Church History

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.7 · 1.8 · 1.9–1.11 · 1.12–1.21 · 1.22–1.33 · 1.34–2.9 · 2.10–2.18 · 2.19–2.22 · 2.23–2.28 · 2.29–2.36 · 2.37 · 2.38–2.41 · 2.42–3.2 · 3.3–3.13 · 3.14–3.22 · 3.23–4.7 · 4.8–4.22 · 4.23–4.27 · 4.28–5.6 · 5.7–5.18 · 5.19–5.23 · 5.24–6.6 · 6.7–6.16 · 6.17–7.6 · 7.7–7.19 · 7.20–7.31 · 7.32–7.47 · 7.48

1. 1.1Socrates explains that he begins where Eusebius’s Church History ended, aiming at accuracy rather than eloquence.
2. 1.2Constantine, proclaimed emperor in Britain, sees a cross of light with the words “By this conquer,” defeats Maxentius at the Mulvian Bridge, and ends the persecution.
3. 1.3Constantine favours the churches while his colleague Licinius, swearing false friendship, carries on a local persecution of Christians.
4. 1.4Constantine defeats Licinius at Chrysopolis, later has him executed, and as sole emperor favours the church, whose peace is then broken by internal strife.
5. 1.5Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, suspecting his bishop Alexander of Sabellianism, argues that the begotten Son had a beginning and came from nothing.
6. 1.6Arianism spreads, supported by Eusebius of Nicomedia; Alexander deposes Arius and sends out a circular letter refuting his teaching; the Melitians join the Arians.
7. 1.7Constantine sends Hosius of Corduba with a letter urging Alexander and Arius to drop a futile question and be reconciled.
8. 1.8Constantine convenes the synod of Nicaea; Socrates quotes Eusebius on the assembly, the Nicene Creed, the five who objected to homoousios, and Eusebius of Caesarea’s letter to his church explaining his assent.
9. 1.9Socrates gives the synodal letter of Nicaea to the Alexandrians (on Arius, the Melitians, and Easter) and Constantine’s letters on Nicaea, against Arius, on Easter, on church building, on fifty copies of Scripture, and to Macarius on the church of the Holy Sepulchre.
10. 1.10At Nicaea the Novatianist bishop Acesius accepts the creed and the Easter date but defends refusing communion to those who sin gravely after baptism; Constantine tells him to climb to heaven alone.
11. 1.11Paphnutius, a confessor honoured by Constantine, persuades the bishops at Nicaea not to forbid married clergy to live with their wives, while those already ordained should not marry.
12. 1.12Spyridon of Trimithus, a shepherd-bishop, frees thieves miraculously bound at his sheepfold and recovers a deposit by his dead daughter’s brief return.
13. 1.13Socrates tells, on the authority of the Novatianist Auxanon, how the monk Eutychian freed a prisoner; the bishops of Nicaea issue canons and go home, and a partial list of signatories and the date are given.
14. 1.14Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nicaea submit a statement accepting the Nicene faith, though not Arius’s condemnation, and are restored to their sees.
15. 1.15Athanasius succeeds Alexander at Alexandria; Socrates repeats Rufinus’s story that as a boy he played at being bishop and was then trained by Alexander.
16. 1.16After his twentieth-year festival Constantine rebuilds churches, enlarges Byzantium as Constantinople, the second Rome, and displays pagan statues and the Delphic tripods there.
17. 1.17Helena finds the tomb of Christ, three crosses, and Pilate’s inscription; a dying woman healed by one cross identifies the true cross; Helena builds churches in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and on the Mount of Olives.
18. 1.18Constantine ends gladiatorial shows, moves the Nile cubit to the church, defeats Goths and Sarmatians, builds churches at Mamre and Heliopolis, suppresses immoral cults, and carries a tent-church on campaign.
19. 1.19Frumentius, a captive raised at the court of the inner Indians, gathers Christians there, is made bishop by Athanasius, and evangelizes the country.
20. 1.20A captive Christian woman heals the Iberian king’s child and queen; the king, saved from darkness while hunting, converts with his people, a column is miraculously raised, and the Iberians ask Constantine for a bishop.
21. 1.21Socrates refers readers to Athanasius’s Life of Antony for the monk Antony.
22. 1.22Socrates recounts the origins of Manichaeism through Scythianus, Terebinthus, and Cubricus (Mani), its teachings, and Mani’s execution by the Persian king, following the Acts of Archelaus.
23. 1.23Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis, restored, work against Athanasius and for Arius’s return; meanwhile bishops quarrel over homoousios, Eustathius of Antioch and Eusebius of Caesarea accusing each other.
24. 1.24A synod at Antioch deposes Eustathius, probably on other pretexts than Sabellianism; rioting follows, Eusebius of Caesarea declines the see, and Eusebius of Nicomedia works for Arius’s return.
25. 1.25Through an Arian presbyter commended by Constantia, Constantine is persuaded that Arius agrees with Nicaea and summons him to court; Arius and Euzoius come and are asked to submit their faith in writing.
26. 1.26Arius and Euzoius submit to Constantine a brief creed, without homoousios, and ask to be reunited with the church.
27. 1.27Arius is refused by Athanasius at Alexandria; Constantine threatens Athanasius; Eusebius’s party and the Melitians bring charges against him (linen tribute, treason, the broken chalice of Ischyras, the severed hand of Arsenius).
28. 1.28Constantine has the bishops on their way to the dedication at Jerusalem meet first at Tyre (335) to judge Athanasius, who attends under compulsion.
29. 1.29Arsenius, supposedly murdered, is found alive at Tyre, and Athanasius confounds his accusers by showing him with both hands.
30. 1.30The accuser in the Arsenius affair flees, and Athanasius is cleared of that charge.
31. 1.31Athanasius objects to his judges in the Ischyras affair; when a hostile commission is sent to the Mareotis, he leaves Tyre secretly.
32. 1.32The synod of Tyre deposes Athanasius in his absence; Arsenius himself signs the deposition.
33. 1.33At Jerusalem the bishops dedicate the church and receive Arius; a letter of Constantine then summons them to Constantinople because Athanasius has appealed to him.
34. 1.34Constantine’s letter summons the bishops of Tyre to Constantinople after Athanasius met him in the road and asked for a hearing in their presence.
35. 1.35The Eusebians accuse Athanasius of threatening to stop Alexandria’s grain shipments to Constantinople, and Constantine exiles him to Treves.
36. 1.36Marcellus of Ancyra, writing against the Arian sophist Asterius, is accused of holding with Paul of Samosata that Christ was a mere man, and is deposed at Constantinople.
37. 1.37Arius, summoned to Constantinople, is to be received into communion; bishop Alexander of Constantinople prays in the church of Irene that God decide between his faith and Arius’s.
38. 1.38Arius signs the Nicene definitions deceitfully and swears an oath, is ordered received into communion, but dies suddenly in a privy near the Forum of Constantine, which Constantine takes as God’s verdict.
39. 1.39Constantine, falling ill in his sixty-fifth year, is baptized near Nicomedia, makes his will in favour of his three sons, and dies.
40. 1.40Constantine is buried in the church of the Apostles at Constantinople; he lived sixty-five years and reigned thirty-one, dying on 22 May 337.
41. 2.1Socrates explains that he rewrote Books 1–2 after finding Athanasius’s writings and contemporary letters, which showed that Rufinus had erred, and now includes the documents for his patron Theodore.
42. 2.2After Constantine’s death the Arian presbyter wins over Constantius’s court, and Arianism spreads through the East; Athanasius returns to Alexandria with a letter of Constantine the Younger.
43. 2.3Constantine the Younger’s letter restores Athanasius to Alexandria; Arian factions riot, and the Eusebians accuse him of resuming his see without a synod.
44. 2.4Eusebius of Caesarea dies and is succeeded by his disciple Acacius, who wrote his life.
45. 2.5Constantine II is killed attacking the territory of his brother Constans (340).
46. 2.6Alexander of Constantinople dies, naming Paul or Macedonius as possible successors; the Nicene party ordains Paul, the Arians back Macedonius.
47. 2.7Constantius has Paul removed and transfers Eusebius of Nicomedia to the see of Constantinople.
48. 2.8At the dedication synod of Antioch (341), held without Julius of Rome, the Eusebians accuse Athanasius of resuming his see without a synod and of violence.
49. 2.9The Eusebians first propose Eusebius of Emesa for Alexandria; Socrates summarizes George of Laodicea’s account of his education and troubled episcopate.
50. 2.10The Eusebians appoint Gregory to Alexandria and issue the creeds of the dedication synod of Antioch (341), professing not to follow Arius; Franks invade Gaul and earthquakes strike Antioch.
51. 2.11Gregory is installed at Alexandria by soldiers; Athanasius escapes among the psalm-singing congregation and goes to Rome; Eusebius asks Julius to judge the case.
52. 2.12After Eusebius’s death the people restore Paul at Constantinople while the Arians ordain Macedonius, and rioting follows.
53. 2.13The general Hermogenes, sent to expel Paul, is lynched by the people of Constantinople (342); Constantius expels Paul, cuts the city’s grain dole, and withholds recognition from Macedonius.
54. 2.14The Arians replace Gregory at Alexandria with George of Cappadocia.
55. 2.15Exiled eastern bishops in Rome are restored by Julius’s letters; the eastern bishops at Antioch reject his authority; Socrates defends Athanasius against Sabinus’s charges of violence.
56. 2.16The prefect Philip spirits Paul out of Constantinople into exile and installs Macedonius; soldiers clearing the way kill about 3,150 people; Constantius builds the Great Church (Sophia).
57. 2.17Accused of selling the Alexandrian poor-relief grain, Athanasius flees; Julius of Rome rebukes the bishops at Antioch; Paul too comes to Italy.
58. 2.18Eastern envoys present Constans with a new creed instead of explaining the depositions of Athanasius and Paul; Photinus of Sirmium teaches that the Son was a mere man.
59. 2.19Three years later the eastern bishops send to Italy the long creed (Ekthesis makrostichos, 344), with explanations condemning both Arian phrases and the teaching of Marcellus, Photinus, and the Sabellians.
60. 2.20The westerners reject the long creed; the synod of Sardica (343) meets, the easterners withdraw to Philippopolis, and the westerners confirm Nicaea and restore Athanasius, Paul, and Marcellus.
61. 2.21Socrates defends Eusebius of Caesarea against the charge of Arianism, quoting his assent at Nicaea and his works against Marcellus on Prov 8:22 (“created” as “appointed”).
62. 2.22After Sardica East and West break communion at Mount Soucis; Constans threatens Constantius with war unless Athanasius and Paul are restored.
63. 2.23Constantius, under pressure from Constans, recalls Athanasius with three letters; Julius of Rome writes to the Alexandrians welcoming his return; Constantius restores the exiled bishops and issues letters in Athanasius’s favour.
64. 2.24Maximus of Jerusalem holds a synod restoring Athanasius to communion; Ursacius and Valens recant at Rome; Athanasius returns to Alexandria, ordaining on the way.
65. 2.25Socrates summarizes the political upheavals: the murder of Dalmatius, the Persian war, Magnentius’s murder of Constans, and the usurpations of Vetranio and Nepotian.
66. 2.26With Constantius sole emperor, the Arians renew charges against Athanasius; Paul is strangled in exile, Marcellus and Lucius removed, and Athanasius flees a death sentence; Leontius, who had castrated himself, becomes bishop of Antioch.
67. 2.27Macedonius, with imperial support, persecutes those who hold the homoousios in Constantinople and the East by expulsion, torture, and exile.
68. 2.28Socrates quotes Athanasius on the violence of George’s party at Alexandria; Constantius deposes Vetranio peacefully, makes Gallus Caesar, and a cross appears in the sky at Antioch.
69. 2.29A synod at Sirmium (351) deposes Photinus for teaching like Sabellius and Paul of Samosata.
70. 2.30Socrates gives the first creed of Sirmium (351) with its anathemas, and a Latin formula that forbids the terms ousia, homoousios, and homoiousios and calls the Father greater; Photinus is defeated in debate by Basil of Ancyra.
71. 2.31The aged Hosius of Corduba is forced by beatings and torture to sign the Sirmian statements.
72. 2.32Magnentius, defeated at Mursa and Mons Seleucus, kills his mother, his brother, and himself at Lyons (353); the usurper Silvanus is also put down.
73. 2.33Gallus suppresses a revolt of the Jews of Diocaesarea in Palestine and razes the city.
74. 2.34Gallus, aspiring to usurp, is executed (354); Julian is made Caesar (355); Constantius calls a new synod, and Liberius succeeds Julius at Rome.
75. 2.35Aetius of Antioch, an extreme Arian trained in Aristotelian dialectic, separates from the Arians and founds the party later called Eunomians.
76. 2.36At the synod of Milan (355) the easterners press for Athanasius’s condemnation; Paulinus of Treves, Dionysius, and Eusebius of Vercelli protest, and the assembly breaks up.
77. 2.37The synod of Ariminum (359) rejects the dated creed of Sirmium (“like in all things”, banning “essence”), confirms Nicaea, and deposes Valens, Ursacius, and others; Socrates quotes Athanasius’s ridicule of the dated creed, the synod’s letter, and Constantius’s replies; Liberius is exiled and Felix installed; the Arians publish the creed at Nice in Thrace.
78. 2.38Macedonius of Constantinople persecutes the Nicene party and the Novatianists with torture and forced communion; the Novatianists move their church to Sycae; soldiers sent against Mantinium are killed; the moving of Constantine’s body causes a bloody riot.
79. 2.39The eastern synod, moved from Nicomedia after an earthquake, meets at Seleucia (359); it splits between Acacius’s party, which rejects Nicaea, and the majority, who accept all of Nicaea but the word homoousios and sign the creed of the Antioch dedication.
80. 2.40At Seleucia Acacius’s party presents a creed rejecting homoousios and homoiousios and confessing the Son “like” the Father; the majority depose Acacius, Eudoxius, and others, appoint Anianus to Antioch, and go to Constantinople to report to the emperor.
81. 2.41Acacius’s party at Constantinople (360) reissues the creed of Ariminum, adding that neither “essence” nor “hypostasis” be used of God; Socrates counts the creeds since Nicaea; Ulfilas of the Goths accepts it.
82. 2.42Acacius’s party deposes Macedonius, Eleusius, Basil of Ancyra, Cyril of Jerusalem, and others on disciplinary rather than doctrinal pretexts.
83. 2.43Eustathius of Sebastia, previously deposed, is later condemned at Gangra for forbidding marriage and separating married couples; Eudoxius becomes bishop of Constantinople and jests at the dedication of the Great Church.
84. 2.44Meletius, made bishop of Antioch, preaches the homoousios and is exiled; Euzoius replaces him, and the Nicene party at Antioch splits between Meletians and the older Nicene congregation.
85. 2.45Macedonius allies with the Seleucia majority, whose homoiousian party (Macedonians, Marathonians) denies the Spirit’s divinity; at Antioch the Anomoeans openly declare the Son unlike the Father and from nothing, defending “from God” by 1 Cor 11:12.
86. 2.46The two Apollinarii of Laodicea, excommunicated by bishop George, found the Apollinarian heresy, teaching that the Word took the place of the human mind in Christ.
87. 2.47Julian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers in Gaul; Constantius, baptized by Euzoius, dies at Mopsucrenae (3 November 361).
88. 3.1Socrates recounts Julian’s family, Christian upbringing, secret turn to paganism under Maximus of Ephesus, career as Caesar in Gaul, proclamation as emperor, open paganism, and first measures at Constantinople.
89. 3.2When skulls found in an Alexandrian Mithraeum are paraded by Christians, pagans riot, kill many Christians, and murder bishop George.
90. 3.3Julian writes to the Alexandrians rebuking them, in the name of Sarapis, for lynching George instead of leaving him to the courts.
91. 3.4Athanasius returns to Alexandria and recovers the churches; the Arians choose Lucius as their bishop.
92. 3.5Lucifer of Cagliari and Eusebius of Vercelli, recalled from exile, consult on restoring church order.
93. 3.6Lucifer goes to Antioch and ordains Paulinus bishop for the older Nicene congregation.
94. 3.7The synod of Alexandria (362) affirms the Spirit’s divinity and Christ’s human soul, and rules on the terms essence and hypostasis; Socrates adds his own remarks on the word hypostasis and quotes Evagrius.
95. 3.8Socrates quotes Athanasius’s Defence of his Flight, which justifies fleeing persecution from the examples of Jacob, Moses, David, Elijah, Paul, and Christ himself, while the martyrs bore witness when found.
96. 3.9Eusebius of Vercelli disapproves of Paulinus’s ordination at Antioch; the angered Lucifer’s followers form the Luciferian schism, while Eusebius strengthens the faithful in the East, Illyricum, and Italy.
97. 3.10Hilary of Poitiers defends the homoousios in Latin books; the Macedonians, through Sophronius, claim a middle way, “like in hypostasis”, between homoousios and Aetius’s “unlike”.
98. 3.11Julian favours Christians only where it discredits Constantius, makes Eleusius rebuild the Novatianist church at Cyzicus, and sacrifices to the Fortune of Constantinople.
99. 3.12The blind bishop Maris rebukes Julian to his face; Julian, avoiding open martyrdoms, forbids Christians to teach or study pagan literature.
100. 3.13Julian excludes Christians from the palace guard and governorships and fines those who will not sacrifice; Christians such as Jovian, Valentinian, and Valens resign, Ecebolius conforms; pagans attack Christians and denounce Athanasius.
101. 3.14Athanasius escapes his pursuers on the Nile by turning back towards them, and hides in Alexandria; provincial governors oppress Christians, and Julian tells them their God commands them to endure.
102. 3.15Three Christians of Merus in Phrygia who smashed temple statues give themselves up to save others and are roasted to death by the governor Amachius.
103. 3.16The Apollinarii rewrite Scripture in classical forms when Julian bans Christian education; Socrates argues that Christians may rightly study Greek learning, as Paul did, testing all things.
104. 3.17Julian’s price controls at Antioch cause shortages; mocked by the Antiochenes for his beard and bull-coinage, he replies with the Misopogon.
105. 3.18Apollo’s oracle at Daphne falls silent because of the martyr Babylas’s tomb; Julian has the relics removed, and Christians carry them to Antioch singing psalms against the idols.
106. 3.19Julian has Christians who sang against the idols arrested; the young Theodore, tortured, later tells Rufinus that an angelic youth comforted him; Julian rejects a Persian embassy.
107. 3.20Julian orders the Jews to rebuild the Jerusalem temple; Cyril foretells failure, and an earthquake, fire from heaven, and marks of the cross on garments stop the work.
108. 3.21Julian invades Persia, refuses the king’s offers, believing himself Alexander reborn, and is killed by a javelin of unknown origin (26 June 363).
109. 3.22Jovian, a Christian who had resigned rather than sacrifice, is proclaimed emperor, makes a costly peace ceding Nisibis, and Libanius writes Julian’s funeral oration praising his books against the Christians.
110. 3.23Socrates answers Libanius’s praise of Julian’s books against the Christians, quoting Gregory of Nazianzus’s portrait of the young Julian, comparing Julian with Porphyry, and contrasting pagan deifications of men with Christian faith in Christ.
111. 3.24Jovian, holding the homoousian faith, encourages Athanasius, recalls the exiled bishops, and the pagan temples are closed again.
112. 3.25Jovian refuses the Macedonians’ petition and urges concord; Acacius’s party, with Meletius at Antioch (363), accepts the Nicene faith, explaining homoousios as “like in essence”; Themistius praises Jovian’s toleration.
113. 3.26Jovian buries Julian at Tarsus, hears Themistius’s consular speech at Dadastana, and dies there suddenly (17 February 364).
114. 4.1Valentinian and Valens become emperors; Socrates contrasts their religious policies and surveys who held the main sees.
115. 4.2Valens permits the Macedonians a synod and begins persecuting the Nicene party at Antioch.
116. 4.3Procopius rebels at Constantinople, and an earthquake and sea flood strike many cities.
117. 4.4The synod of Lampsacus confirms the creed of Antioch, condemns Ariminum and deposes Acacius and Eudoxius, strengthening the Macedonians.
118. 4.5Valens defeats and executes Procopius and the generals who betrayed him.
119. 4.6Valens forces Eleusius of Cyzicus to accept the Arian creed; Eleusius repents, but his people keep him as bishop.
120. 4.7Eudoxius makes Eunomius bishop of Cyzicus; Socrates describes Eunomius's sophistry and quotes his claim that God knows his own essence no better than we do.
121. 4.8Valens demolishes the walls of Chalcedon; an oracle found on one of the stones foretells a barbarian invasion.
122. 4.9Valens expels the Nicene party and the Novatians from Constantinople, but the Novatian presbyter Marcian, tutor to the emperor's daughters, wins back their churches.
123. 4.10The younger Valentinian is born.
124. 4.11Hail and earthquakes are taken as signs of God's wrath at Valens's persecution; Gratian is made emperor; Basil and Gregory escape exile.
125. 4.12The Macedonians send envoys to Liberius of Rome, who receives them into communion after they sign the Nicene creed; their confession and Liberius's reply are quoted, and a planned synod at Tarsus is blocked by Eudoxius.
126. 4.13Eunomius breaks with Eudoxius over Aetius; Athanasius hides for four months until Valens, fearing riots, lets him hold the churches of Alexandria.
127. 4.14After Eudoxius's death the Arians make Demophilus bishop of Constantinople, while the Nicene party has Evagrius ordained by Eustathius.
128. 4.15Valens banishes Eustathius and Evagrius, and the Arians at Constantinople abuse the Nicene believers, who appeal in vain to the emperor.
129. 4.16Eighty clergy who petition Valens are put on a ship that is secretly set on fire at sea; a famine in Phrygia follows, seen by many as punishment.
130. 4.17At Antioch Valens expels the Nicene party from the eastern churches and has many killed, especially by drowning.
131. 4.18At Edessa a poor woman hurrying with her child to be martyred at the shrine of Thomas moves the prefect to dissuade Valens from a massacre.
132. 4.19After a necromantic oracle names the next emperor by the letters Th-E-O-D, Valens kills many whose names begin so.
133. 4.20Athanasius dies after forty-six years as bishop and leaves Peter as his successor.
134. 4.21Euzoius goes with imperial troops to Alexandria, where Peter is imprisoned and the Arian Lucius is enthroned.
135. 4.22Socrates notes that Sabinus is silent about the outrages at Lucius's entry, which Peter's letter recorded; Peter flees to Rome, and troops ravage the desert monasteries.
136. 4.23Socrates digresses on the Egyptian monks: Amoun's chaste marriage, sayings of Pambo and others, the two Macarii, Evagrius's writings with excerpts from his Practical Life and Gnostic, and Ammonius who cut off his ear to avoid becoming a bishop.
137. 4.24Lucius and the troops attack the Egyptian monks; the two Macarii are exiled to a pagan island, where they heal the priest's daughter and convert the islanders.
138. 4.25Didymus the Blind, learned despite blindness from childhood, defends the Nicene faith at Alexandria; Antony had told him to rejoice in the eyes that angels have.
139. 4.26Socrates praises Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, describes their training and work against the Arians, and tells of Basil's defiance before the prefect and Valens and the death of Valens's son.
140. 4.27Socrates distinguishes Gregory Thaumaturgus, Origen's pupil, from the two Cappadocian Gregories and from the Arian Gregory of Alexandria.
141. 4.28Socrates explains the strict Novatian discipline on those who lapsed and its appeal in Phrygia and Paphlagonia, and tells how a Novatian synod at Pazus adopted the Jewish date for Easter.
142. 4.29The disputed election of Damasus and Ursinus at Rome leads to riots and deaths, which the prefect punishes.
143. 4.30When the Milanese riot over a successor to Auxentius, the governor Ambrose, still a catechumen, is acclaimed, baptized and made bishop with Valentinian's approval.
144. 4.31Valentinian dies of a burst blood vessel in a rage at Sarmatian envoys; his son Valentinian II is proclaimed; Socrates tells how Valentinian married Justina while Severa still lived and issued a law allowing two wives.
145. 4.32Themistius's address persuades Valens to soften his persecution from death to exile.
146. 4.33After Valens helps Fritigern, many Goths accept Arian Christianity; Ulfilas translates the Scriptures into Gothic, and Athanaric's persecution makes martyrs of Arian Goths.
147. 4.34Valens settles the Goths fleeing the Huns in Thrace and commutes the military levy into a money tax, which Socrates sees as the start of disaster.
148. 4.35When the Goths revolt in Thrace, Valens leaves Antioch and stops exiling the Nicene party; Euzoius dies and Dorotheus succeeds him.
149. 4.36Queen Mavia ends her war on condition that the monk Moses be her people's bishop; Moses refuses ordination from the Arian Lucius and is ordained by exiled bishops.
150. 4.37Peter returns to Alexandria with letters from Damasus, the people expel Lucius, and Peter dies leaving his brother Timothy as successor.
151. 4.38Taunted by the people of Constantinople, Valens marches against the Goths and dies at the battle of Adrianople; this book covers sixteen years.
152. 5.0In the preface to Book 5 Socrates explains why he includes wars and emperors: public and church troubles rise and fall together, as punishment for sin.
153. 5.1After Valens's death the people of Constantinople, paid by the empress Dominica and helped by Saracens, drive the Goths from the city.
154. 5.2Gratian recalls those exiled by Valens, grants freedom of worship except to Eunomians, Photinians and Manichees, and makes Theodosius emperor.
155. 5.3Socrates surveys who held the main sees at Gratian's accession.
156. 5.4The Macedonians separate again from the Nicene party at a synod at Antioch, but most of their people leave them.
157. 5.5Meletius returns to Antioch; his followers force his enthronement beside Paulinus, and an agreement is sworn that the survivor of the two will succeed alone.
158. 5.6Gregory of Nazianzus is transferred to Constantinople; Theodosius, falling ill at Thessalonica, is baptized by the Nicene bishop Ascholius and comes to Constantinople.
159. 5.7Gregory resigns at Constantinople; Theodosius orders the Arian Demophilus to accept Nicaea or leave the churches, and the Arians withdraw outside the city after forty years.
160. 5.8Theodosius convenes the synod of Constantinople (381): the Macedonians walk out, Nectarius is ordained bishop, Constantinople is given precedence after Rome, and the dioceses are assigned to leading bishops.
161. 5.9Theodosius brings the body of Paul of Constantinople back to the city; Meletius dies during the synod, and his party makes Flavian bishop instead of accepting Paulinus.
162. 5.10Theodosius holds a conference of all sects; on Sisinnius's advice he asks whether they accept the pre-Nicene teachers, and then, reading each creed, accepts only the Nicene one and favours the Novatians.
163. 5.11Maximus revolts in Britain and has Gratian killed by trickery at Lyons, which ends Justina's attempt to exile Ambrose.
164. 5.12Theodosius prepares war against Maximus; Honorius is born; Theophilus succeeds Timothy at Alexandria and the Arians replace Demophilus; Theodosius marches on Milan.
165. 5.13False rumours of Theodosius's defeat embolden the Arians of Constantinople, who burn the house of Nectarius.
166. 5.14Maximus is handed over and executed; at Rome Theodosius pardons the senator Symmachus at the request of the Novatian bishop Leontius.
167. 5.15At Antioch the party of Paulinus has Evagrius ordained; after his death Flavian, reconciled with Theophilus and Damasus, gradually reunites the church; John succeeds Cyril at Jerusalem.
168. 5.16Theophilus, with the emperor's order, destroys the temples of Alexandria; pagans attack the Christians, and the statues of the gods are melted down.
169. 5.17Cross-shaped hieroglyphs found in the Serapeum, read by pagans as meaning 'life to come', lead many to baptism; Socrates explains it as Providence, not foreknowledge by Egyptian priests.
170. 5.18At Rome Theodosius abolishes the bakeries where strangers were trapped into forced labour and the punishment of adulteresses by forced prostitution.
171. 5.19Nectarius abolishes the office of penitentiary presbyter at Constantinople after a woman's confession exposes a deacon's sin; Socrates doubts the wisdom of the change.
172. 5.20Socrates notes that the dissenting sects divided among themselves, and that Theodosius persecuted none of them except by exiling Eunomius.
173. 5.21Agelius names Marcian and then Sisinnius as his successors; Sabbatius, a convert from Judaism, splits the Novatians over keeping Easter on the Jewish date, and a synod at Angarus declares the date a matter of indifference.
174. 5.22Socrates digresses on the diversity of church customs: the date of Easter, the Lenten fast, Saturday and Sunday assemblies, clerical continence, baptism, and other local usages, arguing that such things rest on custom, not apostolic law.
175. 5.23The Arians of Constantinople split over whether God was Father before the Son existed, into Dorotheans and Psathyrians, and are reunited only in 419.
176. 5.24The Eunomians split into Theophronians and Eutychians, who baptize into Christ's death rather than the Trinity; Socrates refers readers to Epiphanius's Ancoratus for the list of heresies.
177. 5.25Eugenius and Arbogast murder Valentinian II; Theodosius defeats them at the Frigidus, helped, Socrates says, by a wind that answered his prayer.
178. 5.26Theodosius falls ill after the war and dies at Milan in January 395; this book covers sixteen years and eight months.
179. 6.0In the preface to Book 6, addressed to Theodore, Socrates explains his plain style and why, in writing of recent events, he omits honorific titles for bishops and emperors.
180. 6.1Arcadius and Honorius succeed Theodosius; the returning army kills the prefect Rufinus; Sisinnius succeeds Marcian as Novatian bishop.
181. 6.2After Nectarius's death John of Antioch is chosen bishop of Constantinople; Theophilus, who wanted his own presbyter Isidore, is forced by Eutropius to ordain him.
182. 6.3Socrates sketches John Chrysostom's family, education, ascetic life under Diodore, early writings and ordinations at Antioch, and his severe and outspoken character.
183. 6.4As bishop John alienates his clergy by his severity, urged on by the deacon Serapion, and his habit of eating alone feeds slander; the people love his preaching.
184. 6.5John's rebukes of the powerful, his sermon against the fallen Eutropius, and his refusal of a church to Gainas's Arians multiply enemies; Theophilus begins to plot against him.
185. 6.6Gainas the Goth tries to seize Constantinople; angels in the form of soldiers protect the palace, the Goths in the city are killed, and Gainas's army is destroyed crossing the Hellespont.
186. 6.7The Anthropomorphite controversy: Theophilus, threatened by monks who believe God has human form, condemns Origen's books, then turns the monks against the Tall Brothers, whom he had come to hate.
187. 6.8John organizes Nicene night processions with hymns to counter the Arians' antiphonal songs, leading to a riot; Socrates traces antiphonal singing to a vision of Ignatius of Antioch.
188. 6.9The Tall Brothers and Isidore, expelled by Theophilus, come to Constantinople; John receives them without giving communion, but Theophilus, hearing otherwise, begins a campaign against Origen's books to bring John down.
189. 6.10Theophilus wins over Epiphanius, who condemns Origen's books at a Cypriot synod; Theophilus assembles bishops against Origen, and John's enemies at Constantinople prepare a synod against him.
190. 6.11Severian of Gabala, a popular preacher in Constantinople, quarrels with John's deacon Serapion; John expels Severian, and Eudoxia forces a public reconciliation.
191. 6.12Epiphanius comes to Constantinople with condemnations of Origen's books; Theotimus of Scythia refuses to sign, showing orthodox teaching in Origen's writings.
192. 6.13Socrates defends Origen: his critics Methodius, Eustathius, Apollinaris and Theophilus never accused him of error about the Trinity, and Athanasius cited him as a witness to Nicene faith.
193. 6.14John rebukes Epiphanius for uncanonical actions in Constantinople; Epiphanius leaves for Cyprus and dies at sea, and the two men's reported mutual predictions come true.
194. 6.15After a sermon against women taken as aimed at Eudoxia, Theophilus convenes the Synod of the Oak, which deposes John for not appearing; John gives himself up for exile.
195. 6.16The people's uproar and Severian's tactless sermon lead the emperor to recall John, whom the crowd forces back onto his throne.
196. 6.17A riot between Constantinopolitans and Alexandrians over the trial of Heraclides drives Theophilus from the city; Theophilus is discredited for reading Origen again, and John makes Serapion bishop of Heraclea.
197. 6.18After John denounces the games at Eudoxia's statue and preaches the 'Herodias' sermon, a second synod condemns him under the Antiochene canon; his followers, the Johannites, meet apart, and when he is exiled the church and senate house burn.
198. 6.19Arsacius succeeds John; Cyrinus's crushed foot mortifies, and a hailstorm and Eudoxia's death are taken by some as judgments, while others think John was justly punished; Socrates leaves the judgment to God.
199. 6.20Arsacius dies in 405 and, after a long vacancy, Atticus is made bishop of Constantinople in 406.
200. 6.21John dies in exile at Comana in 407; Socrates criticizes his teaching that repentance may be granted repeatedly, which Sisinnius the Novatian answered in writing.
201. 6.22Anecdotes of the witty and learned Novatian bishop Sisinnius, including his white clothing, his retorts to Leontius of Ancyra and to John Chrysostom.
202. 6.23Arcadius's prayer at the martyr-shrine of Acacius saves a crowd from a collapsing house, and he dies in 408; an alternative version of the quarrel of Severian and Serapion from other manuscripts is appended.
203. 7.1After Arcadius's death the young Theodosius II reigns in the East under the regency of the prefect Anthemius, who builds the great walls of Constantinople and relies on the sophist Troilus.
204. 7.2Socrates describes Atticus, bishop of Constantinople: learned, prudent, gentle toward heretics, a diligent but unremarkable preacher.
205. 7.3Theodosius of Synnada persecutes the Macedonians out of greed; their bishop Agapetus leads his people into the Nicene faith and takes over the see, which Atticus confirms.
206. 7.4A paralysed Jew is healed on being baptized by Atticus; many pagans are converted, but not the Jews.
207. 7.5Sabbatius splits from the Novatian bishop Sisinnius over the Jewish date of Easter, forges a Gospel curse in its support, and a panic at his vigil kills more than seventy people.
208. 7.6Under the Arian bishop Barbas the presbyters George, a Platonist, and Timothy, a follower of Origen, soften Arian teaching; Socrates, who knew Timothy, wonders that such men stayed Arian.
209. 7.7Cyril succeeds his uncle Theophilus at Alexandria after a contested election, extends the bishop's power, and despoils the Novatians.
210. 7.8Maruthas of Mesopotamia, as Roman envoy, wins the favour of the Persian king Yazdegerd I by exposing the magi's tricks and healing his son, and Christianity spreads in Persia.
211. 7.9Socrates lists the successions at Antioch and Rome, noting that Innocent was the first Roman bishop to persecute the Novatians.
212. 7.10Alaric the Goth ravages Illyricum and sacks Rome, sets up Attalus as a puppet emperor, and claims to a monk that he is driven to it.
213. 7.11Socrates lists the Roman bishops after Innocent and complains that Celestine, out of envy and love of power, suppressed the Novatians in Rome, unlike the bishops of Constantinople.
214. 7.12The former official Chrysanthus is forced to become Novatian bishop of Constantinople despite Sabbatius's attempt to seize the see; he gives to the poor from his own means and ordains the orator Ablabius.
215. 7.13Rioting over theatre shows leads to Orestes' torture of Cyril's follower Hierax and a Jewish night attack on Christians, after which Cyril seizes the synagogues and drives the Jews out of Alexandria; Orestes and Cyril remain enemies.
216. 7.14Nitrian monks attack the prefect Orestes, and one of them, Ammonius, who wounded him with a stone, dies under torture; Cyril's attempt to honour him as a martyr is rejected by sober Christians.
217. 7.15The philosopher Hypatia, suspected of hindering reconciliation between Orestes and Cyril, is murdered by a mob led by the reader Peter; Socrates condemns the deed as alien to Christ.
218. 7.16Socrates reports that Jews at Inmestar in Syria, in a drunken game mocking Christ, crucified and killed a Christian boy and were punished by the authorities.
219. 7.17The ascetic Novatian bishop Paul tries to baptize a Jewish impostor who had been baptized many times for money, and the water of the font twice vanishes.
220. 7.18When Bahram V persecutes the Persian Christians and they flee to Roman territory, Theodosius II goes to war; angels encourage the Romans and a panic drowns Persia's Saracen allies in the Euphrates.
221. 7.19The courier Palladius rides from Constantinople to the Persian frontier in three days.
222. 7.20Theodosius seeks peace; the Persian Immortals attempt an ambush but are destroyed, and peace is made and the persecution of Persian Christians ends (422).
223. 7.21Acacius of Amida melts down church plate to ransom and feed seven thousand Persian captives; the empress Eudocia, baptized by Atticus, writes poems on the victory.
224. 7.22Socrates praises Theodosius II's piety, fasting, learning, forbearance and refusal to execute, and his turning a stormy day at the hippodrome into common prayer.
225. 7.23After Honorius's death the usurper John seizes the West; Ardaburius is captured, but an angel in the form of a shepherd leads Aspar through the marsh to Ravenna, and Theodosius leads the people in thanksgiving.
226. 7.24Theodosius II makes his young cousin Valentinian III Caesar and sends him west with his mother Placidia; falling ill at Thessalonica, he sends him the imperial crown.
227. 7.25Atticus restores John Chrysostom's name to the commemorations, sends alms beyond his see with a letter to Calliopius, renames places, defends the Novatians, and dies in 425.
228. 7.26After a contested vacancy, the laity secure the ordination of the presbyter Sisinnius in 426; the disappointed Philip of Side attacks the choice in his history.
229. 7.27Socrates describes Philip of Side and criticizes his enormous, digressive and chronologically confused Christian History.
230. 7.28Cyzicus rejects Proclus, whom Sisinnius had ordained its bishop; Sisinnius dies in 427, praised for his simplicity and care for the poor.
231. 7.29Nestorius of Antioch is made bishop of Constantinople in 428 and at once promises the emperor to rid the earth of heretics; his attack on the Arians earns him the name Firebrand.
232. 7.30The Burgundians, harassed by the Huns, are baptized after a week's fast and defeat a much larger Hunnic force; Barbas, the Arian bishop, dies in 430.
233. 7.31Following Nestorius's lead, Antony of Germa persecutes the Macedonians, who murder him; Nestorius then has their churches confiscated.
234. 7.32Nestorius's presbyter Anastasius denies that Mary is Theotokos, and Nestorius defends him; Socrates, from Nestorius's writings, judges him ignorant of the older authorities rather than a follower of Paul of Samosata, and cites 1 John, Eusebius and Origen for the title Theotokos.
235. 7.33Armed slaves seeking sanctuary kill a cleric and themselves in the church at Constantinople, taken as an omen of division.
236. 7.34At the council of Ephesus (431) Cyril's party deposes Nestorius and Nestorius's party deposes Cyril; John of Antioch joins the quarrel; Nestorius's late acceptance of Theotokos is rejected, he is exiled, and the clergy of Constantinople anathematize him.
237. 7.35After Nestorius's deposition Proclus is blocked by appeal to a canon against translating bishops, and the ascetic presbyter Maximian is chosen.
238. 7.36Socrates argues that the canon against transferring bishops was misused against Proclus, quotes it, and lists many bishops who moved from one see to another.
239. 7.37The frail ascetic Silvanus, moved from cold Philippopolis to Troas, launches a stuck ship by prayer and has disputes judged by honest laymen; Maximian becomes bishop of Constantinople in 431.
240. 7.38A false Moses in Crete leads Jews to leap from a cliff into the sea; Christian fishermen rescue many, and numbers of Cretan Jews become Christians.
241. 7.39In a great fire at Constantinople in 433 the Novatian church is preserved untouched while Bishop Paul prays at the altar.
242. 7.40When Maximian dies in Holy Week of 434, Theodosius has Proclus enthroned at once, with the support of letters of Celestine of Rome on transferring bishops.
243. 7.41Socrates describes Proclus's career under Atticus and praises his gentleness toward the sects, like that of Theodosius.
244. 7.42Socrates praises Theodosius II as meek above all men, like Moses, and so given victories by God.
245. 7.43The Huns who had supported the usurper John are struck by lightning, plague and fire from heaven; Proclus applies Ezekiel's prophecy against Gog to the deliverance.
246. 7.44Valentinian III comes to Constantinople to marry Eudoxia, daughter of Theodosius II, in 437.
247. 7.45Proclus has John Chrysostom's body brought to Constantinople in 438, reconciling the Johannites; Socrates contrasts the treatment of John and of Origen.
248. 7.46The Novatian bishop Paul, whose funeral unites all the sects, secretly names his ascetic disciple Marcian as successor in a sealed document, and Marcian is ordained.
249. 7.47Theodosius gives thanks to God and sends the empress Eudocia to Jerusalem to fulfil a vow; she endows the churches of the East.
250. 7.48Proclus makes the prefect Thalassius bishop of Caesarea; Socrates ends his History with a prayer for peace and a summary of the period covered (306–439).