Apologetic Works

EUSEBIUS PAMPHILUS TEN BOOKS OF EVANGELICAL DEMONSTRATION TRANSLATED BY BERNARDINO DONATO OF VERONA (From the Paris edition of 1628; Cologne/Leipzig 1683; Oxford 1842. Added is the supplement published by J. A. Fabricius, namely the preface and the first three chapters, along with the epilogue of the work itself.)

DEDICATORY EPISTLE (Paris edition, 1628.) To the most illustrious and most upright lord, D. Hacqueville, First President of the most august Senate of the Gauls.

It has turned out well and happily for us and for all of Gaul, most illustrious President, as everyone has judged, when, upon the departure of the leader of the most noble senate, our fatherland—which had been shaken for a longer time than it was accustomed to—suddenly cast off its mourning and longing for so great a President upon your promotion to his place. From that moment, the times for the conduct of all affairs have so brightened, and such joy has crept into the minds of all, that they could scarcely believe that any other thing they might desire, or anything that might more vehemently alleviate the former afflictions conceived from that recent loss, could have happened. And as it was observed that in the troubled affairs of the republic, after that disaster at Cannae, the Roman people began to be uprighted for the first time in the second battle of Marcellus at Nola, and subsequently began to be advanced to desired outcomes by the favor of fortune: so, after the calamity of the loss of one man, as soon as you arrived at that more august and princely dignity of the senate—not by canvassing for supporters, as the Comic poet says, but by virtue—all mourning was eliminated from afar, and thereafter many prosperous things have followed. The advantages which accrued to others from that, we leave to be enjoyed by those to whom they fell, rather than to be proclaimed to many. But our order, our society, and, as it were, a certain literary association, as if recalled from a long lethargy, has been raised to the hope that, with you holding the sacred helm of Themis, and acting as the custodian of good letters, the patron of all learned men, and the assiduous defender of humanity itself, it may anticipate that it will shortly recover its pristine vigor, honor, and celebrity. This is what led us to the point that we thought it was not so much for our own advantage as it was in the interest of public congratulation to dedicate to your name, above all others, the author we have in hand, Eusebius Pamphili, who is eager to behold the light of day in his ^A *Evangelical Demonstration*, that is, one discoursing gravely on the truth of the Christian faith. For since you show yourself, as well as being a most keen defender of human law, now most especially raised through all the degrees of honors to the highest pinnacle of the court of the kingdom, to be one upon whom the care of piety and sincere religion rests more heavily, if we were to turn away from you, perhaps we should find no one else. Thus our Eusebius remained a faithful companion to his Pamphilus in guarding the faith, so much so that he wished the surname of Pamphilus to be added to his own. Nor could any name have occurred that was more apt for your dignity and the sweetness of your morals than this one, which might indicate a love and benevolence common to all. Therefore, if in the public testimony of the love of all toward you, so inclined, and your charity toward all, we have recently seen congratulations of individual orders and societies vying to be offered to you, after you took your seat upon that most exalted pinnacle of purple-clad Fathers, what finally is our state of mind to prepare small gifts from everywhere, and to gather little flowers and garlands of the Muses from our gardens, for your...

should have been placed at the feet of your Highness, whose whole hope and reason, nay, whose most secure protection and harbor, seems to be established in the greatness and solicitude of your office. You will receive, therefore, most illustrious President, with the zeal and humanity to which you are accustomed, these monuments of sacred doctrine and true piety—that which the present occasion itself has brought before us, namely, Eusebius Pamphili of Caesarea’s most useful Commentaries *On the Evangelical Demonstration*, which might serve as a kind of honorary gift, such as was wont to be offered to magistrates newly sent to the provinces by the prince, to testify to a benevolent spirit, so that they might take thought for the republic all the more studiously and diligently, by how much they had undertaken the care of administering it with greater expectation from the public. Farewell. The year of salvation 1698. Most devoted to your Highness, Michael SONNIUS. Sebastian CRAMOISY. Carolus MORRELLUS.

GALLANDIUS TO THE READER

I. Eusebius of Caesarea’s *Evangelical Demonstration* supplemented. Since the order of time had brought us to Eusebius of Caesarea, we deemed it in our interest that the proem and the first three chapters of the first book of Eusebius’s *Evangelical Demonstration*, together with the epilogue of the work itself—which were lacking in the editions heretofore published—should be committed to the press. For their reception, we refer to the most erudite Joannes Albertus Fabricius, who, not long ago, having taken these supplements of a famous work from a manuscript codex of the library of the most high Prince of Wallachia, Joannes Nicolaus Mavrocordatus, and being a well-wisher of good letters, published them with his own interpretation.

II. In very many places of the *Evangelical Demonstration*, Eusebius reveals himself to be an Arian. Regarding this matter, some specimens of his Arianism are brought forward. The interpreter deliberately twists the tenets of Eusebius toward a Catholic sentiment. Furthermore, I would have readers warned here that I have called Eusebius’s *Evangelical Demonstration* a famous work because the author has said many things very clearly in that book, and he has defended the truth of the Christian religion against the Jews most especially, drawing strictly from the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Yet, in very many places of the same work, Eusebius quite clearly reveals himself to be addicted to the sect of the Arians; the tenets of whom he repeatedly presses and urges, and even shows to be approved by himself. That this may be evident, I shall bring forward only one passage in which the author openly pours out the venom of the Arian heresy. For, after he refers to Christ ^A that passage of Wisdom VII, 26: *Splendor is the light eternal, and the unspotted mirror of the divine efficiency, and the image of his goodness*; and furthermore that passage of Paul to the Hebrews I, 3: *Who being the brightness of his glory and the figure of his subsistence*: by citing these, I say, Eusebius teaches and strives to prove that the subsistence and deity of the Son is other than the Father’s, and different and separate, and far inferior to him. For thus he says: "But while the splendor cannot be separated from a sensible light, the Son subsists separately from the Father, by himself, Ὁ δὲ Υἱὸς ἰδίως παρὰ τὸν Πατέρα καθ' ἑαυτὸν ὑφέστηκε. And while the splendor indeed holds the place of efficiency, the Son is something other than merely according to efficiency, endowed with a subsistence by himself, Ὁ δὲ Υἱὸς ἑτερόν τι κατὰ ἐνέργειαν τυγχάνει, καθ' ἑαυτὸν οὐσιωμένος. Again, the splendor exists simultaneously with the light, and completes it in a certain way; for without splendor the light would in no way subsist, and it subsists simultaneously with it and according to it: but the Father exists prior to the Son, and existed before his generation, insofar as he alone was unbegotten, Ὁ δὲ Πατὴρ προϋπάρχει τοῦ Υἱοῦ, καὶ τῆς γεννήσεως αὐτοῦ προϋφέστηκεν, ᾗ μόνος ἀγέννητος ἦν, κ. τ. λ." To be sure, you may see many such places in that work marked with the Arian contagion in the works of the most learned men, Maranus and Montfaucon; ^B one of whom furthermore observes that the interpreter of the *Evangelical Demonstration* deliberately twisted Eusebius toward a Catholic sentiment. But for our purpose, these things suffice.