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PETER IN ROME?
CHAPTER VI
The Third Century — Tertullian
And Origen
In our study of statements linking Peter with Rome by the early ecclesiastical writer,
we come now to the first of the Latin writers, Tertullian,
a Carthaginian whose works were done in the first quarter of the third
century. It is from this Western
presbyter that we receive the most definite statements about Peter’s death at
Rome — along with some other surprising
statements.
Though he later had a falling out
with the Roman clergy for his Montanist views, Tertullian was a vehement opponent of heresy and wrote
profusely, especially against Marcion and Valentinus. In his
Prescription Against Heretics we read:
Since, moreover, you are close upon Italy, you have Rome, from which there comes even into our own hands the very authority (of
Apostles themselves). How happy is its
church, on which Apostles poured forth all their doctrine along with their
blood! where
Peter endures a passion like his Lord’s!
where Paul wins his crown in a death like
John’s! where the Apostle John was first plunged,
unhurt, into boiling oil, and thence remitted to his island-exile! See what fellowship has had with even (our)
churches in Africa! One Lord God does she
acknowledge, the Creator of the universe, and Christ Jesus (born) of the
Virgin Mary, the Son of God the Creator;
and the Resurrection of the flesh; the law and the prophets she unites
in one volume with the writings of evangelists and Apostles, from which she
drinks in her faith. This she seals
with the water (of baptism), arrays with the Holy Ghost, feeds with the
Eucharist, cheers with martyrdom, and against such a
discipline thus (maintained) she admits no gainsayer. [Tertullian,
The Prescription Against Heretics, trans. by Peter Holmes (Vol. III, The
Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson; Grand
Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1951; p. 260), I, 36.]
Here we have not only the clear
inference that Peter was crucified at Rome and that Paul was there beheaded
like John the Baptist, but that the Apostle John was miraculously spared from
being boiled in oil at the Roman capital before being exiled to Patmos. I have
included the rest of the passage to give the distinctive early Catholic
flavor of it with reference to the Virgin Mary, the resurrection of the flesh (to
unite body and soul as also Augustine later has it), the Eucharist as a
sacrament, etc.
While not a Romist,
Tertullian was throughout most of his life in clear
sympathy with Rome in philosophy and religion. Eusebius tells us he was well acquainted
with Roman laws, having his early training as a lawyer. [Eusebius, Church History, trans. by
Arthur C. McGiffert (Vol. I, The Nicene and
Post-Nicene Fathers, ed. Phillip Schaff and
Henry Wace; Grand Rapids:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1952; p.
106), II, 2, 4.] In Scorpiace, Tertullian
writes:
And
if a heretic wishes his confidence to rest upon a public record, the archives
of the empire will speak, as would the stones of Jerusalem.
We read the lives of the Caesars:
At Rome Nero was the first who stained with
blood the rising faith. Then is Peter girt by
another, when he is made fast to the cross.
Then does Paul obtain a birth suited to Roman citizenship, when in
Rome he springs to life again ennobled by martyrdom. [Tertullian, op.
cit. (p. 258), I, 32.]
Here for the first time Nero is
mentioned as persecuting Christians to the death. But note that Tertullian
does not specifically make Nero responsible for Peter’s death, which he puts
before Paul’s, though the Biblical evidence, especially from II Peter,
would seem to be the reverse. (Peter
seems to be summing up Paul’s writings when he makes mention of “all his
epistles” in II Peter 3:16.)
A final and most enigmatic passage
from Tertullian in Against Heretics gives us
the information that Peter ordained Clement, the third bishop of Rome:
But if there be any (heresies) which
are bold enough to plant themselves in the midst of the Apostolic age, that
they may thereby seem to have been handed down by the Apostles, because they
existed in the time of the Apostles, we can say: Let them produce the original records of
their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in
due succession from the beginning in such a
manner that (that first bishop of theirs), ed. note bishop shall be able to
show for his ordainer and predecessor some one of
the Apostles or of Apostolic men — a man, moreover, who continued stedfast with the Apostles. For this is the manner in which the
Apostolic Churches transmit their registers:
as the Church of Smyrna, which records that Polycarp
was placed therein by John; as also the Church of Rome, which makes
Clement to have been ordained in like manner by Peter. [Ibid.]
The passage raises more questions
than it answers. We know from Irenaeus that Linus and Anacletus preceded Clement in the Roman bishopric. [Irenaeus, “Against Heresies,” American ed. by A. Cleveland Coxe (Vol. I, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed.
Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson; Grand Rapids:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950; p.
416), III, 3.] Eusebius tells us that Linus was the bishop of Rome twelve years, [Eusebius, op. cit. (p. 416), III, 3.] and
that Anacletus likewise served in that post twelve
years before being succeeded by Clement. [Ibid., Chap. 15.] This succession he distinctly states as
occurring in the twelfth year of Domitian. [Ibid.] Since Domitian
succeeded his brother Titus in 81, that would put Clement’s
ordination by Peter in 93 A.D.!
Granted, the length of reigns and order of the first Roman bishops is
a greatly disputed matter and subject to wide interpretation, but despite
this fact, there is nothing to indicate that Linus
and Anacletus died almost as soon as ordained to
necessitate Clement’s ordination by Peter before 68
A.D., the year of Nero.
And if Peter and Paul labored side
by side at Rome until their deaths “at the same time” as Dionysius and Irenaeus assert, then why is Clement ordained by Peter only? Would not the Apostle of the Gentiles have
joined in ordaining the Bishop of Rome?
Clearly, there are grave
inconsistencies in the stories we have received from the church fathers,
causing us to wonder how much of true facts they really knew as they wrote one to two
centuries later. It would be utterly
impossible to reconcile all their testimonies. Early Catholic fables seem interwoven with
half-truths and contradictions in the continuing evolution of the stories of Rome, and the lives and deaths of the
Apostles.
Origen
What little we can glean from Origen (185-254 A.D.) has been preserved for us only by Eusebius,
who makes the following statement concerning Peter and Paul:
Peter appears to have preached in Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia to the Jews of the dispersion. And at last, having come to Rome, he was crucified
head-downwards; for he had requested that he might suffer in this way. What do we need to say concerning Paul,
who preached the Gospel of Christ from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and afterwards suffered
martyrdom in Rome under Nero? These facts are related by Origen in the third
volume of his Commentary on Genesis. [Ibid.,
(pp. 132-133), III, 1,
2.]
Here we find the crucifixion of
Peter at Rome repeated with the additional detail that it was head-downwards at
his own request. Origen
is the first to give this tradition though afterward it became quite common
and well accepted. And while Paul is
said to have been martyred by Nero, Peter’s death is not attributed to him by
Origen.
Thus we have yet to see any of the
early writers state definitely that Nero was
responsible for Peter’s death, nor did any of them attempt to date Peter’s
death up through and into the third century. While the tradition had evolved as to
location (Rome) and manner of death (crucifixion), it had not yet been assigned a
time element before Eusebius.
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