We may trace indeed some of the steps by which this position was attained.

The [Greek: gegraptai] of the Epistle of Barnabas, the public reading of the Gospels in the churches mentioned by Justin, the [Greek: to eiraemenon] of Tatian, the [Greek: guriakai graphai] of Dionysius of Corinth, all prepare the way for the final culmination in the Muratorian Canon and Irenaeus.

So complete had the process been that Irenaeus does not seem to know of a time when the authority of the Gospels had been less than it was to him.

Yet the process had been, of course, gradual.

The canonical Gospels had to compete with several others before they became canonical.