A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

130 A Source Book for Ancient Church History[114]Evaristus succeeded Clement, and Alexander Evaristus. ThenSixtus, the sixth from the Apostles, was appointed. After himTelesephorus, who suffered martyrdom gloriously, and then Hyginus;after him Pius, and after Pius Anicetus; Soter succeededAnicetus, and now, in the twelfth place from the Apostles,Eleutherus [174-189] holds the office of bishop. In the sameorder and succession the tradition and the preaching of the truthwhich is from the Apostles have continued unto us.Ch. 4. But Polycarp, too, was not only instructed by theApostles, and acquainted with many that had seen Christ, butwas also appointed by Apostles in Asia bishop of the church inSmyrna, whom we, too, saw in our early youth (for he lived along time, and died, when a very old man, a glorious and mostillustrious martyr's death); he always taught the things whichhe had learned from the Apostles, which the Church also handsdown, and which alone are true. To these things all the Asiaticchurches testify, as do also those who, down to the present time,have succeeded Polycarp, who was a much more trustworthyand certain witness of the truth than Valentinus and Marcion andthe rest of the evil-minded. It was he who was also in Romein the time of Anicetus and caused many to turn away fromthe above-mentioned heretics to the Church of God, proclaimingthat he had received from the Apostles this one and only truthwhich has been transmitted by the Church. And there are thosewho heard from him that John, the disciple of the Lord, goingto bathe in Ephesus, when he saw Cerinthus within, ran out ofthe bath-house without bathing, crying: “Let us flee, lest eventhe bath-house fall, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth,is within.” And Polycarp himself, when Marcion once met himand said, “Knowest thou us?” replied, “I know the first-born ofSatan.” Such caution did the Apostles and their disciples exercisethat they might not even converse with any of those whoperverted the truth; as Paul, also, said: “A man that is a hereticafter the first and second admonition, reject; knowing that he that