教會史 第 1 章 第 1/28 段

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.