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TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST REVEREND

ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS,

AND TO THE ENTIRE CLERGY

OF THE GALLICAN CHURCH original: Ecclesiæ Gallicanæ — The Catholic Church in France, which at this time maintained a degree of administrative independence from Rome known as Gallicanism.

AFTER so many editions of the Greek Fathers The early influential theologians and writers of the Christian Church who wrote in Greek. which have hitherto come to light under your auspices, one thing still remained, most illustrious Prelates: that the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius (c. 260–339 AD) is known as the "Father of Church History" for recording the first centuries of the Christian Church. should be given to Catholic men under the title and patronage of your name, in a form much more corrected and pure than before. Indeed, the utility of the Church—whose interests you constantly look after—the desires of all learned men, and finally Eusebius himself, seemed by a certain right of his own to demand this from you.

For to speak first of the Church, what can be brought forward more illustrious for its praise, stronger for its defense, more useful for its propagation, or more fit for restoring the gravity of morals and discipline than the history of ecclesiastical affairs? Now indeed, for the purpose of convincing heretics, nothing, in my judgment at least, is more effective or powerful than this type of writing. For the minds of men allow themselves to be overcome by disputes and reasoning only with difficulty. And whenever they see themselves hemmed in and have nothing to answer, they attribute it not so much to the truth as to the subtlety and cunning of their adversaries in debating. Certainly, it has been proven by long experience—whether through writings or through debates delivered by the living voice—that the minds of heretics are inflamed rather than healed. But the history of ecclesiastical affairs, since it winds its way more gently into the minds of readers, carries off a far easier victory over them. For who is there among men of a different faction, who when [reading] ecclesiastical history... The sentence continues on the next page.