apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

DATE 01' THE MARTYRDOM. 677
accept A.ij. 157 or 158), because the Quartodeciman controversy itselt"
did not break out in Laodicea till a.d 167 (p. 154 sq). He
assumes that Polycarp went to Rome for the express purpose of
settling the Paschal dispute, though Irenoeus does not say so (see
had been
above, p. 555). As the usages of Rome and Smyrna
divergent for a whole generation or more (see above, p. 449 sq), the
divergence could hardly fail to come under discussion, when Polycar])
and Anicetus met face to face, especially if P^astertide were the time
of their meeting. He assumes that Quintus the Phrygian {Mart.
Polyc. 4) was a Montanist; and having made this
assumption he argues
in favour of the later year for the martyrdom, because at the earlier
date Montanism had not yet come to the fore (p. 155 sq). He even
uses the astonishing argument (p.
156 sq) that, judging from the sequence
of names— Polycarp, Thraseas, Sagaris, Papirius
— in Polycrates (Euseb.
H. E. V. 24; see above, p. 556), this writer intended only to enumerate
persons between a.d. 160— 180, and that therefore we are not permitted
to place the martyrdom of Polycarp as far back as a.d. 150 —^160.
As Polycrates mentions S. John immediately before he mentions
Polycarp, it might be argued with equal
latter cannot have happened many years
reason that the death of the
after the death of the
Apostle. All this is mere beating of the air.
Waddington's arguments
may fall short of absolute demonstration; and there remains
the bare possibility that the discovery of some unknown document
may falsify his conclusions. But
by the arguments hitherto brought against them.
assuredly they have not been shaken
2. THE DAY OF THE MARTYRDOM.
The day of the martyrdom is very precisely given
in the chronological
postscript to the Letter of the S}iyrti(zans (see iii. p. 400; comp.
above, p. 626 sq), as follows;
'
The blessed Polycarp
is
martyred on the second of the beginning
of the month Xanthicus, the seventh before the Kalends of March, on a
great sabbath, at the eighth hour' {jj-apTvpa. Se o fj.ixKa.pio% HoXvKapiro';
fjirjvos "BaiVLKOv hevrepa icrTap.€vov, irpo kirra. KaXavZwv Mapriojv, (Ta/3^aTw
fjieydXio, wpa oySorj).
The MSS bp indeed have Matwv, and s has Maiov,
but b indicates elsewhere that the day intended is vii Kal. Mart, (see
III. p. 356;. In v the passage is wanting, but the date is introduced
into the text of the epistle at an earlier point (§ 16) t^ ct/caSt Tptry roi}
^vpovapLov p.qvo'i (see III. p. 392). The recently discovered Moscow
MS m, which is elsewhere our best authority (see
in. p. 355), preserves