Prologue.--Design of the History.

p. 33

The ECCLESIASTICAL HistorY of Theodoret.

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Book I.

Prologue.—Design of the History.

When artists paint on panels and on walls the events of ancient history, they alike delight the eye, and keep bright for many a year the memory of the past. Historians substitute books for panels, bright description for pigments, and thus render the memory of past events both stronger and more permanent, for the painter’s art is ruined by time. For this reason I too shall attempt to record in writing events in ecclesiastical history hitherto omitted, deeming it indeed not right to look on without an effort while oblivion robs ²³⁵ noble deeds and useful stories of their due fame. For this cause too I have been frequently urged by friends to undertake this work. But when I compare my own powers with the magnitude of the undertaking, I shrink from attempting it. Trusting, however, in the bounty of the Giver of all good, I enter upon a task beyond my own strength.

Eusebius of Palestine ²³⁶ has written a history of the Church from the time of the holy Apostles to the reign of Constantine, the prince beloved of God. I shall begin my history from the period at which his terminates. ²³⁷

Footnotes

33:235

συλαω. Cf. 2 Cor. xi. 8

33:236

Cf. Basil de Spir. Sanct., 29. “ὁ παλαιστῖνος” means “of Cæsarea,” his see, to distinguish him from his namesake, Bishop of Nicomedia.

33:237

The last event mentioned by Eusebius is the defeat of Licinius, who was put to death a.d. 324.