Footnote 206: Sueur. hist. de l'Egl. &c. ad ann. 149. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ANTONINUS, ANICETUS, M. AURELIUS. _Tenth_ BISHOP _of_ Rome. [Sidenote: Year of Christ 157. _St._ Polycarp _comes to_ Rome, _and reclaims many from the Errors of_ Marcion.] _Pius_ was succeeded by _Anicetus_, in whose Time _Valentine_ the Heretic, who came to _Rome_ in the Pontificate of _Hyginus_, and had gained many Proselytes under _Pius_, continued sowing his pestilential Errors among the Members of that Church: but many whom he had seduced, were reclaimed by St. _Polycarp_, formerly the Disciple of St. _John_ the Evangelist, and then Bishop of _Smyrna_. His declaring to them, that the Doctrine taught by the Church was the Doctrine he had learnt of the Apostles, made such an Impression on their Minds, that they abjured the Errors of _Valentine_, and returned to the Communion of the Faithful[207]. They preferred the bare Word of _Polycarp_, who claimed no Infallibility, to the infallible Authority of _Hyginus_, _Pius_, and _Anicetus_. This is a plain Proof, that the Popes had not yet begun to exert their Infallibility; or, if they had, that it was not acknowleged. What brought St. _Polycarp_ to _Rome_ was the Controversy about the Celebration of _Easter_, which at this Time began to grow very warm between the Eastern and Western Churches[208]. All the Churches of the East, and amongst the rest that of _Smyrna_, kept _Easter_ on the 14th Day of the Moon of the first Month, in Conformity to the Custom of the _Jews_: on the other hand, _Anicetus_ would neither conform to that Custom himself, nor suffer any under his Jurisdiction to conform to it, obliging them to celebrate that Solemnity on the _Sunday_ next following the 14th of the Moon. That this Dispute might not occasion a Schism in the Church, _Polycarp_ undertook a Journey to _Rome_, in order to confer with the Bishop of that City, who was the chief Opposer of the _Quartodecimans_[209]. [Sidenote: Anicetus _and he disagree about the Celebration of_ Easter, _but part without Breach of Charity_.] But it happened in this, as it does in most religious Disputes, they parted, each retaining his own Way of thinking; but at the same time, what happens but seldom, without the least Breach of that Charity which is the great and fundamental Law of our holy Religion. In Token whereof they communicated together at the holy Sacrament; nay, _Anicetus_, out of Respect to St. _Polycarp_, yielded to him the _Eucharist_[210]; that is, gave him Leave to consecrate the _Eucharist_ in his own Church: after which they parted in Peace, though both determined to follow the antient Practice of their respective Churches[211]. St. _Polycarp_, though well acquainted with the Doctrine of the Apostles, was a Stranger, it seems, to that of _Bellarmine_, _Baronius_, &c. _viz._ that