Yet there was no pyre and no
burning wood here, so that the imagination of the bystanders must
have supplied the incident. Indeed, this account of the Gallican
martyrs, indisputably written by eye-witnesses, contains many more
startling occurrences than the record of Polycarp's fate.
"More or less closely connected with the miraculous element is the
_prophetic insight_ attributed to Polycarp. But what does this
amount to? It is stated indeed that 'every word which he uttered was
accomplished and will be accomplished' (Sec. 16). But the future tense,
'will be accomplished,' is itself the expression of a belief, not
the statement of a fact. We may, indeed, accept this qualification
as clear testimony that, when the narrative was written, many of his
forebodings and predictions had not been fulfilled. The only example
of a prediction actually given in the narrative is the dream of his
burning pillow, which suggested to him that he would undergo
martyrdom by fire. But what more natural than this presentiment,
when persecution was raging around him and fire was a common
instrument of death? I need not stop here to discuss how far a
prescience may be vouchsafed to God's saints. Even 'old experience'
is found to be gifted with 'something like prophetic strain.
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