apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

238 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
quainted with seven epistles, and that none besides the seven mentioned
by him were quoted for many generations after his time. Lastly,
when early Christian history came to be more carefully studied, these
epistles were found to contain gross anachronisms and other blunders.
The writer for instance condemns the heresies of Basilides and
Theodotus among others {Trail. 11), though the opinions of the
former were not promulgated during the lifetime of Ignatius, and the
latter cannot have flourished till
considerably more than half a century
after his death. He also supposes a heresiarch Ebion {Philad. 6), as
Tertullian and later writers have done, but it is now acknowledged that
no such individual existed and that the name was a designation adopted
by the members of a sect or community generally. These are among
the more prominent historic absurdities in which the epistles of the
Long Recension abound.
Besides these difficulties and misgivings which the critical faculty
suggested, there were others due to a less honourable motive. Theological
and ecclesiastical prejudice entered largely into the views of
the combatants. These epistles contained certain passages which
favoured, or seemed to favour, the Roman supremacy {Rojn. inscr.,
comp. Ign. Mar. 4).
Protestant controversialists were offended at these.
Again the writer appears throughout as a staunch advocate of episcopacy.
To Reformers, like Calvin, who had adopted presbyterianism
on principle,
this was an unpardonable crime. It is a noteworthy
circumstance that Romanist writers for the most part maintained the
authenticity and integrity of the twelve epistles of the Long Recension.
One noble exception
is the Jesuit Petavius who, remarking
on the quotations in early writers, recognized distinctly the fact
that these epistles were interpolated. On the other hand Protestant
writers, as a rule, did not deny a genuine nucleus, though they
ruthlessly excised everything which conflicted with their theological and
ecclesiastical prepossessions. Thus the Magdeburg
Centuriators' did
not go beyond expressing their doubts concerning these epistles, and
even Calvin is defended by later Protestant writers against the imputation
of condemning the letters altogether, though he had declared
in his Institutes that ' nothing was more foul than those nursery stories
(nihil naeniis inis...putidius), which were published under the name of
Ignatius ',
and had denounced ' the insufferable impudence of those who
^
The references to writers quoted in sq, Vind. Ign. Appx.
i
sq, Jacobson
this paragraph will be found in Pearson Patr. Apost. i. p. 27 sq,
Vind. Igit. prooem., Cureton C. I. p. xvii
lections of authorities.
and other col-