Irenæus is near the Apostles in close connexion, as well as in time, through his personal knowledge of Polycarp.  Videhis Ep. to Florinus quoted in Euseb., Ecc. Hist. v. 20.  In his work On the Ogdoad, quoted in the same chapter, Irenæus says of himself that he τὴν πρωτὴν τῶν ᾽Αποστολῶν κατειληφέναι την διαδοχήν “had himself had the nearest succession of the Apostles.”