NOTE B: ST. PETER AT ROME
(The following long note is translated, with the author's permission, from the Histoire de l’Eglise, Tome I L’Antiquite Chretienne (pp. 61-67) of Fr. A. M. Jacquin, O.P., Paris, Editions de la Revue des Jeunes, 1928. To the learned author of this best of manuals I gladly express my sincerest thanks.)
"The fact of St. Peter's martyrdom at Rome has been called in doubt, through the prejudices of Protestants first of all and then of the critics. In both cases the mistake has led to an appreciable gain in historical knowledge and to that extent has been of real service. That these doubts were mistaken is to-day unquestionable for all scholars save those who turn from the light. The critical apparatus with which Baur strove against the ancient tradition is to-day, and rightly, regarded as negligible." (A. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, Chronologie, t. ii, i, p. 244.)
For all Harnack's judgment, there are not lacking Protestant and rationalist historians who spend their energy defending these theses which have long ceased to be tenable. Erbes, for example, and above all, Ch. Guignebert (La primaute’ de Pierre et la venue de Pierre a Rome, Paris, 1909). This last scholar's work earned him from the pen of M. P. Monceaux a lesson in critical scholarship which hardly increased his reputation as a scholar. (L’apostolat de Saint Pierre a Rome a propos d’un livre recent in the Revue d’historie et de litterature religieuses, New Series I (1910), pp. 216-40: cf. also A. Flamion, Saint Pierre a Rome: Examen de la these et de la methode de M. Guignebert in the Revue d’histoire ecclesiastique, XIV (1913), pp. 249-71, 473-88.) On the other hand a Protestant, H. Lietzmann, has just published in defence of the tradition a work of the very highest interest (Petrus und Paulus in Rom, 2 ed., Berlin, 1927). His choice goes to the evidence from the Liturgy and from Archaeology, and he reaches the conclusion that, towards the year 200, the conviction at Rome was universal that the city possessed the tombs of SS. Peter and Paul. Other proofs, drawn from the letters of Clement and Ignatius, from the First Epistle of St. Peter, make it impossible for us to allow the theory of a legend formed in the interval between the death of the Apostles and the year 200 and this all the more since no other church, whether in the East or in the West, has ever laid claim to the honour of possessing these illustrious remains.
There would then be little occasion to re-open the discussion of a question now so clearly decided, except for the fact's importance in the history of the Primitive Church and for its apologetic value as an argument for the privileges of the episcopal see of Rome. This double importance is a good reason for presenting here the arguments on which the traditional belief is based.
Moreover, the proof is by this time a commonplace, and among many others Mgr. Duchesne (Les Origines chretiennes, 2 ed., pp. 82-117, Paris, s.d.: Hist. Ancienne de l’Eglise, I, pp. 61-63, Paris, 1911) has set it out with a scientific detachment which is beyond all criticism. He makes a distinction between the principal fact, about which no one can any longer have any serious doubt, and the accessory circumstances about which we have not the same historical guarantee. "It is possible," he says, "to prove that St. Peter came to Rome, and that he suffered martyrdom there: we have no evidence sufficient to fix the date of his coming nor the length of his stay." (Les Origines chretiennes, p. 82.)
I. As to the first point, we can note, by the end of the second century a tradition that is precise and universal: the majority of the churches provide evidence, and that evidence is to the same effect.
1. Alexandria. Clement, writing about the Gospel of St. Mark, says "Peter preached the word of God publicly at Rome, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit made the Gospel known. Those who assisted at his sermons, and they were numerous, exhorted Mark, who for a long time had been Peter's companion, and whose memory held many of his sayings, to put these things in writing." (Eusebius, H.E., vi, 14)
Origen, in his commentary on Genesis (1 iii) speaks of the activity of the Apostles. Of Peter he says "Peter appears to have preached in Pontus, in Galatia, in Bithynia, in Cappadocia, and in Asia to the Jews of the Diaspora. Finally he, too, came to Rome, and there he was crucified, head downwards, having asked to suffer in this fashion." (EUSEBIUS; H.E. iii, 1.)
2. Africa. Tertullian more than once asserts that St. Peter came to Rome and there suffered martyrdom. Speaking of the church of that city he says "O Happy Church ! The Apostles lavished upon it their teaching and their blood. Peter there suffered a death like to that of the Lord." (De Praescriptione, 36.) In the De Baptismo, 4, he recalls that Peter "baptized in the Tiber" that is at Rome. In another place (Adv. Marcion, iv, 5) it is to the authority of the Romans that he appeals against Marcion since "to them Peter and Paul left the gospel, confirmed by their blood." A little later still, Scorpiace 15, he asserts that "Nero was the first to persecute the nascent faith at Rome with punishments. Then it was," he adds, "that Peter was girt by another, when he was fixed to the cross."
3. Gaul and Asia. St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, was of Smyrnian origin, and acquainted therefore with the traditions of these two countries, to say nothing of the tradition of Rome where he had lived for some time. Now St. Irenaeus has no doubts whatever that St. Peter came to Rome. According to him the Gospel of St. Matthew was written "while Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel at Rome and founding the church there." (Adv. Haereses, iii, 1.) And, a little later, wishing to base his argument on the witness of the Churches, he contents himself with giving the proof of the apostolic succession of the Church of Rome "founded and organised by the two glorious apostles Peter and Paul." (ibid. iii, 3.)
4. Greece. Eusebius (H.E., ii, 25) writes as follows "Denis Bishop of the Corinthians, in a letter addressed to the Romans, thus fixes the point that Peter and Paul both suffered martyrdom at the same time. You have also, by such an admonishment, united Rome and Corinth the two trees which we owe to Peter and to Paul. For just as both the one and the other planted at Corinth and taught us, so after teaching together in Italy, at the same time they suffered martyrdom."
5. Rome. Leaving aside the archaeological and liturgical evidence regarding St. Peter's chair at Rome, his tomb and the place where he is supposed to have lived in the empire's capital, [1] and, too, the lists of the bishops of the Roman Church, we can cite the testimony of the Roman priest Caius, who wrote during the pontificate of Zephyrinus (199-217). "In a treatise written against Proclus, the chief of the Cataphrygians," says Eusebius (H.E., ii, 25) "and speaking of the places where the sacred remains of the Apostles were laid he says, 'I can show you the trophies of the Apostles. Go to the Vatican, or along the Ostian Way, there you will find the trophies of the founders of this church.’“ The meaning of the expression tropaia has been much controverted, and it is suggested that it designates not the tombs of the Apostles but simple commemorative monuments. Even so it remains true that Rome, at the end of the second century, was still mindful of the memory "of the founders of this church." But there is nothing to disprove that the term in question means 'tomb’; we find it used with this meaning, and Eusebius, who had before him the complete text of Caius, so uses it. It is, in point of fact, the only possible meaning in this context. Caius is answering the boast of Proclus that Asia retains the bodies of the four prophetess-daughters of Philip and of their father, too, and must in turn be claiming that Rome, more gloriously still, possesses, not merely a memorial, but the very tombs of the Apostles. [2]
This examination shows then that the principal churches of the Christian world between 170 and 210 were unanimous in affirming that St. Peter went to Rome and there suffered martyrdom. Now an agreement so unanimous, among witnesses whom we may believe to be independent of one another, can only be explained by the objective reality of the fact to which they testify. That agreement is all the more impressive from the circumstance that it has not to meet any rival contrary tradition. When the Bishops of Rome claim to be the successors of St. Peter, and pride themselves on this distinction, no one throws doubt on their claim. The Eastern churches themselves bear testimony in the same sense. (cf. F. Martin, Saint Pierre, sa venue et son martyre a Rome, in the Revue des questions historiques, t. xiii (1873), pp. 5-107.)
The end of the second century was too near in time to the events themselves for any legend to have formed and to have spread itself so widely. Besides, pushing the investigation back through the intervening years we find hints that fit in with the data of the tradition as early as the first century, as early as St. Peter himself.
If, for example, St. Justin and Hermas are silent about the coming of St. Peter to Rome and his martyrdom there, and there was no reason why they should speak of it, St. Ignatius of Antioch, on the other hand, in his Letter to the Romans, written about 110, certainly alludes to it. In touching language he beseeches those to whom he writes "to spare him any untimely benevolence" that might rob him of martyrdom, and he adds "I do not give you orders as Peter and Paul. They were Apostles and I am but a prisoner condemned to death" (Rom. 4). Commenting on this text, Mgr Duchesne (Les Origines chretiennes, p. 89) says very truly, "These words are not the literal equivalent of the proposition 'St. Peter came to Rome,' but, supposing that he did go there St. Ignatius would not have spoken otherwise: supposing he did not go to Rome the phrase lacks meaning."
The tradition then existed, even in Syria, from the time of Trajan. It shows itself at Rome, in, the time of Domitian, in the letter of Pope Clement. Speaking of the evil effects of jealousy he shows how it caused the death of the apostles and of many other martyrs. "Cast your eyes," he says, "upon the most worthy apostle -- Peter, who, victim of unjust jealousy, underwent not one or two but a whole host of sufferings, and who, having thus accomplished his martyrdom, departed for the place of glory that is his due. It was through jealousy, too, that Paul showed how [to win] the prize of patience. . . . After teaching justice to the whole world, journeying to the very limits of the West, he accomplished his martyrdom before those in authority, and left this world, illustrious model of patience, to go to the holy place. With these men of holy life were joined a great crowd of chosen souls, who, the effect of jealousy, endured many outrages and tortures, and who left among us a magnificent example. It was as the victims of jealousy that these women, the Danaids and the Dirces, after suffering terrible and monstrous outrage, reached the goal in this race of the faith, and weak in body as they were, received their noble reward" (Cor. 5-6). All these victims form with the Apostles, Peter and Paul, one group. These women, came to join themselves (synethroisen) with the Apostles, and it is at Rome (ev hemin) that all suffered and left a magnificent example.
Finally St. Peter himself, in the letter he wrote to the churches of Asia, seems certainly to suggest that he is living in Rome at the time he is writing. To these Christians he sends the greetings of "the Church of Babylon" (I Pet. v. 13) that is to say of Rome, according to most exegetes. "Peter," says Renan (L'Antechrist, p. 122, Paris, 1893), "to designate Rome chose the name of the capital of Asiatic wickedness, a name whose symbolical meaning all would recognise."
Thanks to this continuity in the tradition, which goes back as far as the fact itself, it is possible to demonstrate that St. Peter went to Rome and there suffered martyrdom. "Every other hypothesis," says M. Lietzmann, "heaps difficulty upon difficulty, and can produce in its support not a single testimony from sources" (Petrus und Paulus in Rom, p. 238).
II. If we desire to establish with precision the date at which St. Peter came to Rome and the length of his stay we are not any longer in a position to prove anything demonstratively. There are sources which all of them speak of a period of twenty-five years in connection with St. Peter's Roman apostolate, but they disagree as to the date when this period begins and also as to the events with which it is connected.
Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History (ii, 14), makes St. Peter come to Rome at the beginning of the reign of Claudius (41-54), and places his death during the persecution of Nero. His presence in the imperial city is alleged to have ruined the prestige of Simon Magus. In the second edition of his Chronicle, of which St. Jerome's translation is testimony (A. Schene, Die Weltchronik des Eusebius in ihrer Bearbeitung durch Hieronymus, Berlin, 1900), he gives as the date of arrival the second year of Claudius (42), and as the date of martyrdom the fourteenth of Nero (67).
The Liberian Catalogue, so called because in its present form it dates from the pontificate of Liberius (353-366), mentions St. Peter at the head of the list of Bishops of Rome. "Peter, twenty-five years, one month, eight days; during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Caius, Tiberius Claudius, and Nero; from the consulate of Minucius (Vinicius) and Longinus to that of Nerine (Nero) and Nero (Vetus)." St. Peter then is said to have come to Rome during the reign of Tiberius, Vinicius and Longinus being consuls (30): he is said to have lived there during the reign of Caligula, Claudius and Nero until death came to him during the consulate of Nero and Vetus (55).
Finally Lactantius (De Morte Persecutorum, 2) says of the Apostles, "They spread themselves throughout the world to preach the gospel, and for twenty-five years, to the end of the reign of Nero, were busied about the foundation of the Church through all the provinces and cities. Nero had already come into power when St. Peter came to Rome. . . . Nero was the first to persecute the servants of God. Peter he crucified and Paul he put to death."
These three texts agree in speaking of a period of 25 years. But while Eusebius and the Liberian Catalogue speak of the period as the duration of St. Peter's Roman episcopate, Lactantius' reference is to the preaching of all the Apostles, during the time between the Ascension and Nero's succession, and preceding St. Peter's coming to Rome. Again, the first two sources differ in the dates from which they make the period begin -- Eusebius places the period between 42-67, the Liberian Catalogue between 30 and 55.
All the documents date from the fourth century but two of them, Eusebius and the Catalogue, derive from earlier documents, lists of bishops already existent in the third century and perhaps even in the second. (cf. A. Flamion, Les anciennes listes episcopales des quatre grands sieges, in Revue d’histoire ecclesiastique, i (1900), pp. 645-678; ii (1901), pp. 209-238.) It follows from this that it was probably from this time that the idea of twenty-five years was linked with St. Peter's Roman apostolate.
It is not, for all that, easy to understand the twenty-five years as a period of uninterrupted residence at Rome. According to the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter was at Jerusalem in 49 on the occasion of the conference which dealt with the question of Gentile converts to the faith. Shortly afterwards he was at Antioch where the incident related by St. Paul occurred. St. Paul’s own silence in his Epistle to the Romans, written in 58, that of the author of the Acts in his account of St. Paul’s captivity (61-62), the silence of the Apostle of the Gentiles in all the letters he wrote from Rome, seem to point to the fact that in these years St. Peter was not living at Rome. "All this is, no doubt, not absolutely irreconcilable with an effective residence of twenty-five years that would have to allow for necessary absences. But it is very extraordinary that these absences fall precisely at all the times concerning which we have information about Roman Christianity" (L. Duchesne, Les Origines chretiennes, p. 84, note).
According to Eusebius (H.E., ii, 14), St. Peter, who routed Simon Magus for a first time in Palestine, met the imposter a second time at Rome "at the beginning of the reign of Claudius." Simon's success which had been such that he had come to be considered "as a god, honoured with a statue," disappeared and was extinguished with himself. As early as the third century the author of the Philosophoumena (xi, 20) had recalled this fact without, however, making any mention of the statue. The value of this testimony, and of other testimonies still more recent, is hard to assess. Eusebius, for all that relates to Simon, bases his account on St. Justin, citing his first Apology (26), where the magician is spoken of as follows: "He was taken for a god; as a god he had his statue; it is erected on an island in the Tiber, between the two bridges, with his inscription in Latin: Simoni Deo Sancto." Now it is very probable that Justin, whose historical accuracy often leaves much to be desired, has here confused Simon and the Etruscan divinity Semo Sancus. In the sixteenth century, as a matter of fact, on this very island of the Tiber, there was discovered the base of a statue with the words upon it Semoni Sanco Deo Fidio Sacrum. Later still, on the Quirinal, where there was a temple to this divinity, two similar inscriptions were discovered. On the other hand the literary tradition of the meeting, of which one finds traces as early as the third century, may derive from the Acts of Peter, which dates from this time. But this work, romantic in character, Gnostic in origin, Docetist in tendency, is too slight an authority to have any credit at all. It is to this work, too, that we owe the story of Quo Vadis -- St. Peter leaving Rome to escape martyrdom meets Our Lord Who invites him, tactfully, to return to the city.
All things considered, if it is not possible to deny absolutely the meeting of St. Peter and Simon it is impossible at present to prove it scientifically. As far as regards St. Peter's death, on the other hand, we possess some data of the very best authenticity coming from Tertullian and Origen. The first says clearly (Scorpiace, 15) that he died in the time of Nero, the second (EUSEBIUS, H.E., iii, I) placing the martyrdom of St. Paul at this time seems to associate with it that of St. Peter. The two writers add that he was crucified (TERTULLIAN, De Praescriptione, 36, Scorpiace, 15; ORIGEN loc. cit.) and Origen says, too, that he was crucified head downwards, not an unusual circumstance as the custom of the day went and one which is to be found in other cases too (cf. P. Allard, Histoire des persecutions pendant les deux premiers siecles, p. 79).
1A. Profumo, La memoria di S. Pietro nella regione Salari-Nomentana Rome, 1916.
2The excavations undertaken, since 1915, in the basilica of St. Sebastian, which, once upon a time, from the fourth century, was a " basilica of the apostles " have brought to light six feet below the ground, towards the centre of the building, the remains of a still more ancient building dating from the middle of the third century. It is " a small, irregular hall closed on three sides, open on the fourth in a kind of portico. The mural decorations, the inscriptions on the walls, the remains of a bench and of a fountain have led to its recognition as a room built for meetings and for banquets. Whence its now famous name 'La Triclia.' "
On what remains of the walls, no more than three feet in height, more than two hundred graffiti have been discovered of the names of the apostles Peter and Paul. The accompanying invocations, the occasional mention of a meal (refrigerium) all point to the place having been a centre of devotion, that mentioned in old liturgical and hagiographical documents as placed on the Via Appia at the place called Ad Catacumbas, that is to say on the site of the present basilica of St. Sebastian. What memory of the Apostles was it that was honoured here? Before the excavations opinion was divided. " One theory held that it was the tradition of the house where the Apostles (or St. Peter only) once lived. Another the memory of a place where their bodies once rested. Those who held this second theory were in turn divided. One school accepted as true the old legend of Easterns coming to Rome to steal the relics of the Apostles and halted by the pursuit at this very place on the Appian Way. Others, who rejected this legend, held to a translation of the remains made by the Romans themselves. Whence again a further division-some holding that the bodies were buried first on the Via Ostia where are their tombs, others that the relics were taken from these tombs and hidden for a time at the Catacombs to save them from profanation during the persecution of Valerian in 258 " (G. de Jerphanion, Les dernieres decouvertes dans la Rome souterraine in Etudes, April 5, 1922 p. 61).
The discoveries actually made do not solve the problem. They have revealed the existence of a cultus, without being able to suggest the motive which gave rise to it. At the most, chronological coincidences would seem to incline one to accept the hypothesis of a translation in 258. On the other hand serious difficulties can be urged against this. (cf. J. P. Kirsch, Das neuentdeckte Denkmal der Apostel Petrus und Paulus an der appischen Strasse in Rom. in Romische Quartalschrift fur Kiirchengeschichte, xxx, (1916-1922), pp. 5-28.)
(The following long note is translated, with the author's permission, from the Histoire de l’Eglise, Tome I L’Antiquite Chretienne (pp. 61-67) of Fr. A. M. Jacquin, O.P., Paris, Editions de la Revue des Jeunes, 1928. To the learned author of this best of manuals I gladly express my sincerest thanks.)
"The fact of St. Peter's martyrdom at Rome has been called in doubt, through the prejudices of Protestants first of all and then of the critics. In both cases the mistake has led to an appreciable gain in historical knowledge and to that extent has been of real service. That these doubts were mistaken is to-day unquestionable for all scholars save those who turn from the light. The critical apparatus with which Baur strove against the ancient tradition is to-day, and rightly, regarded as negligible." (A. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, Chronologie, t. ii, i, p. 244.)
For all Harnack's judgment, there are not lacking Protestant and rationalist historians who spend their energy defending these theses which have long ceased to be tenable. Erbes, for example, and above all, Ch. Guignebert (La primaute’ de Pierre et la venue de Pierre a Rome, Paris, 1909). This last scholar's work earned him from the pen of M. P. Monceaux a lesson in critical scholarship which hardly increased his reputation as a scholar. (L’apostolat de Saint Pierre a Rome a propos d’un livre recent in the Revue d’historie et de litterature religieuses, New Series I (1910), pp. 216-40: cf. also A. Flamion, Saint Pierre a Rome: Examen de la these et de la methode de M. Guignebert in the Revue d’histoire ecclesiastique, XIV (1913), pp. 249-71, 473-88.) On the other hand a Protestant, H. Lietzmann, has just published in defence of the tradition a work of the very highest interest (Petrus und Paulus in Rom, 2 ed., Berlin, 1927). His choice goes to the evidence from the Liturgy and from Archaeology, and he reaches the conclusion that, towards the year 200, the conviction at Rome was universal that the city possessed the tombs of SS. Peter and Paul. Other proofs, drawn from the letters of Clement and Ignatius, from the First Epistle of St. Peter, make it impossible for us to allow the theory of a legend formed in the interval between the death of the Apostles and the year 200 and this all the more since no other church, whether in the East or in the West, has ever laid claim to the honour of possessing these illustrious remains.
There would then be little occasion to re-open the discussion of a question now so clearly decided, except for the fact's importance in the history of the Primitive Church and for its apologetic value as an argument for the privileges of the episcopal see of Rome. This double importance is a good reason for presenting here the arguments on which the traditional belief is based.
Moreover, the proof is by this time a commonplace, and among many others Mgr. Duchesne (Les Origines chretiennes, 2 ed., pp. 82-117, Paris, s.d.: Hist. Ancienne de l’Eglise, I, pp. 61-63, Paris, 1911) has set it out with a scientific detachment which is beyond all criticism. He makes a distinction between the principal fact, about which no one can any longer have any serious doubt, and the accessory circumstances about which we have not the same historical guarantee. "It is possible," he says, "to prove that St. Peter came to Rome, and that he suffered martyrdom there: we have no evidence sufficient to fix the date of his coming nor the length of his stay." (Les Origines chretiennes, p. 82.)
I. As to the first point, we can note, by the end of the second century a tradition that is precise and universal: the majority of the churches provide evidence, and that evidence is to the same effect.
1. Alexandria. Clement, writing about the Gospel of St. Mark, says "Peter preached the word of God publicly at Rome, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit made the Gospel known. Those who assisted at his sermons, and they were numerous, exhorted Mark, who for a long time had been Peter's companion, and whose memory held many of his sayings, to put these things in writing." (Eusebius, H.E., vi, 14)
Origen, in his commentary on Genesis (1 iii) speaks of the activity of the Apostles. Of Peter he says "Peter appears to have preached in Pontus, in Galatia, in Bithynia, in Cappadocia, and in Asia to the Jews of the Diaspora. Finally he, too, came to Rome, and there he was crucified, head downwards, having asked to suffer in this fashion." (EUSEBIUS; H.E. iii, 1.)
2. Africa. Tertullian more than once asserts that St. Peter came to Rome and there suffered martyrdom. Speaking of the church of that city he says "O Happy Church ! The Apostles lavished upon it their teaching and their blood. Peter there suffered a death like to that of the Lord." (De Praescriptione, 36.) In the De Baptismo, 4, he recalls that Peter "baptized in the Tiber" that is at Rome. In another place (Adv. Marcion, iv, 5) it is to the authority of the Romans that he appeals against Marcion since "to them Peter and Paul left the gospel, confirmed by their blood." A little later still, Scorpiace 15, he asserts that "Nero was the first to persecute the nascent faith at Rome with punishments. Then it was," he adds, "that Peter was girt by another, when he was fixed to the cross."
3. Gaul and Asia. St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, was of Smyrnian origin, and acquainted therefore with the traditions of these two countries, to say nothing of the tradition of Rome where he had lived for some time. Now St. Irenaeus has no doubts whatever that St. Peter came to Rome. According to him the Gospel of St. Matthew was written "while Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel at Rome and founding the church there." (Adv. Haereses, iii, 1.) And, a little later, wishing to base his argument on the witness of the Churches, he contents himself with giving the proof of the apostolic succession of the Church of Rome "founded and organised by the two glorious apostles Peter and Paul." (ibid. iii, 3.)
4. Greece. Eusebius (H.E., ii, 25) writes as follows "Denis Bishop of the Corinthians, in a letter addressed to the Romans, thus fixes the point that Peter and Paul both suffered martyrdom at the same time. You have also, by such an admonishment, united Rome and Corinth the two trees which we owe to Peter and to Paul. For just as both the one and the other planted at Corinth and taught us, so after teaching together in Italy, at the same time they suffered martyrdom."
5. Rome. Leaving aside the archaeological and liturgical evidence regarding St. Peter's chair at Rome, his tomb and the place where he is supposed to have lived in the empire's capital, [1] and, too, the lists of the bishops of the Roman Church, we can cite the testimony of the Roman priest Caius, who wrote during the pontificate of Zephyrinus (199-217). "In a treatise written against Proclus, the chief of the Cataphrygians," says Eusebius (H.E., ii, 25) "and speaking of the places where the sacred remains of the Apostles were laid he says, 'I can show you the trophies of the Apostles. Go to the Vatican, or along the Ostian Way, there you will find the trophies of the founders of this church.’“ The meaning of the expression tropaia has been much controverted, and it is suggested that it designates not the tombs of the Apostles but simple commemorative monuments. Even so it remains true that Rome, at the end of the second century, was still mindful of the memory "of the founders of this church." But there is nothing to disprove that the term in question means 'tomb’; we find it used with this meaning, and Eusebius, who had before him the complete text of Caius, so uses it. It is, in point of fact, the only possible meaning in this context. Caius is answering the boast of Proclus that Asia retains the bodies of the four prophetess-daughters of Philip and of their father, too, and must in turn be claiming that Rome, more gloriously still, possesses, not merely a memorial, but the very tombs of the Apostles. [2]
This examination shows then that the principal churches of the Christian world between 170 and 210 were unanimous in affirming that St. Peter went to Rome and there suffered martyrdom. Now an agreement so unanimous, among witnesses whom we may believe to be independent of one another, can only be explained by the objective reality of the fact to which they testify. That agreement is all the more impressive from the circumstance that it has not to meet any rival contrary tradition. When the Bishops of Rome claim to be the successors of St. Peter, and pride themselves on this distinction, no one throws doubt on their claim. The Eastern churches themselves bear testimony in the same sense. (cf. F. Martin, Saint Pierre, sa venue et son martyre a Rome, in the Revue des questions historiques, t. xiii (1873), pp. 5-107.)
The end of the second century was too near in time to the events themselves for any legend to have formed and to have spread itself so widely. Besides, pushing the investigation back through the intervening years we find hints that fit in with the data of the tradition as early as the first century, as early as St. Peter himself.
If, for example, St. Justin and Hermas are silent about the coming of St. Peter to Rome and his martyrdom there, and there was no reason why they should speak of it, St. Ignatius of Antioch, on the other hand, in his Letter to the Romans, written about 110, certainly alludes to it. In touching language he beseeches those to whom he writes "to spare him any untimely benevolence" that might rob him of martyrdom, and he adds "I do not give you orders as Peter and Paul. They were Apostles and I am but a prisoner condemned to death" (Rom. 4). Commenting on this text, Mgr Duchesne (Les Origines chretiennes, p. 89) says very truly, "These words are not the literal equivalent of the proposition 'St. Peter came to Rome,' but, supposing that he did go there St. Ignatius would not have spoken otherwise: supposing he did not go to Rome the phrase lacks meaning."
The tradition then existed, even in Syria, from the time of Trajan. It shows itself at Rome, in, the time of Domitian, in the letter of Pope Clement. Speaking of the evil effects of jealousy he shows how it caused the death of the apostles and of many other martyrs. "Cast your eyes," he says, "upon the most worthy apostle -- Peter, who, victim of unjust jealousy, underwent not one or two but a whole host of sufferings, and who, having thus accomplished his martyrdom, departed for the place of glory that is his due. It was through jealousy, too, that Paul showed how [to win] the prize of patience. . . . After teaching justice to the whole world, journeying to the very limits of the West, he accomplished his martyrdom before those in authority, and left this world, illustrious model of patience, to go to the holy place. With these men of holy life were joined a great crowd of chosen souls, who, the effect of jealousy, endured many outrages and tortures, and who left among us a magnificent example. It was as the victims of jealousy that these women, the Danaids and the Dirces, after suffering terrible and monstrous outrage, reached the goal in this race of the faith, and weak in body as they were, received their noble reward" (Cor. 5-6). All these victims form with the Apostles, Peter and Paul, one group. These women, came to join themselves (synethroisen) with the Apostles, and it is at Rome (ev hemin) that all suffered and left a magnificent example.
Finally St. Peter himself, in the letter he wrote to the churches of Asia, seems certainly to suggest that he is living in Rome at the time he is writing. To these Christians he sends the greetings of "the Church of Babylon" (I Pet. v. 13) that is to say of Rome, according to most exegetes. "Peter," says Renan (L'Antechrist, p. 122, Paris, 1893), "to designate Rome chose the name of the capital of Asiatic wickedness, a name whose symbolical meaning all would recognise."
Thanks to this continuity in the tradition, which goes back as far as the fact itself, it is possible to demonstrate that St. Peter went to Rome and there suffered martyrdom. "Every other hypothesis," says M. Lietzmann, "heaps difficulty upon difficulty, and can produce in its support not a single testimony from sources" (Petrus und Paulus in Rom, p. 238).
II. If we desire to establish with precision the date at which St. Peter came to Rome and the length of his stay we are not any longer in a position to prove anything demonstratively. There are sources which all of them speak of a period of twenty-five years in connection with St. Peter's Roman apostolate, but they disagree as to the date when this period begins and also as to the events with which it is connected.
Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History (ii, 14), makes St. Peter come to Rome at the beginning of the reign of Claudius (41-54), and places his death during the persecution of Nero. His presence in the imperial city is alleged to have ruined the prestige of Simon Magus. In the second edition of his Chronicle, of which St. Jerome's translation is testimony (A. Schene, Die Weltchronik des Eusebius in ihrer Bearbeitung durch Hieronymus, Berlin, 1900), he gives as the date of arrival the second year of Claudius (42), and as the date of martyrdom the fourteenth of Nero (67).
The Liberian Catalogue, so called because in its present form it dates from the pontificate of Liberius (353-366), mentions St. Peter at the head of the list of Bishops of Rome. "Peter, twenty-five years, one month, eight days; during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Caius, Tiberius Claudius, and Nero; from the consulate of Minucius (Vinicius) and Longinus to that of Nerine (Nero) and Nero (Vetus)." St. Peter then is said to have come to Rome during the reign of Tiberius, Vinicius and Longinus being consuls (30): he is said to have lived there during the reign of Caligula, Claudius and Nero until death came to him during the consulate of Nero and Vetus (55).
Finally Lactantius (De Morte Persecutorum, 2) says of the Apostles, "They spread themselves throughout the world to preach the gospel, and for twenty-five years, to the end of the reign of Nero, were busied about the foundation of the Church through all the provinces and cities. Nero had already come into power when St. Peter came to Rome. . . . Nero was the first to persecute the servants of God. Peter he crucified and Paul he put to death."
These three texts agree in speaking of a period of 25 years. But while Eusebius and the Liberian Catalogue speak of the period as the duration of St. Peter's Roman episcopate, Lactantius' reference is to the preaching of all the Apostles, during the time between the Ascension and Nero's succession, and preceding St. Peter's coming to Rome. Again, the first two sources differ in the dates from which they make the period begin -- Eusebius places the period between 42-67, the Liberian Catalogue between 30 and 55.
All the documents date from the fourth century but two of them, Eusebius and the Catalogue, derive from earlier documents, lists of bishops already existent in the third century and perhaps even in the second. (cf. A. Flamion, Les anciennes listes episcopales des quatre grands sieges, in Revue d’histoire ecclesiastique, i (1900), pp. 645-678; ii (1901), pp. 209-238.) It follows from this that it was probably from this time that the idea of twenty-five years was linked with St. Peter's Roman apostolate.
It is not, for all that, easy to understand the twenty-five years as a period of uninterrupted residence at Rome. According to the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter was at Jerusalem in 49 on the occasion of the conference which dealt with the question of Gentile converts to the faith. Shortly afterwards he was at Antioch where the incident related by St. Paul occurred. St. Paul’s own silence in his Epistle to the Romans, written in 58, that of the author of the Acts in his account of St. Paul’s captivity (61-62), the silence of the Apostle of the Gentiles in all the letters he wrote from Rome, seem to point to the fact that in these years St. Peter was not living at Rome. "All this is, no doubt, not absolutely irreconcilable with an effective residence of twenty-five years that would have to allow for necessary absences. But it is very extraordinary that these absences fall precisely at all the times concerning which we have information about Roman Christianity" (L. Duchesne, Les Origines chretiennes, p. 84, note).
According to Eusebius (H.E., ii, 14), St. Peter, who routed Simon Magus for a first time in Palestine, met the imposter a second time at Rome "at the beginning of the reign of Claudius." Simon's success which had been such that he had come to be considered "as a god, honoured with a statue," disappeared and was extinguished with himself. As early as the third century the author of the Philosophoumena (xi, 20) had recalled this fact without, however, making any mention of the statue. The value of this testimony, and of other testimonies still more recent, is hard to assess. Eusebius, for all that relates to Simon, bases his account on St. Justin, citing his first Apology (26), where the magician is spoken of as follows: "He was taken for a god; as a god he had his statue; it is erected on an island in the Tiber, between the two bridges, with his inscription in Latin: Simoni Deo Sancto." Now it is very probable that Justin, whose historical accuracy often leaves much to be desired, has here confused Simon and the Etruscan divinity Semo Sancus. In the sixteenth century, as a matter of fact, on this very island of the Tiber, there was discovered the base of a statue with the words upon it Semoni Sanco Deo Fidio Sacrum. Later still, on the Quirinal, where there was a temple to this divinity, two similar inscriptions were discovered. On the other hand the literary tradition of the meeting, of which one finds traces as early as the third century, may derive from the Acts of Peter, which dates from this time. But this work, romantic in character, Gnostic in origin, Docetist in tendency, is too slight an authority to have any credit at all. It is to this work, too, that we owe the story of Quo Vadis -- St. Peter leaving Rome to escape martyrdom meets Our Lord Who invites him, tactfully, to return to the city.
All things considered, if it is not possible to deny absolutely the meeting of St. Peter and Simon it is impossible at present to prove it scientifically. As far as regards St. Peter's death, on the other hand, we possess some data of the very best authenticity coming from Tertullian and Origen. The first says clearly (Scorpiace, 15) that he died in the time of Nero, the second (EUSEBIUS, H.E., iii, I) placing the martyrdom of St. Paul at this time seems to associate with it that of St. Peter. The two writers add that he was crucified (TERTULLIAN, De Praescriptione, 36, Scorpiace, 15; ORIGEN loc. cit.) and Origen says, too, that he was crucified head downwards, not an unusual circumstance as the custom of the day went and one which is to be found in other cases too (cf. P. Allard, Histoire des persecutions pendant les deux premiers siecles, p. 79).
1A. Profumo, La memoria di S. Pietro nella regione Salari-Nomentana Rome, 1916.
2The excavations undertaken, since 1915, in the basilica of St. Sebastian, which, once upon a time, from the fourth century, was a " basilica of the apostles " have brought to light six feet below the ground, towards the centre of the building, the remains of a still more ancient building dating from the middle of the third century. It is " a small, irregular hall closed on three sides, open on the fourth in a kind of portico. The mural decorations, the inscriptions on the walls, the remains of a bench and of a fountain have led to its recognition as a room built for meetings and for banquets. Whence its now famous name 'La Triclia.' "
On what remains of the walls, no more than three feet in height, more than two hundred graffiti have been discovered of the names of the apostles Peter and Paul. The accompanying invocations, the occasional mention of a meal (refrigerium) all point to the place having been a centre of devotion, that mentioned in old liturgical and hagiographical documents as placed on the Via Appia at the place called Ad Catacumbas, that is to say on the site of the present basilica of St. Sebastian. What memory of the Apostles was it that was honoured here? Before the excavations opinion was divided. " One theory held that it was the tradition of the house where the Apostles (or St. Peter only) once lived. Another the memory of a place where their bodies once rested. Those who held this second theory were in turn divided. One school accepted as true the old legend of Easterns coming to Rome to steal the relics of the Apostles and halted by the pursuit at this very place on the Appian Way. Others, who rejected this legend, held to a translation of the remains made by the Romans themselves. Whence again a further division-some holding that the bodies were buried first on the Via Ostia where are their tombs, others that the relics were taken from these tombs and hidden for a time at the Catacombs to save them from profanation during the persecution of Valerian in 258 " (G. de Jerphanion, Les dernieres decouvertes dans la Rome souterraine in Etudes, April 5, 1922 p. 61).
The discoveries actually made do not solve the problem. They have revealed the existence of a cultus, without being able to suggest the motive which gave rise to it. At the most, chronological coincidences would seem to incline one to accept the hypothesis of a translation in 258. On the other hand serious difficulties can be urged against this. (cf. J. P. Kirsch, Das neuentdeckte Denkmal der Apostel Petrus und Paulus an der appischen Strasse in Rom. in Romische Quartalschrift fur Kiirchengeschichte, xxx, (1916-1922), pp. 5-28.)
