The Ignatian Epistles Entirely Spurious | Page 2

Trajan--The
Epistle of Polycarp has no reference to Ignatius of Antioch--It refers to
another Ignatius of another age and country--It was written at a time of
persecution--The postscript to the letter of Polycarp quite
misunderstood--What is meant by letters being carried to Syria--Psyria
and Syria, two islands in the Aegaean Sea--The errors of transcribers of
the postscript--The true meaning of the postscript--What has led to the
mistake as to the claims of the Ignatian Epistles--The continued
popularity of these Epistles among High Churchmen.

CHAPTER III.
THE DATE OF THE MARTYRDOM OF POLYCARP.
Dr. Lightfoot's strange reasoning on this subject--The testimony of
Eusebius, Jerome, and others--Eusebius and Jerome highly competent
witnesses--Dr. Döllinger's estimate of Jerome--The basis on which Dr.
Lightfoot rests the whole weight of his chronological
argument--Aristides and his _Sacred Discourses_--Statius Quadratus,
the consuls and proconsuls--Ummidius Quadratus--Polycarp martyred

in the reign of Marcus Aurelius--His visit to Rome in the time of
Anicetus--Put to death when there was only one emperor-- Age of
Polycarp at the time of his martyrdom--The importance of the
chronological argument.

CHAPTER IV.
THE TESTIMONY OF IRENAEUS AND THE GENESIS OF
PRELACY.
The testimony of Irenaeus quite misunderstood--Refers to the dying
words of one of the martyrs of Lyons--The internal evidence against the
genuineness of the Ignatian Epistles--The contrast between the Epistle
of Polycarp and the Ignatian Epistles as exhibited by Dr. Lightfoot
himself--Additional points of contrast--Dr. Lightfoot quite mistaken as
to the origin of Prelacy--It did not originate in the East, or Asia Minor,
but in Rome--The argument from the cases of Timothy and Titus
untenable-- Jerome's account of the origin of Prelacy--James not the
first bishop of Jerusalem--In the early part of the second century the
Churches of Rome, Corinth, and Smyrna were Presbyterian--Irenaeus
conceals the origin of Prelacy--Coins the doctrine of the apostolical
succession--The succession cannot be determined even in
Rome--Testimony of Stillingfleet--In what sense Polycarp may have
been constituted a bishop by the apostles.

CHAPTER V.
THE FORGERY OF THE IGNATIAN EPISTLES.
We have no positive historical information as to the origin of the
Ignatian Epistles--First saw the light in the early part of the third
century--Such forgeries then common--What was then thought by
many as to pious frauds--Callistus of Rome probably concerned in the
fabrication of the Ignatian Epistle--His remarkable history--The Epistle

to the Romans first forged--It embodies the credentials of the
rest--Montanism stimulated the desire for martyrdom--The prevalence
of this mania early in the third century--The Ignatian Epistles present it
in its most outrageous form--The Epistle to the Romans must have been
very popular at Rome--Doubtful whether Ignatius was martyred at
Rome--The Ignatian Epistles intended to advance the claims of
Prelacy--Well fitted to do so at the time of their appearance--The
account of Callistus given by Hippolytus--The Ignatian letters point to
Callistus as their author--Cannot have been written in the beginning of
the second century--Their doctrine that of the Papacy.
APPENDIX I.--Letter of Dr. Cureton. II.--The Ignatian Epistle to the
Romans.
[ENDNOTES]

THE IGNATIAN EPISTLES ENTIRELY SPURIOUS.

CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
The question of the genuineness of the Epistles attributed to Ignatius of
Antioch has continued to awaken interest ever since the period of the
Reformation. That great religious revolution gave an immense impetus
to the critical spirit; and when brought under the light of its
examination, not a few documents, the claims of which had long passed
unchallenged, were summarily pronounced spurious. Eusebius, writing
in the fourth century, names only seven letters as attributed to Ignatius;
but long before the days of Luther, more than double that number were
in circulation. Many of these were speedily condemned by the critics of
the sixteenth century. Even the seven recognised by Eusebius were
regarded with grave suspicion; and Calvin--who then stood at the head
of Protestant theologians--did not hesitate to denounce the whole of
them as forgeries. The work, long employed as a text-book in
Cambridge and Oxford, was the Institutes of the Reformer of Geneva;

[Endnote 2:1] and as his views on this subject are there proclaimed
very emphatically, [2:2] we may presume that the entire body of the
Ignatian literature was at that time viewed with distrust by the leaders
of thought in the English universities. But when the doctrine of the
Divine Right of Episcopacy began to be promulgated, the seven letters
rose in the estimation of the advocates of the hierarchy; and an extreme
desire was manifested to establish their pretensions. So great was the
importance attached to their evidence, that in 1644--in the very midst of
the din and confusion of the civil war between Charles I. and his
Parliament--the pious and erudite Archbishop Ussher presented the
literary world with a new edition of these memorials. Two years later
the renowned Isaac Vossius produced a kindred publication. Some time
afterwards, Daillé, a learned French Protestant