Church History Books 1–9 (trans.) 4 part 1/2

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.