Section 261
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230 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. indeed, himself in his particular epistles to the Antinoites, which are still preserved among us, makes mention of the episcopal office as shared by himself with Narcissus, in the following words, at the end of the epistle : " Narcissus salutes you, the same who before me held the episcopate here, and is now colleagued writh me in prayers, being now advanced to his hundred and tenth year, and who with me exhorts you to be of one mind." Such, then, were these events. But Serapion dying at Antioch, he was succeeded by Asclepiades; he also, was distinguished among the confessions* in the persecution. His consecration is also mentioned by Alexander, who writes to the inhabitants of Antioch thus : " Alexander, a servant and prisoner of Jesus Christ, sends, greeting, in the Lord, to the blessed church at An tioch, in the Lord. The Lord has made my bonds easy and light during the time of my imprisonment, since I have ascer tained, that by divine Providence, Asclepiades, who in regard to his faith is most happily qualified, has undertaken the trust of the episcopate of your holy church." This same epistle inti mates, that he sent it by Clement, writing at the end of it, as fol lows : " This epistle, my brethren, I have sent to you by Clement, the blessed presbyter, a man endued with all virtue, and well approved, whom you already know, and will learn still more to know ; who, also, coming hither, by the providence and superin tendence of the Lord, has confirmed and increased the church of God." * The primitive church, as is evident from our author, distinguished a confession from martyrdom. The former implied all sufferings and trials for the sake of re ligion, except the loss of life. The latter was attended with this also. Hence, the latter was regarded as the highest grade of confession, and as such the martyr, in contradistinction to the confessor, was said to be perfected. The expression, there fore, to be perfected, often occurs in our author, in the sense of being put to death. This remark will explain the expression as it occurs sometimes in the book of martyrs.