The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite

Epistle to the Colossians, Chap. I. v. 23 (original: "τοῦ κηρυχθέντος ἐν πάσῃ κτίσει" — "which was preached to every creature"), and with such success among the most learned and noble, that, if not for the cruel massacre of Flavius Clemens and his family for the Christian faith, there would have been a Christian Emperor in the first century. As Jesus said, “Ye shall be witnesses of Me unto the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts Chap. I. v. 8), so the Apostles planted the Church of Christ in Gaul, Spain, and Britain, with its threefold ministry; and by the end of the second century, there was an organized Church throughout each of those territories k.

Dr. Schneider informs me “that in Germany they now admit that the external proofs are in favor of the genuineness of Dionysius, but they confine themselves to the internal proofs. They claim that the doctrine is too clear and precise to have been written in the apostolic age.”

How could the chief Areopagite, the convert and companion of St. Paul, and the familiar friend of St. John the Theologian, have understood theology!!

i Burton, Ecc. Hist., Vol. I. p. 367.
k Mansi I. 698, Jaffé, Regesta Rom. Pon. 2nd Ed., p. 10, by Ewald.