A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

t656 IGNATIUS.:IGNATIUS.
sius (4to. Amsterdam), from a MS. in'the Medicean' Le Clerc, and variorum notes. A useful edition of
Library at Florence. The MS., which is not accu- the genuine Epistles with those of Clement of
rately written, and is mutilated at the end, is valu- Rome and Polycarp, and the Marty}ria of Ignatius
able as the only one containing the shorter recension and Polycarp, was published by Jacobson (2 vols.
of the genuine Epistles: it wants, however, that to 8vo. Oxford, 1838). There are versions in several
the Romans, which was given by Vossius in the of the languages of modern Europe; including two
longer form, as in the former editions. The five English translations, an old one by Archbishop
spurious epistles, and that of Mary of Cassobelae Wake, and a modern one by Clementson (8vo.
to Ignatius, from the Medicean MS., the text of 1827). Wake's translation has been repeatedly
which differs materially from that previously pub- published.
lished; the three Latin Epistles, Usher's Latin Ebed-jesu, the Syrian, speaks of Ignatius. as
version of the eleven Greek Epistles, and the having written De Re Fidei et Canones, but he is
common version of that to the Philippians, were supposed to refer to his Epistles (Assemani,
all given by Vossius. In 1647 Usher published Bibl. Orient. vol. iii. p. ii. p. 16, 17). There
his Appendix Ignatiana, containing the Greek is also a Syriac liturgy ascribed to Ignatius, of which
text of the seven Epistles, and two Latin ver- a Latin version is given by Renaudot (Liturg.
sions of the Martyrium Ignaii. He gave the Orientales, vol. ii. p. 215, &c.), who declares it to
Medicean text of six of the Epistles; that to the be spurious.
Romans was the common text with the interpo- The Martyriurm Ignatii, which is our chief aulations expunged, as determined by a collation of thority for the' circumstances of* Ignatius' death,
the epistle as given in the Martyrium, both in the professes to be written by eye-witnesses, the comGreek of Symeon Metaphrastes and the Latin panions of his voyage to Rome, supposed to be
versions published by Usher. The text of Ignatius Philo, a deacon of Tarsus or some other church in
was thus settled on the basis of MS. authority, Cilicia, and Rheus Agathopus, a Syrian, who are
except in the case of the Epistle to the Romans, mentioned in the Epistles of Ignatius (Ad Philaand that was afterwards published by Le Clerc delph. c. 11; Ad Smyrneos, c. 13). Usher adds to
from a manuscript in the Colbertine Library. them a third person, Gaius, but on what authority
After the controversyhad been carriedon for some we know not, and Gallandius adds Crocus mentime, and great progress had been made towards the tioned by Ignatius (Ad Romanos, c. 10). The
settlement of the text, the most formidable attack on account, with many interpolations, is incorporated
the genuineness of the Epistles was made by Daill6 in the work of Symeon Metaphrastes (A. D. 20,
(Dallaeus), one of the most eminent of the French Dec.), and a Latin translation from him is given by
Protestants, in his work De Scriptis quae sub Dio- Surius, De Probatis Sanctor. JVitis, and in the
nysii Areopagitae et Ignatii Antioceltni circumfe- Acta Sanctorum, under the date of the 1st of Feb..untiur Libi duo, 4to. Geneva, 1666. The works The MIartyrium was first printed in Latin by
of' Ignatius form the subject of the second book. archbishop Usher, who gave two distinct verThis attack of DaillU called forth the Vindiciae sions from different MSS. The Greek text was
Ignatianae of Bishop Pearson, 4to. Cambridge, first printed by Ruinart in his Acta Martsyrum
1672, which may be considered as having ex- Sincera (4to. Paris, 1689) from a MS. in the Colhausted the controversy. The subsequent contri- bertine library, and in a revised edition in Le
butions to the discussion do not require notice. Clerc's Cotelerius. It is given by Jacobson and by
The genuineness and substantial integrity of the most of the later editors of the' Epistles. Its
seven epistles in the shorter form may be consi- genuineness is generally recognised; but it is
dered as now generally recognised. thought to be interpolated. See the remarks of
The Epistles of Ignatius are characterised by Grabe quoted by Jacobson at the end of the Marsimplicity of thought and by piety. His eagerness tyrium. A considerable fragment of an ancient
to obtain the crown of martyrdom has been cen- Syriac version of the Martyrium of Ignatius is
sured; and his zeal in enforcing the claims of the published by Mr. Cureton.
bishops and clergy to reverence and obedience is A recent discovery promises to reopen the quesvery great. Perhaps this characteristic, which has tion, as to the integrity of the shorter epistles.
quickened the suspicions of, or objections to, the Several writers, including Beausobre, Lardner,
genuineness of the Epistles, may be rather regarded and Priestly, had expressed their suspicion or
as an argument that they were written while those conviction, that there were in them interpolaclaims were by no means generally admitted. His tions, more or less considerable. An ancient
zeal in enforcing them is an indication of their Syriac version. of the epistles to Polycarp, to the
being disputed, as men do not'contend for what Romans, and to the Ephesians, recently discovered'
/no one denies. The Greek style of Ignatius is by gives reason to believe that the interpolations are
no means good, which is accounted for by the cir- very considerable. This version was discovered'
cumstance of Greek not being his vernacular among the MSS. of the library of the Syriac contongue. vent of the desert of Nitria, in Egypt, which has
The most complete and valuable edition of Igna- been lately purchased by the trustees of the Britius is that contained in the Patres Apostolici of tish Museum. These epistles have been published
Cotelerius, the second edition of which by Le by the Rev. W. Cureton, of the British Museum
Clerc (2 vols. fol. Amsterdam. 1724) contains the (The Ancient Syriac Version of the Epistles of St.
two recensions of the genuine epistles, all the spu- Ignatius,A4c., by William Cureton, M. A. 8vo.
rious epistles (Greek and Latin), with the epistles London. 1845), from two MSS., of which one,
of Mary of Cassobelae and of the Virgin; the two containing the epistle to Polycarp, is assigned by
ancient Latin versions (the common one and him to the sixth century.; the other, containing
Usher's), the lAartyrium Ignatii, the Dissertationes the other two epistles, belongs, in his judgment, to
(i. e. the Introduction) of Usher, the Vindiciae of the seventh or eighth century. The Syriac Epistle
Pearson, a Dissertatio deo!qnatianis Epistolis, by to Polycarp contains scarcely anything of c.,vii. and