so many long epistles, entering minutely into dogmatic teaching, and expressing the most deliberate and advanced views regarding ecclesiastical government? Indeed it may be asked why Ignatius should have considered it necessary in such a journey, even if the possibility be for a moment conceded, to address such epistles to communities and individuals to whom, by the showing of the letters themselves, he had just had opportunities of addressing his counsels in person.(1) The epistles themselves bear none of the marks of composition under such circumstances, and it is impossible to suppose that soldiers such as the quotation above describes would allow a prisoner, condemned to wild beasts for professing Christianity, deliberately to write long epistles at every stage of his journey, promulgating the very doctrines for which he was condemned. And not only this, but on his way to martyrdom, he has, according to the epistles,(2) perfect freedom to see his friends. He receives the bishops, deacons, and members of various Christian communities, who come with greetings to him, and devoted followers accompany him on his journey. All this without hindrance from the "ten leopards," of whose cruelty he complains, and without persecution or harm to those who so openly declare themselves his friends and fellow believers. The whole story is absolutely incredible.(3) This conclusion, irresistible in itself, is, however, confirmed by facte arrived at from a totally different point of view. {266} It has been demonstrated that, most probably, Ignatius was not sent to Rome at all, but suffered martyrdom in Antioch itself(l) on the 20th December, a.d. 115,(2) when he was condemned to be cast to wild beasts in the amphitheatre, in consequence of the fanatical excitement produced by the earthquake which took place on the 13th of that month.(3) There are no less than three martyrologies of Ignatius,(4) giving an account of the martyr's journey from Antioch to Rome, but they are all recognised to be mere idle legends, of whose existence we do not hear till a very late period.(5) In fact the whole of the Ignatian literature is a mass of falsification and fraud. We might well spare our readers the trouble of examining further the contents of the epistles of pseudo-Ignatius, for it is manifest that they cannot afford testimony {267}