VI.

_THE CHURCHES OF GAUL._


A severe persecution broke out in the year A.D. 177, under Marcus
Aurelius, in the cities of Vienne and Lyons, on the Rhone, and an
account of the martyrdoms which then took place was given in a letter
from the persecuted communities, addressed "to the brethren that are in
Asia and Phrygia." This epistle is in great part preserved to us by
Eusebius (_H.E._ v. 1), and it is to a consideration of its contents
that Dr. Lightfoot devotes his essay on the Churches of Gaul. But for
the sake of ascertaining clearly what evidence actually exists of the
Gospels, it would have been of little utility to extend the enquiry in
_Supernatural Religion_ to this document, written nearly a century and
a half after the death of Jesus, but it is instructive to show how
exceedingly slight is the information we possess regarding those
documents. I may at once say that no writing of the New Testament is
directly referred to by name in this epistle, and consequently any
supposed quotations are merely inferred to be such by their similarity
to passages found in these writings. With the complete unconsciousness
which I have pointed out that Dr. Lightfoot affects regarding the
object and requirements of my argument, Dr. Lightfoot is, of course,
indignant that I will not accept as conclusive evidence the imperfect
coincidences which alone he is able to bring forward. I have elsewhere
fully discussed these, [140:1] and I need only refer to some portions
of his essay here.