apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

452 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
arch Valentinus, the greatest of the Gnostic teachers and the most
formidable rival of Catholic Christianity, whose school in its various
ramifications spread throughout the length
and breadth of Christendom'.
Here was to be found the 'Pontic wolf himself, Marcion,
whose thwarted ambition (so said ill-natured critics) led to a quarrel
with the Roman presbyters, and who was already teaching at Rome the
heresy which invested his name with a questionable fame^ Here, at
this time or at all events during this same episcopate, a lady heretic,
Marcellina by name, a disciple of Carpocrates, taught a sort
of eclecticism,
which placed Christ on a level with Pythagoras and Plato and
Aristotle as objects of reverence, arrogating to herself and her adherents
still the orthodox
the name of Gnostic^ Here likewise studied Tatian,
disciple of the orthodox Justin, but better known by his later heresy as
the founder of the Encratite sect\ It must have been a strange and
sad experience for one whose memory travelled back to the first ages
of the Church, to witness this rank and rapid growth of excrescences on
the pure teaching of the Gospel.
At length
— not many months after his
return from Rome— the end
came. Unlike the aged Apostle his master, the disciple was not permitted
to close his long and active life in peace. A persecution was
raging— we know not for what cause or under what circumstances. It
was apparently the season when the community of Asia held its great
anniversary festival at Smyrna. The proconsul Statius Quadratus*, the
sophist and friend of the rhetorician Aristides, was present on the
occasion. The Asiarch Philip, whose munificence sustained the reputation
of his native city, the wealthy Tralles, and whose renown had
already procured for him a monument at Olympia^, presided
at the
games by virtue of his office. Eleven others had already fallen victims
to the rage of the persecutor, and made food for the wild beasts.
Most of them— if not all— were Philadelphians. It would seem that
they had been brought to Smyrna, because the presence of the proconsul
secured the legal tribunal necessary for their condemnation,
while the celebration of the games furnished means for their prompt
execution. A fresh attraction would thus be added to the festival by
the sacrifice of these human victims. One more especially, Germanicus
^ Iren. Haer. iii. 4. 5 Q\)aXivrl.vo% fxh
* Iren. Haer. i. 25. 6 ' Unde et Maryap
rjKdev eh 'Tu/Jirjv iirl 'Tylvov, rJK/jLaae cellina, quae Romam sub Aniceto venit '
di iirl Hlov, Kal irapiixeivev ^ms ' A.vlk7)tov. etc.
^ lxcr\. Haer. m. j^. 3 'Marcion autem ^ Tatian. Orat. 18, 19; comp. Iren.
illi
(Cerdoni) succedens invaluit sub Ani- Haer. i. 28. i, Euseb. H. E. iv. 29, v. 13.
ceto'; comp. i. 27. 2. See also Justin
^
See ni. p. 403 sq.
Apol. i. 26. * See lli. p. 368 sq.