[59]Col. iv. 3.
[60]Cp. Acts xii. 25.
[61]The brethren who lived on the outskirts of a city like Alexandria were not bound to attend the mother church, but had as it were chapels of ease in their own vicinities.
[62]Or perhaps “carried on” (to act as thou didst).
[63]Strictly speaking, Novatian’s withdrawal was not very likely to involve actual martyrdom.
[64]The word is κατόρθωμα (success); perhaps “recovery” would bring out the antithesis to “fall” (σφάλμα) better.
[65]Gen. xix. 17 (LXX).
[66]Another reading gives “blessed” (μακάριος), which, though less well supported by the MSS., makes the phrase μακαρίως ἀνεπαύσατο more pointed.
[67]This expression probably means to include the Churches of Mesopotamia and Osroene, besides those which he proceeds to mention below.
[68]Eusebius is mistaken in identifying this peace with the cessation of persecution: the reference is to the subsiding of the Novatianist schism in 254 which restored peace to Christendom. The surprise and joy were due to the violence of the language and other measures which the chief combatants (Stephen and Cyprian) had employed.