Constantine’s Letter Praising Eusebius for Refusing Antioch

“Victor Constantine, Greatest Augustus, to Eusebius. “I have read your letter with the greatest care, and I see that you have kept strictly to the rule laid down by the discipline of the church. To hold to what is at once pleasing to God and in keeping with apostolic tradition is a proof of true piety. You have reason to count yourself happy in this respect, that you are judged worthy, in the opinion, I may say, of the whole world, to have the oversight of any church. For the desire all feel to claim you for their own surely adds to your enviable fortune in this. Nevertheless, your Prudence, whose resolve it is to keep the ordinances of God and the apostolic canon of the church, has done excellently in declining the bishopric of the church at Antioch, and in wishing to remain in the church of which you first received the oversight by the will of God. I have written on this subject to the people of Antioch, and also to your colleagues in the ministry, who had themselves consulted me on this question. When you read those letters, Your Holiness will easily see that, since justice itself opposed their claims, I have written to them under divine direction. Your Prudence will need to be present at their conference, so that this decision may be confirmed in the church at Antioch. God preserve you, beloved brother!” [a]