The number of such books, received in the greater part of Christendom, has been twenty-seven, since the provincial Council of Carthage, A.D. 397. They have been divided roughly into historical, epistolary and prophetic. Amongst the Epistles, First Peter and First John were early ranged with those of Paul as forming one series; but subsequently, the Epistles were divided into Pauline and Catholic, and then put into separate. volumes. In respect of ecclesiastical recognition, the books were, while the Canon still remained open, divided into such as were " acknowledged or received otherwise uncontradicted," and those that were " disputed," or treated with suspicion: so Eusebius.