Section 28
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LIFE OF EUSEBIUS. xxi fathers, than to that of the eastern schismatics. In short, \vhose au thority ought to be more decisive in this matter than that of the bishops of Rome ? But Galesius, in his work on the Two Natures, has recounted our Eusebius amongst the catholic writers, and has quoted two authorities out of his books. Pope Pelagius,* too, terms him the most honourable amongst historians, and pronounces him to be free from every taint of heresy, notwithstanding he had highly eulogized heretical Origen. Some, however, may say, that since the easterns were better acquainted with Eusebius, a man of their own language, a preference should be given, in this case, to their judg ment. Even amongst these, Eusebius does not want those, Socratest and Gelasius Cyzicenusj for example, who entertained a favourable opinion concerning him. But if the judgment of the Seventh Oecumenical Synod be opposed to any inclination in his fa vour, our answer is ready. The faith of Eusebius was not the sub ject of that synod's debate, but the worship of images. In order to the subversion of which, when the opponents that had lately assem bled in the imperial city, had produced evidence out of Eusebius's letter to Constantia, and laid the greatest stress thereon, the fathers of the Seventh Synod, to invalidate the authority of that evidence, exclaimed that Eusebius was an Arian. But this was done merely casually, from the impulse of the occasion, and hatred of the letter, not advisedly, or from a previous investigation of the charge. They produce some passages, it is true, from Eusebius, to insinuate that he was favourable to the Arian hypothesis ; but they avoid all discrimina tion between what Eusebius wrote prior to the Nicene Council, and what he wrote afterwards, which, questionless, ought to have been done as essential to a just decision relative to Eusebius's faith. In short, nothing written by Eusebius before that synod is fairly charge able in this respect, against him. Eusebius's letter to Alexander, con taining his intercession with that prelate for Arius, was of course, written before that council. The affirmation, therefore, of the fathers of the Seventh Synod, notwithstanding it has the semblance of the highest authority, seems rather to have the character of temerity and premature judgment, than to be the verdict of a synod derived from a judicial investigation of the cause. The Greeks may assume the * In Epist. Tertia ad Eliam Aqueleiensem et alios Episcopos IstrL •j-See his Defence of him, in book 2. chap. 21. + De Synod. Nicaena, book 2. chap. 1.