Chapter I

The Life of Eusebius.

§ 1. Sources and Literature

Acacius, the pupil and successor of Eusebius in the bishopric of Cæsarea, wrote a life of the latter (Socr. H. E. II. 4) which is unfortunately lost. He was a man of ability (Sozomen H. E. III. 2, IV. 23) and had exceptional opportunities for producing a full and accurate account of Eusebius’ life; the disappearance of his work is therefore deeply to be regretted.

Numerous notices of Eusebius are found in the works of Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Athanasius, Jerome, and other writers of his own and subsequent ages, to many of which references will be made in the following pages. A collection of these notices, made by Valesius, is found in English translation on p. 57 sq. of this volume. The chief source for a knowledge of Eusebius’ life and character is to be found in his own works. These will be discussed below, on p. 26 sq. Of the numerous modern works which treat at greater or less length of the life of Eusebius I shall mention here only those which I have found most valuable.

Valesius: De vita scriptisque Eusebii Diatribe (in his edition of Eusebius’ Historia Eccles.; English version in Cruse’s translation of the same work).

Cave: Lives of the Fathers, II. 95–144 (ed. H. Cary, Oxf. 1840).

Tillemont: Hist. Eccles. VII. pp. 39–75 (compare also his account of the Arians in vol. VI.).

Stroth: Leben und Schriften des Eusebius (in his German translation of the Hist. Eccles.).

Closs: Leben und Schriften des Eusebius (in his translation of the same work).

Danz: De Eusebio Cæsariensi, Historiæ Eccles. Scriptore, ejusque fide historica recte æstimanda, Cap. II.: de rebus ad Eusebii vitam pertinentibus (pp. 33–75).

Stein: Eusebius Bischof von Cæsarea. Nach seinem Leben, seinen Schriften, und seinem dogmatischen Charakter dargestellt (Würzburg, 1859; full and valuable).

Bright, in the introduction to his edition of Burton’s text of the Hist. Eccles. (excellent).

Lightfoot (Bishop of Durham): Eusebius of Cæsarea, in Smith and Wace’s Dictionary of Christian Biography, vol. II. pp. 308–348. Lightfoot’s article is a magnificent monument of patristic scholarship and contains the best and most exhaustive treatment of the life and writings of Eusebius that has been written.

The student may be referred finally to all the larger histories of the Church (e.g. Schaff, vol. III. 871 sqq. and 1034 sq.), which contain more or less extended accounts of Eusebius.