A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF THE IGNATIAN EPISTLES, GENUINE, INTERPOLATED, AND SPURIOUS; TOGETHER WITH NUMEROUS EXTRACTS FROM THEM, AS QUOTED BY ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS DOWN TO THE TENTH CENTURY; REPRINTED FROM THE LONDON EDITION, AND AUTHORIZED BY THE PROPRIETOR FOR CIRCULATION ON THE CONTINENT ONLY. M DCCC XLIX. TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE ALBERT OF SAXE COBURG AND GOTHA, K.G. Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. SIR, I ESTEEM it a peculiar happiness that my own humble researches should have been rewarded by a discovery which seems to throw a clearer light upon the writings of one of the companions of the holy Apostles, than the united labors of several of the highest and most distinguished Prelates who have adorned the English Church ; And in being permitted to inscribe to your Royal Highness these results of my discovery, I enjoy a very rare and high gratification, such as none of them could ever have experienced, the honor of dedicating my work to a Prince whose own learning and acquirements have qualified him to estimate the importance and the interest of the task which I have undertaken, and whose personal condescension and kindness have encouraged me under the difficulties with which it has been attended. I have the honor to be, SIR, Your Royal Highness' Most obedient and devoted Servant, WILLIAM CURETON. March 31st, 1849. PREFACE. THE discovery of the Ancient Syriac Version of the Epistles of St. Ignatius excited so great and general an interest, that the whole of the impression of the volume in which I made the results of that discovery public was exhausted in the course of a very few months, and a new edition called for. I felt, however, that something more was due to the subject which I had undertaken than merely to exhibit it again in the same form as that in which it had appeared at first. Although I was fully aware that the very little leisure which I could command must necessarily delay the publication for a considerable period, I resolved to collect together all the documents relating to the Ignatian Epistles, and to exhibit them in such a manner as would enable those who may be desirous of investigating this subject for themselves to form their own judgment respecting the whole question, without being compelled to refer to other books than that which I might lay before them. For this purpose I have exhibited at one view a comparison of the text of the Syriac and of that of both the Greek Recensions of the three Epistles to Polycarp, the Ephesians, and the Romans; and I have caused the particular variations of each to be printed in a different and distinct type, in order that their several peculiarities may be immediately obvious. I have also given a similar comparison of the text of the Longer and Shorter Recensions of the Epistles to the Magnesians, Trallians, Philadelphians, and Smyrneans. To these I have subjoined the rest of the Ignatian Epistles in Greek; and to all of them I have supplied their corresponding ancient Latin versions. I have likewise appended to the rest the Three Letters attributed to St. Ignatius, of which Latin copies only are known |