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men[1]." But Polycarp regarded with a sad countenance the whole multitude of lawless heathen in the theatre; and waving his hand towards them, groaned, and looking up to Heaven said, "Away with the godless men." And when the Governor urged him further, and said, "Swear, and I will dismiss thee; revile Christ;" Polycarp replied; "Eighty and six[2] years have I been his servant, and he hath wronged me in nothing, and how can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour." And on his pressing him again, saying, "Swear by the fortune of Cæsar," Polycarp replied; "If ye vainly suppose that I shall swear by Cæsar's fortune, as ye call it, pretending to be ignorant of my real character, let me tell you plainly, I am a Christian; and if ye wish to hear the Christian doctrine, appoint me a time, and hear me." The Proconsul answered, "Persuade the people." Polycarp replied, "To you I thought it right to give account, for we have been taught to give to rulers and the powers ordained of God such fitting honour as hurteth not our souls; but them I deem not worthy, that I should defend myself before them." The Proconsul said unto him, "I have wild beasts in readiness, to them will I throw thee, if thou wilt not change thy mind." But he said, "Bring them forth then, for the change of mind from better to worse I will never make. From cruelty to righteousness it were good to change." Again he said unto him, "I will have thee consumed by fire, since thou despisest the wild beasts, except thou change thy mind." Polycarp answered; "Thou threatenest me with a fire that burneth for an hour, and is speedily quenched; for thou knowest not of the fire of future judgment and eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly. But why tarriest thou? Bring what thou wilt."
As he spake these and other words, he was filled with confidence and joy, and his countenance was overspread with grace; so that not only was he not overthrown and confounded with what was said to him, but the Proconsul on the contrary was
- ↑ Literally, Atheists; for such, because they denied the heathen deities, the Christians were called; and such, because they denied the one true god, Polycarp terms the unbelievers.
- ↑ This must not be understood of his age, (for then he could have been only seventeen when St. John died, and consequently could not have been conscecrated Bishop by him, as is almost universally believed,) but of his conversion to Christianity.
