The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: BOOK I 31
concerning some other things, these too have come about by our saviour
God’s concession to free will even in these matters, so that the holy
universal and apostolic [19] Church might rather, from one side and
from the other, make what has been said captive to propriety and piety,
and come to one smoothed and straight path. For this reason, indeed, it
was said by the apostle, with exceeding great clarity: ‘It is necessary that
there also be heresies among us, in order that the reputable people be
made manifest.’ 104 And in this too one may admire the unutterable
wisdom of God, who also said to the venerable Paul: ‘For my power is
made perfect in weakness.’ 105 For from the things which have rent
asunder the limbs of the Church, from these the correct and blameless
doctrines have been further re¢ned and preserved, and the universal and
apostolic Church of God has achieved magni¢cation and the ascent to
the heavens. 106
But the nurslings of pagan error, not wishing to ¢nd God or his care
for men, destroyed both the beliefs of their predecessors and of each
other, 107 onthe contrary devising one God after another and both electing
and naming gods of their own passions so that, by endorsing such gods,
they might be provided with a pardon for their own licentious acts. 108
And so, for instance, the supreme father of both men and gods among
them, after being transformed into a bird, wantonly carried away the
Phrygian lad and provided for him the drinking cup as payment for his
shameful behaviour, allowing him to drink the loving cup ¢rst so that
jointly with the nectar they might drink the rebukes as well. 109 He, the
104 1 Corinthians 11.19.
105 2 Corinthians 12.9.
106 The Church is made stronger through the removal of heretical elements.
107 A direct response to the charge of innovation levelled by pagans against Christians.
The thesis of a gradual re¢nement of doctrine justi¢es Chalcedon as well as subsequent attempts
to reconcile Chalcedonians and Monophysites: orthodoxy would be de¢ned with
increasing clarity by the gradual identi¢cation and rejection of erroneous positions which
had not been explicitly covered by the de¢nitions of previous Councils.
108 Cf. Socrates iii.23.47^60 for the criticism that pagans added to their gods men of very
dubious morals. The following list of unsuitable pagan gods draws on the extensive Christian
polemical literature, e.g. Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica i^ii; Evagrius’ topics are
quite close to the selection in Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 39.4; cf. also Or. 4.77, 115^16,
121^2; 5.31^2. I am grateful to Dr Jenny Nimmo-Smith for these references.
109 The myth of Zeus and Ganymede: the Trojan Ganymede, the most beautiful of all
mortals, was carried o¡ to heaven by Zeus in the guise of an eagle and became cup-bearer to
the gods as well as the eponymous catamite.