TRANSLATIONS OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
SERIES I
GREEK TEXTS

ST. DIONYSIUS OF
ALEXANDRIA

PREFACE

Not long after my edition of this Father’s writingsappeared in the Cambridge Patristic Texts (1904), Iwas invited to translate the Letters and some of theother more certainly genuine fragments that remaininto English for the present series; but it is notuntil now that I have been able to accomplish thetask I then undertook. Since then, though chieflyoccupied in other researches, I have naturally acquireda more extensive and accurate knowledge of St.Dionysius and his times, some of the results of whichwill be found in this volume. Nevertheless, I wasbound to incorporate a considerable amount of theinformation and conclusions arrived at in the formerwork, and wish to express my acknowledgments tothe Syndics of the University Press for leave todo so, as well as to those again whose names Imentioned as having assisted me before.

In the present book Dr. A. J. Mason was kindenough to advise me over the choice of extractsfrom the two treatises, On Nature and Refutation andDefence, and on one or two minor points, while afriend and neighbour (the Rev. L. Patterson) readthrough the whole of the MS. before it went to theprinter and gave me the benefit of a fresh mind upona number of small details of style and fact, for whichI sincerely thank him.

C. L. Feltoe.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE V

INTRODUCTION 9

LETTERS 35

TO BASILIDES 76

“ON THE PROMISES” 82

“ON NATURE” 91

“REFUTATION AND DEFENCE” 101

ADDITIONAL NOTE 108

INDEX 109

INTRODUCTION

1. None of the many influential occupants of thesee of Alexandria and of the many distinguishedheads of the Catechetical School in that city seemto have been held in higher respect by the ancientsthan Dionysius. By common consent he is styled“the Great,” while Athanasius, one of his mostfamous-successors as Bishop, calls him “Teacher ofthe Church universal,” and Basil (of Cæsarea) refersto him as “a person of canonical authority”(κανονικός).He took a prominent and important part in all theleading m

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