Lechler candidly confesses that he commenced with a prejudice in
    favour of the authenticity of the Epistles in the Shorter Recension,
    but on reading them through, he says that an impression unfavourable
    to their authenticity was produced upon him which he had not been
    able to shake off.  He proceeds to point out their internal
    improbability, and other difficulties connected with the supposed
    journey, which make it “still more improbable that Ignatius himself
    can really have written these Epistles in this situation.”  Lechler
    does not consider that the Curetonian Epistles strengthen the case;
    and although he admits that he cannot congratulate himself on the
    possession of “certainty and cheerfulness of conviction” of the
    inauthenticity of the Ignatian Epistles, he at least very clearly
    justifies the affirmation that the authenticity cannot be
    established.

Now what has been the result of this minute and prejudiced attack upon my notes?  Out of nearly seventy critics and writers in connection with what is admitted to be one of the most intricate questions of Christian literature, it appears that—­much to my regret—­I have inserted one name totally by accident, overlooked that the doubts of another had been removed by the subsequent publication of the Short Recension and consequently erroneously classed him, and I withdraw a third whose doubts I consider that I have overrated.  Mistakes to this extent in dealing with such a mass of references, or a difference of a shade more or less in the representation of critical opinions, not always clearly expressed, may, I hope, be excusable, and I can truly say that I am only too glad to correct such errors.  On the other hand, a critic who attacks such references, in such a tone, and with such wholesale accusations of “misstatement” and “misrepresentation,” was bound to be accurate, and I have shown that Dr. Lightfoot is not only inaccurate in matters of fact, but unfair in his statements of my purpose.  I am happy, however, to be able to make use of his own words and say:  “I may perhaps have fallen into some errors of detail, though I have endeavoured to avoid them, but the main conclusions are, I believe, irrefragable.” [78:1]

There are further misstatements made by Dr. Lightfoot to which I must briefly refer before turning to other matters.  He says, with unhesitating boldness: 

“One highly important omission is significant.  There is no mention, from first to last, of the Armenian version.  Now it happens that this version (so far as regards the documentary evidence) has been felt to be the key to the position, and around it the battle has raged fiercely since its publication.  One who (like our author) maintains the priority of the Curetonian letters, was especially bound