apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

440 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
are given in the notes on the passage (ii. p. 349 sq) for adopting a
wholly different interpretation of the words idv yvwa-Orj
irXiov tov
eTna-KOTTov, ' if his VOW of chastity go beyond the ears of the bishop ',
as
the context suggests.
If this be the correct meaning, the inference falls
to the ground, and the point must be left undetermined. Under any
circumstances the conjecture that Alee, who is saluted in the letters of
Ignatius to Polycarp (§ 8) and to the Smyrnjeans (§ 13), was the wife of
Polycarp, has nothing to recommend it. The manner in which she is
mentioned in the account of Polycarp's martyrdom (§ 17) is alone
sufficient to set it aside. In this case, as in the similar instance of
Renan's conjecture that Lydia (Acts xvi. 14) was S. Paul's wife', the
absolute silence of the writer about any such intimate relationship seems
fatal to the hypothesis. Silence is often a very precarious guide, but
here we may safely trust ourselves to its leading.
More important for our purpose, than these considerations of country
or rank or wealth or condition of life, are his Christian relationships
:
Jirs^ with the Apostles and earliest founders of the Church; secondly
with his contemporaries, the fathers of the sub-apostolic age ;
and lastly
with his younger friends and disciples.
(i)
It has been stated that coincidently with the birth of Polycarp,
proconsular Asia, the province in which Polycarp resided continuously
from the first moment when we have any authentic notice of his life,
lived and
became the spiritual centre of Christendom. Here S. John
taught for more than a quarter of a century
after the destruction of
Jerusalem, dying at length in extreme old age in the early years of
Trajan's reign (c. a.d. 100)". The other Apostles and personal disciples
of Christ, who had migrated to these parts, were carried off first
one and then another by death, until at length (it
would appear) he
was left alone^ Here he gathered disciples about him, ordained
bishops and presbyters, founded new churches, making Ephesus his
head-quarters, but visiting the neighbouring districts as occasion required^
Of this circle of disciples Polycarp was the most famous.
^
Saint Paul '^. 148 sq.
^ IrenfEUS Haer. iii. 3, 4 M^X/" ''''^^ Tpai-
^ '
Canon Mtiratoriantis p. 33 cohortantibus
condiscipulis et episcopis suis',
where the 'condiscipuli {crv/x/jiadTjral)' are
those who like himself had been personal
disciples of Christ.
*
Clem. Alex. Qiiis Div. Salv. 42 (p.
958) ^TreiS} 7dp tov Tvpavvov TiXevrriaav-
Tos (XTrd r^s Ildr^ou r^y vqcxov ixerrfKOev [d
^lwa.vvii{\ iirl ttjv "E^ecroj',.d7r^et irapaKa-
Xovfievos Kal enl to. ttXtjctioxi^PO. tCjv idvwv,
oTTov fxev eiriaKOTTOVs KaTaffTrjauv, vttov Si
oXas eKKXrjaias ap/Jiocriav,
owov 6^ K\7]pi{) iva
7^ TLva KK-qpihawv tCjv vtto tov irvevtiaTos
arjp.aivop.^vLoi', after which follows the wellknown
story of the Apostle and the young
robber. Clement describes the city to
whose bishop S. John had entrusted the