OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume III/Moral Treatises of St. Augustin/Of Holy Virginity/Section 3

3. It is written in the Gospel, of the mother and brethren of Christ, that is, His kindred after the flesh, that, when word had been brought to Him, and they were standing without, because they could not come to Him by reason of the crowd, He made answer, “Who is My mother? or who are My brethren? and stretching forth His Hand over His disciples, He saith, These are My brethren: and whosoever shall have done the will of My Father, that man is to Me brother, and mother, and sister.” What else teaching us, than to prefer to kindred after the flesh, our descent after the Spirit: and that men are not blessed for this reason, that they are united by nearness of flesh unto just and holy men, but that, by obeying and following, they cleave unto their doctrine and conduct. Therefore Mary is more blessed in receiving the faith of Christ, than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. For to a certain one who said, “Blessed is the womb, which bare Thee,” He Himself made answer, “Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the Word of God, and keep it.” Lastly, to His brethren, that is, His kindred after the flesh, who believed not in Him, what profit was there in that being of kin? Thus also her nearness as a Mother would have been of no profit to Mary, had she not borne Christ in her heart after a more blessed manner than in her flesh.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Matt. xii. 46–50
* ↑ Luke xi. 27, 28
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume III/Moral Treatises of St. Augustin/Of Holy Virginity/Section 28

28. Therefore let the rest of the faithful, who have lost virginity, follow the Lamb, not whithersoever He shall have gone, but so far as ever they shall have been able. But they are able every where, save when He walks in the grace of virginity. “Blessed are the poor in spirit;” imitate Him, Who, whereas “He was rich, was made poor for your sakes.” “Blessed are the meek;” imitate Him, Who said, “Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart.” “Blessed are they that mourn;” imitate Him, Who “wept over” Jerusalem. “Blessed are they, who hunger and thirst after righteousness;” imitate Him, Who said, “My meat is to do the will of Him Who sent Me.” “Blessed are the merciful;” imitate Him, Who came to the help of him who was wounded by robbers, and who lay in the way half-dead and despaired of. “Blessed are the pure in heart;” imitate Him, “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” “Blessed are the peace-makers;” imitate Him, Who said on behalf of His persecutors, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” “Blessed are they, who suffer persecution for righteousness sake;” imitate Him, Who “suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye follow His steps.” These things, whoso imitate, in these they follow the Lamb. But surely even married persons may go in those steps, although not setting their foot perfectly in the same print, yet walking in the same paths.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Matt. v. 3–10
* ↑ 2 Cor. viii. 9
* ↑ Matt. xi. 29
* ↑ Luke xix. 41
* ↑ John iv. 34
* ↑ Luke x. 30–35
* ↑ 1 Peter ii. 22
* ↑ Luke xxiii. 34
* ↑ 1 Peter ii. 21
* ↑ Forma
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume V/Dogmatic Treatises/Against Eunomius/Book IX
## Contents

* Chapter 1
* Chapter 2
* Chapter 3
* Chapter 4
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Socrates/Book V/Chapter 20

Chapter XX.—Divisions among the Arians and Other Heretics.
I conceive it right moreover not to leave unnoticed the proceedings of the other religious bodies, viz. the Arians,
Novatians, and those who received their denominations from Macedonius and Eunomius. For the Church once being divided, rested not in that schism, but the separatists taking occasion from the slightest and most frivolous pretences, disagreed among themselves. The manner and time, as well as the causes for which they raised mutual dissensions, we will state as we proceed. But let it be observed here, that the emperor Theodosius persecuted none of them except Eunomius; but inasmuch as the latter, by holding meetings in private houses at Constantinople, where he read the works he had composed, corrupted many with his doctrines, he ordered him to be sent into exile. Of the other heretics he interfered with no one; nor did he constrain them to hold communion with himself; but he allowed them all to assemble in their own conventicles, and to entertain their own opinions on points of Christian faith. Permission to build themselves churches without the cities was granted to the rest: but inasmuch as the Novatians held sentiments precisely identical with his own as to faith, he ordered that they should be suffered to continue unmolested in their churches within the cities, as I have before noticed.
Concerning these I think it opportune, however, to give in this place some farther account, and shall therefore retrace a few circumstances in their history.

## Footnotes

* ↑ See chap. 23 of this book.
* ↑ See chap. 10, above.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Socrates/Book V/Chapter 2

Chapter II.—The Emperor Gratian recalls the Orthodox Bishops, and expels the Heretics from the Churches. He takes Theodosius as his Colleague in the Empire.
Gratian being now in possession of the empire, together with Valentinian the younger, and condemning the cruel policy of his uncle Valens towards the [orthodox] Christians, recalled those whom he had sent into exile. He moreover enacted that persons of all sects, without distinction, might securely assemble together in their churches; and that only the Eunomians,
Photinians,
and Manichæans
should be excluded from the churches. Being also sensible of the languishing condition of the Roman empire, and of the growing power of the barbarians and perceiving that the state was in need of a brave and prudent man, he took Theodosius as his colleague in the sovereign power. This [Theodosius] was descended from a noble family in Spain, and had acquired so distinguished a celebrity for his prowess in the wars, that he was universally considered worthy of imperial dignity, even before Gratian’s election of him. Having therefore proclaimed him emperor at Sirmium a city of Illyricum in the consulate
of Ausonius and Olybrius, on the 16th of January, he divided with him the care of managing the war against the barbarians.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Cf. IV. 7.
* ↑ Cf. II. 18.
* ↑ Cf. I. 22.
* ↑ 379 a.d.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Socrates/Book V/Chapter 26

Chapter XXVI.—Illness and Death of Theodosius the Elder.
The Emperor Theodosius was in consequence of the anxiety and fatigues connected with this war thrown into bodily illness; and believing the disease which had attacked him would be fatal, he became more concerned about the public affairs than his own life, considering how great calamities often overtook the people after the death of their sovereign. He therefore hastily summoned his son Honorius from Constantinople, being principally desirous of setting in order the state of things in the western parts of the empire. After his son’s arrival at Milan, he seemed to recover a little, and gave directions for the celebration of the games of the hippodrome on account of his victory. Before dinner he was pretty well, and a spectator of the sports; but after he had dined he became suddenly too ill to return to them, and sent his son to preside in his stead; when the night came on he died, it being the seventeenth of January, during consulate of Olybrius and Probus.
This was in the first year of the two hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad. The emperor Theodosius lived sixty years,
and reigned sixteen. This book therefore comprehends the transactions of sixteen years and eight months.

## Footnotes

* ↑ 395 a.d.
* ↑ There is some doubt as to the length of Theodosius’ life; most of the ancient historians (Sozomen, Theophanes, Cedrenus) agree with Socrates in giving it as sixty years. Am. Marcellinus Rerum Gestarum, XXIX. 6. 15, and Victor, Epit. XLVII., leave the impression that he was fifty.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Lives of Illustrious Men/Jerome/Victorinus the rhetorician

Chapter CI.
Victorinus, an African by birth, taught rhetoric at Rome under the emperor Constantius and in extreme old age, yielding himself to faith in Christ wrote books against Arius, written in dialectic style and very obscure language, books which can only be understood by the learned. He also wrote Commentaries on the Epistles.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Caius or Fabius Marius Victorinus, died about 370.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Apology of Rufinus/Book I
## Contents

* Epitome of Argument
* Chapter 1
* Chapter 2
* Chapter 3
* Chapter 4
* Chapter 5
* Chapter 6
* Chapter 7
* Chapter 8
* Chapter 9
* Chapter 10
* Chapter 11
* Chapter 12
* Chapter 13
* Chapter 14
* Chapter 15
* Chapter 16
* Chapter 17
* Chapter 18
* Chapter 19
* Chapter 20
* Chapter 21
* Chapter 22
* Chapter 23
* Chapter 24
* Chapter 25
* Chapter 26
* Chapter 27
* Chapter 28
* Chapter 29
* Chapter 30
* Chapter 31
* Chapter 32
* Chapter 33
* Chapter 34
* Chapter 35
* Chapter 36
* Chapter 37
* Chapter 38
* Chapter 39
* Chapter 40
* Chapter 41
* Chapter 42
* Chapter 43
* Chapter 44
* Chapter 45
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Apology of Rufinus/Book I/Chapter 1

I have read the document sent from the East by our friend and good brother to a distinguished member of the Senate, Pammachius, which you have copied and forwarded to me. It brought to my mind the words of the Prophet: “The sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” But for these wounds which men inflict on one another with the tongue we can hardly find a physician; so I have betaken myself to Jesus, the heavenly physician, and he has brought out for me from the medicine chest of the Gospel an antidote of sovereign power; he has assuaged the violence of my grief with the assurance of the righteous judgment which I shall have at his hands. The potion which our Lord dispensed to me was nothing else than these words: “Blessed are ye when men persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely. Rejoice and leap for joy, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you.” With this medicine I was content, and, as far as the matter concerned me, I had determined for the future to keep silence; for I said within myself, “If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household?” (that is, you and me, unworthy though we are). And, if it was said of him, “He is a deceiver, he deceiveth the people,” I must not be indignant if I hear that I am called a heretic, and that the name of mole is applied to me because of the slowness of my mind, or indeed my blindness. Christ who is my Lord, aye, and who is God over all, was called “a gluttonous man and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.” How can I, then, be angry when I am called a carnal man who lives in luxury?

## Footnotes

* ↑ Ps. lvii. 4
* ↑ Matt. v. 11, 12
* ↑ Matt. x. 25
* ↑ John vii. 12
* ↑ Matt. xi. 19
* ↑ Jerome Ep. lxxxiv, 8.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Lives of Illustrious Men/Jerome/Trypho the pupil of Origen

Chapter LVII.
Trypho, pupil of Origen, to whom some of his extant letters are addressed, was very learned in the Scriptures, and this many of his works show here and there, but especially the book which he composed On the red heiferin Deuteronomy, and On the halves, which with the pigeon and the turtledoves were offered by Abraham as recorded in Genesis.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Flourished about 240.
* ↑ red heifer Numb. 19. 2. (?) or Deut. Ch. 21.
* ↑ Genesis 15. 9–10.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Apology of Rufinus
## Contents

* Preface
* Book I
* Book II
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Lives of Illustrious Men/Jerome/Victorinus the bishop

Chapter LXXIV.
Victorinus, bishop of Pettau, was not equally familiar with Latin and Greek. On this account his works though noble in thought, are inferior in style. They are the following: Commentaries On Genesis, On Exodus, On Leviticus, On Isaiah, On Ezekiel, On Habakkuk, On Ecclesiastes, On the Song of Songs, On the Apocalypse of John, Against all heresies and many others. At the last he received the crown of martyrdom.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Bishop of Pettau 303, died 304.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus
## Contents

* Title Page
* Prolegomena
* Preface to the Commentary on the Benedictions of the Twelve Patriarchs
* Preface to Book II
* Translation of Pamphilus' Defence of Origen
* Rufinus's Epilogue to Pamphilus the Martyr's Apology for Origen
* Preface to the Translations of Origen's Books
* Preface to Book III
* Rufinus' Apology in Defence of Himself
* The Letter of Anastasius
* Apology of Rufinus
* Jerome's Apology
* Commentary on the Apostles' Creed
* The Preface to the Books of Recognitions of St. Clement
* Preface to the Translation of the Sayings of Xystus
* Preface to the Two Books of Ecclesiastical History
* Preface to Origen's Commentary on Psalms
* Preface to Origen's Commentary on Romans
* The Peroration of Rufinus
* Preface to Origen's Homilies on Numbers
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Lives of Illustrious Men/Jerome/Victor the bishop

Chapter XXXIV.
Victor, thirteenth bishop of Rome, wrote, On the Paschal Controversy and some other small works. He ruled the church for ten years in the reign of the Emperor Severus.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Bishop about 190 (or 185 according to others) died 202 or 197.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Preface

Preface.
This volume contains the following works:
I. Theodoret: Church History, Dialogues, and Letters. Translated, with ample Prolegomena and explanatory notes, by the Rev. Blomfield Jackson, M.A., Rector of St. Bartholomew’s, Cripplegate, London.
II. Jerome and Gennadius: Lives of Illustrious Men. Translated, with introduction and notes, by Ernest Cushing Richardson, Ph.D., Librarian of Princeton College.
III. Rufinus: Apology against Jerome, and Jerome: Apology in reply to Rufinus; Rufinus: Commentary on the Apostles’ Creed, and Prefaces to his translations of the Clementine Recognitions, the Sayings of Xystus, Eusebius’s Church History, and several of Origen’s works; translated, with notes, and an introduction on the Life and Works of Rufinus by the Hon. and Rev. Wm. Henry Fremantle, M.A., Canon of Canterbury.
The English reader has now, in the first three volumes of this Library, a complete collection of the historical writings of the Fathers, whose permanent value, as sources, is universally acknowledged. Several of them have never before appeared in English.
The unavoidable delay in the publication of the third volume has been very annoying to the general editors and publishers, but the subscribers will be amply compensated by the addition of the writings of Rufinus, which were not promised in the prospectus.
It is encouraging that this difficult and costly enterprise is beginning to be duly appreciated by competent judges on both sides of the Atlantic. It is especially gratifying to read from a thorough patristic scholar of the Anglican Church such a hearty commendation of the first volume (the work of two young American divines), as appeared in “The Church Quarterly Review” for April, 1892. We share in his hope (p. 125) that the labors of Dr. McGiffert and Dr. Richardson will stimulate a new and critical edition of all the historical works of Eusebius, after the model set by Bishop Lightfoot in his Apostolic Fathers, and that one of the English University Presses will consider it an honor to undertake the expense of publication.
Philip Schaff.
New York, July 12, 1892.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Lives of Illustrious Men/Title Page

Jerome and Gennadius
Lives of Illustrious Men.
Translated, with Introduction and Notes,
by
Ernest Cushing Richardson, Ph.D.
Librarian of Princeton College.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 1/The Synod of Antioch in Encaeniis/Canons/Canon VII

Canon VII.
No stranger shall be received without letters pacifical.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon VII.
A traveller having no letter pacific with him is not to be received.
Compare the Apostolic Canon number XXXIII.
For a discussion of the Letters styled pacifici, see notes on next canon.
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Gratian’s Decretum, Pars I., Dist. lxxi., c. ix. in Isidore’s version. The Roman Correctors note that Dionysius must have had a different reading from the Greek we know.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 1/The Synod of Antioch in Encaeniis/Canons/Canon VIII

Canon VIII.
Let not country presbyters give letters canonical, or let them send such letters only to the neighbouring bishops. But the chorepiscopi of good report may give letters pacifical.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon VIII.
A country presbyter is not to give canonical letters, or [at most] only to a neighbouring bishop.
These “letters canonical” were called in the West letters “formatæ,” and no greater proof of the great influence they had in the early days of the Church in binding the faithful together can be found than the fact that Julian the Apostate made an attempt to introduce something similar among the pagans of his empire.
“Commendatory letters” (ἐπιστολαὶ συστατικαὶ) are spoken of by St. Paul in 2 Cor. iii. 1, and the reader will find some interesting remarks on this and cognate subjects in J. J. Blunt’s, The Christian Church during the first three Centuries (Chapter II).
By means of these letters even the lay people found hospitality and care in every part of the world, and it was thrown up against the Donatists as a mark of their being schismatics that their canonical letters were good only among themselves.
Pseudo-Isidore informs us that it was stated at the Council of Chalcedon by Atticus, bishop of Constantinople, that it was agreed at the Council of Nice that all such letters should be marked Π. Υ. Α. Π. (i.e. Father, Son, Holy Spirit), and it is asserted (Herzog, Real-Encyk., s.v. Literæ Formatæ) that this form is found in German documents of the sixth century.
As will be seen among the Canons of Chalcedon, the old name, Letters Commendatory, is continued, but in this canon and in the 41st of Laodicea the expression “Canonical Letters” is used. In the West, at least, these letters received the episcopal seal of the diocese to avoid all possibility of imposture. Dean Plumptre (whom I am following very closely in this note) believes the earliest evidence of this use of the diocesan seal is in Augustine (Epist. lix. al. ccxvij.) He also refers to Ducange, s.v. Formatæ.
As these letters admitted their bearers to communion they were sometimes called “Communion letters” (κοινωνικαὶ ), and are so described by St. Cyril of Alexandria; and by the Council of Elvira (canon xxv.), and by St. Augustine (Epist. xliii. al. clxii).
The “Letters Pacifical” appear to have been of an eleemosynary character, so that the bearers of them obtained bodily help. Chalcedon in its eleventh canon ordains these “Letters pacifical” shall be given to the poor, whether they be clerics or laics. The same expression is used in the preceding canon of the synod.
A later form of ecclesiastical letter is that with which we are so familiar, the “letter dimissory.” This expression first occurs in Canon XVII. of the Council in Trullo.  On this expression Suicer (Thesaurus, s.v. ἀπολυτικὴ) draws from the context the conclusion that “letters dimissory” were given only for permanent change of ecclesiastical residence, while, “letters commendatory” were given to those whose absence from their diocese was only temporary.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 1/The Synod of Antioch in Encaeniis/Canons/Canon V

Canon V.
If any presbyter or deacon, despising this own bishop, has separated himself from the Church, and gathered a private assembly, and set up an altar; and if, when summoned by his bishop, he shall refuse to be persuaded and will not obey, even though he summon him a first and a second time, let such an one be wholly deposed and have no further remedy, neither be capable of regaining his rank. And if he persist in troubling and disturbing the Church, let him be corrected, as a seditious person, by the civil power.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon V.
Any presbyter or deacon who spurns his bishop, and withdraws from him, and sets up another altar, if after being thrice called by the bishop, he shall persist in his arrogancy, let him be deposed and be deprived of all hope of restoration.
It will be noted that the Ancient Epitome mentions three warnings, and the canon only two. The epitome in this evidently follows the Apostolical Canon, number thirty-one. It is somewhat curious that Aristenus in commenting on this canon does not note the discrepancy.
Van Espen.
This canon, together with the preceding was read from the Code of Canons at the Council of Chalcedon, at the Fourth Session in connexion with the case of Carosus and Dorothœus, and of other monks who adhered to them. And a sentence in accordance with them was conceived in these words against those who would not obey the Council in the condemnation of Eutyches, “Let them know that they together with the monks who are with them, are deprived of grade, and of all dignity, and of communion, as well as he, so that they cease to preside over their monasteries: and if they attempt to escape, this holy and universal great council decrees the same punishment shall attach to them, that is to say the external authority, according to the divine and holy laws of the Fathers, shall carry out the sentence passed against the contumacious.”
This canon shews that monks and clerics who were rebellious were sometimes coerced by the Secular Power, when the ecclesiastical power was not sufficient to coerce them, and hence it was that the secular arm was called in.
Compare with this Apostolic Canon XXXI.
The last clause of this canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Gratian’s Decretum, Pars II. Causa XI., Quæst VIII. Can. vij. (The Latin however for “by the civil power” is, as is pointed out by the Roman Correctors, per forinsecam potestatem or per forasticam potestatem.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 1/The Synod of Antioch in Encaeniis/Canons/Canon VI

Canon VI.
If any one has been excommunicated by his own bishop, let him not be received by others until he has either been restored by his own bishop, or until, when a synod is held, he shall have appeared and made his defence, and, having convinced the synod, shall have received a different sentence.  And let this decree apply to the laity, and to presbyters and deacons, and all who are enrolled in the clergy-list.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon VI.
The sentence of the greater synod upon a clerk excommunicated by his bishop, whether of acquittal or condemnation, shall stand.
Compare Apostolic Canons numbers XII. and XXXII.
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Gratian’s Decretum, Pars II., Causa XI., Quæst. III, Can. ij.