Constantine and Licinius against the two tyrants: Maxentius fell to Constantine at Rome, and Maximin soon after to Licinius.
1671. 9.9.2Constantine, praying to God and Christ for help, marched on Rome to free it.
1672. 9.9.3Maxentius hid in Rome relying on sorcery, while Constantine defeated his armies and approached the city.
1673. 9.9.4God drew Maxentius out of the city, confirming before all eyes the biblical stories of God's judgment on the wicked.
1674. 9.9.5Like Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea, Maxentius and his troops sank in the river on the bridge of boats he had made.
1675. 9.9.6The psalm about the wicked falling into their own pit fits Maxentius.
1676. 9.9.7The bridge collapsed, and Maxentius and his guards sank like lead.
1677. 9.9.8The victors could rightly sing the Song of Moses over the drowned tyrant.
1678. 9.9.9Constantine entered Rome in triumph and was welcomed by all as savior and benefactor.
1679. 9.9.10Unmoved by praise, Constantine had his statue in Rome hold the cross and ordered an inscription.
1680. 9.9.11The inscription credits the saving sign with freeing Rome, the senate, and the people.
1681. 9.9.12Constantine and Licinius issued a full law for the Christians and sent it, with news of the victory, to Maximin.
1682. 9.9.13Maximin, unwilling to appear to yield, issued a letter for the Christians as if on his own authority, full of falsehoods.
1683. 9.9.14Maximin's letter recalls that Diocletian and Maximian had ordered those who had left the gods for Christianity to be forced back by punishment.
1684. 9.9.15Maximin claims that on arriving in the East he ordered judges to stop banishing people and to win them back to the gods by persuasion.
1685. 9.9.16He claims that under his orders no one was banished or abused, and many returned to the gods.
1686. 9.9.17At Nicomedia citizens came with their gods' images asking that Christians not be allowed to live in their city.
1687. 9.9.18Maximin says he thanked Nicomedia but left each person free, since not all had asked it.
1688. 9.9.19Still, he says, he had to grant the cities' requests to expel Christians, as the gods and former emperors approved.
1689. 9.9.20He reminds Sabinus that Christians are to be treated gently and protected from abuse by officials, and won over by persuasion.
1690. 9.9.21Converts to paganism should be welcomed, but those who keep their religion should be left free.
1691. 9.9.22Sabinus is to prevent abuses and publish the order by edict.
1692. 9.9.23Because Maximin acted under compulsion and had broken faith before, no one trusted him.
1693. 9.9.24Christians still did not dare to assemble, since the letter gave only freedom from harassment, not freedom to meet or build churches.
1694. 9.9.25Though Constantine and Licinius had granted full freedom, Maximin yielded only when forced by divine justice.
1695. 9.10.1Maximin, unfit for rule and swollen with pride, began to claim first place over his far better colleagues.
1696. 9.10.2Maximin broke his treaty with Licinius and marched to war trusting in demons and his huge army.
1697. 9.10.3In battle God abandoned Maximin and gave Licinius the victory.
1698. 9.10.4Maximin's army was destroyed; he threw off his imperial robes, fled in disguise, and hid in the countryside.
1699. 9.10.5The psalm says kings and warriors are not saved by strength, but God rescues those who fear him.
1700. 9.10.6Back home, Maximin killed his priests and prophets, gave glory to the Christians' God, issued a law granting them freedom, and soon died painfully.
1701. 9.10.7Maximin's final edict opens by claiming he has always sought his provincials' welfare.
1702. 9.10.8Maximin says that, seeing officials abuse the old ban on Christian meetings, he had already decreed that anyone could practice this religion freely.
1703. 9.10.9Some judges, he complains, misread his orders and made people afraid to practice their religion.
1704. 9.10.10The edict grants everyone freedom to practice the Christian religion and to build churches.
1705. 9.10.11Confiscated Christian houses and lands are to be restored to them.
1706. 9.10.12Within a year the same tyrant who had outlawed and killed Christians acknowledged their religion and restored their rights.
1707. 9.10.13After this confession Maximin was struck by God and died during the second phase of the war.
1708. 9.10.14Hiding at home, Maximin was struck by a wasting disease that burned away his flesh and left him a living skeleton.
1709. 9.10.15The fever grew so fierce that his eyes fell out and he was blinded.
1710. 9.10.16Before dying, Maximin confessed that he suffered justly for his attacks on Christ.
1711. 9.11.1With Maximin gone, the churches were rebuilt and the gospel enjoyed greater freedom than ever.
1712. 9.11.2Maximin was publicly condemned, and his portraits and statues were smashed or defaced.
1713. 9.11.3Maximin's supporters, especially officials who had persecuted Christians, were stripped of honors and executed.
1714. 9.11.4Among them were Peucetius, his finance minister, and Culcianus, who had shed much Christian blood in Egypt.
1715. 9.11.5Justice also caught up with Theotecnus, whom Maximin had rewarded with a governorship.
1716. 9.11.6Licinius had the priests of Theotecnus's idol tortured, exposed the oracle as a fraud, and executed Theotecnus and his accomplices.
1717. 9.11.7Maximin's children and relatives were also killed in disgrace, having ignored Scripture's warning.
1718. 9.11.8The psalm warns not to trust in rulers, whose plans perish with them.
1719. 9.11.9With the persecutors gone, Constantine and Licinius alone ruled and showed their piety by laws favoring the Christians.
1720. 10.1.1Eusebius begins Book 10 by thanking God and Christ and praying that peace may last.
1721. 10.1.2Eusebius dedicates the tenth book to Paulinus, bishop of Tyre.
1722. 10.1.3The tenth book, a perfect number, will celebrate the churches' renewal, as the psalm calls for a new song.
1723. 10.1.4Eusebius rejoices that his generation sees the peace that earlier martyrs longed for but did not see.
1724. 10.1.5The martyrs gained heaven; the living, amazed at God's generosity, confirm the truth of the prophecies.
1725. 10.1.6The psalm's promise that God ends wars has been fulfilled.
1726. 10.1.7The persecutors vanished completely, as the psalm says of the wicked.
1727. 10.1.8A clear day of peace dawned for the churches everywhere, and even outsiders shared in its blessings.
1728. 10.2.1All rejoiced in freedom, and Christians above all, seeing ruined places revive and churches rise more splendid than before.
1729. 10.2.2The emperors kept passing laws favoring Christians and wrote to bishops with honors and money; Eusebius will record these letters.
1730. 10.3.1Church dedication festivals were held everywhere, with bishops and believers from far and near gathering in unity.
1731. 10.3.2The gathering fulfilled Ezekiel's vision of bone coming to bone.
1732. 10.3.3One Spirit united the church in faith and worship: psalms, Scripture reading, and the celebration of the sacred mysteries of Christ's passion.
1733. 10.3.4People of every age and sex praised God, and the bishops present gave festive speeches.
1734. 10.4.1A speaker (Eusebius himself) delivered a panegyric at the dedication of Paulinus's new church at Tyre.
1735. 10.4.2The panegyric opens by addressing the assembled clergy and Paulinus, who built God's house for Christ and his bride, the church.
1736. 10.4.3Paulinus is compared to Bezalel, Solomon, and Zerubbabel as builder of God's house.
1737. 10.4.4The speaker also addresses the congregation as Christ's flock.
1738. 10.4.5Formerly believers only heard of God's wonders in Scripture and praised him for what their fathers told them.
1739. 10.4.6Now believers see God's power with their own eyes and can sing that what they heard, they have seen.
1740. 10.4.7The city of God is the church, the pillar of truth; each believer should sing the psalms of joy in God's house.
1741. 10.4.8All together should praise God's greatness in the words of the psalms, Job, Daniel, and Mary's song, for he topples rulers and lifts up the lowly.
1742. 10.4.9God has made the old stories credible even to unbelievers; the church sings Psalm 136 of the God who strikes down kings and redeems his people.
1743. 10.4.10Besides the Father, the church should praise Jesus, the second cause of its blessings, teacher, destroyer of tyrants, and Savior.
1744. 10.4.11Christ, the only good Son, took on human nature like a devoted physician and rescued humanity even from death, as no heavenly being could.
1745. 10.4.12Christ alone bore our sufferings and penalties, raised us from spiritual death, and shares with us the Father's good gifts.
1746. 10.4.13At his first coming Christ's light dissolved the bonds of sin in which demons held humanity.
1747. 10.4.14The devil, enraged at Christ's grace, attacked the church like a mad dog, tearing down church buildings, issuing threats through tyrants, and poisoning souls with idolatry.
1748. 10.4.15Christ, the Angel of Great Counsel and God's commander, suddenly destroyed the persecutors and glorified his faithful before heaven and earth.
1749. 10.4.16The emperors now reject idols, confess Christ as King and Savior on public monuments, and worship him as the true Son of God.
1750. 10.4.17No king but Christ has had his name and laws spread to all the earth.
1751. 10.4.18Christ alone tamed savage nations by his gentle laws and keeps flourishing despite constant attack.
1752. 10.4.19Christ founded a new nation throughout the world and armed his soldiers with piety stronger than steel.
1753. 10.4.20Christ reigns even after death, filling the world with his churches, which he creates by his word, like this splendid church.
1754. 10.4.21God looks rather on the living temple of believers built on the apostles and prophets, with Christ as cornerstone, whom the builders rejected.
1755. 10.4.22The true temple is the believers themselves; only Christ, the great High Priest, can see into its inner sanctuary, the soul.
1756. 10.4.23Second after Christ is Bishop Paulinus, appointed shepherd of this flock, a new Aaron or Melchizedek made like the Son of God.
1757. 10.4.24Paulinus, having long known and taught his people, is best able to see into their souls and to describe his own work.
1758. 10.4.25As the Son does what he sees the Father do, so Paulinus copies Christ's work, like Bezalel who built the tabernacle after heavenly patterns.
1759. 10.4.26Paulinus, bearing Christ's image, built this church with the people's generous help, choosing to restore the defiled old site rather than build elsewhere.
1760. 10.4.27Paulinus rallied the people so that the church that had suffered persecution might share in God's generosity.
1761. 10.4.28Christ the Shepherd, having driven off the persecutors, gathered his flock again and rebuilt its fold to shame his enemies.
1762. 10.4.29The persecutors have vanished, destroyed with their families, confirming Scripture's predictions.
1763. 10.4.30The psalms foretold that the wicked would perish by their own sword, their names be blotted out, and their images be destroyed, as has now happened.
1764. 10.4.31The persecutors fell like the giants who fought the gods, while the despised church's endurance is rewarded, as Isaiah foretold.
1765. 10.4.32Isaiah calls the desert to rejoice and blossom, the weak to take courage, for God will save and make water spring up in the wilderness.
1766. 10.4.33The church, ravaged like the vineyard and sanctuary of the psalms, with her books burned and gates hewn down, has by Christ's power blossomed again, for God disciplines those he loves.
1767. 10.4.34The church blossoms again: the water in the desert is the saving washing of baptism, and the weak have been strengthened to walk in the knowledge of God.
1768. 10.4.35Christ does not neglect those who faltered under persecution but heals and comforts them.
1769. 10.4.36Paulinus, a new Zerubbabel, after the desolation prayed for God's mercy and with Christ's help raised the fallen church to a glory greater than before.
1770. 10.4.37Paulinus enlarged the site and surrounded it with a strong wall.
1771. 10.4.38A great east-facing gateway lets passers-by, even unbelievers, see inside and be moved to enter.
1772. 10.4.39Inside the gate lies a square courtyard (atrium) surrounded by colonnades with lattice screens, open to the sky.
1773. 10.4.40Fountains in the courtyard offer symbolic cleansing, and the court serves as a place for those still receiving first instruction.
1774. 10.4.41Three doors lead into the church on the east side, the central one taller and adorned with bronze reliefs.
1775. 10.4.42The side aisles have matching doors and upper windows with carved woodwork, and the main hall (basilica) is built of rich materials.
1776. 10.4.43Eusebius will not describe the building's dimensions and splendor in detail, including its cedar roof, which recalls the psalm about the cedars of Lebanon.
1777. 10.4.44The church has high thrones for the clergy, benches for all, and in the center the altar, enclosed by a finely carved wooden screen.
1778. 10.4.45Paulinus paved the floor with marble and built side halls for those still preparing for baptism, fulfilling the prophecy in deed.
1779. 10.4.46As Christ passed from death to glorified, incorruptible flesh, so the church shares his renewal and longs for the resurrection and the kingdom of heaven.
1780. 10.4.47The once-widowed church, now dressed as a bride, sings her thanksgiving in Isaiah's words.
1781. 10.4.48The church rejoices that God has clothed her with salvation like a bride.
1782. 10.4.49Christ the Bridegroom answers the church with Isaiah's words: God forsook her only briefly and will show her everlasting mercy.
1783. 10.4.50God tells the church he has taken from her the cup of his wrath and will give it to her oppressors.
1784. 10.4.51God calls the church to rise, shake off the dust, and see her children gathering until she is too small for them.
1785. 10.4.52The church will marvel at the children who have come to her after her bereavement.
1786. 10.4.53Isaiah's prophecies about the church have now been proved true by events.
1787. 10.4.54Paulinus, as the bride's attendant, with the people's prayers and by Christ's power, raised the fallen church as Scripture describes.
1788. 10.4.55More wonderful than the visible church is its spiritual pattern, the rebuilding of the soul.
1789. 10.4.56The Son created the soul in his own image, rational and incorruptible, to be his bride and the temple of the Father and himself.
1790. 10.4.57Through the devil's envy and its own free choice the soul fell into sin, lost God's protection, and lay spiritually dead, without knowledge of God.
1791. 10.4.58Demons ravaged the fallen soul like the boar of the psalm, burned God's sanctuary within it with the passions, and buried it in hopelessness.
1792. 10.4.59After the soul had been punished for its sins, the saving Word, obeying the Father's love, restored it.
1793. 10.4.60Christ used the emperors to purge the world of tyrants, then brought forth his hidden servants, the clergy, to cleanse souls by teaching.
1794. 10.4.61Christ entrusted the cleansed souls to Bishop Paulinus, who builds them up with gold, silver, and precious stones, as the prophecy says.
1795. 10.4.62Isaiah promises that the city will be built of precious stones and her children taught by God.
1796. 10.4.63Paulinus arranged his people like parts of the church building: the simple faithful as the wall, door-keepers at the entrances, beginners learning the Gospels, and catechumens near the inner hall.
1797. 10.4.64The baptized he strengthens with the deeper teachings of Scripture and enlightens.
1798. 10.4.65The central doorway stands for the one God, the side doors for Christ and the Holy Spirit; from living stones Paulinus builds a house bright in soul and body.
1799. 10.4.66The seats in the spiritual church are the souls on which the Spirit's gifts rest, as on the apostles at Pentecost.
1800. 10.4.67Christ dwells fully in the bishop and proportionately in the other clergy; angels given for guidance are like the benches.
1801. 10.4.68The true altar is the pure soul of the priest; Christ the High Priest receives the people's prayers as bloodless sacrifices and offers them to the Father.
1802. 10.4.69The Word has built this spiritual temple throughout the world as an earthly image of heaven, so that the Father may be worshiped.
1803. 10.4.70No mortal can worthily praise the heavenly Jerusalem where angels and the firstborn worship God, for it surpasses all human sight and thought.
1804. 10.4.71All should praise God, who forgives, heals, redeems, and pities those who fear him, as Psalm 103 says.
1805. 10.4.72The panegyric ends with a prayer that God keep the church in his fold and grant eternal peace through Christ.
1806. 10.5.1Eusebius introduces Greek translations of the laws of Constantine and Licinius.
1807. 10.5.2The emperors state that they had already allowed everyone, including Christians, to keep their own religion.
1808. 10.5.3Because the earlier rescript had many restrictive conditions, some Christians had been deterred.
1809. 10.5.4Meeting at Milan, Constantine and Licinius decided to give Christians and everyone freedom to follow the religion of their choice.
1810. 10.5.5No one is to be denied the freedom to choose Christianity or any religion he thinks fitting.
1811. 10.5.6The harsh conditions of earlier letters are withdrawn, and Christians may practice freely.
1812. 10.5.7The governor is informed that the Christians have full freedom of worship.
1813. 10.5.8The same freedom is given to all others, so that no religion is diminished.
1814. 10.5.9Christian meeting places, whether bought from the treasury or others or received as gifts, are to be returned to the Christians without payment.
1815. 10.5.10Those who lose property may seek compensation from the emperor through the local prefect, but the property must be returned at once.
1816. 10.5.11Other property owned by the Christian community as a body must also be returned, with compensation from the emperor for those who give it back.
1817. 10.5.12The governor must carry out the order quickly for the sake of public peace.
1818. 10.5.13In this way God's favor toward the emperors will continue.
1819. 10.5.14The edict is to be published everywhere so that everyone knows of it.
1820. 10.5.15A further imperial letter to Anulinus restricts the grant to the catholic church and says the emperor wishes property restored to its rightful owners.
1821. 10.5.16Anulinus is to restore at once to the catholic churches whatever property of theirs is held by others.
1822. 10.5.17Gardens, houses, and all other church property are to be restored quickly.
1823. 10.5.18Constantine writes to Bishop Miltiades of Rome about the accusations against Caecilian of Carthage and the resulting division among African bishops and people.
1824. 10.5.19Caecilian and ten bishops from each side are to come to Rome and be heard before Miltiades and three Gallic bishops.
1825. 10.5.20Constantine encloses the documents and urges the bishops to settle the case justly, since he wants no schism anywhere in the catholic church.
1826. 10.5.21Constantine reminds Bishop Chrestus of Syracuse that he had earlier summoned bishops from Gaul and Africa to Rome to settle the dispute.
1827. 10.5.22Because some rejected the Roman judgment as hasty and made by too few, causing scandal, Constantine resolved to end the dispute before a larger gathering.
1828. 10.5.23Chrestus is to travel to the Council of Arles by 1 August with two clergy and three servants, using the public post.
1829. 10.5.24Constantine hopes the council will restore unity after hearing both sides; Eusebius then introduces a letter granting money to the churches.
1830. 10.6.1Constantine tells Caecilian that he has ordered the finance officer of Africa to pay him 3,000 folles for the clergy of the catholic church.
1831. 10.6.2Caecilian is to distribute the money according to a list sent by Hosius.
1832. 10.6.3If more is needed, Caecilian may ask the procurator Heraclides, who has been ordered to pay.
1833. 10.6.4Constantine has ordered the proconsul Anulinus and the vicar Patricius to stop those trying to lead the catholic people astray.
1834. 10.6.5Caecilian is to report any who persist in the schism to the magistrates for correction.
1835. 10.7.1Constantine explains that since true religion brings the empire prosperity, its ministers should be rewarded.
1836. 10.7.2The clergy of Caecilian's catholic church are exempted from all civic duties so that they may devote themselves to worship, which benefits the state.
1837. 10.8.1Through Christ's grace the church enjoyed peace and celebration.
1838. 10.8.2Envious of the church's peace, the devil found an instrument in Licinius, who, despite his honors and marriage into Constantine's family, imitated the fallen tyrants.
1839. 10.8.3Out of envy Licinius made war on Constantine, disregarding kinship, oaths, and treaties.
1840. 10.8.4Constantine had generously given Licinius his sister in marriage and a large share of the empire.
1841. 10.8.5Licinius repaid Constantine with secret plots while pretending friendship.
1842. 10.8.6God exposed Licinius's plots, and Constantine, armed with godliness, escaped them.
1843. 10.8.7His schemes exposed, Licinius declared open war.
1844. 10.8.8Warring against Constantine meant warring against his God, so Licinius began quietly to attack the Christians in his realm.
1845. 10.8.9Forgetting the persecutors' fate, which he himself had inflicted, Licinius madly chose to fight God, Constantine's helper.
1846. 10.8.10Licinius expelled Christians from his household, depriving himself of their prayers, and dismissed Christian soldiers who would not sacrifice.
1847. 10.8.11Licinius forbade anyone to feed or pity prisoners, on pain of sharing their punishment.
1848. 10.8.12Licinius also overturned Roman laws on marriage and inheritance and burdened his subjects with taxes, land surveys, and levies even on the dead.
1849. 10.8.13Licinius exiled the innocent, gave nobles' wives to slaves to be abused, and himself violated women, but his last crimes were worse still.
1850. 10.8.14Licinius finally turned against the bishops, secretly having the most respected of them killed through his governors in unheard-of ways.
1851. 10.8.15At Amasea and elsewhere in Pontus churches were demolished or closed to prevent worship.
1852. 10.8.16Licinius, with a bad conscience, believed Christians prayed only for Constantine and so turned his anger on them.
1853. 10.8.17Governors punished bishops as criminals; some were hacked to pieces and thrown into the sea.
1854. 10.8.18Christians again fled to the countryside and mountains, and Licinius planned a general persecution.
1855. 10.8.19Before Licinius could carry out a general persecution, God sent Constantine like a great light to save his people.
1856. 10.9.1God gave Constantine victory and cast Licinius and his supporters at his feet.
1857. 10.9.2Constantine, judging Licinius's madness intolerable, set out with justice and mercy to rescue his oppressed subjects.
1858. 10.9.3Constantine's earlier leniency had only made Licinius crueler and left his subjects without hope.
1859. 10.9.4Constantine and his son Crispus, with God and Christ as allies, easily defeated Licinius.
1860. 10.9.5Licinius and his men vanished at once, their honors disgraced; ignoring the lesson of earlier tyrants, he shared their fate.
1861. 10.9.6Constantine and Crispus reunited the whole Roman Empire, East and West, under their peace.
1862. 10.9.7Freed from fear, people everywhere celebrated with dances and hymns, praising God first and then the emperor and his sons.
1863. 10.9.8Past evils were forgotten, and Constantine's humane and pious laws were published everywhere.
1864. 10.9.9With tyranny ended, Constantine and his sons ruled securely and showed their piety and gratitude to God openly before all.