is sifting process was by
no means complete. The inventive minds of scholars designated a group of
writings in the Alexandrian canon as "Antilegomena." The historian of
dogma can take no great interest in the succeeding development, which
first led to the canon being everywhere finally fixed, so far as we can
say that this was ever the case. For the still unsettled dispute as to
the extent of the canon did not essentially affect its use and
authority, and in the following period the continuous efforts to
establish a harmonious and strictly fixed canon were solely determined
by a regard to tradition. The results are no doubt of great importance
to Church history, because they show us the varying influence exerted on
Christendom at different periods by the great Churches of the East and
West and by their learned men.

_Addendum._--The results arising from the formation of a part of early
Christian writings into a canon, which was a great and meritorious act
of the Church[120], notwithstanding the fact that it was forced on her
by a combination of circumstances, may be summed up in a series of
antitheses. (1) The New Testament, or group of "apostolic" writings
formed by selection, preserved from destruction one part, and
undoubtedly the most valuable one, of primitive Church literature; but
it caused all the rest of these writings, as being intrusive, or
spurious, or superfluous, to be more and more neglected, so that they
ultimately perished.[121] (2) The New Testament, though not all at once,
put an end to the composition of works which claimed an authority
binding on Christendom (inspiration); but it first made possible the
production of secular Church literature and neutralised the extreme
dangers attendant on writings of this kind. By making room for all kinds
of writings that did not oppose it, it enabled the Church to utilise all
the elements of Greek culture. At the same time, however, it required an
ecclesiastical stamp to be placed on all the new Christian productions
due to this cause.[122] (3) The New Testament obscured the historical
meaning and the historical origin of the writing contained in it,
especially the Pauline Epistles, though at the same time it created the
conditions for a thorough study of all those documents. Although
primarily the new science of theological exegesis in the Church did more
than anything else to neutralise the historical value of the New
Testament writings, yet, on the other hand