Church History 9.1.5 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: The emperors now order that Christians practicing their religion are not to be harassed or punished, since they cannot be persuaded.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:420

ἐπειδὴ “τοίνυν συνέβαινεν ἐκ τοῦ τοιούτου τρόπου πολλοὺς ‟εἰς κίνδυνον ἑαυτοὺς περιβάλλειν, κατὰ τὴν προσ- ‟οῦσαν εὐγένειαν τῆς εὐσεβείας ἡ θειότης τῶν δε- ‟σποτῶν ἡμῶν τῶν δυνατωτάτων αὐτοκρατόρων, ‟ἀλλότριον εἶναι τῆς προθέσεως τῆς θειοτάτης τῆς ‟ἰδίας δοκιμάζουσα τὸ ἐκ τῆς τοιαύτης αἰτίας εῖς ‟τοσοῦτον κίνδυνον τοὺς ἀνθρώπους περιβάλλειν, ‟ἐκέλευσε διὰ τῆς ἐμῆς καθοσιώσεως τῇ σῇ ἀγχινοίᾳ διαχαράξαι, ἵνʼ εἴ τις τῶν Χριστιανῶν τοῦ ἰδίου ‟ἔθνους τὴν θρησκείαν μετιὼν εὑρεθείη, τῆς κατʼ αὐτοῦ ἐνοχλήσεως καὶ τοῦ κινδύνου αὐτὸν ἀποστήσειας, καὶ μή τινα ἐκ ταύτης τῆς προφάσεως τιμω- ‟ρίᾳ κολαστέον νομίσειας, ὁπότε τῇ τοσούτου χρόνου ‟συνελεύσει συνέστη, αὐτοὺς μηδενὶ τρόπῳ πεπεῖσθαι ‟δεδυνῆσθαι, ὅπως ἀπὸ τῶν τοιούτων ἐνστάσεων ‟ἀναχωρήσαιεν.

English · Claude translation

Since, therefore, it happened that in this way many were bringing themselves into danger, the divinity of our masters, the most mighty emperors, in accordance with the nobility of piety that belongs to them, judging it foreign to their own most divine purpose that people should be brought into such danger for such a cause, has commanded me in my devotion to write to your wisdom that, if any Christian be found practicing the worship of his own people, you should remove him from molestation and danger, and should not think that anyone is to be punished on this pretext, since it has been established in so long a time that they could in no way be persuaded to depart from such obstinacy.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:420 · 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. 9.1.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/1/5/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.1.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/1/5/).