It's easy to see that Calvin had access to Augustine's commentaries, since he plagiarized some of it in his own commentary. I've read some history they had access to others, but I'm no expert on the matter.Did they?
Extremely doubtful - especially if they weren't fluent in the Greek of that period and didn't travel to the locations where they were kept. We don't have access to all of them translated yet. And back then, paper copies would have been needed.
Right, and forgive me I should not have spoken as if the only language used was Greek.
I'm sure they had access to some writings.
But I read it as whether or not the reformers had access to ALL writings of the pre-Nicene fathers. And what I meant is that (just knowing basic info from today) ... it would have been very unlikely anyon would have traveled to AND been able to read ALL of the Greek Fathers, for example. They did have more access to Latin writings I'm sure. And some other writings as well.
But it's nearly impossible they could have been able to access ALL of it.
Did the reformers have access to all writings of the Pre Nicene Fathers?
The whole point of the Reformation was that the Reformers felt that the Catholic church had run off the rails over the previous few centuries.
This actually caused an increase in interest in the Early Church Fathers (people like Tertullian and Cyprian, as well as later writers like Eusebius, Augustine, Gregory, Chrysostom, Jerome, Fulgentius, Cyril, and Cassiodorus).
Did they?
The original scrolls perished long ago; but it is possible at the time of the canonical councils that they knew of the existence of the Codex Vaticanus.Do Catholics have access to the original books (ancient scrolls) used to canonize the NT?
I've wondered about the influence of a post byzantine empire and subsequent diaspora had on the reformation. Weren't they the keepers of many of these texts? it's curious to see that not far after the fall is the reformation. Other factors that contributed to the success of the reformation is without a doubt the invention of the printing press and then subsequent printed Greek text. These same mechanisms increased all kinds of "kept-in-the-vault" texts that would normally not be available for outsiders so at the very least they probably had the most access to various church father writings than they had ever had before.Did they?
The answer is, some. It depends a lot on who. Augustine's writings are and were very accessible. The well-known ones, obviously. Even now, we don't have some writings of a lot of them.Maybe I should rephrase the question. How much access did the reformers have of the writings of the ante-nicene Fathers?
The answer is, some. It depends a lot on who. Augustine's writings are and were very accessible. The well-known ones, obviously. Even now, we don't have some writings of a lot of them.