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The Library

Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

1780 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

1 work

c. 375–390

Latin

The Letters to Sympronian

Pacian of Barcelona · d. c. 391

Three courteous letters to a Novatianist who had written to say the catholic church had no right to forgive the lapsed. Pacian answers that the power to bind and loose was given without conditions, and defines himself in a phrase that outlived everything else he wrote: Christian is my name, Catholic my surname.

Western · LettersMatthewJohn1 John2 CorinthiansRead elsewhere