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Histoire ecclésiastique
CHAPITRE XVI : L'HEUREUX CHANGEMENT DES AFFAIRES
[1] Cela se prolongea ainsi pendant toute la persécution ; au bout de dix ans, celle-ci, grâce à Dieu, prit fin complètement ; après la huitième année du reste, elle avait commencé à se ralentir. En effet, lorsque la grâce divine et céleste montra qu'elle veillait sur nous avec une bienveillance miséricordieuse, alors les empereurs de notre temps, ceux-là mêmes qui depuis longtemps conduisaient la guerre contre nous, changèrent de sentiments d'une façon très surprenante et se rétractèrent en d'excellents éclits rendus à notre sujet et. par des ordonnances très pacifiques, ils éteignirent l'incendie de la persécution qui s'était si grandement propagé.1 [2] Il n'y eut à cela aucune cause humaine, et ce ne fut ni la pitié des princes, comme on pourrait le dire, ni leur humanité, il s'en faut beaucoup; car chaque jour depuis le commencement jusqu'à cet instant, des peines plus nombreuses et plus dures étaient imaginées par eux contre nous.2 Mais la vigilance de la Providence divine elle- 495 même fut manifeste; elle se réconcilia d'abord avec le peuple, puis elle se mit à poursuivre l'auteur de ces maux. Un châtiment envoyé par Dieu l'atteignit, commença son œuvre par la chair, et pénétra jusqu'à l'âme. [4] Soudainement un abcès lui vint au périnée, ensuite un ulcère fistuleux au fondement ; le ravage inguérissable de l'un et de l'autre s'étendait aux entrailles les plus intérieures ; dans celles-ci fourmillaient une multitude innombrable de vers et il en sortait une odeur mortelle. Toute la masse de ses chairs, produit d'une alimentation abondante avant la maladie, pendait en un excès plantureux de graisse, qui se mit alors à pourrir et à présenter un aspect intolérable et horrible à ceux qui approchaient. [5] Parmi les médecins, les uns étaient tout à fait hors d'état de supporter ce qu'il y avait d'étrange et d'excessif dans cette odeur fétide : ils furent égorgés ; les autres, impuissants à secourir toute cette chair enflée et arrivée à un pointoù il n'y avait aucun espoir de salut, furent mis à niort sans pitié.
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L'édit de tolérance, affiché à Nicomédie, le 30 avril 311. était rendu au nom de Galère, Constantin et Licinius. La dixième année est 312-313; la huitième, 310-311. ↩
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ἐπεξιούσης : ἐπεξιούσης καὶ πρωστάτῃ τῆς τοῦ παντὸς διωγμοῦ κακίας ἐπιχολουμένης. Καὶ γὰρ εἴ τι ταῦτ' ἐχρῆν κατὰ θείαν γενέσθαι κρίσιν, ἀλλά «οὐαί», φησὶν ὁ λόγος (Luc, xvii, 1), « δι' οὗ δ' ἂν σκάνδαλον ἔχρηται » AERT, addition provenant de la première édition (ἔρχεται). — L'empereur malade est Galère, qui mourut le 5 mai 311 ↩
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The Church History of Eusebius
Chapter XVI.--The Change of Affairs for the Better.
1. Such was the state of affairs during the entire persecution. But in the tenth year, through the grace of God, it ceased altogether, having begun to decrease after the eighth year. 1 For when the divine and heavenly grace showed us favorable and propitious oversight, then truly our rulers, and the very persons 2 by whom the war against us had been earnestly prosecuted, most remarkably changed their minds, and issued a revocation, and quenched the great fire of persecution which had been kindled, by merciful proclamations and ordinances concerning us.
2. But this was not due to any human agency; nor was it the result, as one might say, of the compassion or philanthropy of our rulers;--far from it, for daily from the beginning until that time they were devising more and more severe measures against us, and continually inventing outrages by a greater variety of instruments;--but it was manifestly due to the oversight of Divine Providence, on the one hand becoming reconciled to his people, and on the other, attacking him 3 who instigated these evils, and showing anger toward him as the author of the cruelties of the entire persecution.
3. For though it was necessary that these things should take place, according to the divine judgment, yet the Word saith, "Woe to him through whom the offense cometh." 4 Therefore punishment from God came upon him, beginning with his flesh, and proceeding to his soul. 5
4. For an abscess suddenly appeared in the midst of the secret parts of his body, and from it a deeply perforated sore, which spread irresistibly into his inmost bowels. An indescribable multitude of worms sprang from them, and a deathly odor arose, as the entire bulk of his body had, through his gluttony, been changed, before his sickness, into an excessive mass of soft fat, which became putrid, and thus presented an awful and intolerable sight to those who came near.
5. Some of the physicians, being wholly unable to endure the exceeding offensiveness of the odor, were slain; others, as the entire mass had swollen and passed beyond hope of restoration, and they were unable to render any help, were put to death without mercy.
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The edict of Milan, issued by Constantine and Licinius toward the close of the year 312 (upon the date, see Mason, p. 333, note) put an end to the persecution in its tenth year, though complete toleration was not proclaimed by Maximin until the following spring. Very soon after the close of the eighth year, in April, 311, Galerius issued his edict of toleration which is given in the next chapter. It is, therefore, to the publication of this edict that Eusebius refers when he says that the persecution had begun to decrease after the eighth year. Maximin yielded reluctant and partial consent to this edict for a few months, but before the end of the year he began to persecute again; and during the year 312 the Christians suffered severely in his dominions (see Bk. IX. chap. 2 sq.). ↩
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The plural here seems a little peculiar, for the edict was issued only in the name of Galerius, Constantine, and Licinius, not in the name of Maximin. We have no record of Licinius as a persecutor before this time, and Eusebius' words of praise in the ninth book would seem to imply that he had not shown himself at all hostile to the Church. And in fact Licinius seems ruled out by §2, below, where "they" are spoken of as having "from the beginning devised more and more severe measures against us." And yet, since Constantine did not persecute, we must suppose either that Licinius is included in Eusebius' plural, or what is perhaps more probable, that Eusebius thinks of the edict as proceeding from all four emperors though bearing the names of only three of them. It is true that the latter is rather a violent supposition in view of Eusebius' own words in the first chapter of Bk. IX. I confess that I find no satisfactory explanation of the apparent inconsistency. ↩
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i.e. Galerius. ↩
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Matt. xviii. 7. ↩
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Galerius seems to have been smitten with the terrible disease, which Eusebius here refers to, and which is described by Lactantius at considerable length (De mort. pers. chap. 33) and with many imaginative touches (e.g. the stench of his disease pervades "not only the palace, but even the whole city"!), before the end of the year 310, and his death took place in May of the following year. ↩