epresent his own private views, for we are
especially told that he wrote 'in the name of the brethren in Gaul over
whom he presided.' Nor did he appeal to the Roman bishop alone, but he
exchanged letters also with 'very many divers rulers of the Churches
concerning the question which had been stirred' [254:1].

Bearing these facts in mind, and inferring from them, as we have a right
to infer, that the Churches of Gaul for the most part inherited the
traditions of the Asiatic school of St John, we look with special
interest to the documents emanating from these communities.

The Epistle of the brotherhoods in Vienne and Lyons, already mentioned,
is the earliest of these. The main business of the letter is a narrative
of contemporary facts, and any allusions therefore to the Canonical
writings are incidental.

But, though incidental, they are unequivocal. Of the references to St
Paul, for instance, there can be no doubt. Thus the martyrs and
confessors are mentioned as 'showing in very truth that _the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in us_,' where a sentence containing fourteen words in
the Greek is given _verbatim_ as it stands in Rom. viii. 18. Thus again,
they are described as 'imitators of Christ, _who being in the form of
God thought it not robbery to be equal with God_,' where in like manner
a sentence of twelve words stands _verbatim_ as we find it Phil. ii. 6.
No one, I venture to think, will question the source of these passages,
though they are given anonymously and without any signs of quotation.
Nor can there be any reasonable doubt that when Attalus the martyr is
called 'the pillar and ground' ([Greek: stulon kai hedraioma]) of the
Christians at Lyons, the expression is taken from 1 Tim. iii. 15; or
that when Alcibiades, who had hitherto lived on bread and water,
received a revelation rebuking him for 'not using _the creatures of
God_, in obedience to which he 'partook of all things freely and _gave
thanks_ to God,' there is a reference to 1 Tim. iv. 3, 4. These passages
show the attitude of the author or authors of this letter towards St
Paul; but I have cited them also as exhibiting the manner of quotation
which prevails in this letter, and thus indicating what we are to expect
in other cases.

From the third and fourth Gospels then we find quotations analogous to
these.

Of Vettius Epagathus, one of the sufferers, we are told, that t