Philastrius.
Philastrius.
§ 89. We shall list briefly the voices of the rest of the fathers in the Western churches. Philastrius was bishop of Brescia and a contemporary of Jerome and Rufinus. He explains as follows: “The apostles and their successors claimed that no books ought to be read in the Catholic Church except the Law and the Prophets, and that the perfected saints, but not all people, should read the apocryphal or hidden books for the sake of behavior” (Catalog. haeres., c. 88). With the expression “Law and the Prophets,” he follows Christ’s example and means the twenty-two books of the Old Testament.