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Proof of the Gospel

Eusebius of Caesarea, tr. Ferrar, 1920

Book 1, 8. That the Christian Life is of Two Distinct Characters

That the Christian Life is of Two Distinct Characters

The one wrote on lifeless tables, the Other wrote the perfect commandments of the new covenant on living minds. And His disciples, accommodating their teaching to the minds of the people, according to the Master’s will, delivered on the one hand to those who were able to receive it, the teaching given by the perfect master to those who rose above human nature.¹ While on the other the side of the teaching which they considered was suitable to men still in the world of passion and needing treatment, they accommodated to the weakness of the majority, and handed over to them to keep sometimes in writing, and sometimes by unwritten ordinances to be observed by them. Two ways of life were thus given by the law of Christ to His Church. The one is above nature, and beyond common human living; it admits not marriage, child-bearing, property nor the possession of wealth, but wholly and permanently separate from the common customary life of mankind, it devotes itself to the service of God alone in its wealth of heavenly love!² And they who enter on this course, appear to die to the life of mortals, to bear with them nothing earthly but their body, and in mind and spirit to have passed to heaven. Like some celestial beings they gaze upon human life, performing the duty of a priesthood³ to Almighty God for the whole race, not with sacrifices of bulls and blood, nor with libations and unguents, nor with smoke and consuming fire and destruction of bodily things, but with right principles of true holiness, and of a soul purified in disposition, and above all with virtuous deeds and words; with such they propitiate the Divinity, and celebrate their priestly rites for themselves and their race. Such then is the perfect form of the Christian life. And the other more humble, more human, permits men to join in pure nuptials and to produce children, to undertake government, to give orders to soldiers fighting for right;⁴ it allows them to have minds for farming, for trade, and the other more secular interests as well as for religion: and it is for them that times of retreat and instruction, and days for hearing sacred things are set apart.⁵ And a kind of secondary grade of piety is attributed to them, giving just such help as such lives require, so that all men, whether Greeks or barbarians, have their part in the coming of salvation, and profit by the teaching of the Gospel.

Notes

τὴν ἕξιν διαβεβηκόσι: ἕξις is the settled permanent condition either of mind or body of an adult human being: this is transcended by the Christian Saint, as he escapes from the tyranny of the lower nature. Cf. P.E. 528 B. κατὰ ἕξιν, “in a permanent state.”
For ἔρως of sacred love, cf. ὁ ἐμὸς ἔρως ἐσταύρωται, Ignatius, Romans vii. (which however Lightfoot translates “my lust,” not “the one I love.”); ἐραστὴς φιλοσοφίας of Justin, Eus., H.E. iv. 8. St. Dionysius, placed by Harnack after A.D. 350, uses much erotic language, quoting the words of Ignatius (W. R. Inge. Christian Mysticism, p. 110). Inge agrees with Bigg (Bampton Lectures, Intr. pp. viii., ix.) that Ignatius refers to our Lord.
This interesting passage is a strong proof of the firm establishment of the ascetic ideal in the Church before the recognition of monasticism. The doctrine of “the two vocations” is plainly stated as part of the law of Christ: one implying a renunciation of property and marriage, a priesthood for the whole race; the other, a life involved in all secular interests. Asceticism had its roots in our Lord’s teaching and in that of the Apostles. There were devotees in the sub-apostolic age. (Didache 6; cf. 1 Clem. 38, Ign. ad Polyc. 5, and Eusebius’ description of Justin, H.E. iv. 38.). Traces of a semi-separation from the world are found after A.D. 150 (Athenagoras, Apol. pro Chr. xxviii. 129; Irenæus, ap. Eus., H.E. v. 241; Clem. Alex., “Quis dives?” 36; Clem. Strom. viii. 15.) The incident of Dionysius of Corinth and Pinytus, Bishop of the Cnossians, shews the growing tendency to rigour. (Euseb., H.E. iv. 21.) The Gnostic sects were rigorously ascetic. Consecration to virginity by a solemn vow was customary for women in Cyprian’s time. Egyptian retirement to solitude was organized by St. Anthony about 305, and was probably due to the pressure of the Decian persecution, and the ideas of the Alexandrian School. Pachomius began a “Coenobium,” or common monastic life under rule about 320. Hilarion, a little later, introduced monasticism into Palestine. Thus the movement was, as E.’s words suggest, new and captivating from its novelty and apparent harmony with Gospel precept, at a time when the Church was conscious of a great victory and escape from danger. Cf. Clarke, St. Basil the Great, pp. 26-42; Lausiac History of Palladius, pp. 20-24; Butler, chapter on “Monasticism,” Cambridge Medieval History, I. 521 ff.; Duchesne, Histoire Ancienne de l’Eglise, ii. 485 f.; E.R.E., art. “Monasticism.”
This seems to recognize Christians serving in magistracies and as officers in the army, though the expression is peculiar. ‘Though in the second century Tertullian (de /do/.c. 19, de Coron. Mil. c. 11), and Origen (¢c. Ce/s. viii. 73), and later Lactantius (/rs/7/utiones, vi. c. 20), consider that Cliistians should not bear arms, yet there is no doubt they did. Cf. Tertullian, Afologe?. c. 37, 42, and Euseb., 4.£. v. 5 (“The Thundering Legion "’).
By this time the duties of holding magistracies, and serving in the army were freely admitted, and the doctrine of “the two vocations,’”’ as expressed here, no doubt witnessed to the change of Christian opinion on this as on other matters.
For the relation of the Curia to the Church cf. C. Bigg, Zhe Church's Task under the Roman Empire, pp. 128 ff., and for an _ historical survey of the Christian attitude to war up to Augustine, Moffatt, D.A.C, yol, ii. pp. 646-67 3. |
Common Christianity admits marriage, family-life, war, agriculture, trade, politics: and is sustained by periods of retreat for spiritual instruction.