PROLEGOMENA.

---

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

EUSEBIUS OF CÆSAREA.

CHAPTER I.

THE LIFE OF EUSEBIUS.

ACACIUS, the pupil and successor of Eusebius in the bishopric of Cæsarea, wrote a biography of the latter (Socrates, Church History II. 4), which is unfortunately lost. He was a man of ability (Sozomen, Church History III. 2, IV. 23) and had exceptional opportunities for producing a full and accurate account of Eusebius' life; the disappearance of his work is therefore deeply to be regretted.

Numerous mentions of Eusebius are found in the works of Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Athanasius, Jerome, and other writers of his own and subsequent ages, to many of which references will be made in the following pages. A collection of these notices, made by Valesius, is found in English translation on page 57 of this volume. The chief source for a knowledge of Eusebius' life is his own work, which will be discussed below on page 26. Of the numerous modern works that treat the life of Eusebius, I shall mention here only those I have found most valuable:

VALESIUS: Diatribe on the Life and Writings of Eusebius (in his edition of Eusebius’ Church History; English version in Crusè’s translation).

CAVE: Lives of the Fathers, II. 95-144 (ed. H. Cary, Oxford 1840).

TILLEMONT: Ecclesiastical History, VII. pp. 39-75 (compare also his account of the Arians in Vol. VI.).

STROTH: Life and Writings of Eusebius (in his German translation of the Church History).

CLOSS: Life and Writings of Eusebius (in his translation of the same work).

DANZ: On Eusebius of Cæsarea, Writer of Ecclesiastical History, and the Evaluation of his Historical Credibility, Chapter II: On Matters Pertaining to Eusebius' Life (pp. 33-75).

STEIN: Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea: Represented According to his Life, his Writings, and his Dogmatic Character (Würzburg, 1859; full and valuable).

BRIGHT, in the introduction to his edition of Burton's text of the Church History (excellent).

LIGHTFOOT (Bishop of Durham): Eusebius of Cæsarea, in Smith and Wace’s Dictionary of Christian Biography, vol. II. pp. 308-348. Lightfoot's article is a magnificent monument of patristic scholarship and contains the best and most exhaustive treatment of the life and writings of Eusebius ever written.

The student may finally be referred to all the larger histories of the Church (e.g., Schaff, Vol. III. 871ff and 1034ff), which contain more or less extended accounts of Eusebius.

Our author was commonly known among the ancients as Eusebius of Cæsarea or Eusebius Pamphili. The former designation arose from the fact that he was bishop of the church in Cæsarea for many years; the latter from the fact that he was the intimate friend and devoted admirer of Pamphilus, a presbyter of Cæsarea and a martyr.