CHAPTER X

THE BISHOPS OF ROME AND ALEXANDRIA, IN THE REIGN OF ANTONINE

THIS emperor, (Adrian,) having finished his mortal career, after the twenty-first year of his reign, is succeeded by Antonine, called the Pious, in the government of the Romans. In the first year of this reign, and in the eleventh year of his episcopate, Telesphorus departed this life, and was succeeded in the charge of the Roman church by Hyginus. Irenæus, indeed, relates that Telesphorus was rendered illustrious by martyrdom; showing, at the same time, that under the above-mentioned Roman bishop Hyginus, Valentinus the founder of a peculiar heresy, and Cerdon the leader in the errors propagated by Marcion, were both notorious at Rome. His statement is as follows: