[ Eusebeia ]

 [ Eusebeia ], [ asebeia ], etc., here translated piety, etc., stand for orthodoxy and heterodoxy, etc., throughout, being taken from St. Paul's text, [ mega to tes eusebeias mysterion ], 1 Tim. iii. 16, iv. 8. "Magnum pietatis mysterium," Vulg.

 E.g. [ten tes aireseos asebeian], Decr. init. [hoson eusebous phroneseos he Areiane hairesis esteretai]. ibid . § 2. [ ti eleipe didaskalias eis eusebeian tei katholike ekklesiai ]; Syn. § 3. [ he oikoumenike sunodos ton Areion exebale ou pherousa ten asebeian ]. Orat. i. § 7, et passim . Hence Arius ends his letter to Eusebius Nic. with [ alethos Eusebie ]. Theod. Hist. i. 4.

 A curious instance of the force of the word as a turning-point in controversy occurs in a Homily, (given to S. Basil by Petavius, Fronto Ducæus, Combefis, Du Pin, Fabricius, and Oudin, doubted of by Tillemont, and rejected by Cave and Garnier,) where it is said that the denial of our Lady's perpetual virginity, though "lovers of Christ do not bear to hear that God's Mother ever ceased to be Virgin," yet "does no injury to the doctrine of religion," [ meden toi tes eusebeias paralumainetai logoi ], i.e. (according to the above explanation of the word) to the orthodox view of the Incarnation . vid. Basil. Opp. t. 2, p.599. vid. on the passage Petav. de Incarn. xiv. 3, § 7, and Fronto-Duc. in loc. Pearson refers to this passage, and almost translates the [ logos eusebeias ] by "mystery," Apost. Creed, Art. 3. "Although it may be thought sufficient as to the mystery of the Incarnation, that, when our Saviour was conceived and born, His Mother was a Virgin, though whatsoever should have followed after could have no reflective operation upon the first-fruit of her womb, ... yet the peculiar eminency," etc.

 John of Antioch, however, furnishes us with a definition of pietas, as meaning obedience to the word of God. He speaks, writing to Proclus, of a letter which evidenced caution and piety, i.e. orthodoxy: "piety, because you went along the royal way of Divine Scripture in your remarks, rightly confessing the word of truth, not venturing to declare anything of your own authority without Scripture testimonies ; caution, because together with divine Scripture you propounded also statements of the Fathers, in order to prove what you advanced." ap. Facund. i. 1.