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The Library

Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

1277 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.

301–400

The Fourth Century

2 works

c. 380–385

Latin

The Book of Rules

Liber Regularum

Tyconius · c. 330–c. 390

Seven rules for reading scripture consistently — on the Lord and his body, on the bipartite church, on promise and law, on species and genus, on times, on recapitulation, and on the devil and his body.

Donatist · Hermeneutics

c. 366–384

Latin

Against the Donatists

Optatus of Milevis

An argument that the North African schismatics have separated from a church that is catholic by definition, and that the validity of a sacrament does not depend on the holiness of the minister.

Western · Polemic

401–500

The Fifth Century

1 work

c. 400–401

Latin

On Baptism, Against the Donatists

Augustine of Hippo · 354–430

An argument that a sacrament belongs to Christ and not to the minister, so a baptism performed by a traitor or a heretic is still a real baptism.

Western · Polemic