EDITORIAL NOTE

WHILE there is

HILE there is a general agreement among the writers as to principles, the greatest freedom as to treatment is allowed to writers in this series. The volumes, for example, are not of the same length. Volume II., which deals with the formative period of the Church, is, not unnaturally, longer in proportion than the others. To Volume VI., which deals with the Reformation, has been allotted a similar extension. The authors, again, use their own discretion in such matters as footnotes and lists of authorities. But the aim of the series, which each writer sets before him, is to tell, clearly and accurately, the story of the Church, as a divine institution with a continuous life.

W. H. HUTTON.

W

PREFACE

ITHOUT pretending to offer a last word of literary or historical criticism on a subject which is likely to remain always open to discussion, the author would like to hope that he has succeeded in producing a modest and straightforward study of the Apostolic Age, from the point of view of a not unenlightened conservatism.

In any case, we must all alike turn to St. Luke and his colleagues of the New Testament if we would seek information on the central facts of the Church's beginnings. We differ from one another according to the presuppositions with which we approach the subject; and according to these presuppositions varies the value we put upon the New Testament documents, and the fashion in which we attempt to supply the obvious and serious lacunae in the information which they furnish. The present writer does not claim to have approached the subject with a mind like a blank sheet of paper; yet he hopes to have achieved something of that higher impartiality which lives only in an atmosphere of deep convictions.

What little originality may be found in these pages will be due not so much to a wide acquaintance with the modern literature of the subject as to a fresh study of the familiar New Testament writings. The author has, however, availed himself of the manifold help

offered by Dr. Hastings' excellent Bible Dictionary, by several of the brilliant works of Sir William Ramsay, and by the recently issued English Edition of Harnack's Mission and Expansion of Christianity. Of other works, his deepest obligation is due to Mgr. Duchesne's Histoire ancienne de l'Eglise for its lucid marshalling of facts, and to the old-fashioned but none the less valuable lectures of the late Professor Shirley on the Apostolic Age. A work which he would have used with profit had it not come into his hands too late is Dr. E. G. Hardy's Studies in Roman History, where the authorities for the attitude of official Rome towards Christianity are set forth with a remarkable skill, at once full and concise.

To the Editor of the Series and to the publisher, the writer of this volume desires to express his thanks for unfailing patience and courtesy; and to Mr. Rolfe for a very careful and painstaking revision of the proofs.

VENICE,

L. R.

Easter, 1909.