The remaining three epistles ascribed to Ignatius are found only in Latin. They are very short, and have long been given up as spurious. They are, 13. S. ./qanni Ecangelist(e; 14. Ad Eimdem; and, 15. Beatce Virr/ini. With these is found a letter of the Virgin to Ignatius, Beata Virr/o Iijnatio, professing to be an answer to his letter. This also is given np as spurious.
The controversy respecting the geninnencss of these writings began at an early period. In A.D. 1495 the t'nrce Latin epistles and the letter of the Virgin were printed at Paris, subjoined to the Vita et Processus S. T/iomce Ccmtuarensis .)f(irfi/7-is super Libertate Ecclesi- astica. In A.D. 1498, three years after the appearance of these letters, another collection, edited by J. Falser, of Staples (Stapulensis), was printed at Paris in folio, con- taining the common Latin version of eleven letters, that of Mary of Cassobelie not being among them. They were published with some of the works ascribed to Dionysius Areopagita and an epistle of Polycarp. These eleven epistles were reprinted at Yen. 1502; Paris, 1515; Basel, 1520; and Strasburg, 1527. In 1516 the preceding four- teen epistles, with the addition of the letter to INIar}^ of Cassobeloe, were edited by Symphorianus Chaniperius of Lyons, and published at Paris in 4to, with seven letters of St. Antony, commonly called the Great. In A.D. 1557, the twelve epistles of Ignatius, in Greek, were pub- lished by Valentimis Paceus, or Paca?us,in 8vo, at Dillin- gen, in Suabia on the Danube, from an Augsburg MS. They were reprinted at Paris, 1558, with critical emen- dations. The same twelve Greek epistles, from another ]MS. from the library of Gas]iar a Nydpryck, were pub- lished by Andreas Gesner, with a Latin version by Jo- annes Brunner, Ziirich, 1559, folio. In these editions the Greek text of the seven epistles was given in the larger form, the shorter form, both in Greek and Latin, being as yet imdiscovered. The genuineness of these remains was now called in question. The antlKsrs of the Centurice Mar/dehiirf/enscs were the first to express their doubts, though with caution and moderation. Cal- vin, in his Instifittioncs (i, 3), declared that '-nothing could be more silly than the stuff (lueiiiw') which had been brought out under the name of Ignatius, and ren- dered the impudence of those persons more insuffera- ble who had set themselves to deceive people by such phantoms (Joj-ra-').'" The controversy grew warm, the Roman writers and the Episcopalians commonly con- tending for the genuineness of at least a part of the epis- tles, and the Presbyterians denying it. The three epis-
ig:n^atius
492
IGNATIUS
ties not extant in Greek Avere the first given up, but tlie rest were stoutly contended for. Several, however, dis- tinguished between the seven enumerated by Eusebius and the rest, and some contended that even those which were genuine were interpolated. While the controversy was in this state, Vedelius, a professor at Geneva, pub- lished an edition (S. Ignatii qua; extant Omnia, Geneva, 1623, 4to) in which tlie seven genuine were arranged apart from the other five epistles ; he marked, also, in the genuine epistles, the parts which he regarded as in- terpolations. In 1644 archbishop Usher's (4to, Oxford) edition of the epistles of Polycarp and Ignatius appeared. It contained, 1. Pohjcarpiana Epistolarum Ignatianarum Sijlloije (Polycarp's Collection of the Epistles of Igna- tius), containing Polycarp's epistle to the Philippians and six of the supposed genuiue epistles of Ignatius ; 2. EpistoUe B. lynatio adscripice a Media ^tatis Greeds Sex (Six Epistles ascribed to St. Ignatius by the Greeks of the Middle Age). The epistle of Polycarp was in- cluded in this class, with the five spurious epistles ex- tant in Greek. The common Latin version was also printed with these in parallel columns, and the three epistles which are extant only in Latin were subjoined ; 3. A Latin version of eleven epistles (that to the Philip- pians being omitted) from the two MSS. obtained by Usher, and now first printed. This corresponds, in the main, to the shorter text of the so-called genuine epis- tles. The work of Usher contains also a valuable intro- duction and notes to the epistles of Ignatius and Poly- carp, the Apostolical Constitutions, and the Canons ascribed to Clement of Rome. In 1646 the epistles of Ignatius were pubUshed by Isaac Vossius (4to, Amst.), from a ]\IS. in the Jledicean Library at Florence. The MS., which is not accurately written, and is mutilated at the end, is valuable as the only one containing the shorter recension of the genuine epistles ; it wants, ho^v- ever, that to the Eomans, which was given by Yossius in the longer form, as in the former editions. The five spurious epistles, and that of Mary of Cassobelag to Igna- tius, from the Medicean MS., the text of which differs materially from that previously published; the three Latin epistles; Usher's Latin version of the eleven Greek epistles ; and the common version of that to the Philippians, were all given by Vossius. In 1647 Lusher published his Appendix Irjnatiana, containing the Greek text of the seven epistles, and two Latin versions of the Martyrium Ignatii. He gave the Medicean text of six of the epistles; that to the Romans was the common text, with the interpolations expmiged, as determined by a collation of the epistle contained in the Mariyri- um, both in the Greek of Symeon Metaphrastes and the Latin version published by Usher. After the contro- versj- had been carried on for some time, and great prog- ress had been made towards the settlement of the text, the most formidable attack on the genuineness of the epistles was made by Daillc (Dallasus), one of the most eminent of the French Protestants, in his work De Scrip- tis qua: sub Dionysii Areopagitm et If/natii Antiocheni cii-cnivfcrentur Libri duo (Gen. 1666, 4to). The works •of Ignatius form the subject of the second book. This attack of Daille called forth the Vindicicc IgnatiancB of bishop Pearson (Cambridge, 1672, 4to), v/hich was long supposed to have settled the controversy. But it lias recently been reopened with fresh vigor and interest. Archbisliop LTsher, in his ecUtion of the Ignatian Epis- tles i)ublislied at Oxford in 1644, declared tliat he could not venture to promise that the genuine Ignatius could be recovered without the aid of another Greek text, which he hoped to obtain from a MS. in the Medicean Librarj' at Florence, or at least without the aid of a Syriac copy, which he did not despair of procuring from Rome. The Medicean MS. was pubUshed, but the difli- culties remained the same. The Syriac version, which was then looked to as affording tlie only probable clew to the solution, eluded the most diligent and anxious search for a period of 200 years. It Avas reserved for the Rev. William Ciu-eton, a canon of A\'cstminster, to