And what carries in some
measure the testimony of these churches to a higher age, is, that they
had now for their bishop, Pothinus, who was ninety years old, and whose
early life consequently must have immediately joined on with the times
of the apostles. In this epistle are exact references to the Gospels of
Luke and John, and to the Acts of the Apostles; the form of reference
the same as in all the preceding articles. That from Saint John is in
these words: "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the Lord, that
whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth God service." (John xvi.
2.)
X. The evidence now opens upon us full and clear. Irenaeus (Lardner,
vol. i. p. 344.) succeeded Pothinus as bishop of Lyons. In his youth he
had been a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John. In the time
in which he lived, he was distant not much more than a century from the
publication of the Gospels; in his instruction only by one step
separated from the persons of the apostles. He asserts of himself and
his contemporaries, that they were able to reckon up, in all the
principal churches, the succession of bishops from the first.
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