Page:A General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament (7th edition, 1896).djvu/77

 Rh  writings were added to manuscripts of the New Testament, and read in churches; and the practice thus begun continued for a long time. The Epistle of Barnabas was still read among the 'Apocryphal Scriptures' in the time of Jerome; a translation of the Shepherd of Hermas is found in a MS. of the Latin Bible as late as the fifteenth century ; the spurious Epistle to the Laodicenes is found very commonly in English copies of the Vulgate from the ninth century downwards; and an important catalogue of the Apocrypha of the New Testament is added to the Canon of Scripture subjoined to the Chronographia of Nicephorus, published in the ninth century.

At first sight this mixture of different classes of books appears startling; but the Church of England follows the same principle with regard to the Apocrypha of the Old Testament. They are allowed to have an ecclesiastical use, but not a canonical authority. They are profitable for instruction—for elementary teaching as is said of the Shepherd of Hermas—but not for the proof of doctrine. And it was in this spirit that Apocrypha of the New Testament were admitted with reserve in many Christian Churches. 'They ought to be read,' it was said, 'though they cannot be regarded as Apostolic or prophetic .' And evidence is not wanting to shew that the ancient Church exercised a jealous watch lest supposititious writings should usurp undue influence. The presbyter who sought to recommend the story of Thecla by the name of St Paul was degraded from his office.