Introduction to This Volume
How this book is arranged
This is the sixty-sixth volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This volume holds Socrates and Sozomen, The Church Histories, from the period about AD 305 – 439.
Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section numbers.
The translations
The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation. In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. All the works in this volume are printed in older public-domain translations.
In this volume
Socrates was born at Constantinople about AD 380 and worked there as a lawyer, which is the meaning of the name Scholasticus. His Ecclesiastical History in seven books takes up the story where Eusebius ended, at AD 305, and runs to AD 439.
Sozomen was born near Gaza about AD 400 and became a lawyer at Constantinople. He wrote his Ecclesiastical History in nine books for the emperor Theodosius II. It covers the years from AD 324 to 425, and it follows Socrates closely in places while adding much on the monks and the Church in the East.
Socrates and Sozomen wrote their histories within a few years of each other, and both begin where the story of Arius and the Council of Nicaea begins. They tell many of the same events, and the second writer knew the first. A reader who turns from one to the other will see how two lawyers of Constantinople chose, shortened and added to the same record of letters, councils and lives.
Dates and authorship
Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is uncertain.