apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

THE GENUINENESS. 407
he describes himself as an €KTpwixa, a sudden, violent, immature birth.
Like S. Paul also he had 'found mercy' {r]\€r]ixaL).
It was the sense of
an unwonted, unexpected rescue from a previous state of unbelief, or of
immorality, or of both, which overwhelmed him with thanksgiving and
stung him with reproaches'. In the light of this fact the extravagance
of his self-depreciation no longer wears an appearance of unreality. It
is the intensely sincere outpouring of a sensitive conscience brooding
over a painful memory.
Exception has been taken also to the extravagant eagerness for
martyrdom which these letters betray. Such fanaticism, it is urged, is
inconceivabje in an Apostolic father. On this subject something has
been said already (p. 38 sq). It seems to me impossible to question
that the cause which Ignatius had at heart— the cause of Christ — gained
incomparably more by his death, than it could have gained by his life.
If so, he was far wiser than his critics. But, if the end was thus praiseworthy,
who shall blame the means He had not courted death in the
first instance. His condemnation was not his own choice. But once
condemned, he would not accept his life back as a concession. The
acceptance of a pardon would have been the acknowledgement
of an
offence. But let us grant for a moment that this eagerness for martyrdom
was fanatical, was unreasonable, was culpable in the highest degree.
What ground have we for assuming that an Apostolic father
would escape liability to error— more especially when that error was an
exaggeration of zeal, an excess of self-devotion It is a well-known
fact that during the age of persecution not a few Christians threw themselves
in the way of martyrdom. The heathen satirist Lucian tells us
(de Morte Peregr. 13 ;
see above, p. 138) that in their contempt of death
the greater number surrendered themselves voluntarily (eKoi'rc avram
€7rtSt8o'ao-iv o\ ttoWol). We have ample evidence from other quarters
that this courting of martyrdom was by no means uncommon. In the
Letter of the SmyrncBans on the death of Polycarp (§ 4) mention is made
of certain persons who delivered themselves up voluntarily to death.
One of these, Quintus, recanted at the last moment, and this recantation
gives occasion to the writers of the letter to condemn the practice,
which obviously was far from uncommon.
Of another, Germanicus, who
is highly commended by them,
it is recorded that he actually did what
Ignatius expresses his intention of doing {Rom. 5); he drew the wild
beast to him by force, that he might be released the sooner from the
miseries of life (§ 3). The bold and defiant conduct of the martyrs at
^
For more on this subject see above, p. 28, and below, II. p. 229 sq.