¶The lyfe of S. Marke written by S. Hierome.
MArke the disciple and interpreter of Peter, beyng desired of the brethren at Rome, wrote a shorte ghospell accordyng as he hearde Peter preache & shew euery thing by mouth. The whiche ghospell the same Peter, after he had heard it, dyd allow and publishe by his authoritie, because it should be red of the congregacion, as recordeth Clement in ye sixt boke of his worke entitled, Dispositiones. Of this Marke, Papias also, bishop of Hierusalem, maketh mencion. And Peter in his first Epistle, where vnder the name of Babylon by a figuratiue manour of spea∣kyng he vnderstandeth Rome, hath these wordes: The congregacion of them which at Babylon are companions of your eleccion, saluteth you, and so doth Marke my sonne. Wherfore he toke the ghospell that hymselfe had written, and went into Egipt, and first of all men preached Christ at Alexādria, where he ordeyned a churche or congregacion of suche pure doctrine and perfite ly∣••ing, that he made all that professed Christ to folowe his exāple. To be shorte, Philo the eloquentest wryter of the Iewes, perceyuyng the first congrega∣cion of Alexandria yet to perseuer in the Iewishe religiō, wrote a boke of their conuersacion, as it were in the praise of his nacion: And as Luke sheweth how all thinges were common among the beleuers at hierusalem, so dyd he put in wryting all that euer he sawe done at Alexandria during the ty∣me that Marke there taught and preached. He dyed in the eyght yere of Neros reigne, and was bu∣ried at Alexandria, in whose place succeded Anianus.