The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

Apparatus

Source register

19 sources, each with its authority tier, document type, rights status and the date it was consulted.

Tiers are explained in the methodology. A tier is a statement about what a source can establish, not about how respectable it is: a synodal declaration and a critical edition do different jobs, and neither substitutes for the other.

Tier A — normative and official

No sources at this tier in the current build. The official Orthodox sources this project is built to cite could not be reached from the environment in which it was assembled. See the methodology for what that means for every page here.

Tier B — official catechetical and jurisdictional

No sources at this tier in the current build. The official Orthodox sources this project is built to cite could not be reached from the environment in which it was assembled. See the methodology for what that means for every page here.

Tier C — primary historical and patristic

  1. Tier C The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.); A. Cleveland Coxe (American ed.) translated edition of primary texts, 1885 Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I Rights: public domain (United States: published 1885). Consulted 2026-08-29. Prints the Ignatian letters in both the shorter and the longer recension, in parallel. Every Ignatian citation on this site must therefore state which recension is in view. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01
  2. Tier C Fathers of the Second Century Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.) translated edition of primary texts, 1885 Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. II Rights: public domain (United States: published 1885). Consulted 2026-08-29. Contains Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus and Clement of Alexandria. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02
  3. Tier C Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.) translated edition of primary texts, 1885 Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III Rights: public domain (United States: published 1885). Consulted 2026-08-29. Tertullian's apologetic and doctrinal works. Tertullian's later Montanist writings are printed alongside his earlier ones; the collection does not itself mark the division. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03
  4. Tier C Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.) translated edition of primary texts, 1886 Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V Rights: public domain (United States: published 1886). Consulted 2026-08-29. Appends the Muratorian Fragment to the fragments of Caius on a nineteenth-century conjecture about its authorship. That attribution is not accepted; the fragment is anonymous. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05
  5. Tier C Living Tradition archive manifests This project provenance and rights record, 2026 archive/manifests/ Rights: project documentation. Consulted 2026-08-29. Records the SHA-256 checksum, edition, rights basis and accession date of every archived file, together with the CCEL path each transcription came from. https://github.com/msgetsonmynervez/patristics/tree/main/archive/manifests
  6. Tier C The Confessions and Letters of St. Augustine Philip Schaff (ed.) translated edition of primary texts, 1886 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. I Rights: public domain (United States: published 1886). Consulted 2026-08-29. Also carries the Prolegomena to Augustine used for the outline of his life. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf101
  7. Tier C St. Chrysostom: On the Priesthood; Ascetic Treatises; Homilies Philip Schaff (ed.) translated edition of primary texts, 1889 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. IX Rights: public domain (United States: published 1889). Consulted 2026-08-29. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf109
  8. Tier C Eusebius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.); Arthur Cushman McGiffert (trans.) translated edition of primary texts, 1890 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. I Rights: public domain (United States: published 1890). Consulted 2026-08-29. Eusebius is the single most important narrative source for the pre-Nicene Church and is also an interested party in fourth-century disputes. Both facts matter when using him. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201
  9. Tier C Socrates and Sozomenus: Ecclesiastical Histories Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.) translated edition of primary texts, 1890 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. II Rights: public domain (United States: published 1890). Consulted 2026-08-29. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202
  10. Tier C Theodoret, Jerome, Gennadius, Rufinus: Historical Writings Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.) translated edition of primary texts, 1892 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. III Rights: public domain (United States: published 1892). Consulted 2026-08-29. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf203
  11. Tier C Athanasius: Select Works and Letters Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.); Archibald Robertson (trans.) translated edition of primary texts, 1892 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. IV Rights: public domain (United States: published 1892). Consulted 2026-08-29. Prints only extracts of Festal Letter 39. Fuller Greek, Coptic and Syriac witnesses to that letter exist and are not in this archive. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204
  12. Tier C Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.) translated edition of primary texts, 1893 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. V Rights: public domain (United States: published 1893). Consulted 2026-08-29. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf205
  13. Tier C Cyril of Jerusalem and Gregory Nazianzen Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.) translated edition of primary texts, 1894 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. VII Rights: public domain (United States: published 1894). Consulted 2026-08-29. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207
  14. Tier C Basil: Letters and Select Works Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.); Blomfield Jackson (trans.) translated edition of primary texts, 1895 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. VIII Rights: public domain (United States: published 1895). Consulted 2026-08-29. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208
  15. Tier C Ambrose: Select Works and Letters Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.) translated edition of primary texts, 1896 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. X Rights: public domain (United States: published 1896). Consulted 2026-08-29. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf210
  16. Tier C Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lérins, John Cassian Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.) translated edition of primary texts, 1894 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. XI Rights: public domain (United States: published 1894). Consulted 2026-08-29. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf211
  17. Tier C Leo the Great and Gregory the Great Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.); Charles Lett Feltoe (trans.) translated edition of primary texts, 1895 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. XII Rights: public domain (United States: published 1895). Consulted 2026-08-29. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf212
  18. Tier C Gregory the Great (Part II), Ephraim Syrus, Aphrahat Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.) translated edition of primary texts, 1898 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. XIII Rights: public domain (United States: published 1898). Consulted 2026-08-29. Carries selections from Ephrem in English. Not archived on this site; the selections could not be extracted with verifiable provenance from the working corpus, so pages citing Ephrem record that as a gap. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf213
  19. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) annotated edition of conciliar texts, 1900 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. XIV Rights: public domain (United States: published 1900). Consulted 2026-08-29. The primary edition behind every conciliar text and canon archived here. Percival's own commentary is nineteenth-century Anglican scholarship and is separated from the conciliar text in the archive; where the site uses it, it is labelled as commentary. His notes also carry the Byzantine canonists Balsamon, Zonaras and Aristenus, and Hefele's history, in English. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214

Tier D — historical scholarship

No sources at this tier in the current build. Nothing yet.