We have no account of the death of Irenæus upon which we can absolutely depend. Jerome in one passage(102) calls him a martyr, and so does the author of the _Questions and Answers_ above cited; but no other early writer gives him that appellation; neither have we any notice of his death by any earlier author than Gregory of Tours(103), who wrote towards the end of the sixth century, and who asserts that he died a martyr in a bloody persecution, which the martyrologists Usuard and Ado(104) assert took place under Severus. In fact all the martyrologists, both Latin and Greek, make him a martyr. The tradition, therefore, appears a highly probable one. But in whatever way he quitted this world, we may rest assured that his name is written in the book of life. His body is said(105) to rest in the crypt under the altar of the Church of St. John at Lyons.
CHAPTER II. TESTIMONY OF IRENÆUS TO CERTAIN FACTS OF CHURCH HISTORY.
There are two circumstances which must prevent us from expecting that the writings of Irenæus should add largely to our stores of historical knowledge; one, that his remains are not very considerable in extent, and the other, that they are chiefly occupied in doctrinal controversy. What, however, he does tell us, is important. He asserts that the Church in his time was spread throughout the world(106); and particularly specifies the Churches in Germany, Iberia, (i. e. Spain), amongst the Celts (i. e. in Gaul), in the East, in Egypt, in Lybia, and in the centre of the world, by which he no doubt means Palestine(107). He likewise incidentally shows that the Gospel had been preached in Ethiopia(108). He furnishes no evidence concerning the first missionaries, except in the case of Ethiopia, to which he informs us the eunuch baptized by Philip was sent; but he declares explicitly that all the Churches through the world, although differing in usage(109), had but one faith(110), which was delivered to them at baptism(111).
He speaks of the Churches in general as having been settled by the Apostles(112), and particularly specifies that the Church of Rome was founded by S. Peter and S. Paul, who appointed its first bishop Linus(113); that Polycarp was made bishop of Smyrna by Apostles(114), and that the succession from him had been kept up to the time of his writing(115); and that S. John watched over the Church of Ephesus down to the time of Trajan(116). He informs us that the successors of the first bishops might be reckoned up in many Churches down to his own time(117), particularly specifies the Churches of Rome and Smyrna(118), and gives a catalogue of the bishops of Rome as follows:--Linus, mentioned by S. Paul in his epistles to Timothy(119); Anencletus(120); Clement(121), who had seen and conferred with the Apostles; Evarestus; Alexander; Xystus, or Sixtus; Telesphorus, who suffered martyrdom; Hyginus; Pius; Anicetus; Soter; Eleutherius(122): and we have a fragment of a letter of his own to Victor, the successor of Eleutherius(123). He has preserved an anecdote of St. John, viz. that upon one occasion entering a bath, and seeing Cerinthus there, he withdrew precipitately, saying that he was afraid lest the building should fall, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, was in it(124). This anecdote is indeed at variance with the notion of Christian charity current at the present day, but it rests upon the testimony of Polycarp, who knew St. John well; and it is strictly in accordance with the spirit of the directions he himself gave to "the elect lady," not to receive heretical teachers into her house, or bid them God speed(125).