§ 163. THE CHUECII IIISTOEIAKS AFTER EUSEBIDS. 879
edited by Samuel Lee at London in 1842.' Tc tins class also belongs his apologetic ti'act Against Hierocles^
Of niuch less importance are the two dogmatic worlds of Eusebius: Against Marcelliis^ and Ujpon the Church Theclogy (likewise against Marcellus), in favor of the hypostatical existence of the Son.'
His Commentaries on several books of tlie Bible (Isaiah, Psalms, Luke) pursue, without independence, and without knowledge of the^ebrew, the allegorical method of Origen."
To these are to be added, finally, some works in Biblical Introduction and Archseology, the Onomasticon, already alluded to, a sort of sacred geography, and fragments of an enthusiastic Apology for Origen, a juvenile work which he and Pam philns jointly produced before 309, and which, in the Origenistic controversy, was the target of the bitterest shots of Epiphanius and Jerome.*
§ 162, Tlie Church Historians after Eusebius,
I. The Church Histories of Soceates, Sozomen, TnEouoRET, Evageius, Philostorgius, .nnd Theodoeus Lector have been edited, with the Eccles. Hist, of Eusebius, by Valeams^ Par. 1659-'73, in 3 vols, (defective reprint, Frankf. a. M. 1672-'79) ; best ed., Cambridge, 1720, and again 1746, in 3 vols., with improvements and additions by Guil. Reading. Best English translation by Meredith^ Hnnmer, and Wye
' Also in English, under the title : On the Theopbania, or Divine ManLfeslatioB of our Saviour Jesus Christ, by Eusebius, translated into English, with Notes, from an ancient Syriac Version of the Greek original, now lost ; to which is prefixed a Vindication of the orthodoxy, and prophetical views, of that distinguished writer, by Sam. Lee, D. D., Cambr. 1843. The MS. of this work is deposited in the British Museum ; it was written at Edessa in the Estranghelo, or old church-handwriting of the Syrians, on very fine and well-prepared skin. Dr. Lee assigns it to the year 411 (1. c. p. xii.).
^ In Migne's edition, torn. iv. V95-8G8.
' In Migne's editiou, torn. vi. p. 7U7 sqq.
* Augelo Mai has pubhshed new fragments of Commentaries of Eusebius on the Psalms and on the Gospel of Luke in Novae Patrum Bibliothecae, t''in. iv. p. 77 sqq, and p. 160 sqq., and republished in Migne's ed. vol. vi.
* The sixth book was added by Eusebius alone after the death of his friend. The first book is still extant in -he Latin version of Rufinus, and some extracts in Photius.
880 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
Saltonstall, Camhr. 1G83, 1692, and London, 1709. New ed. m Bohn'l Ecclesiastical Library, Lond. 1851, in 4 vols, small Svo. II. F. A. HoLZHArsEN: De fontibus, qnibus Socrates, Sozoraenus, ac Tlieodoretiis in scribenda historia sacra usi sunt. Gott. 1825. G. Dangers; De fontibus, indole et dignitate librorum Theod. Lectoris et Evagrii, Gott. 1841. J. G. Dowling: Au Introduction to the Critical Study of Eccl. History. Lond. 1838, p. 34 ff. F. Chr. Baiir: Die Epocliec der kircliliclien Geschichtschreibung. Tilb. 1852, pp. 7-32. Corap. P. Souaff: History of the Apostolic Church, Gen. Introd. p. 52 f.
EusKBius, without intending it, founded a school of church historians, who continued the thread of his story from Con- Btantine the Great to the close of the sixth century, and, like him, limited themselves to a simple, credulous narration of external facts, and a collection of valuable documents, without an inkling of the critical sifting, philosophical mastery, and artistic reproduction of material, wliich we find in Thucydides and Tacitus among the classics, and in many a modem historian. JSTone of them touched the history of the first three centuries ; Eusebius was supposed to have done here all that could be desired. The histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret run nearly parallel, but without mutual acquaintance or dependence, and their contents are very similar.* Evagrius carried the narrative down to the close of the sixth century. All of them combine ecclesiastical and political history, which after Constantine were inseparably interwoven in the East ; and (with the exception of Philostorgius) all occupy essentially the same orthodox stand-point. They ignore the Western church, except where it comes in contact with the East.
These successors of Eusebius are :
Socrates, an attorney or scholasticus in Constantinople, borninSBO. His work, in seven books, covers the period from 306 to 439, and is valuable for its nnmerous extructa
' The frequent supposition (of Valois with others) that Sozomen wrote to com plete Socrates, and Theodoret to complete both, cannot be proved. The authors seem independent o*" one another. Theodoret says in the Prooemium: "Since Eusebius of Palcstinv;, commencing his history with the holy apostles, has described the events of the church to the reign of the God-beloved Constantine, I have begun Cny history where he ended his." He malies no mention of any other writers im the same subject. Nor does Sozomen, 1. i. c. 1, wlicrc he alludes to his predecessors Valesius charges Sozomen with plagiarism.