Preface to the Reader.

...a new collation of a Vatican manuscript codex, and especially through a more attentive reading and meditation on an old codex long ago lent to us by the illustrious and erudite Monsieur Jean de Saint-André, Canon of the Church of Paris, we have restored more than six hundred passages to a better state. We have marked these additions with two brackets, or sometimes a single one and a certain number, with various other readings noted in the margin. To these, we have added five not-to-be-despised fragments of the most blessed and truly Apostolic man Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna and Martyr, cited and given in Latin by Victor of Capua eleven hundred years ago, which we found and transcribed in a very ancient codex and placed in a suitable location. We have prefixed to the beginning of the work the praises Encomia of our Irenaeus collected from the holy Fathers, and more recently the slanders, curses, and false accusations fabricated by heretics against this most holy author of ours, following the life of the Author faithfully collected by us both from his own writings and from other ecclesiastical histories. Likewise, at the end of the entire work, we have added and annotated very rich indices for the greater convenience of the readers. Finally, we judged that the "Conflict of Arnobius the Catholic with Serapion the Egyptian," found by us in the monastery of St. James at Liège and amended and annotated by us, though never before published in print, should be shared for the common benefit of students. I confess that many expressions and phrases that are less than pure Latin, as well as gaping sentences and periods, and not a few passages in both authors that are disjointed, imperfect, and obscure, will still be found as we left them. This is partly because we lacked the help of more and better-corrected codices, and partly because it was a matter of religious scruple to lay a hand rashly upon such ancient and holy Fathers. Moreover, we have woven these things together while away from our birthplace, and what is far more troublesome, while driven from our Muse and our own library, aided only by books received on loan from various places during our travels, and we send them forth for the public benefit of students. When honest readers receive these and enjoy these labors of ours, such as they are, I ask and beseech that they look kindly upon our studies, and especially that they commend our salvation in their prayers to our common Savior and judge, the Lord Jesus Christ.

A decorative floral ornament is centered at the bottom of the left column.

THE LIFE OF ST. IRENAEUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR, COLLECTED FROM HIS OWN WRITINGS AND THOSE OF OTHER FATHERS, BY FR. FRANCISCUS FEU-ARDENTIUS.

A decorative initial letter I features a small portrait of a saint or bishop. To write of the fatherland, parents, birthday, and place of habitation in the early life of Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon and Martyr, and to present it now as certain and explored, would indeed be difficult and laborious, especially since none of the ancients, as far as I know, have recorded these things in writing. His way of life and character are indicated by his final day. Oecumenius indeed calls him a Gaul, but I would more readily admit that he exercised the office of Bishop in Gaul rather than that it was his native soil. For as far as I can follow by conjecture, he was an Asian, not a Gaul; a Greek, not a Latin; and perhaps a man of Smyrna, born of pious and Christian parents. For he who set out from Gaul to Smyrna, a town of Asia Minor, having traveled through the Cyclades and crossed the entire Aegean Sea as a small child so that he might hear Polycarp teaching there, seems to confirm our opinion. Our view is further supported by his Greek name, given to him at the sacred font according to Catholic custom, which, expressed in Latin, means "Peaceful." Furthermore, that he wrote in Greek can be gathered not only from the writings of Justin Martyr, Demetrius, Eusebius, Basil, Epiphanius, Jerome, Theodoret, Meletius, Anastasius, and Damascene, but his own works also testify to it most clearly, so that nothing is more certain.

The fatherland of St. Irenaeus.

Of St. Blessed Peter.

That he was excellently imbued and instructed from childhood in the best disciplines and arts of philosophy is shown by his subtle investigations into abstruse heresies, through which he brings to light and represents very obscure and confused matters with the greatest clarity and choice of words. His acute and sharp disputations, by which he refutes them, prove the same. Furthermore, the order of the things to be treated, in which he prefixes prefaces to individual books; those summaries anacephalæoses of previous points and the following hypotheses; and finally, the fact that in the four latter books he demonstrates that heresies sometimes contain things that fight against each other, and sometimes oppose the traditions of the universal Churches with open reasons—all these show a man skilled in the art of speaking and debating, and clearly a philosopher. He attacks the heresies he reviewed in the first book as if with siege engines, drawing arguments partly from the prophecies of the Prophets and partly from the testimonies of the Apostles and Evangelists. Chapter 19 of the second book removes all doubt of this matter, in which, once fallacious arguments are expelled and rejected with exact judgment, he proves that all those whom he attacks have borrowed their ideas from the decrees and fables of the ancient Philosophers and Poets, with only the names changed. This fact should be sufficient testimony to all of how accurately and diligently he poured over the books of Thales, Anaximander, Anaxagoras, Democritus, Empedocles, Plato, Aristotle, and other authors of ancient philosophy. The same is to be understood regarding the Tragic, Comic, and Lyric poets, since he often and aptly uses their exclamations, proverbs, and examples, and fits together verses plucked from here and there into elegant patchworks centones as the occasion requires. Deservedly, therefore, for these reasons, Tertullian calls him a most curious explorer of all doctrines.

Instruction.

Book against Valentinus, chapter 19.

But because God had decreed to form a noble instrument for His Church from this boy, the Holy Spirit bent his mind and inflamed his breast with holy love, so that he burned with a desire for the holy scriptures and was wonderfully delighted by the study of them. Therefore, he sought out the school of Polycarp, a man of venerable antiquity, who was not only a listener of John the Evangelist but had also been familiar with other Apostles and disciples who had seen Christ in the flesh. From their living voice, as if from a most pure fountain, he had drawn the doctrine and piety of our faith. Irenaeus sought this school as if it were the most beautiful of all virtues and gave himself over to Polycarp to be instructed and thoroughly formed. I am persuaded that the old man, greatly delighted by the young man's alacrity and piety, gave thanks to God with his whole heart that He was preparing future instruments for His Church and making them fit for the most useful and ample uses thereafter. Then, whether Polycarp was treating the scriptures with wonderful dexterity of mind, or privately explaining and dissolving more difficult questions, Irenaeus showed himself a kind and attentive listener. With an incredible desire for learning, he listened to and admired his teacher, who was grave and observant in years and piety.

Sacred studies under Blessed Polycarp.