Towards the middle of the third century, Origen’s(203) testimony respecting the Canon is of great value. He seems to have distinguished three classes of books—authentic ones, whose apostolic origin was generally admitted, those not authentic, and a middle-class not generally recognized or in regard to which his own opinion wavered. The first contained those already adopted at the beginning of the century both in the East and West, with the Apocalypse, and the epistle to the Hebrews _so far as it contains Pauline ideas_;(204) to the second belongs the Shepherd of Hermas, though he sometimes hesitated a little about it,(205) the epistle of Barnabas, the Acts of Paul, the gospel according to the Hebrews, the gospel of the Egyptians, and the preaching of Peter;(206) to the third, the epistle of James, that of Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John.(207) The separation of the various writings is not formally made, nor does Origen give a list of them. His classification is gathered from his works; and though its application admitted of considerable latitude, he is cautious enough, appealing to the tradition of the church, and throwing in qualifying expressions.(208) The Canon of Eusebius(209) is given at length in his _Ecclesiastical History_.(210) He divides the books into three classes, containing those writings _generally received_,(211) those _controverted_,(212) and the _heretical_.(213) The first has the four gospels, the Acts, thirteen epistles of Paul, 1 John, 1 Peter, the Apocalypse.(214) The second class is subdivided into two, the first corresponding to Origen’s _mixed_(215) or _intermediate_ writings, the second to his _spurious_(216) ones. The former subdivision contains the epistle of James, 2 Peter, Jude, 2 and 3 John; the latter, the Acts of Paul, the Shepherd, the Revelation of Peter, the epistle of Barnabas, the Doctrines of the Apostles, the Apocalypse of John, the gospel according to the Hebrews. The third class has the gospels of Peter, of Thomas, the traditions of Matthias, the Acts of Peter, Andrew, and John. The subdivisions of the second class are indefinite. The only distinction which Eusebius puts between them is that of ecclesiastical use. Though he classes as _spurious_ the Acts of Paul, the Shepherd, the Revelation of Peter, the epistle of Barnabas, the doctrines of the Apostles, the Apocalypse of John, the gospel according to the Hebrews, and does not apply the epithet to the epistle of James, the 2 of Peter, 2 and 3 John; he uses of James’s in one place the verb _to be counted spurious_.(217) In like manner he speaks of the Apocalypse of Peter and the epistle of Barnabas as _controverted_.(218) The _mixed_ or _spurious_ of Origen are vaguely separated by Eusebius; both come under the general head of the _controverted_; for after specifying them separately he sums up, “all these will belong to the class of the _controverted_,” the very class already described as containing “books