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| Chapter III.—A refutation of the heretics, from the fact that, in the various Churches, a perpetual succession of bishops was kept up. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter III.—A refutation of the
heretics, from the fact that, in the various Churches, a perpetual succession
of bishops was kept up.
1. It
is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to
see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles
manifested throughout the whole world; and we are in a position to reckon
up those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in the Churches, and
[to demonstrate] the succession of these men to our own times; those who
neither taught nor knew of anything like what these [heretics] rave
about. For if the apostles had known hidden mysteries, which they were in
the habit of imparting to “the perfect” apart and privily
from the rest, they would have delivered them especially to those to whom
they were also committing the Churches themselves. For they were desirous
that these men should be very perfect and blameless in all things, whom
also they were leaving behind as their successors, delivering up their
own place of government to these men; which men, if they discharged their
functions honestly, would be a great boon [to the Church], but if they
should fall away, the direst calamity.
2. Since, however, it
would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the
successions of all the Churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in
whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by
blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; [we do
this, I say,] by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of
the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded
and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul;
as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to
our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter
of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account
of its pre- eminent authority,3313
3313 The Latin text of this difficult but important clause
is, “Ad hanc enim ecclesiam propter potiorem principalitatem
necesse est omnem convenire ecclesiam.” Both the text and meaning
have here given rise to much discussion. It is impossible to say with
certainty of what words in the Greek original “potiorem
principalitatem” may be the translation. We are far from sure that
the rendering given above is correct, but we have been unable to think of
anything better. [A most extraordinary confession. It would be hard to
find a worse; but take the following from a candid Roman Catholic, which
is better and more literal: “For to this Church, on account of more
potent principality, it is necessary that every Church (that is, those
who are on every side faithful) resort; in which Church ever,
by those who are on every side, has been preserved that tradition
which is from the apostles.” (Berington and Kirk, vol. i. p. 252.)
Here it is obvious that the faith was kept at Rome, by those who
resort there from all quarters. She was a mirror of the Catholic
World, owing here orthodoxy to them; not the Sun, dispensing her own
light to others, but the glass bringing their rays into a focus. See note
at end of book iii.] A discussion of the subject may be seen in chap.
xii. of Dr. Wordsworth’s St. Hippolytus and the Church of
Rome. | that is, the faithful everywhere,
inasmuch as the apostolical tradition has been preserved
continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere.
3. The blessed apostles, then, having
founded and built up the Church, committed into the hands of Linus the
office of the episcopate. Of this Linus, Paul makes mention in the
Epistles to Timothy. To him succeeded Anacletus; and after him, in the
third place from the apostles, Clement was allotted the bishopric. This
man, as he had seen the blessed apostles, and had been conversant with
them, might be said to have the preaching of the apostles still echoing
[in his ears], and their traditions before his eyes. Nor was he alone [in
this], for there were many still remaining who had received instructions
from the apostles. In the time of this Clement, no small dissension
having occurred among the brethren at Corinth, the Church in Rome
despatched a most powerful letter to the Corinthians, exhorting them to
peace, renewing their faith, and declaring the tradition which it had
lately received from the apostles, proclaiming the one God, omnipotent,
the Maker of heaven and earth, the Creator of man, who brought on the
deluge, and called Abraham, who led the people from the land of Egypt,
spake with Moses, set forth the law, sent the prophets, and who has
prepared fire for the devil and his angels. From this document, whosoever
chooses to do so, may learn that He, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
was preached by the Churches, and may also understand the apostolical
tradition of the Church, since this Epistle is of older date than these
men who are now propagating falsehood, and who conjure into existence
another god beyond the Creator and the Maker of all existing things. To
this Clement there succeeded Evaristus. Alexander followed Evaristus;
then, sixth from the apostles, Sixtus was appointed; after him,
Telesphorus, who was gloriously martyred; then Hyginus; after him, Pius;
then after him, Anicetus. Soter having succeeded Anicetus, Eleutherius
does now, in the twelfth place from the apostles, hold the inheritance of
the episcopate. In this order, and by this succession, the ecclesiastical
tradition from the apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have come
down to us. And this is most abundant proof that there is one and the
same vivifying faith, which has been preserved in the Church from the
apostles until now, and handed down in truth.
4. But Polycarp also was
not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen
Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church
in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a
very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly
suffering martyrdom,3314
3314
Polycarp suffered about the year 167, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius.
His great age of eighty-six years implies that he was contemporary with
St. John for nearly twenty years. | departed this life, having
always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and
which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true. To these
things all the Asiatic Churches testify, as do also those men who have
succeeded Polycarp down to the present time,—a man who was of
much greater weight, and a more stedfast witness of truth, than
Valentinus, and Marcion, and the rest of the heretics. He it was who,
coming to Rome in the time of Anicetus caused many to turn away from the
aforesaid heretics to the Church of God, proclaiming that he had received
this one and sole truth from the apostles,—that, namely, which is
handed down by the Church.3315 There are
also those who heard from him that John, the disciple of the Lord, going
to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the
bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, “Let us fly, lest even the
bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is
within.” And Polycarp himself replied to Marcion,
who met him on one occasion, and said, “Dost thou know me?”
“I do know thee, the first-born of Satan.” Such was the
horror which the apostles and their disciples had against holding even
verbal communication with any corrupters of the truth; as Paul also says,
“A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition,
reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being
condemned of himself.”3316 There is also a very
powerful3317
3317 ἰκανωτάτη. Harvey
translates this all-sufficient, and thus paraphrases: But his
Epistle is all-sufficient, to teach those that are desirous to
learn. | Epistle of Polycarp written to the Philippians,
from which those who choose to do so, and are anxious about their
salvation, can learn the character of his faith, and the preaching of the
truth. Then, again, the Church in Ephesus, founded by Paul, and having
John remaining among them permanently until the times of Trajan, is a
true witness of the tradition of the apostles.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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