Page:Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (1911).djvu/354

 intruders, Euphronius, with whom Eusebius lived on terms of intimacy. Eusebius's high personal character and reputation for learning marked him out for the episcopate, and to avoid the office he repaired to Alexandria, where he devoted himself to philosophy. Returning to Antioch, Flaccillus (otherwise Placillus), the Arian bishop, received him into his episcopal residence and admitted him to his confidence. The Arian synod which met at Antioch 340, under the predominant influence of Eusebius of Nicomedia, to nominate a successor to the newly deposed Athanasius, offered the vacant throne to Eusebius, who, well knowing how Athanasius was beloved by the Alexandrians, resolutely declined, and Gregory was chosen in his stead. Eusebius, however, allowed himself to be created bp. of Emesa. This city, on the Orontes to the N.E. of the Libanus range, some distance N. of Laodicea, was famous for its magnificent temple of Elagabalus, the Syrophoenician sun-god. A report, based on Eusebius's astronomical studies, had reached the excitable inhabitants that their new bishop was a sorcerer, addicted to judicial astrology. His approach aroused a violent popular commotion, before which he fled to his friend and future panegyrist, George, bp. of Laodicea. By George's exertions, and the influence of Flaccillus of Antioch and Narcissus of Neronias, the Emesenes were convinced of the groundlessness of their suspicions, and Eusebius obtained quiet possession. He was a great favourite with Constantius, who took him on several expeditions, especially those against Sapor II., king of Persia. It is singular that the charge, which Sozomen attributes to mere malevolence, of Sabellianism was brought against one whose Arian leanings were so pronounced. Eusebius died before the end of 359. He was buried at Antioch (Hieron. de Vir. Ill. 101), and his funeral oration by George of Laodicea ascribed to him miraculous powers.

He was a very copious writer. Jerome, who speaks somewhat contemptuously of his productions, particularizes treatises against the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Novatianists, an exposition of Galatians in ten books, and a large number of very brief homilies on the Gospels. The greater part of his works is lost. Theodoret quotes with high commendation in his Eranistes (Dial. iii. p. 258, ed. Schulze) two passages on the impassibility of the Son of God, a truth for which he says Eusebius endured many and severe struggles. Theodoret also speaks of works of his against Apelles (Haer. Fab. i. 25) and Manes (ib. 26). All the extant remains of Eusebius are printed by Migne, Patr. t. lxxxvi. i. pp. 461 ff. Socr. H. E. ii. 9; Soz. H. E. iii. 6; Niceph.H. E. ix. 5; Tillem. ''Mém. Eccl.'' t. vi. p. 313; Cave, ''Hist. Lit.'' vol. i. p. 207; Oudin, t. i. p. 389.)

[E.V.]

Eusebius (48), bp. of Laodicea, in Syria Prima; a native and deacon of Alexandria. In the persecution under Valerian, 257, when the venerable bp. Dionysius had been banished from Alexandria, Eusebius remained, ministering to those in prison and burying the martyrs, a faithful service gratefully commemorated in a letter of Dionysius (apud Eus: H. E. vii. 11). During the civil strife at the death of Valerian, when Alexandria was in revolt, 262, Aemilianus, who had assumed the purple, was driven into the strong quarter of the city called Bruchium, and besieged. Eusebius without, and his friend Anatolius within, the besieged quarter secured escape for all useless hands, including a large number of Christians, whom Eusebius received kindly, supplying them with food and medicine, and carefully tending the sick. To the synod of Antioch, 264, summoned to deal with Paul of Samosata, Dionysius bp. of Alexandria, being unable to be present through age, sent Eusebius as his representative. The see of Laodicea was then vacant, and the Laodiceans demanded Eusebius for their bishop, taking no refusal. As bp. of Laodicea he sat at the synod when Paul of Samosata was deposed, 270. He was succeeded by his old friend Anatolius. Eus. H. E. vii. 11, 32; Tillem. ''Mém. Eccl.'' iv. 304; Le Quien, ''Or. Christ.'' ii. 792; Neale, Patriarchate of Alex. i.77.

[E.V.]

Eusebius (60), bp. of Nicomedia. Our knowledge of his character is derived almost exclusively from the bitter language of his theological antagonists. He wielded an extraordinary influence over the fortunes of some of the great party leaders of the 4th cent. The fascination he exercised over the minds of Constantine and Constantius, his dexterity in utilizing both secular and ecclesiastical law to punish his theological enemies, his ingenuity in blinding the judgment of those not alive to the magnitude of the problem, and in persuading the unwary of the practical identity of his own views with those of the Catholic church, together with the political and personal ascendancy he achieved, reveal mental capacity and diplomatic skill worthy of a better cause. During 20 years his shadow haunts the pages of the ecclesiastical historians, though they seldom bring us face to face with the man or preserve his words. Even the chronology of his life is singularly uncertain.

It is difficult to understand the pertinacity and even ferocity with which Eusebius and his party pursued the Homoousian leaders, and to reconcile this with their well-accredited compromises, shiftings of front, and theological evasions. Dr. Newman (Arians of Fourth Cent. p. 272) admits their consistency in one thing, "their hatred of the sacred mystery." He thinks that this mystery, "like a spectre, was haunting the field and disturbing the complacency of their intellectual investigations." Their consciences did not scruple to "find evasions of a test." They undoubtedly compromised themselves by signature; yet they did not treat as unimportant that which they were wont to declare such but set all the machinery of church and empire in motion to enforce their latitudinarian view on the conscience of the church.

The Arian and the orthodox agreed as to the unique and exalted dignity of the Son of God; both alike described the relation between the first and second hypostasis in the Godhead as that which is imaged to us in the paternal and filial relation. They even agreed that the Son was "begotten of His Father before all worlds"—before the commencement of time, in an ineffable manner—that the Son was the originator of the categories of time and place, that "by His own will and counsel He has