After the things said about the blessed apostles Peter and Paul that are contained in the Acts of the Apostles, it is fitting to explain their other notable works found in other books, since they are called the princes of the apostles.
Hence it is said concerning both of them in Cause 2, Question 7, Beati Petrus: “Blessed Peter and Paul stand eminent among all the apostles and excel by a certain special prerogative. Yet between them it is uncertain which is to be preferred to the other. For I think that they are equal in merits who are equal in suffering, and that those whom we see attain the glory of martyrdom together on one day also lived by a like devotion of faith.”
We think it was not without cause that they suffered on one day, in one place, under one persecutor, so that they might reach Christ together.
[Running head: Sixth Title.]
They suffered in one place, lest Rome should be lacking to either; under one persecutor, so that equal cruelty should constrain both. The day was therefore decreed for their merit, the place for their glory, and the persecutor for their virtue.
And in what place did they finally endure martyrdom? In the city of Rome, which holds primacy and is the head of the nations, so that where the head of superstition was, there the head of holiness should rest, and where the princes of the Gentiles dwelt, there the princes of the churches should remain. Thus far the cited text.
Pope Pelagius likewise says in Distinction 21: “Although the universal Catholic Church throughout the world is one bridal chamber of Christ, nevertheless the holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church was not set above the other churches by any synodal constitutions, but obtained primacy through the Gospel voice of our Lord and Savior: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I shall build my Church.’
“To him was given the fellowship of the most blessed Paul, the vessel of election. Paul was crowned while struggling under Caesar Nero in the city of Rome, not at a different time, as heretics babble, but at one time, on one and the same day, by a glorious death together with Peter.
“They consecrated the aforesaid Roman Church to Christ the Lord and, by their presence and venerable triumph, set it above all cities throughout the whole world.”
Pope Anacletus likewise says in the same distinction, In novo: “The other apostles received honor and power in equal fellowship with Peter, yet wished him to be their prince. At the Lord’s command they were dispersed throughout the whole world and preached the Gospel. When they died, bishops arose in their place. Whoever receives them and their words receives the Lord, and whoever despises them despises the Lord.
“When the apostles saw that the harvest was great, they selected seventy-two disciples, whose type the presbyters bear.” Thus far Anacletus.
Gratian, however, in the same distinction, § 1, says that they were chosen by Christ, which also appears in Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 10. It can therefore be said that Christ chose them as disciples and that the apostles chose them so that they should be simple priests.
When the chapter In novo says that all the apostles possessed equal power, this is to be understood, as the Gloss says there, of the power of the episcopal order. In administration or jurisdiction, Peter was greater than all.
Likewise, when it is said especially of Peter and Paul that they are equal, this is to be understood either of merit and reward, as Ambrose and Pope Leo seem to hold, or of the power of order, because each was a bishop.
With regard to the power of performing miracles, Peter was greater than Paul, since the sick were healed by his shadow. With regard to wisdom and the office of preaching, Paul was greater than Peter. With regard to jurisdiction, however, Peter was greater than Paul and all the others.
§ I: Saint Peter before His Conflict with Simon Magus
Concerning Peter, it must first be known that he was brought to Jesus by his own brother Andrew in order to have familiarity with him. Jesus then said to him: “You shall be called Cephas,” which is interpreted “Peter.” Thus, according to the name, Peter is derived first from petra, “rock”; and the rock was Christ, namely by signification. He had formerly been called Simon, a name by which he was also sometimes called after his apostolate, as appears in the final chapter of John.
Afterward Christ called him to the apostolate together with Andrew while they fished in the Sea of Galilee, as in Matthew 4. Luke relates another call in Chapter 5, when at Christ’s word they cast the net into the sea and caught so great a multitude of fish that two little boats were filled.
Peter displayed a more fervent love and zeal for Christ than the other apostles. Thus, when Christ told them of his Passion on the road, Peter held him back, saying: “Be propitious to yourself, Lord; this shall not happen to you.” At the Last Supper he urgently sought to learn who the betrayer was so that, once known, he might kill him, according to Chrysostom. At the Master’s arrest he alone drew a sword against so great a multitude in order to defend him.
Although for an hour, overcome by fear of death, he denied that he was Christ’s disciple, nevertheless, as Ambrose says in Distinction 50: “Peter became more faithful after he lamented that he had lost his faith, and therefore received greater grace than he lost. For as a good shepherd he received the flock to guard, so that he who had formerly been weak for himself might become a support for all.” Thus far Ambrose.
He also wept bitterly for that denial, and he had not yet been strengthened from on high. It is related that he always carried a cloth in his bosom with which he wiped his frequently flowing tears, because whenever he remembered the sweetness of the Lord’s speech and presence, he could not contain his tears, or also because of that denial.
Several authors wrote his Passion, including Marcellus, Linus, and Pope Leo. Isidore says in his book On the Origin and Death of the Saints: “After Peter founded the church of Antioch, he went to Rome under Caesar Claudius against Simon Magus. Preaching there, he held the pontificate of that city for twenty-five years. In the thirty-sixth year after the Lord’s Passion, he was crucified by the emperor Nero as he himself wished.”
It follows from this that Peter remained in the regions of the East for eleven years before reaching Rome. Of these years he held the chair at Antioch for seven and preached at Jerusalem and in neighboring regions for the other four.
Others say that Peter remained in the regions of the East—partly at Antioch and partly at Jerusalem and nearby places—for fourteen years before coming to Rome. This seems more true from what is found in Galatians 2: after fourteen years from his conversion, which occurred in the year Christ suffered, Paul came to Jerusalem and conferred with Peter and the others about the Gospel.
In Peter’s veneration, the church of Antioch was exalted after the Roman Church so as to be the third patriarchal see. See Distinction 22, Renovantes. This was because Peter first held his chair there. For this reason the feast of Peter’s Chair is also celebrated in February.
Its occasion was as follows. When Peter had converted many by preaching at Antioch and was also evangelizing in other neighboring cities, Simon Magus deceived many in Peter’s absence, turning them from Peter’s teaching and drawing them to his own. He practiced marvelous things by magic and proclaimed himself the power of God.
But when Peter returned, all those who had adhered to Simon Magus were converted to penance. They came out from the city to meet Peter barefoot and clothed in hairshirts. Peter graciously received the penitents, giving thanks to God.
When the people presented to him many persons afflicted by various illnesses and tormented by demons, Peter invoked the name of the Lord Jesus over all of them. A vast light flashed from heaven, and all were healed and ran to kiss Peter’s footprints.
Within seven days more than ten thousand people were baptized. Theophilus, the chief man of the city, had his magnificent house consecrated as a basilica and a lofty chair placed there so that Peter, while evangelizing, might be seen and heard by everyone. These things are from the Itinerary of Clement.
As Peter thus exposed Simon’s evil works more each day, Simon was confounded and finally departed from those regions. He went to Rome so that, displaying marvels through his deceptions, he might be adored. Peter followed him to restrain his malice and himself reached Rome.
[Running head: Chapter Four, Folio 186.]
Peter had a wife, as appears from the Gospel, and a daughter named Petronilla, whom he brought with him to Rome.
It is said of his wife in the Ecclesiastical History that when she was being led to her suffering because she was a Christian, Peter exulted with great joy and, calling her by her own name, cried: “O wife, remember the Lord.”
That Peter, an apostle and supreme pontiff, had a daughter was contrary to no law. This occurred before he was assumed into the apostolate and the religious state and promoted to orders. That he had a wife and was afterward made pontiff is not repugnant to the common law. A married man, with his wife’s consent, may be ordained or enter religious life while both remain under a vow of chastity, as is believed of Peter and his wife. Christ the lawgiver could also have dispensed Peter from every law, but this was not necessary.
Saint Marcellus wrote the life of Petronilla. Because she was exceedingly beautiful, she suffered from fevers by Peter’s will.
One day, as the disciples reclined at table with Peter, one of them said: “Since all the sick are healed by you, why do you permit Petronilla to lie ill?” Peter answered: “Because this is expedient for her. Nevertheless, lest it be thought that the impossibility of her healing is being excused by my words, I say to her: ‘Rise, Petronilla, and minister to us quickly.’”
She was immediately healed, arose, and ministered. When the ministry was completed, Peter said to her: “Return to your place.” She returned to bed and suffered from fevers as before. But when she afterward began to be perfected in the fear of God, he healed her completely.
A certain count named Flaccus, captivated by her beauty, sought her as his wife. She said: “If you wish to have me as your wife, order virgins to come to me who may accompany me to your house.” When he sent them, Petronilla commended herself to God with fasting and prayers, received the Lord’s body, and after three days departed to the Lord. Her feast is celebrated on the last day of May.
In addition to the miracles recounted about Peter in the Acts of the Apostles and at Antioch, he worked many others at Rome and elsewhere.
Once he sent two of his disciples to preach. After they had traveled for twenty days, one of them, named George, died. His companion, said to have been Martial—or, according to another account, Fronto—returned to Peter and reported what had happened.
Peter gave him his staff and told him to go to the place of George’s burial and lay it upon him. When this was done, George rose, although he had already been in the tomb for forty days.
Concerning Peter’s food and clothing, Clement says in the Itinerary: “Bread alone with olives, and sometimes with vegetables, is my customary food. My clothing is this which you see, a tunic with a cloak. Possessing these things, I require nothing else.”
§ II: Peter’s Three Conflicts with Simon Magus
Peter had to labor greatly and contend with Simon Magus through words and marvelous works. Through his deceptions Simon displayed many marvels to the people and the emperor.
Among other things, he once told the emperor Nero that, so that Nero might be certain of Simon’s divinity and not doubt it, he was content for Nero to have his head cut off. After Simon thus died, he would rise on the third day and manifest himself to Nero.
Wishing to test this, Nero commanded the executioner to cut off Simon’s head. When this had been done, Simon presented himself alive to Nero on the third day.
This illusion could have occurred as follows. By diabolical art Simon Magus brought in a ram that no one perceived to be a ram, because, through the devil’s operation, a body like Simon’s, formed from air, surrounded it. Simon himself, in his own person, was seen by no one because the eyes of the people were dazzled by diabolical art.
Thus, when the executioner thought he was cutting off Simon’s head, he cut off the head of the ram around which Simon’s likeness appeared. Simon himself carried away the head and the remainder of the ram while no one saw him. Hence, by manifesting himself on the third day after hiding, he was believed to have risen.
Sometimes, while Simon himself spoke with Nero in a bedchamber, Simon was also found outside addressing the people in the marketplace. The same individual was not simultaneously in several places. Rather, the person who spoke to the people was the devil bearing Simon’s own likeness, which God can certainly permit. God allows this to test the constancy and faith of the elect, as appears in Cause 26, Question 5, Nec mirum.
When this evildoer performed these and other things, the people held him in great veneration, so much so that they made an image of him with this inscription: “To Simon, a holy god.” Nero loved him so greatly that Simon was thought the guardian of the emperor’s safety and of the whole city.
Peter had three particular conflicts with him. The first occurred when Peter and Paul, who had entered the city in those days so that together they might confound the magician and expose his falsehoods, approached the emperor. With Simon present, they explained that he was a magician full of deceptions and a wicked spirit, as Marcellus and Pope Leo relate.
Simon said: “I shall no longer endure this enemy Peter, but I shall command my angels to avenge me upon him.” Peter answered: “I do not fear your angels; rather, they fear me.”
Nero said: “Peter, do you not fear Simon, who demonstrates his divinity by deeds?” Peter answered: “If divinity is in him, he knows all things, even secret things. Let him therefore say what I am now thinking or doing. And lest he deceive us, O emperor, I shall secretly tell you in your ear what I intend.”
With Nero’s agreement Peter did this, telling him quietly that bread should secretly be handed to him. When this had been done, Peter said: “Let Simon, who makes himself a god, say what has been done or said.”
Simon replied: “Rather let Peter say what I am thinking.” Peter said: “I shall demonstrate by a deed that I know what Simon is thinking.”
Then Simon indignantly cried: “Let great dogs come forth and devour Peter!” Immediately great dogs—that is, demons in the form of dogs—appeared. When they charged Peter, Peter secretly brought out the blessed bread and put them to flight.
Peter said to Nero: “Behold, I have demonstrated by deeds that I know Simon’s thought. The man who brought dogs against me has shown that he has not divine but canine angels.”
Then Simon said: “Hear me, Peter and Paul. If I can accomplish nothing here with words, I shall come to the place where you must judge me. But I spare you for now.” Thus far Leo.
The second occasion occurred when Simon boasted that he could raise the dead. His followers, deceived by him, urged him to do so in order that he might confound Peter.
It happened that a certain young man died. Peter was also informed that Simon had offered to raise him. When very great crowds had assembled, Peter and Simon came to a judgment concerning this matter, with the people insisting that whichever one could not raise the dead man should be killed as a false man and deceiver.
Simon began and used his incantations. Because of them the dead man seemed to the bystanders to move his head. The multitude, thinking that he had been raised, began to cry out against Peter and wished to stone him.
[Running head: Sixth Title.]
Peter imposed silence and said: “If the dead man lives, let him rise, walk, and speak. Otherwise, know that it is an apparition that moved his head.” When Simon had been separated from the bier as Peter ordered, the corpse remained motionless.
Then Peter, standing at a distance, prayed, and cried: “In the name of the crucified Jesus Christ, arise, young man.” He immediately arose and walked.
When the people wished to stone Simon, Peter forbade them, saying: “It is enough for him that he has seen himself overcome in his deeds. Our Master taught us to render good things for evil.” These things are related by Hegesippus and Linus.
Marcellus adds that Simon, thus confounded, approached Marcellus, whom he had known as his disciple, and bound a huge dog at the door of the house—that is, a devil in the form of a dog—so that it would tear Peter apart when he came to Marcellus’s house.
Peter arrived, found the dog, and released it, commanding it to proceed directly against Simon without harming anyone. Once released, the dog pursued Simon, leapt upon him, and tore all his garments so that he remained naked. It sought to strangle him, but Peter ran up and commanded the dog not to harm Simon’s body.
The people and their children ran with the dog after Simon and drove him from the city like a wolf. Unable to bear this disgrace, he remained hidden for a year.
At length Simon returned to the city and was received into Nero’s friendship as before. Summoning the people, he said that he had been gravely offended by the Galileans and therefore wished to abandon the city that he had been accustomed to protect. He appointed a day on which he would ascend into heaven, because he no longer deigned to dwell on earth, as Leo relates.
On the appointed day and hour, the whole people assembled. Peter and Paul were also present to expose his evil works, since they had been informed of what he had promised to do.
Simon ascended a very high tower—or, according to Linus, the Capitol—and, casting himself down from it crowned with laurel, began to fly like a bird toward heaven.
Paul said to Peter: “It is mine to pray and yours to command.” Peter said to Paul: “Raise your head and look.” When Paul saw Simon flying high, he said: “Peter, why do you delay? Complete what you have begun, for the Lord now calls us.”
Then Peter said: “I adjure you, angels of Satan who carry him through the air, by our Lord Jesus Christ: carry him no farther, but allow him to fall.” Released by the demons, Simon fell, broke his neck, and expired.
We see that this happened by God’s just judgment: he who wished to fly against nature was deprived of the natural office of his feet; he who attempted to fly could not walk; and he who ostentatiously sought to ascend to heaven by his own rashness descended, wholly shattered, to the depth of hell.
When Nero heard this, he grieved greatly at having lost such a man and said to the apostles: “I shall destroy you by an evil example because you have made me suspect.” They were therefore delivered into the prison’s custody under the care of Processus and Martinianus.
When those men were converted to the faith, Peter, through a fountain divinely provided in the prison, baptized them and many others. He opened their prison so that they might depart free. They were later found to be Christians and were crowned with martyrdom.
Although Peter did not wish to depart lest he appear to fear death, he was at last compelled by the disciples’ prayers to preserve himself in life for their consolation and advancement. He left the prison.
After leaving the city, he came to the place called Saint Mary at the Steps and saw Christ coming toward him. Peter said: “Lord, where are you going?” Christ answered: “I am coming to Rome to be crucified again.” Peter understood this to mean that Christ was to be crucified in him.
Returning to the city, Peter told the faithful how the Lord had appeared to him and declared that he would depart through martyrdom.
§ III: Peter Appoints Clement
Knowing that he would soon depart to the Lord through martyrdom, Peter wished to provide for the future of the flock entrusted to him. Gathering the faithful, he appointed Saint Clement as his successor in the papacy.
Hence Pope John III says in Cause 8, Question 1, Si Petrus: “Although Peter, the prince of the apostles, associated Linus and Cletus with himself as helpers, he did not deliver to them the authority of the pontificate or the rule of binding and loosing. He delivered it to Clement, his successor, who merited to hold the Apostolic See after him and the pontifical power delivered to him by blessed Peter. Linus and Cletus ministered in external matters, while the prince of the apostles devoted himself to the word and prayer.”
The Gloss says there that it is evident from these words that Linus and Cletus were not popes. This is true while Peter lived. They administered temporal things by distributing them to the poor, the office for which the seven deacons were chosen by the apostles. The pope’s chamberlain holds this office today.
They also helped in spiritual matters by absolving and binding. The statement in that chapter that they did not possess the power of binding and loosing is understood, according to the Gloss, with respect to the fullness of power that the pope reserves for himself.
Likewise, according to the Gloss, Linus and Cletus were not the immediate popes after Peter, for Clement had been appointed by Peter. Clement, perceiving that it would be pernicious as an example for someone to choose his own successor, was moved by the Holy Spirit to renounce the papacy, and Linus was made pope. When Linus died by martyrdom, Cletus was created supreme pontiff. When Cletus departed to the Lord, the aforesaid Clement was assumed into the papacy.
The Gloss on Cause 8, Question 1, § His omnibus, says that today the pope could not appoint his own successor, because this would alter the state of the Church, as is established by many chapters in Cause 25, Question 1.
When Peter appointed Clement in the sight of the faithful, he admonished him, saying: “You must live irreprehensibly and strive with the greatest zeal to cast aside every occupation of this life. Do not become a surety; do not become an advocate in lawsuits; and do not be found wholly entangled in any occupation through the occasion of worldly business.
“For Christ does not wish to ordain you today as a judge or examiner of secular business, lest, suffocated by present human cares, you be unable to devote yourself to the word of God. Let laypeople who are free to do so perform for one another these works that we have told you are less suitable for you, and let no one occupy you away from those studies through which salvation is given to humanity.” This is in Cause 11, Question 1, Te quidem.
Peter likewise said to the faithful: “The one who teaches and instructs unformed souls ought to be such that he can adapt himself according to the capacity of his students and direct the order of his words according to the hearer’s capacity. Above all he ought to be learned and instructed, irreprehensible, mature, and cautious, as you yourselves have proved this brother Clement, who comes after me, to be.” This appears in Cause 8, Question 1, Oportet.
When appointing Clement, Peter also addressed the people, saying in Distinction 93, Si inimicus:
[Running head: Chapter Five, Folio 187, as printed.]
“If this Clement is an enemy to anyone because of that person’s wicked deeds, do not wait for him himself to tell you: ‘Do not be friends with that man.’ Rather, you ought prudently to observe and obey his will without admonition and turn away from the person whom you perceive him to oppose.
“Do not speak with those with whom he does not speak, so that each person who is at fault, while desiring to have the friendship of us all, may hasten more quickly to be reconciled with the one who presides over all, and through this return to salvation.” Thus far the cited text.
Peter wrote two epistles that are called canonical, authentic, and approved. One of them was written from Rome, which he calls Babylon, saying: “The church that is at Babylon greets you.” He did this because of the confusion of errors and vices to which the whole city was devoted, with the exception of the few converted to the faith.
At the end of his second epistle he also commends or praises Paul’s epistles, saying: “Beloved, take care to be found spotless and inviolate in peace, and consider the patience of our Lord to be salvation, as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him. So also in all his epistles he speaks in them of these things, among which there are certain matters difficult to understand, which the unlearned and unstable pervert, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
§ IV: Peter’s Martyrdom and Relics
As Peter preached and greatly commended chastity in his preaching while reproving lust, four concubines of the prefect Agrippa were so converted by his preaching to God and to the observance of chastity that they would no longer consent in any way to approach Agrippa. Angered by this, Agrippa sought occasions to kill Peter.
When Nero’s officers sought Peter, they found him and presented him to the prefect Agrippa. His face, as Linus says, shone like the sun.
The prefect said to him: “Are you that Peter who glories among the common people and the little women whom you separate from their husbands’ beds?” Peter severely rebuked him for his lust and cruelty and said that he gloried in the Lord’s cross.
At length, by Nero’s command, sentence was given against the apostles Peter and Paul: Peter, as a foreigner who preached the cross of Christ the Lord, was to be affixed to a cross; Paul, because he was a Roman citizen, was to be punished by beheading.
Concerning this sentence, Dionysius says in a letter to Timothy, if indeed the letter is his: “O my brother Timothy, if you had seen the struggles of their consummation, you would have fainted from pain and sorrow. For when sentence was given against them, you would have seen crowds of Jews and Gentiles beating them and spitting in their faces.
“When the time of their consummation came and they were separated from one another, the pillars of the world were bound, not without the groaning and weeping of the brethren. Then Paul said to Peter: ‘Peace be with you, foundation of the churches and shepherd of all Christ’s lambs.’ Peter said to Paul: ‘Go in peace, preacher of good things, mediator and leader of the salvation of the just.’”
Paul was therefore led along the Ostian Way to be beheaded, as will be said below, but Peter elsewhere. Arriving there and seeing the cross prepared and erected for him, Peter asked the officers to turn it so that he might remain on the cross with his head and hands downward and his feet upward.
He said: “Because my Lord descended to earth, he was raised upon an upright cross. But since he has deigned to call me from earth to heaven, my cross ought to show my head toward the earth and direct my feet toward heaven.
“Because I am not worthy to be upon the cross as my Lord Jesus was, turn the cross so that my head is downward and my feet upward.” This was done for him.
The assembled people, filled with fury, wished to kill Nero and the prefect and free Peter, but Peter begged them not to impede his suffering in any way.
The Lord, as Hegesippus says, opened the eyes of the disciples who mourned there. They saw angels standing with crowns made from rose and lily blossoms, Peter standing on the cross with them, and a book that he received from Christ and from which he read what he was saying.
Understanding that the faithful had seen his glory, Peter gave thanks, commended the faithful to God, and gave up his spirit. Then the brothers Marcellus and Apuleius, his disciples, took him down from the cross, embalmed him with various spices, and buried him.
In the time of Saint Cornelius the pope, as appears in the legends, Greek believers stole the bodies of the apostles and were carrying them away. But the demons dwelling in images, compelled by divine power, cried: “Men of Rome, help, because your gods are being taken away!”
The faithful understood this cry to concern the apostles, while the Gentiles understood it to concern their own gods. A multitude of faithful and unbelievers alike gathered and pursued the Greeks. Fearing them, the Greeks cast the apostles’ bodies into a well at the catacombs, but the faithful afterward drew them out.
When they doubted which were Peter’s bones and which Paul’s, the faithful prayed and fasted, and an answer was given from heaven that the larger bones belonged to the preacher and the smaller to the fisherman. Thus they were separated and placed in their own churches.
According to another account, however, in the consecration of their churches blessed Pope Sylvester weighed both the large and small bones and placed half in each church.
Today the heads of the apostles Peter and Paul, marvelously adorned with gold, silver, and gems, are kept in the Lateran church of Saint John and displayed to the people.