11.24.2013 CHURCH FATHERS 3 - polycarp, bishop of smyrna; lived about 69-155

'eighty six years, said polycarp on his trial before the proconsul,
have i served the Lord and He hath done me no wrong.
how then can i speak evil of my king who saved me?
in this 86 years lies the leading thought about polycarp.
his importance in history is not in his relation to any particular events
or heresy, or movement of the time;
nor has his one extant epistle any theological..interest;
but he is a human link between the apostles and the middle of the second century.

tow statements occur in the works of irenaeus,
who was at his zenith in 180 and had been polycarp's pupil,
to the effect that he often spoke of the apostles, especially john
and of his early intercourse with them and of their teaching.
it is not certain who the other apostles were;
but andrew probably died at ephesus, and philip not far away at hierapolis.
at any rate it is sufficient for us, that he should have been taught by st. john
and that in 155 there should have still survived a prominent bishop, who had been so instructed;
and further that he should have exercised person influence on..irenaeus,
who would carry on the testimony for 40 years more.

the character of P made him eminently suitable to be such a link.
he combined with a charity for non essentials a sturdy conservatism;
a simple faith; great piety..a disdain of persecution;
and an absolute intolerance of those who attacked the first principles of the faith.

the martyrdom of P is fully described in the circular letter of the church of smyrna,
which has thoroughly established itself as a genuine document,
and is of great interest as being the first authentic and contemporary 'Act' of a martyr.
it contains portents and miracles;
but they are such as might be easily founded on facts,
though probably colored by the heated imagination of the spectators.
the persecution at smyrna in 155, like that of antioch to which Ignatius had been sacrificed,
was a local disturbance.
renan points out that there was a great revival of pagan feeling in the middle of the second century;
a sort of counter reformation,
after a period of scepticism;
which cause keen animosity against those who refused to join in it.
this pagan reaction would no doubt be
quite in accordance with the spirit of the antonine emperors. (3 from 138-192)
the popular indignation against polycarp broke out on the occasion of the great anniversary of asia and was inflamed by the jews.
the proconsul at smyrna was reluctant to convict him,
but was forced by his insistence to carry out the law.
unlike ignatius, he by no means at first courted persecution,
but retired to a farm of his own in the country.
but when he learned that the guard was on its way to arrest him,
he made no further attempt to escape,
but surrendered with the words, 'thanks be to God.

the course of roman state persecutions of the christian church during this century deserves study.
trajan (98), hadrian (117) antonius pius (138),
under whom P suffered
and afterwards marcus aurelius (168) were wise and just emperors and by no means cruel;
they did not, like nero, wreak their spite on unpopular victims.
yet ignatius died under trajan, P under antoninus pius,
while marcus aurelius shed christina blood freely.
even under hadrian too the law was enforced, although this dilettante traveller
took a friendly interest in all varieties of religion,
liked to be initiated into religious bodies,
and seems to have had a lurking sympathy with christianity;
reserving a niche among his heathen gods and jewish patriarchs for the Sacred Figure;
and building, as they say, empty temples ready for the christians to take over if they wished.
in sub apostolic times it is probable that christianity
was regarded only as a degraded form of judaism,
a point of view which the jews themselves encouraged.
it would therefore have some claim to toleration,along with judaism, as an ethnic religion.
during the time when jews were giving trouble, previous to the fall of jerusalem,
they diverted attention from themselves to the christians.
by domitian's time, the difference between the two religions was beginning to be understood;
and though countless others were tolerated at rome,
christianity became illicita;
yet probably no definite enactments were made against it till the time of trajan.

christianity came under the ban of the government,
partly because it tolerated no other faith alongside of itself;
partly because it contained essential elements, which seemed dangerous to society,
to roman law and polity and even to the roman supremacy.
more surely than any one at that time realized, the new civilization of christianity
was waging a war of life and death against the old civilization of paganism as represented by rome;
and paganism, however little individual romans may have believed in their deities,
was the established religion of the state.
the antonine emperors would probably have laughed to scorn the idea of this danger;
but an uneasy feeling arose,
when christians refused to throw a pinch of incense, like everyone else,
on the altars of the state gods;
when they showed also a disinclination for military service;
and epecially when they repudiated the divinity of the caesars.

this strange cult of the reigning house sprang out of something much deeper than bombast.
it is difficult for us to grasp exactly what the romans understood by divinity,
but we know that their deities were personifications of ideas:
was not then the emperor the incarnation of the idea of rome, the eternal city,
weaving its spell over mankind, as it does even to the present day?
the christians were indeed unable to say
'we have no king but caesar'.
they had another king, who was to return and subdue all the empires of the world. indeed, for this reason special search was sometimes made for relatives of our Lord.
it must also be remembered that the emperors probably knew
very little about the details of the various persecutions,
at any rate at this time, as they were generally of a local character.
the social and popular prejudice against christians will be more suitably dealt with
in connection with st. justin martyr.