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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31414	Apostolici, or, The history of the lives, acts, death, and martyrdoms of those who were contemporary with, or immediately succeeded the apostles as also the most eminent of the primitive fathers for the first three hundred years : to which is added, a chronology of the three first ages of the church / by William Cave ...	Cave, William, 1637-1713.	1677 (1677)	Wing C1590; ESTC R13780	422,305	406

who had not hitherto known him wondered to behold so venerable a person of so great age and so grave and composed a presence and what needed all this stir to hunt and take this poor old man He nothing concerned ordered a Table to be spread and Provisions to be set upon it inviting them to partake of them and onely requesting for himself that in the mean while he might have one hour for Prayer Leave being granted he rose up and betook himself to his devotions wherein he had such mighty assistances of divine grace that he continued praying near two hours together heartily recommending to God the case of all his friends and acquaintance whether great or little honourable or ignoble and the state of the Catholic Church throughout the World all that heard him being astonished at it and many of them now repenting that so divine and venerable an old man should be put to death VIII HIS prayer being ended and they ready to depart he was set upon an Ass and it being then the Great Sabbath though what that Great Sabbath was learned men I believe will hardly agree till the coming of Elias conducted into the City As they were upon the Road they were met by Herod and his Father Nicetes who indeed were the main Springs of the Persecution and had put the tamult into motion This Herod was an Irenarcha one of those ad quos tuendae publicae Pacis vigilantia pertinebat as a Epist CLIX. col 720. CLX c. 722. vid. l. 18. § 4. ff de maner honor Tit. 4. l. 6. §. 2. ff de custod exhib reor T●● 3. S. Augustin describes them their Office was most what the same with that of our modern Justices of the Peace they being set to guard the Provinces and to secure the public peace and quietness within their several Jurisdictions to prevent and suppress Riots and Tumults Robberies and Rapines and to enquire into the Companions and Receivers of all such persons and to transmit to the Magistrates the examinations and notices which they had received of such matters They were appointed either by the Emperour himself or the Praefecti Praetorio or the Decurio's and at this time the custom in the Provinces of the lesser Asia was that every City did yearly send ten of the names of their principal persons to the Governour of the Province who chose out one to be the Irenarcha the Keeper or Justice of the Peace Being afterwards found grievous and troublesom to the People they were taken away by a Law of the younger c C. Th. l. unic Tit. 14. de Hirenarch Theodosius though the Office remained under another name This Office at Smyrna was at this time managed by this Herod whom d Ad Ann. CLXIX n. 7. Baronius conjectures to be e A. Gell. noct Att. l. 1. c. 2. p. 2. J. Capit. in vit M. Anton. c. 3. p. 151. Herodes Atticus a man of consular dignity and of great learning and eloquence and who had been Tutor to the present Emperour Certain it is that that Herod governed in the free Cities of f Philastr de vit Sophist l. 2. in Herod p. m. 646. l. 1. in Polemon p. 642. Asia and resided sometimes at Smyrna though it cramps the conjecture that the name of that Herods Father was Atticus of this Nicetes unless we will suppose him to have had two names But whoever he be a great enemy he was to Polycarp whom meeting upon the way he took him up into his Chariot where both he and his Father by plausible insinuations sought to undermine his constancy asking him what great harm there was in saying My Lord the Emperour and in sacrificing by which means he might escape This was an usual way of attempting the Christians not that they made any scruple to acknowledge the Emperour to be their Lord none were so forward so earnest to pay all due subjection and reverence to Princes but because they knew that the Romans too apt to flatter the ambition of their Emperours into a fondly usurpt Divinity by that title usually understood God as g Apolog. c. 34 p. 28. Tertullian tells them in any other notion of the word they could as freely as any call him Lord though as he adds even h Vid. Sueton. in vit Aug. c. 53. p. 192. Augustus himself modestly forbad that title to be ascribed to him IX S. POLYCARP returned no answer to their demand till importunately urging him he replied that he would not at any rate comply with their persuasions Frustrated of the ends which they had upon him they now lay aside the Vizor of their dissembled friendship and turn their kindness into scorn and reproaches thrusting him out of the Chariot with so much violence that he bruised his thigh with the fall Whereat nothing daunted as if he had received no hurt he chearfully hastned on to the place of his execution under the conduct of his Guard whither when they were come and a confused noise and tumult was arisen a voice came from Heaven heard by many but none seen who spake it saying Polyearp be strong and quit thy self like a man Immediately he was brought before the public Tribunal where a great shout was made all rejoicing that he was apprehended The Proconsul whose name was L. Statius Quadratus this very year as * Orat. Sacr. 4. Aristides the Orator who lived at this time at Smyrna informs us the Proconsul of Asia as not long before he had been Consul at Rome asked him whether he was Polycarp which being confessed he began to persuade him to recant Regard said he thy great age swear by the genius of Caesar repent and say with us take away the impious These were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as my Authors truly observe their usual terms and proposals to Christians who stoutly refused to swear by the Emperours genius upon which account the Heathens generally traduced them as Traitors and Enemies to the State though to wipe off that charge they openly professed a Tert. Apol. c. 32. p. 28. Orig. contr Cels l. 8. p. 421. that though they could not swear by the fortune of the Emperour their genii being accounted deities whom the Christians knew to be but daemons and cast out at every turn yet they scrupled not to swear by the Emperours safety a thing more august and sacred then all the genii in the World X. THE Holy Martyr looking about the Stadium and with a severe and angry countenance beholding the croud beckned to them with his hand sighed and looked up to Heaven saying though quite in another sense then they intended Take away the impious The Proconsul still persuaded him to swear with promise to release him withall urging him to blaspheme Christ for with that temptation they were wont to assault Christians and thereby to try the sincerity of their Renegado's a course which b Epist ad Trajan Imp. Ep. 97. l.

is under the Turkish yoke at this day is without the limits of my business to enquire To look a little higher to the Times we write of though I love not to make severe and ill-natured interpretations of the actions of Divine Providence yet I cannot but observe how heavy the Divine Displeasure not long after Polycarps death fell as upon other places so more particularly upon this City by Plague Fire and Earthquakes mentioned by a Niphil Epit. Dion in M. A●ton p. 281. others but more fully described by b In Orat. Monodia dict vid. Philastr de vit Soph●●t l. 2. in Aristid p. m. 659. Aristides their own Orator who was contemporary with S. Polycarp By which means their City before one of the Glories and Ornaments of Asia was turned into Rubbish and Ashes their stately Houses overturned their Temples ruined one especially which as it advanced Asia above other Countries so gave Smyrna the honour and precedence above other Cities of Asia their Traffick spoiled their Marts and Ports laid waste besides the great numbers of People that lost their lives Indeed the fate so sad that the Orator was forced to give over professing himself unable to describe it XVII I cannot better close the Story of Polycarps Martyrdom then with the Preface which the Church of Smyrna has in the beginning of it as what eminently represents the illustrious faith and patience of those Primitive Christians Edit Usser p. 14. confer Euseb l. 4. c. 15. p. 129. Evident it is say they that all those Martyrdoms are great and blessed which happen by the will of God for it becomes us Christians who have a more divine Religion then others to ascribe to God the soveraign disposure of all events Who would not stand and admire the generous greatness of their mind their singular patience and admirable love to God who when their flesh was with scourges so torn off their backs that the whole frame and contexture of their bodies even to their inmost Veins and Arteries might be seen yet patiently endured it Insomuch that those who were present pitied and grieved at the sight of it while they themselves were endued with so invincible a resolution that none of them gave one sigh or groan the holy Martyrs of Christ letting us see that at that time when they were thus tormented they were strangers to their own bodies or rather that our Lord stood by them to assist and comfort them Animated by the grace of Christ they despised the torments of men by one short hour delivering themselves from eternal miseries the fire which their Tormenters put to them seemed cool and little while they had it in their eye to avoid the everlasting and unextinguishable flames of another World their thoughts being fixed upon those rewards which are prepared for them that endure to the end such as neither ear hath heard nor eye hath seen nor hath it entered into the heart of man but which were shewn to them by our Lord as being now no longer Mortals but entering upon the state of Angels In like manner those who were condemned to be devoured by wild Beasts for a long time endured the most grievous tortures shells of Fishes were strewed under their naked bodies and they forced to lie upon sharp pointed stakes driven into the ground and several such like Engines of torture devised for them that if possible by the constancy of their torments the enemy might drive them to renounce the Faith of Christ Various were the methods of punishments which the Devil did invent though blessed be God there were not many whom they were able to prevail upon And at the end of the Epistle they particularly remark concerning Polycarp 〈…〉 p. 28. that he was not onely a famous Doctor but an eminent Martyr whose Martyrdom all strove to imitate as one who by his patience conquered an unrighteous Judge and by that means having attained an immortal Crown was triumphing with the Apostles and all the souls of the righteous glorifying God the Father and praising of our Lord the disposer of our bodies and the Bishop and Pastor of the Catholic Church throughout the World Nor were the Christians the onely persons that reverenced his memory but the very Gentiles as a Loc. supr cit p. 135. Eusebius tells us every where spoke honourably of him XVIII AS for his Writings besides that b Epist ad L●cia p. 194. Tom. 1. S. Hierom mentions the Volums of Papias and Polycarp and the above-mentioned c Vit. Polycarp c. 3. n. 12. p. 697 ubi supr Pionius his Epistles and Homilies d Epist ad Florin ap Euseb ubi supr Irenaeus evidently intimates that he wrote several Epistles of all which none are extant at this day but the Epistle to the Philippians an Epistle peculiarly celebrated by the Ancients very useful says e De Script in Polycarp S. Hierom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as f Suid. in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas and g Sophron. ap Hieron ib. Sophronius stile it a most admirable Epistle h Adv. Hares l. 3. c. 3. ap Eus l. 4. c. 15. p. 128. Irenaeus gives it this Elogium that it is a most perfect and absolute Epistle whence they that are careful of their salvation may learn the character of his Faith and the truth which he preached To which Eusebius adds that in this Epistle he makes use of some Quotations out of the first Epistle of S. Peter An observation that holds good with the Epistle as we have it at this day there being many places in it cited out of the first not one out of the second Epistle Photius passes this just and true judgment of it that it is full of many admonitions delivered with clearness and simplicity according to the Ecclesiastic way way and manner of interpretation It seems to hold a great affinity both in stile and substance with Clemens his Epistle to the Corinthians often suggesting the same rules and making use of the same words and phrases so that it is not to be doubted but he had that excellent Epistle particularly in his eye at the writing of it Indeed it is a pious and truly Christian Epistle furnished with short and useful Precepts and Rules of Life and penned with the modesty and simplicity of the Apostolic Times valued by the Ancients next to the Writings of the Holy Canon Ubi supr and S. Hierom tells us that even in his time it was read in Asiae conventu in the public Assemblies of the Asian Church It was first published in Greek by P. Halloix the Jesuit Ann. MDCXXXIII and not many years after by Bishop Vsher and I presume the pious Reader will think it no unuseful digression if I here subjoin so venerable a monument of the ancient Church THE EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP Bishop of Smyrna and Martyr to the Philippians Polycarp and the Presbyters that are with him to the

an immoderate ambition betrayed the man into the snare and condemnation of the Devil At which breach Satan having entered took possession of the man who acted by the influence of an evil Spirit was wont on a suddain to fall into Enthusiastic fits and Ecstatic raptures and while he was in them in a furious and a frantic manner he poured out wild and unheard of things prophecying of what was to come in a way and strain that had not been used hitherto in the Church Proselytes he wanted not that came over to his Party At first onely some few of his Country-men the Phrygians whence his Sect derived the title of Cataphryges were drawn into the snare whom he instructed in the Arts of Evil speaking teaching them to reproach the whole Christian Church for refusing to entertain and honor his Pseudo-prophetic Spirit the same Spirit on the contrary pronouncing them blessed that joyned themselves to this new Prophet and swelling them with the mighty hopes and promises of what should happen to them sometimes also gently reproving and condemning them Among the rest of his Disciples two women were especially remarkable Prisca and Maximilla whom having first corrupted he imparted his Daemon to them whereby they were presently enabled to utter the most frantic incoherent and extravagant Discourses The truth is he seemed to lay his Scene with all imaginable craft and subtlety in the great and foundation-principles of Religion he agreed with the Catholics embraced entirely the holy Scriptures and pretended that he must receive the gifts of Divine Grace extrarordinarily conferred upon him which he gave out were more immediately the Holy Ghost he made a singular shew of some uncommon rigours and severities in Religion gave Laws for more strict and solemn Fasts and more frequently to be observed then were among the Orthodox taught Divorces to be lawful and forbad all second marriages called Pepuza and Tymium two little Towns of Phrygia Jerusalem that so he might the more plausibly invite simple and unwary Proselytes to flock thither And because he knew no surer way to oblige such persons as would be serviceable to him then by Proposals of gain and advantage he used all methods of extorting money from his deluded followers especially under the notion of Gifts and Offerings for which purpose he appointed Collectors to receive the Oblations that were brought in with which he maintained under-Officers and paid Salaries to those that propagated his Doctrines up and down the World Such were the Arts such the Principles of the Sect first strated by Montanus what additions were made by his followers in after-Ages I am not now concerned to enquire IX ALLURED with the smooth and specious pretences of this Sect Tertullian began to look that way though the particular occasion of his starting aside * Ubi supra vid. Niceph. l. 4. c. 12. p. 298. S. Hierom tells us was the envy and reproaches which he met with from the Clergy of the Church of Rome They that conceive him to have sued for the See of Carthage vacant by the death of Agrippinus and that he was opposed and repulsed in it by the Clergy of Rome and so highly resented the affront as thereupon to quit the Communion of the Catholic Church talk at random and little consider the mortified temper of the man and his known contempt of the World Probable it is that being generally noted for the excessive and over-rigorous strictness of his manners he had been charged by some of the Roman Clergy for compliance with Montanus and it may be admonished to recant or disown those Principles Which his stubborn and resolute temper not admitting he was together with Proclus and the rest of the Cataphrygian Party cut off by the Bishop of Rome from all Communion with that Church For there had been lately a disputation held at Rome between Caius an ancient Orthodox Divine and Proclus one of the Heads of the Montanist Party as a Lib. 6. c. 20. p. 222. l. 2. c. 25. p. 67. Hieron de Script in Caio Eusebius who read the account of it published by Caius informs us wherein Proclus being worsted was together with all the followers of that Sect excommunicated and Tertullian himself among the rest as he sufficiently b D● jejun c. 1. p. 544. intimates This a man of a morose and unyielding disposition and who could brook no moderation that seemed to intrench upon the Discipline and Practice of Religion could not bear and therefore making light of the judgment and censures of that Church flew off and joined himself to Montanus his Party whose pretended austerities seemed of all others most agreeable to his humour and genius and most exactly to conspire with the course and method of his life But as it cannot be doubted that he looked no further then to the appearances and pretensions of that Sect not seeing the corrupt Springs by which the Engine was managed within so it is most reasonable and charitable to conceive that he never understood their principles in the utmost latitude and extent of them If he seems sometimes to acknowledge Montanus to be the Paraclete that was to come into the World probably he meant not something distinct from the Holy Spirit bestowed upon the Apostles but a mighty power and extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost shed upon Montanus whom God had sent into the World more fully and perfectly to explain the Doctrines of the Gospel and to urge the rules and institutions of the Christian life which our Lord had delivered when he was upon earth but did not with the greatest accuracy the things were capable of the minds of men not being then duly qualified to receive them That for this end he thought Montanus invested with miraculous powers and a spirit of Prophesie a thing not unusual even in those times and might believe his two Prophetesses to be acted with the same spirit All which might consist with an honest mind imposed upon by crafty and plausible pretences And plain it is that for some considerable time Montanus maintained the reputation of great piety zeal sanctity and extraordinary gifts before he was discovered to the World And Tertullian in all likelihood had his accounts concerning him not from himself but from Proclus or some others of the Party who might easily delude him especially in matters of fact with false informations However nothing can be more evident then that he looked a De Jejun loc citat upon these new Prophets as innovating nothing in the principles of Christianity that Montanus preached no other God nor asserted any thing to the prejudice of our blessed Saviour nor subverted any rule of Faith or Hope but onely introduced greater severities then other men that he was not the Author but the restorer of Discipline and onely reduced things to that ancient strictness from which he supposed they had degenerated especially in the cases of coelibacy single marriages and such like as he

l. 4. c. 18. p. 140. up and down the World to spread abroad that Jesus the Galilaean was a Deceiver and Seducer and his whole Religion nothing but a Cheat and an Imposture that in their public f Pag. 323. Synagogues they solemnly anathematized all that turned Christians hated them as elsewhere g Apolog. II. pag. 72. he tells us with a mortal enmity oppressed and murdered them when ever they got them in their power Barchochab their late General making them the onely objects of his greatest severity and revenge unless they would renounce and blaspheme Christ The issue of the conference was that the Jew acknowledged himself highly pleased with his discourse professing he found more in it then he thought could have been expected from it wishing he might enjoy it oftner as what would greatly conduce to the true understanding of the Scripture and begging his friendship in what part of the World soever he was XII IN the conclusion of this discourse with Tryphon he tells us he was ready to set sail and depart from Ephesus but whether in order to his return to Rome or some other place is not known That he returned thither at last is unquestionable the thing being evident though the time uncertain whether it was while Antoninus was yet alive or in the beginning of his successors reign I will not venture to determine At his coming he had among others frequent contests with Crescens the Philosopher a man of some note at that time in Rome He was a a Vid. Hieron de Script in Justin Cynic and according to the genius of that Sect proud and conceited surly and ill-natured a Philosopher in appearance but a notorious Slave to all Vice and Wickedness b Orat. contr Graec. p. 160. Tatian Justin's Scholar who saw the man at Rome admired and despised him for his childish and trifling his wanton and effoeminate manners gives him this character that he was the traducer of all their gods the Epitome of Superstition the accuser of generous and heroic actions the subtle contriver of Murders the prompter of Adultery a pursuer of Wealth even to rage and madness a Tutor of the vilest sort of Lust and the great Engine and Instigator of mens being condemned to execution he tells us c Ibid. p. 157. of him that when at Rome he was above all others miserably enslaved to Sodomy and Covetousness and though he pretended to despise death yet did he himself abhor it and to which as the greatest evil he sought to betray Justin and Tatian for their free reproving the vicious and degenerate lives of those Philosophical Impostors This was his adversary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he calls him d Apol. I. verius II. p. 46. a lover of Popular Applause not of true Wisdom and Philosophy and who by all the base Arts of insinuation endeavoured to traduce the Christians and to represent their Religion under the most infamous Character But in all his disputes the Martyr found him wretchedly ignorant of the affairs of Christians and strongly biassed by malice and envy which he offered to make good if it might be admitted in a public disputation with him before the Emperour and the Senate assuring them that either he had never considered the Christian Doctrines and then he was worse then the meanest Ideots who are not wont to bear witness and pronounce sentence in matters whereof they have no knowledge or if he had taken notice of them it was plain that either he did not understand them or if he did out of a base compliance with his Auditors dissembled his knowledge and approbation for fear of being accounted a Christian and lest freely speaking his mind he should fall under the sentence and the fate of Socrates so far was he from the excellent principle of that wise man that no man was to be regarded before the truth Which free and impartial censure did but more exasperate the man the sooner to hasten and promote his ruine XIII IN the mean time Justin presented his second Apology to M. Antoninus his Colleague L. Verus being then probably absent from the City and the Senate for that it was not addressed to the Senate alone is evident from several passages in the Apology it self There are that will have this as well as the former to have been presented to Antoninus Pius but certainly without any just ground of evidence besides that Eusebius and the Ancients expresly ascribe it to Marcus Aurelius his son and successor And were the inscription and beginning of it which are now wanting extant they would quickly determine and resolve the doubt The occasion of it was this e Apolog. I. p. 43. A Woman at Rome had together with her husband lived in all manner of wantonness and debauchery but being converted to Christianity she sought by all Arguments and persuasions to reclaim him from his loose and vicious course But the man was obstinate and deaf to all reason and importunity however by the advice of her friends she still continued with him hoping in time she might reduce him till finding him to grow intolerable she procured a Bill of divorce from him The man was so far from being cured that he was more enraged by his Wifes departure and accused her to the Emperour for being a Christian she also put in her Petition to obtain leave to answer for her self Whereupon he deserted the prosecution of his Wife and fell upon one Ptolomeus by whom she had been converted to the Christian Faith whom he procured to be cast into prison and there a long time tortured meerly upon his confessing himself a Christian At last being brought before Vrbicius Prefect to the City he was condemned to death Whereat Lucius a Christian that stood by could not forbear to tell the Judge it was very hard that an innocent and vertuous man charged with no crime should be adjudged to die meerly for bearing the name of a Christian a thing no way creditable to the Government of such Emperours as they had and of the August Senate of Rome Which he had no sooner said but he was together with a third person sentenced to the same fate The severity of these proceedings awakened Justin's solicitude and care for the rest of his brethren who immediately drew up an Apology for them wherein he lays down a true and naked relation of the case complains of the injustice and cruelty of such procedures to punish men meerly for the name of Christians without ever accusing them of any material crimes answers the objections usually urged against them and desires no more favour then that what determination soever they should make of it his Apology might be put before it that so the whole World might judge of them when they had been once truly acquainted with their case XIV THE Martyrs activity and zeal in the cause of Christianity did but set the keener edge upon Crescens his malice and rage against