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 SAINT PETER PETER THE HERMIT 353 the most part in building up and completing the organization of Christian communities in Palestine and the neighboring districts. From the epistles of Paul it seems not improbable that he visited Corinth, and this is distinctly asserted in a letter of Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, to Rome. His first epistle is dated at Babylon, which was then the seat of a Jewish colony, though some understand the name to be used here for Rome. Eusebius says that he was at Rome 20 years, and in this he is fol- lowed by Jerome and most Roman Catholic writers, who regard him as the first bishop of Rome. Others maintain that he did not visit Rome before the last year of his life, and some indeed that he was never in Rome. The gene- ral tradition of antiquity, however, asserts that he was martyred in that city. Ignatius speaks of him as connected with the church of Rome, and no early writer discredits the tradition. It is said that he suffered about the same time with the apostle Paul, and in the Neronian persecution. Origen says that he was crucified with his head downward at his own request. St. Peter is the author of two canonical epis- tles, the first of which was probably written between 45 and 55. It is addressed chiefly to the converted Jews, and its purpose was to confirm them in their faith under persecution, and to confute the errors of Simon and the Nicolaitans. The second epistle is likewise ad- dressed to the Jews, and is supposed to have been written shortly before the apostle's death. Its authenticity has often been doubted, but that of the first epistle is generally unquestioned. They are both glowing and rapid in style, and show good Hellenistic Greek, but no famil- iarity with Greek authors. Some other wri- tings of very early date were attributed to St. Peter. " The Preaching of Peter " is quoted by Clement of Alexandria, but is very unlike the style of the canonical epistles. " The Revela- tion of Peter " was much esteemed for centu- ries, and, according to Sozomen, was read once a year in some churches of Palestine. The most ancient Roman calendar published by Buchericus marks the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul at the catacombs on June 29 ; and St. Gregory the Great writes that these catacombs were two miles outside of Rome. One half of both bodies is believed by Roman Catholics to be enshrined in the church of St. Paul with- out the walls, and the other half in a vault of the Vatican church, called from remote an- tiquity "the Confession of St. Peter" and Li- mina Apostolorum. This latter was the shrine resorted to as a pilgrimage from all parts of Christendom. The heads of both apostles are also said to be preserved beneath the high altar of the basilica of St. John Lateran. See Ellendorf, 1st Petrus in Rom und Biscnof der romiscJien Kircne gewesen ? (Darmstadt, 1841; English translation in the "Bibliotheca Sacra" for July, 1858, and January, 1859), and a reply to Ellendorf by Binterim (Dtisseldorf, 1842); Ventura, Lettres d un ministre pro- testant (Paris, 1849); Archbishop Leighton, " Practical Commentary on the First Epistle of Peter" (London, 1819); G. F. Simon, Etude dogmatique sur Saint Pierre (Strasburg, 1858); and Fronmilller, in Lange's commentary (Eng- lish translation, vol. ix., New York, 1867). PETER OF BLOIS, or Petrns Blesensis, an eccle- siastieal writer, born in Blois, France, about 1130, died in England about 1200. He studied at Paris and Bologna, and was afterward a pu- pil of John of Salisbury, bishop of Chartres. In 1167 he went to Sicily, where he became tutor to the young king William II., and guar- dian of the seal ; but having excited the jeal- ousy of the Sicilians, he returned to France, and in 1175 accepted an invitation from Henry II. to settle in England, was made archdeacon of Bath and chancellor of the diocese of Canter- bury, visited Rome on ecclesiastical business during the pontificates of Alexander III. and Urban III., and in the latter part of his life re- ceived the archdeaconry of London. By com- mand of the king he made a collection of his letters, 183 in number; besides which there are extant several of his sermons, treatises on doctrinal and ethical subjects, and a work on canon law and process. His works were pub- lished in Paris (fpl., 1519 ; best ed., 1667), and in vol. cvii. of Migne's Patrologie latine. PETER CLAVER, a Jesuit missionary, born in Catalonia in 1582, died in Cartagena, New Granada, Sept. 8, 1654. He entered the soci- ety of Jesus at Tarragona in 1602, and in 1610, at his own urgent solicitation, was sent to Car- tagena, at that time the centre of the African slave trade. Soon afterward he was ordained priest, and thenceforward all his energies were given to the labor of visiting the slave ships on their arrival in the harbor, of instructing the negroes in the large sheds erected for them on shore, of securing them proper care when sick, and of obtaining for them humane and Christian treatment from their owners. He was allowed, on making his solemn religious profession, to sign himself "the slave of the negroes for ever ;" and from that moment he lived among them on shipboard or in the hos- pitals, in the leprosy hospitals especially, minis- tering to their every want, and eating nothing but the refuse of their food. He organized a body of catechists, who aided him in instruct- ing the slave population. A few years before his death his exertions to mitigate the hor- rors of the plague in Cartagena resulted in ex- treme exhaustion and paralysis. On Sept. 4, 1747, Benedict XIV. declared his virtues he- roic, and he was beatified in 1852 by Pius IX. His feast is celebrated on Sept. 9. His life was written in Spanish by Suarez, and in French by Fleuriau (Paris, 1751). PETER THE HERMIT, the apostle of the first crusade, born of good family in the diocese of Amiens, France, about the middle of the llth century, died in a monastery near Huy in 1115. After trying several pursuits, he became a her- mit, and about 1093 undertook a pilgrimage