[395:1] Such is the opinion maintained by the celebrated Whiston in his "Primitive Christianity." More recently Meier took up nearly the same position.
[395:2] See Preface to the "Corpus Ignatianum," p. 4.
[395:3] Published in 1849. In 1846 he published his "Vindiciae Ignatianae; or the Genuine Writings of St Ignatius, as exhibited in the ancient Syriac version, vindicated from the charge of heresy."
[396:1] In 1847 another copy of the Syriac version of the three epistles was deposited in the British Museum, and since, Sir Henry Rawlinson is said to have obtained a third copy at Bagdad. See "British Quarterly" for October 1855, p. 452.
[396:2] Dr Lee, late Regius Professor of Hebrew in Cambridge, Chevalier Bunsen, and other scholars of great eminence, have espoused the views of Dr Cureton.
[396:3] By Archbishop Ussher in 1644, and by Vossius in 1646.
[396:4] Such was the opinion of Ussher himself. "Concludimus … nullas omni ex parte sinceras esse habendas et genuinas." Dissertation prefixed to his edition of "Polycarp and Ignatius," chap. 18.
[397:1] Pearson was occupied six years in the preparation of this work. The publication of Daillé, to which it was a reply, appeared in 1666. Daillé died in 1670, at the advanced age of seventy-six. The work of Pearson did not appear until two years afterwards, or in 1672. The year following he received the bishopric of Chester as his reward.
[397:2] "In the whole course of my inquiry respecting the Ignatian Epistles," says Dr Cureton, "I have never met with one person who professes to have read Bishop Pearson's celebrated book; but I was informed by one of the most learned and eminent of the present bench of bishops, that Porson, after having perused the 'Vindiciae,' had expressed to him his opinion that it was a 'very unsatisfactory work.'"—Corpus Ignat., Preface, pp. 14, 15, note. Bishop Pearson's work is written in Latin.
[397:3] The "Three Epistles" edited by Dr Cureton contain only about the one-fourth of the matter of the seven shorter letters edited by Ussher.