Preface.
————————————
The
present translation of the
Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril of Jerusalem is based on a careful
revision of the English translation published in the “Library of
the Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church,” with a most interesting
Preface by John Henry Newman, dated from Oxford, The Feast of St.
Matthew, 1838.
In his Preface Mr. Newman stated with respect to the
translation “that for almost the whole of it the Editors were
indebted to Mr. Church, Fellow of Oriel College.” Mr.
Church was at that time a very young man, having taken his First Class
in Michaelmas Term, 1836; and this his first published work gave
abundant promise of that peculiar felicity of expression, which made
him in maturer life one of the most perfect masters of the English
tongue. Having received full liberty to make such use of his
translation as I might deem most desirable for the purpose of the
present Edition, I have been obliged to exercise my own judgment both
in preserving much of Dean Church’s work unaltered, and in
revising it wherever the meaning of the original appeared to be less
perfectly expressed.
In this constant study and use of Dean Church’s
earliest work I have had always before my mind a grateful and inspiring
remembrance of one whose friendship it was my great privilege to enjoy
during the few last saddened years of his saintly and noble life.
In the notes of the Edition one of my chief objects has
been to illustrate S. Cyril’s teaching by comparing it with the
works of earlier Fathers to whom he may have been indebted, and with
the writings of his contemporaries.
In the chapters of the Introduction which touch on S.
Cyril’s doctrines of Baptism, Chrism, and the Holy Eucharist, I
have not attempted either to criticise or to defend his teaching, but
simply to give as faithful a representation as I could of his actual
meaning. The Eastern Church had long before S. Cyril’s day,
and still has its own peculiar Sacramental doctrines, which,
notwithstanding the efforts of rival theologians, can never be reduced
to exact conformity with the tenets of our own or other Western
Churches.
The Indices have been revised, and large additions made
to the lists of Greek words,
E.H.G.
Oxford
,
26 May, 1893.