The 'Missing' Apostles

Can anyone explain why only select members of the Twelve Apostles have Gospels?I'm curious as to why the Council of Carthage choose to exclude the Gospels of Thomas, Philip etc when compiling the NT - yet do include the Gospels of Luke and Mark, who were only companions of Saint Paul.As Paul (afaik) never met Christ, Luke and Mark would seem to have far less validity then any member of the Twelve.[This message has been edited by DaveF, 01-17-2003]

Admittedly, the Gospels of John, Thomas, Philip and Mary all have gnostic leanings - but it seems as though only pictic Gospels have ever been accepted.The simple fact that these individuals were very close to Christ and still had gnostic leanings surely must indicate that the gnostic viewpoint was compatible with the teachings of Christ.I have also read on a number of sites that the pictic view (absolute faith in scripture) was originally heretical, but grew rapidly in numbers during the time Nero put them to the lions as entertainment. I would be interested if anyone could recommend any books / sources regarding the early schizm of Pictic / Gnostic Christianity.I would also like recommendations on books regarding the inception of Roman Catholicism - I didn't realise that 'Catholic' meant 'Universal', nor that Constantine had allegedly created it by combining Pictic Christianity with a number of Pagan faiths in order to create a state religion.