PREFACE The choice of works to illustrate the theology of the early Latin Fathers-understood as those before Augustine-was not easy. There is no lack of western writing on such central doctrines of the Christian faith as the Trinity and the Person of Christ. One thinks at once of Tertullian against Praxeas, Novatian and Hilary of Poitiers on the Trinity, Ambrose on the Faith and on the Holy Spirit. But the Greek Fathers are much the more important in this field, and they are amply covered in this series. Again there are classics like Tertullian's Apology, the Octavius of Minucius Felix and Ambrose's De Mysteriis; but these can be found in recent and good English versions, readily obtainable. It seemed wise, therefore, even though it meant the exclusion of so great a man as Hilary of Poitiers, to choose from the works of the four most eminent of the earlier Latin Fathers, Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose and Jerome, and to give some unity and individuality to the present volume by taking a theme which does not figure so largely in the writings of the Greek Fathers published in the Library of Christian Classics and which received considerable attention from the Latins, namely, the Church. I have not limited myself, however, to the Doctrine of the Church in the narrow sense, preferring to illustrate Latin thought on the life of the Church as well as its nature and constitution. Thus the De Praescriptionibus Haereticorum of Tertullian and the De Catholicae Ecclesiae Unitate of Cyprian provide the fundamental western theory of the Church, Tertullian's De Idololatria and some of Jerome's letters portray its relation to society in general (the theme of the Church and the World), and letters have been selected from the correspondence of Ambrose primarily to show how he conceived the relation of the Church to the State and how he put his thoughts into practice. Other letters of Jerome and Ambrose tell of the training and duties of the clergy. I had at one time wished to include the De Officiis of Ambrose, the first "manual" of Christian ethics, but the work is so long that it would have taken up |