perfect propriety even if Ptolemæus and Heracleon had been separated by a century. The only point which can be deduced from this mere coupling of names is that, in using the present tense, Irenæus is speaking of his own contemporaries. We may make the same remark regarding Hippolytus, for, if his mention of Ptolemæus and Heracleon has any weight at all, it is to prove that they were flourishing in his time: "Those who are of Italy, of whom is Heracleon and Ptolemæus, say..."(1) &c. We shall have to go further into this point presently. As to (2) pseudo-Tertullian and Philastrius we need only say that even if the fact of the names of the two Gnostics being coupled together could prove anything in regard to the date, the repetition by these writers could have no importance for us, their works being altogether based on those of Irenæus and Hippolytus,(2) and scarcely, if at all, conveying independent information.(3) We have merely indicated the weakness of these arguments in passing, but shall again take them up further on. The next and final consideration advanced by Tischendorf is the only one which merits serious attention. "Irenæus wrote the first and second book of his great work most probably before 180, and in both he occupies himself much with Ptolemæus." Before proceeding to examine the accuracy of this statement regarding the time at which Irenæus wrote, we may ask what conclusion would be involved if Irenæus really did compose the two books in a.d. 180 in which he mentions
3 Indeed the direct and avowed dependence of Hippolytus
himself upon the work of Irenæus deprives the
Philosophumena, in many parts, of all separate authority.
our Gnostics in the present tense? Nothing more than the simple fact that Ptolemæus and Heracleon were promulgating their doctrines at that time. There is not a single word to show that they did not continue to flourish long after; and as to the "Epistle to Flora" Irenæus apparently knows nothing of it, nor has any attempt been made to assign it to an early part of the Gnostic's career. Tischendorf, in fact, does not produce a single passage nor the slightest argument to show that Irenæus treats our two Gnostics as men of the past, or otherwise than as heretics then actively disseminating their heterodox opinions, and, even taken literally, the argument of Tischendorf would simply go to prove that about a.d. 180 Irenseus wrote part of a work in which he attacks Ptolemæus and mentions Heracleon.
When did Irenæus, however, really write his work against Heresies? Although our sources of credible information regarding him are exceedingly limited, we are not without materials for forming a judgment on the point Irenæus was probably born about a.d. 140-145, and is generally supposed to have died at the beginning of the third century (a.d. 202).(1) We know that he was deputed by the Church of Lyons to bear to Eleutherus, then Bishop of Rome, the Epistle of that Christian community describing their sufferings during the persecution commenced against them in the seventeenth year of the reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (7th March, 177—178).(2) It is very improbable that this journey was undertaken, in any case, before the spring of a.d. 178 at the earliest, and, indeed, in accordance with the given data, the
persecution itself may not have commenced earlier than the beginning of that year, so that his journey need not have been undertaken before the close of 178 or the spring of 179, to which epoch other circumstances might lead us.(1) There is reason to believe that he remained some time in Rome. Baronius states that Irenæus was not appointed Bishop of Lyons till a.d. 180, for he says that the see remained vacant for that period after the death of Pothinus in consequence of the persecution. Now certain expressions in his work show that Irenæus did not write it until he became Bishop.(2) It is not known how long Irenæus remained in Rome, but there is every probability that he must have made a somewhat protracted stay, for the purpose of making himself acquainted with the various tenets of Gnostic and other heretics then being actively taught, and the preface to the first Book refers to the pains he took. He wrote his work in Gaul, however, after his return from this visit to Rome. This is apparent from what he himself states in the Preface to the first Book: "I have thought it necessary," he says, "after having read the Memoirs [———] of the disciples of Valentinus as they call themselves, and having had personal intercourse with some of them and acquired full knowledge of their opinions, to unfold to thee,"(3) &c. A little further on, he claims from the friend to whom he addresses his work indulgence for any defects of style on the score of his being resident amongst the Keltæ.(4) Irenæus no doubt during his stay in Rome came in
contact with the school of Ptolemæus and Heracleon, if not with the Gnostic leaders themselves, and shocked as he describes himself as being at the doctrines which they insidiously taught, he undertook, on his return to Lyons, to explain them that others might be exhorted to avoid such an "abyss of madness and blasphemy against Christ."(1) Irenæus gives us other materials for assigning a date to his work. In the third Book he enumerates the bishops who had filled the Episcopal Chair of Rome, and the last whom he names is Eleutherus (a.d. 177—190), who, he says, "now in the twelfth place from the apostles, holds the inheritance of the episcopate."(2) There is, however, another clue which, taken along with this, leads us to a close approximation to the actual date. In the same Book, Irenæus mentions Theodotion's version of the Old Testament: "But not as some of those say," he writes, "who now [———] presume to alter the interpretation of the Scripture: 'Behold the young woman shall conceive, and bring forth a son,' as Theodotion, the Ephesian, translated it, and Aquila of Pontus, both Jewish proselytes."(3) Now we are informed by Epiphanius that Theodotion published his translation during the reign of the Emperor Commodus(4) (a.d. 180—192). The Chronicon Paschale adds that it was during the Consulship of Marcellus, or as Massuet(5) proposes to read Marullus, who, jointly with Ælianus, assumed office a.d. 184. These dates decidedly agree with the passage of Irenæus and with the other data, all of which lead