apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

POLYCARP THE ELDER. 449
have only a very imperfect knowledge of the imperial visits to Asia
Minor at this epoch, nor indeed is it quite certain that the expression
requires the actual presence of the emperor in these parts at the time.
We have caught three glimpses of the man at three different epochs
of his life— in youth as the disciple of S. John, in middle age as the
companion of Ignatius, in declining years as the master of Irenaus.
But these three periods exhibit a continuous life. His days are bound
'
each to each by natural piety.' There is no dislocation here, as in the
life of Ignatius. He repeats with emphasis in extreme old age the
same lessons which he had learned with avidity in his tenderest years.
One incident more completes our knowledge of his career, till the
final catastrophe comes. In the closing years of his life he paid a visit
to Rome, where he conferred with the bishop Anicetus. They had
other points of difference to discuss, but one main subject of their conference
was the time of celebrating the Passion.
Polycarp pleaded the
practice of S. John and the other Apostles with whom he had conversed,
for observing the actual day of the Jewish Passover, the 14th
Nisan, without respect to the day of the week. On the other hand,
Anicetus could point to the fact that his predecessors, at least as far
back as Xystus, who succeeded to the see soon after the beginning of
the century, had always kept the anniversary of the Passion on a
Friday and that of the Resurrection on a Sunday, thus making the day
that Antoninus Pius was in Syria about Antoninus Pius. Even during his pro-
A.D. 154, 155, and he seems to have visited consulate omens marked him as the
Asia Minor likewise (Joann. Malalas p. future occupant of the imperial throne ;
280, ed. Bonn.). But this date also is too Capitolin. Pius 3 Cum ' sacerdos femina
late. Massuet Diss, in Iren. ii. § 2 (11. p. Trallis ex more proconsules semper hoc
183, Stieren) considers that the expression nomine salutaret, non dixit Ave proconsul,
does not imply the presence of the impe- sed Ave inperator. Cyzici etiam de simurial
court in Asia, but signifies merely that lacro Dei ad statuam ejus corona trans-
Florinus was a courtier in high favour lata est.' Florinus may have belonged
with the emperor. Irenasus however could to his suite, and Iren^eus in after years
hardly have expressed himself so, if he might well call the proconsul's retinue in
had meant nothing more than this. a loose way the ' royal court ' by anticipa-
As no known visit of a reigning em- tion, especially if Florinus accompanied
peror will suit, I ventured [Contemporary him to Rome on his return and con-
Reviercu, May, 1875, p. 834) to offer a con- tinued to serve him after his elevation to
jectural interpretation. About the year the sovereignty. Though not altogether
136 T. Aurelius Fulvus was proconsul of satisfied with this explanation, I have no
Asia (Waddington Pastes des Provinces better to offer. Inscriptions hereafter dis-
Asiatiqiies p. 724). Within two or three covered may perhaps help us to a more
years of his proconsulate he was raised to satisfactory solution,
the imperial throne, and is known as
IGN. I.
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