otations or references
which went towards establishing the canonicity of those books which had
never been disputed in the Church. Even when the quotation was direct
and by name, it had no value for him.

(3) To this class belonged (i) the Four Gospels; (ii) the Acts; (iii)
the thirteen Epistles of St Paul.

(4) As regards these, he contents himself with preserving any anecdotes
which he may have found illustrating the circumstances under which they
were written, _e.g._ the notices of St Matthew and St Mark in Papias,
and of the Four Gospels in Irenaeus.

(5) The Catholic Epistles lie on the border-land between the
_Homologumena_ and the _Antilegomena_, between the universally
acknowledged and the disputed books. Of the Epistles of St John for
instance, the First belonged to the one class, the Second and Third to
the other. Of the Epistles of St Peter again, the First was
acknowledged, the Second disputed. The Catholic Epistles in fact occupy
an exceptional position.

Respecting his treatment of this section of the Canon he is not explicit
in his opening statement, and we have to infer it from his subsequent
procedure. As this however is uniform, we seem able to determine with
tolerable certainty the principle on which he acts. He subjects all the
books belonging to this section to the same law. For instance, he
mentions any references to 1 John and 1 Peter (_e.g._ in Papias,
Polycarp, and Irenaeus), though in the Church no doubt was ever
entertained about their genuineness and authority. He may have thought
that this mention would conduce to a just estimate of the meaning of
silence in the case of disputed Epistles, as 2 Peter and 2, 3 John.

(6) The Epistle to the Hebrews and the Apocalypse still remain to be
considered. Their claim to a place in the Canon is, or has been,
disputed: and therefore he records every decisive notice respecting
either of them, _e.g._ the quotations from the Epistle to the Hebrews in
Clement of Rome and Irenaeus, and the notices of the Apocalypse in
Justin and Melito [47:1] and Apollonius [47:2], and Theophilus and
Irenaeus. So too, he records any testimony, direct or indirect, bearing
the other way, _e.g._ that the Roman presbyter Gaius mentions only
thirteen Epistles of St Paul, 'not reckoning the Epistle to the Hebrews
with the rest.' [47:3]

(7) With regard to the books which lie altogether outside the Canon, but
which were treated as Scripture, or quasi-scripture, by any earlier