Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/289

I 11 E I R E 273 books and tracts all were produced and received with delighted credulity. Dr Parr, Dr Wharton, Sir Isaac Heard, James Boswell, and others came to register their belief in the authenticity of the papers. The assurance with which the imposture was conducted may be judged from the fact that a deed was brought forward, in which it was set forth that the papers and books had been bequeathed by Shakespeare to a certain contemporary William-Henrye Irelaunde, who had rescued him from drowning in the Thames, and who, there was evidence to show, was the direct ancestor of the Ireland whom chance had thrown in the way of the possessor of the relics. At last a whole new play, named Vortigern, was announced as having been discovered. Sheridan purchased it for Drury Lane Theatre, and an overflowing house assembled to sit in judgment upon it. But away from the glamour of crabbed handwriting and yellow paper, the feeble dialogue and crude conceptions of the tragedy could not stand the test, and one representation sufficed to prove it a complete failure. Its fate prevented the composition of a series of historical plays, of which Henry II. had already been produced by the impudent Ireland. Samuel Ireland the elder had published the miscellaneous papers in what he asserts to have been the fullest belief in their authen ticity, but the hostile criticism of Malone and others, and the unsatisfactory account of the source of the papers, com bined to compel him to demand a full disclosure from his son. Harassed by the success of his own deceit, which had carried him far beyond his first intention, Ireland at last confessed his fraud, and published a tract with a full account in 1796. In 1805 he published more elaborate Confessions, in which he cannot conceal his satisfied vanity. After the exposure, Ireland was forced to abandon both his home and his profession. He wrote several novels of no value, and gradually sank to the condition of a book seller s hack. He died in great penury in April 1835. The more interesting publications on the Ireland forgeries are : Inquiry into the authenticity of certain Papers, &c., attributed to Shakespeare, by Edmond Malone, 1796 ; An Apology for tlie Believers intlic Shakespeare Papers, 1797. and a Supplemental Apology, 1799, both by George Chalmers ; and pamphlets by Boaden, Waklron, "Wyatt, Webb, and Oulton. Vortkjcrn was republished in 1832. IREN^EUS, bishop of Lyons in the end of the 2d century, was one of the most distinguished of the theo logians of the ante-Nicene church. Very little is known of his early history, and the accounts given in various biographies are for the most part conjectural He himself has informed us that in his youth he was acquainted with Polycarp, the disciple of John (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., v. 20), and from this fact, together with his Greek name, his early and thorough Christian training, and his great acquaintance with Greek literature, it has been conjectured that he belonged to the neighbourhood of Smyrna in Asia Minor, and that he was the child of Christian parents. It is most probable that he died in the year 202, but the date of his birth is quite uncertain ; the best authorities place it between 120 and 140. How he, born and educated in Asia Minor, came to spend his life in Gaul is also unknown. Eusebius tells us that he was a presbyter of Pothinus, bishop of Lyons, and it has been inferred from that passage that he was ordained by that bishop. In 177 the persecu tion under Marcus Aurelius reached Gaul, and the members of the churches of Lyons and Vienne suffered severely (see the letter of these churches to the brethren in Asia Minor and Phrygia, quoted by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., v. 1). Pothinus the bishop was one of the first martyrs. Irenseus was called to succeed him and to fill the honourable but dangerous post in the following year (178). Gregory of Tours has recorded his wonderful success in the city of Lyons, which in a short time became almost wholly Christian (Hist. Eccl. Franc., i. 27), and tradition tells us of many scholars of Irenseus who were notable missionaries among the Pagan Gauls. Irenseus, however, was best known by his endeavours to counteract the teachings of the Gnostics, and his attempts to mediate between the bishops of Rome and the churches of Asia Minor in their disputes about the proper time at which to keep Easter. The Gnostic teacher whose views spread to Gaul was Valentinus. He had come to Rome some time about the middle of the 2d century, and disciples had tried to pro pagate his opinions among the Christians in Gaul. It is said that the efforts of Irenseus resulted in a council held at Lyons, where the opinions of these Gnostics were con demned ; but, as the evidence for this statement is not pro bably older than the 9th century, it may be considered doubtful. The Easter controversy, which lasted on to the council of Nicsea in 325, and assumed various forms, had a very simple origin, the question whether, in reckoning the days on which our Lord died and rose again, Christians should keep by the day of the month simply, or so arrange it that the day to be observed in commemoration of our Lord s resurrection should always be a Sunday. The sacrament of the Lord s Supper was instituted on the 14th day of the Jewish month Nisan, and it was the opinion of the churches of Asia Minor that that clay should always be observed ; on the other hand, our Lord was crucified on a Friday and rose again on a Sunday, and the churches of Alexandria and Rome held that the two events should always be com memorated on a Friday and a Sunday respectively. In the time of Irenoeus, Victor, bishop of Rome, made strenuous endeavours to bring about uniformity of celebration ; and, when he failed to convince the churches of Asia Minor that the Western usage was right, he proposed to declare these churches heterodox, and to cut them off from ecclesiastical fellowship. The interference of Irenaeus was intended to dissuade the pope from this hasty action, and his letter is interesting, not merely for its peace-loving sentiments, but because of the valuable information it gives upon the usages of the churches of the East and of the West (cf. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., v. 24). Gregory of Tours is our authority for saying that Irenseus died a martyr in the persecution under Severus ; but, as this fact is not mentioned by Tertullian, Augustine, Eusebius, Theodoret, and other early writers, it is considered doubtful by most modern scholars. His death, whether crowned with the honour of martyrdom or not, must have taken place near the beginning of the 3d century. Gregory tells us that the bones of Irenseus were buried under the altar of the church at Lyons. The story that they were dug up and thrown into the street by the Calvinists in 1562 has been abundantly refuted. Irenaeus holds the same relation to the theology of the Greek fathers that Tertullian does to the doctrinal system of the Church of the West. In tracing back the history of a doctrine, it is common to find it first taking shape in the writings of one or both of these early theologians. Hence the great value of his writings. It is from Irenaeus also that we get the earliest form of the creed which after wards, through the labour of councils and theologians, became what we now know as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed (Lumby s History of the Creeds, p. 14, cf. Schaff, The Creeds of the Latin and Greek Churches, p. 40). The only writing of Irenseus which has come down to us, with the exception of fragments, is his work Against Heresies, and for this reason his opinions are all expressed by way of controversy. The treatise is divided into five books : of these the first two contain a minute description and criticism of the tenets of various heretical sects, both Gnostic and Ebionite ; the other three set forth the true doctrines of Christianity, and it is from them that we find out the theological opinions of the author. Irenaeus as a Christian theologian lays great stress on the existence of XIII. - 35