Saint Eustathius of Antioch

As no one appeared more capable than Eu stathius Eustathe Patriarch of Antioch and defender of the Nicene faith. of remedying the evils that had been introduced, he was chosen in 324 to fill the see of Antioch, whic siège d'Antioche Ancient city where Saint Publia and her community resided. h was then the third in the Christian world. He strongly opposed his translation; but he was finally obliged to acquiesce. His resistance stemmed from the fact that such translations are forbidden by the canons of the Church, unless they result in great advantages for the glory of God and the benefit of one's neighbor. The intention was to close the door of the sanctuary to ambition and avarice, and to attach bishops to a diocese they are to govern for their entire lives. Eustathius, full of zeal for the Church, worked hard at the Council of Nicaea to maintain eccles concile de Nicée First ecumenical council confirmed by Hilary. iastical discipline on the article of which we speak, and he had a great part in the regulations that were drawn up to prevent bishops from moving from one see to another; he also distinguished himself in an assembly by his zeal against Arianism.

Upon returning to Antioch, he held a council there to restore peace in his Church, which was torn by various factions. Present at this assembly were Saint James of Nisibis, Saint Paul of Neocaesarea, and several other bishops, numbering twenty-five, from the provinces of the East subject to the patriarchate of Antioch. Saint Eustathius showed himself very strict in the examination of those he received into the clergy. He rejected all persons whose faith or morals were suspect. Many of those he had refused later embraced Arianism, which justified the conduct he had maintained toward them. He never forgot, in the midst of the functions of the ministry, that he must primarily apply himself to his own sanctification; for, after having adorned his soul with all kinds of virtues, he was better able to pour out his fullness upon others. He also sent into the dioceses of his patriarchate's jurisdiction men capable of instructing and encouraging the faithful. Eusebius, Archbishop of Caesarea in P alestine, whose Church was to Eusèbe, archevêque de Césarée Church historian and primary source. a certain extent subject to that of Antioch, having favored the heresy of Arius, Eustathius felt a keen sorrow, and his zeal was extremely alarmed by it; this zeal was the cause of the violent storm that formed against him.

The holy patriarch of Antioch vigorously attacked Eusebius of Caesarea and accused him of undermining the doctrine of Nicaea. Upon this accusation, Eu sebius of Nicomedia Eusèbe de Nicomédie Arian bishop and primary instigator of the conspiracy against Eustathius. , a declared Arian, resolved with several of his friends to ruin Eustathius at any cost. He feigned a desire to see Jerusalem, where new embellishments had been made; he therefore traveled to that city, accompanied by Theognis of Nicaea, his confidant. There he met Eusebius of Caesarea, Patrophilus of Scythopolis, Aetius of Lydda, Theodotus of Laodicea, and several other bishops who were, like him, partisans of the doctrine of Arius; and they all went together to Antioch, where they assembled as if in a council to execute their design. A prostitute whom they had suborned took it upon herself to serve their blind passion; she came to the assembly, holding in her arms a child whom she claimed Eustathius had fathered. The Saint protested that he was innocent of the crime of which he was accused, and pointed out that the Apostle forbade the condemnation of a priest unless he had been convicted by the testimony of two or three witnesses. The calumny was finally discovered. The prostitute, having fallen into a long illness from which she died, came to her senses and resolved to retract her statement. She summoned several clerics and declared in their presence that the patriarch was innocent; she added that the Arians had engaged her with money to bring the accusation in question; that, however, the oath she had taken was not perjury, for the child was indeed the son of a man named Eustathius, a coppersmith from the same city. This excuse, though frivolous, did not prevent the truth from appearing in full light.

The Arians further accused Eustathius of Sabellianism. It was a slander they employed against all who professed the orthodox doctrine. The patriarch and the Catholic bishops who were present cried out against the injustice in vain; they would not be heard, and a sentence of deposition was pronounced against the Saint; after which, Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis hastened to inform Emperor Constantine of wha t had just occurred. l'empereur Constantin Roman emperor whose conversion ended Christian persecutions. The Arian bishops invited Eusebius of Caesarea to move from his see to that of Antioch; but he refused to do so, alleging that such a translation was contrary to the discipline of the Church. The emperor praised his modesty in a letter that we still possess and which Eusebius himself inserted into the Life of Constantine. One would have been more edified by the modesty of the bishop of Caesarea had he left it to others to report this circumstance.

No sooner had the news of the deposition of Saint Eustathius spread than a sedition arose in Antioch. It took no more than this to finish persuading Constantine that he was guilty of the crimes imputed to him; he therefore sent him an order to report to Constantinople, from where he was to have him depart for the place of his exile. The holy pastor, before leaving Antioch, assembled the faithful and strongly exhorted them to remain steadfast in the doctrine of the Church. His exhortations produced their effect, preserving a great number of his diocesans from the misfortune of falling into heresy. We learn from Saint Jerome and Saint Chrysostom that he was banished to Thrace with several others, both priests and deacons. Theodoret asserts that he was exiled from Thrace to Illyria. This was around the year 331.

Saint Eustathius died in Philippi Philippes City in Greece where Alvise died during the crusade. , in Macedonia, around the year 338. We read in Theodorus Lector that his body was brought back to Antioch, around the year 482, by Calandion, patriarch of that city.

Saint Jerome calls Saint Eustathius a resounding trumpet, and says that he was the first to take up the pen to combat the Arians; he admires in him a vast breadth of knowledge, and asserts that he was perfectly versed in both sacred and profane letters. Saint Chrysostom gives Saint Chrysostome Predecessor of Tryphon cited as an example of a holy and persecuted bishop. him the same praises in the panegyric he composed in his honor. According to Sozomen, he was universally admired for the holiness of his life and for the eloquence of his discourses. Saint Fulgentius counts him among the greatest bishops of the Church, such as Athanasius and Hilary. Saint Anastasius of Sinai gives him the title of divine and says that he regards him as a pastor consummate in the ways of God, as a wise preacher, a holy martyr, a master whom he wishes to follow with respect, as his father and his protector, as a man in whom God speaks.

## WRITINGS OF SAINT EUSTATHIUS.

The works that Saint Eustathius composed against the Arians, which were very famous in the 5th century, have not reached us. We have remaining from him a *Treatise on the Pythoness or Witch of Endor*, which Leo Allatius published with a learned dissertation, and which was reprinted in the eighth volume of the *Critici sacri*. The author seeks to prove therein, against Origen, that the witch did not evoke and could not evoke the soul of Samuel, but that she only made a specter appear representing the Prophet, with the intention of deceiving Saul. He taught therein expressly that, under the Mosaic law, the souls of the just rested in the bosom of Abraham, that none could enter heaven before Jesus Christ had opened its doors; but that Christians, in this more fortunate than the Patriarchs and Prophets, have the advantage of being united to the Savior in glory immediately after their death, if they have led a holy life. This treatise is well written, and it justifies the praises that the ancients gave to the holy patriarch of Antioch. Sozomen says, in speaking of the works of Saint Eustathius, that they are admired for the purity of style, the sublimity of thoughts, the beauty of expression; but nothing contributed more to his glory than that heroic patience with which he endured the horrors of calumny, his unjust deposition, the disgrace of his prince, which he had not deserved, and the exile which was the consequence thereof.

We still have various fragments of the book that Saint Eustathius had composed on the *Soul*; of his discourse on these words of *Proverbs*: *The Lord created me in the beginning of his ways*; of his explanations on Psalms 15 and 94; of his writing on the Inscriptions and Titles of the Psalms.

[APPENDIX: NOTICE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA.]

Eusebius was raised in Caesarea and studied there with Saint Pamphilus. The friendship he had for this saint was so tender that he later added his name to his own. He was imprisoned for the faith around the year 309. Pamphilus, who had already been in the same prison since the end of the year 307, ended his life through martyrdom; but Eusebius was set free without having suffered like the other confessors. Saint Potammon reproached him for this exception made in his favor in the middle of a council. If he committed some fault then, it remained secret, since he was raised to the see of Caesarea in 314. Six years later, Arius retired to Palestine, where the sentence of deposition from the priesthood pronounced against him in 319 by Saint Alexander, Patriarch of Alexandria, had determined him to seek asylum. This heresiarch managed to impose upon several bishops. Eusebius was among them. He occupied the see of Caesarea until the year 339, the time of his death. He has been rightly reproached for always having had close ties with the followers of Arius. Henri de Valois tried to justify his faith in the prolegomena he placed at the head of the Latin translation of his *Ecclesiastical History*, and he claimed that one should not attribute the errors of the Arians to him, although he often did not use the word *consubstantial*; at the very least, it is certain that he allowed himself to be imposed upon by Arius, to the point of believing that this heresiarch admitted the eternity of the Word. Moreover, one finds in his writings several passages that prove the divinity and even, as to the meaning, the consubstantiality of the Son. Ceillier and some other authors have also spoken of Eusebius in this regard in a favorable manner, or at least in a manner that is little disadvantageous to him, and they are inclined to believe that he never adhered to the capital error of Arius. It seems to us, however, that it is very difficult to entirely justify the bishop of Caesarea on this point. The most advantageous thing that can be said for him is that he did not formally support Arianism, and that he wished to hold a kind of middle ground between heresy and the doctrine supported by the tradition of the Church. (See Baronius, under the year 380; Witasse, Father Alexandre, and the folio treatise composed against Arianism by Dom Maran, a learned Benedictine of the Congregation of Saint-Maur.) Photius, in a certain work that Father de Montfaucon provided, *Bibl. Coislin.*, p. 348, openly accuses Eusebius of Arianism and Origenism.

But, although the faith of Eusebius must pass at least for suspect, and his conduct has been reprehensible in many respects, one must nonetheless grant his talents the praise they deserve. The Church has derived great utility from his writings, especially those he composed in favor of the Christian religion before the birth of Arianism. We are going to provide a notice of them.

1st. The Book against Hierocles. This Hierocles was a magistrate of Nicomedia who persecuted the Christians under the Emperor Diocletian. His cruelty caused him to be rewarded with the government of Egypt. He flattered himself that he could annihilate Christianity by comparing the miracles of Jesus Christ with those of Apollonius of Tyana, and by advancing that the latter were far superior to the former. He wrote a work where he tried to establish the truth of the parallel. It was against this work that Eusebius wrote the one of which we speak. After having made felt the indecency of the parallel, he proves in detail that it is supported only by a novel filled with absurdities, contradictions, and falsehoods. He shows that Philostratus, author of the life of Apollonius, only composed his alleged history a hundred years after the death of this impostor, while he was teaching rhetoric in Rome; that the memoirs he had used deserved no credence; that it sufficed to read them to be convinced of it. Eusebius wrote his book against Hierocles before his episcopate. This work was printed following his Evangelical Demonstration in the 1688 edition.

Around the time he was placed on the see of Caesarea, he undertook two other works, the project of which does no less honor to the beauty of his genius than the execution did to the extent of his knowledge.

2nd. The first, entitled *Evangelical Preparation*, is divided into fifteen books. Eusebius displays a very vast erudition there and solidly refutes idolatry. He shows there that the Greeks borrowed their sciences and most of their gods from the Egyptians, whose history, in what is true of it, agrees with that of Moses. He then shows that the theology of the pagans is a fabric of monstrous, impious, and extravagant fictions, which the enlightened persons among them condemn; that their oracles are only responses of demons, or a chain of impostures; that they never attained an infallible knowledge of contingent events; that they were even reduced to silence by a power to whose superiority they were forced to pay homage. Following this come the proofs of the unity of God and of a revealed religion that is as old as the world.

3rd. The second work is titled *Evangelical Demonstration*, and is divided into ten books. The first of these books is without a beginning, and the tenth without an end. The last six are lost. It is proven there that the books of the Jews clearly announce Jesus Christ and the Gospel. Antiquity has transmitted nothing more precious to us than this work and the previous one in favor of Christianity. Scaliger says, in speaking of the first, that it is a divine book, and that it was necessary, in order to compose it, to open all the writings of the ancient authors.

The best edition we have of the Evangelical Preparation is that of Father Vigier, a Jesuit, in Greek and Latin, with notes. It appeared in Paris, in 1628, 2 vols. in-folio. Copies of it have become rare. It was reprinted in Leipzig (although the title bears Cologne) in 1688, also in-folio.

Among the different editions of the Evangelical Demonstration, one especially esteems the one that was given, in Greek and Latin, in Paris, in 1628, in-folio. It reappeared in Cologne, or rather in Leipzig, in 1688. The Latin version is by Bernardin Bonat of Verona.

Albert Fabricius extracted the first three chapters of the first book, as well as the end of the tenth book of the Evangelical Demonstration, from an authentic manuscript of the library of John-Nicholas Maurocordati, Prince of Wallachia, and published them in Greek and Latin, at the beginning of the library of authors who have written for and against the truth of the Christian religion. Hamburg, 1725, in-4°.

4th. The two books against Marcellus of Ancyra, and the three books of Ecclesiastical Theology, are a refutation of Sabellianism. They were printed following the Ecclesiastical Demonstration in the 1688 edition.

5th. The Topography, or Alphabetical Explanation of the places mentioned in the Old Testament. It is an exact and useful work. Saint Jerome translated it into Latin and made additions to it.

6th. A good Commentary on the Psalms, which Father de Montfaucon published in his *Collectio nova Scriptor. Græcor.* Paris, 1706.

7th. Fourteen discourses under the title of Opuscules, which were given to the public by Father Sirmond, *Oper.*, t. I. They are not contested as being Eusebius', although the ancients did not speak of them. Tillemont says, however, that there are some that appear not to be his.

8th. The Discourse on the dedication of the church of Tyre, which was rebuilt in 315, after the persecution. One finds there a curious detail of the ceremonies that were observed then, and a description of the structure of this church.

9th. The Letter to those of Caesarea, written after the conclusion of the Council of Nicaea. Eusebius exhorts his flock there to receive the definitions and the creed of this council.

10th. The Panegyric of Constantine, pronounced in Constantinople in the presence of this prince, who was then celebrating the third year of his reign with public games. Constantine is praised there especially because of the destruction of idolatry. The style of this work is too studied, and reading it is boring.

11th. The Life of Constantine, divided into four books. It was written in 338, one year after the death of this emperor. The style is diffuse, and all the more disagreeable as it is less natural. Photius reproaches Eusebius for having concealed or suppressed in this work the principal facts that concern Arius, and the condemnation of this heresiarch in the Council of Nicaea.

12th. The Chronicle, which must have cost an immense amount of work, is divided into two parts. The first, called Chronology, presents the succession of kings and sovereigns of the principal peoples since the beginning of the world. The second, titled Chronicle or Rules of Times, can be regarded as a table of the first. One sees there at a glance the particular chronologies brought close to one another and compared among themselves. Saint Jerome translated this second part into Latin and made additions to it. The first was lost before the work of Joseph Scaliger; and yet one cannot be angry at having recovered it. Scaliger only gave us fragments taken from George Syncellus, from Cedrenus, and from the chronicle of Alexandria, and he did not always exactly distinguish what was Eusebius' from what could be attributed to him.

13th. The Ecclesiastical History, divided into ten books. It is of all the works of Eusebius the one that earned him the most celebrity. The author begins his history at the birth of Jesus Christ, and continues it until the defeat of Licinius, which occurred in the month of September of the year 323. Having then revised it, he added some facts that go up to the year 326. The eighth book contains an abridgment of the acts he had collected on the martyrs of Palestine. Rufinus made a good Latin translation of this history, which he reduced to nine books, to which he adds two others that go up to the death of Theodosius.

Eusebius made much use of the work of Julius Africanus in compiling his chronicle; he also profited much, in composing his history, from that of Saint Hegesippus, which was conducted up to 170. One cannot esteem this second work enough, although some faults have slipped into it, that there are essential omissions in relation to Arianism, and that the truth is sometimes altered there regarding the affairs of the Church of the West, of which the author was not well informed.

Christopherson, Bishop of Chichester, gave an elegant Latin translation of the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius, where he changed the order and the division of the chapters. That of Henri de Valois is more exact. The translation of this scholar was printed with the original text, in Paris, 3 vols. in-folio, 1659-1673, and in Canterbury, 1720, 3 vols. in-folio. In 1570, a complete edition of the ecclesiastical histories of Eusebius, Rufinus, Socrates, Theodoret, Sozomen, Theodore, Evagrius, and Dorotheus was given in Basel, at the house of Eusebius Episcopius. It is due to the care of Jean-Jacques Grynaeus, professor in Basel and Heidelberg, which Mencke and Jocher forgot to mark in their dictionary of scholars.

President Cousin gave a good French translation of these ecclesiastical histories; Paris, 1675, 4 vols. in-4°; reprinted in Holland in 1686, 5 tomes in 6 vols. in-12.

Eusebius is one of the most learned prelates of antiquity. He had a prodigious extent of knowledge; but he did not apply himself to the polish of style, a defect quite ordinary to scholars.

Godescard and Dom Ceillier.