Church History 10.7.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:481

Ἀντίγραφον βασιλικῆς ἐπιστολῆς, διʼ ἧς τοὺς προεστῶτας τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν πάσης ἀπολελύσθαι τῆς περὶ τὰ πολιτικὰ λειτουργίας προστάττει. “Χαῖρε, Ἀνυλῖνε, τιμιώτατε ἡμῖν ἐπειδὴ ἐκ πλειόνων πραγμάτων φαίνεται, παρεξουθενηθεῖσαν τὴν θρησκείαν, ἐν ᾗ ἡ κορυφαία τῆς ἁγιωτάτης ἐπουρανίου αἰδὼς φυλάττεται, μεγάλους κινδύνους ἐνηνοχέναι τοῖς δημοσίοις πράγμασιν, αὐτήν τε ταύτην ἐνθέσμως ἀναληφθεῖσαν καὶ φυλαττομένην μεγίστην εὐτυχίαν τῷ Ῥωμαϊκῷ ὀνόματι, καὶ σύμπασι τοῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων πράγμασιν ἐξαίρετον εὐδαιμονίαν παρεσχηκέναι, τῶν θείων εὐεργεσιῶν τοῦτο παρεχουσῶν, ἔδοξεν ἐκείνους τοὺς ἄνδρας τοὺς τῇ ὀφειλομένη ἁγιότητι καὶ τῇ τοῦ νόμου τούτου παρεδρίᾳ τὰς ὑπηρεσίας τὰς ἐξ ἑαυτῶν τῇ τῆς θείας θρησκείας θεραπείᾳ παρέχοντας, τῶν καμάτων τῶν ἰδίων τὰ ἔπαθλα κομίσασθαι, Ἀνυλῖνε τιμιώτατε.

English · Claude translation

Copy of an imperial letter in which he orders the presidents of the churches to be released from all civic public services. [Letter of Constantine to Anulinus:] “Greetings, Anulinus, our most honored. Since it appears from many circumstances that when the religion in which the highest reverence for the most holy heavenly power is preserved was despised, great dangers came upon public affairs, and that when it was lawfully taken up and preserved it brought the greatest good fortune to the Roman name and exceptional prosperity to all human affairs, the divine benefits granting this, it has seemed good, most honored Anulinus, that those men who, with due holiness and devotion to this law, give their own services to the ministry of the divine religion should receive the rewards of their own labors.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:481 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Topics

Church office

Notes

Translation notes

The “civic public services” (λειτουργίαι, Latin munera) were compulsory duties and costs imposed on town councillors.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (word wrongly divided in the digital text; wrong accent in the digital text): μέγίστην → μεγίστην; παρʼ ἔχοντʼ ἃς → παρέχοντας.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.7.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/7/1/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.7.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/7/1/).