lived in the Holy Spirit and rests at Ephesus; and, moreover, John, who was both a martyr and a teacher, who leaned upon the bosom of the Lord, and became a priest wearing the sacerdotal plate. He fell asleep at Ephesus. And Polycarp too in Smyrna, who was a bishop 5 and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumenia, who fell asleep in Smyrna. Why need I mention the bishop and martyr Sagaris who fell asleep in Laodicea, or the blessed Papirius, or Melito the eunuch, who lived altogether in the Holy Spirit, and who lies in 10 Sardis, awaiting the visitation from heaven, when he shall rise from the dead? All these observed the fourteenth day for the passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith. And I also, Polycrates, the least of you all, do according 15 to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have closely followed. For seven of my relatives were bishops, and I am the eighth. And my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven. I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, 20 and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every holy scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said 'We ought to obey God rather than men.' Marcion. ONE Cerdon, who had taken his principles from the 25 school of Simon, and stayed in Rome in the time of Hyginus, who held the ninth place of the episcopal succession from the Apostles-he taught that the God preached by the law and prophets is not the Father of our Lord H Χριστοῦ, τὸν μὲν γὰρ γνωρίζεσθαι, τὸν δὲ ἀγνωτα εἶναι· καὶ τὸν μὲν δίκαιον, τὸν δὲ ἀγαθὸν ὑπάρχειν. Διαδεξάμενος δὲ αὐτὸν Μαρκίων ὁ Ποντικός, ηὔξησε τὸ διδασκαλεῖον, ἀπηρυθριασμένως βλασφημῶν eum qui a 5 lege et prophetis annuntiatus est Deus; malorum factorem et bellorum concupiscentem et inconstantem quoque sententia et contrarium sibi ipsum dicens. Iesum autem ab eo Patre, qui est super mundi fabricatorem Deum, venientem in Iudaeam temporibus Pontii Pilati praesidis, 10 qui fuit procurator Tiberii Caesaris, in hominis forma manifestatum his, qui in Iudaea erant, dissolventem prophetas et legem et omnia opera eius Dei, qui mundum fecit, quem et Cosmocratorem dicit. Et super haec id quod est secundum Lucam evangelium circumcidens et 15 omnia, quae sunt de generatione Domini conscripta, auferens, et de doctrina sermonum Domini multa auferens, in quibus manifestissime conditorem huius universitatis suum Patrem confitens Dominus conscriptus est; semetipsum esse veraciorem, quam sunt hi, qui evangelium 20 tradiderunt, apostoli, suasit discipulis suis, non evangelium, sed particulam evangelii tradens eis. Similiter autem et apostoli Pauli epistolas abscidit, auferens quaecunque manifeste dicta sunt ab apostolo de eo Deo, qui mundum fecit, quoniam hic Pater Domini nostri Iesu Christi, et 25 quaecunque ex propheticis memorans apostolus docuit, praenuntiantibus adventum Domini. XXVIII. IRENAEUS, Adv. Haer. i. 27. TRADITIONEM itaque apostolorum in toto mundo manifestatam, in omni ecclesia adest respicere omnibus qui vera velint videre; et habemus annumerare eos, qui ab 30 apostolis instituti sunt episcopi in ecclesiis, et succes Jesus Christ; for the former is known, but the latter unknown, and the former is by nature righteous, but the other good. And Marcion of Pontus succeeding him developed the school, blaspheming shamelessly him who is proclaimed as God by the law and the prophets; calling 5 him a maker of evils and a lover of wars, unsettled of purpose also, and inconsistent with himself. [He said] however that Jesus coming from the Father, who is above the God who made the world, into Judaea in the times of the governor Pontius Pilate, procurator of Tiberius Caesar, 10 was manifested in the form of a man to those that were in Judaea, destroying the prophets and the law, and all the works of the God who made the world, whom he also calls Cosmocrator'. Besides this, by mutilating the Gospel which is according to Luke, and removing all that refers 15 to the generation of the Lord, and removing many passages of the teaching of the Lord's discourses, in which the Lord is recorded as very plainly confessing the framer of this universe to be his own Father, Marcion has persuaded his disciples that he is himself truer than those 20 Apostles who delivered the Gospel; so he delivers to them not the Gospel, but a part of the Gospel. But likewise he has cut down also the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, removing all that is plainly said by the Apostle concerning the God that made the world, that he is the Father of our 25 Lord Jesus Christ; and all that the Apostle taught by quotation from the prophetical writings which foretold the coming of the Lord. The Argument of Irenaeus from Tradition. THE tradition therefore of the Apostles, manifested in the entire world, is a thing which all who wish to see facts 30 can clearly perceive in every Church; and we are able to count up those who were by the Apostles appointed Eph. vi. 12. sores eorum usque ad nos, qui nihil tale docuerunt neque cognoverunt, quale ab his deliratur. Etenim si recondita mysteria scissent apostoli, quae seorsim et latenter ab reliquis perfectos docebant, his vel maxime traderent ea 5 quibus etiam ipsas ecclesias committebant. Valde enim perfectos et irreprehensibiles in omnibus eos volebant esse, quos et successores relinquebant, suum ipsorum locum magisterii tradentes; quibus emendate agentibus fieret magna utilitas, lapsis autem summa calamitas. IO Sed quoniam valde longum est in hoc tali volumine omnium ecclesiarum enumerare successiones; maximae et antiquissimae et omnibus cognitae, a gloriosissimis duobus apostolis Petro et Paulo Romae fundatae et constitutae ecclesiae, eam, quam habet ab apostolis tradi15 tionem, et annuntiatam hominibus fidem, per successiones episcoporum pervenientem usque ad nos indicantes, confundimus omnes eos, qui quoquo modo, vel per sibiplacentiam, vel vanam gloriam, vel per caecitatem et malam sententiam, praeterquam oportet colligunt. Ad hanc enim 20 ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire ecclesiam, hoc est, eos qui sunt undique fideles, in qua semper ab his, qui sunt undique, conservata est ea quae est ab apostolis traditio. Θεμελιώσαντες οὖν καὶ οἰκοδομήσαντες οἱ μακάριοι 25 ἀπόστολοι τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, Λίνῳ τὴν τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς λειτουργίαν ἐνεχείρισαν. τούτου τοῦ Λίνου Παῦλος ἐν ταῖς πρὸς Τιμόθεον ἐπιστολαῖς μέμνηται. διαδέχεται δὲ αὐτὸν ̓Ανέγκλητος. μετὰ τοῦτον δὲ τρίτῳ τόπῳ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν κληροῦται Κλήμης, ὁ καὶ 30 ἑωρακώς τοὺς μακαρίους ἀποστόλους καὶ συμβεβληκώς αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἔτι ἔναυλον τὸ κήρυγμα τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ τὴν παράδοσιν πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν ἔχων, οὐ μόνος· ἔτι γὰρ bishops in the Churches, and the series of their successors to our own time, who neither taught nor knew anything resembling these men's dotage. For if the Apostles had known hidden mysteries which they used to teach the perfect apart from and without the knowledge of the rest, 5 they would deliver them to those especially to whom they were also committing the Churches themselves. For they desired them to be very perfect and blameless in all things, whom they were also leaving as their successors, delivering over to them their own proper seat of govern- 10 ment; for if these should act rightly, great advantage would result, but if they fell away, the most disastrous calamity. But since it would be very long in such a volume as this to count up the series of bishops in all the Churches, we confound all those who in any way, whether through 15 self-pleasing or vain glory, or through blindness and evil opinion meet for worship otherwise than they ought-by pointing out the tradition (which it has from the Apostles) of the most great and ancient and universally-known Church, founded and established at Rome by the two most 2c glorious Apostles Peter and Paul; and also the faith declared to men, which comes down to our own time through the successions of bishops. For unto this Church, on account of its more powerful lead, every Church, meaning the faithful who are from everywhere, must needs resort; 25 since in it that tradition which is from the Apostles has always been preserved by those who are from everywhere. The blessed Apostles having founded and established the Church, entrusted the office of the episcopate to Linus. Paul speaks of this Linus in his Epistles to Timothy. 30 Anencletus succeeded him, and after Anencletus, in the third place from the Apostles, Clement received the episcopate. He had seen and conversed with the blessed Apostles, and their preaching was still sounding in his ears, and their tradition was still before his eyes. Nor 35 |