CHAPTER X.
CHUECH FATHERS, AND THEaLOGICAL LI'lERATUKB.
Uomp. the general literature on the Fathers in vol. ii. § 159, and the special literature in the several sections following.
I. — Tiiic Greek Fathers. § 161. Eusehlus of Caesar ea.
I. EusEBius Pamphili : Opera omnia Gr. et Lat., curis variorum nempe H. Valesii, Fr. Vigeri, B. Montfaucon^ Card. Angela Mail edita; collegit et denuo recognovit J. P. Migne. Par. (Petit-Montrouge) 1857. 6 vols. (torn, xix.-xxiv. of Migne's Patrologia Grfeca). Of his several works his Church History has been oftenest edited, sometimes by itself, sometimes in connection with his Vita Constantini, and with the church histories of his successors; best by Henr. Valesitis (Du Valois), Par. 1659-73, 3 vols., and Cantabr. 1720, 3 vols., and again 1746 (with additions by G. Reading^ best ed.); also (without the later historians) by E. Zimmermann^ Francof. 1822; F. A. Heinichen^ Lips. 1827-8, 3 vols.; E. Burton, Oxon. 1838, 2 vols. (1845 and 1856 in 1 vol.); Schicegler, Tiib. 1852; also in various translations: In German by Strath, Quedlinburg, 1776 ff., 2 vols. ; by Gloss, Stuttg. 1839 ; and several times in French and English; in English hj Hanmer {lb%^)^ T. Shorting, and better by Ghr. Fr. Cruse (an Amei-. Episcopalian of German descent, died in New York, 1865) : The Ecclesiastical History of Euseb. Pamph., etc., New York, 1856 (10th ed.), and Lond. 1858 (in Bolm's Eccles. Library). Comp. also the literary notices in Brvnet, sub Euseb., and James Darling, Cyclop. Bibliograph. p. 1072 fF.
[I Biographies by Hierontmus (De viris illustr. c. 81, a brief sketch, with a list of his works), Valesius (De vita scriptisque Ensebii Csesar.), W, Cave (Lives of the most eminent Fathers of tlie Church, vol. ii. pp. 95-144, ed. H. Gary. Oxf. 1840), Heinichen, Stroth, Cruse, ind others, in their editions of the Eccles. Hist, of E::3ebius. F. 0. Bat7r:
872 THEKD PEEIOD. A.D. 311-590.
Comparatur Easebius hist. eccl. parens cum parente liist. ITerodota Tub. 1834. Hjexell: De Euseb. Cass, reliyionis christ. defensorOi Gott. 1843. Sam. Lee : Introductory treatise in bis Engl, edition of the Tbeophany of Eusebius, Cambr. 1843. Semisoh: Arf. Eusebius v. Caes. in Herzog's Encycl. vol. iv. (1855), pp. 229-238. Lyman Coleman: Eusebius as an historian, in the Bibliotheca Sacra, Andover, 1858, pp. 78-06. (The biography by Acacius, his successor in the see of Caesarea, Socr. ii. 4, is lost.)
This third period is uncommonly rich in great teachers of the church, who happil}'- united theological ability and practical piety, and who, by their development of the most important dogmas in conflict with mighty errors, earned the gratitude of posterity. They monopolized all the learning and eloquence of the declining Roman empire, and made it subservient to the cause of Christianity for the benefit of future generations. They are justly called fathers of the church ; they belong to Christendom without distinction of denominations; and they still, especially Athanasius and Chrysostoni among the Greek fathers, and Augustine and Jerome among the Latin, b}^ their writings and their example, hold powerful sway, though with diflPerent degrees of authority according to the views entertained by the various churches concerning the supremacy of the Bible and the value of ecclesiastical tradition.
We begin the series of the most important Kicene and post- Nicene divines with Eusebius of Ca3sarea, the "father of ohurch history," the Christian Herodotus.
He was born about the year 260 or 270, probably in Palestine, and was educated at Antioch, and afterwards at Caesarea in Palestine, under the influence of the works of Origen. He formed an intimate friendship with the learned presbyter Pamphiliis,' who had collected a considerable biblical and patristic library, and conducted a flourishing theolog-
' Hence the surname ErVe'/Sios (6 (plKos) tov UaixfiAov, Pamphili, by whieb ancieutJy be was most frequently distinguished trom many other less noted mec of the same name, e. g. : Eusebius of Nicomcdia (f .341), Eusebius of Vercclli (f 371), Eusebius Emesenus, of Kmesa or Emisa in Phcenicia (f 3C0), and ot'jcrs. On this last comp. Opuscula quaj supersunt Gricca, ed. August!, Elberfeld, IS'29, somewhat hastily; corrected by Thilo, Ueber die Schriften des Euseb. von Ale t. jod des Euseb. \on Emisa. Halle, 18S2.