Eusebius and a Haiku, Perhaps

--that's a hybrid haiku (i think). Shlom my friends--

I have been studying some of the work of the Christian Church's first "major historian" - Eusebius Pamphilus. This bishop of Caeserea lived around the same era as Constantine the Great (because he ended persecution of Christians by Roman Emperors and pagans). In fact Eusebius was an eyewitness to the emperor's role in calling and directing most of the first Ecumenical Council (Nicea, in Asia Minor, 325 C.E.) However, in some circles, Eusebius is seen as a sycophant or someone who curried favor with the powerful, quite against the strictures of Paul in his Epistles (letters in the New Testament).

My little ditty:
Eusebius was born in Palestine
He prayed - surely he did! - for leaders more kind
than Diocletian ... better a Constantine
Now as for "Pamphilus" - parents did not change their minds
He borrowed the name from a Beirut-ian ... in bygone times!

I am discovering that present-day Turkey, Lebanon and Syria were very central to the growth and development of Christianity, a fact highlighted when Rome and the Empire fell to the Germanic peoples (/unhappily/happily called "barbarians" and "hordes" by other "better" historians than Eusebius).

Eusebius gets a bad rap because he compared Constantine to Moses leading people out of slavery and persecution; he found nothing wrong with the personality and the family of Constantine. Without much evidence he wrote that Constantine's father was a Christian, when the Emperor himself refused "training" and Baptism until about 327 C.E. (before his death, thank God!). I think Constantine was so welcomed because he helped the Church unite -- remove heresies and other views like Araianism -- and pushed Christians to selecting a common day for Easter at Nicea (325 C.E. or A.D.) After so much persecution and so many martyrs - some of them scholar friends of Eusebius - many Christians welcomed Constantine's "imperial Christianity" without objections. Some of those who did object, voted with their feet: these were the monks and ascetics who fled to the wilderness and deserts rather than have an emperor act as the first Pope and order Christians and theologians to unite under his "perfect leadership and person." I continue to wonder, in my ongoing research, and possibly discover why Eusebius escaped persecution and martyrdom when his closest friends (like Pamphilus of Bierut, then studying Origen at the Church library in Caeserea) was executed around 307 C.E. I found no evidence that Eusebius was paid a Roman coin Z(penny or farthing) by Constantine for so much flattery. So there is historical value in not getting paid for "flattery" because Eusebius may have been the sincerest faltterer in Christendom. However, the work of Eusebius, valuable in itself, also raises the thorniest questions for Christains: church and state issues, and how closely should we allow the State to help the Church in doctrines and settling controversies. Shalom

Eusebius loved Constanine
He followed him all the time
History itself may be fine
For Eusebius it had to jive and rhyme
With God's purpose for humankind
So the Emperor dressed in style
And acted kindly at a time
When Christians endured crime
Of every evil and political kind
Thanks Eusebius and Constantine
That's the end of my rhyme
To classes --it's almost time!