The Churches Rebuilt

All people, then, were now free from the oppression of the tyrants, and, released from their former evils, each in his own way confessed the champion of the godly to be the only true God. But above all we who had hung our hopes on the Christ of God had gladness beyond words, and a divine joy blossomed in all of us as we saw every place that a little before had been laid in ruins by the tyrants’ impieties coming back to life, as if from a long and deadly disease, and temples rising again from their foundations to an immense height and receiving a splendor far greater than that of the old ones that had long ago been besieged. [a] The supreme emperors too, by repeated laws on behalf of the Christians, confirmed to us still further and more widely the great gifts of God. Letters from the emperor came to the bishops personally, with honors and gifts of money. It will not be out of place, at the fitting point in our account, to engrave their words, translated from Latin into Greek, in this book as on a sacred monument, so that they may be remembered by all who come after us. [b]