To expose the delirium and delinquencies of a respected or even
respectable body of men is always an ungracious, though it may not be
an unnecessary, task. But when we are informed that rejection of
certain supernatural stories means our condemnation here and damnation
hereafter, we feel tempted to examine the kind of men who first accepted
and promulgated those stories. The man who tells me I shall be damned if
I do not believe in his theories or thaumaturgy may have many estimable
qualities, but he must not be surprised if, disregarding these, I call
attention to instances of his credulity. When, moreover, priests
assume authority over conduct on the ground that their Church or their
doctrines were God-given, it becomes necessary to investigate how that
Church and those doctrines were built up; and if we find superstitious
fooleries and pious frauds mixed therein, it may do something to abate
our confidence in priestly pretentions.
In regard to the Fathers, as to much else, the Catholic is the most
consistent of all Christian Churches. The men who established the
Church, and fixed what was and what was not Canonical Gospel, are surely
entitled to some authority on the part of believers. When Protestants
wish to prove the authenticity of their infallible book, they have to
fall back upon the witness of the fallible Fathers whose authority they
are at other times always ready to repudiate.
The intellectual and moral character of the men who were the original
depositaries of Christian faith and literature is then evidently of the
utmost importance. All historical evidence as to the authenticity of
the New Testament, or the faithfulness of ecclesiastical history, comes
through them. If they were credulous and untrustworthy, the edifice
built upon their testimony or their faith will be found to be tottering.
Now, concerning the Fathers of the Christian Church, we have, at the
outset, to allege that, as a class, not only were they superstitious
and credulous, and therefore unreliable, but that many of them were
absolutely fraudulent, not hesitating to use any and every means to
further the interests of their religion.
Bishop C. J. Ellicott, in his article on the Apocryphal Gospels, which
appeared in the "Cambridge Essays" for 1856, pp. 175, 176, says: "But
credulity is not the only charge which these early ages have to sustain.
They certainly cannot be pronounced free from the influence of pious
frauds.... It was an age of literary frauds. Deceit, if it had a good
intention, frequently passed unchallenged.... However unwilling we may
be to admit it, history forces upon us the recognition of pious fraud
as a principle which was by no means inoperative in the earliest ages of
Christianity."
Jeremiah Jones says: "To make testimonies out of forgeries and spurious
books to prove the very foundation of the Christian revelation, was a
method much practised by some of the Fathers, especially Justin Martyr,
Clemens Alexandrinus, and Lactantius."--"A New and Full Method of
Settling the Canonical Authority of the New Testament," part ii., chap,
xxxiv., p. 318, vol. i. 1827.
B. H. Cowper, a well-known champion of Christianity, and once editor of
the _Journal of Sacred Literature_, confesses in the Introduction to his
"Apocryphal Gospels" (p. xxv., 1867): "Ancient invention and industry
went even further, and produced sundry scraps about Herod, Veronica,
Lentuius, and Abgar, wrote epistles for Christ and his mother, and
I know not how much besides. No difficulty stood in the way; ancient
documents could easily be appealed to without necessarily existing;
spirits could be summoned from the other world by a stroke of the pen,
and be made to say anything; sacred names could be written and made a
passport to fictions, and so on _ad libitum_."
M. Daille says: "For these forgeries are not new and of yesterday; but
the abuse hath been on foot above fourteen hundred years."--"The
Right Use of the Fathers," p. 12, 1675. Mosheim mentions a variety of
commentaries filled with impostores or fables on our Savior's life and
sentiments, "composed soon after his ascent into heaven, by men who,
without being bad, perhaps, were superstitious, simple, and piously
deceitful. To these were afterwards added other writings
falsely accredited to the most holy apostles by fraudulent
individuals."--"Institutes of Ecclesiastical History," part iii, chap.
ii, sec. 17, p. 65, vol. i. Stubbs's edition, 1863.
The same justly-renowned historian declares that "a pernicious maxim
which was current in the schools, not only of the Egyptians, the
Platonists, and the Pythagoreans, but also of the Jews, was very
early recognised by the Christians, and soon found among them numerous
patrons--namely, that those who made it their business to deceive with
a view of promoting the cause of truth were deserving rather of
commendation than censure."--"Commentaries on the Affairs of the
Christians before the time of Constantino the Great." Second century.
sec. 7, pp. 44, 45. R. S. Vidat's translation. 1813.
Dr. Gieseler, Professor of Theology in Gottingen, says: "In reference to
the advancement of various Christian interests, and in like manner also
to the confirmation of those developments of doctrine already mentioned,
_the spurious literature_ which had arisen and continually increased
among the Jews and Christians, was of great importance. The Christians
made use of such expressions and writings as had already been falsely
attributed by Jews, from partiality to their religion, to honored
persons of antiquity, and altered them in parts to suit their own wants,
such as the book of Enoch and the fourth book of Ezra. But writings of
this kind were also fabricated anew by Christians, who quieted their
conscience respecting the forgery with the idea of their good intention,
for the purpose of giving greater impressiveness to their doctrines and
admonitions by the reputation of respectable names, of animating their
suffering brethren to steadfastness, and of gaming over their opponents
to Christianity."--"Compendium of Ecclesiastical History," sec. 52, vol.
i., pp. 157, 158. Translated by Dr. S. Davidson. T. & T. Clark's Foreign
Theological Library.
But as our purpose is to examine these writings somewhat in detail, we
will commence with