IGNATIUS
491
IGNATIUS
but Eusebias fixes the date of his ordination at A.D. G9, wlien several of the apostles were dead. According to the same historian, he was the second successor of St. Paul, Evodius liaving been the first. The Apostolic Constitutions, on the other hand, say that Ignatius and Evodius held the office together, Evodius by ai)point- ment from Peter, Ignatius from Paul. So say, also, Ba- ronius and Natalis Alexander, making, however, Evodius bishop of the Jews, and Ignatius of the Gentiles. " Of the episcopate of Ignatius we know Uttle. He appears to liave been over-earnest in insisting upon the prerog- fitives of the clergy, especially the bishops. The Mar- ii/rium. Igmitii represents him as anxious for the stead- fastness of his rtock during the persecution saitl to have taken place iu Dumitian's reign, and incessant in watch- ing and pra3'er and in instructing his people, fearing lest the more ignorant and timid among them should fall away. Ou the cessation of the persecution he' re- joiced at the little injury the cluirch at Antioeh had sustained. When the emperor Trajan, elated with his victories over the Dacians and other nations on the Da- nubian frontier, began to persecute the Church, the anx- iety of Ignatius was renewed, and, eager to avert the violence of persecution from his flock, and to obtain the crown of martyrdom, he offered himself as a victim, and Avas brought before the emperor, then at Antioeh on his way to the eastern frontier to attack the Armenians and Parthians. The conference between Trajan and the bishop is given in the Md/ii/riiun Iff/iatii; it ended in an order of the emperor that Ignatius should be taken to Rome, and there tlirown to the wild beasts. He was led thither by a long and tedious route, but was allowed to have communication with his fellow-Cliristians at the jilaces at which lie stopped. He was thrown to the wild beasts in the Roman amphitheatre, at the feast dis- tinguished as J/ rpKTKaiScKaTi], ' the feast of the thir- teenth' (Smith, Bid. of Cla-^s. Antiq. s. v. Saturnalia). Such parts of him as remained were collected by his sorrowing friends, and taken back to Antioeh, where in Jerome's time they were resting in the cemetery outside the gate toward Daphne. From thence they were re- moved by the emperor Theodosius II to the Church of Ignatius (previously known as the Tychajum, or Temple of Fortune), in the city of Antioeh (Evagr. Hist. Eccl. i, IG). Their subsequent removals are uncertain. The martyrdom of St. Ignatius is commemorated by the Ro- man Church on the 1st of February; by the Greek Church on the 20th of December, the correct anniver- sary of his martyrdom." The year of Ignatius's death has been much disputed. Many of the best Avriters (following the Martyriiim Tr/iuitii) place it in A.D. 107 ; but, as it is now generally conceded that Trajan did not visit the East till 114, and as he probably spent the win- ter 11-4-115 at Antioeh, the best critics agree on A.D. 115 as the most probable date.
Epistles of Ir/mitius.— On his way from Antioeh to Rome, Ignatius is said to have written seven epistles. These are enumerated both by Eusebius (^Hist. Eccl.ui, 46) and Jerome {De Viris Illustr. c. IG). At present, however, there are fifteen epistles extant, all ascribed to Ignatius. Seven of these are considered by many to be genuine, namely, 1. npwj 'E'piaiovc, Ad Ephesios ; 2. Mayi'tjaiivaiv, Ad Ma>jnesiaiios ; 3. TpaWiavoTc, Ad Tndlianos; 4. Upoc'PMnatovg, Ad liomams; 5. ^i\a- Si\(piV(nv, Ad Philadelphenos ; G. ^iivpraiotc.Ad Smi/r- Tucos ; and, 7. JJpbi: no\vKapvoi\ A d P<di/rarpum. The titles of these epistles agree with tl;c enumeration of Eu- sebius and Jerome. There arc found two recensions of them— a longer, now regarded as an inteq^olated one, first published by Paeceus (1557), and a shorter form, which is considered as tolerably uncorrupted. ]Many doubt the genuineness of either (see below). Two an- cient Latin versions are extant, corresponding in a great degree to the two forms or recensions of the (.ireok text : the larger, known as the common (ndr/atd) version, the other first discovered and published by archbishop Usher (1G44) (see below). The epistles to the Ephesians, Ro-
mans, and Polycarp were published, with a translation, in a still shorter Syriac version, by Cureton (l>i45). Many of the interpolations found in the larger fonn arc of ]iassagcs from the N. T.
Five other epistles, though extant in Greek, are re- garded by nearly all classes of critics as spurious, name- ly, 8. Tlpug Mapiav fif 'NhittoXiv ti]v irpoQ np Zap€<^, or Hpoc Mapiav KacruoCoA/rjjv, or t/c Kn(Tof-'>j\w>', or iKacraSaXHrii', or tK Ka(jTa€d\ix)v, Ad jMciriam, Xnipo- lim, qum est ad Zarbiim, or Ad Mariam Cussolxdilam, variously written Castuhaiitam, or Castabalensem, or ex Cossohelis, or Cliussaohoiorum, or Chasaholoi-um, or Cas- tubolorum; 9, WpiiQ rovg tv ']i!apc<p, Ad Taisemes ; 10. TlpijQ 'AvTioxtig, Ad Antiochenos ; 11. TlpliQ "Hpiova, diciKovov 'AvTioxdac, Ad Jleronetii Diaronnm Aiiti- ochim ; 12. Tipug <t>i\nT7n]rTiovg, A d PliiUppensps. Some copies add to the title of this last epistle the words irepi BciTTTiafjuiToc, l)e JJaptismate, an addition which by no means describes the contents. Of four of these spurious epistles two ancient Latin versions are extant, the com- mon version, and that published by Usher. Of that to the Philippians there is but one version, namely, the common. The epistle to Polycarp in the common Latin version is defective, containing only about one third of what is in the Greek text. There is also extant, both in the Greek and in the two Latin versions, an epistle of Mary of Cassobelaj (called also JIpocrjXvToc, Prose- lijtcC) to Ignatius, to which his letter professes to be an answer.