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330 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
and Bentley' and Waterland", not to mention others only second to
these in the field of theological criticism.
To one school of contemporary theologians however the discovery
of Ussher and Voss was a grave disappointment. The French Protestant
divines had attacked the integrity of the Ignatian letters mainly on
account of their testimony to the early spread of episcopacy ;
but they
had for the most part expressed themselves in favour of a genuine
though indeterminate nucleus, overlaid with spurious matter. To these
critics the Vossian letters gave no relief. Though the sacerdotal language
had disappeared, the testimony to the existence and authority
of the episcopate was as strong and as precise here as in the letters of
the Long Recension. It was too much to expect
that under these circumstances
the Vossian letters should receive an impartial hearing.
An interval of twenty years elapsed, before French Protestantism put
forth its
supreme effort in the elaborate work of Daille. But meanwhile
other antagonists of no mean repute stepped forward. In 1645
Saumaise, who had already on the eve of Ussher's discovery mingled
in the fray (see above, p. 239), again declared himself against the
Ignatian letters {Adparatus ad Libras de Primatu Fapac, Lugd. Bat.
the Respondent had quoted
sq,
would be impossible
Bentley's IVorks 11. p. 29 The ' most to say. We may conjecture however that
'
excellent Bishop Pearson had designed a
from the
been for the story it 262 sq (ed. Van Mildert).
new edition of Ignatius's Epistles with an spurious or interpolated epistles, and was
ample commentary. A specimen of which called to account for this by Bentley.
posthumous work has been published by Not many years had then passed since
the learned Dr Smith, and the whole is Whiston's attempt to resuscitate this recension.
earnestly expected from him. For though
Moreover a Respondent in an
it has not passed the last hand of the Act would not be unlikely to get his information
author, yet it is every way worthy of him,
at second hand from such a
and the very dust of his writings is gold. book as Suicer's Thesaurus (ed. i, 1682 ;
In that published specimen there is this ed. 2, 1728); and in Suicer the Long
annotation upon the words of Ignatius Recension is
commonly, ifnot universally,
TON YM^C CO(J)IC(\NT(\ [S/iiyru. i]' etc. cited. We have an example of a similar
In Monk's Life of Bentley il. p. 44 ignorance and misapprehension as regards
(ed. 2, 1833) it is stated on the authority Ussher; ' I could not but smile,' writes
of a contemporary letter, that a nimour Hammond to Ussher, ' when I was of
reached Oxford in the summer of 17 18 to late required by the London ministers to
the effect that ' Cambridge was in a great answer the objections you had made to
ferment on account of Dr Bentley having the Epistles of Ignatius,' Ussher's Works
on occasion of a Divinity Act made a XVI. p. 148. But whatever may be the
speech condemning the Epistles of S. account of the mistake, Bentley's views
Ignatius and afterwards refusing to hear are clearly indicated in the passage just
the Respondent, who attempted to reply.' quoted from the Disse^'tation on the
All this we are told '
is given on hearsay. '
Epistles of Fhalaris.
What foundation in fact there may have
-
Waterland's IVorks in. pp. 239