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Petlti of Alexandria. A. D. 300. 239
expectation. The words of Athaimsius are these: ' ButP
' when the persecution had ceased, and the blessed bishop
' Peter had stiflered martyrdom, Antony removed, and re-
' turned to his monastery.'
Sozomen says that^ Peter fled in the time of the persecution:
I suppose he must mean some retirement, which was
free from blame. Sozomen himself does not pass any censure
upon it : and Eusebius has represented Peter's episcopate
as so illustrious, and every way worthy of commendation,
that it is not easy to admit the suspicion of any improper
conduct. However, that expression of Sozomen, and wliat
Eusebius says of Peter's strict course of life, though without
at all neglecting" the care of the churches, may lead us to
think that, for a large part of the persecution, he lived \\\
some private place unknown to the instruments of the persecution
; where however christian people had access to him,
and received his advices and institutions.
Theodoret styles Peter"^ a most excellent person, and a
victorious combatant, who in the time of wicked tyrants
obtained the crown of martyrdom. Again he calls him*
divine Peter.
I do jiot intend to make any long extracts out of Peter's
book of Canons, or Canonical Epistle, the only piece of his
that remains, if indeed it be his. I woidd however observe,
that he resolves all his cases by the authority of the holy
scriptures : and that here are cited the gospels of Matthew,
Mark, and Luke; the Acts of the Apostles, very largely;
several epistles of Paul, particularly that to the Hebrews, as*
the apostle's, intending Paul, and the first epistle of John.
In the fragment of his book De Divinitate are cited" the
beginning of John's gospel, several epistles of Paul, and the
first of Peter,
H. In the time of Peter arose the Meletian controversy,
or schism, as it is usually called ; which, as^ Tillemont
observes, subsisted for the space of an hundred and fifty
years, not being- extinct in the time of Theodoret and So-
crates.
P 'Eiiruir) St Xoiirov 6 SiwyfioQ eiravcraTO, Kai fiiiiaprvptjKev 6 (laKapirtjg nria-
KOTTOQ ITfrpoc, aT:tSrifii}aiv, k. X. Vit. S. Anton, n. 47.
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