Lipsius on the Roman Peter-Legend [pp. 265-290]

290 LIPSIUS ON THE ROMAN PETER-LEGEND. [April,
in the great city of the wofid, to struggle for the final victory.
No scholar would grant that the i?2cidents of those marvellous stories are true. Why, then, rejecting eyerything else as
fabulous, does any one cling, in the face of the New Testament, in the face of rational probability, to the single fact,
which, in our judgment, is not a fact, that Peter was in Rome?
Why should he come there? To die? What possible purpose
could his death there have served?
~.But having this legend before them, it is not in the least
strange that father after father speaks of Peter as being in
Rome. It was the policy of the growing Church of Rome to
spread this opinion. It added dignity to her most prominent
bishop to hold the "Chair of Peter."
6.Lastly, we have shown how chronological support fails.
There is no time for this supposed Roman residence.
Was Peter ever in Rome? We answer in the words of Dr.
Lipsius:"The Roman Peter-legend proves itself to be, from
beginning to end, a fiction, and thus our critical judgment is
confirmed: THE FEET OF PETER NEVER TROD THE STREETS
OF ROME."
NOTE. -The materials for the present article are, as appears; chiefly
taken from Dr. Lipsius. The writer hopes, before long, to publish a translation of his acute and able treatise.