Introduction to This Volume
How this book is arranged
This is the thirty-third volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This volume holds Epiphanius of Salamis, Macarius Magnes, Asterius of Amasea and Other Writers of the Late Fourth Century, from the period about AD 374 – 410.
Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section numbers.
The translations
The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation. In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. The modern English version prepared for SermonIndex is used for The Ancoratus (The Well-Anchored Man) (Epiphanius of Salamis); the other works are printed in older public-domain translations.
In this volume
Epiphanius was bishop of Salamis in Cyprus from about AD 367 until his death in AD 403. He wrote the Panarion against the heresies, and the Ancoratus, or “Well-Anchored Man”, a summary of the faith written in AD 374 for a church in Pamphylia.
The Apocriticus is a dialogue in which a Christian answers the objections of a pagan critic of the Gospels. The critic’s objections are thought to come from Porphyry or from a writer of his school. The author, Macarius Magnes, is otherwise unknown, and he wrote about AD 400.
Asterius was bishop of Amasea in Pontus about AD 400. His sermons show the life of a city and its church in his day, and they speak against luxury and against neglect of the poor.
Chromatius was bishop of Aquileia and a friend of Jerome and Rufinus. He died about AD 407. The short prologue printed here introduces his sermons on the Gospel of Matthew.
The Apocriticus of Macarius Magnes survives in one manuscript, found in the nineteenth century, and the work is incomplete. Parts of the pagan objections are known only from the replies.
Dates and authorship
Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is uncertain.