Οἰκτιρμων Πολύκαρπος ὁ καὶ θρόνον ἀρχιερῆος “Έσχε καὶ ἀτρεκέως μαρτυρίης στεφάνους. Anth. Pal. i. 87. Polycarpus, Saint, Bp. of Smyrna Early Church' Classics. ST. POLYCARP BISHOP OF SMYRNA BY THE REV. BLOMFIELD JACKSON, M.A. VICAR OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW, MOORFIELDS, EXAMINING PREFACE THIS translation of the one extant Letter of St. Polycarp, and of the Letter of the Smyrnæans narrating his martyrdom, is designed to put within the reach of English readers in a handy form two of the most valuable of the classics of the Church. In point of time the Epistle of Polycarp is one of the writings which come very near tó those of canonical authority. It may with reasonable probability be placed within some quarter of a century after the publication of St. John's Gospel, a somewhat shorter interval separating it from the Epistle of St. Clement. It appears to have been read in public at least as late as the time of Jerome, who in his de Viris Hlust. xvii. calls it "valde utilem epistolam quæ usque hodie in Asiæ conventu legitur." It perhaps hardly deserves the depreciatory description of being "but a commonplace echo of the apostolic epistles" (D.C.B. iv. 424), but it is distinctly inferior in literary power to the Letters of Clement and Ignatius. One of the chief reasons why it is valuable is that it does "echo" canonical writings, and proves their dissemination and acceptance at the time of its composition. Unlike the Epistle of Clement, who was brought up amid Jewish associations, it shows far less familiarity with Hebrew Literature than with apostolic writings. Its reproduction of apostolic thought is obvious in cases where no verbal correspondence can be asserted. Special attention is called by marked type in this edition to instances of unquestionable quotation and reference, and these, if less numerous than those claimed for it in |