_S. Pietro in Roma, etc. St. Peter in Rome_, or the historical truth of
St. Peter's journey to Rome, proved against a recent assailant. By John
Perrone, S.J. Rome: Tipografia Forense, 1864--1 vol. 8vo, pag. 168.
Any new work by Father Perrone is sure to be received with respect and
attention. The assailant, whose attack on the historical truth of St.
Peter's journey to Rome is refuted in this book, is the author of an
anonymous treatise published at Turin in 1861, entitled _The historical
impossibility of St. Peter's journey to Rome demonstrated, by
substituting the true for the false tradition_. In an introduction,
headed "The Protestants in Italy", Father Perrone laments the great
mischief they have done to his country, and at the same time expresses
his hopes that their attempts at proselytism will end in failure. He
commences by an examination of the statements made by his adversary, to
the effect that even Catholic writers of the highest authority had
denied St. Peter's presence in Rome, that it is proved from the sacred
Scriptures that St. Peter could not have come to Rome either in the time
of Claudius or in that of Nero, and that, therefore, he could not have
been there at all. In reply, F. Perrone proves that no Catholic author
has ever denied St. Peter's journey to Rome; that we neither can nor
ought to expect from Sacred Scripture a history of the journey in
question, but only a proof that it was possible; and that, because the
precise year of the event is not known, it does not follow that the
event itself could never have taken place. He then proceeds to develope
the arguments which prove the Prince of the Apostles to have been at
Rome. 1^o, from the writers of the first three centuries, and then from
those of the fourth; 2^o, from the monuments existing at Rome,
sarcophagi, figured glasses from the Catacombs (one of which he
illustrates at great length), inscriptions, and spots ever held sacred
at Rome to the memory of St. Peter; 3^o, from the pilgrimages made to
his shrine by Christians from every portion of the Church during the
first three centuries; and 4^o, from the catalogues of the Roman
Pontiffs drawn up by writers of the early ages. In the next two chapters
he defends the authority of several of the fathers from the ignorant and
malicious misrepresentations of his adversary, and crowns the work by
reprinting at the end of his volume a dissertation delivered by him some
years ago in one of the Roman academies, in which he proves that "the
love and the hatred men show to Rome are two consequences of the
presence, the episcopate, and the martyrdom of St. Peter in the Eternal
City".