The time of Peter's arrival in Rome, and the length of his residence there, cannot possibly be ascertained. The above mentioned silence of the Acts and of Paul's Epistles allows him only a short period of labor there, after 63. The Roman tradition of a twenty or twenty-five years' episcopate of Peter in Rome is unquestionably a colossal chronological mistake. [291] Nor can we fix the year of his martyrdom, except that it must have taken place after July, 64, when the Neronian persecution broke out (according to Tacitus). It is variously assigned to every year between 64 and 69. We shall return to it again below, and in connection with the martyrdom of Paul, with which it is associated in tradition. [292]
[282] Acts 2:46; 3:1; 5:42.
[283] Acts 2:14 sqq.; 3:12 sqq.; 5:29 sqq.; 10:34 sqq.; 11:5 sqq.; 15:7 sqq.
[284] Acts 2: 46, 47. Renan says, with reference to this period (Les apotres, ch. v.), that in no literary work does the word "joy" so often occur as in the New Testament, and quotes 1 Thess 1:6; 5:16; Rom. 14:17; 15:13; Gal. 5:22; Phil. 1:25; 3:1; 4:4; 1 John 1:4. Many other passages might be added.
[285] On Stephen comp. Thiersch: De Stephani protomartyris oratione commentatio exegetica, Marb. 1849; Baur: Paul, ch. II.; my Hist. of the Apost. Church, pp. 211 sqq.; and the commentaries of Mover, Lechler, Hackett, Wordsworth, Plumptre, Howson and Spence, on Acts, chs. 6 and 7.
[286] a.d. 50: Acts 15.
[287] Gal. 2:11 sqq.
[288] 1 Cor. 9:5.
[289] 1 Pet. 1:1.
[290] Rom. 15:20; 2 Cor. 10:16.
[291] Alzog (§ 48), and other modern Roman church historians try to reconcile the tradition with the silence of the Scripture by assuming two visits of Peter to Rome with a great interval.
[292] For particulars see my H. Ap. Ch. pp. 362-372. The presence of Peter in Rome was the universal belief of Christendom till the Reformation, and is so still in the Roman Catholic communion. It was denied first in the interest of orthodox Protestantism against Romanism by U. Velenus (1520), M. Flacius (1554), Blondel (1641), Salmasius (1645), and especially by Fr. Spanheim (Da ficta Profectione Petri in urbem Romam, Lugd. B. 1679); more recently in the interest of historical criticism by Baur (in special essays, 1831 and 1836, and in his work on Paul, ch. IX.), K. Hase (1862, doubtful in the 10th ed. of his Kirchengesch. 1877, p. 34), Mayerhoff, De Wette, Greenwood (1856), Lipsius (1869), Volkmar (1873), Zeller (1876). Volkmar denies even the martyrdom of Paul, and fancies that he died quietly in a villa near Rome. Zeller (in Hilgenfeld's "Zeitschrift," for 1876, p. 46 sq.) was disposed to substitute "James" for the defective name "Peter" in the testimony of Clemens Rom., Ad Cor. c. 5, but this is now set aside by the edition of Bryennios from a more complete manuscript, which clearly reads Petros hos in full. On the other hand the presence and martyrdom of Peter in Rome is affirmed not only by all the Roman Catholic, but also by many eminent Protestant historians and critics, as Bleek, Credner, Olshausen, Gieseler, Neander, Niedner, Rothe, Thiersch, Krafft, Ewald, Plumptre, and even by Hilgenfeld, who justly remarks (Einleitung in das N. T. 1875 p. 624): "Man kann ein guter Protestant sein, wenn man den Märtyrertod des Petrus in Rom festhält." Renan (in an appendix to his L'Antechrist, 551 sqq.) likewise asserts that Peter came to Rome, though not before 63, and was among the victims of the Neronian persecution in 64, whom Tacitus describes as crucibus affixi. He understands "Babylon,"1 Pet. 5:13, of Rome, according to the secret style of the Christians of those days. In February, 1872, after the downfall of the temporal power of the papacy, a disputation was held in Rome between Protestant ministers (Gavazzi, Sciarelli, and Ribetto) and Roman divines (Guidi, and Canon Fabiani) on Peter's presence in that city; the former denying, the latter affirming it. The disputation was published in several languages, and although destitute of critical value, it derives a sort of historical significance from the place where it was held, within a short distance from the residence of Pius IX., the first infallible pope. See Racconto autentico della disputa, etc., Roma, 1872; Authentic report of the Discussion held in Rome, February 9 and 10, 1872, between Catholic Priests and Evangelical Ministers, concerning the Coming of St. Peter to Rome. Translated by William Arthur, London, 1872; and Römische Disputation zwischen Katholiken und Protestanten über die These: War Petrus in Rom? Nach den stenographischen Berichten. Deutsche Ausg. Münster, 1872. Comp. the review of Lipsius in the "Jahrbücher für Protest. Theologie," 1876, Heft 4.