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394 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
ruled. He appeals to the tradition of his relatives with some of whom,
he says, he associated on intimate terms (TrapdSocrtv twv avyyeviov fiov,
oh Koi TraprjKoXovOrjcrd Ttcrtv avTwp). He adds that he had had seven
relatives bishops, so that he himself was the eighth bishop of his kindred
(cTrra fj.kv -^aav crvyyevets /xov eVtcr/coTroi, cyoj 8e oySoo). In an earlier part
of the same fragment he mentions Polycarp as bishop of Smyrna,
Thraseas as bishop of Eumenia, Sagaris as bishop apparently of Laodicea
(^ayapiv e7riaK07rov...o^ iv Aao8tK€ta KiKOLjxrjTai)
,
and inferentially
also MelitO as bishop of Sardis {Iv %dp8ecn Trept/^eVwv ttjv d-rro twv ovpavoiv
eTrio-KOTTT/v)'. Altogether this fragment, not occupying more than an
octavo page in all, is charged with notices testifying to the early and
wide spread of the episcopate in these regions of Asia Minor.
A passage in Clement of Alexandria also points in the same direction.
In the well-known story of S. John and the young robber, for
the truth of which he vouches, Clement represents the Apostle during
his later life,
when he resided at Ephesus, as going about on invitation to
the neighbouring nations (ctti
ra TrX-qa-ioxf^pa.
rwv Idvdv) to appoint
bishops in some places, to establish whole churches in others, and to
ordain certain clergy in others {Qiiis Div. Salv. 42, p. 959 Potter).
This Clement had travelled far and wide, and had received instruction
from six or more different Christian teachers in Greece, in Italy, in
Egypt, in Palestine and Syria and the farther East ; among whom was
one called by him an ' Ionian ',
that is, a native of these very parts of
Asia Minor {Strom, i. i, p. 322). In accordance with this statement
also the author of the Muratorian Canon (about a.d. 170 or later)
speaks of the aged Apostle as writing his Gospel ' at the urgent
entreaty of his fellow-disciples and bishops' {Canon Muratorianus p. 17,
'
cohortantibus condescipulis et episcopis suis', ed. Tregelles).
It will be sufficient here to have called attention to these passages of
more general reference. Notices of particular bishops in early times
will be found collected together in the Essay to which I have already
referred. One such person alone deserves special mention here. Polycarp,
as we have seen, is more than once designated bishop of Smyrna
in these Ignatian Epistles. So also he is described both by Iren^us and
by Polycrates in the passages already referred to. But we have
more direct testimony to his episcopate even than these witnesses.
Only a few months at the outside, probably only a few weeks, after
these Ignatian Epistles purport to have been written, he himself
addresses a letter to the Philippians. The heading of the letter, indirectly
indeed, but plainly enough, indicates his monarchical position.
^
See the nute on Polyc. inscr. (il. p. 332).
He