Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/121

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The Rise of the Papacy included in the Patrologia may be found in POTTHAST'S Wegu'eiser, pp. xciv sqq. Corpus scriptorum ecclesiastic orum Latinorum, Vienna, 1866 sqq. This series, issued under the auspices of the Vienna Academy, is still in the course of publication, and is only to include the ecclesiastical writers previous to the seventh century. It naturally supersedes the older editions reprinted in MIGNE'S Patrologia. Ante-Nicene Fathers, 10 vols. ; Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, two series in 12 vols. each. A scholarly English translation, with excellent notes, of the more important patristic writings, to the time of Gregory the Great. The chief sources for the history of the papacy to Gregory's time are the lives of the popes in the Liber pontificalis, and their letters, espe- cially those of Leo the Great and of Gregory himself. The Liber pontificalis has given rise to a great deal of discussion among scholars. It contains brief, fragmentary accounts of all the bishops of Rome from Peter down. Many of the lives would hardly fill a page of this volume. Just how the collection grew up, no one knows. According to Duchesne, the earliest part was got into its present form shortly after Theodoric's death, and then accounts of the succeeding popes were added from time to time, bringing the collection down to the latter part of the ninth century. Modern editions : DUCHESNE, Liber pontificalis, published in the Bibliotheqne des ecoles tT Athene* et de Rome, 1886-1892. MOMMSEN has edited the most important part of the collection, down to 715 in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. An older edition in MIGNE, Patro- logia Latina, CXXVII-CXXIX. It is there attributed, as formerly, to Anastasius Bibliothecarius, a writer of the ninth century. As for the letters of the popes, many will be found in MIGNE ; those of Leo I in Vol. LIII and of Gregory I in Vol. LXXVII. The best edi- tion of Gregory I's letters is in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. An invaluable guide to the history of the papacy is JAFFE, Regesta pontificum, 2d ed., edited by Wattenbach and others, 1885-1888. This is a register of all the acts, edicts, and letters of the successive bishops of Rome. It is as complete an official diary as it was possible to recon- struct. An analysis is usually given of all the more important papers, and then a list is added of the various printed collections where the documents may be found in full. But all the information that it was possible to find for the five centuries which elapsed between the times of St. Peter and the accession of Gregory I fills but 140 pages, while Gregory's own pontificate alone occupies 75 pages. The sources. The Liber pontificalis. Jaffa's Regesta, a monu- mental work