What we think of these sermons published by Muratori in vol. IV of the Anecdota, we have said sufficiently in the preface above. By the Venetian printers also, and by Andrea Galland, whose reading we follow, these same have been published. To add anything to the praise of Saint Eusebius the martyr is to detract; for he stood forth as a master of teachings so unspeakable that his merits can more easily be known than explained in sermons. Conscience, therefore, retains of him as much as speech and narration cannot prevail to express. Therefore his feast is not to be adorned with words, but to be touched upon in maxims, especially because we know that a thing ought not to be set forth in sermons which we see to be already adorned with virtues; since the Apostle says:
'The kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power' (1 Cor. 4). Therefore to wish to add anything to his merits is to detract, especially for me, who am both ignorant of the deeds done, and unlearned in the sacred letters, and unskilled in the priestly functions. But these things could have been proclaimed more easily by the practice, more approved by the experience, more brilliantly by the doctrine of my holy predecessor: I speak especially of the blessed lord and father Exuperantius, who was his minister in the priesthood, his companion in martyrdom, his sharer in labor. In whose countenance we believe that we also see the holy Eusebius, and as in a certain mirror of goodness we behold his image; for we easily recognize what kind of master he was, whose disciple we see to be such.
But since a glory like that of his confession accompanies this man, he prefers to keep silent about his father's praises, lest he seem at the same time to boast his own. What then shall I proclaim concerning the glory of Eusebius the martyr, whose glory is this whole people? And since Scripture says: 'A wise son is the glory of his father' (Prov. 10); of how great a glory is he, who rejoices in the wisdom and devotion of so many sons? For in Christ Jesus he himself begot us through the Gospel. Whatever therefore of virtues and grace there can be in this holy people, is found in the teaching of Saint Eusebius. And from this as from a most limpid fount of virtues the purity of the streams flowed forth. For because he was strong in the vigor of chastity, he established the resolve of virginity;
because he gloried in the strictnesses of abstinence, he introduced perchance the service of monks; because he was endowed with the gentleness of mildness, he stirred up the affection of all the citizens toward God; because he shone in the administration of the pontificate, he left many of his disciples heirs of his priesthood; and although some leave to their children treasures of gold and silver, yet no one left richer children than holy Eusebius: since all of them came forth either priests or martyrs.
For, to be silent about the rest, this too is admirable, that in this holy Church he established the same men to be monks who were clerics, and that the priestly offices should be contained within the same sanctuaries in which singular chastity is also preserved, so that in these very men there might be contempt of worldly things and the diligence of levites: so that if you saw the little beds of the monastery, you would judge it after the manner of an eastern resolve; if you looked upon the devotion of the cleric, you would rejoice in the observance of the angelic order. But this I judge I ought by no means to keep silent, that when the detestable perfidy of the Arians had thrown all Italy into confusion together with the whole world, and the priests of that same pestilence had taken captive the simplicity of Saint
Dionysius the martyr's simplicity, so that they held his signature as a bond, from which wisdom freed him out of their hands. For as Saint Paul the apostle says: 'I became to the Jews as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews' (1 Cor. 9); so Eusebius pretended to the heretics that he was a heretic, that he might free his son from the heresy. For he said that he agreed with their perfidy, that this pleased him which pleased them; but that he was gravely moved that they set his son Dionysius before him in the signing. 'For you,' he said, 'who say that the Son of God cannot be equal to God the Father, why have you preferred my son before me?' Moved by which reasoning, they immediately
deleted the signature of Dionysius, granting the first place of signing to blessed Eusebius. Rebuking and mocking them, he said: 'Neither do I defile myself with your crimes, nor do I permit my son to have part with you.' Whence, since the Gospel says that in this generation the sons of darkness are more prudent than the sons of light, behold, in these very darknesses a more prudent son was found in these places. Then they, gravely indignant that their wickedness had thus been mocked, harassed him with new sufferings through the emperor Constantius; for after many injuries they banished him into exile to the regions of the East, in which he suffered so much that he carried off the unconquered victory of martyrdom.
For it is said that among other kinds of sufferings he endured this penal torment of suffering: that while he was interrogated by the Arians, and had refused to share in their perfidy, he was dragged down the steep descent of the stairs by his feet, on his back, to the very bottom; and again called back to the top, interrogated anew, when he had answered the same, he suffered the same; and a frequent interrogation was frequently followed by such a punishment. In which suffering of Saint Eusebius the martyr, although his body was shattered and bruised, his limbs broken, yet the spirit of his faith remained unconquered. For the more the Arian perfidy lacerated him bodily, the more the catholic integrity spiritually refreshed him.
And this ascent and descent of the stairs we can say to be that which Jacob prophesied in his dream: and as he saw those stairs also reaching from the bottom up to the heavenly things; since by these both Eusebius ascended to heaven, and the Arians descended to hell. Whence, brethren, I think Saint Eusebius is to be numbered in the choir of the Maccabean martyrs. For those endured martyrdom in their several limbs; but this man confessed the Lord in the suffering of his whole body, and their grace is not unequal, whom even one day joined in martyrdom.
(Galland warns that this sermon is mutilated, because in the archetype codex some pages are lacking, and he appends the following fragment.) Among these things, dearly beloved, it is most fitting that we exult concerning the Maccabee brothers, whose passion indeed was mournful, but whose victory was joyful, and has heaped up for us today's festivity with manifold joy. Since the defenders of the evangelical faith and the guardians of the open law, having confessed one Lord, triumphed under the contest of the one God. For as the Maccabees, for the honor of Almighty God, conquered the tyrant's torments, so the sufferings of the persecutors could not overcome blessed Eusebius as he refuted the injury done to his God.
And therefore let us on the present day rejoice concerning the death of the saints, because we do not doubt that they merited everlasting life after death.