uired in the later period;
and nothing else could be found than the work of the so-called Luke.
"Qui Acta Apostolorum non recipiunt, nec spiritus sancti esse possunt,
qui necdum spiritum sanctum possunt agnoscere discentibus missum, sed
nec ecclesiam se dicant defendere qui quando et quibus incunabulis
institutum est hoc corpus probare non habent." But the greater part of
the heretics remained obstinate. Neither Marcionites, Severians, nor the
later Manicheans recognised the Acts of the Apostles. To some extent
they replied by setting up other histories of Apostles in opposition to
it, as was done later by a fraction of the Ebionites and even by the
Marcionites. But the Church also was firm. It is perhaps the most
striking phenomenon in the history of the formation of the canon that
this late book, from the very moment of its appearance, asserts its
right to a place in the collection, just as certainly as the four
Gospels, though its position varied. In Clement of Alexandria indeed the
book is still pretty much in the background, perhaps on a level with the
[Greek: kerugma Petrou], but Clement has no New Testament at all in the
strict sense of the word; see below. But at the very beginning the book
stood where it is to-day, i.e., immediately after the Gospels (see
Muratorian Fragment, Irenaeus, etc.). The parallel creation, the group of
Catholic Epistles, acquired a much more dubious position than the Acts
of the Apostles, and its place was never really settled. Its germ is
probably to be found in two Epistles of John (viz., 1st and 3rd) which
acquired dignity along with the Gospel, as well as in the Epistle of
Jude. These may have given the impulse to create a group of narratives
about the twelve Apostles from anonymous writings of old Apostles,
prophets, and teachers. But the Epistle of Peter is still wanting in the
Muratorian Fragment, nor do we yet find the group there associated with
the Acts of the Apostles. The Epistle of Jude, two Epistles of John, the
Wisdom of Solomon, the Apocalypse of John and that of Peter form the
unsymmetrical conclusion of this oldest catalogue of the canon. But, all
the same writings, by Jude, John, and Peter are here found side by side;
thus we have a preparation for the future arrangement made in different
though similar fashion by Irenaeus and again altered by Tertullian. The
genuine Pauline Epistles appear enclosed on the one hand by the Acts of
the Apostles and the Catholic Epistles,