moulded in
the interests of dogma until it becomes no longer recognizable, and
in the place of the human Messiah of the earlier accounts, we have a
semi-divine Logos or Aeon, detached from God, and incarnate for a brief
season in the likeness of man.

[16] "Wer einmal vergottert worden ist, der hat seine Mensetheit
unwiederbringlich eingebusst."--Strauss, Der alte und der neue Glaube,
p. 76.

[17] "Roger was the attendant of Thomas [Becket] during his
sojourn at Pontigny. We might have expected him to be very full on that
part of his history; but, writing doubtless mainly for the monks of
Pontigny, he says that HE WILL NOT ENLARGE UPON WHAT EVERY ONE KNOWS,
and cuts that part very short."--Freeman, Historical Essays, 1st series,
p. 90.

Not only was history subordinated to dogma by the writers of the
gospel-narratives, but in the minds of the Fathers of the Church who
assisted in determining what writings should be considered canonical,
dogmatic prepossession went very much further than critical acumen.
Nor is this strange when we reflect that critical discrimination in
questions of literary authenticity is one of the latest acquisitions of
the cultivated human mind. In the early ages of the Church the evidence
of the genuineness of any literary production was never weighed
critically; writings containing doctrines acceptable to the majority of
Christians were quoted as authoritative while writings which supplied
no dogmatic want were overlooked, or perhaps condemned as apocryphal.
A striking instance of this is furnished by the fortunes of the
Apocalypse. Although perhaps the best authenticated work in the New
Testament collection, its millenarian doctrines caused it to become
unpopular as the Church gradually ceased to look for the speedy return
of the Messiah, and, accordingly, as the canon assumed a definite shape,
it was placed among the "Antilegomena," or doubtful books, and continued
to hold a precarious position until after the time of the Protestant
Reformation. On the other hand, the fourth gospel, which was quite
unknown and probably did not exist at the time of the Quartodeciman
controversy (A. D. 168), was accepted with little hesitation, and at the
beginning of the third century is mentioned by Irenaeus, Clement, and
Tertullian, as the work of the Apostle John. To this uncritical spirit,
leading to the neglect of such books as failed to answer the dogmatic
requirements of the Church, may probably