The next conclusion authorized by those who support this fable is, that Peter, after achieving this great work of vanquishing the impostor Simon, proceeded to preach the gospel generally; yet not at first to the hereditary citizens of imperial Rome, nor to any of the Gentiles, but to his own countrymen the Jews, great numbers of whom then made their permanent abode in the great city. These foreigners, at that time, were limited in Rome to a peculiar section of the suburbs, and hardly dwelt within the walls of the city itself;——an allotment corresponding with similar limitations existing in some of the modern cities of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, and even in London, though there, only in accordance with long usage, and with actual convenience, but not with any existing law. The quarter of Rome in which the Jews dwelt in the days of Claudius, was west of the central section of the city, beyond the Tiber; and to this suburban portion, the story supposes the residence and labors of Peter to have been at first confined. But after a time, the fame of this mighty preacher ofa new faith spread beyond, from this despised foreign portion of the environs, across the Tiber, over the seven hills themselves, and even into the halls of the patrician lords of Rome. Such an extension of fame, indeed, seems quite necessary to make these two parts of this likely story hang together at all; for it is hard to see how a stranger, from a distant eastern land, could thus appear suddenly among them, and overturn, with a defeat so total and signal, the pretensions of one who had lately been exalted by the opinions of an adoring people to the character of a god, and had even received the solemn national sanction of this exaltation by a formal decree of the senate of Rome, confirmed by the absolute voice of the Caesar himself; and after such a victory, over such a person, be left long unnoticed in an obscure suburb. In accordance, therefore, with this reasonable notion, it is recorded in the continuation of the story, that when Peter, preaching at Rome, grew famous among the Gentiles, he was no longer allowed to occupy himself wholly among the Jews, but was thereafter taken by Pudens, a senator who believed in Christ, into his own house, on the Viminal Mount, one of the seven hills, but near the Jewish suburb. In the neighborhood of this house, as the legend relates, was afterwards erected a monument, called “the Shepherd’s,”——a name which serves to identify this important locality to the modern Romans to this day. Being thus established in these lordly patrician quarters, the poor Galilean fisherman might well have thought himself blessed, in such a pleasant change from the uncomfortable lodgings with which the royal Agrippa had lately accommodated him, and from which he had made so willing an exit. But the legend does the faithful and devoted apostle the justice, to represent him as by no means moved by these luxurious circumstances, to the least forgetfulness of the high commission which was to be followed through all sorts of self-denial,——no less that which drew him from the soft and soul-relaxing enjoyments of a patrician palace, than that which led him to renounce the simple, hard-earned profits of a fisherman, on the changeful sea of Gennesaret, or to calmly meet the threats, the stripes, the chains, and the condemned cell, with which the enmity of the Jewish magistrates had steadily striven to quench his fiery and energetic spirit. He is described as steadily laboring in the cause of the gospel among the Gentiles as well as the Jews, and with such success during the whole of the first year of his stay, that in the beginning of the following year he is said by papistwriters to have solemnly and formally foundedthe church of Rome. This important fictitious event is dated with the most exact particularity, on the fifteenth of February, in the forty-third year of Christ, and the third year of the reign of the emperor Claudius. The empty, unmeaning pomposity of this announcement is a sufficient evidence of its fictitious character. According to the story itself, here Peter had been preaching nearly a whole year at Rome; and if preaching, having a regular congregation, of course, and performing the usual accompaniments of preaching, as baptism,&c.Now there is not in the whole apostolic history the least account, nor the shadow of a hint, of any such ceremony as the founding of a church, distinct from the mere gathering of an assembly of believing listeners, who acknowledged their faith in Jesus by profession and by the sacraments. The organization of this religious assembly might indeed be made more perfect at one time than at another; as for instance, a new church, which during an apostle’s stay with it and preaching to it, had been abundantly well governed by the simple guidance of his wise, fatherly care, would, on his departure, need some more regular, permanent provision for its government, lest among those who were all religious co-equals, there should arise disputes which would require a regularly constituted authority to allay them. The apostle might, therefore, in such advanced requirements of the church, ordain elders, and so on; but such an appendix could not, with the slightest regard to common sense or the rules of honest interpretation of language, be said to constitute the founding of a church. The very phrase of ordaining elders in a church, palpably implies and requires the previous distinct, complete existence of the church. In fact the entity of a church implies nothing more than a regular assembly of believers, with an authorized ministry; and if Peter had been preaching several months to the Jews of the trans-Tiberine suburb, or to the Romans of the Viminal mount, there must have been in one or both of those places, achurch, to all intents, purposes, definitions and etymologies of a church. So that for him, almost a year after, to proceed tofounda church in Rome, was the most idle work of supererogation in the world. And all the pompous statements of papist writers about any such formality, and all the quotations that might be brought out of the fathers in its support, from Clement downwards, could not relieve the assertion of one particle of its palpable, self-evident absurdity. But the fable proceeds in the account of this important movement, datingthe apostolic reign of Peter from this very occasion, as above fixed, and running over various imaginary acts of his, during the tedious seven years for which the story ties him down to this one spot. Among many other unfounded matters, is specified the assertion, that from this city during the first year of his episcopate, he wrote his first epistle, which he addressed to the believers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,——the countries which are enumerated as visited by him in his fictitious tour. This opinion is grounded on the circumstance of its being dated from Babylon, which several later fathers understood as a term spiritually applied to Rome; but in the proper place this notion will be fully discussed, and the true origin of the epistle more satisfactorily given. Another important event in the history of the scriptures,——the writing of the gospel of Mark,——is also commonly connected with this part of Peter’s life, by the papist historians; but this event, with an account of the nature of this supposed connection, and the discussion of all points in this subject, can be better shown in the life of that evangelist; and to that it is therefore deferred. These matters and several others as little in place, seem to be introduced into this part of Peter’s life, mainly for the sake of giving him something particular to do, during his somewhat tedious stay in Rome, where they make him remain seven years after his first journey thither; and give him here the character, office and title ofbishop,——a piece of nomenclature perfectly unscriptural and absurd, because no apostle, in the New Testament, is ever called a bishop; but on the contrary, the office was evidently created to provide a substitute for an apostle,——a person who might perform the pastoral duties to the church, in the absence of its apostolic founder,overseeingand managing all its affairs in his stead, to report to him at his visitations, or in reply to his epistolary charges. To call an apostle a bishop, therefore, implies the absurdity of calling a superior officer by the title of his inferior,——as to call a captain, lieutenant, or a general-in-chief, colonel, or even as to call a bishop, deacon. During the life-time of the apostles, “bishop” was only a secondary title, and it was not till the death of all those commissioned by Christ, that this became the supreme officer in all churches. But the papists not appreciating any difficulty of this kind, go on crowning one absurdity with another, which claims, however, the additional merit of being amusing in its folly. This is the minute particularization of the shape, stuff, accoutrements and so on, of the chair in which bishopPeter sat at Rome in his episcopal character. This identical wooden chair in which his apostolical body was seated when he was exerting the functions of his bishopric, is still, according to the same high papal authorities which maintain the fact of his ever having been bishop, preserved in the Basilica of the Vatican, at Rome, and is even now, on certain high occasions, brought out from its holy storehouse to bless with its presence the eyes of the adoring people. This chair is kept covered with a linen veil, among the various similar treasures of the Vatican, and has been eminent for the vast numbers of great miracles wrought by its presence. As a preliminary step, however, to a real faith in the efficacy of this old piece of furniture, it is necessary that those who hear the stories should believe that Peter was ever at Rome, to sit in this or any other chair there. It is observed, however, in connection with this lumbering article, in the papist histories, that on taking possession of this chair, as bishop of Rome, Peter resigned the bishopric of Antioch, committing that see to the charge of Euodius, it having been the original diocese of this chief apostle,——a story about as true, as that any apostle was everbishopany where. The apostles were missionaries, for the most part, preaching the word of God from place to place, appointing bishops to govern and manage the churches in their absence, and after their final departure, as their successors and substitutes; but no apostle is, on any occasion whatever, called a bishop in any part of the New Testament, or by anyearlywriter. The most important objection, however, to all this absurd account of Peter, as bishop of Rome, is the fact uniformly attested by those early fathers, who allude to his having ever visited that city, that having founded the church there, he appointed Linus theFIRST BISHOP,——a statement in exact accordance with the view here given of the office of a bishop, and of the mode in which the apostles constituted that office in the churches founded and visited by them.The date of the foundation.——All this is announced with the most elaborate solemnity, in all the older papist writers, because on this point of the foundation of the Roman church by Peter, they were long in the habit of basing the whole right and title of the bishop of Rome, as Peter’s successor, to the supremacy of the church universal. The great authorities, quoted by them in support of this exact account of the whole affair, with all its dates, even to the month and day, are the bulls of some of the popes, enforcing the celebration of that day throughout all the churches under the Romish see, and the forms of prayer in which this occasion is commemorated even to this day. Moreover, a particular form is quoted from some of the old rituals of the church, not now in use, in which the ancient mode of celebrating this event, in prayer and thanksgiving, is verbally given. “Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui ineffabili sacramento, apostolo tuo Petro principatum Romae urbis tribuisti, unde se evangelica veritas per tota mundi regna diffunderet: praesta quaesumus, ut quod in orbemterrarum ejus praedicatione manavit, universitas Christiana devotione sequatur.”——“Almighty, eternal God, who by an ineffable consecration, didst give to thy apostle Peter the dominion of the city of Rome, that thence the gospel truth might diffuse itself throughout all the kingdoms of the world: grant, we pray, that what has flowed into the whole circuit of the earth by his preaching, all Christendom may devoutly follow.”——A prayer so melodiously expressed, and in such beautiful Latin, that it is a great pity it should have been a mere trick, to spread and perpetuate a downright, baseless lie, which had no other object than the extension of the gloomy, soul-darkening tyranny of the papal sway. Other forms of prayer, for private occasions, are also mentioned by Baronius, as commemorating the foundation of the church of Rome by Peter; and all these, as well as the former, being fixed for the fifteenth of February, as above quoted. Those records of fables, also, the old Roman martyrologies, are cited for evidence. The later Latin fathers add their testimony, and even the devout Augustin (sermons 15, 16, de sanct,&c.) is quoted in support of it. Baronius gives all these evidences, (Annales,45,§1,) and goes on to earn the cardinal’s hat, which finally rewarded his zealous efforts, by maintaining the unity and universality of this apostolic foundation, and the absolute supremacy consequently appertaining to the succession of Peter in the Roman see.Peter’s chair.——This fable (page 225) is from Baronius, who wrote about 1580; but alas! modern accidental discoveries make dreadful havoc with papistical antiquities, and have done as much to correct the mistake in this matter, as in Justin’s blunder about Simon Magus. I had transcribed Baronius’s story into the text as above without knowing of the fact, till a glance at the investigations of the sagacious Bower gave me the information which I here extract from him.“They had, as they thought, till the year 1662, a pregnant proof, not only ofSt.Peter’s erecting their chair, but of his sitting in it himself; for till that year, the very chair, on which they believed, or would make others believe, he had sat, was shown and exposed to public adoration on the18thof January, the festival of the said chair. But while it was cleaning, in order to be set up in some conspicuous place of the Vatican, the twelve labors of Hercules unluckily appeared engraved on it. ‘Our worship, however,’ says Giacomo Bartolini, who was present at this discovery, and relates it, ‘was not misplaced, since it was not to the wood we paid it, but to the prince of the apostles,St.Peter.’ An author of no mean character, unwilling to give up the holy chair, even after this discovery, as having a place and a peculiar solemnity among the other saints, has attempted to explain the labors of Hercules in a mystical sense, as emblems representing the future exploits of the popes. (Luchesini catedra restituita aS.Pietro.) But the ridiculous and distorted conceits of that writer are not worthy our notice, though by ClementX.they were judged not unworthy of a reward.” (Bower’s Lives of the Popes,Vol. I.p.7, 4to.ed.1749.)The next noticeable thing that Peter is made to do at Rome, is the sending out of his disciples from Rome to act as missionaries and bishops in the various wide divisions of the Roman empire, westward from the capital, which were yet wholly unoccupied by the preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In his supposed character of keeper of the great flock of Christ, having now fully established the Roman see, he turned his eyes to those distant regions, and considering their religious wants and utter spiritual destitution, sent into them several disciples whom he is supposed to have qualified for such labors by his own minute personal instructions. Thus, as rays from the sun, and as streams from the fountain, did the Christian faith go forth through these from the see of Peter, and spread far and wide throughout the world. So say the imaginative papist historians, whose fancy not resting satisfied with merely naming the regions to which these new missionaries werenow sent, goes on with a catalogue of the persons, and of the places where they became finally established in their bishoprics. But it would be honoring such fables too much, to record the long string of names which are in the papist annals, given to designate the missionaries thus sent out, and the particular places to which they were sent. It is enough to notice that the sum of the whole story is, that preachers of the gospel were thus sent not only into the western regions alluded to, but into many cities of Italy and Sicily. In Gaul, Spain and Germany, many are said to have been certainly established; and to extend the fable as far as possible, it is even hinted that Britain received the gospel through the preaching of some of these missionaries of Peter; but this distant circumstance is stated rather as a conjecture, while the rest are minutely and seriously given, in all the grave details of persons and places.In various works of this character, Peter is said by the propagators of this fable to have passed seven years at Rome, during all which time he is not supposed to have gone beyond the bounds of the city. The occasion of his departure at the end of this long period, as stated by the fabulous records from which the whole story is drawn, was the great edict of Claudius Caesar, banishing all Jews from Rome, among whom Peter must of course have been included. This imperial sentence of general banishment, is not only alluded to in the Acts of the Apostles, but is particularly specified in the Roman and Jewish historians of those times; from which its exact date is ascertained to have been theninthyear of the reign of Claudius, from which, as Peter is supposed to have gone to Rome in thesecondyear of that reign, the intervening time must have been, as above stated,sevenyears. The particulars of this general banishment, its motives and results, will be better given in that part of this work where important points in authentic true history are connected with the event. Under these circumstances, however, the great first bishop of Rome is supposed to have left this now consecrated capital of Christendom, and traveled off eastward, along with the general throng of Jewish fugitives. Some of the papist commentators on this story are nevertheless, so much scandalized at the thought of Peter’s running away in this seemingly undignified manner, (though this is in fact the part of the story which is most consistent with the real truth, since no apostle was ever taught to consider it beneath his dignity to get out of danger,) that they therefore strive to make itappear that he still stayed in Rome, in spite of the imperial edict, and boldly preached the gospel, without reference to danger, until, soon after, it became necessary for him to go to the east on important business. The majority, however, are agreed that he did remove from Rome along with the rest of the Jews, though while he remained there, he is supposed to have kept up the apostolic dignity by preaching at all risks. His journey eastward is made out in rather a circuitous manner, probably for no better reason than to make their stories as long as possible; and therefore it is enough to say, that he is carried by the continuation of the fable, from Rome first into Africa, where he erected a church at Carthage, over which he ordained Crescens, one of his Roman disciples, as bishop. Proceeding next along the northern coast of the continent, he is brought to Alexandria, where, of course, he founds a church, leaving the evangelist Mark in it, as bishop; and passing up the Nile to Thebes, constitutes Rufus there, in the same capacity. Thence the fabulous chroniclers carry him at once to Jerusalem; and here ends this tedious string of details, the story being now resumed from the clear and honest record of the sacred historian, to the great refreshment of the writer as well as the reader, after dealing so long in what is utterly unalloyed falsehood.Peter, bishop of Rome.——The great question of his having ever visited this city, has two separate and distinct parts, resting on totally different grounds, since they refer to two widely distant periods of time; but that part which refers to his early visit, being connected with this portion of the history, I proceed in this place to the full examination ofallthe evidences, which have ever been brought in support of both divisions of this great subject in papal dogmatic history, from the supposed records of this event in the writings of the early Christian Fathers. On this head, instead of myself entering into a course of investigations among these writers, which my very slight acquaintance with their works would make exceedingly laborious to me, and probably very incomplete after all, I here avail myself of the learned and industrious research of my friend, theRev.Dr.Murdock, widely and honorably known as the Translator and Annotator of Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History. Through his kindness, I am allowed the free use of a long series of instructive lectures, formerly delivered by him as a professor of Ecclesiastical History, which having been subsequently modified to suit a popular audience, will bring the whole of this learned matter, with the fullest details of the argument, in a form perfectly intelligible and acceptable to my readers.THE TESTIMONY OF THE EARLY FATHERS.In the latter part of the first century, Clement, bishop of Rome, (Epistle I. to Corinth,§5,) speaks of Paul and Peter as persecuted, and dying as martyrs. But he does not say when, or where. In the middle of the second century, Justin Martyr speaks of Simon Magus, his magic and his deification, at Rome; but makes no mention of Peter’s going to Rome, to combat him. Nor does any other father, so far as I know, till after A. D. 300. About twenty years after Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, (bishop of Lyons,) wrote his five books against the heretics; in which he confutes them, by the testimony of those churches which weresaidto have been founded immediately by the apostles. The following extract from him will fully illustrate that mode of reasoning,and also show us what Irenaeus knew of Peter’s being at Rome. He says: “The doctrine preached to all the world by the apostles, is now found in the church;——as all may see if they are willing to learn; and we are able to name the persons whom the apostles constituted the bishops of the churches, and their successors down to our times; who have never taught or known any such doctrine as the heretics advance. Now if the apostles had been acquainted with [certain] recondite mysteries, which they taught privately, and only to such as were the most perfect, they would certainly have taught them to those men to whom they committed the care of the churches; for they required them to be very perfect and blameless in all things, whom they made their successors and substitutes in office;——because, if they conducted aright, great advantage would result; but if they should go wrong, immense evils would ensue. But, as it would be tedious, in the present work, to enumerate the successions in all the churches, I will mention but one,viz.the greatest, most ancient, and well-known by all,the church founded and established at Rome, by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul. The faith of this church was the result of apostolic teaching, and the same as was every where preached; and it has come down to us through a succession of bishops; and by this example we confound all those who, in any manner, either from selfish views and vain glory, or from blindness to truth and erroneous belief, hold forth false doctrine. For with this church, on account of its superior pre-eminence, every other church,——that is, the true believers every where,——must agree; because, in it has ever been preserved the doctrine derived immediately from the apostles, and which was every where propagated. The blessed apostles having founded and instructed this church,committed the episcopacy of it to Linus; who is mentioned by Paul in his epistle to Timothy. Anacletus succeeded Linus; and after him, the third bishop from the apostles, was Clement, who saw the apostles themselves, and conferred with them, while their preaching and instruction was still sounding in his ears.” Irenaeus then enumerates the succeeding bishops, down to Eleutherius, “who,” he says, “is now the twelfth bishop from the apostles.” In the preceding section, Irenaeus tells us that Matthew wrote his gospel “while Peter and Paul were preaching, and founding the church at Rome.”Here is full and explicit testimony, that Paul and Peter, unitedly, preached and founded the church at Rome; and that they constitutedLinus the first bishopthere. The languageexcludes both Peter and Paul,——and excludes both equally,from the episcopal chair at Rome. “They committed the episcopacy to Linus;” who was the first bishop, as Clement was the third, and Eleutherius the twelfth. Contemporary with Irenaeus was Dionysius, bishop of Corinth. In reply to a monitory letter from the Romish church, of which Eusebius (Church History,II.25,) has preserved an extract, Dionysius says: “By this your excellent admonition, you have united in one the planting, by Peter and Paul, of the Romans and Corinthians. For both of them coming to our Corinth, planted and instructed us;——and in like manner, going to Italy together,——after teaching there, they suffered martyrdom at the same time.” From this testimony we may learn how and when Peter went to Rome; as well as what relation he sustained to the church there. He and Paul came to Corinth together; and when they had regulated and instructed that church, they went on together to Italy, and did the same things at Rome as before at Corinth. Now this, if true, must have been after the captivity of Paul at Rome, mentioned in the book of Acts. For Paul never went directly from Corinth to Rome before that captivity, since he never was at Rome before he was carried there a prisoner, in the year A. D. 62. But, if released in the year 64, he might have visited Corinth afterwards, with Peter, and then have traveled with him to Rome. To the church of Rome, Peter and Paul sustained the same relation; and that was the same as they had sustained to the church of Corinth,viz.that ofapostolic teachers and founders,——not that ofORDINARY BISHOPS.That is, Peter was no more the bishop of Rome than Paul was; and neither of them, any more the bishop of Rome than both were bishops of Corinth. Dionysius likewise, here affirms, that Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom “at the same time;” and probably at Rome, where they last taught. That Rome was the place is proved by Caius, a Romish ecclesiastic, about A. D. 200, as quoted by Eusebius, (Church History,II.25.) “I am able,” says he, “to show the trophies [the sepulchers] of the apostles. For if you will go to the Vatican, or along the Via Ostia, you will find the trophies of those who established this church.”The next father, Clement of Alexandria, (about A. D. 200,) reports it as tradition, that Mark wrote his gospel at Rome, while Peter was preaching there. (Eusebius, Church History,VI.14.) In the forepart of the third century, lived Tertullian, a fervid and learned writer. He assailed the heretics with the same argument as Irenaeus did. “Run over,” says he, “the apostolic churches, in which the chairs of apostles still preside in their places, and in which the autographs of their epistles are still read. If you are near to Italy, you have Rome, a witness for us; and how blessed a church is that on which apostles poured out their whole doctrine, together with their blood! where Peter equaled our Lord in his mode of suffering; and where Paul was crowned, with the exit of John the Baptist.” (De praescriptione haereticorumc.36.) In another work he says: “Let us see what the Romans hold forth; to whom Peter and Paul imparted the gospel sealed with their own blood.” (adversus Marcion,IV.c.5.) Again he says: “Neither is there a disparity between those whom John baptized in the Jordan, and Peter in the Tiber.” (de Baptismo.) He moreover testifies that Peter suffered in the reign of Nero, (Scorpiac.c.15,) and that this apostle ordained Clement bishop of Rome. (Praescriptionec.32.) In the middle of the third century, Cyprian of Carthage, writing to the bishop of Rome, (Epistle 55, to Cornelius) calls the church of Rome “the principal church;” and that where “Peter’s chair” was;——and “whose faith was derived from apostolic preaching.” In the end of the third century or the beginning of the fourth, Lactantius (Divine Institutes,IV.c.21,) speaks of “Peter and Paul” as having wrought miracles, and uttered predictions at Rome; and describes their prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem. And in his work on the Deaths of Persecutors, (chapter 2,) he says: “During the reign of Nero, Peter came to Rome; and having wrought several miracles by the power of God, which rested on him, he converted many to righteousness, and erected a faithful and abiding temple for God. This became known to Nero, who, learning that multitudes, not only at Rome but in all other places, were abandoning idolatry and embracing the new religion, and being hurried on to all sorts of cruelty by his brutal tyranny, set himself, the first of all, to destroy this religion, and to persecute the servants of God. So he ordered Peter to be crucified and Paul to be beheaded.” I have now detailed every important testimony which I could find in the genuine works of the fathers, in the three first centuries. The witnesses agree very well; and they relate nothing but what may be true. They make Peter and Paul to go from Corinth to Rome, in company, during the reign of Nero; and after preaching and strengthening the church at Rome, and ordaining Linus to be its first bishop,——both suffering martyrdom at Rome on the same day; Peter being crucified and Paul decapitated. There is no representation of Peter’s being any more bishop of Rome than Paul was;——and Irenaeus in particular, expressly makes Linus the first bishop, and to be ordained by the two apostles.We now come to Eusebius, who wrote about A. D. 325. He quotes most of the fathers above cited, but departs widely from them, in regard to the time, and the occasion, of Peter’s going to Rome. He says it was in the reign of Claudius;——and for the purpose of opposing Simon Magus, (as the Clementine novels represented the matter.) Yet he does not make Peter to be bishop of Rome. The subsequent writers of the fourth and following centuries, agreewith Eusebius as to the time and the occasion of Peter’s going to Rome; and most of them make Peter to be the first bishop of Rome. According to them, Peter remained in Judea only about four years after the ascension; then he was bishop of Antioch seven years, and in the second year of Claudius, A. D. 43, removed his chair to Rome, where he was bishop for twenty-five years, or until his death, A. D. 68. And this is the account generally given by the papists, quite down to the present times.OBJECTIONS TO THE TRADITIONARY HISTORY OF PETER.1. So far as the later fathers contradict those of the three first centuries, they ought to be rejected; because, they could not have so good means of information. Oral tradition must, in three centuries, have become worthless, compared with what it was in the second and third centuries;——and written testimony, which could be relied on, they had none, except that of the early fathers. Besides, we have seen how these later fathers were led astray. They believed the fable of Simon Magus’s legerdemain at Rome, and his deification there. They read the Clementine fictions, and supposed them to be novels founded on facts. In their eulogies of Peter, they were fond of relating marvelous and affecting stories about him, and therefore too readily admitted fabulous traditions. And lastly, the bishops of Rome and their numerous adherents had a direct and an immense interest depending on this traditional history;——for by it alone, they made out their succession to the chair of Peter, and the legitimacy of their ghostly power.2. The later fathers invalidate their own testimony, by stating what is incredible, and what neither they nor their modern adherents can satisfactorily explain. They state that Linus succeeded Peter, for about twelve years; then followed Cletus or Anacletus, for about twelve years more; and then succeeded Clement. And yet they tell us, all the three were ordained by the hands of Peter. How could this be? Did Peter ordain three successive bishops, after he was dead?——or did he resign his office to these bishops, and retire to a private station, more than twenty-five years before his crucifixion? No, says Epiphanius, (Against Heresies,27,) and after him most of the modern papists; (Nat. Alex. H. E. saecul. I. Diss. XIII. Burius,&c.) but Peter being often absent from Rome, and having a vast weight of cares, had assistant bishops; and Linus and Cletus were not the successors but the assistants of Peter. But Irenaeus, Eusebius, Jerome, and all the authorized catalogues of popes, explicitly make Linus and Cletus to be successors to Peter. Besides, why did Peter need an assistant any more than the succeeding pontiffs? And what age since has ever witnessed an assistant pope at Rome? A more plausible solution (but which the papists cannot admit) is given by Rufinus. (Preface to Clementine Recognitions) “As I understand it,” says he, “Linus and Cletus were the bishops of Rome in Peter’s life-time; so that they performed the episcopal functions, and he, those of an apostle. And, in this way the whole may be true,” says Rufinus. Granted, if this were the only objection; and if it could be made out that Peter went to Rome full twenty-four years before his martyrdom. But supposing it true, how can the successors of Linus and Cletus, the bishops, be successors of Peter, the apostle.3. Peter removed his chair to Rome, (say the later fathers and most of the Catholics,) in the second year of Claudius, that is, A. D. 43; and he resided there twenty-four years, or till his death. But we have the best proof,——that of holy writ,——that Peter was resident at Jerusalem, as late as the year A. D. 44; when king Agrippa seized him there, and imprisoned him, with intent to kill him. (Actsxii.3–19.) And we have similar proof that he was still there in the year 51; when he deliberated and acted with the other apostles and brethren of Jerusalem, on the question of obliging Gentiles to observe the law of Moses. (Actsxv.7,&c.; Galatiansii.1–9.) And, moreover, some time after this, as Paul tells us, (Galatiansii.11–14,) he came to Antioch, in Syria, and there dissembled about eating with the Gentiles. The common reply of the Catholicsis, that Peter often made long journeys; and he might happen to be at Jerusalem, and at Antioch, at these times. But this solution is rejected by the more candid Romanists themselves, who agree with the early fathers, asserting that Peter first went to Rome in the reign of Nero. (See Pagi Critique of Baronius’s Annale,43.)4. Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans in the year 59, as is supposed. And from this epistle it is almost certain, Peter was not then at Rome; and highly probable he had never been there. Throughout the epistle, Peter’s name is not even mentioned; nor is that of Linus or Cletus, his supposed assistants, who always, it is said, supplied his place when he was absent. Indeed, so far as can be gathered from Paul’s epistle, the Romish Christians appear not to have had, at that time nor previously, any bishop or any ecclesiastical head. The epistle is addressed “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints.” (Romansi.7.) It exhorts them to obey magistrates;——but not to reverence and obey their spiritual rulers. (Romansxiii.1,&c.) It inculcates on them all, the duty of living in harmony,——of being modest and humble,——of using their different gifts for the common good; (Romansxii.3,&c.;) but gives no intimation that they were amenable to any ecclesiastical authorities. It gives them rules for conducting their disciplinary acts, as a popular body, (Romansxiv.1,&c.,) but does not refer to any regulations given them bySt.Peter and his assistants. It contains salutations to near thirty persons, male and female, whom Paul knew personally, or by hearsay, (chapterxvi.) but neither Peter, nor Linus, nor Cletus is of the number; nor is any one spoken of as bishop, or elder, or pastor, or as clothed with any ecclesiastical authority. Priscilla and Aquila, and several others whom he had known in Greece or Asia, are named; and seem to be the leading persons in the church. Indeed, it would seem that no apostle had, as yet, ever been at Rome. Paul says he had “had a great desire, for many years,” to visit them, and he intended to do so as soon as possible. (Romansxv.23.) And he tells them why he longed to see them, that he might impart to them “some spiritual gifts;”——that is, some of those miraculous gifts, which none but apostles could confer. (Romansi.11.) I may add, that Paul gives them a whole system of divinity in this epistle; and crowds more theology into it, than into any other he ever wrote;——as if he considered this church as needing fundamental instruction in the gospel, more than any other. Now, how could all this be, if Peter had been there fifteen years, with an assistant bishop to aid him; and had completely organized, and regulated, and instructed this central church of all Christendom? What Catholic bishop, at the present day, would dare to address the church of Rome without once naming his liege lord, the pope; and would give them a whole system of theology, and numerous rules and regulations for their private conduct and for their public discipline, without even an intimation that they had any spiritual guides and rulers, to whom they were accountable?5. Three years after this epistle was written, (that is, A. D. 62,) Paul arrived at Rome, and was there detained a prisoner for two years, or until A. D. 64. Now let us see if we can find Peter there, at or during this period. When it was known at Rome that Paul was approaching the city, the Christians there went twenty miles to meet him, and escort him;——so eager were they to see an apostle of Jesus Christ. Three days after his arrival, “Paul called the chief of the Jews together,” to have conversation with them. They had heard nothing against him, and they were glad to see him,——for they wished to hear more about the Christian sect; “for,” said they, “as concerning this sect, we know that it is every where spoken against;” and “we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest.” (Actsxxviii.22.) They appointed him a day, when they all assembled for the purpose, and he addressed them “from morning till evening.” Now could Peter, the apostle of the circumcision, have been near twenty years bishop of Rome, and so full of business as to employ an assistant bishop, and yet the Jews there be so ignorant of Christianity, and soglad to meet with one who could satisfy their curiosity to learn something about it? Moreover, Paul now continued to preach the gospel in “his own hired house,” at Rome, for two years; (Actsxxviii.30, 31;) and it would seem, was very successful. During this time he wrote his epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and perhaps, that to the Hebrews. In these epistles he often speaks of his success in making converts, and of the brethren who labored with him;——but he does not once even name Peter, or Linus, or Cletus,——or intimate, at all, that there was a cathedral church at Rome, with an apostle or any bishop at its head. He sends numerous salutations from individuals whom he names, and from little companies of Christians in their houses,——but no salutations from Peter, or from any bishop, or other officer of the church there. The Catholics tell us, Peter might happen to be absent during this period. What! absent two whole years! and his assistant bishop also? Very negligent shepherds! But where was the church all this time,——the enlightened Christian community, and the elders and deacons, who governed and instructed it, from Sabbath to Sabbath? Were all these, too, gone a journey? No: it is manifest Paul was now the only regular preacher of the gospel at Rome: and he was breaking up fallow ground, that had never before been cultivated, and sown, and made to bear fruit.[This closes the learned argument on the testimonies of the Fathers, extracted fromDr.Murdock’s manuscripts.]Lardner also gives a sort of abstract of the passages in the fathers, which refer to this subject, but not near so full, nor so just to the original passages, as that ofDr.Murdock, although he refers to a few authors not alluded to here, whose testimony, however, amounts to little or nothing. Lardner’s disposition to believe all these long-established Roman fables, seems very great, and, on these points, his critical accuracy appears to fail in maintaining its general character. However, in the simple passage from Clemens Romanus, referred to above, he is very full, not only translating the whole passage relating to Peter and Paul, but entering into a very elaborate discussion of the views taken of it; but after all he fails so utterly in rearing an historical argument on this slender basis, that I cannot feel called on to do anything more than barely refer the critical reader to the passage in his life of Peter, (VII.)Bower has given numerous quotations, too, from these sources, but nothing not contained in the abstract above, of which a great merit is, that it gives all the passagesin full, in a faithful and highly expressive translation. (See Bower’s Lives of the Popes. “Peter.”)THE COUNCIL OF THE APOSTLES AT JERUSALEM.The last circumstance of Peter’s life and actions, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, is one so deeply involved also in the conduct of others of the holy band, that the history of the whole affair can be best given in connection with their lives; more especially as the immediate occasion of it arose under the labors of these other persons. All the statement which is here necessary to introduce the part which Peter took in the sayings and doings on this occasion, is simply as follows. Paul and Barnabas, having returned to Antioch from their first great mission from that city, throughout almost the whole circuit of Asia Minor, were, soon after their arrival in that city, involved in a vexatious dispute with a set of persons, who, having come down from Jerusalem, had undertaken to give the Syrian Christians more careful instructions in the minutiae of religious duty, than they had received from those who had originally effected their conversion. Thesenew teachers being directly from that holy city, which, having been the great scene of the instructions and sufferings of Jesus Christ, and still being the seat of the apostolic college, was regarded by all, as the true source of religious light, to Christians as well as Jews, throughout the world, therefore made no small commotion in the church of Antioch, when they began to inculcate, as essential to salvation, a full conformity to all the minute ritual observances of the Mosaic law. The church of Antioch, having been planted and taught by men of a more catholic spirit, had gathered within itself a large number of heathen from that Gentile city, who, led by their convictions of the truth and spirituality of the Christian faith, had renounced entirely all the idolatries in which they had been brought up, giving themselves, as it would seem, with honest resolution, to a life of such moral purity, as they considered alone essential to the maintenance of their new religious character. Still, they had never supposed, that in renouncing their idolatrous superstitions, they had bound themselves to throw off also those customs of their country, which could have no connection with moral purity of conduct, and had therefore still remained in national peculiarities, Gentiles; though in creed, and religious practice, Christians. In this course they had been encouraged by the liberal and enlarged views of their religious instructors, who had never once hinted at the necessity of imposing upon Gentile Christians the burden of the Jewish law, which all the impressions of education and previous habits of life would have made quite intolerable. The wisdom of this enlightened spirit was seen in the great accessions of Gentiles, who, being convinced of the necessity of a moral change, were not met by any ceremonial impediments to the full adoption of a pure religion. Paul and Barnabas were, therefore, not a little troubled with this new difficulty, brought in by these Jewish teachers, who, being fresh from the fountain of religious knowledge, claimed great authority in reference to all delicate points of this nature. At last, after long and violent disputes between these old-school and new-school theologians, it was resolved to refer the whole matter to the twelve apostles themselves, at Jerusalem, who might well be supposed qualified to say what they considered to be the essential doctrines and observances of Christianity. Paul and Barnabas, therefore, with some of the rest engaged in the discussion, went up to Jerusalem as a delegation, for this purpose, and presented the whole difficulty to the considerationof the apostles. So little settled, after all, were the views and feelings of these first preachers of Christianity about the degree of freedom to be enjoyed by the numerous Gentile converts, that all the Jewish prejudices of many of them burst out at once, and high ground was taken against any dispensation in favor of Gentile prejudices. After a long discussion, in full assembly of both apostles and church-officers, Peter arose in the midst of the debate, taking the superiority to which his peculiar commission and his long precedence among them entitled him, and in a tone of dignified decision addressed them. He reminded them, in the first place, of that unquestionable call by which God had chosen him from among all the apostles, to proclaim to the heathen the word of the gospel, and of that solemn sign by which God had attested the completeness of their conversion, knowing, as he did, the hearts of all his creatures. The signs of the Holy Spirit having been imparted to the heathen converts with the same perfection of regenerating influence that had been manifested in those of the Jewish faith who had believed, it was manifestly challenging the testimony of God himself, to try to put on them the irksome yoke of the tedious Mosaic ritual, a yoke which not even the Jewish disciples, nor their fathers before them, had been able to bear in all the appointed strictness of its observances; and much less, then, could they expect a burden so intolerable, to be supported by those to whom it had none of the sanctions of national and educational prejudice, which so much assisted its dominion over the feelings of the Jews. And all the disciples, even those of Jewish race, must be perfectly satisfied that their whole reliance for salvation should be, not on any legal conformity, but on that common favor of their Lord, Jesus Christ, in which the Gentile converts also trusted.Challenge the testimony of God.——This is the substance of Kuinoel’s ideas of the force of this passage, (Actsxv.10.)πειραζετε τον θεον, (peirazete ton Theon.) His words are, “Tentare Deum dicuntur, qui veritatem, omnipotentiam, omniscientiam, etc. Dei in dubium vocare, vel nova divinae potentiae ac voluntatis documenta desiderant, adeoque Deo obnituntur.”——“Those are said to tempt God who call in question God’s truth, omnipotence, omniscience,&c., or demand new evidences of the divine power or will, and thus strive against God.” He quotes Pott and Schleusner in support of this view of the passage. Rosenmueller and Bloomfield take the same view, as well as many others quoted by the latter and by Poole. Bloomfield is very full on the whole of Peter’s speech, and on all the discussion, with the occasions of it.Chose me.——This passage has been the subject of much discussion, but I have given a free translation which disagrees with no one of the views of itsliteralforce. The fairest opinion of the matter is, that the expressionεξελεξατο εν ημιν, is a Hebraism. (See Vorstius and others quoted by Bloomfield.)
The next conclusion authorized by those who support this fable is, that Peter, after achieving this great work of vanquishing the impostor Simon, proceeded to preach the gospel generally; yet not at first to the hereditary citizens of imperial Rome, nor to any of the Gentiles, but to his own countrymen the Jews, great numbers of whom then made their permanent abode in the great city. These foreigners, at that time, were limited in Rome to a peculiar section of the suburbs, and hardly dwelt within the walls of the city itself;——an allotment corresponding with similar limitations existing in some of the modern cities of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, and even in London, though there, only in accordance with long usage, and with actual convenience, but not with any existing law. The quarter of Rome in which the Jews dwelt in the days of Claudius, was west of the central section of the city, beyond the Tiber; and to this suburban portion, the story supposes the residence and labors of Peter to have been at first confined. But after a time, the fame of this mighty preacher ofa new faith spread beyond, from this despised foreign portion of the environs, across the Tiber, over the seven hills themselves, and even into the halls of the patrician lords of Rome. Such an extension of fame, indeed, seems quite necessary to make these two parts of this likely story hang together at all; for it is hard to see how a stranger, from a distant eastern land, could thus appear suddenly among them, and overturn, with a defeat so total and signal, the pretensions of one who had lately been exalted by the opinions of an adoring people to the character of a god, and had even received the solemn national sanction of this exaltation by a formal decree of the senate of Rome, confirmed by the absolute voice of the Caesar himself; and after such a victory, over such a person, be left long unnoticed in an obscure suburb. In accordance, therefore, with this reasonable notion, it is recorded in the continuation of the story, that when Peter, preaching at Rome, grew famous among the Gentiles, he was no longer allowed to occupy himself wholly among the Jews, but was thereafter taken by Pudens, a senator who believed in Christ, into his own house, on the Viminal Mount, one of the seven hills, but near the Jewish suburb. In the neighborhood of this house, as the legend relates, was afterwards erected a monument, called “the Shepherd’s,”——a name which serves to identify this important locality to the modern Romans to this day. Being thus established in these lordly patrician quarters, the poor Galilean fisherman might well have thought himself blessed, in such a pleasant change from the uncomfortable lodgings with which the royal Agrippa had lately accommodated him, and from which he had made so willing an exit. But the legend does the faithful and devoted apostle the justice, to represent him as by no means moved by these luxurious circumstances, to the least forgetfulness of the high commission which was to be followed through all sorts of self-denial,——no less that which drew him from the soft and soul-relaxing enjoyments of a patrician palace, than that which led him to renounce the simple, hard-earned profits of a fisherman, on the changeful sea of Gennesaret, or to calmly meet the threats, the stripes, the chains, and the condemned cell, with which the enmity of the Jewish magistrates had steadily striven to quench his fiery and energetic spirit. He is described as steadily laboring in the cause of the gospel among the Gentiles as well as the Jews, and with such success during the whole of the first year of his stay, that in the beginning of the following year he is said by papistwriters to have solemnly and formally foundedthe church of Rome. This important fictitious event is dated with the most exact particularity, on the fifteenth of February, in the forty-third year of Christ, and the third year of the reign of the emperor Claudius. The empty, unmeaning pomposity of this announcement is a sufficient evidence of its fictitious character. According to the story itself, here Peter had been preaching nearly a whole year at Rome; and if preaching, having a regular congregation, of course, and performing the usual accompaniments of preaching, as baptism,&c.Now there is not in the whole apostolic history the least account, nor the shadow of a hint, of any such ceremony as the founding of a church, distinct from the mere gathering of an assembly of believing listeners, who acknowledged their faith in Jesus by profession and by the sacraments. The organization of this religious assembly might indeed be made more perfect at one time than at another; as for instance, a new church, which during an apostle’s stay with it and preaching to it, had been abundantly well governed by the simple guidance of his wise, fatherly care, would, on his departure, need some more regular, permanent provision for its government, lest among those who were all religious co-equals, there should arise disputes which would require a regularly constituted authority to allay them. The apostle might, therefore, in such advanced requirements of the church, ordain elders, and so on; but such an appendix could not, with the slightest regard to common sense or the rules of honest interpretation of language, be said to constitute the founding of a church. The very phrase of ordaining elders in a church, palpably implies and requires the previous distinct, complete existence of the church. In fact the entity of a church implies nothing more than a regular assembly of believers, with an authorized ministry; and if Peter had been preaching several months to the Jews of the trans-Tiberine suburb, or to the Romans of the Viminal mount, there must have been in one or both of those places, achurch, to all intents, purposes, definitions and etymologies of a church. So that for him, almost a year after, to proceed tofounda church in Rome, was the most idle work of supererogation in the world. And all the pompous statements of papist writers about any such formality, and all the quotations that might be brought out of the fathers in its support, from Clement downwards, could not relieve the assertion of one particle of its palpable, self-evident absurdity. But the fable proceeds in the account of this important movement, datingthe apostolic reign of Peter from this very occasion, as above fixed, and running over various imaginary acts of his, during the tedious seven years for which the story ties him down to this one spot. Among many other unfounded matters, is specified the assertion, that from this city during the first year of his episcopate, he wrote his first epistle, which he addressed to the believers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,——the countries which are enumerated as visited by him in his fictitious tour. This opinion is grounded on the circumstance of its being dated from Babylon, which several later fathers understood as a term spiritually applied to Rome; but in the proper place this notion will be fully discussed, and the true origin of the epistle more satisfactorily given. Another important event in the history of the scriptures,——the writing of the gospel of Mark,——is also commonly connected with this part of Peter’s life, by the papist historians; but this event, with an account of the nature of this supposed connection, and the discussion of all points in this subject, can be better shown in the life of that evangelist; and to that it is therefore deferred. These matters and several others as little in place, seem to be introduced into this part of Peter’s life, mainly for the sake of giving him something particular to do, during his somewhat tedious stay in Rome, where they make him remain seven years after his first journey thither; and give him here the character, office and title ofbishop,——a piece of nomenclature perfectly unscriptural and absurd, because no apostle, in the New Testament, is ever called a bishop; but on the contrary, the office was evidently created to provide a substitute for an apostle,——a person who might perform the pastoral duties to the church, in the absence of its apostolic founder,overseeingand managing all its affairs in his stead, to report to him at his visitations, or in reply to his epistolary charges. To call an apostle a bishop, therefore, implies the absurdity of calling a superior officer by the title of his inferior,——as to call a captain, lieutenant, or a general-in-chief, colonel, or even as to call a bishop, deacon. During the life-time of the apostles, “bishop” was only a secondary title, and it was not till the death of all those commissioned by Christ, that this became the supreme officer in all churches. But the papists not appreciating any difficulty of this kind, go on crowning one absurdity with another, which claims, however, the additional merit of being amusing in its folly. This is the minute particularization of the shape, stuff, accoutrements and so on, of the chair in which bishopPeter sat at Rome in his episcopal character. This identical wooden chair in which his apostolical body was seated when he was exerting the functions of his bishopric, is still, according to the same high papal authorities which maintain the fact of his ever having been bishop, preserved in the Basilica of the Vatican, at Rome, and is even now, on certain high occasions, brought out from its holy storehouse to bless with its presence the eyes of the adoring people. This chair is kept covered with a linen veil, among the various similar treasures of the Vatican, and has been eminent for the vast numbers of great miracles wrought by its presence. As a preliminary step, however, to a real faith in the efficacy of this old piece of furniture, it is necessary that those who hear the stories should believe that Peter was ever at Rome, to sit in this or any other chair there. It is observed, however, in connection with this lumbering article, in the papist histories, that on taking possession of this chair, as bishop of Rome, Peter resigned the bishopric of Antioch, committing that see to the charge of Euodius, it having been the original diocese of this chief apostle,——a story about as true, as that any apostle was everbishopany where. The apostles were missionaries, for the most part, preaching the word of God from place to place, appointing bishops to govern and manage the churches in their absence, and after their final departure, as their successors and substitutes; but no apostle is, on any occasion whatever, called a bishop in any part of the New Testament, or by anyearlywriter. The most important objection, however, to all this absurd account of Peter, as bishop of Rome, is the fact uniformly attested by those early fathers, who allude to his having ever visited that city, that having founded the church there, he appointed Linus theFIRST BISHOP,——a statement in exact accordance with the view here given of the office of a bishop, and of the mode in which the apostles constituted that office in the churches founded and visited by them.
The next conclusion authorized by those who support this fable is, that Peter, after achieving this great work of vanquishing the impostor Simon, proceeded to preach the gospel generally; yet not at first to the hereditary citizens of imperial Rome, nor to any of the Gentiles, but to his own countrymen the Jews, great numbers of whom then made their permanent abode in the great city. These foreigners, at that time, were limited in Rome to a peculiar section of the suburbs, and hardly dwelt within the walls of the city itself;——an allotment corresponding with similar limitations existing in some of the modern cities of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, and even in London, though there, only in accordance with long usage, and with actual convenience, but not with any existing law. The quarter of Rome in which the Jews dwelt in the days of Claudius, was west of the central section of the city, beyond the Tiber; and to this suburban portion, the story supposes the residence and labors of Peter to have been at first confined. But after a time, the fame of this mighty preacher ofa new faith spread beyond, from this despised foreign portion of the environs, across the Tiber, over the seven hills themselves, and even into the halls of the patrician lords of Rome. Such an extension of fame, indeed, seems quite necessary to make these two parts of this likely story hang together at all; for it is hard to see how a stranger, from a distant eastern land, could thus appear suddenly among them, and overturn, with a defeat so total and signal, the pretensions of one who had lately been exalted by the opinions of an adoring people to the character of a god, and had even received the solemn national sanction of this exaltation by a formal decree of the senate of Rome, confirmed by the absolute voice of the Caesar himself; and after such a victory, over such a person, be left long unnoticed in an obscure suburb. In accordance, therefore, with this reasonable notion, it is recorded in the continuation of the story, that when Peter, preaching at Rome, grew famous among the Gentiles, he was no longer allowed to occupy himself wholly among the Jews, but was thereafter taken by Pudens, a senator who believed in Christ, into his own house, on the Viminal Mount, one of the seven hills, but near the Jewish suburb. In the neighborhood of this house, as the legend relates, was afterwards erected a monument, called “the Shepherd’s,”——a name which serves to identify this important locality to the modern Romans to this day. Being thus established in these lordly patrician quarters, the poor Galilean fisherman might well have thought himself blessed, in such a pleasant change from the uncomfortable lodgings with which the royal Agrippa had lately accommodated him, and from which he had made so willing an exit. But the legend does the faithful and devoted apostle the justice, to represent him as by no means moved by these luxurious circumstances, to the least forgetfulness of the high commission which was to be followed through all sorts of self-denial,——no less that which drew him from the soft and soul-relaxing enjoyments of a patrician palace, than that which led him to renounce the simple, hard-earned profits of a fisherman, on the changeful sea of Gennesaret, or to calmly meet the threats, the stripes, the chains, and the condemned cell, with which the enmity of the Jewish magistrates had steadily striven to quench his fiery and energetic spirit. He is described as steadily laboring in the cause of the gospel among the Gentiles as well as the Jews, and with such success during the whole of the first year of his stay, that in the beginning of the following year he is said by papistwriters to have solemnly and formally foundedthe church of Rome. This important fictitious event is dated with the most exact particularity, on the fifteenth of February, in the forty-third year of Christ, and the third year of the reign of the emperor Claudius. The empty, unmeaning pomposity of this announcement is a sufficient evidence of its fictitious character. According to the story itself, here Peter had been preaching nearly a whole year at Rome; and if preaching, having a regular congregation, of course, and performing the usual accompaniments of preaching, as baptism,&c.Now there is not in the whole apostolic history the least account, nor the shadow of a hint, of any such ceremony as the founding of a church, distinct from the mere gathering of an assembly of believing listeners, who acknowledged their faith in Jesus by profession and by the sacraments. The organization of this religious assembly might indeed be made more perfect at one time than at another; as for instance, a new church, which during an apostle’s stay with it and preaching to it, had been abundantly well governed by the simple guidance of his wise, fatherly care, would, on his departure, need some more regular, permanent provision for its government, lest among those who were all religious co-equals, there should arise disputes which would require a regularly constituted authority to allay them. The apostle might, therefore, in such advanced requirements of the church, ordain elders, and so on; but such an appendix could not, with the slightest regard to common sense or the rules of honest interpretation of language, be said to constitute the founding of a church. The very phrase of ordaining elders in a church, palpably implies and requires the previous distinct, complete existence of the church. In fact the entity of a church implies nothing more than a regular assembly of believers, with an authorized ministry; and if Peter had been preaching several months to the Jews of the trans-Tiberine suburb, or to the Romans of the Viminal mount, there must have been in one or both of those places, achurch, to all intents, purposes, definitions and etymologies of a church. So that for him, almost a year after, to proceed tofounda church in Rome, was the most idle work of supererogation in the world. And all the pompous statements of papist writers about any such formality, and all the quotations that might be brought out of the fathers in its support, from Clement downwards, could not relieve the assertion of one particle of its palpable, self-evident absurdity. But the fable proceeds in the account of this important movement, datingthe apostolic reign of Peter from this very occasion, as above fixed, and running over various imaginary acts of his, during the tedious seven years for which the story ties him down to this one spot. Among many other unfounded matters, is specified the assertion, that from this city during the first year of his episcopate, he wrote his first epistle, which he addressed to the believers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,——the countries which are enumerated as visited by him in his fictitious tour. This opinion is grounded on the circumstance of its being dated from Babylon, which several later fathers understood as a term spiritually applied to Rome; but in the proper place this notion will be fully discussed, and the true origin of the epistle more satisfactorily given. Another important event in the history of the scriptures,——the writing of the gospel of Mark,——is also commonly connected with this part of Peter’s life, by the papist historians; but this event, with an account of the nature of this supposed connection, and the discussion of all points in this subject, can be better shown in the life of that evangelist; and to that it is therefore deferred. These matters and several others as little in place, seem to be introduced into this part of Peter’s life, mainly for the sake of giving him something particular to do, during his somewhat tedious stay in Rome, where they make him remain seven years after his first journey thither; and give him here the character, office and title ofbishop,——a piece of nomenclature perfectly unscriptural and absurd, because no apostle, in the New Testament, is ever called a bishop; but on the contrary, the office was evidently created to provide a substitute for an apostle,——a person who might perform the pastoral duties to the church, in the absence of its apostolic founder,overseeingand managing all its affairs in his stead, to report to him at his visitations, or in reply to his epistolary charges. To call an apostle a bishop, therefore, implies the absurdity of calling a superior officer by the title of his inferior,——as to call a captain, lieutenant, or a general-in-chief, colonel, or even as to call a bishop, deacon. During the life-time of the apostles, “bishop” was only a secondary title, and it was not till the death of all those commissioned by Christ, that this became the supreme officer in all churches. But the papists not appreciating any difficulty of this kind, go on crowning one absurdity with another, which claims, however, the additional merit of being amusing in its folly. This is the minute particularization of the shape, stuff, accoutrements and so on, of the chair in which bishopPeter sat at Rome in his episcopal character. This identical wooden chair in which his apostolical body was seated when he was exerting the functions of his bishopric, is still, according to the same high papal authorities which maintain the fact of his ever having been bishop, preserved in the Basilica of the Vatican, at Rome, and is even now, on certain high occasions, brought out from its holy storehouse to bless with its presence the eyes of the adoring people. This chair is kept covered with a linen veil, among the various similar treasures of the Vatican, and has been eminent for the vast numbers of great miracles wrought by its presence. As a preliminary step, however, to a real faith in the efficacy of this old piece of furniture, it is necessary that those who hear the stories should believe that Peter was ever at Rome, to sit in this or any other chair there. It is observed, however, in connection with this lumbering article, in the papist histories, that on taking possession of this chair, as bishop of Rome, Peter resigned the bishopric of Antioch, committing that see to the charge of Euodius, it having been the original diocese of this chief apostle,——a story about as true, as that any apostle was everbishopany where. The apostles were missionaries, for the most part, preaching the word of God from place to place, appointing bishops to govern and manage the churches in their absence, and after their final departure, as their successors and substitutes; but no apostle is, on any occasion whatever, called a bishop in any part of the New Testament, or by anyearlywriter. The most important objection, however, to all this absurd account of Peter, as bishop of Rome, is the fact uniformly attested by those early fathers, who allude to his having ever visited that city, that having founded the church there, he appointed Linus theFIRST BISHOP,——a statement in exact accordance with the view here given of the office of a bishop, and of the mode in which the apostles constituted that office in the churches founded and visited by them.
The date of the foundation.——All this is announced with the most elaborate solemnity, in all the older papist writers, because on this point of the foundation of the Roman church by Peter, they were long in the habit of basing the whole right and title of the bishop of Rome, as Peter’s successor, to the supremacy of the church universal. The great authorities, quoted by them in support of this exact account of the whole affair, with all its dates, even to the month and day, are the bulls of some of the popes, enforcing the celebration of that day throughout all the churches under the Romish see, and the forms of prayer in which this occasion is commemorated even to this day. Moreover, a particular form is quoted from some of the old rituals of the church, not now in use, in which the ancient mode of celebrating this event, in prayer and thanksgiving, is verbally given. “Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui ineffabili sacramento, apostolo tuo Petro principatum Romae urbis tribuisti, unde se evangelica veritas per tota mundi regna diffunderet: praesta quaesumus, ut quod in orbemterrarum ejus praedicatione manavit, universitas Christiana devotione sequatur.”——“Almighty, eternal God, who by an ineffable consecration, didst give to thy apostle Peter the dominion of the city of Rome, that thence the gospel truth might diffuse itself throughout all the kingdoms of the world: grant, we pray, that what has flowed into the whole circuit of the earth by his preaching, all Christendom may devoutly follow.”——A prayer so melodiously expressed, and in such beautiful Latin, that it is a great pity it should have been a mere trick, to spread and perpetuate a downright, baseless lie, which had no other object than the extension of the gloomy, soul-darkening tyranny of the papal sway. Other forms of prayer, for private occasions, are also mentioned by Baronius, as commemorating the foundation of the church of Rome by Peter; and all these, as well as the former, being fixed for the fifteenth of February, as above quoted. Those records of fables, also, the old Roman martyrologies, are cited for evidence. The later Latin fathers add their testimony, and even the devout Augustin (sermons 15, 16, de sanct,&c.) is quoted in support of it. Baronius gives all these evidences, (Annales,45,§1,) and goes on to earn the cardinal’s hat, which finally rewarded his zealous efforts, by maintaining the unity and universality of this apostolic foundation, and the absolute supremacy consequently appertaining to the succession of Peter in the Roman see.
Peter’s chair.——This fable (page 225) is from Baronius, who wrote about 1580; but alas! modern accidental discoveries make dreadful havoc with papistical antiquities, and have done as much to correct the mistake in this matter, as in Justin’s blunder about Simon Magus. I had transcribed Baronius’s story into the text as above without knowing of the fact, till a glance at the investigations of the sagacious Bower gave me the information which I here extract from him.
“They had, as they thought, till the year 1662, a pregnant proof, not only ofSt.Peter’s erecting their chair, but of his sitting in it himself; for till that year, the very chair, on which they believed, or would make others believe, he had sat, was shown and exposed to public adoration on the18thof January, the festival of the said chair. But while it was cleaning, in order to be set up in some conspicuous place of the Vatican, the twelve labors of Hercules unluckily appeared engraved on it. ‘Our worship, however,’ says Giacomo Bartolini, who was present at this discovery, and relates it, ‘was not misplaced, since it was not to the wood we paid it, but to the prince of the apostles,St.Peter.’ An author of no mean character, unwilling to give up the holy chair, even after this discovery, as having a place and a peculiar solemnity among the other saints, has attempted to explain the labors of Hercules in a mystical sense, as emblems representing the future exploits of the popes. (Luchesini catedra restituita aS.Pietro.) But the ridiculous and distorted conceits of that writer are not worthy our notice, though by ClementX.they were judged not unworthy of a reward.” (Bower’s Lives of the Popes,Vol. I.p.7, 4to.ed.1749.)
The next noticeable thing that Peter is made to do at Rome, is the sending out of his disciples from Rome to act as missionaries and bishops in the various wide divisions of the Roman empire, westward from the capital, which were yet wholly unoccupied by the preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In his supposed character of keeper of the great flock of Christ, having now fully established the Roman see, he turned his eyes to those distant regions, and considering their religious wants and utter spiritual destitution, sent into them several disciples whom he is supposed to have qualified for such labors by his own minute personal instructions. Thus, as rays from the sun, and as streams from the fountain, did the Christian faith go forth through these from the see of Peter, and spread far and wide throughout the world. So say the imaginative papist historians, whose fancy not resting satisfied with merely naming the regions to which these new missionaries werenow sent, goes on with a catalogue of the persons, and of the places where they became finally established in their bishoprics. But it would be honoring such fables too much, to record the long string of names which are in the papist annals, given to designate the missionaries thus sent out, and the particular places to which they were sent. It is enough to notice that the sum of the whole story is, that preachers of the gospel were thus sent not only into the western regions alluded to, but into many cities of Italy and Sicily. In Gaul, Spain and Germany, many are said to have been certainly established; and to extend the fable as far as possible, it is even hinted that Britain received the gospel through the preaching of some of these missionaries of Peter; but this distant circumstance is stated rather as a conjecture, while the rest are minutely and seriously given, in all the grave details of persons and places.In various works of this character, Peter is said by the propagators of this fable to have passed seven years at Rome, during all which time he is not supposed to have gone beyond the bounds of the city. The occasion of his departure at the end of this long period, as stated by the fabulous records from which the whole story is drawn, was the great edict of Claudius Caesar, banishing all Jews from Rome, among whom Peter must of course have been included. This imperial sentence of general banishment, is not only alluded to in the Acts of the Apostles, but is particularly specified in the Roman and Jewish historians of those times; from which its exact date is ascertained to have been theninthyear of the reign of Claudius, from which, as Peter is supposed to have gone to Rome in thesecondyear of that reign, the intervening time must have been, as above stated,sevenyears. The particulars of this general banishment, its motives and results, will be better given in that part of this work where important points in authentic true history are connected with the event. Under these circumstances, however, the great first bishop of Rome is supposed to have left this now consecrated capital of Christendom, and traveled off eastward, along with the general throng of Jewish fugitives. Some of the papist commentators on this story are nevertheless, so much scandalized at the thought of Peter’s running away in this seemingly undignified manner, (though this is in fact the part of the story which is most consistent with the real truth, since no apostle was ever taught to consider it beneath his dignity to get out of danger,) that they therefore strive to make itappear that he still stayed in Rome, in spite of the imperial edict, and boldly preached the gospel, without reference to danger, until, soon after, it became necessary for him to go to the east on important business. The majority, however, are agreed that he did remove from Rome along with the rest of the Jews, though while he remained there, he is supposed to have kept up the apostolic dignity by preaching at all risks. His journey eastward is made out in rather a circuitous manner, probably for no better reason than to make their stories as long as possible; and therefore it is enough to say, that he is carried by the continuation of the fable, from Rome first into Africa, where he erected a church at Carthage, over which he ordained Crescens, one of his Roman disciples, as bishop. Proceeding next along the northern coast of the continent, he is brought to Alexandria, where, of course, he founds a church, leaving the evangelist Mark in it, as bishop; and passing up the Nile to Thebes, constitutes Rufus there, in the same capacity. Thence the fabulous chroniclers carry him at once to Jerusalem; and here ends this tedious string of details, the story being now resumed from the clear and honest record of the sacred historian, to the great refreshment of the writer as well as the reader, after dealing so long in what is utterly unalloyed falsehood.
The next noticeable thing that Peter is made to do at Rome, is the sending out of his disciples from Rome to act as missionaries and bishops in the various wide divisions of the Roman empire, westward from the capital, which were yet wholly unoccupied by the preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In his supposed character of keeper of the great flock of Christ, having now fully established the Roman see, he turned his eyes to those distant regions, and considering their religious wants and utter spiritual destitution, sent into them several disciples whom he is supposed to have qualified for such labors by his own minute personal instructions. Thus, as rays from the sun, and as streams from the fountain, did the Christian faith go forth through these from the see of Peter, and spread far and wide throughout the world. So say the imaginative papist historians, whose fancy not resting satisfied with merely naming the regions to which these new missionaries werenow sent, goes on with a catalogue of the persons, and of the places where they became finally established in their bishoprics. But it would be honoring such fables too much, to record the long string of names which are in the papist annals, given to designate the missionaries thus sent out, and the particular places to which they were sent. It is enough to notice that the sum of the whole story is, that preachers of the gospel were thus sent not only into the western regions alluded to, but into many cities of Italy and Sicily. In Gaul, Spain and Germany, many are said to have been certainly established; and to extend the fable as far as possible, it is even hinted that Britain received the gospel through the preaching of some of these missionaries of Peter; but this distant circumstance is stated rather as a conjecture, while the rest are minutely and seriously given, in all the grave details of persons and places.
In various works of this character, Peter is said by the propagators of this fable to have passed seven years at Rome, during all which time he is not supposed to have gone beyond the bounds of the city. The occasion of his departure at the end of this long period, as stated by the fabulous records from which the whole story is drawn, was the great edict of Claudius Caesar, banishing all Jews from Rome, among whom Peter must of course have been included. This imperial sentence of general banishment, is not only alluded to in the Acts of the Apostles, but is particularly specified in the Roman and Jewish historians of those times; from which its exact date is ascertained to have been theninthyear of the reign of Claudius, from which, as Peter is supposed to have gone to Rome in thesecondyear of that reign, the intervening time must have been, as above stated,sevenyears. The particulars of this general banishment, its motives and results, will be better given in that part of this work where important points in authentic true history are connected with the event. Under these circumstances, however, the great first bishop of Rome is supposed to have left this now consecrated capital of Christendom, and traveled off eastward, along with the general throng of Jewish fugitives. Some of the papist commentators on this story are nevertheless, so much scandalized at the thought of Peter’s running away in this seemingly undignified manner, (though this is in fact the part of the story which is most consistent with the real truth, since no apostle was ever taught to consider it beneath his dignity to get out of danger,) that they therefore strive to make itappear that he still stayed in Rome, in spite of the imperial edict, and boldly preached the gospel, without reference to danger, until, soon after, it became necessary for him to go to the east on important business. The majority, however, are agreed that he did remove from Rome along with the rest of the Jews, though while he remained there, he is supposed to have kept up the apostolic dignity by preaching at all risks. His journey eastward is made out in rather a circuitous manner, probably for no better reason than to make their stories as long as possible; and therefore it is enough to say, that he is carried by the continuation of the fable, from Rome first into Africa, where he erected a church at Carthage, over which he ordained Crescens, one of his Roman disciples, as bishop. Proceeding next along the northern coast of the continent, he is brought to Alexandria, where, of course, he founds a church, leaving the evangelist Mark in it, as bishop; and passing up the Nile to Thebes, constitutes Rufus there, in the same capacity. Thence the fabulous chroniclers carry him at once to Jerusalem; and here ends this tedious string of details, the story being now resumed from the clear and honest record of the sacred historian, to the great refreshment of the writer as well as the reader, after dealing so long in what is utterly unalloyed falsehood.
Peter, bishop of Rome.——The great question of his having ever visited this city, has two separate and distinct parts, resting on totally different grounds, since they refer to two widely distant periods of time; but that part which refers to his early visit, being connected with this portion of the history, I proceed in this place to the full examination ofallthe evidences, which have ever been brought in support of both divisions of this great subject in papal dogmatic history, from the supposed records of this event in the writings of the early Christian Fathers. On this head, instead of myself entering into a course of investigations among these writers, which my very slight acquaintance with their works would make exceedingly laborious to me, and probably very incomplete after all, I here avail myself of the learned and industrious research of my friend, theRev.Dr.Murdock, widely and honorably known as the Translator and Annotator of Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History. Through his kindness, I am allowed the free use of a long series of instructive lectures, formerly delivered by him as a professor of Ecclesiastical History, which having been subsequently modified to suit a popular audience, will bring the whole of this learned matter, with the fullest details of the argument, in a form perfectly intelligible and acceptable to my readers.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE EARLY FATHERS.
In the latter part of the first century, Clement, bishop of Rome, (Epistle I. to Corinth,§5,) speaks of Paul and Peter as persecuted, and dying as martyrs. But he does not say when, or where. In the middle of the second century, Justin Martyr speaks of Simon Magus, his magic and his deification, at Rome; but makes no mention of Peter’s going to Rome, to combat him. Nor does any other father, so far as I know, till after A. D. 300. About twenty years after Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, (bishop of Lyons,) wrote his five books against the heretics; in which he confutes them, by the testimony of those churches which weresaidto have been founded immediately by the apostles. The following extract from him will fully illustrate that mode of reasoning,and also show us what Irenaeus knew of Peter’s being at Rome. He says: “The doctrine preached to all the world by the apostles, is now found in the church;——as all may see if they are willing to learn; and we are able to name the persons whom the apostles constituted the bishops of the churches, and their successors down to our times; who have never taught or known any such doctrine as the heretics advance. Now if the apostles had been acquainted with [certain] recondite mysteries, which they taught privately, and only to such as were the most perfect, they would certainly have taught them to those men to whom they committed the care of the churches; for they required them to be very perfect and blameless in all things, whom they made their successors and substitutes in office;——because, if they conducted aright, great advantage would result; but if they should go wrong, immense evils would ensue. But, as it would be tedious, in the present work, to enumerate the successions in all the churches, I will mention but one,viz.the greatest, most ancient, and well-known by all,the church founded and established at Rome, by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul. The faith of this church was the result of apostolic teaching, and the same as was every where preached; and it has come down to us through a succession of bishops; and by this example we confound all those who, in any manner, either from selfish views and vain glory, or from blindness to truth and erroneous belief, hold forth false doctrine. For with this church, on account of its superior pre-eminence, every other church,——that is, the true believers every where,——must agree; because, in it has ever been preserved the doctrine derived immediately from the apostles, and which was every where propagated. The blessed apostles having founded and instructed this church,committed the episcopacy of it to Linus; who is mentioned by Paul in his epistle to Timothy. Anacletus succeeded Linus; and after him, the third bishop from the apostles, was Clement, who saw the apostles themselves, and conferred with them, while their preaching and instruction was still sounding in his ears.” Irenaeus then enumerates the succeeding bishops, down to Eleutherius, “who,” he says, “is now the twelfth bishop from the apostles.” In the preceding section, Irenaeus tells us that Matthew wrote his gospel “while Peter and Paul were preaching, and founding the church at Rome.”
Here is full and explicit testimony, that Paul and Peter, unitedly, preached and founded the church at Rome; and that they constitutedLinus the first bishopthere. The languageexcludes both Peter and Paul,——and excludes both equally,from the episcopal chair at Rome. “They committed the episcopacy to Linus;” who was the first bishop, as Clement was the third, and Eleutherius the twelfth. Contemporary with Irenaeus was Dionysius, bishop of Corinth. In reply to a monitory letter from the Romish church, of which Eusebius (Church History,II.25,) has preserved an extract, Dionysius says: “By this your excellent admonition, you have united in one the planting, by Peter and Paul, of the Romans and Corinthians. For both of them coming to our Corinth, planted and instructed us;——and in like manner, going to Italy together,——after teaching there, they suffered martyrdom at the same time.” From this testimony we may learn how and when Peter went to Rome; as well as what relation he sustained to the church there. He and Paul came to Corinth together; and when they had regulated and instructed that church, they went on together to Italy, and did the same things at Rome as before at Corinth. Now this, if true, must have been after the captivity of Paul at Rome, mentioned in the book of Acts. For Paul never went directly from Corinth to Rome before that captivity, since he never was at Rome before he was carried there a prisoner, in the year A. D. 62. But, if released in the year 64, he might have visited Corinth afterwards, with Peter, and then have traveled with him to Rome. To the church of Rome, Peter and Paul sustained the same relation; and that was the same as they had sustained to the church of Corinth,viz.that ofapostolic teachers and founders,——not that ofORDINARY BISHOPS.That is, Peter was no more the bishop of Rome than Paul was; and neither of them, any more the bishop of Rome than both were bishops of Corinth. Dionysius likewise, here affirms, that Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom “at the same time;” and probably at Rome, where they last taught. That Rome was the place is proved by Caius, a Romish ecclesiastic, about A. D. 200, as quoted by Eusebius, (Church History,II.25.) “I am able,” says he, “to show the trophies [the sepulchers] of the apostles. For if you will go to the Vatican, or along the Via Ostia, you will find the trophies of those who established this church.”
The next father, Clement of Alexandria, (about A. D. 200,) reports it as tradition, that Mark wrote his gospel at Rome, while Peter was preaching there. (Eusebius, Church History,VI.14.) In the forepart of the third century, lived Tertullian, a fervid and learned writer. He assailed the heretics with the same argument as Irenaeus did. “Run over,” says he, “the apostolic churches, in which the chairs of apostles still preside in their places, and in which the autographs of their epistles are still read. If you are near to Italy, you have Rome, a witness for us; and how blessed a church is that on which apostles poured out their whole doctrine, together with their blood! where Peter equaled our Lord in his mode of suffering; and where Paul was crowned, with the exit of John the Baptist.” (De praescriptione haereticorumc.36.) In another work he says: “Let us see what the Romans hold forth; to whom Peter and Paul imparted the gospel sealed with their own blood.” (adversus Marcion,IV.c.5.) Again he says: “Neither is there a disparity between those whom John baptized in the Jordan, and Peter in the Tiber.” (de Baptismo.) He moreover testifies that Peter suffered in the reign of Nero, (Scorpiac.c.15,) and that this apostle ordained Clement bishop of Rome. (Praescriptionec.32.) In the middle of the third century, Cyprian of Carthage, writing to the bishop of Rome, (Epistle 55, to Cornelius) calls the church of Rome “the principal church;” and that where “Peter’s chair” was;——and “whose faith was derived from apostolic preaching.” In the end of the third century or the beginning of the fourth, Lactantius (Divine Institutes,IV.c.21,) speaks of “Peter and Paul” as having wrought miracles, and uttered predictions at Rome; and describes their prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem. And in his work on the Deaths of Persecutors, (chapter 2,) he says: “During the reign of Nero, Peter came to Rome; and having wrought several miracles by the power of God, which rested on him, he converted many to righteousness, and erected a faithful and abiding temple for God. This became known to Nero, who, learning that multitudes, not only at Rome but in all other places, were abandoning idolatry and embracing the new religion, and being hurried on to all sorts of cruelty by his brutal tyranny, set himself, the first of all, to destroy this religion, and to persecute the servants of God. So he ordered Peter to be crucified and Paul to be beheaded.” I have now detailed every important testimony which I could find in the genuine works of the fathers, in the three first centuries. The witnesses agree very well; and they relate nothing but what may be true. They make Peter and Paul to go from Corinth to Rome, in company, during the reign of Nero; and after preaching and strengthening the church at Rome, and ordaining Linus to be its first bishop,——both suffering martyrdom at Rome on the same day; Peter being crucified and Paul decapitated. There is no representation of Peter’s being any more bishop of Rome than Paul was;——and Irenaeus in particular, expressly makes Linus the first bishop, and to be ordained by the two apostles.
We now come to Eusebius, who wrote about A. D. 325. He quotes most of the fathers above cited, but departs widely from them, in regard to the time, and the occasion, of Peter’s going to Rome. He says it was in the reign of Claudius;——and for the purpose of opposing Simon Magus, (as the Clementine novels represented the matter.) Yet he does not make Peter to be bishop of Rome. The subsequent writers of the fourth and following centuries, agreewith Eusebius as to the time and the occasion of Peter’s going to Rome; and most of them make Peter to be the first bishop of Rome. According to them, Peter remained in Judea only about four years after the ascension; then he was bishop of Antioch seven years, and in the second year of Claudius, A. D. 43, removed his chair to Rome, where he was bishop for twenty-five years, or until his death, A. D. 68. And this is the account generally given by the papists, quite down to the present times.
OBJECTIONS TO THE TRADITIONARY HISTORY OF PETER.
1. So far as the later fathers contradict those of the three first centuries, they ought to be rejected; because, they could not have so good means of information. Oral tradition must, in three centuries, have become worthless, compared with what it was in the second and third centuries;——and written testimony, which could be relied on, they had none, except that of the early fathers. Besides, we have seen how these later fathers were led astray. They believed the fable of Simon Magus’s legerdemain at Rome, and his deification there. They read the Clementine fictions, and supposed them to be novels founded on facts. In their eulogies of Peter, they were fond of relating marvelous and affecting stories about him, and therefore too readily admitted fabulous traditions. And lastly, the bishops of Rome and their numerous adherents had a direct and an immense interest depending on this traditional history;——for by it alone, they made out their succession to the chair of Peter, and the legitimacy of their ghostly power.
2. The later fathers invalidate their own testimony, by stating what is incredible, and what neither they nor their modern adherents can satisfactorily explain. They state that Linus succeeded Peter, for about twelve years; then followed Cletus or Anacletus, for about twelve years more; and then succeeded Clement. And yet they tell us, all the three were ordained by the hands of Peter. How could this be? Did Peter ordain three successive bishops, after he was dead?——or did he resign his office to these bishops, and retire to a private station, more than twenty-five years before his crucifixion? No, says Epiphanius, (Against Heresies,27,) and after him most of the modern papists; (Nat. Alex. H. E. saecul. I. Diss. XIII. Burius,&c.) but Peter being often absent from Rome, and having a vast weight of cares, had assistant bishops; and Linus and Cletus were not the successors but the assistants of Peter. But Irenaeus, Eusebius, Jerome, and all the authorized catalogues of popes, explicitly make Linus and Cletus to be successors to Peter. Besides, why did Peter need an assistant any more than the succeeding pontiffs? And what age since has ever witnessed an assistant pope at Rome? A more plausible solution (but which the papists cannot admit) is given by Rufinus. (Preface to Clementine Recognitions) “As I understand it,” says he, “Linus and Cletus were the bishops of Rome in Peter’s life-time; so that they performed the episcopal functions, and he, those of an apostle. And, in this way the whole may be true,” says Rufinus. Granted, if this were the only objection; and if it could be made out that Peter went to Rome full twenty-four years before his martyrdom. But supposing it true, how can the successors of Linus and Cletus, the bishops, be successors of Peter, the apostle.
3. Peter removed his chair to Rome, (say the later fathers and most of the Catholics,) in the second year of Claudius, that is, A. D. 43; and he resided there twenty-four years, or till his death. But we have the best proof,——that of holy writ,——that Peter was resident at Jerusalem, as late as the year A. D. 44; when king Agrippa seized him there, and imprisoned him, with intent to kill him. (Actsxii.3–19.) And we have similar proof that he was still there in the year 51; when he deliberated and acted with the other apostles and brethren of Jerusalem, on the question of obliging Gentiles to observe the law of Moses. (Actsxv.7,&c.; Galatiansii.1–9.) And, moreover, some time after this, as Paul tells us, (Galatiansii.11–14,) he came to Antioch, in Syria, and there dissembled about eating with the Gentiles. The common reply of the Catholicsis, that Peter often made long journeys; and he might happen to be at Jerusalem, and at Antioch, at these times. But this solution is rejected by the more candid Romanists themselves, who agree with the early fathers, asserting that Peter first went to Rome in the reign of Nero. (See Pagi Critique of Baronius’s Annale,43.)
4. Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans in the year 59, as is supposed. And from this epistle it is almost certain, Peter was not then at Rome; and highly probable he had never been there. Throughout the epistle, Peter’s name is not even mentioned; nor is that of Linus or Cletus, his supposed assistants, who always, it is said, supplied his place when he was absent. Indeed, so far as can be gathered from Paul’s epistle, the Romish Christians appear not to have had, at that time nor previously, any bishop or any ecclesiastical head. The epistle is addressed “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints.” (Romansi.7.) It exhorts them to obey magistrates;——but not to reverence and obey their spiritual rulers. (Romansxiii.1,&c.) It inculcates on them all, the duty of living in harmony,——of being modest and humble,——of using their different gifts for the common good; (Romansxii.3,&c.;) but gives no intimation that they were amenable to any ecclesiastical authorities. It gives them rules for conducting their disciplinary acts, as a popular body, (Romansxiv.1,&c.,) but does not refer to any regulations given them bySt.Peter and his assistants. It contains salutations to near thirty persons, male and female, whom Paul knew personally, or by hearsay, (chapterxvi.) but neither Peter, nor Linus, nor Cletus is of the number; nor is any one spoken of as bishop, or elder, or pastor, or as clothed with any ecclesiastical authority. Priscilla and Aquila, and several others whom he had known in Greece or Asia, are named; and seem to be the leading persons in the church. Indeed, it would seem that no apostle had, as yet, ever been at Rome. Paul says he had “had a great desire, for many years,” to visit them, and he intended to do so as soon as possible. (Romansxv.23.) And he tells them why he longed to see them, that he might impart to them “some spiritual gifts;”——that is, some of those miraculous gifts, which none but apostles could confer. (Romansi.11.) I may add, that Paul gives them a whole system of divinity in this epistle; and crowds more theology into it, than into any other he ever wrote;——as if he considered this church as needing fundamental instruction in the gospel, more than any other. Now, how could all this be, if Peter had been there fifteen years, with an assistant bishop to aid him; and had completely organized, and regulated, and instructed this central church of all Christendom? What Catholic bishop, at the present day, would dare to address the church of Rome without once naming his liege lord, the pope; and would give them a whole system of theology, and numerous rules and regulations for their private conduct and for their public discipline, without even an intimation that they had any spiritual guides and rulers, to whom they were accountable?
5. Three years after this epistle was written, (that is, A. D. 62,) Paul arrived at Rome, and was there detained a prisoner for two years, or until A. D. 64. Now let us see if we can find Peter there, at or during this period. When it was known at Rome that Paul was approaching the city, the Christians there went twenty miles to meet him, and escort him;——so eager were they to see an apostle of Jesus Christ. Three days after his arrival, “Paul called the chief of the Jews together,” to have conversation with them. They had heard nothing against him, and they were glad to see him,——for they wished to hear more about the Christian sect; “for,” said they, “as concerning this sect, we know that it is every where spoken against;” and “we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest.” (Actsxxviii.22.) They appointed him a day, when they all assembled for the purpose, and he addressed them “from morning till evening.” Now could Peter, the apostle of the circumcision, have been near twenty years bishop of Rome, and so full of business as to employ an assistant bishop, and yet the Jews there be so ignorant of Christianity, and soglad to meet with one who could satisfy their curiosity to learn something about it? Moreover, Paul now continued to preach the gospel in “his own hired house,” at Rome, for two years; (Actsxxviii.30, 31;) and it would seem, was very successful. During this time he wrote his epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and perhaps, that to the Hebrews. In these epistles he often speaks of his success in making converts, and of the brethren who labored with him;——but he does not once even name Peter, or Linus, or Cletus,——or intimate, at all, that there was a cathedral church at Rome, with an apostle or any bishop at its head. He sends numerous salutations from individuals whom he names, and from little companies of Christians in their houses,——but no salutations from Peter, or from any bishop, or other officer of the church there. The Catholics tell us, Peter might happen to be absent during this period. What! absent two whole years! and his assistant bishop also? Very negligent shepherds! But where was the church all this time,——the enlightened Christian community, and the elders and deacons, who governed and instructed it, from Sabbath to Sabbath? Were all these, too, gone a journey? No: it is manifest Paul was now the only regular preacher of the gospel at Rome: and he was breaking up fallow ground, that had never before been cultivated, and sown, and made to bear fruit.
[This closes the learned argument on the testimonies of the Fathers, extracted fromDr.Murdock’s manuscripts.]
Lardner also gives a sort of abstract of the passages in the fathers, which refer to this subject, but not near so full, nor so just to the original passages, as that ofDr.Murdock, although he refers to a few authors not alluded to here, whose testimony, however, amounts to little or nothing. Lardner’s disposition to believe all these long-established Roman fables, seems very great, and, on these points, his critical accuracy appears to fail in maintaining its general character. However, in the simple passage from Clemens Romanus, referred to above, he is very full, not only translating the whole passage relating to Peter and Paul, but entering into a very elaborate discussion of the views taken of it; but after all he fails so utterly in rearing an historical argument on this slender basis, that I cannot feel called on to do anything more than barely refer the critical reader to the passage in his life of Peter, (VII.)
Bower has given numerous quotations, too, from these sources, but nothing not contained in the abstract above, of which a great merit is, that it gives all the passagesin full, in a faithful and highly expressive translation. (See Bower’s Lives of the Popes. “Peter.”)
THE COUNCIL OF THE APOSTLES AT JERUSALEM.The last circumstance of Peter’s life and actions, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, is one so deeply involved also in the conduct of others of the holy band, that the history of the whole affair can be best given in connection with their lives; more especially as the immediate occasion of it arose under the labors of these other persons. All the statement which is here necessary to introduce the part which Peter took in the sayings and doings on this occasion, is simply as follows. Paul and Barnabas, having returned to Antioch from their first great mission from that city, throughout almost the whole circuit of Asia Minor, were, soon after their arrival in that city, involved in a vexatious dispute with a set of persons, who, having come down from Jerusalem, had undertaken to give the Syrian Christians more careful instructions in the minutiae of religious duty, than they had received from those who had originally effected their conversion. Thesenew teachers being directly from that holy city, which, having been the great scene of the instructions and sufferings of Jesus Christ, and still being the seat of the apostolic college, was regarded by all, as the true source of religious light, to Christians as well as Jews, throughout the world, therefore made no small commotion in the church of Antioch, when they began to inculcate, as essential to salvation, a full conformity to all the minute ritual observances of the Mosaic law. The church of Antioch, having been planted and taught by men of a more catholic spirit, had gathered within itself a large number of heathen from that Gentile city, who, led by their convictions of the truth and spirituality of the Christian faith, had renounced entirely all the idolatries in which they had been brought up, giving themselves, as it would seem, with honest resolution, to a life of such moral purity, as they considered alone essential to the maintenance of their new religious character. Still, they had never supposed, that in renouncing their idolatrous superstitions, they had bound themselves to throw off also those customs of their country, which could have no connection with moral purity of conduct, and had therefore still remained in national peculiarities, Gentiles; though in creed, and religious practice, Christians. In this course they had been encouraged by the liberal and enlarged views of their religious instructors, who had never once hinted at the necessity of imposing upon Gentile Christians the burden of the Jewish law, which all the impressions of education and previous habits of life would have made quite intolerable. The wisdom of this enlightened spirit was seen in the great accessions of Gentiles, who, being convinced of the necessity of a moral change, were not met by any ceremonial impediments to the full adoption of a pure religion. Paul and Barnabas were, therefore, not a little troubled with this new difficulty, brought in by these Jewish teachers, who, being fresh from the fountain of religious knowledge, claimed great authority in reference to all delicate points of this nature. At last, after long and violent disputes between these old-school and new-school theologians, it was resolved to refer the whole matter to the twelve apostles themselves, at Jerusalem, who might well be supposed qualified to say what they considered to be the essential doctrines and observances of Christianity. Paul and Barnabas, therefore, with some of the rest engaged in the discussion, went up to Jerusalem as a delegation, for this purpose, and presented the whole difficulty to the considerationof the apostles. So little settled, after all, were the views and feelings of these first preachers of Christianity about the degree of freedom to be enjoyed by the numerous Gentile converts, that all the Jewish prejudices of many of them burst out at once, and high ground was taken against any dispensation in favor of Gentile prejudices. After a long discussion, in full assembly of both apostles and church-officers, Peter arose in the midst of the debate, taking the superiority to which his peculiar commission and his long precedence among them entitled him, and in a tone of dignified decision addressed them. He reminded them, in the first place, of that unquestionable call by which God had chosen him from among all the apostles, to proclaim to the heathen the word of the gospel, and of that solemn sign by which God had attested the completeness of their conversion, knowing, as he did, the hearts of all his creatures. The signs of the Holy Spirit having been imparted to the heathen converts with the same perfection of regenerating influence that had been manifested in those of the Jewish faith who had believed, it was manifestly challenging the testimony of God himself, to try to put on them the irksome yoke of the tedious Mosaic ritual, a yoke which not even the Jewish disciples, nor their fathers before them, had been able to bear in all the appointed strictness of its observances; and much less, then, could they expect a burden so intolerable, to be supported by those to whom it had none of the sanctions of national and educational prejudice, which so much assisted its dominion over the feelings of the Jews. And all the disciples, even those of Jewish race, must be perfectly satisfied that their whole reliance for salvation should be, not on any legal conformity, but on that common favor of their Lord, Jesus Christ, in which the Gentile converts also trusted.
THE COUNCIL OF THE APOSTLES AT JERUSALEM.
The last circumstance of Peter’s life and actions, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, is one so deeply involved also in the conduct of others of the holy band, that the history of the whole affair can be best given in connection with their lives; more especially as the immediate occasion of it arose under the labors of these other persons. All the statement which is here necessary to introduce the part which Peter took in the sayings and doings on this occasion, is simply as follows. Paul and Barnabas, having returned to Antioch from their first great mission from that city, throughout almost the whole circuit of Asia Minor, were, soon after their arrival in that city, involved in a vexatious dispute with a set of persons, who, having come down from Jerusalem, had undertaken to give the Syrian Christians more careful instructions in the minutiae of religious duty, than they had received from those who had originally effected their conversion. Thesenew teachers being directly from that holy city, which, having been the great scene of the instructions and sufferings of Jesus Christ, and still being the seat of the apostolic college, was regarded by all, as the true source of religious light, to Christians as well as Jews, throughout the world, therefore made no small commotion in the church of Antioch, when they began to inculcate, as essential to salvation, a full conformity to all the minute ritual observances of the Mosaic law. The church of Antioch, having been planted and taught by men of a more catholic spirit, had gathered within itself a large number of heathen from that Gentile city, who, led by their convictions of the truth and spirituality of the Christian faith, had renounced entirely all the idolatries in which they had been brought up, giving themselves, as it would seem, with honest resolution, to a life of such moral purity, as they considered alone essential to the maintenance of their new religious character. Still, they had never supposed, that in renouncing their idolatrous superstitions, they had bound themselves to throw off also those customs of their country, which could have no connection with moral purity of conduct, and had therefore still remained in national peculiarities, Gentiles; though in creed, and religious practice, Christians. In this course they had been encouraged by the liberal and enlarged views of their religious instructors, who had never once hinted at the necessity of imposing upon Gentile Christians the burden of the Jewish law, which all the impressions of education and previous habits of life would have made quite intolerable. The wisdom of this enlightened spirit was seen in the great accessions of Gentiles, who, being convinced of the necessity of a moral change, were not met by any ceremonial impediments to the full adoption of a pure religion. Paul and Barnabas were, therefore, not a little troubled with this new difficulty, brought in by these Jewish teachers, who, being fresh from the fountain of religious knowledge, claimed great authority in reference to all delicate points of this nature. At last, after long and violent disputes between these old-school and new-school theologians, it was resolved to refer the whole matter to the twelve apostles themselves, at Jerusalem, who might well be supposed qualified to say what they considered to be the essential doctrines and observances of Christianity. Paul and Barnabas, therefore, with some of the rest engaged in the discussion, went up to Jerusalem as a delegation, for this purpose, and presented the whole difficulty to the considerationof the apostles. So little settled, after all, were the views and feelings of these first preachers of Christianity about the degree of freedom to be enjoyed by the numerous Gentile converts, that all the Jewish prejudices of many of them burst out at once, and high ground was taken against any dispensation in favor of Gentile prejudices. After a long discussion, in full assembly of both apostles and church-officers, Peter arose in the midst of the debate, taking the superiority to which his peculiar commission and his long precedence among them entitled him, and in a tone of dignified decision addressed them. He reminded them, in the first place, of that unquestionable call by which God had chosen him from among all the apostles, to proclaim to the heathen the word of the gospel, and of that solemn sign by which God had attested the completeness of their conversion, knowing, as he did, the hearts of all his creatures. The signs of the Holy Spirit having been imparted to the heathen converts with the same perfection of regenerating influence that had been manifested in those of the Jewish faith who had believed, it was manifestly challenging the testimony of God himself, to try to put on them the irksome yoke of the tedious Mosaic ritual, a yoke which not even the Jewish disciples, nor their fathers before them, had been able to bear in all the appointed strictness of its observances; and much less, then, could they expect a burden so intolerable, to be supported by those to whom it had none of the sanctions of national and educational prejudice, which so much assisted its dominion over the feelings of the Jews. And all the disciples, even those of Jewish race, must be perfectly satisfied that their whole reliance for salvation should be, not on any legal conformity, but on that common favor of their Lord, Jesus Christ, in which the Gentile converts also trusted.
Challenge the testimony of God.——This is the substance of Kuinoel’s ideas of the force of this passage, (Actsxv.10.)πειραζετε τον θεον, (peirazete ton Theon.) His words are, “Tentare Deum dicuntur, qui veritatem, omnipotentiam, omniscientiam, etc. Dei in dubium vocare, vel nova divinae potentiae ac voluntatis documenta desiderant, adeoque Deo obnituntur.”——“Those are said to tempt God who call in question God’s truth, omnipotence, omniscience,&c., or demand new evidences of the divine power or will, and thus strive against God.” He quotes Pott and Schleusner in support of this view of the passage. Rosenmueller and Bloomfield take the same view, as well as many others quoted by the latter and by Poole. Bloomfield is very full on the whole of Peter’s speech, and on all the discussion, with the occasions of it.
Chose me.——This passage has been the subject of much discussion, but I have given a free translation which disagrees with no one of the views of itsliteralforce. The fairest opinion of the matter is, that the expressionεξελεξατο εν ημιν, is a Hebraism. (See Vorstius and others quoted by Bloomfield.)