THIS Translation of what may fairly be called the classical work on the History of the Councils of the Church was originally undertaken, with the Author’s sanction, by the Rev. W. Clark, Vicar of Taunton, who edited the first volume, and it was only at his urgent request that the present Editor undertook the second. This must be his apology to the public for interposing in a work which they will share his regret that Mr.

Clark’s engagements did not permit him to continue himself. The former volume comprised Books 1 and 2 of the German text, with the Appendix on the Apostolical Canons, bringing the History down to the close of the First Oecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325; the present volume carries it on, through the next six Books, to the period immediately preceding the opening of the Third Oecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431. Thanks to the Author’s kindness in supplying early copies, the second edition of the original, which had received his latest corrections, has been used throughout.

It will have been matter of sincere regret, though hardly of surprise, to Bishop Hefele’s numerous readers to learn, from the Preface to the seventh and last volume of his Conciliengeschichte , published about a year ago, that he has brought it to a conclusion with the Councils of Basle and Florence, without including, according to his original design, the Council of Trent. The materials, indeed, are still wanting for a complete history of the latter, notwithstanding the posthumous issue of Theiner’s very important edition of Massarelli’s Acta Concilii Tridentini .

To return to the present volume. It will be observed that it takes up and completes the record of the Arian Controversy, properly so called. For after the Council of Constantinople, as Dr. Newman has pointed out, “Arianism was formed into a sect exterior to the Catholic Church; and, taking refuge among the Barbarian Invaders of the Empire, is merged among those external enemies of Christianity, whose history cannot be regarded as strictly ecclesiastical.” With the Nestorian controversy, which succeeded it, begins that series of heresies on the Incarnation, which occupied the attention of the four next Oecumenical Councils. It can hardly be necessary to remind English readers what a flood of light is thrown on this whole Arian period in Dr. Newman’s work, already quoted, and to which occasional reference has been made in the bracketed footnotes, which are here and there appended to the text. In its original form the earliest of the Author’s theological works, it has had the rare advantage of undergoing his careful revision nearly forty years after its first appearance; and to all who are interested in tracing the development of Christian doctrine, it will be found simply invaluable as a comment on this portion of Bishop Hefele’s great work. It may be added, that the Arian controversy, over and above its historical importance, has a special interest of a practical kind at the present day, when there is so strong a tendency among a class of religionists, not openly professing infidel opinions, to treat all doctrinal questions as “disputes about an iota.” It would argue mere ignorance or incapacity to doubt now, with the reflex light of history cast upon it, that what Gibbon calls “the difference of a single diphthong” involved in the fourth century — like the modern assault on the Athanasian Creed — no less a question than the fundamental tenet of the entire Christian Revelation, the Divinity of the Son of God. And it is not uninstructive to notice, as we follow Bishop Hefele through the successive phases of the long struggle, how the Arian and Semi-Arian leaders are constantly betraying those characteristics of indifferentism, worldliness, Court intrigue, shuffling, profanity, and fierceness against definite belief, which still too often mark the prophets of that much-coveted but impossible abstraction, an “undogmatic Christianity.”

It only remains to add, that the translation has been carefully revised throughout before sending it to press; but it would be sanguine to anticipate that no error, typogaphical or other, has escaped notice. The present Editor can but repeat Mr. Clark’s assurance in issuing the former volume, that he will gratefully avail himself of any corrections that may be transmitted to him. For all bracketed notes he is himself exclusively responsible. H.N. O.

Lent, 1876.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION OF FIRST VOLUME.

EIGHTEEN years have passed since the first Volume of this History of the Councils was originally published. Whatever additional light has, to my knowledge, been thrown on the subject in subsequent publications, I have taken care to avail myself of; and even where no such help was to be found, many improvements and corrections, sometimes enlarging, sometimes abbreviating it, have been introduced into the work. I may specify the alterations in the Introduction and in Sections 2, 6, 13, 37, 51, 71, and 81; as also the great assistance I have derived, as regards the important Synod of Elvira (Section 13), from the Kirchengeschichte Spaniens of Dr. P. Pius Gams, O.S.B. The general plan, idea, and character of the work remain unchanged. It has been my aim, in contradistinction from what may be called the former fragmentary method of treating the history of Councils, to present each important Synod as a link in the general historical development of the Church, and thereby to make its true significance understood. And thus this History of the Councils becomes in many ways very like a history of the Church and of dogmas, which will be no prejudice to it. As in the former edition, so has it here also been my first object everywhere to consult original sources, without forming preconceived opinions, and to state the results derived from a conscientious examination of them. May this second edition meet the same favorable reception as the first.

I readily admit that a searching revision would have been desirable; but in my present position, and where the matter was urgent, this was not possible.

A second edition has just appeared at Edinburgh of an English Translation of this first Volume, as far as the end of the Council of Nicaea , by the Rev. W.

Clark, but without the corrections of my second edition being incorporated into it. I have observed at the close of the Introduction that a French Translation of the whole work, down to the end of the eleventh century, has appeared in six octavo volumes. My consent has been asked, and received, for an Italian Translation; but I have heard no more about it since.

Rottenburg, January 1873.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO SECOND VOLUME.

IT is with few words only that I commend this second edition of the second Volume of my History of the Councils to the kindness of my readers. It comprises the time from the second to the fifth General Council inclusive, from 381 to 553, being precisely the period of the fullest and most eventful dogmatic development in the history of the Church; and I trust I may have contributed some help towards a clearer insight into this great process. I have therefore given my first and best attention to the Synods of that period which handled dogma; but the many others, with their numerous and often very important ordinances concerning ecclesiastical discipline, worship, and morals, canon law and judicial procedure, have also received due consideration. Every lover of the history of the Church and of civilization will here find abundant materials for study.

This second Volume comprises about two hundred sections, of which, comparatively speaking, only a few in this new edition have remained without some, if only a slight correction. The most considerable improvements, corrections, and additions have been made in Sections 98, 101, 102, 110, 111, 118, 123, 126, 127, 134, 157, 162, 163, 188, 190, 196, 217, 222, 228, 242; and thus, although here and there something has been erased, the whole work has been enlarged by some twenty-five pages. I have also taken great pains with the improvement of the Index.

So far as they were known to me, and came within my reach, I have made use of new publications on the subject; but in my present position and place of residence, much that has recently appeared may have remained unknown to me.

I can only regret that the completion of the seventh Volume of the History of the Councils should have preceded the second edition of the second Volume, and not vice versa . I should otherwise have been able to make use of the second Volume of the Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium Soeculi 15. (the first volume had appeared in 1857), published by the Vienna Academy of Sciences, for the history of the Councils of Basle and Florence.