We formerly stated that eight out of the fifteen Epistles bearing the name of Ignatius are now
universally admitted to be spurious. None of them are quoted or referred to by any ancient
writer previous to the sixth century. The style, moreover, in which they are written, so differ-
ent from that of the other Ignatian letters, and allusions which they contain to heresies and
ecclesiastical arrangements of a much later date than that of their professed author, render it
perfectly certain that they are not the authentic production of the illustrious bishop of Antioch.