"One of the first great events in Christian history was the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, convened to organize Christian sects and beliefs into a unified doctrine. The great Christian clergymen who wrote before this famous event are referred to as the Ante-Nicenes and the Apostolic Fathers, and their writings are collected here in a ten-volume set. The Ante-Nicenes lived so close to the time of Christ that their interpretations of the New Testament are considered more authentic than modern voices. But they are also real and flawed men, who are more like their fellow Christians than they are like the Apostles, making their words echo in the ears of spiritual seekers. In Volume I of the 10-volume collected works of the Ante-Nicenes first published between 1885 and 1896, readers will find the writings of: Clement of Rome, the fourth pope, who was supposedly martyred by being tied to an anchor and tossed overboard Mathetes, an anonymous writer considered the first Christian apologist Polycarp, a Christian bishop who was stabbed to death after he failed to burn at the stake Ignatius, a student of John the Apostle, who was Bishop of Antioch before he was killed Barnabas, an anonymous writer given the name of Saint Barnabas Papias, author of Interpretations of the Sayings of the Lord, a textbook on quotes from Jesus Justin Martyr, a Christian apologist and accomplished philosopher, and Irenaeus, disciple of Polycarp, apologist, and bishop of Lugdunum."

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"Against Heresies - Book IV" from Irenaeus. Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul (-202A.D.).

Enduring and influential early Christian texts. The writings of the Apostolic Fathers give a rich and diverse picture of Christian life and thought in the period immediately after New Testament times. Some of them were accorded almost Scriptural authority in the early Church. This new Loeb edition of these essential texts reflects current idiom and the latest scholarship. Here are the Letters of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, among the most famous documents of early Christianity; these letters, addressing core theological questions, were written to a half dozen different congregations while Ignatius was en route to Rome as a prisoner, condemned to die in the wild-beast arena. Also in this collection is a letter to the Philippian church by Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and friend of Ignatius, as well as an account of Polycarp's martyrdom. There are several kinds of texts in the Apostolic Fathers collection, representing different religious outlooks. The manual called the Didache sets forth precepts for religious instruction, worship, and ministry. The Epistle of Barnabas searches the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible, for testimony in support of Christianity and against Judaism. Probably the most widely read in the early Christian centuries was The Shepherd of Hermas, a book of revelations that develops a doctrine of repentance.