er any circumstances
it would be quite inadequate to condemn the document as a forgery.
But it will be shown hereafter (p. 627) that there are excellent
reasons for regarding the incident as a later interpolation, which
had no place in the original document. Beyond this we have the voice
from heaven calling to Polycarp in the stadium to play the man (Sec.
9). But the very simplicity of the narrative here disarms criticism.
The brethren present heard the voice, but no one saw the speaker.
This was the sole ground for the belief that it was not a human
utterance. Again, there is the arching of the fire round the martyr
like a sail swelled by the wind (Sec. 15). But this may be explained
as a strictly natural occurrence, and similar phenomena have been
witnessed more than once on like occasions, notably at the
martyrdoms of Savonarola and of Hooper. Again, there is the sweet
scent, as of incense, issuing from the burning pyre (Sec. 15); but
this phenomenon also, however we may explain it, whether from the
fragrance of the wood or in some other way, meets us constantly. In
another early record of martyrdoms, the history of the persecutions
at Vienne and Lyons, a little more than twenty years later, we are
told (Euseb. _H.E._ v. 1, Sec. 35) that the heroic martyrs, as they
stepped forward to meet their fate, were 'fragrant with the sweet
odour of Christ, so that some persons even supposed that they had
been anointed with material ointment' ([Greek: hoste enious doxai
kai muro kosmiko kechristhai autous]). Yet there was no pyre and no
burning wood here, so that the imagination of the bystanders must
have supplied the incident. Indeed, this account of the Gallican
martyrs, indisputably written by eye-witnesses, contains many more
startling occurrences than the record of Polycarp's fate.

"More or less closely connected with the miraculous element is the
_prophetic insight_ attributed to Polycarp. But what does this
amount to? It is stated indeed that 'every word which he uttered was
accomplished and will be accomplished' (Sec. 16). But the future tense,
'will be accomplished,' is itself the expression of a belief, not
the statement of a fact. We may, indeed, accept this qualification
as clear testimony that, when the narrative was written, many of his
forebodings and predictions had not bee