Originally Posted by Pete quoting Momigliano

Apart from him, there is no toher name that can be seriously compete with Eusebius' for the invention of ecclesiastical history. He was not vainly boasting when he asserted that he was the "first to enter the undertaking, as travellers do on some desolate and untrodden way".

Originally Posted by yummyfur

Everyone knows that Jerome invented Eusebius, therefore Eusebius could not have invented Christianity, Jerome even took one of his own names to create this psuedonym, Jeromes full name is Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus Stridonensis. Please find a manuscript of a Eusebian work that predated 400 CE, it can't be done!(snark)

Originally Posted by Ben C Smith

How naive. It is patently obvious that the Medici invented Christianity, including Eusebius, Jerome, Gregory... the lot.

Ben.

Originally Posted by yummyfur

Everyone knows that Jerome invented Eusebius, therefore Eusebius could not have invented Christianity, Jerome even took one of his own names to create this psuedonym, Jeromes full name is Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus Stridonensis. Please find a manuscript of a Eusebian work that predated 400 CE, it can't be done!(snark)

Originally Posted by Ben C Smith

Dare I ask what meaning you are extracting from the phrase invention of ecclesiastical history?

Originally Posted by MICHAEL J. HOLLERICH

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=97803621


Religion and Politics in the Writings of Eusebius:
Reassessing the First "Court Theologian"

MICHAEL J. HOLLERICH
assistant professor of religious studies in Santa Clara
University, Santa Clara, California.


Ever since Jacob Burckhardt dismissed him as
"the first thoroughly dishonest historian of antiquity,"
Eusebius has been an inviting target for students of
the Constantinian era. At one time or another they
have characterized him as

* a political propagandist [1],
* a good courtier [2],
* the shrewd and worldly adviser of the Emperor Constantine [3],
* the great publicist of the first Christian emperor,[4]
* the first in a long succession of ecclesiastical politicians, [5]
* the herald of Byzantinism, [6]
* a political theologian, [7]
* a political metaphysician [8], and
* a caesaropapist. [9]


Quote:
[1] Erik Peterson, Der Monotheismus als politisches Problem (Munich, 1951 ), p. 91;

[2] Henri Grégoire, "L'authenticité et l'historicité de la Vita Constantini attribuée ê Eusèbe de Césarée," Bulletin de l'Académie Royale de Belgique, Classe des Lettres, 39 ( 1953 ): 462-479, quoted in T. D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius (Cambridge, Mass., 1981 ), p. 401;

[3] Arnaldo Momigliano, "Pagan and Christian Historiography in the Fourth Century," in The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century, ed. A. Momigliano (Oxford, 1963 ), p. 85;

[4] Robert Markus, "The Roman Empire in Early Christian Historiography," The Downside Review 81 ( 1963 ): 343;

[5] Charles N. Cochrane, Christianity and Classical Culture (1940; reprint, Oxford, 1966 ), p. 183;

[6] Hendrik Berkhof, Die Theologie des Eusebius von Caesarea (Amsterdam, 1939 ), pp. 21-22;

[7] Hans Eger, "Kaiser und Kirche in der Geschichtstheologie Eusebs von Cäsarea," Zeitschrift
für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 38 ( 1939 ): 115;

[8] Per Beskow, Rex Gloriae. The Kingship of Christ in the Early Church (Uppsala, 1962 ), p. 318;

[9] J. M. Sansterre, "Eusèbe de Césarée et la naissance de la théorie 'césaropapiste,'" Byzantion 42 ( 1972 ): 593

Originally Posted by Roger Pearse

Do I recall correctly that Eusebius only met him once? (At Nicaea). We are familiar with Eusebius of Caesarea, because his works have such historical importance to us, but I sometimes wonder if Constantine even knew who he was.