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St. Ecgbert, a 8th century Anglo-Saxon bishop, attempts to explain to his congregation some of the more commonly asked questions that have been posed during his pastoral tenure over the church in York. Many of these questions relate directly to defining the role of the English clergy, and what authority that they possess. This work suggests that their was at least some concern for corruption in his bishopric, as many of his answers relate to the question of corrupt priests and deacons.

On August 18th, 1289, Pope Nicholas IV signed a Papal Bull named 'Supra montem catholice fidei' (Upon the mountain of Catholic faith). It was addressed to the brothers and sisters of the order founded by the Blessed Francis. This papal document established the legitimacy and canonical structure of the Order of Penance, granting its founding to Francis, then deceased for the better part of a century. This order has survived in the Catholic world as the Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance, a separate entity from the of the Friars Minor.

This short work by the Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini deals with the triumph of the Republic of Venice, then its its economic and political zenith. He extols the republic for its industry and for clearing the seas of pirates. He noted of the rights bestowed on average citizens and the antiquity of the state, which by then spanned back until the early Carolingian era. His praises have clear political overtones for the age he lived in, as republican fervor was gripping many Italian city-states, who sought to create greater distance between themselves and the Imperial administration in Germany.

St. Onuphrius was one of the Egyptian Desert Fathers who is helped lay the foundation of Eastern spirituality and monasticism in the 4th and 5th centuries, around the time that Christianity was emerging as the dominant faith of the Roman Empire. The name Onuphrius is thought to be a Hellenized form of a Coptic name Unnufer, from the Demotic Egyptian, meaning "perfect one", an epithet of the pagan god Osiris. There are two surviving accounts given of his life. This work, by St. Salonius, and another by Paphnutius the Ascetic. The provenance of this Greco-Latin work is unclear, although it appears to be a work of the 5th century, and may have reasonable historicity despite its geographic distance.

In 1454, Casimir, the king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania was approached by the Prussian Confederation for aid against the knights of the Teutonic Order. He granted them the proposition of separatist Prussian region under the protectorate of the Polish Kingdom. This resulted in the Thirteen Years War which lasted until 1466, but firmly brought Prussia under Polish suzerainty for the next two centuries and helped separate the Prussian nobility to their ancient fealty to the monastic state of the knights.

Prior to becoming Pope Pius II, Aeneas Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini, was a Italo-German politician working the Imperial circuit. He career brought him into the service of both papal legates and the ducal Hapsburg family, which then ruled Austria and Strasbourg. This composition, to Sigismund Hapsburg, was composed in 1443, when Aeneas was employed as a secretary for the Imperial chancellery. He appears to be extolling the values of education on the young duke, persuading him the teenage duke to pursue the arts and literature as a way of enriching his mind and political clout as a ruler. In coming years this relationship would boil over with Aeneas' elevation to the Papal office and the dispute with Sigismund over episcopal appointments.

Gangolf of Burgundy was an 8th century martyr by the Catholic Church. Gangolf was a Burgundian courtier whose historical existence can only be attested by a single document: a deed from the court of king Pepin the Short dated 762. It attests that he was a significant gentryman, whose family dominated the politics of the region. Upon entering adulthood, Gangolf decided to renounce his worldly wealth and become a religious hermit. In time he would be murdered by his wife's lover, who sought to remove him as a threat to their adulterous relationship.

Cunigunde of Luxemburg, Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Germany, and Nun, was canonized by Pope Innocent III in Rome on March 29th, 1200, 53 years after the canonization of her husband, the Emperor Henry II. To prepare a case for canonization her biography was compiled by Papal authorities looking to clarify the sentinel events of her life. This is the Papal bull for her canonization, which states several instances of supernatural occurrences and miracles which are said to be directly related to the intervention of the Empress.

This work, a letter from St. Aelfric to Wilfinus, bishop of Sherborne, is perhaps amongst the earliest works of Anglo-Saxon literature. He is writings to his episcopal peer relating some questions of church government which have been long standing in the English church. The canons themselves, thirty-five in total, relate the moral behavior of the clergymen, and what behavior should be officially sanctioned by the English Church, and what requires discipline on the part of the local bishop. This work included both the English translation and the original medieval Latin text.

This is a short collection of the ecclesiastical works of the emperor Charles II the Bald during his Carolingian reform of the Frankish church. This includes documents relating to the coronation of the Emperor Judith, a charter for royal national synod, and chapters of French church law.

Upon the ascension of Edgar to the Anglo-Saxon throne, he immediately sought to reform the English church with the assistance of St. Dunstan, the former bishop of London. He held this council to alter several policies regarding the governance of the English church, and to push the growing centralization of ecclesiastical power into the See of Canterbury. Edgar's reforms would have a long lasting impact on the Church of England, and to some degree, remain active to the current day.

During his tenure of the English church, king Egdar sought sweeping reforms to the bishoprics and royal monasteries under his dominion. What follows here in this work is a collection of documents from his reign interceding directly with the governance of the English church and the establishment of monastic communities, as well as correspondence between the king as his senior advisor, St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury.

St. Dunstan is perhaps one of the most famous English saints of the late Anglo-Saxon period. He left behind two primary Latin works: 'A Regular Concord of the Monks of the English Nation' and 'An Epistle to Wulfsinus', both composed towards the end of his life in the 10th century. This work includes both the original Latin work, as well as the modern English translation as well.

After his defeat in 878, under the terms of his surrender to King Alfred the Great, Guthrum agreed to be baptized as a Christian and to convert his nation. He and Alfred draft these laws relating to the regulation of governance of the church in his dominion, all of which would later become incorporated into the later united Church of England during the medieval period. Guthrum would continue to rule over East Anglia under his baptismal name of Æthelstan until his death in 890.

With the ascension of the Capetian dynasty in 987, certain church reforms took place to address some of the concerns relating to the various ecclesiastical institutions in the kingdom. At the forefront of this was the senior French churchmen, Abbo of Fleury, was able to lead changes to the various royal monasteries and bishoprics. This, at times, caused issues of royal prerogative over the French church, which resulted in this document, where Abbo offers explanation for some of his reforms to the royal court.

Alfred the Great, during his tenure over the kingdom of Wessex, sough to reform and strengthen the English church through parochial and scholarly reform. Unlike most kings of the dark ages, Alfred the Great, lead this scholarly reform himself, writing and translating great works of the church himself. This work is the short collection of reforms that were put forward to offer some self of revival to the English church following its decimation by the Viking invasions.

This is a small library of the ecclesiastical documents issued by the German king, Louis II, during his tenure over the eastern Frankish realm. This includes his work on Ecclesiastical Constitution, Chapters of law for the German church, and Chapters for the church in France and Aquitaine. These works represent a snapshot of the state of the Western church during the height of the Carolingian period.

This second volume of the Book of Ethiopian Maccabees is shorter than the first. Moreover, it appears to be composed at a different time and by a different person, likely during the high medieval period around the 1450's. It again attempts to recount the events of the Maccabee revolt, but with various confabulations in the series of events. In this version a man name Maccabeus makes war against Israel, as a punishment for their transgressions.

In nomine Domini is a papal bull written by Pope Nicholas II. The bull was issued on 13 April 1059 and caused major reforms in the system of papal election, most notably establishing the cardinal-bishops as the sole electors of the pope, with the consent of minor clergy. It also start to help define the relationship that existed between the bishops of Rome and the Holy Roman Emperor.

Seven rules is an unusually theological work coming out of the Donatist church in North Africa. This is not a list of monastic rules, which would have been common for the period. Nor is it a list of moral precepts that should be obeyed by the faith. Instead this is a mystical treatise dealing with the nature of Christ's body, the presence of the devil in the world, and the utility of the scriptures. Among Ticonius' seven primary theses, he voices his believe in a textually literal reading of the Book of Revelation of St. John, and a cyclical understanding of the happenings therein.

Æthelwold of Winchester is among the most famous Anglo-Saxon saints. During his lifetime he was the Bishop of Winchester and stood as one of the leaders of the tenth-century monastic reform movement with the English church, along with his peers, St. Dunstan and St. Oswald of Worcester. He remains as one of the major figure of the Anglo-Catholic Church and Church of England. St. Aethelwold also stands as one of the primary catalyst for the revival of the English intellectual tradition, which had been in a state of perennial disrepair during the chaos of the Viking era, but was fully restored under royal patronage through the assistance of St. Aethelwold.

During the Latin presence in the Holy Land in 12th and 13th century, contact was made between papal legates and the Armenian Apostolic Church in Cilicia (Armenia Minor). Among the various doctrinal exchanges that took place, and the brief lived union between Roman Catholics and Armenians, was this document, where common theological ground is specified by the reigning Roman Pope in Avignon. This theological common ground would be revisited during the Council of Florence in the 15th century, and again in the modern Armenian Catholic Church.

The Visigothic king, Sisebut, composed this short composition on the life of the Roman martyr, St. Desiderius, who was killed during the Diocletian persecution. What little historical information about the historic memory of this Italian martyr is relatively limited, but what is represented is the pious recollection of the Roman persecution of the church at its zenith. Curiously this text stands apart, as it is not composed by a clergyman or bishop, but by the Arian king of the Visigoths. He elected to composed this work in Latin, the language of the western church, and free from the hands of a church scribe, as its Latin grammar is very rough, and often confused. Here, presented for the first time in English, is a translation of this work of the ancient Visigothic church in Spain.

This 5th century work, likely composed by the Armenian saint, Mesrop Mashtots, illustrates the family dynamic and political conflict that surrounds both St. Gregory the Illuminator, and Nerses I the Great, both Catholicos of Armenia. The historicity of this text is obscured, as it appears to be a function of the 5th century, with larger later additions coming from the medieval period. It does offer some insight into the early Armenian church and the weave of familial ties that supported it in its earliest centuries.

During the late Crusader period the Roman Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church attempted to establish an ecclesiastical union, under the auspices of similar doctrines and as a means of political alliance with the Latin held crusader states.This attempt at union was short-lived and merited little in terms of ecumenical dialogue. In 1341, Pope Benedict XII issues this document, serving as a polemic against members of the Armenian Church which did not see eye-to-eye with Rome in terms of doctrine and ecclesiology.

Hilarion the Iberian, known by his native Georgian name, Ilarion Kartveli (ილარიონ ქართველი) was an Iberio-Byzantine monk from the Kakheti region of modern Georgia. During his lifetime, he was considered as the thaumaturgus, and subsequently is venerated as a saint within the Eastern Orthodox Church. This work, his vita was composed after his death on Mount Athos by his follower, St. Euthymius of Athos. The extant texts from his biography appear to be from 10th and 11th centuries and survive in both Greek and Latin. During his lifetime St. Hilarion sojourned Christendom, venturing away from his home in Iberia and going to the Imperial capital of Constantinople, the city of Rome, and the Holy Land.

The famous 14th century Byzantine monk, Nicephorus the Solitary, grants some insight into the nature of Hesychast mediation and the contemplative life of the Eastern Christian. His draws from several other sources in this short work to grant some insight into how the contemplative life might be attained through studied self-emptying oneself to the divine providence.

The Council of Shahapivan is the first surviving council of the Armenian Church, and has survived in various ecclesiastical sources. Convened in the year 444, after three consecutive councils in the city of Ashtishat, the Armenian clergy under Catholicos Hovsep I met in the township of Shahapivan (province of Ayrarat). Among those present was the governor, Vasak Siuni, and General Commander of the Army, Vartan Mamikonian. The purpose of the council was audit the functions of the clergy, and prohibit activities endangering the authority and integrity of the newly-established church.

This sixth ecumenical gathering of the Persian church at the Sassanian capital of Seleucia-Ctesiphon was related directly to the question of the authority of the Catholicos over other bishops in the Persian church, the acceptance of the Councils of Nicaea I, and Constantinople I, and the security of the bishops from illegitimate entanglements in the Persian state and pagan practices. While long forgotten by western scholars, it represents the first effort of the Church of the East to address Christological concerns raised during Roman councils in the empire.