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238 Credibility of the Gospel History.
already taken of them at
Theonas and Fieri us.
the beginning of the articles of
' TheonaSjS having borne the episcopal office nineteen
' years, was succeeded by Peter, who obtained great*^ honour
' during his episcopate, which he held twelve years. He
' governed the church three years before the persecution.
' The rest of his time he passed in a more strict and mortified
' course of life, but still without neglecting the common
' good of the churches ; for Avhich reason, in the ninth year
' of the persecution, he was beheaded, and obtained the
' crown of martyrdom.'
In another place, giving an account of those presidents of
the churches, who had demonstrated the sincerity of their
faith by laying' down their lives in the late persecution, he
says: ' But' of those, Avho in Alexandria, and throughout
' Egypt and Thebais, gloriously finished their course, none
' more fit to be first mentioned than Peter, bishop of Alex-
' andria,'' a most excellent teacher of the christian doctrine :
' and, among his presbyters, Faustus, Dins, and Ammonius,
' were perfect martyrs of Christ ; as were also Phileas,
' Hesychius, Pachymius, and Theodorus, bishops of divers
' churches in Egypt.'
Once more: ' About' the same time also Peter, who with
' so much reputation presided over the church at Alexandria,
' an ornament to the episcopal character, both for the
' holiness of his life and his laborious application in studying
' and explaining' the sacred scriptures, Avithout any crime
' of any kind laid to his charge, beyond all expectation, on a
* sudden, for no other reason but the will of Maximin, w as
' taken up and beheaded.'
Our bishop is several times mentioned and called martyr
by " St. Athanasius. I shall take notice of two places. In
one of them he observes :
' Peter" was bishop here before
' the persecution, and in the persecution Avas also a martyr.'
In the other he intimates, that Peter suffered at the end of
the persecution, or even after it Avas over, as his manner of
Avriting may be thought to imply. AV^hich too seems to be
agreeable to Avhat Eusebius said just now of Peter's having
been arrested and beheaded on a sudden, and beyond all
8 Eus. H. E. 1, vii. c. 32. p. 289, 290. ^ sv rote fia\iTa
Kui ai'TOQ tiatrpf^aQ t(f oXoiq dvoKatCtKa iviavroig. ib. p. 289. D.
' Ib. 1. viii. c. 1.3. p. -308. B. C. ^ ^tiov n X(»JA