Eusebius of Samosata

EUSEBIUS OF NICOMEDIA AND CONSTANTINOPLE: Bishop of Berytus, in Phenicia, then of Nicomedia, where the imperial court resided, and finally of Constantinople (as early as 338), where he died 341. Distantly related to the imperial house, he not only owed his removal from an insignificant to the most splendid episcopal see to his influence at court, but the great power he wielded in the Church was derived from that source. With the exception of a short period of eclipse, he enjoyed the complete confidence both of Constantine and Constantius; and it was he who baptized the former May, 337. Like Arius, he was a pupil of Lucian of Antioch, and it is probable that he held the same views as Arius from the very beginning. He afterward modified his ideas somewhat, or perhaps he only yielded to the pressure of circumstances; but he was, if not the teacher, at all events the leader and organizer, of the Arian party. At the Council of Nimes, (325) he signed the Confession, but only after a long and desperate opposition. His defense of Arias excited the wrath of the emperor, and a few months after the council he was sent into exile. After the lapse of three years, he succeeded in regaining the imperial favor; and after his return (in 329) he brought the whole machinery of the state government into action in order to impose his views upon the Church. See Arianism.

Bibliography: Sources (contradictory and impossible of reconciliation) are: Athanasius "Against the Arians" and "Apology," both in Eng transl. in NPNF, 2 ser., vol. iv.; Socrates, Hist. eccl., books i.-ii., and Sosomen, Hist. eccl., books i.-ii., both in NPNF, 2 ser., vol. ii.; Theodoret, Hist. eccl., i. 4-9, in NPNF, 2 ser., vol. iii. Consult: W Bright, Hist of the Church, 311-451, Oxford, 1860; idem Orations of St. Athanasius, . . with Account of his Life, London, 1873; J. H. Newman, Arians of the 4th Cent., ib. 1876; DCB, ii. 360-367 (detailed).

EUSEBIUS OF SAMOSATA: Bishop of Samosata; d. at Doliche, in Syria, June 22, 380. He took part in the synodical deliberations at Antioch in the winter of 360-361, and appears among the Homoean and Homoeousian bishops who in 363,

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at a synod held under Meletius of Antioch, accepted the formula homoousios. He seems to have been a member of the right wing of the Eastern opposition party, in substantial agreement with Meletius (q.v.), like whom he became, after 363, a representative of neo-Nicene orthodoxy. He was in close relations with Basil, whose elevation to the see of C�sarea he did much to further, to whom in later conflicts and in his relations with the West he was a faithful friend up to the time of his banishment in 374. He was sent first to Cappadocia and then to Thrace, where he lived through the Gothic war, his return being made possible by the death of Valens. He was at the synod held in Sept., 379, nine months after Basil's death. According to Theodoret he was killed at Douche, whither he had gone to attend the consecration of Bishop Marie, by a stone thrown by an Arian woman, on which ground he was honored as a martyr. Some other details of his life, as given by Theodoret, are obviously legendary. But this may safely be said to his credit-- that he is one of the few bishops of the fourth century of whom nothing but good is known.

F. Loofs.

Bibliography: Sources are: The "Letters" of Gregory Nazianzen and of Basil, in NPNF, 2d ser., vols. vii.-viii; Theodoret, Hist. eccl., ii. 27-28, iv. 12, v. 4. Consult: ASB, June iv. 235-242; V. Ernst, in ZKG, xvi (1896), 626-664; F. Loofs, Eustathius von Sebaste und die Chronologie der Basilius-Briefe Halle, 1898; DCB ii. 369-372.