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Pamphilus (Promoter)

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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An eminent promoter of learning in the early church, is said to have been born, of good family, in Phoenicia (Berytus?) in the latter half of the 3rd century. After studying at Alexandria under Pierius, the disciple of Origen, he was ordained presbyter at Caesarea in Palestine. There he established a theological school, and warmly encouraged students; he also founded, or at least largely extended, the great library to which Eusebius and Jerome were afterwards so much indebted. He was very zealous in the transcription and distribution of copies of Scripture and of the works of various Christian writers, especially of Origen; the copy of the complete works of the lastnamed in the library of Caesarea was chiefly in the handwriting of Pamphilus himself. At the outbreak of the persecution under Maximin, Pamphilus was thrown into prison (A.D. 307) and there, along with his attached friend and pupil Eusebius (sometimes distinguished as Eusebius Pamphili), he composed an Apology for Origen, in five books, to which a sixth was afterwards added by Eusebius. He was put to death in 309 by Firmilian, prefect of Caesarea.

Only the first book of the Apology of Pamphilus is extant, and that but in an imperfect Latin translation by Rufinus. It is printed in Lommatzsch's edition of Origen, vol. xxiv., and in Routh, Rd. sac. iv. 339 (cf. iii. 487,500, fragments). Photius (Codex 118) gives a short survey of the whole. Jerome mentions Letters to friends, and there may have been other works. Eusebius' memoir of Pamphilus has not survived. See E. Preuschen in Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopadie, and A. Harnack, Altchristl. Litteraturgesch. I. 543.