Churchmen of Our Own Day

In their time Felix, after leading the church of the Romans for five years, was succeeded by Eutychian. He did not last a full ten months, and left the office to Gaius, a man of our own day. Gaius led the church for about fifteen years, and Marcellinus was appointed his successor; the persecution overtook him too. [a] In the same period Timaeus led the church of Antioch as bishop after Domnus, and Cyril, of our own day, succeeded him. In Cyril’s time we came to know Dorotheus, a learned man who had been honored with the rank of presbyter at Antioch. He loved what is beautiful in divine things, and he worked hard at the Hebrew language, so that he could read the Hebrew Scriptures themselves with skill. [b] He was a man of the most liberal education, and not without a share in the Greeks’ preparatory studies. In his nature, moreover, he was a eunuch, having been so from his very birth, so that the emperor, regarding this as something extraordinary, took him into his household and honored him with charge of the purple dye works at Tyre. We have heard him expound the Scriptures in the church in a measured way. [c] After Cyril, Tyrannus succeeded to the office of bishop of the church community of Antioch. In his time the siege of the churches was at its height. [e]

The church community at Laodicea was led after Socrates by Eusebius, who came from the city of Alexandria. The reason for his move was the affair of Paul. He went to Syria on that account, and was kept from going home by those there who were zealous for divine things. Among the people of our day he was a lovely example of godliness, as can easily be seen from the words of Dionysius quoted earlier. [f] Anatolius was appointed his successor, a good man after a good one, as they say. He too was an Alexandrian by birth. For learning, Greek education and philosophy he carried off first place among the most highly esteemed men of our time, having gone to the very top in arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, in the other branches of theory, whether logic or natural philosophy, and in the studies of rhetoric as well. It is said that for this reason he was asked by the citizens of Alexandria to found the school of the Aristotelian succession there. They tell of countless other outstanding deeds of his during the siege of the Bruchium at Alexandria, since all who were in office singled him out for special honor. But I will mention only the following, as an example. [g] Wheat, they say, had run out among the besieged, so that the hunger had already become harder to bear for them than the enemy outside. Anatolius, who was there, managed things in this way. The other part of the city was fighting on the side of the Roman army, and so was not under siege. Eusebius was among those who were not besieged, for he was still there at that time, before his move to Syria, and had a great reputation and a famous name that reached even the Roman general. Anatolius sent word to him and told him of those who were dying of hunger in the siege. When Eusebius learned this, he asked the Roman commander, as the greatest favor he could grant, to give safety to deserters from the enemy. When his request was granted, he let Anatolius know. Anatolius received the promise and at once called together the council of the Alexandrians. First he urged them all to give the Romans the right hand of friendship. But when he saw that they were enraged at this proposal, he said: “But I do not think you will ever argue against this, if I advise that those who are superfluous and of no use to us at all, the old women, the little children and the old men, be let out of the gates to go wherever they like. For why should we keep these people with us to no purpose, when they are about to die anyway? Why should we wear down with hunger the crippled and maimed in body, when we ought to feed only the men and the young men, and keep the wheat we need for those who are fit to guard the city?” With some such arguments he won over the assembly. Rising first, he moved that every person, whether man or woman, who was not fit for military service should be released from the city, since if they stayed and lingered uselessly in the city there would be no hope of survival for them; they would be destroyed by the hunger. All the rest of the council agreed to this, and so he saved very nearly all the besieged. He saw to it that first those belonging to the church, and then the others in the city, of every age, should slip out: not only those covered by the vote, but under cover of them countless others too, secretly dressed in women’s clothing. By his planning they went out of the gates by night and made for the Roman army. There Eusebius received them all, worn out by the long siege, and like a father and a doctor nursed them back to health with every kind of care and treatment. Such were the two shepherds with which the church at Laodicea was honored, one after the other in succession. By God’s providence they had moved there from the city of Alexandria after the war we have described.

Anatolius did not compose very many writings, but enough have come down to us to show his eloquence and his wide learning together. In them he sets out especially his views on the Passover, and it seems necessary to quote from them here.

“In the first year, then, there is the new moon of the first month, which is the beginning of every nineteen-year cycle, on the twenty-sixth day of the Egyptian month Phamenoth; by the months of the Macedonians, the twenty-second of Dystrus; or, as the Romans would say, the eleventh day before the Kalends of April. [h] On the said twenty-sixth of Phamenoth the sun is found not only to have entered the first segment of its circuit, but to be already passing through its fourth day in it. This segment they usually call the first twelfth-part, the equinox, the beginning of the months, the head of the cycle, and the starting post of the planets’ course. The one before it they call the last of the months, the twelfth segment, the final twelfth-part, and the end of the planets’ circuit. That is why we say that those who place the first month in that segment, and fix the fourteenth day of the Passover by it, are making no small or ordinary mistake. [j] And this is not our own idea. It was known to the Jews of old, even before Christ, and was carefully observed by them. One can learn it from what Philo, Josephus and Musaeus say, and not only from them but from writers still older, the two Agathobuli, known as the teachers of the great Aristobulus. Aristobulus was counted among the seventy who translated the holy and divine Scriptures of the Hebrews for Ptolemy Philadelphus and his father, and he also dedicated books of commentary on the law of Moses to the same kings. [k] In answering the questions raised about Exodus, these writers say that everyone alike must sacrifice the Passover offerings after the spring equinox, in the middle of the first month; and that this falls while the sun is passing through the first segment of the solar circle, or, as some of them have named it, the zodiac. Aristobulus adds that for the feast of the Passover it is necessary that not only the sun but the moon also should be passing through an equinoctial segment. For there are two equinoctial segments, the spring one and the autumn one, directly opposite each other. Since the day of the Passover was fixed on the fourteenth of the month, after evening, the moon will stand in the position opposite the sun, diametrically across from it, as one can see at the full moon. The sun will be in the segment of the spring equinox, and the moon, of necessity, in that of the autumn equinox. I know that many other things are said by them, some merely probable and some advancing by strict proof, by which they try to show that the feast of the Passover and of Unleavened Bread must in all cases be kept after the equinox. But I pass over demanding such materials of proof for matters from which the veil over the law of Moses has been taken away, so that now at last, with unveiled face, we may always behold as in a mirror Christ and the things of Christ, both his teachings and his sufferings. That among the Hebrews the first month fell around the equinox is shown also by what is taught in the book of Enoch.” [m]

The same writer also left Introductions to Arithmetic in ten complete books, and other proofs of his study of divine things and of his wide experience. Theotecnus, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, was the first to lay hands on him for the office of bishop, intending to secure him as his own successor in his church community after his death, and for a short time both of them led the same church. But when the synod about Paul called him to Antioch, he passed through the city of Laodicea, and Eusebius having fallen asleep, he was kept there by the brothers. [n] When Anatolius in turn departed this life, the last bishop of that church community before the persecution was Stephen. Many admired him for his philosophical learning and the rest of the Greeks’ education, but he was not equally disposed toward the divine faith, as the time of persecution proved as it went on, showing him to be a dissembler, a coward and unmanly rather than a true philosopher. Yet the church’s affairs were not to be ruined by him. They were set right by God himself, the Savior of all, when Theodotus was at once made bishop of the church community there, a man who proved true by his very deeds both his own name and his title of bishop. In medicine for bodies he carried off first place in the science, and in caring for souls no other man was like him, for kindness, sincerity, sympathy, and zeal to help those who needed him. He had also trained himself thoroughly in the study of divine things. That was the kind of man he was. [o]

At Caesarea in Palestine, Theotecnus, who had carried out his office of bishop with the greatest zeal, was succeeded by Agapius. We know that he too labored much and showed most genuine care in leading the people, and that he looked after all the poor in particular with a generous hand. In his time we came to know Pamphilus, a most eloquent man, a true philosopher in his very life, who had been honored with the rank of presbyter in the church community there. To show what kind of man he was, and where he came from, would be no small task. But we have set out in a separate work about him every detail of his life, of the school he founded, of his struggles in various confessions during the persecution, and of the crown of martyrdom with which he was finally crowned. Of all those there, he was certainly the most admirable. [p] Among the rarest men nearest our own time we know Pierius, of the presbyters at Alexandria, and Meletius, bishop of the churches in Pontus. Pierius was highly esteemed for his life of utter poverty and his philosophical learning, and was extraordinarily practiced in the study and interpretation of divine things and in public addresses in the church. Meletius, whom the educated called “the honey of Attica,” was such a man as one would describe as the most accomplished in every kind of learning. It is impossible to admire his skill in rhetoric as it deserves, though one might say he had it by nature. But who could surpass his excellence in his wide experience and learning in other things? [q] In all the sciences of reasoning you would have called him the most skilled and learned, had you tested him only once. And the virtues of his life matched his learning. We observed him during the time of the persecution, when for seven full years he was taking refuge in the regions of Palestine.

In the church at Jerusalem, after the bishop Hymenaeus whom we mentioned a little before, Zabdas took up the ministry. He fell asleep not long after, and Hermon, the last before the persecution of our day, succeeded to the apostolic chair that has been kept there down to the present. [r] At Alexandria, Maximus, who had been bishop for eighteen years after the death of Dionysius, was succeeded by Theonas. In his time Achillas, who had been honored with the rank of presbyter at Alexandria together with Pierius, became well known. He was entrusted with the school of the sacred faith, and showed a work of philosophy as rare as any, and a genuine way of life according to the gospel. [s] After Theonas had served for nineteen years, Peter succeeded to the office of bishop at Alexandria. He too was most distinguished, for twelve full years, of which he led the church for not quite three years before the persecution. For the rest of his life he held himself to a stricter discipline, and cared openly for the common good of the churches. For this reason, in the ninth year of the persecution, he was beheaded and adorned with the crown of martyrdom. [t]

In these books we have written out our account of the successions, from the birth of our Savior to the pulling down of the houses of prayer, a span of three hundred and five years. Come, then, let us next leave in writing for those after us to know the struggles of those who in our own day have fought bravely for godliness, how many and how great they were. [u]