Book Four, Part One, of Eusebius' Church History,
by Arthur Cushman MacGuifford.
Book Four, Part One, Chapters One through Thirteen.
Book Four, Chapter One, The Bishops of Rome and of Alexandria during the reign of
Trajan.
About the twelfth year of the reign of Trajan, the above-mentioned bishop of the
parish of Alexandria died, and Primus, the fourth in succession from the
Apostles, was chosen to the office.
At that time also Alexander, the fifth in the line of succession from Peter and
Paul, received the episcopate at Rome, after Everestus had held the office eight
years.
Chapter Two, The Calamities of the Jews during Trajan's reign.
The teaching and the church of our Saviour flourished greatly and made progress from
day to day, but the calamities of the Jews increased, and they underwent a constant
succession of evils.
In the eighteenth year of Trajan's reign there was another disturbance of the Jews,
through which a great multitude of them perished.
For in Alexandria and in the rest of Egypt, and also in Cyrene, as if incited
by some terrible and factious spirit, they rushed into seditious measures
against their fellow inhabitants, the Greeks.
The insurrection increased greatly, and in the following year, while Lupus was
governor of all Egypt, it developed into a war of no mean magnitude.
In the first attack, it happened that they were victorious over the Greeks,
who fled to Alexandria and imprisoned and slew the Jews that were in the city.
But the Jews of Cyrene, although deprived of their aid, continued to plunder the
land of Egypt and to devastate its districts, under the leadership of Lucius.
Against them the emperor sent Marcius Turbo, with a foot and naval force and
also with a force of cavalry.
He carried on the war against them for a long time and fought many battles,
and slew many thousands of Jews, not only those of Cyrene, but also of
those who dwelt in Egypt and had come to the assistance of their king Lucius.
But the emperor, fearing that the Jews in Mesopotamia would also make an attack upon
the inhabitants of that country, commanded Lucius Quintus to clear the
province of them, and he having marched against them slew a great multitude of
those that dwelt there, and in consequence of his success he was made governor of
Judea by the emperor.
These events are recorded also in these very words by the Greek historians that
have written accounts of those times.
Chapter 3.
The Apologists That Wrote in Defense of the Faith During the Reign of Adrian.
After Trajan had reigned for nineteen and a half years, Aelius Adrian became his
successor in the empire.
To him Quadratus addressed a discourse containing an apology for our religion,
because certain wicked men had attempted to trouble the Christians.
The work is still in the hands of a great many of the brethren, as also in our own,
and furnishes clear proofs of the man's understanding and of his apostolic
orthodoxy.
He himself reveals the early date at which he lived in the following words,
but the works of our Savior were always present, for they were genuine.
Those that were healed, and those that were raised from the dead, who were seen
not only when they were healed and when they were raised, but were also always
present, and not merely while the Savior was on earth, but also after his death,
they were alive for quite a while, so that some of them lived even to our
day.
Such then was Quadratus.
Aristides also, a believer earnestly devoted to our religion, left,
like Quadratus, an apology for the faith addressed to Adrian.
His work, too, has been preserved even to the present day by a great many persons.
In the third year of the same reign, Alexander, Bishop of Rome, died after
holding office ten years.
His successor was Sistus.
About the same time, Primus, Bishop of Alexandria, died in the twelfth year of
his episcopate, and was succeeded by justice.
The chronology of the bishops of Jerusalem I have nowhere found preserved in writing,
for tradition says that they were all short-lived.
But I have learned this much from writings, that until the siege of the
Jews, which took place under Adrian, there were fifteen bishops in succession
there, all of whom are said to have been of Hebrew descent, and to have received
the knowledge of Christ in purity, so that they were approved by those who
were able to judge of such matters, and were deemed worthy of the episcopate.
For their whole church consisted then of believing Hebrews who continued from the
days of the apostles until the siege which took place at this time, in which siege
the Jews, having again rebelled against the Romans, were conquered after severe
battles.
But since the bishops of the circumcision ceased at this time, it is proper to give
here a list of their names from the beginning.
The first then was James, the so-called brother of the Lord, the second Simeon,
the third Justice, the fourth Zacchaeus, the fifth Tobias, the sixth Benjamin,
the seventh John, the eighth Matthias, the ninth Philip, the tenth Seneca,
the eleventh Justice, the twelfth Levi, the thirteenth Ephras, the fourteenth
Joseph, and finally the fifteenth Judas.
These are the bishops of Jerusalem that lived between the age of the apostles and
the time referred to, all of them belonging to the circumcision.
In the twelfth year of the reign of Adrian, Zistus, having completed the tenth
year of his episcopate, was succeeded by Telesphorus, the seventh in succession
from the apostles.
In the meantime, after the lapse of a year and some months, Eumenes, the sixth in
order, succeeded to the leadership of the Alexandrian church, his predecessor having
held office eleven years.
Chapter 6.
The Last Siege of the Jews under Adrian.
As the rebellion of the Jews at this time grew much more serious, Rufus,
governor of Judea, after an auxiliary force had been sent him by the emperor,
using their madness as a pretext, proceeded against them without mercy and
destroyed indiscriminately thousands of men and women and children and in
accordance with the laws of war reduced their country to a state of complete
subjection.
The leader of the Jews at this time was a man by the name of Barqotiba, which
signifies a star, who possessed the character of a robber and a murderer,
but nevertheless, relying upon his name, boasted to them as if they were slaves
that he possessed wonderful powers, and he pretended that he was a star that
had come down to them out of heaven to bring them light in the midst of their
misfortunes.
The war raged most fiercely in the eighteenth year of Adrian at the city of
Bithara, which was a very secure fortress situated not far from Jerusalem.
When the siege had lasted a long time, and the rebels had been driven to the last
extremity by hunger and thirst, and the instigator of the rebellion had
suffered his just punishment, the whole nation was prohibited from this time on by
a decree and by the commands of Adrian from ever going up to the country about
Jerusalem.
For the emperor gave orders that they should not even see from a distance the
land of their fathers.
Such is the account of Aristo of Pella.
And thus, when the city had been emptied of the Jewish nation and had suffered the
total destruction of its ancient inhabitants, it was colonized by a
different race, and the Roman city which subsequently arose changed its name and
was called Elea in honor of the emperor Eleus Adrian.
And as the church there was now composed of Gentiles, the first one to assume the
government of it after the bishops of the circumcision was Marcus.
As the churches throughout the world were now shining like the most brilliant stars,
and faith in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ was flourishing among the whole
human race, the demon who hates everything that is good and is always hostile to the
truth and most bitterly opposed to the salvation of man turned all his arts
against the church.
In the beginning, he armed himself against it with external persecutions.
But now, being shut off from the use of such means, he devised all sorts of plans
and employed other methods in his conflict with the church, using base and deceitful
men as instruments for the ruin of souls and as ministers of destruction.
Instigated by him, impostors and deceivers, assuming the name of our
religion, brought to the depth of ruin such of the believers as they could win
over, and at the same time, by means of the deeds which they practiced,
turned away from the path which leads to the word of salvation those who were
ignorant of the faith.
Accordingly, there proceeded from that Menander, whom we have already mentioned
as the successor of Simon, a certain serpent-like power, double-tongued and
two-headed, which produced the leaders of two different heresies, Saturninus,
an Antiochian by birth, and Bacillides, an Alexandrian.
The former of these established schools of godless heresy in Syria, the latter in
Alexandria.
Irenaeus states that the false teaching of Saturninus agreed in most respects with
that of Menander, but that Bacillides, under the pretext of unspeakable
mysteries, invented monstrous fables and carried the fictions of his impious heresy
quite beyond bounds.
But as there were at that time a great many members of the Church who were
fighting for the truth and defending apostolic and ecclesiastical doctrine with
uncommon eloquence, so there were some also that furnished posterity through
their writings with means of defense against the heresies to which we have
referred.
Of these, there has come down to us a most powerful refutation of Bacillides by
Agrippa Castor, one of the most renowned writers of that day, which shows the
terrible imposture of the man.
While exposing his mysteries, he says that Bacillides wrote 24 books upon the Gospel,
and that he invented prophets for himself named Barqabas and Barqoph, and others
that had no existence, and that he gave them barbarous names in order to amaze
those who marvel at such things, that he taught also that the eating of
meat offered to idols and the unguarded renunciation of the faith in times of
persecution were matters of indifference, and that he enjoined upon his followers,
like Pythagoras, a silence of five years.
Other similar things the above-mentioned writer has recorded concerning Bacillides,
and has ably exposed the error of his heresy.
Irenaeus also writes that Carpocrates was a contemporary of these men, and that he
was the father of another heresy, called the heresy of the Gnostics,
who did not wish to transmit any longer the magic arts of Simon, as that one had
done in secret, but openly, for they boasted, as of something great,
of love potions that were carefully prepared by them, and of certain demons
that sent them dreams and lent them their protection, and of other similar agencies.
And in accordance with these things they taught that it was necessary for those who
wished to enter fully into their mysteries, or rather into their
abominations, to practice all the worst kinds of wickedness, on the ground that
they could escape the cosmic powers, as they called them, in no other way than
by discharging their obligations to them all by infamous conduct.
Thus it came to pass that the malignant demon, making use of these ministers,
on the one hand enslaved those that were so pitiably led astray by them to their
own destruction, while on the other hand he furnished to the unbelieving heathen
abundant opportunities for slandering the divine word, inasmuch as the reputation of
these men brought infamy upon the whole race of Christians.
In this way, therefore, it came to pass that there was spread abroad in regard to
us among the unbelievers of that age the infamous and most absurd suspicion that we
practiced unlawful commerce with mothers and sisters and enjoyed impious feasts.
He did not, however, long succeed in these artifices, as the truth established itself
and in time shone with great brilliancy.
For the machinations of its enemies were refuted by its power and speedily
vanished.
One new heresy arose after another, and the former ones always passed away,
and now at one time, now at another, now in one way, now in other ways,
were lost in ideas of various kinds and various forms.
But the splendor of the Catholic and only true Church, which is always the same,
grew in magnitude and power, and reflected its piety and simplicity and freedom,
and the modesty and purity of its inspired life and philosophy, to every nation both
of Greeks and of barbarians.
At the same time, the slanderous accusations which had been brought against
the whole Church also vanished, and there remained our teaching alone,
which has prevailed over all, and which is acknowledged to be superior to all in
dignity and temperance, and in divine and philosophical doctrines.
So that none of them now ventures to affix a base calumny upon our faith,
or any such slander as our ancient enemies formerly delighted to utter.
Nevertheless, in those times the truth again called forth many champions who
fought in its defense against the godless heresies, refuting them not only with
oral, but also with written arguments.
Chapter 8 Ecclesiastical Writers Among these, Hegesippus was well known.
We have already quoted his words a number of times, relating events which happened
in the time of the apostles according to his account.
He records in five books the true tradition of apostolic doctrine in a most
simple style, and he indicates the time in which he flourished when he writes as
follows concerning those that first set up idols.
To whom they erected cenotaphs and temples, as is done to the present day.
Among whom is also Antinous, a slave of the emperor Adrian, in whose honor are
celebrated also the Antinoian games, which are instituted in our day.
For he, i.e.
Adrian, also founded a city named after Antinous and appointed prophets.
At the same time also, Justin, a genuine lover of the true philosophy,
was still continuing to busy himself with Greek literature.
He indicates this time in the Apology which he addressed to Antonine,
where he writes as follows.
We do not think it out of place to mention here Antinous also, who lived in our day,
and whom all were driven by fear to worship as a god, although they knew who
he was and whence he came.
The same writer, speaking of the Jewish war which took place at that time,
adds the following.
For in the late Jewish war, Bar Kochiba, the leader of the Jewish rebellion,
commanded that Christians alone should be visited with terrible punishments unless
they would deny and blaspheme Jesus Christ.
And in the same work, he shows that his conversion from Greek philosophy to
Christianity was not without reason, but that it was the result of deliberation
on his part.
His words are as follows.
For I myself, while I was delighted with the doctrines of Plato, and heard the
Christians slandered, and saw that they were afraid neither of death nor of
anything else ordinarily looked upon as terrible, concluded that it was impossible
that they could be living in wickedness and pleasure.
For what pleasure-loving or intemperate man, or what man that counts it good to
feast on human flesh, could welcome death that he might be deprived of his
enjoyments, and would not rather strive to continue permanently his present life,
and to escape the notice of the rulers, instead of giving himself up to be put to
death?
The same writer, moreover, relates that Adrian, having received from Serenius
Granianus, a most distinguished governor, a letter in behalf of the Christians,
in which he stated that it was not just to slay the Christians without a regular
accusation and trial, merely for the sake of gratifying the outcries of the
populace, sent a rescript to Minucius Fundanus, proconsul of Asia, commanding
him to condemn no one without an indictment and a well-grounded accusation.
And he gives a copy of the epistle, preserving the original Latin in which it
was written, and prefacing it with the following words.
Although from the epistle of the greatest and most illustrious emperor Adrian,
your father, we have good ground to demand that you order judgment to be given as we
have desired, yet we have asked this not because it was ordered by Adrian,
but rather because we know that what we ask is just, and we have subjoined the
copy of Adrian's epistle that you may know that we are speaking the truth in this
matter also, and this is the copy.
After these words, the author referred to gives the rescript in Latin, which we have
translated into Greek as accurately as we could.
It reads as follows.
To Minucius Fundanus, I have received an epistle written to me by Serenius
Granianus, a most illustrious man, whom you have succeeded.
It does not seem right to me that the matter should be passed by without
examination, lest the men be harassed and opportunity be given to the informers for
practicing villainy.
If, therefore, the inhabitants of the province can clearly sustain this petition
against the Christians so as to give answer in a court of law, let them pursue
this course alone, but let them not have resort to men's petitions and outcries.
For it is far more proper, if anyone wishes to make an accusation, that you
should examine into it.
If anyone, therefore, accuses them and shows that they are doing anything
contrary to the laws, do you pass judgment according to the heinousness of the crime.
But by Hercules, if anyone bring an accusation through mere calumny,
decide in regard to his criminality, and see to it that you inflict punishment.
Such are the contents of Adrian's Rescript.
Adrian, having died after a reign of twenty-one years, was succeeded in the
government of the Romans by Antoninus, called the Pius.
In the first year of his reign, Telesphorus died in the eleventh year of
his episcopate, and Hyginus became bishop of Rome.
Irenaeus records that Telesphorus' death was made glorious by martyrdom,
and in the same connection he states that in the time of the above-mentioned Roman
bishop, Hyginus, Valentinus, the founder of a sect of his own, and Sardan,
the author of Marcian's Error, were both well-known at Rome.
He writes as follows.
Chapter 11.
The Heresiarchs of that Age.
For Valentinus came to Rome under Hyginus, flourished under Pius, and remained until
Anicetus.
Sardan also, Marcian's predecessor, entered the church in the time of Hyginus,
the ninth bishop, and made confession, and continued in this way, now teaching in
secret, now making confession again, and now denounced for corrupt doctrine and
withdrawing from the assembly of the brethren.
These words are found in the third book of the work Against Heresies.
And again, in the first book, he speaks as follows concerning Sardan.
A certain Sardan, who had taken his system from the followers of Simon, and had come
to Rome under Hyginus, the ninth in the episcopal succession from the apostles,
taught that the god proclaimed by the law and prophets was not the father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
For the former was known, but the latter unknown, and the former was just,
but the latter good.
Marcian of Pontus succeeded Sardan and developed his doctrine, uttering shameless
blasphemies.
The same Irenaeus unfolds with the greatest vigor the unfathomable abyss of
Valentinus' errors in regard to matter, and reveals his wickedness secret and
hidden like a serpent lurking in its nest.
And in addition to these men, he says that there was also another that lived in that
age, Marcus by name, who was remarkably skilled in magic arts.
And he describes also their unholy initiations and their abominable mysteries
in the following words.
For some of them prepare a nuptial couch and perform a mystic rite with certain
forms of expression addressed to those who are being initiated, and they say that it
is a spiritual marriage which is celebrated by them after the likenesses of
the marriages above.
But others lead them to water, and while they baptize them they repeat
the following words.
Into the name of the unknown Father of the universe, into truth, the mother of all
things, into the one that descended upon Jesus.
Others repeat Hebrew names in order the better to confound those who are being
initiated.
But Hyginus, having died at the close of the fourth year of his episcopate,
Pius succeeded him in the government of the Church of Rome.
In Alexandria, Marcus was appointed pastor, after Eumenes had filled the
office thirteen years in all.
And Marcus, having died and holding office ten years, was succeeded by Saladion in
the government of the Church of Alexandria.
And in Rome, Pius died in the fifteenth year of his episcopate, and Anicetus
assumed the leadership of the Christians there.
Hegesippus records that he himself was in Rome at this time, and that he remained
there until the episcopate of Eleutherus.
But Justin was especially prominent in those days.
In the guise of a philosopher, he preached the divine word, and contended
for the faith in his writings.
He wrote also a work against Marcion, in which he states that the latter was
alive at the time he wrote.
He speaks as follows.
And there is a certain Marcion of Pontus, who is even now still teaching his
followers to think that there is some other god greater than the Creator.
And by the aid of the demons, he has persuaded many of every race of men to
utter blasphemy, and to deny that the maker of this universe is the Father of
Christ, and to confess that some other greater than he was the Creator.
And all who followed them are, as we have said, called Christians,
just as the name of philosophy is given to philosophers, although they may have no
doctrines in common.
To this he adds, and we have also written a work against all the heresies that have
existed, which we will give you if you wish to read it.
But this same Justin contended most successfully against the Greeks,
and addressed discourses containing an apology for our faith to the Emperor
Antoninus, called Pius, and to the Roman Senate, for he lived at Rome.
But who and whence he was he shows in his apology in the following words.
Chapter 12.
The Apology of Justin Addressed to Antoninus.
To the Emperor Titus Aelius Adrian Antoninus Pius Caesar Augustus,
and to Verisimus, his son, the philosopher, and to Lucius, the
philosopher, own son of Caesar and adopted son of Pius, a lover of learning,
and to the Sacred Senate and to the whole Roman people, I, Justin, son of Priscus
and grandson of Bacchus, of Flavia Neapolis in Palestine, Syria, present this
address and petition in behalf of those men of every nation who are unjustly hated
and persecuted, I myself being one of them.
And the same Emperor, having learned also from other brethren in Asia of the
injuries of all kinds which they were suffering from the inhabitants of the
province, thought it proper to address the following ordinance to the Common Assembly
of Asia.
Chapter 13.
The Epistle of Antoninus to the Common Assembly of Asia in regard to our
doctrine.
The Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Arminicus Pontifex
Maximus for the Fifteenth Time Tribune for the Third Time Consul, to the Common
Assembly of Asia, greeting.
I know that the gods also take care that such persons do not escape detection,
for they would much rather punish those who will not worship them than you would.
But you throw them into confusion, and while you accuse them of atheism,
you only confirm them in the opinion which they hold.
It would indeed be more desirable for them, when accused, to appear to die for
their god than to live.
Wherefore also they come off victorious when they give up their lives rather than
yield obedience to your commands.
And in regard to the earthquakes which have been and are still taking place,
it is not improper to admonish you who lose heart whenever they occur,
and nevertheless are accustomed to compare your conduct with theirs.
They indeed become the more confident in God, while you, during the whole time,
neglect in apparent ignorance the other gods and the worship of the immortal,
and oppress and persecute even unto death the Christians who worship him.
But in regard to these persons, many of the governors of the provinces
wrote also to our most divine father, to whom he wrote in reply that they should
not trouble these people unless it should appear that they were attempting something
affecting the Roman government.
And to me, also, many have sent communications concerning these men,
but I have replied to them in the same way that my father did.
But if anyone still persists in bringing accusations against any of these people as
such, the person who is accused shall be acquitted of the charge, even if it appear
that he is one of them, but the accuser shall be punished.
Published in Ephesus, in the Common Assembly of Asia.
To these things Melito, bishop of the church of Sardis, and a man well known at
that time, is a witness, as is clear from his words in the apology which he
addressed to the emperor Verus in behalf of our doctrine.