rs, adds Malalas, stand in the bath to the present
day. As if this were not enough, he goes on to relate how Trajan made a
furnace and ordered any Christians, who desired, to throw themselves
into it--an injunction which was obeyed by many. Nor when he leaves the
domain of hagiology for that of chronology, is this author any more
trustworthy. For instance, he states that Manes first propounded his
doctrine in the reign of Nerva, and that Marcion still further
disseminated the Manichean heresy under Hadrian [81:1]. An anachronism
of a century or more is nothing to him.

We have seen by this time what authority suffices, in our author's
judgment, to 'demonstrate' a fact; and no more is necessary for my
purpose. But it may be worth while adding that the error of Malalas is
capable of easy explanation. He has probably misinterpreted some earlier
authority, whose language lent itself to misinterpretation. The words
[Greek: marturein, marturia], which were afterwards used especially of
martyrdom, had in the earlier ages a wider sense, including other modes
of witnessing to the faith: the expression [Greek: epi Traianou] again
is ambiguous and might denote either 'during the reign of Trajan,' or
'in the presence of Trajan.' A blundering writer like Malalas might have
stumbled over either expression [81:2].

The objections of our author have thus been met and answered; and
difficulties which admit of this easy explanation cannot, I venture to
think, be held to have any real weight against even a small amount of
external testimony in favour of the Epistles. The external testimony
however is considerable in this case [81:3]. The Epistle of Polycarp,
which purports to have been written so soon after this journey of
Ignatius through Asia Minor that the circumstances of the martyr's death
were not fully known there, speaks of his letters in language which is
entirely applicable to the existing documents. Our author indeed
declares this Epistle also to be spurious. But Irenaeus, the pupil of
Polycarp, bears testimony to the existence of such an Epistle; and I
pledge myself to answer in a subsequent paper the objections urged
against its genuineness by our author and others [82:1]. Besides this,
Irenaeus, writing about A.D. 180-190, quotes a characteristic and
distinctive passage from the Epistle to the Romans, not indeed
mentioning Ignatius by name, but introducing the quotation as the words
of a member of the Christian brotherhood.