The Church History of Rufinus of Aquileia: Books 10 and 11

by Tyrannius Rufinus

Amidon offers the first English translation of Books 10 and 11 of Rufinus' Church History . Books 1-9 comprise a Latin translation of Eusebius' history. Books 10 and 11 are Rufinus' own continuation, covering the period 325-395. As the first Latin church history, this work exerted great influence over the subsequent scholarship of the Western Church.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Amy Hughes]

I love Rufinus for many reasons. I love his no nonsense style and his need to tirelessly translate works from Greek into Latin. Without him we would know much less about Origen, Evagrius, and many others. These two books are his contribution to the great historical tradition that Eusebius of Caesarea begins with his Church History. Rufinus is the late antique version of the guy who says "just the facts, ma'am" (that's a Dragnet reference FYI). Here is how he opens his history: "Now it should be noted that since the tenth book of this work in Greek has very little history in it, all the rest of it being taken up with bishops’ panegyrics which add nothing to our knowledge of the facts, we have omitted what seemed superfluous and joined what history there was in it to the ninth book, which we had made the conclusion of Eusebius’s account."

There is a great deal of material shoved into these two books from an extensive discussion about Arius and the controversy surrounding him to stories about Christianity spreading far and wide across the known world. Of particular interest to me are his two stories with women at the helm. The first is Helena, "the mother of the empire" and Constantine's mother to whom he attributes finding the True Cross and building churches. This story will become a best seller and Rufinus's version of this fictive account is one of the tamer ones. And, on the other side of the social spectrum, to illustrate the spread and power of Christianity in Georgia Rufinus relays a story about a "woman captive" who performs grand miracles and helps build a church.

Amidon's translation is also really clear and allows Rufinus's distinctive style to come through.