EUSEBIUS,[1] G. C.-" To what has been mentioned, I shall add my reasoning on the divinity of our Saviour; but nothing newly invented from myself, nothing from my own closet, nor resting on the opinion of my own sagacity. I shall deliver the uncorrupted doctrine of the Church of God, which she received at the beginning, from ear and eye-witnesses, and still preserves inviolate." In proem. de Eccl. Theol. p. 60. Edit. Coloniæ, 1688.
St. ATHANASIUS,[2] G. C.-“If you wish to confound the opinions of the Gentiles, and of the heretics, and to show that the knowledge of God is not to be found with them, but in the Church alone, you may repeat the words of the seventy-fifth psalm.”—Ep. ad Marcel. T. 1. p. 996. Edit. Bened. Parisiis, 1698. “Let us again consider, from the earliest period, the tradition, the doctrine, and faith of the Catholic Church, which God first delivered, the Apostles proclaimed, and the succeeding Fathers fostered and preserved. On these, (that is the tradition, &c.) the Church is founded; and whoever falls from her communion, neither is, nor can be called a Christian."Ep. 1. ad Serapion. T. 1. parte II. p. 676.
- ↑ Besides his Ecclesiastical History in ten books, he is the author of other valuable works, some of which are extant. He was bishop of Cæsarea in Palestine, the confidential friend of the Great Constantine, and died in the year 338.
- ↑ He succeeded St. Alexander in the patriarchal chair of Alexandria, and also in his zeal against the Arians, in 326. He was one of the most eloquent Fathers of the Church, and the most strenuous supporter of her faith during a period of 47 years. He died about the year 373, leaving us many monuments of his erudition, piety, and zeal.
