When Bishop Lightfoot published his great edition defending the authenticity of the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, the Irish Presbyterian church historian W. D. Killen answered him. Killen examines Polycarp’s testimony, the date of Polycarp’s martyrdom and the witness of Irenaeus, and argues that the letters were forged to support the rise of episcopal government.
A sharp Victorian contribution to the long debate over early church order and the Apostolic Fathers. Download the free EPUB.