sses something like contempt, and again refers to him in
confirmation of the statement of the Alexandrian Clement regarding the
composition of Mark's Gospel, [53:1] it would be against all reason, as
well as opposed to his pledge and general practice, to suppose that
Eusebius would have omitted to record any information given by
Hegesippus, a writer with whom he was so well acquainted and of whom he
speaks with so much respect.

I have said that Eusebius would more particularly have quoted
anything with regard to the Fourth Gospel, and for those who care to
go more closely into the point my reasons may be briefly given. No
one can read Eusebius attentively without noting the peculiar care
with which he speaks of John and his writings, and the substantially
apologetic tone which he adopts in regard to them. Apart from any
doubts expressed regarding the Gospel itself, the controversy as to
the authenticity of the Apocalypse and second and third Epistles
called by his name, with which Eusebius was so well acquainted, and
the critical dilemma as to the impossibility of the same John having
written both the Gospel and Apocalypse, regarding which he so fully
quotes the argument of Dionysius of Alexandria, [53:2] evidently
made him peculiarly interested in the subject, and his attention to
the fourth Gospel was certainly not diminished by his recognition of
the essential difference between that work and the three Synoptics.
The first occasion on which he speaks of John, he records the
tradition that he was banished to Patmos during the persecution
under Domitian, and refers to the Apocalypse. He quotes Irenaeus in
support of this tradition, and the composition of the work at the
close of Domitian's reign. [54:1] He goes on to speak of the
persecution under Domitian, and quotes Hegesippus as to a command
given by that Emperor to slay all the posterity of David, [54:2] as
also Tertullian's account, [54:3] winding up his extracts from the
historians of the time by the statement that, after Nerva succeeded
Domitian, and the Senate had revoked the cruel decrees of the
latter, the Apostle John returned from exile in Patmos and,
according to ecclesiastical tradition, settled at Ephesus. [54:4] He
states that John, the beloved disciple, apostle and evangelist,
governed the Churches of Asia after the death of Domitian and