.
Order of Contents
About
English
. Chuch Histories
. Illustrious Men
Greek & Latin
. Church Histories
. Illustrious Men
On Church Historians
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About
This collection includes the major Church histories from the early and medieval Church, though not more local and temporally limited Church histories, nor lives of the saints or largely secular histories, etc.
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English
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Church Histories
Anthology AD 1-1500
ed. Kidd, B.J. – Documents Illustrative of the History of the Church, vol. 1, 2, 3 (London: SPCK, 1920) ToC 1, 2, 3
This is given here as it gives the story of Church history through all primary source authors and documents.
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300’s
Lactantius – On the Deaths of the Persecutors (c. 318-321) in Lactantius: the Minor Works, tr. Mary F. McDonald in Fathers of the Church (D.C.: Catholic Univ. of America Press, 1965), pp. 119-206 Covers AD 30-320
Lactantius (c. 250 – c. 325) was an early Christian author who had a presence in the court of Diocletian and became an advisor to Roman emperor Constantine I, guiding his Christian religious policy in its initial stages of emergence. He was also a tutor to his son Crispus. He is most known for his apologetic work, The Divine Institutes.
On the Deaths of Persecutors describes the deaths of Nero, Domitian, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian and the contemporaries of Lactantius: Diocletian, Maximian, Galerius, Maximinus and Maxentius. This work chronicles the last and greatest of the persecutions. Lactantius also preserves the story of Constantine’s vision of the Chi Rho (first letters of “Christ”) before his conversion to Christianity.
Lactantius: “I relate all those things on the authority of well-informed persons, and I thought it proper to commit them to writing exactly as they happened, lest the memory of events so important should perish, and lest any future historian of the persecutors should corrupt the truth.”
Eusebius
Church History (324) in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 1, pp. 73-388 ToC Indices: Subject, Scripture HTML Covers AD 1-324
Eusebius (c. 260/265 – 339) was a Greek, Syro-Palestinian bishop of Caesarea, a historian of Christianity, an exegete and a Christian polemicist (though he was a leading Arian).
Life of Constantine (337-340) in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 1, pp. 481-561 ToC Index Covers AD c. 272 – 337
Athanasius
Defence Against the Arians in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 4, pp. 97-149 ToC
Athanasius (c. 296–298 – 373) was patriarch of Alexandria and the chief proponent of Nicene theology. He was exiled five times.
“This Apology is the most authentic source of the history of the Church in the first half of the fourth century. Athanasius is far superior to any other historians of the period, both from his bearing for the most part a personal testimony to the facts he relates, and from his great accuracy and use of actual documents. On the other hand, Rufinus, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, must not be used without extreme caution, unless they adduce documents, which is seldom the case.” – Montfaucon
“The ‘Apology’ is a personal defence by Athanasius against the charges laid against him by the [Arian] Eusebian party, and does not directly concern matters of doctrine. After the Council of Nicea, the Eusebian policy had been to oust the principal opponents from their sees on personal grounds, so as to pave the way for the abrogation of the Nicene formula.
The attack upon Athanasius began in 331, but without success. It was renewed at Caesarea and Tyre in 334—335, and resulted in the exile of Athanasius… After this latter date [346]… Athanasius drew up a collection of documents in proof of his innocence, connecting them together by an explanatory narrative.
(1) The charges against him related to events alleged to have occurred before the year 332 (extortion of money, subvention of the rebel Philumenus, the chalice of Ischyras, murder and mutilation of the bishop Arsenius)…” – Archibald Robertson
Historical Tracts of Athanasius (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1839) 380 pp. ToC 8 Tracts Chronological Table
Rufinus – History of the Church (401) tr. Philip R. Amidon in The Fathers of the Church Pre (Catholic University of America Press, 2016) 485 pp. ToC Excerpt Covers 324-395
Rufinus of Aquileia (344/345 – 411), born Itallian, was an early Christian monk, pastor, philosopher, historian, acquaintance and opponent of Jerome and a theologian who worked to translate Greek patristic material, especially the work of Origen, into Latin.
Rufinus translated Eusebius’s 10-book history from Greek into Latin with modifications throughout (for the nature of them see Amidon, pp. 13-14) and compressed the historical material in book 10 into book 9. He then wrote a continuation as Books 10 and 11, taking the story down to the death of Theodosius the Great (395). The volume was relied on by Augustine and was a standard history in the middle ages.
For Rufinus’s sources, see Amidon, pp. 12-13.
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400’s
Severus, Sulpitius – Sacred History (c. 403) in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 11, pp. 71-127 Indices: Subject, Scripture Covers Creation to AD 400
Severus (c. 363 – c. 425) was a native of Aquitania in modern-day France, a lawyer, a Christian pastor and writer and a disciple of Martin of Tours. He is known for this Sacred History as well as his biography of Martin of Tours, the foremost ecclesiastic of Gaul.
Orosius, Paul – History Against the Pagans (416-417) tr. Roy J. Deferrari (Catholic University of America Press, 1964) 440 pp. ToC Indices: Subject, Scripture Covers Creation to AD 415
Orosius (c. 375/385 – c. 420) was a pastor, historian and theologian who travelled, a contact of Jerome and a student of Augustine of Hippo. It is possible he was born in what is now Portugal.
He wrote three books, the most important of which is this one, which is considered to have had a great impact on historiography during the period between antiquity and the Middle Ages, and was was one of the main sources of information regarding Antiquity that was used up to the Renaissance. It is also one of the most important Hispanic books of all time.
Of the seven books in the History, the first six cover from Creation to Christ; the seventh covers the whole of Church history up to his own day.
Orosius’s objective was to answer Augustine’s request by writing a book aimed at proving that Rome’s decadence (Rome was sacked by Alaric I in 410) had nothing at all to do with the fact that the Romans had relatively recently converted to Christianity. Orosius wanted to show that the world has improved since the introduction of Christianity rather than declined as others had argued. The History has been said to be the first Christian attempt at writing a universal history, and that with God guiding humanity.
Besides the Old and New Testaments, Orosius appears to have consulted Caesar, Livy, Justin, Tacitus, Suetonius, Florus and a cosmography, attaching also great value to Jerome’s translation of the Chronicon of Eusebius.
Philostorgius – Church History (425-433) redacted by Photius, tr. Philip R. Amidon in Writings from the Greco-Roman World, no 23 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007) 300 pp. ToC Covers AD
Philostorgius (368 – c. 439), born in Cappadocia, was a Church historian and an Anomoean.
The original of Philostorgius’s history is now lost. However, the ninth-century historian Photius found a copy in his library in Constantinople and wrote an epitome of it. Others also borrowed from Philostorgius. The reconstruction of what might have been in the text was first published in 1913 with a third, revised edition in 1981. Amidon translated from this edition.
Socrates – Church History (439) in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 2, pp. 1-178 ToC Index Covers AD 305-439
Socrates Scholasticus (c. 380 – after 439) of Constantinople was a Greek Christian church historian and a contemporary of Sozomen and Theodoret.
Socrates’s work continues Eusebius’s history, emphasizes the place of the emperor in church affairs and gives secular as well as church history. Socrates has often been assumed to have been a follower of Novatianism, as he gives a lot of details about the Novatianists and speaks of them in generous terms, which he also does of Arians and other groups. He speaks of himself as belonging to the Church.
Sozomen – Church History (440-443) in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 2, pp. 179-427 ToC Indices: Subject, Scripture Covers AD 323-425
Sozomen (c. 400 – c. 450), born in Gaza, was brought up under monastic influences and became a Roman lawyer and Church historian. Sozomen wrote two works on Church history, but the first, covering from Christ’s Ascension to 323, is lost. This second work he wrote in Constantinople.
Sozomen borrowed heavily from other sources for his work. About three-fourths of his material is from Socrates, whom he also used as a guide for sources and order. Sozomen, in going back to principal sources used by Socrates, often includes more from them than Socrates did. He also used the writings of Eusebius, Athanasius and Rufinus, Sabinus, Olympiodorus of Thebes, Severus, Hilary, Eusthius of Antioch, Cyril of Jerusalem et al.
Theodoret – Church History (449-450) in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 3, pp. 33-159 no ToC Chronological Table Indices: Subject, Scripture Covers AD 324-429
Theodoret (c. 393 – c. 458/466), born at Antioch, became a monk and the bishop of Cyrus.
In Christological controversies he was an antagonist of Cyril of Alexandria and did not personally condemn Nestorius until the Council of Chalcedon (451). The Three-Chapter Controversy led to the condemnation of his writings against Cyril in the Second Council of Constantinople (553).
Theodoret’s history is very different in style from Socrates and Sozomen. It contains many sources otherwise lost, specially letters on the Arian controversy. Theodoret is anti-Arian and his narrative is more compressed than in the other historians. He often strings documents together with only brief comments between. Original material of Antiochian information appears chiefly in the latter books.
Theodoret’s sources are in dispute. Wikipedia: “According to Valesius these were mainly Socrates and Sozomen; Albert Guldenpenning’s thorough research placed Rufinus first, and next to him, Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, Sozomen, Sabinus, Philostorgius, Gregory Nazianzen, and, least of all, Socrates. N. Glubokovskij counts Eusebius, Rufinus, Philostorgius, and, perhaps, Sabinus.”
Ps-Gelasius of Cyzicus -.Church History (c. 475) tr. Nathanael Jensen (2017) Covers AD 325-476
This is largely on the Council of Nicea, and is against Monophysitism, but it also extends the history up to 476. See background to the work.
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500’s
Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor – The Syriac Chronicle (569) (London: Methuen, 1899) 345 pp. no ToC Index Covers AD 431-555
Zacharias Rhetor (c. 465 – after 536), born in Gaza, studied law, led an ascetic life and was a bishop and an ecclesiastical historian. He lived in Constantinople for a time and was a Miaphysite, but did not ardently oppose Chalcedonians. His Church History, covering 451-491, was used by Evagrius (below) for his own history.
While all original versions of Zacharias’s ecclesiastical histories were later lost, a truncated and revised Syriac version was preserved, by an author believed to have been a Monophysite monk from Amida. This anonymous author, who has been commonly known as Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor, incorporated it in Historia Miscellanea, a 12-book compilation of ecclesiastical histories. Ps-Zacharias’s edition of Zacharias’s ecclesiastical history constitutes books 3–6.
Evagrius – Church History (593) (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, 1846) 330 pp. ToC Index Covers AD 431-593
Evagrius Scholasticus (c. 536 – 594) was a Syrian scholar, intellectual and an aide to the patriarch Gregory of Antioch.
Evagrius writes from the Chalcedonian persuasion. His work addresses the history of the Eastern Roman Empire from the Nestorian controversy at the First Council of Ephesus in 431. The book’s contents focus mainly on religious matters, describing the events surrounding notable bishops and holy men.
Evagrius relies heavily on the history of Zacharias Rhetor (c. 465 – after 536), the only comprehensive historical account of events taking place from Theodoret of Cyrus’s time till his own era (specifically from from 451-491), even though Zacharias was a monophysite. Evagrius largely considered him to be dependable. Zacharias’s original manuscripts have been lost.
Other sources for Evagrius include Symeon Stylites the Elder, Eustathius of Epiphania, John Malalas, Zosimus, and Procopius of Caesarea.
The Ecclesiastical History is considered an important and relatively authoritative account of the timeline it traces, since Evagrius draws on other scholars’ material, explicitly acknowledging his sources. He meticulously organizes information taken from other written historical works in order to validate his account more effectively than other theological scholars of his time.
However, historians acknowledge that there are serious logical errors inherent in Evagrius’s surviving work, which is common for its epoch, namely the problematic chronological sequencing and skimming over of undeniably notable events such as major wars and other secular events. When the scholar mentions important occasions in his own life, lack of chronological labeling is especially evident.
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700’s
Bede: Ecclesiastical History of the English People
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900’s
Agapius – Universal History trans. into French: A. Vasiliev (1908); into English: Roger Pearse (2009) Pt. 1 covers Creation through the OT; Pt. 2 covers NT through AD 780
Agapius of Hierapolis (d. after 942) was a Melkite Christian historian and the bishop of Manbij. He wrote the universal history in Arabic.
“For the early history of Christianity, Agapius made use uncritically of apocryphal and legendary materials. For the following secular and ecclesiastical history, he relied on Syriac sources, in particular the World Chronicle of the Maronite historian Theophilus of Edessa (d. 785) for the end of the Umayyad period and the beginning of the Abbasids.
He made use of Eusebius’s Church History only through an intermediary compilation of short extracts. This he supplements from other sources. He gives an otherwise unknown fragment of Papias; and a list of Eastern Metropolitans. He uses the lost History of Bardaisan, but many of his sources remain unknown.” – Wikipedia
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1100’s
Vitalis, Orderic: Ecclesiastical History of, vol. 1, bks. 1-2 Buy
Vitalis, Orderic: Ecclesiastical History of, vol. 2, bks. 3-4 Ref Buy
Vitalis, Orderic: Ecclesiastical History of, vol. 3, bks. 5-6 Ref
Vitalis, Orderic: Ecclesiastical History of, vol. 4, bks. 7-8 Ref
Vitalis, Orderic: Ecclesiastical History of, vol. 5, bks. 9-10 Buy
Vitalis, Orderic: Ecclesiastical History of, vol. 6, bks. 11-13 Buy
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Search history and chronicon on my page
Consider Richerus and Flodoard
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Books of Lives of Illustrious Ecclesiastical Men
400’s
Jerome – Lives of Illustrious Men (420) in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 3, pp. 359-84 ToC Covers Gospels to AD 420
Jerome (c. 342–347 – 420) was an early Christian pastor, theologian, translator, and historian.
The work contains 135 writers who wrote on theological topics, whether orthodox or heretical, Greek, Latin or Syriac, and even Jews and heathens (Josephus, Philo, Seneca). The Syriac writers mentioned are few as Jerome did not know Syriac and was dependent on translations.
The Preface says the motive of the work was to show the heretics how many and how excellent writers there were among the Christians. Jerome also states therein that he had no predecessor in his work, and he acknowledges his indebtedness to the Church History of Eusebius, from whom he takes much verbatim.
Gennadius of Massilia – Lives of Illustrious Men (480, 492 or 495) in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 3, pp. 385-402 ToC Covers AD 337-490
Gennadius (d. c. 496) was a Semi-Pelagian pastor, monk and historian.
Gennadius intended to continue Jerome’s work with another 99 short bios, filling in some men he left out and adding to them for after Jerome’s death. It is the only surviving record of some of the persons included. It mainly follows chronological order with some exceptions.
“Gennadius’ style is as bare and more irregular than Jerome’s but he more frequently expresses a critical judgment and gives more interesting glimpses of his own — the semi-Pelagian — point of view. The work appears more original than Jerome’s and as a whole hardly less valuable, though the period he covers is so much shorter.” – Ernest C. Richardson
“It was Gennadius’s continuation that became most popular and was accepted everywhere as a second part of Jerome’s work, and was always written (eventually printed) together with his…
Semi-Pelagians among the Catholics are warmly praised (Fastidiosus, lvi; Cassian, lxi; Faustus of Riez, lxxxv), while full Pelagians (Pelagius himself, xlii; Julian of Eclanum, xlv) are called heretics. Augustinians, however, are also given praise (Augustine of Hippo, xxxviii; Prosper of Aquitaine, lxxxiv), though perhaps somewhat muted.” – Wikipedia
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1100’s
Wolfger of Prüfening – Of Ecclesiastical Writers in Francis Swietek, Wolfger of Prüfening’s De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis: a Critical Edition & Historical Evaluation PhD diss. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign., 1978), pp. 112-59
Wolfger (c. 1100 – c. 1173) was a German Benedictine monk and writer.
Wolfger includes 118 ecclesiastical writers. Most of them are from the 11th and 12th centuries, with the latest being Rupert of Deutz.
“It circulated in manuscript form with the lists of Jerome and Gennadius… Like Sigebert, Wolfger begins in the period of the very early church, with a series of chapters on early popes, starting with the second-century figure Thelesophorus (bishop of Rome c.126–c.137) (ch. 1)… Wolfger’s early entries are either individuals who had not previously been listed among the viri illustres, or those who his late antique predecessors had not granted sufficient attention – most notably the fourth-century Church Father Ambrose of Milan.
There is no discernible evidence of a relationship between the three works [of Honorius, Sigebert and Wolfger], or that our authors had read each other… Wolfger, in particular, is concerned about what will be left to posterity… This concern for posterity, however, is offset with a sometimes ambivalent attitude to the recent past… Wolfger, writing in the late 1160s, did not include much of the recent scholastic past: there are no entries for leading figures from the schools, such as Hugh of St. Victor, Abelard, or Peter Lombard. There is not even space for the dominant figure of the twelfth-century Cistercian order, Bernard of Clairvaux.” – Philippa Byrne, ‘The de viris illustribus tradition in the twelfth-century renaissance’
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1400’s
Vespasiano – Lives of Illustrious Men of the 15th Century
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Greek & Latin
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Church Histories
300’s
Eusebius PG
Church History
Life of Constantine
Chronicon
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400’s
Philostorgius – Church History in PL 35:459-638
Philostorgius (368 – c. 439), born in Cappadocia, was a Church historian and an Anomoean.
The original of Philostorgius’s history is now lost. However, the ninth-century historian Photius found a copy in his library in Constantinople and wrote an epitome of it, which is what this present work is.
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Socrates
Sozomen
Theodoret
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1300’s
Nicephorus – in PG 145:557-147:449
Church History, bks. 1-7
Church History, bks. 8-14
Church History, bks. 15-18
Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos (c. 1256 – 1335)
Candidus Isaurus
Zacharias Rhetor
Theodorus Lector
Evagrius
Hegesippus
Hippolytus Thebanus
Gelasius
Historia acephala
Anon. – De Papis
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PL
Marcellinus
Cedrenus
Zonaras
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Biblios
PG Index in Dingman, Historical Works, pp. 194-200
Photius – Library, Sacred History in PG 103:39
PL 218, Historical Works, pp. 979-86
PL 220, Historical Index, pp. 969-90
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Books of Lives of Illustrious Ecclesiastical Men
600’s
Isidore – Of Illustrious Men (615-618) in PL 83:1081-1106 ToC Covers AD 257-615
Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 636) was a Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian, and archbishop. He is widely regarded as “the last scholar of the ancient world”.
Isidore gives 47 bios from Pope Sixtus II (d. 258) to himself.
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1100’s
Sigebert of Gembloux – On Ecclesiastical Writers (c. 1111) in PL 160:547-91 Index Covers Apostles to AD 1111
Sigebert (c. 1030 – 1112) was a medieval author, known mainly as a pro-Imperial historian of a universal chronicle, opposed to the expansive papacy of Gregory VII and Pascal II. Early in his life he became a monk in the Benedictine abbey of Gembloux.
Sigebert’s work includes 171 writers from the apostolic era to himself.
Honorius of Autun – Of Ecclesiastical Writers in PL 172:197-253 Covers AD 730 to 1150
Honorius (c.1080–1154) was a popular 12th-century Christian theologian who wrote prolifically on many subjects.
This work consists of four books. The first summarizes Jerome’s work, the second Gennadius’s and the third Isidore’s. The fourth is Honorius’s contribution of 24 writers from Venerable Bede (d. 735) to himself. Here is the alphabetical list of the writers he contributes.
Wolfger of Prüfening – De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis
Wolfger (c. 1100 – c. 1173) was a German Benedictine monk and writer.
Wolfger includes 118 ecclesiastical writers. Most of them are from the 11th and 12th centuries, with the latest being Rupert of Deutz.
“It circulated in manuscript form with the lists of Jerome and Gennadius… Like Sigebert, Wolfger begins in the period of the very early church, with a series of chapters on early popes, starting with the second-century figure Thelesophorus (bishop of Rome c.126–c.137) (ch. 1)… Wolfger’s early entries are either individuals who had not previously been listed among the viri illustres, or those who his late antique predecessors had not granted sufficient attention – most notably the fourth-century Church Father Ambrose of Milan.
There is no discernible evidence of a relationship between the three works [of Honorius, Sigebert and Wolfger], or that our authors had read each other… Wolfger, in particular, is concerned about what will be left to posterity… This concern for posterity, however, is offset with a sometimes ambivalent attitude to the recent past… Wolfger, writing in the late 1160s, did not include much of the recent scholastic past: there are no entries for leading figures from the schools, such as Hugh of St. Victor, Abelard, or Peter Lombard. There is not even space for the dominant figure of the twelfth-century Cistercian order, Bernard of Clairvaux.” – Philippa Byrne, ‘The de viris illustribus tradition in the twelfth-century renaissance’
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1500’s
Trithemius, Johannes – Liber de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis
Bellarmine –
Philip Labbe –
Casimir Oudin –
Flacius – Catalogue
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On Church Historians
Article
1600’s
Voet, Gisbert – Appendix on Ecclesiastical Historians, pp. 116-18 in Select Theological Disputations, vol. 1, pt. 1 tr. by AI by Onku (Utrecht: Johannes a Waesberg, 1648) Latin
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