ST. POLYCARP was born towards the latter end of Nero's reign, or it may be a little sooner; his great age at the time of his death, with some other circumstances, rendering it highly probable, if not certain. Uncertain it is where he was born; and I see no sufficient reason to the contrary why we may not fix his nativity at Smyrna, an eminent city of Ionia, in the lesser Asia. A place it was of great honour and renown, and has not only very magnificent titles heaped upon it by the writers of those times, but in several ancient inscriptions set up by the public order of the senate, not long after the time of Adrian, it is styled the chief city of Asia, both for beauty and greatness, the most splendid, the metropolis of Asia, and the ornament of Ionia. But it had a far greater and a more honourable privilege to glory in, if it was (as we suppose) the place of St. Polycarp's nativity, at all events of

*Extracted from Cave

his education, the seat of his episcopal care and charge, and the scene of his martyrdom. In his younger years he is said to have been instructed in the Christian faith by Bucolus, whom the Menæon informs us St. John had consecrated bishop of Smyrna however, authors of more unquestionable credit and ancient date tell us, that he was St. John's disciple, and not his only, but as Irenæus, who was his scholar, (followed herein by St. Jerome,) assures us, he was taught by the Apostles, and familiarly conversed with many who had seen our Lord in the flesh.

Bucolus, the vigilant and industrious bishop of Smyrna, being dead, (by whom St. Polycarp was, as we are told, made deacon and catechist of that church, an office which he discharged with great diligence and success,) Polycarp was ordained in his room, according to Bucolus's own prediction, who, as the Greeks report, had in his lifetime foretold that he should be his successor. He was constituted by St. John, say the ancients generally; though Irenæus, followed herein by the chronicle of Alexandria, affirms it to have been done by the Apostles: whether any of the Apostles besides St. John were then alive, or whether he means apostolic persons, (commonly styled apostles in the writings of the church,) who joined with St. John in the consecration. Eusebius says, that

Polycarp was familiarly conversant with the Apostles, and received the government of the church of Smyrna from those who had been eye-witnesses and ministers of our Lord. It makes not a little for the honour of St. Polycarp, and argues his mighty diligence and solicitude for the good of souls, that, (as we shall note more anon,) Ignatius passing to his martyrdom, wrote to him, and particularly recommended to him the inspection and oversight of his church at Antioch; knowing him (says Eusebius) to be truly an apostolical man, and being assured that he would use his utmost care and fidelity in that matter. That St. Polycarp was "that angel of the church at Smyrna," to whom the apocalyptical epistle of St. John was sent, is not only highly probable, but has been by a learned man put past all question. I must confess that the character and circumstances ascribed by St. John to the angel of that church seem very exactly to agree with Polycarp, and with no other bishop of that church (about those times especially) that we read of in the history of the church. And whoever compares the account of St. Polycarp's martyrdom with the notices and intimations which the Apocalypse there gives of that person's sufferings and death, will find the prophecy and the event suit together. That which may seem to make most against it, is the long time of his presidency over

that see; seeing by this account he must have sat at least seventy-four years bishop of that church, from the latter end of Domitian's reign (when the Apocalypse was written) to the persecution under M. Aurelius, when he suffered. To which no other solution needs to be given, than that his great, nay, extreme age at the time of his death renders it not at all improbable; especially when we find, several ages after, that Remigius, bishop of Rhemes, sat seventy-four years bishop of that place.

It was not many years after St. John's death, when the persecution under Trajan began to be reinforced, wherein the eastern parts had a very large share, A.D. 107. Ignatius was condemned by the emperor, at Antioch, and sentenced to be transported to Rome, in order to his execution. In his voyage thither he put in at Smyrna, to salute and converse with Polycarp; these holy men mutually comforting and encouraging each other, and conferring together about the affairs of the church. From Smyrna, Ignatius and his company sailed to Troas, whence he sent back an epistle to the church of Smyrna, wherein he endeavours to fortify them against the errors of the times, which had crept in amongst them; especially against those who undermined our Lord's humanity, and denied his coming in the flesh, affirming him to have suffered only in an imaginary and phantastic body; an opinion (which as it deserved) he

severely censures, and strongly refutes. He further presses them to a due observance and regard of their bishop, and those spiritual guides and ministers which, under him, were set over them; and that they would despatch a messenger on purpose to the church of Antioch, to congratulate that peace and tranquillity which then began to be restored to them. Besides this, he wrote particularly to St. Polycarp, whom he knew to be a man of an apostolic temper, a person of singular faithfulness and integrity; recommending to him (as has been said) the care and superintendency of his disconsolate church of Antioch. In the epistle itself, as extant at this day, there are many short and useful rules and precepts of life, especially such as concern the pastoral and episcopal office. And here again he renews his request concerning Antioch, that a messenger might be sent from Smyrna to that church, and that St. Polycarp would write to other churches to do the like; a thing which he would have done himself, had not his hasty departure from Troas prevented him. And more than this, we find not concerning Polycarp for many years after, till some unhappy differences in the church brought him upon the public stage.

It happened that the controversy, about the time of the observance of Easter, began to grow very high between the eastern and western churches; each standing very stiffly