Le tome X du recueil des “Papiri della Società italiana,” où ont déjà paru tant de morceaux précieux, contient sous le n° 1162 le texte mutilé d'un serment que son éditeur, M. V. Bartoletti, a jugé “plutôt juif que chrétien.” Evidemment ce caractère lui a paru résulter des premières lignes, restituées par lui avec une grande vraisemblance et où il s'agit d'un dieu créateur. Mais les fonnules employées n'ont qu'une analogie très vague avec les premiers versets de la Genèse. Elles s'en rapprochent beaucoup moins que la teneur de certaine cosmogonie hermétique, où l'influence juive se décèle immédiatement. Comme j'avais suggéré à M. Vitelli, sous toutes réserves, la possibilité d'une autre interprétation, ce maître incontesté de la papyrologie m'a courtoisement invité dans les additions au tome X à exposer moi-même cette explication nouvelle. Je cède donc à son exhortation, malgré certains doutes qui, on le verra, subsistent dans mon esprit, car, si je comprends bien ce texte tronqué, il prendra une valeur singulière et méritera qu'on s'attache à l'étudier.

In many fields of activity Robert Grosseteste was an important figure in thirteenth-century England. Bishop of Lincoln for nearly two decades (1235–1253), he pursued a vigorous policy as statesman and churchman. He was already a distinguished teacher and chancellor of the University of Oxford. His voluminous writings were more acceptable to his contemporaries than those of any other author. His scientific achievements were such that Professor Sarton has styled a volume of his monumental History of Science, From Robert Grosseteste to Roger Bacon. In death his memory was revered as that of a saint.

In the present article, which continues the critical studies of the literature on Church History, published in this Review in 1921–1925, I cannot attempt to cover so wide a field as before, both because of my own advancing years and because, with the enormous yearly increase in the material, no single scholar is any longer in a position to treat it with adequate knowledge. I shall, therefore, limit myself to the field of patristic literature, the subject in which I won my spurs almost half a century ago and with which I have never ceased to occupy myself. Now that the literature of the countries formerly at war with Germany is again accessible to me, the survey can, as in old times, be international. In all these countries, especially in France and Belgium, the investigation of early Christian literature has in recent years had a powerful development, and Germany, under present economic conditions, in spite of unrelaxed industry, is in danger of falling into the rear.