and on the other by the Pastoral
ones, which in their way are also "Catholic." That is the character of
the "Catholic" New Testament which is confirmed by the earliest use of
it (in Irenaeus and Tertullian). In speaking above of the Acts of the
Apostles as a late book, we meant that it was so relatively to the
canon. In itself the book is old and for the most part reliable.]

[Footnote 95: There is no doubt that this was the reason why to all
appearance the innovation was scarcely felt. Similar causes were at work
here as in the case of the apostolic rule of faith. In the one case the
writings that had long been read in the Church formed the basis, in the
other the baptismal confession. But a great distinction is found in the
fact that the baptismal confession, as already settled, afforded an
elastic standard which was treated as a fixed one and was therefore
extremely practical; whilst, conversely, the undefined group of writings
hitherto read in the Church was reduced to a collection which could
neither be increased nor diminished.]

[Footnote 96: At the beginning, that is about 180, it was only in
practice, and not in theory, that the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles
possessed equal authority. Moreover, the name New Testament is not yet
found in Irenaeus, nor do we yet find him giving an exact idea of its
content. See Werner in the Text. u. Unters. z. altchristl. Lit. Gesch.
Bd. VI. 2.]

[Footnote 97: See above, p. 40, note 2.]

[Footnote 98: We have ample evidence in the great work of Irenaeus as to
the difficulties he found in many passages of the Pauline Epistles,
which as yet were almost solely utilised as sources of doctrine by such
men as Marcion, Tatian, and theologians of the school of Valentinus. The
difficulties of course still continued to be felt in the period which
followed. (See, e.g., Method, Conviv. Orat. III. 1, 2.)]

[Footnote 99: Apollinaris of Hierapolis already regards any
contradiction between the (4) Gospels as impossible. (See Routh, Reliq.
Sacr. I. p. 150.)]

[Footnote 100: See Overbeck, "Ueber die Auffassung des Streites des
Paulus mit Petrus in Antiochien bei den Kirchenvaetern," 1877, p. 8.]

[Footnote 101: See also Clement Strom. IV. 21. 124; VI. 15. 125. The
expression is also frequent in Origen, e.g., de princip. praef. 4.]

[Footnote 102: The Roman Church in her letter to that of Corinth
designates her own words as the words of God (1 Clem. LIX. 1) and
therefore requires obed