ST PETER MUST HAVE BEEN SELDOM AT ROME. 109 many notorious forgeries having been invented about his travels and acts (all that is reported of him out of [beyond] Scripture having a smack of the legend), would tempt a man to suspect any thing touching him which is grounded only upon human tradition; so that the forger of his epistle to St James might well induce [introduce] him saying, " If while I do yet survive, men dare to feign such things of me, howmuch more will they dare to do so after my de- cease ? "' But, at least, the discourses of those men have evinced that it is hard to assign the time when he was at Rome, and that he could never long abide there; for, The time which old tradition assigns of his going to Rome is re- jected bydivers learned men, even of the Roman party.' He was often in other places; sometimes at Jerusalem, sometimes at Antioch, sometimes at Babylon, sometimes at Corinth, sometimes probably at each of those places unto which he directs his catholic epistles;3 among which Epiphanius says, that " Peter often visited Pontus and Bithynia."4 And that he seldomwas at Rome may well be collected from St Paul's writings;* for he writing at different times one epistle to Rome, and divers epistles from Rome (that to the Galatians, that to the Ephesians, that to the Philippians, that to the Colossians, and the second to Timothy), never mentions him, sending any salutation to him or from him. Particularly, St Peter was not there when St Paul, mentioning Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Marcus, and Justus, adds, " THESE ALONE are my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, who have been a comfort unto me," Col. iv. 11. He was not there when St Paul said, " At my first defence no man stood with me, but all men forsook me," 2 Tim. iv.. 16. He was not there immediately before St Paul's death, when " the time of his departure was at hand," when he tells Timothy that " all the brethren did salute him," 2 Tim. iv. 6, 21; and naming divers of them, he omits Peter. Which things being considered, it is not probable that St Peter would assume the episcopal chair of Rome, he being little capable ment drawn from Rome being figuratively rx the church that is at Babylon" (1 Pet. v. 13), only shows the straits towhich Rome is reduced to support this pure figment, on which all its pretensions rest. En. Ei ái ipso "u árr arepiovros Toravra To7.p rZeriv xaTersPeaxoAar, Trke.:a ye paaxxav pair' i araruv ai pasr' ipsi roxpaievert; Petr. ad Jacob. 2 Seal. in Euseb., p. 189; Onuph., apud Bell. ii. 6; Vales. in Euseb. ii. 16. 3 Acts xi. 2, xv. 7; Gal. i. 18, ii. 9, 11; 1 Pet. v. 13; 1 Cor. i. 12; Euseb. ii. 25; 1 Pet. i. 1, v. 13. 4 rarpo; vraXXoéxif nóvrov wai BrAuviav 4PxiNke ro.Epiph., Hier. xxvii. * See foot-note in the preceding page. En
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