Church History (Vol.1-3). J. H. Kurtz
“Ancient Liturgies.” Oxf., 1878.
6 Symbolics:Kimmel, “Ll. Symb. eccl. Orient.” Jena., 1843.Danz, “Ll. Symb. eccl. Rom. Cath.” Weimar, 1835.Hase, “Ll. Symb. eccl. evang.” Ed. iii., Leipz., 1840.Niemeyer, “Coll. Conf. eccl. Ref.” Leipz., 1840.Schaff, “Creeds of Christendom.” 3 vols., Lond., 1882.
7 Martyrologies:Ruinart, “Acta prim. Mart.” 3 vols., 1802.Assemanni [Assemani], “Acta SS. Mart. orient. et occid.” 2 vols., Rome, 1748.
8 Greek and Latin Church Fathers and Teachers:Migne, “Patrologiæ currus completus.” Ser. I., Eccl. Græc., 162 vols., Par., 1857 ff.; Ser. II., Eccl. Lat., 221 vols., Par., 1844 ff.Horoy, “Media ævi biblioth. patrist.” (from A.D. 1216 to 1564), Paris, 1879.“Corpus Scriptorum eccl. lat.” Vindob., 1866 ff.Grabe, “Spicilegium SS. Pp. et Hærett.” Sæc. I.-III., 3 vols., Oxford, 1698.Routh, “Reliquiæ sac.” 4 vols., Oxford, 1814 ff.“Ante-Nicene Christian Library; a collection of all the works of the Fathers of the Christian Church prior to the Council of Nicæa.” 24 vols., Edin., 1867 ff.
9 Ancient Writers of the East:Assemanus [Assemani], “Biblioth. orient.” 4 vols., Rome, 1719.
10 Byzantine Writers:Niebuhr, “Corp. scr. hist. Byz.” 48 vols., Bonn, 1828 ff.Sathas, “Biblioth. Græc. Med. ævi.” Vols. I.-VI., Athens, 1872 ff.
§ 4.2. Literature of the Auxiliary Sciences.—
1 Diplomatics:Mabillon, “De re diplomatic.” Ed. ii., Par., 1709.
2 Philology:Du Fresne (du Cange), “Glossarium ad scriptt. med. et infim. Latin.” 6 vols., Par., 1733; New ed., Henschel and Favre, in course of publication.Du Fresne, “Glossarium, ad scriptt. med. et infim. Græc.” 2 vols., Leyden, 1688.Suiceri, “Thesaurus ecclesiast. e patribus græcis.” Ed. ii., 2 vols., Amst., 1728.
3 Geography and Statistics:Mich. le Quien, “Oriens christianus in quatuor patriarchatus digestus.” 3 vols., Par., 1704.
4 Chronology:Nicolas, “The Chronology of History.” 2 ed., Lond., 1838.“L’art de verifier les dates, by d’Antine.” Etc., ed. by Courcelles, 19 vols., Par., 1821–1824.
§ 5. History of General Church History.
The earliest writer of church history properly so called is Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea, † 340. During the fifth century certain members of the Greek Church continued his work. The Western Church did not so soon engage upon undertakings of that sort, and was contented with translations and reproductions of the materials that had come down from the Greeks instead of entering upon original investigations. During the middle ages, in consequence of the close connection subsisting between Church and State, the Greek Scriptores historiæ Byzantinæ, as well as the Latin national histories, biographies, annals, and chronicles, are of the very utmost importance as sources of information regarding the church history of their times. It was the Reformation, however, that first awakened and inspired the spirit of true critical research and scientific treatment of church history, for the appeal of the Reformers to the pure practices and institutions of the early days of the church demanded an authoritative historical exposition of the founding of the church, and this obliged the Catholic church to engage upon the studies necessary for this end. The Lutheran as well as the Catholic Church, however, down to the middle of the 17th century, were satisfied with the voluminous productions of the two great pioneers in Church history, Flacius and Baronius. Afterwards, however, emulation in the study of church history was excited, which was undoubtedly, during the 17th century, most successfully prosecuted in the Catholic Church. In consequence of the greater freedom which prevailed in the Gallican Church, these studies flourished conspicuously in France, and were pursued with exceptional success by the Oratorians and the Order of St. Maur. The Reformed theologians, especially in France and the Netherlands, did not remain far behind them in the contest. Throughout the 18th century, again, the performances of the Lutheran Church came to the front, while a laudable rivalry leads the Reformed to emulate their excellencies. In the case of the Catholics, on the other hand, that zeal and capacity which, during the 17th century, had won new laurels in the field of honour, were now sadly crippled. But as rationalism spread in the domain of doctrine, pragmatism spread in the domain of church history, which set for itself as the highest ideal of historical writing the art of deducing everything in history, even what is highest and most profound in it, from the co-operation of fortune and passion, arbitrariness and calculation. It was only in the 19th century, when a return was made to the careful investigation of original authorities, and it came to be regarded as the task of the historian, to give a conception and exposition of the science as objective as possible, that this erroneous tendency was arrested.
§ 5.1. Down to the Reformation.—The church history of Eusebius, which reaches down to A.D. 324, was to some extent continued by his Vita Constantini, down to A.D. 337 (§ 47, 2). The church history of Philostorgius, which reaches from A.D. 318–423, coming down to us only in fragments quoted by Photius, was an Arian party production of some importance. During the 5th century, however, the church history of Eusebius was continued down to A.D. 439 by the Catholic Socrates, an advocate at Constantinople, written in a simple and impartial style, yet not altogether uncritical, and with a certain measure of liberality; and down to A.D. 423, by Sozomen, also an advocate at Constantinople, who in large measure plagiarizes from Socrates, and is, in what is his own, uncritical, credulous, and fond of retailing anecdotes; and down to A.D. 428 by Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus in Syria, who produces much useful material in the shape of original authorities, confining himself, however, like both of his predecessors, almost exclusively to the affairs of the Eastern Church. In the 6th century, Theodorus, reader at Constantinople, made a collection of extracts from these works, continuing the history down to his own time in A.D. 527. Of this we have only fragments preserved by Nicephorus Callisti. The continuation by Evagrius of Antioch, reaching from A.D. 431–594, is characterized by carefulness, learning, and impartiality, along with zealous orthodoxy, and an uncritical belief in the marvellous. Collected editions of all these works have been published by Valesius (Par., 1659), and Reading (Cantab., 1720), in each case in 3 vols. folio.—In the Latin Church Rufinus of Aquileia translated the work of Eusebius and enlarged it before the continuations of the three Greek historians had appeared, carrying it down to his own time in A.D. 395 in an utterly uncritical fashion. Sulpicius Severus, a presbyter of Gaul, wrote about the same time his Historia Sacra, in two books, from the creation of the world down to A.D. 400. In the 6th century, Cassiodorus fused together into one treatise in 12 books, by means of extracts, the works of the three Greek continuators of Eusebius, under the title Hist. ecclesiastica tripartita, which, combined with the history of Rufinus, remained down to the Reformation in common use as a text-book. A church history written in the 6th century in Syriac, by the monophysite bishop, John of Ephesus, morbidly fond of the miraculous, first became known to us in an abridged form of the third part embracing the history of his own time. (Ed. Cureton, Oxf., 1853. Transl. into Engl. by Payne Smith, Oxford, 1859.)—Belonging to the Latin church of the middle ages, Haymo of Halberstadt deserves to be named as a writer of universal history, about A.D. 850, leaning mainly upon Rufinus and Cassiodorus. The same too may be said about the work entitled, Libri XIII. historiæ ecclesiasticæ written by the Abbot Odericus Vitalis in Normandy, about A.D. 1150, which forms upon the whole the most creditable production of the middle ages. In the 24 books of the Church history of the Dominican and Papal librarian, Tolomeo of Lucca, composed about A.D. 1315, church history is conceived of as if it were simply a historical commentary on the ecclesiastical laws and canons then in force, as an attempt, that is, to incorporate in the history all the fictions and falsifications, which Pseudo-Isidore in the 9th century (§ 87, 2–4), Gratian in the 12th century, and Raimundus [Raimund] de Penneforti [Pennaforte] in the 13th century (§ 99, 5), had wrought into the Canon law. Toward the end of the 15th century, under the influence of humanism there was an awakening here and there to a sense of the need of a critical procedure in the domain of church history, which had been altogether wanting throughout the middle ages. In the Greek Church again, during the 14th century, Nicephorus