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.

I

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. 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

to exist.

This furnishes a complete collection of all the Epistles which have ever been assigned to the venerable Bishop of Antioch.

To these Epistles I have subjoined all the Testimonies respecting Ignatius himself, and all the extracts from the Ignatian Epistles which have been quoted by various authors in Greek and Latin down to the tenth century—so far at least as my own knowledge extends, and I have been able to collect them. I have not thought it necessary to add those of a later period. The Acts of Martyrdom, as exhibited in the Colbert manuscript, follow. I have also diligently collected and supplied all the extracts from the Ignatian Letters, and all the passages respecting Ignatius himself, in Syriac, which I could find among the rich and valuable treasures of the British Museum, or could obtain elsewhere, to make the work more complete. These, as well as the Syriac text of the Three Epistles, I have translated into English, for the use of such as may not have studied the Aramaic tongue.

I have also appended several extracts attributed to St. Ignatius, found among the Ethiopic collection in the British Museum, with a Latin translation. These, I believe, constitute the whole of the documents up to this time available, upon which any discussion respecting Ignatius and his Epistles can be based.

In the Introduction and Notes I have very freely explained my own views and convictions on the several subjects which presented themselves; and I have stated the arguments upon which they have been founded. Should these appear to be less uniform and consecutive than the entire tenour of the whole investigation may seem to require, I trust that the reader will kindly grant me his indulgence in this respect, when he is informed that the little leisure which I have at my own disposal has never permitted me to give more than an hour or two at one time, and that after the fatigues of my daily occupations, to a subject which, from its interest and importance,

might well have demanded my whole and undivided attention. The task which I imposed upon myself would perhaps have been much better executed by some one who is happy enough to have his time sufficiently at his own command to be able to direct and apply the whole energies of his mind to any subject like this, which he may be desirous to investigate and illustrate. Still, however, I have not shrunk from it, with all its difficulties. How far I have been successful others must judge. The only merit which I can venture to claim to myself is that of zeal in attempting, and of perseverance in executing, as the task of my Hora Subseciva, a work of so great extent, requiring so much laborious research and thought, upon a controverted matter, in which I must necessarily expect that those to whose particular views or prejudices the results of my inquiries may prove unfavourable will be ready to catch at every slip, and to expose every error. The conscious determination to seek diligently and impartially for the truth, and to state plainly and unhesitatingly my honest convictions, has given me the courage not to be dismayed or deterred by any such considerations as these.

Indeed, when I first published my volume in 1845, I felt assured that it would not be allowed to pass without censure; and I then resolved to avoid entering into any of the controversy which I could not but foresee it would create. It was, however, received far more favourably than I could venture to anticipate. This I can only attribute to the evident conviction afforded by the facts which it contains. Only one attack, so far as my knowledge goes, has been directed against it. This appeared in the English Review.* It is much easier to make a parade of orthodoxy, and thereby excite the fears, and prejudice the sympathy of the well-disposed but uninformed, than to argue logically, especially when the premises require some learning and research. Thus the Reviewer at* No. VIII. p. 309.

tempted to decry the work, by representing the Syriac version of the Ignatian Epistles as the production of an Eutychian heretic. I felt, therefore, that it was due to the late Archbishop of Canterbury to abandon the resolution which I had formed, and to shew that the Reviewer was mistaken in representing, as "a miserable epitome by an Eutychian heretic," work in which the Archbishop expressed great interest, and, after having read the Epistles, had kindly allowed me to dedicate it to him. The Reviewer's attempt in this respect has been pronounced an unhappy failure by Dr. Jacobson, the present Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford.* Dr. Lee, late Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Cambridge, has ably exposed many of the fallacies and gratuitous assumptions of the Reviewer. How far I have succeeded in my own Reply I must leave to others to determine. §

His words are, "Minus felix in eo quod Syrum pravitatis hæreticæ insimulaverit." See Patt. Apost., edit. iii. p. liv.

+ See British Magazine, Vol. xxx. p. 667.

"Vindiciae Ignatianæ, or The Genuine Writings of St. Ignatius, as exhibited in the Ancient Syriac Version, vindicated from the Charge of Heresy." 8vo. London. Rivingtons. M DCCCXLVI.

§ I may perhaps venture to quote here the opinion of some writer apparently unbiassed, and certainly unknown to me, on this head. "Diese Anklage ist nun offenbar der Art, dass, gelänge es, damit durchzudringen, es bei der hohen Geltung, welche stricte Orthodoxie in England noch jetzt inner- wie ausserhalb der Kirche hat, um den Credit der Uebersetzung wenigstens im Lande ihres Erscheinens geschehen sein würde. Nun scheint es zwar nicht, als ob diess gelungen sei, da nach einer Ankündigung am Schlusse des vorliegenden Schriftchens die ganze Auflage des angeklagten Werkes bereits vergriffen ist. Indessen kann man es Hrn. Cureton keineswegs verargen, wenn er sein Möglichstes thut, um diese Anklage als völlig unbegründet darzustellen. Es ist ihm diess unseres Erachtens auch nicht missglückt, denn er hat, wo nicht die Güte seiner eigenen Sache, doch sicherlich die Schwäche des Gegners dargethan und ihm den Stachel genommen. Schritt für Schritt folgt er dessen Erörterungen und deckt seine Ungenauigkeiten, Missverständnisse, Uebereilungen, Selbstwidersprüche und Verdrehungen, kurz alle die absichtlichen Kunstgriffe oder unbewussten Fehler einer von einseitigen Vorurtheilen geleiteten

Polemik