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The Encyclical Epistle of the Church at Smyrna Concerning the Martyrdom of the Holy Polycarp · Chapter III

The Constancy of Germanicus. The Death of Polycarp Is Demanded

Page 96 of 830

For the devil did indeed invent many things against them; but thanks be to God, he could not prevail over all. For the most noble Germanicus strengthened the timidity of others by his own patience, and fought heroically425 with the wild beasts. For, when the proconsul sought to persuade him, and urged him426 to take pity upon his age, he attracted the wild beast towards himself, and provoked it, being desirous to escape all the more quickly from an unrighteous and impious world. But upon this the whole multitude, marvelling at the nobility of mind displayed by the devout and godly race of Christians,427 cried out, "Away with the Atheists; let Polycarp be sought out!"

Notes

  1. 425

    Or, "illustriously."

  2. 426

    Or, "said to him."

  3. 427

    Literally, "the nobleness of the God-loving and God-fearing race of Christians."

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe (1885–96). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.