aut, ut idem de scripto suo testatur, ἁπλῶς, καὶ ἀληθῶς, καὶ ἰδιωτικῶς, id est, simpliciter, et vere, ac vulgari tunc inter Latinos sermone translatos separatim postea communicaverit, et mentem sensaque auctoris fideliter expresserit. Qui firmioribus conjecturis aut testimoniis certioribus productis, alium primumque interpretem indicaverit, nos sibi magno beneficio gratos et devinctos habebit. Atque haec de sermonis genere, ac interprete dicta sint: nunc quid hac potissimum editione novissima praestitum sit, accipe.
or, as the same man testifies of his own writing, ἁπλῶς, καὶ ἀληθῶς, καὶ ἰδιωτικῶς, that is, simply, and truly, and plainly, and afterwards communicated them separately, translated into the speech then common among the Latins, and faithfully expressed the mind and meaning of the author. Whoever, bringing forward firmer conjectures or surer testimonies, points out another and first translator, will have us grateful and bound to him by a great kindness. And let this be said of the kind of language and of the translator: now hear what in particular has been accomplished in this newest edition.
Libri primi decem et octo priora capita ab Epiphanio quondam ad verbum ex Irenaeo Graece transcripta; deinde ex Eusebio fragmenta viginti et duo; ex Theodoreto, quatuordecim; ex Basilio duo; ex Melissa totidem; unum ex Anastasio Nicaeno suis locis Graece, prout ab Irenaeo primum descripta, hinc ab his Patribus laudata fuerunt, typis evulganda curavimus. Deinde ad finem operis sex alia ex diversis ejusdem Irenaei operibus fragmenta, ex auctore Quaest. et responsionum ad orthodoxos apud Justinum martyrem, Eusebio et Demetrio Diacopo collecta Graece subjecimus; et tam illa, quam is⟨t⟩a majori parte a laudatissimo viro Jacobo Billio, reliqua a doctiss. interpretibus Christophorsono, Herveto, Erasmo, Fabro Latine reddita, quam decenti fieri potuit ordine collocavimus. Superiora decem et octo libri primi capita Graeca idem Billius scholiis, deinde R. P. Fronto Ducaeus, Societatis Jesu tam pius quam doctus theologus, suis notis ad Epiphanii Graeca exemplaria contulerunt, emendarunt et illustrarunt. Nos quoque non solum ad illa, sed ad singula librorum capita et adjecta de novo fragmenta adnotationes locupletissimas addidimus, quibus emendationum rationes reddimus, obscuriora et ambigua plurima loca, multasque Graecas, et Latinis minus usitatas phrases explicamus, et quidquid ad Ecclesiae catholicae doctrinam, hierarchiam, ritus, fidemque confirmandam, et antiquas novasque haereses refellendas pertinere deprehendimus; denique quod expunctum, vel immutatum a nobis est, ne quid injuria sublatum sibi quiritentur aliqui, retinemus et observamus. Accessit quoque editioni, cum Vaticano manuscripto codice nova collatio, cujus, praesertim vero per illustrem ac eruditum D. Joannem Sant-Andreanum Ecclesiae Parisiensis canonicum, nobis pridem commodati codicis veteris attentiore lectione et meditatione, adhuc supra sexcentos locos emendatiores reddidimus. Addita duabus clausulis, nonnunquam unica, et numero quodam signamus; variis adhuc quibusdam lectionibus asteriscis in margine notatis. Ad haec, beatissimi et vere apostolici viri Polycarpi, episcopi Smyrnensis et martyris, quinque non aspernanda fragmenta ante mille et centum annos a Victore Capuano citata, et Latio donata, a nobis vero in vetustissimo codice reperta et transcripta convenienti sede locavimus. Irenaei nostri ex sanctis Patribus collecta encomia; et recentium haereticorum imposturis, maledictis, et in hunc sanctissimum auctorem nostrum confictis criminationibus, post auctoris vitam a nobis tam ex scriptis ejus, quam ex aliis scriptis ac historia eccles. fideliter collectam, operis initio praefiximus: sicut ad finem totius operis locupletissimos indices in lectorum commodiorem usum subjungendos curavimus. Denique Leodii, in monasterio S. Jacobi memoriae sacro, repertum a nobis Arnobii Catholici cum Serapione Aegyptio Conflictum, utcunque per nos emendatum et adnotatum, ac nunquam antea typis publicatum, communi studiosorum utilitati judicavimus esse communicandum. Multas, fateor, dictiones et phrases minus Latinas, hiulcas adhuc sententias et periodos, adeoque non paucos adhuc locos in utroque auctore luxatos, imperfectos et obscuros a nobis relictos invenire licebit: tum quod plurium ac emendatiorum codicum auxilio destituti fuimus, tum quod tam veteribus ac sanctis Patribus manum temere inferre religio fuit. Caeterum, haec solo natali, et quod longe molestius est, musaeo ac nostra bibliotheca exacti, solumque nunc ab illis, mox ab istis commodato inter peregrinandum acceptis libris adjuti contexuimus, et in publicam studiosorum utilitatem emittimus; quae cum acceperint candidi lectores, et his nostris qualibuscunque laboribus fruiti fuerint, studiis nostris bene favere; ac praesertim nostram salutem suis precibus apud communem Salvatorem ac judicem nostrum D. Jesum Christum commendare, rogo et obsecro, non recusent.
The first eighteen chapters of the first book, once transcribed word for word in Greek from Irenaeus by Epiphanius; next twenty-two fragments from Eusebius; fourteen from Theodoret; two from Basil; as many from Melissa; one from Anastasius of Nicaea, we have had printed in Greek in their places, as they were first written by Irenaeus and then cited by these Fathers. Next, at the end of the work, we have subjoined in Greek six other fragments from various works of the same Irenaeus, collected from the author of the Questions and Answers to the Orthodox found among the works of Justin Martyr, from Eusebius and from Demetrius the Deacon; and we have arranged in as fitting an order as could be both those and these, rendered into Latin for the greater part by that most praiseworthy man Jacques de Billy, the rest by the most learned translators Christopherson, Hervet, Erasmus and Fabri. The earlier eighteen Greek chapters of the first book the same Billy, with scholia, and after him the Reverend Father Fronton du Duc, a theologian of the Society of Jesus as pious as he is learned, with his notes, collated with the Greek copies of Epiphanius, corrected and illustrated. We too have added very full annotations, not only to those but to the individual chapters of the books and to the newly added fragments, in which we give the reasons for the corrections, explain very many obscure and ambiguous places and many Greek phrases and phrases little used by the Latins, and whatever we found to bear on confirming the doctrine, hierarchy, rites and faith of the Catholic Church and on refuting the heresies old and new; lastly, whatever has been struck out or changed by us, we retain and record, lest anyone complain that something has been wrongfully taken from him. There has been added to the edition also a new collation with a Vatican manuscript codex, by which, and above all by a more attentive reading and study of an old codex lent to us some time ago by the illustrious and learned Master Jean de Saint-André, canon of the church of Paris, we have rendered more than six hundred further places more correct. What is added we mark with two brackets, sometimes with one, and with a certain number; various further readings being noted with asterisks in the margin. Besides this, five fragments, not to be despised, of the most blessed and truly apostolic man Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and martyr, quoted eleven hundred years ago by Victor of Capua and given to Latium, but found and transcribed by us in a very ancient codex, we have placed in a fitting position. The praises of our Irenaeus collected from the holy Fathers, and the impostures and slanders of recent heretics, and the charges fabricated against this most holy author of ours, we have prefixed at the beginning of the work, after the life of the author, which we have faithfully gathered as much from his writings as from other writings and from ecclesiastical history: just as at the end of the whole work we have had very full indexes subjoined for the readers' more convenient use. Lastly, the Conflict of Arnobius the Catholic with Serapion the Egyptian, found by us at Liège in the monastery dedicated to the memory of St James, corrected and annotated by us as best we could, and never before printed, we have judged should be imparted for the common benefit of the studious. Many expressions and phrases, I admit, less than Latin, sentences and periods still gaping, and indeed not a few places in both authors still dislocated, incomplete and obscure, will be found left by us: partly because we were without the help of more and more correct codices, partly because it was a matter of scruple to lay a rash hand on such ancient and holy Fathers. For the rest, driven from our native soil and, what is far more grievous, from our study and our library, we have put these things together helped only by books received on loan while on our travels, now from these, now from those, and we send them forth for the public benefit of the studious; and when candid readers have received them and have enjoyed these labours of ours, such as they are, I ask and beseech them not to refuse to look kindly on our studies, and above all to commend our salvation by their prayers to our common Saviour and Judge, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ut vetus ac sempiternum illud odium, quo in omnes sanctos flagrat Satanas plenius effundat, bellumque adversus eos ab initio susceptum vi majore red⟨i⟩n⟨t⟩egret, novissimis Gnosticis ministris ac satellitibus suis persuadet, in eos praesertim omnibus conviciis maledictisque furere et bacchari, quos maxime noverunt haereticis opinionibus suis adversari. Nec id sane sine astuto, et fraudibus suis valde apposito consilio. Ut enim solent facinorosi pro sceleribus ad tribunalia pertracti, non solum actores, sed et judices ipsos confictis criminibus praegravare, ut horum vel imminuant fidem, vel subterfugiant judicia; sic et isti a veterum Patrum ac doctorum scriptis, testimoniis, aequissimisque decretis adeo timent, ac toti perhorrescunt, ut nihil consultius ac magis e re sua fore putarint, quam illos omni maledictorum genere lacessere, probrisque vexare ac proscindere, ut eos imperitis, a seque prius seductis turbis aspernandos relinquant et respuendos. Horum sannas et convicia multis locis retulimus. Verum, parum prosunt auctoribus hae fraudes atque fallaciae, quando his artibus et causam suam piis omnibus suspectam invisamque duntaxat reddunt; et filii perditionis, bellum cum
That he may pour out more fully that old and everlasting hatred with which he burns against all the saints, and renew with greater force the war undertaken against them from the beginning, Satan persuades the newest Gnostics, his ministers and henchmen, to rage and revel with every insult and slander against those above all whom they know to oppose their heretical opinions most. And this not without a crafty design, very well suited to his frauds. For as criminals dragged before the tribunals for their crimes are wont to burden with fabricated charges not only the accusers but the judges themselves, so as either to lessen their credit or to escape their judgements; so these men too so fear and wholly shudder at the writings, testimonies and most equitable decrees of the ancient Fathers and doctors, that they have thought nothing more advisable and more to their advantage than to assail them with every kind of slander, and harass and lacerate them with reproaches, so as to leave them to be despised and spurned by the unlearned crowds previously led astray by them. Their mockeries and insults we have related in many places. But these frauds and deceits profit their authors little, since by these arts they only make their own cause suspect and hateful to all the pious; and, sons of perdition, about to wage war with