PREFACE

and some are translated into more idiomatic English, but all—as far as I am able to judge—are fair renderings of the original, its ambiguities being duly preserved. I have used as the foundation for the translation of the canons of the first four synods and of the five Provincial Synods that most convenient book, Index Canonum, by the Rev. John Fulton, D.D., D.C.L., in which a good translation is united with a Greek text that is very well edited and clearly printed.

In preparing the other division of the book, the Introduction and Notes, I have been guided by the same considerations. Here will be found no new and brilliant guesses of my own, but a collection of the most reliable conclusions of the most weighty critics and commentators. Where the notes are of any length, I have traced the source and provided the exact reference. For the brief notes, where I have not thought this necessary, the reader may feel the greatest confidence that he is not reading my own surmises, but that in every particular what he reads rests upon the authority of the greatest names who have written on the subject. In the bibliographical table already referred to, I have placed the authorities most frequently cited.

I think it necessary to make a few remarks on the rule I have laid down for myself regarding my attitude on controversial questions of doctrine or ecclesiastical discipline. It seems to me that in such a work as this, any expression of the editor’s views would be highly out of place. I have therefore confined myself to a bare statement of what I conceive to be the facts, leaving the reader to draw whatever conclusions he pleases. I hope that this volume may be equally acceptable to the Catholic and to the Protestant, to the Eastern and to the Western; and while I naturally think the facts presented are clearly in accordance with my own views, I hope those who draw different conclusions from the same premises will find these premises stated to their satisfaction. Should that be the case, this volume may well be a step toward "the union of all" and "the peace of all the holy churches of God," for which the unchanging East has so constantly prayed in her liturgy.

I wish to explain one other principle on which I have proceeded. This work professes to be a translation of the decrees and canons of certain ecclesiastical synods. It is not a history of those synods, nor is it a theological treatise upon the truth or otherwise of the doctrines set forth by those synods in their legislation. I have therefore carefully restricted my own historical introductions to a bare statement of facts needed to make the meaning of the matter intelligible to the reader. Regarding doctrine, I have pursued the same course, merely explaining what the doctrine taught or condemned was, without entering into any consideration of its truth or falsity. For the history of the Church and its Councils, the reader must consult the great historians; for a defense of the Church’s faith, he must read the works of her theologians.

I need hardly say that the overwhelming majority of the references found in this volume I have had no opportunity of verifying, as no copy of many of the books is (so far as I know) to be found in America. I have, however, taken great pains to ensure accuracy in reproducing the references as given in the books from which I have cited them; this, however, does not give me any feeling of confidence that they may be relied on, especially since, in some cases where I have been able to check them, I have found errors of the most serious kind.