Church History

Eusebius of Caesareac. AD 311–325, in successive editions

The first history of the church, in ten books, from the apostles to the sole rule of Constantine, by the bishop of Caesarea in Palestine. It quotes at length from earlier Christian writings, many of which survive nowhere else.

Eusebius became bishop of Caesarea about 313 and had the use of the Christian library gathered there. His method was to copy out passages from the writers and documents he found: Papias on the Gospels, Hegesippus on James, the letter of the churches of Lyons and Vienne on their martyrs, the letters of Dionysius of Alexandria, and many more. Where the originals are lost, these extracts are the earliest evidence there is. He issued the work in several editions as events moved, and the last books bring it down to Constantine’s victory over Licinius in 324.

A reader has to keep two distances in mind. For the persecution that began in 303 and for the years that followed, Eusebius is a contemporary and often an eyewitness. For the first and second centuries he writes two hundred years and more after the events and is only as good as the source he is quoting, so a citation should say whose words he reports. He also writes as an advocate. The history is arranged to show the succession of bishops from the apostles, the defeat of heresy and the vindication of the church under a Christian emperor, and it passes on some traditions, such as the letters said to have been exchanged between Jesus and King Abgar (1.13), without questioning them.

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