apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

xil PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
would othenvise be withdrawn from under them, and their reconstructions
of early Christian history would fall in ruins on
their heads. On the other hand those, who adopt the traditional
views of the origin of Christianity and of the history of
the Church as substantially correct, may look with comparative
calmness on the result. The loss of the Ignatian Epistles would
be the loss of one buttress to their fabric ;
but the withdrawal
would not materially affect the stability
of the fabric itself
It has been stated already that a long period has elapsed
since this edition was first conceived. But its execution likewise
has been protracted through several years.
Nor were the pages
passed through the press in the same order in which they appear
in the volumes as completed. It is
necessary to state these facts,
because in some places the absence of reference to works which
have now been long before the public might create surprise.
these cases my work has at least the advantage
In
of entire independence,
which will enhance the value of the results where they
are the same. The commentary on the genuine Epistles of Ignatius
and the introduction and texts of the Ignatian Acts of Martyrdom,
which form the greater part of the first section of the
second volume, were passed through the press before the close
of 1878. Some portions of the Appendix IgJiatiana had been
already in type several years before this, though they remained
unpaged. In the early part of the year 1879
I removed to
Durham, and thenceforward my official duties left me scanty
leisure for literary work. For weeks, and sometimes for months
together, I have not found time to write a single
line. Indeed
the book which is now at length completed would probably
have appeared some three or four years before,
if I had remained
in Cambridge. For the most part the first volume has
been written and passed through the press after the second;
but in the later parts they have often proceeded pari passu, and
elsewhere an occasional sheet in either volume was delayed for
special reasons.
The long delay in the publication has had this further result,