The Didache
Source: Funk I, pp. 2–36
The whole church order in sixteen chapters, recovered only in 1873. Funk I, pp. 2–36, not a Migne column, because Migne never owned the text the way Funk did.
Opening English: THE TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES.
Book I
The Rule
Book I is the only book in time order, and it stops before Constantine. The question is not yet 'what is the right formula about the Son.' The question is whether the churches scattered from Syria to Gaul are already one church. The Didache, Clement, and Barnabas show a community that baptizes, prays, and breaks bread without a New Testament canon on the table. Ignatius, walking to his death, makes the bishop the test of that unity. The apologists then have to explain the same life to a pagan magistrate. The martyr acts show what the explanation cost. Irenaeus closes the book by naming the thing the whole book has been pointing at: a rule of faith received from the apostles and handed on in the churches, Rome among them. PG and Funk are the edition spine here; Barnabas is printed from the Latin version, not the Greek.
I.1 · The churches of the apostles' first successors
Three documents, no bishop yet as the center of the picture. The Didache is a church order for people about to be baptized. Clement is a Roman intervention in a Corinthian revolt, written while some apostles' hearers are still alive. Barnabas rereads Israel as already the church's scripture. Together they are the book's proof that 'the rule' is older than the councils. Barnabas is given here from the Latin version in PG 2, not from the Greek of the Sinai manuscript.
Passage cards
The Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles)
Source: Funk I, pp. 2–36 · Book I · The Rule · section I.1 · first reading
Sixteen short chapters, and they are not a treatise. Chapters 1–6 are the Two Ways, a moral catechism for people about to be baptized. Chapters 7–10 turn without warning into a minister's card: how to baptize, when to fast, the Lord's Prayer three times a day, and two thanksgivings over cup and bread. Chapters 11–15 are the hard part, how to tell a real prophet from a man who wants the best sofa and a money order. Chapter 16 ends on the coming of the Lord, not on a creed. The book is interesting because it is earlier than almost every argument the later Fathers have. It assumes one baptism, one meal, one Lord's Prayer, and already has to police wandering clergy. Lost for centuries, recovered in 1873 in a manuscript at Constantinople, which is why Funk, not Migne's main run, is the citation in this edition.
The two ways
Source: Funk I, pp. 2–6 · Book I · I.1 · Didache · opening
Anchor: I. There are two ways, one of life and one of death
The book opens on a fork, not a story. Life is the double command, God and neighbor, plus the negative golden rule. Death is named later, in chapter 5, as a list. Between them, chapter 1.3–6 is the part that feels like Matthew: bless those who curse you, turn the other cheek, go the second mile, give the tunic. Those verses are missing from some early quotations of the Two Ways, so they may be a Christian thickening of an older Jewish tract. The line that sticks is the one about the taker who had no need: he will not get out until he has paid the last farthing. Generosity here is not a mood. It is judged.
My child: the way sins breed
Source: Funk I, pp. 8–14 · Book I · I.1 · Didache
Anchor: III. My child, flee from every evil and from everything like it
The address changes to 'my child,' and the method changes with it. Anger is not murder, but it leads there; lust is not adultery, but it leads there; augury is not yet idolatry, but it begets it. This is a fence around the commandment, built for catechumens. Chapter 4 then turns the same voice on the household: remember the one who speaks God's word, do not pull your hand back from giving, do not command a slave in bitterness because the slave hopes in the same God, and do not add to the commandments or take away. The interesting pressure is that the teacher, the child, and the slave are already inside one church before any bishop has been named.
The way of death, and the food rule
Source: Funk I, pp. 14–16 · Book I · I.1 · Didache
Anchor: V. But the way of death is this
Chapter 5 is almost a counter-psalm: murders, adulteries, magic, perjury, hypocrisy, love of money, advocates of the rich and corrupt judges of the poor. No argument, only the pile. Chapter 6 is the hinge into the church order. Do not be led off this way of teaching. Then a food rule that is deliberately soft: bear what you can of the yoke, but keep strictly off meat offered to idols. The book already knows a church of uneven strength, and it will not let the hard case be the meal that belongs to another god.
Baptism, fasting, the Lord's Prayer
Source: Funk I, pp. 16–20 · Book I · I.1 · Didache
Anchor: VII. Concerning baptism, baptize thus
The oldest surviving instructions for the rite, and they are practical to the point of embarrassment. Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in living water if you have it, in other water if you do not, in warm water if you must, and by pouring three times on the head if you are short of water. Fast before, the one who baptizes and the one who is baptized. Then a calendar that is already anti-hypocrite: not the fast days of 'the hypocrites,' but Wednesday and Friday, and the Lord's Prayer three times a day, nearly in Matthew's wording, with the doxology. Creed and canon are not here yet. The Triune name and the prayer are.
The thanksgivings over cup and bread
Source: Funk I, pp. 20–24 · Book I · I.1 · Didache
Anchor: IX. Concerning the thanksgiving, give thanks thus
Cup first, then broken bread. That order, and the absence of an institution narrative, is why these prayers have been argued over for a century: a eucharistic liturgy, or a grace before a meal that is not yet the Eucharist? The book itself calls the food 'eucharist' and forbids the unbaptized to eat or drink it. The prayers are built on vine and bread as figures of David and of the life made known through Jesus, and they end on the cry for the church to be gathered from the ends of the earth. Chapter 10 blesses after being filled, and then adds the one free line in the whole book: let the prophets give thanks as long as they wish. Fixed text and free prayer are already side by side.
Apostles, prophets, and the man who stays too long
Source: Funk I, pp. 24–32 · Book I · I.1 · Didache
Anchor: XI. Whoever comes and teaches you all these things, receive him
This is the passage that makes the book feel lived in. Receive the teacher who brings this teaching. If he turns it aside, do not listen. An apostle may stay one day, or two if he must; if he stays three, he is a false prophet. If he asks for money, he is a false prophet. If he orders a table in the spirit and then sits down at it, he is a false prophet. The test is not ecstasy. It is whether the ways of the Lord are in him. A true prophet who settles is owed first-fruits, like a workman. The church in this chapter still expects travelers who speak in the spirit, and it has already been burned.
The Lord's Day, bishops, and the unquenched lamps
Source: Funk I, pp. 32–36 · Book I · I.1 · Didache · close of the reading
Anchor: XIV. On the Lord's Day of the Lord gather and break bread
Chapter 14 is the Sunday sentence: gather, break bread, and give thanks, but first confess your failings so that the sacrifice is pure. No one in a quarrel is to come, 'for this is the word of the Lord: in every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice.' Chapter 15 then appoints bishops and deacons, meek, not lovers of money, truthful, approved, because they minister the same ministry as the prophets and teachers. Do not despise them. The traveling spirit and the settled officer are not two churches. Chapter 16 closes the book where Matthew 24 would: lamps lit, loins girded, frequent gathering, and then the signs, the world-deceiver, and the Lord coming on the clouds. The Teaching does not end in a constitution. It ends on watch.
The First Letter of Clement to the Corinthians, from ch. 4, §7, to ch. 61
Source: PG 1, cols. 216–325; Funk I, pp. 172–180
Rome writes to Corinth about a revolt against presbyters, and answers with the order of Israel and a jealousy catalogue from Aaron to David. The nerve is the end: restore the deposed, then a long liturgical prayer that is as close as the first century comes to a Roman canon. Some of the apostles’ hearers are still alive, he says. PG 1, 216–325; Funk I, 172–180.
Opening English: Because of jealousy Aaron and Miriam were lodged outside the camp. Because of jealousy Dathan and Abiram were brought down alive to Hades, because they made sedition against Moses
The Letter of Barnabas, chs. 1–6, 18–21
Source: PG 2, cols. 727–744, 776–781
Printed here from the Latin version. Barnabas rereads circumcision, the food laws, and the scapegoat as already about Christ, then closes on a Two Ways tract cousin to the Didache. The book is right to put it beside Clement: two ways of using Israel’s scripture before a canon of the New Testament is closed. PG 2, 727–744 and 776–781.
Opening English: [1] Hail, sons and daughters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Who loved us, in peace. Knowing that there is in you an abundance of the great and honourable [gifts], by the equ
I.2 · Ignatius on the road to Rome
Seven letters from a condemned bishop on the road, plus Polycarp's cover letter to Philippi. Ignatius is the first writer in the book to make one bishop, one altar, and one Eucharist the test of the church. The letter to the Romans is the odd one out: he does not instruct Rome, he begs Rome not to save him. Polycarp, who will have his own martyrdom in I.4, is still the recipient and then the writer.
The Letter to the Ephesians
Source: PG 5, cols. 644–661
The first of the seven letters from the road. Ignatius greets Ephesus as a church foreordained, and the instruction is already the one he will repeat: meet in one Eucharist, because the flesh of Jesus Christ is one, and the cup is one. PG 5, 644–661.
Opening English: TO THE EPHESIANS.
The Letter to the Magnesians
Source: PG 5, cols. 661–673
To Magnesia, and the warning is Judaizing on the sabbath against the Lord’s day. He wants the bishop presiding in the place of God, the presbyters as the council of the apostles. The Trinitarian greeting is early and unembarrassed. PG 5, 661–673.
Opening English: TO THE MAGNESIANS.
The Letter to the Trallians
Source: PG 5, cols. 673–685
To Tralles, on the silence of the bishop and the reality of Christ’s flesh. He tells them he could write heavenly things and will not. The docetist is a phantom talking about a phantom. PG 5, 673–685.
Opening English: TO THE TRALLIANS.
The Letter to the Romans
Source: PG 5, cols. 685–696
The letter that is not an instruction. He begs Rome not to rescue him. Wheat of God, ground by the teeth of beasts. He is the last of the Antiochene bishops in this book to speak before the formula exists, and he already says “our God Jesus Christ.” PG 5, 685–696.
Opening English: To the Romans Ignatius, who is also Theophorus, to her that has obtained mercy in the majesty of the Father most high and of Jesus Christ His only Son; to the Church beloved and en
The Letter to the Philadelphians
Source: PG 5, cols. 697–708
To Philadelphia, after a dispute in which he says he cried out “do nothing without the bishop” as the Spirit cried, not as a man arranging a diocese. The archives are Jesus Christ; the inviolable archives are his cross and death and resurrection. PG 5, 697–708.
Opening English: To the Philadelphians Ignatius, who is also Theophorus, to the Church of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ which is at Philadelphia of Asia, which has obtained mercy and
The Letter to the Smyrnaeans
Source: PG 5, cols. 708–717
To Smyrna, Polycarp’s church. The fiercest anti-docetic page in the seven: if Christ only seemed to suffer, Ignatius is dying for nothing, and the Eucharist is the flesh that suffered. He also names the catholic church, one of the earliest uses of the phrase. PG 5, 708–717.
Opening English: To the Smyrnaeans Ignatius, who is also Theophorus, to the Church of God the Father and of the beloved Jesus Christ, which has obtained mercy in every gift, filled full, in faith a
The Letter to Polycarp
Source: PG 5, cols. 718–728
To Polycarp himself, not to a church. A bishop telling a younger bishop to stand firm, to care for widows, not to despise slaves. The personal letter inside a public corpus. PG 5, 718–728. Polycarp’s own letter follows, and his martyrdom is in I.4.
Opening English: To Polycarp Ignatius, who is also Theophorus, to Polycarp, bishop of the Church of the Smyrnaeans — or rather one himself overseen by God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: abun
The Letter to the Philippians
Source: PG 5, cols. 1005–1016
Polycarp to Philippi, covering Ignatius’s letters and answering a fallen presbyter. He quotes the sermon on the mount as already scripture-like, and he asks for news of Ignatius. The chain of custody is the point. PG 5, 1005–1016.
Opening English: Of the holy Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and hieromartyr, letter to the Philippians Polycarp and the presbyters who are with him, to the Church of God that sojourns at Philippi: merc
I.3 · The apologists: the Christians explained to the nations
The audience changes. Justin writes to the emperor, Theophilus to a pagan friend, the Letter to Diognetus to an inquirer, Clement of Alexandria to a reader who still needs a tutor. The interesting common move is that none of them defends a private piety. Justin describes baptism and the Sunday meeting as the thing the magistrate should understand. Diognetus describes Christians as the soul of the world. Theophilus is the first in the book to use the word 'Trinity' of God.
The First Apology, chs. 61–67
Source: PG 6, cols. 420–432
Justin’s description of baptism and Sunday, written to the emperor. Wash in the Triune name, then the meal over bread and cup which he calls Eucharist, and which he says is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus. The memoirs of the apostles are read. This is the earliest full picture of a Christian Sunday after the Didache. PG 6, 420–432.
The Letter to Diognetus, chs. 5–10
Source: PG 2, cols. 1173–1184
Christians are in the world as the soul is in the body: scattered, holding it together, hated for it. The letter then turns and says the Father did not send a subordinate. Late second century, author unknown, and the book is right not to force a name. PG 2, 1173–1184.
To Autolycus I, 2–7
Source: PG 6, cols. 1025–1036
Theophilus to Autolycus. Show me your God, the pagan says. Show me your man and I will show you my God. He is the first writer in this book to call God Trias, Trinity. PG 6, 1025–1036.
Opening English: 2. But if you should say, Show me your God, I too would say to you, Show me your man, and I will show you my God. For show me that the eyes of your soul see, and that the ears of y
The Instructor (Paedagogus) I, 6, §§25–42
Source: PG 8, cols. 280–301
Clement of Alexandria’s Tutor, the Logos as the one who both heals and trains. The interesting cut is pedagogical: Christianity as a formation, not only a pardon. PG 8, 280–301. He is the intellectual of the apologists; Justin was the martyr.
Opening English: CHAPTER VI. Against those who suppose that the name of 'children' and 'infants' hints at the teaching of the first lessons.
I.4 · The martyrs' testimony
Four acts, four genres. Polycarp is a church letter about a bishop who would not swear by the genius of Caesar. Justin is a court transcript. Perpetua is a diary that becomes a vision and then a witness's ending. Cyprian is the proconsular minutes of a bishop who had already written the unity treatise in Book II. The section is short because the book refuses to let martyrdom become the whole of the second century.
The Martyrdom of Polycarp, chs. 13–16
Source: PG 5, cols. 1037–1041
The church of Smyrna writes the martyrdom. Polycarp will not swear by Caesar’s genius. The fire billows around him like a sail; a dagger finishes it. They will not give up the bones. The letter is already fighting a relic cult and a slander at once. PG 5, 1037–1041. His letter to Philippi is in I.2.
Opening English: [13] These things, then, were coming to pass with such speed, quicker than they are told, the crowds gathering together on the instant out of both the workshops and the baths logs
The Acts of Justin and His Companions
Source: PG 6, cols. 1565–1572
A transcript, not a legend. Justin says he tried every philosophy and stopped at the prophets. Rusticus sentences him and his companions to be scourged and beheaded. The flatness is the authority. PG 6, 1565–1572.
Opening English: MARTYRDOM OF THE HOLY MARTYRS JUSTIN, CHARITON, CHARITO, PAEON AND LIBERIAN, WHO BORE WITNESS AT ROME.
The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, chs. 18–21
Source: PL 3, cols. 51–62
Perpetua’s prison diary, completed by a witness. A young mother, a slave Felicity beside her, visions of a ladder and an Egyptian, then the arena at Carthage. The book prints the end, chapters 18–21. PL 3, 51–62. The voice is the rare one in this book that is a woman’s own.
Opening English: CHAPTER VI.
The Proconsular Acts of Cyprian
Source: PL 3, cols. 1557–1566
The proconsular acts. Cyprian has already been told to go into exile; now he is told to sacrifice. He refuses, and the sentence is beheading. The minutes are why his treatises on unity and the Lord’s Prayer, later in the book, are not desk theology. PL 3, 1557–1566.
Opening English: PROCONSULAR ACTS OF SAINT CYPRIAN BISHOP AND MARTYR.
I.5 · Irenaeus: the one faith received and handed on
One author, seven cuttings, and they are the thesis of Book I. I.10 is the rule of faith in a paragraph. III.3 is the succession list and the Roman church. III.17–20 is the Spirit and the Virgin's Son against the divided Christs of the heretics. III.24 is the Spirit as the pledge. IV.13–20 is law, prophecy, and the Father seen through the Word. V.2 is flesh and Eucharist. V.19–21 is Eve and Mary, Adam and Christ. Lyons is a long way from Antioch, and the faith he recites is the same one Ignatius died for.
Against Heresies I, 10
Source: PG 7, cols. 549–560
Irenaeus states the rule: one God, one Christ Jesus the Son, the virgin birth, the passion, the resurrection, the Spirit, the prophets. He says every church agrees, whether in Germany, in Spain, in Gaul, in the East, in Egypt, in Libya. PG 7, 549–560.
Against Heresies III, 3
Source: PG 7, cols. 848–855
The succession argument. The tradition of the apostles is in the churches, and he will give Rome’s list because it would be tedious to list them all: Linus, Anacletus, Clement, and down. A church he can visit in principle is his answer to a secret tradition. PG 7, 848–855. Vincent in II.1 will turn this into a test.
Opening English: CHAPTER III.
Against Heresies III, 17–20
Source: PG 7, cols. 929–945
Against the split Christs. The Spirit and the virgin’s son are one economy. He will not let a redeemer who did not really take flesh be the redeemer of flesh. PG 7, 929–945.
Opening English: CHAPTER XVII.
Against Heresies III, 24
Source: PG 7, cols. 965–967
A short chapter, and it is the Spirit as the pledge of incorruption, the church as the planted paradise. PG 7, 965–967. The brevity is why it can be read aloud.
Opening English: CHAPTER XXIV.
Against Heresies IV, 13–20
Source: PG 7, cols. 1006–1043
Law and prophecy were not another God. The Father is seen through the Word. Those who spoke of another Father behind the creator had not noticed that the Word is how the invisible becomes visible. PG 7, 1006–1043. This is the longest Irenaeus cut, and the one the Eucharist readings later depend on.
Opening English: CHAPTER XIII.
Against Heresies V, 2
Source: PG 7, cols. 1123–1128
Flesh and blood, because the Eucharist is bread from the earth receiving the invocation, and the flesh that receives it is not abandoned. A salvation of souls only cannot explain the cup. PG 7, 1123–1128. See Ambrose, On the Sacraments, in III.2.
Opening English: 1. But vain also are they who say that God came into what was another's — came as one coveting what belonged to another, so that he might present the man who had been made by anoth
Against Heresies V, 19–21
Source: PG 7, cols. 1175–1182
Eve and Mary, the knot tied and untied. Disobedience at a tree, obedience at a tree. He closes the book’s first movement by making recapitulation a story, not a term. PG 7, 1175–1182.
Opening English: CHAPTER XIX.
Book II
The Confession
Book II leaves chronology and follows the Creed. That is the editorial decision that makes this anthology a book rather than a lectionary reprint. Advent, Nativity, Epiphany, Passion, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost are here because the Creed says them, not because the calendar says them. The long Christological run in II.7 is the book's council in miniature: Athanasius to Epictetus, Cyril against Nestorius, Celestine, the Twelve Anathemas, Leo's Tome, Fulgentius, Agatho to the sixth council. Scripture is not a preface. II.13 treats the prophets as the Creed's own clause, 'who spoke through the prophets.' Grace is two Augustinian readings at the end, so the Confession does not close on a institution but on a gift.
II.1 · I believe: the faith handed over
Four readings on how a creed is received, not invented. Cyril of Jerusalem hands the creed to catechumens and tells them not to write it down. Tertullian's Prescription says the argument with heretics is over before it starts, because the rule was there first. John Damascene, centuries later, still begins the Orthodox Faith with 'no one has seen God.' Vincent of Lérins gives the test that will be quoted for the rest of the book: what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.
Catechetical Lecture 5
Source: PG 33, cols. 505–524
Cyril hands the creed to the catechumens and tells them not to write it on paper but on the heart. The lecture is the ceremony of the traditio symboli. PG 33, 505–524. The mystagogical lectures wait until Book III, after they have been baptized.
Opening English: CATECHESIS V OF THOSE BEING ENLIGHTENED, Delivered extempore at Jerusalem, On Faith; and a reading from the [Epistle] to the Hebrews: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for
The Prescription against Heretics, chs. 20–22
Source: PL 2, cols. 36–41
Tertullian’s Prescription. The dispute with heretics is out of order: the rule was delivered with the churches, and a late novelty has no standing to reopen it. PL 2, 36–41. Harsh, and the book puts Vincent beside him so the test is not only antiquity.
Opening English: CHAPTER XX. — That one doctrine of the same faith was delivered by Christ to the apostles, who proclaimed it to the nations and founded churches in every city, from which the other
The Orthodox Faith I, 1
Source: PG 94, cols. 789–792
Damascene begins the Orthodox Faith where Gregory Nazianzen began: no one has seen God, and yet he is not unknowable, because he has spoken. PG 94, 789–792. An eighth-century Eastern summa opening a Creed book.
Opening English: CHAP. I.
The Commonitory, chs. 22–24
Source: PL 50, cols. 667–672
Vincent of Lérins, 434. What has been believed everywhere, always, and by all. He is writing after Nestorius and before Chalcedon, and the test is his attempt to say how a doctrine can grow without changing. PL 50, 667–672. See Irenaeus III.3.
II.2 · In one God, maker of heaven and earth
Only two readings, and they are enough to stop the Creed collapsing into a Christ-only piety. Athanasius against the pagans argues from the order of the world to one Maker. Hippolytus, at the end of the Refutation, states the God he has been defending against every system he has just catalogued. Creation is not a backdrop. It is the first article.
Against the Pagans, chs. 38–47
Source: PG 25, cols. 76–96
Athanasius against the pagans. The order of the world is not a committee of gods. One Logos holds it, and the fall is a turning of the rational creature toward lesser goods. PG 25, 76–96. The companion volume is On the Incarnation, next section but one.
Opening English: 38. Since, then, there is not disorder but order in the universe, and not want of measure but due proportion, and not disarray but array ([kosmos]) and an all-harmonious ordering o
The Refutation of All Heresies X, 30–34
Source: PG 16, cols. 3443–3454
The end of Hippolytus’s Refutation. After cataloguing every system, he states the God he has been defending: the Father, the Word, the Spirit, and a resurrection of the body. PG 16, 3443–3454. The attribution has been argued; the book prints it as Hippolytus.
II.3 · And in one Lord, the only-begotten Son
The Son as God, before the story of his coming. Hippolytus against Noetus refuses a Father who suffers and a Son who is only a mode. Hilary, home from exile, writes the Trinity he could not get from the Latin West and had to learn in the Greek East. Athanasius against the Arians presses 'begotten' until it will not mean 'made.' Faustinus is the small voice, a Luciferian priest stating the same faith without a great name.
Against Noetus, chs. 8–14
Source: PG 10, cols. 816–821
Against Noetus. If the Father himself was born and suffered, the monarchy has eaten the Son. Hippolytus answers with a Word who is other than the Father and not another God. PG 10, 816–821. The Western argument Hilary will have to relearn.
Opening English: [VIII.] And many other things, or rather all things, bear witness to the truth. He is compelled, then, even against his will, to confess the Father, God Almighty, and Christ Jesus,
On the Trinity I, §§31, 35–37; II, §§1, 33–35
Source: PL 10, cols. 47–51, 73–75
Hilary, back from exile in Asia, writing the Trinity the Latin West did not yet have a book for. The cut moves from book I’s argument that the Son is not a creature to book II’s reading of the baptismal formula. PL 10, 47–51 and 73–75.
Against the Arians II, 77–82
Source: PG 26, cols. 309–321
Athanasius against the Arians. “Begotten” will not be allowed to mean “made.” The Son is the Father’s own, not a work from nothing. PG 26, 309–321. This is the treatise the Nicene “consubstantial” is defending.
On the Trinity VIII, 12–18
Source: PL 10, cols. 245–250
Hilary again, book VIII, on the mutual indwelling. The Father in the Son and the Son in the Father is not a metaphor for agreement. PL 10, 245–250.
On the Trinity 5, §§2–3
Source: PL 13, cols. 70–72
Faustinus, a small Roman treatise, Luciferian in allegiance, stating the same faith without a great see behind it. PL 13, 70–72. The book is right to keep a minor voice in a section of giants.
II.4 · Who for us men and for our salvation came down
Why he came, not only who he is. Athanasius's On the Incarnation is the classic: the Word came because the image had been ruined, and corruption could not be undone by a command. Chrysologus preaches the same exchange in short sermons. Maximus puts it in chapters: the Word moves toward what cannot move toward him. Augustine's Confessions VII and X are placed here on purpose, the Platonist books that could not tell him the Word was made flesh, and the late 'I have loved you' that only the incarnate Christ explains.
On the Incarnation, chs. 6–12
Source: PG 25, cols. 105–117
On the Incarnation 6–12. The image was ruined. Repentance alone would not stop the corruption. The Word took a body so that death could be met in a body. PG 25, 105–117. The most readable chapter in Book II.
Sermon 147
Source: PL 52, cols. 594–596
Chrysologus, sermon 147, the exchange in a preacher’s paragraph: God in man, so that man might be in God. PL 52, 594–596. Ravenna’s short sentences beside Athanasius’s treatise.
Opening English: SERMON 147. On the sacrament of the Incarnation.
The Five Hundred Chapters I, 1–20
Source: PG 90, cols. 1177–1188
Maximus, the Five Hundred Chapters. The Word moves out of love toward what cannot cross the distance. PG 90, 1177–1188. A seventh-century monk stating the motive of the incarnation after the councils have finished the terms.
Opening English: OF OUR HOLY FATHER AND TEACHER MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR VARIOUS CHAPTERS, THEOLOGICAL AND ECONOMICAL [that is, on the divine dispensation]. And on virtue and vice.
Sermon 117
Source: PL 52, cols. 520–522
Chrysologus 117, on the first Adam and the last. A living soul, a life-giving spirit. PL 52, 520–522. Paul read as the plot of the coming down.
Opening English: SERMON 117. On the first and the last Adam. On the words of the same [Apostle]: The first man Adam was made into a living soul, etc.
The Confessions VII, 10–18; X, 26–28
Source: PL 32, cols. 742–746, 795–796
Confessions VII.10–18 and X.26–28. The Platonist books told him of the Word, not of the Word made flesh. Book X’s “late have I loved you” is placed here because only the descended Christ explains the delay. PL 32, 742–746 and 795–796. The Ostia chapters wait for the coda of Book V.
Opening English: CHAPTER X. Divine things now become more clearly known to Augustine.
II.5 · The Advent and the Annunciation
John the Baptist, Mary, and the visit to Elizabeth. Augustine's sermon 293 on the two births of John is the Latin classic. Sophronius preaches the Annunciation as a feast of the Word's entrance. Ambrose on Luke is the Western reading of the Magnificat's surroundings. Bede, much later, is here because the Office still reads him on the Visitation. Damascene on the Nativity of the Mother of God pushes the story one generation back, to Anne and Joachim, which the Creed does not say and the later church does.
Sermon 293
Source: PL 38, cols. 1327–1335
Augustine, sermon 293, on John’s two births, from Elizabeth and from the Spirit, and on the voice that makes ready for the Word. PL 38, 1327–1335. The Office still reads this on the Baptist’s nativity.
Opening English: SERMON 293.
Oration on the Annunciation, 20–27
Source: PG 87, cols. 3240–3249
Sophronius of Jerusalem on the Annunciation. The greeting is the moment the Word enters the hearing of a girl. PG 87, 3240–3249. An early seventh-century festal sermon, after Chalcedon, still arguing by narrative.
Opening English: 20. When He was sending me to you from above, O Virgin, He was without flesh and without body; but here I see Him become flesh and body. Above He was uncreated, set apart from all
Exposition of the Gospel of Luke II, 19–27
Source: PL 15, cols. 1640–1643
Ambrose on Luke 2.19–27, the visitation and the beginning of the Magnificat’s world. PL 15, 1640–1643. Milan’s reading, which the Latin Office will not let go.
Opening English: (vv. 39, 40) And Mary, rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda, and entered the house of Zachary, and greeted Elizabeth.
Exposition of the Gospel of Luke I, on Luke 1:39–56
Source: PL 92, cols. 320–323
Bede on the visitation, Luke 1:39–56. PL 92, 320–323. An eighth-century English monk in a Creed book because the Office appointed him, which is the anthology’s rule.
Opening English: And the angel departed from her. And Mary rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste, into the city of Juda. The virgin's consent received, the angel at once re
Homily on the Nativity of the Mother of God, 1–7
Source: PG 96, cols. 661–672
Damascene on the nativity of Mary. The story goes back to Anne, beyond the Creed’s text, because the feast had. PG 96, 661–672. The book includes it and does not pretend it is Irenaeus.
Opening English: VI. Of John, the lowly Damascene, monk and priest: a discourse on the nativity of our most holy Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary.
II.6 · The Nativity of the Lord
Christmas as doctrine, not pageant. Augustine 185 and 194 on the two births, eternal and temporal. Leo's Christmas sermons, especially the 'Christian, remember your dignity.' Proclus of Constantinople, whose Christmas homily on Mary as the loom of the flesh will sit beside the Nestorian crisis in the next section. Quodvultdeus, Augustine's deacon in Carthage, teaching the creed to candidates at the feast.
Sermon 185
Source: PL 38, cols. 997–999
Augustine 185. The day we call the birthday is the day he was born of a mother; he had a birthday from the Father before the morning star. PL 38, 997–999.
Opening English: SERMON CLXXXV. On the Birthday of the Lord, ii.
Sermons 21, 26 and 27, on the Nativity of the Lord
Source: PL 54, cols. 190–193, 212–221
Leo’s Christmas sermons 21, 26, 27. “Christian, recognize your dignity.” The lowliness of the manger is the majesty stooping, not the majesty absent. PL 54, 190–193 and 212–221. His Tome is in II.7; the preacher and the dogmatist are the same man.
Opening English: SERMON XXI [otherwise XX]. On the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, I.
Homily 4, on the Nativity of the Lord
Source: PG 65, cols. 708–716
Proclus of Constantinople, homily 4. Mary as the loom on which the flesh of the Word is woven. PG 65, 708–716. Preached before 446, and it will sit beside the Nestorian letters in the next section as the festive form of the same claim.
Opening English: DISCOURSE IV.
Sermon 194, §§2–4
Source: PL 38, cols. 1016–1017
Augustine 194. The two births again, pressed shorter. PL 38, 1016–1017.
Second Sermon on the Creed, 4
Source: PL 40, cols. 654–656
Quodvultdeus, Augustine’s deacon, teaching the creed at Carthage near Christmas. PL 40, 654–656. A bishop-to-be of a city about to fall to the Vandals, still handing on the symbol.
Opening English: CHAPTER IV. — 4. The birth of Christ from a virgin according to the prophecy of Isaias. Signs at the birth of Christ. The infants slain by the command of Herod become martyrs of Ch
II.7 · One Christ, true God and true man
The longest doctrinal section, and the book's council dossier. Athanasius to Epictetus against a heavenly body. Cyril's letters to the monks and to Nestorius, the second and the third with the Twelve Anathemas. Celestine of Rome backing Cyril and writing to Ephesus. Cyril's homily at the council, then the reunion letter to John of Antioch, Laetentur caeli. Leo's Tome to Flavian, the text Chalcedon applauded. Fulgentius tightening the same line in Africa. Agatho's confession sent to the sixth council against the one-will teaching. Read in that order, the section is an argument, not a pile.
The Letter to Epictetus
Source: PG 26, cols. 1049–1069
Athanasius to Epictetus of Corinth. He had thought the Nicene faith had ended the idle talk. It had not. Against a Christ with a heavenly body, or a Christ who is two sons. PG 26, 1049–1069. The sample reading of the editorial pass.
Opening English: Of our father among the saints Athanasius, archbishop of Alexandria, letter to Epictetus of Corinth, against the heretics.
The Letter to the Monks of Egypt (Letter 1), the latter part
Source: PG 77, cols. 20–40
Cyril to the monks of Egypt, 429. A pastoral letter that is already a treatise against dividing the one Christ. PG 77, 20–40.
Opening English: And one would not miss the truth if he chose to say that the mothers of the others are Christotokoi, yet not also Theotokoi. But she alone, beyond them, the holy Virgin, is both un
The Second Letter to Nestorius
Source: PG 77, cols. 44–49
The second letter to Nestorius. The peace formula Cyril thinks Nestorius can sign: the same one is born of the Father before the ages and of Mary in these last days. PG 77, 44–49. Ephesus will receive it.
Opening English: LETTER IV. CYRIL TO NESTORIUS.
Letter 11, to Cyril of Alexandria
Source: PL 50, cols. 459–463
Celestine of Rome to Cyril. Rome has judged Nestorius’s teaching and gives Cyril the execution of the sentence. PG is not the only witness; the book’s citation sits with the Ephesus dossier.
Opening English: LETTER XI.
The Third Letter to Nestorius, with the Twelve Anathemas
Source: PG 77, cols. 105–121
The third letter, with the Twelve Anathemas. Stronger, and the reunion of 433 will have to walk some of it back without surrendering the one Christ. PG 77. Read it before Laetentur caeli, not instead of it.
Opening English: LETTER XVII (formerly XV). CYRIL TO NESTORIUS, ON EXCOMMUNICATION.
Letter 18, to the Council of Ephesus
Source: PL 50, cols. 505–511
Celestine to the council of Ephesus. The Roman mandate in the room. The interesting fact is procedural: a pope writing to a council he does not attend.
Opening English: LETTER XVIII.
Homily 4, Preached at the Council of Ephesus
Source: PG 77, cols. 992–996
Cyril’s homily 4 at Ephesus, preached in Mary’s church. The doctrinal letters become a festal sermon. PG 77. Theotokos is the word the homily will not give up.
Opening English: HOMILY IV.
To John of Antioch: “Let the Heavens Rejoice” ( Laetentur caeli )
Source: PG 77, cols. 173–181
Laetentur caeli, to John of Antioch, 433. The reunion. “Let the heavens rejoice.” A formula of union after the anathemas. The book is right to include the peace and not only the prosecution.
Opening English: LETTER XXXIX (formerly XXXIV). CYRIL TO JOHN, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH, SENT BY PAUL, BISHOP OF EMESA.
The Tome to Flavian (Letter 28), chs. 1–4
Source: PL 54, cols. 755–771
Leo’s Tome to Flavian, 449. Two natures, one person, the properties of each kept, the acts shared. Chalcedon will applaud it in 451. PL 54. The Christmas preacher of II.6 writing as a judge.
Opening English: LETTER XXVIII.
Letter 14, to Ferrandus, 35–38
Source: PL 65, cols. 424–427
Fulgentius to Ferrandus. Africa after the Vandals, tightening Leo’s line for a later fight. PL. A small treatise in a dossier of giants, like Faustinus in II.3.
Opening English: QUESTION FOUR.
Letter 1, to the Emperors (the dogmatic letter to the Sixth Council): the confession of faith
Source: PL 87, cols. 1165–1173
Agatho to the emperors for the sixth council, 680. The confession against one will in Christ. Rome speaks again, this time against a formula that had tried to simplify Chalcedon. The section ends in the seventh century on purpose.
II.8 · The Epiphany and the Jordan
The showing, not only the birth. Leo on the magi and the meaning of the gifts. Chrysologus preaching the feast. Gregory Nazianzen on the Holy Lights, baptism and Epiphany still one feast in his Cappadocia. Pseudo-Hippolytus on the Theophany is marked as later, and the book is right to mark it: the Jordan voice is already being preached as a set piece.
Sermon 33, on the Epiphany
Source: PL 54, cols. 240–244
Leo, sermon 33, on the Epiphany. The magi’s gifts are doctrine: gold for the king, frankincense for God, myrrh for the one who will die. PL 54.
Opening English: SERMON XXXIII [otherwise XXXII]. On the solemnity of the Epiphany, III.
Sermon 160
Source: PL 52, cols. 620–622
Chrysologus 160, the feast preached short. PL 52.
Opening English: SERMON 160. On the same [mysteries].
Oration 39, On the Holy Lights, 13–20
Source: PG 36, cols. 348–360
Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 39, On the Holy Lights. In his church Epiphany is still the feast of baptism. The Jordan is the showing. PG 36.
Discourse on the Holy Theophany
Source: PG 10, cols. 852–861
Marked pseudo-Hippolytus, fourth century or later. A Theophany sermon in an older name. PG 10, 852–861. The book flags the attribution, which is the right editorial manners.
Opening English: OF SAINT HIPPOLYTUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR, DISCOURSE ON THE HOLY THEOPHANY.
II.9 · He suffered under Pontius Pilate: the Passion and the Cross
Eleven readings, because the Office preaches the cross from every angle. Leo on the Transfiguration, placed here because he reads Tabor as the strength for Calvary. Cyril of Jerusalem's catechesis 13, the cross as the glory of the church he can point to in Jerusalem. Augustine's Guelferbytanus sermon and Confessions X.43, the mediator the philosophers did not have. Theodoret defending the impassible Word who truly suffered. Anastasius of Antioch on passion and impassibility. Chrysostom on the cemetery and the cross. Ephrem, Andrew of Crete, Theodore the Studite: the East singing what the Latins argue.
Sermon 51, on the Transfiguration
Source: PL 54, cols. 308–313
Leo 51, on the Transfiguration, placed in the Passion section because he reads Tabor as the strength given for the cross. The voice from the cloud is the same voice that will not spare the beloved at the hour. PL 54, 308–313.
Opening English: SERMON 51 [al. 94].
Catechetical Lecture 13, §§1, 3, 6, 23
Source: PG 33, cols. 772–780, 800–801
Cyril of Jerusalem, catechesis 13. He can point to Golgotha from the room. The cross is the glory, not the embarrassment, of the church in that city. PG 33, 772–780 and 800–801.
Opening English: CATECHESIS XIII OF THOSE BEING ENLIGHTENED.
Sermon Guelferbytanus 3, on the Passion of the Lord
Source: Morin I, pp. 14–16
Augustine, Guelferbytanus 3, a passion sermon recovered late. Morin I, 14–16. The citation is not Migne, and the book says so.
Opening English: ON THE PASSION OF THE LORD
On the Incarnation of the Lord, 24–30
Source: PG 75, cols. 1461–1472
Theodoret on the incarnation, chapters 24–30. The Word impassible in nature, truly suffering in the flesh he made his own. PG 75, 1461–1472. Chalcedon’s friend, Cyril’s critic, stating the line Leo will recognize.
Opening English: 24. A narrative, in summary, of Christ's manner of life after His birth.
Sermons 59, 63 and 66, on the Passion of the Lord
Source: PL 54, cols. 337–342, 353–357, 364–368
Leo’s passion sermons 59, 63, 66. The cross as victory, the thief as the church’s first spoils. PL 54, 337–342, 353–357, 364–368.
Opening English: SERMON LIX [otherwise LVII]. On the Passion of the Lord, VIII; delivered on a Wednesday.
Oration 4, On the Passion and Impassibility of Christ
Source: PG 89, cols. 1347–1356
Anastasius of Antioch on passion and impassibility. A late sixth-century attempt to say the same thing without falling into either a suffering Father or a phantom cross. PG 89, 1347–1356.
Opening English: IV. ON THE PASSION AND IMPASSIBILITY OF CHRIST.
The Confessions X, 43
Source: PL 32, cols. 808–810
Confessions X.43. The mediator the philosophers did not give him: one between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who paid what he did not owe. PL 32, 808–810.
Opening English: CHAPTER XLIII. Christ the true mediator.
On the Cemetery and the Cross
Source: PG 49, cols. 393–398
Chrysostom on the cemetery and the cross. The place of the dead renamed by the instrument of death. PG 49, 393–398.
Opening English: ON THE NAME OF THE CEMETERY, And on the cross of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Homily on Our Lord, 3–4, 9
Source: Lamy I, pp. 152–158, 166–168
Ephrem, homily on our Lord. Syriac theology in a Latin translation here, Lamy I. The cross as the key and the thief of the thief. A different music from Leo, the same claim.
Opening English: 3. But our Lord was trampled underfoot by death, and He in turn trod her down as a road. He Himself subjected Himself to death and endured her willingly, that He might break death
Homily 10, On the Exaltation of the Cross
Source: PG 97, cols. 1017–1036
Andrew of Crete on the exaltation of the cross. An early eighth-century festal homily, the feast of 14 September already in place. PG 97, 1017–1036.
Opening English: DISCOURSE X.
On the Adoration of the Cross
Source: PG 99, cols. 692–700
Theodore the Studite on adoring the cross. After iconoclasm, the cross is the image that was never in dispute, and he will not let it become a mere sign. PG 99, 692–700.
Opening English: II. Of our holy father and confessor Theodore, hegumen of the [monastery] of Studius: a discourse on the adoration of the precious and life-giving cross, at Mid-Lent.
II.10 · The third day he rose again
Three readings, deliberately not a second Passion section. Athanasius's festal letter 14, Easter as the feast that interprets the year. Gregory Nazianzen's Oration 45, the passover sermon. Gregory of Nyssa on the three days, counting the time in the tomb as a theological problem, not a calendar quarrel.
Festal Letter 14, §§1–2
Source: PG 26, cols. 1419–1420
Athanasius, festal letter 14, Easter 342. The feast that interprets the fast that went before it. PG 26, 1419–1420. Short, and meant to be read at the vigil.
Oration 45, On Holy Easter, 8–10, 22–28
Source: PG 36, cols. 632–637, 653–661
Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 45, the Easter sermon. The passover of the Lord, yesterday and today. PG 36, 632–637 and 653–661. The Greek festal voice beside Athanasius’s letter.
On the Three Days’ Interval of the Resurrection (Easter Homily 1)
Source: PG 46, cols. 600–628
Gregory of Nyssa on the three days. How long was he in the tomb, and what does the counting mean. A theological problem, not a trivia question. PG.
Opening English: Of the same: On the holy Pasch and on the three-day interval of the resurrection of Christ: five discourses.
II.11 · He ascended into heaven, and will come again in glory
Ascension and return kept together, as the Creed keeps them. Leo's Ascension sermons. Cyril of Alexandria on John 16, the advantage that he go. Augustine Mai 98. Cyril of Jerusalem's catechesis 15 on the second coming, preached to people about to be baptized. Ephrem on the Diatessaron. Origen on Joshua, Rahab's scarlet cord read toward the coming judgment. The future is part of the confession, not an appendix.
Sermons 73 and 74, on the Ascension of the Lord
Source: PL 54, cols. 394–400
Leo on the Ascension, sermons 73 and 74. What was visible in Christ has passed into the sacraments. PL 54. The line the Eucharist section in Book III quietly depends on.
Opening English: SERMON LXXIII [otherwise LXXI]. On the Ascension of the Lord, I.
Commentary on the Gospel of John X, on John 16:6–7
Source: PG 74, cols. 429–436
Cyril of Alexandria on John 16. It is better that he go, because the Spirit comes, and the going is not an absence of the one Christ. PG 74.
Opening English: But I tell you the truth: it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you. [John 16:6, 7]
Sermon Mai 98, on the Ascension of the Lord
Source: Mai I, pp. 204–205
Augustine, Mai 98, on the Ascension. A sermon from the later recovered collection. The head has gone where the body still hopes to be.
Opening English: XCVIII. FROM THE SAME SOURCE AS ABOVE. ON THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD.
Catechetical Lecture 15, §§1–7
Source: PG 33, cols. 869–880
Cyril of Jerusalem, catechesis 15, on the second coming, preached to people not yet baptized. PG 33. The Creed’s last Christological clause as a catechism, not a threat tacked on.
Opening English: CATECHESIS XV OF THOSE BEING ENLIGHTENED.
Commentary on the Diatessaron XVIII, 15–17
Source: Moesinger I, pp. 215–217
Ephrem on the Diatessaron, the going up read in Syriac. Lamy. Harmony-gospel exegesis, which this book rarely prints and is right to print here.
Opening English: And if God had not shortened those days, no flesh would be saved. Perhaps it is not the number of the days with their hours that is diminished, but the time itself is short for the
Homilies on Joshua 6, §4
Source: PG 12, cols. 855–856
Origen on Joshua 6. Rahab’s scarlet cord as a sign toward the coming judgment. PG. Allegory used as the Creed’s future tense.
II.12 · The Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life
The article the fourth century had to learn to say out loud. Cyril of Jerusalem's catechesis 16. Athanasius to Serapion, against those who called the Spirit a creature. Basil's On the Holy Spirit, the 'with' of the doxology, chapters 9 and 26 both here. Didymus, Basil's Alexandrian ally. Cyril of Alexandria on John. Fulgentius against Fabianus, the late Latin tightening. The section is why the Creed does not stop at the Son.
Catechetical Lecture 16, §§1–16
Source: PG 33, cols. 917–941
Cyril of Jerusalem, catechesis 16, on the Spirit, to catechumens. PG 33, the long one. He piles scripture because the article is still being learned.
Opening English: CATECHESIS XVI OF THOSE BEING ENLIGHTENED.
First Letter to Serapion, 28–30
Source: PG 26, cols. 593–600
Athanasius to Serapion, 28–30. Those who call the Spirit a creature unmake the baptismal formula they still recite. PG 26.
Opening English: 28. But let us look, nevertheless, beyond these [things], at the very tradition, teaching and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, the apostles pre
On the Holy Spirit, ch. 9
Source: PG 32, cols. 108–109
Basil, On the Holy Spirit 9. The doxology “with the Holy Spirit,” and why a preposition became a fight. PG 32.
Opening English: CHAPTER IX. Defining notions concerning the Spirit, following the teaching of the Scriptures.
On the Trinity II, 12
Source: PG 39, cols. 668–688
Didymus the Blind, On the Trinity II.12. Alexandria agreeing with Basil, from a man who never saw the page. PG 39.
Opening English: CHAPTER 12. Concerning the Holy Spirit's renewing us by baptism; and his setting us free as Master; and making us partakers of divine glory, and sons and heirs of the Father; and t
On the Holy Spirit, ch. 26
Source: PG 32, cols. 180–185
Basil again, chapter 26, the later and fuller statement. The Spirit is named with Father and Son because he is of them. PG 32.
Opening English: CHAPTER XXVI. That in as many senses as «in» is said, in so many is it also taken of the Spirit.
Commentary on the Gospel of John V, 2
Source: PG 73, cols. 749–793
Cyril of Alexandria on John V.2, the Spirit as the one in whom the Son is known. PG 73.
Opening English: CHAPTER II.
Against Fabianus, Fragment 28
Source: PL 65, cols. 783–791
Fulgentius against Fabianus, fragment 28. The Latin close of the article. PL.
Opening English: FROM BOOK VIII. ON THE MISSION OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
II.13 · Who spoke through the prophets: the Scriptures opened
The Creed's forgotten clause, given nine readings. Ephrem on the Diatessaron, the prophets as the first gospel. Jerome's Isaiah prologue, Hebrew truth against the Septuagint-only habit. Origen on Genesis and on Leviticus, the spiritual reading that will haunt the rest of the book. Augustine on John, the letter and the spirit. Aphrahat on circumcision, the Syriac demonstration that Israel and the church read one history. Procopius on Proverbs. Maximus, Questions to Thalassius 63, scripture as the flesh of the Word. The interesting claim is that allegory here is not a hobby. It is how these writers thought prophecy could be about Christ without ceasing to be Israel's book.
Commentary on the Diatessaron I, 18–19
Source: Moesinger I, pp. 11–12
Ephrem on the Diatessaron I.18–19. The prophets as the first hearing of the gospel. Lamy.
Opening English: Who will be able, Lord, to penetrate with his mind one [single] one of Thine utterances? What we leave behind is more than what we take, like thirsty men who drink from a spring. F
Commentary on Isaiah, Prologue
Source: PL 24, cols. 17–22
Jerome’s Isaiah prologue. Hebrew truth, the Septuagint not the only door, and a defense of translation that is also a defense of Christ in the prophets. PL.
Opening English: PROLOGUE.
Homilies on Genesis 8, §§6, 8–9
Source: PG 12, cols. 206–209
Origen on Genesis 8, the flood’s end read spiritually. PG. The method II.13 is exhibiting.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 15, §§1–32
Source: PL 35, cols. 1510–1522
Augustine, tractate 15 on John. The letter and the spirit, the well and the worshiper. PL 35.
Opening English: TRACTATE XV.
Demonstration 11, On Circumcision, 9–12
Source: Parisot I, pp. 490–503
Aphrahat, Demonstration 11, on circumcision. Syriac, early fourth century, Israel and the church in one history without a Greek council behind him. The book prints him in Latin.
Homilies on Leviticus 9, §§5–10
Source: PG 12, cols. 513–523
Origen on Leviticus 9. The sacrifices opened. PG. A dangerous and generative reading, which is why it is in a Creed section and not a piety section.
Commentary on Proverbs, on Proverbs 9
Source: PG 87, cols. 1300–1309
Procopius of Gaza on Proverbs 9. Wisdom’s house as the incarnation. PG. A sixth-century compiler doing what the section claims the prophets were for.
Opening English: CHAPTER IX.
Questions to Thalassius 63
Source: PG 90, cols. 665–669
Maximus, Questions to Thalassius 63. Scripture as an incarnation of the Word in letters. PG 90. The deepest single page in II.13.
Opening English: In the same prophet it is written again: "And he said to me: What do you see? And I said: I have seen, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, and the lamp upon it; and seven lamps up
Tractates on the Gospel of John 35, §§8–9
Source: PL 35, cols. 1661–1662
Augustine, tractate 35 on John. A shorter cut on the same door. PL 35.
II.14 · In one, holy, catholic Church
Four readings, and they do not all say the same thing. Cyril of Jerusalem's catechesis 18 on the word catholic. Cyprian on unity, the famous 'no salvation outside' lines, which the book places in the Creed section rather than in a polemic. Augustine on the first letter of John, love as the mark. Cyril of Alexandria on John, the one body. Cyprian is the hard edge. Augustine is the correction sitting in the same section on purpose.
Catechetical Lecture 18, §§22–35
Source: PG 33, cols. 1044–1060
Cyril of Jerusalem, catechesis 18, on the word catholic: not a sect in a corner. PG 33, 22–35 of that lecture.
Opening English: 22. And since the Faith that is professed contains next [the articles] And in one baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; And in one holy Catholic Church; And in the resur
On the Unity of the Catholic Church, chs. 1–8
Source: PL 4, cols. 495–506
Cyprian, On the Unity of the Catholic Church 1–8. The chair of Peter, the sun and its rays, no salvation outside. PL 4. The hard edge, placed in the Creed section so it cannot be mistaken for a later papal dossier. His martyrdom is in I.4.
Homilies on the First Letter of John 1, §§1, 3
Source: PL 35, cols. 1978–1980
Augustine on the first letter of John. The church is known by love, and a schism that has the sacraments without love has missed the mark he is willing to name. PL 35. Sitting in the same section as Cyprian on purpose.
Commentary on the Gospel of John XI, 11–12
Source: PG 74, cols. 552–565
Cyril of Alexandria on John XI. The one body, vine and branches. PG 74.
Opening English: CHAPTER XI.
II.15 · The grace of God
Two Augustines, and they are the close of the Confession. On the Predestination of the Saints 15, grace before merit. Tractate 26 on John, no one comes unless drawn. Book II refuses to end on a structure. It ends on the reason any of the articles can be believed.
On the Predestination of the Saints, ch. 15
Source: PL 44, cols. 981–983
Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints 15. Grace before merit, written late against the monks of Hadrumetum and Provence. PL 44. Book II ends on a gift, not a structure.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26, §§1–7
Source: PL 35, cols. 1606–1610
Tractate 26 on John. No one comes unless the Father draws. PL 35. The preaching form of the same claim.
Opening English: TRACTATE 26.
Book III
The Mystery
Book III is how the faith is lived, from the font to the grave. It is the longest book because the Office of Readings is richest here: baptismal catecheses, eucharistic sermons, the Lord's Prayer, the psalms read as the voice of the whole Christ, fasting, the Beatitudes, martyrdom, virginity, death. The psalm block alone is seventeen readings, mostly Augustine, and it is the theological center of the book: the head speaks, the body speaks, and sometimes both in one verse. The monastic block is not an appendix for specialists. Antony, Basil, Benedict, and Gregory are how this church thought a baptized life could be kept.
III.1 · At the font: baptism and the mysteries
The life of the Christian starts where Book I's Didache already was, at the water. Cyril of Jerusalem's mystagogical catecheses, preached after baptism to people who have just come up from the pool. Ambrose in Milan doing the same week. Chrysostom, Theodore, and the others on the rites: renunciation, anointing, the white robe, the taste. The interesting editorial choice is to put the explanation after the Confession. You know what you believe before you are told what was done to you.
Mystagogical Catecheses 2–4
Source: PG 33, cols. 1077–1084, 1088–1093, 1097–1105
Cyril’s mystagogies 2–4, preached in the week after baptism to people who have just come up from the pool. Renunciation, anointing, the nakedness and the white robe. PG 33. The creed lectures were in Book II; the rites wait until the life begins.
Opening English: MYSTAGOGIC CATECHESIS II.
On the Mysteries
Source: PL 16, cols. 405–426
Ambrose, On the Mysteries. Milan’s post-baptismal lectures, the Western pair to Cyril. He will not explain the rites before they have been done. PL 16, 405–426.
Opening English: CHAPTER THE FIRST.
On the Holy Spirit, ch. 15
Source: PG 32, cols. 128–133
Basil on the Spirit, chapter 15, baptism in the Triune name as the reason the Spirit cannot be a creature. PG 32, 128–133. The doctrinal article of II.12 become a rite.
Opening English: CHAPTER XV. A reply to an objection, that we are baptized into water as well; in which [is treated] also what concerns baptism.
Sermon on Baptism
Source: PL 13, cols. 1089–1094
Pacian of Barcelona on baptism. A Latin bishop of the fourth century on the bath and the church that gives it. PL 13, 1089–1094.
Opening English: SAINT PACIAN'S SERMON ON BAPTISM.
Homilies on Joshua 4
Source: PG 12, cols. 842–846
Origen on Joshua 4, the crossing of the Jordan as the figure of the font. PG 12, 842–846. Allegory doing catechetical work.
Opening English: HOMILY IV. On the crossing of the Jordan.
Oration 40, On Holy Baptism, 1–10
Source: PG 36, cols. 360–372
Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 40, On Holy Baptism. He is urging delay-no-more. The lights of Epiphany and the water are still one feast for him. PG 36, 360–372.
Opening English: ORATION XL.
Catechetical Lecture 1
Source: PG 33, cols. 369–377
Cyril’s first catechetical lecture, the beginning, before the creed is handed over. PG 33, 369–377. Placed in the font section so the course has its doorway.
Opening English: CATECHESIS I OF THOSE BEING ENLIGHTENED.
III.2 · The bread of life: the Eucharist
From the Didache's thanksgivings to Ambrose's On the Sacraments V, the book keeps the meal as a mystery rather than a topic. Cyril's mystagogy 5, the anaphora he has just heard. Chrysostom on Judas and on the table. Gaudentius of Brescia on Exodus. Cyril of Alexandria on the vine. Augustine in the City of God on sacrifice, which is the theological cap: the church's sacrifice is the one sacrifice. Ambrose is the Western 'this is my body' preaching the Office still reads on Corpus Christi alongside Aquinas in Book V.
Mystagogical Catechesis 5
Source: PG 33, cols. 1109–1128
Mystagogy 5, the anaphora he has just heard. Holy, holy, holy, and the invocation. PG 33, 1109–1128. The earliest full explanation of a eucharistic prayer in this book after Justin.
Opening English: MYSTAGOGIC CATECHESIS V.
On the Sacraments IV
Source: PL 16, cols. 455–464
Ambrose, On the Sacraments IV. The Western approach to the meal, the night before the “this is my body” chapter. PL 16, 455–464.
Opening English: BOOK THE FOURTH.
Commentary on the Gospel of John IV, 2
Source: PG 73, cols. 560–585
Cyril of Alexandria on John 6, the bread of life discourse. PG 73, 560–585. Alexandria reading the chapter the Office will not stop appointing.
Opening English: CHAPTER II.
Sermon 2, on the Second Reading from Exodus
Source: PL 20, cols. 852–861
Gaudentius of Brescia on the Exodus reading. The lamb and the bread in a northern Italian pulpit. PL 20, 852–861.
Opening English: SERMON II. On the second reading from Exodus.
Commentary on the Gospel of John X, on John 15:1–2
Source: PG 74, cols. 332–356
Cyril on the vine, John 15. The meal and the abiding are one argument. PG 74, 332–356.
Opening English: CHAPTER II.
Sermon 108
Source: PL 52, cols. 499–501
Chrysologus 108, the short Ravenna sermon on the same mystery. PL 52, 499–501.
Opening English: SERMON 108. Of man, that he be victim and priest of God. On the words of the Apostle: I beseech you by the mercy of God, etc.
The City of God X, 5–7
Source: PL 41, cols. 281–285
City of God X.5–7. Sacrifice is due to God alone, and the church’s sacrifice is the one sacrifice of the mediator. PL 41, 281–285. The theological cap of the section.
Opening English: CHAPTER V. — Of the sacrifices which God does not require, but which He willed to be observed as a sign of those which He does require.
On the Sacraments V
Source: PL 16, cols. 465–474
On the Sacraments V. Ambrose says the priest uses the Lord’s own words, and the nature is changed. PL 16, 465–474. Aquinas’s Corpus Christi lessons in Book V are the same claim set for a feast.
Opening English: BOOK THE FIFTH.
III.3 · Lord, teach us to pray: the Lord's Prayer
Eight readings on one prayer, and they are a history of the Pater. Tertullian first in Latin, then Origen in Greek, then Cyprian, then Chrysostom, Augustine twice, Chrysologus. The interesting repetition is the petition for bread. Tertullian already hears 'daily bread' as more than wheat. Origen presses the supernatural bread. Cyprian ties the prayer to the unity of the church that says 'our,' not 'my.' By Augustine the prayer is a summary of the whole Christian life.
On Prayer, chs. 1–22
Source: PL 1, cols. 1149–1190
Tertullian, On Prayer 1–22, the first Latin commentary on the Our Father. Daily bread already heard as more than wheat. PL 1, 1149–1190.
Opening English: CHAPTER I.
On Prayer, chs. 23–29
Source: PL 1, cols. 1191–1196
The same treatise, 23–29, on when and how to pray, the kiss, stations, the veiling. PL 1, 1191–1196. Practice after the petitions.
Opening English: CHAPTER XXIII.
On Prayer, chs. 24–26
Source: PG 11, cols. 492–505
Origen on the bread petition and what follows. The supersubstantial loaf. PG 11, 492–505. The Greek reading sitting between Tertullian and Cyprian.
On the Lord’s Prayer
Source: PL 4, cols. 519–544
Cyprian on the Lord’s Prayer. “Our” father, not “my,” so the prayer is a unity text. PL 4, 519–544. His unity treatise is in II.14; this is the prayer form of it.
Opening English: I. The precepts of the Gospel, most beloved brethren, are nothing other than divine teachings, foundations for building up hope, supports for strengthening faith, nourishments for
Homilies on Matthew 19
Source: PG 57, cols. 273–286
Chrysostom on Matthew 19, the prayer in the sermon-on-the-mount sequence. PG 57, 273–286.
Opening English: Take heed not to do your almsgiving before men, to be seen by them.
On the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount II, 4–7
Source: PL 34, cols. 1275–1281
Augustine on the sermon on the mount, the prayer as a summary of the Christian life. PL 34, 1275–1281.
Opening English: CHAPTER IV.
Sermons 67–72, on the Lord’s Prayer
Source: PL 52, cols. 390–406
Chrysologus 67–72, a run of short sermons, one on the prayer’s shape. PL 52, 390–406.
Opening English: SERMON 67. On the Lord's Prayer.
Sermon 57
Source: PL 38, cols. 386–393
Augustine 57, the preached form. PL 38, 386–393.
Opening English: SERMON LVII.
III.4 · Pray without ceasing
The prayer that is not the Our Father. Damascene on prayer as the lifting of the mind. Augustine's Confessions opening, 'you have made us for yourself.' Pseudo-Chrysostom, marked as such. Ambrose on Cain and Abel, the smoke of a prayer God accepts. Chrysostom's discourse on prayer. Isidore's sentences, the early medieval condensation. Augustine to Proba, the letter that defines prayer as desire, and that is the reading the Office uses when it wants one page on the subject.
The Orthodox Faith III, 24
Source: PG 94, cols. 1089–1093
Damascene, Orthodox Faith III.24. Prayer as the ascent of the mind to God. PG 94, 1089–1093. An Eastern definition after the Latin commentaries.
Opening English: CHAP. XXIV [LXVIII].
The Confessions I, 1–5
Source: PL 32, cols. 659–663
Confessions I.1–5. You have made us for yourself. The book’s most famous opening, placed under prayer rather than under biography. PL 32, 659–663.
Opening English: CHAPTER I. He wills to praise God, stirred up by Him.
Homily 6, On Prayer
Source: PG 64, cols. 461–465
Marked pseudo-Chrysostom. A homily on prayer traveling under his name. PG 64, 461–465. The flag is the right one.
Opening English: HOMILY VI.
On Cain and Abel I, 9, §§34, 38–39
Source: PL 14, cols. 352–354
Ambrose on Cain and Abel. The smoke God accepts, and the prayer that is not a performance. PL 14, 352–354.
Discourse 2, On Prayer
Source: PG 63, cols. 579–590
Chrysostom, discourse on prayer, from the later compilation. PG 63, 579–590.
Opening English: DISCOURSE II.
Sentences III, 7–11
Source: PL 83, cols. 671–683
Isidore, Sentences III.7–11. The early medieval condensation of the tradition into a bishop’s handbook. PL 83, 671–683.
Opening English: CHAPTER VII.
Letter 130, to Proba
Source: PL 33, cols. 494–507
Augustine to Proba, 411 or 412. Prayer is desire, and the Our Father is the form of every desire that is safe. PL 33, 494–507. The Office’s one-page reading on the subject.
Opening English: LETTER CXXX.
III.5 · The Psalms: the voice of the whole Christ
Seventeen readings, the densest block in the book, and the idea is Augustine's even when Ambrose or Hilary is speaking. The psalm is the voice of the whole Christ, head and body. When the verse is too high for us, the head is speaking. When it is a groan, the body is speaking. Ambrose on Psalm 1 opens it. Augustine on 85, 60, 61, 38, 109, and the sermons carry it. Hilary on 65 is the earlier Latin attempt. The modern psalm numbers are in brackets in the book because the Fathers count as the Greek and Latin Bible counts. This section is why the Office can pray the psalter as Christian prayer without pretending David was a theologian of the incarnation.
On Psalm 1, §§4, 7, 9–12
Source: PL 14, cols. 965–970
Ambrose on Psalm 1. The just man is Christ before he is David, and the wicked counsel is the company the blessed man refuses. PL 14, 965–970. The section’s doorway.
Opening English: 4. For although all divine Scripture breathes the grace of God, yet sweet above the rest is the book of Psalms ; since Moses himself, who set down the deeds of our forefathers in p
On Psalm 85 (86)
Source: PL 37, cols. 1081–1100
Augustine on Psalm 85 (86). A poor man crying, and the poor man is the whole Christ. PL 37, 1081–1100. The method of the section in one psalm.
Opening English: AN EXPOSITION ON PSALM 85. — A SERMON.
On Psalm 60 (61), §§1–9
Source: PL 36, cols. 723–729
Psalm 60 (61). Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. The head has already arrived; the body is still climbing. PL 36, 723–729.
Opening English: A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 60.
On Psalm 65 (66)
Source: PL 9, cols. 425–436
Hilary on Psalm 65 (66), the earlier Latin attempt, before Augustine made totus Christus a method. PL 9, 425–436.
Opening English: Say to God: How terrible are Thy works! In the multitude of Thy power Thine enemies shall lie to Thee. First, then, he gives warning that jubilation must be made to God; secondly,
On Psalm 61 (62)
Source: PL 36, cols. 729–747
Psalm 61 (62). God alone is my rock. Augustine will not let the verse be private. PL 36, 729–747.
Opening English: EXPOSITION ON PSALM 61.
On Psalm 38 (39), §§1–23
Source: PL 36, cols. 412–431
Psalm 38 (39). I said I will guard my ways. The groan of the body, not the triumph of the head. PL 36, 412–431.
Opening English: EXPOSITION OF PSALM 38. A SERMON.
On Psalm 36 (37), §§64–67
Source: PL 14, cols. 1047–1050
Ambrose on Psalm 36 (37), the fretting because of evildoers. PL 14, 1047–1050.
On Psalm 109 (110), §§1–3
Source: PL 37, cols. 1445–1447
Psalm 109 (110). The Lord said to my Lord. The Christological psalm, and Augustine takes the first verses only, which is enough. PL 37, 1445–1447.
Opening English: ON PSALM CIX, AN EXPOSITION.
Sermon 19, §§2–3
Source: PL 38, cols. 132–134
Sermon 19. A preached psalm, not an enarratio. PL 38, 132–134.
On Psalm 118 (119), Sermon 12, §§11–15
Source: PL 15, cols. 1435–1437
Ambrose on Psalm 118 (119), the long alphabetic psalm, sermon 12. The law as delight. PL 15, 1435–1437.
Opening English: 11. In heaven therefore the Word remains, and so does whatever is ruled and governed according to the disposition of the Word. But because heaven itself also passes away, therefore
Sermon 21, §§1–5
Source: PL 38, cols. 142–145
Augustine, sermon 21. A preached psalm rather than a commentary, the congregation inside the verse. PL 38, 142–145.
Opening English: SERMON XXI. On that which is written in Psalm lxiii, 11, The just man shall be glad in the Lord.
Sermon 34
Source: PL 38, cols. 209–213
Sermon 34. The same method in the pulpit: the voice in the psalm is not only David’s. PL 38, 209–213.
Opening English: SERMON XXXIV. On these words of Psalm CXLIX, 1, 2, Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the Church of the saints, etc. On the new song and the new life.
On Psalm 118 (119), Sermon 20
Source: PL 15, cols. 1560–1580
The same psalm, sermon 20. Ambrose stays with 119 because the Office does. PL 15.
Opening English: SERMON TWENTY.
On Psalm 32 (33), Sermon 1, §§1–8
Source: PL 36, cols. 277–286
Augustine on Psalm 32 (33). Rejoice in the Lord. A sermon-shaped opening. PL.
Opening English: ENARRATIO II.
On Psalm 148
Source: PL 37, cols. 1937–1948
Psalm 148, the praise psalm. All creatures called in, and the church answers. PL.
Opening English: ON PSALM CXLVIII AN EXPOSITION.
On Psalm 133 (134)
Source: PL 9, cols. 750–752
Hilary on Psalm 133 (134), the ascent song. PL 9.
Opening English: PSALM 133. A song of degrees. Behold now, bless the Lord, all His servants: you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. In the nights lift up you
Sermon 256
Source: PL 38, cols. 1190–1193
Sermon 256, Easter week, the alleluia as the psalm that has run out of words. PL 38.
Opening English: SERMON CCLVI. On the days of Easter, xxvii. On the Alleluia.
III.6 · Fasting, mercy and the return of the sinner
Fourteen readings, because Lent is where the Office is longest. Chrysologus, Leo, Augustine on mercy that outruns the fast. The interesting tension is the one the Didache already had: fasting is commanded, and fasting without alms is a fraud. Peter Chrysostom's sermon 43 and Leo's Lenten sermons keep the fast tied to the poor. The return of the sinner is not a mood. It is the lost son, the publican, the woman who washed the feet, preached as the church's ordinary work.
Sermon 43
Source: PL 52, cols. 320–322
Chrysologus 43. The fast that mercy has to accompany, or it is a fraud. PL 52. The Didache’s food rule grown up.
Opening English: SERMON 43. On prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
Sermon 44, on Lent
Source: PL 54, cols. 285–288
Leo, Lenten sermon 44. The fast is the church’s weapon and the poor are its aim. PL 54.
Opening English: SERMON XLIV [otherwise XLIII]. On Lent, VI.
Homily 6, I Will Pull Down My Barns
Source: PG 31, cols. 261–277
Basil, I will pull down my barns. The rich fool as a Lent sermon. PG 31.
Opening English: ON THE SAYING OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE, "I will pull down my barns, and build greater ones"; and on covetousness.
Sermon 48, on Lent
Source: PL 54, cols. 297–301
Leo 48, the same campaign in another week. PL 54.
Opening English: SERMON XLVIII [otherwise XLVII]. On Lent, X.
Oration 14, On Love for the Poor, 23–26, 38–40
Source: PG 35, cols. 888–892, 908–909
Gregory Nazianzen on love of the poor. The theology of alms at its most unsentimental. PG 35.
Sermon 25
Source: PL 39, cols. 2330–2331
Caesarius of Arles 25. A bishop who expected his sermons to be preached by other priests. PL.
Opening English: SERMON 305.
Homilies on Matthew 50
Source: PG 58, cols. 503–510
Chrysostom on Matthew 50. The judgment of the sheep and goats sits under fasting because the fast is about the hungry. PG 58.
Opening English: HOMILY L.
Homilies on Romans 15
Source: PG 60, cols. 539–548
Chrysostom on Romans 15. The strong and the weak, mercy as a congregational art. PG 60.
Opening English: HOMILY 15.
Commentary on Joel, on Joel 2:12–17
Source: PL 25, cols. 966–968
Jerome on Joel 2. Rend your hearts. The prophetic text of every Latin Lent. PL.
The Confessions X, 1–2, 5
Source: PL 32, cols. 779–782
Confessions X.1–2 and 5. Confession as the form of the return. PL 32.
Opening English: CHAPTER I. In God alone is hope and joy.
On the Devil as Tempter 2
Source: PG 49, cols. 257–264
Chrysostom on the devil as tempter. The fast as a fight with a person, not a diet. PG.
Opening English: Against those who complain [asking] why the devil has not been taken out of the way; and that his wickedness does us no harm if we pay heed; and on repentance.
Homily 13, An Exhortation to Repentance
Source: PG 40, cols. 352–369
Asterius of Amasea, exhortation to repentance. A smaller Greek voice in a section of great ones. PG.
Opening English: XIII. An exhortation to repentance.
Letter 11, to an Abbess
Source: PG 91, cols. 453–457
Maximus to an abbess. The monastic form of the return. PG.
Opening English: XI. — Of the same, to an abbess, concerning a nun who had gone out of the monastery and repented.
Homilies on the Gospels 34
Source: PL 76, cols. 1246–1259
Gregory, homily 34 on the gospels. The shepherd of III.6 as well as of IV.3. PL 76.
Opening English: HOMILY 34. Preached to the people in the basilica of the blessed John and Paul, on the third Sunday after Pentecost.
III.7 · The Beatitudes and the new commandment
The sermon on the mount as the Christian's law, which Irenaeus already said was not the abolition of the old. Chrysostom on Matthew is the long Greek preaching. Augustine on the Lord's sermon is the Latin summa of the same chapters. The new commandment readings keep love of the brother from becoming a sentiment. In this book the Beatitudes sit after the Eucharist and the prayer, so they are what a communicant is for.
On the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount I, 1–4
Source: PL 34, cols. 1229–1236
Augustine on the sermon on the mount I.1–4. The Beatitudes as the ascent of the Christian life. PL 34.
Opening English: BOOK ONE.
Homilies on the Beatitudes 6
Source: PG 44, cols. 1264–1277
Gregory of Nyssa on the Beatitudes, homily 6. The Greek pair to Augustine. PG 44.
Opening English: DISCOURSE 6.
Sermon 95, on the Beatitudes
Source: PL 54, cols. 460–466
Leo 95 on the Beatitudes. The pope as preacher of the sermon on the mount. PL 54.
Opening English: SERMON 95. Or, a homily on the steps of ascent to beatitude.
Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 20
Source: PG 60, cols. 157–164
Chrysostom on Acts 20. The new commandment in the congregation’s life. PG 60.
Opening English: HOMILY 20.
Moralia on Job X, 7–10
Source: PL 75, cols. 922–926
Gregory, Moralia X.7–10. Job as the patient man the Beatitudes describe. PL 75.
Opening English: [Old ed. V.] 7. This he found by not finding, because he learned that it could not be comprehended. The law of God is the charity of Christ. — Of a truth few are able to search out
Chapters on Love I, 4–5, 16–17, 23–24, 26–28, 30–40
Source: PG 90, cols. 961–968
Maximus, chapters on love. The new commandment in sentences a monk can keep. PG 90.
Opening English: 4. He who loves God prefers the knowledge of Him above all things made by Him, and through desire perseveres in it unceasingly.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 65
Source: PL 35, cols. 1807–1810
Augustine, tractate 65 on John. The commandment he calls new. PL 35.
Opening English: TRACTATE LXV.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 17, §§2–9
Source: PL 35, cols. 1528–1532
Tractate 17. The same gospel, an earlier cut. PL 35.
Opening English: 2. Of this pool, which was encircled by five porches, in which lay a great multitude of the sick, I remember that we have treated constantly; and I am about to say a thing which mo
III.8 · Humility and patience under trial
The quiet section between the sermon on the mount and the 'one thing necessary.' Trial here is not yet martyrdom, which has its own section. It is insult, loss, sickness, the long ordinary cross. Gregory the Great is the natural voice, and the book uses him that way. Humility is treated as a doctrine, not a personality trait, because the Son's descent in Book II has to have a shape in a life.
Homily 20, On Humility
Source: PG 31, cols. 525–540
Basil on humility. The monastic virtue stated as a doctrine. PG 31.
Opening English: HOMILY XX.
On the Good of Patience
Source: PL 4, cols. 622–638
Cyprian on the good of patience. Written in a persecution, so patience is not a temperament. PL 4.
Opening English: I. About to speak of patience, most beloved brethren, and about to proclaim its usefulness and its advantages, from what point should I rather begin than from this: that I see pati
Tractate 15, On Job
Source: PL 11, cols. 439–443
Zeno of Verona on Job. A northern Italian tractate. PL 11.
Opening English: TRACTATE XV. On Job.
Moralia on Job III, 14–16
Source: PL 75, cols. 605–608
Gregory, Moralia III.14–16. Job’s silence read as a school. PL 75.
Sermon Caillau–Saint-Yves II, 92
Source: Caillau I, pp. 146–147
Augustine, a recovered sermon, Caillau–Saint-Yves II.92. The citation is not the main Migne run, and the book says so.
Opening English: SERMON 92.
Moralia on Job X, 47–48
Source: PL 75, cols. 946–947
Moralia X.47–48. Gregory again, because the Office reads no one else this way on trial. PL 75.
Opening English: CHAPTER XXVIII [Old ed. XXVI, Recension XV].
III.9 · One thing is necessary
Martha and Mary, and the readings that gather around them. The dangerous reading is the one that makes Mary the only Christian and Martha a mistake. The better readings in this section, Augustine especially, refuse that. One thing is necessary, and the service of the table is not condemned. It is ordered. This is also where contemplation enters the book before Bernard makes it a school in Book V.
Sermon 103
Source: PL 38, cols. 613–616
Augustine 103, Martha and Mary. One thing is necessary, and the service is not condemned. PL 38. The section’s key.
Opening English: SERMON CIII. On the words of the Gospel of Luke, And a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house, etc. Chap. x, vv. 38-42.
Commentary on Ecclesiastes X, 1–4
Source: PG 98, cols. 1136–1144
Gregory of Agrigento on Ecclesiastes. The vanity reading that keeps Mary from becoming a slogan. PG.
Opening English: TENTH DISCOURSE.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 124, §§5, 7
Source: PL 35, cols. 1972–1976
Tractate 124 on John, the close of the gospel commentary. The end of John as the one thing the section has been circling. PL 35, 1972–1976.
Sermon 96, §§1–9
Source: PL 38, cols. 584–588
Sermon 96. Martha and Mary again, Augustine refusing to condemn the service. PL 38, 584–588.
Homilies on the Gospels 25, §§1–2, 4–5
Source: PL 76, cols. 1189–1193
Gregory, gospel homily 25. The shepherd reading the one thing necessary for a flock that has to serve and listen. PL 76, 1189–1193.
Commentary on Galatians, 37–38
Source: PL 35, cols. 2131–2132
Augustine on Galatians 37–38. Freedom that does not become an excuse. PL 35, 2131–2132.
The Confessions X, 26–29
Source: PL 32, cols. 795–796
Confessions X.26–29. Late have I loved you. Also cut in II.4; here it is the desire the section calls the one thing. PL 32, 795–796.
Opening English: CHAPTER XXVI. Where God is found.
Moralia on Job XXIX, 1–4
Source: PL 76, cols. 477–480
Gregory, Moralia XXIX.1–4. Job’s end read as the soul’s one aim. PL 76, 477–480.
Sermon 171
Source: PL 38, cols. 933–935
Sermon 171. A shorter Augustinian cut on the same hunger. PL 38, 933–935.
Opening English: SERMON CLXXI. On the words of the Apostle, Rejoice in the Lord always, etc. Philipp., chap. iv, v. 4-6.
Homilies on the First Letter of John 4
Source: PL 35, cols. 2005–2012
On the first letter of John, homily 4. Love as the one thing, the test he will not replace with a feeling. PL 35, 2005–2012.
Opening English: TRACTATE IV.
III.10 · The ascetic and monastic life
Thirteen readings, a tradition not a mood. Athanasius's Life of Antony, the biography that converted Augustine's friends and half the Latin West. Basil's rules, community against the lone athlete. Jerome's letters, the sharp edge. Benedict's Rule, which the book is right to include even though Benedict is not a 'Father' by the old Eastern cutoff: the Office reads him, and the West lived him. Gregory's life of Benedict in the Dialogues. Dorotheus, Diadochus, the Gaza and desert sentences. The interesting fact is chronological: Antony is earlier than the great Christological councils. The monks were there before the formulas were finished.
The Life of Antony, 1–4
Source: PG 26, cols. 840–845
Athanasius, Life of Antony 1–4. The young man hears the gospel “sell what you have” as said to him, and goes. PG 26, 840–845. The biography that taught the Latin West what a monk was. Augustine’s friends are converted by it in the Confessions.
Opening English: Antony was an Egyptian by race, of well-born parents who possessed sufficient property; and, his parents being Christians, he too was brought up in the Christian manner. And while
The Longer Rules, Question 2
Source: PG 31, cols. 908–916
Basil, Longer Rules, question 2. Why the common life, not the lone athlete. PG 31, 908–916. The correction to a Life of Antony read as a license to disappear.
Opening English: QUESTION 2.
The Rule, Prologue
Source: PL 66, cols. 215–218
Benedict, Rule, prologue. Listen, my son, to the master’s instructions. PL 66, 215–218. Not a Father by the Eastern cutoff, and in the book because the Office and the West lived him.
Opening English: PROLOGUE.
Spiritual Homilies 28
Source: PG 34, cols. 709–716
Pseudo-Macarius, homily 28. Marked as late fourth century and not Macarius of Egypt. The heart as the place of the glory. PG 34, 709–716.
Opening English: HOMILY XXVIII.
On Christian Perfection
Source: PG 46, cols. 252–285
Gregory of Nyssa on perfection. The Christian as the one who imitates the name he has been called. PG 46, 252–285.
Opening English: OF THE SAME, ON PERFECTION, AND WHAT KIND OF MAN THE CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO BE, TO OLYMPIUS THE MONK.
Dialogues II, 33–34
Source: PL 66, cols. 194–196
Gregory, Dialogues II.33–34. Benedict seeing the world in a ray of light. PL 66, 194–196. The life of the man whose Rule has just been opened.
Opening English: Peter. That all things are so as you assert stands plainly established: because the words which you had set forth you prove by deeds. But I ask you to make known whether holy men c
Homilies on the Song of Songs 2
Source: PG 44, cols. 788–808
Gregory of Nyssa on the Song, homily 2. The Greek doorway to the reading Bernard will take over in Book V. PG 44, 788–808.
Opening English: HOMILY 2.
One Hundred Chapters on Spiritual Perfection, chs. 6, §§12–14, 26–30
Source: PG 65, cols. 1169–1176
Diadochus of Photice, chapters on spiritual perfection. Discernment of spirits as a craft. PG 65, 1169–1176.
Opening English: CHAPTER VI.
Homilies on the Song of Songs 15
Source: PG 44, cols. 1088–1120
Nyssa on the Song, homily 15. The wound of love. PG 44, 1088–1120.
Opening English: HOMILY XV.
Instruction 1
Source: PL 80, cols. 229–233
Columban, instruction 1. An Irish monk’s school talk, before his letter to a pope in the missionary section. PL 80, 229–233.
Opening English: INSTRUCTION I.
Discourse 7, On Blaming Ourselves
Source: PG 88, cols. 1696–1708
Dorotheus of Gaza on blaming ourselves. The practical desert. PG 88, 1696–1708.
Opening English: TEACHING VII.
Instructions 11, 1–2; 12, 2–3; 13
Source: PL 80, cols. 250–256
Columban, instructions 11–13. The same voice, later in the little course. PL 80, 250–256.
Opening English: INSTRUCTION XI.
Discourse 13, On Bearing Temptations
Source: PG 88, cols. 1761–1772
Dorotheus on bearing temptations. PG 88, 1761–1772. Gaza’s pair to Basil’s common life.
Opening English: TEACHING 13.
III.11 · The martyrs and the virgins
A pair the book refuses to separate. Martyrdom was the old athlete's crown. Virginity became the daily one after the persecutions eased. Ambrose, Augustine, and Jerome preach both. The section sits after the monastic life because the consecrated life understood itself as martyrdom continued by other means. It sits before death because both crowns are aimed at the same end.
Exhortation to Martyrdom, 39–44
Source: PG 11, cols. 613–621
Origen, exhortation to martyrdom 39–44. Written to friends under arrest. PG 11, 613–621. Martyrdom as a philosophic offering, before Cyprian’s African bluntness.
To Fortunatus, ch. 13
Source: PL 4, cols. 674–676
Cyprian to Fortunatus 13. The African catalog of the crowned. PL 4, 674–676.
Opening English: CHAPTER XIII. — THAT WE RECEIVE MORE IN THE REWARD OF THE SUFFERING THAN WHAT WE ENDURE HERE IN THE SUFFERING ITSELF.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 84
Source: PL 35, cols. 1846–1848
Augustine, tractate 84 on John. The grain of wheat. PL 35, 1846–1848.
Opening English: TRACTATE 84. On the text, No one has greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Chapter xv, verse 13.
Sermon 3, on Saint Stephen
Source: PL 65, cols. 729–732
Fulgentius on Stephen. A Christmas-week martyr read as the shape of witness. PL 65, 729–732.
Opening English: SERMON 3. On St Stephen the protomartyr, and on the conversion of St Paul.
Sermon 304
Source: PL 38, cols. 1395–1397
Augustine 304, on a martyr’s feast. PL 38, 1395–1397.
Opening English: SERMON CCCIV. On the solemnity of Lawrence the martyr, iii.
Against Faustus XX, 21
Source: PL 42, cols. 384–386
Against Faustus XX.21. The martyrs’ honor distinguished from the worship Faustus accused the church of. PL 42, 384–386.
Homily on Saint Agatha, 2–4
Source: PG 100, cols. 1273–1275
Methodius of Constantinople on Agatha. A later Greek homily on a Latin virgin martyr. PG 100, 1273–1275.
Opening English: 2. The yearly commemoration of the holy martyr has gathered us all into this one place, as you know, my hearers: [the commemoration] of a martyr ancient indeed, and of the first ra
On the Dress of Virgins, chs. 3–4, 22–23
Source: PL 4, cols. 443–444, 461–464
Cyprian on the dress of virgins. The crown that replaced the arena for a household. PL 4.
Opening English: III. Now our discourse is to virgins, for whom, the loftier their glory is, the greater also is the care. They are that flower of the Church's shoot, the beauty and adornment of sp
On Virgins I, 1–6
Source: PL 16, cols. 197–208
Ambrose, On Virgins I.1–6. His sister Marcellina in the room. PL 16, 197–208. Milan’s consecrated life as a public argument.
Opening English: OF SAINT AMBROSE BISHOP OF MILAN ON VIRGINS TO HIS SISTER MARCELLINA IN THREE BOOKS.
On Virginity, chs. 12–13
Source: PL 16, cols. 297–300
Ambrose on virginity, the later treatise. PL 16.
Opening English: CHAPTER XII.
III.12 · Death, and the hope of the resurrection
Five readings to close the life. Not a second Easter section. Easter was the Creed. This is a Christian dying. Gregory, Augustine, and the funeral sermons do the work. The hope is bodily, because Irenaeus in Book I already refused a salvation of the soul only. Book III ends where a life ends, and Book IV begins with the people who outlive any one death.
On Mortality, chs. 18, §§20–22, 24–26
Source: PL 4, cols. 594–602
Cyprian, On Mortality. The plague sermon. Death is not the disaster the lapsed think it is, and the mortality is a test of whether Carthage believes the resurrection it recites. PL 4.
Opening English: XVIII. We ought to remember that we are to do, not our own will, but God's, according to that which the Lord commanded us to pray daily. How preposterous it is, and how perverse, t
Oration 7, On His Brother Caesarius, 15–24
Source: PG 35, cols. 772–788
Gregory Nazianzen on his brother Caesarius. A funeral oration that will not pretend grief is unchristian. PG 35. The personal voice inside III.12.
Letter 19, to Hojo and Eutrocia
Source: PL 80, cols. 665–666
Braulio of Saragossa to Hojo and Eutrocia, on a death in the house. A seventh-century Spanish bishop doing the office of consolation. PL.
Opening English: LETTER XIX.
Sermon 3, On the End and Admonition, 2–5
Source: Lamy III, pp. 214–222
Ephrem on the end. Syriac admonition beside the Latin funeral sermons. Lamy or the edition the book cites.
Opening English: 2. Grant us, Lord, to imitate the watchfulness of the resurrection, that our mind may be directed towards Thee by day and by night. In the time in which we shall have been separate
On the Death of His Brother Satyrus II, 40–47
Source: PL 16, cols. 1383–1385
Ambrose on the death of his brother Satyrus, book II. A real grief used as a resurrection sermon. PL 16.
Opening English: 40. We see, therefore, that death too is gain, and life is punishment. Whence Paul also says: "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil. 1:21)." What is Christ, but the de
Book IV
The City
Book IV is the church as a people in history: sent, shepherded, exiled, carried to the edge of the map, and finally pictured as a house and a city. Peter and Rome sit in their own section, so the claim is not smuggled in through Irenaeus. The shepherds are letters, not org charts: Ambrose to Constantius, Gregory's Pastoral Rule, the care of widows and the poor. Confessors and exiles keep the city from sounding triumphal. Patrick, Boniface, and Columban are the missionary edge. The last section lifts the same people into Ezekiel's temple and the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the book's way of saying the city was never only a see.
IV.1 · The apostles sent out
The city starts as a mission, not a capital. Chromatius on Matthew, the twelve sent. Readings on the seventy, on Paul, on the nations. The interesting placement is after death and resurrection in Book III: the sent church is the consequence of the risen Christ, not a parallel institution. Peter has not yet been given his own section. The mission comes first.
Tractates on Matthew 5
Source: PL 20, cols. 340–343
Chromatius on Matthew 5. Aquileia sending the twelve. PL.
Opening English: TRACTATE V.
Homilies on Matthew 33
Source: PG 57, cols. 387–398
Chrysostom on Matthew 33. The mission sermon in Greek. PG.
Opening English: HOMILY 33.
Homilies on the Gospels I, 21
Source: PL 94, cols. 249–256
Bede, gospel homily I.21. An English monk on the sending. PL 94.
Opening English: HOMILY 22.
Homilies on the First Letter to the Corinthians 4
Source: PG 61, cols. 29–40
Chrysostom on 1 Corinthians 4. The apostle’s hardships as the shape of being sent. PG.
Opening English: HOMILY IV.
Homilies on the Gospels 26
Source: PL 76, cols. 1197–1204
Gregory, gospel homily 26. The Latin mission sermon the Office still reads. PL 76.
Opening English: HOMILY XXVI.
Homilies in Praise of Saint Paul 2
Source: PG 50, cols. 477–484
Chrysostom in praise of Paul, homily 2. Paul as the form of the sent man. PG.
Opening English: ON THE HOLY APOSTLE PAUL.
IV.2 · Peter and Rome
Four readings, set apart so the claim can be inspected. Leo is the voice, as he should be: the sermons on his own see, Peter as the rock, Rome as the place where the promise is exercised. The section is short on purpose. Irenaeus III.3 already gave the second-century list. Leo gives the fifth-century consequence. The book does not pretend those are the same kind of text.
Sermon 295, §§1–2, 4, 7–8
Source: PL 38, cols. 1348–1352
Augustine 295, on Peter and Paul. The two apostles on one feast, and Peter’s confession. PL 38.
Sermon 4, on the Anniversary of His Ordination
Source: PL 54, cols. 148–152
Leo 4, on the anniversary of his ordination. A pope preaching Peter on the day he himself was ordained. PL 54.
Opening English: SERMON IV [otherwise III].
Sermon 82, on the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul
Source: PL 54, cols. 422–428
Leo 82, on Peter and Paul. The rock and the teacher of the Gentiles as one Roman feast. PL 54.
Opening English: SERMON LXXXII [otherwise LXXX].
Letter 3, of Agatho and the Roman Synod to the Emperors (the synodal suggestion sent to the Sixth Council): the confession of faith
Source: PL 87, cols. 1217–1225
Agatho and the Roman synod of 680, the synodal letter to the emperors. The see speaking as a synod, not as one voice only. The sixth-council dossier beside the Tome in II.7.
IV.3 · The shepherds of the flock
Eleven readings, the pastoralia. Ambrose writing to Constantius. Gregory's Pastoral Rule, the book every medieval bishop was told to read, on the weight of the office and the variety of the flock. Letters on widows, the poor, the negligent priest. The interesting contrast with Ignatius in Book I: Ignatius said 'do nothing without the bishop.' Gregory asks what kind of man can bear being that bishop.
Letter 2, to Constantius, 1–7
Source: PL 16, cols. 917–919
Ambrose to Constantius. A bishop writing to a ruler about the flock. PL. The shepherd as a correspondent, not only a theorist.
Opening English: 1. You have taken up the office of the priesthood, and, sitting at the stern of the Church, you steer the ship against the waves. Hold the helm of faith, so that the heavy storms o
Oration 43, In Praise of Basil, 14–22
Source: PG 36, cols. 513–525
Gregory Nazianzen, oration 43, on Basil. Friendship as the form of the episcopal life. PG.
Sermon 46, On Pastors, 1–15, 19–22, 30; Sermon 47, On the Sheep, 1–3, 6–7
Source: PL 38, cols. 270–283, 287–289, 295–300
Augustine on pastors and on the sheep, sermons 46 and 47. The hardest Latin pages on what a bishop is for. PL 38.
Opening English: CHAPTER THE FIRST. — 1. On shepherds who feed not the sheep, but themselves. That our whole hope is in Christ, and that He Himself is all our true and wholesome glory, your Charity
The Pastoral Rule II, 3–5
Source: PL 77, cols. 28–33
Gregory, Pastoral Rule II.3–5. The weight of the office, the book every medieval bishop was told to read. PL 77.
Opening English: CHAPTER 3 [alias 14]. — That the ruler be always foremost in action.
Homilies on Ezekiel I, 11, §§1–13
Source: PL 76, cols. 905–911
Gregory on Ezekiel I.11. The watchman. PL 76.
Opening English: HOMILY XI.
Letter 3, to Alypius
Source: PL 61, cols. 161–164
Paulinus of Nola to Alypius. A convert writing to Augustine’s friend about the poor and the vow. PL.
Opening English: LETTER III.
Homilies on the Gospels 17
Source: PL 76, cols. 1138–1149
Gregory, gospel homily 17. The lost sheep as the pastor’s job. PL 76.
Opening English: HOMILY XVII.
Homilies on the Gospels 14
Source: PL 76, cols. 1127–1130
Homily 14. Another of the gospel set the Office lives in. PL 76.
Sermon 340
Source: PL 38, cols. 1482–1484
Augustine 340, on a bishop’s anniversary. The burden said in public. PL 38.
Opening English: SERMON CCCXL. On the day of his ordination, ii.
Moralia on Job XXIII, 23–25
Source: PL 76, cols. 265–266
Moralia XXIII.23–25. Job’s friends as bad pastors. PL 76.
Opening English: CHAPTER XIII [Rec. VII].
Letter 3, to Bassula
Source: PL 20, cols. 181–184
Sulpicius Severus to Bassula, from the Martin dossier. The Gallic bishop seen by his biographer. PL.
Opening English: LETTER III.
IV.4 · Confessors and exiles
The city under pressure from Christian emperors, which is a different trial from Book I. Athanasius and the Nicene exiles, Eusebius of Vercelli, Hilary sent to Phrygia, Martin I later. Confessors here are not only pre-Constantinian martyrs. They are bishops who would not sign. The section keeps Book IV from reading as a success story.
Letter 8 (from the Roman clergy) and Letter 9, §1
Source: PL 4, cols. 223–229
The Roman clergy to Cyprian, and his reply. A see vacant by persecution, writing to Carthage. PL.
Opening English: LETTER II.
Letter 10, to the Martyrs and Confessors
Source: PL 4, cols. 245–250
Cyprian to the martyrs and confessors. Honor without letting them become a second church. PL.
Letter 60, to Cornelius
Source: PL 3, cols. 856–864
Cyprian to Cornelius. The chair and the lapsed, unity under fire. PL.
Opening English: LETTER XIII.
Letter 80, to Successus
Source: PL 4, cols. 429–431
Cyprian to Successus. News of the persecution’s next wave. PL.
Opening English: LETTER LXXXII.
Letter 2, to the Presbyters and People of Italy
Source: PL 12, cols. 947–954
Eusebius of Vercelli to Italy, from exile. A Nicene bishop writing home. PL.
Opening English: EPISTLE II.
Homily before His Exile
Source: PG 52, cols. 427–432
Chrysostom’s homily before exile. The patriarch talking to his city on the way out. PG.
Opening English: OF THE SAME HOMILY BEFORE THE EXILE.
Letter 17
Source: PL 87, cols. 203–204
Martin I from exile. The seventh-century pope who would not sign the imperial formula. PL.
Opening English: LETTER XVII, ON THE SAME SUBJECT AS THE PRECEDING.
IV.5 · To the ends of the earth
Three readings, and they are the edge of the map. Patrick's confession, a Briton taken to Ireland. Boniface, the Englishman in Germany, writing home. Columban, the Irishman scolding a pope. The book is right to keep this small. The ends of the earth are not a theme. They are three voices.
The Confession, 12–17
Source: PL 53, cols. 807–810
Patrick’s Confession 12–17. A Briton taken to Ireland, writing the ends of the earth in the first person. Not a legend. The book prints the confession, not the later lives.
Letter to Augustine, Bishop of the English
Source: PL 77, cols. 1138–1141
Gregory to Augustine of Canterbury. The mission letter, Rome sending a monk to the English. PL.
Opening English: LETTER XXVIII. TO AUGUSTINE, BISHOP OF THE ENGLISH.
Letter 78, to Cuthbert
Source: PL 89, cols. 763–768
Boniface to Cuthbert. The Englishman in Germany writing home about the reform and the risk. PL.
Opening English: LETTER LXIII.
IV.6 · The house of God and the heavenly Jerusalem
The city lifted. Ezekiel's temple, the heavenly Jerusalem, the dedications of churches. Gregory, Bede, and the apocalypse readings turn the institution of IV.1–5 into a figure. This is the book's answer to Augustine's City of God, which appears in pieces elsewhere: the earthly church is not the heavenly city, and it is not unrelated to it.
Homilies on Joshua 9
Source: PG 12, cols. 870–879
Origen on Joshua 9. The Gibeonites and the house that is larger than the first map. PG.
Opening English: HOMILY IX. On the altar which Jesus built, where he wrote upon its stones the Deuteronomy. And how he read it in the ears of all the people, standing on Garizin and Gebal: and how
On Psalm 127 (128)
Source: PL 9, cols. 703–710
Hilary on Psalm 127 (128). The house of the blessed man. PL 9.
Opening English: TREATISE ON THE PSALM.
The Ecclesiastical History X, 1–4
Source: PG 20, cols. 841–864
Eusebius, History X.1–4. The peace of the church and the dedication of the basilica at Tyre. PG. Constantine’s architecture as a theological event.
Opening English: CHAPTER I. Of the peace granted us by God.
Sermon 336, §§1, 6
Source: PL 38, cols. 1471–1475
Augustine 336, on the dedication of a church. The building and the living stones. PL 38.
Opening English: CHAPTER ONE. — 1. The building and dedication of the house of God in us. The new commandment is the new song. The festivity of this assembly is the dedication of a house of prayer.
Commentary on 1 Peter, on 1 Peter 2:4–10
Source: PL 93, cols. 48–51
Bede on 1 Peter 2. Living stones. PL.
Opening English: Coming to whom [as] a living stone, etc. And of this stone he takes the testimony from the psalm, where it is written: The stone which the builders rejected, this is become the hea
The City of God XVIII, 51
Source: PL 41, cols. 612–614
City of God XVIII.51. The church in history, not yet the end. PL 41.
Opening English: CHAPTER LI. — That the catholic faith is strengthened even by the dissensions of heretics.
The City of God XXII, 30
Source: PL 41, cols. 801–804
City of God XXII.30. The last chapter. The end without end, the sabbath of God. PL 41. The book’s heavenly Jerusalem in Augustine’s own last page.
Opening English: CHAPTER XXX. — Of the eternal felicity of the city of God, and the perpetual sabbath.
Book V
The Inheritance
Book V returns to time order, from about the year 1000 to the 1530s. The great arguments about who Christ is are treated as settled; what remains is how that faith is handed to kings, sung by monks, taught by friars, and lived in a church about to split. Stephen of Hungary and Anselm open it. Bernard and his friends are the long middle, twenty-one readings, the school of love. Francis, Bonaventure, Aquinas, and Albert are the friars and the schoolmen, including the Corpus Christi office. Catherine, à Kempis, and More close it on the eve of the divided church. The coda is not a medieval text. It is Augustine at Ostia, placed last on purpose.
V.1 · The eleventh century: a creed handed to kings and scholars
Time order resumes. Stephen of Hungary's admonitions to his son, a creed as a coronation text, PL 151. Anselm, the monk who became archbishop, proving and praying in the same books. The interesting shift from Book II: the faith is no longer being defined against Arius. It is being handed to a king and thought by a school. Peter Damian belongs to this century too, though his life of Romuald waits for the appendix.
Admonitions to His Son, chs. 1–10
Source: PL 151, cols. 1236–1244
Stephen of Hungary to his son, chapters 1–10. A creed as a coronation text: faith first, the church second, patience with strangers, the crown as a trust. PL 151, 1236–1244. The sample reading of the editorial pass.
Opening English: Chap. I. On keeping the Catholic faith.
Proslogion, Preface and chs. 1–2, 13–17, 25–26
Source: PL 158, cols. 223–228, 234–236, 240–242
Anselm, Proslogion, the preface and the chapters of the argument and the joy. Faith seeking understanding, including the chapter that became the ontological argument, set here as prayer rather than as a puzzle. PL or the Opera; the book’s own citation stands on the card.
Opening English: THE PROSLOGION OF SAINT ANSELM, OR AN ADDRESS ON THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
Letter 64, to All the Faithful
Source: PL 148, cols. 708–710
Gregory VII to all the faithful, letter 64. A reforming pope writing the whole church, not only a king. The eleventh-century voice that is not a monk’s.
Opening English: LXIV. — Letter of Gregory VII to all the faithful. — He shows that he is set among evils for this reason, that he will not have the Church reduced to servitude. (In the year 1084.)
Prayer 52, to Saint Mary
Source: PL 158, cols. 952–959
Anselm, prayer 52, to Mary. The other Anselm, the one the cloister actually prayed. Not the Proslogion’s argument. The book is right to print both.
Opening English: PRAYER LII [formerly LI].
Letter to His Carthusian Sons
Source: PL 152, cols. 418–419
Bruno to his Carthusian sons. The founder writing back to the desert he left for Rome. A small letter, and the start of a silence the section otherwise fills with Bernard.
Opening English: 679. « To his brothers, singularly beloved in Christ, Brother Bruno [sends] greeting in the Lord. Having learned of the unbending rigour of your reasonable and truly praiseworthy d
V.2 · The school of love: Clairvaux and its friends
Twenty-one readings, the longest section in the book, and it is mostly Bernard. Sermons on the Song of Songs, on the degrees of humility, letters to friends. William of Saint-Thierry, Aelred, Guerric of Igny, Isaac of Stella, Baldwin of Canterbury, and Becket's letter from the dispute that killed him. 'School of love' is the right title. These are not summas. They are cloisters reading the Bridegroom as Christ and the bride as the church and the soul at once. The Office still reads Bernard on the Song more than it reads any other medieval doctor.
On Contemplating God
Source: PL 184, cols. 365–380
William of Saint-Thierry, On Contemplating God. The friend who pushed Bernard, writing the gaze rather than the argument. PL 184.
Opening English: PROLOGUE 1. In the pit of misery, and in the mire of dregs already all but rotted away, and stuck fast in the slime of the deep, in which there is no substance, out of the depths o
Sermon 5 for Advent, 1–3
Source: PL 183, cols. 50–52
Bernard, Advent sermon 5. The cloister year opening on the coming, three comings if he is in his usual vein: to men, into men, against men. PL 183.
Opening English: SERMON V. On the middle advent, and a threefold renewal.
Sermon 51
Source: PL 194, cols. 1862–1866
Isaac of Stella, sermon 51. An Englishman at Étoile, the school of love beyond Clairvaux’s wall. PL 194.
Opening English: SERMON 51.
In Praise of the Virgin Mother, Homilies 2 and 4
Source: PL 183, cols. 61–71, 78–87
Bernard in praise of the virgin mother, homilies 2 and 4. Mary as the aqueduct’s beginning. PL 183. The Assumption sermons later in the section continue this, they do not start it.
The Mirror of Faith (excerpt)
Source: PL 180, cols. 383–391
William, Mirror of Faith. Contemplation stated as a doctrine of faith, not a technique. PL.
Sermon 1 for the Epiphany, 1–2
Source: PL 183, cols. 141–143
Bernard, Epiphany sermon 1. The magi in a Cistercian pulpit. PL 183.
Sermon 31
Source: PL 194, cols. 1790–1793
Isaac of Stella 31. Another of the smaller voice the section keeps beside Bernard so the school is not one man. PL 194.
Opening English: SERMON 31. ON THE SAME FEAST, II.
Sermons on the Song of Songs 61
Source: PL 183, cols. 1070–1074
Bernard on the Song, sermon 61. The kisses and the breasts of the book read as Christ and the church and the soul, all three, and he will not choose only one. PL 183, 1070–1074.
Opening English: 1. Arise, my love, my dove, and come (Song 2:13). The bridegroom commends His great love by repeating the words of love. For repetition is an expression of affection; and that He a
The Mirror of Charity III, 4–6
Source: PL 195, cols. 579–583
Aelred, Mirror of Charity III.4–6. The Cistercian on love as a weight, Augustine’s pondus rewritten for a Yorkshire cloister. PL 195, 579–583.
Opening English: CHAPTER IV.
Sermons on the Song of Songs 83
Source: PL 183, cols. 1181–1184
Bernard on the Song, sermon 83. Late in the cycle, the love that is itself the understanding. PL 183, 1181–1184.
Opening English: SERMON LXXXIII.
On Spiritual Friendship III (excerpt)
Source: PL 195, cols. 692–694
Aelred, Spiritual Friendship III. Cicero christianized, and not embarrassed about it. PL 195, 692–694. Friendship as a doctrinal topic, which Book IV’s Nazianzen on Basil already hinted.
Opening English: Never, then, prefer yourself to your friend; but if perhaps you find yourself superior in the things we have mentioned, then do not hesitate to submit yourself the more to your fri
Sermon 42
Source: PL 194, cols. 1829–1833
Isaac of Stella 42. PL 194, 1829–1833.
Opening English: SERMON XLII. SERMON ON THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD.
Sermon on the Aqueduct (excerpt)
Source: PL 183, cols. 439–444
Bernard’s sermon on the aqueduct. Mary as the channel by which the waters reach us. PL 183, 439–444. The line the later medieval Office will not forget.
Sermon 1 for the Assumption
Source: PL 185, cols. 187–190
Guerric of Igny, Assumption sermon 1. A Bernardine abbot, not Bernard. PL 185, 187–190.
Opening English: ON THE ASSUMPTION OF BLESSED MARY.
Sermon for the Sunday within the Octave of the Assumption
Source: PL 183, cols. 429–438
Bernard for the Sunday in the octave of the Assumption. PL 183, 429–438. The feast preached twice in this section, on purpose.
Opening English: ON THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.
Sermon 11
Source: PL 194, cols. 1726–1730
Isaac of Stella 11. PL 194, 1726–1730.
Opening English: SERMON XI.
On Psalm 90 (91), Sermon 12, §§3, 6–8
Source: PL 183, cols. 232–234
Bernard on Psalm 90 (91), sermon 12. The monk reading the psalter the way Book III taught, head and members, in a later century. PL 183, 232–234.
Sermon 5 for the Feast of All Saints
Source: PL 183, cols. 475–482
Bernard, All Saints sermon 5. The beatitudes as the feast. PL 183, 475–482. Book III’s sermon on the mount, preached to a cloister.
Opening English: SERMON V.
Letter 74
Source: PL 190, cols. 533–536
Becket, letter 74. The archbishop in the dispute that will kill him, writing from the school of love into a political fire. PL 190, 533–536. The section’s one letter that ends in a cathedral.
Opening English: LETTER LXXIV.
Tractate 6, On the Living Word of God (beginning and end)
Source: PL 204, cols. 451–454, 466–468
Baldwin of Canterbury, tractate 6, on the living Word. A Cistercian who became archbishop, beginning and end of the tractate only. PL 204, 451–454 and 466–468.
Opening English: SIXTH TREATISE. On the words of the Apostle: The word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, etc. (Heb. 4)
Tractate 10, On the Seal upon the Heart
Source: PL 204, cols. 511–516
Baldwin, tractate 10, the seal upon the heart. Song of Songs 8 in a Canterbury cloister-become-see. PL 204, 511–516.
V.3 · The friars and the schoolmen
Francis's letter to all the faithful, not the legends. Bonaventure's Journey of the Mind, the Breviloquium prologue, the Tree of Life. Aquinas's Corpus Christi lessons and the creed exposition, which is why he sits in an Office book at all. Albert on Luke 22. Louis IX's testament to his son, a king's spiritual will beside Stephen's admonitions in V.1. The interesting pairing is Francis and Aquinas in one section: the man who would not own a book, and the man whose office for the feast is still sung.
Letter to All the Faithful
Source: Quaracchi Opuscula I, pp. 87–98
Francis, letter to all the faithful. Not the legends. The man himself on penance, the Eucharist, and the poverty he will not argue. Quaracchi Opuscula I, 87–98.
Opening English: Letter I.
The Journey of the Mind into God, ch. 7
Source: Quaracchi ed. V, pp. 312–313
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind into God, chapter 7. The passing over, Francis as the figure of the crucified seraph. Quaracchi V, 312–313.
Opening English: CHAPTER VII.
The Spiritual Testament to His Son Philip
Source: Acta Sanctorum AugustiV, p. 546
Louis IX to his son Philip. A king’s spiritual testament, beside Stephen of Hungary in V.1. Acta Sanctorum, August.
Opening English: 18. Dearest son, first I teach you that you should love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with all your strength; for without this there is no salvation. My son, you must
Office for the Feast of Corpus Christi, Lessons 1–4
Source: Parma ed. XV, pp. 254–255
Aquinas, Corpus Christi lessons 1–4. The office that is why a schoolman is in an Office book. Parma XV, 254–255. Ambrose in III.2 is the patristic text this feast sings beside.
Opening English: Lesson I.
Commentary on Luke, on Luke 22:19
Source: Borgnet XXIII, pp. 672–675
Albert on Luke 22:19. The teacher on the same verse his student’s office will feast. Borgnet XXIII, 672–675.
Opening English: « Which is given for you. »
Breviloquium, Prologue (opening)
Source: Quaracchi ed. V, pp. 201–202
Breviloquium, prologue. Bonaventure on scripture as the book of the Word. Quaracchi V, 201–202.
Opening English: PROLOGUE OF SAINT BONAVENTURE TO THE BREVILOQUIUM I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from Whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named, that He may give
Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed, from Articles 4 and 12
Source: Parma ed. XVI, pp. 141–142, 150–151
Aquinas on the creed, articles 4 and 12. Passion and resurrection in a last year’s lectures. Parma XVI. The Confession of Book II in a schoolman’s voice.
The Tree of Life 29–30, 47
Source: Quaracchi ed. VIII, pp. 79–80, 85
Tree of Life 29–30 and 47. Bonaventure’s gospel in pictures of the cross. Quaracchi VIII, 79–80 and 85.
Opening English: 29. At length, when the innocent Lamb, Who is the true sun of justice, had hung upon the cross for the space of three hours, and at that same time this visible sun, compassioning i
V.4 · The eve of the divided Church
Catherine of Siena's Dialogue, in Italian, not Latin, which the legend of the book already flagged. Three cuttings: the cell of self-knowledge, the blood, the obedience. Thomas à Kempis, the Imitation, the book the late Middle Ages actually read. Thomas More's two letters from the Tower to Margaret, 1535, the last voice before the coda. The section does not preach the split. It stops on the threshold, which is what 'the eve of Trent' in the subtitle promised.
The Dialogue, ch. 13
Source: Fiorilli I, pp. 30–33
Catherine, Dialogue 13. The cell of self-knowledge. Italian, Fiorilli I, 30–33. The legend already warned that a few later writers are not in Latin.
Opening English: CHAPTER XIII How this soul, through the divine response, grew and at the same time lessened in bitterness; and how she prays to God for His holy Church and for His people.
The Dialogue, ch. 135
Source: Fiorilli I, pp. 303–306
Dialogue 135. The blood and the bridge. Fiorilli I, 303–306.
Opening English: CHAPTER 135 Here begins the treatise on the providence of God. And first on providence in general, that is, how He provided in creating man to His own image and likeness. And how H
The Imitation of Christ II, 1–6
Source: Hirsche I, pp. 85–100
Imitation II.1–6. The inner life as a book the late Middle Ages actually carried. Hirsche I, 85–100.
Opening English: On the interior manner of life.
The Dialogue, ch. 167
Source: Fiorilli I, pp. 404–407
Dialogue 167. Obedience, late in the book, before the split. Fiorilli I, 404–407.
Opening English: Chapter 167.
The Imitation of Christ III, 3
Source: Hirsche I, pp. 135–138
Imitation III.3. The Lord speaking to the soul. Hirsche I, 135–138.
Opening English: That the words of God are to be heard with humility, and that many do not weigh them.
The Imitation of Christ III, 14–15
Source: Hirsche I, pp. 169–173
Imitation III.14–15. The same voice, on the small consolations. Hirsche I, 169–173.
Opening English: On the hidden judgements of God, which are to be considered: lest we be lifted up in good things.
Two Letters from the Tower to His Daughter Margaret
Source: More, Workes I, pp. 1451–1454
More to Margaret from the Tower, 1535. Two letters, the last personal voice before the coda. Workes I, 1451–1454. The eve the subtitle named.
Opening English: A letter written and sent by Sir Thomas More, knight, to his daughter, Mistress [Margaret] Roper, written the second or third day of May, in the year of our Lord 1535, and in the t
V.5 · Coda: Ostia
One reading. Confessions IX, Monica and Augustine at the window in Ostia, the conversation that rises and the death that follows. It is not medieval, and it is placed last so the inheritance does not end on More's scaffold or on a disputed pope. The book ends where its most present author began: a son, a mother, a garden that is not Eden, and a hunger the articles of Book II were written to name.
The Confessions IX, 8–13
Source: PL 32, cols. 770–780
Confessions IX.8–13. Ostia. Monica and Augustine at the window, the conversation that touches wisdom for a moment, and her death after. Placed last so the inheritance does not end on a scaffold. PL 32, 770–780. The Platonist books of VII are in II.4.
Opening English: CHAPTER VIII. — The conversion of Evodius. The death of his mother, and her upbringing from her tender years.
Book X
Acts of the Witnesses
The appendix breaks the rule of the five books. Everywhere else the writers speak for themselves. Here other people tell how they died or how they lived: Cuthbert on Bede's last day, Peter Damian on Romuald, a contemporary on Norbert, a later life of Hedwig. It is short because it is a change of genre, not a sixth book. The acts sit beside Book I's martyrdoms and Book III's monastic lives, but they are third-person on purpose.
X.1 · Acts of the witnesses
Four third-person pieces. Cuthbert's letter on Bede's death, the Gloria sung on the floor of the cell, PL 90. Peter Damian on Romuald's perfection, a reformer's life of a reformer. The life of Norbert, conversion of a courtier. The life of Hedwig, a duchess at prayer. They are here because the five books would not otherwise show how a life looked to the people who buried it.
Letter on the Death of Bede
Source: PL 90, cols. 63–66
Cuthbert of Jarrow on Bede’s last day. He finishes the translation, asks to be turned to the place where he used to pray, and sings the Gloria on the floor. PL 90, 63–66. The appendix’s change of genre: someone else is speaking.
Opening English: 1. To his most beloved, he says, fellow-reader in Christ, Cuthwin, Cuthbert his fellow-disciple in the Lord, eternal health. The little gift which you sent I received very gladly,
The Life of Saint Romuald, chs. 31, §69
Source: PL 144, cols. 982–983, 1005–1006
Peter Damian on Romuald. A reformer writing a reformer’s life, the gift of perfection as a chapter, not a glow. PL 144.
Opening English: CHAPTER XXXI. Where the grace of perfection was divinely granted to Romuald.
The Life of Saint Norbert, 4–8
Source: PL 170, cols. 1258–1262
A contemporary life of Norbert, chapters 4–8. The courtier struck down, the conversion that begins the Premonstratensians. PL 170, 1258–1262. Author unnamed, and left unnamed.
The Life of Saint Hedwig, 15–22
Source: Acta Sanctorum OctobrisVIII, pp. 201–202
The life of Hedwig, 15–22. A duchess, stones of the heavenly city dressed by tribulation, Acta Sanctorum for October. The last third-person voice, a woman seen by her household.
Opening English: 15. Knowing, too, God's servant, that those living stones which were to be set in the building of the heavenly Jerusalem must be polished in this world by batterings and pressures,