• Home
  • Works
  • Introduction Guide Collaboration Sponsors / Collaborators Copyrights Contact Imprint
Bibliothek der Kirchenväter
Search
DE EN FR
Works Eusebius of Caesarea (260-339) Vita Constantini The Life of the blessed Emperor Constantine
Book II.

Chapter XXV.--An Illustration from Ancient Times.

"For certainly any one who will mentally retrace the course of events from the earliest period down to the present time, and will reflect on what has occurred in past ages, will find that all who have made justice and probity the basis of their conduct, have not only carried their undertakings to a successful issue, but have gathered, as it were, a store of sweet fruit as the produce of this pleasant root. Again, whoever observes the career of those who have been bold in the practice of oppression or injustice; who have either directed their senseless fury against God himself, or have conceived no kindly feelings towards their fellow-men, but have dared to afflict them with exile, disgrace, confiscation, massacre, or other miseries of the like kind, and all this without any sense of compunction, or wish to direct thoughts to a better course, will find that such men have received a recompense proportioned to their crimes. And these are results which might naturally and reasonably be expected to ensue. 1


  1. There is a curious unanimity of effort on the part of theological amateurs, ancient and modern, to prove that those upon whom the tower in Siloam fell were guiltier than others. This was the spirit of Lactantius and it is not to be wondered at that Constantine should adopt such a peculiarly self-satisfying doctrine. ↩

pattern
  Print   Report an error
  • Show the text
  • Bibliographic Reference
  • Scans for this version
Translations of this Work
The Life of the blessed Emperor Constantine
Commentaries for this Work
Introduction to the Life of Constantine

Contents

Faculty of Theology, Patristics and History of the Early Church
Miséricorde, Av. Europe 20, CH 1700 Fribourg

© 2025 Gregor Emmenegger
Imprint
Privacy policy