4th Century
Authors
Alexander of Alexandria
The bishop whose circular letters record the opening of the Arian controversy and Alexandria's answer to it.
Ambrose
Bishop of Milan, whose preaching won Augustine and whose writings shaped Latin worship, ethics, and pastoral care.
Anastasius I
Bishop of Rome at the turn of the fifth century, known here through a letter written amid the Origenist controversy.
Aphrahat
The Persian Sage, whose Demonstrations give the earliest full voice of Syriac Christianity east of the empire.
Athanasius
Bishop of Alexandria, who stood for the full deity of the Son and wrote the classic account of the Incarnation.
Augustine
Bishop of Hippo, whose Confessions, City of God, and sermons have shaped Western Christian thought ever since.
Basil
Bishop of Caesarea, who ordered monastic life, defended the Spirit's deity, and never stopped serving the poor.
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles
A fourth-century manual of worship, ministry, and church order, gathered and issued under the apostles' names.
Cyril of Jerusalem
Bishop of Jerusalem, whose lectures walked candidates for baptism through creed, sacrament, and new life.
Ephraim the Syrian
The harp of the Spirit: a Syriac deacon whose hymns turn doctrine into poetry meant to be sung.
Eusebius of Caesarea
Bishop and historian, whose Church History preserves the memory of the first three Christian centuries.
Gregory Nazianzen
The Theologian of the Eastern church, whose orations on the Trinity join exact thought to genuine poetry.
Gregory of Nyssa
A Cappadocian bishop and contemplative, who wrote of the soul's unending ascent into the life of God.
Hilary of Poitiers
A Gallic bishop who bore exile for the Nicene faith and wrote at length and at depth on the Trinity.
Jerome
Translator of the Latin Bible and tireless scholar, whose letters are as vivid as his learning is deep.
John Chrysostom
The golden-mouthed preacher of Antioch and Constantinople, joining close reading to fearless application.
Lactantius
A Latin rhetorician whose Divine Institutes commend the Christian faith with elegance and unusual clarity.
Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents
Syriac writings from Edessa and beyond: the Abgar story, the teaching of Addaeus, and the acts of its martyrs.
Rufinus
A translator and historian who carried much of the Greek Christian inheritance safely into Latin.
Sulpitius Severus
A Gallic writer whose Life of Martin of Tours gave the West one of its best-loved saints.
Ecumenical Councils
The First Ecumenical Council, Nicea
Nicaea, 325: the creed, the canons, and the records of the church's first general council.
The Second Ecumenical Council, Constantinople
Constantinople I, 381: the creed completed, with its confession of the Holy Spirit.
Appendix containing Canons and Rulings not having Conciliar Origin but Approved by Name in Canon II. of the Synod in Trullo
Rulings of individual Fathers, gathered here because a later council named and approved them.
The Canons of the Council in Trullo; Often Called The Quinisext Council
The disciplinary canons of the Trullan council, filling out the practical work the two previous councils left undone.
The Canons of the Councils of Ancyra, Gangra, Neocæsarea, Antioch and Laodicea, which Canons were Accepted and Received by the Ecumenical Synods
Canons from five local synods, later received by the whole church as part of its common law.
The Canons of the Synods of Sardica, Carthage, Constantinople, and Carthage Under St. Cyprian, Which Canons Were Received by the Council in Trullo and Ratified by II. Nice
Further local canons, from Sardica to Carthage, taken up and ratified by the later ecumenical councils.