ABSTRACT
THE mention of the Canons of Hippolytus leads naturally to the consideration of a fresh type of Christian literature. This is the group of Church Orders, to which increased attention has been given in recent years, and from which we derive much valuable information as to the inner life of the Church in early days. They are manuals that give instruction on the celebration of the sacraments and the general ordering of the Christian life. They are obviously pseudonymous, purporting to give the injunctions that were uttered by the apostles for the regulation of the churches. They exist in a bewildering series of editions, and it is not altogether easy to trace the stages by which they were built up. The prototype may be found in the Pastoral Epistles, but the first actual example is certainly the Didache.
