From Eusebius Pamphilus : His Ten Books of Ecclesiastical History, Faithfully Translated and Abridg’d from the Original, by Samuel Parker, Gent.; London : Printed for George Sawbridge at the Three Flower de-Luces in Little Britain, 1703; pp. 73-92.
THE
Ecclesiastical History
OF
Eusebius Pamphilus
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73
BOOK V.
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SOTER held the See of Rome Eight Years, and upon his Death, Eleutherus was advanc’d to that chair, in the Seventeenth Year of Antoninus Verus, when the Violence of the Persecution encreasing, all the Provinces of the Empire were in a manner overflow’d with the Blood of the Holy Martyrs. And to what an excess of Vehemence it rag’d elsewhere, may be conceiv’d from the Measures of Persecution which were taken at Lyons and Vienna, where the Christians were forbidden to shew their Heads expos’d to all the Injuries and Indignities which Men could suffer from a licens’d Rabble, and upon Presentment reserv’d in Custody 74 by the Magistrates for the Fury of the Prefect, at that time absent. Vettius Epagathus was the first Fruits of those that died, having offer’d himself an Advocate for his Brethren, and made a bold Confession of his Faith. He was a Youth of singular Piety, and extraordinary Influences of Divine Grace had elevated his Soul. With him several others signaliz’d themselves in a glorious Resistance unto Blood. However, there were Ten who fell away, which might have prov’d a great Discouragement, had not the Sufferings of all the brightest Luminaries of both Churches made amends for their Defection. The Gentile Servants of Christians were apprehended, and compell’d to alledge against their Masters the most scandalous and abominable Falsities, to alienate the Minds of those who retain’d any degree of Compassion for them. Sanctus, a Deacon, was Proof against all the most exquisite Tortures the Persecutors could put him to; and return’d them no other Answer to any of their Questions, but that he was a Christian. They clapp’d burning Wedges of Brass upon the tenderest Parts of his Body, at which he never so much as shrunk, though he was at last so sear’d, and parch’d, and writh’d, that he had nothing left about him of a Humane Shape. And, yet, when within a little time after the Tortures were to be repeated before his Flesh could heal, his Body had miraculously recover’d its pristine Form, Firmness, and Functions. Maturus, Attalus, and Blandina, a poor feeble Woman, 75 were afterwards expos’d along with Sanctus, to the Wild Beasts in the Amphitheatre, where Maturus (who had endur’d the Torture already) and Sanctus having been first scourg’d again, and lamentably Torn by the Teeth of the Devourers, were laid to broil upon a Grid-iron, and then had their Throats cut : Sanctus all the while reiterating his Professions of Christianity. Attalus, who had always been a noted Hero of the Faith, was first led about the Amphitheatre, with this Inscription before him, This is Attalus the Christian; but when they found him to be a Roman, he was remanded to Prison, and afterwards brought again into the Amphitheatre, where all the other Methods of Torture being first applied, he was plac’d upon the Iron-Grate, and as his Body was broiling, It seems said he to the Spectators, ’tis not we Christians, but your selves that make Thyestean Feasts, and commit those other Enormities you accuse us of. And when they demanded of him what was the Name of God. God, said he, has not a proper Name, as if he were a Man. In fine, he was dispatch’d by the Sword. This Attalus, during his Troubles, was by an extraordinary Revelation directed to reprove Alcibiades, one of his Fellow-Martyrs, for abstaining from the use of every kind of Sustenance besides Bread and Water, upon which Alcibiades forsook his Resolution. Blandina, when the Executioners had tortur’d, and torn, and butcher’d her Body from Morning to Night, till they confess’d themselves tir’d, 76 still continued able with Courage and Chearfulness to affirm she was a Christian, and that the Christians were pious People. She was afterwards expos’d to the Wild Beasts, being ty’d up to the Stake, in the manner of a Person crucify’d, at the sight of which her Fellow-Sufferers were greatly animated. But none of the Beasts would fasten upon her; so she was taken down again, and kept in a Dungeon till the last Day of the Amphitheatral conflicts, when, with a Youth, nam’d Ponticus, about Fifteen Years of Age, (after they had both been for several Days together made Spectators of the Sufferings of the Fellow-Christians) again she underwent with Joy their utmost Barbarities, and at last was wrapt in a Sack, tost by a Bull, and then her Throat cut : The Infidels declaring they know no Instance among themselves of Fortitude in a Woman, comparable to Blandina. Ponticus was Dead before her, having been wonderfully encourag’d under the Agony of his Tortures by her comfortable Exhortations. Biblias, another of the same Sex, at first renounc’d her Profession; but afterwards, when Tortures were applied to make her Blaspheme, she repented, declar’d her self a Christian, and vindicated the Name from the Calumnies of the Adversary. Others were thrown into dark and narrow Dungeons, and shut in the Stocks with their Legs distended as wide as they could be stretch’d. These, and the like Cruelties, releas’d in a little time the Souls of a great many Confessors, though not 77 a few endur’d them much longer than otherwise they could have done, being extraordinarily supported by God, that they might strengthen their Brethren. Pothinus, Bishop of Lyons, aged above Ninety, and very infirm, was hurry’d to the Tribunal, the Magistrates and the Rabble all the while exclaiming tumultuously against him, at which he express’d no manner of concern : And being ask’d by the Prefect, Who was the God of the Christians? Told him, He should know when he was worthy. Then immediately they fell to Kicking, Bruising, and Wounding him, after which he was thrown into a Dungeon, where within two Days the blessed old Man expir’d. At the same time, the Divine Justice and Wisdom exerted it self remarkably in the Punishment of the Lapsers, for they were treated as unmercifully as others who stood their Ground, while the latter discover’d in their Looks the unspeakable Comfort and Felicity they felt in the present Succour of the Holy Spirit, and the certainty of the promis’d reward; but the former groan’d under the additional Miseries of an accusing Conscience and a black Remorse, which cast them into a low Dejection of Soul, and spread such Confusion in their Faces, as encourag’d their Enemies in their Insults and Abuses, till through the Mercy of God, they were by the Endeavours and Assistance of the Holy Martyrs, reconcil’d and reunited to the Church; and upon a second Examining, when they might have been acquitted, if they would have 78 persever’d in their former Renunciation, declar’d themselves Christians, and accordingly were put to Death, some Children of Perdition excepted. One Alexander, a Native of Phrygia, and a Physician, a Christian devout and well fortify’d, having cited them before the Tribunal to assert their Faith with all stedfastness, and thereby incens’d their Adversaries, who resented nothing so heinously, as After-Confessions from the Mouths of Lapsers, was examin’d by the Prefect, and assuring him he was a Christian, suffer’d along with Attalus now mention’d. This invincible Constancy of the Martyrs, exasperated the Unbelievers to such a Degree, that not contented with all the Inhumanities which the Servants of God, while alive, had suffer’d at their hands, they flung the Carcasses of those that had died in Prison to the Dogs, stamp’d upon them, offer’d them all manner of Indignities; and when they had watch’d them for several Days, that none of the surviving Christians might fetch them away, and Bury them; Burnt them, and threw the Ashes into the River Rhosne. Thus triumph’d these Holy Martyrs, whose Humility, Meekness, and Charity, exceeded, if possible, their Magnanimity and Patience, for they would by no means allow themselves worthy the Title of Martyrs; they offer’d up their Prayers for their Persecutors and Tormenters; they reliev’d the Necessities of those who had fallen away through Infirmity, and were most ready to palliate and excuse the matter, and 79 to receive them again into Communion. This Account of things the Churches of Lyons and Vienna, communicated in an Epistle to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia; and likewise to Eleutherus, Bishop of Rome, in a Letter, which they sent by Irenæus, then one of their Presbyters, with a special Recommendation of the Person that carry’d it.
Here let us not leave that miraculous Interposition of Heaven unmention’d, which not only Apollinaris, Tertullian, and other Christian Writers, but the Heathens themselves have recorded. In the time of the War against the Germans and Sarmatians, when the two Armies were now in a readiness to Engage, and that of the Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, was languishing, and in a manner dead with Drought, the Melitine Legion, consisting of Christians, prostrated themselves upon their Knees, and besought the great God of Heaven and Earth to send them some Relief. Immediately their Supplication was answer’d by a terrible Tempest of Thunder and Lightning, which fell upon the Enemy, put them to Flight, and laid many of them Dead; while a Shower of Rain descended upon the Roman Army, and afforded them a large Provision for their Refreshment, and the extinguishing of their Thirst.
After the Death of Pothinus, Irenæus, who in his Youth had been instructed by Polycarp, was consecrated Bishop of Lyons. In his Third Book against Heresy, he has enumerated the Bishops of Rome, as they descended by Succession, down 80 to Eleutherus, who held the Chair when he wrote. And in the Second Book he tells us of a numberless variety of extraordinary Gifts and Powers that abounded, and were exercis’d in the Church in his time; that the Dead were rais’d by Fasting and Prayer, Devils cast out, and so the rescued Parties were converted to the Faith; that the Sick were recover’d by Imposition of Hands, that several of the Christians had Revelations imparted to them, and prophecy’d , and that all manner of Miracles were wrought in the Name of Jesus Christ, who suffer’d under Pontius Pilate. In his Third book he has asserted the Authority of the Four Gospels. In his Fifth, and elsewhere, the Authority of St. John’s Revelation and First Epistle, and of the First Epistle of St. Peter; as also that of the Septuagint Translation, in Opposition to Theodotion’s and Aquila’s, (two Jewish Converts) and tells us, That Ptolemy, the Son of Lagus, desiring to have his Collection in his Library at Alexandria, as valuable and compleat as it could possibly be made, sollicited the Jews to let him have a Greek Translation of the Books of the Old Testament, upon which they sent him Seventy of their most able Elders to Translate them for him; and when they had finish’d their several Versions, every one apart from all the rest, as he had order’d, they were compar’d together, and being found to agree Word for Word, the King and all the Gentiles present, ingenuously acknowledg’d, that both the Original and the Translation 81 were Sacred, and deriv’d from God himself. Beside his Work against the Hereticks, and his Epistles, Irenæus writ a little Discourse against the Gentiles, concerning Science; another giving an Account of the Preaching of the Apostles; and a little Miscellany of Controversial Arguments.
Antoninus reign’d Nineteen Years, and Commodus was his Successor, in whose First Year, Agrippinus, having been Bishop of Alexandria Twelve years, was succeeded by Julian.
About the same time, the Great Pantænus presided in the Christian School at Alexandria, a most ancient and flourishing Academy of Divine Erudition. Pantænus had been educated in the Principles of the Stoical Philosophy; but becoming a Christian, he thought it his duty to endeavour the Conversion of others, and so, transcribing from the Practice of the Apostles, he went diffusing the Gospel Eastwards as far as to India, where he found in the Hands of certain Christians, the Gospel of St. Matthew in the Original Hebrew, suppos’d to have been left by St. Bartholomew when he Preach’d in those Parts. Among the Pupils of Pantænus, was Clemens of Alexandria, as himself gives us to understand in his Book of Institutions. He trod in the same Tract of Divine Studies with his Master, whom he seems to mean in the First Book of his Stromata, where he speaks of a certain Person whom he had met with in Egypt, the best accomplish’d of any he had found in all Sacred Literature whatsoever.
82In the Church of Jerusalem, as the Order of their Succession stands register’d in their Archives, down to the time we are here concern’d for; after Marc succeeded Cassianus, then Publius, Maximus, Julian the First, Caius the First, Symmachus, Caius the Second, Julian the Second, Capito, Valens, Dolichianus, Narcissus.
Rhodon, an Asiatick, was an eminent Writer of these times. He had been the scholar of Tatian, and employ’d his Pen against the Heresy of the Marcionites, who (says he) were divided among themselves, and distributed into several Sects. Apelles, a scrupulous Pretender to Sanctity, held no more than one Origin and Cause of all things; but, upon the Authority of Philomena’s pretended Revelations, (a poor young Woman possest with an Evil Spirit) asserted, that the Prophecies of the Scriptures were the Dictates of an opposite and malignant Power. Others, as Marcion himself, Potitus, Basilicus, and their Party, were for the Opinion of two contrary Efficient First-Principles. Syneros and his Followers contended for Three; but none of them, when they were put upon the Proof of their Hypotheses, had any thing like a plausible Argument to offer; and Apelles particularly was able to give no other Reason to Rhodon for his Presumptions, than that he believ’d them, because he believ’d them, professing himself a true Latitudinarian; for the Wretch thought it hard that any Man’s Faith should be examin’d, and was for leaving 83 all People to follow their own Principles, whether Good or Bad, and in his wonderful Charity extended the ordinary Hopes and Means of Salvation to all Faiths, and to all Communions. The same Rhodon has left us a Commentary upon the Hexaemeron, or Mosaical Account of the Creation.
In Asia and Phrygia, the Heresy of Montanus had now made a considerable Advance. This Montanus (as we understand from Apollinaris, who, with divers other Associates, Learned and Eloquent, stem’d the Tide of his Heresy) when, as yet, he was but a Novice in the Christian Faith; becoming a Demoniack, went about and publish’d his Divinations and Predictions, repugnant, as they were, in their Sense and Tendency to the Original Rule of Faith, and the Doctrines of the Holy Catholick Church. And by all good Christians he was therefore sharply rebuk’d, convicted as a false and diabolical Prophet, and stricktly commanded to desist from his execrable Pretences; while others, losing their Wits and themselves with a Calenture of Enthusiasm, took his part, and gave him all Encouragement to spread the Pestilence; which he was the better enabled to do through the Assistance of a Couple of wicked Women, who being also under the Possession of Evil Spirits, bellow’d about their Absurdities and Blasphemies, and gave their Admirers a full assurance of the highest Privileges, and Blessings; exercising withal for the better Grace of the management, a Discipline 84 of Authority over them, and calumniating the Sound and Orthodox Members of Christ, who forsooth! were no less than guilty of the Blood of the Prophets, because they shut their Ears upon the detestable Oracles and Effusions of the Sorceresses. But more especially, did they malign those of the Asiatick Churches, who had often examin’d and condemn’d their Extravagances in Counsel, and excommunicated their Authors and Abetters. Maximilla prophecied of Wars and Publick Distractions, immediately to break out; but (as it happen’d) very unluckily, for there was nothing like them, either in the Empire, or against the Church, during the space of Thirteen Years after. Zoticus, Bishop of Comona, and Julian, Bishop of Apamea, desir’d to have brought her Familiar to a Tryal, but her Complices did not think fit he should stand it. At last, as ’tis reported, at the Instigation of her Dæmon, she hang’d her self, (and so did Montanus too) and ’tis generally affirm’d, that Theodotus, one of their principal Engines, was carried up a great height in the Air, and that his Evil Spirit deceiving him, he fell and broke his Neck. When all their other Arguments fail’d, their way was to boast of their Martyrs, whereas really none of them ever suffer’d; though if any of them had, they could have pretended no more to the Title of Martyrs than the Marcionites, or any other Hereticks, that is, not at all. For this Representation of Montanus and his Heresy, we stand oblig’d to Apollinaris of Hierapolis, who 85 in the beginning of the Work which he compos’d against the Cataphryges or Montanists, informs us, That he had sometimes doubted with himself, whether he should write against them or not, least his Book might be interpreted as an Addition or Supplement to the written Rule of the Gospel, to which nothing was to be added, and from which nothing was to be deducted*.
The two Ringleaders of the Montanist Faction in Rome, were Florinus and Blastus, both degraded Presbyters, and a great many unhappy Souls were seduc’d by their Artifices.
Besides Apollinaris, of Hierapolis, there were also engag’d in Defiance to the Montanists, Miltiades, Apollonius, and Serapion, Successor to Maximin in the Chair of Antioch. Miltiades moreover compos’d a Treatise against the Gentiles, and another against the Jews, and an Apology for the Christian Religion, inscrib’d to the Prefects of Provinces. Apollonius has animadverted upon Montanus’s Prohibition of Marriage, and Imposition of new Fasts; his making a Jerusalem of two little Villages of Phrygia, for a place of general Convention; the mercenary Trade of his Preaching, and the Hire accepted by his Prophetesses; he accuses Themison, a fast Friend to the Sect, of 86 Apostacy, of Hypocrisy, and of Blasphemy : And Alexander, another of them, (he tells us) though a Common Highway-man, was an Object of their Adoration : And as for their Prophets, they were Beaus, Gamesters, and Usurers. All which he has offer’d to demonstrate if they joyn issue. He quotes places out of St. John’s Revelation, and makes mention of a dead Body rais’d to Life by that Apostle, and of a very ancient Tradition, That Christ forbad his Apostles to depart, till the end of the Twelve Years, from Jerusalem. Serapion speaks of Apollinaris, and his share in the Controversy, in his Epistle to Caricus and Ponticus, to which Epistle are annext the Subscriptions of several Bishops. At the same juncture, Irenæus wrote an Epistle to Blastus concerning Schism, and another to Florinus, to convince him that God is not the Author of Sin. In this Epistle he insists much upon their former Familiarity with Polycarp, and that Polycarp would have abhorr’d those Tenets which Florinus maintain’d, and express’d his Detestation, in the Form he was, it seems, ever fond of, O good God! that I should live to see such a prophane and incorrigible Generation! Afterwards the same Serapion drew up a tract against the Valentinian Heresy, which Florinus had imbib’d, entituled περἱ ὀγδοάδος : At the end of this Book we meet with a most illustrious Argument of the Integrity and Caution of those early Writers in the church; where he adjures the Transcribers, in the Name of Christ Jesus, the Judge of Quick and 87 Dead, to Copy precisely according to the Original, and that they shall in like manner adjure all future Transcribers from time to time.
Under Commodus the Church enjoy’d a Truce, and acquir’d a large increase of Proselytes, whole Families coming in of the most eminent Condition in Rome; where, nevertheless, the great and learned Apollonius receiv’d his Crown, having first in a most elegant Oration vindicated the Christian Religion before the Judge, who begg’d and entreated him to abjure. The Informer, a most profligate Fellow, had his Legs broke for bringing the Information contrary to the Tenor and Authority of the imperial Edict aforesaid.
In the Tenth of Commodus died Eleutherus, after he had been Bishop Thirteen Years, and Victor succeeded in the See of Rome. Demetrius succeeded Julian, who sate Bishop of Alexandria Ten Years. Contemporary with these, were Serapion Bishop of Antioch, Theophilus Bishop of Cæsarea, Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem, Bacchylus Bishop of Corinth, Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus, besides a great many others, whose Names we shall omit, because none of their Writings are now Extant among us.
The Question about the time of the Observation of Easter, was at this time very warmly canvas’d. The Asiatick Churches celebrated that Festivity upon the Fourteenth Day of the Moon’s Age, whatever Day of the Week it happen’d to be, as the Jews did the Passover, 88 and pleaded the Authority of their Tradition; so particularly Polycrates in his Epistle to Victor, and the Church of Rome, instancing in the Practice of St. John, St. Philip, and his Daughters, Polycarp, Thraseas Bishop of Eumenia, Sagaris Bishop of Laodicea and Martyr, Papirius, Melito, and Seven Bishops that had been all of his own Family; moreover, urging the Authority of a large Council of Bishops which he had call’d and presided in, and lastly his own, with regard to the number of Years he had liv’d in the World, and the general Conversation he had cultivated with the Brethren. On the contrary, all other Churches, down from the times of the Apostles, had celebrated that Festivity upon no other Day of the Week but the Lord’s Day, and the Practice was confirm’d by the Synods and Councils that met upon this occasion, particularly by a Council in Palestine, in which presided joyntly Theophilus Bishop of Cæsarea, and Narcissus of Jerusalem; by a Synod at Rome, where Victor presided; by another of the Bishops of Pontus, in which Palma presided; by another of the Gallican Bishops, in which Irenæus presided, by another of the Bishops of the Province of Osroena, all whose Synodical Epistles are still to be seen, together with the Epistles of Bathyllus, and of several other Bishops out of Council. And such a Zealot was Victor, Bishop of Rome, in favour of this Decision, as to Excommunicate all the Asiatick Churches, and all others that adher’d to them. For which Rigor several of his Brethren of the 89 Episcopal College rebuk’d him, particularly Irenæus, in an Epistle which he wrote him in the Name of the Councel he presided over; and where he gives him to understand, that the first Christians did not make this Difference a sufficient Ground for Breach of Communion and Charity, and alledges to him the Example of his own Predecessors, Xystus, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, Anicetus, between the last of whom and Polycarp, while he continu’d with him, this Diversity of Practice, he says, had created not the least misunderstanding. The Synod of Bishops in Palestine took special care in their Encyclical Epistle to clear their Tradition in this Point, and intimated the Concurrence of the Church of Alexandria with their own, and at the close gave Directions for Copies of it to be communicated to all the Churches.
Commodus having reign’d Thirteen Years, and after him Pertinax about half a Year, Severus obtain’d the Imperial Diadem.
Among the choicest Ecclesiastical Authors of this time was Heraclitus, who commented upon St. Paul’s Epistles; Maximus of the Origin of Evil, and the Non-eternity of Matter; Candidus and Apion upon the Six Days of the Creation; and Sextus concerning the Revelation, not to mention the rest.
By this time Artemon had set abroad his Heresy, which was afterwards reviv’d by Paul of Samosata. The Hereticks of this Denomination, affirm’d the Son of God to be no 90 more than an ordinary Man, and that this had been ever the constant Doctrine of the Church, down to the Days of Victor and Zephyrinus, (who succeeded Victor in the See of Rome in the Ninth Year (or thereabouts) of Severus) although it was notorious that Theodotus, a Currier, excommunicated by Victor, was the first Broacher of this Blasphemy; and that all the Fathers and Writers of the Church, down to the time of Victor, had asserted the Divinity of the Son agreeably to the plain Sense of the Holy Scriptures; which because these Deceivers despair’d of misinterpreting,† they metamorphoz’d and adulterated, some one way, and some another; for no two of their Copies agreed together; nay, some of them wholly rejected the Books of the Old Testament, confining themselves, as they said, to the New Covenant of Grace. And more account they made of Euclid, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Galen, and the like, than of the Inspir’d Writings, or the Doctrine of them. Theodotus, the Currier, had a Disciple call’d Asclepiodotus, and another of his own Name, by Trade, a Silver-Smith. These two bargain’d with one Natalis, a Confessor, to set up for Bishop of the Heresy, in consideration of which, a large Salary was to be paid him Monthly. Natalis receiv’d 91 by Dreams many disheartening Rebukes from Christ himself, as being griev’d that one who had been a Sufferer for his Name, should perish; but neglecting these Reproofs time after time, at the last Angels were sent to beat and scourge him for a whole Night together, upon which he made a publick Confession of his Crime, laid himself at the Feet of Zephyrinus, the Clergy and Laity, and scarcely, even after a very rigid Process of Humiliation and Penance, obtain’d the Churches Absolution.
* So entire and adequate a Body of Directions, and so sufficient for the ends of Salvation, did the earliest Christians esteem the Holy Scriptures.
† A Master-piece of Impudence reserv’d for the Arians, and other more Modern Hereticks that have improv’d upon them, as the Socinians, &c.
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