fourth book contains arguments from both the Old and New Testaments,
with a confirmation of the divine origin of the Old Testament against the
Marcionites.
Other works of St. Irenaeus include the treatise Demonstration of the
Apostolic Teaching, which contains an exposition and proof of the truth of
principal Christian dogmas for the faithful; a letter On the Monarchy of
God which contains the teachings of St. Polycarp against God as the author
of evil; and other letters, namely, On the Ogdoad, On Schism, On Science,
and fragments contained in Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 5, 16; 19, 1) of
letters to Pope Victor on the Easter question.
After the incident between Pope Victor and Polycrates, St. Irenaeus drops
out of the limelight. According to St. Jerome and Gregory of Tours, he died
a martyr’s death around the year 202 in the general massacres of Christians
under Septimus Severus, though Eusebius, who possessed a good
knowledge of St. Irenaeus’ life, makes no mention of this.
Extracts
Against Heresies (C. 180 AD):
1, 10, 1
“For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the ends
of the earth, has received from the Apostles and from their disciples the faith in one
God, Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth and sea and all that is in
them; and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became flesh for our salvation;
and in the Holy Spirit, who announced through the prophets the dispensations and
the comings, and the birth from a Virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection
from the dead, and the bodily ascension into heaven in the glory of the Father to
re-establish all things; and the raising up again of all flesh of all humanity, in
order that to Jesus Christ our Lord and God and Savior and King, in accord with
the approval of the invisible Father, every knee shall bend of those in heaven and
on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue shall confess Him, and that He
may make just judgment of them all; and that He may send the spiritual forces of
wickedness and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, and the
impious, unjust, lawless and blasphemous amongst men, into everlasting fire; and
that He may grant life, immortality, and surround with eternal glory the just and
the holy, and those who have kept His commands and who have persevered in His
love, either from the beginning or from their repentance.”
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