INFORMATION ABOUT FEATURES OF AND SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS FOR THE "SUBSCRIPTION" SITE
Click here for subscription details for individuals. Click here for subscription details for institutions.
Click here to go to the online sign up page for individuals.
A video guide to the subscription version of the website can be found through this link.
Advantages of the subscription version of the site are:-
1. The original language Greek and Latin texts have English translations carefully placed alongside them.
2. The "printable" versions of all the texts are available.
3. A far more extensive menu system (which in effect makes the site like an encyclopedia of the first five centuries of Church history):-
gives access not just to the texts on the Early Church Texts website but also has extensive links to relevant background information and texts on other websites. Around 700 different people and themes are covered - not just Church linked. Most major Latin and Greek writers of the period are covered along with all the emperors.
gives the materials on the website and the links to external websites helpfully indexed alphabetically, and by century and theme (e.g. Christology, Trinity, Ethics and Lifestyle etc.)
has extensive links to background information on a very large number of the councils (over 230) held from the 3rd to the 5th century. These are indexed both alphabetically according to location (on the vertical left hand menu under C/Councils) and also by date under the centuries entries on the top horizontal menu. This makes it straightforward to identify the Council you are looking for.
has additional "tooltips" for menu entries which give very brief helpful information about the entry (e.g. about the person, text, creed, council etc.).
4. A brief introduction to each text, making it much easier to understand its context and significance.
5. Textual notes. Where, in the sources used, notes are given for the original Greek or Latin text or for the translation these are usually given in the texts. Often they give information about textual variants or shed light on significant issues.
6. A search facility linked to an index of the entire site. Particularly useful may be the fact that Greek texts are carefully indexed and searches can be carried out either through entering unicode Greek text (complete with accents and breathings), or perhaps more easily for many, through entering English transliterations of Greek words according to quite a straightforward scheme which does not include breathings or accents.
7. Context sensitive menus so that the most relevant menu entries appear individually above each text (e.g. on Tertullian pages there will be easy access to other Tertullian texts, background information and bibliographical information on Tertullian).
8. The website is regularly updated and a new text with associated notes etc. is normally uploaded every fortnight or so. The publicly available site also has the new texts, but not with the extras outlined above.
You can check out the subscription version of the site for just $5 if you take out a 3 day trial subscription. This will give you access to the features of the site listed above (though with access to just one of the three sections of printable texts - you choose which.) The $5 can be deducted from the $30 dollar cost of an annual subscription if this is then taken out within the specified time period. Click here to go to the online sign up page. (At the end of the subscription period subscriptions are not automatically renewed. An email will be sent asking if you wish to continue. Payments are dealt with through a secure site and no credit or debit card details are passed on to or stored at Early Church Texts.)
The subscriptions which can be taken out directly online are intended for individuals, not for colleges or institutions. Please contact the webmaster through this contact form if you wish to enquire about an institutional subscription. A week's free trial access to most of the site (except printable texts) can be requested if your institution wishes to check out the subscription site. Please make contact giving an institution based email address and stating the institution you are representing. The levels of subscription are $100 a year if under 50 people are likely to be accessing the website, $150 a year if the number is likely to be between 50 and 100, $200 a year if the number is likely to be over 100, and $300 a year if the number is likely to be over 200 or if the institution is a place of significant public access. Payments can be made electronically (by electronic bank transfer or through a paypal linked facility), or by cheque. The webmaster can supply details. UK based institutions can pay in sterling - £60, £90, £120 or £180 a year respectively, for the subscriptions just described. A sample agreement for a subscription from a college/university can be found here. A sample agreement for a subscription from a library can be found here. The normal library subscription will be $300 or £180 unless it can be shown that the number of people potentially having access is less than 200. Subscriptions for institutions will normally be linked to static ip addresses. Your institution IT Adviser will most likely be able to clarify whether your institution has such ip addresses (most probably do.) Subscriptions based on username and password will be considered if an ip address based subscription is not feasible in a particular institution.