her sex and assumed the name of John, it is said, opened her way to the pontifical throne by her learning and genius, and governed the church for a time. She is commonly called the Papess Joan. During five subsequent centuries the witnesses to this extraordinary event are without number; nor did any one prior to the Reformation by Luther regard the thing as either incredible or disgraceful to the church." The earliest writer from whom any information relating to the fable of Pope Joan is derived is Marianus Scotus, a monk of S. Martin of Cologne, who died A.D. 1086. He left a chronicle which has received many additions by later writers, and among those interpolations the students of mythical lore regard the passage which refers to this story. Platina, who wrote the Lives of the Popes anterior to the time of Martin Luther, relates the legend, and, with more of the critical acumen than Mosheim, adds: “These things which I relate are popular reports, but derived from uncertain and obscure authors, which I have therefore inserted briefly and baldly, lest I should seem to omit obstinately and pertinaciously what most people assert." The legend of Pope Joan has been so thoroughly exposed that no controversialist of discrimination thinks of reviving it as an argument against the succession of the Bishops of Rome. Now and then it may be related to an ignorant crowd by an anti-popery mountebank of our cities during times of religious excitement, but it is never heard from the lips of an educated Protestant. We are inclined to think, however, that the class of minds that seeks to throw doubt upon S. Peter's residence at Rome in order to subvert the Primacy of the Apostolic See would not hesitate, in view of the evidence from early ecclesiastical writers, to intro

duce again this Papess Joan to their unlearned readers.

Turning, then, to the proofs of the subject of our paper, we take as the motto for our investigation of this and all kindred ecclesiastical questions the golden words of Tertullian : "Id esse verum, quodcunque primum; id esse adulterum quodcunque posterius." Or that petition of a great Anglican divine: "Grant, O Lord! that, in reading thy Holy Word, I may never prefer my private sentiments before those of the church in the purely ancient times of Christianity."

The earliest testimony is borne by S. Ignatius. He was closely connected with the apostles, both as a hearer of their teachings and sharer of the extraordinary mysteries of their faith. S. John was his Christian Gamaliel, at whose feet he was taught the doctrines of Christianity, which prepared him not only to wear the mitre of Antioch, the most cultivated metropolis of the East, but also to receive the brighter crown of a martyr's agonizing death. Full of years, the follower of the beloved disciple was hurried to Rome, to seal with his blood the truth of the religion of Christ. On his journey to the pagan capital, he was permitted to tarry for a season at Smyrna, to visit, for the last time, S. Polycarp, the aged bishop of that city. Here, in view of the dreadful death that awaited him in the Roman amphitheatre, and in communion with the revered fellow-laborer of his life, he wrote his four epistles. From the one to the Romans we quote the following evidence: "I do not command you as S. Peter and S. Paul did; they were apostles of Jesus Christ, and I am a mere nothing"

* Adv. Prax., C. 2.

+ Bishop Wilson, Sacra Privata. Homil., in S. Ignat., vii. p. 593.

(the least).* "What can be more clear," says the Anglican expositor of the Creed, Bishop Pearson, "from these words than that this most holy martyr was of opinion that Peter, no less than Paul, preached and suffered at Rome?"

Eusebius relates, upon the authority of Papias and S. Clement of Alexandria, that "S. Mark wrote his gospel at the request of S. Peter's hearers in Rome," and he further adds that "S. Peter mentions S. Mark in his first epistle, written from Rome, which he figuratively calls Babylon."

S. Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, in his epistle addressed to the Romans, affirms that S. Peter and S. Paul preached the Gospel in Corinth and in Rome, and suffered martyrdom about the same time in the latter city."

S. Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, who was born at Smyrna, though of Greek extraction, had been the disciple of S. Polycarp, Pothinus, and Papias, from whose lips he had heard many anedotes of the apostles and their immediate followers. He was alike eminent both as a scholar in the learning of the times and as a controversialist of no mean repute. The part he bore against the Gnostic and other heresies rendered his name illustrious, not only within the limits of his episcopal jurisdiction, but wherever the claims of Christianity had been presented. The wonderful apt

ness with which he interwove Scripture and scriptural phraseology into his style, not altogether unpolished, is perhaps unequalled in patristic theology. Residing in a city whose language and intellectual characteristics differed from those of his native country, his writings are essentially foreign, and, with few exceptions, were lost at an early period. In the fragments which remain we find an unequivocal testimony in behalf of the subject under discussion. His language is: "S. Peter and S. Paul preached the Gospel in Rome, and laid the foundation of the church."

Caius, a learned Roman presbyter, and, as some suppose, bishop, arguing against Proclus, the chief champion of Montanism at Rome, says that he can "show the trophies of the apostles." "For if you will go," he continues, "to the Vatican, or to the Ostian Road, you will find the trophies of those who have laid the foundation of this church."t

Origen, a man of encyclopædic learning, who had been carefully nurtured by Christian parents, and who was imbued with the hardy, stern culture of the Greek literature, at the early age of eighteen became the leader of the Alexandrine school of Christian philosophy. He proved no unworthy successor of the logical Clement. Certainly no name stands higher in the catechetical school than that of the ironsouled Origen (udaudvrivos). The eloquent teachings of this youthful master nerved many a Christian soul to endure with fortitude the fiery trials of martyrdom, and even comforted the bleeding heart of Leonides, his

* Τοῦ Πέτρου καὶ τοῦ Παύλου εν Ρώμη εὐαγ γελιζομένων καὶ θεμελιούντων τὴν ἐκκλησίαν.

-Eusebius, 1. 5. c. 8; also, S. Irenæus, Adv. Hareses, 1. 3, c. 3.

+ 'Εγω δε τα τρόπαια των 'Αποστόλων ἔχω δεῖξαι, κ. τ. λ. Eusebius, 1, 2, C. 25.

father, who became a victim of the unrelenting persecutions of Severus. From Origen we learn "that S. Peter, after having preached through Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia, to the Jews that were scattered abroad, went at last to Rome, where he was crucified." "These things," says Eusebius," are related by Origen in the third book of his Τῶν εἰς τὴν Γένεσιν ἐξηγητικῶν. *

Tertullian by birth was a heathen and Carthaginian. He was the son of a centurion, and had been educated in all the varied learning of Greece and Rome. Skilled as a rhetorician and advocate in Rome, he brought, on his conversion to Christianity, the accomplishments of a highly cultivated intellect, but a sombre and irritable temper. The natural lawlessness of a mind guided by a passionate and stubborn disposition led him gradually to renounce the truths which the light of a higher intelligence had revealed, until at last he was anathematized for his Montanistic teachings. His writings are an invaluable addition to the Punic-Latin theology, and a repository from which we receive great information concerning the polemic questions which at that period harassed the Christian church. Upon the subject of our article he writes as follows: "Let them, then, give us the origin of their churches; let them unfold the series of their bishops, coming down in succession from the beginning, so that the first bishop was appointed and preceded by any of the apostles, or apostolic men, who, nevertheless, preserved in communion with the apostles, had an ordainer and predecessor. For in this way the apostolic churches exhibit their origin; thus the Church of Smyrna relates that Polycarp was

• Eusebius, 1. 3, C. 1.

placed there by John, as the Church of Rome also relates that Clement was ordained by Peter."*

Again: "If thou be adjacent to Italy, there thou hast Rome, whose authority is near at hand to us. How happy is this church, to which the apostles poured forth their whole doctrine with their blood! where Peter is assimilated to our Lord; where Paul is crowned with a death like that of John." †

And again: "Let us see with what milk the Corinthians were fed by Paul; according to what rule the Galatians were reformed; what laws were to the Philippians, Thessalonians, Ephesians; what also the Romans sound in our ears, to whom Peter and Paul left the Gospel sealed with their blood." +

To this list of witnesses we might add the testimony of the fathers and ecclesiastical writers who have flourished in different ages of the church, but we now propose to briefly survey the opinions of some of the most noted Protestant commentators.

The First Epistle of S. Peter is said by the apostle to have been written from Babylon, but whether it be Babylon in Chaldea, Babylon in

"Edant ergo origines ecclesiarum suarum; evolvant ordinem episcoporum suorum, ita per successiones ab initio decurrentem, ut primus tolicis viris, qui tamen cum apostolis perseveille episcopus aliquem ex apostolis, vel aposraverit, habuerit auctorem et antecessorem. Hoc enim modo ecclesiæ apostolicæ census suos deferunt: sicut Smyrnæorum Ecclesia Polycarpum ab Joanne collocatum refert; sicut itidem."-Tertulliani, De Præscriptione Hæreticorum, c. 32.

Romanorum, Clementum a Petro ordinatum

"Si autem Italiæ adjaces, habes Romam, unde nobis quoque auctoritas præsto est. Ista quam felix ecclesia, cui totam doctrinam apostoli cum sanguine quo profuderunt! ubi Petrus passioni Dominicæ adæquatur: ubi Paulus Joannis exitu coronatur."— Tertulliani, De Pra

scriptione Hæreticorum, c. 36.

"Videamus quod lac a Paulo Corinthii hau

serint; ad quam regulam Galatæ sint recor

recti; quid legant Philippenses, Thessalonicenses, Ephesii; quid etiam Romani de proximo sonent, quibus evangelium et Petrus et Paulus sanguine quoque suo signatum reliquerunt."Tertulliani, Adv. Marcionem, 1. 4, C. 5.

Egypt, Jerusalem, or Rome, has given rise to much speculation.* Our Lord foretold the manner of St. Peter's death, † and an event of such importance would naturally have awakened more than ordinary interest. Seven cities claimed the honor of Homer's birth, but no other place than Rome ever assumed to itself the glory of the apostle's martyrdom. Controversies arose concerning the time of celebrating Easter, the baptism of heretics, and questions of a like nature, yet none disputed the place in which S. Peter was martyred. It is highly improbable that S. Peter ever visited either Babylon in Egypt or Babylon in Chaldea. Certainly no fact of history nor even possibility of conjecture furnishes the least warrantable presumption of either opinion. The great burden of proof points toward Rome. Like Babylon, pagan Rome was idolaLike Babylon, it persecuted the church of God. Like Babylon, the glory of its pagan temple and fane had departed. In many manuscripts this epistle is dated from Rome.

Calvin, who little regarded the authority of the fathers, when, in the presumption of his self-opinionated orthodoxy, he said: "All the ancients were driven into error," § yet from evidence the most patent he believed that S. Peter suffered martyrdom at Rome. His language is:

#1 S. Peter v. 13: "The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus, my son.'

+S. John xxi. 18: "Verily, verily I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldst: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not." Also, 2 S. Peter i. 14: "Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me."

"Seven Roman cities strove for Homer dead Through which the living Homer begged his bread."

f" Veteres omnes in errorem abrepti sunt."

Propter scriptorum consensum non pugno quin illic mortuus fuerit.” *

"On the meaning of the word Babylon," says Grotius, one of the most celebrated of the Calvinistic school, "ancient and modern interpreters disagree. The ancients understand it of Rome, and that Peter was there no true Christian ever doubted; the moderns understand it of Babylon in Chaldea. I adhere to the ancients." +

Rosenmüller, of whom an able American critic has said, "He is almost everywhere a local investigator," has left his testimony in the same language as Grotius: "Veteres Romam interpretantur."

Dr. Campbell very reluctantly yielded, by the force of evidence, to the same opinion when he wrote: "I am inclined to think that S. Peter's martyrdom must have been at Rome, both because it is agreeable to the unanimous voice of antiquity, and because the sufferings of so great an apostle could not fail to be of such notoriety in the church as to preclude the possibility of an imposition in regard to the place." §

"From a careful examination of the evidence adduced," says the learned Horne, " for the literal meaning of the word Babylon, and of the evidence for its figurative or mystical application to Rome, we think that the latter was intended." ||

We commend to "Father Gavazzi," and to the Rev. Doctors Sunderland and Newman of Washington, who are ever ready to throw down

the gauntlet when an argument is made to prove that S. Peter was at Rome, the language of the logical and laborious Macknight, who clearly expresses our own view, and whose diligence, learning, and moderation were so fully appreciated by Bishop Tomline: "It is not for our honor nor for our interest, either as Christians or Protestants, to deny the

truth of events ascertained by early and well-attested tradition. If any make an ill use of such facts, we are not accountable for it. We are not, from a dread of such abuses, to overthrow the credit of all history, the consequences of which would be fatal."*

A New Literal Translation, from the Original Greek, of all the Apostolic Epistles; with a Commentary and Notes.

MLLE. DE LEMAQUE and her sister Mme. de Chanoir lived at No. 13 Rue Royale. They were the daughters of a military man whose fortune when he married consisted in his sword, nothing else; and of a noble Demoiselle de Cambatte, whose wedding portion, according to the good old French fashion, was precisely the same as her husband's, minus the sword. But over and above this joint capital the young people had a good stock of hope and courage, and an inexhaustible fund of love; they had therefore as good a chance of getting on as other young folk who start in life under the same pecuniary disadvantages. M. de Lemaque, moreover, had friends in high place who looked kindly on him, and promised him countenance and protection, and there was no reason, as far as he and his wife could see, why he should not in due time clutch that legendary baton which Napoleon declared every French soldier carries in his knapsack. Nor, indeed, looking at things from a retrospective point of view,

was there any reason, that we can see, why he should not have died a marshal of France, except that he died too soon. The young soldier was in a fair way of climbing to the topmost rung of the military ladder; but just as he had got his foot on the third rung, Death stepped down and met him, and he climbed no further. His wife followed him into the grave three years later. They left two daughters, Félicité and Aline, the only fruits of their short and happy union. The orphans were educated at the Legion of Honor, and then sent adrift on the wide, wide world, to battle with its winds and waves, to sink or swim as best they could. They swam. Perhaps I ought rather say they floated. The eldest, Félicité, was married from S. Denis to an old general, who, after a reasonably short time, had the delicacy to betake himself to a better world, leaving his gay wife a widow at the head of an income of £40 a year. Aline might have married under similar circumstances, but, after turning it over in her mind, she came to