History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325

represented the Holy Land, Asia Minor, and Spain; we may add Italy and North Africa, for Lactantius

was probably a native Italian and a pupil of Arnobius of Sicca, and Hosius acted to some extent

for the whole western church in Eastern Councils. With him Spain first emerges from the twilight

of legend to the daylight of church history; it was the border land of the west which Paul perhaps

had visited, which had given the philosopher Seneca and the emperor Trajan to heathen Rome, and

was to furnish in Theodosius the Great the strong defender of the Nicene faith.

Eusebius, Lactantius, and Hosius were witnesses of the cruelties of the Diocletian persecution,

and hailed the reign of imperial patronage. They carried the moral forces of the age of martyrdom

into the age of victory. Eusebius with his literary industry saved for us the invaluable monuments

of the first three centuries down to the Nicene Council; Lactantius bequeathed to posterity, in

Ciceronian Latin, an exposition and vindication of the Christian religion against the waning idolatry

of Greece and Rome, and the tragic memories of the imperial persecutors; Hosius was the presiding

genius of the synods of Elvira (306), Nicaea (325), and Sardica (347), the friend of Athanasius in

the defense of orthodoxy and in exile.

All three were intimately associated with Constantine the Great, Eusebius as his friend and

eulogist, Lactantius as the tutor of his eldest son, Hosius as his trusted counsellor who probably

suggested to him the idea of convening the first Œcumenical synod; he was we may say for a few

years his ecclesiastical prime minister. They were, each in his way, the emperor’s chief advisers

and helpers in that great change which gave to the religion of the cross the moral control over the

vast empire of Rome. The victory was well deserved by three hundred years of unjust persecution

and heroic endurance, but it was fraught with trials and temptations no less dangerous to the purity

and peace of the church than fire and sword.

All three were intimately associated with Constantine the Great, Eusebius as his friend and

eulogist, Lactantius as the tutor of his eldest son, Hosius as his trusted counsellor who probably

suggested to him the idea of convening the first Œcumenical synod; he was we may say for a few

years his ecclesiastical prime minister. They were, each in his way, the emperor’s chief advisers

and helpers in that great change which gave to the religion of the cross the moral control over the

vast empire of Rome. The victory was well deserved by three hundred years of unjust persecution

and heroic endurance, but it was fraught with trials and temptations no less dangerous to the purity

and peace of the church than fire and sword.

to shed innocent blood and to betray the truth." Unfortunately, in his extreme old age he yielded under the infliction of physical

violence, and subscribed an Arian creed, but bitterly repented before his death. Athanasius expressly says (l. c. 45), that "at the

approach of death, as it were by his last testament, he abjured the Arian heresy, and gave strict charge that no one should receive

it." It is a disputed point whether he died at Sirmium in 357, or was permitted to return to Spain, and died there about 359 or

360. We are only informed that he was over a hundred years old, and over sixty years a bishop. Athan. l.c.; Sulpicius Severus,

Hist. II. 55.

538

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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Indexes

Subject Index

Immortality, v.xiv.xix-p0.3

Apologetic Literature, v.v.x-p0.1

Apostles' Creed, v.xiv.iv-p0.1

Apostolic Fathers, v.xv.iii-p0.1

Asceticism, v.xi.i-p0.1

Celibacy, v.xi.iv-p0.1, v.xi.v-p0.1

Poverty, v.xi.iii-p0.1

Baptism, v.vii.xii-p0.1, v.vii.xiii-p0.1

Canon, v.xiv.ii-p0.1, v.xiv.ii-p26.2

Catechetical Instruction, v.vii.xiv-p0.1

Christian Art, v.viii.ii-p0.1

Clergy, v.vi.ii-p0.1

Discipline, v.vi.xvii-p0.1

Laity, v.vi.ii-p0.2

Confirmation, v.vii.xiv-p0.2

Creation, v.xiv.vi-p0.1

Eschatology, v.xiv.xix-p0.1, v.xiv.xx-p0.1

Chiliasm, v.xiv.xxii-p0.1

Judgment, v.xiv.xxi-p0.1

Millennarianism, v.xiv.xxii-p0.2

Punishment, v.xiv.xxi-p0.2

Eucharist, v.vii.x-p0.1, v.vii.xi-p0.1

Family, v.x.xi-p0.1, v.x.xii-p0.1

Fasting, v.x.xiv-p0.2

Gnosticism, v.xiii.ix-p0.1, v.xiii.v-p0.1, v.xiii.vi-p0.1, v.xiii.vii-p0.1

Heathenism, v.v.xii-p0.1

Heresy, v.xiv.i-p20.2

Holy Spirit, v.xiv.xii-p0.1

Incarnation, v.xiv.viii-p0.1

Infant Baptism, v.vii.xv-p0.1

Manichaeism, v.xiii.xxiv-p0.1, v.xiii.xxv-p0.1

Montanism, v.xii.ii-p0.1, v.xii.iii-p0.1

Morality, v.x.vii-p0.1

Original Sin, v.xiv.vii-p0.1

Papacy, v.vi.x-p0.1

Prayer, v.x.xiv-p0.1

Redemption, v.xiv.xvii-p0.1

539

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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Resurrection, v.xiv.xix-p0.2

Stoicism, v.x.iii-p0.1

The Lord's Day, v.vii.ii-p0.1

Trinity, v.xiv.xiii-p0.1

Virgin Mary, v.viii.vii-p0.1

Worship, v.vii-p1.2, v.vii.vii-p0.1, v.vii.viii-p0.1

persecution, v.iv.ii-p2.2

Index of Scripture References

Genesis

1   1:26   1:26   1:26   1:31   2:9   3:1   5:24   6:2   8:11   18:1   19:24   21:12   22:13   23:19   25:8  

32:24   49:11   1570

Exodus

3:6   3:16   4:2   4:3   12:6   19:6   34:28

Leviticus

21:16   23:4-9   23:5

Numbers

4:16   8:5-7   16:33   21:9   24:17

Deuteronomy

4:20   18:11   32:7

Judges

2   4   7   9   12   13   13   14   14   14   14   14:14   43   110

1 Samuel

28:7

1 Kings

19:8

1 Chronicles

5

2 Chronicles

23:18

Esther

56

Job

19:25-27

Psalms

2:7   19   19:4   19:6   22   22   22   22   22:10   23   33:6   33:9   34   42:1   45:3   45:3   45:4   45:4  

55:15   76   90:2   90:4   90:4   96:5   104:24   109:8   110:1   118

Ecclesiastes

5   9:6   12:7

Song of Solomon

540

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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