been the case) because they were looked upon as harmful; but in the early Church they were freely used. But though _gānaz_ and _apokryphos_ are thus shown to express similar ideas, as technical terms they are obviously not to be thought of as meaning the same thing. Originally they did in all probability connote similar ideas, viz., the hiding of secret wisdom from all but those who were fit to receive it; but that was before the Canon was fixed and when the line of demarcation between different categories of books was not so rigid. Both terms originated independently; _apokryphos_ continued, anyhow up to the time of Origen, to be applied in reference to books which contained hidden wisdom; _gānaz_, on the other hand, while being originally used in the same way as _apokryphos_, came to be used in quite a different way; it always meant “to hide,” but while originally it referred to the hiding of what was good,[257] it was finally used in reference to what was bad. The term did not change, but its meaning did. IV. HOW THE TERM “APOCRYPHA” CAME TO BE APPLIED TO SACRED BOOKS OF THE SECOND RANK But we must return to the question as to why the term Apocrypha was applied to the books which we include under that title. As we have seen, “apocryphal” was first applied to books which contained hidden wisdom; then it was used by Origen in reference to pseudepigraphic books. In the fourth century the attempt was first made (in the Greek Church) to distinguish between canonical books and those which were read for edification; the latter referred to the books of our Apocrypha, but the term apocryphal was still applied only to pseudepigraphic books. The example of the Greek Church was followed by the Latin Church headed by St. Jerome (d. A.D. 420) who made a distinction between the “libri canonici” and the “libri ecclesiastici,” meaning by the latter term the books of the Apocrypha. It was not arbitrariness which prompted St. Jerome to do this; the Latin Church was in the fourth century inundated with a flood of religious writings hitherto unknown outside the Greek Church; these now appeared in Latin translations. Their appearance in the West created a great sensation, the more so as they bore in their titles names which were greatly honoured.[258] They were not all good for the faithful to read, yet only too frequently there was no sufficiently learned churchman at hand to give guidance. In St. Jerome’s time, therefore, there was a mass of literature in circulation which was used without discrimination; so that it needed someone of learning and authority to guide and direct. To this fact was no doubt largely due St. Jerome’s activity in this matter, and he commenced by making a clear distinction between the canonical books and those of the second rank to which he now gave the name of apocryphal.[259] But stress must be laid upon the fact that he used the word “apocryphal” in a new sense. Hitherto, as we have seen, this