EVANGELISTS (from eu well, and angelos messenger, or messenger of good tidings). This term is applied in the New Testament to a certain class of Christian teachers who were not fixed to any particular spot, but travelled either independently, or under the direction of the Apostles, for the purpose of propagating the gospel. In the Epistle to the Ephesians (iv. 11) the Evangelists are expressly distinguished from the pastors and teachers, who were persons stationed at particular places to confirm and instruct the converts stately and permanently. Such is the representation given by Eusebius (Hist. Eccles., iii. 37). Referring to the state of the church in the time of Trajan, he says, "Many of the disciples of that time, whose souls the Divine word had inspired with an ardent love of philosophy, first fulfilled our Saviour's precept by distributing their substance among the poor. Then travelling abroad they performed the work of evangelists, being ambitious to preach Christ, and deliver the scripture of the Divine Gospels. Having laid the foundations of the faith in foreign nations, they appointed other pastors, to whom they entrusted the cultivation of the parts they had recently occupied, while they proceeded to other countries and nations." The term evangelist is also applied in a more limited sense to the authors of the canonical Gospels.