Church History

The successions of the holy apostles, together with the times that have run their course from our Saviour down to ourselves; how many and how great the affairs said to have been carried out in the history of the church; and those who presided over it and led it with distinction in the most prominent communities; those who in each generation served as ambassadors of the divine Word, whether without writing or through their compositions; and who, how many, and when, driven by a craving for innovation to the extremes of error, proclaimed themselves introducers of knowledge falsely so called, mercilessly ravaging the flock of Christ like fierce wolves,

and besides these, the calamities that overtook the whole Jewish nation immediately after their plot against our Saviour; and again how many, what kind, and at what times the divine Word was warred against by the Gentiles; and how great were those who in their seasons passed through the contest of blood and torture on its behalf; and in addition the martyrdoms of our own time, and above all the gracious and kindly help of our Saviour: having resolved to hand these things down in writing, I shall begin from nowhere else than the very first of God's dispensation concerning our Saviour and Lord, Jesus the Christ of God.

But already at this point my account asks pardon from the fair-minded, confessing that it is beyond our power to fulfil the promise completely and without omission. For we are the first to set foot on this subject, and we are attempting to travel a road that is, so to speak, deserted and untrodden. We pray to have God as our guide and the power of the Lord as our helper; but of human beings who have gone this same way before us we can find not even bare footprints, except only slight indications, by which in various ways they have left us partial accounts of the times through which they lived, holding out their voices from afar like torches and calling from somewhere above, as from a distant lookout, and urging us on where we must walk and how we must steer the course of our work without error or danger.

So, gathering from what those writers have mentioned here and there whatever we consider will serve the present subject, and plucking, as it were from meadows of literature, the suitable sayings of the ancient writers themselves, we shall try to give them body through a historical narrative, content if we can preserve the successions, if not of all, at least of the most distinguished apostles of our Saviour in the notable churches that are still remembered even now.

I consider it most necessary to labour on this subject, because I know of no church writer up to now who has taken pains over this kind of writing; and I hope that it will prove most useful to those who are eager to learn from history.

I have already made a summary of these things before, in the chronological tables that I drew up; but now I have set out to give a very full account of them.

And my account will begin, as I said, from the dispensation and the theology concerning Christ, which are conceived to be higher and greater than what is human.

For whoever intends to hand down in writing the history of the church's story must of necessity begin from the very first dispensation concerning Christ himself, since it is from him that we have been thought worthy even of our name, a dispensation more divine than most people suppose.

Since his mode of being is twofold, one part like the head of the body, by which he is conceived as God, the other comparable to the feet, by which for the sake of our salvation he put on the man who shares our passions, the account of what follows will be complete if we begin the narrative of his whole history from the chief and principal points of the subject. In this way the antiquity and divine character of Christianity will also be shown to those who suppose it new and outlandish, having appeared only yesterday and not before.

Of his lineage and dignity, of Christ's very being and nature, no words could suffice to give an account. Hence the divine Spirit also says in the prophecies, “Who shall declare his generation?” For no one has known the Father except the Son, nor again could anyone ever know the Son worthily except the Father alone who begot him.

And the light before the world, the intelligent and substantial Wisdom before the ages, the living God the Word who was in the beginning with the Father: who but the Father could clearly conceive him? The first and only offspring of God before all creation and making, visible and invisible; the commander-in-chief of the rational and immortal host of heaven; the angel of great counsel; the minister of the Father's unspeakable purpose; the maker of all things together with the Father; the second cause of the universe after the Father; the true and only-begotten child of God; the Lord and God and King of all begotten things, who has received from the Father lordship and might together with Godhead itself, power and honour; since, according to the mystical theology of the Scriptures concerning him, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be.”

This is what the great Moses, the most ancient of all the prophets, teaches when by the divine Spirit he describes the coming into being and the ordering of the universe: that the maker of the world and creator of all things yielded the making of the things below to Christ himself, and to none other than his own divine and firstborn Word, and that he conversed with him about the creation of man. For, he says, “God said, Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness.”

Another of the prophets confirms this saying, speaking of God in hymns in this way: “He spoke, and they were brought into being; he commanded, and they were created.” He presents the Father and Maker as ruler of all, commanding with a kingly nod, and the divine Word, second to him, none other than the one proclaimed by us, as carrying out the Father's commands.

Him all who are said to have excelled in righteousness and the virtue of godliness from the first creation of man, those around the great servant Moses, and before him, first of all, Abraham, and his children, and all the righteous men and prophets who appeared afterwards, beheld with the pure eyes of the mind; they recognized him and paid him the reverence due to the Son of God.

And he, for his part, in no way neglecting reverence for the Father, became the teacher of knowledge of the Father to all. So the Lord God is recorded to have appeared like an ordinary man to Abraham as he sat by the oak of Mamre. And Abraham at once fell down, although he saw a man with his eyes, and worshipped him as God, and entreated him as Lord, and confessed that he was not ignorant of who he was, saying in these very words: “Lord, you who judge all the earth, will you not do justice?”

For if no reason would allow that the unbegotten and unchangeable being of God Almighty should change into the form of a man, nor again that it should deceive the eyes of those who saw by the illusion of anything created, nor that Scripture should falsely invent such things, then who else could be named the God and Lord who judges all the earth and does justice, seen in the form of a man, if it is not lawful to say the first cause of the universe, than his pre-existent Word alone? Of him it is said in the Psalms too: “He sent his Word and healed them, and delivered them from their corruptions.”

Moses very clearly names him a second Lord after the Father when he says, “The Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur and fire from the Lord.” Him again, when he appeared to Jacob in the form of a man, divine Scripture calls God, as he says to Jacob, “No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name, for you have prevailed with God.” Then too Jacob called the name of that place “Form of God,” saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and my life was preserved.”

Nor indeed is it right to suppose that the recorded appearances of God were of subordinate angels and ministers of God; for whenever one of these appears to men, Scripture does not conceal it but says by name that they were called, not God, nor Lord, but angels, as it is easy to confirm by countless testimonies.

Him too Moses' successor Joshua, beholding him once more in the form and shape of a man, names the commander-in-chief of the power of the Lord, as the leader of the heavenly angels and archangels and the powers above the world, and as it were the Father's viceroy, entrusted with the second rank of kingship and rule over all.

It is written at any rate: “And it happened, when Joshua was at Jericho, that he looked up and saw a man standing opposite him, with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua came up and said, Are you ours or of our adversaries? And he said to him, I am the commander-in-chief of the power of the Lord; I have come now. And Joshua fell on his face on the ground and said to him, Master, what do you command your servant? And the commander of the Lord said to Joshua, Loose the sandal from your feet; for the place on which you stand is holy ground.”

Here too you will observe from the words themselves that this is no other than the one who spoke to Moses, since in the same words Scripture says of that occasion too: “When the Lord saw that he was coming near to look, the Lord called him from the bush, saying, Moses, Moses. And he said, What is it? And he said, Do not come near here; loose the sandal from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. And he said to him, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

And that there is a certain being before the world, living and subsisting, which served the Father and God of the universe in the making of all created things, called the Word of God and Wisdom, we may learn, besides the proofs already given, from Wisdom herself speaking in her own person, as through Solomon she very clearly reveals the mysteries concerning herself in this way: “I, Wisdom, have made counsel my dwelling, and knowledge and understanding I have called upon. By me kings reign, and princes decree righteousness. By me great men are magnified, and by me rulers hold the earth.”

To which she adds: “The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works; before the age he established me, in the beginning, before he made the earth, before the springs of the waters came forth, before the mountains were settled, and before all the hills he begets me. When he prepared the heaven I was present with him, and when he made firm the springs of the region under heaven I was with him, setting in order. I was the one in whom he delighted; and daily I rejoiced before him at every time, when he rejoiced in the completed world.”

That the divine Word, then, existed beforehand and appeared to some, if not to all, let this be said by us briefly.

Why, then, he was not proclaimed long ago, as he is now, to all men and all nations, will become clear from what follows. The life of men in ancient times was not able to receive the all-wise and all-virtuous teaching of Christ.

For at the very beginning, after the first life in blessedness, the first man, caring too little for the divine commandment, fell into this mortal and perishable life and exchanged the former divine delight for this accursed earth; and those descended from him who filled our whole world proved much worse, except for one here and there, and adopted a brutish manner and a life not worth living.

They gave no thought to city or constitution, to arts or sciences; they had not even the name of laws and ordinances, nor, besides, of virtue and philosophy; but they lived as nomads in deserts, like wild and cruel creatures, destroying the natural reasoning and the rational and gentle seeds of the human soul by an excess of deliberately chosen wickedness, and giving themselves wholly over to every impiety, so that now they devoured one another, now killed one another, and at other times ate human flesh, and dared to fight against the gods and to attempt the battles with giants celebrated among all, and planned to wall up the earth against heaven, and in the madness of an outlandish pride prepared to make war on the very God who is over all.

Because they conducted themselves in this way, God, the overseer of all, pursued them with floods and conflagrations, as if they were a wild forest spread over the whole earth; and with continual famines and plagues, and again with wars and thunderbolts from above, he cut them down, as if checking some terrible and most grievous disease of souls with harsher punishments.

At that time, then, when the glut of wickedness had been poured out over almost all, like a terrible drunkenness overshadowing and darkening the souls of nearly all men, the firstborn and first-created Wisdom of God, the pre-existent Word himself, in the excess of his love for mankind, appeared to those beneath him, sometimes through visions of angels, and sometimes in his own person, as the saving power of God, to one or two of the God-loving men of old, and in no other way than in human form, since it was not possible otherwise.

And when through these men the seeds of godliness had already been sown among a multitude, and a whole nation devoted to godliness had arisen from the Hebrews of old, to them, as to multitudes still corrupted by their ancient practices, he delivered through the prophet Moses images and symbols of a certain mystical sabbath and of circumcision, and introductions to other spiritual contemplations, but not the clear mysteries themselves.

But when their legislation became celebrated and spread like a fragrant breath among all men, then already from them the minds of most of the nations too had been tamed through lawgivers and philosophers everywhere, their wild and cruel savagery changed to gentleness, so that they enjoyed deep peace and friendship and intercourse with one another. At that time, then, to all the rest of mankind and to the nations throughout the world, as to people already helped and now fit to receive the knowledge of the Father, that same one again, the teacher of things unspeakable, the minister of the Father in all good things, the divine and heavenly Word of God, appeared at the beginning of the Roman Empire through a man in no way different from our nature in bodily substance, and did and suffered such things as agreed with the prophecies. For these proclaimed beforehand that one who was at once man and God would come to dwell in life as a doer of wonderful works, and would be shown to all nations as a teacher of reverence for the Father; and they foretold the wonder of his birth, his new teaching, and the marvels of his works, and besides these the manner of his death, his resurrection from the dead, and, above all, his divine restoration to heaven.

The prophet Daniel, for example, seeing his kingdom at the end by the divine Spirit, was inspired in this way, describing his vision of God in more human terms: “For I watched,” he says, “until thrones were set, and the Ancient of Days sat. And his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne a flame of fire, its wheels burning fire. A river of fire flowed before him. A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. He set up judgment, and books were opened.”

And next, “I watched,” he says, “and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming, and he came as far as the Ancient of Days and was brought before him. And to him was given the rule and the honour and the kingdom, and all the peoples, tribes, and tongues serve him. His authority is an everlasting authority, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed.”

These things plainly could refer to no one else but our Saviour, God the Word who was in the beginning with God, called Son of Man because of his final incarnation.

But since we have collected the prophetic extracts concerning our Saviour Jesus Christ in separate memoirs, and have set out more demonstratively elsewhere what is revealed about him, we shall be content for the present with what has been said.

It is now time to show that the very name of Jesus, and also that of Christ, had been honoured by the God-loving prophets of old.

Moses himself was the first to make known the name of Christ as supremely august and glorious. When he delivered types of heavenly things and symbols and mysterious images, in accordance with the oracle that told him, “See, you shall make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain,” and consecrated a man as high priest of God, as far as was possible, he calls him Christ. And to this dignity of the high priesthood, which in his view surpassed all precedence among men, he attaches the name of Christ for honour and glory. So he understood Christ to be something divine.

The same Moses, foreseeing very clearly by the divine Spirit the title of Jesus as well, again honours this too with a special privilege. The name of Jesus, which had never been uttered among men before Moses was known, Moses gives first and only to the one whom he knew would, again as a type and symbol, succeed after his death to rule over all.

At any rate his successor, who had not before used the name Jesus but was called by another name, Hoshea, which his parents had given him, Moses himself names Jesus, bestowing the name on him as a precious honour far greater than any royal crown, because Jesus the son of Nun himself bore the image of our Saviour, who alone, after Moses and the completion of the symbolic worship delivered through him, succeeded to the rule of true and most pure religion.

In this way, then, Moses bestowed the title of our Saviour Jesus Christ, as the highest honour, on the two men of his time who surpassed all the people in virtue and glory: on the high priest, and on the one who was to lead after him.

And the prophets after these clearly foretold Christ by name, testifying beforehand both to the plot that the Jewish people would form against him and to the calling of the nations through him. At one time Jeremiah speaks thus: “The breath before our face, Christ the Lord, was taken in their corruptions, of whom we said, In his shadow we shall live among the nations.” At another time David, in perplexity, says, “Why did the nations rage and the peoples devise vain things? The kings of the earth stood by, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.” To which he adds next, from the very person of Christ: “The Lord said to me, You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.”

Among the Hebrews it was not only those honoured with the high priesthood, anointed with prepared oil for the sake of the symbol, whom the name of Christ adorned, but also the kings, whom the prophets, anointing them at God's command, made into Christs in image, since they too bore in themselves the types of the royal and sovereign authority of the only and true Christ, the divine Word who reigns over all.

We have received, moreover, that some of the prophets themselves became Christs in type by anointing, so that all these have reference to the true Christ, the divine and heavenly Word, who is the only high priest of all, the only king of all creation, and the only chief prophet of the prophets of the Father.

The proof of this is that none of those anointed by the symbol in ancient times, whether priests or kings or prophets, ever acquired such power of divine virtue as our Saviour and Lord Jesus, the only and true Christ, has displayed.

Not one of them, at any rate, though they shone among their own people in rank and honour for very many generations, ever named his subjects Christians from the name of Christ which they bore in image. Nor did any of them receive worshipful honour from his subjects; nor, after his death, such devotion that people were ready to die for the one honoured; nor was there such a movement of all the nations throughout the world concerning any of those men; for the power of the symbol could not work so strongly in them as the presence of the truth displayed through our Saviour.

He received no symbols and types of high priesthood from anyone, nor did he trace his bodily descent from priests; he was not advanced to a kingdom by the spears of armed men, nor was he a prophet like those of old, nor did he obtain any rank at all or any precedence among the Jews; yet he had been adorned by the Father with all these things, not in symbols, but in truth itself.

Though he did not obtain the same honours as those we have mentioned, he has been called Christ more than all of them. And as being himself the only and true Christ of God, he has filled the whole world with Christians, his truly august and holy name, handing down to his followers no longer types or images, but the naked virtues themselves and a heavenly life in the very doctrines of truth.

And he received the anointing, not the one prepared from material substances, but the one befitting God, by the divine Spirit, through sharing in the unbegotten Godhead of the Father. This, again, Isaiah teaches, crying out as if from Christ himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind.”

And not Isaiah alone, but David too speaks to his person, saying: “Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a rod of uprightness is the rod of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” In these words the passage in the first line calls him God, and in the second honours him with a royal sceptre.

Then, coming down next, after his divine and royal power, it presents him in the third place as having become Christ, anointed not with oil from material substances but with the divine oil of gladness; whereby it also indicates his special excellence, far superior to and different from those of old who were anointed more bodily through images.

And elsewhere the same David makes known his affairs thus: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”; and, “From the womb before the morning star I begot you. The Lord has sworn and will not repent: You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.”

This Melchizedek is introduced in the sacred books as a priest of God Most High, not appointed by any prepared anointing, nor belonging by descent to the priesthood of the Hebrews. Therefore it is after his order, and not after that of the others who received symbols and types, that our Saviour has been proclaimed Christ and priest with the confirmation of an oath.

Hence history does not record that he was anointed bodily among the Jews, nor that he came from the tribe of the priests, but that he was given being from God himself before the morning star, that is, before the foundation of the world, and that he holds his priesthood immortal and ageless for unending ages.

A great and clear proof of the bodiless and divine anointing that came upon him is that he alone of all who have ever lived is still, even now, called Christ among all men throughout the whole world, is confessed and witnessed to by all under this name, is remembered among Greeks and barbarians, and even now is honoured by his followers throughout the inhabited world as king, marvelled at as more than a prophet, glorified as the true and only high priest of God, and above all these, as the pre-existent Word of God, given being before all ages, who has received worshipful honour from the Father, is worshipped as God.

But most wonderful of all is that we who are consecrated to him honour him not only with voices and the sound of words, but with every disposition of the soul, so that we prefer bearing witness to him above our very own life.

These things, then, had necessarily to be set down here before the history, so that no one might think our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ recent because of the times of his life in the flesh. And so that no one may suppose that his teaching is new and foreign, as if composed by a new man no different from other men, come, let us treat this too briefly.

It is admitted that when the presence of our Saviour Jesus Christ recently shone upon all men, a new nation, admittedly, appeared suddenly, at the unspeakable appointed times, not small nor settled in some corner of the earth, but the most populous and most God-fearing of all nations, and in this respect indestructible and unconquerable, that it always receives help from God: the nation honoured everywhere with the name of Christ.

One of the prophets was amazed at this, having foreseen by the eye of the divine Spirit what was to be, so that he cried out: “Who has heard such things, and who has spoken thus? Did the earth travail in one day, and was a nation born at once?” And the same prophet also hints at the name that was to come, saying, “But those who serve me shall be called by a new name, which shall be blessed upon the earth.”

But even if we are clearly new, and this truly new name of Christians has only recently become known among all nations, nevertheless our life and manner of conduct, together with the doctrines of our religion, have not been lately invented by us, but from the first creation of man, so to speak, were upheld by the natural understanding of the God-loving men of old; we shall show this as follows.

The Hebrew nation is not new, but honoured by all men for its antiquity, and it too is known to all. Its accounts and writings contain ancient men, rare indeed and few in number, but distinguished in godliness and righteousness and every other virtue: several before the flood, and others after it among the children and descendants of Noah, and also Abraham, whom the children of the Hebrews boast of as their founder and forefather.

If anyone should call all those who have been witnessed to for righteousness, going back from Abraham himself to the first man, Christians in fact, if not in name, he would not be far from the truth.

For what the name Christian means to indicate, a man who through the knowledge and teaching of Christ excels in self-control and righteousness, in endurance of life and courage of virtue, and in the confession of reverence for the one and only God over all, all this they practised no less zealously than we.

They did not, then, care about bodily circumcision, as neither do we; nor about keeping sabbaths, as neither do we; nor about abstaining from certain foods, nor the other distinctions that Moses first of all began to hand down to later generations to be performed as symbols, as Christians do not keep such things now either. But they clearly knew the Christ of God himself, since it has already been shown that he appeared to Abraham, gave oracles to Isaac, spoke to Jacob, and conversed with Moses and the prophets after him.

Hence you would find that those God-loving men were thought worthy even of the name of Christ, according to the saying about them: “Do not touch my christs, and do no evil among my prophets.”

So we must clearly regard the religion recently proclaimed to all nations through the teaching of Christ as the first and most ancient and primeval discovery of godliness, that of those very God-loving men around Abraham.

And if they say that Abraham received the command of circumcision a long time afterwards, yet before this he is said to have been witnessed to as righteous through faith, as the divine word says: “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”

And to him, being such before his circumcision, an oracle was given by God who revealed himself to him (and this was Christ himself, the Word of God), promising beforehand, in these very words, concerning those who in later times would be justified in the same way as he: “And in you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed”; and, “He shall become a great and numerous nation, and in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”

We may observe that this has been fulfilled in us. For he was justified by faith in the Word of God, the Christ, who appeared to him, having turned away from the superstition of his fathers and the error of his former life, having confessed the one God over all and served him by works of virtue, not by the worship of the law of Moses that came later. And to him, being such, it was said that all the tribes of the earth and all the nations would be blessed in him.

And at the present time, among Christians alone throughout the whole world, that very manner of Abraham's religion has appeared, practised in deeds clearer than words.

What then would prevent us from confessing that one and the same life and manner of godliness belongs both to us who are from Christ and to the God-loving men of long ago? So the godliness handed down to us through the teaching of Christ is shown to be, not new and foreign, but, if one must speak truly, the first and only and true achievement of godliness. Let that suffice on this matter.

Come now, after the necessary preparation for the church history we have set before us, let us at last begin, as on a journey, from the appearance of our Saviour in the flesh, calling on God, the Father of the Word, and on him of whom we are speaking, Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord, the heavenly Word of God, as our helper and fellow-worker in the truth of the narrative.

It was then the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus, and the twenty-eighth year from the subjection of Egypt and the death of Antony and Cleopatra, with whom the dynasty of the Ptolemies in Egypt came to its end, when our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ, at the time of the first census, while Quirinius was governor of Syria, was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in accordance with the prophecies concerning him.

This census under Quirinius is also mentioned by Flavius Josephus, the most renowned historian among the Hebrews, who adds another account, about the sect of the Galileans that sprang up at the same time, which our own Luke also mentions in the Acts, saying: “After him rose up Judas the Galilean in the days of the census, and drew away people after him; he too perished, and all who followed him were scattered.”

In agreement with these things, the writer we have mentioned sets out the following word for word in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities: “Quirinius, a member of the senate, who had held the other offices and passed through them all to become consul, and a man of great dignity in other respects, arrived in Syria with a few men, sent by Caesar as judge of the nation and to make an assessment of property.”

And a little later he says: “But Judas, a Gaulonite from a city named Gamala, taking with him Saddok, a Pharisee, pressed for revolt, both saying that the assessment brought nothing but outright slavery and calling on the nation to lay hold of its freedom.”

And in the second book of his Histories of the Jewish War he writes this about the same man: “At this time a Galilean named Judas incited the inhabitants to revolt, reproaching them if they would submit to pay tribute to the Romans and would endure mortal masters after God.” So much from Josephus.

At that time, when Herod, the first of foreign race, took over the kingship of the Jewish nation, the prophecy given through Moses was fulfilled, which said that “a ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he comes for whom it is reserved,” whom it also declares to be the expectation of the nations.

The prediction was unfulfilled during the time when they were permitted to live under rulers of their own nation, beginning from Moses himself and continuing until the reign of Augustus. In his time Herod, the first foreigner, was entrusted by the Romans with the rule of the Jews: as Josephus relates, he was an Idumaean on his father's side and an Arabian on his mother's; but, as Africanus says (and he too was no ordinary writer), those who know the details about him say that he was the son of Antipater, and that Antipater was the son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of the so-called temple slaves of the temple of Apollo.

This Antipater, taken captive as a child by Idumaean brigands, stayed with them because his father, being poor, could not pay a ransom for him. Brought up in their customs, he later became a friend of Hyrcanus the high priest of the Jews. His son was the Herod of our Saviour's time.

So when the kingship of the Jews had passed to such a man, the expectation of the nations, in accordance with the prophecy, was already at the doors, since from his time those who had ruled and led among them in succession from Moses himself had ceased.

Before their captivity and deportation to Babylon they were ruled by kings, beginning with Saul first and David; and before the kings, rulers governed them who were called judges, and they too ruled after Moses and his successor Joshua.

After the return from Babylon they continued to use an aristocratic form of government combined with oligarchy; for the high priests presided over affairs, until Pompey, the Roman general, came and besieged Jerusalem by force, and defiled the holy places, going as far as the innermost sanctuary of the temple. The one who until that time had continued by ancestral succession as both king and high priest, whose name was Aristobulus, he sent in chains to Rome with his children, and handed the high priesthood to Hyrcanus his brother; and from then on he made the whole Jewish nation tributary to the Romans.

And at once, when Hyrcanus, with whom the succession of the high priests came to its end, was taken captive by the Parthians, Herod, the first foreigner, as I said, was entrusted with the Jewish nation by the Roman senate and the emperor Augustus.

In his time the presence of Christ plainly came, and the expected salvation and calling of the nations followed, in accordance with the prophecy. From that time, when the rulers and leaders from Judah, I mean from the Jewish nation, had ceased, naturally their high priesthood too, which had passed steadily by ancestral succession from generation to generation to the nearest heirs, was immediately thrown into confusion.

You have Josephus too as a trustworthy witness of this, showing that Herod, when entrusted with the kingdom by the Romans, no longer appointed high priests from the ancient line, but gave the honour to certain obscure persons; and that Archelaus his son, and after him the Romans, when they had taken over the government of the Jews, acted like Herod in appointing the high priests.

The same writer shows that Herod was the first to lock up the high priest's sacred vestment under his own seal, no longer allowing the high priests to keep it in their own charge; and that Archelaus after him, and after him the Romans, did the same.

Let these things be said by us as further proof of a prophecy fulfilled at the appearance of our Saviour Jesus Christ. For very clearly in Daniel the word, having comprised by name a number of certain weeks until Christ the leader (about which we have treated elsewhere), prophesies that after their completion the anointing among the Jews would be destroyed. And this is clearly shown to have been fulfilled at the time of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. These things had necessarily to be noted by us beforehand to establish the truth of the chronology.

Since Matthew and Luke in their Gospels have handed down to us the genealogy of Christ differently, and they are thought by most people to disagree, and each of the faithful, in ignorance of the truth, has been eager to devise explanations of the passages, come, let us also set out the account of these matters that has come down to us, which Africanus, whom we mentioned a little earlier, recorded in a letter to Aristides on the harmony of the genealogy in the Gospels.

He refuted the opinions of the others as forced and false, and set out the account he himself had received in these very words: “For the names of the families in Israel were reckoned either by nature or by law: by nature, through the succession of legitimate offspring; by law, when another raised up children in the name of a brother who had died childless. For since no clear hope of resurrection had yet been given, they imitated the promise to come by a mortal resurrection, so that the name of the one who had departed might remain unfailing.

Since, then, of those included in this genealogy some succeeded their fathers legitimately as sons, while others were begotten by some but assigned by name to others, mention has been made of both, both of those who begot and of those who were reckoned as having begotten.

So neither of the Gospels is false, for they reckon both nature and law. For the families descended from Solomon and from Nathan were intertwined with one another by raisings-up of offspring for the childless, by second marriages, and by raising up of seed, so that the same persons are rightly reckoned as belonging now to one, now to another, some to their reputed fathers and some to their actual fathers. Thus both accounts are strictly true, and come down to Joseph in a complicated but accurate way.

To make what is said clear, I will explain the interchange of the families. Counting the generations from David through Solomon, the third from the end is found to be Matthan, who begot Jacob the father of Joseph. And from Nathan the son of David, according to Luke, the third from the end is likewise Melchi, whose son was Heli the father of Joseph; for Joseph was the son of Heli the son of Melchi.

Our aim then being Joseph, we must show how each is recorded as his father, both Jacob, who traces his descent from Solomon, and Heli, from Nathan; and how first these two, Jacob and Heli, were brothers; and before that, how their fathers, Matthan and Melchi, being of different families, appear as grandfathers of Joseph.

Matthan and Melchi, then, having married the same woman in turn, begot sons who were brothers by the same mother, since the law did not prevent a woman who was widowed, whether divorced or after her husband's death, from marrying another.

By Estha (for this is the name of the woman according to tradition), Matthan, who traced his descent from Solomon, first begot Jacob; and when Matthan died, Melchi, who traced his descent back to Nathan, being of the same tribe but of another family, as I said before, married her as a widow and had a son, Heli.

Thus we shall find Jacob and Heli to be brothers by the same mother, though of two different families. Of these, Jacob, when his brother Heli died childless, took his wife and begot by her a third, Joseph: by nature his own son, and by reckoning; hence it is written, “And Jacob begot Joseph.” But by law he was the son of Heli; for Jacob, being his brother, raised up seed to him.

Therefore the genealogy through him will not be made void either, which Matthew the evangelist sets out, saying, “And Jacob begot Joseph”; while Luke, on the other hand, says, “who was the son, as was supposed (for he adds this), of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Melchi.” For it was not possible to express legal descent more distinctly; and he refrained throughout from using “begot” for such offspring, carrying the reference back to “Adam, the son of God,” by way of tracing back.

Nor is this unproven or improvised. For the Saviour's relatives according to the flesh, whether to show off or simply to inform, but in any case speaking the truth, have handed down this too: that Idumaean brigands, attacking Ascalon, a city of Palestine, carried off from the temple of Apollo, which stood by the walls, among other spoils, Antipater, the son of a certain Herod, a temple slave; and since the priest could not pay a ransom for his son, Antipater, brought up in the customs of the Idumaeans, later became a friend of Hyrcanus the high priest of Judea.

Sent as envoy to Pompey on behalf of Hyrcanus, and having freed for him the kingdom that was being cut away by Aristobulus his brother, he had the good fortune to be named overseer of Palestine. Antipater, treacherously murdered out of envy for his great good fortune, was succeeded by his son Herod, who afterwards, under Antony and Augustus, was appointed by decree of the senate to reign over the Jews; his sons were Herod and the other tetrarchs. These things agree with the Greek histories as well.

Since the Hebrew families were registered up to that time in the archives, including those tracing back to proselytes of old, as far as Achior the Ammonite and Ruth the Moabitess, and the mixed peoples who came out of Egypt with them, Herod, since the lineage of the Israelites contributed nothing to him, and stung by the consciousness of his low birth, burned their genealogical records, thinking he would appear nobly born if no one else could trace his lineage from a public record back to the patriarchs or the proselytes, and the mixed people called geioras.

A few careful people, having private records of their own, either by remembering the names or by having them in some other way from copies, pride themselves on preserving the memory of their noble birth. Among these happened to be those already mentioned, called desposyni because of their connection with the Saviour's family, who from Nazareth and Cochaba, villages of Judea, [spread] over the rest of the land and explained the aforesaid genealogy from the book of days as far as they could.

Whether then it is so or otherwise, no one could find a clearer explanation, as I at least think, and so does every fair-minded person. Let this suffice us, even if it is not attested, since we have nothing better or truer to say. The Gospel at any rate speaks the truth in every respect.”

And at the end of the same letter he adds this: “Matthan, descended from Solomon, begot Jacob. When Matthan died, Melchi, descended from Nathan, begot Heli by the same woman. So Heli and Jacob were brothers by the same mother. When Heli died childless, Jacob raised up seed for him, begetting Joseph, by nature his own son, but by law Heli's. Thus Joseph was the son of both.” So much from Africanus.

And since Joseph's genealogy is traced in this way, Mary too is implicitly shown to be of the same tribe as he, since by the law of Moses it was not permitted to intermarry with other tribes; for it commands to be joined in marriage with one of the same district and the same family, so that the inheritance of the family might not pass from tribe to tribe. Let this, too, be as it is.

But when Christ was born, in accordance with the prophecies, in Bethlehem of Judea at the times indicated, Herod was questioned by the magi from the east, who asked where the one born king of the Jews was, for they had seen his star, and this had been the cause of their long journey, since they were eager to worship the newborn child as God. Herod was not a little disturbed by the matter, thinking, as he supposed, that his rule was in danger. He inquired of the teachers of the law among the nation where they expected the Christ to be born, and when he learned that the prophecy of Micah foretold it in Bethlehem, he ordered by a single command that the nursing infants in Bethlehem and in all its districts, two years old and under, according to the time he had ascertained from the magi, be killed, thinking that Jesus, as was likely, would surely share the same fate as those of his age.

But the child, carried away to Egypt, escaped the plot, his parents having learned beforehand what was coming through the appearance of an angel. These things the sacred scripture of the Gospel also teaches.

It is worth observing in addition the wages of Herod's daring against Christ and the children of his age: how immediately, without even a short delay, divine justice pursued him while he was still alive, showing the prelude of what awaited him after his departure from here.

How he darkened the supposed prosperity of his reign by successive calamities in his household, with the murders of his wife and children and others most closely and dearly related to him, it is not possible to recount now, for the story of these things overshadows every tragic drama; Josephus has gone through it at length in his histories.

But how, at the same time as his plot against our Saviour and the other infants, a scourge sent by God seized him and drove him to death, it is well to hear from the words of that writer, who in the seventeenth book of his Jewish Antiquities writes word for word of the end of his life in this way: “But Herod's disease grew steadily more severe, God exacting punishment for his crimes.

For there was a slow fire, not showing so much inflammation to those who touched him as it added affliction within; a terrible craving to take something, which it was impossible not to satisfy; ulceration of the bowels, and especially terrible pains of the colon; and a moist and transparent swelling about the feet.

There was a similar affliction of the abdomen; indeed also a putrefaction of the private parts that produced worms, and a violent straining of breath, itself very unpleasant because of the foulness of the discharge and the rapidity of the breathing; and there was convulsion in every limb, which brought on unbearable force.

It was said, then, by the diviners and by those whose wisdom it was to foretell such things, that God was exacting this penalty from the king for his great impiety.” These things the aforesaid writer notes in the book mentioned.

And in the second book of his Histories he relates similar things about the same man, writing thus: “Then the disease spread through his whole body and divided it among various sufferings. For there was a fever, not violent, an unbearable itching of the whole skin, pains of the colon, swellings of the feet as of one with dropsy, inflammation of the abdomen, and putrefaction of the private parts producing worms; besides these, difficulty in breathing, especially when upright, and convulsions of all the limbs, so that the diviners said the diseases were a punishment.

But though he struggled with so many sufferings, he still clung to life, hoped for recovery, and devised treatments. Crossing the Jordan, he used the hot springs at Callirrhoe; these flow out into the Asphalt Lake, but are sweet enough to drink.

When the physicians decided there to warm his whole body with hot oil, he was let down into a tub full of oil, and he fainted and turned up his eyes as if dead. When his attendants raised an uproar, he came round at the cry; but from then on, despairing of recovery, he ordered fifty drachmas each to be distributed to the soldiers, and much money to the officers and his friends.

He himself returned and came to Jericho, already in a black mood, and, all but threatening death itself, proceeded to plan a lawless deed. For he gathered the notable men from every village of all Judea and ordered them shut up in the so-called hippodrome.

And calling his sister Salome and her husband Alexander, he said, ‘I know that the Jews will celebrate my death as a festival. But I can be mourned on others' account and have a splendid funeral, if you are willing to carry out my orders. As soon as I breathe my last, surround these men under guard with the soldiers and kill them at once, so that all Judea and every household will weep over me, even against their will.’”

And a little later he says: “Then again, for he was racked by want of food and a convulsive cough, overcome by his pains he tried to anticipate his fate. He asked for an apple and a knife, for he was accustomed to peel it before eating; then, looking round lest there be anyone to stop him, he raised his right hand as though to stab himself.”

In addition to this, the same writer relates that before the very end of his life he had another of his legitimate sons, a third besides the two already put to death, killed by his command, and that he at once breathed out his life with no small pains.

Such was the end of Herod's life, and he paid a just penalty for the children he killed around Bethlehem because of his plot against our Saviour. After this, an angel stood by Joseph in a dream while he was staying in Egypt and commanded him to depart with the child and his mother to Judea, showing that those who sought the child's life were dead. To this the evangelist adds: “But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there; and being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee.”

The historian mentioned before also agrees about the appointment of Archelaus to the government after Herod, recording both the manner in which, by the will of Herod his father and the decision of Caesar Augustus, he succeeded to the kingdom of the Jews, and how, when he fell from power after ten years, his brothers Philip and the younger Herod, together with Lysanias, governed their own tetrarchies.

The same writer, in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities, shows that in the twelfth year of the reign of Tiberius (who succeeded to the supreme rule after Augustus had held power for fifty-seven years) Pontius Pilate was entrusted with Judea, and that he remained there for ten whole years, almost until the death of Tiberius.

Clearly, then, the forgery of those who recently circulated Memoirs against our Saviour has been refuted; in them the very date noted at the beginning convicts the forgers of falsehood.

For they place their audacious account of the saving Passion in the fourth consulship of Tiberius, which was in the seventh year of his reign, a time at which it is shown that Pilate had not yet even taken charge of Judea, if we are to use Josephus as a witness, who clearly indicates in the work mentioned that Pilate was appointed procurator of Judea by Tiberius in the twelfth year of his reign.

In their time, then, according to the evangelist, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, and the fourth of the governorship of Pontius Pilate, while Herod, Lysanias, and Philip were tetrarchs of the rest of Judea, our Saviour and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, being about thirty years old at his beginning, came to the baptism of John and then made the beginning of the preaching of the gospel.

Divine Scripture says that he completed the whole time of his teaching under the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, showing that the whole time of his teaching was completed in the years between their ministries. He began during the high priesthood of Annas and continued until the tenure of Caiaphas; so the whole interval does not amount to four full years.

For since the ordinances of the law had by then in some way been done away with, the rule was dissolved by which the offices of the service of God belonged to a man for life and by ancestral succession; and different men were entrusted with the high priesthood by the Roman governors at different times, and did not continue in it for more than one year.

Josephus, at any rate, relates that four high priests followed in succession after Annas down to Caiaphas, saying in the same book of the Antiquities: “Valerius Gratus, having removed Ananus from the priesthood, appoints Ishmael the son of Phabi high priest. And having removed him not long after, he appoints Eleazar, the son of Ananus the high priest, high priest.

When a year had passed, he removed him too and hands the high priesthood to Simon the son of Camithus. And he too had held the honour no longer than a year, when Joseph, also called Caiaphas, was his successor.”

So the whole time of our Saviour's teaching is shown to be not even four full years, since four high priests in four years, from Annas to the appointment of Caiaphas, held the yearly office. And the scripture of the Gospel fittingly noted Caiaphas as high priest of the year in which the events of the saving Passion took place; from this too the time of Christ's teaching is shown to agree with the present observation.

Now our Saviour and Lord, not long after the beginning of his preaching, calls the twelve apostles, whom alone of his other disciples he named apostles as a special privilege. And again he appoints seventy others, whom he also sent out two by two before his face into every place and city where he himself was about to come.

Not long afterwards, the beheading of John the Baptist by the younger Herod is recorded by the divine scripture of the Gospels; and Josephus too gives an account of it, mentioning Herodias by name, and how Herod took her in marriage though she was his brother's wife, having set aside his former lawful wife (she was the daughter of Aretas, king of the Petraeans), and having separated Herodias from her husband while he was still alive. On her account, having also killed John, he waged war with Aretas, whose daughter had been dishonoured.

In that war, when a battle was fought, he says that Herod's whole army was destroyed, and that he suffered this because of the plot against John.

The same Josephus, acknowledging that John was an exceptionally righteous man and a baptizer, bears witness together with what is written about him in the Gospels. He also relates that Herod lost his kingdom on account of the same Herodias, with whom he was driven into exile and condemned to live at Vienne in Gaul.

These things he has shown in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, where he writes these very words about John: “But to some of the Jews it seemed that Herod's army had been destroyed by God, who most justly exacted punishment for John, called the Baptist.

For Herod killed him, though he was a good man who commanded the Jews to practise virtue, to use righteousness toward one another and piety toward God, and so to come together for baptism. For so, he said, the baptism would appear acceptable to God, if they used it not to beg off certain sins but for the purification of the body, since the soul had already been cleansed beforehand by righteousness.

And when others gathered round him (for they were greatly delighted at hearing his words), Herod, fearing that his great persuasiveness with the people might lead to some revolt (for they seemed ready to do anything on his advice), thought it much better to anticipate him and put him to death before any uprising came from him, than to fall into trouble when a change came and then repent. So because of Herod's suspicion he was sent in chains to Machaerus, the fortress mentioned before, and there put to death.

Having related these things about John, he also mentions our Saviour in the same part of his work, as follows: “About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of men who receive the truth with pleasure; and he won over many of the Jews and many also of the Greeks.

He was the Christ. And when Pilate, on the accusation of the leading men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him at the first did not cease. For he appeared to them on the third day alive again, the divine prophets having foretold these and countless other wonderful things about him. And even now the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not died out.”

Since a writer from among the Hebrews themselves has handed down these things long ago in his own work about John the Baptist and our Saviour, what escape is left for those who forged the Memoirs against them from being convicted of shamelessness? But let this be as it is.

The names of the Saviour's apostles are clear to everyone from the Gospels. But of the seventy disciples no list is extant anywhere. It is said, however, that Barnabas was one of them, of whom the Acts of the Apostles has made mention in various places, and not least Paul too, writing to the Galatians. They say that Sosthenes too was one of these, who wrote to the Corinthians together with Paul.

The account is in Clement, in the fifth book of the Outlines, in which he also says that Cephas, about whom Paul says, “When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face,” was one of the seventy disciples, having the same name as Peter the apostle.

Tradition also holds that Matthias, who was numbered with the apostles in place of Judas, and the one honoured together with him by the same vote, were thought worthy of the same calling of the seventy. They say that Thaddaeus too was one of them, about whom I shall shortly set out an account that has come down to us.

And if you look carefully you will find that the Saviour's disciples were more than seventy, using Paul as a witness, who says that after his rising from the dead he appeared first to Cephas, then to the Twelve, and after these to more than five hundred brothers at once, some of whom, he said, had fallen asleep, but most were still alive at the time he was writing.

Then he says that he appeared to James; and he too was one of the so-called brothers of the Saviour. Then, since besides these there were very many apostles, in imitation of the Twelve, such as Paul himself was, he adds, saying, “Then he appeared to all the apostles.” So much about these; the account concerning Thaddaeus is as follows.

The divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being noised abroad among all men because of his wonder-working power, drew countless numbers even of those in foreign lands far from Judea who hoped to be healed of diseases and all kinds of sufferings.

So it was that King Abgar, the most distinguished ruler of the nations beyond the Euphrates, whose body was wasting away with a terrible disease incurable by human power, when he learned of the fame of the name of Jesus and of his mighty works, attested with one voice by all, sent to him by a letter-carrier as a suppliant, asking to obtain release from his disease.

Jesus did not comply with his request at that time, but thought him worthy of a letter of his own, promising to send one of his disciples to cure his disease, and at the same time promising salvation to him and all his household.

And not long afterwards the promise was fulfilled for him. After the resurrection from the dead and the ascent into heaven, Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, moved by divine impulse, sent Thaddaeus, who was himself numbered among the seventy disciples of Christ, to Edessa as herald and evangelist of the teaching about Christ, and through him all the terms of our Saviour's promise were fulfilled.

You have the written testimony of these things too, taken from the archives of Edessa, which was then a royal city. For in the public records there, which contain ancient events and those concerning Abgar, these things too are found preserved from that time until now. But there is nothing like hearing the letters themselves, taken by us from the archives and translated word for word from the Syriac language in this way. Copy of a letter written by Abgar the toparch to Jesus and sent to him by Ananias the courier to Jerusalem.

“Abgar, toparch of Edessa, to Jesus, the good Saviour who has appeared in the district of Jerusalem, greeting. I have heard about you and your cures, that they are done by you without medicines or herbs. For, as the report goes, you make the blind see again and the lame walk, you cleanse lepers, you cast out unclean spirits and demons, you heal those tormented by long illness, and you raise the dead.

And having heard all these things about you, I concluded one of two things: either that you are God and have come down from heaven and do these things, or that you are the Son of God who does these things.

Therefore I have written to beg you to take the trouble to come to me and heal the suffering I have. For I have heard that the Jews too are murmuring against you and want to harm you. I have a very small but noble city, which is enough for us both.”

The reply written by Jesus through Ananias the courier to Abgar the toparch.

“Blessed are you, who have believed in me without having seen me. For it is written of me that those who have seen me will not believe in me, and that those who have not seen me will believe and live. As for what you wrote to me, that I should come to you: I must fulfil here all that I was sent for, and after fulfilling it be taken up to him who sent me. And when I have been taken up, I will send you one of my disciples to heal your suffering and give life to you and those with you.”

To these letters the following was also attached in the Syriac language: “After Jesus was taken up, Judas, also called Thomas, sent to him Thaddaeus the apostle, one of the seventy. He came and stayed with Tobias the son of Tobias. When news of him was heard, it was reported to Abgar: ‘An apostle of Jesus has come here, as he wrote to you.’

So Thaddaeus began, in the power of God, to heal every disease and weakness, so that all marvelled. And when Abgar heard of the great and wonderful things he did and how he healed, he suspected that he was the one of whom Jesus had written, saying, ‘When I have been taken up, I will send you one of my disciples, who will heal your suffering.’

So he summoned Tobias, with whom he was staying, and said, ‘I have heard that a certain man of power has come and is staying in your house; bring him up to me.’ Tobias went to Thaddaeus and said to him, ‘The toparch Abgar summoned me and told me to bring you to him, so that you may heal his suffering.’ And Thaddaeus said, ‘I will go up, since I have been sent to him with power.’

So Tobias rose early the next day, took Thaddaeus, and came to Abgar. When he went up, with the king's nobles present and standing by, immediately as he entered a great vision appeared to Abgar in the face of the apostle Thaddaeus. Seeing it, Abgar bowed down before Thaddaeus, and all who stood by were amazed; for they had not seen the vision, which appeared to Abgar alone.

He asked Thaddaeus, ‘Are you truly a disciple of Jesus the Son of God, who said to me, I will send you one of my disciples, who will heal you and give you life?’ And Thaddaeus said, ‘Because you have greatly believed in him who sent me, therefore I have been sent to you. And again, if you believe in him, the requests of your heart will be granted as you believe.’

And Abgar said to him, ‘I so believed in him that I wanted to take a force and destroy the Jews who crucified him, had I not been prevented from this by the Roman Empire.’ And Thaddaeus said, ‘Our Lord has fulfilled the will of his Father, and having fulfilled it, has been taken up to the Father.’

Abgar said to him, ‘I too have believed in him and in his Father.’ And Thaddaeus said, ‘Therefore I lay my hand on you in his name.’ And when he did this, Abgar was at once healed of the disease and suffering he had.

And Abgar marvelled that, just as he had heard about Jesus, so he had received it in fact through his disciple Thaddaeus, who healed him without medicine or herbs; and not only him, but also Abdus the son of Abdus, who had gout; he too came and fell at his feet, received prayers with the laying on of his hand, and was healed. The same man healed many other fellow citizens of theirs, doing wonderful and great things and preaching the word of God.

After this Abgar said, ‘You, Thaddaeus, do these things with the power of God, and we ourselves have marvelled at you. But besides this I beg you, tell me about the coming of Jesus, how it happened, and about his power, and by what power he did the things we have heard of.’

And Thaddaeus said, ‘Now I will be silent, since I was sent to preach the word; but tomorrow assemble for me all your citizens, and before them I will preach the word of God and sow among them the word of life: about the coming of Jesus, how it happened; about his mission, and for what purpose he was sent by the Father; about the power of his works, and the mysteries he spoke in the world, and by what power he did these things; about his new preaching; about his lowliness and humiliation, and how he humbled himself, and died, and made his Godhead small, and was crucified, and went down to Hades, and broke through the barrier never broken from eternity, and raised up the dead; for he went down alone, but raised up many with him, and so ascended to his Father.’

So Abgar ordered his citizens to assemble at dawn and to hear the preaching of Thaddaeus; and after this he commanded that gold and uncoined silver be given to him. But he did not accept it, saying, ‘If we have left our own things behind, how shall we take what belongs to others?’”

These things were done in the three hundred and fortieth year. Let them, not uselessly translated word for word from the Syriac language, be set down here at the proper place.

Whatever needed to be set out, as in a preface, for the church history, concerning the theology of the saving Word and the antiquity of the doctrines of our teaching and the ancient character of the Christians' gospel way of life, and also concerning his recent appearance, his Passion, and the choice of the apostles, we treated in the preceding book, abbreviating the proofs.

Come now, let us at present examine what followed his ascension, noting some things from the divine writings and relating others besides from outside sources, from the memoirs which we shall mention in due course.

First, then, Matthias, who, as has been shown, was himself one of the Lord's disciples, was chosen by lot for the apostleship in place of the traitor Judas. And there were appointed to the diaconate, by prayer and the laying on of the apostles' hands, for the service of the community, approved men, seven in number, those with Stephen. He was also the first after the Lord, at the time of his ordination, as though advanced for this very purpose, to be stoned to death by the Lord's murderers; and so he was the first of Christ's victorious martyrs to carry off the crown that matched his name.

At that time, too, James, who was called the brother of the Lord (because he too was named the son of Joseph; and Joseph was the father of Christ, to whom the Virgin was betrothed when, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, as the sacred scripture of the Gospels teaches), this James, whom the men of old also surnamed the Just because of the excellence of his virtue, is recorded to have been the first entrusted with the throne of the episcopate of the church in Jerusalem.

And Clement, writing in the sixth book of the Outlines, presents it thus: “For Peter,” he says, “and James and John, after the ascension of the Saviour, although they had been preferred by the Lord, did not contend for glory, but chose James the Just as bishop of Jerusalem.”

The same writer, in the seventh book of the same work, says this too about him: “After the resurrection the Lord handed down the knowledge to James the Just and John and Peter; these handed it down to the rest of the apostles, and the rest of the apostles to the seventy, of whom Barnabas was one.

There were two Jameses: one the Just, who was thrown from the pinnacle and beaten to death with a fuller's club, and the other who was beheaded.” Paul too mentions this same James the Just, writing, “But I saw none of the other apostles except James the brother of the Lord.”

At this time, too, the promise of our Saviour to the king of the Osrhoenians was fulfilled. Thomas, at any rate, moved by divine impulse, sent Thaddaeus to Edessa as herald and evangelist of the teaching about Christ, as we showed a little earlier from the document found there.

When he arrived in those parts, he healed Abgar by the word of Christ and astonished everyone there by the wonders of his miracles; and having sufficiently disposed them by his deeds and brought them to reverence for the power of Christ, he made them disciples of the saving teaching. And from that time until now the whole city of the Edessenes has been devoted to the name of Christ, displaying no ordinary proof of our Saviour's kindness toward them too.

Let these things be said as from ancient accounts; let us return again to divine Scripture. When the first and greatest persecution by the Jews themselves arose against the church in Jerusalem at the martyrdom of Stephen, and all the disciples except the Twelve alone were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, some, as the divine Scripture says, went as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch; they could not yet venture to share the word of faith with the Gentiles, but proclaimed it to Jews alone.

At that time Paul too was still ravaging the church, entering the houses of the believers, dragging off men and women, and handing them over to prison.

But Philip, too, one of those appointed with Stephen to the diaconate, being among the scattered, went down to Samaria, and, being filled with divine power, was the first to preach the word to those there. So great was the divine grace working with him that even Simon the magician, with very many others, was drawn by his words.

Simon was at that time so famous and held such sway by sorcery over those he had deceived that they thought him to be the great power of God. Yet then he too, astonished at the wonders performed by Philip through divine power, slipped in and feigned faith in Christ even to the point of baptism.

And it is worth wondering that this still happens to this day among those who even now follow the most abominable heresy derived from him, who, by the method of their forefather, slipping into the church like a pestilent and scabby disease, do the greatest harm to those on whom they are able to wipe off the incurable and grievous poison hidden in them. Many of these, however, have already been driven out, when they were caught in their wickedness, as Simon himself, detected by Peter, paid the appropriate penalty.

But as the saving proclamation advanced daily in growth, a certain providence brought from the land of the Ethiopians an officer of the queen there, for by an ancestral custom that nation is still ruled by a woman. Tradition holds that he, the first of the Gentiles to receive from Philip, through a revelation, the sacred mysteries of the divine Word, and the first-fruits of the faithful throughout the world, was the first to return to his native land and proclaim the knowledge of the God of the universe and the life-giving sojourn of our Saviour among men; so that through him the prophecy was fulfilled in fact which says, “Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand to God.”

After these things Paul, the chosen vessel, was appointed an apostle, not from men nor through men, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ himself and of God the Father who raised him from the dead, being thought worthy of the call through a vision and the heavenly voice at the revelation.

And when the wonderful resurrection and ascension into heaven of our Saviour had already become widely known, since an ancient custom prevailed that the governors of the provinces should report to the holder of the imperial power any new developments among them, so that nothing that happened might escape him, Pilate communicated to the emperor Tiberius the reports of the resurrection from the dead of our Saviour Jesus Christ, already noised abroad throughout all Palestine,

and they say that Tiberius, when he learned of his other marvels, and that after death he had risen from the dead and was already believed by many to be a god, referred the matter to the senate, and that the senate rejected the proposal, ostensibly because it had not examined the matter first, since an ancient law prevailed that no one should be made a god among the Romans except by vote and decree of the senate, but in truth because the saving teaching of the divine proclamation needed no ratification or recommendation from men.

When the Roman senate had thus rejected the report made about our Saviour, Tiberius kept the opinion he had held before and devised nothing harmful against the teaching of Christ.

These things Tertullian, a man who had mastered the laws of the Romans, distinguished in other respects and one of the most eminent men in Rome, records in his Apology for the Christians, written by him in the Latin language and translated into Greek, relating it word for word thus: “In order that we may discuss such laws from their origin, there was an ancient decree that no god should be consecrated by an emperor before being approved by the senate. Marcus Aemilius acted so with regard to a certain idol, Alburnus. And this has been done in favour of our argument, that among you divinity is conferred by human approval.

If a god does not please a man, he does not become a god. So, by this reckoning, man must be gracious to god.

Tiberius, then, in whose time the name of Christians entered the world, when this doctrine was reported to him from Palestine, where it first began, communicated it to the senate, making it plain to them that he was pleased with the doctrine. But the senate, since it had not itself approved it, rejected it; he, however, remained in his own opinion, threatening death to accusers of the Christians.” Heavenly providence put this into his mind by design, so that the word of the gospel, having its beginnings unhindered, might run everywhere on earth.

So then, by heavenly power and assistance, the saving word suddenly lit up the whole inhabited world like a ray of the sun, and at once, in accordance with the divine Scriptures, the voice of his inspired evangelists and apostles went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.

And indeed throughout all the cities and villages, like a teeming threshing-floor, churches of thousands, of vast numbers, were suddenly formed. Those whose souls had been fettered by the ancient disease of idolatrous superstition, by ancestral succession and the error of old, were set free by the power of Christ through the teaching and the wonderful works of his disciples, as from cruel masters, and found release from the harshest bonds; they spat on all demonic polytheism and confessed that there is only one God, the maker of all things, and honoured him with the rites of true piety through the inspired and sober worship which our Saviour had sown in human life.

When divine grace was already being poured out on the other nations too, and first at Caesarea in Palestine Cornelius with his whole household received faith in Christ through a divine revelation and the ministry of Peter, and very many other Greeks at Antioch, to whom those scattered in the persecution of Stephen had preached; and when the church at Antioch was just flourishing and multiplying, and there were present at the same time very many of the prophets from Jerusalem, and with them Barnabas and Paul, and a crowd of other brothers besides, then for the first time the name of Christians sprang up there, as from a fresh and fruitful spring.

And Agabus, one of the prophets who were with them, foretold that a famine was about to come, and Paul and Barnabas were sent to help in the relief of the brothers.

Tiberius, then, died after reigning about twenty-two years, and after him Gaius, taking over the government, at once put the crown of the rule over the Jews on Agrippa, making him king of the tetrarchies of Philip and of Lysanias; and not long afterwards he gave him also the tetrarchy of Herod, having punished Herod (this was the one at the time of the Saviour's Passion) with perpetual exile, together with his wife Herodias, for very many offences. Josephus is witness to these things too.

In his time Philo became known, a man most distinguished not only among many of our own, but also among those who start from outside learning. By descent he was a Hebrew of old, inferior to none of those in high office at Alexandria.

How much and how great labour he devoted to the divine and ancestral studies is plain to all from his work; and there is no need to say what he was in the philosophical and liberal studies of outside learning, since he is said to have surpassed all his contemporaries, especially in his zeal for the way of Plato and Pythagoras.

This man relates in five books what befell the Jews under Gaius, describing at the same time Gaius's madness, how he proclaimed himself a god and committed countless outrages in his rule, and the miseries of the Jews under him, and the embassy that he himself undertook to the city of Rome on behalf of his countrymen in Alexandria; and how, when he stood before Gaius on behalf of the ancestral laws, he carried away nothing but laughter and ridicule, and very nearly incurred the danger of his life.

Josephus too mentions these things in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, writing word for word as follows: “When a riot arose in Alexandria between the Jews who live there and the Greeks, three envoys were chosen from each faction and came to Gaius.

One of the envoys of the Alexandrians was Apion, who uttered many slanders against the Jews, saying among other things that they neglected the honours due to Caesar: for while all who were subject to Roman rule set up altars and temples to Gaius and received him in all other respects as they did the gods, these alone thought it shameful to honour him with statues and to swear by his name.

When Apion had said many harsh things by which he hoped Gaius would be roused, as was likely, Philo, the head of the Jewish embassy, a man renowned in every way, the brother of Alexander the alabarch and not unskilled in philosophy, was ready to proceed to a defence against the accusations.

But Gaius cut him off, ordering him to get out of the way, and being very angry he was plainly about to do them some terrible harm. And Philo went out, grossly insulted, and said to the Jews who were with him that they must take courage, since Gaius was angry with them in word, but in fact was already setting God against himself.” So much Josephus.

Philo himself, in the Embassy which he wrote, shows in detail what was done at that time; I shall pass over most of it and set down only those things from which the readers will get a clear indication of what befell the Jews, at once and not long afterwards, on account of their crimes against Christ.

First, then, he relates that under Tiberius, in the city of Rome, Sejanus, who at that time had the greatest power with the emperor, made every effort to destroy the whole nation utterly, and that in Judea Pilate, under whom the crimes against the Saviour were committed, attempting something in the temple in Jerusalem, which was then still standing, contrary to what was permitted to the Jews, threw them into the greatest disturbance.

After the death of Tiberius, Gaius, having taken over the government, committed many other outrages against many, but above all did no small harm to the whole Jewish nation. This may be learned briefly from his own words, in which he writes word for word as follows:

“So great was the capriciousness of Gaius's character toward all, but especially toward the Jewish race. Bitterly hating them, he appropriated their prayer-houses in the other cities, beginning with those in Alexandria, filling them with images and statues of his own form (for by permitting others to set them up he was in effect setting them up himself); and the temple in the holy city, which had remained untouched and had been thought worthy of complete inviolability, he altered and transformed into a temple of his own, so that it might be called the temple of Gaius, the new Zeus made manifest.”

Countless other terrible things beyond all description the same writer relates as having befallen the Jews in Alexandria under the emperor mentioned, in a second work which he entitled On the Virtues. Josephus agrees with him, likewise indicating that the calamities of the whole nation began from the times of Pilate and the crimes committed against our Saviour.

Hear, then, what he too shows in the second book of the Jewish War, saying in these very words: “Pilate, sent to Judea as procurator by Tiberius, brought into Jerusalem by night, veiled, the images of Caesar, which are called standards. This, when day came, stirred up the greatest disturbance among the Jews; for those near at hand were astounded at the sight, as though their laws had been trampled on; for they do not allow any image to be set up in the city.”

Comparing these things with the scripture of the Gospels, you will know that not long afterwards there overtook them the cry which they had uttered before this same Pilate, when they shouted that they had no king but Caesar alone.

Then the same writer relates that another calamity followed them next, in these words: “After this he stirred up another disturbance by spending the sacred treasure, which is called Corban, on an aqueduct. The water was brought from a distance of three hundred stadia. At this the people were indignant.

And when Pilate was present in Jerusalem, they surrounded his tribunal and shouted him down. But he (for he knew beforehand of their disturbance) mixed armed soldiers, dressed in civilian clothes, among the crowd, and having forbidden them to use the sword, but ordered them to beat those who shouted with clubs, he gave the signal from the tribunal. The Jews, being beaten, perished, many from the blows and many trampled by one another in the flight; and the crowd, stunned by the fate of those killed, fell silent.”

Besides these, the same writer shows that countless other revolts were stirred up in Jerusalem itself, making clear that from that time seditions, wars, and successive plots of evil never ceased in the city and all Judea, until finally the siege under Vespasian overtook them. In this way, then, the penalties of divine justice pursued the Jews for the crimes they had dared against Christ.

It is worth knowing that tradition holds that Pilate himself, the governor at the time of the Saviour, fell, under Gaius, whose times we are describing, into such misfortunes that he was forced to become his own slayer and to punish himself with his own hand, divine justice, it seems, overtaking him before long. The Greek writers who record the Olympiads together with the events in chronological order relate this.

But Gaius, having held power not quite four years, was succeeded by the emperor Claudius. In his time, when famine pressed hard on the world (and writers far removed from our teaching have recorded this in their histories), the prediction of the prophet Agabus in the Acts of the Apostles, that there would be a famine over the whole world, was fulfilled.

Luke, having noted the famine under Claudius in the Acts, and having related how the brothers at Antioch sent to those in Judea, each according to his means, through Paul and Barnabas, adds, saying:

“About that time” (clearly under Claudius) “Herod the king laid hands on some of those from the church to harm them, and killed James the brother of John with the sword.”

About this James, Clement, in the seventh book of the Outlines, sets out a story worth remembering, saying it comes from the tradition of those before him: that the man who brought him to court, seeing him bear witness, was moved and confessed that he too was a Christian.

“So they were both led away together,” he says, “and on the way he asked James to forgive him. And he, after considering a little, said, ‘Peace be with you,’ and kissed him. And so both were beheaded together.”

Then, as the divine Scripture says, Herod, seeing after the killing of James that what had been done pleased the Jews, attacked Peter too, and having put him in chains would very soon have carried out his murder, had not an angel appeared to him by night in a divine vision, and he was wonderfully released from his bonds and set free for the ministry of preaching. So God's dispensation for Peter was carried out.

The consequences of the king's attempt against the apostles were no longer delayed; the avenging minister of divine justice overtook him immediately after his plot against the apostles, as the scripture of the Acts relates. He went to Caesarea, and there, on a notable feast day, adorned in splendid royal clothing, he harangued the people from a high place before the tribunal; and when the whole people applauded the speech, as at the voice of a god and not of a man, the Word relates that an angel of the Lord immediately struck him, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

It is worth marvelling at the agreement of Josephus's account with the divine scripture in this wonder as well; in it he plainly bears witness to the truth in the nineteenth volume of the Antiquities, where he narrates the wonder in these very words:

“The third year of his reign over all Judea had been completed, and he came to the city of Caesarea, which was formerly called Strato's Tower. There he held spectacles in honour of Caesar, knowing this to be a festival for his welfare. And at it there had gathered a multitude of those of rank and advanced in dignity throughout the province.

On the second day of the spectacles, having put on a robe made entirely of silver, so that its weave was marvellous, he came into the theatre at the start of the day. There the silver, lit up by the first touch of the sun's rays, shone wonderfully, glittering in a way that was terrifying and awe-inspiring to those who gazed at it.

And at once his flatterers from various sides raised cries that did him no good, addressing him as a god and adding, ‘Be gracious! If until now we have feared you as a man, from now on we confess you to be more than mortal in nature.’

The king did not rebuke them, nor reject the impious flattery. But looking up a little later, he saw an angel sitting above his head. This he at once recognized as the cause of evils, as it had once been of good things, and he felt a pain that pierced his heart.

A sudden pain in the belly seized him, beginning with violence. Looking round at his friends, he said, ‘I, your god, am now ordered to end my life, fate at once refuting the words just falsely spoken of me. I who was called immortal by you am now led away to die. But I must accept my lot, as God has willed; for we have lived in no mean way, but in a splendour counted blessed.’ Saying this, he was overcome by the increasing pain.

So he was carried hastily to the palace, and the report went round to all that he would certainly die before long. And at once the multitude, with their wives and children, sitting in sackcloth according to their ancestral law, prayed to God for the king, and everything was full of lamentation and wailing. The king, lying in a high chamber and looking down on them falling prostrate, could not himself remain without tears.

Worn out continuously for five days by the pain in his belly, he ended his life, in the fifty-fourth year of his age and the seventh of his reign. For he reigned four years under Gaius Caesar, ruling Philip's tetrarchy for three years and receiving Herod's as well in the fourth, and he held three more years of the rule of Claudius Caesar.”

I greatly admire Josephus for agreeing with the divine Scriptures in these as in other matters. And if to some he seems to disagree about the king's name, yet the time and the deed show him to be the same person, either because the name was changed by some copying error, or because he, like many others, had two names.

And since Luke again in the Acts introduces Gamaliel, in the deliberation about the apostles, saying that at the time indicated Theudas arose, claiming to be somebody, who was destroyed, and all who followed him were dispersed, come, let us set out Josephus's account of him too.

He relates, then, in the book just mentioned, these very things word for word: “While Fadus was procurator of Judea, a certain impostor named Theudas persuaded a very great crowd to take their possessions and follow him to the river Jordan. For he said he was a prophet, and that by his command he would divide the river and provide them an easy passage. And by saying this he deceived many.

But Fadus did not let them enjoy their folly; he sent out a squadron of cavalry against them, which fell on them unexpectedly, killed many, and took many alive. They captured Theudas himself, cut off his head, and carried it to Jerusalem.” Next after this he also mentions the famine that took place under Claudius, as follows:

“At this time it also happened that the great famine took place in Judea, during which Queen Helena, having bought grain from Egypt for large sums, distributed it to the needy.”

You will find this too in agreement with the scripture of the Acts of the Apostles, which relates that the disciples at Antioch, each according to his means, determined to send relief to those living in Judea; which they also did, sending it to the presbyters by the hand of Barnabas and Paul.

Splendid monuments of this Helena, whom the historian mentioned, are still shown in the suburbs of what is now Aelia. She was said to have been queen of the nation of the Adiabenians.

But when faith in our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ was already spreading among all men, the enemy of human salvation, contriving to seize the imperial city first, brought there Simon, mentioned before, and, assisting the man's artful sorceries, won over many of the inhabitants of Rome to his error.

This is shown by Justin, who became distinguished in our faith not long after the apostles, about whom I shall set out what is fitting in due course. Take, then, and read the writing of this man, in which he says the following in his first Apology to Antoninus on behalf of our doctrine:

“And after the ascension of the Lord into heaven the demons put forward certain men who said that they were gods, who were not only not persecuted by you but were even thought worthy of honours: a certain Simon, a Samaritan from a village called Gitta, who in the time of Claudius Caesar, by the art of the demons working in him, performed magical feats in your royal city of Rome, was considered a god, and has been honoured by you with a statue as a god, on the river Tiber between the two bridges, bearing this Latin inscription: SIMONI DEO SANCTO, that is, To Simon the holy god.

And almost all the Samaritans, and a few also among other nations, confess and worship him as the first god. And a certain Helena, who went about with him at that time, who had formerly stood in a brothel in Tyre of Phoenicia, they call the first Thought that came from him.”

So much this writer. Irenaeus too agrees with him, describing in the first book of his work Against Heresies both the man and his unholy and foul teaching. It would be superfluous to recount it at present, since those who wish may learn in detail the origins, lives, and false principles of the heresiarchs after him, and the practices of them all, handed down with no little care in the book of Irenaeus mentioned.

We have received, then, that Simon was the first author of every heresy. From him, down to this day, those who follow his heresy, feigning the sober philosophy of the Christians, renowned among all for purity of life, nonetheless take up again the idolatrous superstition from which they seemed to have been freed, falling down before pictures and images of Simon himself and of Helena, mentioned with him, and undertaking to worship them with incense, sacrifices, and libations.

Their more secret rites, at which they say that anyone who first hears them will be astounded and, according to a written oracle of theirs, will be amazed, are truly full of amazement, derangement of mind, and madness, such that they not only cannot be committed to writing but cannot even be spoken by the lips of sober men, because of their excess of shamefulness and unspeakable conduct.

For whatever could be or be imagined more foul than every shameful thing, all this the most abominable heresy of these men has outdone, who make sport of wretched women, truly laden with every kind of evil.

The evil power that hates the good and plots against human salvation set up Simon at that time as the father and author of such evils, as if a great opponent of the great and inspired apostles of our Saviour.

Nevertheless, divine and heavenly grace, assisting its ministers, quickly quenched the kindling flame of the evil one through their appearance and presence, humbling and casting down through them every high thing lifted up against the knowledge of God.

Therefore neither Simon's nor anyone else's gathering of those who arose at that time survived in those very apostolic times. For the light of the truth overcame and prevailed over all things, and the divine Word himself, who had just shone on men from God, flourishing on earth and dwelling among his own apostles.

At once the sorcerer we have mentioned, struck in the eyes of his mind as by a divine and wonderful flash of light, when earlier in Judea he had been caught in his wickedness by the apostle Peter, undertook a very great journey across the sea and went off fleeing from east to west, thinking that only thus could he live as he wished.

Arriving in the city of the Romans, with the great help of the power that lay in wait there, he succeeded in his attempt in a short time to such an extent that he was honoured as a god by those there with the setting up of a statue.

But this did not prosper for him long. Close on his heels, in the same reign of Claudius, the all-good and most kindly providence of the universe led Peter, the strong and great one among the apostles, who because of his virtue was the spokesman for all the rest, to Rome as against so great a destroyer of life. Like a noble general of God, armed with divine weapons, he brought the precious merchandise of the spiritual light from the east to those in the west, proclaiming the light itself and the word that saves souls, the preaching of the kingdom of heaven.

So when the divine Word had come to dwell among them, Simon's power was quenched and at once destroyed together with the man. And so great a light of piety shone on the minds of Peter's hearers that they were not content with hearing once, nor with the unwritten teaching of the divine proclamation, but with all kinds of entreaties begged Mark, whose Gospel is extant, being a follower of Peter, to leave them a written record of the teaching delivered to them orally; and they did not let up until they had prevailed on the man, and so they became the cause of the writing of the Gospel called according to Mark.

They say that the apostle, learning what had been done, since the Spirit revealed it to him, was pleased at the men's zeal and ratified the writing for reading in the churches (Clement gives the account in the sixth book of the Outlines, and the bishop of Hierapolis named Papias also bears witness with him). And they say that Peter mentions Mark in his first letter, which they also say he composed in Rome itself, and that he indicates this by calling the city, figuratively, Babylon, in these words: “She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you, and so does Mark my son.”

This Mark, they say, was the first to be sent to Egypt to preach the Gospel which he had also written, and the first to establish churches in Alexandria itself.

And so great a multitude of believers, men and women, gathered there at the first attempt, through a most philosophical and most rigorous asceticism, that Philo thought their pursuits, their gatherings, their common meals, and all the rest of their way of life worthy of a written account.

Tradition also holds that he came to Rome under Claudius and conversed with Peter, who was then preaching to those there. And this would not be unlikely, since the treatise of his that we mention, composed by him later and after some years, clearly contains the rules of the church that are still preserved even to our time.

Moreover, in describing as accurately as possible the life of our ascetics, he would plainly be not only knowing but also approving, revering, and praising the apostolic men of his day, who were, it seems, of Hebrew origin, and so still kept most of the ancient customs in a rather Jewish way.

First, at any rate, in the treatise he entitled On the Contemplative Life, or Suppliants, after affirming that he would add nothing beyond the truth from himself in what he was about to relate, he says that they are called Therapeutae, and the women with them Therapeutrides, and gives the reasons for this name: either because, like physicians, they heal and cure the souls of those who come to them, freeing them from the passions of vice, or because of their pure and sincere service and worship of the divine.

Whether he gave them this name himself, fittingly attaching it to the men's way of life, or whether the first of them really called themselves this at the beginning, when the name of Christians had not yet been proclaimed everywhere, there is no need to insist.

In any case, he testifies first of all to their renunciation of property, saying that those who begin to pursue philosophy give up their possessions to their relatives, and then, having renounced all the cares of life, go out beyond the walls and make their abodes in lonely fields and gardens, knowing well that association with people unlike themselves is unprofitable and harmful; those of that time did this, as is likely, with eager and most fervent faith, practising the life of the prophets in emulation.

So too in the acknowledged Acts of the Apostles it is recorded that all the apostles' acquaintances sold their possessions and property and distributed to all as anyone had need, so that there was no one in need among them. All who were owners of lands or houses, as the account says, sold them and brought the prices of what was sold and laid them at the apostles' feet, so that distribution was made to each as anyone had need.

Having testified to things similar to these, Philo adds in these very words about them: “This kind of people is found in many places in the inhabited world; for both Greece and the barbarian world had to share in the perfect good. But they abound in Egypt in each of the so-called nomes, and especially around Alexandria.

And the best from every quarter are sent as colonists, as to the homeland of the Therapeutae, to a most suitable place, which lies above Lake Mareotis on a rather low hill, very conveniently situated for safety and for the mildness of the air.”

Then, after describing what their dwellings were like, he says this about the churches in the country: “In each house there is a sacred room, which is called a sanctuary and monastery, in which, in solitude, they are initiated into the mysteries of the holy life, bringing in nothing, neither drink nor food nor any of the other things necessary for the needs of the body, but laws and oracles delivered by the prophets, and hymns, and the other things by which knowledge and piety are increased and perfected.”

And after other things he says: “The whole interval from dawn to evening is for them spiritual exercise. For reading the sacred writings they pursue philosophically their ancestral wisdom by allegorizing, since they regard the words of the literal interpretation as symbols of a hidden nature revealed in underlying meanings.

They also have writings of ancient men, who were the founders of their sect and left many memorials of the allegorical method, which they use as archetypes and imitate the manner of their principle.”

These things the man seems to have said after listening to them expounding the sacred Scriptures. And it is quite likely that the writings of the ancients which he says they had were the Gospels and the writings of the apostles, and probably some interpretations of the ancient prophets, such as the Letter to the Hebrews and many other letters of Paul contain.

Then again, next, about their composing new psalms, he writes thus: “So that they not only contemplate, but also compose songs and hymns to God in all kinds of metres and melodies, which they necessarily set in more solemn rhythms.”

He goes through many other things in the same work concerning the people under discussion, but it seemed necessary to select those in which he sets out the characteristic features of the church's way of life.

And if anyone thinks that what has been said is not peculiar to the gospel way of life, but can also fit others besides those indicated, let him be persuaded at least by his following words, in which,

if he is fair-minded, he will find undisputed testimony on this point. For he writes thus: “Having first laid down self-control as a kind of foundation in the soul, they build the other virtues on it. None of them would take food or drink before sunset, since they judge that philosophizing is worthy of light, but the needs of the body of darkness; hence they assigned the day to the one, and a small part of the night to the other.

And some, in whom a greater desire for knowledge is set, remember food only after three days; and some so delight and revel, feasted by wisdom that supplies her doctrines richly and abundantly, that they hold out even for twice that time, and, being accustomed to it, scarcely taste necessary food after six days.” These words of Philo we consider clearly and indisputably to refer to our people.

But if, in spite of this, anyone still obstinately contradicts, let him too give up his unbelief, yielding to clearer proofs, which are to be found nowhere else but in the religion of the Christians according to the gospel.

For he says that there are women too with those of whom we speak, most of whom are aged virgins, who have kept their chastity not under compulsion, like some of the priestesses among the Greeks, but rather of their own free will, through zeal and longing for wisdom; eager to live with her, they have disregarded the pleasures of the body, desiring not mortal offspring but immortal, which only the God-loving soul is able to bear from itself.

Then, going down a little, he sets forth this too more expressly: “Their interpretations of the sacred writings are made through underlying meanings in allegories. For the whole legislation seems to these men to resemble a living creature, having for its body the literal words, and for its soul the invisible sense stored up in the words, which this sect has particularly begun to contemplate, seeing, as through a mirror of the names, the extraordinary beauties of the thoughts reflected.”

Why should one add to these their meetings in the same place, and the separate life of men and of women in the same place, and the ascetic practices still customarily carried out by us even now, which we are accustomed to perform especially at the feast of the saving Passion with fastings and night vigils and attention to the divine words?

These the man mentioned has noted with particular accuracy and recorded in his own writing, in the manner kept to this day by us alone: especially the all-night vigils of the great feast and the exercises in them, and the hymns customarily said by us; and how, while one sings in an orderly way with rhythm, the rest, listening in silence, join in the closing refrains of the hymns; and how on the days mentioned they sleep on the ground on beds of straw, and, as he wrote in these very words, do not taste wine at all, nor anything with blood, but water alone is their drink, and their relish with bread is salt and hyssop.

In addition he describes the manner of presiding of those entrusted with the church's ministries, the diaconates, and the presidency of the episcopate, highest above all. Whoever wishes to know these things exactly may learn them from the man's account mentioned.

That Philo wrote these things having in view the first heralds of the gospel teaching and the customs handed down from the beginning by the apostles is plain to everyone.

Copious in language and broad in thought, lofty and sublime in his contemplations on the divine Scriptures, he produced a varied and manifold exposition of the sacred books. On the one hand, in sequence and order, he went through the treatment of the matters in Genesis in the books he entitled Allegories of the Sacred Laws; on the other hand, he made particular divisions of the chapters in dispute in the Scriptures, with statements of problems and solutions, in the books to which he also appropriately gave the title Questions and Solutions in Genesis and in Exodus.

Besides these he has treatises specially devoted to certain problems, such as the two books On Agriculture, and as many On Drunkenness, and some others with distinct and appropriate titles, such as On the Things the Sober Mind Prays For and Curses, On the Confusion of Tongues, On Flight and Choice, On Nature and Invention, On Meeting for the Sake of Instruction, and On Who Is the Heir of Divine Things, or On the Division into Equals and Opposites, and further On the Three Virtues which Moses described with others.

In addition, On Those Whose Names Are Changed and Why They Are Changed, in which he says he also composed On Covenants, books one and two.

There is also by him On Migration, and On the Life of the Wise Man Made Perfect in Righteousness, or On Unwritten Laws; and further On Giants, or On the Unchangeableness of God, and On Dreams Being Sent by God According to Moses, books one, two, three, four, five. These are the works on Genesis that have come down to us.

On Exodus we know of his Questions and Solutions, books one, two, three, four, five; also On the Tabernacle, On the Ten Commandments, and On the Laws Referred in Particular to the Chief Headings of the Ten Commandments, books one, two, three, four; On the Animals for Sacrifice and What Are the Kinds of Sacrifices; and On the Rewards Set Forth in the Law for the Good, and the Penalties and Curses for the Wicked.

Besides all these, single books of his are extant, such as the one On Providence, the treatise he composed On the Jews, and The Statesman; further, the Alexander, or On Irrational Animals Having Reason; besides these, the one On Every Bad Man Being a Slave, followed by the one On Every Good Man Being Free.

After these he composed On the Contemplative Life, or Suppliants, from which we have described the life of the apostolic men; and the Interpretations of the Hebrew Names in the Law and the Prophets are also said to be his work.

This man, having come to Rome under Gaius, is said to have read before the whole Roman senate under Claudius what he had written about Gaius's hatred of God, which, with characteristic irony, he entitled On the Virtues; and his works were so admired that they were thought worthy of being placed in libraries.

At that time, while Paul was completing his journey from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum, Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome; and Aquila and Priscilla, leaving Rome with the other Jews, sailed to Asia and there stayed with Paul the apostle, who was strengthening the foundations of the churches there which he had just laid. The sacred scripture of the Acts is our teacher in this too.

While Claudius was still administering the empire, it happened that at the feast of the Passover so great a riot and disturbance arose in Jerusalem that of those alone who were forcibly crowded together at the exits of the temple, thirty thousand Jews died, trampled by one another, and the feast became mourning for the whole nation and lamentation in every house. This too Josephus relates almost word for word.

Claudius appointed Agrippa, son of Agrippa, king of the Jews, and sent Felix as procurator of the whole country of Samaria and Galilee, and also of the region called Peraea. And having himself held the government for thirteen years and eight months, he died, leaving Nero as successor to his rule.

Under Nero, while Felix was procurator of Judea, Josephus again writes in the twentieth book of the Antiquities, in these very words, of the strife of the priests with one another:

“Strife was kindled also between the high priests on the one side and the priests and the leading men of the people of Jerusalem on the other; and each of them, forming a band of the most reckless and revolutionary men, became its leader. And when they clashed they reviled one another and threw stones. There was not one to rebuke them; these things were done with licence, as in a city without a government.

And such shamelessness and audacity seized the high priests that they dared to send slaves to the threshing-floors to take the tithes owed to the priests; and so it happened that the poor among the priests were seen perishing from want. So much did the violence of the factions prevail over all justice.”

Again the same writer relates that at the same time a kind of brigands sprang up in Jerusalem, who, as he says, “by day and in the midst of the city murdered those they met.

For especially at the festivals they mingled with the crowd, concealing small daggers under their clothes, and with these stabbed their enemies; then, when the victims fell, the murderers themselves joined in the indignation; so that because of their credibility they were never discovered at all.

First Jonathan the high priest was slaughtered by them, and after him many were killed every day, and the fear was worse than the calamities, since each man, as in war, expected death every hour.”

Next after these things he adds, after other matters: “The Egyptian false prophet afflicted the Jews with a greater blow than these. For a sorcerer came into the country and, gaining for himself the reputation of a prophet, gathered about thirty thousand of those he had deceived; and leading them round from the desert to the mount called the Mount of Olives, he was ready from there to force his way into Jerusalem, and, having overpowered the Roman garrison and the people, to rule as tyrant, using those who broke in with him as his bodyguard.

But Felix anticipated his attack, meeting him with the Roman heavy infantry; and all the people joined in the defence, so that when battle was joined the Egyptian fled with a few, and most of those with him were killed or taken alive.”

This Josephus relates in the second book of his Histories. It is worth comparing what is here shown about the Egyptian with the account in the Acts of the Apostles, where, in the time of Felix, it was said to Paul by the tribune in Jerusalem, when the multitude of the Jews raised a riot against him: “Are you not then the Egyptian who before these days stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the sicarii out into the desert?” Such were the events under Felix.

Festus was sent by Nero as his successor. Under him Paul, having made his defence, was taken to Rome in chains. Aristarchus was with him, whom he also fittingly calls somewhere in his letters his fellow prisoner. And Luke, who handed down the Acts of the Apostles in writing, ended his history at this point, noting that Paul spent two whole years at Rome at liberty and preached the word of God without hindrance.

Tradition has it that the apostle, after defending himself then, set out again on the ministry of preaching, and that, coming to the same city a second time, he was perfected by martyrdom under Nero. During this imprisonment, held in chains, he wrote the second letter to Timothy, indicating at once both his first defence and his impending perfection.

Receive his testimonies on these points: “At my first defence,” he says, “no one stood by me, but all deserted me (may it not be counted against them); but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully made and all the Gentiles might hear, and I was rescued from the lion's mouth.”

He clearly shows by these words that on the former occasion, so that the proclamation made through him might be fulfilled, he was rescued from the lion's mouth (so calling Nero, it seems, because of his cruelty). He did not therefore add next anything like “he will rescue me from the lion's mouth”; for he saw by the Spirit his end, which was now very near.

Therefore, after “and I was rescued from the lion's mouth,” he adds, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will save me for his heavenly kingdom,” indicating his imminent martyrdom, which he foretells still more clearly in the same letter, saying, “For I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure has come.”

Now in the second letter to Timothy he indicates that Luke alone was with him when he wrote, but at his first defence not even he; hence Luke naturally ended the Acts of the Apostles at that time, having narrated the history up to the time when he was with Paul.

We have said this to show that Paul's martyrdom was not accomplished during the stay in Rome which Luke recorded.

It is likely that at first, when Nero was more mildly disposed, Paul's defence of his doctrine was more easily accepted, but that when Nero advanced to lawless outrages, he attacked the apostles among others.

But the Jews, when Paul had appealed to Caesar and had been sent to the city of Rome by Festus, having failed in the hope with which they had prepared their plot against him, turned against James the brother of the Lord, to whom the throne of the episcopate in Jerusalem had been entrusted by the apostles. And these were the things they dared against him.

They brought him into their midst and demanded that he deny faith in Christ before all the people. But when, contrary to everyone's expectation, he spoke boldly with a free voice before the whole multitude, more than they had expected, and confessed that our Saviour and Lord Jesus is the Son of God, they could no longer bear the man's testimony, since he was believed by all to be most righteous because of the height of philosophy and piety which he practised in his life; and they killed him, taking the lawlessness as their opportunity, since, Festus having died in Judea at that very time, the administration there was without governor or procurator.

The manner of James's death has already been shown by the words of Clement quoted before, who related that he was thrown from the pinnacle and beaten to death with a club.

But Hegesippus, who belonged to the first generation after the apostles, gives the most accurate account of him in the fifth book of his Memoirs, speaking thus: “The charge of the church passed, together with the apostles, to the brother of the Lord, James, who has been called the Just by all from the times of the Lord until our own; for many were called James.

He was holy from his mother's womb. He drank no wine or strong drink, nor did he eat animal flesh. No razor went up on his head; he did not anoint himself with oil, and he did not use the bath.

He alone was permitted to enter the holy place; for he wore no wool, but linen. And he alone would go into the sanctuary, and was found kneeling and asking forgiveness for the people, so that his knees grew hard like a camel's, because he was always bending his knees in worship of God and asking forgiveness for the people.

Because of the excess of his righteousness he was called the Just and Oblias, which is in Greek ‘rampart of the people’ and ‘righteousness,’ as the prophets show concerning him.

Some, then, of the seven sects among the people, which I have described before in the Memoirs, asked him what the door of Jesus was; and he said that this one was the Saviour.

From these some believed that Jesus is the Christ. But the sects mentioned before did not believe either in a resurrection or in one coming to repay each according to his works; but as many as did believe, did so because of James.

Since many even of the rulers believed, there was an uproar among the Jews and scribes and Pharisees, who said that the whole people was in danger of looking for Jesus as the Christ. So they came together and said to James, ‘We beg you, restrain the people, since it has gone astray after Jesus, as though he were the Christ. We beg you to persuade all who come for the day of the Passover about Jesus; for we all obey you. For we and all the people testify to you that you are righteous and that you do not show partiality.

So persuade the crowd not to go astray about Jesus; for all the people and all of us obey you. Stand, then, on the pinnacle of the temple, so that from above you may be conspicuous and your words may be easily heard by all the people. For because of the Passover all the tribes have come together, with the Gentiles too.’

So the scribes and Pharisees mentioned before set James on the pinnacle of the temple, and cried out to him and said, ‘Just one, whom we all ought to obey, since the people is going astray after Jesus who was crucified, tell us what the door of Jesus is.’

And he answered with a loud voice, ‘Why do you ask me about Jesus the Son of Man? He is seated in heaven at the right hand of the great Power, and he is about to come on the clouds of heaven.’

And when many were fully convinced and gave glory at the testimony of James, saying, ‘Hosanna to the son of David,’ then again the same scribes and Pharisees said to one another, ‘We did wrong to provide such testimony to Jesus. Let us go up and throw him down, so that they may be afraid and not believe him.’

And they cried out, saying, ‘Oh, oh, even the Just one has gone astray!’ And they fulfilled the scripture written in Isaiah: ‘Let us take away the righteous man, for he is troublesome to us; therefore they shall eat the fruit of their works.’

So they went up and threw down the Just one, and said to one another, ‘Let us stone James the Just.’ And they began to stone him, since he had not died from the fall; but he turned and knelt, saying, ‘I beseech you, Lord God Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’

While they were stoning him in this way, one of the priests of the sons of Rechab the son of Rechabim, to whom Jeremiah the prophet bore witness, cried out, saying, ‘Stop! What are you doing? The Just one is praying for you.’

And one of them, one of the fullers, took the club with which he beat out the clothes and brought it down on the head of the Just one. And so he bore witness. And they buried him on the spot beside the temple, and his monument still remains beside the temple. He has become a true witness to both Jews and Greeks that Jesus is the Christ. And immediately Vespasian besieged them.”

Hegesippus relates these things at length in agreement with Clement. So wonderful a man was James, and so celebrated among all others for righteousness, that even the sensible among the Jews thought this was the cause of the siege of Jerusalem immediately after his martyrdom, which befell them for no other reason than the crime committed against him.

Indeed Josephus did not hesitate to testify to this in writing, in these words: “These things befell the Jews in vengeance for James the Just, who was the brother of Jesus called the Christ, since the Jews killed him, though he was a most righteous man.”

The same writer also shows his death in the twentieth book of the Antiquities in these words: “Caesar sent Albinus to Judea as prefect, on learning of the death of Festus. But the younger Ananus, who, as we said, had received the high priesthood, was bold in temper and exceptionally daring; he followed the sect of the Sadducees, who are harsher in judgments than all the Jews, as we have already shown.

Being such a man, then, Ananus, thinking he had a suitable opportunity, since Festus was dead and Albinus was still on the road, convened a council of judges, and brought before it the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and having accused them of breaking the law, he handed them over to be stoned.

But those in the city who seemed most fair-minded and strict about the laws were offended at this, and sent secretly to the king, asking him to order Ananus not to do such things again; for even in the first instance he had not acted rightly.

And some of them went to meet Albinus on his journey from Alexandria, and informed him that Ananus had no right to convene a council without his consent. Albinus, persuaded by what was said, wrote in anger to Ananus, threatening to punish him. And King Agrippa for this reason took the high priesthood from him after he had held it three months, and appointed Jesus the son of Damnaeus.” So much for James, to whom the first of the so-called catholic letters is said to belong.

It must be known, however, that it is disputed; at least not many of the ancients have mentioned it, as is also the case with the one called Jude's, which is also one of the seven called catholic. Nevertheless we know that these too have been publicly used, with the rest, in most churches.

In the eighth year of Nero's reign, Annianus was the first after Mark the evangelist to succeed to the ministry of the community in Alexandria.

When Nero's rule was now firmly established, he ran aground on unholy pursuits and armed himself against piety toward the God of the universe itself. To describe what kind of man he became in his wickedness would not belong to the present work.

Since many have handed down his affairs in the most accurate narratives, whoever wishes may observe from them the perversity of the man's outlandish madness, in which, without reason, after destroying countless numbers, he went so far in bloodguilt that he did not spare even his closest and dearest, but put to death his mother likewise, and his brothers and his wife, together with countless others related to his family, like enemies and foes, by various forms of death.

To all these crimes this too had to be added to his record, that he was the first of the emperors to be shown an enemy of piety toward God.

The Roman Tertullian again mentions him, speaking as follows: “Consult your records. There you will find that Nero was the first to persecute this doctrine, especially when, having subdued the whole East, he was cruel to all in Rome. We boast of such a man as the author of our punishment. For whoever knows him can understand that nothing would have been condemned by Nero unless it were something greatly good.”

So he, proclaimed as the first chief fighter against God, was stirred up to the slaughter of the apostles. Paul, then, is recorded to have been beheaded in Rome itself, and Peter likewise to have been crucified under him. And the account is confirmed by the names of Peter and Paul, which still prevail over the cemeteries there to this day.

No less does a churchman named Gaius, who lived when Zephyrinus was bishop of the Romans; in a written dialogue with Proclus, the leader of the Phrygian sect, he says this very thing about the places where the sacred remains of the apostles mentioned have been laid: “But I can show the trophies of the apostles.

For if you will go to the Vatican or to the Ostian Way, you will find the trophies of those who founded this church.”

That both bore witness at the same time, Dionysius, bishop of the Corinthians, in a letter addressed to the Romans, shows thus: “By such an admonition you too have joined together the planting of Peter and Paul at Rome and Corinth. For both of them alike planted in our Corinth and taught us likewise; and likewise, having taught together in Italy too, they were martyred at the same time.” And this I have quoted so that the history may be still more confirmed.

Again Josephus, after relating a great many things about the calamity that overtook the whole Jewish nation, shows word for word, besides very many other things, that countless numbers of those honoured among the Jews were scourged and crucified in Jerusalem itself by Florus; that he was procurator of Judea when the war began to flare up, in the twelfth year of Nero's rule.

Then he says that throughout all Syria a terrible disturbance followed the revolt of the Jews, those of the nation everywhere being mercilessly destroyed by the inhabitants of each city as enemies, so that one could see the cities full of unburied bodies, old men thrown out dead together with infants, and women without even the covering of modesty; and the whole province full of indescribable calamities, and the dread of what was threatened greater than the outrages committed each time. These things Josephus says word for word. And such were the affairs of the Jews.

Such, then, were the affairs of the Jews. But when the holy apostles and disciples of our Saviour had been scattered over the whole world, Thomas, as tradition holds, was allotted Parthia, Andrew Scythia, and John Asia, where he lived and died at Ephesus.

Peter seems to have preached to the Jews of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia; and at last, having come to Rome, he was crucified head downwards, having himself asked to suffer in this way.

What need is there to speak of Paul, who fulfilled the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum, and afterwards was martyred in Rome under Nero? These things are said word for word by Origen in the third volume of his Commentaries on Genesis.

After the martyrdom of Paul and Peter, Linus was the first to obtain the episcopate of the church of the Romans. Paul mentions him when writing to Timothy from Rome, in the greeting at the end of the letter.

Of Peter, then, one letter, called his first, is acknowledged, and the presbyters of old used it in their own writings as undisputed. But the so-called second letter we have received as not canonical; nevertheless, since it appeared useful to many, it has been esteemed with the other Scriptures.

But as for the so-called Acts of Peter, the Gospel named after him, the so-called Preaching of Peter, and the so-called Apocalypse, we know that they have not been handed down at all among the catholic writings, since no church writer, either of the ancients or of our own time, has used testimonies from them.

As the history proceeds, I shall take care to indicate, together with the successions, which of the disputed writings the church writers of each period have used, what they have said about the canonical and acknowledged Scriptures, and what about those that are not such.

But of the writings named after Peter, of which I have recognized only one letter as genuine and acknowledged by the presbyters of old, so much.

The fourteen letters of Paul are obvious and clear. It is not right, however, to be unaware that some have rejected the one to the Hebrews, saying that it is disputed by the church of the Romans as not being Paul's. What was said about it by those before us I shall set out in due course. Nor have I received his so-called Acts among the undisputed writings.

Since the same apostle, in the greetings at the end of Romans, has mentioned among others Hermas, to whom they say the book of the Shepherd belongs, it should be known that this too has been disputed by some, on whose account it could not be placed among the acknowledged books, but by others it has been judged most necessary, especially for those who need elementary instruction. Hence we know that it has been read publicly in churches, and I have found that some of the most ancient writers used it.

Let this be said to set out the divine writings that are undisputed and those that are not acknowledged by all.

That Paul, preaching to the Gentiles, laid the foundations of the churches from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum is clear from his own words and from what Luke related in the Acts.

And from Peter's words too it would be clear in how many provinces he preached Christ to those of the circumcision and delivered the word of the new covenant, from the letter we have said is acknowledged as his, in which he writes to those of the Hebrews in the Dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

But how many and which of these, becoming genuine followers, were approved as able to shepherd the churches founded by them, it is not easy to say, except those one might gather from the words of Paul.

For he had countless fellow workers and, as he himself called them, fellow soldiers, most of whom were thought worthy by him of unfading remembrance, since he recorded in his own letters his lasting testimony about them. Moreover, Luke too, in the Acts, listing his associates, mentions them by name.

Timothy, at any rate, is recorded to have been the first to receive the episcopate of the community in Ephesus, as Titus was of the churches in Crete.

Luke, who was by birth one of those from Antioch and by profession a physician, having been with Paul most of the time and having associated closely with the rest of the apostles too, has left us examples of the healing of souls which he acquired from them in two divinely inspired books: the Gospel, which he testifies he wrote according to what was handed down to him by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, all of whom, he says, he had followed from the first; and the Acts of the Apostles, which he composed having received it no longer by hearing but with his own eyes.

They say that Paul was accustomed to refer to the Gospel according to him whenever, as though writing of some gospel of his own, he said, “according to my gospel.”

Of Paul's other followers, Crescens is attested by him to have been sent to Gaul; and Linus, whom he mentions as being with him at Rome in the second letter to Timothy, has already been shown to have been the first after Peter to obtain the episcopate of the church of the Romans.

Clement too, who was himself appointed third bishop of the church of the Romans, is attested by Paul to have been his fellow worker and fellow combatant.

In addition, that Areopagite named Dionysius (whom Luke recorded in the Acts as the first to believe after Paul's address to the Athenians on the Areopagus) is recorded by another of the ancients, Dionysius, pastor of the community of the Corinthians, to have been the first bishop of the church in Athens.

But the successions of the apostles in each period will be told by us in due course as we proceed on our way. Now let us go on to what follows in the history.

After Nero had held power for thirteen years, and the reigns of Galba and Otho had lasted a year and six months, Vespasian, distinguished in the campaigns against the Jews, was proclaimed emperor in Judea itself, being hailed as imperator by the armies there. Setting out at once for Rome, he entrusted the war against the Jews to his son Titus.

After the ascension of our Saviour, the Jews, in addition to their crime against him, had already devised very many plots against his apostles too: first Stephen was killed by them with stones; then after him James, the son of Zebedee and brother of John, was beheaded; and finally James, who first after our Saviour's ascension had been allotted the throne of the episcopate there, died in the manner shown before; and the rest of the apostles, against whom countless plots were laid to kill them, were driven out of the land of Judea and went on their way to all the nations to teach the message, with the power of Christ, who had said to them, “Go and make disciples of all the nations in my name.”

Moreover, the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by an oracle given by revelation to the approved men there before the war to leave the city and live in a certain city of Peraea, which they call Pella. When those who believed in Christ had moved there from Jerusalem, as if holy men had utterly abandoned the royal metropolis of the Jews itself and the whole land of Judea, the judgment of God at last overtook them for their many crimes against Christ and his apostles, utterly destroying that generation of the impious from among men.

How many evils then poured on the whole nation in every place; how especially the inhabitants of Judea were driven to the extreme of calamities; how many tens of thousands of men of every age, with women and children, fell by the sword, by famine, and by countless other forms of death; how many and what sieges of Jewish cities took place; and what terrible things, and worse than terrible, those saw who fled to Jerusalem itself as to a most secure metropolis; the course of the whole war and each event that took place in it; and how at last the abomination of desolation proclaimed by the prophets stood in the very temple of God, famous of old, which suffered utter ruin and final destruction by fire: all this anyone who wishes may gather accurately from the history written by Josephus.

But it is necessary to note that he relates, in his own words, that the multitude of those who gathered from all Judea at the time of the feast of the Passover and were shut up in Jerusalem as in a prison was about three million.

For it was fitting that on the very days on which they had inflicted the Passion on the Saviour and benefactor of all, the Christ of God, they should be shut up as in a prison and receive the destruction that overtook them from divine justice.

Passing over the particulars of what befell them, all that was inflicted on them by the sword and in other ways, I think it necessary to set out only the calamities of the famine, so that readers of this work may know in part how the punishment from God for their crime against the Christ of God overtook them before long.

Come, then, take up again the fifth book of Josephus's Histories and go through the tragedy of what was then done: “For the wealthy,” he says, “even staying was equal to destruction; for on the pretext of desertion a man was killed for his property. The madness of the rebels grew with the famine, and each day both terrors blazed up more.

Nowhere was grain to be seen; they burst into houses and searched them; then, if they found it, they tortured the owners for having denied it; if they did not find it, they tormented them for having hidden it more carefully. The evidence of having or not having was the bodies of the wretches: those still in good condition were thought to have plenty of food, while those already wasting away were passed by, and it seemed pointless to kill those who would soon die of want.

Many secretly exchanged their possessions for a single measure, of wheat if they were richer, of barley if poorer. Then, shutting themselves up in the innermost rooms of their houses, some in extreme want ate the grain unground, while others baked it, as necessity and fear advised.

No table was set anywhere, but they snatched the food from the fire still raw and tore it apart. Pitiful was the food and the sight worthy of tears, the stronger taking more and the weak lamenting.

Famine overpowers all the passions, but nothing does it destroy so much as shame; for what at other times deserves respect is in this case despised. Wives snatched the food from their husbands, children from their fathers, and, most pitiable of all, mothers from their infants, out of their very mouths; and when their dearest were wasting away in their arms, there was no scruple about taking from them the life-giving drops.

Yet even eating such things they did not escape notice; everywhere the rebels were on them for plunder. For whenever they saw a house shut up, this was a sign that those inside were taking food; at once they broke down the doors, burst in, and all but squeezing the morsels out of their throats, brought them up.

Old men who clung to their food were beaten, and women were dragged by the hair for hiding what was in their hands; there was no pity for grey hair or for infants, but they lifted up infants clinging to the morsels and dashed them to the ground. To those who had anticipated their entry and swallowed beforehand what was to be seized, they were more savage, as if wronged.

They devised terrible ways of torture in their search for food, stopping the passages of the private parts of the wretches with bitter vetch and piercing their seats with sharp stakes. Things horrible even to hear a man suffered to make him confess to one loaf, and to reveal a single handful of barley meal that he had hidden.

But the torturers were not hungry (for it would have been less cruel if done out of necessity), but were exercising their madness and preparing provisions for themselves for the following days.

And those who crept out by night toward the Roman guard to gather wild herbs and grass they met when they thought they had already escaped the enemy, and snatched away what they had brought; and often, when they begged, and called on the most awesome name of God, to be given some part of what they had risked their lives to bring, they gave them nothing at all. It was a mercy not to be killed as well as robbed.”

To these things he adds after others: “For the Jews, with the exits, every hope of safety was cut off. And the famine, deepening, devoured the people by households and families. The roofs were filled with women and babies who had perished, the alleys with dead old men.

Children and young men, swollen, wandered like phantoms through the market places and fell wherever their suffering overtook them. The sick had no strength to bury their relatives, and those still vigorous shrank from it, both because of the number of the dead and because of their own uncertain fate. Many, indeed, fell dead on those they were burying, and many went to their graves before their end had come.

There was neither weeping nor lamentation in these calamities, but famine confounded the affections. With dry eyes those who were dying slowly looked on those who had gone to their rest before them. A deep silence and a night full of death enveloped the city. And the brigands were worse than these things.

For breaking into the houses as though they were tombs, they robbed the dead, tore the coverings off the bodies, and went out laughing; they tested the points of their swords on the corpses, and ran through some of those lying there who were still alive, to try the steel; while those who begged them to lend them a hand and a sword they left to the famine in contempt. And each of those who were expiring gazed fixedly toward the temple, leaving the rebels alive.

These at first ordered the dead to be buried at the public expense, unable to bear the stench; then, when they were not sufficient, they threw them from the walls into the ravines. When Titus, going round, saw these filled with the dead, and the thick putrid matter oozing from the bodies, he groaned, and lifting up his hands called God to witness that this was not his doing.”

After saying some other things in between, he adds: “I will not shrink from saying what my feelings bid me. I think that if the Romans had delayed against these sinners, either the city would have been swallowed by a chasm, or overwhelmed by a flood, or would have shared the thunderbolts of Sodom. For it produced a generation far more godless than those who suffered such things. At any rate, by their madness the whole people perished with them.”

And in the sixth book he writes thus: “Of those perishing of famine throughout the city a countless number fell, and indescribable sufferings took place. For in every house, wherever a shadow of food appeared, there was war, and the dearest fought hand to hand with one another, snatching the wretched sustenance of life. There was no belief in want even in the dying.

But the brigands searched even those still breathing, lest anyone should have food hidden in his bosom and be feigning death. Others, gaping with want, like mad dogs, leaped about and staggered, beating against the doors like drunken men, and in their helplessness rushed into the same houses two or three times in one hour.

Necessity brought everything to the teeth, and they gathered and brought themselves to eat things unfit even for the filthiest of brute beasts. At last they did not keep from belts and shoes, and they stripped the leather off their shields and chewed it. For some, wisps of old hay were food; and some gathered the stalks and sold the smallest weight for four Attic drachmas.

But why speak of the shamelessness of the famine toward inanimate things? I am going to relate a deed of it such as is recorded neither among Greeks nor barbarians, horrible to tell, incredible to hear. For my part, lest I should seem to posterity to be telling marvels, I would gladly have passed over this calamity, if I did not have countless witnesses among my contemporaries. Besides, I would do my country a cold favour if I suppressed the account of what it suffered.

A woman of those living beyond the Jordan, Mary by name, daughter of Eleazar, from the village of Bethezuba (which means ‘house of hyssop’), distinguished for family and wealth, had fled with the rest of the multitude to Jerusalem and was besieged with them.

The tyrants had plundered the rest of her property, whatever she had packed up and brought from Peraea into the city; and the remains of her treasures, and any food she had devised, the guards burst in daily and seized. A terrible indignation came over the woman, and by often reviling and cursing the robbers she provoked them against herself.

But when no one, either from exasperation or pity, would kill her, and she was weary of finding food for others, and it was now impossible to find it anywhere, and the famine went through her bowels and marrow, and her passions were inflamed more than by the famine, taking anger as her counsellor, together with necessity, she went against nature; and seizing her child (she had a son at the breast),

she said, ‘Wretched baby, in war and famine and sedition, for whom shall I keep you? With the Romans there is slavery, even if we live to come to them; but famine is before slavery, and the rebels are harsher than both. Come, be food for me, an avenging fury to the rebels, and a tale to the world, the only one still lacking to the calamities of the Jews.’

And with these words she killed her son. Then, having roasted him, she ate half, and covering the rest, kept it. At once the rebels were there, and smelling the unholy odour threatened to slaughter her at once unless she showed what she had prepared. She said that she had kept a fine portion for them too, and uncovered the remains of her child.

Horror and bewilderment seized them at once, and they stood transfixed at the sight. But she said, ‘This is my own child, and the deed is mine. Eat, for I too have eaten. Do not be softer than a woman or more compassionate than a mother. But if you are pious and turn away from my sacrifice, I have eaten for you, and let the rest remain for me.’

After this they went out trembling, cowardly in this one thing, and scarcely yielding this food to the mother. The whole city was at once filled with the abomination, and each, setting the horror before his eyes, shuddered as though he himself had dared it.

The starving hastened to death, and those who had gone before were counted blessed, before they heard and saw such evils.” Such was the reward of the Jews' crime and impiety against the Christ of God.

It is worth setting beside these things the unerring prediction of our Saviour, in which he shows these very things, prophesying thus: “Woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse in those days. Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath. For there will then be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be.”

The historian, adding up the whole number of those killed, says that one million one hundred thousand perished by famine and sword; that the rest, the seditious and the brigands, informing on one another after the capture, were put to death; that of the young men the tallest and most handsome were kept for the triumph; that of the rest of the multitude those over seventeen years old were sent in chains to the works in Egypt, while more were distributed among the provinces to be destroyed in the theatres by the sword and by wild beasts; and that those under seventeen were taken captive and sold, and that of these alone the number came to ninety thousand men.

These things took place in this manner in the second year of Vespasian's reign, in accordance with the prophetic predictions of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who by divine power had foreseen them as though already present, and wept and lamented over them, according to the writing of the holy evangelists, who have set down his very words, when at one time he said, as if to Jerusalem itself,

“If you had known, even you, on this day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a palisade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will dash you to the ground, and your children.”

And at another time, as concerning the people: “For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath on this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the nations until the times of the nations are fulfilled.” And again: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near.”

If anyone compares our Saviour's words with the rest of the historian's accounts of the whole war, how could he fail to marvel and to confess that the foreknowledge and prediction of our Saviour were truly divine and supernaturally wonderful?

As to what befell the whole nation after the saving Passion and those cries in which the multitude of the Jews begged off the brigand and murderer from death, and entreated that the author of life be taken away from among them, there would be no need to add anything to the histories.

But it would be right to add further what would show the kindness of all-good providence, which delayed their destruction for forty whole years after their crime against Christ, during which many of the apostles and disciples, and James himself, the first bishop there, called the Lord's brother, were still alive and dwelling in the city of Jerusalem itself, remaining as the strongest bulwark for the place,

while divine oversight was still being patient, in case they might at some time repent of what they had done and obtain pardon and salvation; and besides such long-suffering, it provided wonderful signs from God of what would befall them if they did not repent. Since these too have been thought worthy of record by the historian mentioned, there is nothing like setting them before the readers of this work.

Take, then, and read what he has shown in the sixth book of his Histories in these words: “The wretched people at that time were persuaded by deceivers and those who spoke falsely in the name of God, but to the clear portents that foretold the coming desolation they neither paid attention nor gave credence, but, as though thunderstruck and having neither eyes nor mind, they disregarded God's proclamations:

once when a star like a sword stood over the city, and a comet continued for a year; and again when, before the revolt and the movement toward war, as the people were gathering for the feast of Unleavened Bread, on the eighth of the month Xanthicus, at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar and the temple that it seemed bright day. And this lasted half an hour. To the inexperienced it seemed a good sign, but by the sacred scribes it was at once interpreted in accordance with what happened.

And at the same feast a cow, brought by the high priest for sacrifice, gave birth to a lamb in the midst of the temple.

And the eastern gate of the inner court, which was of bronze and very heavy, and which was shut in the evening with difficulty by twenty men, was fastened with iron-bound bars and had bolts sunk very deep, was seen at the sixth hour of the night to have opened of its own accord.

Not many days after the feast, on the twenty-first of the month Artemisius, a certain supernatural apparition was seen, beyond belief. What is to be told would have seemed a marvel, if it had not been related by those who saw it, and if the sufferings that followed had not been worthy of the signs. For before sunset chariots and armed battalions were seen in the air all over the country, speeding through the clouds and encircling the cities.

And at the feast called Pentecost, the priests, entering the temple by night to perform the services, as was their custom, said that they perceived first a movement and a noise, and after that a voice as of a multitude: ‘We are departing hence.’

But more terrible than these: a certain Jesus, son of Ananias, an uneducated rustic, four years before the war, when the city was especially at peace and prosperous, came to the feast at which it was the custom for all to make tabernacles to God, and suddenly began to cry out in the temple: ‘A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the temple, a voice against bridegrooms and brides, a voice against all the people.’ This he went about crying day and night through all the alleys.

Some of the notable citizens, angered at the ill-omened cry, seized the man and ill-treated him with many blows. But he, uttering nothing for himself nor privately to those present, continued crying out the same words as before.

The rulers, thinking, as was the case, that the man's impulse was more supernatural, brought him to the Roman governor. There, flayed to the bone with scourges, he neither begged nor wept, but, turning his voice to lamentation as best he could, answered every blow with ‘Woe to Jerusalem!’”

The same writer relates something else still more remarkable than this, saying that an oracle was found in the sacred writings declaring that at that time someone from their country would rule the inhabited world; and he himself understood it to have been fulfilled in Vespasian.

But he did not rule the whole world, only the part under the Romans; it would more justly be referred to Christ, to whom it was said by the Father, “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.” At that very time, indeed, the voice of the holy apostles went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.

In addition to all these things, it is worth not being ignorant of Josephus himself, who has contributed so much to the present history: where he came from and of what family. He shows this too himself, saying: “Josephus, son of Matthias, a priest from Jerusalem, who himself fought against the Romans at first and was present of necessity at later events.”

He became the most famous of the Jews of that time, not only among his own countrymen but also among the Romans, so that he was honoured by the setting up of a statue in the city of the Romans, and the works he had laboured over were thought worthy of a place in the library.

He composed the whole Jewish Antiquities in twenty books, and the history of the Jewish War of his own time in seven, which he himself testifies that he handed down not only in Greek but also in his native tongue; and he is worthy of belief because of the rest of his work.

Two other works of his worthy of study are extant, On the Antiquity of the Jews, in which he makes replies to Apion the grammarian, who had then composed a treatise against the Jews, and to others who had also tried to slander the ancestral customs of the Jewish nation.

In the first of these he gives the number of the canonical Scriptures of the so-called Old Testament, which are undisputed among the Hebrews, as from ancient tradition, teaching it in these very words:

“We do not, then, have tens of thousands of books disagreeing and conflicting with one another, but only twenty-two books, containing the record of all time, which are rightly believed to be divine.

Of these, five are those of Moses, which contain the laws and the tradition from the creation of man up to his death. This period falls a little short of three thousand years.

From the death of Moses until Artaxerxes, who was king of the Persians after Xerxes, the prophets after Moses wrote the history of their times in thirteen books. The remaining four contain hymns to God and precepts of life for men.

From Artaxerxes to our own time everything has been recorded, but it has not been thought worthy of the same credit as what came before, because the exact succession of the prophets did not continue.

It is clear in practice how we approach our own writings. For though so long an age has already passed, no one has dared to add, to take away, or to alter anything; but it is innate in all Jews from their very birth to regard them as decrees of God, to abide by them, and, if need be, gladly to die for them.”

Let these words of the historian be usefully set down here. The man also composed another not ignoble work, On the Sovereignty of Reason, which some have entitled Maccabean, because it contains the struggles of the Hebrews who acted bravely for piety toward God in the writings called Maccabean.

And at the end of the twentieth book of the Antiquities the same writer indicates that he had resolved to write in four books, according to the ancestral opinions of the Jews, about God and his being, and about the laws, why according to them some things are permitted and others forbidden. The same writer mentions in his own works other works he had undertaken as well.

Besides these it is reasonable to quote also the words he has set down at the end of the Antiquities, to confirm the testimony of what we have taken from him. Attacking Justus of Tiberias, who had likewise tried to write the history of the same times, for not having written the truth, and bringing many other charges against the man, he adds these very words:

“I, however, did not have the same fear as you about my own writing, but I presented the books to the emperors themselves, when the deeds were all but still before their eyes. For I was conscious of having preserved the tradition of the truth, and in expecting to obtain their testimony to it I was not disappointed.

And I presented the history to many others too, some of whom had actually taken part in the war, such as King Agrippa and some of his relatives.

For the emperor Titus so wished the knowledge of the events to be handed down to men from these books alone that he signed them with his own hand and ordered them to be published; and King Agrippa wrote sixty-two letters bearing witness to the truth of the account.” Of these he also quotes two. But let what concerns him be shown in this way; let us go on to what follows.

After the martyrdom of James and the capture of Jerusalem which immediately followed, tradition has it that those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord who were still alive came together from every quarter, with those who were related to the Lord according to the flesh (for most of these too were still alive then), and all took counsel together as to whom they should judge worthy to succeed James; and all with one mind approved Simeon the son of Clopas, who is also mentioned in the scripture of the Gospel, as worthy of the throne of the community there, being, as they say, a cousin of the Saviour. For Hegesippus relates that Clopas was the brother of Joseph.

And in addition, [Hegesippus relates] that Vespasian, after the capture of Jerusalem, ordered a search for all who were of the family of David, so that none of the royal tribe might be left among the Jews; and that for this reason a very great persecution again hung over the Jews.

After Vespasian had reigned ten years, the emperor Titus his son succeeded him; in the second year of his reign Linus, bishop of the church of the Romans, having held the ministry twelve years, handed it over to Anencletus. Titus was succeeded by his brother Domitian, after reigning two years and as many months.

In the fourth year of Domitian, Annianus, the first of the community in Alexandria, died after completing twenty-two years, and Abilius succeeded him as second.

In the twelfth year of the same reign, Anencletus, having been bishop of the church of the Romans for twelve years, was succeeded by Clement, whom the apostle, writing to the Philippians, shows to have been his fellow worker, saying, “with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.”

Of this Clement one acknowledged letter is extant, great and wonderful, which he composed in the name of the church of the Romans to that of the Corinthians, when a sedition had then arisen in Corinth. We know that this too has been read publicly in very many churches, both of old and in our own time. And that the sedition of the Corinthians was stirred up at the time indicated, Hegesippus is a trustworthy witness.

Domitian, having shown great cruelty toward many, having put to death without reasonable trial no small number of the patricians and notable men at Rome, and having punished countless other distinguished men without cause with exile beyond the borders and confiscation of their property, finally made himself successor to Nero's enmity against God and warfare against God. He was the second to stir up persecution against us, although his father Vespasian had devised nothing harmful against us.

At this time, tradition holds, the apostle and evangelist John, who was still alive, was condemned to live on the island of Patmos because of his witness to the divine Word.

At any rate Irenaeus, writing about the number of the name ascribed to the Antichrist in the so-called Apocalypse of John, says this about John in these very words in the fifth book of Against Heresies:

“But if it had been necessary for his name to be proclaimed openly at the present time, it would have been spoken by him who also saw the Apocalypse. For it was seen not long ago, but almost in our own generation, toward the end of Domitian's reign.”

So brightly at the times mentioned did the teaching of our faith shine that even writers remote from our doctrine did not hesitate to hand down in their histories the persecution and the martyrdoms in it. They also noted the time exactly, relating that in the fifteenth year of Domitian, with very many others, Flavia Domitilla, the daughter of a sister of Flavius Clemens, one of the consuls at Rome at that time, was banished to the island of Pontia as punishment for her witness to Christ.

When the same Domitian ordered the descendants of David to be put to death, an ancient tradition says that some of the heretics accused the descendants of Jude (he was the brother of the Saviour according to the flesh), as being of the family of David and as bearing kinship with Christ himself. Hegesippus shows this, speaking word for word as follows:

“There still survived of the family of the Lord the grandsons of Jude, who was called his brother according to the flesh, and they were informed against as being of the family of David. The evocatus brought them to Domitian Caesar; for he feared the coming of Christ, as Herod also had.

He asked them whether they were of David's line, and they admitted it. Then he asked them how much property they had or how much money they controlled. And they both said that they had only nine thousand denarii, half belonging to each; and this, they said, they did not have in money, but in the value of only thirty-nine plethra of land, from which they paid the taxes and supported themselves by their own labour.

Then they showed their hands too, offering as witness of their own labour the hardness of their bodies and the calluses impressed on their hands from continual work.

When asked about Christ and his kingdom, what kind it was and where and when it would appear, they gave an account that it was not of this world nor earthly, but heavenly and angelic, and would come at the end of the age, when he would come in glory to judge the living and the dead and to repay each according to his conduct.

At this Domitian, having found nothing against them but despising them as simple folk, let them go free, and by decree stopped the persecution against the church.

And those who had been released led the churches, as being both witnesses and of the Lord's family; and when peace came, they remained alive until Trajan.”

So much Hegesippus. Tertullian too makes mention of Domitian as follows: “Domitian also once tried to do the same as he, being a portion of Nero's cruelty. But, I think, since he had some sense, he very soon stopped, and even recalled those whom he had banished.”

After Domitian had reigned fifteen years and Nerva succeeded to the rule, the Roman senate voted that Domitian's honours be abolished and that those unjustly banished should return to their homes and recover their property. So relate those who have handed down in writing the events of those times.

Then indeed, the tradition of our ancients relates, the apostle John too, after his banishment on the island, resumed his residence at Ephesus.

After Nerva had reigned a little more than a year, Trajan succeeded him. It was in his first year that Abilius, who had led the community in Alexandria for thirteen years, was succeeded by Cerdo; he was the third to preside there after the first, Annianus. At this time Clement was still leading the Romans, holding the third place among those who were bishops there after Paul and Peter; Linus was the first, and after him Anencletus.

And of those at Antioch, Evodius having been appointed first, Ignatius was known as the second in the times indicated. Likewise Simeon, second after the brother of our Saviour, held the ministry of the church in Jerusalem in these times.

At this time there was still living in Asia that very one whom Jesus loved, John, apostle and evangelist, who governed the churches there, having returned from his banishment on the island after the death of Domitian.

That he was still alive up to these times it is enough to confirm by two witnesses. And they would be trustworthy, as ambassadors of orthodoxy, if such are Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria.

The former of these writes thus, word for word, in the second book of Against Heresies: “And all the presbyters bear witness, those who associated in Asia with John the disciple of the Lord, that John handed it down; for he remained with them until the times of Trajan.”

And in the third book of the same work he shows the same thing in these words: “But the church in Ephesus too, founded by Paul, with John remaining among them until the times of Trajan, is a true witness of the tradition of the apostles.”

And Clement, indicating the time as well, adds a story most necessary for those who like to hear what is good and profitable, in his work entitled Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? Take and read his writing, which runs thus:

“Hear a tale that is not a tale but a true account, handed down and kept in memory, about John the apostle. When, after the tyrant's death, he moved from the island of Patmos to Ephesus, he used to go away, when invited, to the neighbouring regions of the Gentiles too, in some places to appoint bishops, in others to set whole churches in order, in others to ordain to the clergy some one of those indicated by the Spirit.

Coming, then, to one of the cities not far off, whose name some even give, and having refreshed the brothers in other matters, at last he looked at the bishop who had been appointed, and seeing a young man strong in body, handsome in appearance, and ardent in soul, he said, ‘This one I entrust to you with all earnestness, with the church and Christ as witness.’ And when he accepted and promised everything, he spoke again and testified the same things.

Then John departed for Ephesus, and the presbyter, taking home the young man entrusted to him, brought him up, kept him close, cherished him, and at last baptized him. After this he relaxed his greater care and watchfulness, as having set over him the perfect safeguard, the seal of the Lord.

But some young men of his age, idle and dissolute, accustomed to evil, corrupted him, having obtained freedom too early. First they led him on by costly entertainments, then took him along when they went out by night to rob, then thought him fit to join in something greater.

He gradually grew accustomed, and because of the greatness of his nature, departing from the right road like a hard-mouthed and powerful horse that has taken the bit in its teeth, he rushed all the more headlong into the abyss.

Utterly despairing of salvation in God, he no longer thought of anything small, but, having done something great, since he was lost once for all, he thought it right to suffer the same as the others. So he took these very men and formed a band of brigands, and was a ready brigand chief, most violent, most bloodthirsty, most cruel.

Time passed, and some need arising, they called for John. And he, when he had set in order the other things for which he had come, said, ‘Come, bishop, return to us the deposit which I and Christ entrusted to you, with the church over which you preside as witness.’

He was at first astounded, thinking he was being falsely accused about money which he had not received, and he could neither believe about what he did not have nor disbelieve John. But when he said, ‘I demand back the young man and the soul of the brother,’ the old man groaned deeply and, shedding tears, said, ‘He is dead.’ ‘How, and by what death?’ ‘He is dead to God,’ he said; ‘for he turned out wicked and depraved and, worst of all, a brigand. And now, instead of the church, he has taken the mountain with a band like himself.’

Then the apostle tore his clothes and, beating his head with loud lamentation, said, ‘A fine guardian of the brother's soul I left! But let a horse be brought me now, and let someone be my guide on the way.’ He rode off, just as he was, straight from the church.

Coming to the place, he was captured by the brigands' outpost, neither fleeing nor begging off, but crying, ‘It is for this I have come; lead me to your chief.’

He meanwhile waited, armed as he was; but when he recognized John approaching, he turned to flight in shame. But John pursued with all his might, forgetting his own age, crying out,

‘Why do you flee from me, child, your own father, unarmed and old? Have pity on me, child; do not fear. You still have hope of life. I will give account to Christ for you. If need be, I will willingly endure your death, as the Lord endured death for us. For you I will give my own life in exchange. Stand, believe; Christ has sent me.’

When he heard this, he first stood still, looking down; then he threw away his weapons; then, trembling, he wept bitterly. When the old man came up, he embraced him, pleading for himself with lamentations as best he could, and baptized a second time with his tears, keeping only his right hand hidden.

But John, pledging and swearing that he had found forgiveness for him from the Saviour, begging, kneeling, kissing that very right hand as cleansed by repentance, led him back to the church; and interceding for him with abundant prayers, contending with him in continual fasts, and charming his mind with varied spells of words, he did not depart, they say, before he had restored him to the church, giving a great example of true repentance and a great token of regeneration, a trophy of a visible resurrection.”

Let these words of Clement be set down here, for the sake of history and the benefit of readers. Come, let us also note the undisputed writings of this apostle.

And first let the Gospel according to him, known to the churches under heaven, be acknowledged. That it has with good reason been placed by the ancients in the fourth place after the other three will become clear as follows.

Those inspired and truly godlike men, I mean the apostles of Christ, completely purified in their life and adorned in their souls with every virtue, but unskilled in speech, relying on the divine and wonder-working power given them by the Saviour, neither knew how nor attempted to present the lessons of their Teacher with subtlety and art of words; but using only the demonstration of the divine Spirit working with them and the wonder-working power of Christ accomplished through them, they proclaimed the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven to the whole world, taking little thought for the zeal of writing books.

And they did this as serving a greater ministry, beyond man. Paul at any rate, the most powerful of all in the preparation of words and most capable in thought, committed to writing no more than very short letters, although he had countless unspeakable things to say, since he had touched the visions reaching to the third heaven, had been caught up to the divine paradise itself, and had been thought worthy to hear the unspeakable words there.

The rest of our Saviour's followers too, the twelve apostles, the seventy disciples, and countless others besides, were not unacquainted with the same things. Yet of all the Lord's disciples only Matthew and John have left us memoirs, and tradition holds that they came to writing of necessity.

For Matthew, having first preached to Hebrews, when he was about to go to others as well, committed his Gospel to writing in his native tongue, and so supplied by writing, for those from whom he was being sent, what was lacking through his absence.

And when Mark and Luke had already published their Gospels, they say that John, who all the time had used unwritten preaching, at last came to writing for the following reason. When the three previously written Gospels had already been distributed to all, and to himself too, they say that he accepted them and bore witness to their truth, but that there was lacking in the writing only the account of what Christ had done first and at the beginning of his preaching.

And the account is true. At any rate one can see that the other three evangelists recorded only what the Saviour did during one year after John the Baptist was shut up in prison, and that they indicated this very thing at the beginning of their history.

After the forty days' fast and the temptation that followed it, Matthew indicates the time covered by his own writing, saying, “Hearing that John had been handed over, he withdrew from Judea into Galilee.”

And Mark likewise: “After John was handed over,” he says, “Jesus came into Galilee.” And Luke too, before beginning the acts of Jesus, similarly notes that Herod, adding to the evil deeds he had done, shut up John in prison.

They say, then, that for this reason the apostle John was urged to hand down in his Gospel the period passed over in silence by the earlier evangelists and what the Saviour did in it (these were the events before the Baptist's imprisonment), and that he indicated this very thing, at one time saying, “This beginning of his wonders Jesus did,” and at another mentioning the Baptist in the midst of Jesus' acts as still baptizing at Aenon near Salim, and showing it clearly when he says, “For John had not yet been thrown into prison.”

So John, in the writing of his Gospel, hands down what Christ did while the Baptist had not yet been thrown into prison, while the other three evangelists record what came after the Baptist's confinement in prison.

To one who attends to this, the Gospels would no longer seem to disagree with one another, since the one according to John contains the first of Christ's acts, and the others the history of what happened to him at the end of the time. And it is reasonable that John passed over in silence the genealogy of our Saviour according to the flesh, since it had already been written by Matthew and Luke, and began with his divinity, as though this had been reserved for him by the divine Spirit as for one greater.

Let this be said by us about the writing of the Gospel according to John. And the cause of that according to Mark has been shown by us earlier.

Luke too, at the beginning of his work, set out the reason for which he made his composition, showing that since many others had rather rashly undertaken to compose a narrative of the matters of which he himself had been fully assured, he necessarily freed us from the doubtful opinion about the others and handed down in his own Gospel the sure account of the things whose truth he had sufficiently grasped, benefiting from his companionship and life with Paul and his conversation with the rest of the apostles.

This is what we say about these; but more fittingly, in due course, we shall try to show by quoting the ancients what others too have said about them.

Of John's writings, besides the Gospel, the first of his letters too is acknowledged without dispute both by those of the present and by the ancients; but the other two are disputed.

As for the Apocalypse, opinion among most is still divided either way even now. Nevertheless it too will receive judgment in its proper time from the testimony of the ancients.

Having come to this point, it is reasonable to sum up the writings of the New Testament that have been mentioned. First, then, must be placed the holy tetrad of the Gospels, followed by the writing of the Acts of the Apostles.

After this must be reckoned the letters of Paul; next after them must be ratified the extant former letter of John, and likewise the letter of Peter. After these must be placed, if it seems right, the Apocalypse of John, the opinions about which we shall set out in due course.

These, then, are among the acknowledged books. Of the disputed books, which are nevertheless known to most, there are extant the letter called James's and that of Jude, the second letter of Peter, and the so-called second and third of John, whether they belong to the evangelist or to another of the same name.

Among the spurious let there be placed the writing of the Acts of Paul, the so-called Shepherd, and the Apocalypse of Peter, and besides these the extant Letter of Barnabas and the so-called Teachings of the Apostles; and further, as I said, the Apocalypse of John, if it seems right, which some, as I said, reject, but others count among the acknowledged books.

Some have already counted among these the Gospel according to the Hebrews too, in which those of the Hebrews who have received Christ especially delight. All these would be among the disputed books.

We have nevertheless necessarily made a list of these too, distinguishing the writings that according to church tradition are true, genuine, and acknowledged, from the others besides these, which are not canonical but disputed, yet known to most churchmen; so that we may be able to know both these and those put forward by the heretics under the name of the apostles, containing Gospels of Peter, Thomas, Matthias, or some others besides them, or Acts of Andrew, John, and the other apostles, none of which any churchman in the succession has ever thought worthy of mention in his writings.

Moreover, the character of their style differs widely from apostolic usage, and their thought and the purpose of their contents, being utterly at variance with true orthodoxy, clearly show that they are fabrications of heretics. Hence they are not even to be placed among the spurious books, but rejected as altogether absurd and impious. Let us go on now to the history that follows.

Simon the magician was succeeded by Menander, who showed himself a second weapon of the devil's working, no worse than the first. He too was a Samaritan, and having advanced to the height of sorcery no less than his teacher, he indulged in greater marvels, saying of himself that he was the saviour, sent from somewhere above, from the invisible aeons, for the salvation of men,

and teaching that no one could overcome even the world-making angels themselves unless he were first led through the magical skill handed down by him and through the baptism imparted by him; those thought worthy of it would share in everlasting immortality in this very life, no longer dying but remaining here, to be for ever ageless and immortal. These things it is easy to learn from the works of Irenaeus.

And Justin, in the same place where he mentions Simon, also adds the account about this man, saying: “And a certain Menander, also a Samaritan, from the village of Capparetaea, who became a disciple of Simon, and was also driven mad by the demons, came to Antioch, and we know that he deceived many by magic art; he even persuaded his followers that they would not die. And there are still some from him who profess this.”

It was indeed a work of the devil, through such sorcerers who took on the name of Christians, to try to slander the great mystery of godliness as magic, and through them to ridicule the church's doctrines about the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the dead. But those who chose these men as saviours have fallen away from the true hope.

Others the evil demon, unable to shake from their devotion to the Christ of God, found susceptible in another way and made his own. These the first Christians fittingly called Ebionites, since they held poor and mean opinions about Christ.

For they regarded him as plain and ordinary, a mere man justified by progress in character, born of the union of a man and Mary; and they held that the observance of the law was altogether necessary for them, since they would not be saved by faith in Christ alone and a life in accordance with it.

Others besides these, having the same name, escaped the outlandish absurdity of those mentioned, not denying that the Lord was born of a virgin and the Holy Spirit; yet they too did not confess that he pre-existed, being God the Word and Wisdom, and so turned back to the impiety of the former, especially since they, like them, were eager to keep the bodily worship of the law.

These thought that all the letters of the apostle ought to be rejected, calling him an apostate from the law; and using only the Gospel called according to the Hebrews, they made little account of the rest.

And they kept the sabbath and the rest of the Jewish way of life like the others, but on the Lord's days they celebrated rites similar to ours in memory of the Lord's resurrection.

Hence, because of such an undertaking, they have received the name of Ebionites, which signifies the poverty of their understanding; for this is the name by which the poor man is called among the Hebrews.

We have received that in the times indicated Cerinthus became the founder of another heresy. Gaius, whose words I have already quoted earlier, writes this about him in his extant Disputation:

“But Cerinthus too, by revelations as if written by a great apostle, falsely brings in marvels to us as though shown to him by angels, saying that after the resurrection the kingdom of Christ will be on earth, and that the flesh, living again in Jerusalem, will be enslaved to desires and pleasures. And being an enemy to the Scriptures of God, wishing to deceive, he says that there will be a period of a thousand years in wedding festivity.”

And Dionysius, who obtained the episcopate of the community of Alexandria in our time, in the second book of On the Promises, after saying some things about the Apocalypse of John as from ancient tradition, mentions the same man in these words:

“Cerinthus, who also founded the heresy called Cerinthian after him, wished to attach a trustworthy name to his own fiction. For this was the doctrine of his teaching, that the kingdom of Christ would be earthly.

And the things he himself longed for, being a lover of the body and altogether carnal, he dreamed would be there: satisfactions of the belly and what is below the belly, that is, foods and drinks and marriages, and, by which he thought to procure these under a more respectable name, feasts and sacrifices and slaughters of victims.”

So much Dionysius. And Irenaeus, having set out certain more secret false opinions of the same man in the first book of Against Heresies, has handed down in the third a story not worth forgetting, saying on the tradition of Polycarp that John the apostle once went into a bath-house to bathe, but learning that Cerinthus was inside, sprang up from the place and fled out of the door, not enduring to be under the same roof with him, and urged those with him to do the same, saying, “Let us flee, lest the bath-house fall in, since Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is inside.”

At this time, too, the so-called heresy of the Nicolaitans arose for a very short time, which the Apocalypse of John also mentions. These boasted of Nicolaus, one of the deacons with Stephen appointed by the apostles for the service of the needy. Clement of Alexandria, in the third book of the Miscellanies, relates these things about him word for word:

“He had, they say, a beautiful wife, and after the Saviour's ascension, being reproached by the apostles for jealousy, he brought his wife into their midst and allowed anyone who wished to marry her. For they say that this act agrees with that saying of his, that one must ‘abuse the flesh.’ And following what was done and said simply and without examination, those who pursue his heresy commit sexual immorality shamelessly.

But I learn that Nicolaus had relations with no other woman than the one he married, and that of his children the daughters grew old as virgins, and the son remained uncorrupted. Since this is so, the bringing of his wife, of whom he was jealous, into the midst of the apostles was a casting off of passion, and it was self-control from the pleasures eagerly pursued that taught him to ‘abuse the flesh.’ For I think he did not wish, according to the Saviour's command, to serve two masters, pleasure and the Lord.

They say, then, that Matthias too taught thus, to fight the flesh and abuse it, yielding nothing to it for pleasure, but to increase the soul through faith and knowledge.” So much, then, about those who in the times mentioned attempted to cheat the truth, but were extinguished completely faster than it takes to tell.

Clement, however, whose words we have just read, next after what was said above, because of those who reject marriage, lists those of the apostles who were proved to have lived in married life, saying: “Or will they reject even the apostles? For Peter and Philip had children, and Philip also gave his daughters in marriage to husbands. And Paul does not hesitate in one letter to address his own yokefellow, whom he did not take about with him for the sake of the convenience of his ministry.”

And since we have mentioned these, it does no harm to set down another story of the same writer, worth telling, which he recorded in the seventh book of the Miscellanies, relating it thus: “They say, at any rate, that blessed Peter, seeing his own wife led away to death, rejoiced at her calling and her return home, and called out to her very encouragingly and comfortingly, addressing her by name: ‘Remember the Lord, O you!’ Such was the marriage of the blessed and their perfect disposition toward those dearest to them.” Let this too, being appropriate to the present subject, be set down here in its place.

The time and manner of the death of Paul and Peter, and besides the place where their bodies were laid after their departure from life, have already been shown by us.

As for John, the time has already been stated in some way; and the place of his body is shown from a letter of Polycrates (he was bishop of the community in Ephesus), which he wrote to Victor, bishop of the Romans, mentioning both him and Philip the apostle and his daughters as follows: “For in Asia too great luminaries have fallen asleep, who will rise again on the last day of the Lord's coming, when he comes with glory from heaven and will seek out all the saints: Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who has fallen asleep in Hierapolis, and two of his daughters who grew old as virgins, and his other daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit and rests at Ephesus;

and further John too, who leaned on the Lord's breast, who became a priest wearing the sacred plate, both martyr and teacher; he has fallen asleep at Ephesus.” So much about the deaths of these.

And in the dialogue of Gaius, whom we mentioned a little before, Proclus, against whom he was disputing, agreeing with what has been set out about the death of Philip and his daughters, says this: “After him the four prophetesses, the daughters of Philip, were at Hierapolis in Asia. Their tomb is there, and that of their father.”

So much he says. And Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, mentions the daughters of Philip, then living at Caesarea in Judea with their father and thought worthy of the gift of prophecy, speaking word for word as follows: “We came to Caesarea, and entering the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him. He had four virgin daughters who prophesied.”

Having thus set out what has come to our knowledge about the apostles themselves and the apostolic times, the sacred writings they have left us, those which are disputed yet publicly read by many in very many churches, and those altogether spurious and foreign to apostolic orthodoxy, let us proceed to the history of what follows.

After Nero and Domitian, under the emperor whose times we are now examining, tradition holds that persecution was stirred up against us in part and city by city through popular uprisings; in it we have received that Simeon the son of Clopas, whom we showed to have been appointed second bishop of the church in Jerusalem, ended his life by martyrdom.

The witness of this is that same Hegesippus whose words we have already used in various places. Relating about certain heretics, he adds, showing that at this time he, having endured an accusation from them, was tortured in various ways for very many days as a Christian, astonishing the judge himself and those with him in the highest degree, and met an end like the Lord's Passion.

There is nothing like hearing the writer himself, who relates these very things word for word as follows: “Some of these heretics, namely, accused Simeon the son of Clopas of being of David's line and a Christian; and so he bore witness, being a hundred and twenty years old, under Trajan Caesar and the consular Atticus.”

The same writer says that his accusers too, when those of the royal tribe of the Jews were being sought out at that time, were arrested as belonging to it. And one might reasonably say that Simeon too was one of the eyewitnesses and hearers of the Lord, using as evidence the length of his life and the fact that the scripture of the Gospels mentions Mary the wife of Clopas, whose son, as our account showed before, he was.

The same writer says that others, descendants of one of the so-called brothers of the Saviour, whose name was Jude, lived on into the same reign, after the witness for faith in Christ which they had borne under Domitian, as related before.

He writes thus: “They came, then, and presided over every church as witnesses and as of the Lord's family; and when deep peace came in every church, they remained until Trajan Caesar, until the son of the Lord's uncle, the aforesaid Simeon son of Clopas, was falsely accused by the heresies and likewise himself charged on the same ground before Atticus the consular. And being tortured for many days he bore witness, so that all, even the consular, marvelled how at a hundred and twenty years he endured; and he was ordered to be crucified.”

In addition, the same man, narrating the events of the times indicated, adds that until then the church remained a pure and uncorrupted virgin, since those who attempted to corrupt the sound rule of the saving proclamation, if there were any, still lurked then in some obscure darkness.

But when the sacred band of the apostles had in various ways reached the end of their life, and that generation had passed of those thought worthy to hear the divine wisdom with their own ears, then the conspiracy of godless error took its beginning through the deceit of false teachers, who, since none of the apostles was left any longer, attempted with bare head thereafter to proclaim against the proclamation of the truth the knowledge falsely so called.

So severe was the persecution against us then in many places that Plinius Secundus, a most distinguished governor, moved by the number of the martyrs, communicated with the emperor about the multitude of those being put to death for the faith, and at the same time reported that he had found them doing nothing unholy or unlawful, except that they rose at dawn and sang hymns to Christ as to a god, and that they themselves forbade adultery, murder, and the lawless offences akin to these, and did everything in accordance with the laws.

To this Trajan made a decree of this kind: that the tribe of Christians should not be sought out, but punished if they fell in the way. By this the threat of persecution, which had been pressing most violently, was to some extent quenched; yet no fewer pretexts remained for those who wished to do us harm, the populace in some places and in others the local governors devising plots against us, so that even without open persecutions partial ones flared up in the provinces, and many of the faithful contended in various martyrdoms.

The account has been taken by us from Tertullian's Latin Apology, mentioned above, the translation of which runs thus: “And yet we have found that even search for us has been forbidden. For Plinius Secundus, governor of a province, having condemned some Christians and removed them from their rank, was troubled by their number and did not know what remained for him to do. So he communicated with the emperor Trajan, saying that apart from their unwillingness to worship idols he had found nothing unholy in them. He reported this too, that the Christians rose at dawn and sang hymns to Christ as to a god, and that to preserve their discipline they were forbidden to murder, commit adultery, defraud, rob, and the like. To this Trajan replied that the tribe of Christians should not be sought out, but punished if they fell in the way.” Such were the events of this time.

Of the bishops at Rome, in the third year of the reign of the emperor mentioned, Clement handed the ministry to Evarestus and departed this life, having presided over the teaching of the divine word nine years in all.

And when Simeon had been perfected in the manner shown, a Jew named Justus, himself one of the countless numbers of the circumcision who had then believed in Christ, succeeded to the throne of the episcopate in Jerusalem.

At this time there flourished in Asia Polycarp, a companion of the apostles, who had been entrusted with the episcopate of the church at Smyrna by the eyewitnesses and ministers of the Lord.

In his time Papias was known, himself bishop of the community in Hierapolis, and Ignatius, still celebrated by very many even now, who was allotted the episcopate at Antioch second in the succession of Peter.

The account holds that he was sent from Syria to the city of the Romans and became food for wild beasts because of his witness to Christ.

As he made the journey through Asia under the most careful guard of soldiers, he strengthened the communities in each city where he stayed with spoken homilies and exhortations, above all urging them to be on guard against the heresies which had just then first sprung up and were prevailing, and exhorting them to hold fast to the tradition of the apostles, which, for safety's sake, he thought necessary, now that he was a martyr, to set down also in writing.

So, being at Smyrna, where Polycarp was, he wrote one letter to the church at Ephesus, mentioning its pastor Onesimus; another to the church in Magnesia on the Maeander, where again he mentions the bishop Damas; and another to the church in Tralles, whose ruler at that time he records was Polybius.

In addition to these he wrote also to the church of the Romans, to which he makes an appeal that they should not, by begging him off from martyrdom, deprive him of his longed-for hope. From these it is worth setting down a very few words to illustrate what has been said.

He writes, then, word for word: “From Syria to Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and sea, by night and day, bound to ten leopards, that is, a company of soldiers, who become worse even when they are treated well. By their wrongdoings I am becoming more a disciple, but not by this am I justified.

May I have joy of the beasts prepared for me, and I pray that they may be found prompt with me; I will even coax them to devour me promptly, not as they have done with some whom they were afraid to touch; and if they themselves are unwilling, I will force them.

Forgive me; I know what is to my advantage. Now I am beginning to be a disciple. May nothing of things visible and invisible envy me, that I may attain Jesus Christ. Fire and cross, and struggles with wild beasts, scatterings of bones, mangling of limbs, grinding of the whole body, cruel tortures of the devil, let them come upon me, only that I may attain Jesus Christ.”

These things he wrote from the city mentioned to the churches listed. And when he was already beyond Smyrna, from Troas he again addressed in writing those in Philadelphia and the church of the Smyrnaeans, and particularly Polycarp, who presided over it; knowing him well as an apostolic man, he commends to him the flock at Antioch as a true and good shepherd, asking him to take earnest care of it.

The same writer, writing to the Smyrnaeans, has used words from I know not what source, relating such things as these about Christ: “But I know and believe that he was in the flesh even after the resurrection. And when he came to those with Peter, he said to them, Take, handle me, and see that I am not a bodiless demon. And at once they touched him and believed.”

Irenaeus too knew of his martyrdom and mentions his letters, speaking thus: “As one of ours said, condemned to the beasts because of his witness to God: I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may be found pure bread.”

And Polycarp too mentions these very things in his extant letter to the Philippians, saying in these words: “I exhort you all to obey and to practise all endurance, which you saw before your eyes not only in the blessed Ignatius and Rufus and Zosimus, but also in others from among you, and in Paul himself and the rest of the apostles; being persuaded that all these did not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and that they are in the place due to them with the Lord, with whom they also suffered. For they did not love the present age, but him who died for our sake and was raised by God for us.”

And next he adds: “Both you and Ignatius wrote to me that if anyone goes to Syria, he should carry your letters too. This I will do, if I find a suitable opportunity, either myself or one whom I send as envoy on your behalf also.

The letters of Ignatius sent to us by him, and others that we had with us, we have sent to you, as you instructed; they are appended to this letter, and from them you will be able to benefit greatly. For they contain faith and endurance and all edification that pertains to our Lord.” Such is what concerns Ignatius. After him Heros succeeded to the episcopate of Antioch.

Among those who were distinguished at this time was Quadratus, who, the account holds, excelled, together with the daughters of Philip, in the prophetic gift. And many others besides were known at this time, holding the first rank in the succession of the apostles; and they, as distinguished disciples of such great men, built on the foundations of the churches laid everywhere by the apostles, increasing the proclamation more and more and sowing the saving seeds of the kingdom of heaven far and wide throughout the whole world.

For most of the disciples of that time, their souls struck by the divine word with a more ardent love of philosophy, first fulfilled the Saviour's command, distributing their property to the needy; and then, setting out on journeys, they performed the work of evangelists, eager to preach Christ to those who had not yet heard the word of faith at all and to hand down the scripture of the divine Gospels.

They only laid the foundations of the faith in foreign places, appointed others as shepherds, and entrusted to them the cultivation of those newly brought in, while they themselves went on again to other countries and nations with the grace and help of God; for at that time very many wonderful works of power of the divine Spirit were still worked through them, so that at the first hearing whole multitudes at once eagerly received in their souls piety toward the Creator of the universe.

Since it is impossible for us to enumerate by name all who were ever shepherds or evangelists in the churches throughout the world in the first succession of the apostles, we have naturally recorded by name in writing only those of whom the tradition of the apostolic teaching still comes down to us through memoirs;

as, for example, Ignatius in the letters we have listed, and Clement in the letter acknowledged by all, which he composed in the name of the church of the Romans to that of the Corinthians. In it he sets out many thoughts of the Letter to the Hebrews, and even uses some of its words verbatim, and so shows most clearly that the work is not recent.

Hence it has reasonably seemed right to count it with the other writings of the apostle. For since Paul had addressed the Hebrews in writing in their native tongue, some say that the evangelist Luke, others that this very Clement, translated the writing.

And this would be more likely true, because the letter of Clement and that to the Hebrews preserve a similar character of style, and because the thoughts in both works are not far apart.

It should be known that a second letter of Clement is also said to exist. But we do not know it to be recognized like the first, since we do not know that the ancients used it.

And some have recently brought forward other wordy and lengthy works as his, containing dialogues of Peter and Apion, of which there is no mention at all among the ancients; for they do not preserve the pure character of apostolic orthodoxy. The acknowledged writing of Clement, then, is plain. And what concerns Ignatius and Polycarp has also been told.

Five books of Papias are extant, which are entitled Expositions of the Lord's Oracles. Irenaeus too mentions these as the only ones written by him, speaking thus: “These things Papias, who was a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp, a man of old, attests in writing in the fourth of his books; for he composed five books.” So much Irenaeus.

Papias himself, however, in the preface of his work, by no means shows that he was himself a hearer and eyewitness of the holy apostles, but teaches that he received the matters of faith from those who knew them, in these words:

“I will not hesitate to set down for you, along with my interpretations, whatever I once learned well from the presbyters and remembered well, guaranteeing their truth. For I did not, like most, delight in those who say much, but in those who teach the truth; nor in those who recall others' commandments, but in those who recall the commandments given by the Lord to faith and coming from the truth itself.

And if anyone chanced to come who had followed the presbyters, I would inquire about the words of the presbyters: what Andrew or what Peter said, or what Philip or what Thomas or James or what John or Matthew or any other of the Lord's disciples, and what Aristion and the presbyter John, the Lord's disciples, are saying. For I did not suppose that what came from books would help me so much as what came from a living and abiding voice.”

Here it is worth noting that he twice lists the name John. The first he lists with Peter, James, Matthew, and the rest of the apostles, clearly indicating the evangelist; the other John, with a distinction in his statement, he places outside the number of the apostles, putting Aristion before him, and clearly calls him presbyter.

So by this too the account is shown to be true of those who have said that two in Asia used the same name, and that there are two tombs in Ephesus, each of which is still called John's. To this it is necessary to pay attention; for it is likely that the second, unless one prefers the first, saw the Apocalypse that goes under the name of John.

And Papias, of whom we are now speaking, confesses that he received the words of the apostles from those who had followed them, but says that he was himself a hearer of Aristion and the presbyter John. At any rate, he often mentions them by name in his writings and sets down their traditions.

Let this too not have been said by us to no purpose. It is worth adding to the words of Papias already given other sayings of his, in which he relates some marvels and other things as having come to him from tradition.

That Philip the apostle lived at Hierapolis with his daughters has been shown above; but it should now be noted how Papias, their contemporary, mentions that he received a wonderful story from the daughters of Philip. For he relates that a resurrection of a dead man took place in his time, and again another marvel concerning Justus surnamed Barsabbas, that he drank a deadly poison and, by the grace of the Lord, suffered no harm.

The scripture of the Acts relates that after the Saviour's ascension the holy apostles put forward this Justus with Matthias and prayed over the lot to fill up their number in place of the traitor Judas, as follows: “And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias; and they prayed and said.”

The same writer also sets down other things as having come to him from unwritten tradition, some strange parables of the Saviour and teachings of his, and some other things rather more fabulous.

Among these he says that there will be a thousand years after the resurrection from the dead, when the kingdom of Christ will be established bodily on this earth. I think he supposed this by misunderstanding the apostolic accounts, not perceiving what had been said by them mystically in figures.

For he appears to have been a man of very small intelligence, if one may judge from his own words; yet he was responsible for very many churchmen after him holding the same opinion as he, since they put forward the man's antiquity, as for example Irenaeus, and anyone else who appeared with like views.

In his own writing he also hands down other accounts of the Lord's words from Aristion, mentioned above, and traditions of the presbyter John. Referring the studious to these, we shall now necessarily add to his words already set out a tradition which he has set down about Mark, who wrote the Gospel, in these words:

“And the presbyter used to say this: Mark, having become Peter's interpreter, wrote down accurately, though not in order, as much as he remembered of the things said or done by the Christ. For he had neither heard the Lord nor followed him, but later, as I said, followed Peter, who used to give his teachings as the needs required, but not making, as it were, an arrangement of the Lord's oracles; so that Mark did no wrong in writing some things as he remembered them. For he took care of one thing: to leave out nothing of what he had heard, and to state nothing falsely in them.” This is what Papias has related about Mark.

About Matthew this was said: “Matthew, then, composed the oracles in the Hebrew language, and each interpreted them as he was able.”

He himself uses testimonies from the former letter of John and likewise from that of Peter. And he has set out another story about a woman accused before the Lord of many sins, which the Gospel according to the Hebrews contains. Let these things too be necessarily noted by us in addition to what has been set out.

About the twelfth year of Trajan's reign, the bishop of the community in Alexandria whom we mentioned a little earlier departed this life, and Primus, fourth from the apostles, was allotted the ministry there. At this time also Alexander, when Evarestus had completed his eighth year, received the episcopate at Rome, holding the fifth place in succession from Peter and Paul.

The teaching and church of our Saviour, flourishing daily, advanced to greater progress, while the calamities of the Jews reached their height in successive evils. When the emperor was already entering his eighteenth year, a Jewish uprising broke out again and destroyed a very great multitude of them.

For in Alexandria and the rest of Egypt, and also in Cyrene, as though fanned by some terrible and seditious spirit, they rushed into sedition against their Greek fellow inhabitants; and having greatly increased the sedition, in the following year they engaged in no small war, when Lupus was governor of all Egypt.

In the first engagement they happened to overcome the Greeks, who fled to Alexandria and captured and killed the Jews in the city. The Jews of Cyrene, deprived of help from them, went on plundering the country of Egypt and ravaging its districts, under their leader Lucuas; against them the emperor sent Marcius Turbo with land and naval forces and cavalry as well.

He, prosecuting the war against them in many battles and for no short time, killed many tens of thousands of Jews, not only those from Cyrene, but also those from Egypt who were helping Lucuas their king.

The emperor, suspecting that the Jews in Mesopotamia also would attack the inhabitants there, ordered Lusius Quietus to clear them out of the province; he drew up his army and killed a very great multitude of those there, and for this success he was appointed governor of Judea by the emperor. These things the Greek writers who have recorded the events of the same times have related in these very words.

After Trajan had held power for twenty years less six months, Aelius Hadrian succeeded to the rule. To him Quadratus addressed and delivered a discourse, having composed an apology for our religion, because certain wicked men were trying to trouble our people. The work is still extant among very many of the brothers, and in our own possession too, from which one may see clear proofs of the man's intelligence and apostolic orthodoxy.

He himself reveals his early date by what he relates in his own words: “But the works of our Saviour were always present, for they were true: those who were healed, those who rose from the dead, who were not only seen being healed and raised, but were also always present; and not only while the Saviour was living here, but also after he had gone they remained for a considerable time, so that some of them have survived even to our own times.”

Such was this man. And Aristides too, a faithful man devoted to our religion, like Quadratus has left an apology for the faith addressed to Hadrian. His writing too has been preserved to this day by very many.

In the third year of the same reign Alexander, bishop of the Romans, died, having completed the tenth year of his stewardship. Xystus was his successor. And about the same time, when Primus died in the twelfth year of his presidency of the community of the Alexandrians, Justus succeeded him.

As for the bishops in Jerusalem, I have nowhere found their dates preserved in writing; for tradition holds that they were altogether short-lived.

But this much I have received from written sources: that until the siege of the Jews under Hadrian there were fifteen successions of bishops there, all of whom, they say, were Hebrews by origin who had genuinely received the knowledge of Christ, so that they were approved even by those able to judge such things as worthy of the episcopal ministry. For their whole church then consisted of Hebrew believers, from the apostles down to the siege at that time, in which the Jews, having again revolted from the Romans, were overcome in no small wars.

Since the bishops of the circumcision ceased at that time, it would now be necessary to list them from the first. The first, then, was James, called the brother of the Lord; after him the second was Simeon; the third Justus; Zacchaeus the fourth; the fifth Tobias; the sixth Benjamin; John the seventh; the eighth Matthias; the ninth Philip; the tenth Seneca; the eleventh Justus; Levi the twelfth; Ephres the thirteenth; the fourteenth Joseph; and last of all the fifteenth Judas.

Such were the bishops of the city of Jerusalem from the apostles down to the time indicated, all of the circumcision.

When the reign of Hadrian was already in its twelfth year, Xystus, having completed ten years in the episcopate of the Romans, was succeeded by Telesphorus, seventh from the apostles; and after the interval of a year and some months, Eumenes succeeded, sixth in order, to the presidency of the community of the Alexandrians, his predecessor having lasted eleven years.

When the revolt of the Jews again grew great and extensive, Rufus, governor of Judea, when military help had been sent to him by the emperor, went out against them, making merciless use of their madness, destroying tens of thousands of men, children, and women together, and by the law of war enslaving their lands.

The Jews were at that time led by a man named Bar Kokhba (which means ‘star’), in other respects a brigand and murderous man, but who, relying on his name, as with slaves, claimed to be a luminary come down to them from heaven, to shine on them in their misery, working marvels.

When the war reached its height in the eighteenth year of Hadrian's reign, at the city of Beththera, a very strong place not very far from Jerusalem, and the siege from outside lasted long, and the rebels were driven to the extreme of destruction by hunger and thirst, and the author of their madness had paid the just penalty, from then on the whole nation was altogether forbidden to set foot even on the land around Jerusalem, by the decree of a law and the ordinances of Hadrian, who commanded that they should not even behold their ancestral soil from a distance. So Ariston of Pella relates.

So when the city had come to be emptied of the Jewish nation and had suffered the complete destruction of its former inhabitants, and was colonized by a foreign race, the Roman city afterwards founded there changed its name and was called Aelia in honour of the emperor Aelius Hadrian. And when the church there was formed of Gentiles, the first after the bishops of the circumcision to be entrusted with the ministry of those there was Mark.

When the churches throughout the world were now shining like the most brilliant luminaries, and faith in our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ was flourishing among the whole human race, the demon who hates the good, as the enemy of truth and ever most hostile to human salvation, turned all his devices against the church. Formerly he armed himself against it with persecutions from outside;

but then, shut out from these, he used wicked men as destructive instruments of souls and ministers of perdition and campaigned by other methods, devising every kind of scheme, so that sorcerers and deceivers, taking on the same name as our doctrine, might at once lead those of the faithful whom they caught into the abyss of destruction, and at the same time, by what they themselves did, turn away those ignorant of the faith from the approach to the saving word.

From Menander, then, whom we have already shown to have been Simon's successor, a kind of two-mouthed and two-headed serpentine power came forth and established leaders of two different heresies, Saturninus, an Antiochene by birth, and Basilides, an Alexandrian; the one in Syria, the other in Egypt, established schools of God-hated heresies.

Irenaeus shows that Saturninus spoke most of the same falsehoods as Menander, while Basilides, under pretence of more secret doctrines, extended his speculations infinitely, fashioning for himself monstrous fables of an impious heresy.

While very many churchmen at that time were contending for the truth and fighting more rationally for the apostolic and church doctrine, some already provided, through their writings too, means of defence for later generations against these very heresies we have mentioned.

Of these there has come down to us, from a writer very well known at that time, Agrippa Castor, a most able refutation of Basilides, exposing the cleverness of the man's sorcery.

Revealing his secrets, then, he says that he composed twenty-four books on the gospel, and that he named for himself prophets Barcabbas and Barcoph and some other non-existent ones he had set up for himself, and gave them barbarous names to astound those who marvel at such things; and that he taught that it was a matter of indifference to taste food offered to idols and to forswear the faith without caution in times of persecution; and that, like Pythagoras, he enjoined a five years' silence on those who came to him.

And having listed other things similar to these about Basilides, the writer mentioned detected, not ignobly, the error of the heresy we have spoken of, bringing it into the open.

Irenaeus also writes that Carpocrates was contemporary with these, the father of another heresy called that of the Gnostics, who thought fit to hand down Simon's magic arts no longer secretly, as he had, but now openly, priding themselves almost as on great things on the love-charms, dream-sending and familiar demons, and other similar practices carried out by them in their curiosity; and in accordance with these they taught that those who were to come to the perfection of their mystagogy, or rather their abomination, must do all the most shameful things, since they could not otherwise escape the cosmic rulers, as they would say, unless they paid to all what was due by means of unspeakable deeds.

Using these men as ministers, the demon who rejoices in evil succeeded in miserably enslaving to destruction those deceived by them, and in providing the unbelieving nations with an abundance of slander against the divine word, since the report about them was poured out to the slander of the whole race of Christians.

In this way, then, it came about that the impious and most absurd suspicion about us spread very widely among the unbelievers of that time, that we practised unlawful intercourse with mothers and sisters and unholy feasts.

Yet this did not succeed for him for long, since the truth itself established itself and shone out as a great light as time went on.

For the devices of the enemies were at once extinguished, refuted by its power, as one heresy after another was newly invented, the earlier ones always flowing away and perishing in various ways into many-shaped and many-formed kinds; but the splendour of the universal and only true church went on increasing in growth and greatness, remaining always the same and in the same way, shining on every race of Greeks and barbarians with the reverence, sincerity, and freedom, and the sobriety and purity, of its divine way of life and philosophy.

So with time the slander against the whole doctrine was extinguished too, and our teaching alone remained prevailing and acknowledged to excel above all in reverence and sobriety and in divine and philosophical doctrines, so that no one now dares to bring shameful calumny against our faith, nor any such slander as those who conspired against us formerly liked to use.

Nevertheless, in the times indicated the truth again brought forward more champions of itself, who campaigned against the godless heresies not only through unwritten refutations but also through written demonstrations.

Among these Hegesippus was known, whose words we have already used very many times, setting out from his tradition some things concerning the times of the apostles.

In five books, recording in the simplest style of writing the unerring tradition of the apostolic preaching, he indicates the time at which he was known, writing thus about those who first set up idols: “To whom they made cenotaphs and temples, as to this day; among whom is Antinous too, a slave of Hadrian Caesar, in whose honour the Antinoian games are held, who lived in our own time. For he also founded a city named after Antinous, and prophets.”

At the same time Justin too, a genuine lover of the true philosophy, was still occupied with the learning of the Greeks. He too indicates this time, writing thus in his Apology to Antoninus: “We think it not out of place to mention here also Antinous, who lived recently, whom all were eager to worship as a god through fear, though they knew who he was and where he came from.”

The same writer, mentioning the war against the Jews at that time, sets down this: “For in the Jewish war that has just taken place, Bar Kokhba, the leader of the revolt of the Jews, ordered Christians alone to be led away to terrible punishments, unless they denied Jesus the Christ and blasphemed.”

In the same place, showing that his conversion from Greek philosophy to godliness took place not without reason but with judgment, he writes this: “For I myself too, delighting in the teachings of Plato, and hearing the Christians slandered, but seeing them fearless of death and of all things thought fearful, perceived that it was impossible that they were living in wickedness and love of pleasure. For what lover of pleasure or incontinent man, who counts the eating of human flesh a good, could welcome death, so as to be deprived of his desires, and would not rather try by every means to live always this present life and escape the notice of the rulers, much less denounce himself to be put to death?”

The same writer further relates that Hadrian, having received from Serennius Granianus, a most distinguished governor, a letter on behalf of the Christians, stating that it was not just to kill them without trial, on no charge, to gratify the clamours of the populace, wrote in reply to Minucius Fundanus, proconsul of Asia, ordering him to put no one to death without a charge and a reasonable accusation.

And he has set down a copy of the letter, preserving the Latin language as it was. He says this before it: “Although from a letter of the greatest and most illustrious Caesar Hadrian, your father, we have grounds to demand that you order trials to be held as we have asked, yet we have asked this not so much because it was commanded by Hadrian, but because we know that we ask what is just. We have also subjoined the copy of Hadrian's letter, so that you may know that we speak the truth in this too. And it is this.”

After these words the writer mentioned has set down the Latin rescript itself; but we have translated it into Greek as best we could, and it runs thus:

“To Minucius Fundanus. I have received a letter written to me by Serennius Granianus, a most distinguished man, whom you succeeded. It does not seem right to me, then, to leave the matter uninvestigated, so that men may not be troubled and informers may not be given means for their malice.

If, then, the provincials can clearly support this petition against the Christians, so as to answer before the tribunal, let them take this course alone, but not petitions nor mere clamours. For it is much more fitting, if anyone wishes to accuse, that you should examine this.

If, then, anyone accuses and shows that they are doing anything contrary to the laws, so decide according to the gravity of the offence; but, by Hercules, if anyone brings this forward for the sake of slander, take cognizance of the outrage and see that you punish it.” Such is the rescript of Hadrian.

When he had paid the debt of nature after twenty-one years, Antoninus, called Pius, succeeded to the rule of the Romans. In his first year Telesphorus departed this life in the eleventh year of his ministry, and Hyginus received the lot of the episcopate of the Romans. Irenaeus relates that Telesphorus distinguished his death by martyrdom, showing at the same time that under Hyginus, the bishop of the Romans mentioned, Valentinus, the introducer of his own heresy, and Cerdo, the founder of Marcion's error, were both known at Rome. He writes thus:

“For Valentinus came to Rome under Hyginus, flourished under Pius, and remained until Anicetus. And Cerdo, the predecessor of Marcion, himself also under Hyginus, who was the ninth bishop, came into the church and made public confession, and so continued, now teaching secretly, now again making confession, and now being refuted for his evil teaching and withdrawing from the assembly of the brothers.” This he says in the third book of Against Heresies.

And in the first book he relates this again about Cerdo: “A certain Cerdo, taking his starting point from Simon's followers, and coming to Rome under Hyginus, who held the ninth place in the episcopal succession from the apostles, taught that the God proclaimed by the law and the prophets is not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the one is known, the other unknown; the one is just, the other good. Marcion of Pontus, succeeding him, expanded his school, blaspheming shamelessly.”

The same Irenaeus, having most vigorously sounded the boundless depth of Valentinus's much-erring system, lays bare his wickedness, which was hidden and concealed like a lurking serpent.

Besides these he says that another, named Marcus, lived in their time, most skilled in magical trickery. He writes, exposing their unholy rites and abominable mysteries, in these very words:

“For some of them prepare a bridal chamber and perform a mystic rite with certain invocations for those being initiated, and they say that what is done by them is a spiritual marriage, after the likeness of the unions above. Others lead them to water, and baptizing them say: Into the name of the unknown Father of all, into Truth the mother of all, into him who descended upon Jesus. Others pronounce Hebrew names, to astound those being initiated the more.”

But when Hyginus died after the fourth year of his episcopate, Pius was entrusted with the ministry at Rome. At Alexandria Mark was appointed pastor, Eumenes having completed thirteen years in all; and when Mark rested after ten years of ministry, Celadion took over the ministry of the church of the Alexandrians.

And in the city of the Romans, when Pius departed in the fifteenth year of his episcopate, Anicetus presided over those there. Hegesippus relates that in his time he himself stayed at Rome and remained there until the episcopate of Eleutherus.

In their time Justin especially flourished, serving as an ambassador of the divine word in the garb of a philosopher and contending for the faith in his writings. He also wrote a work against Marcion, in which he mentions that the man was alive and well known at the time he was writing. He says thus:

“And a certain Marcion of Pontus, who is still even now teaching those who believe him to think that there is another god greater than the Creator; who among every race of men, with the help of the demons, has persuaded many to speak blasphemies, and to deny that the maker of this universe is the Father of Christ, and to confess that another, as being greater than he, made greater things. And all who start from these, as we said, are called Christians, just as the name of philosophy is common to philosophers even though their doctrines are not common.”

To this he adds: “We have also a treatise against all the heresies that have arisen, which we will give you if you wish to read it.”

This same Justin, having laboured most ably against the Greeks as well, addresses discourses containing an apology for our faith to the emperor Antoninus, surnamed Pius, and to the Roman senate; for he was living at Rome. He shows who he was and where he came from in the apology, in these words:

“To the emperor Titus Aelius Hadrian Antoninus Pius Caesar Augustus, and to Verissimus his son, the philosopher, and to Lucius the philosopher, by nature son of Caesar and by adoption of Pius, a lover of learning, and to the sacred senate and the whole people of the Romans, on behalf of those of every race of men who are unjustly hated and abused, I, Justin, son of Priscus, son of Bacchius, of Flavia Neapolis in Syria Palestine, being one of them, make this address and petition.” The same emperor, petitioned also by other brothers in Asia who were being harassed with all kinds of outrages by the local populace, thought fit to make the following ordinance to the Council of Asia:

“The emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Armenicus, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power for the fifteenth time, consul for the third time, to the Council of Asia, greeting.

I know that the gods too take care that such men do not escape notice; for they would much rather punish those unwilling to worship them than you would.

You throw them into disturbance, confirming them in the opinion they hold, by accusing them of being atheists. For it would be preferable for them, when accused, to seem to die for their own God rather than to live. Hence they are victorious, giving up their lives rather than obeying what you demand that they do.

Concerning the earthquakes that have happened and are happening, it is not out of place to remind you, who are despondent whenever they occur, to compare your conduct with theirs.

They become more confident toward God, while you, during all the time in which you seem to be ignorant, neglect the gods and everything else, and the worship of the Immortal, whom the Christians worship and whom you drive out and persecute to death.

Concerning such people many of the governors in the provinces have already written to our most divine father, to whom he replied that they should not trouble such people unless they appeared to be attempting something against the Roman government. And to me too many have reported concerning such people, to whom I also replied following my father's judgment.

But if anyone persists in bringing any of these people to trial as being such, let the one accused be acquitted of the charge, even if he appears to be such, and let the accuser be liable to punishment. Published at Ephesus in the Council of Asia.”

That these things happened in this way is attested by Melito, bishop of the church in Sardis, who was known at this very time, as is clear from what he said in the apology he made on behalf of our doctrine to the emperor Verus.

In the times indicated, while Anicetus was leading the church of the Romans, Irenaeus relates that Polycarp, still alive, was at Rome and came into conference with Anicetus about some question concerning the day of the Passover.

The same writer hands down another account about Polycarp, which it is necessary to add to what has been said about him; it runs thus:

“And Polycarp too was not only instructed by apostles and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also appointed by apostles in Asia as bishop in the church at Smyrna; we too saw him in our early youth.

For he lived a long time, and when very old, having borne witness gloriously and most illustriously, departed this life, having always taught the things he had learned from the apostles, which the church also hands down, and which alone are true.

To these things all the churches in Asia bear witness, and those who up to now have succeeded Polycarp, a man who was a much more trustworthy and sure witness of the truth than Valentinus and Marcion and the rest of the evil-minded. He, when staying at Rome in the time of Anicetus, turned many from the aforesaid heretics to the church of God, proclaiming that this one and only truth had been received by him from the apostles, that which is handed down by the church.

And there are those who heard from him that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus and seeing Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, saying, ‘Let us flee, lest the bath-house fall in, since Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is inside.’

And Polycarp himself, when Marcion once met him and said, ‘Do you recognize us?’, answered, ‘I recognize the firstborn of Satan.’ Such caution did the apostles and their disciples have, not to communicate even in word with any of those who falsify the truth; as Paul too said, ‘After a first and second admonition, have nothing to do with a heretical man, knowing that such a one is perverted and sins, being self-condemned.’

There is also a most adequate letter of Polycarp written to the Philippians, from which those who wish and who care for their own salvation can learn both the character of his faith and the preaching of the truth.”

So much Irenaeus. Polycarp, in his writing to the Philippians mentioned, which is extant to this day, uses some testimonies from the former letter of Peter.

Antoninus, called Pius, having completed the twenty-second year of his reign, was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius Verus, also called Antoninus, his son, together with Lucius his brother.

At this time, when the greatest persecutions were throwing Asia into turmoil, Polycarp was perfected by martyrdom. I think it most necessary to place on record in this history his end, which is still extant in writing.

The writing is from the church which he himself led, informing the communities in Pontus of what concerned him, in these words:

“The church of God which sojourns at Smyrna to the church of God which sojourns in Philomelium and to all the communities of the holy catholic church sojourning in every place: may mercy, peace, and love of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied. We write to you, brothers, the things concerning those who bore witness, and the blessed Polycarp, who, as it were, put a seal on the persecution by his witness and brought it to an end.”

Next to this, before the account of Polycarp, they relate the story of the other martyrs, describing the steadfastness they showed against their pains. For they say that they astounded those standing around and watching, when at one time they were torn by scourges down to the innermost veins and arteries, so that even the hidden inward parts of the body, their bowels and members, were exposed to view; and at another time were laid on sea-shells and certain sharp spikes, passing through every kind of punishment and torture, and at last were given to wild beasts as food.

They relate that the most noble Germanicus especially distinguished himself, overcoming by divine grace the natural fear of bodily death. When the proconsul wished to persuade him, putting forward his age and entreating him, very young and in his prime as he was, to take pity on himself, he did not hesitate, but eagerly drew the beast upon himself, all but forcing and provoking it, so that he might be released the more quickly from their unjust and lawless life.

At his distinguished death the whole multitude, marvelling at the courage of the God-loving martyr and at the virtue of the whole race of Christians, began to shout all together, ‘Away with the atheists! Let Polycarp be sought!’

And when a very great disturbance arose at the shouts, a certain Phrygian by race named Quintus, newly arrived from Phrygia, seeing the beasts and the threats that went with them, was terrified in soul and gave way, and at last gave up his salvation.

The words of the writing mentioned showed that he had rashly, and not with reverence, rushed to the tribunal with others; yet when he was caught he gave a clear example to all that one ought not to venture on such things recklessly and without reverence. So ended the affairs of these men.

But the most wonderful Polycarp, when he first heard of these things, remained undisturbed, keeping his character steady and unmoved, and wished to stay there in the city. Yet, persuaded by those around him who entreated him and urged him to slip away, he went out to a farm not far from the city and stayed there with a few, doing nothing else night and day but persevering in prayers to the Lord, in which he begged and entreated, asking peace for the churches throughout the whole world; for this was his custom at all times.

And while praying, in a vision at night three days before his arrest, he saw the pillow under his head suddenly set on fire and consumed; and waking up at this, he at once interpreted what had appeared to those present, all but foretelling the future, and told those around him plainly that he must lay down his life by fire for Christ.

When those searching for him pressed on with all zeal, they say that, constrained again by the affection and love of the brothers, he moved to another farm, where not long afterwards the pursuers came, and seized two of the slaves there, one of whom they tortured and so came, through him, to Polycarp's lodging.

Arriving late in the evening, they found him lying in an upper room; though he could have moved from there to another house, he had not wished to, saying, ‘The will of God be done.’

And learning that they were there, as the account says, he came down and talked with them, with a very cheerful and gentle face, so that those who had not known the man before seemed to see a marvel, looking at his great age and the dignity and steadiness of his face, and wondering whether there was so much eagerness to arrest such an old man.

He, without delay, at once ordered a table to be set before them, then invited them to partake of abundant food, and asked of them one hour so that he might pray undisturbed. When they permitted it, he stood and prayed, being full of the grace of the Lord, so that those present were amazed as they listened to him praying, and many of them now repented that such a venerable and godlike old man was to be put to death.

After this the writing about him has the rest of the story word for word as follows: “When at last he had ended his prayer, having remembered all who had ever met him, small and great, famous and obscure, and the whole catholic church throughout the world, when the hour came to go out, they set him on an ass and led him into the city, it being a great sabbath. And the chief of police Herod and his father Nicetes met him, who, transferring him to their carriage, tried to persuade him as they sat beside him, saying, ‘What harm is there in saying, Caesar is Lord, and sacrificing, and being saved?’

At first he did not answer; but when they persisted, he said, ‘I am not going to do what you advise me.’ Having failed to persuade him, they spoke terrible words and pulled him down in haste, so that as he got down from the carriage he scraped his shin. But without turning round, as though he had suffered nothing, he went on eagerly and quickly, being led into the stadium.

There being such an uproar in the stadium that not even many could be heard, as Polycarp entered the stadium a voice came to him from heaven: ‘Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man.’ And no one saw the speaker, but many of our people heard the voice.

When he was brought forward, then, there was a great uproar, as they heard that Polycarp had been arrested. So when he came forward the proconsul asked him whether he was Polycarp. And when he admitted it, he tried to persuade him to deny, saying, ‘Respect your age,’ and other things following from these, which it is their custom to say: ‘Swear by the fortune of Caesar; repent; say, Away with the atheists!’

But Polycarp, looking with a stern face on the whole crowd in the stadium, waving his hand at them, and groaning and looking up to heaven, said, ‘Away with the atheists!’

When the governor pressed him and said, ‘Swear, and I will release you; revile Christ,’ Polycarp said, ‘Eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?’

When he persisted again and said, ‘Swear by the fortune of Caesar,’ Polycarp said, ‘If you vainly suppose that I will swear by the fortune of Caesar, as you say, pretending not to know who I am, hear plainly: I am a Christian. And if you wish to learn the doctrine of Christianity, give me a day and listen.’

The proconsul said, ‘Persuade the people.’ Polycarp said, ‘You I have thought worthy of discussion; for we have been taught to give honour, as is fitting, to rulers and authorities appointed by God, such as does not harm us; but those I do not think worthy that I should make a defence to them.’

The proconsul said, ‘I have wild beasts; I will throw you to them unless you repent.’ He said, ‘Call them; for repentance from better to worse is impossible for us, but it is good to change from what is harsh to what is just.’

And he said to him again, ‘I will have you consumed by fire, if you despise the beasts, unless you repent.’ Polycarp said, ‘You threaten a fire that burns for an hour and is soon quenched; for you are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly. But why do you delay? Bring what you will.’

Saying these and many other things, he was filled with courage and joy, and his face was full of grace, so that not only did he not collapse, troubled by what was said to him, but on the contrary the proconsul was amazed, and sent the herald to proclaim three times in the midst of the stadium: ‘Polycarp has confessed himself to be a Christian.’

When this had been said by the herald, the whole multitude of Gentiles and Jews living in Smyrna cried out with uncontrollable rage and a loud voice: ‘This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians, the destroyer of our gods, who teaches many not to sacrifice nor to worship.’

Saying this they shouted and asked the Asiarch Philip to let loose a lion on Polycarp. But he said it was not lawful for him, since he had closed the animal hunts. Then they thought fit to shout with one accord that Polycarp should be burned alive.

For the vision that had appeared to him about the pillow had to be fulfilled, when, seeing it burning while he prayed, he turned and said prophetically to the faithful with him, ‘I must be burned alive.’

These things, then, happened with such speed, faster than could be told, the crowds at once gathering wood and brushwood from the workshops and the baths, the Jews especially helping eagerly in this, as is their custom.

But when the pyre was ready, he took off all his outer garments and loosed his girdle, and tried also to take off his shoes, though he had not done this before, because each of the faithful was always eager to be the first to touch his skin; for he had been adorned in every way because of his good life even before his old age.

At once, then, the instruments prepared for the pyre were placed around him; and when they were about to nail him too, he said, ‘Leave me as I am; for he who grants me to endure the fire will grant me also to remain on the pyre unmoved without the security of your nails.’ So they did not nail him, but tied him.

And he, putting his hands behind him and being tied, like a noble ram taken from a great flock as an acceptable whole burnt offering to God Almighty, said:

‘Father of your beloved and blessed Child Jesus Christ, through whom we have received knowledge of you, God of angels and powers and of all creation and of the whole race of the righteous who live before you, I bless you that you have thought me worthy of this day and hour, to take a share among the number of the martyrs in the cup of Christ, to the resurrection of eternal life of soul and body in the incorruptibility of the Holy Spirit;

among whom may I be received before you today as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, as you, the God who does not lie and is true, prepared beforehand, revealed beforehand, and have fulfilled.

For this reason and for all things I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you, through the eternal high priest Jesus Christ, your beloved Child, through whom be glory to you with him in the Holy Spirit, both now and for the ages to come. Amen.’

When he had uttered the Amen and completed the prayer, the men in charge of the fire lit it; and when a great flame blazed out, we to whom it was given to see saw a marvel, we who were also preserved to report what happened to the rest.

For the fire, making the shape of a vault, like a ship's sail filled by the wind, walled round the body of the martyr; and it was in the midst, not like flesh burning, but like gold and silver refined in a furnace. And we perceived such a fragrance as of breathing frankincense or some other precious spice.

At last the lawless, seeing that the body could not be consumed by the fire, ordered an executioner to go up and plunge in a dagger.

And when he had done this, so much blood came out that it quenched the fire, and the whole crowd marvelled that there was so great a difference between the unbelievers and the elect; of whom this man too was one, the most wonderful apostolic and prophetic teacher of our times, bishop of the catholic church in Smyrna. For every word which he uttered from his mouth both has been and will be fulfilled.

But the jealous and envious evil one, who opposes the race of the righteous, seeing the greatness of his martyrdom and his blameless life from the beginning, and that he had been crowned with the crown of incorruption and had carried off an undisputed prize, contrived that not even his poor body should be taken by us, though many desired to do this and to have fellowship with his holy flesh.

Some, then, prompted Nicetes, the father of Herod and brother of Alce, to petition the governor not to give up his body, ‘lest,’ he said, ‘they abandon the crucified one and begin to worship this man.’ And they said this at the prompting and urging of the Jews, who also watched when we were about to take him from the fire, not knowing that we shall never be able either to forsake Christ, who suffered for the salvation of the whole world of those who are saved, or to worship any other.

For him, being the Son of God, we worship; but the martyrs, as disciples and imitators of the Lord, we love as they deserve for their unsurpassable devotion to their own King and Teacher. May it be granted us too to become their companions and fellow disciples.

So the centurion, seeing the contentiousness of the Jews, set the body in the midst, as is their custom, and burned it. And so we afterwards took up his bones, more precious than costly stones and more valuable than gold, and laid them where it was fitting.

There, as we are able, gathering in exultation and joy, the Lord will grant us to celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom, both in memory of those who have already contended and for the training and preparation of those to come.

Such are the things concerning the blessed Polycarp, who, with those from Philadelphia, was the twelfth to be martyred in Smyrna, and who alone is remembered by all more than the others, so that he is spoken of everywhere even by the Gentiles.”

Such was the end thought worthy of the wonderful and apostolic Polycarp, the brothers of the church of the Smyrnaeans having recorded the story in their letter which we have quoted. In the same writing about him other martyrdoms were attached that took place in the same Smyrna in the same period of time as the martyrdom of Polycarp; among them Metrodorus, who seemed to be a presbyter of the Marcionite error, was given to the fire and put to death.

Of the famous martyrs of that time one was known named Pionius. His several confessions, the boldness of his speech, his defences of the faith before the people and the rulers, his instructive addresses, and further his kindness to those who had fallen in the trial of the persecution, the encouragements he gave in prison to the brothers who came to him, the tortures he endured besides, and the pains that followed them, the nailing, his endurance on the pyre, and his death after all these marvels, are most fully contained in the writing about him; to it we shall refer those who wish, as it is included in the martyrdoms of the ancients collected by us.

Next, records are extant of others who were martyred in Pergamum, a city of Asia: Carpus, Papylus, and a woman Agathonice, who were gloriously perfected after very many distinguished confessions.

At this time Justin too, whom we mentioned a little earlier, having presented a second book on behalf of our doctrines to the rulers mentioned, was adorned with divine martyrdom, when the philosopher Crescens (who emulated the life and manners of the Cynics, as his name suggested) laid a plot against him; since Justin had often refuted him in debates before hearers, he at last bound on the victor's crown, by his own martyrdom, for the truth he championed.

This the truly most philosophical man himself clearly indicates beforehand in the apology mentioned, as though it were about to happen to him very soon, in these very words:

“I too, then, expect to be plotted against by one of those named, and to be fastened to the stocks, or even by Crescens, that lover not of wisdom but of noise. For the man is not worthy to be called a philosopher, since he publicly testifies against things he does not understand, saying that the Christians are atheists and impious, doing this mistakenly to court the favour and pleasure of the many.

For if he runs us down without having read the teachings of Christ, he is utterly wicked and much worse than the unlearned, who often take care not to talk about or bear false witness about things they do not understand. And if he has read them and did not understand the greatness in them, or understanding them does these things so as not to be suspected of being such, he is much more ignoble and utterly wicked, being inferior to unlearned and irrational opinion and fear.

For I wish you to know that when I put forward and asked him certain questions of this kind, I learned and proved that he truly knows nothing. And that I speak the truth, if the reports of our discussions have not been conveyed to you, I am ready to share the questions again before you too; and this would be a work worthy of a king.

But if my questions and his answers have become known to you, it is plain to you that he knows nothing of our affairs; or if he knows, but does not dare to speak because of his hearers, he shows himself, as I said before, to be not a philosopher but a lover of glory, since he does not honour even the Socratic saying, which is worthy of love.” So much Justin.

That he was perfected according to his own prediction through the machinations of Crescens, Tatian relates, a man who in his early life taught as a sophist in the learning of the Greeks and won no small fame in it, and left very many memorials in his writings; in his work Against the Greeks he says thus: “And the most wonderful Justin rightly declared that the aforesaid were like brigands.”

Then, after saying some things about the philosophers, he adds this: “Crescens, at any rate, who made his nest in the great city, surpassed all in pederasty and was wholly given to love of money.

And he who advised others to despise death was himself so afraid of death that he contrived to inflict death on Justin as a great evil, because Justin, by proclaiming the truth, convicted the philosophers of being gluttons and impostors.” Such was the cause of Justin's martyrdom.

The same man, before his own contest, mentions in his former apology others who were martyred before him, recording this too usefully for our subject.

He writes thus: “A certain woman lived with a husband who was licentious, she herself having formerly been licentious too. But when she came to know the teachings of Christ, she became self-controlled and tried to persuade her husband likewise to be self-controlled, relating the teachings and declaring the punishment in eternal fire that will come to those who do not live with self-control and right reason.

But he, persisting in the same excesses, made his wife estranged by his deeds. For the woman, thinking it impious thereafter to lie with a husband who sought by every means to procure pleasure contrary to the law of nature and to what is right, wished to be separated from the marriage.

And when she was put to shame by her own people, who advised her still to remain, since her husband might at some time come to the hope of change, she forced herself and remained.

But when her husband went to Alexandria and was reported to be behaving worse, so that she might not become a partner in his wrongs and impieties by remaining in the marriage and sharing his table and bed, she gave him what is called among us a repudium and was separated.

But her fine and noble husband, when he ought to have rejoiced that she had ceased from what she used to do readily with the servants and hirelings, delighting in drunkenness and every vice, and wished him too to cease doing the same, since she had left him against his will, brought an accusation, saying that she was a Christian.

And she presented a petition to you, the emperor, asking that she be allowed first to set her affairs in order, and then to make her defence concerning the charge after the settlement of her affairs; and you granted this.

And her former husband, being unable to say anything more against her for the present, turned against a certain Ptolemaeus, whom Urbicius punished, who had been her teacher in the Christian teachings, in the following way.

He persuaded a centurion who was a friend of his to throw Ptolemaeus into prison, to seize him, and to ask him only this, whether he was a Christian. And when Ptolemaeus, being a lover of truth and not of a deceitful or lying disposition, confessed himself to be a Christian, the centurion had him put in bonds and punished him for a long time in the prison.

At last, when the man was brought before Urbicius, likewise this alone was asked, whether he was a Christian. And again, conscious of the good that he had through the teaching of Christ, he confessed the school of divine virtue.

For he who denies anything either denies it because he condemns the thing, or avoids confession knowing himself unworthy of and alien to it; neither of which belongs to the true Christian.

And when Urbicius ordered him to be led away, a certain Lucius, himself also a Christian, seeing the judgment given so unreasonably, said to Urbicius, ‘What is the reason why you have punished this man, who is convicted neither of adultery, nor of sexual immorality, nor of murder, nor of stealing clothes, nor of robbery, nor in short of any wrongdoing, but who confesses the name of Christian? You do not judge, Urbicius, as befits the emperor Pius, nor the philosopher, the son of Caesar, nor the sacred senate.’

And he, answering nothing else, said to Lucius too, ‘You also seem to me to be such a one.’ And when Lucius said, ‘Certainly,’ he ordered him too to be led away. He professed his thanks; for he said he was being released from such wicked masters and going to God, the good Father and King. And a third also came forward and was sentenced to be punished.” To these words Justin fittingly and consistently adds the words of his which we quoted before, saying, “I too, then, expect to be plotted against by one of those named,” and the rest.

This man has left us very many memoirs of a cultivated mind devoted to divine things, full of every benefit; to them we shall refer the studious, usefully noting those that have come to our knowledge.

There is one discourse of his addressed to Antoninus, called Pius, and his sons and the Roman senate, on behalf of our doctrines; and another containing a second apology for our faith, which he made to the successor and namesake of the emperor mentioned, Antoninus Verus, whose times we are now describing.

And another, the one Against the Greeks, in which, having extended his discussion at length on very many questions investigated both by us and by the philosophers of the Greeks, he treats of the nature of demons; there is no need to quote these things now.

And again another work of his against the Greeks has come down to us, which he also entitled Refutation; and besides these another On the Sovereignty of God, which he establishes not only from our Scriptures but also from the books of the Greeks.

In addition, one entitled The Psalmist, and another, a school treatise On the Soul, in which, putting forward various inquiries concerning the problem of the subject, he sets out the opinions of the Greek philosophers, which he promises to refute, and to set out his own opinion in another work.

He also composed a dialogue against the Jews, which he held at the city of Ephesus with Trypho, the most distinguished of the Hebrews of that time, in which he shows how divine grace urged him on to the word of faith, and what zeal he had formerly devoted to philosophical studies, and how ardent a search for the truth he had made.

In the same work he relates concerning the Jews that they had devised a plot against the teaching of Christ, directing these very words to Trypho: “Not only did you not repent of the evil deeds you had done, but you then chose picked men and sent them out from Jerusalem into all the land, saying that a godless heresy of Christians had appeared, and reciting the things which all who do not know us say against us; so that you are the cause of injustice not only to yourselves but to all other men without exception.”

He writes also that even to his own time prophetic gifts shone forth in the church. He also mentions the Apocalypse of John, saying plainly that it is the apostle's. And he mentions certain prophetic passages, arguing against Trypho that the Jews had cut them out of the Scripture. Very many other works of his are extant among many of the brothers.

The man's works seemed so worthy of study even to the ancients that Irenaeus recalls his words, on the one hand in the fourth book Against Heresies, adding these very words: “And Justin well says in his treatise against Marcion that he would not have believed the Lord himself if he had proclaimed another God besides the Creator”; and on the other hand in the fifth book of the same work in these words: “And Justin well said that before the Lord's coming Satan never dared to blaspheme God, since he did not yet know his own condemnation.”

Let this too be said necessarily, to encourage the studious to embrace this man's works too with zeal. Such, then, were his affairs.

When the reign in question was already entering its eighth year, Soter succeeded Anicetus in the episcopate of the church of the Romans, the latter having spent eleven years in all. And Agrippinus took up the succession of the community of the Alexandrians, Celadion having presided fourteen years.

At that time too Theophilus was known in the church of Antioch as the sixth from the apostles; Cornelius had been appointed there fourth after Heros, and after him Eros had succeeded to the episcopate in the fifth place.

At this time there flourished in the church Hegesippus, whom we know from what has gone before, Dionysius bishop of the Corinthians, Pinytus, another, bishop of those in Crete, and besides these Philip, Apolinarius, Melito, Musanus, Modestus, and above all Irenaeus; from them the orthodoxy of the sound faith of the apostolic tradition has come down to us in writing.

Hegesippus, then, in the five books of memoirs that have come down to us, has left a very full record of his own opinion, in which he shows that he met very many bishops on a journey he made as far as Rome, and that he received the same teaching from all. One may hear him, after saying some things about the letter of Clement to the Corinthians, adding this:

“And the church of the Corinthians continued in the right doctrine until Primus was bishop in Corinth. I conversed with them when I sailed to Rome, and I spent a number of days with the Corinthians, during which we were refreshed together by the right doctrine.

And when I was in Rome I made a succession-list up to Anicetus, whose deacon was Eleutherus. And Soter succeeds Anicetus, and after him Eleutherus. And in every succession and in every city things are as the law proclaims, and the prophets, and the Lord.”

The same writer also sets out the beginnings of the heresies of his time in these words: “And after James the Just had borne witness, as the Lord also had, on the same account, again his uncle's son Simeon, son of Clopas, was appointed bishop, whom all put forward, being a cousin of the Lord, as the second. For this reason they called the church a virgin, for it had not yet been corrupted by vain teachings.

But Thebuthis, because he was not made bishop, began to corrupt it, he being from the seven sects (he too was among the people), from which came Simon, whence the Simonians; and Cleobius, whence the Cleobians; and Dositheus, whence the Dositheans; and Gorthaeus, whence the Goratheni; and Masbotheus, whence the Masbothei. From these came the Menandrianists, the Marcionists, the Carpocratians, the Valentinians, and the Basilidians, each privately and differently introducing his own opinion.

From these came false Christs, false prophets, false apostles, who divided the unity of the church with corrupting words against God and against his Christ.”

The same writer also relates the sects that had arisen of old among the Jews, saying: “There were various opinions among the circumcision, among the sons of Israel, against the tribe of Judah and the Christ, these: Essenes, Galileans, Hemerobaptists, Masbothei, Samaritans, Sadducees, Pharisees.”

He writes very many other things too, some of which we have already mentioned, setting the accounts in their proper times. And he sets down some things from the Gospel according to the Hebrews and from the Syriac, and particularly from the Hebrew language, showing that he was a believer from among the Hebrews; and he mentions other things as from unwritten Jewish tradition.

Not he alone, but Irenaeus too and the whole company of the ancients called the Proverbs of Solomon All-virtuous Wisdom. And treating of the so-called apocrypha, he relates that some of them were fabricated by certain heretics in his own times. But now we must pass on to another.

And first we must say of Dionysius that he had been entrusted with the throne of the episcopate of the community in Corinth, and that he shared his divine industry generously not only with those under him but also with those in foreign lands, making himself most useful to all in the catholic letters he composed to the churches.

Of these, one is to the Lacedaemonians, instructing them in orthodoxy and urging peace and unity; another to the Athenians, rousing them to faith and to life according to the gospel, which he rebukes them for neglecting, as having almost fallen away from the word since their leader Publius was martyred in the persecutions of that time.

He mentions Quadratus as appointed their bishop after the martyr Publius, testifying that through his zeal they were gathered together again and obtained a rekindling of their faith. He shows besides that Dionysius the Areopagite too, who was converted to the faith by the apostle Paul, according to what is shown in the Acts, was the first to be entrusted with the episcopate of the community at Athens.

Another letter of his is extant, to the Nicomedians, in which, combating the heresy of Marcion, he stands by the rule of truth.

And writing to the church sojourning in Gortyna, together with the other communities in Crete, he welcomes their bishop Philip, since the church under him was attested for very many brave deeds, and reminds them to guard against the perversion of the heretics.

And writing to the church sojourning in Amastris together with those in Pontus, he mentions Bacchylides and Elpistus as having urged him to write, sets out interpretations of the divine Scriptures, and names their bishop, Palmas. He gives them much advice about marriage and chastity, and commands them to welcome those who return from any falling away whatever, whether of misconduct or of heretical error.

To these is added another letter, to the Cnossians, in which he urges Pinytus, bishop of the community, not to lay on the brothers as a necessity the heavy burden of chastity, but to have regard to the weakness of the many.

Pinytus, writing in reply, admires and welcomes Dionysius, but in turn urges him at some time to impart more solid food, nourishing the people under him afresh with more mature writings, so that they might not, by continuing to the end in milky words, grow old unawares in childish training. In this letter both Pinytus's orthodoxy in the faith and his care for the benefit of those under him, his learning and his understanding of divine things, are shown as in a most exact image.

There is extant also a letter of Dionysius to the Romans, addressing Soter, then bishop, from which there is nothing like quoting words in which, approving the custom of the Romans kept until the persecution in our own time, he writes this:

“For this has been your custom from the beginning, to do good in various ways to all the brothers, and to send supplies to many churches in every city, here relieving the poverty of those in need, there supplying brothers in the mines through the supplies you have sent from the beginning, Romans keeping the ancestral custom of Romans, which your blessed bishop Soter has not only maintained but increased, both furnishing the abundance sent to the saints and encouraging with blessed words the brothers who come up to Rome, as a loving father his children.”

In this same letter he also mentions Clement's letter to the Corinthians, showing that it had been the ancient custom from the beginning to read it in the church. He says, at any rate: “Today, then, we have spent the Lord's holy day, on which we read your letter, which we shall always have to read for admonition, as also the former one written to us through Clement.”

The same writer says this too about his own letters, as having been tampered with: “For when brothers asked me to write letters, I wrote them. And these the apostles of the devil have filled with tares, taking away some things and adding others; for whom the woe is reserved. It is no wonder, then, if some have attempted to tamper even with the Scriptures of the Lord, since they have plotted against writings not of such a kind.”

Besides these another letter of Dionysius is extant, written to Chrysophora, a most faithful sister, to whom he wrote what was suitable and imparted to her too the rational food that was fitting. So much for Dionysius.

Of Theophilus, whom we have shown to be bishop of the church of the Antiochenes, three elementary works To Autolycus are extant, and another entitled Against the Heresy of Hermogenes, in which he uses testimonies from the Apocalypse of John, and certain other catechetical books of his. And since the heretics then too, no less, like tares, were ravaging the pure seed of apostolic teaching, the shepherds of the churches everywhere, as though driving away wild beasts from Christ's sheep, kept them off, at one time by admonitions and exhortations to the brothers, at another by stripping more openly for the contest against them, in unwritten inquiries and refutations face to face, and also by correcting their opinions with most exact refutations in written memoirs. Theophilus, at any rate, having campaigned against them with the others, is shown to have done so by a not ignoble treatise of his against Marcion, which, with the others we have mentioned, is still preserved even now. He was succeeded, seventh from the apostles, in the church of the Antiochenes by Maximinus.

Philip, whom we know from the words of Dionysius to be bishop of the community in Gortyna, also composed a most excellent treatise against Marcion, as did Irenaeus likewise, and Modestus, who more than the others exposed the man's error clearly to all; and many others too, whose works are still preserved among very many of the brothers.

In their time Melito, bishop of the community in Sardis, and Apolinarius of Hierapolis flourished with distinction; each of them addressed discourses in defence of the faith separately to the Roman emperor of the time mentioned.

Of these the following have come to our knowledge. Of Melito: the two books On the Passover; On Christian Life and the Prophets; the discourse On the Church; the discourse On the Lord's Day; further On the Nature of Man; On Creation; On the Obedience of Faith of the Senses; besides these On Soul and Body, or Mind; On Baptism; On Truth; On the Creation and Birth of Christ; his discourse On Prophecy; On Hospitality; The Key; the books On the Devil and the Apocalypse of John; On God Incarnate; and last of all the little book To Antoninus.

In the books On the Passover he indicates at the beginning the time at which he composed it, in these words: “When Servilius Paulus was proconsul of Asia, at the time when Sagaris bore witness, there was much dispute in Laodicea about the Passover, which fell according to season in those days, and these things were written.”

This discourse is mentioned by Clement of Alexandria in his own discourse On the Passover, which he says he composed because of Melito's writing.

In the book to the emperor he relates that such things as these happened to us in his time: “For what has never before happened, the race of the godly is now persecuted, driven by new decrees throughout Asia. For shameless informers and lovers of others' property, taking occasion from the ordinances, openly plunder, robbing night and day those who do no wrong.”

And after other things he says: “If this is done at your command, let it be well done; for a just king would never plan unjustly, and we gladly bear the honour of such a death. But this one request we make of you, that you yourself first come to know the authors of such contention and judge justly whether they are worthy of death and punishment or of safety and quiet. But if this counsel and this new decree, which is not fitting even against barbarian enemies, is not from you, much more do we ask you not to overlook us in such public plundering.”

To this he adds again: “For our philosophy first flourished among barbarians, but, having blossomed among your nations in the great reign of your ancestor Augustus, it became especially an auspicious good for your empire. For from then the power of the Romans grew great and splendid, to which you have become, and with your son will be, the longed-for successor, if you guard the philosophy which was nurtured with the empire and began with Augustus, which your ancestors also honoured besides the other religions.

And this is the greatest proof that our doctrine flourished for good together with the empire so happily begun: that nothing bad has befallen since the reign of Augustus, but on the contrary everything splendid and glorious, according to the prayers of all.

Alone of all, persuaded by certain malicious men, Nero and Domitian wished to bring our doctrine into disrepute, and from them it has come about that the falsehood of calumny about such people has flowed by unreasonable custom.

But your pious fathers corrected their ignorance, often rebuking in writing many who dared to make innovations concerning them. Among them your grandfather Hadrian is seen writing to many others and to Fundanus the proconsul, governor of Asia; and your father, when you too were governing all things with him, wrote to the cities not to make innovations concerning us, among them to the Larissaeans, the Thessalonians, the Athenians, and all the Greeks.