witness to tlii.! connection in tlic f,)llowing words: "Those opinions, Florinus, tliat I may speak in mild terms, are not part of sound doctrine ; these opinions ara not consonant with the Church, and involve their vo- taries in the utmost impiety; these opinions even the heretics beyond the Ciuirch's jjale have never ventured to broach; these opinions those presbyters who pre- ceded us, and -who were conversant with the apostles, did not hand down to thee. For, while I was yet a boy, I saw ihee in Lower Asia with I'olycarp, distinguishing thyself in the royal court, an<l endeavoring to gain hi i approbation. For I have a more vivid recollection of what occurred at that time than of recent events (inas- much as the experiences of childhood, keeping pace with the growth of the soul, l)ecomc incorporated with it), so that I can even describe the place where the blessed Polycarp used to sit and discourse — his going out and his coming in — his general mode of life and personal ap- pearance, together with the discourses which he deliv- ered to the people ; also how ho would speak of his fa- miliar intercourse with John, and with the rest of those; who had seen the Lord; and how lie would call their words to remembrance. . . . Wliat I heard from him, that wrote I not on paper, but in my heart, and, by the grace of God, I constantly bring it fresh to my mind." It is not known at what time Irenaeus removed to Gaul, but it is supposed by some that he accompanied Photi- nus (whom he afterwards succeeded as bishop) on his mission to Gaul to establish churches at Lj-ons and Vi- eniie. So much is certain, that he was a presbyter at Lyons under JMarcus Aiirelius, according to Eusebius {nl sup. p. 171 ; compare p. 157), and was sent bj' his peo- ple to Eleutherus, bishop of Rome (A.D. 176-192), as a mediator in the Montanistic disputes. While yet on this mission Photinus suffered martyrdom, and IrcnreiLS was elected as his successor (about A.D. 177). He at once returned and zealously devoted himself, by tongue and pen, for the upbuilding of the Christian Church, so greatly suffering at this time in Further Gaul from the persecutions of the heathen government. He i.i supposed by some to have suffered martyrdom in tli2 persecutions under Septimius Severus, xV.D. 202 ; but the silence of Tertullian and Eusebius, and most of the early Church fathers, makes this point very doubtful. " Irenaeus was the leading representative of the Asiatic ' Johannian school in the second half of the 2d century, the champion of catholic orthoiloxy against Gnostic heresy, and the mediator between the Eastern and West- ern churches. He united a learned Greek education and philosophical penetration with practical wisdom and moderation, and a just sense of the simple essentials in Christianity. We plainly trace in him the influence of the spirit of John. ' The true way to God,' says he, in opposition to the false (inosis, 'is love. It is better to be willing to know nothing but Jesus Christ the cruci- fied, than to fall into ungodliness through our curioua questions and paltry subtleties.' He was an enemy of all error and schism, and, on the whole, the most ortho- dox of the ante-Nicene fothers, except in eschatoiogy. Here, with Papias and most of his contemporaries, he maintained the millenarian views which -(vere subse- quently al)an(loned by the Catholic Church" (Schaff, Ch. nisi, i, 4.SS. 4.S9). Irenajus's death is commemorated in tlie Ponian (luircli, June 28.
II. ]Vritin(/s of Irenes us. — His writings, which an very extended, covering, in their translation into Eng- lish, so far as now knoAvn, between six and seven hun- dred pages of the "Ante-Nicene Library" of the iVIessrs. Clark, of Edinburgh, are perhaps the most valuable relic of early Christian antiquity. But "their preciousness bears no proportion to their bulk." " Indeed," says a writer in the Bri/. and For. Kcamj. Rev. (Jan. ISiJO. p. 2), " it would be possible to compress into a very few pages all the statements of fact that can be deemed real- ly valuable to us at the present day." Yet the same writer adds (p. 4) that the work of Irenajus is to us " in- valuable for the ligiit it sheds on the views which pre-
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