Against those at Rome who were corrupting the sound ordinance of the church, Irenaeus composed various letters: one entitled 「To Blastus, concerning Schism,」 another 「To Florinus, concerning Monarchy, or that God is not the author of evils」 (for Florinus seemed to be championing this opinion). On whose account also—since he was again being drawn aside into the error of Valentinus—the treatise concerning the Ogdoad was composed by Irenaeus, in which he notes also that he himself had laid hold of the first succession from the apostles.
There, near the end of the treatise, finding a most charming note of his, we must of necessity set it down also in this writing of ours; it runs in this manner: 「I adjure you who shall copy out this book, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by his glorious coming, in which he comes to judge the living and the dead, that you compare what you have copied and correct it carefully against this exemplar from which you copied; and that you likewise copy out this adjuration and place it in your copy.」
And let this too have been profitably said by him, and let it be recorded by us, that we may have those ancient and truly holy men as an excellent example of the most diligent care.
In the letter to Florinus which we mentioned before, Irenaeus again recalls his association with Polycarp, saying this: 「These doctrines, Florinus—that I may speak sparingly—are not of a sound mind; these doctrines are out of harmony with the church, casting those who are persuaded by them into the greatest impiety; these doctrines not even the heretics outside the church ever dared to declare; these doctrines the presbyters before us, who also walked with the apostles, did not deliver to you.」
「For I saw you, when I was still a boy, in lower Asia in the company of Polycarp, faring brilliantly in the imperial court and trying to win his good opinion. For I remember the things of that time more clearly than those which have happened recently.」
「For the things learned from childhood, growing up together with the soul, are united with it; so that I can tell even the place in which the blessed Polycarp used to sit and discourse, and his comings in and goings out, and the character of his life, and the form of his body, and the discourses which he made to the multitude, and how he reported his association with John and with the rest who had seen the Lord, and how he recalled their words, and what were the things he had heard from them concerning the Lord, and concerning his miracles and concerning his teaching—how Polycarp, having received them from the eyewitnesses of the life of the Word, reported all things in harmony with the Scriptures.」
「These things even then, through the mercy of God which came upon me, I listened to diligently, recording them not on paper but in my heart; and always, by the grace of God, I genuinely ruminate upon them. And I am able to testify before God that, if that blessed and apostolic presbyter had heard any such thing, he would have cried out and stopped his ears, and, saying as was his custom, ‘O good God, for what times have you kept me, that I should endure these things,’ would have fled even from the place in which, sitting or standing, he had heard such words.」
And this can be made plain also from his letters which he sent, either to the neighbouring churches, confirming them, or to certain of the brethren, admonishing and exhorting them. So much from Irenaeus.