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St. Pamphilus of Cæsarea
Martyred 309. Eusebius's life of Pamphilus is lost, but from his Martyrs of
Palestine
we learn that Pamphilus belonged to a noble family of Beirut (in
Phœnicia), where he received a good education, and that he quitted his native
land after selling all his property and giving the proceeds to the poor. He
attached himself to the perfect men
. From Photius (cod. 118), who took his
information from Pamphilus's Apology for Origen
, we learn that he went to
Alexandria where his teacher was Pierius, then the head of the famous
Catechetical School. He eventually settled in Cæsarea where he was ordained
priest, collected his famous library, and established a school for theological
study (Eusebius, Hist. eccl.
, VII, xxxii, 25). He devoted himself chiefly to
producing accurate copies of the Holy Scriptures. Testimonies to his zeal and
care in this work are to be found in the colophons of Biblical MSS. (for
examples see EUSEBIUS OF CÆSAREA). St. Jerome (De Vir. Ill., lxxv) says that
Pamphilus transcribed the greater part of the works of Origen with his own
hand
, and that these are still preserved in the library of Cæsarea.
He
himself was a possessor of twenty-five volumes of commentaries of Origen
,
copied out by Pamphilus, which he looked upon as a most precious relic of the
martyr. Eusebius (Hist. eccl., VI, xxxii) speaks of the catalogue of the library
contained in his life of Pamphilus. A passage from the lost life, quoted by St.
Jerome (Adv. Rufin., I, ix), describes how Pamphilus supplied poor scholars wtih
the necessaries of life, and, not merely lent, but gave them copies of the
Scriptures, of which he kept a large supply. He likewise bestowed copies on
women devoted to study. The great treasure of the library at Cæsarea was
Origen's own copy of the Hexapla, probably the only complete copy ever made. It
was consulted by St. Jerome (In Psalmos comm.
, ed. Morin, pp. 5, 21; In Epist.
ad Tit.
). The library was certainly in existence in the sixth century, but
probably did not long survive the capture of Cæsarea by the Saracens in 638
(Swete, Introd. to O.T. in Greek
, 74-5).
The Diocletian persecution began in 303. In 306 a young man named Apphianus -
a disciple of Pamphilus while no one was aware; he even concealed it from us
who were even in the same house
(Eusebius, Martyrs of Palestine
) -
interrupted the governor in the act of offering sacrifice, and paid for his
boldness with a terrible martyrdom. His brother Ædesius, also a disciple of
Pamphilus, suffered martyrdom about the same time at Alexandria under similar
circumstances (ibid.). Pamphilus's turn came in November, 307. He was brought
before the governor and, on refusing to sacrifice, was cruelly tortured, and
then relegated to prison. In prison he continued copying and correcting MSS.
(see EUSEBIUS OF CÆSAREA). He also
composed, in collaboration with Eusebius, an Apology for Origen
in five books
(Eusebius afterwards added a sixth). Pamphilus and other members of his
household, men in the full vigour of mind and body
, were without further
torture sentenced to be beheaded in Feb., 309. While sentence was being given a
youth named Porphyrius - the slave of Pamphilus
, the beloved disciple of
Pamphilus
, who had been instructed in literature and writing
- demanded the
bodies of the confessors for burial. He was cruelly tortured and put to death,
the news of his martyrdom being brought to Pamphilus before his own execution.
Of the Apology for Origen
only the first book is extant, and that in a
Latin version made by Rufinus. It begins with describing the extravagant
bitterness of the feeling against Origen. He was a man of deep humility, of
great authority in the Church of his day, and honoured with the priesthood. He
was above all things anxious to keep to the rule of faith that had come down
from the Apostles. The soundness of his doctrine concerning the Trinity and the
Incarnation is then vindicated by copious extracts from his writings. Then nine
charges against his teaching are confronted with passages from his works. St.
Jerome stated in his De Viris illustribus
that there were two apologies - one
by Pamphilus and another by Eusebius. He discovered his mistake when Rufinus's
translation appeared in the height of the Origenistic controversy, and rushed to
the conclusion that Eusebius was the sole author. He charged Rufinus, among
other things, with palming off under the name of the martyr what was really the
work of the heterodox Eusebius, and with suppressing unorthodox passages. As to
the first accusation there is abundant evidence that the Apology
was the joint
work of Pamphilus and Eusebius. Against the second may be set the negative
testimony of Photius who had read the original; Photius, who was severe to
excess towards the slightest semblance of Arianism, remarked no such taint in
the Apology of Origen which he had read in Greek
(Ceillier). The Canons of the
alleged Council of the Apostles at Antioch were ascribed by their compiler (late
fourth century) to Pamphilus (Harnack, Spread of Christianity
, I, 86-101). The
ascription to Pamphilus, by Gemmadius, of a treatise Contra mathematicos
was a
blunder due to a misunderstanding of Rufinus's preface to the Apology
. A
Summary of the Acts of the Apostles among the writings associated with Euthalius
bears in its inscription the name of Pamphilus (P. G., LXXXIX, 619 sqq.).
BARDENHEWER, Gesch. der altkirch. Lit., II, 242 sqq.; HARNACK, Altchrist. Lit., 543 sqq.; CEILLIER, Hist. des aut., III, 435 sqq.; TILLEMONT, Hist. ecclés., V, 418 sqq.; ROUTH, Relig. sac., III, 258 sqq.; RUFINUS's Translation of the Apology for Origen will be found in editions of the works of Origen.
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