ITS GREAT ANTIQUITY

That the Canon is of very great antiquity all writers and critics admit. The precise date at which it was composed, and who its real author was, still remain among the disputed questions. Certain it is, however, that a hand has not touched it since the time of Pope Gregory the Great—that is, since the early part of the seventh century—and what that pontiff added to it was so very little that we would be almost justified in saying that it takes us back, in its present form, to those days in the past when we could converse with men who spoke face to face with our Divine Lord himself and his blessed apostles. The Church possesses nothing more venerable than this sacred memorial.