PREFACE.

This volume, containing the equivalent of three volumes of the Edinburgh series of the ANTE-NICENE FATHERS, will be found to be a library somewhat complete in itself. The Apostolic Fathers Early Christian writers who lived in the first or second centuries, traditionally believed to have known the Apostles personally. and those associated with them in the third generation are here placed together in a handbook, which, alongside the invaluable Scriptures, provides a concise autobiography of the Spouse of Christ A common metaphor for the Church. for the first two centuries. No Christian scholar has ever before possessed, in faithful versions of such compact form, a supplement so essential to the proper understanding of the New Testament itself. It is a volume indispensable to all scholars, and to every library, private or public, in this country.

The American Editor has performed the modest task of introducing these works for American use, with only minimal contributions of his own. This was the agreement with the public: they were to be presented with the Edinburgh series, free from significant alteration or dilution. His duty was (1) to provide a historical arrangement for the disorganized mass of the original series; (2) to supply, in continuity, brief introductory notices to slightly popularize what the translators had apparently intended only for scholars; (3) to address deficiencies with short notes and references; (4) to add references to Scripture, or to reputable authors, to assist students without cluttering the comments of the translators; and (5) to note instances where Patristic testimony The writings and teachings of the early Church Fathers. has been corrupted or distorted—circulated, in the spirit of the forged Decretals A collection of medieval forged documents used to support claims of papal authority., by those who continue the old imposture using essentially equivalent methods. For too long have they been allowed to speak to the popular mind as if the Fathers were exclusively their own; whereas, to any impartial reader, it must be evident that the testimony, the arguments, and the silence of the Ante-Nicene writers Writers active before the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. all refute attempts to identify the ecclesiastical establishment of the "Holy Roman Empire" with the "Holy Catholic Church" of the ancient creeds.

In performing this task, under the pressure of a virtual obligation to issue the first volume in the first month of the new year, the Editor has relied upon the kind assistance of a capable friend to serve as a typographical corrector for the Edinburgh pages. It is only necessary to add that he has bracketed all his own notes so that he alone bears responsibility for them; however, his introductions are so clearly separated from those of the translators that, after the first instance, he has not thought it necessary to append his initials to these brief contributions. He regrets that the most important volume of the series is necessarily the experimental one, and appears under disadvantages from which it is expected that succeeding issues will be free. May the Lord God of our Fathers bless this undertaking for all my fellow-Christians, and fulfill for them the promise once appropriately chosen as the motto for a similar series of publications: "Yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers."

A. C. C.

JANUARY 6, 1885.

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