Editing Polycarp (section)

==Importance==
[[File:Burghers michael saintpolycarp.jpg|thumb|Engraving by Michael Burghers, c. 1685]]
Polycarp occupies an important place in the history of the early Christian Church,<ref name="Hartog"/> was called "the most admirable Polycarp one of these [elect], in whose times among us he showed himself an apostolic and prophetic teacher and bishop of the Catholic Church in Smyrna"<ref>MartPol 16:2 and Smyr 8:2</ref> by his contemporaries. He is among the earliest Christians whose writings survived. Jerome wrote that Polycarp was a "disciple of the apostle John and by him ordained presbyter of Smyrna".<ref>{{Citation | editor= Schaff, Philip | title = Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers | series = 2 | volume = 3 | url = http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf203.v.iii.xix.html }}</ref> He was an elder of an important congregation that was a large contributor to the founding of the Christian Church. He is from an era whose orthodoxy is accepted alongside Catholics by the ancient Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches, and widely also by mainstream Protestants, [[Adventism|Church of God]] groups, [[Seventh-day Sabbatarianism|Sabbatarians]].

According to Eusebius, [[Polycrates of Ephesus]] cited the example of Polycarp in defense of local practices during the [[Quartodecimanism|quartodeciman controversy]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.x.xxv.html| title = Eusebius, Church History, Book V, Chapter 24}}</ref>

Irenaeus, who as a young man had heard Polycarp preach, described him as<ref>Irenaeus, ''[[On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis|Adversus Haereses]]'' [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103303.htm III.3.4]</ref> "a man who was of much greater weight, and a more steadfast witness of truth, than [[Valentinius|Valentinus]], and [[Marcion]], and the rest of the [[heresy|heretics]]." Polycarp lived in an age after the deaths of the apostles, when a variety of interpretations of the sayings of Jesus were being preached. His role was to authenticate orthodox teachings through his connection with the apostle John: "a high value was attached to the witness Polycarp could give as to the genuine tradition of old apostolic doctrine"<ref name="Wace">[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wace/biodict.html?term=Polycarpus,%20bishop%20of%20Smyrna Henry Wace, ''Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies''], ''s.v.'' "Polycarpus, bishop of Smyrna".</ref> "his testimony condemning as offensive novelties the figments of the heretical teachers". Irenaeus states (iii. 3) that on Polycarp's visit to Rome, his testimony converted many disciples of Marcion and Valentinus.