But the history of the Church is only commenced in Holy Scripture, and for a full explanation of the Holy Catholic Church, regarded as a historical fact, we need to have this history continued down to our own days. Within the limits of this little book, nothing but a very brief outline of the history of the Church is possible. But without doubt every Christian in this country ought to have such a general knowledge of this history, as will enable him to understand clearly how the Church of England of to-day is united with the Church of Apostolic times. The history of the further extension of the Church of Christ is contained in the writings of various Christian authors whose books have been preserved to us. Some few of these, such as Polycarp and Clemens of Rome, were contemporaries with the Apostles, and were ordained by them. These were followed by Justin Martyr--who in his "Apologies on behalf of the Christians" gives a full account of their manner of life, and worship, and ordinances--and Irenaeus, and Clemens of Alexandria, who lived between A.D. 120 and A.D. 200. Of the next or third century, we have many books by Tertullian, Origen and Cyprian, giving full accounts of the faith and laws of the Christians, their social life and their worship. And in the fourth century, the historian Eusebius wrote his History of the Church from the days of our Lord down to the reign of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor; and many of the great theologians and defenders of the faith flourished, whose names may well be "household words" with Christians of all ages, such as Athanasius, Ambrose, Jerome, Chrysostom, and Augustine. From these or other ancient authors we learn that Christianity rapidly spread to the northern parts of Africa, to which country many of them belonged; to France, and to Britain, where there was a scattered British Church whilst the Romans still held the country. In course of time, the two great capitals of the Roman Empire naturally assumed the chief importance in the history of the Church; and Rome became the chief see of the Western or Latin-speaking Church, and Constantinople of the Eastern or Greek-speaking Church[25]. And from that time forward, down to the Reformation period, the history of the Church is contained in numberless writings of successive authors, in the decrees of Popes, in the records of the great monastic orders, in the works of the Schoolmen, and in the chronicles of the various historians. And last, though not least, we find it imperishably recorded in the cathedrals, and abbeys, and parish churches, which tell of the inventive genius and taste and skill of our pious fathers in the middle ages[26].