Eusebius (2)

Eusebius with the surname BRUNO, after 1047 bishop of Angers. Little is known of his early life. Soon after becoming bishop he was suspended with a number of other bishops, being suspected, it is thought, of simony. But he seems to have fully justified himself, for in 1049 he was present at the reformatory council of Rheims, and was chosen a member of the committee to welcome pope Leo IX in the name of the council. In a letter written from Rome (1049), he complained of the measures taken by the pope against Berengar, who, in his opinion, was free from any heresy. Berengar himself counted Eusebius among his patrons, and it was the advice of Eusebius which induced him to take, at the Synod of Tours in 1054, the oath which the synod demanded from him. One of the foremost opponents of Berengar, bishop Theotwin of Liege, calls Eusebius one of the chief renewers of the heresy which finds in the Lord's Supper nothing but a shadow and an image of the body of Christ. But when count Geoffroi of Anjou, the powerful protector of the French heretics, died (1060), the courage of Eusebius was at an end. At the Episcopal Convention of Angers in 1062 he showed an inclination to accept the doctrine of the Church, though he still made a profession of personal friendship for Berengar. The same indecision shows itself in the celebrated letter, written between 1063 and 1066, in which Eusebius de. chines to act as arbiter at a theological disputation which Berengar desired to told with the priest Gaufrid Martini, and defines his dogmatical position. The letter (which is regarded by Lessing as the ablest theological essay of the 11th century) deprecates new dogmatic explanations concerning the Eucharist, and declares that we ought not to appeal to the fathers, but to adhere to Scripture, and abide by the simple words that the bread and wine are the true body and blood of Christ as a duty of pious faith. The letter may be found in Menardus (Augustini c. Juliani operis imperfecti 1.2 priores), with arbitrary alterations in De Roye (Vita, haeres. et poenit. Berengar.), and Boulay (Hist. Univers. Paris). Two other letters of Eusebius are given by Sudendorf (Bereng. Turon.,185,0). Eusebius died at Angers Aug. 27, 1081. — Herzog, Real- Encykl. 4:228; Lessing, Werke (edit. Lachmann), volume 8; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gener. 16:778; Neander, Church History (Torrey), 3:576; Neander, Hist. of Dogmas (Ryland), 2:462. (A.J.S.)