of John, but it is a disputed
matter whether he regarded and used it like the other Gospels.]

[Footnote 81: The Sabellians still used it in the third century, which
is a proof of the great authority possessed by this Gospel in Christian
antiquity. (Epiph., H. 62. 2.)]

[Footnote 82: Euseb. H. E. IV. 29. 5.]

[Footnote 83: In many regions the Gospel canon alone appeared at first,
and in very many others it long occupied a more prominent place than the
other canonical writings. Alexander of Alexandria, for instance, still
calls God the giver of the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospels
(Theodoret, I. 4).]

[Footnote 84: Euseb., H. E. II. 26. 13. As Melito speaks here of the
[Greek: akribeia ton palaion biblion], and of [Greek: ta biblia tes
palaias diathekes], we may assume that he knows [Greek: ta biblia tes
kaines diathekes].]

[Footnote 85: We may here leave undiscussed the hesitancy with regard to
the admissibility of particular books. That the Pastoral Epistles had a
fixed place in the canon almost from the very first is of itself a proof
that the date of its origin cannot be long before 180. In connection
with this, however, it is an important circumstance that Clement makes
the general statement that the heretics reject the Epistles to Timothy
(Strom. II. 12. 52: [Greek: hoi apo ton haireseon tas pros Timotheon
athetousin epistolas]). They did not happen to be at the disposal of the
Church at all till the middle of the second century.]

[Footnote 86: Yet see the passage from Tertullian quoted, p. 15, note 1;
see also the "receptior," de pudic. 20, the cause of the rejection of
Hermas in the Muratorian Fragment and Tertull. de bapt. 17: "Quodsi quae
Pauli perperam scripta sunt exemplum Theclae ad licentiam mulierum
docendi tinguendique defendunt, sciant in Asia presbyterum, qui eam
scripturam construxit, quasi titulo Pauli de suo cumulans, convictum
atque confessum id se amore Pauli fecisse, loco decessisse." The
hypothesis that the Apostles themselves (or the apostle John) compiled
the New Testament was definitely set up by no one in antiquity and
therefore need not be discussed. Augustine (c. Faustum XXII. 79) speaks
frankly of "sancti et docti homines" who produced the New Testament. We
can prove by a series of testimonies that the idea of the Church having
compiled the New Testament writings was in no way offensive to the Old
Catholic Fathers. As a rule, indeed, they are silent on the matter.
Irenaeus and