PART I

A.D. 64-A.D. 180

INTRODUCTORY

The early Church remained continually under the veiled shadow of persecution--This state of things we learn, not from the “Acts of the Martyrs,” which, save in a certain number of instances, are of questionable authority, but from fragments which have come down to us of contemporary writings--Extracts from two groups of the more important of these are quoted 163

I

QUOTATIONS FROM APOSTLES, ETC.

_First Group._--From writings of apostles and apostolic men, including the Epistle to the Hebrews--1 Peter--Revelation of S. John--First letter of S. Clement of Rome--The seven genuine letters of S. Ignatius 166

II

QUOTATIONS FROM WRITINGS OF THE SECOND CENTURY

_Second Group._--Early writings, dating from the time of Trajan to the death of Marcus Antoninus (A.D. 180); including--“Letters of Pliny and Trajan”--“Letter to Diognetus”--“The Shepherd of Hermas”--“1st Apology of Justin Martyr”--“Minucius Felix”--“Writings of Melito of Sardis”--“Writings of Athenagoras”--“Writings of Theophilus of Antioch”--“Writings of Tertullian”--the last-named a very few years later, but bearing on same period 177