![[St. Pachomius Library]](title.gif)
Chapter I
The Plan of the Work.
1. It is my purpose to write an account of the successions of the
holy apostles, as well as of the times
which have elapsed from the days of our Saviour to our own; and
to relate the many important
events which are said to have occurred in the history of the Church;
and to mention those who have
governed and presided over the Church in the most prominent
parishes, and those who in each
generation have proclaimed the divine word either orally or in
writing.
2. It is my purpose also to give the names and number and
times of those who through love of
innovation have run into the greatest errors, and, proclaiming
themselves discoverers of knowledge
falsely so-called [1 Tim. 6:20] have like fierce wolves unmercifully
devastated the flock of Christ.
3. It is my intention, moreover, to recount the misfortunes
which immediately came upon the whole
Jewish nation in consequence of their plots against our
Saviour, and to record the ways and the
times in which the divine word has been attacked by the
Gentiles, and to describe the character of
those who at various periods have contended for it in the
face of blood and of tortures, as well as
the confessions which have been made in our own days, and
finally the gracious and kindly succor
which our Saviour has afforded them all. Since I propose to
write of all these things I shall
commence my work with the beginning of the dispensation
(oikonomia)
of our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ.
4. But at the outset I must crave for my work the indulgence
of the wise, for I confess that it is
beyond my power to produce a perfect and complete history,
and since I am the first to enter upon
the subject, I am attempting to traverse as it were a lonely and
untrodden path. I pray that I may
have God as my guide and the power of the Lord as my aid,
since I am unable to find even the bare
footsteps of those who have traveled the way before me,
except in brief fragments, in which some in
one way, others in another, have transmitted to us particular
accounts of the times in which they
lived. From afar they raise their voices like torches, and
they cry out, as from some lofty and
conspicuous watch-tower, admonishing us where to walk
and how to direct the course of our work
steadily and safely.
5. Having gathered therefore from the matters mentioned
here and there by them whatever we
consider important for the present work, and having plucked
like flowers from a meadow the
appropriate passages from ancient writers, we shall endeavor
to embody the whole in an historical
narrative, content if we preserve the memory of the successions
of the apostles of our Saviour; if not
indeed of all, yet of the most renowned of them in those
churches which are the most noted, and
which even to the present time are held in honor.
6. This work seems to me of especial importance because I know
of no ecclesiastical writer who has
devoted himself to this subject; and I hope that it will appear most
useful to those who are fond of
historical research.
7. I have already given an epitome of these things in the
Chronological Canons which I have
composed, but notwithstanding that, I have undertaken in the
present work to write as full an
account of them as I am able.
8. My work will begin, as I have said, with the dispensation
of the Saviour Christ,
-- which is loftier
and greater than human conception,
9. --and with a discussion of his divinity
(theologia); for it is necessary, inasmuch as
we derive even our name
from Christ, for one who proposes to write a history
of the Church to begin with the very origin of
Christ's dispensation, a dispensation more divine than
many think.
Have mercy, O Lord, upon Thy servant
the translator Arthur and on Daniel.