Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/238

 circumstances, that he made this land-journey from Naples to Rome, on foot; and on the way stopped at the house of a Galilean countryman of his own, named Mark, in a town called Atina, of which the said Mark was afterwards made bishop.

Respecting these minute accounts of Peter's stopping-places on this apocryphal journey, Baronius says, "Nobilia in iis remanserunt antiquitatis vestigia, sed traditiones potius quam scriptura firmata." "There are in those places some noble remains of this ancient history, but rather traditions than well assured written accounts." The part of the route from Antioch to Sicily he takes on the authority of the imaginative Metaphrastes; but the rest is made up from different local superstitions of a very modern date, not one of which can be traced farther back than the time when every fable of this sort had a high pecuniary value to the inventors, in bringing crowds of money-giving pilgrims to the spot which had been hallowed by the foot-*steps of the chief apostle. Even the devout Baronius, however, is obliged to confess at the end of this story, "Sed de rebus tam antiquis et incertis, quid potissimum affirmare debeamus, non satis constat."—"But as to matters so ancient and uncertain, it is not sufficiently well established what opinion we may most safely pronounce."

As to the early part of the route, speaking of the account given by Metaphrastes of Peter's having on his way through Troy ordained Cornelius, the centurion, bishop of that place, Baronius objects to the truth of this statement, the assertion that Cornelius had been previously ordained bishop of Caesarea, where he was converted. A very valuable refutation of one fable by another as utterly unfounded.

Respecting the causes of this great journey of the apostle to the capital of the world, the opinions even of papist writers are as various as they are about the route honored by his passage. Some suppose his motive to have been merely a desire for a refuge from the persecution of Agrippa;—a most unlikely resort, however, for nothing could be more easy than his detection in passing over such a route, especially by sea, where every vessel could be so easily searched at the command of Agrippa, whose influence extended far beyond his own territory, supported as he was, by the unbounded possession of the imperial Caesar's favor, which would also make the seizure of the fugitive within the great city itself, a very easy thing. Others, however, do not consider this journey as connected in any way with his flight from Agrippa, (for many suppose it to have been made after the death of that king,) and find the motive for such an effort in the vast importance of the field opened for his labors in the great capital of the world, where were so many strong holds of error to be assaulted, and from which an influence so wide and effectual might be exerted through numerous channels of communication to all parts of the world. Others have sought a reason of more definite and limited character, and with vast pains have invented and compiled a fable of most absurdly amusing character, to make an object for Peter's labors in the distant capital. The story which has the greatest number of supporters, is one connected with Simon Magus, men