Page:The Mohammedan system of theology (IA mohammedansyste00neal).pdf/50

 images, saints and angels, transubstantiation, the deification of the Virgin Mary, amongst the Collyridian heretics, and purgatory, were the hateful offspring of this and the preceding centuries. Gregory the Great compares the Church to a rotten and leaky ship, hourly threatened with wreck. Ichabod, thy glory is departed, may be considered as a suitable emblem.

Various writings were current amongst the different sects, and interpolated to answer particular purposes, such as the Gospel of Cerinthus, or the Nazarenes, the Preaching and Revelation of Peter; the Gospel of Barnabas; the Prot-Evangelion of James, or