24 - Book VII, Part 2

CHURCH HISTORY by Eusebius of Caesarea. Translated by Arthur Cushman McGuifford. Book 7, Part 2, Chapters 13-23. Chapter 13. The Peace Under Gallienus. Shortly after this, Valerian was reduced to slavery by the barbarians, and his son, having become sole ruler, conducted the government more prudently. He immediately restrained the persecution against us by public proclamations and directed the bishops to perform in freedom their customary duties, in a rescript which ran as follows. The Emperor Caesar Publius Licinius Gallienus, Pius Felix Augustus, two Dionysius, Pinnus, Demetrius, and the other bishops, I have ordered the bounty of my gift to be declared through all the world that they may depart from the places of religious worship. And for this purpose you may use this copy of my rescript that no one may molest you. And this which you are now enabled lawfully to do has already for a long time been conceded by me. Therefore Aurelius Serenius, who is the chief administrator of affairs, will observe this ordinance which I have given. I have given this in a translation from the Latin that it may be more readily understood. Another decree of his is extant addressed to other bishops, permitting them to take possession again of the so-called cemeteries. CHAPTER XIV THE BISHOPS THAT FLOURISHED AT THAT TIME At that time Sistus was still presiding over the Church of Rome, and Demetrianus, successor of Fabius, over the Church of Antioch, and Firmilianus over that of Caesarea in Cappadocia, and besides these, Gregory and his brother Athenodorus, friends of Origen, were presiding over the churches in Pontus, and Theoctistus, of Caesarea in Palestine having died, Domnus received the episcopate there. He held it but a short time, and Theoteknus, our contemporary, succeeded him. He also was a member of Origen's school. But in Jerusalem, after the death of Mazabenes, Hymenaeus, who has been celebrated among us for a great many years, succeeded to his seat. CHAPTER XV THE MARTYRDOM OF MARINUS AT CAESAREA At this time, when the peace of the churches had been everywhere restored, Marinus, in Caesarea in Palestine, who was honored for his military deeds, and illustrious by virtue of family and wealth, was beheaded for his testimony to Christ, on the following account. The vine branch is a certain mark of honor among the Romans, and those who obtain it become, they say, centurions. A place being vacated, the order of succession called Marinus to this position. But when he was about to receive the honor, another person came before the tribunal and claimed that it was not legal, according to the ancient laws, for him to receive the Roman dignity, as he was a Christian and did not sacrifice to the emperors, but that the office belonged rather to him. Thereupon the judge, whose name was Achaeus, being disturbed, first asked what opinion Marinus held, and when he perceived that he continually confessed himself a Christian, he gave him three hours for reflection. When he came out from the tribunal, Theotechnus, the bishop there, took him aside and conversed with him, and taking his hand led him into the church. And standing with him within, in the sanctuary, he raised his cloak a little and pointed to the sword that hung by his side, and at the same time he placed before him the scripture of the divine Gospels, and told him to choose which of the two he wished, and without hesitation he reached forth his right hand and took the divine scripture. Hold fast, then, said Theotechnus to him, hold fast to God, and strengthened by him mayest thou obtain what thou hast chosen and go in peace. Immediately on his return the herald cried out calling him to the tribunal, for the appointed time was already completed, and standing before the tribunal, and manifesting greater zeal for the faith, immediately as he was, he was led away and finished his course by death. CHAPTER XVI. STORY IN REGARD TO ASTERIUS. Asterius also is commemorated on account of his pious boldness in connection with this affair. He was a Roman of senatorial rank, and in favor with the emperors, and well known to all on account of his noble birth and wealth. Being present at the martyr's death, he took his body away on his shoulder, and arraying him in a splendid and costly garment, prepared him for the grave in a magnificent manner, and gave him fitting burial. The friends of this man that remain to our day relate many other facts concerning him. CHAPTER XVII. THE SIGNS AT PANAEUS OF THE GREAT MIGHT OF OUR SAVIOR. Among these is also the following wonder. At Caesarea Philippi, which the Phoenicians call Panaeus, springs are shown at the foot of the mountain Panaeus, out of which the Jordan flows. They say that on a certain feast day a victim was thrown in, and that through the power of the demon it marvelously disappeared, and that which happened was a famous wonder to those who were present. Asterius was once there when these things were done, and seeing the multitude astonished at the affair, he pitied their delusion, and looking up to heaven he supplicated the God over all through Christ, that he would rebuke the demon who deceived the people, and bring the men's delusion to an end. And they say that when he had prayed thus, immediately the sacrifice floated on the surface of the fountain, and thus the miracle departed, and no wonder was ever afterward performed at the place. CHAPTER XVIII. THE STATUE WHICH THE WOMAN WITH AN ISSUE OF BLOOD ERECTED. Since I have mentioned this city, I do not think it proper to omit an account which is worthy of record for posterity. For they say that the woman with an issue of blood, who, as we learn from the sacred gospel, received from our Saviour deliverance from her affliction, came from this place, and that her house is shown in the city, and that remarkable memorials of the kindness of the Saviour to her remain there. For there stands upon an elevated stone, by the gates of her house, a brazen image of a woman kneeling, with her hands stretched out as if she were praying. Opposite this is another upright image of a man, made of the same material, clothed decently in a double cloak, and extending his hand toward the woman. At his feet beside the statue itself is a certain strange plant, which climbs up to the hem of the brazen cloak, and is a remedy for all kinds of diseases. They say that this statue is an image of Jesus. It has remained to our day, so that we ourselves also saw it when we were staying in the city. Nor is it strange that those of the Gentiles who, of old, were benefited by our Saviour, should have done such things, since we have learned also that the likenesses of his apostles, Paul and Peter, and of Christ himself, are preserved in paintings, the ancients being accustomed, as it is likely, according to a habit of the Gentiles, to pay this kind of honor indiscriminately to those regarded by them as deliverers. CHAPTER XIX. THE EPISCOPAL CHAIR OF JAMES. The chair of James, who first received the episcopate of the Church at Jerusalem from the Saviour himself and the apostles, and who, as the divine records show, was called a brother of Christ, has been preserved until now, the brethren who have followed him in succession there exhibiting clearly to all the reverence which both those of old times and those of our own day maintained and do maintain for holy men on account of their piety. So much as to this matter. CHAPTER XX. THE FESTAL EPISTLES OF DIONYSIUS, IN WHICH HE ALSO GIVES A PASCAL CANON. Dionysius, besides his epistles already mentioned, wrote at that time also his extant festal epistles, in which he uses words of Panegyric respecting the Passover feast. He addressed one of these to Flavius, and another to Domitius and Didymus, in which he sets forth a canon of eight years, maintaining that it is not proper to observe the Paschal feast until after the vernal equinox. Besides these he sent another epistle to his fellow presbyters in Alexandria, as well as various others to different persons while the persecution was still prevailing. CHAPTER XXI. THE OCCURRENCES AT ALEXANDRIA. Peace had but just been restored when he returned to Alexandria, but as sedition and war broke out again, rendering it impossible for him to oversee all the brethren, separated in different places by the insurrection, at the feast of the Passover, as if he were still in exile from Alexandria, he addressed them again by letter. And in another festal epistle written later to Hyrax, a bishop in Egypt, he mentions the sedition then prevailing in Alexandria as follows. Letters to those who are as my own bowels, dwelling in one home, and brethren of one soul and citizens of the same church, but how to send them I cannot tell, for it would be easier for one to go, not only beyond the limits of the province, but even from the east to the west than from Alexandria to Alexandria itself. For the very heart of the city is more intricate and impassable than that great and trackless desert which Israel traversed for two generations. And our smooth and waveless harbors have become like the sea, divided and walled up, through which Israel drove and in whose highway the Egyptians were overwhelmed, for often from the slaughters there committed they appear like the Red Sea. And the river which flows by the city has sometimes seemed drier than the waterless desert, and more parched than that in which Israel, as they passed through it, so suffered for thirst, that they cried out against Moses, and the water flowed for them from the steep rock, through him who alone doeth wonders. Again it has overflowed so greatly as to flood all the surrounding country and the roads and the fields, threatening to bring back the deluge of water that occurred in the days of Noah. And it flows along, polluted always with blood and slaughter and drownings, as it became for Pharaoh through the agency of Moses, when he changed it into blood, and it stank. And what other water could purify the water which purifies everything? How could the ocean, so great and impassable for men, if poured into it, cleanse this bitter sea? Or how could the great river which flowed out of Eden, if it poured the four heads into which it is divided into the one of Gihon, wash away this pollution? Or when can the air, poisoned by these noxious exhalations, become pure? For such vapors arise from the earth, and winds from the sea, and breezes from the river, and mists from the harbors, that the dews are, as it were, discharges from dead bodies putrefying in all the elements around us. Yet men wonder and cannot understand whence these continuous pestilences, whence these severe sicknesses, whence these deadly diseases of all kinds, whence this various and vast human destruction, why this great city no longer contains as many inhabitants, from tender infants to those most advanced in life, as it formerly contained of those whom it called hearty old men. But the men from forty to seventy years of age were then so much more numerous that their number cannot now be filled out, even when those from fourteen to eighty years are enrolled and registered for the public allowance of food. And the youngest in appearance have become, as it were, of equal age with those who formerly were the oldest. But though they see the race of men thus constantly diminishing and wasting away, and though their complete destruction is increasing and advancing, they do not tremble. CHAPTER XXII. THE PESTILENCE WHICH CAME UPON THEM. After these events a pestilential disease followed the war, and at the approach of the feast he wrote again to the brethren, describing the sufferings consequent upon this calamity. To other men the present might not seem to be a suitable time for a festival, nor indeed is this or any other time suitable for them, neither sorrowful times nor even such as might be thought especially cheerful. Now indeed everything is tears and everyone is mourning, and wailings resound daily through the city because of the multitude of the dead and dying. For as it was written of the firstborn of the Egyptians, so now there has arisen a great cry, for there is not a house where there is not one dead. And would that this were all! For many terrible things have happened already. First they drove us out, and went alone and persecuted and put to death by all, even then we kept the feast. And every place of affliction was to us a place of festival, field, desert, ship, inn, prison. But the perfected martyrs kept the most joyous festival of all, feasting in heaven. After these things war and famine followed, which we endured in common with the heathen. But we bore alone those things with which they afflicted us, and at the same time we experienced also the effects of what they inflicted upon and suffered from one another, and again we rejoiced in the peace of Christ, which he gave to us alone. But after both we and they had enjoyed a very brief season of rest, this pestilence assailed us, to them more dreadful than any dread, and more intolerable than any other calamity, and, as one of their own writers has said, the only thing which prevails over all hope. But to us this was not so, but no less than the other things was it an exercise and probation, for it did not keep aloof even from us, but the heathen it assailed more severely. Farther on, he adds, the most of our brethren were unsparing in their exceeding love and brotherly kindness. They held fast to each other and visited the sick fearlessly, and ministered to them continually, serving them in Christ. And they died with them most joyfully, taking the affliction of others, and drawing the sickness from their neighbors to themselves and willingly receiving their pains. And many who cared for the sick and gave strength to others died themselves, having transferred to themselves their death. And the popular saying, which always seems a mere expression of courtesy, they then made real in action, taking their departure, as the others, off scouring. Truly the best of our brethren departed from life in this manner, including some presbyters and deacons and those of the people who had the highest reputation, so that this form of death, through the great piety and strong faith it exhibited, seemed to lack nothing of martyrdom. And they took the bodies of the saints in their open hands and in their bosoms, and closed their eyes and their mouths. And they bore them away on their shoulders and laid them out. And they clung to them and embraced them. And they prepared them suitably with washings and garments. And after a little they received like treatment themselves, for the survivors were continually following those who had gone before them. But with the heathen everything was quite otherwise. They deserted those who began to be sick, and fled from their dearest friends. And they cast them out into the streets when they were half dead, and left the dead-like refuse unburied. They shunned any participation or fellowship with death, which yet, with all their precautions, it was not easy for them to escape. After this epistle, when peace had been restored to the city, he wrote another festal letter to the brethren in Egypt, and again several others besides this. And there is also a certain one extant on the Sabbath, and another on exercise. Moreover, he wrote again an epistle to Hermammon and the brethren in Egypt, describing at length the wickedness of Decius and his successors, and mentioning the peace under Gallienus. Chapter XXIII. THE REIGN OF GALLIENUS. But there is nothing like hearing his own words, which are as follows. Then he, having betrayed one of the emperors that preceded him and made war on the other, perished with his whole family speedily and utterly. But Gallienus was proclaimed and universally acknowledged at once an old emperor and a new, being before them and continuing after them. For according to the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah, Behold, the things from the beginning have come to pass, and new things shall now arise. For as a cloud passing over the sun's rays and obscuring them for a little time hides it and appears in its place, but when the cloud has passed by or is dissipated, the sun which had risen before appears again, so Macrianus, who put himself forward and approached the existing empire of Gallienus, is not, since he never was, but the other is just as he was. And his kingdom, as if it had cast aside old age and had been purified from the former wickedness, now blossoms out more vigorously, and is seen and heard farther, and extends in all directions. He then indicates the time at which he wrote this in the following words. It occurs to me again to review the days of the imperial years. For I perceive that these most impious men, though they have been famous, yet in a short time have become nameless. But the holier and more godly prince, having passed the seventh year, is now completing the ninth, in which we shall keep the feast.