Sophia Scriptura

Church History 10.7.2

Eusebius of Caesarea · Church History · ca. 300–325 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: The clergy of Caecilian's catholic church are exempted from all civic duties so that they may devote themselves to worship, which benefits the state.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:481–482

διόπερ ἐκείνους τοὺς εἴσω τῆς ἐπαρχίας τῆς σοι πεπιστευμένης ἐν τῇ καθολικῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, ᾗ Καικιλιανὸς ἐφέστηκε, τὴν ἐξ ἑαυτῶν ὑπηρεσίαν τῇ ἁγίᾳ ταύτῃ θρησκείᾳ παρέχοντας, οὕσπερ κληρικοὺς ἐπονομάζειν εἰώθασιν, ἀπὸ πάντων ἁπαξαπλῶς τῶν λειτουργιῶν βούλομαι ἀλειτουργήτους διαφυλαχθῆναι, ὅπως μὴ διά τινος πλάνης ἢ ἐξολισθήσεως ἱεροσύλου ἀπὸ τῆς θεραπείας τῆς τῇ θειότητι ὀφειλομένης ἀφέλκωνται, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἄνευ τινὸς ἐνοχλήσεως τῷ ἰδίῳ νόμῳ ἐξυπηρετῶνται, ὧνπερ μεγίστην περὶ τὸ θεῖον λατρείαν ποιουμένων πλεῖστον ὅσον τοῖς κοινοῖς πράγμασι συνοίσειν δοκεῖ. ἔρρωσο, Ἀνυλῖνε, τιμιώτατε καὶ ποθεινότατε ἡμῖν.”

English · Claude translation

Wherefore it is my will that those within the province entrusted to you, in the catholic church over which Caecilian presides, who give their own service to this holy religion, whom they are accustomed to call clergy, be kept wholly free from all public services, so that they may not be drawn away by any error or sacrilegious lapse from the worship owed to the Divinity, but may rather serve their own law without any disturbance; for their rendering the greatest worship to the Divinity will, it seems, bring the greatest benefit to the common welfare. Farewell, Anulinus, our most honored and most beloved.”

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:481–482 · 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

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (misread letter in the digital text): ἐπονομάξειν → ἐπονομάζειν.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.7.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/7/2/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.7.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/7/2/).

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