教會史卷 1–9（拉丁譯本） 第 4 章

In the twelfth year of the principate of Trajan Caesar, Cerdo—whom we mentioned a little before as governing the people of the Alexandrians—died, after whom Primus by name, fourth from the apostles, took up the rights of the priesthood there. At the same time Alexander also, at Rome, when he had completed his eighth year, obtained the helm of the people, being fifth to hold rule over the Roman flock after Peter and Paul. And indeed the institution of our Savior and the progress of the churches grew day by day. But the funerals of the Jews were harassed by the most dense disasters. And so, after the aforesaid emperor had (entered upon) the eighteenth year (of his reign), by which a great number of that nation soon perished.

For both at Alexandria and throughout Egypt and Cyrene, being agitated as it were by some fierce and seditious spirit, they first began to wage contests against the gentiles dwelling and neighboring among them, and then, as the sedition gradually grew, in the following year, under a certain leader (Lucuas) in the parts of Egypt. And indeed in the first battle victory followed the Jews. But the gentiles who had fled from the battle-line, bursting into Alexandria, seized and slew the Jews, whomever they perchance found there. And the rest, deprived of their aid, who had risen in rebellion at Cyrene under Lucuas.

Against these the emperor sent, with an army of foot and horse, and also with a naval force, Marcius Turbo, who, in many battles indeed and over no small time consumed, laid low and crushed many thousands of the Jews, not only at Cyrene but also in Egypt, who were bringing aid to Lucuas. But the Roman prince, judging that even those Jews who dwelt in Mesopotamia would dare like things, ordered Lucius Quietus to destroy the province utterly and to cut off the whole nation from the very root. Then he, having drawn up his battle-line, laid low a great multitude of them. For which deed, Quietus, by way of recompense, obtained from the emperor the governorship of the province of Judaea.

But these things also the historians of the Greek gentiles have handed down to memory through the several ages in the same order. And when Trajan had discharged the principate for twenty years less six months, Aelius Hadrianus succeeds to the scepter. To him Quadratus offered, in a most splendid oration, an apologetic book composed on behalf of our religion and fortified with the strongest assertions, since indeed certain malicious men under that same prince were striving to assail our people. This book is preserved even today both among us and among many of our brethren. From which volume the tokens of a certain great man—both of the mind and of the apostolic faith of him, that is, who composed it—are gathered.

This same writer sets forth a proof of its antiquity in words such as these: 'But the works of our Savior,' he says, 'were always present, living and true, in those who had been healed and in those who had been raised from the dead. For they were not only seen to rise again or to be healed, but were perpetually beheld by men, not only while the Savior was present, but also for a long time after his departure, so that some of those who were healed or raised up by him have survived even down to our own times.' And on this point enough has been said. But Aristides also, a faithful man imbued with the piety of our religion, [dedicated] to Hadrian a volume like that of Quadratus. ... he ended the priesthood of the city together with his life, when the tenth year was complete.

In his place Xystus was substituted. But at Alexandria also, at the same time, Primus having died... we have found preserved whole in the records, because those who each held the priesthood are said to have been snatched away by the swiftness of death after a very short time, so that, as far as I can learn from the reading of the ancients, they hand down that fifteen successions of bishops had run their course down to that time.

All of whom, they say, were Hebrews of ancient origin and had faithfully received the knowledge of Christ, and therefore were without hesitation judged most worthy also of the priesthood by those who were able to judge concerning the merit of faith, seeing that the whole [Church] then [was established] by the apostles and doubtless endured down to that time of the destruction, in which the Jews, again falling away, were once more subdued by the Romans in great battles.

Therefore, because during that same period the taking of bishops from the circumcision ceased, it seems necessary [to record] all from the first onward: [James] who was held to be the brother of the Lord; after him Symeon was elected; third Justus; Zacchaeus fourth; then Tobias fifth and Benjamin sixth; and seventh John; then Matthias, whom Philip succeeded; to whom, tenth, Seneca was substituted; then Justus, and twelfth Levi; after him Ephrem, and fourteenth Joseph; and the last of all, Judas. These are nearly all who were bishops at Jerusalem from the apostles down to those times. But at Rome, in the twelfth year of the said reign, Xystus having held the helm of the Church for twelve years, Telesphorus, the seventh from the apostles, is substituted.

One year and one month after which, Eumenes received the governance of the Alexandrian church in the sixth succession, while his predecessor [held it] eleven [years]. Rufus, presiding over Judaea with an armed force decreed to him by the emperor, most fiercely crushed the insolence of the nation, destroying many thousands of men, women and children everywhere, whose lands [passed] to the Romans by the law of war. A certain Bar Kochba of the Jews, whose name signifies 'star,' but who was in other respects a cruel and wicked man, persuaded them from his own name, as if they were cheap slaves, that for their salvation he had come down from heaven as a great star, to bring the aid of light to sick mortals condemned to long darkness.

In [a certain] year of the same reign, when a rather long siege was being pressed by the Romans at Bethera, a very strong town near Jerusalem, [that nation] brandishing diabolical poisons amid hunger and thirst, brought forth a certain Saturninus, born at Antioch, and Basilides, sprung from Alexandria. Each of these founded in his own regions workshops of impious teaching hateful to God. And, as Irenaeus signifies, [Saturninus taught certain things], but Basilides, under the pretext of mystical doctrine, stretched the imagining of his impious mind into immensity, while monstrous fabrications of fables pleased his fancy.

But on the contrary, very many churchmen stood bravely for the truth and contended by writings and by assertions supported by sound reason for the apostolic and ecclesiastical tradition, so that from the monuments of books a defense and a support might be provided also to posterity for guarding against the poisons of the heretics. Among these there has come down to us a book of Agrippa Castor, a most celebrated writer of that time, containing a most powerful refutation of Basilides, through which the cunning and craftiness of the man, all too apt for deceiving, is laid bare.

Finally, when he published his secrets, he said that Basilides had composed twenty-four commentaries on the Gospel, and had named to himself certain prophets—Barcabbas and Barcob and others—who had never existed, whom nevertheless he himself set up for himself and named with barbarous words, so that the very name might be terrible. He reports also that Basilides taught that things sacrificed [to idols] were to be tasted without any scruple of conscience, and that in times of persecution the faith was to be denied without scruple and indifferently; and he taught his followers, after the Pythagorean manner, to keep silence for five years. He adds also not a few other things, by which he declares that the error of this sect had been thoroughly detected and refuted by himself.

But Irenaeus also writes that a certain Carpocrates, contemporary in time and manners with those mentioned, was the author of another superstition, whose followers are called by the name of Gnostics, coined from 'knowledge.' He indeed handed down the sleights of Simon Magus, not secretly as Simon did, but publicly and openly, and demanded, as though for the highest and best pursuits, avowed and public praise for his nefarious arts from his deceived hearers, and preached magical darkness in the public light, dealing at least in love-charms and dreams sent upon [men], and attendant demons and other like frauds.

And he decreed that every man ought consequently to be taught these things who desired to attain the perfection of his mystery, or rather of his crime, asserting that not otherwise [could] these his nefarious deeds be discharged as owed by each. Therefore that rival of all good, using the ministers of his malignity, dragged off to everlasting darkness both those who after [receiving] the faith were deceived by them, and those who had not yet believed, so that everyone who heard [these things], as though this were [the nature] of our religion, might shun the very profession of the Christians.

Nor from any other source had there then arisen the suspicion concerning us, as though we were truly impious and incestuous, whereby it was asserted that our people were defiled by unlawful debaucheries and by intercourse promiscuously held with mothers and sisters, and [fed] upon the accursed banquets of infanticide, [and made] to disclose [such things]; nay rather, as the life of our people shone forth more clearly and splendidly, the fog of that superstitious fabrication was continually extinguished. And as every single sect that had arisen against the truth vanished away, or flowed off into manifold and multiform forms, [the Church] made progress; and though tinged by the variety of the times, because it shone forth by its chastity and purity and by the glory of divine conduct through every kind of men, in wisdom, doctrine, faith, and deeds.

For at the very moment when it had begun, the flame of this reproach was extinguished. But [the chastity of the Church] remained among each [generation], nor did it suffer the chastity and modesty of the Church to be torn by the adulterate coloring of slanderers, to such a degree that from that [time] down to our own times no one has arisen of so savage a mind as would stain the honesty and chastity of our people with reproaches contrived by a sacrilegious mouth.

But even to the nations hidden in the remotest parts of the Roman world, so sweet an odor from the deeds of the Church, and a certain divine breath breathing of holy conduct, penetrated; to such a degree was the happy fame of the Christians borne to the ears and minds of all, that the whole race of men [began to abandon] the laws and superstitions of their fathers. The same author also makes mention of the Jewish war which was then being waged: 'For in this war which is now being waged, the Jewish war, Bar Kochba, the prince of the Jewish faction, ordered the Christians alone—unless they should deny Christ—to be hurried away to punishments as blasphemers.' In which books, concerning his own conversion also, which he had from gentile [philosophy]...

...[from] philosophy to the faith of the true religion—[showing] that not without probable reason and examined judgment he was converted to this—he writes in this manner: 'For I myself,' he says, 'having been trained in the Platonic schools, when I heard the Christians defamed and saw them fearless to undergo death and to endure every torment, I considered that it was impossible for them to live in malice and in lust. For who that is ever voluptuous and given over to luxuries, and who reckons it a delight to feed on human flesh, would gladly embrace death, whereby, of course, he would at once be deprived of that very pleasure for which he chose rather to be defamed?'

'Nay rather, he would strive to live perpetually, if he were bent [on avoiding] the appointed and professed death he had chosen to offer [himself to].' The same man also writes that the emperor Hadrian, having received a letter from Serennius Granianus, a most distinguished man and governor, in which he inquired concerning the Christians, wrote back that it was not just that Christians, guilty of no crime, should be punished without trial and law. And at the same time he subjoins a copy of the letter itself, which runs in this manner: 'I have received a letter written to me by your predecessor Serennius Granianus, a most distinguished man, and it does not please me to pass over the report in silence... and so, if the provincials can plainly maintain this their petition [before the tribunal], I do not forbid it. But I do not permit them to use in this matter mere entreaties and outcries.'

'For it is far more equitable, if anyone wishes to accuse, that you take cognizance of the charges. If therefore anyone accuses and proves that the said men do anything against the laws, you shall determine punishments too according to the desert of the offenses. This, by Hercules, you shall greatly take care of: that if anyone, for the sake of calumny, arraigns any of these men as a defendant, against him, for his [wickedness, you shall proceed more severely].' But Hadrian after these things died in the twenty-first year of his reign, and Antoninus, surnamed Pius, received the empire of the Romans.

In his first year Telesphorus, having administered the priesthood in the city of Rome for eleven years, departed from life, and Hyginus [received the lot of the episcopate]. [Irenaeus records] that [Telesphorus] ended his life by martyrdom, indicating at the same time that in the times of bishop Hyginus, Valentinus, the author of the Valentinian heresy, arose, and a certain Cerdo, the originator of that error which Marcion afterwards followed; and that these flourished at one time at Rome, but in diverse impieties. He writes: 'For Valentinus came to Rome under Hyginus. He grew strong in the times of Pius and endured down to Anicetus. But Cerdo, who was before Marcion, he too came under Hyginus, who was the ninth bishop in the city of Rome from the apostle.'

'Who nevertheless sometimes indeed, as though repenting and confessing his error, excused himself; but sometimes again secretly, and at times even publicly, taught impiety; and being convicted of this by the assembly of the brotherhood...' These things Irenaeus said in the third book against heresies. But in the first book he says, no less, these things concerning Cerdo: 'Cerdo indeed, taking occasion for his impiety from the followers of Simon, came to Rome under Hyginus and there taught that the God who was proclaimed by the law and the prophets was not himself the father of our Lord Jesus Christ; because the former was known, but the latter unknown; and the former just, but the latter good. Succeeding him, Marcion of Pontus, blaspheming without any reverence, increased the madness of his teacher.'

This same Irenaeus also most powerfully refutes the immense abyss of Valentinus's error concerning matter and the rest, and, [creeping] after the manner of a serpent, joins [it] to the blind; and concerning a certain Marcus, whom he says, imbued with magic arts, especially distinguished himself. Concerning whose profane superstitions and secrets—not so much sacred as sacrilegious—and mystic miseries he writes thus: 'For certain of them construct a bridal chamber and celebrate a certain nefarious kind of initiation, consecrating him who is being introduced as if with certain secret chants and words, not so much sacred as execrable; they say that what they do is a spiritual marriage, after the likeness, that is, of the supernal conjugations.'

'But leading them to the water and baptizing them, they utter these words over them: 'In the name,' they say, 'of the unknown father of all, and in the truth, the mother of all, and in him who descended into Jesus.' But others [pronounce] Hebrew names, for the terror of the hearers, over those whom [they initiate].' These things Irenaeus writes concerning the followers of Marcus. But in the fourth year of his episcopate, when Hyginus had died, Pius received the priesthood of the Roman church; and at Alexandria, Marcus [received it], Eumenes having died in the thirteenth year of his episcopate. Which Marcus, when for ten years he had [held] the priesthood, [left it]. But Pius, having completed fifteen years in the priesthood in the city of Rome, handed on the see after himself to Anicetus.

In whose times Hegesippus relates that he himself came to Rome and remained there down to the episcopate of Eleutherus, who was substituted after Anicetus. [At this period Justin,] defending the word and the reason of our faith both by written volumes and by the assertion of the living voice—who, writing also against Marcion, mentions concerning him that which was still surviving at the time when he was writing... [saying that Marcion persuaded men] to believe there was another God greater than the God the creator. 'These things,' he says, 'that man, forcing upon men and using demons as his helpers, persuaded many to blaspheme, so that they denied that the creator of all, God himself, is the father of Christ, [affirming] rather some other who was, as it were, greater than he. And yet, though the sects be diverse, by a common appellation they are called philosophers.'

There is also a book composed by us against all heresies. ...[When unrest is stirred against them, you confirm their conviction...]—'[The Emperor,] invested with the tribunician power for the fifteenth time, consul for the third time, to all the peoples of Asia together, greeting. I indeed do not doubt that the gods themselves also take care that such men do not escape notice, rather than you [do], since it is they who are unwilling to sacrifice to them. But you confirm the very opinion which they hold of you, whom you persecute, when they call you impious and without God. Whence they hold it more desirable to lay down their soul for their God and gladly to embrace death, than to yield to you in such demands and to submit to the rites of your religion.

'But concerning the movements of the earth, whether those that have occurred or those that even now occur, it will not be absurd to console your grief with a just admonition. For indeed I have learned that in matters of this kind you transfer the common misfortunes to hatred of them. In this—at every time when you are ignorant concerning such things—you neglect the other gods, but the worship of the immortal God whom the Christians worship you expel and cast down, persecuting even to death the worshippers of that observance. Concerning whom very many judges from the provinces had also written to our venerable father [Hadrian]. To whom it was written back by him, that they should cause no trouble at all to men of this kind, unless perchance they should be shown to be attempting something against the state of the Roman realm.

'But to me myself also very many have made report concerning these things, to whom, following my father's opinion, I wrote back with equal moderation. But if anyone persists in stirring up troubles against men of this kind without any crime [alleged], he indeed who has been informed against for this name shall be absolved, even if it be proved that he is what is charged against him, a Christian; but he who alleges the charge shall be made liable to the very penalty which he alleged. Set forth at Ephesus publicly in the assembly of Asia.' That these things were thus done, Melito, bishop of the church of Sardis, also testifies. ...And when he had awakened after the vision, he interpreted his dream to the bystanders and said for certain that he would obtain the exit of his life through fire for Christ's sake.

Therefore, the inquiry being imminent, [Polycarp], again compelled by the love of the brethren, migrated to another place; whither, not long after, his pursuers, having entered and seized two boys, and one of these having been beaten, come, by his information, to Polycarp, when the day was already declining. And, having entered, they find him indeed resting in the upper rooms, whence, although easy passage could have been open for him to another house, he was unwilling, saying: 'Let the will of the Lord be done.'

Nay rather, even when he had learned that his captors were present, he began [to receive] the men with such great graciousness of countenance, that they wondered and were astonished what such great zeal there had been, that a man of that gravity and honor, set in so advanced an age and with such authority of life, was ordered to be sought out and apprehended. But he, delaying nothing, at once orders a table to be set for his foes as if for guests, and a banquet to be provided the more liberally, having obtained from them the space of one hour for the sake of prayer. He prayed therefore, filled with such great grace of God, that all who were present marveled, and the very ones who had come to apprehend him repented that they had been ordered to carry off to punishment a man so honorable and worthy of God and venerable in his very age.

And after some things, the same writing joins on, in these very words, such things as these: 'But after he had finished his prayer, making mention of all whomsoever he had been able to know, greater and lesser, noble and ignoble, and of the whole catholic Church which is throughout the world, the hour now pressing, he goes forth, and, sitting on an ass, was led to the city, when it was the day of the great Sabbath. As he went along, there met him the prefect of the peace, Herod by name, and his father Nicetas, who, taking him up with them into their carriage, sedulously endeavored to persuade him, saying: 'For what evil is it to say, Lord Caesar, and to sacrifice, and thereafter to live secure?' These things he at first heard in silence; but when they persisted, he said to them: 'What need is there of many words?'

'I am not going to do what you say.' And they, after they perceived that they had accomplished nothing, moved by indignation, cast him down from the carriage with insult, so that, driven down headlong, he injured his foot. But, as though no injury had been done, content with all cheerfulness, he proceeded to the stadium, to which he had been ordered to be led. And when a great tumult had arisen in the stadium at his entrance, a voice came down from heaven: 'Be strong, Polycarp, and act like a man.' But no one could see the author of the voice, yet the sound reached very many. Meanwhile the tumult of the people, seeing that Polycarp was being brought in, is roused to fury. And when he was interrogated from afar by the proconsul, whether he himself was Polycarp, he confesses that he is.

'Therefore,' said [the proconsul], 'have regard to the reverence due your age, and, sparing your extreme old age, swear by the Fortune of Caesar, showing repentance for your former [deeds], and cry out, you too: 'Away with the atheists.' Then Polycarp, looking with a stern countenance upon the people who sat in the stadium, and raising his right hand to heaven, cried out with a groan and said: 'Away with the atheists.' But the proconsul insisting: '[Swear, and] I release you.' Polycarp to this: 'Eighty and six years,' he says, 'I have served [him]... [how then shall I] blaspheme my King, who gave me salvation?' And when again he was more vehemently urged to swear by the Fortune of Caesar: 'If you suppose,' he says, 'that I [will boastfully swear this], hear from me with all freedom, that I am a Christian.'

'But if you also wish to receive an account of the Christian religion, appoint a day and hear.' The proconsul said: 'Persuade the people.' Polycarp said: 'To you indeed I have answered; for we are taught to render honor to princes and to these powers which are from God, insofar as it is not harmful to us; but to give satisfaction to a raving [mob] is not mine [to do].' The proconsul said: 'I have beasts made ready, to which you shall be exposed, unless you quickly repent.' But he answered: 'Let them be brought forth; for our sentence stands immovable, nor can we be changed by repentance from good to evil; but it would be better [that these should be changed from evil to good].' [The proconsul:] 'I will have you consumed by fire, if the beasts seem contemptible to you, and you do not accept a change of purpose.' But he [replied]:

'You threaten me,' he says, 'with fire—this fire which is kindled for a moment and shortly after is extinguished—because you are ignorant of the fire of the judgment to come, the eternal fire which is prepared for perpetual punishments for the impious.' ...Saying things like these, Polycarp was filled at once with confidence and gladness, so that the proconsul marveled with the greatest astonishment at the cheerfulness of his countenance and the constancy of his answers. Having therefore sent a herald to the people, he orders it to be proclaimed with the loudest voice that Polycarp had thrice confessed himself a Christian. On hearing which, the whole multitude, both of gentiles and of the Jews of the city of the Smyrnaeans, with immense fury cried out: 'This is the teacher of all Asia and the father of the Christians, the subverter of our gods.'

'It is he who teaches many not to sacrifice nor to worship the gods.' And after these words they cried out to Philip the master of the games, that he should let loose a lion upon Polycarp. He answered that it was not lawful for him, because he had already completed the [function] of his exhibition. Then they all together cried out with one voice that Polycarp should be burned alive; for it was fitting that his vision, which he had seen concerning the burning pillow, should be fulfilled. And when these things were done quicker than said—the peoples themselves gathering fuel and faggots from the baths or from any public places, the Jews especially being the more ardently fervent in these things, as is their custom—the pyre was built up with all speed.

Then the old man, having laid aside his garments and loosed his girdle, tried also to draw off the sandals from his feet, which he had never been accustomed to loose except when [helped] by any of the faithful, each anticipating the other in faith and devotion; for thus, in all the rest of his life too, he was reverently cherished by all. When therefore the things pertaining to the fire had been made ready, and they wished, when he was placed on the pyre, to fasten him also with nails, he said: 'Let me be; for he who gave me to bear the punishment of fire will grant that, even without the fastening of nails, I may endure the flames immovably.' Then they, the nails being omitted, used bonds alone.

With his hands bound behind his back, like a chosen ram taken from a great flock, he was offered as an acceptable holocaust to almighty God, pouring forth also these prayers even in his very passion:

'God, Father of your beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the knowledge of you, God of angels and powers and of all creation and of the whole race of the just, who all live before you: I bless you, who have deigned to bring me to this day and to this hour, that I might be a partaker of the martyrs and of the cup of your Christ, unto the resurrection of eternal life of my soul and spirit, through the incorruption of the Holy Spirit; among whom may I be received in your sight this day as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, even as you have prepared and foreshown, and so also have brought to pass.

'True are you, and a God without falsehood; therefore in all things I praise you and bless you and glorify you, through the eternal God and high priest Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom and with whom be glory to you, in the Holy Spirit, both now and unto the ages to come, amen.' And when the amen had sounded forth, the prayer being completed, the men of eternal fire apply the fire; and when a great flame had blazed up, we all beheld miracles—we to whom God granted to see these things—of whom too very many were reserved by the Lord for this, that they might announce to the rest the things which they had seen.

For the flame, curved in the shape of a vault, like the sails of a ship bellied out by the wind, stood above the body of the martyr; which body, placed in the midst, was not as burning flesh, but as if gold or silver were glowing white-hot in a furnace. Moreover, we drew in with our nostrils an odor as of incense burned, or of the most precious fragrant ointment. At last, the ministers of these crimes, seeing that the body could not be consumed by fire, ordered the executioner to approach nearer and to pierce through with a blade the body to which the fire had yielded. When this was done, so copious a flood of blood poured out that it quenched the pyre.

But the people, astounded at the wonder of the miracle, departed amazed. [It behooves us] to love and venerate [Christ our Lord], as those keeping our faith whole to our master and Lord, of whom we too desire to be partakers in faith and in the perseverance of charity. But when the centurion saw the so obstinate contention of the Jews, he burned up that body set in the midst; and thus afterward we gathered his charred bones—dearer than the most precious gems and more estimable than all gold, made [precious] through fire—and, as was fitting, according to custom laid them away. In which place even now, the Lord granting, [we keep] solemn [festivals]. And when we also celebrate the memorials of those who suffered before, [it is] that the minds of those who follow may be roused by distinguished examples to the way of their predecessors.

Thus far concerning the blessed Polycarp, with whom also twelve others, coming from Philadelphia, were consummated in martyrdom at Smyrna. But in the same letter there was also contained an interwoven narrative concerning very many other martyrs of the same time. Among whom it is reported that, after Polycarp, a certain Metrodorus too, a presbyter of the Marcionite heresy, was delivered to the fire.

But among the rest who, in that same period, [teaching and disputing openly, in the sight of all men,] became martyrs, there is reported there a most famous man, a certain Pionius by name; whose constancy of answers through the several interrogations, and his orations to the people on behalf of our faith, and how undaunted he ever stood before the judges, teaching and disputing even in the very tribunals, and how he gave his right hand [to be bound], and, placed in prison, how he strengthened the minds of the brethren who came in to him for the endurance of martyrdom, and what tortures he himself too endured for martyrdom, and how he was fastened with nails and set upon a burning pyre, and how amid these he made a blessed end of his life—if anyone wishes, [seeing that a fuller account] is set forth, he will learn more fully.

After these things there are also recounted the deeds of other martyrs at Pergamum, a city of Asia: of a certain Carpus and Papirius and Agathonice, a most excellent woman, and of many others who, for the sake of blessed hope, endured their contest. Justin, when he had presented to the judges of that time the second book which he had written in defense of our religion, received the recompense of a faithful and learned tongue, the gift of martyrdom, through a certain philosopher named Crescens, a dog as much in his profession as in his morals; for amid the very snares of his tricks Justin had not only prevailed over him with the man in dispute, but, the truth strongly supporting him, had confounded him the more vehemently, whence too he received from the Lord the palm of his victory, namely martyrdom.

That this would come to pass in this way, the blessed man himself, the true philosopher, plainly foretold with prophetic mind, just as it was to happen, in that defense which we said above was written by him. 'For I too,' he says, 'expect to suffer ambush from one of those against whom I stand for the truth; I expect to be struck with a staff or a club'; a lover not of wisdom but of vainglory. For it is not fitting that he be called a philosopher who publicly makes assertions about things he does not know, and says that Christians are without God and impious, to gratify the favor and pleasure of those whom, being themselves set in error, he entangles in still greater snares of error.

He is most worthless, and far more worthless than the unlearned, since even the unlearned or simple take care not to dare to dispute about things they do not know, nor to bear witness concerning things of which they have no knowledge. But if he did read what is written among us, and either did not understand its power, or indeed understood it, he is to be judged the more detestable, who, courting the favor of the ignorant multitude, becomes the enemy and betrayer of the very truth and piety which he approves. For know that I set before him certain questions, from his answers to which he was convicted of knowing nothing. And so true are the things I say that it is most surely discerned that he is utterly ignorant of the things that are ours.

But if these things have not yet come to your notice, I am ready once more to give you a hearing of them. These are the words of the blessed Justin, in accordance with which, just as he had foretold, he was consummated in martyrdom through the ambush of Crescens. Tatian too, a most learned man, in his early years taught rhetoric with great admiration and from it had sought no small glory; afterward he left it behind in remembrance, in a work in which he mentions Justin with these words: 'But the admirable man Justin,' he says, 'quite rightly pursued the matter.' And after a little, when he had said certain things about the philosophers, he adds also this: '[Crescens] surpassed all men in debaucheries, and in greed for money was inferior to none.'

But while he urged that death, along with other things, was to be despised, he himself held so evil an opinion of it that he handed Justin over to death as though to the ultimate evil, because, in preaching the truth, he had exposed the voluptuous; and martyrs had arisen even before him. Describing these contests, in the first book of his defense he says: 'A certain woman was joined to a base husband; she, having herself first been reformed, sought also to persuade her husband concerning chastity, suggesting to him that it is written in the precepts of the Christians that eternal punishments threaten those who in their life have despised chastity and justice. But he, persisting in obscenity, by his very deeds was making his wife estranged from himself, since the woman deemed it a sacrilege to remain in the wedlock and fellowship of such a husband.'

But he, after these things having set out for Alexandria, when he was reported to be conducting himself yet more basely and to be gaining greater increases of an unchaste life, so that he was reckoned a most shameful man, she gave him a bill of divorce and departed. Her husband, who ought rather to have rejoiced that his wife's chastity had so advanced that she could not only commit nothing base herself but could not even patiently endure her husband's baseness, from whom she sought amendment in vain, accused his wife on the score of her very chastity: 'She is a Christian,' he said. And she indeed presented a petition to you, O emperor, asking that first she be permitted to set her household affairs in order, and then afterward answer the charges; and this you granted.

But the husband, since he could not accuse the woman, turned his attack against a certain Ptolemaeus. He had as a friend a certain centurion; him he persuaded to inquire of Ptolemaeus whether he was a Christian. Ptolemaeus, as a lover of the truth, by no means denied the glory of his profession... it is this: 'And I too,' he says, 'expect to suffer ambush from one of those against whom I have stood for the truth,' and the rest. This man has left us very many monuments of his studies, from which we may gather the tokens of his learned soul, given over to divine disciplines; in them those who bear a love of learning and knowledge can find very great profit.

There exists, then, this book of his, of which we made mention above, written to Antoninus, who was called Pius, and to his son and the senate, in defense of our religion. But there is also a second no less containing a defense of our faith, which he writes to the successor of the aforesaid prince, Antoninus Verus, whose times we have now begun to set forth. There is also another book against the pagans, in which he treats of individual matters; there too he discusses certain things about the nature of demons, which it would be too long to insert here. There is likewise another book against the pagans, which is entitled 'Confutation.' And there is another of his, 'On Monarchy,' which he wove together not only from our books but also from the volumes of the Greeks.

There is another, entitled 'The Psalmist,' and another as it were in the manner of scholia, 'On the Soul,' in which he inserted various questions from those which are debated among the philosophers of the Greeks, promising that he would refute them and set forth his own opinion about these matters in the volume of his response. He also composed a dialogue as though with the Jews, which he held at Ephesus with Trypho, a most noble teacher of the Hebrews, in which he expounds how he himself was led through divine grace to belief in the true faith, though beforehand he had borne an immense zeal toward the disciplines of the philosophers; and how they act against the Church of Christ with deadly ambushes.

And on account of these things he charges that not only did you fail to repent of the things wickedly done by you, but you even chose men fit for this from Jerusalem and sent them throughout all the earth, to go about and declare that an impious heresy of the Christians had arisen, and at the same time to spread abroad certain criminal slanders against us, so that thereby the ignorant, being terrified, might shun our fellowship. In which you brought reproach not only upon yourselves but also upon others... [and that this heresy] flourished in the churches. He also affirms that the Apocalypse of John the apostle is genuine. He likewise employs certain prophetic testimonies to Trypho, convicting him on the point that the Jews had cut these away from the Scriptures and taken them away.

But many other of his works also are circulated among very many of the brethren, which one may find him taking up. In the fourth book against heresies he says this concerning these matters: 'And well,' he says, 'did Justin pursue the point in that volume which he writes against Marcion, saying that he would never have acquiesced to the Lord himself.' And again in the fifth book of the same work he says: 'And most excellently,' he says, 'does Justin affirm that before the coming of the Lord Satan never dared to blaspheme God, seeing that he did not yet know his own condemnation.' But let these things be said by us of necessity concerning the works of Justin, to stir up any studious among the faithful to the inquiry into his books. On the death of Anicetus in his episcopate, Soter succeeded him.

At Alexandria the sixth from the apostles held the pontificate of the church. At Antioch, fourth after Heron had been Cornelius, after whom in the fifth grade Heros had succeeded. There was one among the bishops in Crete, and Philip too, and Apollinaris and Melito and Musanus and Modestus, and above all Irenaeus, of all of whom the most illustrious monuments of the apostolic faith and of sound doctrine have come down even to us. He sets forth the tenor of his faith most fully with its proof, and indicates this also, that when he went to the city of Rome, having met very many bishops throughout the several places in discourse and in charity, he found them all preachers and teachers of the same faith.

At the same time, concerning the epistle of Clement also, he says: 'And the church of the Corinthians remained in right preaching up to Primus the bishop, whom, sailing to Rome, I saw, and I stayed with him at Corinth many days, delighted by the purity of his faith. But when I had come to Rome, I remained there until Anicetus.' Soter succeeded Anicetus, and Eleutherus succeeded Soter.

'But in all these ordinations, or in the others which I had seen throughout the remaining cities, all things were held just as the law handed down from of old, and the prophets indicated, and the Lord taught.' Likewise the same man also says concerning the heretics who arose in his own time: 'And after James, who is surnamed the Just, was made a martyr—just as the Lord himself also rendered testimony to the truth—by divine election Symeon the son of Cleopas is ordained bishop, chosen by all because he was a cousin of the Lord. And for this reason the church was then called a virgin, because it had not yet been corrupted by the stealthy insinuation of an adulterine word.'

But a certain Theobutes, because he had merited rejection from the episcopate, himself began from the outset to throw all things into disorder and to corrupt them, being one constituted from among the seven heresies among the people. Of these was also Simon, from whom the Simonians; Cleobius, whence the Cleobians; and Dositheus, whence the Dositheans; and Gorthaeus, whence the Gorthaeni; and Masbutheus, whence the Masbutheni; and also the Menandrians derived from these, and the Marcionists and Carpocratians and Valentinians and Basilidians and Saturnians—each of whom, composing his own schism apart by diverse corruptions of the faith, had his own sect and his own followers.

From these there proceeded false Christs and false prophets and false apostles, who, rending the unity of the brethren into diverse parts, by the corruption of doctrine defiled the chaste bed of the church, speaking impiety against the Lord and against His Christ. The same writer also designates through these words the ancient heresies of the Jews, what and how many they were:

'There were,' he says, 'diverse opinions among the circumcision, that is, among the sons of Israel... there were therefore Essaeans, Galileans, Hemerobaptists, Masbutheans, Samaritans, Sadducees and Pharisees.' He writes very many other things also, of which, according to the opportunity of the several places, we have already in part made mention in the foregoing. He also discoursed in the Hebrew tongue and made mention of Jewish traditions, whereby he indicates that he himself came to the faith of Christ from among the Hebrews. Moreover this very man, and Irenaeus, and the whole chorus of the ancients, called the book entitled 'Wisdom' the work of Solomon, just as also the Proverbs and the rest.

Concerning the apostolic see... he had in the word of God; and not only those peoples whom he had received to rule enjoyed his ministry, but also those set far off, to whom through epistles he made himself present, as it were, teaching most flourishingly about faith, and about peace and unanimity; and another epistle to the Athenians, in which he invites and rouses the more sluggish to belief in the gospel, and at the same time reproves certain ones as though almost fallen away from the faith, since their bishop Publius had been consummated in martyrdom. He also mentions... that by his labor and industry a certain warmth of faith was revived and restored among them.

And this too he indicates in the same epistle, that Dionysius the Areopagite, who, instructed by the apostle Paul, believed in Christ—according to those things which are set forth in the Acts of the apostles—was the first bishop at Athens. There is an epistle to the Nicomedians, in which he assails the heresy of Marcion and establishes the rule of ecclesiastical faith with wondrous balance. He writes also another to the church of the Gortynians and at the same time to the other churches of Crete, in which he commends their bishop Philip as a man of great virtues and of the best pursuits.

He writes also another epistle to the church of the Amastrians and to the other churches of Pontus with it, in which he mentions Bacchylides and Elpistus, as those who had exhorted him to write, and he explains many things in it from the divine Scriptures, and at the same time makes mention of their bishop by name, Palmas. But he also orders that those rising again and turning themselves from sin, even if they recoil from heretical perversity, are to be received. There is joined to these another epistle of his to the Cnossians, in which he admonishes and beseeches their bishop Pinytus not to lay heavy burdens upon the necks of the disciples, nor to enjoin upon the brethren the necessity of enforced chastity, lest in this the weakness of some be imperiled.

To which Pinytus, writing back to Dionysius, indeed embraces the counsel of the better opinion, and at the same time entreats him, after those things which he had first written, henceforth to send writings of more robust and stronger food, whereby the people of his church might be nourished unto a better progress, lest, ever clinging to the food of milk, they draw out the life of little ones in a body already growing old. And at the same time Pinytus, in this epistle, has left us as in a certain mirror the living image of himself: the tokens of his upright faith, and the solicitude which he expends upon the care of his flock, and of the erudition and wisdom of the divine word.

Of Dionysius there is also carried down another epistle given to the Romans, addressed to bishop Soter, in which he indicates that he has gladly embraced the institutions handed down of old to be kept in the Roman church: 'For from the beginning,' he says, 'it has been your custom to aid all the brethren with various benefits, and to send to many churches which are throughout the diverse regions of the earth all things of which they have need, and in all things to console the necessities of individuals, and even to provide to the brethren banished to the mines what their use requires. This the Roman church has been accustomed to do from the beginning, by an institution of this kind left to it by the fathers and always kept whole and entire. But your blessed bishop Soter not only preserved what the fathers had handed down, but even increased it for the better.'

They strove not only for the saints; but as the heretics were staining the seed of God and defiling the threshing-floors of apostolic doctrine with an adulterine admixture, the priests of the Lord, like watchful husbandmen, labored on every side to shake out and to purge away their evil seeds, and, like anxious shepherds, to drive off with their outcries the wolves lying in wait for the flocks of Christ—barking even at those set far off, and sometimes also, wherever they had caught them at close quarters, pressing them hard face to face and casting them down in the wrestling of words and the contest of disputations; while still others, taking thought for posterity, refuted their questions and perverse objections by published commentaries. Among these, one is shown, from what we have read, to have engaged Marcion in disputation.

To this one, then, the seventh from the apostles in the see of the Antiochene church... And Philip too, whom I said above was bishop of the Gortynian church... having uncovered the covering of wickedness with which his deceptions and fallacies were veiled, they likewise presented to the Roman emperor apologetic books written most brilliantly in defense of our faith. How great are the monuments of these that have been left, which have come down even to our knowledge, is shown below.

Of Melito there are two books On the Pasch, one book On the Best Manner of Life; but these are the chapter-headings of a single work, which Jerome paraphrases wrongly; On the Body, On the Obedience of Faith, On the Senses, On Soul and Body and Mind, On the Bath, On Truth, likewise On Faith, On the Generation of Christ and On His Prophecy; likewise On Soul and Body, On Hospitality, likewise the book entitled 'The Key,' and after all the rest a book To Antoninus Verus. In his little book On the Pasch, intimating also the time at which he was writing, he speaks thus: 'Under Servillius,'

'he says, Paulus being proconsul of Asia, at which time Sagaris was crowned with martyrdom, a great question arose at Laodicea.' Clement of Alexandria too makes mention of this same little book in his work, where he writes about the reckoning of the Pasch, which, he says, he writes on the occasion of this very little book which had earlier been published by Melito. But in that book which he writes to the emperor, he records certain such things: 'What has never happened,' he says, 'the race of the pious now suffers persecution. They are put to flight on every side by new decrees promulgated throughout all Asia.'

'For shameless and slanderous men, who long to seize what belongs to others, having taken occasion from the imperial precepts... And if indeed they do these things at your bidding, let us believe it to be good—whatever is done at the command of a just emperor. Nay, we too willingly bear the death which we know to be inflicted by you. But this alone is what we beseech of you: that you yourself first make inquiry into the ministers of this insolence, and, if these deaths which they inflict have been commanded by you, that you yourself examine the matter; but if this so monstrous a precept proceeds not even from your own conscience...' And again, after a little, he adds also this: 'For indeed this philosophy which we practice first flourished among the barbarians.'

'But it was introduced also into your Roman way of life in the times of Augustus, from which time the summit of your empire ascended the more sublimely, being raised up under the auspices of this observance. Of that empire, thus happily propagated, you are the happy successor, and you happily preserve, together with your son, what has been handed down to you. Wherefore guard also, with equal reverence, the rite of our philosophy, which was handed down to you together with the empire, as that which by its own entrance brought to your fathers the cause of prosperity.'

'And the faith which grew up together with the felicities of Augustus himself, do you also, now reigning, preserve whole and undiminished; for to Augustus himself, neither at its entrance nor in its progress, did anything sad befall, but on the contrary all things joyful and all things full of great successes, while the worshippers of this religion besought the most high God for the state of his empire. Nor did any of the princes, save Nero alone and Domitian, at the promptings of wicked men, set themselves against our doctrine; and it is from their time that it came about that we are defamed by false calumnies.'

'But their error, which had come from ignorance, your fathers corrected, who by frequent decrees afterward took vengeance upon those who dared to inflict any trouble of this kind upon the worshippers. Among these, your grandfather Hadrian gave letters concerning this to many other judges, but especially to Fundanus proconsul of Asia. And your father, ruling the pinnacle of the Roman realm together with you, sent edicts concerning these things to all cities generally, but especially to the people of Larissa and the Thessalonians and the Athenians. But we believe that you preserve the same judgment much more, nay, we are confident that you will provide much more clemently, as one who exists a lover of true philosophy and pure religion.'

These and many other things nobly written by him are contained in the little book of which we made mention. But in those things which he writes concerning the explanation of the Scriptures, he enumerates, as it were in a preface, what are the volumes of the Old Testament that ought to be observed in the canon. This portion of Scripture... 'Melito to his brother Onesimus, greeting. Since indeed you have frequently asked me, out of the zeal you have toward the word of God, that I excerpt for you testimonies from the law and the prophets concerning the Savior and concerning our faith, and at the same time indicate what is the order and number of the volumes of the Old Testament, I have gladly fulfilled your request, knowing what a zeal for learning is in you, and how great a devotion of faith, so that out of longing for eternal life you prefer nothing before it.'

'Know, therefore, that I went as far as that place in the East where the beginning of our preaching took its origin, and where all those things were done which are read as written; and there I diligently made inquiry concerning all things, as to what were the volumes of the Old Testament. There, then, what I ascertained with all investigation, these are they: the five books of Moses—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; then next Joshua son of Nun, Judges, Ruth, the four books of Kingdoms, the two books of Chronicles, the Psalms of David, the Proverbs of Solomon. The prophets, moreover: Isaiah, Jeremiah, the one book of the twelve prophets, Daniel, Ezekiel, Ezra. From these, therefore, I have transmitted to you the selections also, that is, testimonies excerpted and arranged in six books.'

Concerning the monuments of Melito we have ascertained these things which have come down. There is an apologetic book written to the aforesaid emperor, and five books against the pagans, two books On Truth, and those which he afterward published against the Cataphrygians—that is, against Montanus and his false prophetesses, who then first began to deviate from the right path—a little book written with much elegance to certain brethren who had turned aside. 'But neither do they accept the Acts of the apostles. Nevertheless their earlier author, Tatian, making a certain collation of the gospels, composed—I know not how—one gospel out of four, which he named the Diatessaron, and which even now is held by many.'

It is said also that he altered some things from the discourses of the apostle, as one who wished to amend the order and composition of the words. This same man, moreover, left behind an infinite number of books. But that one which he wrote against the gentiles is approved as the chief and most useful of all his writings. Through the same period, with innumerable heresies sprouting up everywhere, and especially in Mesopotamia, a certain Bardesanes, a most eloquent man in the language of the Syrians and a vehement dialectician, wrote dialogues against Marcion and certain others, which he published composed in his own tongue. But many other volumes of his also survive, which his disciples turned into the Greek speech.

For he was so mighty in word and doctrine, and so strong in disputations, that he had very many and noble men as his followers. There is also his most powerful dialogue to Antoninus, On Fate. He wrote also many other works, which proved sufficiently useful and highly necessary in the times of the persecutions that then were. They say, moreover, that this very man was at first of the school of Valentinus; but when he had marked his master as a master of error and had refuted his foolish fables, he seemed to himself to have converted to a better and right opinion of the faith. Yet he did not wholly lay aside the filth and stain of the old errors. And in those same times too, Soter, bishop of the Roman church, made an end of his living.

How many, and in what manner, under Severus in Gaul suffered for piety's sake. How the martyrs, so long as they were kept in life, all who were in the persecution... How the martyrs attend Irenaeus with their commendation. How, under Marcus Aurelius Caesar, by the prayers of our people... An enumeration of the bishops who were at Rome. How, even up to those times, miracles were wrought through the faithful. How Irenaeus set forth the canon of the divine Scriptures. Concerning the schism which was made under Blastus at Rome. What things are reported concerning Montanus and the other false prophets.