THE
EARLY CHRISTIANS IN ROME
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
DREAMLAND IN HISTORY
THE WHITE ROBE OF CHURCHES
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND: A HISTORY FOR THE PEOPLE (in Four Volumes)
CLOISTER LIFE IN THE DAYS OF CŒUR-DE-LION
CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM
THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE CHURCH
[Illustration: PAINTING IN THE CATACOMBS, CENTURY II OR III. THE GOOD
SHEPHERD IN THE CENTRE. ON THE LEFT DANIEL IN THE DEN OF LIONS. ON THE
RIGHT THE THREE CHILDREN IN THE FURNACE.]
THE
EARLY CHRISTIANS
IN ROME
BY THE VERY REV.
H. D. M. SPENCE-JONES
M.A., D.D.
DEAN OF GLOUCESTER
PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY IN THE ROYAL ACADEMY
WITH A FRONTISPIECE IN COLOUR AND
TWELVE OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS
SECOND EDITION
METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
_First Published_ _October 27th 1910_
_Second Edition_ _1911_
TO
EDGAR SUMNER GIBSON, D.D.
LORD BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER
A GREAT SCHOLAR AND A WARM FRIEND
PREFACE
Of the five Books which make up this work, the _First Book_ relates
generally the history of the fortunes of the Church in Rome in the
first days.
The foundation stories of the Roman congregations were laid largely by
the Apostles Peter and Paul--Peter, so with one accord say the earliest
contemporary writers,[1] being the first apostle who preached in Rome.
Paul, who taught many years later in the Capital, was also reckoned
as a founder of the Roman Church; for his teaching, especially his
Christology, supplemented and explained in detail the teaching of S.
Peter and the early founders.
The First Book relates how, after the great fire of Rome in the days of
Nero, the Christians came into prominence, but apparently were looked
on for a considerable period as a sect of dissenting Jews.
From A.D. 64 and onwards they were evidently regarded as
enemies of the State, and were perpetually harassed and persecuted. No
real period of “quietness” was again enjoyed by them until the famous
edict of Constantine the Great, A.D. 313, had been issued.
Although, through the favour of the reigning Emperor, a temporary
suspension of the stern law of the State, sometimes lasting for several
years, left the Christian sect for a time, comparatively speaking, at
peace.
The Persecutions, which began in the days of Nero, with varying
severity continued all through the reigns of the Flavians (Vespasian,
Titus, Domitian).
Nerva, who succeeded Domitian, only reigned two years, and was followed
by the great Trajan: still the persecution of the sect continued. This
we learn from Pliny’s letter to Trajan, _circa_ A.D. 111-113.
Hadrian, who followed Trajan, virtually pursued the same policy.
In the latter years of Hadrian, from A.D. 134-5, the result of
the great Jewish rebellion definitely and for ever separated, in the
eyes of the government, the Christian from the Jew. Henceforth the Jew
generally pursued his quiet way, and found new ideals, new hopes. The
State feared the Jew no longer.
Not so the Christian. Rome saw clearly now that a new and influential
sect had arisen in their midst; a sect absolutely opposed to the old
Roman sacred traditions and worship, a sect, too, that evidently
possessed some mighty secret power which enabled the Christians
fearlessly to defy the magistracy of the Empire. This partly accounts
for the greater severity of the persecution under the Antonine Emperors.
The policy of the Antonines (Pius and Marcus), which endeavoured to
restore and to give fresh life to the old Roman traditions and worship,
which they looked upon as indissolubly bound up with the greatness
and power of Rome, was absolutely hostile to the spirit of Christian
thought and teaching.
The _First Book_ brings the history down to A.D. 180, the date
of the death of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
The “Inner Life” of the Christian congregations is now dwelt on, and
forms the subject-matter of Books II., III., IV.
The subject-matter of the _Second Book_ is the _everyday life_ of the
Christian in the first, second, and third centuries, during which
period the religion of Jesus of Nazareth was in the eyes of the Roman
government an unlawful cult, and its adherents were ever liable to the
severest punishment, such as confiscation of their goods, rigorous
imprisonment, torture, and even death.
After dwelling on the question of the numbers of Christians in very
early times, their public _assemblies_ or meetings together are
described with considerable detail in Book II. The importance of these
“meetings” in early Christian life is dwelt upon. _What took place
at these gatherings_ is commented upon at considerable length. The
position occupied by the _slave_ at these “meetings,” and in Christian
society generally, is examined briefly.
Some of the various difficulties which Christians in the age of
persecution had to face, and the way by which these difficulties were
combated, are described.
Instruction as to the way of meeting the difficulty of life for a
Christian living in pagan Rome, was given by two different schools of
thought. A sketch is given of (1) “Rigourists,” and (2) of the “gentler
and more practical” schools which strove to accommodate the Christian
life with the life of the ordinary Roman citizen.
The important part played by the “Rigourist” or ascetic school in the
ultimate conversion of the Roman World to Christianity is examined.
Finally, some of the inducements are indicated which persuaded the
Christian of the first three centuries to endure with brave patience
the hard and dangerous life which was ever the earthly lot of the
followers of Jesus.
The _Third Book_ treats especially of the hard and painful nature of
the “life” which, from A.D. 64, was the lot of the Christian
in the Roman Empire. For the members of the community ever lived under
the dark shadow of persecution. The severity of the persecution varied
from time to time, but the dark shadow lay on them, and constantly
brooded over all their works and days. We possess no direct detailed
history of this state of things, but all the early contemporary
writings of Christians, a good many of which, whole or in fragments,
have come down to us, are literally honeycombed with notices bearing
on this perpetual apprehension; and indeed so real, so constant was
the danger, and so grave were the consequences to Christianity of any
flinching in the hour of trial, that among the congregations of the
first days, numerous schools existed for the purpose of training men
and women to endure the sufferings of martyrdom.
The number of martyrs in these early years has been probably
understated. Pagan contemporary writers of the highest authority,
casually, but still definitely, allude to the great numbers of victims,
while the tone of early Christian writings (already referred to) is
deeply coloured with the pathetic memories of these blood-stained days.
Besides the references even of eminent pagan authorities and the
perpetual allusions in early Christian writings to the great numbers
of Martyrs and Confessors, a somewhat novel testimony to the vast
number of martyrs is quoted here at some length from the history
of the Catacombs, where the numbers of these Confessors are again
and again dwelt on in the “handbooks” to the Roman subterranean
cemeteries, compiled in the fifth and following centuries as “guides”
for the crowds of pilgrims from foreign lands visiting Rome. These
“Pilgrim Guides,” several of which have in later years come to light,
have been recently made the subject of careful study.
The _Fourth Book_ is devoted exclusively to the story of the Roman
Catacombs. In the course of the second half of the nineteenth century,
the vast subterranean City of the Dead, known as the Roman Catacombs,
has been in parts patiently excavated, and carefully studied by eminent
scholars. This study, which is still being actively pursued, has
thrown much light upon the “life” lived among the early generations
of Christians. The inscriptions and epitaphs graved and painted, the
various symbols carved upon the countless tombs in the Catacombs, have
told us very much of the relations between the rich and the poor. They
have disclosed to us something of the secret of the intense faith of
these early believers on the “Name,” and have shown us what was the
sure and certain hope which inspired their wonderful endurance of pain
and agony, and their marvellous courage in the hour of trial.
All this and much more the inscriptions on the thousand thousand
graves, the dim fading pictures, the rough carvings, speak of in a
language none can mistake. It is, indeed, a voice from the dead,
bearing its strange, weird testimony which none can gainsay or doubt.
The work of excavation and the patient study of these Catacombs are yet
slowly proceeding, but from what has been already discovered we have
learned much of the “Inner Life” of this early Christian folk.
The history of these wonderful Catacombs, this subterranean city of the
dead beneath the suburbs of ancient Rome, is told at some length and
with considerable detail in the Fourth Book.
The _Fifth Book_ may be considered as a supplement to the work, which
in the first four Books has dwelt on (1) the very early history, and
(2) on the “Inner Life” of the Christian Church in the first three
centuries, especially in Rome.
Christianity sprang from the heart of the Chosen People, the Jews.
The Divine Founder in His earthly life was pleased to be a Son of the
Chosen People, and His disciples, who laid the early stories of the
Faith, were all Jews, as were the earliest converts to the religion of
Jesus.
The history of the Jews--their past and present condition--is
indissolubly bound up with the records of Christianity. It constitutes
the most important confirmation which we possess of the truth of early
Christian history. It is the weightiest of all evidential arguments
here, and it cannot be refuted or disproved.
The general account of the Chosen People before the coming of Messiah
is well known, and the historical accuracy of the Old Testament records
is generally admitted. But the memories of the fortunes of the Jewish
race after A.D. 70, when the Temple and City were destroyed,
and when the heart of Judaism, as it were, ceased to beat, are
comparatively little known.
The Fifth Book tells something of that eventful history. It sketches
first, very briefly, the last fatal wars of the Jews. Then it tells how
directly after the Temple was burnt a remarkable group of Rabbis arose,
who, undismayed by what seemed the hopeless ruin of their race, at once
proceeded to the reconstruction of Judaism upon totally new foundation
stories.
These strange and wonderful scholars gathered together a mass of
memories, traditions, and precepts which from the days of Moses
had gradually been grouped round the sacred Torah,--the Law of the
Lord,--and which had formed the subject-matter of the teaching of the
Rabbinic schools of the Holy Law during the five centuries which had
elapsed since the Return from the Captivity.
All these memories--traditions--comments, the great scholar Rabbis
and their disciples arranged, codified, amplified. This work went on
for some three hundred years or more; their labours resulted in the
production of the Talmud.
The great object of this marvellous book, or rather collection of
books, the Talmud, was the glorification of Israel; but no longer as a
separate, a distinct nation, but what was far greater, as a separate
People, a People specially beloved of God, for whom a glorious destiny
was reserved in a remote future, a destiny which only belonged to the
Jews.
In the several sections of this Fifth Book the Talmud is
described:--the materials out of which it was composed, the method of
the composition, the marvellous power which it exercised upon the sad
Remnant of the Jewish people, how it bound them, exiles though they
were in many lands, and kept them together,--all this is told at some
length.
The ten or twelve millions of Jews, scattered through many hostile
nations, living in the world of to-day, more powerful, more influential
by far than they were in the golden age of David and Solomon, linked
together by a bond which has never snapped, are indeed an ever-present
evidence of the truth of the story of the early Christians dwelt on in
the first four Books of this work.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BOOK I
THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY
IN ROME
PART I
INTRODUCTORY
PAGE
A sketch of the early Jewish colony in Rome--Allusion to
Jews by Cicero--Favour shown them by Julius Cæsar--Mention
of Jews by the great poets of the Augustine
age--Characteristic features and moral power of Jews--Their
numbers in the days of Nero 3
I
(_a_) FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH IN ROME--INFLUENCE OF
S. PETER
Into this colony of Jews came the news of the story of Jesus
Christ--Was S. Peter among the first preachers of
Christianity in Rome?--Quotations from early Christian
writers on this subject--Traditional memories of S. Peter in
Rome 7
II
EARLY REFERENCES
Quotations from patristic writers of the first three
centuries, bearing on the foundation of the Church in Rome,
including the oldest Catalogues of the Bishops of
Rome--Deduction from these quotations 13
PART II
I
(_b_) FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH IN ROME--INFLUENCE OF
S. PAUL
S. Paul in Rome--His share in laying the foundation stories
in the Capital--Paul’s Christology more detailed than that
contained in S. Mark’s Gospel, which represents S. Peter’s
teaching 21
II
POSITION OF CHRISTIANS AFTER A.D. 64
The great fire of Rome in the days of Nero brought the
unnoticed sect of Christians into prominence--The games of
Nero--Never again after A.D. 64 did Christians enjoy
“stillness”--The policy of the State towards them from this
time was practically unaltered 25
III
THE VEILED SHADOW OF PERSECUTION--POLICY OF THE
FLAVIAN EMPERORS
Silence respecting details of persecutions in pagan and in
Christian writings--Reason for this--These writings contain
little history; but the Christian writings are coloured with
the daily expectation of death and suffering--In spite of
persecution the numbers of Christians increased rapidly--What
was the strange attraction of Christianity?--Persecution of
the sect under the Flavian Emperors Vespasian, Titus,
Domitian 35
PART III
INTRODUCTORY
The correspondence between Trajan and Pliny, and the
Imperial Rescript--Genuineness of this piece in Pliny’s
Letters 45
I
THE LETTERS OF PLINY
Nerva--Character of Trajan--Story of correspondence here
referred to--Pliny’s Letters--Reply of Trajan, which
contained the famous Rescript--Tertullian’s criticism of
Rescript--Pliny’s Letters--They were no ordinary letters,
but were intended for public reading--Pliny’s character--The
vogue of writing letters as literary pieces for public
reading--Pliny’s Letters briefly examined--The letter here
under special consideration--Its great importance in early
Christian history 48
II
VOGUE OF EPISTOLARY FORM OF LITERATURE
Letters of public men considered as pieces of literature--After
Trajan there were very few Latin writings until the close
of the fourth century--In that period some celebrated
letters again appear (written by Symmachus and by Sidonius
Apollinaris a few years later)--These letters were evidently
written as pieces of literature intended for public
circulation 63
III
THE NEW TESTAMENT EPISTLES, AND LETTERS OF APOSTOLIC
FATHERS
Adoption of favourite letter-form as literary pieces--in
Epistles of the New Testament, and in letters of Apostolic
Fathers 69
PART IV
I
(_a_) HADRIAN--HIS POLICY TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY
_Hadrian_--His life of travel--His character--Early policy
towards Christians--He insults Christianity in his building
of Aelia Capitolina on site of Jerusalem--The great Jewish
war--Its two results--(_a_) Complete change in the spirit of
the Jews--(_b_) A new conception of the Christian sect on
part of Roman Government--It was now recognized that the
Christian was no mere Jewish dissenter, but a member of a
distinct sect, dangerous to Roman policy 75
II
(_b_) HADRIAN--HIS ENMITY TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY GRADUALLY
INCREASED
Last years of Hadrian--Persecution of Christians more
pronounced--Undoubted authorities for this graver position
of Christians throughout the Empire--Table showing succession
of Antonines to the Empire 81
III
ANTONINUS PIUS AND MARCUS ANTONINUS--THEIR IDEALS
Character of Antoninus Pius--His intense love for Rome--His
determination to restore the old simple life to which Rome
owed her greatness--His devotion to ancient Roman traditions,
and to the old Roman religion--Antoninus Pius and
his successor Marcus lived themselves the simple austere life
they taught to their court and subjects 84
IV
INTENSE ANTIPATHY OF THE ANTONINES TO CHRISTIANITY
Reason of the Antonines’ marked hostility to the Christian
sect--The Christians stood resolutely aloof from the ancient
religion which these two great sovereigns believed was
indissolubly bound up with the greatness of Rome--With such
views of the sources of Roman power and prosperity, only
a stern policy of persecution was possible--This policy,
pursued in days of Pius, was intensified by his yet greater
successor Marcus--The common idea that the Christians were
tolerated in the days of the Antonines must be
abandoned--Their sufferings under the rule of these great
Emperors, especially in the days of Marcus, can scarcely be
exaggerated 91
BOOK II
THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN IN THE EARLY
DAYS OF THE FAITH
INTRODUCTORY 101
I
NUMBERS OF CHRISTIANS IN THE EARLY DAYS
Certain reasons to which the rapid acceptance of
Christianity was owing--The great numbers of the early
converts is borne witness to by pagan authors, such as
Tacitus and Pliny, and by Christian contemporary writers
such as Clement of Rome, Hermas, Irenæus, and others--The
testimony of the Roman catacombs described in detail in
Fourth Book is also referred to 102
II
THE ASSEMBLIES OF CHRISTIANS
These “assemblies” constituted a powerful factor in the
acceptance and organization of the religion of Jesus--Their
high importance is recognized by the great teachers of
the first days--Quotations from these are given 107
III
OF WHOM THESE PRIMITIVE “ASSEMBLIES” WERE COMPOSED
Information respecting these early meetings of Believers
is supplied by leading Christian teachers--Quotations from
these are given 110
IV
WHAT WAS TAUGHT AND DONE IN THESE “ASSEMBLIES”
A general picture of one of them by Justin Martyr--(_A_)
Dogmatic teaching given in these meetings--(_B_)
Almsgiving--Is shown to be an inescapable duty--Is pressed
home by early masters of Christianity on the faithful--All
offerings made were, however, purely voluntary--No communism
was ever taught or hinted at in the early Church--(_C_)
Special dogmatic instruction respecting the value of
almsgiving was given by some early teachers--Several of these
instructions are given here--(_D_) Apart from this somewhat
strange dogmatic teaching on the value of almsgiving, the
general duty of almsgiving was most strongly impressed on the
faithful--Passages emphasizing this from very early writers
are here quoted--(_E_) Special recipients of these alms are
particularized; amongst these, in the first place, widows and
orphans, and the sick, appear--(_F_) These alms in some cases
were not to be confined to the Household of Faith--(_G_)
Hospitality to strangers is enjoined--References here are
given from several prominent early teachers--Help to prisoners
for the Name’s sake enjoined--Assistance to be given to poorer
Churches is recommended--(_H_) Burial expenses for the dead
among the poorer brethren are to be partly defrayed from the
“alms” contributed at the assemblies, partly from private
sources--Lactantius, in his summary of Christian duties,
dwells markedly on this duty--Important witness of the Roman
catacombs here 113
V
THE SLAVE IN EARLY CHRISTIAN LIFE
Position in Christian society--How the slave was regarded
in the “assemblies”--Paulinus of Nola quoted on the general
Christian estimate of a slave--How this novel view of the
slave was looked on by pagans 134
A general summary of the effect which all this teaching
current in the primitive “assemblies” had on the policy
and work of the Church in subsequent ages 137
VI
DIFFICULTIES IN ORDINARY LIFE AMONG THE EARLY CHRISTIANS
Difficulties in common life for the Christian who
endeavoured to carry out the precepts and teaching given
in the “assemblies” are sketched--In family life--In
trades--In the amusements of the people--In civil
employments--In the army--In matters of education--A
general summary of such difficulties is quoted from De
Broglie (_l’Église et l’Empire_) 140
VII
THE ASCETIC AND THE MORE PRACTICAL SCHOOLS OF TEACHING
Two schools of teaching, showing how these difficulties
were to be met, evidently existed in the early Church--(_A_)
_The school of Rigourists_--Tertullian is a good example of
a teacher of this school--Effect of this school on
artisans--On popular amusements--On soldiers of the
Legions--On slaves--On family life--From this stern school
came the majority of the martyrs--(_B_) _The gentler and
more practical school_--exemplified in such writings as the
Dialogue of Minucius Felix and in writings of Clement of
Alexandria, etc.--Results of the teaching of the _gentler
school_--Art was still possible among Christians, although
permeated with heathen symbols--The Christian might still
continue to live in the Imperial court--might remain in the
civil service--in the army, etc.--Examples for such
allowances found in Old Testament writings--(_C_) The
_Rigourist_ school again dwelt on--Its great influence on
the pagan empire--The final victory of Christianity was
largely owing to the popular impression of the life and
conduct of followers of this school--This impression was
voiced by fourth century writers such as Prudentius and
Paulinus of Nola, and is shown in the work of Pope Damasus
in the catacombs 144
VIII
WHAT THE RELIGION OF JESUS OFFERED IN RETURN FOR THIS HARD
LIFE TO RIGOURISTS, AND IN A SLIGHTLY LESS DEGREE TO ALL
FOLLOWERS OF THE SECOND SCHOOL
(_A_) Freedom from ever-present fear of death--S. Paul,
Ignatius, and especially epitaphs in the Roman catacombs
are referred to here--(_B_) New terminology
for death, burial, etc., used--(_C_) The ever-present
consciousness of forgiveness of sins--(_D_) Hope of
immediate bliss after death--The power of the revelation
of S. John in early Christian life--(_E_) Was
Christian life in the early centuries after all a dreary
existence, as the pagans considered it? 153
BOOK III
THE INNER LIFE OF THE CHURCH
PART I
A.D. 64-A.D. 180
INTRODUCTORY
The early Church remained continually under the veiled
shadow of persecution--This state of things we learn, not
from the “Acts of the Martyrs,” which, save in a certain
number of instances, are of questionable authority, but from
fragments which have come down to us of contemporary
writings--Extracts from two groups of the more important of
these are quoted 163
I
QUOTATIONS FROM APOSTLES, ETC.
_First Group._--From writings of apostles and apostolic men,
including the Epistle to the Hebrews--1 Peter--Revelation
of S. John--First letter of S. Clement of Rome--The seven
genuine letters of S. Ignatius 166
II
QUOTATIONS FROM WRITINGS OF THE SECOND CENTURY
_Second Group._--Early writings, dating from the time of
Trajan to the death of Marcus Antoninus (A.D. 180);
including--“Letters of Pliny and Trajan”--“Letter to
Diognetus”--“The Shepherd of Hermas”--“1st Apology of Justin
Martyr”--“Minucius Felix”--“Writings of Melito of
Sardis”--“Writings of Athenagoras”--“Writings of Theophilus
of Antioch”--“Writings of Tertullian”--the last-named a very
few years later, but bearing on same period 177
PART II
TRAINING FOR MARTYRDOM
INTRODUCTORY
The sight of the martyrs’ endurance under suffering had a
marked effect on the pagan population. This was noticed and
dreaded by the Roman magistracy. Efforts were constantly
made by the Government to arrest or at least to limit the
number of martyrs 193
I
OF THE SPECIAL TRAINING FOR MARTYRDOM
The Church conscious of the powerful effect of a public
martyrdom upon the pagan crowds--established a training
for--a preparation in view of a possible martyrdom--This
training included: (_a_) A public recitation in the
congregations of Christians of the “Acts,” “Visions,” and
“Dreams” of confessors--(_b_) The preparation of special
manuals prepared for the study of Christians--In these
manuals our Lord’s words were dwelt on--(_c_) A prolonged
practice of austerities, with the view of hardening the
body for the endurance of pain 197
II
QUOTATIONS FROM TERTULLIAN, ETC.
Certain of Tertullian’s references to this preparation, and
to the austerities practised with this view, are quoted.
(His words, written _circa_ A.D. 200, indicate what was in
the second century a common practice in the Church.) S.
Ignatius’s words in his letter to the Roman Church are a good
example of what was the use of the Church in the early years
of the second century--Some of the words in question are
quoted 202
PART III
THE GREAT NUMBERS OF MARTYRS IN THE FIRST
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS
INTRODUCTORY
Christian tradition by no means exaggerates the number of
martyrs--the contrary, indeed, is the case--In the first two
hundred and fifty years the general tone of the early
Christian writings (above quoted) dwells on those
blood-stained days--But the great pagan authors of the
second century, Tacitus and Pliny, are the most definite on
the question of the vast number of martyrs--Here is cited a
new piece of evidence concerning these great numbers from
notices in the “Pilgrim Itineraries” or “Guides” to the
catacombs of the sixth and following centuries--These tell
us what the pilgrims visited--The vast numbers of martyrs
in the different cemeteries again and again are dwelt upon 207
I
List of the various cemeteries and their locality, with
special notice of numbers of martyrs buried in each 210
II
SPECIAL REFERENCE IN THE “MONZA” PAPYRUS, ETC.
The “Monza” Catalogue--made for Queen Theodolinda by
Gregory the Great, with notices of number of martyrs from
the catalogue in question--Inscriptions of Pope
Damasus--References by the poet Prudentius on the number
of martyrs 214
III
DEDUCTIONS FROM THE “MONZA” CATALOGUE AND
“PILGRIM” GUIDES
General summary, allowing for some exaggeration in the
“Pilgrim” Guides and in the “Monza” Catalogue, on the great
numbers of these confessors and martyrs 215
BOOK IV
THE ROMAN CATACOMBS
PART I
INTRODUCTORY
The nature of the catacombs’ witness to the secret of the
“Inner Life” of the Church--A brief sketch of the contents
of the Fourth Book 219
I
THE ROMAN CATACOMBS--THEIR PLACE IN ECCLESIASTICAL
HISTORY
Early researches--Their disastrous character--De Rossi--His
view of the importance of the testimony of the catacombs
in early Christian history--Much that has been considered
legendary is really historic--Witness of catacombs to the
faith of the earliest Christians 223
II
DE ROSSI’S WAY OF WORKING IN HIS INVESTIGATIONS
Among the materials with which De Rossi worked may be cited:
Acta Martyrum of S. Jerome, Liber Pontificalis, the
“Pilgrim Itineraries,” and the “Monza” Catalogue, which is
specially described--Decoration of certain crypts--Basilica
(ruins) above ground--Luminaria--Graffiti of
pilgrims--Inscriptions of Pope Damasus _in situ_, and also
preserved in ancient syllogæ 226
Certain of his more important discoveries in the cemeteries
of SS. Domitilla, Priscilla, Callistus--The yet later
discoveries of Marucchi and others 230
III
GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE VASTNESS AND SITUATION OF
THE CATACOMBS
(1) The Vatican cemetery and the groups of catacombs on the
right bank of the Tiber 232
IV
(2) On the Via Ostiensis--Basilica of S. Paul--Cemeteries on
the Via Ardeatina--Grandeur of cemetery of S. Domitilla--The
small basilica of S. Petronilla 236
V
(3) Groups of cemeteries on the Via Appia--S. Sebastian (_ad
Catacumbas_)--Group of S. Callistus--The Papal crypt--S.
Soteris--Catacomb of Prætextatus on left hand of the
Via Appia--Tomb of S. Januarius in this catacomb 242
VI
(4) Cemeteries on the Via Latina and Via Tiburtina--S.
Hippolytus--S. Laurence--S. Agnes’ cemetery on the Via
Nomentana 248
VII
(5) Cemeteries on the Via Salaria Nova--S. Felicitas; the
great cemetery of S. Priscilla, and the ancient Roman
churches connected with it--Legends--Remains of basilica
of S. Sylvester over the cemetery of S. Priscilla--Memories
of S. Peter in this cemetery--Its waters--Recent
discoveries--Popes buried in the basilica of S. Sylvester 258
VIII
(6) Unimportant cemeteries on the Via Salaria Vetus--S.
Pamphylus--S. Hermes--S. Valentinus, etc. 274
APPENDIX I.--S. PETRONILLA
Suggested derivation of Petronilla--De Rossi and other
scholars still hold to the ancient Petrine
tradition--Reasons for maintaining it--Early mediæval
testimony here--Traces of the early cult of this Saint 277
APPENDIX II.--TOMB OF S. PETER
Probable situation of the tomb in present basilica of
S. Peter--Account of what was found in the course of the
excavations in the seventeenth century, by Ubaldi, Canon
of S. Peter’s, who was an eye-witness of the discoveries
made in A.D. 1626, when the works required for the great
bronze Baldacchino of Bernini were being carried out 279
PART II
TWO EXAMPLES OF RECENT DISCOVERIES
I
THE CRYPT OF S. CECILIA
The old story of the famous Saint no longer a mere
legend--Reconstruction of S. Cecilia’s life--The crypt
is described--Her basilica in the Trastevere
quarter--once S. Cecilia’s house 289
II
REMOVAL OF S. CECILIA TO HER BASILICA
Discovery of remains of S. Cecilia by Paschal I., A.D.
821--Appearance of the body, which he translated from the
crypt in the catacomb of Callistus to her basilica--Her
tomb in the basilica opened in A.D. 1599 by Clement
VIII.--Appearance of the body--Maderno copied it in
marble--How De Rossi discovered and identified in the
original catacomb the crypt of S. Cecilia 292
III
THE TOMB OF S. FELICITAS, AND OF HER SONS
Discovery and identification of the burial-places of S.
Felicitas, of S. Januarius, and of her other
sons--Reconstruction of her story--Tomb of S. Januarius
found in cemetery of Prætextatus on the Via Appia--Original
tomb of S. Felicitas found in the cemetery bearing her name
(Via Salaria Nova)--Identification of the burial-places of
her other sons 298
PART III
TEACHING OF THE INSCRIPTIONS AND CARVINGS
ON THE TOMBS
I
EPITAPHS IN THE CATACOMBS--THEIR SIMPLICITY
Uncounted numbers of graves in this silent city of the
dead; computed at three, four, or five millions--belonging
to all ranks--Some of these were elaborately adorned--Greek
often the language of very early epitaphs--Great simplicity
as a rule in inscriptions--No panegyric of dead--just a
name--a prayer--an emblem of faith and hope--Communion of
saints everywhere asserted 307
II
EPITAPHS IN THE CATACOMBS CONTRASTED WITH PAGAN
INSCRIPTIONS
A few of these epitaphs quoted--never a word of sorrow for
the departed found in them--Question of the catacomb teaching
on efficacy of prayers of the dead for the living--S. Cyprian
quoted here--Desire of being interred close to a famous
martyr--Marked difference in the pagan conception of the
dead--Some pagan epitaphs quoted 310
III
EPITAPHS IN THE CATACOMBS--THEIR DOGMATIC TEACHING
The epitaphs on the catacomb graves tell us with no
uncertain voice how intensely real among the Christian
folk was the conviction of the future life--They talk, as
it were, with the dead as with living ones--Dogmatic
allusions in these short epitaphs necessarily are very
brief, but yet are quite definite--The supreme divinity of
Jesus Christ constantly asserted--The catacombs are full
of Christ--Of the emblems carved on the graves--Jesus
Christ as “the Good Shepherd” most frequent--The
“Crucifixion” became a favourite subject of representation
only in later years 314
APPENDIX
On the wish to be interred close to a saint or
martyr--Quotation from S. Augustine here 321
BOOK V
THE JEW AND THE TALMUD
INTRODUCTORY
The story of the Jew--his past--his condition now, is the
weightiest argument that can be adduced in support of the
truth of Christianity--What happened to the “sad remnant”
of the people after the exterminating wars of Titus
and Hadrian, A.D. 70 and 134-5, is little known; yet the
wonderful story of the Jew, especially in the second and
third centuries, is a piece of supreme importance--How
Rabbinic study and the putting out of the Talmud have
influenced the general estimate of the Old Testament among
Christian peoples 325
I
THE LAST THREE GREAT WARS OF THE JEWS
_The First War_, A.D. 66-70--Revolt of the Jews--The
dangerous revolt was eventually crushed by Vespasian, and
when he succeeded to the Empire his son Titus completed
the conquest--Fate of the city of Jerusalem, A.D. 70--Why
was the Temple burned?--The recital of Sulpicius Severus
gives the probable answer--The account in question was
apparently quoted from a lost book of Tacitus--The Roman
triumph of Titus--The memories of the conquered Jews on
the Arch of Titus in the Forum--The great change in
Judaism after A.D. 70, when the Temple and city were
destroyed--The change was completed after the war of
Hadrian in A.D. 134-5 (the third war)--Brief account of
the _second and third wars_--The bitter persecution after
the third war soon ceased, and the sad Jewish remnant was
left virtually to itself 329
II
RABBINISM (_a_)
The conservation of the remnant of the Jews was owing to
the development of Rabbinism--Rabbinism, however, existed
before A.D. 70--Traditional story of the rise of Rabbinism
contained in the “Mishnah” treatise Pirke Aboth--Effect
of the great catastrophe of A.D. 70--Mosaism was destroyed,
and was replaced by Rabbinism 338
III
RABBINISM (_b_)
Extraordinary group of eminent Rabbis who arose after the
catastrophe of A.D. 70--Their new conception of the future
of Israel--The Torah (Law of Moses) and other writings of
the Old Testament from the days of Ezra had been esteemed
ever more and more highly--The “Halachah” or (Rules
round the Torah) gradually multiplied--The elaboration
of these “Halachah” and “Haggadah” (traditions) formed
the “Mishnah”--this work roughly occupied the new Jewish
schools during the whole of the second century--Explanation
of term “Mishnah”--The next two or three centuries were
occupied by the Rabbis in their schools of Palestine and
Babylonia in a further commentary on the “Mishnah”--This
second work of the Rabbis was termed the “Gemara” 342
IV
THE TALMUD
Portions of the “Talmud” had existed before A.D.
70--probably some few of the “Halachah” and “Haggadah”
even dating from the days of Moses--some from the times of
the Judges, and others belonging to the schools of the
Prophets--In the times of Ezra arose the strange and unique
“Guild of Scribes,” devoted to the study and interpretation
of the sacred writings and the traditions which had gathered
round them in past ages--R. Hillel a little before the
Christian era began the task of arranging the results of the
labours of the scribes--R. Akiba after A.D. 70 continued the
work of arrangement, but was interrupted--His fame and
story--R. Meir further worked at the same task, which was
finally completed by R. Judah the Holy, who generally
arranged the Mishnah in the form in which it has come down
to us--This “Mishnah” served as the text for the great
academies of Palestine and Babylonia to work on in the third
and two following centuries--Their writings are known as the
“Gemara”--The Mishnah and Gemara together form the Talmud--A
picture of the great Rabbinic academies of Palestine and
Babylonia--Their methods of study 347
V
HOW THE TEXT OF THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT WAS
PRESERVED
Description of the Massorah--The work of the Massorites in
the preservation of the text of the sacred books--Present
condition of the Massorah 361
VI
CONCLUDING MEMORANDA
Inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures, according to
the Talmud account 364
The story of the Talmud through the ages 365
The Talmud and the New Testament 366
Influence of the Talmud on Judaism 368
Influence of the Talmud on Christianity 370
VII
(_A_) AN APPENDIX ON THE “HAGGADAH”
“Haggadah” in the Talmud and in other ancient Rabbinical
writings--Signification of the “Haggadah”--Its great
importance--Its enduring popularity 371
Examples of “Haggadah” quoted from the Palestinian Targum
on Deuteronomy 373
VIII
(_B_) ON THE “HALACHAH” AND “HAGGADAH”
The general purport of the “Halachah”--Some
illustrations--Further details connected with the
“Haggadah”--It is not confined to the later Books of the
Old Testament--The “Haggadah” also belongs to the
Pentateuch--Examples of this quoted--Instances of the
influence of “Haggadah” in the New Testament Books 376
IX
WOMEN’S DISABILITIES 380
INDEX 381
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAINTING IN THE CATACOMBS, SECOND AND THIRD CENTURIES.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD IN THE CENTRE. ON THE LEFT,
DANIEL IN THE DEN OF LIONS. ON THE RIGHT, THE THREE
CHILDREN IN THE FURNACE _Frontispiece_
From Palmer’s _Early Christian Symbolism_. By permission
of KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO.
FACING PAGE
THE “COME AND DINE” OF THE LAST CHAPTER OF ST. JOHN’S
GOSPEL--THE MYSTIC REPAST OF THE SEVEN DISCIPLES
(CEMETERY OF CALLISTUS, SECOND CENTURY. A FAVOURITE
PICTURE IN THE CATACOMBS) 219
ENTRANCE TO THE CEMETERY OF S. DOMITILLA (CRYPT OF THE
FLAVIANS, FIRST CENTURY) 240
From _Roma Sotterranea Cristiana_. By permission of the
Author, ORAZIO MARUCCHI
PAINTINGS IN A CHAPEL OF CATACOMB OF S. CALLISTUS, SHOWING
A TOMB SUBSEQUENTLY EXCAVATED ABOVE THE ORIGINAL TOMB OF
THE SAINT 245
Photo, S. J. BECKETT
MOSAIC IN THE APSE OF THE CHURCH OF STA. PUDENZIANA, ROME 263
Photo, MOSCIONI
IN THE CATACOMB OF S. PRISCILLA (SECOND OR THIRD CENTURY) 267
Photo, S. J. BECKETT
CHAPEL OF THE TOMBS OF THE THIRD-CENTURY BISHOPS OF ROME,
PARTLY RESTORED--CATACOMB OF S. CALLISTUS 273
Photo, S. J. BECKETT
S. PETER’S, ROME--THE CONFESSION 281
Photo, S. J. BECKETT
A REPLICA OF MADERNO’S EFFIGY OF S. CECILIA--AS SHE WAS
FOUND--IS IN THE NICHE OF THE S. CALLISTUS CHAMBER, WHERE
THE BODY ORIGINALLY WAS DEPOSITED 293
Photo, S. J. BECKETT
SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE ROMAN CATACOMBS 310
Photo, S. J. BECKETT
THE TEMPLE--JERUSALEM--THE HOLY PLACE 330
From the _Jewish Encyclopædia_. By permission of FUNK &
WAGNALLS CO.
THE “WAILING-PLACE” OF THE JEWS, BEFORE THE RUINED WALLS
OF THE TEMPLE 332
Photo, THE PHOTOCHROM CO.
THE TEMPLE, JERUSALEM, BEFORE ITS DESTRUCTION BY TITUS,
A.D. 70 340
From a drawing in the _Jewish Encyclopædia_. By permission.
“Assured the trial, fiery, fierce, but fleet,
Would, from his little heap of ashes, lend
Wings to that conflagration of the world
Which Christ awaits ere He makes all things new:
So should the frail become the perfect, rapt
From glory of pain to glory of joy.”
BROWNING, _The Ring and the Book_, x. 1797
BOOK I
THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY IN ROME
PART I
INTRODUCTORY
THE JEWISH COLONY IN ROME
At the beginning of the first century of the Christian era the
Jewish colony in Rome had attained large dimensions. As early as
B.C. 162 we hear of agreements--we can scarcely call them
treaties--concluded between the Jews under the Maccabean dynasty and
the Republic. After the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey, B.C.
63, a number more of Jewish exiles swelled the number of the chosen
people who had settled in the capital. Cicero when pleading for
Flaccus, who was their enemy, publicly alludes to their numbers and
influence. Their ranks were still further recruited in B.C.
51, when a lieutenant of Crassus brought some thousands of Jewish
prisoners to Rome. During the civil wars, Julius Cæsar showed marked
favour to the chosen people. After his murder they were prominent among
those who mourned him.
Augustus continued the policy of Julius Cæsar, and showed them much
favour; their influence in Roman society during the earlier years of
the Empire seems to have been considerable. They are mentioned by the
great poets who flourished in the Augustan age. The Jewish Sabbath
is especially alluded to by Roman writers as positively becoming a
fashionable observance in the capital.
A few distinguished families, who really possessed little of the
Hebrew character and nationality beyond the name, such as the Herods,
adopted the manners and ways of life of the Roman patrician families;
but as a rule the Jews in foreign lands preferred the obscurity to
which the reputation of poverty condemned them. Some of them were
doubtless possessors of wealth, but they carefully concealed it; the
majority, however, were poor, and they even gloried in their poverty;
they haunted the lowest and poorest quarters of the great city.
Restlessly industrious, they made their livelihood, many of them, out
of the most worthless objects of merchandise; but they obtained in
the famous capital a curious celebrity. There was something peculiar
in this strange people at once attractive and repellent. The French
writer Allard, in the exhaustive and striking volumes in which he
tells the story of the persecutions in his own novel and brilliant
way, epigrammatically writes of the Jew in the golden age of Augustus
as “one who was known to pray and to pore over his holy national
literature in Rome which never prayed and which possessed no religious
books” (“Il prie et il étudie ses livres saintes, dans Rome qui n’a pas
de théologie et qui ne prie pas”).
They lived their solitary life alone in the midst of the crowded
city--by themselves in life, by themselves, too, in death; for they
possessed their own cemeteries in the suburbs,--catacombs we now term
them,--strange God’s acres where they buried, for they never burned,
their dead, carefully avoiding the practice of cremation, a practice
then generally in vogue in pagan Rome. Upon these Jewish cemeteries the
Christians, as they increased in numbers, largely modelled those vast
cities of the dead of which we shall speak presently.
They watched over and tenderly succoured their own poor and needy, the
widow and the orphan; on the whole living pure self-denying lives,
chiefly disfigured by the restless spirit, which ever dwelt in the
Jewish race, of greed and avarice. They were happy, however, in their
own way, living on the sacred memories of a glorious past, believing
with an intense belief that they were still, as in the glorious
days of David and Solomon, the people beloved of God--and that ever
beneath them, in spite of their many confessed backslidings, were
the Everlasting Arms; trusting, with a faith which never paled or
faltered, that the day would surely come when out of their own people
a mighty Deliverer would arise, who would restore them to their loved
sacred city and country; would invest His own, His chosen nation, with
a glory and power grander, greater than the world had ever seen.
There is no doubt but that the Jew of Rome in Rome’s golden days, in
spite of his seeming poverty and degradation, possessed a peculiar
moral power in the great empire, unknown among pagan nations.[2]
In the reign of Nero, when the disciples of Jesus in Rome first emerged
from the clouds and mists which envelop the earliest days of Roman
Christianity, the number of Jews in the capital is variously computed
as amounting to from 30,000 to 50,000 persons.
The Jewish colony in Rome was a thoroughly representative body of
Jews. They were gathered from many centres of population, Palestine
and Jerusalem itself contributing a considerable contingent. They
evidently were distinguished for the various qualities, good and bad,
which generally characterized this strange, wonderful people. They
were restless, at times turbulent, proud and disdainful, avaricious
and grasping; but at the same time they were tender and compassionate
in a very high degree to the sad-eyed unfortunate ones among their own
people,--most reverent, as we have remarked, in the matter of disposing
of their dead,--on the whole giving an example of a morality far higher
than that which, as a rule, prevailed among the citizens of the mighty
capital in the midst of whom they dwelt.
The nobler qualities which emphatically distinguished the race were
no doubt fostered by the intense religious spirit which lived and
breathed in every Jewish household. The fear of the eternal God, who
they believed with an intense and changeless faith loved them, was ever
before the eyes alike of the humblest, poorest little trader, as of the
wealthiest merchant in their company.
I
THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH IN ROME--“A”
Into this mass of Jewish strangers dwelling in the great city came
the news of the wonderful work of Jesus Christ. As among the Jews
at Jerusalem, so too in Rome, the story of the Cross attracted
many--repelled many. The glorious news of salvation, of redemption,
sank quietly into many a sick and weary heart; these hearts were
kindled into a passionate love for Him who had redeemed them--into a
love such as had never before been kindled in any human heart. While,
on the other hand, with many, the thought that the treasured privileges
of the chosen people were henceforward to be shared on equal terms
by the despised Gentile world, excited a bitter and uncompromising
opposition--an opposition which oftentimes shaded into an intense hate.
The question as to who _first_ preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to
this great Jewish colony will probably never be answered. There is a
high probability that the “story of the Cross” was told very soon after
the Resurrection by some of those pilgrims to the Holy City who had
been eye-witnesses of the miracle of the first Pentecost.
There is, however, a question connected with the beginnings of
Christianity in Rome which is of the deepest interest to the student of
ecclesiastical history, a question upon which much that has happened
since largely hangs.
Was S. Peter in any way connected with the laying of the foundation
of the great Christian community in Rome; can he really be considered
as one of the founders of that most important Church? An immemorial
tradition persists in so connecting him; upon what grounds is this most
ancient tradition based?
Scholars of all religious schools of thought now generally allow that
S. Peter visited Rome and spent some time in the capital city; wrote
his great First Epistle from it, in which Epistle he called “Rome”
by the not unusual mystic name of “Babylon,” and eventually suffered
martyrdom there on a spot hard by the mighty basilica called by his
name.
The only point at issue is, did he--as the favourite tradition
asserts--pay his first visit to Rome quite early in the Christian
story, _circa_ A.D. 42, remaining there for some seven or
eight years preaching and teaching, laying the foundations of the great
Church which rapidly sprang up in the capital?
Then when the decree of the Emperor Claudius banished the Jews, A.D.
49-50, the tradition asserts that the apostle returned to the East,
was present at the Apostolic Council held at Jerusalem A.D. 50, only
returning to Rome _circa_ A.D. 63. Somewhere about A.D. 64 the First
Epistle of Peter was probably written from Rome.[3] His martyrdom there
is best dated about A.D. 67.
A careful examination of the most ancient “Notices” bearing especially
on the question of the laying of the early stories of the Roman Church,
determines the writer of this little study to adopt the above rough
statement of S. Peter’s work at Rome. Some of the principal portions of
these “notices” will now be quoted, that it may be seen upon what basis
the conclusion in question is adopted. The quotations will be followed
by a sketch of the traditional and other evidence specially drawn from
the testimony of the very early Roman catacomb of S. Priscilla. This
sketch, which is here termed the “traditional evidence,” it will be
seen, powerfully supports the deduction derived from the notices quoted
from very early Christian literature.
THE QUOTATIONS
_Clemens Romanus_, A.D. 95-6. In the fifth chapter of the
well-known and undoubtedly authentic _Letter of Clement of Rome to
the Corinthians_, the writer calls the attention of the Corinthians
to the examples of the Christian “athletes” who “lived very near to
our own time.” He speaks of the apostles who were persecuted, and who
were faithful to death. “There was Peter, who after undergoing many
sufferings, and having borne his testimony, went to his appointed place
of glory. There was Paul, who after enduring chains, imprisonments,
stonings, again and again, and sufferings of all kinds ... likewise
endured martyrdom, and so departed from this world.”
The reason why Clement of Rome mentions these two special apostles
(other apostles had already suffered martyrdom) is obvious. Clement was
referring to examples of which they themselves had been eye-witnesses.
Paul, it is universally acknowledged, was martyred in Rome; is not the
inference from the words of Clement, that Peter suffered martyrdom in
this same city also, overwhelming?
_Ignatius_, _circa_ A.D. 108-9, some twelve or thirteen years
after Clement had written his _Epistle to the Corinthians_, on his
journey to his martyrdom at Rome, thus writes to the Roman Church:
“I do not command you like Peter and Paul: they were apostles; I am
a condemned criminal.” Why now did Ignatius single out Peter and
Paul? So Bishop Lightfoot, commenting on this passage, forcibly says:
“Ignatius was writing from Asia Minor. He was a guest of a disciple of
John at the time. He was sojourning in a country where John was the
one prominent name. The only conceivable reason why he specially named
Peter and Paul was that these two apostles had both visited Rome and
were remembered by the Roman Church.”
_Papias_ of Hierapolis, born _circa_ A.D. 60-70. His writings
probably date somewhat late in the first quarter of the second century.
On the authority of Presbyter John, a personal disciple of the Lord,
Papias tells us about Mark: he was a friend and interpreter of S.
Peter, and wrote down what he heard his master teach, and there (in
Rome) composed his “record.” This notice seems to have been connected
by Papias with 1 Pet. v. 13, where Mark is alluded to in connexion with
the fellow-elect in Babylon (Rome).
“It seems,” concludes Bishop Lightfoot, referring to Irenæus (_S.
Clement of Rome_, ii. 494), “a tolerably safe inference, therefore,
that Papias represented S. Peter as being in Rome, that he stated Mark
to have been with him there, and that he assigned to the latter a
Gospel record (the second Gospel) which was committed to writing for
the instruction of the Romans.”
_Dionysius_ of Corinth, A.D. 170, quoted by Eusebius (_H. E._
II. xxv.), wrote to Soter, bishop of Rome, as follows: “Herein
by such instructions (to us) ye have united the trees of the Romans and
Corinthians (trees) planted by Peter and Paul. For they both alike came
also to our Corinth, and taught us; and both alike came together to
Italy, and having taught there, suffered martyrdom at the same time.”
_Irenæus_, _circa_ A.D. 177-90, writes: “Matthew published
also a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own language, while
Peter and Paul were preaching and founding the Church in Rome. Again
after their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter,
himself also handed down to us in writing the lessons preached by
Peter.”--_H. E._ III. i. 1.
_Clement_ of Alexandria, _circa_ A.D. 193-217 (_Hypotyposes_,
quoted by Eusebius, _H. E._ vi. 14) tells us how, “when Peter had
preached the word publicly in Rome, and declared the gospel by the
Spirit, the bystanders, being many in number, exhorted Mark as having
accompanied him for a long time, and remembering what he had said,
to write out his statements, and having thus composed his Gospel, to
communicate it to them; and that when Peter learnt this, he used no
pressure either to prevent him or to urge him forwards.”
_Tertullian_, _circa_ A.D. 200, adds his testimony thus: “We
read in the lives of the Cæsars, Nero was the first to stain the rising
faith with blood. Thus Peter is girt by another (quoting the Lord’s
words) when he is bound to the Cross. Thus Paul obtains his birthright
of Roman citizenship when he is born again there by the nobility of
Martyrdom.”--_Scorpiace_, 15.
_Tertullian_ again writes: “Nor does it matter whether they are among
those whom John baptized in the Jordan, or those whom Peter baptized in
the Tiber.”--_De Baptismo_, 4.
_Tertullian_ once more tells us: “The Church of the Romans reports that
Clement was ordained by Peter.”--_De Præscriptione Hær._ 36.
_Tertullian_ again bears similar testimony: “If thou art near to Italy,
thou hast Rome.... How happy is that Church on whom the apostles shed
all their teaching with their blood, where Peter is conformed to the
passion of the Lord, where Paul is crowned with the death of John (the
Baptist), where the Apostle John after having been plunged in boiling
oil, without suffering any harm, is banished to an island!”--_De
Præscriptione_, 36.
_Caius_ (or Gaius) the Roman presbyter, _circa_ A.D. 200-20,
who lived in the days of Pope Zephyrinus, and was a contemporary
of Hippolytus, if not (as Lightfoot suspects) identical with him
(Hippolytus of Portus), gives us the following detail: “I can show you
the trophies (the Memoriæ or Chapel-Tombs) of the apostles. For if you
will go to the Vatican or to the Ostian Way, thou wilt find (there) the
trophies (the Memoriæ) of those who founded the Church.”
Caius is here claiming for his own Church of Rome the authority
of the Apostles SS. Peter and Paul, whose martyred bodies rest in
Rome.--Quoted by Eusebius, _H. E._ II. xxv.
Thus at that early date when Caius wrote, the localities of the graves
of the two apostles were reputed to have been the spots where now stand
the great basilicas of SS. Peter and Paul.
_Eusebius_, _H. E._ II. xiv., gives a definite date for the
first coming of Peter to Rome, and his preaching there. The historian
was describing the influence of Simon Magus at Rome. This, he adds, did
not long continue, “for immediately under the reign of Claudius, by the
benign and gracious providence of God, Peter, that powerful and great
apostle who by his courage took the lead of all the rest, was conducted
to Rome against this pest of mankind. He (S. Peter) bore the precious
merchandise of the revealed light from the East to those in the West,
announcing this light itself, and salutary doctrine of the soul, the
proclamation of the kingdom of God.”
_Eusebius_ also writes that “Linus, whom he (Paul) has mentioned in his
Second Epistle to Timothy as his companion at Rome, has been before
shown to have been the first after Peter that obtained the Episcopate
at Rome.”--Eusebius, _H. E._ III. iv.
* * * * *
The _traditional_ memories of Peter’s residence in Rome and his
prolonged teaching there are very numerous. De Rossi while quoting
certain of these as legendary, adds that an historical basis underlies
these notices. Some of the more interesting of these are connected with
the house and family of Pudens on the Aventine, and with the cemetery
of Saint Priscilla on the Via Salaria.
To the pilgrims of the fifth and following centuries were pointed out
the chair in which Peter used to sit and teach (Sedes ubi prius sedit
S. Petrus), and also the cemeterium fontis S. Petri--cemeterium ubi
Petrus baptizaverat. Marucchi, the pupil and successor of De Rossi,
believes that this cemetery where it was said S. Peter used to baptize,
is identical with parts of the vast and ancient catacomb of Priscilla.
These and further traditional notices are dwelt on with greater detail
presently when the general evidence is summed up.[4]
II
A SUMMARY OF LITERARY NOTICES
And now to sum up the evidence we have been quoting:
The _Literary Notices_ have been gathered from all parts of the Roman
world where Christianity had made a lodgment.
From _Rome_ (Clement of Rome) in the first and second centuries and
early in the third century.
From _Antioch_ (Ignatius, Papias) (including Syria and Asia Minor) very
early in the second century.
From _Corinth_ (Greece) (Dionysius) in the second half of the second
century.
From _Lyons_ (Gaul) (Irenæus) in the second half of the second century.
From _Alexandria_ (Egypt) (Clement of Alexandria) in the second half of
the second century.
From _Carthage_ (North Africa) (Tertullian) in the close of the second
century.
These and other literary notices, more or less definitely, all ascribe
the laying of the foundation stories of the Church of Rome to the
preaching and teaching of the Apostles Peter and Paul. All without
exception in their notices of this foundation work place the _name of
Peter first_. It is hardly conceivable that these very early writers
would have done this had Peter only made his appearance in Rome for
the first time in A.D. 63 or 64, _after_ Paul’s residence in
the capital for some two years, when he was awaiting the trial which
resulted in his acquittal.
Then again, the repeated mention of the two great apostles as the
_Founders_ of the Roman Church would have been singularly inaccurate if
neither of them had visited the capital before A.D. 60-1, the
date of Paul’s arrival, and A.D. 63-4, the date of S. Peter’s
coming, supposing we assume the later date for S. Peter’s coming and
preaching.
When we examine the literary notices in question we find in several of
them a more circumstantial account of Peter’s work than Paul’s; for
instance:
_Papias_ and _Irenæus_ give us special details of S. Mark’s position
as the interpreter of S. Peter, and tell us particularly how the
friend and disciple of S. Peter took down his master’s words, which he
subsequently moulded into what is known as the second Gospel.
_Tertullian_ relates that S. Peter baptized in the Tiber, and mentions,
too, how this apostle ordained Clement.
_Eusebius_, the great Church historian to whom we owe so much of
our knowledge of early Church history, writing in the early years
of Constantine’s reign, in the first quarter of the fourth century,
goes still more into detail, and gives us approximately the date of
S. Peter’s first coming, which he states to have been in the reign of
Claudius, who was Emperor from A.D. 41 to A.D. 54 (Eusebius, _H. E._
II. xiv.). The same historian also repeats the account above referred
to of Mark’s work as Peter’s companion and scribe in Rome (_H. E._ II.
xv.), adding that the “Church in Babylon” referred to by S. Peter (1
Ep. v. 13) signified the Church of Rome.
_Jerome_, writing in the latter years of the same century (the fourth),
is very definite on the question of the early arrival of S. Peter
at Rome--“Romam mittitur,” says the great scholar, “ubi evangelium
prædicans XXV annis ejusdem urbis episcopus perseverat.” Now, reckoning
back the twenty-five years of S. Peter’s supervision of the Roman
Church would bring S. Peter’s first presence in Rome to A.D.
42-3; for Jerome tells us how “Post Petrum primus Romanam ecclesiam
tenuit Linus,” and the early catalogues of the Roman Bishops--the
Eusebian (Armenian version), the catalogue of Jerome, and the catalogue
called the Liberian--give the date of Linus’ accession respectively as
A.D. 66, A.D. 68, A.D. 67.
The early lists or catalogues of the Bishops of Rome, just casually
referred to, are another important and weighty witness to the ancient
and generally received tradition of the early visit and prolonged
presence of S. Peter at Rome.
The first of these in the middle of the second century was drawn up,
as far as Eleutherius, A.D. 177-90 by Hegesippus, a Hebrew
Christian. Eusebius is our authority for this. This list, however, has
not come down to us. It is, however, probable that it was the basis, as
far as it went, of the list drawn up by Irenæus _circa_ A.D.
180-90. This is the earliest catalogue of the Roman Bishops which we
possess. Irenæus, after stating that the Roman Church was founded by
the Apostles Peter and Paul, adds that they entrusted the office of the
Episcopate to Linus.
In the Armenian version of the _Chronicles_ of Eusebius, the only
version in which we possess this Eusebian Chronicle, Peter appears
at the head of the list of Roman Bishops, and twenty years is given
as the duration of his government of the Church. Linus is stated to
have been his successor. In the list of S. Jerome a similar order is
preserved--with the slight difference of twenty-five years instead
of twenty as the duration of S. Peter’s rule. The deduction which
naturally follows these entries in the two lists has been already
suggested. The Liberian Catalogue, compiled _circa_ A.D. 354,
places S. Peter at the head of the Roman Bishops--giving twenty-five
years as the duration of his government. Linus follows here.
The Liberian Catalogue was the basis of the great historical work now
generally known as the “Liber Pontificalis,” which in its notices of
the early Popes embodies the whole of the Liberian Catalogue--only
giving fresh details. The “Liber Pontificalis” in its first portion
in its present form is traced back to the earlier years of the sixth
century.
The traditional notices of the early presence of S. Peter in Rome
are many and various. Taken by themselves they are, no doubt, not
convincing--some of them ranking as purely legendary--though we
recognize even in these “purely legendary” notices an historical
foundation; but taken together they constitute an argument of no little
weight.
Among the “purely legendary” we have touched upon the memories which
hang round the house of Pudens, and the church which in very early
times arose on its site.[5] Of far greater historical value are the
memories which belong to the Catacomb of Priscilla, memories which
recent discoveries in that most ancient cemetery go far to lift many of
the old traditions into the realm of serious history.
The historical fact of the burial (_depositio_) of some ten or eleven
of the first Bishops round the sacred tomb of the Apostle S. Peter
(_juxta corpus beati Petri in Vaticano_), gives additional colour to
the tradition of the immemorial reverence which from the earliest times
of the Church of Rome encircles the memory of S. Peter.
From the third century onward we find the Roman Bishops claiming as
their proudest title to honour their position as successors of S.
Peter. In all the controversies which subsequently arose between Rome
and the East this position was never questioned. Duchesne, in his last
great work,[6] ever careful and scholarly, does not hesitate to term
the “Church of Rome” (he is dwelling on its historical aspect) the
“Church of S. Peter.”
This study on the work of S. Peter in the matter of laying the early
stories of the great Church which after the fall of Jerusalem in
A.D. 70 indisputably became the metropolis of Christianity,
has been necessarily somewhat long--the question is one of the highest
importance to the historian of ecclesiastical history. Was this lofty
claim of the long line of Bishops of Rome to be the successors of S.
Peter, ever one of their chief titles to honour, based on historic
evidence, or was it simply an invention of a later age?
All serious historians now are agreed that S. Peter taught in Rome,
wrote his Epistle from Rome, and subsequently suffered martyrdom there.
But historians, as we have stated, are not agreed upon the date of
his first appearance in the queen city. Now the sum of the evidence
massed together in the foregoing brief study, leads to the indisputable
conclusion that the date of his coming to Rome must be placed very
early in the story of Christianity, somewhere about A.D. 41-3.
Everything points to this conclusion. How could Peter be, with any
accuracy, styled the “Founder of the Church of Rome” if he never
appeared in Rome before A.D. 64? Long before this date the
Church of the metropolis had been “founded,” had had time to become a
large and flourishing Christian community. This estimate of the signal
importance of the Church of Rome is based on various testimonies, among
which may be ranked the long list of salutations in S. Paul’s Epistle
to the Romans, written _circa_ A.D. 58.
All the various notices of the leading Christian writers of the first
and second centuries in all lands carefully style him as such. Paul,
it is true, in most, not in all these early writings, is associated
with him as a joint founder: this in a real sense can also be
understood; for although Paul came at a later date to Rome and dwelt
there some two years, the presence of one of the greatest of the early
Christian teachers would surely add enormously to the stability of the
foundations laid years before. The teaching of the great Apostle of the
Gentiles, continued for two years, was, of course, a very important
factor in the “foundation work,” and was evidently always reckoned as
such.
But even then, as we have seen, while the two apostles are frequently
joined together as founders in the writings of the early Christian
teachers, in several notable instances Peter’s work is especially dwelt
upon by them.
Then again in the traditional “Memories” preserved to us, some of them
of the highest historical value, it is Peter, not Paul, who is ever the
principal figure. Paul rarely, if ever, appears in them. Great though
undoubtedly Paul was as a teacher of the Christian mysteries and as an
expounder of Christian doctrine, it is emphatically Peter, not Paul,
who lives in the “memories” of the Roman Christian community.
The place which the two basilicas of S. Peter and S. Paul on the
Vatican Hill and on the Ostian Way have ever occupied in the minds
and hearts not only of the Roman people, but of all the innumerable
pilgrims in all ages to the sacred shrines of Rome, seems accurately
to measure the respective places which the two apostles hold in the
estimate of the Roman Church.
The comparative neglect of S. Paul’s basilica in Rome when measured
with the undying reverence shown to, and with the enormous pains and
cost bestowed on the sister basilica of S. Peter, is due not to any
want of reverence or respect for the noble Apostle of the Gentiles,
but solely because Rome and the pilgrims to Rome were deeply conscious
of the special debt of Rome to S. Peter, who was evidently the real
founder of the mighty Church of the capital.
The writer of this work is fully conscious that the conclusion to
which he has come after massing together all the available evidence,
is not the usual conclusion arrived at by one great and influential
school of thought in our midst; nor does it accord with the conclusion
of that eminently just scholar-Bishop Lightfoot, who while positively
affirming the presence of S. Peter in Rome, whence, as he allows, he
wrote his First Epistle, and where through pain and agony he passed to
his longed-for rest in his Master’s Paradise, yet cannot accept the
tradition of his early presence in the metropolis.
The writer of this study has no doubt whatever that the teaching of the
vast majority of the Roman Catholic writers on this point is strictly
accurate, and that S. Peter at a comparatively early date, probably
somewhere about the year of grace 42-3, came to Rome confirmed in the
faith--taught--strengthened with his own blessed memories of his adored
Master--the little band of Christians already dwelling in the capital
of the Empire. Under his pious training the little band, in the six,
seven, or eight years of his residence in their midst, became the
strong nucleus of the powerful Church of Rome.
Then, most probably, he left Rome when the decree of the Emperor
Claudius, A.D. 49, was promulgated: the decree which was the result of
the disturbances among the turbulent Jewish colony,--disturbances no
doubt owing to bitter and relentless opposition to the fast spreading
of the Christian faith in their midst. As Suetonius (Claudius, 25)
tersely but clearly tells us: “Judæos, impulsore Christo assidue
tumultuantes Roma expulit.”
From the year 49, when he left the Queen City, S. Peter apparently was
absent from the Church in which for some seven or eight years he had
laboured so well and so successfully, continuing his work, however, in
other lands. Then in A.D. 63-4 he returned, resumed his Roman
work, wrote the First Epistle which bears his name, and eventually
suffered martyrdom.
This conclusion, of such deep importance in early ecclesiastical
history, has been arrived at--as the student of the foregoing pages
will see--from no one statement, from no whole class, so to speak,
of evidences, but from the _cumulative_ evidence afforded by the
massing together the statements of early writers, the testimony of the
catacombs, the witness of tradition, and the voice of what may almost
be accurately termed immemorial history.[7]