tinged with the Patripassian heresy, of his disseminating it secretly, of his avowing it openly, of his being convinced of his error, and being reconciled to the church; finally, of his relapsing, and ultimately quitting the church. All this would take up many years, and allow ample time for the supposition that Eleutherus was the bishop alluded to; not to say that a bishop of Rome was little likely to have listened to him when an avowed heretic. And then the letter of the martyrs has a well‐defined object, viz., to dissuade him from contributing to rend the church in pieces by countenancing a set of men who had been excommunicated by the churches by whom they were surrounded, and by those in Gaul with which they were in some degree connected; and thoroughly explains the expression of Eusebius, τῆς τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν εἰρήνης ἕνεκα πρεσβεύοντες. There is another circumstance, which, so far as I know, has not been adverted to: viz., that the Montanists appear not to have differed from the other Christians of Asia Minor in the observance of Easter; and as we know that Victor excommunicated those Churches for differing from him, he is not likely to have patronized a sect who also differed from him in a matter he regarded as so important. As we know that the Church of Lyons sent these letters to Eleutherus, with one of their own, preserved in part by Eusebius(30), giving an account of the martyrdoms, it has been supposed by some that Irenæus actually _wrote_ this letter; and the idea is confirmed by the circumstance, that Œcumenius, in his _Commentary on the First Epistle of St. Peter_, (cap. 3. p. 498.) has preserved a fragment of a writing of Irenæus, _concerning Sanctus and Blandina_. Now, these two persons are mentioned particularly in the letter of the Church of Lyons(31); of which, therefore, this fragment (numbered xiii. in the Benedictine edition) is probably another remnant. There is no ground for doubting that Irenæus did really visit Rome; the more especially, as two of his subsequent compositions were occasioned by errors of priests of that Church—viz. Florinus and Blastus(32). Pothinus died in this persecution, as really a martyr as others who have been regarded as more truly such. Being upwards of ninety years old, suffering under infirmity both of age and sickness, dragged to the tribunal, and back again to prison, without any regard to his weakness and age, beaten, kicked, and assailed with every missile that came to hand, it is more wonderful that he did not breathe his last under their hands, than that he lingered out two days in the prison(33). Irenæus succeeded him(34); and if we may judge of him by the ability, learning, zeal, and sound judgment displayed in his writings, and by the Christian temper he evinced on the occasion of the paschal controversy, we may safely conclude that he was a more than worthy successor.