he returned to his native place, where he died about 396.
Eunomius wrote a commentarj' on the Epistle to the Komans, and a number of letters, which were known to Photius. Both the commentary and the letters are lost. His first defence (aTroXoyjjrt/cof), which was written either in 360 or (according to Kett- berg) in 365, called forth a long reply from Basil. From several manuscripts of the latter, the text of this work of Eunomius has been restored. It is partly giv- en by Cave {Hist. Liter. Genev. 1720, i, 139), and com- pletely by Fabricius {Bibliith. Grwca, viii), Canisius {Lect. Antiq. i), and Thilo {Bihlioth. dogmat. ii). A second defence {uTrtp cnroXoytag d-n-o\oyia, as Gregorj' calls it) elicited in reply the twelve orations of Greg- ory of Nyssa. The fragments of Eunomius contained in the work of Gregory have been collected by Rett- berg {Marcelliana, p. 125). His profession of faith {iKdtaiQ Tng TTiffrEoJc), which Eunomius in 383 present- ed to the emperor Theodosius, has been published by Valesius (notes to Socrates, v, 10), Fabricius (J. c), Cave (/. c), and Rettberg {Marcelliana, p. 149).
Eunomius was one of the prominent leaders of the Arians. He was capable, keen, undaunted, and full of contempt for his opponents. He had a keener dia- lectic faculty than Arius, and anticipated Des Cartes in making clearness the test of truth. " An opponent of whatever was inconceivable and transcendental, he pursued knowledge in a one-sided direction, not deeph' speculative, but proceeding from an empirical under- standing to make everything clear, which was his prin- cipal aim. In short, he advocated an intelligent su- pranaturalism, in which a rationalistic tendenc}'- was concealed, similar to what we find in Soeinus" (Nean- der. Hist, of Dogmas, ed. Ryland, i, 264). The follow- ing account of the confession of faith of the Eunomians is given by Cave (vol. i, p. 140), from a manuscript in archbishop Tennison's library : " There is one God, uncreated and without beginning, who has nothing ex- isting before him, for nothing can exist before what is uncreate ; nor with him, for what is uncreate must be one ; nor in him, for God is a simple and uncompound- ed Being. This one simple and eternal Being is God, the Creator and Ordainer of all things. For God cre- ted, begot, and made the Son only, by his direct opera- ation and power, before all things, and every other creatui-e ; not producing, however, any being like him- self, or imparting any of his own proper substance to his Son ; for God is immortal, uniform, and indivisi- ble, and therefore cannot communicate any part of his own proper substance to another. He alone is unbe- gotten, and it is impossible that any other being should be formed of an unbegotten suV)stance. He did not use his own substance in begetting his Son, but his will only : nor did he beget him in the likeness of his substance, but according to his own good pleasure. He then created the Holy Spirit, the first and greatest of all spirits, b}' his own power and operation mediate- ly, yet liy the immediate power and operation of the Son. After the Holy Spirit, he created all other things in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, corporeal and incorporeal, mediatelj' by himself, by the power and operation of his Son."
The adherents of Eunomius, who were very numer- ous, were, together with those of Aetius, condemned as heretics by the second Ecumenical Council. Af- ter the death of Eunomius, the Eunomians fully separ- ated from the communion of the predominant Church. Some factions called themselves after prominent teach- ers, as Eutychius, Theophronins. The Church gave them a number of nicknames, as ovoftocyrai, spadones. They baptized, not upon the Trinity, but upon the death of Christ. They did not exist long as a sect, but soon died out, in consequence of internal dissen- sions and numerous secessions to the dominant Church. — Herzog, Real-EncyMop. iv, 220 ; IMosheim, Ch. Hist. i, 248, 301 , Tillemont ; Dorner, Lehre Christi, i-. 815
EUNUCH
350
EUNUCH
(Edinb. transl., div. i, vol. ii, p. 243) ; Neander, Church Hist, ii, 31'J-4-2o ; Clarke, Sacred Liter, i, 318 ; Schaff, Church History, iii, § 121. (A. J. S.)