an apostolic Father put an end to all farther questionings?

Hippolytus, who was his contemporary, has given us much information
in relation to Callistus. He writes, indeed, in an unfriendly spirit;
but he speaks, notwithstanding, as an honest man; and we cannot well
reject his statements as destitute of foundation. His account of
the general facts in the career of this Roman bishop obviously rest
on a substratum of truth. As we read these Ignatian letters, it
may occur to us that the real author sometimes betrays his identity.
Callistus had been originally a slave, and he here represents
Ignatius as saying of himself, "I am a slave." [74:2] Callistus
had been a convict, and more than once this Ignatius declares,
"I am a convict." [74:3] May he not thus intend to remind his
co-religionists at Rome that an illustrious bishop and martyr
had once been a slave and a convict like himself? Callistus,
when labouring in the mines of Sardinia, must have been well
acquainted with ropes and hoists; and here Ignatius describes
the Ephesians as "hoisted up to the heights through the engine
of Jesus Christ," having faith as their "windlass," and as
"using for a rope the Holy Spirit." [74:4] Callistus had at one
time been in charge of a bank; and Ignatius, in one of these
Epistles, is made to say, "Let your works be your _deposits_, that
you may receive your _assets_ due to you." [75:1] Callistus also
had charge of the Christian cemetery in the Roman Catacombs; and
Ignatius here expresses himself as one familiar with graves and
funerals. He speaks of a heretic as "being himself a bearer of a
corpse," and of those inclined to Judaism "as tombstones and
graves of the dead." [75:2] It is rather singular that, in these
few short letters, we find so many expressions which point to
Callistus as the writer. There are, however, other matters which