John, to
Titus, to Polycarp, and others of the earliest period, were
considered treasures of sacred history. An Emperor of the East had
sent these writings to an Emperor of the West as the most precious
of imperial gifts. Scotus Erigena had translated them; St. Thomas
Aquinas had expounded them; Dante had glorified them; Albert the
Great had claimed that they were virtually given by St. Paul and
inspired by the Holy Ghost. Their authenticity was taken for granted
by fathers, doctors, popes, councils, and the universal Church.
But now, in the glow of the Renascence, all this treasure was found
to be but dross. Investigators in the old Church and in the new
joined in proving that the great mass of it was spurious. To say
nothing of other evidences, it failed to stand the simplest of all
tests, for these writings constantly presupposed institutions and
referred to events of much later date than the time of Dionysius;
they were at length acknowledged by all authorities worthy of the
name, Catholic as well as Protestant, to be simply--like the
Isidorian Decretals--pious frauds.
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