CHAPTER IX.

The bishops under Commodus.

ANTONINUS having held the empire nineteen years, Commodus received the government. In his first year Julian undertook the superintendance of the churches of Alexandria, after Agrippinus had filled the office twelve years.

CHAPTER X.

Of Pantanus the philosopher.

ABOUT the same time, the school of the faithful was governed by a man most distinguished for his learning, whose name was Pantænus. As there had been a school of sacred learning established there from ancient times, which has continued down to our own times, and which we have understood was held by men able in eloquence, and the study of divine things. For the tradition is, that this philosopher was then in great eminence, as he had been first disciplined in the philosophical principles of those called stoics. But he is said to have displayed such ardour, and so zealous a disposition, respecting the divine word, that he was constituted a herald of the gospel of Christ to the nations of the east, and advanced even as far as India. There were even there yet many evangelists of the word, who were ardently striving to employ their inspired zeal after the apostolic example, to increase and build up the divine word. Of these Pantænus is said to have been one, and to have come as far as the Indies. And the report is, that he there found his own arrival anticipated by some who there were acquainted with the gospel of Matthew, to whom Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached, and had left them the gospel of Matthew in the Hebrew, which was also preserved until this time. Pantænus, after many praiseworthy deeds, was finally at the head of the Alexandrian school, commenting on the treasures of divine truth, both orally and in his writings.

CHAPTER XI

Clement of Alexandria.

Ar this time, also, flourished Clement, at Alexandria, of the same name with him who anciently presided over the church of Rome, and who was a disciple of the apostles. This Clement was devoted to the study of the same Scriptures with Pantænus, and in his Institutions expressly mentions the latter by name as his teacher. He also appears to me to designate this same one in the first book of his Stromata, when he points out the most distinguished of the apostolic succession, which he had received from tradition, in the following words: "These books," says he, "were not fabricated as a work of ostentation, but they are treasured up by me as a kind of commentaries for my old age, and an antidote to forgetfulness, as a natural image and sketch of those efficacious and inspired doctrines which I was honoured to have from those blessed and truly excellent men. Of these, the one was Ionicus in Greece, but the other in Magna Græcia; the one of them being a Syrian, the other a native of Egypt. Others, however, there were, living in the east; and of these, one was from Assyria, another of Palestine, a Hebrew by descent. The last that I met with was the first in excellence. Him I found concealed in Egypt; and, meeting him there, I ceased to extend my search beyond him, as one who had no superior in abilities. These, indeed, preserved the true tradition of the salutary doctrine, which, as given by Peter and James, John and Paul, had descended from father to son. Though there are few like their fathers, they have, by the favour of God, also come down to us to plant that ancient and apostolic seed likewise in our minds."

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CHAPTER XII.

The bishops of Jerusalem.

AT this time also, Narcissus, who is celebrated among many even at this day, was noted as bishop of Jerusalem, being the fifteenth in succession since the invasion of the Jews under Hadrian. Since this event, we have shown that the church there consisted of Gentiles after those of the circumcision, and that Marcus was the first bishop of the Gentiles that presided there. After him, Cassianus held the episcopal office; after him followed Publius, then Maximus; these were followed by Julian, then Caius; after him Symmachus, and another Caius; and then another Julian, who was followed by Capito, and Valens and Dolichianus. Last of all Narcissus, the thirtieth in regular succession from the apostles.

CHAPTER XIII.

Of Rhodo, and the dissension occasioned by Marcion, which he records.

ABOUT this time, also, Rhodo, a native of Asia, being instructed, as himself says, by Tatian, with whom we have already become acquainted, and having written various other books, among the rest, also combatted the heresy of Marcion. This, he says, was split into various opinions in his time; and describing those that occasioned the decision, he also accurately refutes the perverse doctrines devised by each of them. Hear him in his own words: "Hence," says he, "they are also divided among themselves, as they maintain a doctrine that cannot stand. For from this herd arose Apelles, who, assuming a gravity of deportment, and presuming upon his age, professed to believe but one principle, and that the prophetic declarations proceeded from an adverse

spirit. He was deluded, however, by the responsive oracular answers of a certain virgin under demoniacal influence, and whose name was Philumena. But others, as the Mariner Marcion himself, introduced two principles, to which sect belong Potitus and Basilicus. These following that wolf of Pontus (Marcion), and, like the former, unable to find the division of things, sunk into licentiousness, and roundly asserted, without any proof, that there were two principles. Others, again, declining from them to a still greater error, established not only two but three natures." Of these, the chief and leader was Syneros, as those that established his school say. But the same author writes, that he also had some conference with Apelles. "For," says he, "the old man Apelles, when he came into conversation with us, was refuted in many of his false assertions. Hence, he also said, that one ought not to examine doctrine, but that each one should continue as he believed. For he asserted, that those who trusted in him that was crucified would be saved, if they were only found engaged in good works. But he asserted, that the most obscured of all things was, as we before said, the question respecting the Deity." For he said there was one principle, as our doctrine asserts: then, after advancing the whole of his opinion, he subjoins the following: "When I said to him, how do you prove this? or, how can you say there is one principle? I wish you explain,' he said, 'that the prophecies refuted themselves, because they uttered nothing that was true. For they are inconsistent and false, and contradict themselves. But said, that he did not, however, know there was only one principle, he was only moved to adopt this opinion.' Then conjuring him to speak the truth, he swore that he did speak the truth, and said he did not understand how there could be a God without being produced, but that he believed it. On learning this, I laughed, and reproved him; because whilst he asserted that he was a teacher, he knew not how to establish that which he taught."

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In the same work which he addressed to Callistion, he confesses that he himself was taught by Tatian at Rome, and says, also, that a book of questions had been written by Tatian, in which Tatian, having promised that he would explain what was hidden

and obscure in the sacred writings; Rhodon himself promises that he would give solutions to these questions in a work of his own. There is also a commentary of his extant, on the Hexahemeron. But this same Apelles uttered innumerable impieties against the law of Moses, and in many works he reviled the sacred Scriptures, using no small exertions, as it seems, to refute and overturn them. Thus far, however, respecting these.

CHAPTER XIV.

The false prophets of the Phrygians.

BUT, as the enemy of the church of God is the great adversary of all goodness, the promoter of evil, and omits no method of plotting against men, he was active again in causing new heresies to spring up against the church. Some of these crept like venomous reptiles over Asia and Phrygia, pretending that Montanus was the Paraclete,* but that the two women who followed him, Priscilla and Maximilla, were prophetesses of Montanus.

CHAPTER XV.

Of the schism of Blastus, at Rome.

OTHERS there were that flourished at Rome, at the head of whom was Florinus, who falling from his office as a presbyter of the church, Blastus was very nearly involved in the same fall

* Paraclete, the epithet of the holy Spirit, occurring in St. John's gospel. It is the Greek derivative, signifying Comforter or Advocate. Other false teachers besides Montanus, have either assumed or had this epithet applied to them; among these, the impostor Mahomet is not the least noted. In the gospel of Barnabas, this name, by a mere change of the vowels, is xuros, the most glorious, instead οι παράκλητος. As this expresses the meaning of Mahomet's name, this gospel of Barnabas is much valued, at least among the African Mahometans. See the Coran, Sur. LXI.