240 
ISEBIUS, ’ was born in Pa-. 
mu a surnamed Pamphilus, 
Pamphilus, an eminent presb 
a wg he is to new ate much assistance 
in his studies, and from to whose memory he is 
said to have taken the sirname of Pamphilus. During 
the Dioclesian persecution, when Pamphilus was im- 
isoned. in the year 307, Eusebius assiduously attend, 
Wiis dafiog his confinement; and.after his friend had 
suffered rdom, A. D, 309, he. removed to, Tyre, 
where he witnessed other anking instances of unsha- 
ken suffering in the cause of Christianity. He next 
went into Egypt, where the same persecution was Car- 
ried on, and w he himself was. imprisoned, but was 
afterwards released without mune bx subjected to 
nalty ; a. circamstance which, without any ap; 
inten brought upon him the charge of having 
made some.dishonourable submission to the enemies of 
his faith. When the persecution ceased, he returned to 
Palestine, and was elected Bishop of Czesarea as is gene- 
rally supposed in the year 315; but, at all events, he 
filled that see in the year 320. From, this period, he 
was present at most of the synods held in that of 
the world; and was generally the advocate of mild and. 
forbearing measures. He was one of those bishops who 
conceived that Arius had been severely treated by Alex- 
ander, Bishop of Alexandria, to whom he wrote a letter 
in bis behalf. He acteda distinguished part at the ce- 
lebrated Council of Nice in 325, in which, by the com- 
mand. of Constantine, he was placed. on the right of the 
throne, and opened the proceedings by an ess to 
that Emperor. He hesitated long to admit the term 
émexeses, consubstantial, on the ground that it was un- 
scriptural ; but afterwards concurred, upon condition 
of being allowed to subscribe it in his own sense of it, 
namely, “‘ that the Son of God was not like created 
beings, but received his existence and his ections 
from the Father in a different and in an ineffable man- 
ner.” Hence it has been keenly contested, whether he 
favoured the sentiments of Arius or of Athanasius, 
The most likely opinion is, that he assented to neither, 
bat endeavoured to steer a middle.course, which has 
rendered him obnoxious to the more violent disciples 
ofboth. In the year 330, he concurred with the coun- 
cil at Antioch in deposing Eustathius, Bishop of that 
city; but, though he was elected to the vacant see, 
which was more honourable and profitable than that of 
Caesarea, and though he was earnestly urged by the 
hishops and 
sisted in his refusal. In 335, he was present at the 
Council of Tyre, where he joined those, bishops who 
condemned the prnecetiogs of Athanasius, Bishop of Tyandus 
en deputed to justify the. 
sentence to Constantine, he pronounced his celebrated, 
Alexandria ; and having 
the public 
e po: honeursdomch 
peror’s fayour, being 
gyric of that emperor duri 
ce 30th year of his reign. 
very particular marks of the em 
often invited to his table, and admitted to his private. 
conferences ; and, after his return to received 
fram him many letters, several of which he has insert- 
ed in oie life of that prince, It does not, however, ap- 
le to accept of the succession, he per-_ 
tate ever employed his eee 
stantine, either in depressing _ 
He died ep ear 339 or 3: _ 
his disciple and intimate fi 
his life, but whose work has: 
and, like most eminent i. t 
friends and inve enemies. According to 
pedbaig ys - : and sincere—a gr 
, of truth, an religion—little disposed 
active share in the quarrels of hie conten 
sways, suns fe : contending 
Saarene persuasion, 
things 
sidered as the father of ecclesiastical hi ‘o hi 
as well as a voluminous writer. 1 
course of his life he seems to have 
studious ; and it has excited the astoni 
who were Ives distinguished for 
how he should have been able, amidst 
ties of his function, to find leisure for the 
been rer 
OO 
compen in 
a Treatise conce 
in six books, of which 
han 
1604. A fe fragments of the orig inal, preserved in 
Greek authors, wete collected and published by Joseph, 
works, which 
Levi ies Pe 
bius treats with great ity; Three of E 
siastical Theology ; the Life of Constantine, in four 
