fidels and profane persons, these very same are now acknowledged by him as worshippers having religion, and are allowed to rebuild their churches; moreover, the tyrant himself confesses and testifies that certain rights belong to them. Having, therefore, made these confessions, as if he had actually obtained some positive benefit, on this very account, he suffered less than was properly his due, and being smitten with a sudden visitation of God, he died in the second campaign of the war. But his end was not like that of generals and military commanders, who bravely and heroically expose their lives, and encounter a glorious death for glory and their friends; but as one hostile to God and religion, whilst his army was drawn up for battle in the field, he himself remained at home, concealing himself, and received the punishment that he deserved, being smitten with a sudden judgment of God over his whole body; so that he was harassed by dreadful pains and torments, and prostrated on the ground, was wasted away by hunger, whilst his whole flesh dissolved by an invisible fire and burning, sent from God. So that this being wasted away, the whole aspect of his former shape was destroyed, and there was only left of him a kind of image, reduced by length of time to a skeleton of dry bones. Indeed, all present could regard his body as nothing but the tomb of his soul, buried in one that was already dead, and completely dissolved. And as the heart began to burn still more violently in the very recesses of his marrow, his eyes burst forth, and falling from their sockets they left him blind. After this he still continued to breathe, acknowledging many things to the Lord, and invoking death. At length, however, after confessing that he justly suffered these judgments for his wanton excesses against the Christians, he breathed his last.

CHAPTER XI.

The total destruction of the enemies of religion.

THUS, then, Maximinus being removed out of the way, who had proved the worst of all the surviving enemies of religion, by the goodness of God, the omnipotent ruler, the renovation of the churches was begun from the very foundations. But the doc. trine of Christ shining forth to the glory of the supreme God, enjoyed greater privileges than before, whilst the impious and profane were covered with shame and irrecoverable disgrace. First of all, Maximinus himself, being publicly announced by the emperors as the public enemy, was confirmed to be the most impious and detestable, as well as the most hostile to the Deity, by his public edicts. And, whatsoever paintings and representations had been placed in honour of him or his children, in every city, some were forced down from their elevation, and torn to pieces or broken, others were destroyed by having the face daubed with black paint. Whatsoever statues, also, had been erected to his honour, were likewise cast down and broken, lying exposed to the laughter and jests of those that were disposed to insult and wantonly abuse them. Then, also, all the honours of the other enemies of religion were removed. All that favoured the party of Maximinus were slain, especially those that had been distinguished by him with eminent offices, as rulers, for their flattery to him, in their insolent excesses against our faith. Of this number was Peucetius, the most honoured, and revered, and dearest of all his favourites, who had been consul twice and thrice, and had been appointed by him prime minister. Culcianus, also, who had been promoted through every grade of office, and who was also prominent for his many slaughters of Christians in Egypt. There were also not a few others, by whose agency especially, the tyranny of Maximinus had been augmented and confirmed; justice, also, summoned Theotecnus, by no means overlooking the evils he had done against the Christians. And whilst he now expected to enjoy himself, after he had erected the statue at Antioch, and

was now promoted to the government of a province, Licinius came to the city of Antioch, and making a search for all the impostors, he put the prophets and priests of the newly wrought statue to the torture, asking at the same time, how they came to concoct such a delusion. And when unable by reason of the tortures to conceal it any longer, they disclosed that the whole secret was a device of Theotecnus. After punishing all according to their deserts, he first condemned Theotecnus, and after him all the partners of his impostures, to death, with the greatest possible torments. To all these were superadded the children of Maximinus, whom he had already made sharers in the imperial dignity with his titles and statues. Also, the relatives of the tyrants who before this were elated and boasting, and exercising their power over all men, had the same punishments, together with the utter disgrace of the others, inflicted upon them. As they would neither receive instruction nor understand the exhortation given in the Holy Scriptures: "Trust not in princes, in the children of men, in whom there is no safety. For his breath goeth from him, and he will return to his earth again. In that day all their thoughts shall perish." Thus, then, the impious being cleared away, the government was deservedly reserved secure, and without a rival, for the only two, Constantine and Licinius. These, after first removing the hostility to God out of the way, and sensible of the great benefits conferred on them by his goodness, exhibited both their love of virtue and God, as well as their piety and gra.tude to Him, by the laws they enacted in favour of Christians.

BOOK X.

CHAPTER I.

The peace which was granted us by divine interposition.

BUT thanks be to God, the omnipotent and universal sovereign, thanks also to the Saviour and Redeemer of our souls, Jesus Christ, through whom we pray that peace will be preserved to us at all times, firm and unshaken by any temporal molestation from without, and troubles from the mind within. Attended with your prayers, O most holy Paulinus,* whilst we superadd this tenth book to the preceding ones of our ecclesiastical history, we shall dedicate this to you, announcing you as the seal of the whole work. Justly, indeed, shall we here subjoin in a perfect number,† a complete discourse and panegyric on the renovation of the churches yielding to the spirit of God, inviting us in the following manner: Sing to the Lord a new song, because he hath done wonderful works. His right hand hath saved him, and his holy right arm. The Lord hath made known his salvation, his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen." Thus, then, as the Scriptures enjoin upon us to sing a new song, we shall accordingly show that after those dreadful and gloomy spectacles and events, we have been privileged to

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* Paulinus was bishop of Tyre, and Eusebius here dedicates the work to him, as the one who suggested and urged him to undertake it.

†The number ten is called perfect, because it is the limit and close of our system of numeration; all the numbers beyond ten being only combinations of this and the included digits. Shorting has overlooked the stress which our author intended to lay on the expression. He has considered it as a mere qualification of panegyric. It may be observed, this book contains the celebrated panegyric delivered by Eusebius at the renovation of the cathedral of Tyre. But the author seems to intend the whole book as a eulogy upon the happy reverse of affairs, and therefore, a happy close of the whole work. He now seems to lay aside the historian, and to swell into the amplifications of the orator.

see such things, and to celebrate such things as many of the really pious and martyrs of God, before us ardently craved to see, and did not see them, and to hear, and did not hear them. But they, indeed, hastening on their course, obtained "what was far better;" being transferred to the heavens themselves, and to the paradise of celestial pleasures. But we freely acknowledging this state of things in our day as better than what we could expect, have been beyond measure astonished at the magnitude of the grace manifested by the author of our mercies, and justly do we admire and adore him with all the powers of our mind, and bear witness to the truth of those declarations recorded, where it is said, "come hither and behold the works of God, the wonders that he hath done upon the earth; he removeth wars until the ends of the earth, he breaketh the bow and snappeth the spear asunder, and burneth the shields in fire." Rejoicing in these things fulfilled in our day, we shall pursue the tenor of our history. All the race of the enemies of God were destroyed in the manner we have stated, and were thus suddenly swept away from the sight of men, as the divine Word again declares: "I saw the wicked lifted up and exalted like the cedars of Lebanon, and I passed by, and lo, he was not; and I sought, and his place was not found." And now a bright and splendid day, with no overshadowing cloud, irradiated the churches in the whole world with its celestial light; neither was there any indisposition even on the part of those who were strangers to our faith, to enjoy with us the same blessings, or of sharing at least in the overflowings of these as they were provided from God.

CHAPTER II.

The restoration of the churches.

ALL men, then, were liberated from the oppression of the tyrant, and those who had been delivered from the miseries previously existing, acknowledged, one in one way, and another in