Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/701

 EUSEBIUS

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EUSEBIUS

Eusebius of Laodicea, an Alexandrian deacon who had some fame as a confessor and became Bishop of Laodicea in SjTia, date of birth imcertain; d. about 26S. His story is told by Eusebius of C^sarea (Hist. Eccl., VII, xi and xxxii). As deacon at Alexandria he had accompanied his bishop, Dionysius (with a priest, two other deacons, and two Romans who were then in Egj-pt) before the tribunal of .'Emilian, Prefect of Egj-pt, at the time of the Emperor Valerianus (253- 260). Dionysius tells the story of their trial in a letter to a certain Bishop Germanus (Eus., Hist. Eccl., VII, xi). They were all sentenced to banishment, but Euse- bius managed to remain in the city in hiding, "zeal- ously ser\-ed the confessors in prison and buried the bodies of the dead and of the blessed martjTs, not without danger to his own life" (ibid.). In 2(30 there broke out a rebellion at Alexandria and at the same time a plague ravaged the citj'. Eusebius again risked his life continually by nursing the sick and the woimded (ibid.. VII, xxxii). The Romans besieged a part of the town (Bruchium, UvpovxeTov, U.poix""'). Ana- tolius, Eusebius' friend, was among the besieged, Euse- bius himself outside. Eusebius went to the Roman general and asked him to allow any who would to leave Bruchium. His petition was granted and Ana- tolius, with whom he managed to commimicate, ex- plained the matter to the leaders of the rebellion and implored them to capitulate. They refused, but even- tually allowed the women, children, and old men to profit by the Romans' mercy. A great crowd then came to surrender at the Roman camp. "Eusebius there nursed all who were exhausted by the long siege with everj' care and attention as a father and a physi- cian" (ibid., xxxii). In 264 Dionysius (who seems to have come back from banishment) sent Eusebius as his legate to .SjTia to represent him at the discussions that were taking place concerning the aff;>ir of Paul of .Sam- osata. Anatolius accompanied his friend. The SjTians were so impressed by these two Egj'ptians that they kept them both and made Eusebius Bishop of Lao- dicea as successor to Socrates. Not long afterwards he died and was succeeded by .Anatolius. The date of his death is uncertain. Hamack thinks it was before the great SjTiod of Antioch in 268 (Chron. der altchrist. Litt., I, 34). Another theor>' is that the siege at .\_lex- andria was in 209, that the friends went to Syria at the end of that year, and that EtLsebius's death was not till 279 (so W. Reading in the Variorum notes to his edi- tion of Eusebius Pamph., Cambridge, 1720, I, 367). Gams puts his death in 270 (Kirchenlexikon, s. v. Eusebius von Laodicea). Eusebius's name does not occur in the acts of the Sjmod of 268.

Eusebius, Hist. Eccl.. VII," xi and xxxii; BARONirs. Annales eccl.. ad an. 263, S-U; Harnack, Chron. der allchrisll. Lilt., I, 34. 37, 41. etc.; Dlchesxe, Hist, ancienne de V EglUe (Paris, 1906). I, 4S8-4S9.

Adrian Fortescue.

Eusebius of Nicomedia, Bishop, place and date of birth unknown; d. 341. He was a pupil, at -Vntioch, of Lucian the Martyr, in whose famous school he learned his .\rian doctrines. He became Bishop of Berj-tus; but from ambitious motives he managed to get transferred, contrary to the canons of the early Church, to the see of Nicomedia, the residence of the Eastern Emperor Licinius, with whose wife Constan- tia, sister of Constantine, he was in high favour.

.\rius, when he was condemned at .\lexandria, by Alexander, bishop of that see, took refuge at Ca^sarea, where he was well received by the famous apologist and historian Eusebius, and -nTote to Eusebius of Nicomedia for support. The letter is preserved. In it the heretic explams his views clearly enough, and ap- peals to his correspondent as to a " fellow Lucianist ". Eusebius put himself at the head of the party, and wrote many letters in support of .\rius. One is pre- served, addressed to Pauhnus, Bishop of TjTe. We Jearn from it what Eusebius's doctrme was at this

time: the Son, he says, is "not generated from the substance of the Father", but He is " other in nature and power"; He was created, and this is not incon- sistent with His Sonship, for the wicked are called sons of God (Is., i, 2; Deut., xxxii, IS) and so are even the drops of dew (Job, xxxviii, 28); He was begotten by God's free will. This is pure Arianism, borrowed from the letters of .Arius himself, and possibly more definite than the doctrine of St. Lucian.

-Alexander of .Alexandria was obliged to address a circular to all bishops. He had hoped, he says, to cover the matter in silence, " but Eusebius, who is now at Nicomedia, considering the Church's affairs to be in his hands, because he has not been condemned for having left Berj-tus and for having coveted the Church of Nicomedia, is the leader of these apostates, and has sent round a document in their support, in order that he may seduce some of the ignorant into this disgraceful heresy. ... If Eusebius should vrritQ to you, pay no attention ". Eusebius replied by as- sembling a council in his own province, which begged all the Eastern bishops to communicate with .Ajius, and to use their influence with .\lexander in his favour. A.t the request of .Axius, Eusebius of Caesarea and others met together in Palestine, and authorized him to return to the Church which he had governed in .Alexandria.

The situation changed when Constantine had con- quered Licinius in 323. The Christian emperor Degan by comprising .Arius and .Alexander in a common dis- approval. Why could not they agree to differ about subtleties of this kind, as the philosophers did? A letter in this sense to the patriarch was ineffectual; so Constantine preferred the side of authority, and wrote an angry rebuke to .Arius. In the case of the Dona- tists, he had obtained a decision from a "general" council, at .Aries, of all the bishops of his then do- minions. He now summoned a larger council, from the world of which his victorious arms had made him master. It met at Nica;a in 325. The bishops were nearly all Easterns; but a Western bishop, Hosius of Cordova, who was in the emperor's confidence, took a leading part, and the pope was represented. Constan- tine ostentatiously declared that his duty at the coun- cil went no further than the guardianship of the bishops, but Eusebius of Ca;sarea makes it clear that he spoke on the theological question. The Bishop of Nicomedia and his friends put forward an .Arian con- fession of faith, but it had only about seventeen sup- porters from among some three hundred members of the council, and it was hooted by the majority. The formula which was eventually adopted was resisted for some time by the .Arian contingent, but eventually all the bishops signed, with the exception of the two Egyptians who had been before excommunicated by Alexander.

Eusebius of Nicomedia had bad luck. Though he had signed the creed, he had not agreed to the con- demnation of .Arius, who had been, so he said, mis- represented; and after the council he encouraged in their heresy some .Arians whom Constantine had in- vited to Constantinople with a view to their conver- sion. Three months after the councU, the Emperor sent him like .Arius into exile, together with Theognis, Bishop of Nica;a, accusing him of having been a sup- porter of Licinius, and of having even approved of hia persecutions, as well as of having sent spies to watch himself. But the banishment of the intriguer lasted only two years. It is said that it was Constantia, the widow of Licinius, who induced Constantine to recall .Arius, and it is probable that she was also the cause of the return of her old friend Eusebius. By 329 he was in high favour with the emperor, with whom he may have had some kind of relationship, since .Ammianus Marcellinus makes him a relative of Julian.

From this time onwards we find Eusebius of Nico- media at the head of a small and compact party called,