Book 7

Translated by Thothica

1 hr 24 min

The Seventh Book of the Ecclesiastical History contains the following: I. On the malignity of Decius and Gallus. II. The bishops of the Romans in their time. III. How Cyprian, with the bishops of his province, first laid down that those turning from heretical error must be purified by washing. IV. How many letters Dionysius composed on this matter. V. On the peace after the persecution. VI. On the heresy of Sabellius. VII. On the all-defiling error of the heretics, and the God-sent vision of Dionysius, and the ecclesiastical canon he received. VIII. On the heterodoxy of Novatus. IX. On the godless baptism of the heretics. X. On Valerian and the persecution under him. XI. On the things that befell Dionysius and those in Egypt at that time. XII. On those who suffered martyrdom at Caesarea in Palestine. XIII. On the peace under Gallienus. XIV. The bishops who flourished at that time. XV. How Marinus suffered martyrdom at Caesarea. XVI. The story concerning Astyrius. XVII. On the signs at Paneas of the mighty work of our Saviour. XVIII. On the throne of James. XIX. On the festal letters of Dionysius, where he also gives a canon concerning the Pascha. XX. On the things that befell at Alexandria. XXI. On the pestilence that fell upon it. XXII. On the reign of Gallienus. XXIII. On Nepos and the schism connected with him. XXIV. On the Apocalypse of John. XXV. On the letters of Dionysius. XXVI. On Paul of Samosata and the heresy formed by him at Antioch. XXVII. On the distinguished bishops known at that time. XXVIII. How Paul, being refuted, was excommunicated. XXIX. On the heterodox perversion of the Manichaeans, then just beginning. XXX. On the ecclesiastical men distinguished in our own day, and which of them continued up to the siege of the churches.

The seventh book of the Ecclesiastical History the great Dionysius, bishop of the Alexandrians, will again help us to compose in his own words, relating in turn each of the things done in his time through the letters he has left; and from this point my account will make its beginning.

Decius, having held power not a full two years' time, was straightway slaughtered together with his sons, and Gallus succeeded him. At this time Origen died, having completed seventy years all but one. Dionysius, indeed, writing to Hermammon, says this concerning Gallus: 'But Gallus neither understood the evil of Decius nor foresaw what it was that had tripped him up; he stumbled against the same stone that lay before his eyes. For when his reign was prospering and affairs were going according to his mind, he drove out the holy men who were interceding with God for his peace and welfare; and so, together with them, he persecuted also the prayers offered on his behalf.'
So much concerning him. But in the city of the Romans, Cornelius having completed the bishopric about three years, Lucius was appointed his successor; and he, having ministered not a full eight months, at his death handed on the office to Stephen. To him Dionysius addressed the first of his letters concerning baptism, no small question having then been stirred up, whether those turning from any heresy whatsoever ought to be purified by washing; for an ancient custom had prevailed of using, in such cases, only the prayer with laying-on of hands.
First of the men of that time, Cyprian, pastor of the community at Carthage, held that they ought not to be received unless they had first been purified from their error by washing. But Stephen, thinking that nothing should be innovated contrary to the tradition that had prevailed from the beginning, was greatly displeased at this.
Dionysius, therefore, having conferred with him very fully on this matter by letters, at the end discloses that, the persecution having abated, the churches everywhere, having turned away from the innovation of Novatus, had resumed peace among themselves. He writes thus:
'Know now, brother, that all the churches throughout the East, and still farther off, that were formerly divided, are united, and all the presidents everywhere are of one mind, rejoicing exceedingly at the peace that has come beyond expectation: Demetrian at Antioch, Theoctistus at Caesarea, Mazabanes at Aelia, Marinus at Tyre (Alexander having fallen asleep), Heliodorus at Laodicea (Thelymidres being at rest), Helenus at Tarsus and all the churches of Cilicia, Firmilian and all Cappadocia. For I have named only the more conspicuous of the bishops, that I may neither attach length to the letter nor weight to the discourse.
But all the Syrias and Arabia, which you succour from time to time and to which you have now written, and Mesopotamia and Pontus and Bithynia, and, in a word, all everywhere rejoice in the concord and brotherly love, glorifying God.'
These things Dionysius. But Stephen, having completed the ministry two years, was succeeded by Xystus. To him Dionysius wrote a second letter concerning baptism, in which he discloses at once the opinion and judgment of Stephen and of the other bishops, saying this concerning Stephen:
'He had written before concerning Helenus and Firmilian and all those from Cilicia and Cappadocia and clearly Galatia and all the neighbouring nations in succession, that he would not communicate with them either, for this same cause—because, he says, they rebaptize the heretics.
And consider the magnitude of the matter. For truly decrees concerning this have been passed in the greatest synods of the bishops, as I learn, so that those who come over from heresies are first catechized, then washed and purified afresh from the filth of the old and unclean leaven. And concerning all these things I wrote, entreating him.'
And after other matters he says: 'And to our beloved fellow-presbyters also, Dionysius and Philemon, who formerly agreed with Stephen and wrote to me on the same matters, I wrote before briefly, and now also at greater length.' But so much concerning the question mentioned.
Signifying in the same place concerning the heretics of Sabellius, as prevalent in his time, he says this: 'For concerning the doctrine now stirred up at Ptolemais of the Pentapolis, which is impious and holds much blasphemy concerning the Almighty God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and much unbelief concerning His only-begotten Son, the firstborn of all creation, the Word made man, and an insensibility concerning the Holy Spirit—when there came to me from both sides both documents and the brethren who were to discuss it, I wrote certain things, as I was able, God granting it, expounding the matter in a more instructive manner; copies of which I have sent you.'
And in the third of those concerning baptism, which the same Dionysius writes to Philemon the presbyter at Rome, he sets down these things: 'But I also read the treatises and traditions of the heretics, defiling my soul for a little while with their all-abominable notions, yet getting from them this benefit, that I refuted them in my own mind and abhorred them far more.
And indeed, when a certain brother of the presbyters tried to restrain me and feared lest I should be soiled by the mire of their wickedness—for it would harm my own soul, and he spoke truly, as I perceived—a vision sent from God came to me and strengthened me,
and a voice that came to me commanded, saying expressly: "Read everything that may come into your hands; for you are competent to set right and to test each thing, and this was from the beginning the cause of your faith." I accepted the vision as agreeing with the apostolic saying, addressed to the stronger: "Be approved money-changers."'
Then, after saying something about all the heresies, he adds, saying: 'This rule and pattern I received from our blessed pope Heraclas. For those coming from the heresies, although they had departed from the Church—or rather had not even departed, but, while seeming to assemble with us, were informed against as frequenting some teacher of false doctrine—he drove from the Church, and when they besought him did not receive them, until they had publicly declared all that they had heard among their opponents; and then he gathered them, not needing for them another baptism, for they had previously received the holy baptism from him.'
And again, after exercising the problem at length, he adds these: 'I have learned this too, that it was not now only that those in Africa introduced this, but long ago, in the time of the bishops before us, in the most populous churches and in the synods of the brethren, at Iconium and Synnada and among many, it was so decided; whose counsels I cannot bear to overturn and to cast them into strife and contention. For "you shall not remove," he says, "the landmarks of your neighbour which your fathers set."'
The fourth of his letters concerning baptism was written to Dionysius at Rome, who had then been deemed worthy of the presbyterate, but not long after received also the bishopric there; from which it is possible to learn how this man too, learned and admirable, was attested by Dionysius of Alexandria. He writes to him, after other matters, mentioning the affairs of Novatus, in these words:
'For we reasonably hate Novatian, who rent the Church and drew certain of the brethren into impieties and blasphemies, and brought in a most unholy teaching concerning God, and slanders our most gracious Lord Jesus Christ as merciless; and besides all these, sets aside the holy washing, and overturns the faith and confession that precede it, and altogether banishes the Holy Spirit from them, even if there were any hope that He would remain with or return to them.'
And his fifth was written to Xystus the bishop of the Romans; in which, after saying much against the heretics, he sets forth a thing of this kind that had happened in his time, saying: 'For indeed, brother, I need counsel and ask your opinion, a certain matter having come to me, fearing lest I be in error.
For one of the brethren who assemble, reckoned faithful, of old standing, and before my ordination—I think also before the appointment of the blessed Heraclas—having shared in the assembly, and being present at the recent baptism of some, and hearing the questions and answers, came to me weeping and lamenting himself and falling at my feet, confessing and disavowing the baptism with which he had been baptized among the heretics, that it was not this nor had any communion at all with this, for it had been filled with impiety and blasphemies;
and saying that his soul was now utterly pricked, and that he had no boldness to lift up his eyes to God, setting out from those unholy words and deeds, and on this account beseeching to obtain this most pure purification and reception and grace.
Which I did not dare to do, saying that his long communion was sufficient for this. For one who had heard the Eucharist and joined in saying the Amen, and stood at the table and stretched out his hands for the reception of the holy food, and received it, and partaken of the body and blood of our Lord a long time, I would not dare to build up anew from the beginning. But I bade him take courage and approach the participation of the holy things with firm faith and good hope.
But he ceases not to mourn, and shudders to approach the table, and scarcely, when exhorted, endures to be present at the prayers.'
Besides the aforesaid, there is also another letter of the same man concerning baptism, addressed by him and the community over which he presided to Xystus and the church at Rome, in which by a lengthy demonstration he prolongs the discourse on the underlying question. And another of his after these is extant, to Dionysius at Rome, that concerning Lucian. And concerning these matters, so much.
Those of Gallus's party, having held the power not even two full years, were removed out of the way, and Valerian together with his son Gallienus succeeded to the rule.
Again, what Dionysius relates concerning this man may be learned from his letter to Hermammon, in which he records thus: 'And to John likewise it is revealed: "And there was given to him," he says, "a mouth speaking great things and blasphemy, and there was given to him authority and forty-two months."
Both things are wonderful in Valerian, and most of all the first, how he behaved—to consider how gentle and kindly he was toward the men of God; for none of the emperors before him was so favourably and graciously disposed toward them, not even those said to have been openly Christians, as he plainly was when at the first he received them most intimately and affectionately; and his whole house was filled with godly persons and was a church of God;
but the teacher and ruler of the synagogue of the magi from Egypt persuaded him to put them away, bidding him slay and persecute the pure and holy men as opponents and hinderers of his all-abominable and detestable enchantments (for they are, and were, able, when present and seen and merely breathing and speaking, to scatter the plots of the noxious demons), and suggesting that he perform unhallowed rites and accursed sorceries and ill-omened sacrifices, slaughtering wretched boys and sacrificing the children of unhappy fathers, and dividing the entrails of the newborn, and cutting up and mangling the formations of God, as though they would thereby attain happiness.'
And to these he adds, saying: 'Fine thank-offerings, then, did Macrianus bring them for the empire he hoped for; who, formerly being called the emperor's accountant-general, thought nothing reasonable nor universal, but has fallen under the prophetic curse that says: "Woe to those who prophesy out of their own heart and see not the universal";
for he did not understand the universal providence, nor regard the judgment of Him who is before all and through all and over all; whence he became an enemy of His catholic Church, and alienated and estranged himself from the mercy of God, and banished himself as far as possible from his own salvation, in this making good his own name.'
And again, after other matters, he says: 'For Valerian, led by this man to these things, given over to insults and reproaches, according to what was said to Isaiah: "And these have chosen their own ways and their abominations, which their soul desired; and I will choose their mockeries, and will requite them their sins";
but this man, madly desiring the empire beyond his desert, and unable, with his maimed body, to put on the imperial array, set forward his two sons, who took upon themselves their father's sins. For clear in their case is the prediction which God spoke: "Requiting the sins of fathers upon children unto the third and fourth generation, to those who hate me."
For having cast his own wicked desires, in which he failed, upon the heads of his sons, he wiped off upon them his own wickedness and his hatred toward God.' So much Dionysius concerning Valerian.
But concerning the persecution under him, which raged most violently, what things the same man, with others, underwent for his piety toward the God of all, his own words will show, which he sets down thus, in answer to Germanus, one of the bishops of his time who attempted to speak ill of him:
'I am in danger of falling into great folly and senselessness indeed, being brought to the necessity of relating the wonderful dispensation of God toward us. But since, he says, "it is good to hide the secret of a king, but glorious to reveal the works of God," I will come to grips with the violence of Germanus.
I came before Aemilianus, not alone, but there followed me my fellow-presbyter Maximus and the deacons Faustus, Eusebius, and Chaeremon, and one of the brethren from Rome who was present came in with us.
Aemilianus did not at the outset say to me, "Do not assemble." For that was superfluous to him, and a last consideration, since he was running back to the first; for his word was not about our not assembling others, but about our not even being Christians ourselves, and from this he commanded me to cease, thinking that, if I changed, the rest would follow me.
But I answered not unfittingly, nor far from the saying, "We must obey God rather than men"; but openly testified that I worship the one God who alone is, and no other, nor would I change nor ever cease being a Christian. Thereupon he ordered us to depart to a village near the desert, called Cephro.
But hear the very words spoken by both, as they were recorded. When Dionysius and Faustus and Maximus and Marcellus and Chaeremon had been brought in, Aemilianus, the deputy-governor, said: "I have discoursed with you orally too concerning the kindness which our lords have shown toward you;
for they have given you the power of safety, if you are willing to turn to that which is according to nature and to worship the gods who preserve their empire, and to forget those that are against nature. What, then, say you to these things? For I do not expect that you will be ungrateful for their kindness, since they exhort you to the better."
Dionysius answered: "Not all worship all gods, but each certain ones, whom they reckon such. We, therefore, worship and adore the one God and Maker of all things, who also entrusted the empire to the most God-beloved Augusti, Valerian and Gallienus; and to Him we pray continually for their empire, that it may abide unshaken."
Aemilianus, the deputy-governor, said to them: "And who hinders you from worshipping this one also, if he is a god, together with the natural gods? For you were ordered to worship gods, and gods whom all know." Dionysius answered: "We worship no other."
Aemilianus, the deputy-governor, said to them: "I see that you are at once ungrateful and insensible of the clemency of our Augusti; wherefore you shall not be in this city, but shall be sent to the parts of Libya, to a place called Cephro; for this place I have chosen by the command of our Augusti. And it shall by no means be permitted either to you or to any others to hold assemblies or to enter the so-called cemeteries. But if anyone shall appear either not to have gone to this place which I have commanded, or shall be found in any assembly,
he will bring the peril upon himself; for the needful vigilance shall not be wanting. Depart, then, whither you have been ordered." And though I was sick, he hurried me off, granting not a single day's respite. What leisure, then, had I left for assembling or not assembling?'
Then, after other matters, he says: 'But neither did we withdraw from the perceptible assembly with the Lord; but those in the city I gathered more diligently, as though present—absent in body, as he said, but present in spirit—and at Cephro a large church sojourned with us, some of the brethren following from the city, others coming together from Egypt. And there too God opened to us a door for the word.
And at first we were persecuted, we were stoned; but afterward not a few of the heathen, leaving the idols, turned to God; for then for the first time the word was sown among them through us, who had not before received it,
and as if for this purpose God had led us away to them, when we had fulfilled this ministry He led us away again. For Aemilianus wished to remove us to rougher and more Libyan places, as it seemed, and commanded all to stream together from every quarter into the Mareotis, assigning villages throughout the region to each, but stationed us rather in the road and to be the first taken. For he was clearly arranging and preparing that, whenever he wished to seize us, he might have all easy to take. And when I had been commanded to go to Cephro,
I did not know where in the world this place was, having scarcely even heard the name before; and yet I went off cheerfully and undisturbed. But when it was announced to me that I should remove to the parts of Colluthion, those present know how I was affected (for here I will accuse myself):
at first I was vexed and exceedingly displeased; for although the places happened to be more familiar and more accustomed to us, yet they said that the district was bare of brethren and earnest men, and exposed to the molestations of travellers and the inroads of robbers;
but I found comfort when the brethren reminded me that it was nearer to the city, and that, while Cephro brought us much intercourse with brethren from Egypt, so that we could hold a wider assembly, there—the city being nearer—we should more continually enjoy the sight of those truly beloved and most dear and dearest; for they would come and rest, and, as in suburbs lying farther off, there would be assemblies in turn. And so it was.'
And after other matters concerning the things that befell him, he again writes thus: 'Germanus indeed prides himself on his many confessions; he has much to say of things that have happened against himself: as many sentences as he can count concerning us, confiscations, proscriptions, plunderings of goods, losses of dignities, contempt of worldly glory, scorn of the praises of governors and councillors and of the contrary, threats and outcries and perils and persecutions and wandering and straitness and the endurance of manifold affliction—such as befell me under Decius and Sabinus, such as down to now under Aemilianus.
But where did Germanus appear? What account is there of him? But I forbear the great folly into which I am falling because of Germanus, on which account I leave the detailed narration of what has happened to the brethren who know it to tell.'
The same man also, in his letter to Domitius and Didymus, again mentions the events of the persecution in these words: 'But our own people, being many and unknown to you, it is superfluous to enumerate by name; only know that men and women, both young and old, both maidens and aged women, both soldiers and private persons, every race and every age, some by scourges and fire, some by the sword, having conquered the contest, have received the crowns.
But for some not even a very long time sufficed to appear acceptable to the Lord, as it seems also not for me up to now; wherefore He who says, "In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you," has reserved me for what time He himself knows to be fitting.
For since you inquire concerning our affairs and wish it to be disclosed to you how we live—you have heard fully how, as we were being led as prisoners by a centurion and commanders and the soldiers and attendants with them, both I and Gaius and Faustus and Peter and Paul, certain of the Mareotae came up and dragged us away by force, against our will and not even following them;
but now I and Gaius and Peter alone, bereft of the other brethren, are shut up in a desert and arid place of Libya, three days' journey distant from Paraetonium.'
And going on below, he says: 'But in the city there are hidden, visiting the brethren in secret, of the presbyters Maximus, Dioscorus, Demetrius, Lucius; for those more conspicuous in the world, Faustinus and Aquila, wander in Egypt; and of the deacons, those who survived after the ones who died on the island, Faustus, Eusebius, Chaeremon; Eusebius, whom from the first God strengthened and prepared to fulfil with ardour the services of the confessors in the prisons, and not without peril to perform the laying-out of the bodies of the perfect and blessed martyrs. For even to now the governor does not cease, some he slays,
as I said before, cruelly, of those brought before him, some he tortures with rackings, some he wastes away with prisons and bonds, commanding that none come to them, and searching out lest any appear; and yet God, by the eagerness and importunity of the brethren, gives respite to the oppressed.'
So much Dionysius. But it should be known that Eusebius, whom he called a deacon, was a little later appointed bishop of Laodicea in Syria; and Maximus, whom he then called a presbyter, succeeded Dionysius himself in the ministry of the brethren at Alexandria; and Faustus, who at that time distinguished himself with him in the confession, being preserved until the persecution of our day, exceedingly aged and full of days, in our own time was perfected by martyrdom, being beheaded. Such, then, were the things that befell Dionysius at that time.
During the aforesaid persecution under Valerian, three men at Caesarea in Palestine, shining forth in their confession of Christ, were adorned with a divine martyrdom, becoming food for wild beasts. Of these one was called Priscus, another Malchus, and the third had the name Alexander. These, they say, dwelling in the country, first blamed themselves as careless and slothful, that they were neglecting the prizes—while the season was distributing them to those who longed for the heavenly with desire—in not seizing beforehand the crown of martyrdom; and having so resolved, they set out for Caesarea and came to grips with the judge and obtained the end aforesaid. Besides these, they record that a certain woman, in the same persecution and in the same city, contended in the like struggle; and an account holds that she was of the heresy of Marcion.
But Valerian not long after enduring slavery among the barbarians, his son, ruling alone, conducted the government more prudently, and at once relaxed by edicts the persecution against us, ordering by a rescript that the presidents of the word should perform their customary duties in freedom; which is to this effect: 'The Emperor Caesar Publius Licinius Gallienus, Pious, Fortunate, Augustus, to Dionysius and Pinnas and Demetrius and the rest of the bishops. I have ordered that the benefit of my bounty be carried out throughout all the world, that they should withdraw from the places of worship; and on this account you too may use the form of my rescript, so that none may molest you. And this, which can be fulfilled by you so far as is lawful, has already long ago been granted by me; and therefore Aurelius Cyrinius, who is at the head of the chief office, will guard the form given by me.' Let this, more clearly rendered from the Roman tongue, be inserted. And another ordinance of the same emperor is extant, which he made to other bishops, permitting them to recover the sites of the so-called cemeteries.
At this time Xystus was still presiding over the church of the Romans, and over that at Antioch, after Fabius, Demetrian; and over Caesarea of the Cappadocians, Firmilian; and besides these, over the churches in Pontus, Gregory and his brother Athenodorus, the acquaintances of Origen. And over Caesarea in Palestine, Theoctistus having departed this life, Domnus succeeded to the bishopric; and he having lasted a short time, Theotecnus, the man of our day, was appointed his successor; he too was of the school of Origen. But also at Jerusalem, Mazabanes being at rest, Hymenaeus succeeded to the throne, who himself too distinguished himself for very many years in our day.
In their time, when there was peace everywhere among the churches, at Caesarea in Palestine Marinus, a man honoured among those distinguished by military rank and conspicuous in family and wealth, was beheaded for the testimony of Christ, on the following occasion. The vine-staff is a mark of honour among the Romans,
and those who obtain it become, they say, centurions. A place being vacant, the order of promotion called Marinus to this advancement; and when he was already about to receive the honour, another came forward before the tribunal and accused him that it was not lawful for him to share in the Roman dignity, according to the ancient laws, since he was a Christian and did not sacrifice to the emperors, but that the lot belonged to himself.
Whereupon the judge—Achaeus was he—being moved, first asked of what mind Marinus was; and when he saw him persistently confessing himself a Christian, he gave him a space of three hours for consideration.
When he had come outside the tribunal, Theotecnus the bishop there drew him aside, approaching him by conversation, and taking him by the hand led him on to the church; and setting him within, close by the sanctuary itself, he drew aside a little of his cloak and pointed to the sword attached to him, and at the same time, bringing it near, set over against it the writing of the divine Gospels, bidding him choose, of the two, that which accorded with his mind. When without delay he stretched out his right hand and took the divine Scripture, "Hold, then, hold," said Theotecnus to him, "to God, and mayest thou obtain what thou hast chosen, being empowered by Him; and go in peace."
Straightway, as he returned thence, a herald cried out, summoning him before the tribunal; for the appointed term of time was now fulfilled; and standing before the judge and displaying a zeal greater than his faith, just as he was, he was at once led away to death and was perfected.
There too Astyrius is remembered for his God-pleasing boldness, a man of the Roman senators, dear to the emperors and known to all for his nobility and wealth; who, being present when the martyr was perfected, put his shoulder under, and lifting up the corpse upon a splendid and costly garment carried it off, and wrapping it most richly, gave it over to fitting burial. Of this man his acquaintances, who have survived to our day, record countless other things, and also such a marvel as this.
At Caesarea Philippi, which the Phoenicians call Paneas, they say that at the springs there pointed out, at the foot of the mountain called Paneion, from which also the Jordan is said to flow forth, on a certain festal day a victim was thrown in, and that this, by the power of the demon, marvellously became invisible, and the thing done was a wonder famous to those present. Now Astyrius, being once present at these doings and seeing the multitude astounded at the thing, pitied their error, and then, looking up to heaven, besought through Christ the God over all to refute the people-deceiving demon and to stop it from the deception of men. And they say that, when he had prayed this, the victim suddenly floated upon the springs, and so the marvel ceased for them, no wonder any longer occurring about the place.
But since I have come to the mention of this city, I do not think it right to pass over an account worthy to be remembered by those after us also. For the woman with an issue of blood, who, as we have learned from the holy Gospels, found from our Saviour deliverance from her suffering, they said came from here, and that her house was pointed out in the city, and that wonderful memorials of the benefit done to her by the Saviour remained.
For there stood upon a lofty stone, at the gates of her house, a bronze figure of a woman, kneeling and with hands stretched out before her like one beseeching; and opposite this another of the same material, an upright figure of a man, decently clad in a double cloak and stretching out his hand to the woman; at whose feet, on the pillar itself, grew a strange kind of herb, which, rising up to the hem of the bronze double cloak, was a remedy against all manner of diseases. This statue, they said, bore the likeness of Jesus;
and it remained even to our day, so that we saw it with our own eyes when we sojourned in the city.
And it is no wonder that those of the heathen who of old were benefited by our Saviour did these things, when we have observed that the likenesses of His apostles Paul and Peter, and indeed of Christ himself, are preserved painted in colours; as is likely, the men of old, after the heathen custom, being accustomed without scruple thus to honour those they regarded as their saviours.
For the throne of James, who first received the bishopric of the church of Jerusalem from the Saviour and the apostles, and whom the divine words contain as having been called the brother of Christ, preserved to this day, the brethren there, who tend it in succession, plainly show to all what reverence both the men of old and those of our day kept and keep toward holy men for the sake of their devotion to God. And so much for this.
Besides the letters of Dionysius already mentioned, he composed at that time also the festal letters that are extant, in which he raises more solemn discourses concerning the feast of the Pascha. Of these he addresses one to Flavius, and another to Domitius and Didymus, in which he sets forth a canon of an eight-year cycle, establishing that the feast of the Pascha ought to be celebrated at no other time than after the spring equinox. Besides these he composes another letter to his fellow-presbyters at Alexandria, and others at the same time to various persons—and these while the persecution still continued.
Peace having all but come, he returned to Alexandria; but when sedition and war again arose there, since it was not possible for him to oversee all the brethren throughout the city, divided as they were into either party of the sedition, he again, at the feast of the Pascha, as though an exile, conversed with them by letters from Alexandria itself.
And writing afterward another festal letter to Hierax, a bishop in Egypt, he mentions the sedition of the Alexandrians of his time in these words: 'But to me, what wonder is it, if it is hard even to converse by letters with those who dwell farther off, when even to converse with myself, and to take counsel with my own soul, has become impossible to me?
Indeed, to my own bowels, the brethren dwelling under the same roof and of one soul with me, and citizens of the same church, I need epistolary letters, and how to send them seems impracticable. For one might more easily cross over, not only to a foreign land, but even from the East to the West, than reach Alexandria from Alexandria itself.
For the road through the midmost of the city is more trackless and impassable than that great and untrodden wilderness which Israel traversed in two generations; and our calm and waveless harbours have become an image of that sea which they had cloven and walled up to make a road for chariots, and in whose highway the Egyptians were drowned—for they have often appeared, from the murders done in them, like a Red Sea;
and the river that flows past the city has sometimes appeared drier than the waterless desert, and more parched than that wilderness through which Israel, passing, so thirsted that Moses cried out, and there flowed for them, from Him who alone does wondrous things, a draught from the sheer rock;
and sometimes it has flooded so greatly that, overflowing all the surrounding country and the roads and the fields, it threatened to bring on the rush of water that was in the days of Noah. And ever it comes down defiled with blood and murders and drownings, such as it became under Moses for Pharaoh, when it was changed into blood and stank.
And what other water cleansing could there be for the water that cleanses all things? How could the great ocean, boundless to men, poured over it, wipe away this bitter sea? Or how could the great river that goes forth from Eden, channelling into one the four heads into which it is parted—into the Gihon—wash away the gore?
Or when could the air, fouled on all sides by the noxious exhalations, become pure? For such vapours from the earth, and winds from the sea, and airs from the rivers, and mists from the harbours breathe out,
that the dews are the discharges of corpses rotting in all the underlying elements. Then men marvel and are perplexed whence come the continual pestilences, whence the grievous diseases, whence the all-manner deaths, whence the manifold and great destruction of men, why the greatest city no longer holds in itself so great a multitude of inhabitants—from infant children up to those grown extreme in age—as many full-grown old men, as it called them, as it formerly nourished. But those of forty and up to seventy years were then so many more, that now the number of these is not filled out, even when there are enrolled and reckoned in for the public dole those from fourteen years to eighty; and those youngest in appearance have become, as it were, of equal age with those formerly most aged.
And seeing the race of men upon earth thus ever diminished and consumed, they do not tremble, while the utter extinction of them grows and advances.'
After this, a pestilential disease having succeeded the war, and the feast drawing near, he again converses with the brethren by writing, noting the sufferings of the calamity in these words:
'To other men the present would not seem a season for festival; nor is it to them, neither this nor any other—not only of the sorrowful, but not even any one most full of joy, which they might suppose most so. Now indeed all is lamentation, and all mourn, and wailings resound through the city because of the multitude of the dead and of those dying day by day.
For as it is written of the firstborn of the Egyptians, so now also has there been a great cry; for there is no house in which there is not one dead—and would there were but one!
For many and dreadful were the things that befell us even before this. First they drove us out, and alone, persecuted and put to death by all, we kept festival even then, and every place of affliction to each became for us a place of solemn assembly—field, desert, ship, inn, prison; and the most radiant festival of all the perfect martyrs kept, feasting in heaven.
And after these things war and famine fell upon us, which we bore along with the heathen, alone undergoing all that they inflicted on us, while we also tasted of what they wrought upon and suffered from one another; and again we rejoiced in the peace of Christ, which He gave to us alone.
But when we and they had obtained a very brief respite, this disease fell upon us—a thing more fearful to them than any fear, and more wretched than any calamity, and, as a writer of their own reported, a thing alone of all that surpassed expectation; but to us not such, but rather an exercise and a testing, no less than the rest. For it did not spare even us, but went out greatly upon the heathen.'
Next he adds, saying: 'The most of our brethren, indeed, by their exceeding love and brotherly affection, sparing not themselves and cleaving to one another, visiting the sick without caution, ministering to them assiduously, tending them in Christ, departed this life most gladly together with them, filled with the suffering caught from others, and drawing the disease upon themselves from their neighbours, and willingly taking on the pains. And many, having nursed and strengthened others, themselves died, transferring to themselves the death of those, and in deed fulfilling then the common saying which seems always to be a mere matter of courtesy, departing as their offscouring.
Indeed, the best of our brethren departed life in this way—certain presbyters and deacons, and some of the people, highly commended, so that this form of death, coming about through great piety and strong faith, seems to fall nothing short of martyrdom.
And taking up the bodies of the holy ones with upturned hands and bosoms, and closing their eyes and shutting their mouths, and carrying them on their shoulders and laying them out, clinging to them and embracing them, adorning them with washings and wrappings, after a little they obtained the like themselves, those left behind ever following after those before them.
But the heathen did the very opposite: those just beginning to sicken they thrust away, and fled their dearest, and cast them half-dead into the roads, and threw out the dead unburied like refuse, shunning the spread and communion of death, which it was not easy, even with much contrivance, to escape.'
And after this letter too, when the city was at peace, he sends again a festal writing to the brethren in Egypt, and after this composes others; and there is extant a certain one of his concerning the Sabbath, and another concerning exercise.
And conversing again by letter with Hermammon and the brethren in Egypt, and recounting at length many other things concerning the malignity of Decius and those after him, he mentions the peace under Gallienus.
But there is nothing like hearing how these matters too stood, in his own words: 'He, then, having given up one of his own emperors and set upon the other, was swiftly destroyed, with his whole house, root and branch; but Gallienus was proclaimed and acknowledged by all, an emperor at once old and new, being first and surviving after them.
For according to what was said to the prophet Isaiah: "Behold, the former things have come, and new things which shall now arise." For as a cloud, running under the sun's rays and shadowing it for a little while, casts it into shade and appears in its stead, but, when the cloud has passed or melted away, the sun that had risen before shines out again, rising anew—so Macrianus, who had set himself up and brought himself close to the standing empire of Gallienus, is no more, since indeed he never was, but Gallienus is, in like manner as he was;
and the empire, as if having laid aside its old age and cleansed away its former wickedness, now flourishes more vigorously, and is seen and heard of farther off, and spreads everywhere.'
Then next he signifies the time at which he wrote these things, in these words: 'And again it comes to me to consider the days of the imperial years. For I see how the most impious men, after being named, in no long time became nameless, while the holier and more God-loving man, having passed the seventh year, is now completing his ninth year, in which we are to keep festival.'
Besides all these, there are laboured by him also the two treatises On the Promises; and his subject was Nepos, a bishop in Egypt, who taught that the promises made to the holy ones in the divine Scriptures should be fulfilled in a more Jewish fashion, and supposed that there would be a certain thousand years of bodily luxury upon this earth.
Thinking, then, to establish his own opinion from the Apocalypse of John, he composed and entitled a certain treatise on this, A Refutation of the Allegorists;
against which Dionysius takes his stand in the books On the Promises, in the former setting forth his own opinion which he held concerning the doctrine, in the second treating of the Apocalypse of John; where, mentioning Nepos at the outset, he writes thus concerning him:
'But since they bring forward a certain treatise of Nepos, on which they lean greatly as proving incontrovertibly that the kingdom of Christ will be upon earth, in many other respects indeed I receive and love Nepos, both for his faith and his industry and his study of the Scriptures and his abundant psalmody, by which many of the brethren are even now cheered; and I hold the man in much reverence, the more for this, that he has gone to his rest before. But the truth is dear and most to be honoured of all; and one must praise and agree ungrudgingly, if anything be rightly said, but examine and set right, if anything appear not to be soundly written.
And toward one present and laying down doctrine by bare word, an unwritten conversation would have sufficed, persuading and reconciling the opponents by question and answer; but a writing being set forth, as seems to some most persuasive, and certain teachers reckoning the Law and the Prophets as nothing, and neglecting to follow the Gospels, and disparaging the epistles of the apostles, but proclaiming the teaching of this treatise as some great and hidden mystery, and not allowing our simpler brethren to hold any lofty and grand thought, either concerning the glorious and truly divine appearing of our Lord, or concerning our resurrection from the dead and our being gathered to Him and made like Him, but persuading them to hope for things small and mortal and such as the present in the kingdom of God—it is necessary that we too should discourse with our brother Nepos as though he were present.'
To these, after other matters, he adds, saying: 'Now when I was in the Arsinoite nome, where, as you know, this doctrine had long been prevalent, so that schisms and apostasies of whole churches had taken place, having called together the presbyters and teachers of the brethren in the villages, the brethren who wished being also present, I exhorted them to make the examination of the matter publicly.
And when they brought me this book as some weapon and unassailable wall, I sat with them three successive days from morning till evening, and tried to set right what was written;
and there I was greatly delighted at the steadiness and truth-loving and ready-following and intelligence of the brethren, as we made our questions and difficulties and agreements in order and with fairness, refusing to cling by every means and contentiously to opinions once held, even if they should appear not to be correct; nor shrinking from the objections, but as far as possible attempting to grapple with the matters proposed and to establish them; nor, if reason prevailed, being ashamed to change our minds and agree; but conscientiously and unfeignedly, and with hearts laid open before God, accepting whatever was established by the demonstrations and teachings of the holy Scriptures.
And at last the originator and introducer of this teaching, called Coracion, in the hearing of all the brethren present, confessed and testified to us that he would no longer hold to it, nor discuss it, nor mention it, nor teach it, as having been sufficiently convinced by the things said against it; and of the other brethren, some rejoiced at the conference and the condescension and concord toward all.'
Then going on below, he says this concerning the Apocalypse of John: 'Some of those before us set aside and altogether rejected the book, examining it chapter by chapter and declaring it unintelligible and illogical, and the title false.
For they say that it is not John's, nor an apocalypse at all, being veiled by the thick and heavy curtain of ignorance; and that not only is none of the apostles the author of this writing, but not even any of the holy men or of those belonging to the Church, but Cerinthus, the founder of the heresy called Cerinthian after him, who, wishing to attach a name of credit to his own fabrication, affixed this title.
For this was the doctrine of his teaching, that the kingdom of Christ would be earthly, and that men would dream of these things which he himself desired, being a lover of the body and altogether carnal—satieties of the belly and of what is below the belly, that is, of food and drink and marriage, and, by means of what he supposed would procure these more decently, feasts and sacrifices and slaughterings of victims.
But I would not dare to set aside the book, since many of the brethren hold it in esteem; but reckoning my apprehension of it to be beyond my own understanding, I suppose the interpretation of each part to be something hidden and more wonderful. For even if I do not understand, yet I suspect that some deeper sense lies in the words,
not measuring and judging these things by my own reasoning, but assigning the more to faith, I have reckoned them too high to be grasped by me; and I do not reject these things which I have not seen, but rather wonder that I did not even see them.'
After this, having examined the whole writing of the Apocalypse, and shown that it cannot be understood according to the obvious sense, he adds, saying: 'Having completed, so to speak, the whole prophecy, the prophet pronounces blessed those who keep it, and indeed himself. For he says, "Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book; and I John, who see and hear these things."
That he is called John, then, and that this writing is John's, I will not contradict; for I agree that it is the work of some holy and inspired man. But I would not readily agree that this is the apostle, the son of Zebedee, the brother of James, whose is the Gospel entitled According to John and the catholic epistle.
For I conjecture, from the character of both, and the form of the words, and what is called the disposition of the book, that it is not the same. For the evangelist nowhere writes in his own name, nor proclaims himself, either through the Gospel or through the epistle.
Then going on below, he says again: 'John nowhere, neither as concerning himself nor as concerning another; but he who wrote the Apocalypse at the very beginning puts himself forward: "The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, which He gave him to show to His servants quickly, and He signified it, sending by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and his testimony, all that he saw"; then he also writes an epistle: "John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace."
But the evangelist did not prefix his name even to the catholic epistle, but without superfluity began from the very mystery of the divine revelation: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes." For upon this revelation the Lord pronounced Peter blessed, saying: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven."
But neither in the second, said to be John's, and the third, though they are short epistles, is John set forth by name, but he is written anonymously as 'the presbyter.' But this man did not even think it enough, once having named himself, to relate what follows, but takes himself up again: "I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and in the patience of Jesus, was in the island called Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." And indeed at the end he said this: "Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book; and I John, who see and hear these things."
That it is John, then, who writes these things, we must believe, since he says it; but what John, is uncertain. For he did not say that he was, as often in the Gospel, the disciple beloved by the Lord, nor the one who leaned upon His breast, nor the brother of James, nor the eyewitness and ear-witness of the Lord.
For he would have said something of these things aforesaid, had he wished to make himself plainly known; but of these things nothing, but said only 'our brother and partaker,' and 'witness of Jesus,' and 'blessed in the sight and hearing of the revelations.'
And I think that there have been many of the same name as John the apostle, who, through love toward him and admiration and emulation, and wishing to be loved like him by the Lord, embraced the same surname, just as also Paul, and indeed Peter, is a common name among the children of the faithful.
There is, then, another John also in the Acts of the Apostles, surnamed Mark, whom Barnabas and Paul took with them, concerning whom it again says, "And they had also John as their attendant." But whether this is he who wrote, I would not say; for it is not written that he came with them into Asia, but, "Setting sail," it says, "from Paphos, Paul and his company came to Perga of Pamphylia; but John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem."
But I think there was some other John among those in Asia, since they say there are two tombs at Ephesus, and that each is said to be John's.
And from the thoughts too, and from the words and their arrangement, this man may reasonably be supposed different from that one. For the Gospel and the epistle agree with one another, and begin alike: the one says, "In the beginning was the Word";
the other, "That which was from the beginning." The one says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father"; the other the same, slightly varied: "That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life; and the life was manifested."
For these things he strikes up beforehand, contending, as he showed in what follows, against those who said that the Lord had not come in the flesh; on which account he carefully added also, "And what we have seen, we testify, and declare to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us; what we have seen and heard, we declare also to you." He holds to himself and does not depart from his purposes,
but goes through all things by the same heads and names; some of which we will briefly note.
And he who reads attentively will find in each much of 'life,' much 'light,' 'turning away from darkness,' continually 'the truth,' 'the grace,' 'the joy,' 'the flesh and blood of the Lord,' 'the judgment,' 'the remission of sins,' 'the love of God toward us,' 'the commandment of love toward one another,' that we must keep all the commandments; 'the conviction of the world, of the devil, of the antichrist'; 'the promise of the Holy Spirit'; 'the adoption of God'; 'the faith required of us throughout'; 'the Father and the Son,' everywhere. And altogether, throughout, one may see characterizing one and the same complexion of the Gospel and the epistle.
But of quite another and foreign kind, beside these, is the Apocalypse, neither touching nor neighbouring upon any of them, having, so to speak, scarcely a syllable in common with them;
nay, neither does the epistle have any mention or thought of the Apocalypse (to say nothing of the Gospel), nor the Apocalypse of the epistle—though Paul, through his epistles, gave a hint also concerning his own revelations, which he did not write down by themselves.
And further, from the diction too one may conjecture the difference between the Gospel and the epistle and the Apocalypse.
For the former are written not only without fault as to the Greek tongue, but most elegantly in their words, their reasonings, their arrangement of the rendering; far is it that any barbarous expression or solecism or any vulgarism should be found in them; for he had, as it seems, each kind of speech, the Lord having graciously bestowed both upon him, both that of knowledge and that of diction;
but to the other, that he saw revelations and received knowledge and prophecy, I will not contradict; yet I observe that his dialect and tongue are not accurately Greek, but that he uses barbarous idioms and in some places commits solecisms;
which it is not necessary now to pick out. For I have not said these things in mockery (let no one think it), but only setting right the dissimilarity of these writings.'
Besides these, there are extant also many other letters of Dionysius, such as those against Sabellius to Ammon bishop of the church at Berenice, and that to Telesphorus, and that to Euphranor, and again to Ammon and Euporus; and he composes on the same subject also four other treatises, which he addresses to his namesake Dionysius at Rome.
And there are among us many letters of his besides these, and indeed lengthy discourses written in the form of letters, such as those On Nature, addressed to his son Timothy, and that On Temptations, which also he dedicated to Euphranor.
Besides these, writing also to Basilides bishop of the communities in the Pentapolis, he says that he had composed an exposition of the beginning of Ecclesiastes; and he has left us various letters to this man. So much Dionysius. But now, after the history of these matters, come, let us hand down to the generation that follows what manner of generation our own was.
Xystus, having presided over the church of the Romans eleven years, was succeeded by his namesake Dionysius at Alexandria. At this time also, Demetrian at Antioch having departed life, Paul of Samosata received the bishopric.
And when he held low and grovelling opinions concerning Christ, contrary to the ecclesiastical teaching, as though He had become a common man in nature, Dionysius of Alexandria, being invited to come to the synod, alleging at once old age and bodily weakness, deferred his coming, setting forth by letter the opinion he held concerning the question; but the rest of the pastors of the churches assembled from various quarters as against a ravager of the flock of Christ, all hastening to Antioch.
Of these, those who most distinguished themselves: Firmilian was bishop of Caesarea of the Cappadocians; Gregory and Athenodorus, brothers, pastors of the communities in Pontus; and besides these, Helenus of the community at Tarsus, and Nicomas of that at Iconium; nay, also of the church at Jerusalem, Hymenaeus, and of Caesarea bordering on it, Theotecnus; and Maximus besides, who himself too distinguished governed the brethren at Bostra. And one could without difficulty number countless others, with presbyters and deacons, gathered together in the aforesaid city for the same cause; but of these the most conspicuous were those mentioned.
When all, then, at various times and often, came together to the same place, discourses and inquiries were stirred up at each synod, those of the Samosatene's party attempting still to conceal and disguise the heterodoxy, while the others were zealous to strip bare and bring to light the heresy and his blasphemy against Christ.
At this time Dionysius died, in the twelfth year of the reign of Gallienus, having presided over the bishopric at Alexandria seventeen years; and Maximus succeeded him.
And when Gallienus had held the rule full fifteen years, Claudius was appointed his successor. He, after going through a second year, handed over the government to Aurelian.
In his time, a final synod of very many bishops being convened, the leader of the heresy at Antioch, being detected and now plainly condemned by all of heterodoxy, was excommunicated from the catholic Church under heaven.
Most of all the one who set him right, when he was concealing himself, and convicted him, was Malchion, a man learned in other respects and presiding over the school of the Greek rhetoricians at Antioch as a sophist; nay more, who, on account of the exceeding genuineness of his faith in Christ, had been deemed worthy of the presbyterate of the community there. This man, indeed, with shorthand-writers taking down notes, set on foot an inquiry against him, which we know to be extant even now, and alone of all was able to detect the man, who was secret-minded and deceitful.
The pastors gathered together to the same place, having by common consent drawn up a single letter addressed to Dionysius the bishop of the Romans and to Maximus at Alexandria, sent it to all the provinces, making manifest to all both their own zeal and the perverse heterodoxy of Paul, and the refutations and questions which they had raised against him, and besides recounting the whole life and manner of the man; from which, for the sake of memory, it would be well to go through these their words at present:
'To Dionysius and Maximus and to all our fellow-ministers throughout the world, bishops and presbyters and deacons, and to all the catholic Church under heaven, Helenus and Hymenaeus and Theophilus and Theotecnus and Maximus, Proclus, Nicomas and Aelianus and Paul and Bolanus and Protogenes and Hierax and Eutychius and Theodore and Malchion and Lucius, and all the rest who together with us sojourn in the neighbouring cities and nations, bishops and presbyters and deacons, and the churches of God, to the beloved brethren in the Lord, greeting.'
To these, after a little, they add this: 'We wrote and at the same time exhorted many even of the distant bishops to come to the cure of the death-bearing teaching, such as Dionysius at Alexandria and Firmilian from Cappadocia, the blessed men; of whom the one even wrote to Antioch, not deeming the leader of the error worthy even of a greeting nor writing to him by name, but to the whole community, of which we have appended a copy;
and Firmilian, having come even twice, condemned the innovations of that man, as we who were present know and bear witness, and many others are aware; but when the man promised to change, believing and hoping that without any reproach to the word the matter would be set right as it ought, he deferred, being deceived by one who denied his own God and Lord, and did not keep the faith which he himself formerly held.
And Firmilian was about to cross over to Antioch even now, and came as far as Tarsus, since he had taken proof of his God-denying wickedness; but in the meantime, while we had assembled and were calling and waiting until he should come, he reached the end of his life.'
And after other matters, they describe again the manner of life he had, in these words: 'But where he has departed from the canon and gone over to spurious and bastard doctrines, there is no need to judge the deeds of one who is without,
nor that, being formerly poor and a beggar, and having neither received any wealth from his fathers nor acquired it by any craft or pursuit, he has now come to overflowing riches, out of lawlessness and sacrilege and the means by which he begs of and shakes down the brethren, defrauding the wronged and promising to help them for hire, but cheating these too and reaping in vain the readiness of those involved in affairs to give for the riddance of those who trouble them, accounting godliness a means of gain; nor that he is high-minded and lifted up,
putting on worldly dignities and wishing to be called a ducenarius rather than a bishop, and swaggering through the marketplaces, and reading and dictating letters as he walks in public and is escorted by a bodyguard, some going before, some following after, many in number, so that the faith is envied and hated on account of his pomp and the pride of his heart;
nor the quackery in the ecclesiastical assemblies which he contrives, courting glory and putting on appearances and striking the souls of the simpler with such things, having built for himself a tribunal and lofty throne, not as a disciple of Christ, and having, and so naming, a secretarium, like the rulers of the world; and smiting his thigh with his hand and stamping the tribunal with his feet; and rebuking and insulting those who do not applaud nor wave their handkerchiefs as in the theatres, nor shout and leap up like his partisans about him, men and worthless women, who listen thus disorderly—but who listen with reverence and good order, as in the house of God; and behaving drunkenly toward the expounders of the word who have departed this life, coarsely in the assembly, and speaking grandly of himself, as though he were not a bishop but a sophist and a charlatan; and having put a stop to the psalms addressed to our Lord Jesus Christ, as being modern and the compositions of modern men,
but preparing women to sing psalms to himself in the midst of the church on the great day of the Pascha, which one might shudder even to hear; such things too he allows the bishops and presbyters of the neighbouring country districts and cities who flatter him to say in their discourses to the people.
For he will not confess with us that the Son of God came down from heaven (to set down beforehand something of what shall be written hereafter; and this will be said not by bare word, but is shown from the memoirs which we have sent, in many places, and not least where he says that Jesus Christ is from below); but those who sing psalms to him and praise him among the people say that their impious teacher has come down from heaven as an angel; and these things he does not hinder, but the proud man is even present at their saying them. And as for his subintroduced women, as the Antiochenes call them,
and those of the presbyters and deacons about him, with whom he conceals this and other incurable sins, being privy to them and having convicted them, that he may have them under obligation, not daring to accuse him for the wrongs he does in word and deed, through fear for themselves—nay, he has even made them rich, on which account he is loved and admired by those who emulate such things—why should we write of these things? For we know, beloved,
that the bishop and the whole priesthood ought to be an example to the multitude of all good works; and we are not ignorant how many have fallen through bringing in women to live with them, and how many have been suspected; so that, even if one should grant him that he does nothing licentious, yet he ought to have guarded against the suspicion that springs from such a thing, lest he scandalize someone, and lest he provoke others also to imitate him.
For how could he rebuke or admonish another not to consort too closely with a woman, lest he slip, keeping himself, as it is written, when he has himself already put away one, but has two in the bloom of youth and fair of face with him, and, even if he go anywhere, takes them about with him, and that while living in luxury and surfeiting? For which things all groan and lament among themselves,
but so dread his tyranny and power that they dare not accuse him.
But these things, as we said before, one might set right in a man who at least held a catholic mind and was numbered with us; but as for one who has danced out the mystery and made a parade of the foul heresy of Artemas (for why should we not at last disclose his father?), we think there is no need to require an account of these matters from him.'
Then at the end of the letter they add this: 'We were compelled, therefore, having excommunicated him as one setting himself against God and not yielding, to appoint in his stead another bishop for the catholic Church—by God's providence, as we are persuaded—Domnus, the son of the blessed Demetrian, who illustriously presided before this man over the same community, adorned with all the good qualities befitting a bishop; and we have made it known to you, that you may write to this man and receive from him the letters of communion. But let that other man write to Artemas, and let those who hold the views of Artemas communicate with him.'
Paul, then, having fallen from the bishopric, together with the orthodoxy of the faith, Domnus, as has been said, succeeded to the ministry of the church at Antioch;
but since Paul was by no means willing to give up the house of the church, the emperor Aurelian, being petitioned, decided most fittingly concerning what should be done, ordering the house to be assigned to those to whom the bishops of the doctrine in Italy and the city of the Romans should write. Thus, then, was the aforesaid man, with the utmost shame, driven out of the church by the secular power.
Such, then, was Aurelian's disposition toward us at that time; but as his reign advanced, having altered his mind concerning us, he was already moved by certain counsels to raise a persecution against us, and there was much talk among all concerning this;
but when he was now about, and all but ready, so to speak, to set his signature to the letters against us, the divine justice overtook him, all but binding his arms back from the undertaking, and plainly setting it before all to see that there would never be any easy way for the rulers of this life against the churches of Christ, except so far as the avenging hand, by divine and heavenly judgment, for the sake of discipline and conversion, should permit this to be accomplished at such seasons as it itself approved.
Aurelian, then, having held power six years, was succeeded by Probus, and he, after holding it about as long, by Carus together with his sons Carinus and Numerian; and these again not having lasted three full years, the government passed to Diocletian and those introduced after him, under whom the persecution of our day was accomplished, and with it the demolition of the churches.
But a little before this, Dionysius the bishop at Rome, having completed nine years of the ministry, was succeeded by Felix.
At this time also, the man mad in his wits and named after his demon-driven heresy, armed himself with the perversion of his reason, Satan, the very fighter against God, having put the man forward for the ruin of many. Barbarous indeed in his life, both in speech and in manner, and being by nature something demonic and frenzied, attempting things in keeping with these, he tried to fashion himself as Christ; now proclaiming himself the Paraclete and the very Holy Spirit, and puffed up in his madness; now, like Christ, choosing twelve disciples as partners of his innovation.
And the false and godless doctrines he had patched together out of countless godless heresies long ago extinguished, he wiped off from Persia upon our world like some deadly poison; whence indeed the impious name of the Manichaeans is current among the many even to this day. Such, then, was the foundation of this falsely-named knowledge, springing up in the times mentioned.
In their time, Felix, having presided over the church of the Romans five years, was succeeded by Eutychianus; and he, having lasted not even ten full months, left the office to Gaius, the man of our day; and he having presided about fifteen years, Marcellinus was appointed his successor, whom too the persecution overtook.
In their time, over the bishopric of the Antiochenes, after Domnus, presided Timaeus, whom Cyril, the man of our day, succeeded; in whose time we knew Dorotheus, a learned man, deemed worthy of the presbyterate at Antioch. He, being a lover of the beautiful in things divine, gave attention also to the Hebrew tongue, so as to read the Hebrew Scriptures themselves with understanding.
And he was of those most liberally minded, not without a share of the preliminary education of the Greeks, but otherwise a eunuch by nature, being so from his very birth, so that the emperor, on this account, as something remarkable, took him into his household and honoured him with the charge of the purple dye-works at Tyre.
We heard him expounding the Scriptures with measure in the church. And after Cyril, Tyrannus succeeded to the bishopric of the community of the Antiochenes, in whose time the siege of the churches reached its height.
Over the community at Laodicea, after Socrates, presided Eusebius, who had set out from the city of the Alexandrians. The cause of his removal was the affair concerning Paul, on account of which, having gone to Syria, he was kept by those there who were earnest about divine things from his homeward journey, being one of the men of our day a lovely possession of true religion, as it is easy to discern from the words of Dionysius set down before.
Anatolius was appointed his successor—a good man, they say, succeeding a good—himself also an Alexandrian by race; and for learning and education and the philosophy of the Greeks he had carried off the first prizes among the most approved of our day, having advanced to the summit of arithmetic and geometry and astronomy and the rest, whether of dialectic or of natural philosophy, and of the rhetorical studies as well; on which account an account holds that he was deemed worthy by the citizens there to establish the school of the Aristotelian succession at Alexandria.
Countless other deeds of valour of his they record in the siege of the Pirucheum at Alexandria, since he was deemed worthy by all in office of a special privilege; but for the sake of one specimen only I will mention this.
The wheat, they say, having failed those besieged, so that the famine had now become more unbearable to them than the enemies from without, the man we speak of, being present, managed something of this kind. The other part of the city being in alliance with the Roman army, and thereby not besieged, Anatolius sent to Eusebius (for he was still there at that time, before his removal to Syria), who was among those unbesieged and had acquired great renown and a famous name even up to the Roman general, and instructed him concerning those perishing of famine in the siege;
and he, learning this, asked of the Roman general, as a very great favour, to grant safety to deserters from the enemy; and having obtained his request, he made it known to Anatolius. And Anatolius, at once receiving the promise, gathered a council of the Alexandrians, and at first asked all to give the Romans a friendly right hand; but when he saw them grow savage at the proposal, "But on this at least," he says, "I think you will never contradict me, if I advise that the superfluous and to ourselves nowise useful—old women and infants and aged men—be sent forth outside the gates to go wherever they will. For why do we keep with us in vain these who are all but dead? Why do we wear down with famine the crippled and those maimed in body, when we ought to feed only the men and youths, and to husband the necessary wheat for those fit for the guarding of the city?" By such reasonings persuading the council,
he rose first and brought in the vote to dismiss from the city all the population, whether of men or of women, unfit for military service, since for those who remained and stayed uselessly in the city there would be no hope of safety, as they would perish by the famine.
When in this way all the rest of those in the council had agreed, he saved well-nigh all of the besieged—in the first place those of the church, then also the others throughout the city of every age—providing for their escape, not only those decreed by the vote, but, under their pretext, countless others as well, secretly clad in women's dress and at night, by his care, going out of the gates and hastening to the Roman army. There Eusebius, receiving all of them, restored, like a father and physician, those worn down by the long siege, with all forethought and tending.
Of such pastors the church at Laodicea was deemed worthy, two in succession, who by divine forethought, after the war mentioned, had removed from the city of the Alexandrians to those parts.
Not very many writings indeed were laboured by Anatolius, but so many have come down to us as enable one to discern at once both his learning and his wide knowledge; in which especially he sets forth his opinions concerning the Pascha, from which it would be necessary at present to make mention of these. From the canons of Anatolius concerning the Pascha:
'In the first year, then, it has the new moon of the first month, which is the beginning of the whole nineteen-year cycle, according to the Egyptians on the 26th of Phamenoth, according to the months of the Macedonians on the 22nd of Dystrus, or, as the Romans would say, the eleventh before the Kalends of April.
And the sun is found, on the aforesaid 26th of Phamenoth, not only entered upon the first division, but already passing through its fourth day in it. This division they are accustomed to call the first twelfth-part and the equinoctial point and the beginning of months and the head of the cycle and the start of the course of the planets; and that before it the last of the months and the twelfth division and the last twelfth-part and the end of the circuit of the planets; on which account we say that those who place the first month in it, and take the fourteenth of the Pascha accordingly, err in no small degree and not by chance.
And this is not our own account, but it was known to the Jews of old and was observed by them most especially; and one may learn it from what is said by Philo, Josephus, and Musaeus, and not by these alone, but by the still more ancient, the two Agathobuli, surnamed the teachers of the great Aristobulus, who was reckoned among the Seventy who translated the sacred and divine Scriptures of the Hebrews for Ptolemy Philadelphus and his father, and who addressed expository books on the Law of Moses to the same kings. These, in resolving the questions concerning the Exodus,
say that all alike ought to sacrifice the passover offerings after the spring equinox, at the middle of the first month; and that this is found when the sun is passing through the first division of the solar, or, as some of them have named it, the zodiacal circle. And Aristobulus adds that it is necessary at the feast of the passover that not only the sun should be passing through an equinoctial division, but the moon as well. For there being two equinoctial divisions,
the one vernal, the other autumnal, and lying diametrically opposite one another, and the day of the passover being assigned to the fourteenth of the month after evening, the moon will stand in the position opposite and diametrical to the sun, as it is possible to see at the full moons; and the one, the sun, will be at the vernal equinoctial division, and the other, the moon, of necessity at the autumnal equinoctial.
I know many other things said by them, some plausible, some advancing by demonstrations from the Lord, by which they try to establish that the feast of the Pascha and of unleavened bread must by all means be kept after the equinox. But I forbear demanding such matter of demonstrations from those from whom the veil upon the Law of Moses has been taken away, and who henceforth, with unveiled face, ever behold as in a mirror Christ and the teachings and sufferings of Christ. And that the first month among the Hebrews is about the equinox, the teachings in the book of Enoch also establish.'
And the same man has left arithmetical introductions in ten whole treatises, and other proofs of his leisure and wide experience in divine things.
On him Theotecnus, the bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, first laid hands for the bishopric, contriving to provide a successor to himself for his own community after his death; and indeed for a short time both presided over the same church; but when the synod concerning Paul called him to Antioch, passing by the city of the Laodiceans, he was detained by the brethren there, Eusebius having fallen asleep.
And Anatolius too having departed life, the last of the bishops of that community before the persecution was appointed Stephen, admired among the many for his philosophic learning and his other Greek education, but not similarly disposed toward the divine faith, as the advancing season of the persecution proved, showing the man to be a dissembler rather, and a coward and unmanly, than a true philosopher.
Yet the affairs of the church were not on this account to be overthrown, but they were set upright by God himself, the Saviour of all, when straightway Theodotus was proclaimed bishop of the community there—a man who made good in deed both his name as 'master' and that of 'bishop.' For he carried off the first prizes of the science of healing bodies, but in the cure of souls he was such as no other man, for genuineness of kindness, for sympathy, for zeal on behalf of those needing his help; and much also was the practice he had in the divine studies. Such, indeed, was he.
At Caesarea in Palestine, Theotecnus, who had most zealously gone through the bishopric, was succeeded by Agapius; whom we know to have laboured much and made most genuine forethought for the presidency of the people, and with a liberal hand to have cared above all for the poor.
In his time we knew Pamphilus, a most eloquent man and a true philosopher in his very life, deemed worthy of the presbyterate of the community there; what manner of man he was, and whence he set out, it would require no small subject to disclose. But each particular of his life and of the school he established, and his contests in various confessions during the persecution, and the crown of martyrdom which over all he bound about him, we have treated in a special work concerning him. He, indeed, was the most admirable of those there;
but among those most especially in our day, we know to have been most rare: of the presbyters at Alexandria, Pierius; and Meletius, bishop of the churches in Pontus.
The former was approved for a life of extreme poverty and for philosophic learning, being marvellously exercised in the contemplation and exposition of divine things and in the discourses delivered in the public assembly of the church; and Meletius (the men of culture called him 'the honey of Attica') was such as one might describe a man in all respects most perfect for learning. Of his excellence in rhetoric one cannot even worthily marvel—but this one might say was in him a natural gift; yet for his other wide experience and learning who could surpass his excellence,
when, in all rational sciences, you would call him the most skilled and most learned, having taken but one trial of him? And the excellence of his life too matched these. Him, during the time of the persecution, we observed escaping through the regions of Palestine for seven whole years.
Over the church at Jerusalem, after the bishop Hymenaeus, mentioned a little before, Zabdas received the ministry; and he not long after having fallen asleep, Hermon, the last of those down to the persecution of our day, succeeded to the apostolic throne preserved there even now.
And at Alexandria, Maximus, having been bishop eighteen years after the death of Dionysius, was succeeded by Theonas; in whose time Achillas was known, who at Alexandria had been deemed worthy of the presbyterate at the same time as Pierius, entrusted with the school of the sacred faith, having shown a work of philosophy second to none in rarity and a genuine manner of evangelical conduct.
And after Theonas, who had served nineteen years, the bishopric of those at Alexandria was succeeded by Peter, who himself too most especially distinguished himself for twelve whole years, of which, having governed the church not even three full years before the persecution, the rest of his life's time he led himself in a more vigorous discipline and not obscurely cared for the common benefit of the churches. Thus, then, in the ninth year of the persecution, being beheaded, he was adorned with the crown of martyrdom.
Having in these things bounded the subject of the successions, from the birth of our Saviour to the demolition of the houses of prayer, extending to three hundred and five years, come, let us next leave in writing, for those after us to know, the contests of those who in our day played the man for true religion, how many and how great they were.