Chapter alt_concl

This account Gaius copied from the writings of Irenaeus, and he also had lived with Irenaeus, who was a disciple of the holy Polycarp.

For this Irenaeus, at the time of the martydom of the bishop Polycarp was in Rome, and taught many, and many most excellent and correct writings are extant, in which he mentions Polycarp, saying that he had been his pupil, and he ably refuted every heresy, and he also handed on the ecclesiastical and catholic rule, as he had received it from the saint.

And he also says this that once Marcion, from whom come the so-called Marcionites, met the holy Polycarp and said: Recognise us, Polycarp, and he said to Marcion, I do recognise you, I recognise the first-born of Satan.

And this is also recorded in the writings of Irenaeus, that at the day and hour when Polycarp suffered in Smyrna Irenaeus, who was in the city of Rome, heard a voice like a trumpet saying: Polycarp has suffered martrydom.

From these papers of Irenaeus, then, as was stated above, Gaius made a copy, and Isocrates used in Corinth the copy of Gaius. And again I, Pionius, wrote from the copies of Isocrates, according to the revelation of the holy Polycarp, after searching for them, and gathering them together when they were almost worn out from age, that the Lord Jesus Christ may also gather me into his Heavenly Kingdom together with his Elect. To him be glory, with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen.