I have contented myself, therefore, with giving approximate order and continuity, on chronological grounds, to the series of names subjoined. Bardesanes has been eliminated here, and placed more appropriately with the Syriac authors. The reader will find references which may aid him in seeking further information. Some of these names are of lasting value and interest in the Church. I prefer to call these "Fragments" their "Remains."
To each of the following names I have prefixed some details of information, with such dates as the learned supply.
The following is the
Translator's Introductory Notice
The fragments that follow are the productions of writers who lived during the second century or the beginning of the third. Little is known of the writers, and the statements made in regard to them are often very indefinite, and the result of mere conjecture.
1. Quadratus was one of the first of the Christian apologists. He is said to have presented his apology to Hadrian while the emperor was in Athens attending the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries.
2. Aristo of Pella, a Jew, was the author of a work called The Disputation of Jason and Papiscus. Nothing further is known of him. He flourished in the first half of the second century.
3. Melito was bishop of Sardis, and flourished in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. He wrote many works, but all of them have perished except a few fragments. The genuineness of the Syriac fragments is open to question.
4. Hegesippus also flourished in the time of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is the first ecclesiastical historian; but his book was rather notes for an ecclesiastical history, than a history.
5. Dionysius was bishop of Corinth in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. He wrote letters to various churches.
6. Rhodon went from Asia to Rome, and became a pupil of Tatian. After the lapse of his master into heresy he remained true to the faith, and wrote against heretics.
7. Maximus flourished about the same time as Rhodon, under the emperors Commodus and Severus.
8. Claudius Apollinaris was bishop of Hierapolis, and presented a defense of the Christians to Marcus Aurelius. He wrote many important works, of which we have only a few fragments.
9. Polycrates was bishop of Ephesus. He took part in the controversy on the Passover question. He died about 200 a.d.
10. Theophilus was bishop of Cæsarea. He was a contemporary of Polycrates, and, like him, engaged in the Passover controversy.
11. Serapion was ordained bishop of Antioch a.d. 190, but almost no other fact of his life is known. He wrote several works.
12. Apollonius wrote a work against the Montanists, probably in the year a.d. 210. This is all that is known of him.
13. Pantænus, probably a Sicilian by birth, passed from Stoicism to Christianity, and went to Judæa to proclaim the truth. He returned to Alexandria, and became president of the catechetical school there, in which post he remained till his death, which took place about the year 212 a.d.
14. The Letter of the Churches in Vienne and Lyons was written shortly after the persecution in Gaul, which took place in a.d. 177. It is not known who is the author. Some have supposed that Irenæus wrote it, but there is no historical testimony to this effect.
[3529] See vol. ii. (p. 125), etc.
Remains of the Second and Third Centuries.
------------------------
Quadratus, Bishop of Athens. [3530]
[a.d. 126.] Quadratus [3531] is spoken of by Eusebius as a "man of understanding and of Apostolic faith." And he celebrates Aristides as a man of similar character. These were the earliest apologists; both addressed their writings to Hadrian, and they were extant and valued in the churches in the time of Eusebius.
From the Apology for the Christian Religion. [3532]
Our Saviour's works, moreover, were always present: for they were real, consisting of those who had been healed of their diseases, those who had been raised from the dead; who were not only seen whilst they were being healed and raised up, but were afterwards constantly present. Nor did they remain only during the sojourn of the Saviour on earth, but also a considerable time after His departure; and, indeed, some of them have survived even down to our own times. [3533]
------------------------
[3530] But see Lightfoot, A. F., part ii. vol. i. p. 524.
[3531] On Quadratus and Aristides, consult Routh, R. S., p. 71; also Westcott, On the Canon, p. 92.
[3532] In Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., iv. 3.
[3533] [Westcott supposes the Diognetus of Mathetes (vol. i. p. 23) may be the work of Quadratus; Canon, p. 96.]
Aristo of Pella.
[a.d. 140.] Aristo of Pella [3534] is supposed to have been a Jew, whose work was designed to help the failing Judaism of his country. Though his work is lost, alike the original and the Latin translation of one "Celsus," it seems to have been a popular tract among Christians of Cyprian's time, and the Latin preface is often suffixed to editions of that Father.
The work of Aristo is known as the Disputation of Papiscus and Jason, and Celsus tells us that Jason was a Hebrew Christian, while his opponent was a Jew of Alexandria. Now, Papiscus owns himself convinced by the arguments of Jason, and concludes by a request to be baptized. Celsus, who seems to have been a heathen or an Epicurean, derides the work with scornful commiseration; but Origen rebukes this, and affirms his respect for the work. All this considered, one must think Aristo was "almost persuaded to be a Christian," and deserves a place among Christian writers.
From the Disputation of Jason and Papiscus.
"I remember," says Jerome (Comm. ad Gal., cap. iii. comm. 13), "in the Dispute between Jason and Papiscus, which is composed in Greek, to have found it written: The execration of God is he that is hanged.'"
From the Same Work.
Jerome likewise, in his Hebrew Questions on Genesis, says: "In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. The majority believe, as it is affirmed also in the Dispute between Jason and Papiscus, and as Tertullian in his book Against Praxeas contends, and as Hilarius too, in his exposition of one of the Psalms, declares, that in the Hebrew it is: In the Son, God made the heaven and the earth.' But that this is false, the nature of the case itself proves."
Perhaps from the Same Work.
...And when the man himself [3535] who had instigated them [3536] to this folly had paid the just penalty (says Eusebius, Hist., iv. 6), "the whole nation from that time was strictly forbidden to set foot on the region about Jerusalem, by the formal decree and enactment of Adrian, who commanded that they should not even from a distance look on their native soil!" So writes Aristo of Pella.
From the Same Work.
I have found this expression Seven heavens (says Maximus, in Scholia on the work concerning the Mystical Theology, ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, cap. i.) also in the Dispute between Papiscus and Jason, written by Aristo of Pella, which Clement of Alexandria, in the sixth book of the Outlines, [3537] says was composed by Saint Luke.
Concerning the Same Work.
Thus writes Origen: [3538] ...in which book a Christian is represented disputing with a Jew from the Jewish Scriptures, and showing that the prophecies concerning the Christ apply to Jesus: although his opponent addresses himself to the argument with no common ability, [3539] and in a manner not unbefitting his Jewish character.
------------------------
[3534] Routh, R. S., vol. i. p. 93. Westcott, Canon, p. 106. Grabe's mention. Routh's discussion, in annotations, is most learned and exhaustive.
[3535] Barchochebas.
[3536] The Jews.
[3537] Upotuposos.
[3538] Contra Celsum, iv. 52.
[3539] Ouk agennos.
Melito, the Philosopher.
[a.d. 160-170-177.] Melito [3540] may have been the immediate successor of the "angel" (or "apostle") of the church of Sardis, to whom our Great High Priest addressed one of the apocalyptic messages. He was an "Apostolic Father" in point of fact; he very probably knew the blessed Polycarp and his disciple Irenæus. He is justly revered for the diligence with which he sought out the evidence which, in his day, established the Canon of the Old Testament, then just complete.
In the following fragments we find him called Bishop of Sardis, Bishop of Attica, and Bishop of Ittica. He is also introduced to us as "the Philosopher," and we shall find him styled "the Eunuch" by Polycrates. It is supposed that he had made himself a coelebs "for the kingdom of heaven's sake," without mistaking our Lord's intent, as did Origen. He was not a monk, but accepted a single estate to be the more free and single-eyed in the Master's service. From the encyclopedic erudition of Lightfoot we glean some particulars, as follows:--
1. I have adopted his date, as Lightfoot gives it,--that is, the period of his writings,--under the Antonines. The improbability of seventy years in the episcopate is reason enough for rejecting the idea that he was himself the "angel of the church of Sardis," to whom our Lord sent the terrible rebuke.
2. His silence concerning persecutions under Vespasian, Trojan, and Antoninus Pius cannot be pleaded to exempt them from this stain, against positive evidence to the contrary.
3. A coincidence with Ignatius to the Ephesians [3541] will be noted hereafter.
4. Melito, with Claudius Apollinaris and even Polycrates, may have been personally acquainted with Ignatius; [3542] of course, one with another. These lived not far from Smyrna; Asia Minor was, in the first century, the focus of Christian activity.
5. We know of his visit to the East from his own account, preserved by Eusebius. The Christians of proconsular Asia were accustomed to such journeys. Even Clement of Alexandria may have met him, as he seems to have met Tatian and Theodotus. [3543]
6. Melito vouches for the rescript of Hadrian, [3544] but his supposed reference to the edict of Antoninus does not bear close scrutiny as warrant for its authenticity. [3545]
7. The Apology of our author was addressed to Aurelius in his mid-career as a sovereign, about a.d. 170. Justin, Melito, Athenagoras, and Theophilus all tell the same sad story of imperial cruelty. Even when Justin wrote to Antoninus, Marcus was supreme in the councils of the elder emperor. [3546]
8. He became a martyr, probably under Marcus Aurelius, circa a.d. 177; [3547] some eminent critics have even dated his Apology as late as this.
[3540] Routh, R. S., vol. i. p. 113. And see Westcott, Canon, p. 245.
[3541] Lightfoot, A. F., vol. ii. p. 48.
[3542] Ib., vol. i. p. 428.
[3543] Vol. ii. (Stromata) p. 301, this series.
[3544] Vol. i. p. 186, this series.
[3545] Lightfoot, A. F., vol. i. p. 468.
[3546] Lightfoot, A. F., vol. ii.
[3547] Ibid., pp. 446, 494.
I.
A Discourse Which Was in the Presence of Antoninus Cæsar, and He Exhorted [3548] The Said Cæsar to Acquaint Himself with God, and Showed to Him the Way of Truth.
He began to speak as follows:--
"It is not easy," said Melito, "speedily to bring into the right way the man who has a long time previously been held fast by error. It may, however, be effected: for, when a man turns away ever so little from error, the mention of the truth is acceptable to him. For, just as when the cloud breaks ever so little there comes fair weather, even so, when a man turns toward God, the thick cloud of error which deprived him of true vision is quickly withdrawn from before him. For error, like disease [3549] and sleep, long holds fast those who come under its influence; [3550] but truth uses the word as a goad, and smites the slumberers, and awakens them; and when they are awake they look at the truth, and also understand it: they hear, and distinguish that which is from that which is not. For there are men who call iniquity righteousness: they think, for example, that it is righteousness for a man to err with the many. But I, for my part, affirm that it is not a good excuse for error that a man errs with the many. For, if one man only sin, [3551] his sin is great: how much greater will be the sin when many sin together!
"Now, the sin of which I speak is this: when a man abandons that which really exists, and serves that which does not really exist. There is' that which really exists, and it is called God. He, I say, really exists, and by His power doth everything subsist. This being is in no sense made, nor did He ever come into being; but He has existed from eternity, and will continue to exist for ever and ever. He changeth not, while everything else changes. No eye [3552] can see Him, nor thought apprehend Him, nor language describe Him; and those who love Him speak of Him thus: Father, and God of Truth.'
"If, therefore, a man forsake the light, and say that there is another God, it is plain from what he himself says that it is some created thing which he calls God. For, if a man call fire God, it is not God, because it is fire; and, if a man call water God, it is not God, because it is water; and, if he so call this earth on which we tread, or these heavens which are seen by us, or the sun, or the moon, or some one of these stars which run their course without ceasing by Divine command, and do not speed along by their own will, neither are these gods; and, if a man call gold and silver gods, are not these objects things which we use as we please? and, if he so call those pieces of wood which we burn, or those stones which we break, how can these things be gods? For, lo! they are for the use of man. How can they' escape the commission of great sin, who in their speech change the great God into those things which, so long as they continue, continue by Divine command?