that an authentic Christian community was one that preached a consistent message throughout the world and was founded upon apostolic succession — certainty of truth in doctrinal matters rests with churches that can trace apostolic origins. Irenaeus stressed that Christian teaching must be public — not secret like the Gnostics preached — guided by the Holy Spirit, and completely united:
The Church, though dispersed throughout the world … having received [this faith from the apostles] … as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them and teaches them and hands them down with perfect harmony as if she possessed only one mouth.57
Most importantly, Irenaeus highlighted the primacy of the Church in Rome, which is “the greatest and most important and best known of all, founded and organized by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul. For with this Church [Rome], because of her more powerful preeminence all churches must agree.”58 Irenaeus’s Against Heresies clearly illustrates that the early Christians believed the test of orthodoxy was unity with the Church in Rome and her bishop, the pope.
Marcion the Heretic
Marcion, a wealthy shipowner from Constantinople and the son of the bishop of Sinope (in modern-day Turkey), came to Rome in the year 135. He had semi-Gnostic tendencies, believing the material world was evil. These tendencies led him into heresy when he denied the humanity of Jesus, believing Christ’s human body was an optical illusion. Marcion is best known for his false interpretation of Scripture. He preached a dichotomy of the Old and New Testaments, arguing that the God portrayed in the Old Testament was a stern, wrathful judge, whereas the God of the New Testament was a loving father. The difference could only be explained by recognizing they were two different gods, a belief that still finds adherence in the modern world. He tried to convince the Roman Church that his interpretation was correct, but when his heresy was rejected in the summer of 144, he established his own church. Marcion’s church imitated the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church with Marcion, of course, as the head. Marcionites practiced a rigorous moral life and reserved baptism for celibates, eunuchs, and dedicated widows.
Saint Polycarp (D. 155)
Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna (modern-day Turkey), was a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist, the recipient of one of Saint Ignatius of Antioch’s letters, and one of the most respected members of the Church. He had spent some time in Constantinople, where he met Marcion. Toward the middle of the second century, Polycarp was an elderly man near ninety when, shortly before his death, he made a journey to Rome to discuss an important matter with the pope.
While in Rome, Polycarp saw Marcion walking down the street, but made no move to acknowledge him. Marcion, offended, maneuvered to cross paths with the saintly bishop. When he was near Polycarp, Marcion called out, “Don’t you recognize me?” Polycarp responded, “I do indeed: I recognize the firstborn of Satan!”59 Polycarp, who preached strenuously against heresy, had no time for the egotistical founder of a heresy itself.
Soon after Polycarp returned home from his consultation with the pope, a persecution of Christians began in Smyrna. At a festival held in honor of Emperor Antoninus Pius (r. 138–161), anti-Christian outbursts erupted from a mob. Christians were arrested and martyred by being thrown to wild beasts in the arena; however, the mob’s bloodlust was not slaked. They demanded the life of the aged and venerable Polycarp. The bishop was sentenced to die by burning at the stake, but when all the preparations had been made and the fire lit, it miraculously failed to touch him. He was cut down from the stake and killed by the executioner’s dagger.60
Montanism
The late second century was witness to another heresy that greatly affected the Church. Montanus was a recent convert to the Faith who, along with two women, Maximilla and Prisca, who had left their husbands to follow him, began to utter prophecies and claim direct revelations from the Holy Spirit. Montanus argued that private revelations held equal authority to Scripture and the teaching of the Church. Montanus’s followers practiced a strict asceticism with severe penitential disciplines, including extreme fasting. Montanus believed sins committed after baptism could not be forgiven. This rigorist position produced a conflict in the Church between those favoring mercy toward Christians who gave in during the persecutions (known as lapsi), and rigorists who believed the lapsi could not reenter communion. Montanus also called his followers to renounce material goods, marriage, and the marital act, and to seek out martyrdom. Ultimately, Montanus’s insistence on equal authority of private revelation and Scripture helped to “reinforce the conviction that revelation had come to an end with the apostolic age, and so to foster the creation of a closed canon of the New Testament.”61
Although a variety of heresies challenged the unity of the Church and posed significant problems, they also provided opportunities for the Church to affirm her teaching in definitive terms. The result was a benefit to the faithful, who clearly knew what to believe in order to remain in communion with the apostolic faith.
The Antipope Who Became a Saint
Not much is known about the life of Hippolytus, an early Christian theologian and scholar, but his writings provide details about the liturgical customs of the Roman Church and the heresies afflicting the Church in the late second and early third centuries. In his Apostolic Tradition, Hippolytus describes the rite of baptism used by the early Church in Rome. His book also provides details concerning the structure of the liturgy, which involved a prayer of thanksgiving, the invocation of the Holy Spirit on the offering, the recitation of Jesus’ words of consecration for the Eucharist, as well as a memorial acclamation. Hippolytus exhorted the faithful to show reverence to the Eucharist and to receive it worthily, not dropping the host or spilling the Precious Blood.
Many of the heresies in the early Church dealt with Jesus’ relationship to the Father. The Church wrestled with discerning the correct terminology to apply to the truth the apostles had passed down: that Jesus is true God and true man. In many cases, it was difficult to determine whether a teaching or theological opinion was truly heretical. The heresy of Modalism blurred the distinctions between Father and Son in the Trinity, to the point where it posited they were actually one person who appeared in different modes.62
Hippolytus wanted Pope Zephyrinus (r. 198–217) to strongly rebuke and condemn the Modalists, and grew upset when the pontiff failed to do so. After Zephyrinus died, the clergy and people of Rome elected the former slave Callistus I (r. 217–222) to succeed him. Hippolytus soon disagreed with the new pope (and his successors) on the issue of absolution and readmittance of Christians who had committed serious sins. Hippolytus was a “rigorist” and believed that those who had greatly sinned should not be absolved or readmitted to communion, despite their genuine contrition and repentance. Callistus, remembering the actions of Christ, embraced a policy of mercy. Hippolytus was so angry at Callistus’s election and decisions that he gathered a group of followers, who elected him pope, and claimed Callistus was unworthy of the office due to his embattled past.63 Hippolytus opened the door to the concept of the “antipope,” a concept that would rear its ugly head throughout Church history. Ultimately, Hippolytus’s schism would last for nineteen years and through three pontificates.64
Maximinus Thrax, a career soldier, was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Germania in 235. Shortly afterward, he turned his attention to the Church, and began a persecution targeting the clergy. Callistus’s successor, Pontian (r. 230–235), and the antipope Hippolytus, were arrested and sent to the mines on the island of Sardinia. Amid the suffering and hardship of the mines, Hippolytus renounced his schism and papal claim. He was then reconciled to the Church by Pontian. Both men ultimately succumbed to the harsh conditions, and when their remains were transported back to Rome for burial,
