Church History 10.5.21 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:478

Ἀντίγραφον βασιλικῆς ἐπιστολῆς, διʼ ἧς προστάττει δευτέραν γενέσθαι σύνοδον ὑπὲρ τοῦ πᾶσαν τῶν ἐπισκόπων περιελεῖν διχοστασίαν. “ Κωνσταντῖνος σεβαστὸς Χρήστῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Συρακουσίων. ἤδη μὲν πρότερον, ὅτε φαύλως καὶ ἐνδιαστρόφως τινὲς περὶ θρησκείας τῆς ἁγίας καὶ ἐπουρανίου δυνάμεως καὶ τῆς αἱρέσεως τῆς καθολικῆς ἀποδιίστασθαι ἤρξαντο, ἐπιτέμνεσθαι βουληθεὶς τὰς τοιαύτας αὐτῶν φιλονεικίας, οὕτω διετετυπώκειν ὥστε ἀποσταλέντων ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλλίας τινῶν ἐπισκόπων, ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ τούτων κληθέντων ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀφρικῆς τῶν ἐξ ἐναντίας μοίρας καταλλήλως ἐνστατικῶς καὶ ἐπιμόνως διαγωνιζομένων, παρόντος τε καὶ τοῦ τῆς Ῥώμης ἐπισκόπου, τοῦτο, ὅπερ ἐδόκει κεκινῆσθαι, δυνηθῇ ὑπὸ τῆς παρουσίας αὐτῶν μετὰ πάσης ἐπιμελοῦς διακρίσεως κατορθώσεως τυχεῖν.

English · Claude translation

Copy of an imperial letter in which he orders a second council to be held to remove all division among the bishops. [Letter of Constantine to Chrestus:] “Constantine Augustus to Chrestus, bishop of the Syracusans. Already earlier, when some began wickedly and perversely to depart from the religion of the holy and heavenly power and from the catholic faith, wishing to cut short such contentions of theirs, I had arranged that certain bishops should be sent from Gaul, and that those of the opposing parties who were contending obstinately and persistently against each other should be summoned from Africa, and that, the bishop of Rome also being present, the matter that seemed to have been raised might through their presence be settled with all careful examination.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:478 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Topics

Church office

Notes

Translation notes

αἵρεσις here is neutral, “faith” or “sect” (the catholic body), not “heresy”.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (wrong breathing and accent in the digital text): ὕπερ τοῦ πᾶσαν → ὑπὲρ τοῦ πᾶσαν.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.5.21 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/5/21/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.5.21 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/5/21/).