2. _Early Dissensions in the Church_. As instances of the disagreements and differences that troubled and disturbed the Church even in apostolic days Mosheim says: "The first of these controversies, which was set on foot in the church of Antioch, regarded the necessity of observing the law of Moses, and its issue is mentioned by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles (chap. 15). This controversy was followed by many others, either with the Jews who were violently attached to the worship of their ancestors, or with the votaries of a wild and fanatical sort of philosophy, or with such as, mistaking the true genius of the Christian religion, abused it monstrously to the encouragement of their vices, and their indulgence of the appetites and passions. St. Paul and the other apostles have in several places of their writings, mentioned these controversies, but with such brevity that it is difficult at this distance of time to come at the true state of the question in these various disputes. The most weighty and important of all these controversies was that which certain Jewish doctors raised at Rome, and in other Christian Churches concerning the means of justification and acceptance with God, and the method of salvation pointed out in the word of God. The apostles, wherever they exercised their ministry, had constantly declared all hopes of acceptance and salvation delusive, except such as were founded on Jesus the Redeemer, and His all-sufficient merits; while the Jewish doctors maintained the works of the law to be the true efficient cause of the soul's eternal salvation and felicity. This latter sentiment not only led to many other errors extremely prejudicial to Christianity, but was also injurious to the glory of the divine Savior."--(Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical History," Cent. I, Part II, 11-12.) 3. _Unauthorized Writings in the Apostolic Age_. Paul's reference to "another gospel" in his epistle to the Galatians (1:6) suggested to Dr. Adam Clarke the following commentary on the passage: "_Another gospel_: It is certain that in the very earliest ages of the Christian Church, there were several spurious gospels in circulation; and it was the multitude of these false or inaccurate relations that induced St. Luke to write his own (see Luke 1:1). We have the names of more than seventy of these spurious narratives still on record, and in ancient writers many fragments of them remain; these have been collected and published by Fabricius in his account of the apocryphal books of the New Testament (3 vols, 8 vo.) In some of these gospels the necessity of circumcision and subjection to the Mosaic law, in unity with the gospel, were strongly inculcated."--(Clarke, "Bible Commentary.") 4. _Some Authorities on Ecclesiastical History_. Among the authorities cited in the text are those named below. A brief note as to each may be of interest.