We ask thee, Lord, to be our helper and assister, save those of us who are in affliction, have compassion on the humble, raise the fallen, appear to those who are in need, heal the sinners, convert those of thy people who are wandering from the way, feed the hungry, ransom our prisoners, raise up the sick, encourage the feeble-hearted, let all the nations know that thou art God alone and Jesus Christ thy Son, and that we are thy people and the sheep of thy pasture (1Clement 59:4)

Give unity and peace both to us and to all that dwell upon the earth, as thou gavest to our fathers when they called upon thee with faith and truth, so that we should become obedient to thy all-powerful and most excellent name, and to those who rule and govern us upon the earth. (1Clement 60:4)

Papias, a contemporary of Polycarp, was bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia. He has been called "the first writer of distinction of the Apostolic times" and was among the first to collect facts concerning Christ Jesus' life and words from those who had known him or his disciples. The results of his investigations Papias set forth in a work entitled variously "Interpretations of the Lord's Sayings," or, "Expositions of the Lord's Oracles."

Papias' work was lost, but both Eusebius and Irenaeus have preserved fragments of his writing. From these fragments we learn that the daughters of the Apostle Philip lived in Hierapolis and told Papias of two miracles performed in Philip's time, one that of a man raised from the dead.

In his Preface, Papias said: "Nor shall I hesitate to relate to you, in addition to my expositions, whatever I have at any time learned from the Presbyters, having intrusted it carefully to my memory and vouching for its truth. For I did not care, as many do, for those who have much to say, but rather for such as have actual facts to give us; ... those precepts only which the Lord has committed to believers, and which emanate therefore from the truth itself."

The earliest traditions concerning the origin of the Gospels were preserved by Papias. He tells us that "Matthew composed the oracles in the Hebrews [Aramaic] language, and everyone interpreted [translated into Greek] them as he was able." Papias relates a story he found in the gospel, according to the Hebrews, of a woman "accused before the Lord of many sins." The narrative illustrated the Master's "absolute purity in dealing with sin and his tender compassion to the sinner."

Papias bears witness: "Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatsoever he remembered. It was not, however, in exact order... He took especial care, not to omit anything he had heard, and not to put anything fictitious into the statements."

Papias quoted from John's first epistle and may in his boyhood have heard the apostle.

Eusebius terms Papias "most learned in all things, and well acquainted with the Scriptures."

Irenaeus was bishop of the church at Lyons, Gaul (modern-day France). When he was a boy, Irenaeus had heard Polycarp teach. From this, it is generally supposed that Irenaeus was a native of Smyrna. In 190, Irenaeus wrote to Victor, bishop of Rome, pleading tolerance for the Christians of Asia Minor who celebrated Easter on a different day than did Rome. He is classified as both Eastern and Western, since he was from an Eastern background but ministered in the West. His Adversus Omnes Haereses is a detailed attacks on Gnosticism, especially the systems of Valentinus, and on the millenarianism, which was popular in Montanist circles.

Clement was a highly educated Christian convert from paganism and a pioneer of Christian scholarship. He became a Christian teacher at Alexandria, Egypt, and in 190 succeeded Pantaenus as head of the catechetical school there. Origen was one of his pupils. In his largest extant work, Miscellanies, Clement attempted unsuccessfully to wrest the term "gnostic" (one who knows) away from heretics and give it a Christian meaning. In 202 Clement was forced by persecution to flee. His main works, Protrepticus, the Paedagogus, and the Stromateis, brought Christian doctrine face to face with the ideas and achievements of his time. He agreed with the Gnostics in holding 'gnosis' or religious knowledge to be the chief element in Christian perfection, but for him the only true 'gnosis' was that which presupposed the faith of the Church. Christ, the Logos, was both the source of human reason and the interpreter of God to mankind. He became a man in order to give a supreme revelation, and through Him men might partake of immortality.

Tertullian was a brilliant, fiery Christian apologist and polemicist writer in Carthage, North Africa. He was brought up as a pagan and may have practiced law. As a Christian writer he laid the foundations of Christology and trinitarian orthodoxy in the West. He may have been an ordained presbyter. He wrote numerous apologies, works against heretics, and exhortations to other Christians -- nearly all of which are in Latin. Near the beginning of the third century, he came under the influence of the Montanist sect. Around 211, he seems to have left the church to join an ascetic Montanist congregation, although this is not certain. The Montanist sect differed from the church primarily on matters of discipline, not theological doctrines. Some believe that Tertullian's estrangement from the main church was due to the church's laxity.

Believed to have come from Palestine, Hippolytus was a leading presbyter in the church in Rome near the beginning of the third century. He was personally familiar with Origen. He attacked the theology and discipline of two Roman bishops, Zephyrinus and Callistus, and apparently led a schism in the Roman church for a while. His principal work was the Refutation of All Heresies. Among other works, he also wrote commentaries on Daniel, the Song of songs, and other sacred texts. In the persecution of Emperor Maximin, Hippolytus and Pope Pontianus (230-235) were both exiled to Sardinia. The bodies of both were brought back to Rom in 236. He had died a martyr.

Cyprian (Thascius Caecilianus Cyprianus) had been a pagan rhetorician at the time he converted to Christianity in 246. Within two years he was elected Bishop of Carthage, North Africa. When the Decian persecution began in 249, he was forced to flee and work underground. When he returned to Carthage in 251, he was opposed to the easy reconciliation of Christians who had lapsed or secured libelli pacis, certificates purchased from the civil authorities stating that they had sacrificed to pagan idols, when in fact no such sacrifice had been made. Two church councils (251 and 252) decided that they should be reconciled only after suitable penance and delay. Meanwhile the schism of Novatian arising out of the question of the lapsed, gave rise to the controversy over rebaptism Cyprian demanded the rebaptism of the schismatics on the ground that no one outside the Church could administer her Sacraments. The Church at Rome held that both schismatics and heretics could validly administer baptism. Persecution cut short the dispute. Cyprian was eventually captured by the Romans and was martyred by execution in 258.

Having been a well-known pagan teacher of rhetoric at Sicca, North Africa, and an outspoken opponent of Christianity, Arnobius himself converted to Christianity. His work, Adversus Nationes, defended the consonance of the Christian religion with the best pagan philosophy.

In 300 when Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius converted to Christianity, he was deprived of his post as Roman teacher of rhetoric at Nicomedia. In his later years he was summoned to Gaul (modern-day France) by Emperor Constantine to tutor his son Crispus. As a Christian apologist, his Divinae Institutiones seeks to commend Christianity to men of letters and for the first time to set out in Latin a systematic account of the Christian attitude to life. The De Mortibus Persecutorum describes the deaths of the the persecutors of the Church.

• Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament, 1a, Matthew 1-13 (edited by Manlio Simonetti, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001, "Biographical Sketches" pages 299-307)
• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, edited by Elizabeth A. Livingstone (NY: Oxford University Press, 1977, pages 1-566)
• A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More Than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers, edited by David W. Bercot (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998, "Who's Who in the Ante-Nicene Fathers" pages xv-xx)
• Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, Second Edition, edited by Everett Ferguson (NY: Garland Publishing, 1998)

To explore some of the writings of the above-mentioned early Christians, browse:

http://www.bibletexts.com/terms/war.htm