With all his zeal for pure and sound doctrine, Irenaeus was liberal towards subordinate differences, and remonstrated with the bishop of Rome for his unapostolic efforts to force an outward uniformity in respect to the time and manner of celebrating Easter. [1401] 401 We may almost call him a forerunner of Gallicanism in its protest against ultramontane despotism. "The apostles have ordained," says he in the third fragment, which appears to refer to that controversy, "that we make conscience with no one of food and drink, or of particular feasts, new moons, and sabbaths. Whence, then, controversies; whence schisms? We keep feasts but with the leaven of wickedness and deceit, rending asunder the church of God, and we observe the outward, to the neglect of the higher, faith and love." He showed the same moderation in the Montanistic troubles. He was true to his name Peaceful ( Gr. ) and to his spiritual ancestry.
III. His Writings. (1.) The most important work of Irenaeus is his Refutation of Gnosticism, in five books. [1402] 402 It was composed during the pontificate of Eleutherus, that is between the years 177 and 190. [1403] 403 It is at once the polemic theological masterpiece of the ante-Nicene age, and the richest mine of information respecting Gnosticism and the church doctrine of that age. It contains a complete system of Christian divinity, but enveloped in polemical smoke, which makes it very difficult and tedious reading. The work was written at the request of a friend who wished to be informed of the Valentinian heresy and to be furnished with arguments against it. Valentinus and Marcion had taught in Rome about a.d. 140, and their doctrines had spread to the south of France. The first book contains a minute exposition of the gorgeous speculations of Valentinus and a general view of the other Gnostic sects; the second an exposure of the unreasonableness and contradictions of these heresies; especially the notions of the Demiurge as distinct from the Creator, of the Aeons, the Pleroma and Kenoma, the emanations, the fall of Achamoth, the formation of the lower world of matter, the sufferings of the Sophia, the difference between the three classes of men, the Somatici, Psychici, and Pneumatici. The last three books refute Gnosticism from the Holy Scripture and Christian tradition which teach the same thing; for the same gospel which was first orally preached and transmitted was subsequently committed to writing and faithfully preserved in all the apostolic churches through the regular succession of the bishops and elders; and this apostolic tradition insures at the same time the correct interpretation of Scripture against heretical perversion. To the ever-shifting and contradictory opinions of the heretics Irenaeus opposes the unchanging faith of the catholic church which is based on the Scriptures and tradition, and compacted together by the episcopal organization. It is the same argument which Bellarmin, Bossuet, and Möhler use against divided and distracted Protestantism, but Protestantism differs as much from old Gnosticism as the New Testament from the apocryphal Gospels, and as sound, sober, practical sense differs from mystical and transcendental nonsense. The fifth book dwells on the resurrection of the body and the millennial kingdom. Irenaeus derived his information from the writings of Valentinus and Marcion and their disciples, and from Justin Martyr's Syntagma. [1404]
The interpretation of Scripture is generally sound and sober, and contrasts favorably with the fantastic distortions of the Gnostics. He had a glimpse of a theory of inspiration which does justice to the human factor. He attributes the irregularities of Paul's style to his rapidity of discourse and the impetus of the Spirit which is in him. [1405] 405
(2.) The Epistle to Florinus, of which Eusebius has preserved an interesting and important fragment, treated On the Unity of God, and the Origin of Evil. [1406] 406 It was written probably after the work against heresies, and as late as 190. [1407] 407 Florinus was an older friend and fellow-student of lrenaeus and for some time presbyter in the church of Rome, but was deposed on account of his apostasy to the Gnostic heresy. Irenaeus reminded him very touchingly of their common studies at the feet of the patriarchal Polycarp, when he held some position at the royal court (probably during Hadrian's sojourn at Smyrna), and tried to bring him back to the faith of his youth, but we do not know with what effect.
(3.) On the Ogdoad [1408] 408 against the Valentinian system of Aeons, in which the number eight figures prominently with a mystic meaning. Eusebius says that it was written on account of Florinus, and that he found in it "a most delightful remark," as follows: "I adjure thee, whoever thou art, that transcribest this book, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by his gracious appearance, when he shall come to judge the quick and the dead, to compare what thou hast copied, and to correct it by this original manuscript, from which thou hast carefully transcribed. And that thou also copy this adjuration, and insert it in the copy." The carelessness of transcribers in those days is the chief cause of the variations in the text of the Greek Testament which abounded already in the second century. Irenaeus himself mentions a remarkable difference of reading in the mystic number of Antichrist (666 and 616), on which the historic interpretation of the book depends (Rev. 13:18).
(4.) A book On Schism, addressed to Blastus who was the head of the Roman Montanists and also a Quartodeciman. [1409] 409 It referred probably to the Montanist troubles in a conciliatory spirit.
(5.) Eusebius mentions [1410] 410 several other treatises which are entirely lost, as Against the Greeks (or On Knowledge), On Apostolic Preaching, a Book on Various Disputes, [1411] 411 and on the Wisdom of Solomon. In the Syriac fragments some other lost works are mentioned.
(6.) Irenaeus is probably the author of that touching account of the persecution of 177, which the churches of Lyons and Vienne sent to the churches in Asia Minor and Phrygia, and which Eusebius has in great part preserved. He was an eyewitness of the cruel scene, yet his name is not mentioned, which would well agree with his modesty; the document breathes his mild Christian spirit, reveals his aversion to Gnosticism, his indulgence for Montanism, his expectation of the near approach of Antichrist. It is certainly one of the purest and most precious remains of ante-Nicene literature and fully equal, yea superior to the "Martyrdom of Polycarp," because free from superstitious relic-worship. [1412] 412
(7.) Finally, we must mention four more Greek fragments of Irenaeus, which Pfaff discovered at Turin in 1715, and first published. Their genuineness has been called in question by some Roman divines, chiefly for doctrinal reasons. [1413] 413 The first treats of the true knowledge, [1414] 414 which consists not in the solution of subtle questions, but in divine wisdom and the imitation of Christ; the second is on the eucharist; [1415] 415 the third, on the duty of toleration in subordinate points of difference, with reference to the Paschal controversies; [1416] 416 the fourth, on the object of the incarnation, which is stated to be the purging away of sin and the annihilation of all evil. [1417] 417
[1392] Harvey derives from the alleged familiarity of Irenaeus with Hebrew and the Syriac Peshito the conclusion that he was a Syrian, but Ropes denies the premise and defends the usual view of his Greek nationality. See also Caspari, Quellen zur Gesch. des Taufsymb III. 343 sq.
[1393] The change of Polycarp's martyrdom from 166 to 155 necessitates a corresponding change in the chronology of Irenaeus, his pupil, who moreover says that the Apocalypse of John was written at the end of Domitian's reign (d. 96), "almost within our age" (schedon epi tes hemeteras geneas, Adv. Haer. v. 30, 3). Zahn (in Herzog) decides for 115, Lipsius (in Smith and Wace) for 130 or 125, as the date of his birth. Dodwell favored the year 97 or 98; Grabe 108, Tillemont and Lightfoot 120, Leimbach, Hilgenfeld, and Ropes 126, Oscar von Gebhardt 126-130, Harvey 130, Massuet, Dupin, Böhringer, Kling 140 (quite too late), Ziegler 142-147 (impossible). The late date is derived from a mistaken understanding of the reference to the old age of Polycarp (panu geraleosbut this, as Zahn and Lightfoot remark, refers to the time of his martyrdom, not the time of his acquaintance with Irenaeus), and from the assumption of the wrong date of his martyrdom (166 instead of 155 or 156). The term prote helikia, "first age, " which Irenaeus uses of the time of his acquaintance with Polycarp (III. 3, § 4; comp. Euseb. H. E. IV. 14), admits of an extension from boyhood to youth and early manhood; for Irenaeus counts five ages of a man's life (Adv. Haer I. 22, § 4; 24, § 4--infans, parvullus, puer, juvenis, senior), and includes the thirtieth year in the youth, by calling Christ a juvenis at the time of his baptism. Hence Zahn and Lipsius conclude that the prote helikiaof Irenaeus's connection with Polycarp is not the age of childhood, but of early young-manhood."Als junger Mann, " says Zahn."etwa zwischen dem 18. und 35. Lebensjahre, will Ir. sich des Umqangs mit Pol erfreut haben." Another hint is given in the letter of Iren. to Florinus, in which be reminds him of their mutual acquaintance with Polycarp in lower Asia in their youth when Florinus was at "the royal court" (aule basilike). Lightfoot conjectures that this means by anticipation the court of Antoninus Pius, when he was proconsul of Asia Minor, a.d. 136, two years before he ascended the imperial throne (Waddington, Fastes des provinces Asiatiques, p. 714). But Zahn reasserts the more natural explanation of Dodwell, that the court of Emperor Hadrian is meant, who twice visited Asia Minor as emperor between the years 122 and 130.
[1394] See above, § 20, p. 55 sq.
[1395] Either during, or after the persecution. Euseb. V. S.; Jerome, De Vir. ill c. 35.
[1396] "The story that his bones were dug up and thrown into the street by the Calvinists in 1562 has been abundantly refuted." Encycl. Brit., ninth ed XIII. 273.
[1397] This is evident from the very passage in which he makes that apology to his friend (Adv. Haer., Pref. § 3): "Thou wilt not require from me, who dwell among the Celts (en Keltois), and am accustomed for the most part to use a barbarous dialect (barbaron dialekton)any skill in discourse which I have not learned, nor any power of composition which I have not practised, nor any beauty of style nor persuasiveness of which I know nothing. But thou wilt accept lovingly what I write lovingly to thee in simplicity, truthfully, and in my own way (haplos kai alethos kai idiotikos); whilst thou thyself (as being more competent than I am) wilt expand those ideas of which I send thee, as it were, only the seeds and principles (spermata kai archas); and in the comprehensiveness of thine understanding, wilt develop to their full extent the points on which I briefly touch, so as to set with power before thy companions those things which I have uttered in weakness."Jerome praises the style of Irenaeus as "doctissmus et eloquentissimus," and Massuet (Diss. II. § 51) adds that his " Greek text as far as preserved, is elegant, polished, and grave."
[1398] Harvey claims for him also Hebrew and Syriac scholarship; but this is disputed.
[1399] Bishop Lightfoot ("Contemp. Rev." May, 1875, p. 827) says that Irenaeus If on all the most important points conforms to the standard which has satisfied the Christian church ever since."Renan (p. 341) calls him "le modèle de l'homme ecclésiastique accompli."
[1400] See the long list of his Scripture quotations in Stieren, I. 996-1005, and the works on the Canon of the N. T.
[1401] Comp. § 62, p. 217 sq.
[1402] Elenchos kai anatrope tes pseudonumou gnoseos (1 Tim. 6:20), i.e.A Refutation and Subversion of Knowledge falsely so called; cited, since Jerome, under the simpler title: Adversus Haereses (pros aireseis).The Greek original of the work, together with the five books of Hegesippus, was still in existence in the sixteenth century, and may yet be recovered. See Zahn in Brieger's " Zeitschrift für K. Gesch."1877, p. 288-291. But so far we only have fragments of it preserved in Hippolytus (Philosophumena), Eusebius, Theodoret, and especially in Epiphanius (Haer. XXXl.c. 9-33). We have, however, the entire work in a slavishly literal translation into barbarous Latin, crowded with Grecisms, but for this very reason very valuable. Three MSS. of the Latin version survive, the oldest is the Codex Claromontanus of the tenth or eleventh century. This and the Arundel MS. are now in England (see a description in Harvey's Preface, i. viii. sqq. with facsimiles). Besides, we have now fragments of a Syrian version, derived from the Nitrian MSS. of the British Museum, and fragments of an Armenian translation, published by Pitra in his Spicilegium Solesmense vol. I. (1852), both incorporated in Harvey's edition, vol. II. 431-469. They agree closely with the Latin Version. An attempt to restore the Greek text from the Latin, for the better understanding of it, has been made on the first four chapters of the third book by H. W. J. Thiersch (" Stud. u. Kritiken," 1842). Semler's objections to the genuineness have been so thoroughly refuted by Chr. G. F. Walch (De authentia libiorum Irenaei, 1774), that Möhler and Stieren might have spared themselves the trouble.