Introduction to This Volume

How this book is arranged

This is the sixty-fifth 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 The Latin West in the Fifth Century, from the period about AD 430 – 496.

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

John Cassian was born about AD 360, probably in Scythia Minor on the lower Danube. He became a monk at Bethlehem and then spent years among the monks of the Egyptian desert, whose sayings he later set down. He was ordained deacon at Constantinople by John Chrysostom, and about AD 415 he settled at Marseilles, where he founded two monasteries. He wrote the Institutes and the Conferences for the monks of Gaul, and in AD 430 he wrote On the Incarnation against Nestorius. He died about AD 435.

Vincent was a monk of Lérins, the island monastery off the south coast of Gaul. He wrote the Commonitory in AD 434 under the name Peregrinus, as a guide for telling the faith of the Church from novelty. He died before AD 450.

Possidius was a monk at Hippo under Augustine and later bishop of Calama in Numidia. He was with Augustine at his death in AD 430, was driven from his see by the Vandals, and wrote the Life of Augustine a few years afterwards.

Leo was bishop of Rome from AD 440 until his death in AD 461. His letter to Flavian of Constantinople, known as the Tome, was read at the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451 and became the Western statement of the faith in the two natures of Christ. He met Attila in AD 452 and spoke with the Vandal king Gaiseric in AD 455. His letters deal with the whole range of Church business in the West and in the East.

Patrick was born in Roman Britain and was seized as a boy by Irish raiders and kept as a slave in Ireland. After his escape he returned to preach the Gospel there as a bishop. Two short writings are certainly his, the Confession and the Letter to Coroticus. The traditional date of his death is AD 461.

Gennadius was a priest of Marseilles in the later fifth century. His Lives of Illustrious Men continues the work of Jerome of the same name and gives short notices of writers from Jerome’s day to his own. He died about AD 496.

This volume gathers writers of the Latin West after the death of Augustine. Cassian’s books On the Incarnation and Vincent’s Commonitory belong to the years AD 430–434, when the West was learning how to answer Nestorius and how to judge new teaching by the faith received from the beginning. Leo’s letters run from AD 440 to 461. The Life of Augustine by Possidius is the earliest account of his last years. The Confession of Patrick and the catalogue of Gennadius close the volume. Leo’s sermons are not included in this volume.

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.