1. Adam and Eve. 2. Cain and Abel. 3. Enoch the Just. 4. The flood. 5. Cush, inventor of idols. 6. Babylonia. 7. Abraham and Ninus. 8. Isaac, Esau, Job and Jacob. 9. Joseph in Egypt. 10. Crossing of the Red Sea. 11. The people in the desert and Joshua. 12. The captivity of the people of Israel and the generations to David. 13. Solomon and the building of the Temple. 14. The division of the kingdom of Israel. 15. The captivity in Babylonia. 16. Birth of Christ. 17. The various kingdoms of the nations. 18. When Lyons was founded. 19. The gifts of the magi and the slaughter of the infants. 20. The miracles and suffering of Christ. 21. Joseph who buried Him. 22. James the apostle. 23. The day of the Lord’s resurrection. 24. The ascension of the Lord and the death of Pilate and Herod. 25. The suffering of the Apostles and Nero. 26. James, Mark and John the evangelist. 27. The persecution under Trajan. 28. Hadrian and the heretics’ lies and the martyrdom of Saint Polycarp and Justin. 29. Saints Photinus, Irenæus and the rest of the martyrs of Lyons. 30. The seven men sent into the Gauls to preach. 31. The church of Bourges. 32. Chrocus and the shrine in Auvergne. 33. The martyrs who suffered in Auvergne. 34. The holy martyr, Privatus. 35. Quirinus, bishop and martyr. 36. Birth of St. Martin and the finding of the cross. 37. James, bishop of Nisibis. 38. Death of the monk Antony. 39. The coming of St. Martin. 40. The matron Melania. 41. Death of the emperor Valens. 42. Imperial rule of Theodosius. 43. Death of the tyrant Maximus. 44. Urbicus, bishop of Auvergne. 45. The holy bishop Hillidius. 46. The bishops Nepotian and Arthemius. 47. The chastity of the lovers. 48. St. Martin’s death.
IN CHRIST’S NAME HERE END THE CHAPTERS OF THE FIRST BOOK
IN CHRIST’S NAME
HERE BEGINS THE FIRST BOOK OF THE HISTORIES
[B]As I am about to describe the struggles of kings with the heathen enemy, of martyrs with pagans, of churches with heretics, I desire first of all to declare my faith so that my reader may have no doubt that I am Catholic. I have also decided, on account of those who are losing hope of the approaching end of the world, to collect the total of past years from chronicles and histories and set forth clearly how many years there are from the beginning of the world. But I first beg pardon of my readers if either in letter or in syllable I transgress the rules of the grammatic art in which I have not been fully instructed, since I have been eager only for this, to hold fast, without any subterfuge or irresolution of heart, to that which we are bidden in the church to believe, because I know that he who is liable to punishment for his sin can obtain pardon from God by untainted faith.
I believe, then, in God the Father omnipotent. I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord God, born of the Father, not created. [I believe] that he has always been with the Father, not only since time began but before all time. For the Father could not have been so named unless he had a son; and there could be no son without a father. But as for those who say: “There was a time when he was not,”[37] reject them with curses, and call men to witness that they are separated from the church. I believe that the word of the Father by which all things were made was Christ. I believe that this word was made flesh and by its suffering the world was redeemed, and I believe that humanity, not deity, was subject to the suffering. I believe that he rose again on the third day, that he freed sinful man, that he ascended to heaven, that he sits on the right hand of the Father, that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe that the holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son, that it is not inferior and is not of later origin, but is God, equal and always co-eternal with the Father and the Son, consubstantial in its nature, equal in omnipotence, equally eternal in its essence, and that it has never existed apart from the Father and the Son and is not inferior to the Father and the Son. I believe that this holy Trinity exists with separation of persons, and one person is that of the Father, another that of the Son, another that of the Holy Spirit. And in this Trinity I confess that there is one Deity, one power, one essence. I believe that the blessed Mary was a virgin after the birth as she was a virgin before. I believe that the soul is immortal but that nevertheless it has no part in deity. And I faithfully believe all things that were established at Nicæa by the three hundred and eighteen bishops. But as to the end of the world I hold beliefs which I learned from our forefathers, that Antichrist will come first. And Antichrist will first propose circumcision, asserting that he is Christ; next he will place his statue in the temple at Jerusalem to be worshiped, just as we read that the Lord said: “You shall see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place.” But the Lord himself declared that that day is hidden from all men, saying: “But of that day and that hour knoweth no one not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father alone.” Moreover we shall here make answer to the heretics[38] who attack us, asserting that the Son is inferior to the Father since he is ignorant of this day. Let them learn then that Son here is the name applied to the Christian people, of whom God says: “I shall be to them a father and they shall be to me for sons.” For if he had spoken these words of the only-begotten Son he would never have given the angels first place. For he uses these words: “Not even the angels in heaven nor the Son,” showing that he spoke these words not of the only-begotten but of the people of adoption. But our end is Christ himself, who will graciously bestow eternal life on us if we turn to him.
[C]As to the reckoning of this world, the chronicles of Eusebius, bishop of Cæsarea, and of Jerome the priest, speak clearly, and they reveal the plan of the whole succession of years. Orosius too, searching into these matters very carefully, collects the whole number of years from the beginning of the world down to his own time. Victor also examined into this in connection with the time of the Easter festival. And so we follow the works of the writers mentioned above and desire to reckon the complete series of years from the creation of the first man down to our own time, if the Lord shall deign to lend his aid. And this we shall more easily accomplish if we begin with Adam himself.