Welcome to Fourth-Century Christianity, a site promoting and storing research tools and texts for the study of the Church and its environment in the Fourth Century. The site is sponsored by the History Department of Wisconsin Lutheran College under the direction of Dr. Glen L. Thompson.

The governing principles of this site are:

  1. The site will assist in undergraduate and advanced research by providing reliable reference materials, texts and translations that are not available elsewhere on the net.
  2. Every page will have its authors/contributors identified.
  3. Every text or translation will have its source/translator identified.
  4. We invite participation by the scholarly community in updating, improving or adding to the information provided.
  5. Although the site directors are Christian and Lutheran, every effort is made to present material as objectively as possible.

Please send comments, corrections and suggestions to Dr. Thompson at Glen.Thompson@wlc.edu.

Any questions, comments, or corrections can also be posted on the General Questions page.

We add new material often, and invite you to check the Recent Additions page frequently.

Website Contents:

What’s New
Recent Additions lists the most recent additions and updates to the Fourth-Century Christianity (FCC) website.
Contents contains the contents of the website
Tools
Bibliographical Helps
Guides to the contents of the following fourth-century reference works:
A brief page of recommended reading and links to websites of publishers who produce large amounts of fourth-century material.
Chronological charts
Diocletian Persecution:
Persecution Chart - A chart of the Diocletian Persecution in each part of the empire.
Primary Sources - Selections from early Christian writers and other sources which deal with the Diocletian persecution.
Tetrarchy:
Tetrarchy Table - A chart to clarify the succession of Roman rulers in the early fourth century.
Evolution of the Tetrarchy - An explanation of the succession of Roman Augusti and Caesares from Diocletian to Constantine.
Imperial Laws:
Imperial Laws and Letters - A list of Roman imperial laws and letters dealing with religion from the years 313-431.
Early Egyptian Monasticism - A hypothetical map of a Pachomian monastery, listing the positions and areas of a Pachomian monastery, based on the rules of Pachomius.
Pachomian monastery map - based on Pachomian rule
Pachomian monastery areas - references in Pachomian rule
The various positions of the monastery according to the Pachomian rule
Writers of the Fourth Century
Alphabetical List of 4th Century Patristic Authors An alphabetical compilation of the writers found in the Clavis Patrum Graecorum and the Clavis Patrum Latinorum. A few Syriac authors and one Coptic author are also included.
Regional list of Prominent 4th Century Patristic Authors this list gives a selection of more well known patristic writers, grouped by the regions in which they lived.
The following are given a more detailed treatment on this website:
  • Alexander of Alexandria English translations of his correspondence as found in Opitz’s Urkunden.
  • Arius English translations of Thalia and the extant letters of Arius, plus a map showing early support for Arius.
  • Athanasius a chart of his works in chronological order, and a listing of his works as found in Athanasius Werke (1930-).
  • Eusebius of Caesarea - a listing of his works with information about texts, translations, bibliographies, etc.
  • Eusebius of Vercelli - biographical information with a listing of his works and information about texts and translations
  • Hilary of Poitiers - listing of his works with information about selected texts and translations.
  • Jerome a chronological list of all the works of Jerome with information about manuscripts, sources, etc.
  • Lucifer of Cagliari - a list of his works and information on the modern critical edition.
  • Marcellus of Ancyra biographical information with a listing of his works together with translations of his extant fragments.
Primary Texts
Collectio Avellana page gives brief information on the Avellana, a link to download the Avellana from Google Books, and a summary of all the Avellana’s documents dealing with the fourth century.
Councils and Creeds contains two lists of early church councils:
List of early councils to AD 451
Councils and papal letters listed in Friedrich Maassen’s Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des canonischen Rechts im Abendlande
It also contains primary sources from the following councils:
Documents of the Early Arian Controversy contains a chart listing reference numbers, descriptions, ancient sources and English translations of the extant documents of the Arian Controversy from c. 318-333. The chart is based on Opitz’s Urkunden (the supplemental volume of early Arian documents in his edition of Athanasius Werke, 1934). Each document is also available in translation with brief notes.
Three additional pages are devoted to alternative chronologies of the period:
Fourth Century Papacy contains material related to two fourth-century popes:
Julius (377-352):
Letter of Ursacius and Valens to Pope Julius - Correspondence of two court bishops repenting and confessing orthodoxy.
Critical Text with Variants
Critical Text only
Record of the acts and letters of Pople Julius, translated from P. Jaffe and F. Kaltenbrunner, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum.
Liberius (352-366)
Record of the acts and letters of Pope Liberius, translated from P. Jaffe and F. Kaltenbrunner, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum.
Imperial Laws and Letters - a list over 500 Roman imperial letters and laws from the years 311-431. The list takes three pages:
Years 313-364 (Constantine-Jovian)
Years 364-395 (Valentinian I - Theodosius I)
Years 395-431 (Arcadius and Honorius to Council of Ephesus)
Marcellus of Ancyra Fragments contains translations of 42 fragments of Marcellus of Ancyra.
Website Related
Abbreviations lists the abbreviations used in the website with bibliographic information.
Links to other websites with useful information relating to fourth-century Christianity.
Site Contributors lists information about the contributors to this site.

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