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It is my purpose to write an account of the successions of the holy
apostles, as well as of the times which have elapsed from the days of
our Saviour to our own; and to relate the many important events which
are said to have occurred in the history of the Church; and to mention
those who have governed and presided over the Church in the most
prominent parishes, and those who in each generation have proclaimed
the divine word either orally or in writing. It is my purpose also to
give the names and number and times of those who through love of
innovation have run into the greatest errors, and, proclaiming
themselves discoverers of knowledge falsely so-called, have like
fierce wolves unmercifully devastated the flock of Christ. It is my
intention, moreover, to recount the misfortunes which immediately came
upon the whole Jewish nation in consequence of their plots against our
Saviour, and to record the ways and the times in which the divine word
has been attacked by the Gentiles, and to describe the character of
those who at various periods have contended for it in the face of blood
and of tortures, as well as the confessions which have been made in our
own days, and finally the gracious and kindly succor which our Saviour
has afforded them all. Since I propose to write of all these things
I shall commence my work with the beginning of the dispensation of our
Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ.
But at the outset I must crave for my work the indulgence of the
wise, for I confess that it is beyond my power to produce a perfect
and complete history, and since I am the first to enter upon the
subject, I am attempting to traverse as it were a lonely and untrodden
path. I pray that I may have God as my guide and the power of the
Lord as my aid, since I am unable to find even the bare footsteps of
those who have traveled the way before me, except in brief fragments,
in which some in one way, others in another, have transmitted to us
particular accounts of the times in which they lived. From afar they
raise their voices like torches, and they cry out, as from some lofty
and conspicuous watch-tower, admonishing us where to walk and how to
direct the course of our work steadily and safely. Having gathered
therefore from the matters mentioned here and there by them whatever we
consider important for the present work, and having plucked like
flowers from a meadow the appropriate passages from ancient writers, we
shall endeavor to embody the whole in an historical narrative, content
if we preserve the memory of the successions of the apostles of our
Saviour; if not indeed of all, yet of the most renowned of them in
those churches which are the most noted, and which even to the present
time are held in honor.
This work seems to me of especial importance because I know of no
ecclesiastical writer who has devoted himself to this subject; and I
hope that it will appear most useful to those who are fond of historical
research. I have already given an epitome of these things in the
Chronological Canons which I have composed, but notwithstanding
that, I have undertaken in the present work to write as full an
account of them as I am able. My work will begin, as I have said,
with the dispensation of the Saviour Christ,-which is loftier and
greater than human conception, and with a discussion of his divinity;
for it is necessary, inasmuch as we derive even our name from Christ,
for one who proposes to write a history of the Church to begin with the
very origin of Christ's dispensation, a dispensation more divine than
many think.
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