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The works of Nathaniel Lardner - The Christian Researcher - Home

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LuciAN. A. D. 290. 205<br />

in the church <strong>of</strong> Antioch, was performed : whether" by<br />

famine, or by torture, or' by both ; and whether in prison,<br />

or abroad.<br />

Sozomen, having" occasion to speak <strong>of</strong> Lucian, who, he<br />

says, snftered martyrdom at Nicomedia, gives him tliis great<br />

character, that** ' he was likcM'isc on other accounts very<br />

' eminent, and in a signal manner skilful in the sacred<br />

' scriptures.'<br />

Honorius <strong>of</strong> Autun says, that ^Lucian was first presbyter<br />

<strong>of</strong> Antioch, and afterwards bishop <strong>of</strong> Nicomedia : but this is<br />

not said by Eusebius, or Jerom ; and therefore, probably,<br />

it is without foundation. <strong>The</strong> error may have arisen from<br />

the place <strong>of</strong> Lucian's martyrdom, or from the near mention<br />

made <strong>of</strong> Anthimus, bishop <strong>of</strong> Nicomedia, in Eusebius's<br />

Ecclesiastical History. Eusebius does not suppose Lucian<br />

to have been bishop <strong>of</strong> Nicomedia, nor to have had any <strong>of</strong>fice<br />

in that church ; for he reckons Lucian among the martyrs <strong>of</strong><br />

the church <strong>of</strong> Antioch.<br />

Jerom assured us that Lucian was buried at Helenopolis<br />

in Bithynia; but why he was buried there does not certainly<br />

appear from any good authority. In his Chronicle, at the<br />

21st year <strong>of</strong> Constantine's reign, Jerom says :<br />

' Constantino"'<br />

' repairing Drepanum, a city in Bithynia, in honour <strong>of</strong> the<br />

' martyr Lucian, who was there buried, called it Helenopo-<br />

' lis from his mother.' <strong>The</strong> same" is in the Paschal Chro-<br />

nicle, with this addition, that Constantino enacted that all<br />

the lands in view <strong>of</strong> the city should be exempted from<br />

tribute : which privilege, the author says, was enjoyed to<br />

his time. Philostorgius, the credulous Arian historian, says,<br />

thaty the empress Helena's fondness for that city was owing"<br />

to this only, that the body <strong>of</strong> Lucian was brought thither<br />

after his martyrdom by a dolphin.<br />

In a church <strong>of</strong> this city, which was near Nicomedia, Con-<br />

* Vid. Tillem. sur S. Lucien, noles 6 et 7. II y a bien de la difficulte pour<br />

le genre de la mort de S. Lucien. Id. ib. p. 410.<br />

' Martyrium vero S. Luciani presbyteri Antiocheni, qui fame et cruciatibus<br />

multis, ut ait Chiysostomus, Christi nonien gloriose confessus est, accidit anno<br />

311, vel 312. Monitum ad Horn, in S. Lucian. p. 523.<br />

" AnKuxva, rs ev tiiKoiitjSeu} fiaprvprjffavrog, avSpog ra rt aWa tvSoKi-<br />

fiiorars, (cat rag upag yparfiag tig ukoov rjKpiPwKOTog. Sozom. 1. iii. c. v. p.<br />

503. A. " Antiochense ecciesise presbyter, postmodum Nicomediae<br />

episcopus. Honor, de Scriptor. Ec. c. 78. " Drepanum, Bithyniae<br />

civitatem, in honorem martyris Luciani ibi conditi Constantinus instaurans ex<br />

vocabulo matris suae Helenopolim nuncupavit. Hier. Chr. 1. 2. p. 181.<br />

" Chron. Pasc. p. 283.<br />

^ aanaaaaQai St to x^^ptov kut aWo fxtv s^tv, on Se AaKiavog 6 fiaprvg<br />

iKtim Tvxoi fiira rov fiaprvpiKov SiavaTOv vwo dtX^ivog iKKOfuaOtig. Philost. 1.<br />

ii. c. xii. p. 474.

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