Church History 8.17.9

Summary: Since the Christians still would not worship the gods, the emperors pardon them, allowing them to be Christians and rebuild their meeting houses, provided they keep order.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:380

καὶ ἐπειδὴ τῶν πολλῶν τῇ αὐτῇ ἀπονοίᾳ διαμε- “νόντων ἑωρῶμεν μήτε τοῖς θεοῖς τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις “τὴν ὀφειλομένην θρησκείαν προσάγειν αὐτοὺς, μήτε “τῷ τῶν Χριστιανῶν προσέχειν, ἀφορῶντες εἰς τὴν ‘ἡμετέραν φιλανθρωπίαν καὶ τὴν διηνεκῆ συνήθειαν, “διʼ ἧς εἰώθαμεν ἅπασιν ἀνθρώποις συγγνώμην “ἀπονέμειν, προθυμότατα καὶ ἐν τούτῳ τὴν συγχώ- “ρησιν τὴν ἡμετέραν ἐπεκτεῖναι δεῖν ἐνομίσαμεν, ἵνα “αὖθις ὦσι Χριστιανοὶ, καὶ τοὺς οἴκους, ἐν οἷς συν- “ήγοντο, συνθῶσιν οὕτως ὥστε μηδὲν ὑπεναντίον τῆς ἐπιστήμης αὐτοὺς πράττειν· διʼ ἑτέρας δὲ ἐπι- “στολῆς τοῖς δικασταῖς δηλώσομεν τί αὐτοὺς παρα- “φυλάξασθαι δεήσει.

English · Claude translation

And since, as most persisted in the same madness, we saw that they neither offered the worship owed to the heavenly gods nor gave heed to the God of the Christians, looking to our own humanity and our constant custom, by which we are accustomed to grant pardon to all people, we thought that in this case too we ought most readily to extend our indulgence, so that they may be Christians again and may put together the houses in which they used to assemble, on condition that they do nothing contrary to discipline. By another letter we shall make known to the judges what they will have to observe.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:380 · 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

Persecution

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.17.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/17/9/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.17.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/17/9/).

Greek text · Dindorf 4:380

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Notes on the original text

Cite this passage