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Peter in Rome

This Rock Volume 12, Number 5   May-June 2001     Frontispiece By Karl Keating   Letters   Apologist's Eye   The Spectrum Virus By Fr. Ray Ryland   Moral Norms Aren't Universally Applicable? By Fr. Ray Ryland   What God Accomplished Through Her "Yes" By Peggy Stinnet   The Long Way Home By Karl Keating   Ordination Is Not a Right By Mark P. Shea   Halloween, High Street, and Holy Witnesses By Donald Casadonte   Step by Step How to Argue for Mary's Assumption By Jason Evert   Fathers Know Best Peter in Rome   Brass Tacks The Universe of Discourse By Jimmy Akin   Damascus Road I Found Life at the Door to Death Row By R. "Doc" Scott   Reviews   Classic Apologetics Rationalism's Fatal Inconsistency By Arnold Lunn   Quick Questions    Subscribe    Permissions

TO ESCAPE THE TRUTH OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE PAPACY, according to which the bishop of Rome is the successor of Peter, some Fundamentalists deny that Peter ever went to Rome. Historical evidence reveals that this assertion is unsupportable.

In his first epistle, Peter tell his readers that he is writing from "Babylon" (1 Pet. 5:13), a first-century code-word for the city of pagan Rome. The Fathers are unanimous in declaring that he went to Rome and was martyred there under the pagan emperor Nero. Not one Father can be found who denied that Peter went to Rome.

The historical evidence is unambiguous in declaring that Peter went to Rome, revealing the Fundamentalist claim to the contrary for what it is: an attempt to deny one of the planks in the doctrine of the papacy, regardless of where the evidence points.

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

Not as Peter and Paul did, do I command you [Romans]. They were apostles, and I am a convict. (Letter to the Romans 4:3 [A.D. 110])

DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH

You [Pope Soter] have also, by your very admonition, brought together the planting that was made by Peter and Paul at Rome and at Corinth; for both of them alike planted in our Corinth and taught us; and both alike, teaching similarly in Italy, suffered martyrdom at the same time. (Letter to Pope Soter [A.D. 170], in Eusebius, History oj the Church 2:25:8)

IRENAEUS

Matthew also issued among the Hebrews a written Gospel in their own language, while Peter and Paul were evangelizing in Rome and laying the foundation of the Church (Against Heresies, 3:1:1 [A.D. 189])

IRENAEUS

But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the succession of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the succession of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient Church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, that Church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. With that Church, because of its superior origin, all the churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world, and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition. (ibid., 3:3:2)

GAIUS

It is recorded that Paul was beheaded in Rome itself, and Peter, likewise, was crucified, during the reign [of the Emperor Nero]. The account is confirmed by the names of Peter and Paul over the cemeteries there, which remain to the present time. And it is confirmed also by a stalwart man of the Church, Gaius by name, who lived in the time of Zephyrinus, bishop of Rome. This Gaius, in a written disputation with Proclus, the leader of the sect of Cataphrygians, says this of the places in which the remains of the aforementioned apostles were deposited: "I can point out the trophies of the apostles. For if you are willing to go to the Vatican or to the astian Way, you will find the trophies of those who founded this Church." (Disputation with Proclus [A.D. 198] in Eusebius, History oj the Church 2:25:5)

CLEMENT

The circumstances which occasioned . . . [the writing] of Mark were these: When Peter preached the word publicly at Rome and declared the gospel by the Spirit, many who were present requested that Mark, who had been a long time his follower and who remembered his sayings, should write down what had been proclaimed. (Sketches [A.D. 200], in a fragment from Eusebius, History oj the Church, 6, 14:1)

TERTULLIAN

But if you are near Italy, you have Rome, where authority is at hand for us too. What a happy Church that is, on which the apostles poured out their whole doctrine with their blood; where Peter had a passion like that of the Lord, where Paul was crowned with the death of John [i.e., he was beheaded like John the Baptist]. (Demurrer Against the Heretics 36 [A.D. 200])

TERTULLIAN

This is the way in which the apostolic churches transmit their lists: Like the church of the Smyrneans, which records that Polycarp was placed there by John, like the church of the Romans, where Clement was ordained by Peter. (ibid., 32:2)

TERTULLIAN

Let us see what milk the Corinthians drained from Paul; against what standard the Galatians were measured for correction; what the Philippians, Thessalonians, and Ephesians read; what even the nearby Romans sound forth, to whom both Peter and Paul bequeathed the gospel and even sealed it with their blood. (Against Marcion 4,5:1 [A.D. 210])

THE LITTLE LABYRINTH

"Victor. . . was the thirteenth bishop of Rome from Peter. (The Little Labyrinth [A.D. 211], in Eusebius, History of the Church 5:28:3)

THE POEM AGAINST THE MARCIONITES

In this chair in which he himself had sat, Peter in mighty Rome commanded Linus, the first elected, to sit down. After him, Cletus too accepted the flock of the fold. As his successor, Anacletus was elected by lot. Clement follows him, well-known to apostolic men. After him Evaristus ruled the flock without crime. Alexander, sixth in succession, commends the fold to Sixtus. After his illustrious times were completed, he passed it on to Telesphorus. He was excellent, a faith-ful martyr. . .. (Poem Against the Marcionites 276-284 [A.D. 267])

EUSEBIUS

[In the second] year of the two hundredth and fifth Olympiad [A.D. 42]: The apostle Peter, after he has established the church in Antioch, is sent to Rome, where he remains as a bishop of that city, preaching the gospel for twenty-five years. (The Chronicle [A.D. 303])

PETER OF ALEXANDRIA

Peter, the first chosen of the apostles, having been apprehended often and thrown into prison and treated with ignominy, at last was crucified in Rome. (Penance, canon 9 [A.D. 306])

LACTANTIUS

When Nero was already reigning, Peter came to Rome, where, in virtue of the performance of certain miracles which he worked. . . he converted many to righteousness and established a firm and steadfast temple to God. When this fact was reported to Nero. . . he sprang to the task of tearing down the heavenly temple and of destroying righteousness. It was he that first persecuted the servants of God. Peter he fixed to a cross, and Paul he slew. (The Deaths oj the Persecutors 2:5 [A.D. 318])

CYRIL OF JERUSALEM

[Simon Magus] so deceived the city of Rome that Claudius erected a statue of him. . . .While the error was extending itself, Peter and Paul arrived, a noble pair and the rulers of the Church, and they set the error aright. . . . They launched the weapon of their like-mindedness in prayer against the Magus, and struck him down to earth. It was marvelous enough, and yet no marvel at all, for Peter was there-he that carries about the keys of heaven. And it was nothing to marvel at, for Paul was there-he that was caught up into the third heaven. (Catechetical Lectures 6:14 [A.D. 350])

OPTATUS

You cannot deny that you are aware that in the city of Rome the Episcopal chair was given first to Peter; the chair in which Peter sat, the same who was head-that is why he is also called Cephas ["Rock"]-of all the apostles; the one chair in which unity is maintained by all. (The Schism ofthe Donatists 2:2 [A.D. 367])

EPIPHANIUS OF SALAMIS

At Rome the first apostles and bishops were Peter and Paul, then Linus, then Cletus, then Clement, the contemporary of Peter and Paul. (Medicine Chest Against All Heresies 27:6 [A.D. 375])

POPE DAMASUS I

Likewise it is decreed: . . . We have considered that it ought to be announced that although all the Catholic churches spread abroad through the world comprise one bridal chamber of Christ, nevertheless, the holy Roman Church has been placed at the forefront not by the conciliar decisions of other churches, but has received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior, who says: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall have bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall have loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven" [Matt. 16:18-19]. The first see, therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman Church, which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it.

In addition to this, there is also the companionship of the vessel of election, the most blessed apostle Paul, who contended and was crowned with a glorious death along with Peter in the city of Rome in the time of Caesar Nero. (Decree of Damasus 3 [A.D. 382])