hearsay-anecdotes

Updated: June 27, 2025

John wrote his Gospel with a view to confute Cerinthus, among other false teachers, is attested first by Irenæus, who was a disciple of Polycarp, and who flourished within less than a century of St. John's time. I have little trust and no faith in the gossip and hearsay-anecdotes of the early Fathers, Irenæus not excepted. "Within less than a century of St. John's time."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Coleridge's Literary Remains, Volume 4.