anded down to his own generation
without interruption, he adds--

And (so it was with) Polycarp also, who not only was taught by
Apostles, and lived in familiar intercourse ([Greek:
sunanastrapheis]) with many that had seen Christ, but also received
his appointment in Asia from Apostles, as Bishop in the Church of
Smyrna, whom we too have seen in our youth ([Greek: en te prote
hemon helikia]) for he survived long, and departed this life at a
very great age, by a glorious and most notable martyrdom, having
ever taught these very things, which he had learnt from the
Apostles, which the Church hands down, and which alone are true. To
these testimony is borne by all the Churches in Asia, and by the
successors of Polycarp up to the present time, who was a much more
trustworthy and safer witness of the truth than Valentinus and
Marcion, and all such wrong-minded men. He also, when on a visit to
Rome in the days of Anicetus, converted many to the Church of God
from following the aforenamed heretics, by preaching that he had
received from the Apostles this doctrine, and this only, which was
handed down by the Church, as the truth. And there are those who
have heard him tell how John, the disciple of the Lord, when he
went to take a bath in Ephesus, and saw Cerinthus within, rushed
away from the room without bathing, with the words, 'Let us flee,
lest the room should indeed fall in, for Cerinthus, the enemy of
the truth, is within.' Yea, and Polycarp himself also on one
occasion, when Marcion confronted him and said, 'Dost thou
recognize me?' answered, 'I recognize the firstborn of Satan.' Such
care did the Apostles and their disciples take not to hold any
communication, even by word, with any of those who falsify the
truth, as Paul also said, 'A man that is a heretic after a first
and second admonition, avoid; knowing that such an one is perverted
and sinneth, being self-condemned.' Moreover, there is an Epistle
of Polycarp addressed to the Philippians, which is most adequate
([Greek: hikanotate]), and from which both his manner of life and
his preaching of the truth may be learnt by those who desire to
learn and are anxious for their own salvation. And again, the
Church in Ephesus, which was founded by Paul, and where John
survived till the times of Traja