s,
Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Victorinus, Marcellus of Ancyra,
Epiphanius, and perhaps Alexander of Alexandria and Athanasius). As is
well known, we no longer possess a Greek manuscript, although it can be
proved that the work was preserved down to middle Byzantine times, and
was quoted with respect. The insufficient Christological and especially
the eschatological disquisitions spoiled the enjoyment of the work in
later times (on the Latin Irenaeus cf. the exhaustive examination of
Loof: "The Manuscripts of the Latin translation of Irenaeus", in the
"Studies of Church History" dedicated to Reuter, 1887). The old Catholic
works written against heretics by Rhodon, Melito, Miltiades, Proculus,
Modestus, Musanus, Theophilus, Philip of Gortyna, Hippolytus, and others
have all been just as little preserved to us as the oldest book of this
kind, the Syntagma of Justin against heresies, and the Memorabilia of
Hegesippus. If we consider the criticism to which Tatian's Christology
was subjected by Arethas in the 10th century (Oratio 5; see my Texte und
Untersuchungen I. 1, 2 p. 95 ff.), and the depreciatory judgment passed
on Chiliasm from the 3rd century downwards, and if we moreover reflect
that the older polemical works directed against heretics were supplanted
by later detailed ones, we have a summary of the reasons for the loss of
that oldest Catholic literature. This loss indeed makes it impossible
for us to form an exact estimate of the extent and intensity of the
effect produced by any individual writing, even including the great work
of Irenaeus.]

[Footnote 482: People are fond of speaking of the "Asia Minor" theology
of Irenaeus, ascribe it already to his teachers, Polycarp and the
presbyters, then ascend from these to the Apostle John, and complete,
though not without hesitation, the equation: John--Irenaeus. By this
speculation they win simply everything, in so far as the Catholic
doctrine now appears as the property of an "apostolic" circle, and
Gnosticism and Antignosticism are thus eliminated. But the following
arguments may be urged against this theory: (1) What we know of Polycarp
by no means gives countenance to the supposition that Irenaeus learned
more from him and his fellows than a pious regard for the Church
tradition and a collection of historical traditions and principles. (2)
The doctrine of Irenaeus cannot be separated from the received _canon_ of
New Testament writings; but in the generation