This Translation of S. Irenæus’ work against Heresies was finished by the Translator though not begun to be printed in his lifetime. One very remarkable feature in the work, the depth of S. Irenæus’ fervent and loyal Love for his Master, as of one who all but remembered His earthly Life, amid the drearier exposure of the wild Gnostic Heresies, ever glowing forth;—the firm gentle lowly loyal mind of the Author of the Christian Year could best render into English.
For correcting the Press, except the two first sheets, for the few notes signed E, as also for the Translation of the earlier Fragments, the son of the last surviving Editor of the Library of the Fathers is responsible. The Very Rev. Dr. Smith, Dean of Canterbury, kindly vouches for the accuracy of the fragments translated from the Syriac, and these last have been collated afresh with the Mss. from which they were printed.
With regard to the genuineness of the fragments, Massuet the Benedictine Editor who had bestowed much pains in verifying those which his predecessors had collected from Catenae, &c., points out (i. 338) that they were of two kinds, those given by Eusebius and other ancient writers being undoubtedly genuine, those given by later writers or again by Catenae (whose compilers constantly condensed very considerably, whose transcribers sometimes put by mistake the wrong name) are of more doubtful authority. Massuet sums up, We give here all the fragments which have been collected by Feuardent, Halloix, Sirmond, Combefis, Grabe and others and those which ourselves have collected, yet not attaching to them more credit than they deserve.
The first 13 fragments and the 6 Syriac ones, and again those marked 35 to 38 will probably be genuine, the 14th and again the last fragment from the Armenian almost certainly spurious; of the Catenae-fragments some rest on the authority of several Mss., (and for these the probability of the wrong name having been appended is very considerably diminished,) some again at present on that of one Ms. only, while fragment xxxix attributed to S. Irenæus by the Vatican Ms. 331 and one of the Mss. used by the editor of the Leipzig Catena, is by his other Ms. attributed to Diodorus, and probably also (since Muenter was the first to publish it) the 3 Paris Catenae consulted by Massuet attribute this fragment to Diodorus or some other writer.
P. E. Pusey.
Oxford,
Oct. 1. 1872.