age were unhappily only
too familiar with spectacles of Christian martyrdom. Our perplexity
increases as we proceed more minutely to investigate the circumstances
under which the epistles are reported to have been composed. Whilst
Ignatius is said to have been hurried with great violence and barbarity
from the East to the West, he is at the same time represented, with
strange inconsistency, as remaining for many days together in the same
place, [393:2] as receiving visitors from the churches all around, and
as writing magniloquent epistles. What is still more remarkable, though
he was pressed by the soldiers to hasten forward, and though a
prosperous gale speedily carried his vessel into Italy, [394:1] one of
these letters is supposed to outstrip the rapidity of his own progress,
and to reach Rome before himself and his impatient escort!

Early in the fourth century at least seven epistles attributed to
Ignatius were in circulation, for Eusebius of Caesarea, who then
flourished, distinctly mentions so many, and states to whom they were
addressed. From Smyrna the martyr is said to have written four
letters--one to the Ephesians, another to the Magnesians, a third to the
Trallians, and a fourth to the Romans. From Troas he is reported to have
written three additional letters--one to Polycarp, a second to the
Smyrnaeans, and a third to the Philadelphians. [394:2] At a subsequent
period eight more epistles made their appearance, including two to the
Apostle John, one to the Virgin Mary, one to Maria Cassobolita, one to
the Tarsians, one to the Philippians, one to the Antiochians, and one to
Hero the deacon. Thus, no less than fifteen epistles claim Ignatius of
Antioch as their author.

It is unnecessary to discuss the merits of the eight letters unknown to
Eusebius. They were probably all fabricated after the time of that
historian; and critics have long since concurred in rejecting them as
spurious. Until recently, those engaged in the Ignatian controversy were
occupied chiefly with the examination of the claims of the documents
mentioned by the bishop of Caesarea. Here, however, the strange
variations in the copies tended greatly to complicate the discussion.
The letters of different manuscripts, when compared together, disclosed
extraordinary discrepancies; for, whilst all the codices contained much
of the same matter, a letter in one edition was, in some cases, about
double the length of the corresponding letter in an