Introduction to This Volume
How this book is arranged
This is the forty-seventh 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 Jerome and Rufinus, The Controversies, from the period about AD 379 – 415.
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. All the works in this volume are printed in older public-domain translations.
In this volume
Jerome was born about AD 347 at Stridon and studied in Rome. After some years in the Syrian desert and at Constantinople he settled in Bethlehem about AD 386, where he lived as a monk until his death in AD 420. He translated the Bible into Latin, the version called the Vulgate, wrote commentaries on much of Scripture, and took part in many of the disputes of his day.
Rufinus was born near Aquileia about AD 345 and was in his youth a friend of Jerome. He lived for many years as a monk at Jerusalem, and he translated the works of Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea into Latin. His quarrel with Jerome over Origen divided their friends. He died in Sicily about AD 411.
The quarrel between Jerome and Rufinus began over Origen and ended in the loss of a long friendship. Jerome’s Apology Against Rufinus is printed here beside Rufinus’s own Apology, so that each speaks for himself.
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.