Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine)

Contents

Reading pages: 0.1–5.8 · 6.1–8.9 · 9.1–11.17 · 12.1–13.16 · 14.1–16.12 · 17.1–18.3

1. 0.1Eusebius disclaims flattering rhetoric and urges his hearers to leave the common path.
2. 0.2Unlike popular orators, Eusebius will praise the emperor's divine virtues rather than his human achievements.
3. 0.3Others may praise the emperor's human deeds, which are noble but lesser than his divine ones.
4. 0.4Those initiated into piety should speak of the emperor's hidden, sacred virtues to fellow initiates.
5. 0.5Guided by Scripture, Eusebius will speak of kingship, the supreme King, the true earthly copy of his rule, and its counterfeit.
6. 1.1The festival belongs to the great King, God, whose throne is heaven and whose light veils his divinity.
7. 1.2Angels and heavenly lights honour God, and the sun, moon and stars serve as torch-bearers at the gate of his palace.
8. 1.3Constantine, his sons, his armies and peoples praise the great King, and all nations by natural reason confess one God.
9. 1.4Earth, rivers, sea and weather all show their subjection to God and reveal him to those who cannot see him.
10. 1.5Sun, moon, stars, seasons, invisible powers, angels and the ages before creation all praise God as sole Lord.
11. 1.6The only-begotten Word, High Priest and light of the Father, rules the universe, and the emperor governs the earth as his image.
12. 2.1As the Word reigns eternally with the Father, the emperor, his friend, rules the earth for many years.
13. 2.2As the Saviour prepares the world for the Father, the emperor brings his subjects to the Word.
14. 2.3Christ drives away the demonic powers; the emperor defeats the visible enemies of truth.
15. 2.4The Word sows saving reason in his disciples; the emperor, as his interpreter, proclaims true godliness to all.
16. 2.5Celebrating thirty years of rule, Constantine offers God not blood sacrifices but his own soul and the souls of his subjects brought to true worship.
17. 3.1God rewards Constantine with long rule, and at each decennial festival a son has been raised to share the throne.
18. 3.2Constantine's sons were made Caesars at successive decennials, fulfilling Daniel's prophecy that the saints would receive the kingdom.
19. 3.3God renews Constantine's rule, grants him victory, and makes him a model of piety.
20. 3.4Constantine distributes his Caesars to the regions of the empire and guides them all like a charioteer of four colts.
21. 3.5Constantine governs in imitation of the heavenly monarchy, the law of true kingship.
22. 3.6As there is one God and one Word who governs his kingdom, so monarchy is the best rule; the Word bears many titles and has given humans a share in God's virtues.
23. 4.1Eusebius asks how humans, bound to the senses, could know of God's invisible kingdom and of true kingship.
24. 4.2The Word of God is the source of all human reason, virtue and kingship; he made humans in God's image and came among them to call all to the heavenly kingdom.
25. 5.1The God-beloved emperor already shares in God's kingdom through the virtues he receives from above.
26. 5.2Only a ruler shaped by royal virtues is a true emperor; a vicious tyrant, however powerful, is not.
27. 5.3A ruler enslaved to passions and demons cannot bear the image of divine monarchy.
28. 5.4The true emperor masters his passions, mirrors God's virtues, and alone is a philosopher-king.
29. 5.5Constantine prays for God's kingdom, values earthly rule little, is unmoved by armies and acclaim, and laughs at the trappings of power, wearing virtues instead.
30. 5.7Constantine regards gold and jewels as worthless though he uses them for state, and abstains from drunkenness and luxury.
31. 5.8Taught by God, Constantine seeks the heavenly kingdom and teaches his subjects the knowledge of God.
32. 6.1God crowns Constantine's thirty years and grants universal festivals.
33. 6.2Heaven rejoices with Constantine's thirtieth year; but the 'age' (time) as a whole cannot be grasped by human thought.
34. 6.4God, who rules time, has divided endless time into months, seasons and years, giving form to what was formless.
35. 6.5Eusebius describes creation in numerical terms: matter, quality, body, the four elements, the decad, the month and the year.
36. 6.6God gives time measured intervals, adorns day and night with sun, moon and stars, and sets earth in the midst surrounded by the sea.
37. 6.7God made the earth fruitful and created man in his image, giving him rule over creatures, knowledge, and the knowledge of God.
38. 6.8God orders time by the four seasons.
39. 6.9God handed the governance of the universe to his only-begotten Word, who teaches a blessed life beyond this age and a judgment according to deeds.
40. 6.10God rewards the virtuous; for the pious emperor greater rewards are prepared, foreshadowed by this festival of perfect numbers.
41. 6.11The monad, mother of numbers and unchanging, images the indivisible divine substance.
42. 6.12The monad produces all numbers yet stands above them.
43. 6.13The number three, image of equality and justice, mirrors the holy and royal Trinity, which holds the causes of all created things.
44. 6.14The decad, limit of numbers, is full and perfect.
45. 6.15Numbers advance through tens and hundreds and return in cycles.
46. 6.16Three combined with ten makes thirty, the most natural number.
47. 6.17Thirty is the length of the lunar month.
48. 6.18Constantine's thirtieth year foreshadows the good things of the heavenly kingdom, full of lights brighter than the sun.
49. 6.19In heaven life is endless and free of grief, lit not by sun or moon but by the Word himself.
50. 6.20Scripture calls the Word the Sun of righteousness, who will receive pious souls into himself.
51. 6.21What God has prepared for the pious is beyond knowing; Constantine, shown Christ's saving sign, has used it to conquer enemies and demons.
52. 7.1Humans, made of body and soul, faced two enemies: visible barbarians and invisible demons.
53. 7.2Barbarians ravaged the empire while demons enslaved humanity to polytheism, pushing aside the true God.
54. 7.3Pagans deified generation (Aphrodite) and death (Pluto) and, expecting no judgment, lived wickedly.
55. 7.4Pagans deified pleasures, which gave rise to the mysteries of Demeter and Kore, Dionysus, Aphrodite, and the immoral myths of Zeus.
56. 7.5Through such error the demons subdued humanity and filled the earth with temples.
57. 7.6The former rulers persecuted their own people, the Christians, as sacrifices to their gods.
58. 7.7The martyrs, men and women alike, endured every torture and death rather than deny God; many women chose death rather than violation.
59. 7.8Demons delighted in the martyrs' blood; God could not abandon his own, any more than a good shepherd abandons a straying sheep.
60. 7.10God received the martyrs into heaven and preserved others on earth as witnesses of his judgment on the persecutors.
61. 7.11God struck down the persecutors, forced them to recant, and raised up the humbled Christians.
62. 7.12God raised Constantine, his servant, as one emperor against many persecutors; imitating Christ, he saved even the godless by teaching them piety.
63. 7.13Constantine subdued both barbarian peoples and the demons, whom Christ had already conquered, distributing their spoils.
64. 8.1Constantine resolved to remove the idols, which were like stumbling stones.
65. 8.2He sent one or two trusted friends through the provinces to expose the idols.
66. 8.3Constantine's envoys made the priests bring out their idols, exposed them, and melted down their precious metals.
67. 8.4Bronze statues of the gods were carried off bound, and Constantine searched for every remnant of idolatry.
68. 8.5From Constantinople Constantine noticed a hidden shrine in Phoenicia, a snare for souls.
69. 8.6Aphrodite's shrine on Lebanon was a place of sexual licence, ritual effeminacy, and adultery.
70. 8.7Constantine had the shrine destroyed by soldiers, and its devotees learned restraint.
71. 8.8No god defended the idols; people, enlightened, pitied their ancestors' blindness and rejoiced in their freedom.
72. 8.9With idolatry overthrown, peace came to the world, and the wars and bloodshed of polytheism ceased.
73. 9.1Eusebius turns to compare the old pagan order with the new.
74. 9.2Under the old gods the empire knew not peace but constant war and civil bloodshed.
75. 9.3The oracles flattered rulers with predictions but could not foresee their own ruin.
76. 9.4No oracle, not even Apollo's, foretold Christ's coming or their own overthrow.
77. 9.5No pagan prophet foresaw Constantine's Christian reign or the destruction of the shrines.
78. 9.6No god foresaw or prevented the melting and chopping up of their images.
79. 9.7The idols' defenders, who had persecuted the Christians, were nowhere to be found.
80. 9.8Against persecutors who trusted in many gods Constantine set the saving sign of the cross, won the victory, and raised it as a trophy in Rome.
81. 9.9Constantine taught his soldiers to trust not in arms but in God, the giver of victory.
82. 9.10Constantine taught his soldiers to pray with raised hands and to keep Sunday as the day of prayer.
83. 9.11In the palace Constantine prayed and heard Scripture, and his household was staffed by devout men.
84. 9.12The cross brought Constantine victory over enemies and demons, and in thanks he ordered churches built everywhere.
85. 9.13The persecutors who destroyed the churches were swiftly destroyed by God, while Constantine built new churches far finer, in Constantinople, Nicomedia and other chief cities.
86. 9.15In Antioch Constantine built a great octagonal church.
87. 9.16In Jerusalem Constantine built a great church at the place of the cross and adorned Christ's tomb.
88. 9.17Constantine built churches at three caves: of the birth, of the ascension, and of the tomb.
89. 9.18In return God blesses Constantine's house and dynasty.
90. 9.19God rewarded each justly: the destroyers of churches perished, and Constantine, who honoured God, was protected with his house.
91. 10.1The cross alone abolished the lies about the gods and revealed the true God to all.
92. 10.2Converts despise the idols, learn Scripture, and worship not the heavenly bodies but their invisible Creator.
93. 10.3The cross has been the cause of countless benefits to humanity.
94. 10.4The emperor himself preaches godliness to the world, calling all to know God.
95. 10.5In the palace priests now sing hymns, and the gospel joins humanity to God.
96. 10.6East and West, North and South now praise one God and one Saviour, and acknowledge one emperor and his sons.
97. 10.7Constantine steers the empire like a helmsman under God, who will give him still greater blessings beyond human telling.
98. 11.1Addressing Constantine directly, Eusebius will explain to the ignorant the reasons for the emperor's pious works, which God himself revealed to him.
99. 11.2The world praises Constantine's works, but the churches he built in Palestine around Christ's tomb are not understood by all.
100. 11.3The spiritually enlightened admire Constantine's churches, but the ignorant mock him for honouring a tomb.
101. 11.4A pagan objector argues that if Christ is worshipped despite his sufferings, the pagan heroes should be too, or neither.
102. 11.5The Word mercifully calls all people, even the impious and ignorant, to his teaching, as the physician of souls who came for sinners.
103. 11.6Only those taught by God see that Constantine's zeal for Christ's tomb came from divine inspiration.
104. 11.7Eusebius will explain why the pre-existent Word came from heaven, became man, died, and rose again.
105. 11.8Worshipping the heavenly bodies and elements is like praising a palace's decorations instead of its architect.
106. 11.9Like admiring the lyre instead of the musician, or the shield instead of the hero, pagans admire creation instead of its Maker.
107. 11.10The universe should lead us to worship the invisible Word, as we admire a sage's unseen mind rather than his body or cloak.
108. 11.11Above creation we should marvel at the invisible Word, the only-begotten whom the Father begot from himself and set over the universe.
109. 11.12Because created things could not approach the unbegotten God, God set his only-begotten Word as mediator, who governs the universe.
110. 11.13The order of the elements, the water cycle, fire, the reconciling of opposites, and human generation show a governing power beyond matter.
111. 11.14The almighty Word spreads through all things and holds the universe together like a well-tuned instrument.
112. 11.15The Word formed animals, plants and sea creatures, shapes life in the womb, and gives the rain.
113. 11.16Like a farmer, the Word waters and adorns the earth with flowers and fruits.
114. 11.17Philosophers have called the Word nature, world-soul or fate; others wrongly identified him with the supreme God himself bound up in matter.
115. 12.1Scripture teaches that the supreme God is beyond all thought and place; all things are from him, but not made through him.
116. 12.2The Father rules by his will alone; the Word, through whom all things are, flows from him like a river for the salvation of all.
117. 12.3As a human mind remains hidden while its word goes out and makes its thoughts known, so with God and his Word.
118. 12.4Unlike a human word, the Word of God is a living, subsisting Son, the power and wisdom of God, who pours out life and every good from his fullness.
119. 12.5The Word assigns every creature its place and lot, judges each life, and provides for rational and irrational creatures alike.
120. 12.6The Word works all things, looking to the Father and mediating between him and creation.
121. 12.7The Word is the bond, providence and guardian of the universe, the only-begotten God through whom all things were made.
122. 12.8God gave the world his only-begotten Son as its soul; the Word, present in matter yet light from light, is one though he has many powers.
123. 12.9The many parts of the world do not imply many gods; polytheists err by deifying its parts.
124. 12.10To divide the world into many gods, or to call the world God, is as absurd as calling each limb of one man a man; the divine nature is simple and without parts.
125. 12.11The Father alone is the uncaused God; the one Word, his only-begotten, plays the many-stringed world like a lyre and pervades it like a soul.
126. 12.12As one heaven and one sun suffice, so the one Father has one Word, who illumines all intelligible things.
127. 12.13One human soul can master many arts without being many souls.
128. 12.14As one potter shapes all the parts of a figure, so one creative power, the Word, made and sustains the whole world.
129. 12.15As one ray of sunlight or one fire produces many effects, so one Word works all things.
130. 12.16The one Word steers the universe, gives light to the heavenly bodies and life to angels and all creatures, making one harmonious world.
131. 13.1Eusebius will explain why the Word came among men: humanity ignored him and worshipped the heavenly bodies.
132. 13.2Pagans deified the earth's fruits, the human mind and speech, and even their own passions and lusts.
133. 13.3They deified dead men, animals and reptiles, and then images carved and cast from wood, stone and metal.
134. 13.4They called demons gods, used sorcery to summon spirits, and deified men such as Heracles and Osiris; even learned Egyptians could not distinguish God from mortal nature.
135. 13.5Every nation deified local men, monsters and passions, men who taught no virtue but were given to vice; and by imitating their gods' adulteries and crimes they destroyed their own souls.
136. 13.6Pagans sought the divine in mortal bodies like a man looking for the sun in the mud, and even sacrificed their own children.
137. 13.7Eusebius lists human sacrifices among Phoenicians, Greeks, Egyptians, Libyans, Arabs and even at Rome, to show the madness of idolatry.
138. 13.8Diodorus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus record mass child sacrifice at Carthage and human tithes demanded by the gods in Italy.
139. 13.9Humanity was also divided against itself, every people at war with others under its own laws.
140. 13.10Constant war meant that travellers went armed, farmers carried swords, and raiding neighbours was thought a virtue.
141. 13.11Following the myths of their gods, pagans fell into every licentiousness, including homosexual acts condemned by Paul.
142. 13.12They denied providence and attributed the world to chance or fate.
143. 13.13Believing the soul perished with the body, they lived like beasts with no thought of judgment.
144. 13.14Whole nations practised incest, murder of strangers, cannibalism, and the killing of the old.
145. 13.15Taking pity on humanity, the Word first taught through patriarchs, prophets and laws; and when only a superhuman helper would serve, he came himself, sent by the Father.
146. 13.16For these reasons the Word came among mortals in a new way, through a mortal instrument, to save the mortal by what is like it.
147. 14.1The incorporeal Word took a body because people who sought God in visible things could see him only in human form.
148. 14.2Since like loves like, the Word showed himself in a human body to those who looked for the divine in images and men.
149. 14.3The Word's human body was a living, holy temple and statue, unlike the lifeless idols that house demons.
150. 14.4The indwelling Word was not affected by the body, as sunlight is not defiled by what it touches.
151. 14.5Like Orpheus taming beasts with his lyre, the Word used a human being as his instrument to tame and heal human souls, showing them God in a man.
152. 14.6Through the man he assumed the Word worked visible miracles and taught, while remaining unchanged and present everywhere.
153. 14.8Even during his earthly life the Word filled all things and was with the Father, giving to the human nature without receiving from it.
154. 14.9The Word was not defiled by birth nor harmed by death, as a lyre-player is not hurt when his lyre is broken.
155. 14.10As sunlight is not defiled by mud, the Word was not harmed by the body's sufferings.
156. 14.11The Word, being life and light itself, sanctifies and heals whatever he touches.
157. 14.12Throughout his life Christ showed now his shared human weakness, now his divinity in miracles, prophecy and teaching.
158. 15.1Eusebius turns to explain Christ's death and resurrection, and then to prove them.
159. 15.2Had the Word simply vanished and let his body perish, he would have seemed a phantom and acted unworthily of himself.
160. 15.3Only by meeting and conquering death could the Word complete his victory and fulfil his promises; letting his body simply perish would have contradicted his nature as life.
161. 15.5The victory over death had to be public, so Christ did not flee death but engaged it openly and made the mortal immortal for the salvation of all.
162. 15.6As one proves a vessel fireproof by putting it in the fire, the Word let his body die for a short time and then raised it, proving eternal life stronger than death.
163. 15.7The disciples had to see the resurrection with their own eyes, especially those who would preach it to all nations.
164. 15.8To arm the apostles against fear of death, Christ taught them not by argument but by the deed of his resurrection.
165. 15.9The first reason for the resurrection was to show death powerless; the second, to prove that Christ, unlike deified mortals, is the true God who conquered death.
166. 15.11The third reason: Christ's body was a sacrifice offered to God for all humanity as a ransom, which broke the power of the demons.
167. 15.12Christ's body was the sacrificial lamb foretold in Scripture, who bore our sins, as John the Baptist and Isaiah declared.
168. 15.13The Word, the High Priest distinct from the victim, raised his body and presented it to the Father as the firstfruits of salvation.
169. 16.1Eusebius turns to the proofs of what he has said.
170. 16.2Formerly humanity was divided into many states, which bred endless wars, adulteries and abductions such as the Trojan war.
171. 16.3When Christ's body was raised as a trophy over the demons, the divided governments and their wars came to an end and one God was proclaimed.
172. 16.4At the same time one God was preached and one empire arose; the Roman Empire and the Christian teaching sprang up together as God's two gifts.
173. 16.5Where many warring kingdoms had been, Roman monarchy and Christ's teaching together brought peace.
174. 16.6Christ's power overthrew the demons' rule while Rome united the nations, the gospel preparing the way for the empire.
175. 16.7The simultaneous end of idolatry and of national wars fulfilled the prophecies of universal peace; and no one but Christ, after his death, ever made his name known in every tongue, as he foretold.
176. 16.9Christ alone spread his teaching worldwide, abolished barbarous customs, endured constant persecution and flourished, founded a new nation, turned Egypt from animal worship, gave power over demons, and established bloodless sacrifices.
177. 16.10Churches and spiritual sacrifices now fill the world, and human sacrifice ended only after Christ's teaching, under Hadrian.
178. 16.11Christ's continuing works after death prove him alive, while the dead persecutors are forgotten; invisible realities are known from their effects.
179. 16.12Christ's present works show that he lives, since the non-existent can do nothing.
180. 17.1Eusebius turns to the evidence of Christ's living power in their own day.
181. 17.2The persecutors destroyed the churches and attacked Christ with words, but he defended himself invisibly.
182. 17.3The persecuting emperors, once prosperous, were suddenly struck down when they fought against God and were forced to acknowledge Christ and reverse their edicts.
183. 17.4Christ then filled the world with new churches, called 'the Lord's' houses after their Master.
184. 17.5Christ rebuilt the churches more splendidly while their destroyers still lived, forcing them under divine punishment to recant in writing.
185. 17.6Even amid persecution Christ raised up ascetics and lifelong virgins everywhere, persuaded multitudes to feed on Scripture, and taught even slaves and barbarians to despise death and expect judgment.
186. 17.7No other sage was foretold, as Christ was, by Hebrew prophets who described his birthplace, time, life and works.
187. 17.8Christ foretold both the destruction of Jerusalem's temple, which followed swiftly, and the indestructibility of his church.
188. 17.9Christ made simple fishermen into teachers of the world, whose writings, translated into every language, are believed as divine oracles.
189. 17.10Christ foretold his disciples' persecution and so strengthened them that they endured it with adamantine courage.
190. 17.11Christ has strengthened martyrs in every generation; no king ever ruled so long or conquered after death as he does.
191. 17.12The universal peace that came with Christ's preaching, foretold by the prophets, silences all objection; no one else has shown such divine power.
192. 17.13No god or hero of the nations ever taught eternal life, enlightened the whole earth, abolished all other gods, and was acknowledged by all nations as God alone, as Christ has.
193. 17.14Christ established the weekly Lord's day assembly for the nourishment of souls, and though constantly attacked, has led his people to glory.
194. 17.15The facts themselves proclaim that the one true Son of God has appeared among men.
195. 18.1Eusebius turns to Constantine, who knows Christ's power by experience, through many visions and dreams.
196. 18.2Christ has guided Constantine's own reasoning for the common good.
197. 18.3Constantine, knowing God's help in war and government, built the church at Christ's tomb as a trophy of the victory over death, proclaiming his faith to all.