apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

450 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
of the month give place to the day of the week. Neither convinced
the other, but they parted good friends. This difference of usage did
not interfere with the most perfect cordiahty ; and, as a token of this,
Anicetus allowed Polycarp to celebrate the eucharist in his place.
About forty years later, when the Paschal controversy revived in a
more virulent form, and Victor, a successor of Anicetus, excommunicated
the Asiatic Churches, Irenaeus, though himself an observer of the
Western usage, wrote to remonstrate with Victor on this harsh and
tyrannical measure. An extract from his letter is preserved by Eusebius
{H. E. v. 24),
in which this incident in the hfe of his old master is
recorded.
To this visit to Rome Irenaeus makes another reference in his extant
work, where the sterner side of Polycarp's character appears. If he was
prepared to treat leniently any ritual differences, such as the time and
mode of celebrating the Paschal festival, he was stubborn and uncompromising
in his dealings with the heresies. After speaking of the
succession of the Roman bishops, through whom the true doctrine had
been handed down to his own generation without interruption, Irenseus
continues {Haer. iii. 3. 4);
'And (so it was with) Polycarp also, who was not only taught by Apostles
and lived in familiar intercourse (o-vvavaa-rpaffifLs) with many that had seen
Christ, but also received his appointment in Asia from Apostles, as bishop
in the Church of Smyrna whom we too have seen in our
;
early years (cV ttj
TrpcoTTj rifiuiv rfKLKLq), for he survived long and departed this life at a very great
age (kqI ttovv yrjpaXfos) by a glorious and most notable martyrdom, having
ever taught these very things which he had learnt from the Apostles, which
the Church hands down, and which alone are true. To these testimony is
borne by all the Churches in Asia and by the successors of Polycarp up to
the present time, who was a much more trustworthy and safer witness of the
truth than Valentinus and Marcion and all such wrong-minded men. He
also, when on a visit to Rome in the days of Anicetus, converted many to
the Church of God from following the aforenamed heretics, by preaching
that he had received from the Apostles this doctrine, and this only, which
was handed down by the Church, as the truth. And there are those who
have heard him tell how John, the disciple of the Lord, when he went to
take a bath in Ephesus, and saw Cerinthus within, rushed away from the
room without bathing, with the words 'Let us flee, lest the room should even
fall in, for Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.' Yea, and Polycarp
himself also, when Marcion on one occasion (irore) confronted him and said
Recognize us,' replied 'Ay, ay, I recognize the first-born of Satan.' So
'
great care did the Apostles and their disciples take not to hold any communication,
even by word, with any of those who falsify the truth, as Paul
also said, 'A man that is a heretic, after a first and second admonition,