rmation of the New
Testament canon in the Church, for in this case we are only dealing with
probabilities, and the interests which led to and remained associated
with it can only be briefly indicated here.[88]

The compilation and formation of a canon of Christian writings by a
process of selection[89] was, so to speak, a kind of involuntary
undertaking of the Church in her conflict with Marcion and the Gnostics,
as is most plainly proved by the warnings of the Fathers not to dispute
with the heretics about the Holy Scriptures,[90] although the New
Testament was already in existence. That conflict necessitated the
formation of a new Bible. The exclusion of particular persons on the
strength of some apostolic standards, and by reference to the Old
Testament, could not be justified by the Church in her own eyes and
those of her opponents, so long as she herself recognised that there
were apostolic writings, and so long as these heretics appealed to such.
She was compelled to claim exclusive possession of _everything_ that had
a right to the name "apostolic," to deny it to the heretics, and to shew
that she held it in the highest honour. Hitherto she had "contented"
herself with proving her legal title from the Old Testament, and,
passing over her actual origin, had dated herself back to the beginning
of all things. Marcion and the Gnostics were the first who energetically
pointed out that Christianity began with Christ, and that all
Christianity was really to be _tested_ by the apostolic preaching, that
the assumed identity of Christian common sense with apostolic
Christianity did not exist, and (so Marcion said) that the Apostles
contradicted themselves. This opposition made it necessary to enter into
the questions raised by their opponents. But, in point of content, the
problem of proving the contested identity was simply insoluble, because
it was endless and subject to question on every particular point. The
"unconscious logic," that is the logic of self-preservation, could only
prescribe an expedient. The Church had to collect everything apostolic
and declare herself to be its only legal possessor. She was obliged,
moreover, to amalgamate the apostolic with the canon of the Old
Testament in such a way as to fix the exposition from the very first.
But what writings were apostolic? From the middle of the second century
great numbers of writings named after the Apostles had already been in
circulation, and there were oft