forgery, which he rebukes me for holding so cheap. Documents
which lie under such grave and permanent suspicion cannot prove
anything. As I have shown, however, the Vossian Epistles, whatever the
value of their testimony, so far from supporting the claims advanced in
favour of our Gospels, rather discredit them.

I have now minutely followed Dr. Lightfoot and Dr. Westcott in their
attacks upon me in connection with Eusebius and the Ignatian Epistles,
and I trust that I have shown once for all that the charges of
"misrepresentation" and "misstatement," so lightly and liberally
advanced, far from being well-founded, recoil upon themselves. It is
impossible in a work like this, dealing with such voluminous materials,
to escape errors of detail, as both of these gentlemen bear witness, but
I have at least conscientiously endeavoured to be fair, and I venture to
think that few writers have ever more fully laid before readers the
actual means of judging of the accuracy of every statement which has
been made.

III.

_POLYCARP OF SMYRNA._

In my chapter on Polycarp I state the various opinions expressed by
critics regarding the authenticity of the Epistle ascribed to him, and
I more particularly point out the reasons which have led many to decide
that it is either spurious or interpolated.

That an Epistle of Polycarp did really exist at one time no one doubts,
but the proof that the Epistle which is now extant was the actual
Epistle written by Polycarp is not proven. Dr. Lightfoot's essay of
course assumes the authenticity, and seeks to establish it. A large part
of it is directed to the date which must be assigned to it on that
supposition, and recent researches seem to establish that the martyrdom
of Polycarp must be set some two years earlier than was formerly
believed. The _Chronicon_ of Eusebius dates his death A.D. 166 or 167,
and he is said to have been martyred during the proconsulship of Statius
Quadratus. M. Waddington, in examining the proconsular annals of Asia
Minor, with the assistance of newly-discovered inscriptions, has decided
that Statius Quadratus was proconsul in A.D. 154-155, and if Polycarp
was martyred during his proconsulship it would follow that his death
must have taken place in one of those years.

Having said so much in support of the authenticity of the Epistle of
Polycarp, and the earlier date to be assigned to it, it might have been
expected that Dr. Lightfoot would have proceed