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QUOTATIONS AND REFERENCES. 567
25-
Roman Acts of Ignatius [5th or 6th cent.].
The writer copies out (§12) the extract from Polycarp relating to
Ignatius, as given in Eusebius see
; 11. p. 538 sq.
For the limits of date of this document see 11. p. 382 sq.
26.
Gregory of Tours [a.d. 576, 588].
(i)
Historia Francorum i. 26 {p. 174 sq, Migne).
Nam sub Antonini imperio Marcionitana et Valentiniana haeresis
insana surrexit et ; Justinus philosophus post scriptos catholicae ecclesiae
hbros martyrio pro Christi nomine coronatur. In Asia autem orta
persecutione beatissimus Polycarpus loannis apostoli et evangehstae
discipulus octogesimo aetatis suae anno, velut holocaustum purissimum,
per ignem Domino consecratur. Sed et in GalUis multi pro Christi
nomine sunt per martyrium gemmis caelestibus coronati ; quorum passionum
historiae apud nos fidehter usque hodie retinentur. [2 7]
Ex
quibus et ille primus Lugdunensis ecclesiae Photinus episcopus fuit, qui
plenus dierum, diversis afflictus suppHciis, pro Christi nomine passus est.
Beatissimus vero Irenaeus hujus successor martyris, qui a beato Polycarpo
ad banc urbem directus est, admirabiU virtute enituit ; qui in
modici temporis spatio praedicatione sua maxime in integro civitatem
reddidit Christianam. Sed veniente persecutione... Beatum Irenaeum
diversis in sua carnifex praesentia poenis affectum Christo Domino per
martyrium dedicavit. Post hunc et quadraginta octo martyres passi
sunt, ex quibus primum fuisse legimus Vettium Epagatum.
'
In the sentence 'qui a beato etc.', the tenour of the sentence requires Irenaeus ',
not
Pothinus' (here written Photinus), as the antecedent to the relative ;
see above, p. 446.
'
At the same time there is much confusion in the narrative. Vettius Epagathus was
one of the sufferers in the same persecution at Vienne and Lyons (a.d. 177), which
was fatal to Pothinus (Euseb. H. E.v, i), whereas Irenaeus survived this persecution
many years.
In his other work however {De Glor. Mart. 49, 50), in which he gives a fuller
account of the martyrs of Vienne and Lyons, and which shows a knowledge of the
original documents, the sequence of events is correctly given.
The composition of the Historia was begun a.d. 576, and occupied him till a.d.
592. The Gloria Martyrum was written A.D. 587, 588. See Ebert Christ. Lutein.
Liter. I. pp. 541, 546. It would seem that he had studied the documents more care-