er to remove the
(hypothetical) objections of others, and to silence their (imaginary)
doubts. Nay, he freely _quotes the verses as genuine_, and declares that
they were read in his day on a certain Sunday night in the public Service
of the Church.... To represent such an one,--(it matters nothing, I repeat,
whether we call him "Hesychius of Jerusalem" or "Severus of Antioch,")--as
a hostile witness, is simply to misrepresent the facts of the case. He is,
on the contrary, the strenuous champion of the verses which he is commonly
represented as impugning.

III. As for JEROME, since that illustrious Father comes before us in this
place as a _translator_ of Eusebius only, he is no more responsible for
what Eusebius says concerning S. Mark xvi. 9-20, than Hobbes of Malmesbury
is responsible for anything that Thucydides has related concerning the
Peloponnesian war. Individually, however, it is certain that Jerome was
convinced of the genuineness of S. Mark xvi. 9-20: for in two different
places of his writings he not only quotes the 9th and 14th verses, but he
exhibits all the twelve in the Vulgate.

IV. Lastly, VICTOR OF ANTIOCH, who wrote in an age when Eusebius was held
to be an infallible oracle on points of Biblical Criticism,--having
dutifully rehearsed, (like the rest,) the feeble expedient of that
illustrious Father for harmonizing S. Mark xvi. 9 with the narrative of S.
Matthew,--is observed to cite the statements of Eusebius concerning _the
last Twelve Verses_ of S. Mark, only in order to refute them. Not that he
opposes opinion to opinion,--(for the opinions of Eusebius and of Victor of
Antioch on this behalf were probably identical;) but statement he meets
with counter-statement,--fact he confronts with fact. Scarcely can anything
be imagined more emphatic than his testimony, or more conclusive.

For the reader is requested to observe that here is an Ecclesiastic,
writing in the first half of the vth century, who _expressly witnesses to
the genuineness_ of the Verses in dispute. He had made reference, he says,
and ascertained their existence in very many MSS. ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETT