Church History 1

Each man used to present himself at court, pursuing whatever happened to be pleasing to the sovereign: one offering a rare and hard-to-obtain gem, another proposing a more brilliant dye for the purple robe, another dedicating a poem or a treatise, another introducing some nimble and novel style of weaponry.

It was thought a very great and kingly thing for the ruler of all to possess even one such portion of this popular excellence, yet of piety — the true adornment of sovereignty — no one took so much account.

But you, most excellent Emperor Theodosius, have, in a word, practiced every virtue through God; and though you wear the purple and the crown as an outward symbol of your rank for those who behold you, within you have always clothed yourself with the true adornment of sovereignty — piety and love of mankind.

Wherefore poets and writers constantly labor concerning you and your deeds — most of your own officials, and of the rest of your subjects as well.

Presiding as umpire and judge of these works, you do not let precision be stolen away by any elegant phrase or figure, but you award the prize with sincerity, examining the fitness of diction to the purpose of the subject, and the form of the discourse, its parts, order, harmony, phrasing, composition, arguments, sense, and narrative.

And you reward those who speak with your own judgment, with applause, with golden images, with the dedication of statues, with gifts, and with honors of every kind.

For the Cretans, having rewarded Homer with a thousand gold coins for his eloquence, and boasting of it as an unsurpassable act of generosity, inscribed the gift on a public monument.

And Severus, having given Oppian a gold piece for each verse of his modest poetry, so astonished men with his generosity that Oppian's verses are still called "golden verses" by many to this day.

Such were the gifts of the learning-loving and literature-loving men of old.

But you, O Emperor, have left no one whatsoever the possibility of surpassing you in generosity toward literature.

And it seems to me that you do this not without good reason.

For, striving to surpass all men in virtue, you advance your own achievements in proportion as you have made a careful study of the history of the successes of the Greeks and Romans of old.

By day you exercise yourself in arms and in bodily discipline, and order the affairs of your subjects, sitting in judgment and drafting what must be written, considering what needs to be done both in private and in public matters;

and by night you attend diligently to your books.

It is said that, to assist you in this pursuit of knowledge, a lamp devised by some mechanism automatically pours oil upon the wick, so that not a single person about the palace should be compelled to toil painfully at your labors and do

violence to nature by struggling against sleep.

Such a benevolent and gentle person are you, toward those near you and toward all alike, imitating the heavenly King, your protector, who is pleased to send rain upon the just and the unjust, and to make his sun rise, and to bestow all other things ungrudgingly.

Indeed, you even surpass that man in virtues.

For he, having become a slave to pleasures, did not preserve to the end that piety which had been the cause of blessings and of wisdom for him.

But you, most excellent one, having set self-controlled reason against indolence, are rightly considered to be sovereign not only over men, but also over the passions of soul and body.

And if I must speak of these things too, I am informed that you overcome the desire for every delicacy and drink, and that you cannot bring yourself to take, to speak poetically, "sweet figs" or any other seasonal fruit, except only to touch and merely taste it, after first blessing the Creator of all things.

And having accustomed yourself, through your daily exercises, to master thirst and heat and cold, you are thought to have self-control as a second nature.

Indeed, recently, when you were eager to see the city in Pontus named after Heracles, and to restore it, worn down by time, you traveled the road through Bithynia in the summer season.

As the sun blazed fiercely about midday, one of your bodyguards, seeing you drenched with much sweat and covered with dust, hastened to bring you, as if to please you, a bowl gleaming brightly in the sun's rays, into which he had poured some pleasant drink and cold water.

But you, most excellent one, having received it, praised the man for his eagerness, and it was clear that you would soon reward him well with royal generosity; yet, as all the soldiers gazed longingly at the bowl and pronounced blessed whoever should drink from it, you, O noble one, gave the drink back to him again and bade him use it however he pleased.

So that it seems to me that even Alexander, son of Philip, has rightly been surpassed by your virtues.

Of whom it is told, by those who admire his exploits, that as he marched with the Macedonians through a waterless region, a diligent soldier, having found water, drew some and brought it to him.

But he did not drink it, but poured out the drink.

In sum, then, one may properly, in Homer's phrase, call you "more kingly" than the kings before you.

For we have received an account of some who possessed nothing worthy of admiration, and of others who dignified their reign scarcely with one or two virtues.

But you, most excellent one, having gathered together all the virtues at once, have surpassed everyone in piety, benevolence, courage, temperance, justice, generosity, and magnanimity befitting royal dignity.

And every age boasts that your reign alone, of all that have ever existed, has been bloodless and free of murder.

You bid your subjects to be trained in serious matters through pleasure, and to display their zeal for you and for the common good through goodwill and reverence.

Wherefore, for all these reasons, it appears necessary to me, in composing an ecclesiastical history, to address it to you.

For to whom could I more fittingly do this, since I am about to narrate the virtue of many divinely inspired men, and the events concerning the universal Church — how many enemies it encountered before it came to anchor in the harbors of you and your forefathers?

Receive, then, this writing from me, and examine it; and by applying the additions and deletions of your own exactness, purify it through your labors.

For certainly, in whatever way seems good to you, in that way it will appear useful and splendid also to its readers, nor will anyone lay a finger of criticism upon your judgment.

My narrative proceeds from the third consulship of the Caesars Crispus and Constantine down to your seventeenth.

And it seemed good to me to divide the whole work into nine parts.

The first and second volumes will contain the events that befell the churches under Constantine.

The third and fourth, the events under his sons.

The fifth and sixth, the events under Julian, the nephew of the sons of Constantine the Great, and

under Jovian, and further, under Valentinian and Valens.

The seventh and eighth volumes will set forth for us the events under the brothers Gratian and Valentinian, down to the proclamation of Theodosius, your divinely inspired grandfather, up to the point when your own celebrated father Arcadius, having succeeded to his father's rule, together with your most pious uncle Honorius, received by lot the guidance of the Roman world.

And the ninth book I have dedicated to your Christ-loving and most holy majesty, whom may God ever preserve in unshaken good cheer, prevailing greatly over your enemies, holding all beneath your feet, and, with Christ's favor, transmitting the pious realm to your children's children.

Through whom and with whom, to God the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, forever and ever, Amen.

Of Salamanes Hermeias Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History, Book One. A thought once occurred to me, as to why it was that faith in the Word concerning God came more readily to other men, but was met with disbelief among the Hebrews, even though they had received from the beginning the tradition of venerating divine things, and had learned beforehand through the prophets how the coming of Christ would come to pass, before it happened.

For Abraham, who became the founder of their race and of circumcision, was deemed worthy to be an eyewitness and host of the Son of God.

And Isaac, his son, was honored by prefiguring the sacrifice upon the Cross, being brought bound to the altar by his father, on the very spot, as those who study the sacred scriptures with precision say, where the Passion of Christ also came to pass.

And Jacob foretold the expectation of the nations that now rests upon him, and the time at which he would come, saying: "when the rulers of the Hebrews from the tribe of Judah, the patriarch, shall fail."

By this he indicated the rule of Herod, who, being an Idumean by descent on his father's side and an Arab on his mother's, was entrusted with the nation of the Jews by the Roman Senate and Augustus Caesar.

And of the other prophets, some proclaimed beforehand the birth of Christ and that ineffable conception, and the mother who remained a virgin after childbirth, and his lineage and homeland; others foretold his divine and marvelous deeds; and others still foreshadowed his Passion, his resurrection from the dead, his ascension into heaven, and the event connected with each of these.

But if anyone is ignorant of these things, it is not difficult for him to learn them by consulting the sacred scriptures.

And Josephus too, the son of Matthias, the priest, a man of the highest reputation both among the Jews and also among the Romans, would be a credible witness to the truth concerning Christ.

For he hesitates to call him a mere man, as the doer of marvelous works and teacher of true doctrines, but openly names him Christ.

Nor is he ignorant that he was condemned to the cross, and appeared alive again on the third day, and that countless other marvels concerning him had been foretold beforehand by the divine prophets.

and that the tribe named after him has not died out.

And it seems to me that, in recording these things, he all but cries aloud, in accordance with his deeds, that Christ is God.

Yet, astounded by the marvel of the matter, he passed over it, so to speak, in a middle course, casting no censure upon those who believed in him, but rather even assenting to it.

As I pondered these things, it appeared to me a natural cause for wonder that the Hebrews did not take the lead and convert to Christianity before all other men.

For even if the Sibyl and certain oracles foretold in advance what was to come to pass concerning Christ, it is surely not on that account fair to charge all the Greeks with disbelief.

For only a few — those who were reputed to excel in learning — knew such prophecies, which were, for the most part, couched in verse and expressed in language too dignified for common people.

It was, then, as it seems to me, an act of providence from above, in order to secure agreement concerning things to come, to sound forth the future not only through its own prophets, but also, in part, through foreign ones — just as a composer, for the sake of an unusual melody, might run his plectrum over the extra strings, or add other strings to those already present.

As to how the Hebrews, although they possessed more numerous and clearer prophecies concerning the coming of Christ, came to lag behind the Greeks with regard to

faith in him — it suffices to have said so much.

Nor, indeed, would it seem so unreasonable that the Church made its greatest progress through the other nations — first, because God is wont to favor unexpected turns of events in matters that are divine and of the greatest importance;

and next, one may find that this religion was not administered by ordinary virtues on the part of those who presided over it from the beginning.

For even though they did not possess a tongue sharpened for eloquence or beauty of diction, nor did they persuade those they encountered by words or by geometric demonstrations, their undertaking was not on that account carried out any the worse;

but rather, by stripping themselves of their possessions and neglecting their own kin, being impaled and enduring many harsh tortures as though in bodies not their own, and being led astray neither by the flatteries of the city populace and rulers nor terrified by their threats, they made it plain to all that they were undergoing this contest for the sake of the greatest prizes.

So that there was no need even of persuasive words, since the facts themselves, without a struggle, compelled people in households and cities to believe what they had not heard before.

So great and marvelous a divine change having come upon the inhabited world that even the former religion and the ancestral laws have been neglected, it would surely be a shameful thing that the boar of Calydon and the bull of Marathon and other such things that occurred or were fabled in various regions or cities should be deemed worthy of so much attention that many of the most esteemed writers among the Greeks toiled over them, being well endowed by nature for writing, while I myself should not do violence to my own nature and compose an ecclesiastical history.

For I am persuaded that, since the subject was not devised by men, it is no difficult thing for God to bring me forward, unexpectedly, as its historian.

At first, then, I set out to compose this work from the very beginning.

But considering that others also had attempted this task down to their own times — Clement and Hegesippus, most learned men who followed the succession of the apostles, and Africanus the historian, and Eusebius surnamed Pamphilus, a man most learned in the divine Scriptures and in the poets and writers of the Greeks — I recalled that, as for all that came down to us concerning what befell the churches from the ascension of Christ into heaven until the deposition of Licinius, I had already treated it in summary form in two books; and now, God willing, I shall attempt to relate the events that followed.

I shall record the events at which I myself was present, and those which I have heard from those who knew or witnessed them, belonging to our own generation and to the one before us.

...are preserved in the palaces and in the churches, while others circulate scattered about among men of letters.

Though I often considered including the actual texts of these documents in my writing, I judged it better, on account of the bulk of the work, to report briefly the sense contained in them, except in cases where we shall find some matter of dispute, concerning which the opinion of the many differs;

for in such cases, if I can obtain any document, I shall cite it as proof of the truth.

But so that no one, being ignorant of the facts, may condemn this work as false, should he perhaps come upon contradictory documents, it must be understood that, on the pretext of Arius's doctrines and those that arose afterward, the rulers of the churches, being at variance with one another, each wrote to those who shared their views concerning the matters in which they were zealous; and, assembling among themselves in synods, they voted for whatever they wished, and often condemned in absentia those who held the opposite opinions; and by courting the emperors of the time and those in power around them, they persuaded them, so far as their influence allowed, and made them of one mind with themselves; and, as proof that they held the true belief, some attaching themselves to one party and some to the other, they compiled collections of the letters that supported their own faction and omitted those that opposed it.

This indeed has made the discovery of the truth concerning these events extremely difficult and tangled for us.

But since above all one must take care for the truth, on account of the unadulterated nature required of history, it seemed necessary to me to investigate, as far as possible, even such documents as these.

If, then, I should also relate the dissensions of churchmen among themselves over precedence or over the preference of their own faction, let it not seem to anyone that my recounting such things proceeds from a tiresome or maliciously-intentioned purpose.

For, first, as has been said, it is fitting for the historian to hold all things secondary to the truth;

and, secondly, the doctrine of the universal Church will appear all the more genuine in that, though it has often been tested by the plots of those holding the opposite opinion, it has, as having obtained the mastery from God, returned again to its own proper strength and drawn all the churches and the multitudes to its own truth.

As I deliberated whether it was fitting to record only those things I knew that had happened concerning the Church throughout the Roman empire, it seemed good to me, so far as I should be able to attain it, to relate also the events that occurred among the Persians and barbarians regarding religion; and I judged it not foreign to ecclesiastical history to go through, in this treatise, who were those who became, as it were, the fathers and founders of those called monks, and those who after them, in succession, whom we know or have heard of, achieved renown.

For thus we shall not seem to be ungrateful toward them by consigning their virtue to oblivion, nor to be unacquainted with the history concerning this matter, while at the same time leaving to those who have chosen to pursue this way of life a model of conduct by following which they may attain to a most blessed and happy life.

But these matters my narrative, as it proceeds, will attend to as carefully as possible.

I now turn to the narration of the events, having invoked God as my helper and to be gracious to me.

The present work will take its beginning from this point.

When Crispus and Constantine the Caesars were consuls, Silvester was presiding over the church of Rome, Alexander over that of the Alexandrians, and Macarius over that of Jerusalem.

But over the church of Antioch on the Orontes, no one had yet been appointed after Romanus, since the persecutions, as is likely, had not permitted the ordination to take place.

But not long after, those who had assembled at Nicaea, admiring the life and eloquence of Eustathius, judged him worthy to preside over the apostolic throne, and, since he was bishop of neighboring Beroea, they transferred him to Antioch.

Now, of the Christians, those toward the east, as far as the Libyans bordering on Egypt, did not at that time dare to assemble openly as a church, since Licinius had changed his goodwill toward them;

but those throughout the west — Greeks, Macedonians, and Illyrians — practiced their religion without fear, on account of Constantine, who ruled over the Romans in these regions.

For we have learned by tradition that many other things happened to him, by which he was persuaded to champion the doctrine of the Christians, but above all, the divine sign that appeared to him.

For when he had resolved to march against Maxentius, as was natural, he was perplexed within himself as to how the battle would turn out and who would be his helper.

While engaged in such anxious thoughts, he saw in a dream the sign of the cross shining in the sky.

And as he stood amazed at the vision, divine angels appeared beside him and said, "O Constantine, in this conquer."

It is also said that Christ himself appeared to him and showed him the symbol of the cross, and exhorted him to make a likeness of it and to carry it in his wars as a helper and a bringer of victory.

Eusebius Pamphilus, indeed, insists that he heard the emperor himself declare under oath that, about midday, when the sun was already declining, he and the soldiers with him beheld in the sky a trophy of the cross composed of light, and an inscription attached to it saying, "In this conquer."

For as he was marching somewhere with the army, on the road, this marvel occurred to him; and while he was pondering what it might mean, night came on.

And as he slept, Christ appeared to him together with the sign that had been shown in the sky, and exhorted him to make a copy of it and to use it as a protective defense in his battles against his enemies.

Since, then, there was no longer any need of an interpreter, but it had been shown to the emperor in a manifest way what he ought to believe concerning God, at daybreak he summoned the priests of Christ and inquired of them concerning the doctrine.

And they, producing the sacred books, expounded to him the things concerning Christ;

and they showed him, from the prophets, the clear prediction of these things before they came to pass.

And they said that the sign that had appeared to him was a symbol of the victory over Hades, which he, having come among men, achieved by being crucified, dying, and rising again on the third day.

For on this account, they said, they hoped that, after their departure from this present life, at the end of the present age, all men would rise again and become immortal, some to receive rewards for having lived well in these matters, and others to receive punishments for the evil deeds they had done;

there is, however, even for those who have sinned in this life, a means of salvation and a purification from sins: for the uninitiated, initiation according to the law of the Church; and for those already initiated, not sinning again.

But since this is something altogether few and godlike men are able to accomplish, they taught that a second purification, by repentance, had also been established.

For God, being loving toward mankind, grants forgiveness to those who have fallen, if they repent and confirm their repentance by good works.

As the priests set forth such things, the emperor, marveling at the prophecies concerning Christ, ordered skilled craftsmen to refashion, with gold and precious stones, into the symbol of the cross, that which is called among the Romans the labarum.

Now this military standard was held in greater honor than the others, inasmuch as it was customary for it always to go before the emperor and to be venerated by the soldiers.

For this reason especially, I think, Constantine changed the most conspicuous symbol of the Roman empire into the sign of Christ, so that, through the continual sight of it and their attendance upon it, his subjects might be weaned away from their ancestral customs, and might consider as God alone him whom the emperor himself reveres, and whom he employs as leader and ally against his enemies.

For this sign was always set before his own troops;

and he ordered it to be present with those phalanxes that were hard pressed in battle, having appointed conspicuous men from among his guards to labor over this task, whose duty it was, each in turn, to carry the sign upon his shoulders and to go about among the ranks.

It is said, at any rate, that once, when the enemy suddenly charged, the man carrying it, being afraid, handed it over to another and withdrew himself from the battle; and that he, though he had already gotten outside the range of the missiles, suddenly fell, struck by a mortal blow;

whereas the one who had taken up the divine symbol remained unwounded, even though many shot their arrows at him.

...they stuck fast; yet while the bearer stood in the very midst of the dangers, they flew off harmlessly.

It is said, moreover, that no one else who ever attended upon this sign, as might naturally happen to a soldier in war, met with any dire misfortune, or became wounded or taken captive.

I am not unaware, however, that the Greeks say that Constantine, after putting to death certain of his nearest kin and having had a part in the death of his own son Crispus, repented, and consulted about purification with Sopater the philosopher, who at that time stood at the head of the succession of Plotinus;

and that he declared that there was no purification for such sins;

and that the emperor, being distressed at this refusal, chanced upon bishops who promised to cleanse him of every sin through repentance and baptism, and that he was pleased with them for speaking to the point, and marveled at the doctrine, and became a Christian, and led his subjects to do the same.

But it seems to me that these things have been fabricated by those who are eager to slander the Christian religion.

For Crispus, on whose account they say Constantine had need of purification, died in the twentieth year of his father's reign; and while he was still living, many laws in favor of the Christians were enacted jointly with him, inasmuch as he had been honored with the second rank of the empire and was Caesar — as even now the dates appended to the laws and the titles of the lawgivers still bear witness.

In the first place, it is not likely that Sopater would have come into conversation with Constantine when he was ruler only of the region bordering on the ocean and the Rhine.

For on account of his quarrel with Maxentius, who was residing in Italy, the affairs of the Romans were in a state of civil strife;

and at that time it was not easy for anyone to travel to the Gauls and the Britons and those who dwelt in these regions, among whom it is agreed that Constantine took part in the Christian religion, before he marched against Maxentius and advanced upon Rome and the Italians.

And of this, again, the dates bear witness, as do the laws that he enacted in favor of the religion.

As for the claim that the Greeks used to offer purifications for such offenses, what has been said suffices, and it convicts of falsehood those who have fabricated the story that Sopater declared the contrary.

For I would not say that a man who was then the most eminent among the Greeks for his learning could have been ignorant of these things.

Now the churches throughout the region ruled by Constantine were flourishing according to their heart's desire, and were increasing day by day, being deemed worthy of the benefactions of a well-disposed and like-minded emperor;

and even before this, in other respects, divine providence had kept these churches free from persecutions and disturbance.

For while the churches throughout the rest of the inhabited world were being persecuted, Constantius, the father of Constantine, alone permitted the Christians to practice their religion without fear.

Indeed, I have learned that he accomplished a certain marvelous deed of his, worthy of record.

Wishing to test which of the Christians in his palace were men of true worth and goodness, he summoned them all together and announced beforehand that, if they chose to sacrifice and to practice religion in the same manner as himself, they might remain with him and keep their same rank;

but if they should refuse, they were to leave the palace, being grateful that they had not also incurred punishment.

And when they were divided into these two groups, some betraying their religion, others preferring divine things above their present circumstances, he decided to make use as friends and counselors of those who had remained faithful to what was better;

while he turned away from the others as cowardly and worthless rogues, and repelled them from association with himself, reckoning that men who had shown themselves so ready to be traitors to God could never be loyal toward an emperor.

And when Constantine succeeded to the same rule, the affairs of the Church became still more manifest.

For when Maxentius, the son of Herculius, had been slain, and his portion of the empire had fallen to Constantine, thereafter all who dwelt about the river Tiber, and the Eridanus — which the local inhabitants call the Po — and the Aquilis, practiced their religion without fear.

It was into this river, so the story goes, that the Argo was hauled down and brought safely through to the Tyrrhenian Sea.

For the Argonauts, in fleeing from Aeetes, did not take the same route on their return voyage.

But having crossed the sea beyond the Scythians, they came by the rivers of that region into the borders of the Italians, and having wintered there, they founded a city called Emona.

And when summer came on, with the cooperation of the local inhabitants, they hauled the Argo by machinery some four hundred stades overland and brought it to the river Aquilis, which joins the Eridanus;

and the Eridanus empties into the sea off Italy.

But Licinius, after his defeat there, though he had previously professed favor toward the Christians, changed his mind, and at that time ill-treated many of the priests within his own dominion, and many others besides, especially among the soldiery.

For he had become bitterly hostile to the Christians because of his quarrel with Constantine, supposing that he would grieve him by bringing misfortune upon their religion, and at the same time believing that the churches were praying and striving that Constantine alone should reign.

Moreover, as tends to happen, when he was again about to go to war with Constantine, he took forethought for the expected conflict through sacrificial victims and divinations, and, being led astray by certain men who promised him victory, he turned to paganism.

And when he inquired about the war, the oracle is said to have responded to him with these very verses of Homer:

"Old man, truly young warriors sorely press you; your strength is spent, and harsh old age has overtaken you."

From many other things, then, it has seemed to me that the doctrine of the Christians was established by the providence of God and advanced to so great a growth, and not least from what took place at that time.

For when Licinius was already about to persecute all the churches under his rule, the war in Bithynia broke out, the last one that he and Constantine waged against each other.

So great was the divine favor that Constantine enjoyed, that he prevailed over his enemies both by land and by sea; and Licinius, having lost his infantry and his fleet, surrendered himself at Nicomedia, and for a time lived as a private citizen at Thessalonica, and there was put to death—a man who had once held the foremost place in the empire, most distinguished both in war and in other respects, and honored by marriage to Constantine's sister, yet who came to such an end.

And Constantine, the whole empire of the Romans having now devolved upon him alone, proclaimed by public edict to his subjects throughout the East that they should honor the religion of the Christians and diligently worship the Divine, and regard as divine only that which truly exists and possesses power enduring through all time.

For to those who are diligent in these things, it is fitting that all good things should come to them in abundance, and that whatever they undertake should meet with favorable prospects;

but for those who transgress against the Higher Power, whether in public or in private, all things turn out adversely, both in war and in peace.

Having proclaimed such things, and having gone through countless other matters by which he thought to draw his subjects toward the true religion, he decreed that whatever had been resolved or done against religion under those who had persecuted the Church should be rendered null and void;

and he enacted by law that all should have release who, on account of their confession of Christ, had been condemned to be exiled or to reside against their will on islands or elsewhere, or to labor in the mines, or to serve on public works, or in the women's weaving-houses or the linen workshops, or to be enrolled among the town councils though they had not previously been councillors;

and for those who had been rendered infamous, he removed their disgrace;

and to those who had been stripped of some military rank, he left it to their own choice either to remain in the rank they had held, or, with an honorable discharge, to lead a life of free leisure.

And since he recalled all to their former freedom and their accustomed honors, he also restored their properties to them,

but if any who had been condemned to death had been deprived of their possessions, he ordered that the inheritances should pass to their nearest kin; and if none of these existed, that the local church of the district should inherit; and whether a private person or the public treasury held anything from such property, it was to be restored.

And for those who had purchased such property from the treasury, or received it as a gift, he promised to make provision in whatever way was possible and fitting.

These things, as has been said, were resolved by the emperor and ratified by law, and without delay were brought to their proper completion.

And Christians for the most part administered the offices of the Romans;

and henceforth it was forbidden to all to offer sacrifice, or to resort to divinations and mystic rites, or to set up carved images, or to celebrate Greek festivals.

And many of the ancient customs of the cities were also changed.

Accordingly, among the Egyptians, the measure by which the rising of the waters of the Nile is indicated is from that time no longer brought to the customary Greek temples, but to the churches;

and among the Romans, then for the first time, the spectacle of gladiators was forbidden;

and among the Phoenicians who inhabit Lebanon and Heliopolis, it was no longer lawful for virgins to prostitute themselves before uniting with the men with whom, by the law of marriage, they were accustomed to cohabit after this first experience of unlawful union.

As for the houses of prayer, those which were already of adequate size were being restored, while others were being splendidly enlarged in height and breadth, and elsewhere, where none had existed at all, they were being built from the foundations.

And the emperor supplied the funds from the imperial treasuries, writing to the bishops in each city and to the governors of the provinces—instructing the former to give whatever orders they wished, and the latter to obey and diligently render service to the priests.

And as his rule prospered, religion increased along with it.

And to such a degree, even after the war against Licinius, was he successful in his campaigns against foreign peoples, that he prevailed over the Sarmatians and over those called the Goths, and finally, as a kind of favor, concluded a treaty with them.

This nation at that time dwelt beyond the river Ister, and being most warlike, always prepared in arms, and superior both in numbers and in bodily stature, it prevailed over the other barbarians, but had only the Romans as its rivals.

And it is said that this war, too, not least of all, showed Constantine, through signs and dreams, how great a providence he had been deemed worthy of from God.

Having prevailed in all the wars that occurred during his reign, he repaid Christ, as it were in a rivalry of honor, with his zeal for religion, urging his subjects to esteem this alone and to regard it as the way of salvation.

And from the taxable land existing in each city, he set apart from the public revenue a fixed sum, and assigned it to the local churches and clergy, decreeing by law that this grant should remain valid for all time.

...to be without a sacred house in which one might hymn God, pray, and partake of the mysteries.

For priests and deacons also accompanied them, attending upon the tent, fulfilling in this regard the order prescribed by the law of the Church.

And from that time the Roman regiments, which are now called "numeri," each provided its own tent, and had priests and deacons assigned to it.

And the day called the Lord's Day, which the Hebrews call the first day, and the Greeks dedicate to the sun, together with the day before the seventh, he decreed by law that all should abstain from lawsuits and other business, and worship the Divine with prayers and supplications.

And he honored the Lord's Day as the day on which Christ rose from the dead, and the other day as the day on which He was crucified;

for he held very great reverence for the divine cross, both because of the successes granted to him through its favor in battles against his adversaries, and because of the sign from God that had befallen him concerning it.

Accordingly, he abolished by law the punishment of crucifixion, which had formerly been customary among the Romans, from use in the courts;

and he ordered that this divine symbol should always be inscribed and stamped, both fashioned on coinage and depicted in portraits.

And his images, still existing in this form even to this day, bear witness to this.

And in all things, but especially in his legislation, he was zealous to serve the Divine.

He appears, at any rate, to have corrected the licentious and degraded unions that had not previously been forbidden, as can be perceived from the very laws laid down concerning these matters, should anyone care to examine them.

For it does not seem timely to me to labor over this subject at present.

But it is necessary, in addition to what has been said, to go through the laws enacted for the honor and establishment of religion, since these constitute a necessary part of ecclesiastical history.

There was an ancient Roman law that, from the age of twenty-five, forbade the unmarried from being accorded the same privileges as others—among many other things, that those not most closely related by kinship should gain nothing from a will—while it penalized the childless by confiscating half of what had been bequeathed to them.

The Romans of old established this law in the belief that Rome and its subject territory would thereby become populous, since not long before this law they had lost many lives in civil wars.

Seeing, then, that those who practiced virginity and childlessness for God's sake fared the worse on this account, the emperor judged it foolish to suppose that the human race could be increased through human diligence and effort, since nature always receives decrease and increase according to the measure allotted from above.

And he proclaimed a law to the people, that the unmarried and the childless should equally enjoy all the same privileges as others;

not only so, but he further decreed that those living in continence and virginity should have even greater privileges, granting to them—both males and females, even those still under age—freedom to dispose of property by will, contrary to what generally prevailed in the Roman commonwealth.

For he considered that those whose constant occupation was to worship the Divine and practice philosophy would deliberate well concerning all things;

since for this same reason the Romans of old also enacted that the Vestal Virgins, even at six years of age, might freely dispose of property without hindrance.

And this too is the greatest proof of the emperor's reverence concerning religion:

For he exempted the clergy everywhere from taxation by establishment of law, and he permitted litigants, should they wish to decline the civil magistrates, to appeal instead to the judgment of the bishops;

and that their verdict should be authoritative, and superior to that of other judges, as though it had been issued by the emperor himself, and that the magistrates and the soldiers under their command should carry into effect whatever was so adjudicated;

and that the definitions of the synods should be irrevocable.

And having come to this point, I think it worthy of record not to omit the laws enacted for the benefit of those set free within the churches.

He enacted laws that all who were manumitted in the churches, with the priests as witnesses, should be deemed worthy of Roman citizenship.

Even to this day, time bears witness to this pious invention, for the custom still prevails that the laws concerning this matter are inscribed at the head of the deeds of manumission.

Constantine, then, enacted such laws, and in every way was zealous to honor religion;

and it was also glorious in its own right, on account of the virtue of those...

For there were at that time many other good men among the Christians, and since the persecutions had only recently ceased, a great many of the confessors, still living out their lives, brought honor to the churches—such as Hosius, bishop of Cordova, and Amphion, bishop of Epiphania in Cilicia, and Maximus, who was entrusted with the church of Jerusalem after Macarius, and Paphnutius of Egypt, through whom, it is said, the Divine wrought very many wonders, granting him power over demons and the healing of various afflictions.

This Paphnutius and the aforementioned Maximus were among those confessors whom Maximinus had condemned to labor in the mines, after gouging out their right eyes and severing the sinews of their left legs.

We have learned that Spyridon, bishop of Trimithus in Cyprus, also lived in their time, whose virtue I consider sufficiently demonstrated by the report concerning him that still prevails.

Of the things that came to pass through him with divine assistance, the greater part, as is likely, the local people know; but I will not conceal those that have come down to us.

For this man was a rustic, having a wife and children, but he was not on this account inferior in divine matters.

They say that once wicked men came by night to the fold of his sheep, and when they attempted to steal them, they suddenly became bound, though no one had bound them.

And at daybreak, when he arrived, he found them fettered, and he loosed them from their invisible bonds, but rebuked them because, when it was possible to persuade him and receive what they desired, they had chosen rather to steal, and to suffer such hardship during the night.

Nevertheless, taking pity on them, or rather teaching them to be turned to a better life, he said, "Go your way, taking this ram with you."

"For you have grown weary with keeping watch, and it is right that you should not depart from my fold complaining of your labors." One might reasonably marvel at this, and no less at the following.

A certain acquaintance of his deposited something with his virgin daughter, named Irene.

And she, having received it, buried it in the house, so that it might be carefully kept.

But it happened that the girl died without saying anything, and the man came demanding back his deposit.

Spyridon, not knowing what he meant, nevertheless searched throughout the house, and not finding it, the man wept and tore his hair, and appeared ready to die of grief.

Moved to pity, Spyridon went to the tomb and called the girl by name.

And when she answered, he asked her about the deposit, and having learned it, he returned, and finding it at the place she had indicated, he gave it back to the man.

Since I have been led on to this point in my narrative, it is not out of place to add this also.

It was the custom of this Spyridon, of the crops that were produced for him, to distribute some to the poor, and to lend others free of charge to those who wished.

He neither gave nor received in person, but merely showing them the storehouse, he permitted those who came to take as much as they needed, and again to repay as much as they knew they had taken.

So someone, having borrowed in this manner, came intending to repay.

Being permitted, according to custom, himself to repay to the storehouse what he had borrowed, he looked toward dishonesty.

And thinking he would go unnoticed, he did not repay the debt, but having secretly withheld the repayment of what was owed, he departed as though he had paid it in full.

But this was not, after all, destined to remain hidden for long.

For after some time, the man again wanted to borrow, and Spyridon sent him to the storehouse, giving him authority to measure out for himself as much as he wished.

But seeing the storehouse empty, he informed Spyridon.

"It is strange, my good man," he said, "how it seems that the storehouse has run out of provisions for you alone."

"Consider then within yourself, whether, having borrowed on another occasion, you did not repay the first amount."

"For if this is not the case, you will certainly not fail to obtain what you need; so go again with confidence, as one who will find it." And he, thus detected, confessed his sin.

It is worthy of admiration in this divine man, his gravity and precision regarding ecclesiastical order.

It is said, then, that at a later time, on account of some need, the bishops of Cyprus came together in the same place, and among them were this Spyridon and Triphyllius, bishop of Ledra, a man otherwise learned and, through his practice of law, had spent a long time in the city of the Berytians.

When the assembly was being held, Triphyllius, being permitted to teach the congregation, when it was necessary to bring forward that saying, "Take up your bed and walk," changed the word and said "pallet" instead of "bed."

And Spyridon, indignant, said, "Are you better than him who said 'bed,' that you are ashamed to use his very words?" And having said this, he leapt down from the priestly throne in the sight of the people, thereby teaching humility to one who was puffed up over his eloquence.

For he was well able to rebuke him, being both venerable and most glorious for his deeds, and at the same time being his elder both in age and in priesthood.

How he was disposed regarding the reception of strangers may be known from the following.

When the season of the Forty Days had already begun, someone came to him from a journey; during this time, together with his household, he was accustomed to continue his fast, and to eat nothing until an appointed day, remaining without food in the days between.

Seeing the stranger quite worn out, he said to his daughter, "Come now, wash the man's feet and set food before him." But when the maiden said that there was neither bread nor barley-meal (for the preparation of these was superfluous on account of the fast), he first prayed and asked pardon, and then bade his daughter boil some salted pork, which happened to be preserved in the house.

And when it was cooked, having seated the stranger with him, when the meat was set before them, he ate, and urged the man to imitate him.

But when the man declined, saying that he was a Christian, Spyridon said, "For this very reason, all the more, you ought not to decline."

"For the divine word has declared that to the pure all things are pure." So much, then, concerning Spyridon.

Not least did those who at that time pursued the monastic way of life show forth the Church as most illustrious, and uphold its doctrine, by the virtues of their manner of life.

For this philosophy, having come to men from God as a most beneficial thing, is careless of many branches of learning and of the art of dialectic, as being over-curious, and as depriving one of leisure for better things, and as contributing nothing toward living rightly.

But by natural and unelaborate wisdom alone, it teaches those things which entirely remove wickedness, or make it less.

It places in no rank of goods those things that lie between vice and virtue, but rejoices only in what is good.

And it considers as base the one who abstains from evil but does not do good.

For it does not display virtue for show, but practices it, holding the esteem of men as nothing.

And resisting very manfully the passions of the soul, it yields neither to the necessities of nature nor bows down before the weaknesses of the body.

Possessing the power of a divine mind, it always looks toward the Creator of all things, and by night and by day worships Him, and propitiates Him with prayers and supplications.

Coming to worship piously through purity of soul and a way of life of good deeds, it disregards purifications and vessels of lustral water and such things.

For it considers sins alone to be defilements.

Being superior to whatever befalls it from without, and, so to speak, master over all things, it is not moved from its purpose either by the disorder or the necessity that governs ordinary life, nor is it grieved when insulted, nor does it retaliate when ill-treated, nor does it collapse when oppressed by sickness or lack of necessities.

Practicing throughout its whole life to need but few things, and, as far as is possible for human nature, drawing nearest to God.

Treating the present life as if passing through it, it is not troubled by preoccupation with acquiring possessions, nor does it make provision beyond the pressing need of the moment; but always praising the simplicity and unencumbered readiness of its manner of life here, it eagerly awaits the blessedness that comes from there, and is ever strained toward that happy portion.

Breathing continually the reverence due toward the divine, it turns away in disgust from foul speech, not enduring even the mere utterance of those things, the practices of which it has excluded from its own manner of life.

Restraining the needs of nature to the barest minimum and compelling the body to require only moderate things, it masters licentiousness through self-control, and punishes injustice through justice, and falsehood through truth, and by good order it partakes of measure in all things.

It establishes its way of life in concord and fellowship with those near at hand.

It is provident for friends and strangers, and makes its own possessions common with those in need, and takes hold of what is fitting for each; it neither burdens those who rejoice nor fails to console those who grieve; and altogether, being zealous and directing its care toward what is truly good, it teaches with temperate words and wise thoughts free of embellishment and slander, and heals its hearers as though with certain remedies, conducting its discourses with honor and respect, and free from strife, mockery, and anger.

For being rational, it rejects every irrational impulse, and once for all masters the passions of the body and of the soul.

This most excellent philosophy was begun, as some say, by Elijah the prophet and John the Baptist.

Philo the Pythagorean records that in his own time the best of the Hebrews from everywhere philosophized in a certain place situated on a hill above Lake Mareia.

He describes their dwelling, their manner of life, and their discipline as being of the very sort that we now see practiced among the monks of Egypt.

For he writes that when they begin to philosophize, they renounce their possessions to their relatives, and, forswearing both affairs and social intercourse, dwell outside the walls in solitary cells and gardens; and that their dwellings are sacred, which are called monasteries, and in these, living in solitude, they perform solemn mysteries, and diligently serve the divine with psalms and hymns.

And that they do not taste food before sunset, and some go without food for three days or more.

And moreover, on appointed days they sleep on the bare ground, and abstain entirely from wine and from things containing blood, and their fare is bread and salt and hyssop, and their drink is water.

And that women dwell together with them—aged virgins who, out of love for philosophy, of their own free will practice celibacy.

Philo, then, recording things in this manner, seems to hint at those in his own time who, being converts to Christianity from among the Hebrews, still lived in a rather more Jewish fashion and preserved the customs of the Jews.

For among others it is not possible to find this manner of conducting life.

Whence I conjecture that this philosophy flourished among the Egyptians from that time onward.

But others say that the persecutions which from time to time befell the religion gave occasion to this.

For since, while fleeing, they made their abode in mountains, wooded glens, and deserts, they became accustomed to this manner of life.

But whether it was the Egyptians or certain others who from the beginning presided over this philosophy, this at any rate is agreed upon by all: that Antony, the great monk, trained this manner of life, by fitting habits and exercises, to the very summit of precision and perfection.

Since he was at that time distinguished in the deserts of Egypt, on account of the man's renowned virtue, the emperor Constantine made him his friend, and honored him with letters, and urged him to write concerning whatever he needed.

This man was by birth an Egyptian, of good family, from Coma.

And this is a village of the nome of Heraclea, in the region of the Egyptians called Arcadia.

Having disposed of the rest of his property, he distributed the proceeds among the poor.

For he perceived that it is the mark of a zealous philosopher not only to strip himself of possessions, but also to expend them upon what is needful.

And associating with the zealous men of his time, he emulated the virtues of them all.

Having discovered that the good life, though difficult at first, becomes pleasant through habit, he devised methods of ever more intense asceticism and daily advanced in self-control; and, as though always beginning anew, he renewed his zeal, chastening the pleasures of the body through its own hardships, and by a divinely wise resolve setting himself against the passions of the soul.