☛See also our page on Roman-Era Christianity, which right now overlaps this page and will some day be integrated with it more thoroughly.
☛We have a separate page of Eastern Christianity dealing especially with Eastern churches outside the boundaries of the former Roman Empire.
The most notable ancient ecclesiastical historians—Eusebius, Socrates Scholasticus, Sozomen, etc.—have their own page.
The Paradise or Garden of the Holy Fathers, being histories of the anchorites, recluses, monks, cenobites, and ascetic fathers of the deserts of Egypt between A.D. CCL and A.D. CCCC, compiled by Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria; Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis; Saint Jerome; and others. Now translated out of the Syriac, with notes & introduction, by Ernest A. Wallis Budge. London, 1907.—This is the Syriac version of the Lausiac History of Palladius.
Liber Pontificalis.
The Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis). Translated with an introduction by Louise Ropes Loomis, Ph.D. New York: Columbia University Press, 1916.
I. To the Pontificate of Gregory I..
At Google Books.☛No other volumes seem to have been published.
A Source Book for Ancient Church History, from the apostolic age to the close of the conciliar period. By Joseph Cullen Ayer, Jr., Ph.D. New York, 1922 (reprint of 1913 edition).
The Early Christian Persecutions. Edited by Dana Carleton Munro and Edith Bramhall. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1897. —A very useful collection of extracts from both pagan and Christian sources.
Saints’ lives. —A page of original hagiographies.
Nathaniel Lardner, author of The Credibility of the Gospel History and A Large Collection of Ancient Jewish and Heathen Testimonies to the Truth of the Christian Religion, gets his own page.
Henry Hart Milman, author of the History of Latin Christianity, &c., &c., gets his own page.
Mosheim’s Institutes of Ecclesiastical History. “I am not ashamed to confess myself the disciple of the impartial Mosheim,” says Gibbon, which is high praise.
A New History of Ecclesiastical Writers: containing an account of the authors of the several books of the Old and New Testament; of the lives and writings of the primitive fathers; an abridgment and catalogue of their works; their various editions, and censures determining the genuine and spurious. Together with a judgment upon their style and doctrine. Also, a compendious history of the councils; with chronological tables of the whole. Written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin, Doctor of the Sorbon, and Regius Professor of Divinity at Paris. London, 1693.
Vol. 1, containing the authors that flourished in the three first ages of the Church.
Vol. 2, containing the authors that flourished in the fourth age of the Church.
Vol. 3, containing authors that flourished in the beginning of the fifth century.
Vol. 4, containing the authors that flourished in the latter part of the fifth century.
Steph. Antonii Morcelli e Societati Iesu Praepositi Ecclesiae Clarensis Africa Christiana in tres partes tributa. Brixiae: Ex Officina Bettoniana, 1816.
Lives of the Most Eminent Fathers of the Church That Flourished in the First Four Centuries; with an historical account of the state of paganism under the first Christian emperors. By William Cave, D.D. A new edition, carefully revised, by Henry Cary, M.A. —Henry Cary is best remembered for his translation of Dante into English blank verse. Oxford: Printed by J. Vincent, for Thomas Tegg, 73, Cheapside, London, 1840.
The
Arians of the Fourth Century. By John Henry Cardinal Newman,
M.A. New edition. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1901. —Without going
too deeply into the publication history, it seems that the only real
editions are the first and the third. The second claims to be an exact
reprint of the first; the editions after the third seem to be reprints of
the third.
“Large
paper” edition: fifty copies for private circulation, 1871.
Seventh
edition. London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1890.
The Primitive Church and the See of Peter. By the Rev. Luke Rivington. With an introduction by the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1894. Second edition.
The Roman Primacy, A.D. 430–451. By the Rev. Luke Ribington. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1899.
A General History of the Christian Church, from the Fall of the Western Empire to the Present Time. By Joseph Priestley, Ll.D. F.R.S. &c. In Four Volumes. Northumberland: Printed for the Author, 1803-1803. —This the Joseph Priestley who is most famous for discovering oxygen and inventing soda water. The title page of the first volume announces that there will be three volumes, but Priestley evidently reconsidered his organization before printing the second volume.
Ecclesiastical Chronology; or, Annals of the Christian Church, from its foundation to the present time. The whole arranged according to the order of dates. By the Rev. J. E. Riddle, M.A. London, 1840. —Polemically anti-papist throughout, but very useful.
History of the Christian Church, from the Ascension of Jesus Christ to the Conversion of Constantine. By the Rev. Edward Burton, D.D. First American edition: New York, 1839.
The Liturgy and Ritual of the Ante-Nicene Church. By F. E Warren, B.D., F.S.A. London, 1897.
Saint Paul and the Ante-Nicene Church. An Unwritten Chapter of Church History. By Rev. Stuart Means, A.M., B.D., Rector of St. John’s Church, New Haven, Conn. London, 1903.
L’Afrique chrétienne. Par Dom H. Leclercq. Paris: Librairie Victor Lecoffre, 1904.
A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the end of the sixth century A.D., with an account of the principal sects and heresies. Edited by Henry Wace and William C. Piercy. London: John Murray, 1911.
Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie. Publié par du Rme dom Fernand Cabrol et du R. P. dom Henri Leclercq, avec le concours d’un grand nombre de collaborateurs. Paris : Librairie Letouzey et Ané. —Much of this set is not available on line, as far as we can tell; but what is available—and even that we have had to piece together from three different libraries—is so valuable that we cannot omit it.
Tome premier
Première partie, A – Amende.
Deuxième partie. Amende – Azymes.
Tome deuxieme.
Première partie. B.
Deuxième partie. C – Césène.
Tome troisième
Première partie. Chainage – Chypre.
Deuxième partie. Ciacconio – Cyzique.
Tome quatrième
Première partie. D – Domestici.
Deuxième partie. Domestici – Employé.
Tome cinquième
Première partie. Encaustique – Feux.
Deuxième partie. Fiançailles – Fustel de coulanges.
Tome quatorzième
Deuxième partie. Portier – Rome.
Lives of the Popes in the Middle Ages. By the Rev. Horace K. Mann. St. Louis: B. Herder. —This work began as Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, but kept going. By the end of it the Rev. Horace Mann was the Rt. Rev. Monsignor Dr. Mann.
Vol. I. The Popes Under the Lombard Rule. Gregory I to Leo III. 590-795.
Part I (1902).—590-657.
Another copy.Part II (1903).—657-795.
Another copy.The Popes During the Carolingian Empire. Leo III to Formosus, 795-891.
Vol. II (1906).—795-858.
Another copy.Vol. III (1906).—858-891.
The Popes in the Days of Feudal Anarchy. Formosus to Damasus II, 891-1048.
Vol. IV.—891-999.
Vol. V.—999-1048.
The Popes of the Gregorian Renaissance. Leo IX to Honorius II, 1049-1130.
Vol. VI.—1049-1073.
Vol. VII.—1073-1099.
Vol. VIII.—1099-1130.
The Popes at the Height of Their Temporal Influence. Innocent II to Benedict XI, 1130-1305.
Vol. IX (1914).—1130-1159.
Vol. X (1914).—1159-1198.
Vol. XI (1915).—Innocent III, 1198-1216.
Vol. XII (1925).—Innocent III, 1198-1216.
Vol. XIII (1925).—Honorius III to Celestine IV, 1216–1241.