the church in that place, had, by an enigmatical expression, rather amused than informed them. Besides, he had before this agreed with and solemnly engaged himself unto Paul to take care of the Circumcision ; unto whom, after he had preached a while in Palestine, it is more than probable that he betook himself unto Babylon in Assyiia, — the principal seat of their residence in their first and most populous dispersion, — from whence he wrote unto all their colonies scattered abroad in the neighbouring nations. So that although I will not, because of the consent of many of the ancients, deny that Peter went to Rome and preached there, yet I am fully satisfied that this foundation of the story told by them is a perfect mistake, consisting in an unwarrantable, causeless wresting of a plain expres- sion unto a mystical sense and meaning. 3. Your witnesses agree not at all in their story; neither as to the time of his going to Rome nor as to the occasion of it, nor as to the season of his abode there. Many of them assign unto him twenty-five years for his residence there, which is evidently false, and easily disproved. This computa-
specifies the nature of their death at Rome : — ■" Ubi Petrus passioni Dominicse adsequatur, ubi Paulus Johannis (Baptista3) exitu coronatur." These quotations and references embody tlie amount of information conveyed to us by the original and ancient testimony, on which succeeding writers have relied in affirming that Peter visited Rome, and suf- fered there. Arnobius ("Adv. Gentes," lib. ii.) and Cyril of Jerusalem ("De Hagres.," cap. XV.) also concur in stating that Peter was in Rome ; but these authors belong to the fourth century.
The authority of Scripture in this question comes in to determine when it is most likely that Peter arrived at Rome; and this point is fully discussed by our author. According to the " Chronicon" of Eusebius, he reached it about a.d. 4:2, and Avas put to death about twenty-five years afterwards, or a.d. 67. But, by a reference to Acts xv., Gal. ii. 1, 9, 11, it will be found that Peter was at Jerusalem and Antioch, and had been chieilj' labouring among the Circiuncision, up to a.d. 54; facts which make it im- possible tliat he could have been residing constantly at Rome, and very improbable that up to that peiiod he ever had seen Rome at all. There is, farther, no allusion to Peter in the Epistle to the Romans, a.d. 58 ; and tliis circumstance is the more remarkable, when the conclusion of it is filled with affectionate salutations to sevei-al members of the Roman church. Paul is understood to have been brought to Rome about the spring of A.D. 61 ; and while Luke records no interview with Peter, he also uses language as if, almost for the first time, the gospel had been unfolded to the Jews in Rome through the instrumentality of Paul, Acts xxviii. 17-31. If Peter was at Rome during the impri- sonment of Paul, how are we to account for the absence of any alkision to him in all the epistles written by Paul at Rome — the Epistles to the Colossians, Philippians, Philemon, and Timothy ? In the Second Epistle to Timothy, — the last which Paul wrote, — there is nothing which indicates the presence of Peter at Rome ; or, if he were at Rome, he must have been in the number of those who deserted Paxil in his extremity, 2 Tim. iv. 16 ; an inference, however, Avhich must be rejected on other grounds than the discre- dit it reflects on one who, according to the Romish church, was the first of the popes. By the Second Epistle to Timothy we are brought to a.d. 63 ; and if he suffered in A.D. 67, this allows but four years for his residence in Rome. Ancient tradition makes the martyrdom of Paul and Peter simultaneous, and the date of Paul's martyrdom varies, according to different authorities, fi'om a.d. 64 to a.d. 68. If the former date be as- sumed as correct, the time during which Peter was in Rome fell short of a year; if ihe latter be correct, he might have been there for four or five years. But it cannot be ascer- tained when he reached Rome ; and the length of the interval between his arrival in it and his martyrdom involves a question for the determination of which no materials in the shape of authentic history remain to us. — Ed.
PRINCIPLES OF PAPISTS ON THE UNITY OF FAITH. 289
tion is ascribed to Eusebius m Cliroii. lib. i. ; but it is evidently an addition of Jerome's, in whose days the tradition was increased, for there is no such thing in the original Greek copy of Eusebius, nor doth it agree with what he had elsewhere written concerning him. And it is very well worth while to consider how Onuphrius Panvinus, a very learned antiquary of your own party, makes up these twenty-five years of Peter's episcopacy at Rome, Annotat in Plat, in Vit. B. Petr. " Ex novem primis annis," saith he, " post Christi mortem, usque ad initium secundi anni Imperii Claudii, Petrum Judtea nunquam ex- cessisse, ex Actis Apostolorum, et Pauli Epistola ad Galatas, apertis- sime constat. Si igitur, ut inter omnes autliores convenit, eo tem- pore Romam venit, illud certe necessarium videtur eum ante ad ur- bem adventum Antiochice septem annis non sedisse; sed hanc ejus Antiochenam cathedram alio tempore fuisse. Quam rem ex vetustis- simorum authorum testimonio sic constitui : Secundo Imperii Claudii anno Romam venit ; a quo tempore usque ad illius obitum, anni plus minus viginti quinque intersunt, quibus, etsi eum Romse sedisse ve- teres scribunt, non tamen preeterea sequitur, ipsum semper in urbe commoratum esse: nam, quarto anno ejus ad urbem adventus, Hie- rusolymam re versus est, et ibi concilio apostolorum interfuit ; inde An- tiochiam profectus, septem ibidem annis usque ad Neronis Imperium permansit, cujus initio Romam reversus Romanam dilabentem repara- vit ecclesiam. Peregrinatione inde per universam fere Europam sus- cepta, Romam rediens novissimo Neronis Imperii anno, martyrium cioicis passus est ;" — " For the first nine years after the death of Christ, unto the beginning of the second year of Claudius, it is most evident, from the Acts, and Epistle to the Galatians, that Peter went not out of Palestine. If therefore, as all agree, he came at that time to Rome, it is certain that he had not abode at Antioch seven years before his coming thither (which yet all the witnesses agree in) ; but this his Antiochian chair fell out at some other time. Wherefore, I thus order the whole matter from the testimony of most ancient authors" (not that any one before him ever wrote any such thing, but this he supposeth may be said to reconcile their contradictions) : " In the second year of Claudius he came to Rome. From thence unto his death were twenty-five j^ears, more or less: which space of time, although the ancients write that he sat at Rome, yet it doth not follow thence that he always abode in the city; for, in the fourth year after his coming, he returned unto Jerusalem to be present at the council of the apostles; thence going unto Antioch, he continued there seven years, unto the reign of Nero. In the beginning of his reign, he returned unto Rome, to repair the decaying church there. From thence, passing almost through all Europe, he returned again to Rome in the last year of Nero, and underwent martyrdom by the VOL. XIV. 19