But the work was really Eusebius's, who tells us that Pamphilus wrote nothing.

9. Am I to say plainly what your intention was, my most simple-minded friend? Do you think that we can believe that you unwittingly gave the name of the martyr to the book of a man who was a heretic, and thus made the ignorant, through their trust in Christ’s witness, become the defenders of Origen? Considering the erudition for which you are renowned, for which you are praised throughout the West as an illustrious litterateur, ³⁰¹⁴ so that the men of your party all speak of you as their Coryphæus, I will not suppose that you are ignorant of Eusebius’ ³⁰¹⁵ Catalogue, which states the fact that the martyr Pamphilus never wrote a single book. ³⁰¹⁶ Eusebius himself, the lover and companion of Pamphilus, and the herald of his praises, wrote three books in elegant language containing the life of Pamphilus. In these he extols other traits of his character with extraordinary encomiums, and praises to the sky his humility; but on his literary interests he writes as follows in the third book: “What lover of books was there who did not find a friend in Pamphilus? If he knew of any of them being in want of the necessaries of life, he helped them to the full extent of his power. He would not only lend them copies of the Holy Scriptures to read, but would give them most readily, and that not only to men, but to women also if he saw that they were given to reading. He therefore kept a store of manuscripts, so that he might be able to give them to those who wished for them whenever occasion demanded. He himself however, wrote nothing whatever of his own, except private letters which he sent to his friends, so humble was his estimate of himself. But the treatises of the old writers he studied with the greatest diligence, and was constantly occupied in meditation upon them.”

Footnotes

487:3014

Συγγραφεύς

487:3015

Συντάγμα. No work of Eusebius appears to have borne this title. The work alluded to is either the Life of Pamphilus or the Book On the Martyrs of Palestine.

487:3016

“The existence of a work which consisted mainly of extracts from Origen with Comments, and of which he was only the joint author, is quite reconcilable with this statement. Indeed, the very form of the expression in the original, corresponding to ‘ipse quidem’ ‘proprii’ was probably chosen so as to exclude this work of compilation and partnership.” Lightfoot, Art. Eusebius of Cæsarea, in Dict. of Christian Biography.