Louis Duchesne’s Early History of the Christian Church is a classic and seminal account covering the years from the founding of Christianity to the end of the fifth century.

This is the first volume of a three piece work regarded as one of the most important records of the beginning of the Christian Church, serving as a standard introduction to the Church’s history for many years. This volume spans the time from the founding of the Church to the end of the third century.

Duchesne covers the Church’s dealings with the Roman Empire and its various emperors, the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, the Paschal Controversy and the spread of the religion to the east and into Africa.

Condemned by the Church in 1912 for being too “Modernist”, Duchesne’s work was reinstalled into Church history by Pope Paul VI in 1966 and remains one of the preeminent sources for early Christian scholars.

Orthodox Catholic historian Warren H. Carroll, the late founder of Christendom College, lauded the work as “excellent and thorough".

Louis Duchesne (1843-1922) was a French church historian of first rank. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1887 and completed his theological studies at Rome. His interest in the history of the early church was intensified by his travels in Greece and Asia Minor. He became a professor of ecclesiastical history at the Institut Catholique in Paris in 1885. In 1895 he was nominated director of the French School at Rome, a position he held until his death. He was elected a member of the French Academy in 1910. He died in 1922, in Rome, and is buried in the cemetery of Saint-Servan.